Sunset on the mangrove

After we returned from Yalku, we booted into town to do a little shopping and on the way home snapped these sunset pics over the mangrove. Most of what you see along the road in and out of town is lush and green, but as you can see from these shots, there are still dead mangrove trees left over from 2005.



It is great to see so much water in the mangrove, which is the up side of a few days of rain.



The mangrove is a filtering system for the ocean and therefore protects the reef right off the shore in Puerto Morelos. The jungle, the mangrove and the reef are all connected and are so much part of this very fragile ecosystem.

Yalku snorkelling!

Yalku is a beautiful lagoon south of Playa del Carmen and just north of Tulum. It is situated in a lovely little community called Akumal, which is a resort community.



The lagoon is always very calm, warm and FULL of fish. The day was a combination of sun and cloud, which was kind of nice too. Didn't have to worry about sunburns so much, and the lagoon was nowhere near as full of people as it usually is. Guess that is partly because the tourist numbers are definitely down this year, and partly perhaps because the last few days have had an unusual amount of rain. Great for the mangroves...!







When we finished snorkelling, we took our picnic lunch to the Akumal beach and enjoyed fresh baguettes with roast chicken and cheladas - beer mixed with lime juice, all of which we brought with us.












Sure not as nice a beach as Puerto Morelos. With the reef being so far out, there is always a surf on the beach, and the water gets a bit turbid from being bounced around, and is not as good for snorkelling.

For a small album of pics at Yalku, click on this link below and enjoy!!!
http://picasaweb.google.com/daffinparksville/SnorkellingatYalku#

The Serpent!

In Mayan culture, the serpent is an important creature. At Chichen Itza, for example, the serpent is built into the stairs of the great pyramid and on the spring equinox, at an exact hour in the afternoon, the sun highlights the serpent and it appears to undulate down the pyramid. This serves to herald a good growing season for crops and animals.

Whomever the powers that be who design the roads in these parts decided to incorporate the serpent onto the medium on the highway between Puerto Morelos and Playa del Carmen. Here, you get an idea of how big this sucker is - he ate Miki as we drove down to Akumal on our way to Yalku to go snorkelling!!!


Another shot will give you an idea of just how big this is.














The side detail of the head is wonderful.........
And when you see it from the reverse direction, the length is truly wonderful. All this work just to decorate a highway - we could learn something from our Mayan cousins, don't you think????

A night out.

Rosie and Martin - these are for you. A group pulled into town and had dinner, browsed the stores and enjoyed PM. The rain has stopped (only a little at night now) so they had a dry ride.




On Wed. eve we went out for a little pub crawling. Started at the Biergarten, a new restaurant/pub in town at Mexico Plus called Yodis. Then we went on to the Cantina Haberneros to congratulate Ed and Natalie on their new baby, Jeremy, and pick up a Puerto Morelos calendar from Frank.

Finally, we ended up at the new Bistro which had a live band playing - and they were awesome. Hard to sit still to good loud Mexican salsa music...!! The Bistro serves quiche, baguettes, great salads and cheap red Chilean wine.

Rain in paradise...!

The tropical rains have been battering PM for almost 5 days now - I feel so sorry for anyone here only for a week....! Heavy rain at the bookstore again - a very empty town square, but still lots of customers, thank goodness.












Our pool has become an infinity pool with all the rain.....had to pump some water out one morning to keep the chemical balance ok.












Went shopping to Market 23 in Cancun with Jill. An amazing place with a gazzillion large and small markets, one of which was a children's clothing store called Vanessa - same name as our 9 year old grand daughter.














What would the blog be without an update on an animal...little latte is getting a tiny bit bigger, but is still pretty tiny, as you can see