El Camino de Lago del Mar

(*** Author’s notification, sometimes these blog posts unfold over multiple days)

Here I am on Sunday, just after noon, I’ve had my quesadilla, read a chapter and the Sun has still refused to make its presence truly known. The wind (el viento) blows a little less forcefully than yesterday. I gotta get in the water if I wanna maintain my streak, see, today will be seventeen in a row, if I go… I’ve passed the center point, so it has to be yes, not no. I did it, I swam and I really swam, until I popped up finally, from that oxygen rich, briny water, breathing heavily from the working out of my whole body at once.

On the Malecon, as my Mom pointed out, it’s a wonder it ever got built…

I have ways I try to remember the ideas I have when I can’t write them down, which at this point aren’t many. Trudging along in the traffic upon my bicicleta, is certainly one such time, so I developed a way to remember the thoughts, which for the life of me, I cannot now remember! I spilled most of my quesadilla sauce on my lap when that mischievous wind whipped up and blew away the catchment tray… if only that sauce could be captured and rechanneled into, well, my brain! Spicey goodness, come again! Today I began speaking with the Juice Lady (la Agua Fresca) told me that the place where I was awaiting the completion of my quesadilla, was the best of the best, which is mad props from the Juice Lady, also She told me that I need to try the Panuchos… it’s a little thing that seems to be diamond shaped, from her gestured description, and inside goes frijoles and then You put puerco… She rubbed her belly. I could just drink that orange juice all dang day… I crave it, the way I crave churros, or swimming in the sea.

We’re gonna need some more wires, down here and an electrical engineer…

One problem here, a first world problem in a… well, a not exactly first world scenario (and as time continues, we’ll surely meet in the middle somewhere), is that the bank machines give out all 500 peso notes but all the small vendors really need the small currency, they don’t have endless change for 500 pesos. So, one must navigate this situation by sticking it to the BIG Box joints like the Chedraui Grocery Store, which I really dislike but it’s the only place I can get something to cook in my apArtment, that I have figured out, so far… even still, the Chedraui check-out Ladies, ask, as everyone, “Do You have any change?” nobody has change. There is no communication, just like in the USA, between the automated and the actual humans. How long will this go on? As long as a company can save money with automated systems, is this what I want to think about on a Monday morning? Hell no!

a cross between BiLo and Best Buy, Chedraui!

these words are really just filler for in between the pictures… just like the Taco place back home uses cauliflower filler in its beans dip… they seem like such an endless vat of beans. Using the word “vat” makes me experience the slightest Deja Vu, and recently I’ve had a few. I’m thinking about these People I see and the different Holidays that they are on and also about my own limited and unique perspective, and specifically my Bathing Holiday, going on right now. I think the Airlines anticipated this janky no-frills status… they must have. What I lack in physical weight, I do make up for it in pieces of Seaglass, stashed inside my suit bag, which carries no suits, save for the two bathing pairs that I brought down here. Some beach girls go by with their boys in their opposing bathing attire, their parfum and cologne scents the air momentarily… I’ve never been really fond of parfum since I knew better.

My Island Transportation, only one speed

All the big birds have gone now, back to the Southwest for supper, or either that, or over to Isla Contoy, the sea island preserve where they stay. Just a routine emergency trip to the surface (in Submariner speak). The perpetual storm of the Sea has caused me to miss yet another afternoon swim… it’s too chilly and hard to get dry once again, with the rain and naturally, no sun in sight. I’ve gotten my bike rides in, though and I sit on the beach, now, to type these words for You. The warm night wind is blowing, the clouds cover stars and then move away, I search and search the night sky… it is mysterious, especially where the dark, limitless spots appear with their twinkling pinpoint stars.

at the Hoss High-enda (Hacienda)

Hoss High-end on the tippy-top (thirty-two steps from the bottom).

I am thankful to share with You in this space, it is not as personal as face-to-face but I know there aren’t many people reading these words, and that’s not a complaint, it’s a compliment to the few who do! Thank You. Here is this day, a Saturday, the geographical center of January, the very first month of the year, the aftermath of all the merry-making that ushered out the old year, which wasn’t even very old but had worn out its welcome, already. Now, as far as I can make out from the tidbits of “news” that reach me, it is off to an even more bizarre start, this new year. I remember last year, I was here with my Pop and we saw some Asian People wearing masks along the beach… I just figured that they are so used to wearing them that it’s just a habbit, little did I know… habbit, rabbit and down the hole We go! (I borrowed that last bit from Abbott Vaughn Meader who was obsessed, to say the least, with Alice and her adventures in Wonderland)

Seagulls hovering over the tip of the Playa Norte.

I am here in Mexico, on the third floor of a multi-generational and multi-multi membered Family, of Rolando y Mary and their parents, sisters, cousins, children’s children’s best friends and all of their animal companions. Downstairs they are taking down the Luces de Navidad, I asked the Man, Mary’s Poppa, what is this one called? He held the light string in his hands…”this one is cadena de luces!” he proudly announced… a lights string.

at the end of the alley, past the old Oasis…

if You look anywhere, there is inspiration to find.

I rode to the Mercado, intending to get a jugo de naranja and a quesadilla but the 2 very plastic 20 peso notes (those pesos are gone with the wind!) had blown clean out of my inside pouch pocket on my ride down, so I was 10 pesos short for the Loncheria “Nic-Teha”… so, I just got my OJ and went to read in the sand. I was hopeful that the clouds cover would melt away and I could swim in the sunlit water, I did great swimming, with all long glides in the very buoyant sea, I stayed in for even longer than usual, waiting for the sun but the sun did not come out until I got back to Rolando’s… I had to do the chilly walk in the whipping wind, the water is so warm, though, it’s no trouble to just stay in.

the wide-shallow sea pool where I swim, each day.

Now I’m cooking bacon in my cocina on this blustery but sunny January afternoon, it’s a Saturday and all along the merry way between here and the Playa Norte and back again, everything is bustlin’, riders of every type of vehicle are faster than me, I just stay close to the side and they all pass by. Yesterday everyone was stopped, all the traffic, to watch the Helicopter of the Mexican Marines, take off… quite a spectacle… up it went, sounding a little squeaky but everything held together and they went noisily off to the North, presumably back to land somewhere on the Mainland.

Egg & bacon lunch.

the light is fading once again, the time from dawn ’til dusk goes by so quickly and the night stretches out forever, it seems like. I stand out on the lanai and watch some great atmospherics and get my first glimpse of this next moon, tiny and glimmering, like a magic (as a magic) in the Western sky. I think I will go eventually to see if the Panaderia is open… I have eaten all my cookies that I got last time. I got two lovely swimming experiences in today, the second one was so sunny and so chilly to get out in the stiff breeze… I danced around and toweled off like a wild man, tucked in nearby to a whole vacationing family, with their boom-box and pop-tops… everybody down here has a boom box, you know, the modern version, which, of course, has get nothing on the original… who has those anymore, I reckon somebody does.

Andador 5 from above.

a little guy goes by on his bike with a big case of baked goods, honking his horn wildly, in case You wanna come out and buy one or more… there is also a mixed nuts guy… I wish they had a churros cart through the neighborhoods but it’s just as well that they don’t. I sit out up top and sip hot coffee after dark, the semi-flavorless beverage is warm and it adds to the sensation of this cool night. I am beneath Orion, just like at home and a new next Moon sliver is floating up in the Western sky, it’s another beautiful night but this one has lots of stars, let’s hope it stays clear or is clear again at around 5:00am…

Cochinita Pibil:

los Espíritus del Viento! (the Spirits of the Wind)

the Malecon (mi bicicleta included).

here, the mischievous Wind Spirits dart all about, changing direction on a whim and blowing rain straight off of the Ocean. They also blow away the clouds and make a chill on Your skin, coming out of an afternoon swim. With any luck at all the same winds have blown back the puffy tropical cloud forms and let the Sun shine through, to dry the salt water quickly. Today we had these perfect conditions. I got to swim twice, which is ideal and I also rode my bicicleta, again, to la Punta Sur for Churros, the first time since Monday.

la Punta Sur.

Have You ever been a wonderin’ where-oh-where You’ve been and suddenly seen it all laid clean and clearly out before You? No… it’s just a dream or an attempt at a clever rhyme scheme. In this long conversation with mySelf that I’ve been having, it seems that a chief complaint of mine is not knowing enough… good heavens, with the little that I do know or suppose I know, I have plenty to keep mySelf occupied (ocupado). All this time, though, my skin grows thicker, so fewer of those slings and arrows may pierce it than they once did, but still, I am no Achilles.

at the Playa Norte.

tonight marks the two-week point in this month-long solo retreat of mine, I ate again at my favorite place, so far, this time I was the only diner the entire time I was there. I had Pasta al Cartoccio, the House Special and my favorite dish. I also had a Coffee, with crema, as usual and also a margarita, on the way home I stopped for more candles. Two weeks from now I will still be here but with less than 48 hours to go. I have expanded completely into this space and need to keep an eye on it expanding any further because it all needs to back in the two small bags that it came here in. I also need to get my laundry done and there seem to be plenty of places where I can take it right to them.

Da Luisa Italian Caribbean Restaurant.

for the past four days in one row, I have been able to ride down to the Playa Norte to swim, twice each day and I plan to continue that trend as long as the bike and my legs hold out, or until about 11:00am on Sunday, January 31st, when I need to be removed from here by the Ferry to meet the Happy Shuttle driver on the other side of the water. That makes 15 days in a row that I’ve been swimming, that’s probably the most in ages, sadly. I’d swim every day if I were so lucky but I regularly have other stuff to do and not such proximity to a lovely place to swim. I am thankful and trying to be so aware of what a special treat this is and how I shouldn’t take it for granted. When I swim, I swim for Everybody who is unable to but would like to, if they could.

Sunset along my route this Evening.

a typical home on Isla Mujeres.

No Virgen here… sea shells worshipped!

if there is one thing I kmow to be true, it’s that the Mexican night is enchanting, with all of its sounds and smells and yes, even sights, a myriad of twinkling lights, the many decorations still going from Navidad, although starting to look a little long in the tooth. I looked out just now, into the gently breezy night, it is much quieter than previous nights and I am up the latest I have been this whole trip, to experience it.

Mexican Candles (mirror image)

toda la noche el viento se mantuvo fuerte!

the wind, el viento (which sounds like biento to my wonky ears), has been blowing like mad all night… for the first time since I reached here, I had to close all the windows and the door, the rain was blowing right in. I didn’t notice it at first but by the time I did, it was all over the kitchen… thankfully the magic of this place includes a quick-drying feature (la función de secado rápido!) that I am not used to in Western North Carolina!

the smell from the Panaderia reaches my balcony when they are baking.

Today I got to swim two times, each of which was sandwiched between 2 kilometer bicicleta rides from my accommodations to the Playa Norte, via the Malecon, et cetera, each way, so today I road 8 kilometers, approximately. I went to the Mercado and got a bag of ground coffee and a bottle of Orange Juice, always from the same Juice Lady. I went to swim at my favorite spot, the wide shallow Sea pool where the Playa Norte meets the deep, blue Caribbean… it is amazing to me that wild waves are crashing and suddenly smooth out into a clear pool that is nowhere over my head, completely and most places only 3 feet deep, although it is not measured in feet here. On my second swim I saw a big honkin’ blow fish, the biggest one I’ve ever seen, it looked right at me and moved along.

a quite spot on the Playa Norte.

I woke up this morning at 5:40am and walked out on my roof-top to see what was happening… el viento was still blowing but the sky had cleared, I looked to see no familiar constellations but then, as I got my bearings, I looked to find the Southern Cross, that I’ve only seen a handful of times, it looks more like a Kite to me but I know it now and it is really WoW! It never can be seen in the night sky to which my eyes are regularly accustomed.

this image belongs to Roger Groom but it is of the Stars which belong to Everyone…

Orange juice on the top of spice is the truth. Sunny, mellow morning at the beach. A Lady in a floral print thong-bikini, which is standard issue here, is having a solo photo-shoot… A lone snorkeler with an instructor is in the wide-shallow sea pool, in between the rickety bridge to the SCUBA Hotel and the place where the waves break from the full-on sea. The photo-shoot Lady checks the light… in a matter of moments it’s sunny again. The water is the lightest teal blue or brightest sea foam turquoise. It only gets ever so slightly more aquamarine in the deep spots which run as the current flows and then rise into sandbars only a foot or so below the surface of said water.

dinner for one diner at Da Luisa.

“tonight”, my Host tells me, “mucho rain…” I can see the sky growing darker in the North. I ask about the Frigate Birds (pájaros Fragata), between He and I we each know so little of the other’s language but it’s safe to say, He knows more of mine. He tells me they are always here and also another Island, which he indicates through hand gestures, is to the North, an Island where no tourists are, only Animals, possibly called Cortada? I’d better hurry or this storm will beat me back to the Beach.

wires and spires of Isla Mujeres.

I reach back to home to find my feet so sandy… I have an odd feeling walking down the street from the Beach, where I swam in the rain… the warm air and the rain on my back… it’s a time-out-of-place scenario… now the rain has stopped and it’s getting dark… the wind has also stopped, after blowing for days… it’s also odd.

the afternoon Sea.

a rainy Mexican morning

on my tenth morning in Mexico, I woke up to a gentle rain, that seems to have come from the East, out of the Caribbean. The Sea meets the shore only two blocks from where I am staying and I can see little blue bits of it on a sunny morning. Now the sea is lost in mist and the rain comes down all around us on this spit of land between the sea and the Salina directly opposite of it. East is below me, according to the direction of the sunrise (on days when I can see it), so the Salina must be Southwest of me, it is another two blocks, maybe. I can’t get my maps to work, here, so I am limited in what I can say for certain. I have to give thanks for what I have which is always a thing to remember.

¡here at the Hacienda Casa Hacienda!

the rain comes down heavily and then tapers off, once everything is already soaked, it might as well keep going. Two Doves sit on a palm frond and make their gurgling noises, which build into the familiar tropical morning cooing hoot, not dissimilar to a Rooster’s crow. In watching one closely, it seemed beyond his control. The rain has knocked out the internet here, which was out all day on a sunny day, last week… it isn’t crucial at all but it is one something I have taken for granted.

the waves crash now, with more authority than before, they’re filled up with the full-strength of this morning’s storm. I’m gonna head out into it and see what I can find… I’m planning to ride the Southeasterly route ’til it ends a la Punta Sur and then work my way back along the Bayside.I’ll sit here for a bit while I digest the quesadilla I just ate, the second day in a row of doing so… I form patterns and it takes a lot to change them. I accepted, though opted out of eating, the pico de gallo, you know those fresh tomatoes and onions, et cetera with some herbs and an oil, spicy. I sit by the sea watching a rain out there to the northeast, more up in the Gulf, past Holbox, this is an ideal spot and no one else is on the beach at all this late Monday (lunes) morning…

morning lead into midday and now on to nearly early evening here, the day light, while a lengthier period of time than back at home, high up in those dark, old, wintry mountains, is still very fleeting. I really need to get an earlier start. I missed my second swim of the day, but I did ride down, again, to la Punta Sur and there I got the best and freshest Churros yet… I asked the Lady for “Churros Natural” She shook her head, “Churros normale…” again with the no, finally, I read what it said before me, “Churros Tradicionales!” Si! said She and began the process from the play-dough like churros pumper-outer gizmo, into the hot oil, with great care, even removing one that wasn’t just right. As I ate my Churros, I happened to loook up at the “Light House” and saw something I had never before seen, the Frigate Birds perched on the railing, thereof. I had mentioned this twice, this morning and here they all were!

Carne asada quesadilla.

In the hot oil vat!

the fresh churros!

Churros on the Malecon

(***Author’s notification: I use a computer to type and an iPod to upload the pictures, if You’ll just bear with me, I will get all these pieces together and as I continue to add, the posting will grow… I learned this from others within my personal blogosphere, the spherical shape created by linking a few who I know and those even fewer that I have had cause to take note of…)

I was eating Churros on the Malecon just a few moments (not even minutes) before this photo-image was taken, in case You were wondering, why don’t I have my mascarpone, I mean my mask on, although these days, it’s even harder to find a good, fresh mascarpone. There is a place down South of here maybe 15 minutes’ bike ride, it claims to be the best Italian food on the Island and they have tables outside, so I’m bound to try it… I’m looking for Pulpo, Pollo and Puerco and then some Pupusas and a Panaderia…

I went swimming twice today, once early, and then to the mercado for orange juice and a quesadilla, before my Zoom meeting with Andrew and Matt. The second time, after I finally found the Libreria, thanks to a little Man who let me know my kick-stand was down… then I rode to Tarzan, with two new used books, where I was seated immediately in the back, as usual, so I ordered a Pacifico and a Club Sandwich.

La Libreria

all along the Malecon

riding on the Malecon.

Rosca de Reyes

today I had the traditional Cake of this day, Epiphany of Twelfth Night or Old Christmas, take Your pick… my Host brought me the Cake on a plate, explaining, through hand gestures and saying “Rosca de Reyes” (which I didn’t understand until I saw it written out on boxes at the Super Max Grocery Market, Chedraui), he explained, as I understood it, that the piece for me was sliced off a larger, ring-like Cake.

Days have passed since this next attempt at an entry began… keeping up with a blog is proving to be more difficult than I thought. It’s weird to be away from Home when weird things happen at home but they invariably do. I have ridden my bicycle, three times now, to the Punta Sur, the Southernmost point of the Island. It isn’t as far as I thought, originally and if I go in the afternoon, they have Churros, which is worth the trip. The road goes along the Caribbean all the way and climbs up a hill and it’s mostly Villas and a few Trinket Sellers and a Restaurant or two. Riding by the Seaside is delightful and You just have to pedal fast by the basura dump which really stinks!

This is, indeed, the Island of Women but also, it is the Island of the Frogs, Isla de las Ranas! There are tons of tiny shrines to the Virgen de Guadalupe, most households have one in their courtyard or on the front porch. I am fascinated by the Virgens and the Frogs, if I stop to make a photo of one, I am usually barked at by Dogs on the roof, which is not where I expect them to be, although I am getting used to it by now.

a slice of Rosca de Reyes:

uno Rana.

Churros normale

a rainy night in Mexico.

(***Author’s notification: I am using a computer to type and a camera-phone to add photos, so bear with me as I try to keep up with the ever-changing modern scenario…)

the rain came in from the North, it was apparent that it would reach my position just before the sun went down, I couldn’t see it because of the clouds, which had covered the sky, for the most part, all day. Before the rain, I visited the Panadería, on the street behind my house, I can smell the yumminess of warm baked-goods coming up from below, I don’t know what I got but both baked goods had the yellow filling and were yummy… I wonder if I just happened to get two things that had yellow filling, or if they ALL did. I am also just two floors up an open shaft from the Family’s Kitchen, with whom I am staying, the smells and also sounds of laughter and People enjoying each other’s company… it is really a treat to get to be in this environment.

I swam in the salt water twice, today and also drank fresh squeezed jugo de naranja, then I went for guacamole and cerveza at Tarzan(‘s) Bar & Grill, or Bar Grill, depending on which sign You read. Tarzan, the owner and operator, hasn’t missed a day since 1967… when I got there, this afternoon, He wasn’t anywhere to be seen… I was a little worried but then, He showed up, relaxed, as always, with attendants in tow. I’ve really enjoyed riding a bike, my Host Rolando has been very generous and let me use one of his bikes, he also fixed it, the chain was coming off and it was making a terrible noise… but now’s it’s muy perfecto! He told me it was “not strong”.

I’ve cooked my own dinner the past two nights, surprisingly Chicken and rice (arroz). I was planning on dining out tonight but the rain threw me off, also the internet was out all day and it came back on in the late afternoon, so I’ve been catching up, after spending the day swimming, drawing and riding a bicicleta!

Maybe I’ll have bacon and eggs… I have that inside.

I went out to walk around in this wild, windy night… the air is charged the way it is after a storm and close to the Sea. I have looked for fresh limes at a local Tienda, there is a “Mini Super” just about every half-block but none of them have limes, the last one I was just in, had bananas, so I got condensed milk and a tall candle.

dans sette bicyclette.

This baked item survived long enough to have its picture taken.

looking out at the half-way point from the stairs down to the ground-level.

¡Feliz año nuevo!

We are already on the third day of this NEW year, and I remembered as I was writing in my journal, Volume 53, that I was considering revisiting this space, that I have not for over three years… miraculously, it is still here and so am I, so why not, I thought. I have landed and expanded on a tiny Island, off the coast of Mexico, in the Western Caribbean (a word whose spelling I never get right), thanks be unto ALL the Goodnesses, I managed to squeak through the ultra-risky travel scenarios and break out of the default world and into this magical realm.

It is important to catalog Your memories, while they are fresh, of People, place and things (nouns), et cetera. My Mom reminded me of this at Christmas dinner, while telling a story of one of my childhood friends. So, I am remembering and writing down, as much as I can. I arrived here, just before noon, on New Year’s Day, 2021, I was somehow positioned much farther forward in the Airplane than usual and so I was able to disembark quickly and I went through Customs like a warm knife through butter. Outside, I located the person with a sign for the Shuttle Company I was to take to the Ferry and not long after that, a man came and asked me to follow Him, he gave me a round-trip ticket for the Ferry and some hand sanitizer. He then introduced me to a next Man, Lucio, who was my driver, a very talkative fellow, he told me right away, “Anyone who doesn’t work in Tourism, is in the bed, right now…”. We got to the Ferry much more quickly than the first time I came here with my Father, last year and he helped me out and I got in the line… the line suddenly split in two and the voice in my head told me to get in the other line, as I watched two men in front of me do but as there was no indication of which line was which, I stayed in mine. I was in the line to purchase tickets and as I have mentioned, I already had mine, so then I had to go to the back of the much longer line that had formed and was swelling out of the Ferry Terminal and into the long driveway that lead to the parking lot. It was all just fine, though, aside from rolling the janky suit-case with tiny plastic wheels over the rough-hewn blocks of the surface, the amount of time to wait was the same for everyone, we all got on the same Ferry. I was in the back of the line, so all the spots on top were taken and I had to go inside, which would never be my choice. It feels oddly like a Disney World ride from my childhood.