Sunday Salon -- ¡Mexico!

¡Mexico!

Weather: In Xcaret, Q.Roo, Mexico: 80 degrees and sunny yesterday. Here: 45 degrees and sunny today.

We just got back from a week-long vacation to Mexico on the Yucatán Peninsula near Cancún. Here are a few highlights of our week:

• Top left: We met up with two of my siblings, Tony and Kathy, and their spouses. In the photo we are finishing our meal in the Asian restaurant at the resort. In addition to two buffets on site, there were several specialty-themed restaurants (Mexican, Asian, Italian, Fish, etc.) which required reservations. I've never been to an all-inclusive resort before. I liked it a lot for the ease and convenience.
• Top center: This is the view from my lounge chair on many days as I laid under the palm trees near the sea. My husband preferred to lounge on the curtained beds next to my chair. I ended up reading almost a whole, big book (over 400 pages.) The temperatures in the shade were usually in the low 80s with a nice ocean breeze. Often we could see the adventurous souls who ventured out for parasailing, as they sailed by being pulled by boats. Books completed this week: The Guardian and a Thief by Marjan Kamali and The Story of a New Name by Elena Ferrante. I'm still currently reading the Wild Dark Shore by McConaghy. I'm listening to Vinegar Girl by Tyler.
• Top right: One afternoon we went to a nearby cenote, The Garden of Eden Cenote, for a refreshing outing. A cenote is a natural, water-filled sinkhole formed by the collapse of limestone bedrock, revealing an underlying, crystal-clear groundwater system. Derived from the Mayan word ts’ono’ot ("well"), these pools are predominantly found in Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula and were historically considered sacred, representing entrances to the underworld. In the photo you see me and Don sitting on a mossy rock watching little fish nibble at the dead skin on our feet and legs. This was my favorite activity of the trip.
• Middle left: I did a lot of bird watching. Pictured is the Great Kiskadee. Other new birds to me: the Great-tailed Grackle; a group of Ocellated Turkey; several Tropical Mockingbirds; Yucatán Jays, they were everywhere around the cenote; the Common Squirrel-Cuckoo; I heard the Altamira Oriole and saw its woven, upside-down nest; Brown Pelicans; Black vultures. I also met the Harris Hawk who was working the resort with a handler to keep down the number of grackles who would harass us otherwise. Two other birds seen around the cenote which I've seen before -- an Anhinga pair and a Green Heron working the edges of the sinkhole.
• Center: Sunrise over the Caribbean Sea.
• Middle right: Ruins at Tulum, one of the last cities built and inhabited by Mayans, prominent during the 13th to 15th centuries. (Wiki)
• Bottom left: Nohuch Mul pyramid is the tallest structure in the Mayan ruins at Coba. My sister joined Don and I one day to explore the ruins at Coba and Tulum. Coba is very spread out so our guide (a beautiful Mayan woman) and Don rode bikes between sights, while Kathy and I were escorted around by pedicab. The Spaniards never found this location so it is more intact than many of the other Mayan settlements because it was abandoned about 1100 CE and the jungle had grown over it before the Europeans arrived. We could have climbed the pyramid, behind us in the photo, but that didn't sound fun to Kathy and I so Don didn't push it. (Wiki)
• Bottom middle: Spider monkeys. Signs everywhere at the resort implored people to not feed the animals, but the monkeys were opportunistic little thieves. If someone left their sliding glass door open even for a minute, they would race in and steal from the complimentary fruit bowl. The resort also had a bunch of coatimundis running around. They are raccoon-like. Agoutis, rodents which are like little capybaras. White-tailed deer and iguanas were everywhere.
• Bottom right: Don and I grabbed a last hour of sun before we left our Mexico resort and made our way home to Washington State.

Look who missed their grandparents and greeted us today:

The grandkids were excited by the kit we gave them to create an axolotl, in the Mexican art style, Alebrijes -- Alebrijes (ah-leh-bree-hehs) are the brightly colored, fantastical Mexican folk art creatures, often featuring mixed animal parts, carved from wood or made from papier-mâché. Originating in Mexico City in the 1930s by Pedro Linares, they are now iconic, intricately painted, whimsical figures primarily produced in Oaxaca, Mexico.

Now. Time to get to the laundry and plan a trip to the grocery store.

-Anne