Killing Time

Jig saw puzzles are harder to come by in Mexico than they are at home so I decided to try my hand at something new. A few years ago I had purchased a paint by number project [of Venice] and had left it down here with some of our things.

This year I completed it! It took a lot of patience...more than I had, at times. I did find it relaxing and fun when the picture started coming together.

Visiting an Old Friend

We spent Saturday in Akumal snooping around our old condo on the beach...maybe to see if we miss it?

We never did decide on that, but we did sit at the restaurant there having a classic margarita with lemongrass...a new twist on the lime that accompanies a classic.

I see I have a palapa growing out of my drink...need to hone up on those photography skills!

Finally

For two years we have dragged around 00 flour so we could make pasta whenever we had spare time in Mexico....obviously not the same flour each time!

As for spare time...we seem to think that we have none!

Finally after much procrastination we made the big leap today and made fresh pasta. It turned out great...with a little bit of lemon, white wine and butter sauce.

The only glitch in whole process was that our old rolling pin sort of fell apart. Other than that, there wasn't any arguing or disagreeing! Well maybe a little. Fred thought he was a better mixer than me and I quote "you are going too fast and making a mess. Let me do it". Works every time!

Travelling Within

Having no wheels means we have to find other ways to get around in the Yucatan. For airport deliveries we use a taxi service, always with the same man. He has become a friend and is so reliable that we use him whenever we can.

For short trips to Akumal, Playa or Tulum we use collectivos. Collectivos are small vans that run constantly up and down the highway between Playa Del Carmen and Tulum. If you choose wisely you can find one that is travelling to Cancun, but this is rare.

This service is always busy and the vans are packed with people moving from place to place. You can wave down the collectivo anywhere on the highway and they will stop if they have room. If they are full, they flash their lights to indicate no room....or they may flash their lights to indicate they are stopping. Who knows!!

We use this system constantly...it is cheap and we never have to wait very long for transportation. The only places that the vans enter are Tulum and Playa Del Carmen...the rest of the time you have to catch them on the highway.

The first picture is of the collectivo stop on the highway at Puerto Aventuras and the final one is the busy stop at Playa Del Carmen, near 5th Avenue.

Memories

Our first camping trip to the Yucatan Peninsula happened in the winter of 1979 when my teaching position in Smiley became redundant. We loaded up our Volkswagen Westfalia and headed out, hoping to complete the trip on $5.00 per day as suggested by Frommer's book.

We visited many areas in Mexico before meeting a couple in Merida who suggested we follow them to a beach camping spot called Paamul. We did just that and ended up camping on the beach for two months.

Paamul was an undiscovered paradise with only about ten to twelve people scattered about...two groups were in units like ours and the rest were in tents. There was a small, old, beat up hotel that the owner used as his source of income. He opened up the end unit so all campers could use the showers and toilet...often so filthy you hated to go in there.

There was a very tiny building that the owner used to serve a few meals and beer to the campers, plus there was a small palapa that was used to rent diving equipment.

The old man who owned the buildings and rented the "spots" for camping used to sit by the restaurant [used as his home also] watching the activity going on with the tourists. Not that we did much...there was no electricity so at dark all activity stopped as no one wanted to run down their batteries in their units nor did people want to run out of kerosene for their lanterns.

The months we spent there were laid back, good old fashioned boon-docking. The bay we were on was clean and quiet except for Sundays when the Mexicans came to enjoy the beach and water.

Fishermen would occasionally bring in their catch for us to buy, lobsters were sold by the men who went spearfishing, beer was trucked in by the Mexican beer companies and water was delivered by the jug full. The only time we needed to drive to Playa Del Carmen was to get an ice block for our cooler. Playa Del Carmen at that time is another story!

To complete this rambling...yesterday we decided to go back to Paamul [we have done this a couple of times over the years] to check the progress of the place.

The one kilometre lane into Paamul hasn't changed much and is still rough and full of pot holes.

There is now a guard at the gate and once inside, our ancient little peace of heaven is not longer recognizable . Not that we expected anything else nor do we resent the change...we just wanted to see it.

Where we used to camp, there are now 50 large RVs permanently set up, with grass palapas used to cover them and keep the sun out. The restaurant is enlarged and there is a huge hotel right on the beach near where we camped.

The picture below shows the few [maybe eight] overnight camping spots that are not used for year round living.

Where Fred is standing is approximately where we camped for months at a time.

Even with these changes, Paamul is still a laid back beach community with not much going on other than living on the beach!