Snorkeling A Local Reef

This time of year the water in the Gulf calms down and becomes very clear and a beautiful blue/green color. Yesterday was a perfect day for snorkeling. The sun was bright, no wind or waves. So after having breakfast friends I grabbed my snorkel gear and headed to a small reef near their home. This reef is about 200 yards off the beach...it's not huge but plenty to see.

This is not my photograph...I Googled and found it. I don't have an underwater camera. BUT...other than the big fish, this is exactly what the reef looks like underwater. Big chunks of red coral that stand 4-5 feet off the bottom. Lots of little fish and minnows swimming in schools. And Medium sized fish of all kinds...stripped ones, silvery ones, yellow, blue and some spotted ones. At one point my buddy and I stopped swimming and stood on the coral to talk for a minute...when I put my mask back on and looked underwater my feet were surrounded by fish. The most unusual was some kind of a devil looking fish...and some puffer fish that were trying to camouflage and blend in with the rocks. Another surprise was how many starfish there were all over the reef.

Since I don't have pix of any of the fish I saw...here is a chart of "Fish of The Gulf Of Mexico". Look at most of the smaller fish in the bottom half of this chart...other than the eel and the rays, most of them were on that reef. Amazing!!

Gone Fishing!

Buenos Dias...today I had a great opportunity to go fishing off-shore in the Gulf of Mexico. As we left the harbor we floated past the Yucalpeten Bridge that connects Progreso with Chelem & Chuburna to the east.

 We went out to the end of the 7 kilometer long pier that extends from Progreso. At the end of the pier is a container port and freight harbor that supplies much of the Yucatan Peninsula. The pier also has a harbor that can accommodate 2-3 cruise ships at once. 

The first catch of the day...a very nice barracuda! We were trolling along the pier and I was lucky enough to be standing next to the pole when this bad-boy hit. Nice fish...beautiful, but a nasty mouthful of teeth!

Here I am with the barracuda. The water today was very calm and a brilliant blue-green.

This is a Spanish Mackerel...good sized fish! Beautiful spots and colors...he just looks fast!

This doesn't look like much other than a bouy...but directly below us is a 400ft ship called the Loraine that was sunk as a man-made reef. It is located 12 miles off shore and is a favorite fishing spot for many captains. Since the Gulf was so calm we decided to take the 8 mile run from the end of the pier to find it. There was too much floating grass in the water for us to fish...but we did find the wreck on sonar!

The View from the cockpit...looking back at the Progreso pier/harbor from maybe 10 miles out in the Gulf

Coming back into the harbor. Beautiful water and perfect skies...a great day!

These are condos located in the harbor area

 The Yucalpeten harbor is home to a huge fleet of fishing boats. The fishing industry is the largest employer in this area.

 Back home again...Thanks to Captain Don!!

Cruise Ship Day In Progreso

Wow, over a month between posts...That's unacceptable.
In honor of the blizzard conditions in Wisconsin last Wed I went into Progreso that day to have lunch with some friends. There were three cruise ships docked at the pier that day so the town was full of visitors. All the vendors were out hawking jewelry, cigars, souvenirs, hammocks, even a massage on the beach.

Here you can see the three large cruise ships in the inset photo.The pier in Progreso is over 7 kilometers long. The Yucatan sits on a huge shelf of limestone and the Gulf is very shallow in this area. At the end of the pier it is only 40 feet deep. There is are three large harbors out there and a complete container port. The pier itself is a two lane highway, with some cutoffs for trucks to pull aside or park.

This is the older section of the pier, it's built out of concrete and has water passages like a bridge. The newer section comprises about 2/3 of the pier and is built like a dike of limestone and rubble with no water passages

 

Most Gulf Coast villages have a long street along the beach called The Malecon. There is a concrete seawall between the beach and the city street...with a sidewalk and places to sit much like a boardwalk

 

A shot of the Malecon filled with vendors

More vendors...selling jewelry, hammocks, local carvings, crafts and misc seashell products. Havana cigars, tequila and silver are big items for many cruise ship passengers

 

The restaurants and bars are in full swing on cruise ship day

 You can even get a massage on the beach.

 

Had to take a shot of myself...not in Wisconsin, not shoveling snow...no snowplows, mittens or jumper cables in sight!! 

The weather that day was mid-90's...a light warm breeze.

Later that afternoon I took a bike ride along the beach road and went swimming in the Gulf

Dias de los Muertos

It's a very nice day here in Chelem. We had several storms blow through over the weekend...the sky was cloudy much of the time and the temps dipped a bit. That was actually a welcome break from the hot weather last week. I'm glad that the weather has cooperated with the Mexican celebration of Day of the Dead. The Mexican people love celebrations and can figure out something to celebrate almost any day of the year. But one of the most important holidays is Day of the Dead. It's actually two days Nov 1 is Dias de los Inocentes (Day of the Innocents) on which they honor infants and children who have died...and November 2 which is Dias de los Muertos on which they honor adults who have died.
For their celebrations they build alters at their homes, light candles, present "the dead" with gifts of food and drinks which they enjoyed in their lives, present toys for the infants. Many will go to the cemetaries and set up what look like picnics...talking and singing to the passed family members.
Today while driving through the normally sleepy town square in Chelem there were lots of people around. Many people sitting and walking in the square and all the restaurants and stores were open and there were food carts all over. When I drove by the cemetary there were many food stands set up as well as a number of stands selling religious items, candles and skull candy. Yes, skull candy! The skeleton and skull are the most prominent images associated with the Dias de los Muertos. And, funny thing is (at least to me)...the skull image is most like the image that was used by the band The Grateful Dead! Skull candy is available almost everywhere...it is literally white sugar molded into the shape of a skull with the eyes, teeth and other bones painted in...most of them are smiling, which is a nice touch.
There are many foods associated with Dias de los Muertos...but the most important is a sweet bread called Pan de Muerto. It's a rich bread made with sugar and eggs...it's usually baked in a round loaf with a couple of strips of dough forming a cross on the top. After baking it's most common to cover the bread in sugar.
So...I told you all about the Day of the Dead and the Dead Bread so that I could tell you this. In the local Aureura Bodega (Walmart) store the bakery has been baking pan de muerto around the clock all weekend...most of the cases which usually carry cinnamon rolls, buns, doughnuts and Mexican pastries are now full of various sizes of pan de muerto. At the end of one of the aisles of display cases they have set up a folding table as an alter...on the table are a couple of religious candles, some white and green sugar jack-o-lanterns (not sure why they aren't sugar skulls, must be a corporate thing) and of course a couple loaves of pan de muerto...in the middle of the table is a photograph of Sam Walton, the founder of the WalMart corporation. And that's how important this holiday is to the Mexican people...and I think that is great!
(out of respect for this great tradition and celebration I purposely did not take any photographs)

This was the sunset in my backyard on Saturday. The palm tree silhouettes looked so tropical


Wicker Living Room set


New Dining Table & Chairs looking out the front window


Dining Table and Kitchen Counter


I love the classy new stove!! It has a flip-up glass top


My new kitchen...Fridge, stove, coffee maker...the rest of my cooking gear is stowed under the counter.

Almost exactly 3 weeks from when my 3200 mile journey ended at my home in Chelem, Yucatan, MX I am finally moved in and have set up at least rudimentary housekeeping. There were the usual home renovation bumps-in-the-road...a couple items had to be finished when I got here...a couple more things had to be re-done. I had to find some furnishings, appliances and a bed. Thank goodness for my Caravan, I can haul about anything in that workhorse! The wicker patio set that I managed to haul down with me will do for living room furniture for a while. It looks good with the new floor tiles. Buying and hauling the stove home was the easy part...once I had it hear I had to get a plumber to come over and hook up the gas...sounds easier than it was. But...after a few days the new range was up and running. The plumber also fixed some water problems and found a couple new ones. Last week I bought a hammock from a local vendor. It seems like buying something in this part of the world is the easy part...getting the rest of the stuff to make it work is the hard part. When you get a hammock you also need to buy two ropes about 2 meters each to connect the hammock to the hooks in the wall. Everyone said that you can buy the ropes...soga para hamaca...anywhere. Well the first three places I went didn't have them...one supermarket did have them but they were hot pink...not what I was looking for. Finally my friend Pedro checked at a local hardware store and bought a 4 meter length of rope and just cut it in two. Then he showed me how to make the simple knot that fastens to the hammock and doesn't slip. I also got a lesson on how to knot (fold, store,???) the hamaca. It's a simple over and under and around kind of thing that the locals must born knowing how to do. I kind of get it...I better because I sure don't want to have to untangle all those strings in my hammock!! So...Long-Story-Short...the hammock works great and my front porch is the perfect spot to use it to relax. Over the weekend I did some cooking for the first time on the new range in the new kitchen. My biggest problem was having to stop what I was doing to go dig through boxes for a knife, pot, spatula or something else I needed. But the stove worked very well, the burners were plenty hot. The oven will take some getting used to like all gas ovens do...the first pizza I baked turned out a little too "crispy" on the bottom. Last Saturday the weather changed a bit. It had been very hot everyday, lots of sun, nice breezes. On Saturday afternoon a storm moved in across the Gulf...the clouds looked worse than the eventual storm turned out to be. It rained for almost 2 hours, some wind...but nothing serious. When that storm moved on the weather on Sunday was much different than it had been. Lots of wind, partly sunny skies with temps much cooler than last week. "Cooler" is definitely a relative term...my friend Pedro described last night as "cold"...for a mid-western boy it was a perfect night to sleep with the windows open. Honestly, it was maybe 75 degrees! The plumber was just here again today...fixed my water pump so I can fill the tenaca on the roof...he also did something so that my kitchen faucets now have water. My next adventure will be getting my satellite TV system hooked up and getting an internet connection at the casa.

Photo Catch-Up Day!!

It's been almost two weeks since I arrived in the Yucatan. My Van was repaired last week. Last Sunday we had a nice party with my realtor friend Pedro and his family as a farewell for Gigi. She flew back to Minneapolis on Monday. Much of this week has been spent finding furnishings for the new casa. Next week I'll be moved in and setting up full-time housekeeping in Chelem.
So...it's time to catch up with the photos from the last week. Hope you enjoy the show!!

Pedro in his hammock on my front porch:




Farewell Party for Gigi, Pedro's wife made Posole:



Sailing race last Sunday:



Guy on a paddle-surfboard in front of the octopus fisherman:



Dan served us Dragon Fruit for breakfast one day:




Pedro holding court with the girls in my new kitchen:



Full moon at the beach:


Sunset on the beach:


MrBuzz on his new front porch:



The end of the line, my beach casa:



2800 miles into the trip...The Yucatan Border...just 2.5 hours to go:



The replica of Columbus's ship The Nina, permanently moored in Corpus Christi, TX:

The Holiday Inn in Veracruz...a beautiful, old colonial hotel:






Some really bad advice from Tom-Tom. He said this washed out road, complete with turkeys was supposed to get us to Veracruz. We declined the GPS advice and found Veracruz on our own:



Beautiful valley, the sun was finally out and the rain was moving on:




My dirty van in front of a huge wash-out on top of a mountain:


MrBuzz in front of the flooded river:





Here's a flooded river in the mountains above Veracruz:

Podcast #2: Week One Wrap-Up

This is the wrap up podcast for the first full week in Mexico. We talk about the last days of the trip down here, the van problems and Gigi's last day before flying home.
http://mrbuzz55.podbean.com/mf/web/87bnbq/BuzzGigi_100409_Carmen.mp3