We spent the day in Majahual yesterday. I had a meeting at 3pm with the woman who helped me organise the music classes, and we also wanted to do some food shopping and enjoy the beach, so we decided to leave by 10am for the drive to Majahual which takes a little over one hour. To our big surprise as soon as we got in the car, we realised that the time in the clock in the car indicated 9am, and after some thought we realised that we have been living one hour off since we're in Xcalak! Wondering why we could not sleep so well? That could have something to do with going to bed at 8pm! Wondering why we missed the Skype meeting with the tutor? That's because he we were one hour early! Wondering why Hockey Night in Canada started one hour late? Well that's because it was actually on time! So now... what's the right time? The one on my iPhone, or Tim's iPod, or Dylan's ipod, the MacBook? Very confusing for us. : )
We tried to buy some gasoline in the village as we were low on gas and when we found the right place after searching and asking for about half an hour, the lady told me that they were out and that they were expecting the truck in the afternoon. Okay, maybe next time!
We finally got to Majahual (yes, one quarter of a tank is enough) and there was a cruise ship at the pier which makes for a busy day in town - since the town is located at a 5 hour drive from the Cancun ariport very few people drive there, and the entire economy relies on those cruise ships. The cruise port name is 'Costa Maya', much more catchy than Majahual... It's a lovely place despite the soul touristic development of the beach strip. Majahual is also special because all along the Mezoamerican reef barrier (750km long - second longest in the world) it is the only place where the reef barrier is so close to shore that one can actually walk to it (about 100 meters on low tide). The beach is super there too, with a rare sandy shore along this coast (mostly algae and reef by the shore) - perfect for swimming. And a lot of the beach bars and restaurants have wireless access, perfect! We settled at the same place where we had lunch in March 2008 when they were re-building the town after hurricane Dean. Now a fully developed operation, much like most of the beach strip - good to see! So took advantage of the wireless and did some work, and for a couple of hours I had a killer office!
At about 1:30pm we left the beach strip to make our way to the 'casitas' (aka New Majahual). We had lunch at a groovy little cafe called Aroma, apparently the hot spot in town. Then we did our shopping, the store is not so big but carries most of what we had on our list (except for meat and cheese). And then I met with Rebecca at 3pm - a great woman, very nice and friendly, and we had a good chat with Tim and the boys before we made our way to the Montessori school, one block away. First music lesson at the Montessori school of Majahual. I was not sure how many kids would show-up, and I was ready for a very small turn out - and about 20 kids showed-up! The first class were all JK and SK age, about 12 of them. The second group was up to 7 years old and there were 8 kids. I kept a simple program and most of the class content was made of songs and activities that I translated from English or French - it worked very well, kids had a lot of fun and parents feedback was amazing - I am very much looking forward to going back next week. The ice is broken!
I was done at 5pm and we left immediately so that we could arrive before sunset... but missed that mark by a good 45 minutes. But the road is very well done with reflectors all along, and there is basically no traffic (we crossed 2 cars in one hour). Got home, made dinner and made it movie night with The Burbs (with Tom Hanks... funny!).
Today is Leo's big day for his evaluation, he completed 9 pages and did great!
Gabriel, the care taker of the house, went fishing in the laguna and brought back a nice 3 1/2 feet baracuda - pictures coming soon on FB - and prepared nice filets for us. He is so kind! The fish was delicious - just pan fried with butter. Life is good!
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