Friday, December 10. Gisèle and Philippe - the owners of the house - have planned a little pinata gathering for the children today. Philippe is a fun guy, very light spirited and chatty, he loves to express his feelings and philosophical thoughts. He has become Leo's fishing pal. Gisèle is a bit more reserved, she seems to be more business driven and down to earth. She knows everybody's name in the community, and knows the names of all the fish and creatures we see.
The back of the property is on the lagoon, and they just finished building the dock. It seems to be Philippe's little heaven, and to him it's just as marvelous as the beautiful Caribbean in front of the house. They both love the water, and when they go out snorkeling they are gone for 3 to 4 hours. They swim out to the other side of the reef barrier, and go way out about 2km - to a small reef formation located straight out from their house. Philippe leaves with a couple of harpoons and a mesh bag, and a good knife. He always comes back about one hour after Gisèle, with some snapper in his bag, and the odd lion fish. They must eat fish every day. If not from the sea, it's the catch of the day from the lagoon. This is their home, and they only go back to France to work for a couple months about twice a year.
The last day in Majahual was nice, we went to Miriam's husband's restaurant (Miriam is the owner of the Montessori school) - a road side taco joint. It was fabulous! He showed us the many fillings to choose from and explained the ingredients, all very local (cactus, pork skin, etc.) and all very delicious. We all had seconds. The funny thing is that he is located right on the corner of the main road into town - you can't miss him. And all the tourist tour busses from the cruise ships go right by, but they never stop. He said that he doesn't expect to have tourists there. What he has is local food for local folks, and that's the way he wants it. Eating there was one great highlight of our adventure so far. Gracias Tio George! After lunch the boys and I went to the school, and I gave my last class. It was fun, and it's satisfying to see that the kids know the new songs I have been teaching them. They will continue to sing them, and knowing that is the great joy I take back with me to Canada. I left about 20 maracas and bells for the school. I also gave a bunch of scarves that I made from fabric I bought in Chetumal. It was in the left over bin at the entrance of the fabric store, and alltogether it cost me $1.50. I made 18 light scarves with it, for the children to dance with - which we merrily did today. Miriam was very happy.
I emailed Jane to find out if we can drop by her house this weekend. She has invited us but time flew and with only a couple of days left, I think that it would be a shame to not take the time to get to know her better. She has a great energy, very warm and very interesting. I hope we can make it happen.
It seems unlikely now that we will go to the Chinchorro, it's too bad, but I think that it might be a bit much for the kids and for Tim. It's a two hour ride out to sea to get there. This one will remain on my 'lifetime to do list', so I might come back. Maybe with friends, for an all adult vacation? I would be in for that of course. But while we're still here in Xcalak, It would be nice to get on a boat at least once, I'll see what we can do. Maybe this weekend?
Tim and I were discussing the big picture about this trip. What are we going to gain from this? Are the kids realising how special this is? And so on... It's funny how I feel it's so clear to me, and how Tim struggles with finding a purpose to it all. It is mainly my project I guess, so for me the questioning phase was done long before we left. Now I am just enjoying the great ride. I believe that in the big picture, the boys will learn that they must stick their neck out, take some calculated risks, and overcome some fears to discover new, enriching and exciting things. This was certainly true for the snorkeling. At first they did not want to try, and were scared of going out on the kayak - probably because they know that there are sharks in the sea. So we practiced with the gear on here in front of the house, and they saw tiny striped black and yellow fish, and many others, and they saw their first lion fish and their first barracuda. Then we went on the kayaks, to a small reef about 100 meters off shore. They were blown away, and were hooked from that point on. Now they want to explore farther. The fear is gone, replaced by the knowledge of what is there for them to enjoy. And that's a wonderful gift. Now that we have demystified the sea, we will move on and experience life on a farm, and ride horses! But I must say that leaving the sea will be difficult, I love it here.
Somewhere between Izamal and Sudzal, Yucatan.
Friday, December 10, 2010
Thursday, December 9, 2010
The End of the Road
Yesterday we went to the end of the road, where the bridge has been burned. We also got the full story about the bridge - On the North side of the bridge, a Mexican official was given a beautiful big piece of land as a retirement present, and decided to build a small eco resort on it. On the South side of the bridge, another Mexican man had purchased a big piece of land and had the same eco resort idea. The one on the South side, who had made a pretty investment no doubt, probably decided to cut the road access to the other guy's resort, leaving prospect patrons to drive an extra hour around the Xcalak peninsula to get to destination. We went to the end of the road and spent a few hours in the abandoned resort. A beautiful place! Only the maintenance guy and his dog. He keeps cleaning the beach every day, as the place looks very tidy. It's for sale, apparently asking 4 million but would settle for 2. Hard to imagine what could be done with the place, it's a 6 hour drive from the Cancun airport, and 2 1/2 hour drive to the town of Chetumal.
Today is my last class at the Majahual Montessori school. We are invited to have lunch at the little taco restaurant to the entrance of the town, the owner is Miriam's husband (Miriam is the owner of the school). It will be sad to leave at the end of the day, these kids are great!
We are leaving this house on the morning of December 13, and since the drive is about 6 to 7 hours to the ranch, we wanted to spend one night somewhere along the coast. I looked online and after some research, we decided to go back to the all inclusive resort for 2 nights. $100 per night for the four of us, all inclusive, can't beat that price!
So we will let the food supplies go down in the next few days, and slowly start packing our bags again. Moving on!
Today is my last class at the Majahual Montessori school. We are invited to have lunch at the little taco restaurant to the entrance of the town, the owner is Miriam's husband (Miriam is the owner of the school). It will be sad to leave at the end of the day, these kids are great!
We are leaving this house on the morning of December 13, and since the drive is about 6 to 7 hours to the ranch, we wanted to spend one night somewhere along the coast. I looked online and after some research, we decided to go back to the all inclusive resort for 2 nights. $100 per night for the four of us, all inclusive, can't beat that price!
So we will let the food supplies go down in the next few days, and slowly start packing our bags again. Moving on!
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Boo-ooo
Nights are cooler these days, about 18 degrees, and the cool breeze is lovely - especially in early morning when I get up and make coffee. Yesterday the sea was very calm and the tide was very low, so the four of us went out for a snorkel witht he intention to make it to the barrier. There is so much reef between the shore and the barrier that we never make it, and we didn't make it there yesterday either. Every time we go snorkeling we see something new. Yesterday we saw 3 beautiful French Angelfish - they are big and graceful, and they don't seem disturbed by our presence. Tim and Dylan saw a Green Moray - the biggest of the Morays - and it was about 8 feet long! I take the time to show Léo all the vegetation and now he shows me interesting corals, not only fish. Big Brain Coral, lots of purple Sea Fans, Black Sea Rod, and a lot of Anemones, and hundreds of Queen Conch. Dylan and Léo are both inspired by what they see underwater, and make drawings when we get back to the house. Tim goes snorkeling every day in the afternoon, it's part of his routine now. It's the first time in his life that he enjoys swimming with the gear on - he loves it. To enjoy snorkeling one must be able to relax and float around while observing the life forms all around - it's a very serene state of mind.
Today the boys and I were supposed to go to the Xcalak elementary school, but we decided to skip it. It's Jane and Judy's new ESL program and I just got the line-up last night. I wanted to prepare this morning but a rather upsetting discovery turned off all my enthusiasm for a couple of hours. All the little sea treasures that we had gathered in the last 3 weeks have been thrown to... the garbage! While we were in Chetumal last weekend, the owner of the house decided to come up and take a look at the upper unit. Hey, this is her house after all! But she decided to tidy-up a little... not sure why - Martha had cleaned the place very well. Upon our return I noticed that a couple of things were moved around, but nothing strange really - a chair in a different place, the ashtrays put away, etc. Then this morning Tim asked me if I know where our little treasures went. We had a collection lined-up on the wide railing, and Tim had put the smaller ones in a glass container on our bedside table. All gone. A sad mistake, she feels bad of course. She offered to take some from her husband's collection - but this was a collection of little treasures we had found along our first 3 weeks here, nothing can really replace them. And the memories of the reaction of the kid's finding their first piece of coral, or choch shell, etc, you know... So I took 4 plastic bags and the four of us went for a long walk on the beach - hunting for interesting treasures again. I was upset and so was Tim. We did find cool things, but it's not the same.
We got back and had lunch, and worked on our song. It's inspired by the sea, and our goal is to record it before we leave Xcalak.
Today the boys and I were supposed to go to the Xcalak elementary school, but we decided to skip it. It's Jane and Judy's new ESL program and I just got the line-up last night. I wanted to prepare this morning but a rather upsetting discovery turned off all my enthusiasm for a couple of hours. All the little sea treasures that we had gathered in the last 3 weeks have been thrown to... the garbage! While we were in Chetumal last weekend, the owner of the house decided to come up and take a look at the upper unit. Hey, this is her house after all! But she decided to tidy-up a little... not sure why - Martha had cleaned the place very well. Upon our return I noticed that a couple of things were moved around, but nothing strange really - a chair in a different place, the ashtrays put away, etc. Then this morning Tim asked me if I know where our little treasures went. We had a collection lined-up on the wide railing, and Tim had put the smaller ones in a glass container on our bedside table. All gone. A sad mistake, she feels bad of course. She offered to take some from her husband's collection - but this was a collection of little treasures we had found along our first 3 weeks here, nothing can really replace them. And the memories of the reaction of the kid's finding their first piece of coral, or choch shell, etc, you know... So I took 4 plastic bags and the four of us went for a long walk on the beach - hunting for interesting treasures again. I was upset and so was Tim. We did find cool things, but it's not the same.
We got back and had lunch, and worked on our song. It's inspired by the sea, and our goal is to record it before we leave Xcalak.
Saturday, December 4, 2010
Chetumal
We are spending the weekend in Chetumal, capital city of the state of Quintana Roo, on the border to Belize. We came here partly to go to the Museum of Mayan Civilisation as Dylan is sending his school paper on the Mayan culture next week, and partly to replenish our food supplies. Chetumal is one of my favorite Mexican cities, maybe even my favorite now. I love Merida as well, but it has become much more touristic in the past 10 years. Chetumal is too far out of the way for main stream tourism, a great border city, and an important commercial point for the South East region. The city is in a festive mode this weekend, Christmas lights are up everywhere and we enjoyed a fun evening at the Zocalo (main square) last night. Giant Christmas tree in the centre, people lighting their fireworks, big slide, and the usual fleet of mini electric cars for the kids (10 pesos for 5 minutes...that's about 80 cents!). Léo had a grand time, Dylan is too big for the slide and the cars now but he enjoyed watching his brother.
Although Xcalak is across the bay, it's a 3 hour drive to make the giant 'u' on land back to our little house. Longer than the 2 hour boat ride there, but there is no car ferry operating between Chetumal and Xcalak. We will leave Chetumal after lunch, and begin our last week in Xcalak. Already. Time flies!
Although Xcalak is across the bay, it's a 3 hour drive to make the giant 'u' on land back to our little house. Longer than the 2 hour boat ride there, but there is no car ferry operating between Chetumal and Xcalak. We will leave Chetumal after lunch, and begin our last week in Xcalak. Already. Time flies!
Friday, December 3, 2010
Banana Cream Pie!
Since there is no bakery in the village of Xcalak, the special treats I make are desserts. By the way - I tried the Apple Cake recipe with pineapple instead of apples, and it was delicious. I suspect it would be great with other fruit as well, it's such a simple recipe and it requires so little ingredients that it's a keeper for me. I already know it by heart.
Moving on to a little more complex concoction... but oh so delicious!
Banana Cream Pie
3/4 cup white sugar, 1/3 cup all-purpose flour, 1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups milk
3 egg yolks, beaten
2 tablespoons butter, 1 1/4 teaspoons vanilla
1 (9 inch) pie crust, baked
4 bananas, sliced
In a saucepan, combine the sugar, flour, and salt. Add milk in gradually while stirring gently. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture is bubbly. Keep stirring and cook for about 2 more minutes, and then remove from the burner. Stir a small quantity of the hot mixture into the beaten egg yolks (to warm them up), and immediately add egg yolk mixture to the rest of the hot mixture. Cook for 2 more minutes; remember to keep stirring. Remove the mixture from the stove, and add butter and vanilla. Stir until the whole thing has a smooth consistency. Slice bananas into the cooled baked pastry shell. Top with pudding mixture. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 12 to 15 minutes. Chill for an hour.
Moving on to a little more complex concoction... but oh so delicious!
Banana Cream Pie
3/4 cup white sugar, 1/3 cup all-purpose flour, 1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups milk
3 egg yolks, beaten
2 tablespoons butter, 1 1/4 teaspoons vanilla
1 (9 inch) pie crust, baked
4 bananas, sliced
In a saucepan, combine the sugar, flour, and salt. Add milk in gradually while stirring gently. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture is bubbly. Keep stirring and cook for about 2 more minutes, and then remove from the burner. Stir a small quantity of the hot mixture into the beaten egg yolks (to warm them up), and immediately add egg yolk mixture to the rest of the hot mixture. Cook for 2 more minutes; remember to keep stirring. Remove the mixture from the stove, and add butter and vanilla. Stir until the whole thing has a smooth consistency. Slice bananas into the cooled baked pastry shell. Top with pudding mixture. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 12 to 15 minutes. Chill for an hour.
Trouble in paradise...
We came upon a couple of unfortunate events when we went to Majahual yesterday.
First - we always go directly to the gas station (the only one...) to fill-up the car, and pulling out of there we saw a police officer on his little motocycle, driving away from town (there is only one road). So we hit the road, the town is only 4km from the gas station. Suddenly Tim notices that the cop is making his way back, and is about to pass up on the right shoulder... okay, hello officer! He signals to pull over... bummer. He asks for Tim's lisense, and as he contemplates it, he casually asks where we're going (one road... only one possible destination... this is ridiculous) I politely answer his questions, and he explains that this is a 50km zone and that we were going quite fast. He will have to write a ticket, and keep our lisense - and we will have to go settle this in Chetumal (the capital city of the state - a 3 hour drive). So I try to get out of this, telling him that there is no way we can make it to Chetumal on Friday. He just repeats the whole thing... not rude, just plain sleazy. So I pull out my wallet and ask him if we can settle this, handing out a 200 pesos bill ($20). 'I don't want problems later' he tells me. I answer 'There is no problem here'. He smiles and discretely takes the bill, and tells me to mind the speed limit. Goodbye officer!
We went to town and had lunch, explored a bit since it was a rainy day, and then I went to school to give my class (great turnout - 20 kids!). We split immediately after to catch as much daylight as possible for the road home. Not quite half way to Xcalak, on the road in the middle of nowhere - a flat tire. About 30 minutes of daylight left... we never changed a tire. Get the spare out, try to figure out how to work the crank and where the heck we should put it to jack the car... this is not good! Oh, a car is coming! Get he kids off the road, make sure that they see us... they stop and ask if we need help. Thank God! Father and son from a little town I can not pronounce, kindly get to work and change our tire in 10 minutes. When they're done they wish us a safe trip and go back to their truck - feeling good about helping a little family of gringos. They were such nice guys, Tim gave them a CD - not sure if they will listen to it but it's exciting to think that they will - in their little town which has a name with no vowels whatsoever. We were very lucky.
With that we got home later than expected, tired and concerned. We want to go spend the weekend in Chetumal, and we do have to get that tire fixed (or replaced...), and the muffler of our car is about to fall off and the road here is... hummmm... very punctuated! It appears that we can take care of the tire here in town today, Good Gabriel will help us.
On to better things... Banana Cream Pie recipe coming later today!
http://www.maplandia.com/mexico/quintana-roo/othon-p-blanco/xcalak/
First - we always go directly to the gas station (the only one...) to fill-up the car, and pulling out of there we saw a police officer on his little motocycle, driving away from town (there is only one road). So we hit the road, the town is only 4km from the gas station. Suddenly Tim notices that the cop is making his way back, and is about to pass up on the right shoulder... okay, hello officer! He signals to pull over... bummer. He asks for Tim's lisense, and as he contemplates it, he casually asks where we're going (one road... only one possible destination... this is ridiculous) I politely answer his questions, and he explains that this is a 50km zone and that we were going quite fast. He will have to write a ticket, and keep our lisense - and we will have to go settle this in Chetumal (the capital city of the state - a 3 hour drive). So I try to get out of this, telling him that there is no way we can make it to Chetumal on Friday. He just repeats the whole thing... not rude, just plain sleazy. So I pull out my wallet and ask him if we can settle this, handing out a 200 pesos bill ($20). 'I don't want problems later' he tells me. I answer 'There is no problem here'. He smiles and discretely takes the bill, and tells me to mind the speed limit. Goodbye officer!
We went to town and had lunch, explored a bit since it was a rainy day, and then I went to school to give my class (great turnout - 20 kids!). We split immediately after to catch as much daylight as possible for the road home. Not quite half way to Xcalak, on the road in the middle of nowhere - a flat tire. About 30 minutes of daylight left... we never changed a tire. Get the spare out, try to figure out how to work the crank and where the heck we should put it to jack the car... this is not good! Oh, a car is coming! Get he kids off the road, make sure that they see us... they stop and ask if we need help. Thank God! Father and son from a little town I can not pronounce, kindly get to work and change our tire in 10 minutes. When they're done they wish us a safe trip and go back to their truck - feeling good about helping a little family of gringos. They were such nice guys, Tim gave them a CD - not sure if they will listen to it but it's exciting to think that they will - in their little town which has a name with no vowels whatsoever. We were very lucky.
With that we got home later than expected, tired and concerned. We want to go spend the weekend in Chetumal, and we do have to get that tire fixed (or replaced...), and the muffler of our car is about to fall off and the road here is... hummmm... very punctuated! It appears that we can take care of the tire here in town today, Good Gabriel will help us.
On to better things... Banana Cream Pie recipe coming later today!
http://www.maplandia.com/mexico/quintana-roo/othon-p-blanco/xcalak/
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
It's been 18 days since our arrival in Mexico, and after 15 days here in Xcalak I can already feel how time flies. I love it here. Most of my time is spent on basic things like getting food and preparing it, washing clothes by hand and hanging it to dry, schooling the boys, go swimming or snorkeling with them, and a couple of hours of business work every day, and a little bit of class prep every week. All that between 6am when I get up with the sun, and about 9pm when I go to bed at night, tired. I love it here.
I love to compose with limited supplies, I find that it's a great way to be creative. I see opportunities to explore new ways, it's most definitely in my nature. The boys have already adapted to eating things they never wanted to try at home, like guacamole and onions. They are more open to trying different things, and they also compose with what's available of course - with a good attitude. I'm proud of them. There are so many delicious fruit here, and Léo likes to come to the truck with me to choose the best ones. Mangoes, cantalope, papaya, bananas, apples, mandarines, pineapples, pears, grapes, and they are all so perfect and delicious!
I tried a new recipe last night - a Banana cream pie. It got the thumbs up, so I will share it with my blog followers sometime this week. I like trying recipes that require the basic local food, and I know that it's all available in Toronto as well so maybe we can share the flavours despite the distance - that, and the starry night sky!
I love to compose with limited supplies, I find that it's a great way to be creative. I see opportunities to explore new ways, it's most definitely in my nature. The boys have already adapted to eating things they never wanted to try at home, like guacamole and onions. They are more open to trying different things, and they also compose with what's available of course - with a good attitude. I'm proud of them. There are so many delicious fruit here, and Léo likes to come to the truck with me to choose the best ones. Mangoes, cantalope, papaya, bananas, apples, mandarines, pineapples, pears, grapes, and they are all so perfect and delicious!
I tried a new recipe last night - a Banana cream pie. It got the thumbs up, so I will share it with my blog followers sometime this week. I like trying recipes that require the basic local food, and I know that it's all available in Toronto as well so maybe we can share the flavours despite the distance - that, and the starry night sky!
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