November 17th to 23rd, 2019 Week #8

The week got off to a good start,

When I unplugged the nightlight to plug in my hair dryer I found this little newt, it had been a cold night so I wondered if he was in there trying to get warmth from the light. Not likely, but is was a thought. 

We had Fernando working at our house so when Claudia and I were out shopping we stopped at a little restaurant on the corner of Calle Zetina Gasca and Calle Chaca across from the Frutaria 

I didn't see a name for the restaurant but they sell Barbacoa de Borrego which is  lamb barbecued

The dinner came with a soup made from the bbq drippings and pieces of meat, there was rice, tortias, spices and a tray of lamb meat pieces. Oh it was so good! Any of you wanting to try a delicious Mexican food, this is a must stop on Sunday morning.

Restaurant guests tied up their dog while they enjoyed a delicious meal. This dog is the Xoloitzcuinti or Xolo for short which is a hairless breed of dog.  They have sparce patches of hair on their head and on their back just up from the tail. Their skin feels rough - so not a nice soft dog to pet and cuddle for sure. More on this animal can be found here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexican_Hairless_Dog    

Later in the day the "Everything (in plastic) Truck" came by, we bought a fly's swatter and a cooking utensil (for cooking the flies---hahahaha)

 

They even sell piggy banks - gorilla banks I guess they are.

We came across this little bird, it looks like a type of dove, smaller than a pigeon and brown. I don't remember seeing one before.

Monday we moved our plants and gave the upstairs a good pressure washing before Fernando applied the sealer.  He did a good job, the cement looks fresh again. The hot sun really plays havoc with all materials outdoors.

While we were sitting on the roof top later in the afternoon Allan saw this fellow fly into the Coconut Palm tree and I was able to get a few photos.

This grasshopper is bigger than ours back on Manitoulin, this one was about the size of our hummingbird.

We have lots of cats again this year but many have been neutered or spayed. So far we have not had any mating calls during the night. Notice the left ear has been clipped indicating it has been fixed.

I managed to catch a beautiful sunset over the jungle this week.

While out for a walk one day we noticed the beautiful greens in this tree on Timon.

This little shop located on Calle Galeon north off Timon, sells fresh chickens. 

One of the few remaining original Mayan homes in the Colonia.

This horse has been tethered in the park on Calle Zetina Gasca in the shade. He eats the grass as a treat after he has been fed his daily meal by his owner. We noticed he has a nasty gash on his left hip. You can not see it easily here in this photo but you may notice he is not putting much weight on that foot.

This is the park between the north bound and south bound lanes of traffic on Calle Zetina Gazca. We like to walk through it  every time we are in the area.

Another day we had a worker for lunch we purchased bbq chicken from the cookery on the corner of Timon and Chaca. This we find to be better than some we have tried in the area.

These are their prices.

We found ourselves having to go back to Playa del Camen this week so we took the opportunity to take Claudia with us and show her the restaurant we ate at last week with Suzanne and Alan, "El Oasis".

She enjoyed it as much as we did both times we ate there. She had the coconut shrimp and I had the garlic shrimp. Allan's must not have looked as good as ours because I don't seem to have a picture of it.

After shopping at Home Depot, Soriana and the new Walmart we treated ourselves to a stop on 5th Avenue  before catching the ADO back to Puerto Morelos.

We were so thirsty and having so much fun I forgot to get the name of the establishment but it is quite close to the bus station. Tequila is one of their advertised drinks. We stopped for one cervesa, then the manager came out with tequila samples. Hmm, I bet you know where this is going. 

Our seats were these  swivel stools and I decided to have some fun. I am not sure if that was before or after the tequila that I came up with the plan. 

 The music was playing LOUD as is always the case with music in restaurants here in Mexico. I took it upon myself to start swinging my seat from left to right and right to left several times while swaying both arms in the air with the music to get the reactions of passersby.

I don't know who had the biggest laughs, the tourists walking by or Allan and Claudia watching them and their reactions. 

A good time was had by all!

Following our happy hour we purchased some of the best chicken ever, other than the deep fried chicken in Bonfield of course.  This shop is just west of the bus stop a short distance.

There are two types of taxi in Playa, the regular automobile and these construction cart style. The drivers of these peddle you to your destination. Not sure how far they will travel for a trip because I can't say I have seen them with passengers.

We arrived at the bus station and caught an ADO back to Puerto Morelos after having a day of great fun and lots of laughs. 

We get our hair cut by Conche at her shop shown 

here on Ninos Heroes in the Port.

This is one of the prettiest trees on Ninos Heroes and it was in full bloom this week.

We needed to purchase paint and went to Comex on Zetina Gasca. This is the slickest looking paint mixer we have ever seen. The clerk enters the paint colour code into the computer and it selects the tints needed to make the colour. The machine on the left has a black circular object about 1/3rd of the way up, that is where the open paint can sits. The blue object above is where the paint tints flow through and into the can. The clerk puts the lid back on the can and puts it into the mixing machine on the right, he closes the pull down cover and sets the machine to mix. We were so impressed with this method of mixing paint that I send Duncan MacDonald from Home Hardware back home a photo of it. He was also impressed and now has it on his store Christmas list from Home Hardware.

We were sitting quietly in our Casa one night when we heard a noise in our front yard. Allan went out to see what had happened and found a coconut had fallen off our neighbours tree into our yard. I was surprised to see that such a small object made so much noise.

Christmas is in the air at the Chedraui here in Puerto Morelos, they have  natural trees with a price tag of  $999.00 pesos or $69.00 Canadian.

 

We came across this little frog at one of our neighbours houses this week. 

Do those of you who visit Mexico know what this is? I didn't until a friend told me and I have been coming here for years. It is a safety zone. In the event of an earthquake, fire, etc., you can go to these spots and be free of falling poles and wires. Now that I know what they are I see several of them.

Wow, I didn't think we did much this week, was I wrong.

Until next week's post everyone stay safe, stay warm and keep smiling.

November 10 - 16 2019 Week # 7

Good news this week: 

a) not sure if I mentioned coming home for Christmas. In  just four weeks (December 17th) we arrive  then back to Puerto Morelos on an early January flight to spend the balance of our time here. This will be the first time in a few years that we have been home for Christmas, and we are looking forward to it. We are not sure we are looking forward to all that snow and those subzero temperatures though- brrr!

b) Air Canada paid out, the cheque arrived in our Manitowaning mail box this week. 

You are asking if we are flying home with Air Canada, yes we are 👎😢, they are the only airline to get us direct from Cancun to Sudbury.

Just as I am going through our photos I see we ate out often this week which is unusual for us. We like to eat out once or twice but this week - it was wow, lots.

Sunday we left home with the intention of having lunch and a drink at My Paradise. However, when we arrived we found it was closed. Not sure why it was closed on a Sunday but it was. This is certainly the beginning of a good rumour I am sure.

The weather was not nice and there were not many people on the beach so it was a good day to be closed I guess.

We had our lunch at Don Earnesto's again at Ojo de Augua. It was certainly not a disappointment, the food is always delicious there.

While we were having lunch we had some beach entertainment - 3 unarmed police officers came upon these 3 adults sitting on the beach, the police smelled the hands of the 3 and then escorted them off the beach. No idea what the reason(s) was/were. That is the most fun of seeing and not hearing what is happening, you can make up your own story. The rumour mill turns.

The sky did clear for a bit but the North wind didn't warm up the air. It stayed nasty for this whole past week. Rain, rain and more rain. The lightening and thunder was awesome.

The cooler temperatures certainly did discourage people of coming to the beach.

The federal armed service has an infantry right at the dock entrance. They often make their presence known  by patrolling on the beach and riding in the back of large trucks around the town. 

I find talented artist's wall murals just awesome. This is the entrance to one of the restaurants on the square in the port.

This mural is at the fish co-op where they sell fish to the locals.

Our second meal out for the day was at El Picudo which is located on the East side of  Zatina Gasca at the far Southern end. This is a great place to eat - all Mexican food and it is well attended by the locals. We were there for dinner about 6 o'clock and it was packed.

 Kris our property manager joined us - this is one of her favourite places to eat in Puerto Morelos. 

Kris had tacos,......

                                             Allan had fish fillet,.....

and I had Shrimp and Lobster kabobs! Ann M, when you come this year we are going to this place for this exact dish. The best lobster in a long time, very tender and yummy! They were not serving the whole tales, just the pieces as you see here in the photo.

I needed some sewing done and came across this new shop on Zatina Gasca left (North) of the public library. 

The translation is "My Momma fixes everything". The business is operated by a mother and daughter team. They take your work to be done, then give you a date to come back and pick it up. It must be a much needed and respected service in the community because they are very busy.

Our third meal out this week was brunch at El Sazon de Mexico located just before you reach the Chedraui on 

the main road going out of town.

Daily Chedraui places two carts at the entrance to the store, they are each filled with identical items - the price on one cart is the price you will pay in Chedraui and the other (more expensive) is the price you pay for those same items at Walmart. This week the saving is $186.46 pesos.

Chochu came back this week and planted more plants for me, he just has one left to do in the pool area. He is waiting until he finds one at another nursery because he doesn't have this particular plant in his.

 A view of those black clouds to the North West of us from our roof top, all that cold air coming down for Canada eh. Bringing with it lots of rain and cooler weather too eh. 

Flowering shrubs in our neighbour's yards.

baby coconuts are coming. 

One of our next door neighbours has a parrot who loves to whistle. Among his repertoire he whistles catcalls - sexist beast he is. I wonder how long that would go on in Canada eh?

We took a trip to Play del Carmen to meet friends this week - yep, more eating out. 

A rainy day it was, so

a few ventured into the rain but some took shelter under the overhead highway bridge.

Claudia joined us - she found a friend at the bus stop but didn't take him with her.

Playa's Fifth Ave. is ready for Christmas.

Claudia introduced us and our friends to this nice restaurant, it has a balcony upstairs in the back which has an ocean view. Las Hijas de la Tostada is the name of the restaurant on 5th Avenue of course. If any of you readers are on 5th you must give this a try, it is a great place to eat.                  https://www.facebook.com/lashijasdelatostadaplaya/

These are the dishes we ate while at this restaurant - our 4th meal out this week.

 Our ocean view.

The view of one of the walls on the patio.

This was the view of someone's back yard from our seating location on the patio.

Full and satisfied.

Gosh, this is another one! Number 5 - Claudia came over for a visit and we decided to order supper in - we had Chinese food.  During the evening we got to chatting about different countries and their cooking methods. Claudia had never seen a cast iron pan/pot before, she was quite intrigued by it.

Saturday was our 6th meal out! We were in Playa del Carmen again shopping with friends this time and wouldn't you know it - meal time came upon us! We had to do it again!

This is Suzanne and Alan, who we met last year and they are from Sudbury, Ontario. Small world sometimes. Suzanne and Alan are seasoned travellers and they love exploring, in doing so they found this neat place to eat. "El Oasis"

 https://www.facebook.com/ElOasisMariscosCarretera/

These are pics of the inside of this neat restaurant - and the food is awesome. If you are in Playa del Carmon take a taxi - the address is on their facebook page attached above.

They have a children's play room.

Bathroom area is unique.

Fresh lobster in the tanks and a display of mouth watering desserts greet you as your enter from the side street. You definitely will not be disappointed - it is a place

 where you will love its seafood and decor. 

This was another fun week, and we didn't have to cook much either. Hahahaha! Life is good.

The weather has really cooled off, the locals are feeling 

it and are putting on an extra layer of clothing to ward 

off the chill of winter. We are just comfortable, no sweating, 

no air conditioner running but no pool either - the water 

is too cool for us right now.  I don't suppose it is all that cold but with the air temperatures lowering you just don't 

feel like you need to use it.

That is it for this week folks, do take care, stay warm, stay safe and keep smiling.