October 16, to November 12, 2021

 Wow it is hard to believe we have been here almost 4 weeks! Time has moved rather quickly.

I do apologize for the delay in this trip's first blog posting, but when I found that some of my followers were patiently waiting for my posts I thought I should get started. Consider it a bonus - 4 weeks in one post.😁

Since our flights leave Sudbury Airport at 6:00 in the morning, it is necessary that we  spend the previous night in Sudbury to ensure an early arrival time for check in. We try to spend that last night in Sudbury with the grandkids, this year we were not able to get the whole group but we did get 3 - Logan, Ava and Jed. We met at their favourite Sushi restaurant and had a great time together.

We arrived at Cancun airport on Sunday October 17th this year, never have we flew into Cancun that early in the week. Wow was it busy! That was a good thing though because we quickly went through customs and were sitting in the pool at our little Casa Pura Vida in no time.

Allan always hits the ground running, he felt he had to get busy cleaning up a few leaves that blew into the pool and the yard after the caretaker's previous day's cleaning. Since then Allan and our caretaker trimmed the closest trees causing the mess, so now not so much mess. 

We have been able to meet up with some of our friends for meals out.

It has been great getting together with our Puerto Morelos friends again and meet new ones.

It has also been nice to go back to some of our favourite places for good food.

The highlight of our time here thus far has been participating in the Day of the Dead celebrations again. This was  our 3rd year in a row now if we can count last year as our second year participating even though we did it from the Manitoulin.

Part of the excitement is going to Market 23  in Cancún  to stock up on supplies -  potted marigolds, marigold  petals, candles, incense, burner and anything else that looks good.  Going there is always a great shopping trip but The Day of The Dead makes it even more special.

Even the Morning Doves love the market.

Back in Puerto Morelos a beautiful ground mural had been made from dyed wood chips was on display. Beautiful!

The band stand in the newly designed park on the port side was being  decorated 

 

with Allan and Catarina 

and beautiful altars.

Back at Casa Pura Vida our little altar was  made ready for the town's evening walk-a-bout display held on November 1st.

We had a treat for everyone who came by to visit our alter,

for the 50 plus Adults we served a sip of Tequila and a small  slice of  Pan de Muerto  or Day Of The Dead Bread. You will see the top of the bread has an added shaped piece of dough representing bones.

To the 80 plus children we served a chocolate skull candy and a small glass of 7 Up. We noticed that the children were using this evening as their Hallowe'en and expecting a bag of  candy so I think next year we will do bags of candy for them. The first year the evening of the Alter display walk-a-bout the children were not dressed in Hallowe'en  costumes and toting treat bags. How times are changing.

Part of the reason I have not done my blog posts as regular as I have in the past is because we have had a lot of activity here since we arrived.

Never a dull moment!

The propane tank had to be filled. The propane fill line had to be repaired.

We are having the front and back yards repainted, the first in 5 years. There is some necessary cement repair work needed to be done to the walls too.

All of the areas having to be painted are being primed first - The preparation and primer coat are painstaking work. I always say the prep work is 75% of the whole paint job.

New screens were made and installed on 2 of our windows, the original ones have never slid in the grooves properly for opening and closing.

Only in Mexico eh? This drill doesn't have our conventional plug in on it. If you take a close look you will see two prink-pronks which go into the electrical socket.

Yikes!

The pool tiles needed to be changed because the grout wasn't standing up well and tiles were shedding. If  this was not repaired the water would have started to cause damage to the underlying cement. The weather and the atmosphere  are hard on things here, nothing has a long life expectancy.

This concludes my first post, enjoy our 4 for 1 - take care, stay safe and keep smiling.