October 12 - 19, 2019

Another week flew by, a sure sign we are enjoying ourselves.

  On our way to the Sunday Market we came upon this big limo on our street. It looks like we are living with the upper crust. Well you can't always go by looks, this is an old limo and is showing its years.  The nice thing though is someone is enjoying what time it has left. Awesome.

A trip to the Sunday Market was with the intention of finding some good used clothing. I did find a nice dress, it is a party dress and I am just waiting for the proper time to wear it.

We didn't find anything for Allan, even in the tool booths and there were a number of those.

The weekly vendors line up on both sides of the street, it covers quite an area and sales include clothing, jewellery, food, produce, eggs, household items and tools. It is quite an event which takes place every Sunday and is well attended by the locals. It is too bad though that the tourists don't know about this being here, there are such great deals.  

 On the corner of one of the Sunday market streets we found this little treasure. It is called the Secret Garden, this is the web address for their facebook 

 https://www.facebook.com/thesecretgardenpuertomorelos/  

Malena and Jeroen are the owners, they make you feel so welcome and the food it so good. They are open only in the mornings from 9:30 to 1. A must visit if and when you come to Puerto Morelos for sure. Ann M we will definitely be going here when  you come this year.

 Our Sunday outing took us to a  fruit and vegetable store (fruteria in Spanish)

 It looks so fresh and it tastes delicious too.

Monday our Friend Claudia took us shopping in Cancun, We travelled by the ADO and then a taxi to the Outlet Mall where there are many, many outlet stores. Great selections and the prices were quite reasonable I thought.

 Claudia and I in the Mall.

Claudia is our neighbour in Puerto Morelos, she lives across the street from us and is a treasurer. We call her our Mexican daughter, I always wanted 4 kids and since coming to Mexico I have found the 2 I was missing. Claudia and of course or Mexican  son Abraham who lives in the port, about 10 minutes drive from our Casa. Both  are very special people.

We have driven past this mall in taxis several times but never knew what it was. We a certainly grateful that Claudia introduced us to it. 

Right across the street from the mall is the La Curva Cantina where Claudia wanted us to go for lunch. When we arrived at 12:30 we were very disappointed that it was closed. 

However one of our favourite restaurants, La Taberna, is right next door to the Cantina,  it was here  we had a full lunch and a few cervzas.

On a whim when we were finished lunch and leaving the restaurant we decided to see if La Curva was open 

and to our surprise it was.

It is a beautiful old saloon style bar with great food. There was a reason Claudia wanted us to try this restaurant.

It is a Mexican restaurant that serves authentic Mexican/Mayan foods. Certain days of the week they have a special and Monday's special is beans and pork ("frijoles y oporto" in Spanish). This is a Monday's special because of its history - 1) it is a food which is easy on the stomach following a weekend of drinking - "good for hangovers" they say, and  2) Monday was laundry day and this was an easy meal for the women to prepare on a day they were doing the laundry.  Interesting or what?

Tasks around our casa are never ending, keeping Allan busy. He replaced the outdoor electrical fixtures with proper weatherproof outdoor coverings.

Then came the replacement of the bathroom light fixture. Last week I mentioned how interesting the electrical wiring is here in Mexico. Where do you think the electrical box is for the light? Yep, hiding under the wall tiles with the wires hanging out. LOL

We had a firm in our community install a sunshade for our back yard. This is something we should have done a long time ago but there were other things which took priority. 

This is the same company who installed our 

sunshade on our roof last year.

These two fellows with  "Sombra Soluciones" are Mexican but they have a whole different work ethic. Punctuality is tops, they are at your house when they say

 they will be and their work is done to perfection. An amazing pair of gentlemen.

Another outing this week brought us upon the household item truck. Everything you can think of is on this truck, prices are very reasonable and they have items which you will not easily find in any of the local stores.

The flower market is open again this year with a great 

selection of  flowers and plants to choose from.

What they can not put inside they line up outside.

This is the shoe repair shop, it has been in previous posts. 

The shoe repair man recognizes us as we walk by because 

Allan has used his services in the past. Nice to come back 

each year and have people recognize us and ask 

about how cold it is in Canada. lol 

Well that has been the happenings of this week, still no luggage and the closets are bare, we are adding a little on each out of town shopping trip. We don't want to purchase too much thinking our luggage bags will be here soon, but coming up 3 weeks makes us a bit sceptical of a found/return in the near future.

A special thank you to those who send us the local news and  harmless gossip, love it.

Take care and keep smiling, it is contagious!

October 6 to 12, 2019

Week 2 has slipped by very quickly and still no luggage!

Our week started with a lengthy thunder storm on Sunday- I loved it - Boom, Bang,  following the sound of the sky ripping apart,  over and over. A beauty of nature for me.

During the day a representative from Air Canada called us from Montreal to assure us that they are  doing all they can to find our luggage and return it to us. Yes, that is right - find it - they have no idea where it went or why. So we sit and wait patiently and check their website for our registered loss. The message is always the same "Still Tracking".

Monday was a real bad day for me - I was feeling so upset because I had no cloths other than my orange dress and black under ware - my early Hallowe'en attire. It didn't matter how much I showered I still felt dirty being in the same cloths for so long. Allan took me shopping at the one and only Good Will store here in Puerto Morelos, then to lunch at El Picudo fish restaurant. What would I do without this man? Before returning to our Casa we went to Chedraui for groceries and beer. All in all, it turned out to be a good day.

Shrimp Tacos at El Picudo - mmmm!

A new bra in the shopping bag and a full tummy does wonders!

There have been a few changes near Chedraui since we were here last - this building and the addition to the Chedraui strip mall are very close to completion.

On Tuesday new friends - Sharon and Rudy - also visitors to Puerto Morelos but from the USA - took us to Cancun for more clothing shopping. They are very special people, so they are. We had never met before other than on facebook. Sharon answered my plea for places to shop for clothing. Allan is all ready to go to Cancun and he is  modeling his new Good Will shirt .

 

I am modeling my Good Will shirt and pants, the purse I had left here last year and the flip flops are new from one of the local stores here in the Colonia of  Puerto Morelos.

 Sharon and Rudy took us to Costco where we found good clothing and Allan was able to treat himself to a soft ice cream Strawberry Sunday. His favourite.

On our way back to Puerto Morelos from Cancun we stopped at our favourite deep fried chicken spot in Bonfield. Sharon and Rudy had not been here before but I know they will be back.

The chicken here is so good - even better than KFC back home.

We arrived back at our Casa after having a great day - we found some cloths and met 2 wonderful people - Sharon and Rudy. 

Our water pump was seized when we arrived, Allan did all he could to repair it with no luck. While in Cancun he purchased another one which works even better than the old one. We now have constant hot water. With the other one hot water was intermittent and being in the shower in December and January that's a bit shocking to get a gush of cold water. Now, it is not ice cold like we get back home. I think it is the shock of going from hot to an instant gush of very cool water. I am spoiled I guess, many here do not have a hot water heater. No luxury of a warm shower in the colder months for so many here.

Later in the week Allan decided to replace the electrical plug covers in the back yard and in doing so he shut off the power to the house. The methods of wiring in Mexico are very unpredictable - our electricians would go wild if they saw some of the wiring done here. Our electrical system has been redone since we purchased the house but you can never be too sure of yourself when working with electricity  - here  you gotta be on your toes.

 Once the electrical covers were repaired and it was time to turn the power back on - there was none. Here he is checking things out. He later found the problem at the main power box. Salt air and humidity do so much damage to anything metal and wiring is no exception of course, even if it is within the walls.

We stopped at one of our favourite spots "La Sirena" in the Port for an afternoon drink before doing some grocery shopping at the Super Chedraui.

 It is always nice to see the ocean again - this day was hot and the water was reasonably calm.

This and the following photos are of the surrounding buildings - there have been a few changes but it is still beautiful.

The Freda mural was not finished when we left last spring. It is now complete and does look beautiful. It adds to the curb appeal of the street.

We didn't get to the public dock this day because there was a large armed services presence in that area, but we will get there again soon. The Mayor of Puerto Morelos was in the square attending a family health care event.

The shops are empty of tourist shoppers at this time because  it is low season right now. Things will pick up in Mid November and December.

Super Chedraui wasn't very busy with customers either but the shelves were well stocked and produce looked very fresh.

We had the floor in the living area of our Casa re-tiled before we arrived.

There were 2 new tiles with chips out of them so our contractor  Abraham had one of his workers come in and replace them. So many little things need to be attended to when we first arrive.

Allan cooked a chicken on the BBQ - he split it down the back bone and laid it out on the grill to cook - Mexican style. A 6 pound chicken cost about $6.00 Canadian and it was so moist and flavourful. 

This week has been  much better than the first - the world is a brighter place even without the luggage.

Take care all, have a wonderful week and Happy Thanksgiving to our Canadian friends and family.

Paradise October 5, 2019

From The Paradise of "Puerto Morelos" October 1st to 5th 2019


We are back in paradise again, just arrived on Wednesday October 2nd., so have been here for 4 short beautiful days.

We were on the road early on Monday morning for our 2 pm flight from Sudbury to Toronto, the first leg of our journey. Fog was laying on the land in places and in others it was above us.

Construction just over the bridge - nothing to hold us up though.

All in all we had a good trip to Sudbury, we picked up Clinton so he could bring our car back to his house while we are away.

There is a saying that Air Canada is not happy until you are unhappy. We dislike Air Canada along with many other passengers, but we are a captured audience if we want to fly to and from Toronto Pearson Airport. Weather is not within their control thankfully.

When booking our flights I soon found that only one flight was available from Toronto to Cancun daily and it departs at 6:30 in the morning. There are no flights out of Sudbury at that time of day to connect with that departing flight, which  means an overnight stay in Toronto. The overnight in Toronto was no problem because normally we stayed overnight in Sudbury to catch our early flight in the morning connecting in Toronto, so overnight is not different in Toronto than Sudbury - costs are similar. I asked the Air Canada agent who made my booking if we had to pick up our luggage at Toronto. She said "let me check", a short time later she came back on the line and said "No you don't have to pick up your luggage in Toronto because you have a connecting flight". Wonderful!

We arrived at the Sudbury airport in good time and checked in. Following check-in, the procedure is you take your checked on  luggage to the X-ray unit. Now since we were aware our luggage was going to be sitting in the Toronto Pearson overnight we wrapped each checked on luggage piece with clear plastic wrap. Upon arriving at the X-ray machine a grumpy male worker says - "The X-ray machine is down, I will have to check your luggage manually.  Allan says, "We wrapped our luggage because it will be unattended in the Toronto Airport over night" The grumpy man said "Well that is not my problem is it?" Long story short, he checked all 3 pieces, found nothing illegal but did have a lot of questions about almost every item we had.

After going through the luggage security area we went up stairs to the lounge for a coffee. I attempted to  put the handle of my carry-on down - it was not fully cooperating so I gave it another push, this time it went down but would not come back up. Geez! Now what to do? I certainly did not want to carry my carry-on luggage through the airports, it gets heavy after a while. Allan tried to fix it but to no avail. I called Clinton, he was still in the area and had not left yet for his work in Matachawan. He brought me his carry on, I moved my items from mine to his and we were off again. All  was well!

Due to the dense fog flights were not landing or taking off from the Sudbury airport so our 2 o'clock flight was delayed until about 3 o'clock. Everyone was happy to finally be on our way, with everyone on board  the plane seats were full. We all  got comfortable and then an  announcement was made telling us we had to disembark and return to the airport terminal because there was a bad storm in Toronto and the Pearson airport was closed to all landing and take-off flights until the storm lessened. Finally at 5:20 ish we were allowed to re-board the plane and took off to Toronto airport without further delays.

We stayed at the Best Western Airport Hotel, had a good meal for supper and retired early so we would be at the airport the next morning for our departure to Cancun. Wednesday morning we arrived at the Toronto Pearson again to make the second leg of our journey in good time and all went well until we arrived in Cancun. No luggage for us on the carousel! We went to the Baggage Claim department and spoke with a very nice young Mexican man who spoke English exceptionally well. Cesar was his name, he checked our baggage tickets from our Sudbury flight and found the 3 pieces of checked on luggage were still sitting in Toronto. Damn! So we filled out a Baggage Claim Form, took other information with phone numbers, baggage tag numbers etc. and came to Puerto Morelos with just our carry-ons

One bag did arrive on Thursday morning but to date we still do not have the other 2 bags and wouldn't you know it - they have all of our clothing! We have one set of summer cloths - a dress for me and shirt and shorts for Allan with a change of underwear each which we had packed in our carry-ons. My dress is  orange and my underwear is black or navy - I am well dressed for October and Hallowe'en! And, I am the one who brings lots of cloths so I can change often.  Four plus days in one outfit is just not me!

Now we sit and wait for our delayed luggage to arrive, it is still showing on line as being in Toronto so we take that as an indication that it is NOT TOTALLY MISSING they just can not find it.

This is the extent of our laundry  😁  The good news is we can change underwear. Things could be a lot worse. We are very thankful for small blessings.

 We have competent people looking after our Casa while we are away, Kris our property manager, Juan who tends to our pool and outdoor potted plants and Fatima our house keeper. They had our place in fabulous condition again this year,  just waiting for our arrival. Beer was cold in the fridge and there were snacks ready for us too, all to help us take that needed breather after the flight and before going shopping to stock the cupboard and fridge for our full stay.

Coming back after being away for 7 months has its challenges - which is the case with all homeowners living here. There is repair work to be done from damage done by the salt in the air, humidity, etc. such as the water pump seizing, the washing machine drain hose has small holes in it, possibly from an insect or small animal.  Allan was able to McGiver the washing machine hose so we can do laundry until we are able to purchase another one but he is not having  as good a luck with the water pressure pump. The water system here is normally gravity fed from the roof top through the house so we are able to shower and do dishes etc. There is so much to be thankful for.

So ends our first few days here, the weather has been very hot (33 degrees C) and humid with a bit of electrical activity off in the distance.  Beautiful in its entirety!

Until my next post stay safe and keep smiling - it is contagious.

November 2017 to March 2018 Posts

http://fromthelandofhaw.blogspot.com/

I was unable to post to my original Blog - inthelandofhaw.blogspot.com during my time in Mexico between November 2017 and March 2018 - if you wish to view those posts you can click on http://fromthelandofhaw.blogspot.com