Oh boy, I sure have a lot of updating to do. Let's see, about a week ago, we left Isla Mujeres and motorsailed to Puerto Morales, about 30 miles South on the mainland. It is known for a great reef right in the anchorage. We anchored where the cruising guide says to and got our snorkeling gear on, got in the water and swam about 40 feet before a panga (small local boat) came up to us and said you can't swim without a lifejacket! Oh BROTHER! On the way back to the boat we saw a huge sea turtle lumber by, but who can enjoy it from 20 feet up?! Then another boat came by and said you can no longer anchor in the harbor, since they made it a park. That ruined our day and the following morning we pulled into a marina nearby.

The El Cid Marina is associated with the resort adjacent to it which is a fancy one. Being a marina guest, we have use of all the amenities which includes the biggest pool I've ever swam in and a really fast waterslide. So... we have enjoyed using that! The next day we subjected ourselves to one of those high pressure 90 minute time share sales pitches right here at the resort but we got free buffet breakfast and $100 cash US. So that covered the first 2 1/2 days at the marina. Since we have no cash coming in, our time isn't worth as much as it used to be so we figured the money was worth it!

We visited the botanical gardens nearby which had an elevated canopy walk at the top of the trees (this was a first!), a treehouse and a lot of spider monkeys. While we ate our lunch, they all converged on us with curious eyes. We got some pictures but they sure don't sit still very long for you to photograph them. There were lots of babies hanging on to their mom as she swung or sometimes just jumped from tree to tree.

The following day we took the bus to Playa Del Carmen. The buses here are really nice- like a clean Greyhound bus. If you ride the 1st class bus, it has movies, a bathroom, and only stops at bus stations. If you ride a 2nd class bus, it's just a nice bus but makes more stops and has no bathroom. It is also 1/3 the price. We were scoping this out in preparation for the inland travel we wanted to do. It was a pretty easy ride to Playa and it felt good to finally see a place that everyone else I know has been going to except me! We kept telling ourselves we wanted to wait till we could sail here and now, here we are. The beach was pretty but I can see how the hurricane must have changed it as there are sandbags in many places. I think Playa has the longest pedestrian mall I've ever walked on too. We had a great lunch of shrimp ceviche and just walked around. I thought the sliced fruit & coconut in the clear cups that the street vendors were selling was really pretty.

We took some pictures and will post some here. You can also click on any picture which will bring you to the album on Picasa (Google's online photo-sharing site) where there are more.