03/07/2009, Isla Mujeres, Mexico
Alas, we have planned for 3 different departure dates, but the wind and wave gods have had other plans! We have our sights on Wednesday, March 11th but only time will tell. I must say that Isla Mujeres is a great place to hold up until the weather heading north calms down. The island has beautiful beaches, breathtaking rocky shore fronts, terrific restaurants and a very casual, beachy sort of touristy atmosphere. Through a little determination and with friends Denise & Byron on South of Reality, I did get the opportunity to visit our 4th Mayan ruin...Tulum del noche. A much smaller community than the other 3 but stunning views of the Caribbean waters made this very special. A navigational outpost and a religious ceremonial center for the region made this a very important Mayan site in the "Post Classic period" (1200-1500). A stop at Playa del Carmen with it's beautiful beaches, cobblestone streets and shops (including Tequila tasting) made a great ending for a terrific day. We were all very pleased with ourselves, that we successfully made our way that day with using the public bus transportation! We've been here 20 days and once again we wonder where the time has gone. Seeing the island by golf cart (and Rob on a scooter), walking the cobble stone streets of Isla Mujeres, snorkeling, enjoying the beaches, playing Mexican dominoes on Sunday afternoons and potluck happy hour every Wednesday. Making some wonderful new friends and eating at many of the island's terrific restaurants with many more left to try has made this definitely a place to come back and visit some day. I even got to experience a 5 minute massage on the beach! How relaxing and very cool to have the gentle breezes and the sound of the waves on the sand! I could really get used to this type of lifestyle!
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02/26/2009, Isla Mujeres
What a great place to remember Mexico by! Isla Mujeres is a very casual, but nice touristy area. Our check-in and paperwork was pretty standard but took 5 hours to complete...At least Immigration and Health departments came to the marina, so we only had to go visit the Port Captain's office. Our big tour was an all day trek to the Mayan Ruins of Chichen Itza. We left the boat at 6am and returned at 10pm! Quite an impressive spread of structures, very well reconstructed but somewhat more commercialized than either Lamanai, Belize or Copan, Honduras. The master piece temple ("The Castle") was built to honor the king Kukulcan and is a testimony to the Mayan's amazing architecture and knowledge of astronomy and their belief in the Sun God. Twice a year at Spring Equinox and Autumn Equinox there is a light and shadow event that happens when the sun is just right in the sky and setting that the shadows on the North side of the temple make it seem like "a snake slithering down from the top of the structure, along the stairs". The Ball Court is huge and apparently was where the best of the best Mayan warriors (athletes) came here and played a ball game where the winning team were "sacrificed before the gods" to give them their place in the spiritual world. The whole site is huge and the 3 hours we were on the site was just not enough time to see it all...or even half of it. Our days we have spent doing some snorkeling (boy what a current around some of the reefs) and getting to meet and spend some time Terri's son, Mike! Our day of "sight-seeing" around Isla Mujeres on a golf cart was great fun and Rob even got to drive a scooter! (5 wouldn't fit on the golf cart). The shoreline is absolutely beautiful...once again the clear, dramatic shades of Caribbean blue and rolling surf were 2nd to none with cold "Sol" cervezas at a cute little cantina with swings for chairs around the bar was really cool and lunch at Casa O's along the shore was as delicious as it was breathtaking! Finally learning how to play Mexican Train Dominoes and meeting new fellow cruisers as well as getting reaquainted with Surf Scooter (Poul & Manfred from the HaHa), many who will most likely be traveling with us to our next stop...the Dry Tortugas, then Key West. We expected to leave on Saturday, the 28th, but this morning (Thursday) we got our updated weather report that the cold front coming into Florida was much stronger than earlier expected packing winds of 30+ knots and 12-18ft seas and coming sooner than originally forecasted! So now we will wait until hopefully mid next week for the seas to settle down and the winds to clock back around from the east/south east. Golly, I feel a beach day being added to our itinerary for the weekend now that we have more time! Of course that's after our provisioning run to Sam's Club/Costco and Wal-mart! Ahhhh it's good to be back in Mexico!
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02/14/2009, NW Caribbean
We finally had a good weather window with the seas calming down so we could get thru the reef opening at San Pedro and had a great passage to the Chinchorro Banco in Mexico. The winds were only 30 degrees off our nose and the seas were still 8 ft so we motored most of the way to Chinchorro Banco...our 1st stop back in Mexico...Before we could get the hook down we were greeted by the Mexican Navy who told us we couldn't stay there... even tho we told them we were tired and needed to sleep. Then the Park Policia came by and said that the area is now considered "restricted" and private "yachtee's" are not welcome to anchor there...we were allowed to pick up a mooring ball for the night...pay a park fee of $7.00/day and then leave the next day! HOWEVER we were informed that without a guide we were not allowed to swim or snorkel the reef or coral! :( anyway we left there Saturday morning and had a fantastic sail all the way to the Cancun area. That was our "Happy Valentines' present' to each other...a beautiful sail! Our planning was to travel an average of 5 - 5.5 knots of speed but with the beautiful winds 18-20 knots on our beam and seas only 5-7 ft we were averaging 7-8 knots most of the way! There was also a current running with us that we didn't count on which added 1, sometimes 2.5 knots to our speed. We at one point even hit 10.3 knots of speed!!! That's a record for us!!!! What we thought would take 26-28 hours took barely 20! We passed Cozumel at 2am and arrived at Cancun channel at 5am! We did reef our sails to slow us down so we could see the shallows as we headed to Isla Mujeres...got our selves anchored right away and did our usual after an overnight passage...ate alittle breakfast and took a nap!
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