You
are SO lucky! I have been surfing the internet All Day Long but have
been rendered impotent from posting anything until this moment.
However, benevolent being that I am, concerned for your lack of (albeit
boring) reading material, once un-imprisoned, I RUSH to update this
forgotten wasteland. Thank you, thank you (catches the well aimed
roses).
We had a MARVELOUS time on Cozumel, dahhhhlings. We loved the
B&B;
it wasn’t 5 star and anyone used to resort areas would probably not be
happy with the lack of wireless, cat fight in the pre-dawn hours that
sounded like it was coming from our patio, the drain on hot water when
six bodies shower at once and the lack of blankets (I am still wondering
about that one; maybe to keep the A/C use down?) but to us it was
heaven. We had a fridge that was Read the rest of this entry »We had a fridge that was
cleaner and worked better than our palapa fridge, a hot plate, cooking
and eating stuff, blender and CAWFEE machine (and FILTERS!!!). It
really doesn’t take much to impress us, but we really loved it there.
Two wonderful king sized beds, a cute bathroom, AMAZING hardwood (which
gave us ideas for our lower kitchen cabinets) and just such a cute
layout. We had a fresh fish “restaurant” (someone’s home) next door
with wonderfully fresh fish (we picked our meal). Ok, I’ll stop gushing
about the accommodations and instead gush about Carnaval.
I was so happy with our choice of Cozumel to introduce the kids to
Carnaval. It was a wonderful family party with lights and color and
dance and music and kids and babies and magic. Channel 10 from Cancun
ran a float/bus with a live camera and feed; channel 35 from somewhere
else did the same. There were parades each night and we mistakenly
assumed that Fat Tuesday would be the comfy crowd we encountered the
other nights but we were quite wrong; all of Quintana Roo must have
shown up along the malecon but it was still a lovely celebration.
Necklaces were thrown from the crowd, to the crowd, scrambled for by the
kids and handed to bystanders by adults. As I headed crowd downstream,
holding tight to Sissy’s hand on Tuesday night, a parade participant
took one from his neck and placed it over my head.
We spent the days at the East beaches and never went snorkeling; the
water and air was just too cold. I finally broke out my shorts for a
few hours the day we left but honestly, it was just too cold for our
thin blood, though the kids really enjoyed the beach (as evidenced by
the photos). We’re seriously thinking about taking Aunty Chris over
when they visit. Water should be much warmer then. We really didn’t
see the touristy parts until the night we left and without Carnaval, saw
the downtown and malecon the way the cruisers must see it and honestly,
it looked like a different world.
It seems that a stomach virus is rolling through PaaMul as our
Canadian neighbors are sick, Ellen fell ill today, and I am dreading the
roll of illness through our family. We spent much of December sick
(those airplanes wreaked havoc with our immune systems) and until Ellen
fell ill I’d forgotten about illness. So it would appear that January
was sick-free. Ellen is not a happy camper when sick and I generally
lie about in bed with her, one arm trapped under her feverish body. She
has now progressed to the point that I can turn on lights and take
short breaks and she will now watch DVDs. You know your kid is sick
when they won’t even watch DVDs/TV.
We still haven’t decided much about the kitchen. I had a contratista
(contractor) come over and give us a quote for the cabinets; he
suggested a concrete base (over the lovely tile) so that the wood would
not come in contact with the floor (and water). He assured us that his
(extra fee, natch) termite treatment would allow the (cheaper) pine to
last a whole FOUR years. His quote was around $26K. Our local
carpintero, who was able to put in our upper cabinets now must work
under the control of the restaurant owner which increased his
presupuesto another $5K to $14K. He estimates 10 years for untreated
pine and since he isn’t nearly as slick as the first guy, I tend to
believe him more.
I had our contratista for the work we had done on the
palapa come out and give us prices for the rebase (concrete footing)
for the gabinetes (kitchen cabinets), tiling the bathroom and tiling the
roof of the recamera/bath. We’re still waiting for one more carpintero
who comes amazingly recommended, I’d love to see some of his work but
since we’d most likely be working with pine, I wonder if his talents
might be wasted on our lowly job. At any rate, we’re on Mexican time.
And after seeing the lovely doors and cabinet doors at Tamarindo, I’m
rethinking the whole cabinet design. We do, however, have a door for
the bathroom and the boys will no longer be forced to barricade the door
with the towel rack. Jorge is coming tomorrow to install it and I’m
sure the boys will be in heaven.
