Comumel 2020 - Part 2 - (starting Thurs, Dec 31, 2020)

My blogger post won't let me edit the previous post, I'm not sure why.  I went to the edit screen and html code popped up, and if I switched to the version where I could edit the words, it warned me I could lose content...so I just decided to make another one. The first Cozumel post is the first 4 days of our trip, this one is the last 4, I guess.

This picture happened Wednesday when Dave captured a picture of me trying to communicate with our housekeeping lady.  I am noticing that all the people here are just...short.  She was telling me in spanish that the towels were still drying in the laundry room and would come back to fold them but she spoke SO fast and through a mask I couldn't pick up what she was saying.  She typed in google translate what she was saying and I typed back that I would finish them.  She understood!  Thankful for that technology.

Ok, the above picture is in the middle of our Wednesday, but now starts the Thursday documentary.

Thursday, December 31, 2020

Es un el fin dia del ano!

Dave and I cooked breakfast again.  We are a bit crazy about this potato/green pepper/onion hash so we made it again, along with toast, fried eggs, bacon and a mix of fruit (pineapple, peaches and grapes).  

We are reading through the book of Ephesians with the kids, a chapter a day, so after breakfast we went to the porch and read the next chapter.  They like to take turns reading, especially Vanessa.

Today was all about the dolphins.  We didn't know how long the whole thing would take.  The Chankanaab national park was just a 2 minute drive down the road, but it is a whole complex with shops, food, snorkeling area, different exhibits, etc, so we went to check it out.  When we were talking with the kids prior to leaving, dolphins was the thing they seemed the most excited about.

These are the flowers in our parking lot.

parking lot flowers

  

We packed up, arrived, then determined we needed to change a few things.  Dave and I realized we hadn't put our suits on because we did not intend to swim with dolphins, but when we got there it was clear that we should have them on since there was snorkeling available, so we turned around and changed quick, also filled up our little vehicle with gas.

I had found some online pricing for the place, which was different than the pricing they show on the signs when you walk in.  Everything her negotiable, so Dave worked for a bit on ticket pricing and things....and finally we were in.

Cameras were not allowed in the Dolphin Discovery, so I don't have any more of my own photos until we left.  Of course, there are photographers everywhere wanting you to purchase every photo they take.  So the next series of photos is the kid's experience with the dolphins.  I was allowed to go down to help Eli (hold him and such, since he was a bit shorter and needed it).  The entire experience with dolphins exceeded all our expectations.  They taught them how to put their hands to make the dolphin do things.  The coolest was having the kids swim away from the group and have two dolphins work together to push them on a boogie board, also having a dolphin come up with next to them, kids grab onto their fins, and the dolphins pull them along about 50 feet.  Their faces were pure joy and exhilaration.  Dave was right on the dock watching.

We also all got a chance to go in the next gated off pool area and get up close with a manatee.  This particular one was 12 years old.  They can live to be 80.  It had little round "nails" built into its flipper, tiny pin dot eyes, a big funny floppy sucky mouth, and munched on lettuce as the trainer let us touch him.  He swam back and forth in front of us a lot of times.  His skin was rough and slimy.  We were with the dolphins probably close to 30 minutes and the manatee about 10 minutes.

The trainer was giving the dolphins lots of fish treats, and a pack of seagulls and one pesky pelican joined in on the snacking, and this guy stood right above our heads toward the end of the dolphin experience.  He didn't bother us but freaked Violet out pretty good.

The place closed at 4, and it was around 2:30.  We decided to hop in the ocean with our snorkel gear and take advantage of seeing the reefs again.  We stayed the whole time and left at 4:30.  It was by far the best snorkeling of the trip yet.  The sun shone bright so we could see well.  There was tons of coral, big bright fans, brains, those tubes (sorry, don't know the names!), tons of interesting looking fish, and a stingray.  We seem to float so well in the sea water, not trying at all to "stay at the top", but you do feel tired after awhile.  It is hard to stay together, so keeping track of everyone was a bit of a challenge.  It's funny to try communicate while out there with your noses and mouths tied up.  "Look at that!" becomes "wook-a-kat!"

We left tired, hungry, exhausted, but really happy.  Everybody loved that adventure and we felt it was money well spent.

We went back to our condo, regrouped, cleaned up, then made some dinner plans.  Looking at Google is misleading, because covid affected many businesses around here.  A place called "Cuatro Tacos" was well rated so we wanted to go here, but when we eventually found it, it was closed.

Instead we ended up at a placed called "Sabores y Colores de Cozumel" and it. was. amazing.  

The owner's dog Lucho was roaming around and our kids quickly made friends and wanted to keep him.

Calvin's beef tacos.  He inhales his food!

Dave's rare beef.  This place was really neat - we sat at a bright orange table with a view of the ocean (until the sun went down) and enjoyed the sounds/bustle of the city.  The lady serving us was also really friendly.
Dave here.  I had the hardest time with language at this restaurant!  It was like a busy intersections with cars crashing into each other...one car English, one French and one Spanish!  Yes, I mean Oui, I mean Si!  So many struggles, 'tres bien'...no 'muy bien', merci...no gracias.  Argh!  The whole meal.  

This is Sabores y Colores de Cozumel

We decided to take in the feel of night life, so we walked around downtown San Miguel.  There was still Christmas music playing, Feliz Navidad everywhere, and interesting cars to see.

We searched for a place to get ice cream, and 4 searches later, found a place.  Violet fell in love with their mango ice cream.

Back at our condo, kids were determined to stay up past midnight to bring in the near year.  Violet and Vanessa played war.

Eli and Calvin played checkers.

We went outside to sit by the beach/pool and the kids all got in the pool to swim and I think they stayed in the water for an hour and a half!  Finally it was 11:45 and we watched a live youtube countdown of the new year.  Neighbors in condos and outside near us all helped countdown the last 10 seconds, some in spanish, some in english.  It was memorable!  

Friday, January 1, 2021

The morning was slow-going.  I didn't sleep all that well from 3-5 am, a lot of tossing and turning, getting up and walking around.  I am not sure why.  There is a lot of light in the room and I'm not used to that.  I also realize how dependent I am on my body pillow to sleep comfortably and with out it I have a hard time getting comfortable.

Eli and Vanessa were up at 7:30!  I know they went to bed after we did around 1am.  Calvin and Violet slept in until 11ish.  Dave and I rolled out of bed around 9:30.  I spent quite a bit of time blogging before greeting the family.  Breakfast today was hash like normal (we can't get enough of that stuff!), breakfast sandwiches made with the last 2 english muffins and toast, bacon, cheese, orange juice, and some grapefruit and yogurt on the side.

Kids cleaned up areas of the condo, and Dave and I did a little research on the activities we planned to do and we packed up and headed out.  We wanted to drive around the whole island, see the east side, see a light house, see some ancient ruins, and maybe snorkel.  

Our plans often don't pan out exactly like we expect, and that is how today turned out.  We DID end up driving around the entire island.  We headed south, missed the lighthouse, but ended up at a beach near the south end of the island with a straw hut/drink bar.  We didn't stay in the hut but rather were rather enamored and open-mouthed gaping at the OCEAN.  The waves were enormous, loud, splashy, powerful, and the beach was a combination of amazingly crafted rocks, tide pools, and white sandy beaches.  The rocks were formed and developed holes, so when the waves and water came rushing through them, the water shot out like geysers.  The wind was roaring in tandem with the ocean so it felt as if we had to shout to communicate.

The kids stayed near the water and played with the waves rushing at them for what seemed like an hour.  Dave and I found places to sit on round stones (coral?) and watched them and took pictures.  When we felt like it was time to go, it was an adventure just leaving.  All 4 had sand smeared in every crevice possible.  There were no showers available, so our last ditch effort at leaving the beach somewhat clean enough to climb back in the car was to find a large calm tide pool and "rinse off".  The boy had the most trouble.  Over the course of many days in their swimsuits they have developed a bit of a "swimsuit rash" between their legs so they wore boxer undies under their suits to help prevent this.  Well, there was sand in every layer possible.  Eli ended up having to take everything off completely, wrapping up naked in a swim towel, and letting his undies and swimsuit hang out of the van windows (pinched shut) to flap dry in the wind as we drove to our next destination.  The plan was to grab lunch somewhere and then go see the ruins.  Or vice versa.  We did make it to the ruins but they'd closed already, so we turned around to to back to the east coast of the island and had lunch at a place called Iguana's Cafe right near the ocean.  The salt spray was almost flavoring our food.

trying to rinse the sand out

we called this tide pool the hot tub...it was much warmer than the others!

....and here's Eli's undies hanging out my window to dry.  

Eli was excited to see a cheeseburger on the menu, and ate the entire thing without prompting.  Calvin had beef tacos, Vanessa and Violet had chicken tacos, and Dave and I had margaritas and a mexican platter...way too much food but has kept us full for close to 5 hours now.  Amazing.  It was truly delicious and hard to describe how fresh/flavorful the salsa, pico de gallo, guac, chips, quesadillas, flavored meat, beans, and fried bananas were.  

We drove back to our condo so Dave and I could change into our suits. We planned to hit a reef and snorkel again, so we drove a bit past our place, parked along the road, and found a place to get to the ocean.  Violet and Dave went out first to approve of the spot, Calvin and Vanessa followed.  Eli seemed really tired and hesitant, so he didn't go.  I stayed back with him, and while the four in the water were snorkeling, Eli and I explored the tide pools.  We had read many books on the seashore, tide pools, and hermit crabs (Pagoo!), and Eli was really excited to hop around the rocks and explore.  The closer I looked the more we could find, and I found the time exploring tide pools to be REALLY fun.  Eli and I discovered 3 different spots that we named "hermit crab cities".  One in particular had hundreds and hundreds of hermit crabs, all moving around.  I didn't have my camera, otherwise I would have been taking pictures/videos like crazy.  I am tempted to go back to get some content to share.  The shells were amazing - striped, dotted, swirled, itty bitty to large sized.  We saw sea urchins, coral, thousands of snails (which he enjoyed "popping" off into the water), fish, sea plants, lots of hermit crabs, and other things.  He kept saying "it's another little ocean!" hopping from place to place.

It began to get dark, so the snorkelers came in, we gathered our things together, and headed to the van.  

The pool at our condo is a huge attraction and all 4 kids hopped right in to swim more.  I think an hour or two went by.  Everybody eventually showered up, I made noodles/sauce, sat down to blog more, and Dave is helping everyone wind down by reading the next chapter in Ephesians.  

I almost forgot to mention this little dude Dave brought back for us to look at.  His choice of shell is 5 stars in our opinion...very stylish for the times with the dots and stripes.  

he's about the size of a pencil eraser.  No worries, we put him in a pool by our beach when we were done looking at him.

wind down....after a long hot windy gorgeous satisfying day

Saturday, January 2, 2021

Since we didn't get a chance to visit the ruins when we had intended to yesterday, we made a point to go first thing after breakfast.  It was a difficult morning in terms of child behavior, and we had to stop and work a lot of things out.  It was noon when we left the condo.  The ruins are called San Gervasio, and you can see on the map below that it is in a very remote location.  It took approx 30 minutes to get there, and driving through the "Cozumel jungle" looked about this this first picture.  There were signs warning of crossings of iguanas, raccoons, snakes and something else.  The vegetation is very, very dense, normal-looking trees, bamboo, bushes, and palm trees all jammed together.

I've learned that the name Cozumel is derived from the ancient name "Cuzaam luumil" which means "place of the swallows".  Legend has it that the first inhabitants were Mayan women who wanted to set up a place to worship the goddess Itxchel of fertility, pregnancy and childbirth.  When they came, apparently there were a bunch of swallows.  There are still swallows that migrate to and from the island today.

All the ruins predate the Spanish conquest of Mexico.  They kept the basic meaning of the island's name but phonetically changed it to "Cozumel".  

All the ruins we saw are dated around 1000-1200 AD and have "houses", "lord houses", entrance arches, big places of sacrifice, and other meeting places.  

I took a lot of pictures, but here are a few and their explanations.

Big House Structure

Arch structure

Kana Nah

Along the way walking from place to place, we found this huge hole in the ground with a tree growing out, or over it.  I am not sure which.  There appeared to be a cave underneath it, which the kids explored.  It looked super cool.

Dave found this cool flower.

As we were leaving, this guy slithered out of a tree and caught our attention.  The boys of course got as close as they could, chased it, and saw his fast it could move!

Walking around the ruins was HOT and towards the end of all the places (there were 16 or 17 in all), they were done...so we took off with intentions of snorkeling the rest of the day.  This didn't exactly work out, because the weather got rainy.  On our way back, Dave wanted to experience something local and try out a street vendor selling flavored water.  Some was coconut, some was fruity...we sampled a few and made some choices.  One of them (which we did not choose) was a corn/sugar fermented drink which was terrible.  The cups were enormous and nobody could quite finish what they had.  One was crema de coconut, one was "Jamaica".

As we sipped our flavored water (and some dumped ours out) Dave stopped at the grocery store to grab some baking soda.  He has a story nobody saw of him tripping and almost wiping out on a slippery floor. :D

It was close to 4:30 as we were traveling back to the condo, and we passed a Cozumel sign that Violet had wanted to stop at multiple times to snap a picture, but we hadn't had the chance until now.  We pulled off the road to take a pic.  Vanessa is in the U, Eli is between the M and E, Violet is standing next to the L, and Calvin is behind the M.

Next door to our condo is a restaurant with a big dock offering services like snorkeling tours, boat excursions, etc...and we'd made contact with a waiter named Fabio a number of times through the week.  He's always been very friendly and helpful.  Yesterday he said the kids could come over and play on their blow-up things in the water (slides, trampolines, etc), so we chose to go there.  They played on it for awhile but the employees had to bring them on the shore in case of a potential storm that was predicted in the night.  We ended up staying there for dinner, and enjoyed more beef and chicken tacos and nachos.  We stayed for the sunset, watched a guy who had too much to drink be cared for on a lawn chair on the beach, and listened to the commotion of spanish around us.  I have been able to communicate better and better as the week has gone on...it's still not easy but turning the rusty spanish gears in my brain has been good for me!  Calvin, Vanessa and Eli all still wanted more tacos after their food was gone so we ordered more, and they all polished them off.  Each had 6 tacos.  We came home with what felt like a pound of guacamole leftover. 

Eli looooved the beef tacos.  He can't believe how tender the meat was.

We headed back to the pool to swim for awhile.  We greeted some new neighbors we found out were from Colorado and it was their 5th time in Cozumel. They planned to do a lot of scuba diving.

We had set a reward for good behavior throughout the day, and that was a trip to their new favorite ice cream store in town.  We decided the day had gone well enough, so we got dried off, dressed, and drove back to town.  Finding a parking spot is always the challenge downtown.  The speed bumps are for real too...seriously have to slow down and almost go over them after coming to a complete stop.  

The lady who scooped the ice cream for us the first time was there again and recognized us.  The mango, lime, tangerine, mocha chip, vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry were all tasted.

Motorbikes are everywhere here.  Kids are tossed on laps and some have helmets, some don't.  It's an interesting cultural experience around here!  This motorbike is holding three people.  The person on the back is holding a child up on their shoulder.

We visited a couple souvenir shops, Violet got a couple bracelets (one that broke immediately when we got back, so we'll be visiting them again to make that right).  One person on the street recognized us as our waiter at some point in the week and wanted to show us his grandfather's silversmith shop.  We popped in for a few minutes and appreciated the work and left.  The line for the ferry going across to the mainland was long and thick and we avoided that by walking on the other side of the street.  Everybody wears a mask in public so we did too.

Kids all went to bed as soon as we got back...probably close to 10:30.  Tomorrow is the last full day!

Sunday, January 3, 2021

A bright sunny day welcomed us as we woke up one by one.  I'm writing this day's journal a couple days past, so I can't remember little details.  I think I woke up before everyone else...grabbed the computer and journaled about the day.  Each entry takes around a half hour.  I made coffee.  Calvin is usually the first one up, then Eli, then later the girls. Same at home! Dave got up....and he was happy to cook up omelets.  Knowing it was our last day, we committed as much time as we could to snorkeling.  

We decided to take off right from our own beach and go south towards dolphin discovery.  Everybody was ready and excited.  The water looked crystal clear, the sun was shining.  I think we spend 30 minutes getting sunscreen properly applied to every bit of exposed skin every time we plan to use the ocean.  We grabbed all of our gear and got into the water.  No jellyfish!  Great news.  Violet, Vanessa and Calvin were the first to get their faces in the water.  I joined their group.  Eli and Dave tried switching face googles but then switched back.  They swam out to join us and we all went south.  We buddied up (Vanessa and me, Calvin and Violet, and Dave and Eli) to make sure we were all aware of someone's existence at all times.  There's no peripheral vision with those googles on, so it takes a concerted effort to make sure others are around you, and you can't hear very well with water lapping at your ears the whole time.  It is a mixture of being out and in the water at all times.  There are lines of buoys to stay within so you are out of the path of boats.  Everybody was calm and relaxed....then we began to see a jellyfish or two.  These aren't the kind that look like domes with wiggly extensions.  They are little clear symmetrical blobs and very tiny.  They're only visible by the dark brown dots in the center of them.  No big deal, swim around them, push your fin near them and they go away.  Swim on and on, dodge a jelly here or there.  While at the same time, admire the beautiful coral, shells, and fish below you.  Keep an eye out for your buddy.  Tread water for a bit and wipe away the fog.  Keep admiring the ocean floor, dodge a jelly.  

We paddled on and on, probably for 15 minutes, passed Tortugas, then got pretty close to the dolphin discovery and then all of a sudden it felt like there wasn't a way around the next jellyfish because another was in its way.  The kids got a little freaked out, so we tried to remain calm and swim towards shore.  There were less by the shore, but still everyone felt good to get out of the water for some time.  I bet we were out there for 30 minutes.  These jellyfish are not dangerous, I should explain.  If they do sting you, it feels like a little hot slap and a slight red mark is left behind.  I may have gotten one, one or two kids got a sting.  It isn't bad, just not a fun feeling.  They are just annoying.

Once we reached shore, we walked a bit further past the dolphin dock, looked in the water, and just found more jellyfish.  Violet saw a small barracuda!  It seemed like snorkeling was done for the day, so we found the road back to our condo, which was faster than the beach.  

When we got back, Dave and I finished up some mexican leftovers, and Dave cooked up some fried chicken strips that were in the freezer and mixed them with some leftover pasta and sauce.  The kids ate that happily (no more tacos was their mantra at that point).  We decided to relax the afternoon and just sit around.  Kids swam in the pool, we relaxed on beach chairs by the pool, soaked up the blistering heat, and enjoyed doing nothing. 

This is us. Doing nothing. That bruise on my leg is from nailing it on the corner of the TV furniture going towards the door a day or two ago.

I had wanted to go and photograph some hermit crabs at the shoreline a mile away that Eli and I found the day before, and realizing this was my only chance, we took it.  Everyone hopped...err climbed rather...into our van/car thing and came along.  Here are some pics of the cute little guys.  I just love hermit crabs.  All the pretty Pagoos.  If you haven't read that book yet, please borrow it from me.

When we got back we showered up, and did a half-way-there packing job.  Everyone organized their things, I ran a load of laundry, we figured out if the flippers would fit in a suitcase (they did), and we felt more prepared for the last-half-packing-to-completion effort to be had Monday.

We took off for town, did some souvenir shopping, watched a demo of a guy on the street make name bracelets.  It was fascinating.  Each kid got one with their name on it.

We didn't end up going here for a third time, but the following pic is the ice cream place we visited two times.  As we walked by I snapped a pic for memory's sake.

For our family's LAST SUPPER in Cozumel, we looked up options for the best italian on the island.  I think we found it.  Guido's Italian is where we chose to dine, and it was amazing.  The whole feel of the restaurant was captivating.  I felt like I had stepped off the island, walked into Italy, and stayed there the whole meal.  The food was fresh, delicious (a welcome break from chips, salsa and guac if anyone can believe that), the sangria had big chunks of grapefruit and peaches, and everyone enjoyed their dishes.  I've never seen Vanessa so excited to eat pepperoni pizza!  Violet couldn't decide between two meal options, so they let her order two half portions of different things.  The pic below was my only attempt...somehow the flash was set to go on and they were poised and ready for the snap but the flash took 5 seconds longer than they realized and went back to normal - then the pic took - all ready except for Calvin and Dave!  haha!

This picture was taken before our mail meal arrived at 9:05pm, so it was a late, late supper.  I think we finished up and got back to our condo around 10:30...?...not sure.  Everyone went to bed easily!

Monday January 4, 2021

Dave starts writing at this point:

After a fun, adventurous, thrilling, multi-faceted family adventure in Cozumel, Monday, January 4 had finally arrive – our departure day.  Our flight wasn’t scheduled to depart until 5:07pm, however our VRBO required us to check-out by 10am.  After sleeping in until 9-10 each day, that seemed early!  😊  Rough life.  We had acquired a lot of stuff since arriving and hoped that our encouragement to the kids to ‘pack lite’ on the way down would yield enough space for everything.  We had chosen to carry-on all luggage, so that is what we were working with.  We had acquired 4 sets of flippers, 4 pairs of goggles, 4 snorkels, 3 large seashells, an ornament and numerous tee-shirts.  So, Sunday night we set to packing – rearranging everything between suitcases.  While the way down was about everyone having their own suitcase, the way home was a communal packing effort.  All the dirty laundry (not much of that…Maria keeps our clothes washed!) in one suitcase, boys’ clean clothes and misc in one suitcase, girls in another suitcase, you get the idea.  This yielded one empty suitcase for all the snorkeling gear and water shoes – they all fit – BARELY…except for the two full face snorkel masks that we brought…those had to find a different suitcase.  And we had Eli’s suitcase still empty…so Dave crammed all his clean clothes in there, the two large snorkel face masks and some miscellaneous items.  Maria is the only one who maintained full content ownership of her personal suitcase.  Hey, Mom’s get special privileges…she deserved it!  The seashells managed to find various protective cocoons in the dirty close suitcase, along with the ornament.  Hoping they arrive unscathed!

So, Monday morning arrived.  We scarfed most of the various food items remaining – 3 egg omelet with minced salami and left over peppers, onions and Colby cheese anyone?  Yummy!!  Yogurts, crackers, cheese and salami, orange juice, cereal, popcorn…yup, breakfast of champions!  We did really well, leaving behind very little save a hoard of unopened milk and a few unopened quarts of orange juice (something was lost in translation when we requested our initial groceries, as we ended up with no less than 8 quarts of orange juice and as many…or more…of milk!  Add to that that the milk tasted different than we were used to and therefore basically only got used on cereal, we had a lot of liquids left over!  So, here’s to hoping the housekeeper found value in those!:)).  Out the door at the stroke of 10 (AMAZING!)…but woops, forgot to sign out of Netflix on the TV…that took an additional 10 minutes! (smart TVs are SLOW!).  Okay…now to squeeze our 6 suitcases and 5 ‘personal items’ into our mini-mobile…which would have been fine if we didn’t have to fit 6 people as well!  😊  Some creative packing, shoving, tipping seats forward, acrobatics by children climbing over suitcases and contortionist try-outs and we were all in!  Whew.  The AC was blowing cold, too!  For the last time, we backed out of our teensy parking spot in our teensy people mover and hung a right onto the road.  We had come so far since a week ago when we drove the wrong way down this road eliciting a disapproving glare from an otherwise kind looking lady out for her morning walk.  Americans…

We had some time to kill…what to do.  We had to exchange a bracelet Violet had bought that had broken (hoping for good favor with the vendor).  We thought it was high time to indulge in Starbucks coffee. So, downtown we went.   Downtown is hard to describe, but a shotgun approach is – a ramshackle city (I MEAN ramshackle…and in the worst sense of the word) surrounded a downtown area of fancy looking shops (at least until you got close and noticed frequent states of disrepair – fancy in this culture is very different from American fancy).  Every sort of shop – in storefronts, on bicycles, on folding tables, on the ground, on people’s backs, in children’s hands – yes…all shops of various sorts.  The owners of which attempted to gain your attention in a range of ways.  Ranging from the more proper shops where no one called to you to enter…just calmly informed you of their 50% off deals.  These shops wouldn’t bargain much, yet had the nicest merchandise (at great prices) and largest variety.  The other end of the spectrum was intimidating, persistent, rough looking men constantly calling for your attention, advertising their wares, appealing to you in every which way they could verbally, and giving you the general sense to pull your children close and hustle along.  And in the ‘middle ground’ of these shops were children selling fake hand-made flowers, honest craftsmen selling wares they personally had made or found (shells), and even a store with a team of three (or shall I say ‘cast’ of three) with a coordinated song, dance and sales pitch that was charming, impressive and annoying.  Yes…constant, all of it, everyone wanting your money, competing for your money, longing for your money, needing your money in some cases, greedy for your money in other cases, willing to steal your money in many cases.  Oh Mexico.  All set against an epic seashore with more shades of aqua water than you knew aqua came in, stretching to the horizon, and a graffitied shipwreck tipping against the shore, and the ferry’s loading cars, and and and…so much!

So, we drove along this main street, feeling rather familiar by this point, if not confident.  I (Dave) was driving and passed a generous parking spot foolishly.  My intuition that anything looking available must certainly not be, keeping me from making the split second decision to turn into that (in hind sight) perfect parking spot near Starbucks.  Dang…missed that.  A few more blocks and there was an open spot close to a corner.  Now, I had noticed that the curbs leading up to intersections generally only had scooters or nothing parked there.  There were no signs explaining why or what you couldn’t do, other than no parking signs for M-F 8am to 5pm.  So this large parking spot just before the intersection looked good.  I noticed a red Dune buggy with a humorously affixed Ferrari sticker on the back just across the intersection similarly park to where my spot was on this side of the intersection.  Must be legal (growing up in Chicago, you never feel at total peace when parking, always sure that you missed seeing that one sign banning parking in that spot and partly expecting to come back to a ticket, or worse, no car due to being towed…or stolen).  And, with all our precious worldly travel goods vulnerably stored in this teensy glass adorned tin-can on display for the world, an even greater awareness of the risks at hand weighed on my mind as we parked.  But…we had done this successfully many times before, so that balanced the concerns as we exited and locked the car.  We hiked the 3-4 blocks back to Starbucks (passing all of the chaos between) and opened the door to a familiar waft (albeit through our mask ‘face adornments’)…a welcome, rich, exciting, lovely waft of fresh coffee.  Oh Starbucks…thank you!  After scoring various drinks and treats for the kids and Americano’s with steamed half-n-half for Maria and I, our palettes were lavished with delightful flavors, and the smell (thank you Lord for my nose!!).  Lovely. 

Ring ring.  Alex, our VRBO contact, is calling Maria via voice (a first) over WhatsApp.  She hands me the phone to answer…but the App is not having it.  It is insisting that I first approve using this App for a voice call, and for this and for that and…very annoying.  Call lost.  Tried to call back.  Finally, the app-gods (lower case g) had been appeased and when Alex called again, I was able to answer.  Alex asks with some urgency – where is your car?  He had helped arrange our rental car and was a go-between with the company.  Assuming he was confused on when we needed to return it, I answer, with some irritation, “It is with us…we don’t fly out until 5 o’clock.”  Through pretty good, but still broken and heavily accented, English, he asks where we are parked.  And then, the details are a bit blurry as he tells me ‘Jew are barked eeleegalee.  Da police…day are go-eeng to tow eet.’  I ask – can you ask them to wait – or do I need to run now?  He says ‘you need to RUN’  Panic, adrenaline, all worst case scenarios surge through my mind as I leap up in an uncoordinated fashion mumbling what I could muster to inform Maria I needed to RUN.  She managed to break my panic enough to get me to hand her phone back to her.  I sprinted out the door, to the right, past the blind-to-me vendors and quickly found the tourists would never let me move fast enough…all the while envisioning the car towed, our stuff stolen, who knows.  But this was liking running for a flight you might miss – every ounce of effort might be wasted, but that 1 degree of extra effort might just be the tiny bit extra that enables you to get there just in time.  And…when you don’t know…you just put it all out there to eliminate every chance you can of a bad scenario.  I quickly transition to the street, taking my chances of getting run over, and pour on the speed.  Now I was wearing my favorite shorts.  Ever stretchy material that manages to keep stuff in the pockets, look good with a t-shirt, be comfortable after over eating, perfect for working out at the gym – yeah…awesome shorts!  Except when frantically running with a heavy phone in your pocket…because the pocket can stretch down below the lower edge of the shorts, due to the heavy phone, and then start its own wild dance as it twists and bounces about like a heavy punching balloon that has lost its mind, jubilant to no limit, that it is about to earn its freedom and escape.  Surely this looked silly.  It is funny things like this that break through sheer adrenaline fueled moments of exertion “your phone is bouncing about like crazy and probably looks very silly and may just break through the pocket…you better control that.”  And so my hand, skillfullly removes the phone from my pocket, after untwisting my pocket, and secures it for maximum velocity.  Of course, all of this happened in about 1/10^th of a second while running full bore and not pausing or slowing, but played out in slow motion in my mind.  But the phone secured in my hand allowed my full focus on RUNNING!  Go, push, faster, that car has everything, these police are crooked.  I’m sure I prayed as well.  Maybe like Nehemiah’s prayer as he approached the king.  😊

As I got closer the scene started to come into view.  I could see our car…right where I left it.  No tow truck.  Whew…good start.  There was a police officer directing traffic in the middle of the intersection.  Interesting.  There was a police officer by my car.  I finally arrive frantically trying to apologize and explain all at once, in the wrong language…which they probably understood just fine but didn’t let on.  The guy on the sidewalk starts to explain that cars can’t park within 10 meters of an intersection because it obstructs the view of cars turning into the intersection.  This was with talented charades illustrating such.  He refers to his boss in the intersection, who I now see is holding the front license place to my car.  He starts to explain that the car across the intersection (you know the one with the Ferrari sticker that helped ensure me that I was picking a legal parking spot) was being towed along with my car.  He notes that the tow truck is on the way already.  He explains that my car will be towed and it will cost at least 2,500 pesos to get it back, and started talking about a penalty for parking in that spot and I got the sense that costs could climb.  I also envisioned greedy police officers and tow-truck drivers in cahoots prying through our stuff taking what they wanted.  No Bueno!!  Nada! 

I repeated my apologies, emphasized my innocence and ignorance.  I did this with Google translate, providing apparently understandable pleas (cool!  Like talking in tongues!).  He asked when we were flying out…I informed him today at 5.  His boss came over, I effused some more.  I asked – can’t I pay the ticket now and we avoid the towing?  I mean…we’re here now, let’s work this out.  I have $600 pesos.  I was thankful to note the reception – the fact that there was a reception at all.  He had to talk to his boss.  They convened, discussed (did I see greed flash through their eyes?).  Hucksters.  Shop keepers, cops…greedy hucksters.  He comes back over and informs me…we can work this out.  I must not go to the police station, I must tell no one…nothing happened, they will forget it.  All for the fee of 1,500 pesos.  I only have 600, I say.  He proceeds to point me to nearby ATMs.  I see…ok...no deal.  Well, this is a direct path from stuck to unstuck.  I book it to the nearest ATM.  It is hard to do math when adrenaline is pumping!  I’ve never had a harder time figuring out how many more pesos I needed to obtain to make 600 into 1,500!  After a couple minutes I figured it out…paid the fees, got the cash and booked it back.  The tow truck had showed up and was towing the red dune buggy with the Ferrari sticker.  I’m guessing this was their ‘out’ – they had called the tow truck and didn’t need to send it away empty if they let me off the hook, as they had another car they could tow.

He motioned for me to get in the car.  He had my license plate in his hand.  I got in.  What next?  He stood outside the passenger window, so I rolled it down.  He leaned in.  His prying eyes inspecting what was in my vehicle, as if determining if he might add to his booty with anything else he fancied.  Thankfully my laptop bag was under a sweatshirt and out of sight.  I pulled the stack of pesos out and he motioned in a downward waving motion while he said urgently in a loud whisper…low, low…keep it low.  He repeated that again…clearly this was not to be seen.  I counted out the pesos and handed them over.  He counted them, then explained that I was to drive a couple blocks before stopping to put my front plate back on.  He then placed the license plate on the front seat, backed out of my window and motioned me into traffic.  Wow.  I drove a couple blocks, turned, drove a couple more.  Pulled over in a run down area and by hand screwed the plate back onto the front the best I could.  It was good enough to keep it from falling off.  Thank you Lord!  Wow…so thankful!! 

I called Maria and let her know I was coming to pick her up.  Soon, my family was piling into the car with excited questions and wonder.  That was a story to share!  And, their innocence was tainted a bit to learn about the concept of crooked police.  If a police officer was willing to break the law to serve his own desires in this case…what about in other cases?  One really is never safe.  Between police cars driving by, Mexican national guard walking into Starbucks to order coffee with machine guns (as Maria and the kids witnessed in my absence), marina military personnel driving around with machine guns...and after that incident and realizing the corruptness of government and the potential for just about anything to happen at the hand of pretty much anyone, I was ready to go home.  The sunshine was dimmed a bit – a little trauma event endured.  But, my God is bigger and He provided and protected.  An answer to prayer.  Thank you Lord.

End of Dave's commentary.