Our Mexican Adventure

This blog was in serious need of a new look. Ever since John changed the site to the Shaded Grey (sure sounds exciting, don’t it?) Wordpress theme, I’ve hated it! Maybe that’s why I’ve barely written anything for this blog since then. The conversation that ensued after his redesign was something like this.

Libby: “That’s really boring!”

John: “Well, if you don’t like, YOU can change it!”

Libby: “Fine, I will!”

And that I did … it only took me about a year.

The photo in the banner was taken by me in Playa del Carmen just south of Coco Bay. I spent an entire evening searching through endless photos of beaches, palm trees, people, cats, parties, food pics, family events, etc to find one I liked well enough for the banner. We have a tons of photos, all organized only by date. How do you find a picture of a Playa del Carmen beach when you need one? So, I finally downloaded some much needed photo organization software, Adobe Photoshop Album Starter Edition. It’s free! If you’re looking for a full-featured photo organizer and editor, you should go with Adobe Photoshop Elements.

You might notice that we’re now shamelessly plugging our In the Roo website all over this blog. It’s our baby, and although we still have a lot more work to do, we’re quite proud of it. In the Roo is a searchable and taggable directory of Playa del Carmen hotels, condos, restaurants, bars, stores, websites, you name it! Make sure you check out our interactive Google map. Street overlays are not yet available for this area, so John painstakingly built all the streets on our map. And all the cool features you see are the result of his brilliant programming skills!

As if all this self-promotion weren’t enough, now we’re promoting other companies and products as well with the new ads on this site. Yes, we’re sell-outs. But hey, everyone else is getting rich off the internet, why not us! Well, we can dream can’t we.

And finally, for you bookmarking fiends, I’ve also added icons for bookmarking our posts at several popular bookmarking sites.

I promise that the next post will have something to do with Mexico!

A few weeks ago, we celebrated my 35th birthday. For us adventurers, there is no better way to celebrate such an occasion than to load up our trusty Civic and go out exploring. It was time for a for a quick weekend road trip. We didn’t even let the fact that we hadn’t had an oil change in 7,500 miles get in our way! All this in the spirit of fun and adventure. Oh yeah… we also needed SOMETHING to write about on this “Adventure” blog which has been stagnant for so long.

About 3 hours north of Cancun, there is an island called Isla Holbox (IS-la HOL-bosh). This was to be our destination for the weekend. We headed out a little less prepared than usual for this trip – we’re a wee-bit out of practice! We got off to a late start, ended up taking a wrong turn that forced us to go 20 miles out of our way, and eventually had to drive in reverse on the highway shoulder for at least half a mile to reach a missed turn-off – which is not as unusual or unsafe as you might think, here in Mexico. Ha! What do I know? I’m practically Mexican when I drive these days!

Due to the late start, we had to spend our first night on the mainland in a town called Chiquila. We ate some awesome sopes de puerco (pork sopes – kind of like an open-faced taco) from a woman in little red Coca-Cola stand. 45 pesos ($4.25 US) for 4 sopes and 2 soft drinks. This turned out to be our only good dining experience of the weekend! We were dying for an ice cold cerveza , but finding a beer in this town on a Friday night was not gonna happen. There were no open bars and the only store in town did not sell beer.

Since we didn’t feel like crashing some sort of religious gathering, the only thing vaguely exciting in the town that Friday night, we headed back to our hotel. 200 pesos ($18) rented us a decent room with a ceiling fan. Unfortunately, even with the fan on high, we still could not get a comfortable night sleep, lying in our sweat-soaked sheets. The next morning, we had invigorating cold-water-only showers… in a shower with a fuse box and light switch! I may be wrong, but I think there was still room in the shower for a small TV, or possibly a toaster… maybe I should have filled out that comment card afterall.

Escaping the shower unscathed, we made our way over to Isla Holbox via the 9 Hermanos (9 brothers) ferry. The island is about 7 miles long and 1 mile wide, and has a population of about 1600. The streets are mostly sandy paths, and the main form of transportation is taxi golf carts. Here are some of the unique houses on island:

Isla Holbox is a small community, who’s main industry is fishing. During the past 5 years, tourist traffic has started to pick up as more and more people find out about the whale shark tours. The whale shark season typically runs from July-September, but we heard that people had already spotted some sharks. Being low season, we hoped to sneak onto Isla Holbox without reservations and find a decent hotel room for an affordable rate. Unfortunately, luck was not on our side, and we ended up finding that rooms were already running at high season prices around 700 pesos ($66) a night. To make matters worse, these were their mosquito-netting-over-the-beds rooms. Yikes! We eventually found a beautiful room at Casa Iguana overlooking the Gulf of Mexico for 800 pesos ($75) a night. A bit pricey — for us locals, anyway, but it was my birthday, so we splurged. At least we didn’t have to sleep under mosquito nets.

By the way, the mosquitos on Isla Holbox are rumored to be vicious. I was extremely worried because mosquitos appear to love me. It must be my sweet personality. Libby isn’t bothered for some reason. Hmmm…. Oddly enough, the mosquitos annoyed me less than some annoying critters called sand fleas. These little buggers hide in the sand, and attack you without mercy. The sunblock and bug spray combination left a nice sticky residue to collect bug samples all over my body. Yippee! Anyhow, because of those nasty creatures, our weekend beach time was limited to a grand total of 10 minutes. Thank goodness we have a nice beach (without fleas, thank you very much) only a few blocks away from home here in Playa del Carmen.

Back to the story… After we dropped off our luggage, we set out to book our tour. Our friend, Jason, from Fantasea Dive, had recommended a tour operator called Willy’s Whale Shark Tours. We heard Willy’s had some fun guides – some with mohawks and some with strange names like Elvis. Our guide, Juan, had neither. Nevertheless, he was a great guide, and he did his best to explain things in English for us gringos who still speak primarily English.

Our tour started bright and early the next morning. We headed Northeast for a little over an hour, to a point where the waters of the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea meet. From what we gather, the whale sharks come back each year to feed on the abundant plankton in the area, a phenomenon likely caused by the mixing of the two bodies of water.

Just as I started to doze off, the boat filled with excitment as one of the other tourists located our first whale shark. Everyone became very active. A few people climbed on top of the boat to get a good angle for picture taking, while others started preparing their flippers and snorkeling masks. Game on!

The whale sharks in this area are protected, and only two people and their guide can enter the water at a time. Libby and I anxiously awaited our turn to jump in and snorkel with these big fish. Yet, even then, the concept seemed a bit odd — jumping in the water next to a 45 foot long fish, a fish with the word SHARK in its name, and snorkeling along side of it, but that’s why we were there. Besides, we had heard that whale sharks are docile, and only feed on plankton and small fish since they have no teeth. Wrong! We’ve since learned that they do have teeth… up to 300 rows of them. However, they don’t really use them. Well, at least not on people. We hoped. As far as them being docile, that remains true. The biggest danger is swimming too close and getting hit by their powerful tails.

We were ready to go. Our first attempt didn’t go very well, as the whale shark quickly swam away from us. The second was a little better for me, as I decided to kick a little harder to keep up with the shark, in an attempt to take a few underwater shots. And, although most people are only guaranteed 2 attempts, we were lucky enough to go a third time. It was amazing. The whale shark slowly and gracefully raised and lowered its body, instead of swimming quickly away. This allowed us to swim along side the whale shark for close to 10 minutes. It was an amazing experience to be so close to such a large animal in it’s natural environment. I wonder if the whale shark even knew we were there, or whether it had just eaten too much to really care.

Back on board, we said goodbye to our new friends and headed back to Isla Holbox. As an unexpected bonus, halfway back to shore, we found ourselves surrounded by a group of 10-15 playful dolphins. They seemed to be in a hurry… maybe they headed out for their turn to swim with the sharks.

As the day winded down, we bought some cold beers and sat on our terrace overlooking the beach and the water. The spectacle that we saw was kind of surreal. People were cruising the beach in their golf carts, ATVs and motorcycles. Upon closer inspection, we realized that many of the motorcycle riders were approximately 7 years old. We even saw a 4 or 5 year old racing around on a gas powered mini ATV. I joked with Libby that Isla Holbox must be the training ground for Mexican drivers. They give their kids some type of unsafe vehicle and unleash them on the beach… if they survive for a year, they get their license. Aha! One mystery solved.

All in all, it was a fun adventure and a great way to spend my birthday.

Hasta luego!

Photos from our trip

Wikipedia Page on Whale Sharks

Book your tours here:
Fantasea Dive
Travel RM

Here in Playa del Carmen and the Riviera Maya, we are in serious need of a Best Buy, a MicroCenter, or a Circuit City for computer supplies. However, many little computer shops are popping up with random collections of supplies to feed the needs of the growing computer user population here.

USB thumb drives, web cameras, and wireless accessories are pretty standard gear at these shops. However, looking for specialty equipment is sometimes a challenge. Cat 5 cable and connectors are at one store, but the crimp tool I need is in a store across town (and they might need to have it shipped from their store in Cancun or Merida). It can be quite frustrating at times.

I had an interesting experience yesterday. I had a client with a fried video card in her business computer. She needed a new one ASAP. I went on a mission to find her a replacement. After visiting 4 different stores, I was only able to locate 1 compatible card. All the new AGP cards had prices marked, but the PCI card I needed did not. I asked how much, but the employee was not sure – he guessed it was around $90. Unfortunately, he had no way of verifying the price until the owner came in the next day. Say what?!

Great! I have a client who cannot do her job because her video card is dead and the only replacement card in town can’t be purchased because there was no price tag.

I spent a few minutes speaking horrendous Spanish, trying to explain that my client needed it right now. After I got that point across, he asked if I lived here. I assured him that I did and gave him my business card. He said I could come back tomorrow to pay for it. Wow!! Although I’m honest, and he was obviously very trusting, I felt much better convincing him to let me pay the $90 now and promising to return the next day to settle any differences.

Experiences like this are priceless. I can’t imagine something like this ever happening to me in a place like Chicago.

And, for the curious, there appears to be a markup between 20-30% on most computer equipment compared to U.S. prices. I’d imagine bigger chain stores with more inventory would be able to cut that down a bit and still make a nice profit. Hint, hint – Best Buy!

We’ve been meaning to capture some of the unique sights and sounds of our neighborhood here in Playa del Carmen for our blog readers. Some we love, some we tolerate (sights and sounds, not blog readers).

There’s the gas truck with its catchy jingle, the occasional barking dogs, the tomcat calling for a mate, the birds singing in the morning. And then there’s the agua guy. We love our agua guy. He’s one of the many reasons we love living in Mexico. We’d tell you all about him, but our friend and neighbor, Sherry, already has in her own blog.

So, please read Drinking the Water in Mexico and enjoy. And we promise … we’ll get back to blogging our own stories again real soon.

Our apologies for not writing a blog entry for close to two months. Unfortunately, we do not have a good excuse for our silence. We’re not even going to say that we’re lazy this time! We’ve just been living our daily life. Here’s a brief update…

In the first half of December, we were racing around trying to make sure things were in order to go on a two week trip back to Chicago for the holidays. We had to make sure our business was in order, our bills were paid, and someone would watch our cat, Mindy, while we were away. Little did we know that we’d hear about a 3 month old kitten in need of adoption. Knowing that Mindy was lacking a playmate, we adopted little Nanu. (She’s kind of like a little alien, so we’ll leave the explanation of the name for you to figure out.) Nanu has lots of energy, which Mindy isn’t too pleased about, especially since Nanu’s favorite game appears to be “Attack Mindy’s Tail.” Otherwise, they appear to be getting along just fine.

The later part of December, we were in Chicago. During our two weeks there, we managed to see many relatives and just a few friends. Unfortunately, we had presents to buy, and work to do, so we didn’t get to enjoy the city as much as we would have liked. The next time we visit Chicago, we plan to leave our work behind and make it an official vacation. Our scale is happy to inform us that we apparently managed to eat our fill of Italian Beefs, Vienna Beef hot dogs, and Chicago style pizzas while in town. Ah, the food is excellent here in Playa, but how we’d kill for a Portillo’s!

For New Year’s Eve, we had some friends (with children) in town, and wanted to keep the night rather low key. We planned on eating at El Oasis, because we were told they would not be having an expensive, New Year’s Eve menu. Unfortunately, when we arrived, we discovered that they were only serving a fixed menu for $90 per person. After a discouraging look elsewhere for cheaper fare, we ended up a few blocks away at La Famiglia, where we spent about $70 per person for their fixed menu. We love their pizza, but their New Year’s offerings were just okay. Bummer! After dinner, we raced out to the zócalo, where we were hoping for a big fiesta and possible fireworks to welcome in the New Year. We’re sad to report that we must have been the only ones who thought it would be fun to hang out in the town square for this celebration. I guess we managed to have our low key celebration after all!

We’ve had a number of visitors over the past few months, which is always fun. It gives us a chance to get out and experience the city and remember why we moved here in the first place. We’d just like to shout out to …

Jenni, Kyle, Pete & Sandy – You guys are wacky and you definitely know how to keep yourselves entertained. We never knew grocery shopping in a foreign country was such a treat.

Jenny & Laddie – We’re happy you two managed to get out of O’hare after Chicago’s biggest snowstorm in years. We hope you can stay longer next time.

Jen, Dan, Lewis, Josephine, and Isaac – Thanks for spending New Year’s with us. You showed us, by your example, that living in a foreign country was not only possible, but rewarding as well! John will let you know when he breaks the 20 second Speed Stack mark.

Loni, Pat, Max & Ian – Playing hooky from our jobs and spending time with you on the beach was a blast. We sure know how to build a good sand mound, don’t we?

Anyhow, we’ve had our hands full with the legal, accounting, and immigration issues involved with starting our small Internet and Computer Consulting company here, which will hopefully be the subject of another post soon. In the meantime, if you have suggestions on a good company name, please leave it in a comment. We’re looking for something that sounds witty in both Spanish and English. Thanks for you help!

Let’s Go Chicago Bears! We hope you crush the Colts in Superbowl XLI!