Seaweed

This is Elise. We drove down to the X town( I call it that because I can't pronounce the name) because it is known to have beautiful pristine water for snorkeling.  It took us 2 hours to get there and 40 minutes back on the fast road.  We get there and the water  is brown, murky and choked with seaweed. The Canadian guy we talked to has been spending every winter there for 13 years and has never seen anything like this seaweed before. It' s been blown down from Florida and is making some the beaches here a smelly brown mess. Lucky us. I wonder how long it takes for seaweed to degrade?

The X town

 Driving on a sandy beach road

 The beach is really nice even with the sea weed and we stopped a few times to enjoy

 The road abruptly ended where the bridge is gone (super dangerous and no advanced warning)

 A 15 foot drop can put a fear of god in you

 We were wondering what where they thinking at this point

 Otherwise the river is quite beautiful and placid if it weren't for the death drop

 We ate lunch at Rudy's for lunch and enjoyed the food and views of the sea weed in the bay

I had to take a picture of the bathroom door from the inside looking out. Notice the 12 inch gap near the floor :)



Driving to Xcalak is an adventure and that is an understatement. Xcalak is the last fishing village before Belize. There are two roads to the small town, one a sandy beach and jungle road and one paved road. They both run parallel to the town from Mahahual so we obviously chose the scenic route. The drive was beautiful and reminded us why we are doing this trip. The unique birds and feeling of isolation was great. We were driving on the sandy road about 25 MPH just enjoying the views and then all of the sudden the road ended where a bridge once stood. No joke, the bridge was destroyed and there was no advanced warning of the hazard. Moreover, the drop was at least 15 feet into a river below. Elise, the kids and I marveled at the beautiful river but scratched our heads why the road just dropped and no notice was given. This is one of the many reasons not to drive on Mexican roads at night. They are simply too unpredictable for safe driving. Anyways we had to back up a couple hundred yards to turn around and we eventually made it to Xcalak. This little town has quite a few North Americans enjoying the winters by fishing the time away. This is the fishing village of lore. The town does not have much else going for it. There isn't a gas station or a grocery store but there are a couple small hotels and a couple mom and pop restaurants. The whole place caters to fishing, diving, and snorkeling as it is part of a national park. I have to say that any fisherman should look into this place but leave their spouses, girlfriends or kids behind.         

Boogie Nights

 We make a ritual of going to the beach every night for the sunset

 The girls are doing the Boogie Dance for the full moon and for mommy and daddy

 Sierra and Zoe swimming in the afternoon

We all relaxed on swings at a local Cantina after the sun went down. The girls drank mango juice whereas Elise and I drank Mango Juice Plus :)   

The Good,the Bad, and the Ugly

This is Elise.  Living in Mexico has been a big adjustment for me.  Renting a place and doing daily chores like laundry and cooking make it a totally different experience than staying at a resort.  First the good.  I loved Akumal Bay.  It is a cute village style place with a beautiful bay for snorkeling and swimming.  The beach is sandy but the entry into the water is rocky.  Most of the bay is a shallow lagoon the perfect depth and clarity for snorkeling.  I love to swim in warm, clear water.  They have cute restaurants there where you can have a drink and a meal under a palapa on the beach overlooking a bay with every shade of blue.  My experience of Tulum was mared by our horrible rental.  The trash filled street outside was a bummer.  The beach was too far away even by bicycle.  The beach was beautiful but rough and filled with seaweed.  If you go to Tulum stay in one of the hotels on the beach and you  will have a good time.  Don't stay in Tulum pueblo like we did.  We learned an important lesson about trying to save money on our accommodations.  We would have a great day of fun then my mood would spiral downward as soon as we got back to our very small, very run down one bedroom casita.  Nothing in there worked right.  I had to stand on the bed to turn on the bedroom light.  If you tried to put a towel on the towel rack, the rack fell off the wall and the towel fell on the dirty tile.  There was no bathmat so water got all over the floor.  The locks were complicated and hard to work.  I could go on.
We had a great drive to Mahahual with almost no traffic on the road.  I haven't been on a road that empty in years.  It was so relaxing I fell asleep.  Good thing Mike was driving!  There is no traffic here in Mahahual on the days when there are no cruise ships which makes it very pleasant to bike ride around.  You have seen the photos of the beach here.  It is beautiful.  There is a lot of seaweed on the beach here too.  They are getting it cleaned up so hopefully we won't have to wade through it tomorrow.  It is almost a full moon and we have been going down to the beach and watching the sun set  and moonlight sparkle on the water while drinking rum and juice. A full moon on a tropical beach is truly sublime.  It is worth leaving Austin for.
The bad and the ugly. When we got this house we have rented for the month it was filthy.  I mean like it hadn't been cleaned in months.  Food spilled in the microwave.  Dog hair on the unwashed sheets.  No water in the pool.  The manager was cavalier and said just fill the pool with water.  We will get someone to clean. So Mike put his pool skills to use and worked on the pool.  I delayed cleaning in the hopes a maid would show up.  We had no running water for a while for some reason.  We were really angry and had to spend a lot of time emailing the owner and FlipKey to document the state of our rental.
Three days later.  I decided to just clean myself with the help of the family. NOT happy about cleaning up after someone else.  I asked for a $100 refund for my cleaning services and the owner agreed.  The pool is finally filled with water and the house is pretty nice now that it is clean.
There are no supermarkets here just small grocery stores and fruiterias.  I just biked around town on a search for food for dinner.  I stopped and asked for fresh fish or chicken at several places and had no luck.  Then the grocery store was closed early.  Finally I found a stand selling pollo asado.  I am having fun with the novelty of it but I wouldn't want to live here.  I think we are almost better off just eating out.  The restaurants are pretty cheap and beer is $1 a bottle at the beach.
Even cleaning is an adjustment.  Of course, we don't have a washing machine so I take our dirty stuff to the laundry and it comes back clean and folded.  I couldn't find any Windex so I bought some all purpose cleaner that was the right color.  All they have are the old school mops with strings instead of a sponge type.  The paper towels are as thin as napkins. I used some stuff to clean the wall behind the bed because it was disgusting and I didn't want my pillow near it.  I didn't know the cleaner was mostly bleach and so I accidentally got bleach stains on our sheets.  We questioned what we had done wrong and if all the rental properties were going to be this bad.  Should we not rent on line anymore?
Now that we have a clean house, we are feeling more positive.  I went diving yesterday and I had a lot of fun.  It was good to be underwater again.  The reef here is healthy looking with lots of coral and sea fans.  There aren't any big developments nearby so that must help.    

Living like snails on muscle relaxers

this is Mike...
Mahahual is super quiet on non-cruise ship days. There is a port here that can dock up to three cruise ships at a time. This helps stream in the zombies as they go from the "all you can eat buffets" on the ship to the nearest restaurant with cheap beer in town. This is so humorous to watch. Don't get me wrong they are super sweet folks always smiling and very friendly just living the stereotype to the tee. Sleepy villages like Mahahual really need the income from the tourists. In fact, I am everyone's Amigo over here. They all treat me so well up to the point of sale, than I say, "no gracias" and it is as if I disappear. It was so funny yesterday with a guy selling shells, all the grand small talk and then a "no gracias" from me. But that wasn't it, he then went into a trance-like stare so completely removed from his body that I even turned around to see what he was staring at, a capsizing ship? Jaws? a UFO? Something, anything? He simply left his body right before my very eyes. Elise and I spoke about this later and agreed this guy could give the Dalai Lama a run on instant meditation.
   There is a music festival going on for this week at the small baseball field in town. They have bands playing tunes and vendors selling their wares around the perimeter. Last night we estimated about 40 folks gathered in the park to listen to the music about 30 of them were vendors. Not like Austin but still charming. Staying for an extended period is definitely the way to experience this town, we need to let the boredom surround us penetrate us and feel the force. I couldn't let a good Star Wars quote go by when given the chance. Anyways, this place is special because so much of the Riviera Maya is over-developed. This is a little piece of paradise that can remind us of a time not too long ago when we all had time for each other and slowed down to watch the world go by. For now, we are living like snails on muscle relaxers. Nothing wrong with that... I just hope my tongue doesn't swell up from inactivity due to not having conversations with all my great neighbors.

This is the Mahahual Boardwalk looking south (notice the emptiness) please don't notice that I allowed my daughters to ride their bikes with 1970's era bicycle helmets :)

This is the Mahahual Boardwalk looking north (notice the emptiness, this is not a doctored photo, it is legit)

We looked at the full moon above the ocean from the beach loungers. Zoe was so excited she promptly passed out on the lounger and daddy had to carry her home after two stiff Rum drinks. Now that is love 

This boat is just screaming for Brandon Smolik and Will Longenecker to go fishing on. 

Buy a drink and use the pool how could anything be better? I guess if they gave us the drink would be better.

The IRS Sucks

Yesterday was filled with some excitement from the IRS. Many of you know I was a victim of an identity theft last year by someone filing my taxes using my social security info. Well this year they still want me to verify who I am by going to a local IRS office. As of right now I am not planning on returning for a problem they allowed to happen. The government accounting is so poor that they simply give refunds without verifying any data. Therein lies the issue for me and many millions of Americans. We are honest and do the right thing, file taxes every year and on time. Rather than provide some safeguards like a private institution would, the IRS goes by an honor system. Can you imagine a private company like JP Morgan or Apple etc. just forward monies to people for completing a form? If the IRS had a pin code system like every other 21st century business it would eliminate so much of this fraud which ends up costing America so much money, time, and grief. In the end THE I.R.S. SUCKS, that goes without saying. If the IRS wants to open a field office in the jungle, on the beach about 1 mile from me I would go prove my identity, until then the can kiss my ***
By the way this is Mike, at least I think I am?        

We made it to Mahahual

This is Mike...
We arrived to Mahahual a couple hours ago and the drive went well. Upon arriving in the new home we noticed the pool was empty, Elise and to a lesser extent the girls were visibly saddened. We asked the caretaker about the pool and he said the sides were recently repainted. That's when we asked can we still add water and when he said yes the girls were all happy again. The thing we have to get used to, is the who cares attitude about accommodations here in Mexico. We booked the home through FLIPKEY and saw all the rooms etc. prior to booking. We did our due diligence so that's why we get upset when the hosts are surprised when we show up. It is as if the hosts are oblivious to what they are doing. Anyways this home is a lot bigger and we will have a pool by night time. All in all, we are happy to be here and like the area a lot. The beach is like a lagoon with one inch waves, truly the best beaches we have seen to date. We ate lunch on the beach and relaxed to Reggae tunes. The greens and blues of the water are extremely vivid and we cannot wait until we can go snorkeling.