5C's Que Pasa

Tuesday started with the 7AM arrival of Holland America's Veendam. Colin and I have done our ballroom thing on all of it's dance floors, I just can't remember where we were cruising to but I remember the dancing.

Before 11AM we were on a panga crossing the ship channel.

First stop a tour of the fish market on the other side. These dorado were freely swimming mere hours ago. Colin's hand is showing the size of these fish. But fish was not in the menu so off we went.

Next a pulmonia to the mercardo which was very busy with everyone doing their Christmas grocery shopping plus a bunch of tourists from the cruise ship.

Now that is a lot of cheese! I bought some chihuahua, our favorite.

A neighbour stopped this passing group and paid them a few pesos to play them a song. We got to enjoy it also. Thanks Duncan.

I was sitting in the chair on the right writing Christmas cards listening to the sound of the surf when my family decided to join me for some time in the sun, that soon led to a lovely beach walk at low tide.

Remember this guy and his horses. Despite the dust he stirs up as he comes down the road beside us we enjoy the morning arrival and the sunset departure.

While out walking yesterday afternoon we discovered that someone, likely a tractor moved this log into place thus preventing horses, ATV's, tractors and vehicles from going up and down that road. I wonder how long this is going to last. We certainly won't be getting any vehicles stuck like last Sunday.

From the road side there is now a very serious sign. You can see the log in the background. Everyone is wondering who did it?

An early Christmas gift from Mother Nature.

Just before sunset bloggers Ruth & Kevin dropped in. They are dry camping down the road so we had an impromptu happy hour.

We walked down the road ( so nice to be able to do that ) and had a light dinner at Miguels, one of the few places open after 6PM on the Isla.

Monday morning was the peak of the high tide.

It did not quite reach us but did leave this boat in the water when it was supposed to be pulled way up in the sand.

We were still waiting but doing a few things while waiting. Monday morning found us making spinach balls and a huge crock pot full of chili. Of course we had to let the girls lick the bowl, after all they are our kids.

We've only been here two weeks now and some things still needed to be tended to. One being our palapa, well actually one of our two palapas.

The small palapa, the one shading the front window of the RV needed more palmas as the hurricane had blown many away and what was there looked somewhat shabby. It wasn't high on the to do list but seeing as we were still waiting why not get it done.

They did a great job in short order. Turns out the main palapa can wait yet another year before needing some work. Sadly we got to do the clean up part. Lots of wee pieces of palm all over my pea gravel.

Instead of waiting I put my plan into action. I woke up Monday morning still reeling from the no show by Santiago my plant guy. So I came up with the idea of sending Ishmael into town to find me my hibiscus. I gave him money for the plants, the bus, the pulmonia, the panga and the truck back to the RV park and I got change back 🙂 In the end it cost us 170 pesos ( $11.50 USD ) of transportation to get the job done. Very worth the price as Colin's time was needed here helping me as we kept waiting.

I got 7 hibiscus for 350 pesos, $23.68 USD.

Now that the yard was cleaned up from the palma mess we could start to mess it up again. I had Ishmael plant my new hibiscus plus this baby coco palm, a gift from Isla friends.

Juan and Chris, our friends from Monterrey arrived. They drove all the way here in their RV and managed the dreaded road to spend the holidays with us. The waiting was officially over.

My usual Isla greeting for Chris is an iced shot of vodka which he really needed after tackling 'the road'. Just think, next year it is going to be all paved.

They set up and we relaxed as the waiting was all over. We got it all done and it sure was worth the wait......I think.

Life is good here on the Isla.

The tide has changed and is high at our normal 8:30AM walking time. Colin took this photo from the roof of the RV.

Colin likes peanut butter on his muffin in the morning and this was the end of the peanut butter jar. That is Carmeh in front with the container. Caeli only getting the lid as she was on a restricted diet due to her upset tummy.

Nothing to do this Sunday while waiting but watch the tourists. This blue van got stuck within seconds of driving onto the beach. Clearly he was not supposed to be driving on a beach. The ATV on the left was in the trailer behind the van. In addtition to their shovel they borrowed our shovel and did some digging. What happened next was mind boggling. With everyone pushing after the shoveling the guy gunned it and the people between the trailer and the van got somewhat bumped. The young girl on the right ( you can only see her white shorts just beyond the tall fellow ) got caught in the momentum and not being able to move fast enough was flipped straight up in the air, landing on her back in the trailer. She is very lucky to not have broken anything nor fall under the moving trailer.

The recent hurricanes and tropical storms have shifted our beach. Now folks have to walk out a long ways to get into the ocean.

Oh look!! I actually saw this guy come down the road, do a wheelie on the beach and get stuck on his return up the road. Some very kind RV people came to his aid.

It was yet another great gift from Mother Nature.

Hey that is Rae, she walked down to the beach for the sunset.