Isla Mujeres

March 10, 2015

Jerry, Susan, Charlie and I were all at the Port Captain's office by 9:00 this morning.  Thank god, Jerry is fluent in Spanish, it was a big help all through the day.  By 2:30 we had completed all our paperwork.  Jorge, who worked with the Health Department, chastised (we received no fine,thank goodness) us all severely for not checking into the first Mexican port we had come to.  He said, "you have been in Mexican waters for a week and could have been spreading Ebola all up the coast".  Hmmm....well we knew we were all very healthy, because he took our temperature and made us stick out our tongues!  But, like he said, if he was in the USA and did this he would have been deported immediately....and he is right, so we promised to not do that again.

So with official legal papers in hand and a 90 day visa, we made our way across the street to Social Justice to celebrate with more cerveza and coconut fried shrimp...as only the Mexicans can do.  It is getting close to Susi's arrival time on the ferry from Cancun, so we walked to the ferry dock.  Susi arrived with her beautiful smile at 5:30...and her vacation begins!


March 11, 2015

We had a leisurely morning, but soon headed in the dingy back to shore and rented a golf cart.  Golf carts and motorcycles are the major mood of transportation on the island, at least by the tourists and cruisers.  We dropped off our laundry at Ave. Juarez and Ave. Matamoras and paid $40 peso/per kilo.  Next stop was a history lesson at the Estate of Fermin Mundaca.  Fermin was a pirate, who at the ripe old age of 40 decided to settle down on Isla Mujeres, in 1880, where he met a beautiful young Mexican girl, Prisca Gomez.   He fell deeply in love with her and built a 2 story home on his "plantation" in hopes to win her heart.  But she loved another and his heart was broken.  There of course is more to this story, but it was a very hot day and we walked around and saw what still remains of his home.  The price of admission was $20 pesos each.

Oh our way out of the "estate" we saw an elderly couple selling sea shell wind chimes.  I remember this couple from 2 years ago, the husband makes trumpet horns out of conch shells and Charlie had to have one.  This gentleman had to take the conch shell, that Charlie picked out, back home to plaster the hole where the conch was removed from, in order to make a horn out of it.  So we will return another day to pick it up.  Charlie just can't wait to wake the anchorage up early in the morning with his horn.

the last word.....salad

Our next stop was the Chuedauri....the large grocery store on the island....for a few grocery items.  Then a stop at Lolo Lorana's to make reservations for Friday night dinner.  Lolo is famous on the island for her gourmet cuisine.  We had met her briefly 2 years ago, trying to make reservations, but she was going to Europe on vacation, as she is from Brussels.  While having a wonderful breakfast at Mango's, we heard that Lolo had an accident and they were not sure if she was cooking. We made it to her house and a young boy ushered us back through her 2 kitchens and into Lolo's bedroom.  We were somewhat reluctant to enter for we could see Lolo laying on the bed, but she waved us in with her wonderful laugh and French accent.   She indeed had a terrible accident, breaking her upper arm bone and lower leg bone with a cast and metal pins sticking in everywhere...oh my...but still a smile on her face.  What a wonderful spirit she has.  Susi and I were somewhat taken back by all of this, which came out in hysterical laughter when we retold it to Charlie in the cockpit that night with cocktails.  So more to come on the dinner....