52 Sleeps in sunny warm Mexico this winter. Febrero y Marza 2019. Sandy packed me 19 short-sleeve dress shirts.
Sandy y Bob. 52 years married. A coincidence? Engaged for five years also. Never mind.
On the TV show "Dragnet," 1967-1970, Jack Webb playing Detective Joe Friday, while getting the information on whatever recent crime was committed, would always cut to the chase. When questioning the witnesses, he'd demand: “ just the facts.” One of his TV detective partners ended up on MASH as the first Colonel Henry. A free carnita to you if you know his real name.
We started out in Punta Maroma on the south coast of the Yucatan. Isla Mujeres was next, followed by Puerto Juarez, then to Isla Holbox on the Gulfo Mexico. Then it was back to Isla Mujeres. This is my confession. Whoops! I just slid back to my former religion. Lo siento.
Sandy and I stayed at eight different hotels. I know, I know, but we like to do that.
The startling facts are that we ate at 54 restaurants. We tried 19 different new ones. Well, we have been traveling Quintana Roo for 34 years. Of the 19 new ones, we would do only four again. We ate out 187 times. Sorry we can’t join you for dinner this first week back.
Olivias, Mogagua, Lolas, Javis’s, La Esquina (the corner), North Garden, Rubens, El Veradero, and Chlitos topped the list for more than once.
"How was the weather?" you ask. Hot! It rained only two days. Twice it rained at night, but it did not affect us. Many Mexican people walk with sombrillas to keep out the sun. As always, the ocean water was warm and blue. Holbox was the warmest ocean water we have EVER experienced. I always bring my swimming pool thermometer, but because it always registers 82, I left it home this time.
I cannot read on the playa. There is too much to see. But someway, somehow I read eleven and one half books.
The Captain's Wife
Three years at sea, 1830, from New York to Manila and back, by way of Cape Horn and Elba, where Napoleon is buried. Madera wine originally came from Madera because they let it sit in the sun for longer than usual and it changed the flavor. Only Don Salmond knows this.
Casey Stengel
Manager of the NYY from 1950-1960. He was hit by a taxi in Kenmore Square and hospitalized. That is why he walked like he did. One year for Christmas, his wife bought him an ashtray. He was born in Kansas City and that is why they called him ...
Dear Bob and Sue
A couple do ALL 59 National Parks. They did Bright Angel Trail in the Grand Canyon and stayed at Phantom Ranch.
How South and North America affected Europe, especially the potato impact. Who knew? Tomatoes tobacco, tequila, topkapi. Thanks Barb!
Yup. Nathaniel Philbrick again. Mayflower, In the Heart of the Sea, blah blah blah, Last Stand, Bunker Hill, Pulitzer Prize, National Book Award, yada yada yada. He lives on Nantucket. Thanks Tomas!
Stranger in the Woods
A twenty year old leaves his car in the Maine woods and disappears for the next twenty seven years. YCMTS up Thanks Eileen!
Hey Buddy!
Buddy Holly from a great perspective. Where were you on February 3, 1959? The day the music died. With his first big check, he bought new pews for his church.
Louis L'Amour
His life. Prize fighter, shipped out on a freighter, writer.
Pirates of the Caribbean. Good stuff. Gracias Tomaso!
History of Wolves
OK OK it was a novel and she didn’t marry the guy.
Way too much poetry but an interesting life. Like a bridge over ...
True Heroes of Texas Music
Texas musician legends like Willie, like Janis, Barbara Mandrell, Lyle. Like Waylon, Buddy, Freddy, George Jones. Like Flaco …… Sorry I overheard many "like" millennials talking on the beach. What is with the tattoos and nose rings and cigarettes? Did you get your TRAMP stamp before or after you found out what they were called? Wow, that thong bathing suit must hurt.
A friend asks, “Why would you get a tattoo on a part of your body that you can’t see?" But can I please look closer at the one between your breasts?
Oh and by the way, sixty year old guy, your fashion statement ball cap is on backwards. Jack ass.
Speaking of Dopey. Can you name Snow White's seven dwarves? And who came up with her name?
Eleven folks joined us, probably for fear that our marriage would disintegrate with so much time alone together, Tom y Eileen, Annie y Dennis, Dave y Robin, three jogis from past retreats Janis, Illene and Nancy, and of course Marnie y Steve. We just missed Navy Seabee friends Janice and Fat Jack. Disintegrate is a good spelling word. Thanks Google.
We have made some friends in Mexico: Javis y Marla, Ariel y Bonnie from Alberta and Vera Cruz, Anna y Spartacus from es-Spain, Oswaldo, Ruben, Jon Carlo from Madagascar, David, David and David, Romel y Joanna, Nick y Dianna from Minnesota, Jessica y Anibal from Chiapas, Ken y Debbie from Indiana, Alberto from Barthalona (he owns Mogagua), Luis y Mary Theresa from France and Mexico City (they own Colores de Verano - the colors of summer - Hotel), Victor, Hortensia y Mauricio, Jorge, Jorge and Jorge, Victor again (he was in the movie from 1960 called "The Magnifico Seven,") Edgar, Martin from Quebec, Spanish Maria at PTO Morelos, Santa from Cleveland and the North Pole, Santiago, Salvatore, Mildred, Anna y Juan Carlos, Luis y Manual from PTO Morelos, Pedro, Carlos, Diego, Mosquito, Paeaso, El Penguino, Robin y Nayomi from Milano, Estavan, Rubin a second time, Nina y Nora Switzerland, Gaston, Ruffino, Enrique y Guadalupe and Jose, Laura Dumm “Lola" Oregon, Maria, Lior y Yuron Israel, Karen, Ricardo, Elvis from Villadolid (Bia doe leed), Gilbert, Margarita, Melania y Chucho Spain y Mexico City, Jesus, Lia y Mia Texas, Clara, Dino Puerto Vallarta, Lupita, Renee, Mario and Mario two, William Francis Giarmo, Ophelia, Alberto, Roberto, Victor (a different one), Joe from Detroit, Lilia Robles who owned hotel Na Balam for 30 years, Jan her friend married Stevie Ray Vaughan, Andrea from Saskatoon, Marvin, Susan, Loy, Polo of Mangos, Claudia, Armando, Fernando y Brenda from Argentina, but it seems EVERYONE is from Argentina, Monci from Merida, Donna y George from Michigan, Bruce y Marjorie from Maine, Axel, Lilia from Cuarnevaca, Aloy, Phillipe, Sonney from India, Maria, Iris, Braulio from Cancun no problemo ... even his Mom can’t pronounce his name, Irving, Nancy, queen of the Carnival 2018, Rafael owner of the Cuban Restaurante El Veradero, Luis (aha! we saw you with your boyfriend dancing at Face Bar Cantina), Lucia, Norma, Robert sells honey, Jesus, Pablo not Cruise or Escobar, Alexander, Milton 15 year old waiter at Javis (HAH v's), Lea May and the Mexican maestro from Isla Holbox who makes mandolas out of driftwood and played with the Russian symphony but chose to live on a Mexican island for forty years that did not have electricity until 1984. I probably missed some.
Fascinating places … fascinating people.
For all or friends and familia and jogis who have shared this paradise with us, NAMASTE.
--
“What do you do there?" my good friend asks.
The restaurants are fabulous. The choices are incredible. Peruvian, French, Eatalian from Milano, Sardinian from Sardinia. Mexican? Yes. Cuban. Fish? Well Isla and Holbox are fishing villages. Mediterranean? You bet. People watching is simply astounding. Especially on the main calle on Isla. The United States is behind on some things. The main street on Isla, Hidalgo, has no vehicular traffic. All the electrical wires and telephone wires are buried. Christmas lights abound.
Musica. "Is there musica?" Oh my god! Cantinas, street music, classical Spanish guitars, flamenco, Ventures instrumentals, Cuban, Cumbia from Colombia. Jimmy Buffet and of course Bob Marley.
“Yah but ... what about cost?" Well dinner generally costs $10-$20 per meal for two including drinks. A stiff margarita is four dollars compared to El Serape's $16. Cervezas are $1.30 to $ 2.50 compared to $5-$6 dollars U.S. One night we went totally against my rules and ate from the street vendors. Dinner set us back $5.25. Our Sicily trip cost us more than fifty two days in Mexico for only nine days. One year Florida at nine days cost us more than five weeks in Mexico. Good bye Florida.
One of our friends is having a knee operation and asked Sandy to buy the pain meds in Mexico. In the United States they were $600. In Mexico they cost $18. NO This is not a typo.
My 10,200 cans and bottles, cleaned off Marshfield streets in 2018, paid for almost all of our meals in Mexico.
"How do you sum up your experience?" Great food, warmth, blue skies, blue water, no shoes, no coats. Eleven friends joining you at various intervals. It keeps the marriage fresh. Friends. The ones that joined us and the ones we have made.
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