Never, Never

One month in Mexico was PERFECT. Sandy and I will do a month again next year.

I think we ate at 23 or 27 different restaurants on Isla, plus a couple at Tulum. At least seven were brand new to us.

1. The Joint

2. Fuego's at Na Balam

3. Cafe Hidalgo

4. Don Chepo

5. Pico de Gallo

6. El Veradero (Cuban, on the pirate Mundaca's  lagoon), and

7. the Argentinian steak house on the vocalo.

#1 sucked and was dirty.

#2 Best live musica and margaritas

#3 OK

#4 best chile rellenos on the island - we used to go there a lot actually

#5 Mexican:  $23 for dinner & drinks

#6 like being in a foreign country in a foreign country. Not a soul spoke Spanish or English. We danced to a four piece Cuban salsa band.

#7 the steak tasted like veal. No one can believe they closed.

Barlito's has moved. Mango's has expanded. The Argentinian steak house folded while we were there. It was owned by the kids from Mañana. He is Venezuelan and she is pregnant and Israeli. Buccaneros, for tax reasons, has changed its name to Companeros. We ate there twice. Their mole is just wonderful.

In the top four for the whole month: (Leores), Olivia's Mediterranean three times, Sardinia Smile twice, Lola Valentina's three times, Cazuelo's twice and Argentinian Steak House twice.

28 sunny days and it rained one half of one day. Air temperature 85-90. Water temperature 82. A fifty-foot sand bar formed about forty feet out between Cabanas and Zazil-Ha over the last two weeks. Sandy and I practiced our floating raft skills and I think we impressed many people. When we left the forecast was for three days of wind and rain.

Had a wicked tailwind and got home to Boston in three hours and nine minutes from Cancun.

Dave and Robin Armstrong loved it and are coming back. Hortensia was quite thrilled with Robin's purchases. Initially Dave did not want to come to Mexico. Obviously the whole state of Minnesota did come. As well as Iowa and Saskatchewan. The Saskatchewan family left in -30 degrees and landed on the ferry dock on Isla Mujeres to 91 degrees. Crazy!

I have grown to enjoy young women, especially Brazilian, in thong bathing suits. I didn't even look at the topless Italian women.

Sandy's photos are the best of Isla yet in twenty six years.

They have changed Isla of Women’s name to Isla Babies. The population has gone from 10,000 to 13,500.

Carnival was a blast!

Now I have to go for a walk. 100 miles might take off the weight that I gained. Sandy didn't gain a pound. We did walk a lot -- nearly every day.

Nice article on 84-year old friend Rich Busa , snow shoe champion,via Gene Spriggs and the Boston Globe. You will see it in Bob Mail April maybe . . . 2015  (Grin)

Don Tocino

Tom y Eileen on the playa at Tulum. This is our 23rd vacation together . . .  or is it 24?

Black hawk in Tulum. Sian Ka'an (shawn cahn) Biosphere Reserve starts about four hotels away from ours. Thousands of Baltimore Orioles winter there.

iguana

Pelicanos, not Canada Geese, flying in a "v" formation.

Golf carting at the Punta Sur end of Isla Mujeres.

Nice water -- 82 degrees in Febrero. (Air temperature = 85-90)

red flowers

David Armstrong, who has built six additions on our house so far. He drank so much tequila that he formed his own brand!

Robin Armstrong at El Meco, which is a 1100-year-old Mayan ruin just eight miles across from Isla on the main land and a very short ride toward Punta Sam. I wrote a Trip Advisor report a few years ago and 2,221 people have read it. One person LIKED it.

black bird

Sandy y Bob, dinner on Hidalgo, the main street. Frank Ferrari at Ferrari Pools could never figure out why such a beautiful woman would marry me.

Playa Norte (north beach)

White sand Playa Norte (not snow!)

Our last full day on the playa.

Na Balam Hotel, pool side.

The #2 highlight of my trip was meeting Fidel Castro.

Carnival parade.

Carnival: Tuesday is black day.

Purple-haired dancers at Tarzan's seaside bar.

More parade.

bonita Mexican child

More parade.

More parade.

Bonnie from Sea Hawk Divers. Ariel Barandica, her husband, is from Veracruz (rusty cross) and Bonnie is from Alberta, Canada. Notice the street surface. Most of Isla has stamped concrete calles.

Sandy in the parade, representing Los Estados Unidos (the United States).

Bubble Girl.

Bubble Girl is from Serbia. She works at Mangos.

Massage on the playa.

You can't make up stuff like this. Margarita, Herradura, sal and rockes, por favor. Tocino at El Veradero Cuban restaurant on the Pirate Mundaca's lagoon.

Esta es la tierra de Dios y Maria santismo. This place is 7th Heaven. This is Never Never Land.

Isla Mujeres, Mexico, 2014.