Red Sky At Night

The evening skies after a storm can be quite amazing. Once the sun comes out again, that is!

Church Work

Work on the new church here in the neighborhood La Gloria continues. I think this is going to be another Catholic (surprise!) church to serve the inner island neighborhoods.

The Wild Side Of The Island

Woman Attacked On North Beach

I have a young woman friend, in her mid-twenties, who is visiting the Island for the second time. She is a well-seasoned world traveller and not the least bit naive about the dangers of travelling alone as a single woman. Even so, who would imagine that you could get hurt here on the island? And on North Beach especially. This is her story.

It was just starting to get dark out. Almost everybody else had left the beach for the day. Having been on the beach all day, she gathered up her belongings and started walking down the beach. She was about 30 yards past the Swing Bar I showed you on Friday, when a group of three boys approached her. She says they looked to be in the 12-14 year old age.

One of the group asked her for a cigarette. She said she didn't have any. Then they asked if she had a lighter they could borrow for a second. She rummaged in her beach bag/purse and handed them a lighter. They did nothing with it but continued to stand there and look at her. At this point she was getting a little nervous. She asked them to return her lighter. At the same time, an older, much larger man appeared out of nowhere and stood with the kids, not saying a word.

The boys laughed and gave her back her lighter. She walked around them, continuing on her way. All of sudden she felt a strong force push her from behind and she fell to her knees in the sand, the contents of her bag scattering. She says that all she could think was to get up. Get up! She stood and started to run, screaming for help, for the nearest break in the fence which leads to a restaurant. They did not pursue her.

She reported to the staff at the restaurant what had happened and they accompanied her back onto the beach. Both to see if the thugs were still there and to help her collect her spilled things. Except, of course, there was nobody there and most of her belongings were gone. Her wallet, which only contained money, her camera, her iPod and her snorkel. All gone. Even so, she feels lucky that she escaped this encounter relatively unhurt.

The moral here: Do not stop and talk to a group of people who may approach you....for any reason. They surely will not have your best interests in mind.

Palapa Update

It looks like I am going to have to get up pretty early in the morning to fool you guys again. Almost everyone of you guessed correctly for yesterday's quiz. The answer: they are all things I have seen being used instead of real protective helmets on motor scooters. Good going, Guys and Gals!

Today we are going to take a quick trip back to the Hotel Maria del Mar. Remember a few weeks ago I showed you the beginnings of a palapa over what used to be an outside restaurant and bar? Well, look at it now.





This thing is huge! I really was not expecting something so grandiose. But, there seems to be a trend right now on the island to build these huge palapas. I think the trend was started by the restaurant Brisas Grill. I could name you four of these things right off the top of my head.




As you can see here, it has been extended out and will, indeed, cover the old swing bar. They did not tear it down as a waiter reported to me they were going to do.




This picture gives you some idea of the scope of this thing. I hope.




But not to fear. Should you still require or desire a more intimate palapa setting, one of the original three swing bars still remains untouched. For those of you unfamiliar with the phenomenon known as a swing bar, I think this picture adequately explains it.





Truth be told, I like this new addition to the North Beach.

While We Wait, A Quiz

This is what the tourist waiting line looked like yesterday morning for the ferry to cross to Cancun. This is September, one of the slowest tourist months of the year. And it was raining.




But here's another quiz for you:

What do these items have in common here on Isla: a baseball batter's protective helmut, a construction workers yellow hard hat, 2 baseball caps and a plastic bucket?

Answer tomorrow.

Gave Me A Chuckle

I had to go to our local dentist the other day. He is actually the official dentist for the military stationed here on the island. Since he speaks English, he has discovered that he can tap into the Gringo market here and make a bit of pocket money.

When he had finished giving me a new smile, he handed me a hand mirror. It was shaped like a giant molar. I started to giggle and couldn't stop. He looked at me quizzically.

All I could say was "I am so glad you are not a gynecologist too!"

Up, Up And Away!

As promised, here are some pictures of last week's fireworks. For those interested, my camera was set on "Fireworks" and I did not use a flash. Enjoy.

There will be no post tomorrow.

Celebration On Isla

Wednesday night saw possibly the largest celebration that Mexico has ever had. It was both the 200th anniversary of the Mexican War of Independence and the 100th anniversary of Mexico's Revolution. Cities all over Mexico went absolutely wild with their celebrations. There are many blogs out there that talk about the history behind these two events so I am not going to attempt to reinvent the wheel here. But I am going to show you some pictures of the party here on Isla. A party that it is rumored cost the city a whopping 500,000 pesos to put on.




I wish I had a better picture of this lady. She has come to the island every year for the past 15 years to sell patriotic paraphernalia from her cart. My little rear view mirror bird came from her.





All the vendors were out in full force. Enticing the crowd to part with their pesos.

There was even a booth giving away free beer. Alcohol free I am told. No matter. For some reason, it was a hit anyway.

The trinket stands lined the entry to the malecon. I stay away from them if I can. Otherwise I am tempted to buy stuff to give away to all of my friends. Stuff they don't need or necessarily want but that I think is a hoot.

The kiddies were not forgotten. There was a portable trampoline set up. Complete with safety net.

Teen-aged boys were given some place to hang out too. I think they were off flirting with the girls when I shot this picture though.

Our infamous fountain had been repaired and cleaned in anticipation of this night. It really was fun to watch. I still don't like it where it is though.

Everybody was dressed in their finest.

There was no end to the glitz and glitter.

The island fire trucks were parked nearby. Just in case the fireworks should decide to behave crazily.

Now this is really strange. I asked the police officers stationed outside this cordoned off area what in the world this was. They told me that it was a temporary holding cell for drunks. I believed them at the time. I think, though, that maybe it is where the fireworks were housed?

There were singers, dancers and lariat twirlers entertaining the crowd who were patiently waiting for "el Grito" to be given.

All food vendors at special events are now restricted to the basketball court. I couldn't believe how crowded it was.

Although the food looked good, I had eaten at home and didn't buy a thing.

Promptly at 11pm, here as in every other city in Mexico, our Mayor took to the balcony of the Municpal building and delivered the famous cry, Viva Mexico! The crowd went wild.

As soon as the third Viva Mexico was yelled, the national anthem started playing and the fireworks went off. I'll show you some of them on Monday.

A New Statue

There a couple of new statues on the island. The one I am featuring today has taken the place of the one located at the curve by the Rocamar Hotel. It was a depiction of a reef, complete with various marine life. It was destroyed by Hurricane Wilma in 2005 and has finally been replaced. The previous one was done by a local sculptor, Adrian. Although there is nothing to indicated who made this one, it has all the earmarks of Adrian's work.

I present the statue dedicated to our sea turtles.






This one is complete with a commerative plaque.




These things look so lifelike, I would almost swear they were plastercasts of real turtles.

The malecon wall just behind them has also been painted to commerate and honor the sea turtle. I saw this being painted. It was not done by school children.

Not only is it worth a stop to see this beautiful new piece of art, but the view from here looking east out over the ocean is incredible.

I'm really happy that somebody had the foresight to commission a new piece of work for this spot. The previous statue had lost its' beauty and had become an eyesore. Good work, Isla.