OSCAR & LALO

Wednesday Peggy and I were off to farmer’s market day where we get the best fresh fruit and veggies.  We then headed to Wal-Mart in Playa de Carmen where I picked up a very cheap stroller for Declan who arrives this evening.  Sorry, no photos of the market,  or of Wal-Mart which is the same everywhere except that here they have a great fresh fish market and a bakery, which of course we who avoid wheat never imbibe.

The late afternoon activity has been planned for several days.  Four couples, including us, went OSCAR AND LALO’S.   Reed and I have considered going there for the past three years but it took our friends to finally get us there.   This garden restaurant is located away from the beach but the ambiance is wonderful.  Upon entering, one is thrust into a different world of greenery.  We walked through what seemed like a tunnel of trees and over a bridge over a pond filled with brightly colored fish.  A diapered Spider Monkey that was swinging on a hammock was gathered up and taken away soon after we arrived at our round table.  I had the mango shrimp and Reed the Yucatan chicken and of course flan for desert.  Expensive?  The bill came to $32 for the two of us including drinks. 

Pat, Shirley and Mike

Pat & Rob getting ready to join the others who are enjoying the views of fish and statues  

Fish in pond

Shirley, Rob, Pat, Mike, Helen and Paul give waiter drink orders.

As loon as the food came we all dug in.  All said their meals were outstanding. 

A special treat was this beautiful butterfly that flew by our table and landed on this banana leaf.  It was approximately 6 or 7 inches from wing tip to wing tip. 

Snorkeling in Puerto Morelos with friends

It was a lovely day for snorkeling and eight of us headed all the way to Puerto Morelos to take a snorkeling tour in a National Ocean Park.  It took only a few minutes once the boat left the dock to reach our first of two diving areas.  We were required to follow all National Park regulations that required us to wear life vests in the water and follow a guide.  The clarity was much better than in XPu-Ha as there is a larger reef just off shore.  We saw many of the same fish and two new ones.  It was another fun day with our XPu-Ha RV friends.

Mahogany Snapper

Blue Tang

French Angle fish

Trumpet Fish

Barracuda, about 3 ft. long

After all that swimming we sat on a beach restaurant for a nice grouper  meal and ceviche 

Pat clowning at the bano

The candy man walked down the street  easily balancing a load of candies on his head. 

We just had to finish up the day with ice cream as we enjoyed people watching on the plaza. 

Birding at Pablo's.

We started out early with our birder friend Mike and went looking for Pablo who comes by selling eggs.  Pablo is not a Mexican, though he is fluent in Spanish.  He moved here with his German wife about eight years ago from the USA and is homesteading about five kilometers into the “jungle”.   We call it jungle but technically it is really thick tropical forest.  The only way to keep an area free of plants is to constantly pull them up and keep your machete swinging.  We were hopping to see the beautiful Mot-mot birds and photograph them.  We did get some quick views of Mot-mots but no photos.  Luckily we finally did see the elusive beautiful blue Bunting which Reed has wanted to see for for three seasons.  All in all it was a wonderfully interesting day and Pablo took us all through his property looking for birds and seeing his neighbors cenote.  

Three Turkey Vultures gracefully sunned themselves in the early morning sun

Walking through this cleared area was very easy compared to the narrow trails we mainly hiked through.  Pablo carried his machete to make the walking easier as vines continually wrapped around ones ankle.

Pablo's well looked like a small cenote and we saw many holes like this one and ones much smaller as we carefully made our way through his property. 

We heard bees and saw this old bee hive in a flowering tree also frequented by many birds. 

A masked Tityra  we saw high on a tree.

The cenote on Pablo's neighbors property was a collapsed cave leaving a circle of caves about  200 feet in diameter.   Pablo's dogs were having a great time romping in the water as we watched large bats fly in and out of the cave. 

This part of the cave had old walls built out of rocks and pottery chards. 

There were many beautiful butterflies but most were  impossible to photograph.  We were able to see the beautiful  Blue Morpheus butterfly.