Adios, Mexico

Bettie looking fly on the mooring ball.

We've had an amazing time in Mexico, and we really don't want to leave, especially the little town we've been in for the past few days. Puerto Morelos has given us a much needed break from the hustle and flow of Cancun and Isla Mujeres, and though a sleepy little place it has been strangely entertaining. There is great snorkeling within an easy swim of the beach where we saw four barracuda, two of which were as long as I am tall! There was the fiesta on Sunday evening that the entire town attended, which included live music and a game that involved kids climbing over each other like spider monkeys to reach the top of this two and a half story pole someone had setup in the water, and the ever present spectacle of people just throwing themselves off the municipal pier with all their clothes on. Why do they do that? We have no idea. We can only speculate that the pier has a magical draw that compels you to fling yourself off of it.  So far, I refuse to step foot on it, but Vlad says he's going to follow the town tradition before we leave.

A rousing game of soccer volleyball.

La Fiesta. See all the people in the water and the pole?

We have also seen a catamaran full of naked, dancing Europeans. Well, the women were topless, but the men were completely naked, just standing around sipping on mixed drinks. Then, they started a conga line. I am not kidding. The funniest part about all this (besides the conga line) was that they were sailing back and forth in front of the pier during a town boat parade that included the Mexican navy and fishing boats decked out with flags, and no one even noticed. Seriously, we love this place.

Oh, I almost forgot the most important thing. If you are ever in Tulum, and you see an older gentleman selling paletas, which are kind of like fruit popsicles, stop everything you are doing and buy one. Take it from me. We were eating bananas and drinking water after a long walk in the heat, and we saw this man selling what appeared to be homemade popsicles out of a styrofoam tub that he pushed around in a handcart. I got a coconut one, and it was quite possibly the best thing I've ever tasted - completely fresh, filled with chunks of coconut, just the right touch of sweetness and perfectly, divinely cold, the kind of thing you get in a gourmet restaurant. 

Bananas and popsicles. Does it get any better?

Still, we have to get going. Perhaps I'm speaking too soon, but I think we might be able to check out today. We have come to love dealing with Mexican officials. We say we'd like to leave early in the morning, and they say we'll be at your boat by 11. Then, you have to pay us, but to do that you need to go to the bank in Cancun. They already sent us to the airport in Cancun to meet with immigration. The lady at immigration looked at our passports and documents in total confusion, and then, after much conferring with her boss, gave us a number for the port captain to call. So basically we went to the airport in Cancun, which is 32 kilometers away, for a phone number that, as it turns out, no one answers. Thankfully, the port captain in Puerto Morelos is so ridiculously nice that we've been kind of hypnotized by his demeanor, making it really difficult to get mad about all the bureaucratic hoops. He even made a copy for us. For free.