Seamail No. 5

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Hello all

it seems time for another seamail, though considering all that has occurred since last communique, there will be too much to write or even remember. Here it comes though, exploding like the hurricane we just went through. Sorry for the mess.

We started hearing about Hurricane Isidore from our friend Enrique at the dive shop and from the ceremony in the town square that was held to prepare the school children for hurricanes. This was two days before it hit; one day before my mom arrived for a week’s visit on a charter flight she was able to secure for a steal of a price at the last minute. Mom arrived on Friday, Isidore on Saturday. We didn’t think much of her for the first two days as she literally crawled along the norther coast of the Yucatan, her eye passing just north of Cancun, about 25 miles away. We were actually in cancun on Saturday, hoping for some refuge in a mall or movie theater from the rain. Torrential rains that day were the worst of the rain that we saw, but they wouldn’t have been nearly as bad had we not decided to travel north TOWARDS the hurricane. It was a stupid move. We just got soaked and returned to Puerto Morelos with a ruined first day of mom’s vacation. Cancun just isn’t supposed to be about soppy shoes and ponchos. The highlight of the day happened to be our courageous rescue of two tiny kittens who were stranded out in the storm. We answered their pleading cries for help with some milk and a flea bath. Our neighbors came over to tell us of their evacuation plan and ended up taking the kitties home. We learned later that they had been dubbed Isidore and Isidora.

As we watched Isidore develop on the weather channel on Sunday, we spent the day indoors for the most part. She seemed to be moving off, way west of us by now, and the predicted trajectory was that she was the head northwest into the gulf of mexico. She did no such thing. With her tail still slamming our beaches, she turned south toward the city of Merida west of us on the yucatan peninsula. There she stayed for several days, spinning waves of increasing wind our way. Monday and Tuesday were our worst days, when the winds were pretty much constantly above 50 mph. The weatherpersons kept predicting that any moment she would turn north, head off into the gulf. It took two days. In those two days, we spent a considerable amount of time walking on the beaches, in utter amazement of how our sleepy town had been transformed. Power was in and out, buildings were being ripped of the roofs, palapas on the beaches were being ripped out of the sand and toppled. Waves in our town reached about 5-6 feet at the strongest, reclaiming at least 20 ft of beach. The waves here were much smaller than those in Cancun and other areas where there is no reef offshore to break the waves before they make it to shore. Wearing a jacket did little more than turn you into a sail to be pushed around by the wind. We actually had little rain during this time, just scattered showers, so there wasn’t much flooding in our town, though in other parts of the peninsula, there was considerable flooding.

On Tuesday, we became sick of the sitting around, and decided to head back into Cancun, where, though windy, the weather was a little clearer. At any rate, there are things to do inside in Cancun, whereas here, there are none. We actually had a salvageable day shopping and sightseeing in Cancun. We saw an area where turtles nests had been moved to keep them clear of curious beach goers, evidence of the harm caused by our very presence in these animals’ habitats. With the first movements north of Isidore from her position southwest of us, it became clear that heading south the next few days was the way to go.

Wednesday we made a trek to Tulum, picking up a rental car in Playa del Carmen. Tulum is an amazing area, with cheap hotels and cabanas right on the beach. We picked a place called hotel La Perla for an overnight, and commenced a search for a place to have a late lunch. The search didn’t last long, however, as we settled on a jazz bar/italian restaurant. The place and food were amazing, and everyone there was nice - the owner took us on a short tour of his little venue and invited us to come for the shows they have coming up. I think we might just make it. Considering the place has only been open about 3 weeks, it wasn’t surprising that we were the only people there, but if you ever have a chance when in this area, eat at L’incontro. Or make it on a Saturday night for some great jazz. We spent the afternoon walking around and shopping in tulum’s pueblo, witnessing a herd of goats being driven around town and finding some of the best souvenir prices around (important for my mom). That night we had probably the best meal of the trip so far on the beach next to our hotel at Que fresco! (How fresh\\cool!) “The place to eat in tulum.” -vanity fair magazine. Amazing location, amazing food. Our hotel ended up being just ok, but very cheap with a free breakfast in the morning. The place had a mosquito problem and a dampness problem. Maybe both of those are from the proximity of both jungle and beach. And certainly the rainy weather wasn’t helping.

Finally on Thursday, the skies opened up and the sun warmed us. In fact, it baked us. After days of cool weather, it was like stepping back into the steam bath. That morning, we woke early to beat the crowds to the Mayan ruins at tulum. We were one of the first cars there, and it was incredible. Mosquitos were bad there, as was the tourist trap “commercial center” and I thought they might ruin it, until I stepped beyond the gate of this walled city on a cliff overlooking the surf. The feeling of stepping into this site before all the crowds arrived was amazing. We took rolls and rolls of photos, climbing on the cliffs above the sea with iguanas, reliving what must have been ordinary life for those living there hundreds of years before. It was anything but ordinary. After being there only a while, throngs of tourists descended and no clear pictures were available, so we went swimming on the beach just below the largest building of the tulum site, 'el Castillo'; (the castle). The beach was amazing, with clear sand and clearer water. Not a trace of seaweed anywhere, a far cry from the hurricane beaten beaches of Puerto Morelos.