Past 4 days and other ramblings

Well, last time I posted was Wed. It is now Sunday night, four days have past...no posts but we haven't been sitting in the room the whole time:). So I will work backwards with some additional diversions.

Today we dove Chac Mool, I wanted John to see it. We were going to scooter, but we decided against it to save our backs for the big push at Camillo (set-up for that starts tomorrow). The steps down to cenote Chac Mool from where you park are OK but a bit steep and we just didn't want to deal with it and scooters. We had a nice dive, went way past the 'Monster House' and figured out where the 'Monster Liar' route is. (that wasn't very hard). Halocline, halocline, halocline :) That room is truly amazing.

So after the dive we went back to unload and grab some dinner in Tulum. Tulum has way more activity than Akumal and is much more diverse....in other words people watching has become quite a past time for us at dinner. This week starts 'Semana Santa' or Holy Week and it is a big holiday in Mexico. Many people take vacation over this time. As we sat in one of our favorite restaurants (El Pequeno Buenos Aires), we watched the action unfold. Quick side note, most of the restaurants are open and have tables on the sidewalk, so you get a view of all the happenings. So this convertible white BMW (not one of the more usual cars in Tulum) cased the joint about 3 times and finally pulled up next to the restaurant, a young guy jumped out, got a menu and went back into the BMW. They were in the car reviewing the menu for a good 15 minutes...finally the older gentleman got out with the menu, spoke to the chef, then the bartender, and looked at all the bottles of wine. By now, I am beginning to wonder if all of this is merely for a wine purchase. So finally they corked the wine, the guy sampled it, the younger guy (who had been minding the BMW) came to sample the wine...they all agreed and off they went with the bottle of wine. Too funny. The soccer tournamnet was also on TV..the American's vs Chile (I think) and it was fun seeign the waiters so distracted by the game. Soccer or Football as it is called here is quite big.

So on our walk back to the apartment another guy, comes out of the pharmacy shaking his head and asks if we speak Spanish. I told him that if his ailment is simple(he was coming out of the pharmacy so I took a guess) , I can help, but if it is complicated he is on his own. He tells us that "someone he knows is in need of a laxative" and he doesn't know how to ask for it. John says EX-Lax...I say ask for "el opposito de immodio" he laughs and runs back into the pharmacy. And I have to ask myself...of all the things you may need in Mexico...a laxative is usually not one of them. So we got a good chuckle out of that!

Yesterday we didn't dive...doctoring our ears and working on gear....and some nachos at Lol-ha (a restaurant on the beach with great mango margaritas).

And the day before, we dove Carwash, working with the scooter, weighting the scooter and me practicing some skills learned from Danny. I ran a line using the scooter to the main line at Carwash, besides having a big birdsnest on my reel at the beginning it was uneventful. So the plan was to run to the mainline (quite a ways back), leave the line, scooter back to the cenote, then scooter back and pick up the line while on the scooter. The first 3 parts went OK, until I started picking the line up while on my scooter. Guess what, the line got tangled in my scooter, had to cut it and we swam out. But John got to practice towing his scooter. It was a frustrating day for me but again...if you don't challenge yourself you won't learn anything new...or some hooey like that:)

The previous day was spent working on scooters again...I even did some work...making new leashes, changing tow cords and learning the electrical parts of the circuit. John is very patient :)

Four newly worked on scooters!

Tomorrow we pick up our stages and do the first set-up dive. I will take pictures tomorrow. I keep forgetting to pull the camera out of the car.

Miss everyone.

Karen and John