January 11, 2019 to January 12, 2019
Snorkel, rinse, repeat
Our two days here in Puerto Morelos have been spent enjoying the beach and snorkelling, so there is not a lot to say bikewise. On Friday, we booked a reef tour with Wet Set Diving, a company owned by a Canadian! We found them online and they had great reviews and now we can see why. Their customer service was terrific, making sure that each person felt taken care of and welcomed. The owner stopped by to chat with us about all things Canadian and our guide, Ping, was also Canadian, so it felt like home (except for the part where it was warm and the beach was beautiful white sand and there was a great reef for snorkelling just offshore). Ping explained to us that this reef, the Mesoamerican Reef stretches over 1000 kms from the tip of the Yucatan to Honduras. It is the second largest barrier reef in the world (to Austrailia's of course) and home to many fish and a great variety of coral. We were excited to try snorkelling from a boat and also a little trepidatious about entry into the water with all that gear on. Turns out it was no big deal and in fact, easier than flopping into the water from the shore with flippers on. We had a fantastic time during our two 45 minute sessions with Ping leading us from one beautiful coral to another. There were so many fish!!! And so much beautiful coral!!! Ah, if only I had some pictures to show you! We are still having issues with pics. The video from the GoPro is amazing and sometime we will figure out how to get around our issues but for the moment, you will just have to take my word for it - there were lots and lots of wonderful things to see under the sea!
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After our time in the water we were ravenous and looking for lunch, but not just any lunch would do. Yesterday we saw a girl at the dive shop eating a burger and it looked like heaven. We haven't had a burger in a long time and I really wanted one today. Thankfully we had asked about where this work of art had come from and Alaburger was just around the corner from the dive shop, so we walked over and had oh! The BEST tasting burger ever!!!! Not sure if it was the actual burger, the setting or the fact that it was such a change from what we have been eating for over a month now, but wow did it taste good! It was so good in fact that we had both eaten everything in sight before I even though, oh geez, no pictures! So, here is sort of what their burgers look like - a good place to eat and pretty cheap too!
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We sat on the beach (in the shade) for a time and then headed back to our place. We walked down to the store not too far away to find something for dinner and then over to a little cafe for some yummy frappes. The owner of the cafe had an American accent but when I asked if she was from the states or Canada it turned out her parents were French and Mexican. It was a nice little place and we enjoyed watching two little girls playing dress-up while we enjoyed our cold drinks. Oddly enough, neither of us had brought our phones so no pics.
Today was mostly a repeat of yesterday with some small changes. We stopped by the dive shop, first of all to retrieve the GoPro that had gotten left there yesterday - oops! And secondly to rent some flippers for the morning. The plan was to try and take pics with the GoPro today so we would have something to put up here. We put our blanket down on the beach, geared up and headed out into the water. It took a bit of searching but eventually we found the spot where the coral reef began and were able to see lots of fish again. We even spotted a pretty big barracuda. Yesterday we had seen several and I really couldn't see what the big deal was - they are kind of plain looking actually. But this one! I could see his big big mouth and his many teeth - yikes! Impressed but slightly alarmed I moved away from him, hoping that Jim had gotten a good pic of him. We eventually took a break and headed to shore where we found that neither of us had taken to GoPro into the water - it was sitting right where we left it on the blanket! Oh boy! Good thing people are pretty honest around here I guess, that's twice we've left the darned thing behind! After our rest I took the GoPro and we headed back into the water, which had turned pretty murky by then. I tried to get some pics but it was hard to really have a clear view, so it wasn't terribly dissapointing to find that the GoPro had reverted to video mode and once again I didn't have any pictures to show - bummer! I think we will break down and buy a cheap underwater camera but not sure if we will do that before Cuba or after. We headed back home to relax, do some planning for Cuba and pack up to move again tomorrow. We are headed to Cancun, not too far away, but up another busy section of highway so I'm not looking forward to it. We had discussed going around the longer way to avoid the traffic, but Jim is keen to get in early so we can sort out bike boxes and go through our gear tomorrow. It is hard to think that we are at the end of this part of our journey. We have learned a lot, and enjoyed all of our time here in Mexico, even that one day where we were both sick because we ended up at that magical hacienda. What a great adventure this has been! Just a programming note, once we get to Cuba, all bets are off on how well I'll be able to post up the blog on a regular basis. If I can't you may have to wait until we arrive back in Mexico at the end of February to see how it all goes!
For information on barracudas, check out https://goo.gl/images/uDhuHB
And to see pics of the mesoamerican reef
https://goo.gl/images/xDSDyN
https://goo.gl/images/wJ6dD2
https://goo.gl/images/VXyHkF
Today's ride: 8 km (5 miles)
Total: 972 km (604 miles)
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