Monday

We woke up Monday to another beautiful day in paradise. After breakfast on our own, we drove into town on our fun little moto. Our first stop was the mercado, where we found a tortillaria making fresh corn tortillas. Still brushing up on our Spanish, we thought that it was 70 pesos for a half kilo of tortillas. We were surprised to get back 63 pesos in change! Cheers to subsidized corn crops.

Our next task was to find a boat to take us to Isla Contoy on Tuesday. The island is a bird refuge which is supposed to have great snorkeling. We headed over to the island's boat cooperative and found a place that would take us on Tuesday. Brian, Kristen, Christina, and I decided to also go snorkeling today at some local spots around the island.

While Mom and Jim hung out on the beach, the rest of us boarded a small boat and headed South along the coast of Isla Mujeres. Arriving at the first snorkeling spot, we were told that we had to wear life jackets and follow a guide. This made for crowded and rushed snorkeling and also seemed to scare away the fish. The first location had pretty slim pickings for fish and underwater scenery. The second was a little better, but very crowded with more touristas than fish. There was a nice lighthouse and an underwater statue.

From there, we headed down to Playa Tiberon, or Shark Beach. Brian and Kristen had the chance to swim with a small nurse shark, and then we headed over to a sea-turtle research facility. It had quite a few turtles of various sizes as well as a small aquarium with other sea creatures. Sea turtle sightings are rare around here due to extreme over-hunting in the past, so this was our only chance to see live turtles on the trip. We then had a great lunch of barbecued fish, guacamole, and rice. It was then back to downtown through very choppy waters. At one point, Christina's hat flew off in the breeze and we had to turn around to retrieve it!

We met up with my Mom and Jim back in town and we all headed over to a travel agent to book our trips for the following day. Brian and Kristen decided to go to an eco-park called Xcaret and the rest of us would head to the Mayan ruins of Chichen Itza. The rest of the day included stops at the market, bookstore, and a wonderful French bakery called Lolo's.

Christina came home and tried to roast chicken for dinner only to discover the oven could barely get warm. After 90 minutes of trying, she gave up and cooked it on the stove. In the end, it turned out to be a wonderful meal of chicken and fried potatoes that we ate out on the balcony in the tropical breeze. Dessert was empanadas de manzana from Lolo's bakery.