Patio is looking great!

Jose the gardener finished digging up the concrete for my gardens, and he even hung my hammock for me.
I have found some hibiscus to add to the mix, and a friend will donate some Elephant's ears cuttings. I will also keep some in pots around the jacuzzi as I like the feel.
Of course with some more plants and when the palms get bigger it will keep getting better and better, but I think it's already a nice place to relax.

Getting in and out of the hammock without tipping over does take some practise, and adding Pina Coladas to the mix does NOT  help!


It's great that the place behind has bougainvilleas that come over the fence to add some extra colour, at least until mine get bigger.


My next task is the kitchen. Stay tuned...

Melanie moves in

Melanie the black kitten has settled in well, and taken up her position on the bed.

Although the first night she ran around the house like a crazy, scratching at imaginary bugs on the windows, last night she stayed all night at my feet. The position she favours is on her back so she can have her belly rubbed.


She also likes to hide behind the sofa bed for a snooze, I think she feels safe because no-one can see her.


You can see in the photo her 3 white toes, and she has a tiny bit of white under her chin too. They told me she was crying a lot because her mate got adopted, and she was very vocal in the taxi on the way home. She seems very content now, but I need to take her back for vaccinations on Friday and if she cries in her carry bag they won't want me on the bus!

A busy week

Me and Marion near the cenote on the 7th fairway

It's been a busy time since I got back. I did my final day of volunteering at Mayakoba on Sunday, and was very excited as Australian Robert Allenby was leading the tournament. He subsequently tied for 1st with a USA player, and after 8 extra holes playoff, the other guy won. I felt so sad for him, to be so close. It only takes one mistake to blow it all, and after the normal 18 holes and another 8 under intense pressure, he must have been gutted.
I was pretty tired when I got home, catching a bus at 5.20am is probably a first for me. The sunrises over the golf course were beautiful, but I'm happy to enjoy sunsets in future!

I did manage to get to the 8.30 yoga class and then got a message to say there was a kitten waiting for me to collect her at Coco's rescue.  I just had time to bring her and all the paraphernalia back before my lunchdate with a friend at 12.30. She had a little time to settle in and explore by herself while I was out. She's a 5 month old black girl with 3 white toes, a bit shy but very vocal and loves to have her belly rubbed. She is snoozing on the lounge as I type and I'm sure she will settle in well.

I am meeting another friend for coffee tomorrow, and then 2 others the next day, and dinner with others on Wednesday night.

I have also chosen some more plants for my new garden, so will collect and plant those in the next few days. It's looking lovely already with my new hammock and I hope to get some hammock time soon.

Volunteering at the Mayakoba PGA

I have just finished my 2nd day as a volunteer Ambassador at the Mayakoba PGA Golf Championship. Mayakoba is the only PGA event held in Mexico, and we are lucky to have it here in Playa del Carmen as it brings lots of tourism and work for the locals, as well as volunteering opportunities for the local community.

I started yesterday on Day 2 of the competition and was assigned the role of Marshal on the 7th hole, about halfway down the fairway. The hole has a dogleg to the right and there is a sandy cave on one side and sand traps on the other. My role involved spotting the balls when they landed, and if they went into the rough, pointing them out to the players and letting down the side ropes so that they could hit them back onto the fairway without obstructions. I also had to stop people talking on phones, using cameras and walking or talking while the players were "addressing the ball". For this purpose I had a large sign saying "Silencio" that I raised when the player was ready to hit. 
I witnessed some great shots, like when a player hit his ball from in front of me, directly into the hole, earning an "albatross" - 3 under par. I also witnessed some pretty abysmal shots and a few times had to get out of the way of mis-hit balls. Sometimes the players were lucky, the ball hit a tree, or the road, and bounced back to the grass. And sometimes not.
There was a large iguana which seems to live in the cave, and liked to pop out whenever a ball arrived, giving the players a bit of a shock. But he scuttled back in when they got close.


Today I spent 1/2 of the time in the same spot and then they moved me to the tee. There we also had a troublesome iguana which wanted to sun himself on the tee and had to be shooed away regularly.

What a gorgeous location!

Golf is not yet a popular sport in Mexico, although there are lots of courses here they are used mainly by visitors. So it wasn't a problem holding back a surging crowd, even for the leaders, and many players had no followers at all.


The hardest part for me was the 4.45am start today to catch a 5.30 bus to the course. I'm not at all at my best at that time of day. Fortunately they gave us a substantial breakfast, and a lunchpack with fruit, chips and muesli bars. There was plenty of chilled water available on the course, and even porta-loos for the results of all that food & drink!


Tomorrow is the final day, another 4.45am start, and hopefully more spectators for an exciting finish. The current leader is 12 under par for the 3 days, and an Australian is currently equal third, so stay posted for more exciting news. (I imagine that on Monday I will laze in bed until late and then lie in my newly raised hammock.)

My new gardener

My friend Carla brought her gardener to me to dig up some concrete in my patio so that I can put in a garden. I showed Jose what I wanted done and he started hammering away about 10.30am. On one side the concrete was about 10cm thick, which was hard enough, but on the other side he found 2 separate layers for a total of about 20cm. Power tools are pretty rare amongst the workers of Playa, so Jose was working with a large hammer and a chisel, just banging away to break up the concrete. I kept him supplied with water and cooked him bacon and eggs, but other than that he worked hard all day.


He left at 5.30, and still has a few more hours to finish. But we discussed the costs, and this is what he's charging:
5.5 m2 of concrete removal at $A6.59 an hour (!!!!!)
10 large bags of black soil       $A36.60
Plant 6 trees with fertiliser         $10
Removal of a small tree stump  $3 - the stump was about 5cm diameter


He will dig out all the rubble and bag it up, and I need to pay for a ute or small truck to remove and dump it - probably about $20. Then he will clean the whole area and make sure the plants are growing strongly.


It's looking like altogether it will cost me not much more than $100. I can't even imagine what it would have cost me in Australia for such heavy manual labour. But they seem very used to it here, and happy to do it to earn whatever they can. Yay, I love Mexico! Photos of my new garden coming soon....

The jacuzzi works!

A big task for yesterday was to clean out the leaves and dirt in my backyard jacuzzi, ready for a Live test! I got in and sloshed and scrubbed until it was looking spotless.


I had several tasks to do in the afternoon, then I visited the beach for a quick swim. When I arrived home it was just getting dark, so I put in the plug and turned on the taps to allow it to fill as I poured a glass of pink champagne. I also brought out my iPod player so I could relax to some laidback latin music. The hot water ran out fairly quickly, but with the warm weather here it wasn't a problem. I didn't fill it completely, just to cover the jets. When I first turned it on it sprayed water everywhere (fortunately not in my wine!) and I had to turn it off to adjust them downwards.  Attempt no 2 was much more successful, except that all the gunk inside the jets that I couldn't reach, then came flying out with force. I had added a little bathgel which made a vast amount of froth and had a delightful if somewhat crunchy! relax for about 45 minutes until the smell of my spinach lasagna beckoned me inside.


Jacuzzi functional and clean - TICK!

A Candle to Light Her Way....

Yesterday I had to go to pay my overdue condo fees that I couldn't do online because my card was blocked. I was explaining to the girl that I hadn't spent 3 months in Australia only as a holiday, but that my Mum had died. Mexicans see death as just another part of life, and believe the spirits of our departed loved ones are always around. She told me something that really resonated with me, that I should "light a candle to light her way to the angels". She said it doesn't matter what church I go to, and I guess it's not even necessary to light the candle in a church at all. I went along to the Church of Our Lady of Carmen yesterday, and lit a candle in front of the Virgin of Guadalupe. I intend to do so regularly.


So I am asking you, dear friends, if you would also light a candle to light Joan's way to the angels, and spend a moment thinking of her and of your own lost loved ones. Think also of the families who at this moment are coming to terms with the loss of their loved one, as happens every minute of every day. 


If you could please let me know when you have lit your candle, we will keep your thoughts in Mum's remembrance book. We'll know that she has plenty of light to find her way. Thanks from my heart!

Projects for this year

I'm pleased to be back at my yoga school Ananda Yoga from the Heart, the others just don't measure up any more! My schedule is 6 classes over 5 days with Tuesday and Sunday to sleep in and go to the beach.

Since I've been away, other classes have started at Ananda, and I'm keen to try the Argentine Tango, and the Cuban Salsa, so that's Tuesday night and Saturday morning sorted.

There is a sporting field about 50m from my home, and they have "Cardio salsa" classes every morning M-F 7.30-8.30 and every evening at 7pm, it costs about $8 for the week. That should take care of my aerobic fitness.

But most importantly, I have gotten involved with the KKIS project - Keeping Kids in School, an initiative for the local kids. This is what they told me:

The KKIS Project came about as a sustaining project after we made a donation at Christmas. We have found a very receptive elementary school in the Guadalupana neighborhood on the north side of Playa. Our goals are to help keep kids enrolled in school by: supplying uniforms, providing school supplies and backpacks, securing English language materials for the classroom and to provide volunteers for the classrooms to help students learn English.

We chose the Pelopides school because they provide financial scholarships to half of their students. Some students only need a little help and others have all of their tuition paid. This school also teaches English to all students for half of the day and they desperately need English language materials and volunteers to help students learn how to read in English. They are also willing to allow us into their classrooms to help students learn English by reading to them.

Most of these kids come from very poor families, many of them Mayan, and as they cannot go to school unless they have the necessary books and equipment, many kids just drop out, or else the books are shared by brothers and sisters who take it in turns to attend school. The cost for what each child needs is minimal for us foreigners, but almost unattainable for these families. We heard how some of these families are surviving (?) on the equivalent of $500 a year! 

We are starting with a fundraising luncheon and auction, and from there hopefully there will be plenty of opportunities to make a difference in these kids' lives. A good education gives them more chances to find work, and fluency in English will help enormously with many jobs in the tourism industry.

If anyone is considering coming to visit me, we'd really appreciate as many children's books as you can bring - remember that coming to the US you can bring 2 bags of 23kg each.

I'll keep you posted about how it all goes. For now, adios!

Back in Mexico!

Yes I know it's been a loooonnnnggg time since I've blogged - apologies to my readers. Life sort of got in the way. I went to Mexico City and environs for a visit in October, my return was delayed by a hurricane, and then I moved house and spent the following weeks painting and renovating and crashed into bed exhausted every night. Until I got the call from Australia in mid-November to say that Mum was going downhill fast. I did manage to get home a few weeks before she died and it was good to have that time with her, and also to be there to help support my family as we dealt with her loss.

I flew back to Mexico on Feb 13 and have settled back very easily. I'm happy to be here in my little casa, and am busily catching up with friends and planning the next lot of renovations.

My Sunday started with a delicious mushroom omelette and fresh orange juice at the local supermarket for less than $3, then shopping to stock up the cupboards again. It finished with a sunset swim in the Caribbean as the sky turned pink and orange around me, and a delicious pina colada before dinner. Ah, I love my life!