Wandering with Tedder and Tamara

* Tamara posting *

Today was an errands type day, we mostly worked on editing photos from the past week, getting them uploaded to the site, etc. We also got a rental car because we don't want to use the bike except to take it to get the new parts installed, and Ted's mom is coming and we'll need a way to get around that we all fit into. We have also been trying to finalize plans for what days we want to do which activities while we are here - Xel-Ha (touristy water/eco-park), dolphin swim, reef snorkel, cenote swim).

We did take a break in the late afternoon and went out swimming just off the beach here in town. The water was gorgeous, but it was a little windy. I was amazed at how clear and blue/green the water was, and that I could actually see where I was walking! Definitely not the Pacific NW beach water. We kind of missed the bigger waves though, since we like to body surf them :)

I also took advantage of the hammocks in the back garden here at the hotel to do some reading. I really like hammocks for that sort of thing, especially when the weather is as nice as it is here. Though one of the owners told me to beware of crocodiles from the swamps behind the property (and he was only half joking - I guess he got a 3 foot one waddle onto the gravel to sunbathe once).

The other guests here are cool, there are two younger couples with toddlers, one set from Seattle and another from Italy. The owners are great too, they had been leasing a hotel on an island off the NE coast of the Yucatan that got wiped out by Hurricane Wilma, and weren't ready to go back to Switzerland afterward, so they found this place that was being leased out and opened this hotel in January. I can't imagine having lost everything like that, and they have such great attitudes about it.