One of my students brought this section of a baleen whale's left dentary (jawbone) to class today.  It is likely from the Purisima Fm. cliffs here on the Monterey Bay.

 

 

REGION: Desert fossil discovery reveals surprises

REGION: Desert fossil discovery reveals surprises

Yucatan Journal

Day 4; 7-6-12; Friday g+ Photo Album

-->

We had breakfast from our host and spent some time out by the lagoon knowing that we would not return to this beautiful place until the last days of our journey. We consolidated our belongings into just one backpack each and headed out by taxi to the airport to pick up our rental car. On the way there we almost became part of a bad accident under the overpass where a jeep rolled up over the median and our driver was going full speed without noticing it.  If Susan hadn’t gasped in horror the driver surely would have ran straight into the wreckage.

After our rental car was squared away we began our drive southward along the coast to Playa del Carmen. On the way we took a little side trip to the quaint fishing village of Puerto Morelo.  We walked on the fine white sandy beach where children were laughing in the waves, tropical birds were singing, a Mexican harpist was playing on the strand, and we could see all the multiple colors of the seaside shops and smell the cotton candy. After spending an hour or so swimming in the azure waters we had lunch at Los Pelicanos restaurant, where we experienced a truly magical meal on the edge of the Caribbean Sea. Susan had coconut shrimp with applesauce and Wayne had rice and beans. At most of our meals we drink a cerveza or two because they go so well with the hot and humid climate, and we are on vacation after all.  Mariachi singers, including the harpist, came to our table to sing a love song and add to the truly magical moment that we were having.

From Puerto Morelo we finished our trip to Playa del Carmen and arrived at our next lodging courtesy of airbnb.com. We met our host Melinda at the "compound" she created; a main home and guesthouses all surrounded by a walled enclosure with jungle vegetation all around. It turns out that Melinda travelled here from Monterey, CA when she was younger 30 years ago and just never left.  The tall, thick, wired walls were truly like a fortress and we felt super safe here.  While checking in she suggested some places to visit and then we went on our way walking down to the beach to swim once again in the warm waters of the Caribbean.  The beach here is much less cluttered with big hotels, and the people on the beach were tanned and gorgeous as if shaped by the beauty of the local Mexican landscape to fit in.  We walked the promenade on famous 5th St where there was music, food, and vendors selling all manner of colorful goods.  We even encountered a vendor selling time with a baby lion to tourists.  Wayne, as it turned out for the remainder of the trip, was every vendors “amigo” and always had “nice tattoos amigo”.  We returned to our little apartment, got dressed for dancing and stayed out until 1:30am exploring all the sights, dancing, and talking.   We walked for a long time exploring and waiting until later when most of the ritzier younger-generation clubs opened but settled on “Senior Frogs” for our dancing venue that evening.

A Lazy Day at Cancun Beach

-->

Yucatan Journal

Day 3;  7-5-12; Thursday

We arose to another superb breakfast from Elli, Carmen’s assistant. We decided to spend the entire day at the beach today.  We went over the bridge and cut through the giant hotels to get to the beach. We swam in a roped off area of the Caribbean in front of one of the hotels literally for a couple of hours, turning over the rope floats covered in sea weed to find creatures both mysterious and colorful.  We napped afterwards on recliners and then strolled down the beach for lunch at a wonderful little seaside cafe where there was a soccer game being played. Later back near our apartment we went up in a rotating needle ride 80m above the lagoon where we began planning the next leg of our journey over left over pastries while working on our ipads.  We washed clothes in the main house late into the evening. 

Bearing Sons Can Alter Your Mind - ScienceNOW

Bearing Sons Can Alter Your Mind - ScienceNOW

A Long Walk into Cancun City

-->

Yucatan Journal

Day 2;   7-4-12; Wednesday

Thanks to our host Carmen, we had a great breakfast on the second day of our Yucatan honeymoon of eggs with chorizo, juice, milk, coffee, and watermelon. Then we went out to the garden and pool and saw giant iguana lizards, puffer fish, needle nose fish, and purple sponges. We returned a bit later with suits and masks and went swimming in the lagoon for an hour where we saw more schools of fish in the deeper pools.  We would learn only later that the lagoon was infested with crocodiles!

Then we returned to our apartment, changed, and started the long walk to the city of Cancun.  Along the way we saw many more lizards. It was hot and muggy. We couldn’t walk the beach because it was all private homes. We found a coconut, split it open, and fought off biting ants to eat the delicious meat.  When we arrived in Cancun central we walked through the park and found a restaurant called Rolandi's and had Caesar salad and pasta putanesca with bread and vinegar and olive oil. We had cervezas, cappuccino, and flan. It was a magical meal and we shared conversation in a un hurried atmosphere.

We then went to the park and found a shady visible spot to nap for a siesta in each other’s arms.  When we awoke we ventured into a nearby Mexican grocery store where we were magnetically pulled in by the vast array of baked goods. They had a very interesting tray system for weighing the baked goods. We made our purchases and headed back toward our little apartment 4km away.   On the way back in the jungle along the road we saw hundreds of large blue crabs at least 6 inches wide.  Some of them had enlarged claws.  We caught the bus just 2km away and arrived home a little after dark.

After our showers we headed out on the bus for an evening of dancing. On the way there our bus driver decided to drag race with another bus, speeding quickly down the highway and coming literally within inches of hitting his competitor. On the dance floor we were groped by aggressive bar maids and paid for it with what should have been our bus money. The dancing was fun and sweaty with beats we both recognized, like Blondie from our wedding and many others we loved to dance to. 

Planning A Trip to the Yucatan

--> Yucatan Journal Day 1;  7-3-12; Tuesday
Before leaving for our honeymoon, Susan and I took a day following the wedding and dedicated it to packing up all our stuff we would need; not a whole lot of time to pack for a month in the Yucatan, especially since we were planning on doing a diversity of thinks like hiking, swimming, running, exploring, dancing, etc.  We both ended up realizing later that we actually packed way too much stuff.  We also had a lot of unfinished business to take care of, as teachers do in the summer; Wayne actually finished his online traffic school while boarding the plane for the Yucatan!  In the San Francisco airport we were the last passengers to board and were done with traffic school         as we stepped across onto the plane for the Yucatan!

After a 5 hour flight we arrived at the Cancun airport and we were bombarded with taxi requests and the ATM machine almost ate Wayne’s card; we were lucky to get it back!  After another couple of hours of airport challenges and taxi rides, we checked in to our apartment in the hotel zone.  Our host Carmen gave us a tour of the white stucco main house and our beautiful quaint little apartment.

Ok, so the water here is AMAZING. We walked two blocks from our apartment across the street to test the waters of the Caribbean. Warm like a bathtub! We left our belongings on the beach and submerged ourselves in the clear warm water as the sun was setting and a gigantic full moon was making its appearance on the horizon.  Three Christmas light-adorned pirate ships were sailing offshore in the warm Caribbean waters.  We played in the water in front of the large hotel with people milling about on the beach and at the bar. The water was so warm it was hard to get out!.

We went out in search of fine dining and disco dancing but ended up at a hotel buffet where Wayne almost ate a tongue and Susan found coconut ice cream that put her on the verge of violating all natural societal laws and marital customs of polite etiquette.

After our hotel buffet we strolled the beach in front of the hotels in search of dancing. We found some mariachi music and then ventured further down the beach where we found pool chairs in the white sand. We both fell into a deep sleep at 11pm on the warm beach with the sound of calm water lulling us to sleep