Chatty and The Wiz are back from Cancun, and we had a great time!

    However, we are both a bit under the weather - The Wiz has been feeling poorly since last Thursday afternoon, but is much better today. Chatty got a sore throat last night, after we got home, and is fairly miserable today. With luck, it will run its course in a couple of days, like it did with The Wiz. 

    Don't panic! We are NOT talking about the flu! Just sore throats and stuffy noses. Chatty is fairly certain this is the result of going from basically NO humidity in Arizona to 90% humidity in Cancun - a HUGE difference, and certain to make allergies worse. Chatty and The Wiz both have allergies - remember, we were both suffering from them when we left - but we both "passed" the airport checkpoints in Mexico going and coming, which means it isn't the flu - because our temperatures are normal.

    And yes, they DID check the temperatures of everyone at the airport, both entering Mexico and upon leaving. When we arrived in Cancun, they had a machine where you had to press a button with your finger - if it lit up green, you were passed. If it was red - well, Chatty assumes you would have been pulled aside and examined further. Upon leaving Mexico yesterday, they actually had a man with a thermometer who held it to everyone's temples and checked our temperatures. The Wiz was feeling lousy yesterday, but he passed the thermometer test (thank heavens!) and was allowed to leave for Houston.

    Chatty is going to have to wash ALL of our clothes - even the ones we didn't wear - because everything is still DAMP. The humidity was just a misery all around. Chatty's hair was NEVER dry at any point during the 7 days she was on vacation! And at night, we would slip between clean sheets - but they were DAMP. All the clothes in the closets and drawers - DAMP.

    The tours and trips we took were fantastic, though! The ruins at Chichenitza and Tulum were incredible - and Chatty swam in two amazing natural wells (called cenotes) - the sacred Blue Cenote, around which Chichenitza was built, and the Grand Cenote, not too far from Tulum, which is south of where we stayed.
    
    We also went out in the lagoon in a speed boat and then boarded a glass bottom boat that looked like a little submarine - the part we sat in was completely underwater, and all glass. We saw a tortoise, and a "sleeping" shark (Chatty thought that sharks could never stop moving, but apparently this type - which also has no teeth - can "rest"), schools of brilliant blue fishes, and lots of live coral. 

    We also went parasailing right from the beach at our resort - but we couldn't swim there, because of the rocks. Hurricane Wilma washed all the sand away, so you can't walk in to swim, even wearing water shoes. They are slowly replacing the sand, starting in Cancun and working their way south toward the Riviera Maya, where we stayed - but it is taking a lot of time and money, and the work is slow.

    However, on a private tour we took with a fun couple we met, our guide took us to a private beach near Tulum, where his friends own a resort with a little restaurant and private bungalows right on the beach. The sand was white like Chatty has heard sand can really be, and the water was many shades ranging from blue to green to true turquise - and so warm that you didn't even notice when you walked in - like bathwater, truly! The sand was so fine that Chatty didn't even realize her bathing suit was full of sand until we went to dinner and Chatty had to go to the ladies room. The sand when flying everywhere when she took her suit off - but since she couldn't change clothes, she just pulled it back on, and again - didn't feel a thing! Amazing! Usually sand in your swimming suit is unbearable!

    Our room was lovely - stuff was expensive if you had to buy it at the resort, but the place was beautiful. And, there was a shuttle into Playa del Carmen, where they dropped you off at - brace for it - the local Walmart - where you could buy whatever you wanted, and they would ferry it to your room for you upon your return. The pool - well, pools, really - was unbelieveable - Chatty took pictures of it while we were parasailing, and you will see what she means when she gets the pictures downloaded and sized to put in her blog.

    The food was excellent, too - and Chatty found the most marvelous corn and poblano chile chowder she has ever tasted. Chatty has experience with corn and poblano chowder - having eaten it at the wonderful restaurant in the Getty museum in Los Angeles several years ago - but this stuff was even BETTER - Chatty ate it three nights running once she discovered it. The chef was kind enough to give Chatty the recipe - not that difficult, but time consuming - and she is going to make it as soon as she gets to the store to restock the larder and buy the proper ingredients.

    Pictures of our Cancun adventure will be forthcoming.

    Chatty hopes your week was as nice as hers!