we walked over to the restaurant this morning after a very restful sleep and while we were eating and looking out at the beautiful scene before us . . . white sands and turquoise waters . . . i was thinking about the population problems in much of the third world. i have believed in the past that someone needs to educate these people to have less babies and thus have a little more money to elevate themselves, to make a better way of life. the reality is that when you don't have electricity and the sun goes down there is not much to do and the default setting is on 'make a baby', and well thats what they do.
after breakfast, we headed out on our canal tour with fernando who is an ecologist as well as our tour guide. he has studied in ottawa and montreal and speaks english as well as i do. i'm sure, lolitta, if he was typing anything he would use caps . . . what an ingrate lol. we were joined by a britiish couple, he is a pilot on stopover and she owns a b&b in kent (we got her business card as that is an area we might like to walk around) and jorge from barcelona. it was a very cool trip. we spent part of the time zippng around by boat and looking at the ecosystem/bird life and mangroves. then we headed up a canal that was about 9km long. the first 5km is brackish water which as we stated earlier consists of 80% salt water and 20% freshwater. after that the canal becomes 100% fresh water and as such there are no crocodiles and other predators so fish like grouper make their way to the fresh water area and spawn much like our salmon. they are born and die in fresh water and live their lives in the saltwater. we headed to the mouth of the canal and got off in an area that featured a small building, part of the meyul ruins, that early traders used for stopping and resting on their trips. it was made of stone like all the other ruins we saw and we could still see where the mayans of the period had painted the stone red which made it easier to find. (greens would be lost in the vegetation, blues would be lost against the waters). they use a berry indigenous to the area for the colour.
we got into the water at this point as we were going to float down the canal for about 30 minutes. the water is crystal clear and the current from underground streams strong enough that all we had to do was float. the trick is to sit on one arm of a life jacket and let the rest of the jacket support your back, much like a lounge chair . . . and away you go. and what a beautiful way to go! we surprised many birds as we rounded turns and were able to appreciate how graceful some of the big birds are when they take off . . . of course we saw lot of fish as well. after the tour we enjoyed lunch with fernando and jorge, as the british couple had to head back to cancun. jorge has some english . . . he is an it guy and is on loan from the university of barcelona, where he works, for a one month project in mexico city. every time we asked him a question he politely put down his knife and fork and took his time talking to us. the end result is that we all finished our meals well before he had finished half of his. i apologized for taking him away from his lunch and again he set down his knife and fork and said it was ok. he explained a meal is for friends and family and he is used to taking two hours to eat and another hour to drink coffee. hmmm, i always thought it was important to eat fast so i could get more . . . you know before someone else got the seconds. afterwards, over coffee, fernando asked us to complete a simple questionaire about the trip. one question was 'how could they improve the canal tour' and i wrote "all that was missing was a glass of wine". he had a good chuckle and commented that his boss would appreciate that too.
all packed up again, we headed back to la selva mariposa for our final two nights in the area. this time in a different room, but equally as nice. the first week of our trip was supposed to be for relaxing and really up to this point we haven't stopped at all. we decided to spend the rest of the afternoon and evening 'at home' and just take it easy.
after breakfast, we headed out on our canal tour with fernando who is an ecologist as well as our tour guide. he has studied in ottawa and montreal and speaks english as well as i do. i'm sure, lolitta, if he was typing anything he would use caps . . . what an ingrate lol. we were joined by a britiish couple, he is a pilot on stopover and she owns a b&b in kent (we got her business card as that is an area we might like to walk around) and jorge from barcelona. it was a very cool trip. we spent part of the time zippng around by boat and looking at the ecosystem/bird life and mangroves. then we headed up a canal that was about 9km long. the first 5km is brackish water which as we stated earlier consists of 80% salt water and 20% freshwater. after that the canal becomes 100% fresh water and as such there are no crocodiles and other predators so fish like grouper make their way to the fresh water area and spawn much like our salmon. they are born and die in fresh water and live their lives in the saltwater. we headed to the mouth of the canal and got off in an area that featured a small building, part of the meyul ruins, that early traders used for stopping and resting on their trips. it was made of stone like all the other ruins we saw and we could still see where the mayans of the period had painted the stone red which made it easier to find. (greens would be lost in the vegetation, blues would be lost against the waters). they use a berry indigenous to the area for the colour.
we got into the water at this point as we were going to float down the canal for about 30 minutes. the water is crystal clear and the current from underground streams strong enough that all we had to do was float. the trick is to sit on one arm of a life jacket and let the rest of the jacket support your back, much like a lounge chair . . . and away you go. and what a beautiful way to go! we surprised many birds as we rounded turns and were able to appreciate how graceful some of the big birds are when they take off . . . of course we saw lot of fish as well. after the tour we enjoyed lunch with fernando and jorge, as the british couple had to head back to cancun. jorge has some english . . . he is an it guy and is on loan from the university of barcelona, where he works, for a one month project in mexico city. every time we asked him a question he politely put down his knife and fork and took his time talking to us. the end result is that we all finished our meals well before he had finished half of his. i apologized for taking him away from his lunch and again he set down his knife and fork and said it was ok. he explained a meal is for friends and family and he is used to taking two hours to eat and another hour to drink coffee. hmmm, i always thought it was important to eat fast so i could get more . . . you know before someone else got the seconds. afterwards, over coffee, fernando asked us to complete a simple questionaire about the trip. one question was 'how could they improve the canal tour' and i wrote "all that was missing was a glass of wine". he had a good chuckle and commented that his boss would appreciate that too.
all packed up again, we headed back to la selva mariposa for our final two nights in the area. this time in a different room, but equally as nice. the first week of our trip was supposed to be for relaxing and really up to this point we haven't stopped at all. we decided to spend the rest of the afternoon and evening 'at home' and just take it easy.
No comments:
Post a Comment