Puerto Moreles: Mondo Excellente

Woke up Monday morning to the Mayan god of rain saying hello. Chac's storm ended shortly mid-morning as we hit Ah Cacoa for beverage. Ah Cacoa has the best hot chocolate-- Mayan spiced version with a good kick. The beverage was further heightened with the addition of a shot of espresso. Meanwhile the lady enjoyed a hot vanilla concoction which did not involve caffeine. Not sure how Beth made it through the day.

Drove north to Puerto Moreles after the beverage injection. I was starting to get more used to the driving in Mexico, a rather elite skill which I'm sure will only get me in trouble back in the states. Moreles was a short drive to the quaint little town. If I were to revisit the area I'd without question put home base in this area. A couple restaurants, cafe, nice beach, and small town were pretty nice amongst the other areas we'd been. Moreles seemed to strike the correct balance between the large touristy area of Playa and desolate nature of Paamul.

We hit the beach and changed in appropriate attire. Our skills at haggling reached a new high as we negotiated for a beach umbrella and snorkeling in the reef off of Moreles. Yup, snorkelling! We were assured that our captain, Raul, would be along shortly so we relaxed along the beach with a beverage. A mexican hour later Raul showed up to take us out on the water after fitting us up with fins and snorkel. Having not snorkeled before it was quite the salty experience. Lots of sea life, and that wasn't even the other tourists that were with us. We got about 90 minutes in the water and came out like prunes after the experience. Somehow we seemed to forget towels which probably didn't help the cold body temperature. Anyway, back to solid land of sandy beach to warm up.

Having done our share of exercise for the day we were off to reload on carbs. The tour books we had mentioned a restaurant that, upon in-depth inspection, was out of business. So it appeared. A later tour of the town showed it moved up the street. Doh! In the meanwhile we hit a taqueria that had ok heuvos rancheros and pescados tacos. Sanitary conditions were superb for an outskirt taqueria-- meaning it had a cup full of water to wash your hands with after using the banos. I don't recall if the toilet actually had a toilet seat, but I'm sure Beth can comment to that. This was about the time that news of swine flu was actually reaching us. I was of the opinion swine/wine, so it didn't really bug me in the scheme of things. I was more in shock that had I booked the vacation later we probably could of traveled dirt cheap. :)

After lunch we drove back to Playa for some grocery shopping and crashed pretty early in the evening. The evening brought on a home cooked meal of pescado and carne tacos with mole sauce and many good veggies. Beth is convert to the goodness of mole sauce after that dinner. Chilled at our place while watcing the Daily Show which reinforced our mocking of swine flu paranoia.