On Sunday mornings I can sleep in because there is no school and no PA system announcements or physical drill chants. However, at 4:30 this Sunday morning I wake up to karaoke music coming from another PA system over at the Governors compound up the block. Apparently there was a Christmas party for all his friends and they made sure the volume was up so EVERYBODY could hear what fun is to be his friend. =)
So I got up late, cleaned up, had a little breakfast, then fooled around with the computer for a while. By the time I got dressed and started out for the day I bumped into my friend Lance downstairs, from the HPVA in Minneapolis. He was just starting to ring Blanquita's door bell to ask for me. He and his wife Linda are on their 32nd honeymoon in PDC and stopped over for a day visit. Linda had twisted her ankle pretty bad a couple days before and was waiting for us down by the ferry dock. Good timing too because I just got a chair rigged up for the Triciclo and we had a way to all get around. From this angle it looks more like a dislocated knee than a twisted ankle. =)
We had a late breakfast at the Mission and got a chance to see one of this custom VW's on the way.
After breakfast we headed South along the ocean front taking in the splendid ocean views. We stopped in at a few hotels to see the recovery and rebuilding going on and finally turned back at Villa Blanca where I usually start my beach dives from. Here is a panorama of the beach front from 2003 above a post Wilma view with Lance and Linda.
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In the upper picture I'm standing on the end of a pier and in the lower one I'm standing on a pile of rubble that used to be that same pier (but much closer to shore now). The Palm trees that are guyed up were planted after a hurricane 18 years ago when the current beach club's development started. Your are not seeing things. . . . the 'Papa Hog's' building, next to 'Dive Paradise' was beat to rubble by the storm waves and partly dragged back into the sea. Reconstruction is slow as folks wait for insurance payments. The water looks great now and I'm anxious to see what's down there. Lance, Linda and I headed back to the ferry dock for the 4 PM ferry to PDC. We Just missed the 4 o'clock and stopped at an open air restaurant by the ferry dock for cold drinks, 'Cheeps & Salsa' to wait out the 5 pm ferry. What a great day.
On occasion there is a neighborhood car alarm that goes off around dawn and it did again this dawn. As long as I was wide awake, and since last night was a full moon (many things can be explained by a full moon) I decided to get up and climb up on the roof to see if I could catch the full moon setting over PDC, and I did.
I also got an OK shot of the sunrise. . . . and the darned car alarm offender. Look closely at the sunrise picture and you will see a taxi driver standing next to his white taxi cab. He lives there and is starting out his day by testing and re-testing his car alarm. He's announcing to the neighborhood that not only does he have a car alarm but also a great job and is off to work. He opens the hood and puts his hand over the horn to make a wa-wa sound like using a derby on a trombone. It seems like horn honkers here imagine the sound beaming only to the person they are honking for or at. And, honestly, most Mexicans are oblivious to their neighbors noise or music. Mexico is noisy by gringo standards, very noisy. With our current unbridled population growth on the planet I guess it's smart to just start getting used to less privacy.
The 'Full Moon Setting Behind Playa Del Carmen' picture shows the first of today's cruise ships heading in to anchor with one following and another on the horizon. Before the anchor was even lowered there was a 100' long ferry tying on alongside to offload passengers for that darned taxi. I wonder if the harbor pilot can feel the ferry along side as he navigates to anchor.
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