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Years ago Borden marketed a long strand spaghetti under the 'Polarmo' brand. Then there was a mergers/acquisition deal with Creamet and that brand disappeared. After that the only way I could get long stranded Spaghetti at a reasonable price was to buy it from Sysco in a 15 lb box. There is a VERY successful Italian pasta manufacturer who has established a good foothold in the American market with excellent goods at a fair price. They market long strand spaghetti here and I'm wondering if Rainbow or someone can be persuaded to carry it at home.
The guys at the air station thought it was about time I replace the valve in my air tank because of the bent knob and shaft so there went another $10. Should have been done years ago. Next day I went to pick it up for a dive and someone forgot to put it in the group of tanks to be filled so I got to wait around for half an hour while they topped it off. That gave me a chance to wander around and look at the compressor. That yellow housing contains a huge flywheel and multi belt drive. There is a tandem shaft operating cascading compressing pistons.
The first piston is the largest, compressing air into the second; the second compresses that air into the third, etc, etc.
The air gets pretty hot with all that compressing so they route it through water cooling tanks.
The final stage is pumping 3000 psi air into a line that leads to the tank filling room where they fill over 1000 tanks a night (when electricity rates are low). PS. there are two of these compressors.
Tank's full, lets get to the beach.
Welcome says the Triggerfish.
Butterflyfish
In Minneapolis there is a an old established Ice Cream outfit called Bridgman's. In their Ice Cream Parlors they offer a gigantic glass bowl on a stand filled with one dip each of every flavor in the freezer that day and it's called the "lollapalooza". This coral head reminds me of that awesome pile of Ice Cream.
Queen Angelfish
I use Photoshop 'Elements' to edit these images and the most powerful tool is named 'Auto Levels' under 'Enhance'. It looks for the lightest pixel in the picture and color corrects it to pure white. It then applies that correction to the rest of the image. It sure did something nice for this Flounder. They are so well camouflaged I can only see them when they are moving. You'll note the fish is sharp and the sea floor blurred as I chased him taking many exposures. Here's the best of the lot.
The cleaner shrimp have moved on but this Moray is still in residence.
Wrasse
Flamingo Tongue and Cowfish
I thought all the Fan coral I was finding had grown back since last winters hurricane Wilma. The Dive masters say no, that they were just buried in the sand. Here is one, though, that looks like it is just starting out.
Here is an odd couple, a Sea Urchin and a Sea Anemone. Soft and hard, both nice to avoid touching.
This fan seems to have an injury.
I finally happened upon a Squid hovering in the current above this fan. Shy but a little curious.
Grunts
Another Mysteryfish
I wonder what is lurking in that hole. Come on down for a week or two and you can take a look for yourself.
=)
Wrasse
Oh Pleeeeease, little fish, help. I'm trapped in this coral head and can't get out. Just come give me a little pull.
Varoooooom !!
A week or two ago I showed you a string of Jeeps used to bring cruise ship tourists to a snorkeling beach. I think someone salted the site with this anchor. I found it folded so I took a few minutes out of my busy day to set it up. It's about 4 feet long and must have weighed over 100 lbs.
This cowfish cruised by but wasn't too impressed
Here is another pipe set out as part of an artificial reef. Looks like a BigEye in residence.
At th end of the dive I dropped my tank off for filling and headed to Javier's to see about replacing that leaking regulator hose, but he was closed for once. On the way I stopped for a $4 haircut. The shop was light and airy. The owner had a desk fan mounted in the ceiling blowing down on me so it was cool on this hot humid day plus all the clipped hair was blown away as he worked.
Some folks have written about these flatbed VW's I'm seeing. VW did make a swell flatbed truck but having had a couple I can assure you all these, so far, have been locally 'chopped'. This guy used thin 'Diamond Plate' for the rear body panels as well as the deck.
This evening, while Internetting away, I looked up and found a cat surveying the Plaza. Maybe looking for a nice tender young Iguana to invite to dinner.
Here is the Birthday Girl, Hary Daniela Aguilar Hernandez, Blanquita and Lupe's granddaughter with her parents Pablo and Fabiola. She's 3 and they had a clown act for entertainment. Great turn-out, and lots of swell food.
Here is a vendor from Veracruz, in the State of Cordoba, who brought a load of goods to be sold during Carnival. He's only had this Toyota for a month but loves it dearly. He makes over 21 MPG on gas and it goes like hell. It looks like it was set down by a space ship.
With that back door open you could almost drive a car inside.
This is a bike out in front of Ace Hardware
And another. Note the excellent body and paint work.
I'd say the body was about ready for the paint on this one. I wonder if it will be done by Carnival.
The USCG stops in for a few days 'Liberty' and to fuel-up. "Now hear this. . . . the 'smoking lamp' is out during fueling operations. . . . That is all".
Light wind, few clouds, lets get the last dive in while we can. While I was suiting up I noticed this little Hermit Crab making his way along a wall. He was too big for his shell so he couldn't retract fully. The other option was to fight and he was feisty. "Put me down or I'll. . . . . . ."
Isaac, the beach club owner was entertaining his granddaughter on the dock so I passed the little devil along to him. He ended up in the sea where he was headed anyway. "Maybe if I peel this nail back a little he'll get the message".
He found plenty of company. This year the bottom has been just covered with these little guys. I'd sure hate to be living in a shell that was 'just the right size. . . '. They'd have you pulled out and eaten before you could tell them about the roof leaks and noisy neighbors.
Can you see the Octopus down in that hole?
He can see us.
Nice young coral getting a good start.
Here is a BlueParrotfish taking some time out of his busy day to entertain,
The trick is to smile while your performing.
Finally a good look at a spotted Boxfish
BlueParrotfish
Three in One
A curious Triggerfish
Nice variety coral head
Here is a Flamingo Tongue hard at work grazing on a fan coral. Some times they graze too hard and damage or kill the section they are working on.
Healthy expanding coral head.
That's all the fish pix that were fit to print this trip.
Next morning was pretty rainy and as a diversion I got to sit down to my first stack of flapjacks at the Mission.
Here is a VW Beach Buggy I see on a side street from time to time. The roof rack holds the dive gear and tanks.
The final step in the dental process is an X-ray to check for 'Micro fissures'.
. . . . . . and there were none.
Total bill: 1300 Pesos (÷11= $118 usd)
On the way to the dentist it was just raining, afterwards it was 'drilling!'. I stopped in at the Mission for lunch and caught this view out the front window.
On an evening walk through the plaza I saw this cart selling wrestling masks, made popular with Jack Black's last movie.
A familiar face in a crowd! I have a Red Yamaha 200 TW at home and here is a blue one. I thought this one might be Pekas's stolen unit but his had a disk brake up front. This is only the third time I've seen one other than his on Cozumel.
What a stylish cat. Bortola was enjoying a nap in the shade at pool-side when I arrived.
Lupe had just finished cleaning and filling the pool, so I thought I'd take a look.
In the lower left corner of the picture above you might make out a big Iguana taking the sun. Here is another tail regeneration in process
I headed over to the Mission for one last lunch just as the catch of the day was arriving (frozen).
Mom always liked ham and I'd not seen it served here before so I tried it. Two big slabs, sweet and tender. Plus mashed potatoes with grated cheese mixed in. Mmm-mmm.
Here is a Carnaval poster in a store window.
On my way to the daily meetings I sometimes stroll through the plaza. The meeting is at 6 and as you can see by the clock it's almost 5:30, which is sun down at this time of year here. Interesting how the sun, the trees and I just happened to line up. Maybe that is as good as it's going to get and it's time to put away the toys and head for home.
-Home-