Yummy! Just finished our first "home-cooked" meal in a long time! Well...it wasn't really cooked but we did make it ourselves in our own kitchen. Interesting the things you miss when you haven't had them for a while! Tonight's menu consisted of fresh shrimp mixed with a little mayonnaise (the tasty tiny kind of shrimp), along with some fresh avocado, lime (just the juice!), and a little salt and pepper all spread atop a crunchy piece of tostado. Chef Lynda did good! Washed it all down with a glass of 1/2 and 1/2 cranberry juice and water. Oh ya....lunch consisted of several cups of coffee (with Bailey's of course) and a sleeve of Maria cookies. Lunch was yummy too and sure didn't take a lot of prep! Lunch was my turn to cook...surprised?! LOL!!
We're settled into a great little place in Celestun. It is a guest house that has only 3 rooms and is right on the waters edge. We're about 1 km from the little town of Celestun and can walk there along the beach or we are welcome to use the bikes that are here at the house. The place, Casa de Celeste Vida, is perfect for unwinding....so quiet and with hammocks inviting you to stay a while or with lounge chairs spread among the palms in the yard that lies between the house and the playa (beach).
We were lucky again in that we didn't have a reservation and had seen this place on Trip Advisor where it is ranked number 1 in Celestun and it looked like it would be perfect! We arrived here unannounced and Wanda, the owner, was able to offer us the one room she had left. Yep...nosotros muy suerte! So now all we have to do is stop and unwind. This afternoon over our coffee we were talking about how ready we both are to just "stop" and why that might be. In a nutshell we agreed that we are feeling hyper-stimulated and it is little wonder. We have been on the go since we left for Africa mid January and during that time we have seen and done so much!
I'll back up a little and explain how we got here from Merida....we did have bus tickets purchased for the noon bus out of Merida but....we were ready to go a little earlier than expected and so were able to change our tickets on the 12:00 bus to the 11:00 bus for no additional fee. Nice!
Breakfast today was "interesting". We purchased ham and cheese sandwiches from a little place across from the bus depot and it should have been no surprise that they might not be all that great when the price for two sandwiches and a drink was just over $1 CAD! We were able to salvage them though by getting a bag of potato chips and adding a layer of chips to the inside of the sandwich which at least gave it a little texture and some flavour. Much like the last sandwich we purchased in a bus depot....as long as you ate it quickly and had something to wash it down with it did it's job of filling the empty space in your belly. LOL!!!
The bus ride from Merida to Celestun takes about 2 1/2 hours and is pretty much due west from Merida. In fact for the last hour of the trip I'm pretty sure the road never strayed from a straight line! Before that final hour though there were enough topes (speed bumps) and crazy tight corners to make me wonder what we were thinking when we decided to make this trip. I guess I should add that this bus line we were on is not the fancier ones that we typically take (ADO). This was more of a local bus and so there is less space in the seats, there is no bathroom, and quite a few of the seats are either stuck in the reclining position or unable to recline at all. At one point the man in the seat in front of me reclined his seat and it gave me cause to flash back to another bus ride...the ride from hell! We were travelling cross country ending in Oaxaca a couple of years ago and that very long trip through the mountains pretty much did me in as far as buses are concerned for a very long time! During the first half of the trip from Merida to Celestun the bus stopped many many times. It picked up people along the side of the roads in the middle of nowhere, it pulled into small town bus stations along the way, and it dropped people off as we passed their destinations. In the small towns where the bus had to pull into the stations it seemed impossible for him to have made some of the tight corners he had to make! There were two or three corners where he had to jockey back and forth and even at that he was missing the buildings and power poles by fractions of an inch! Mexican bus drivers are very skilled...they have to be!!!
As soon as we arrived in Celestun we knew we'd made the right decision. It just felt like the right place for us to be. It is a nice little village and all of the taxis are motorcycles that have been 'rebuilt' to have a roof and seats for at least two people behind. We secured a cab who took us to this house and in no time we'd dropped off our bags and were back in the taxi en route back to the village where we got a few supplies from the Super Willy (grocery store) which is how we were able to "cook" tonight.
We're settled in now and unless something changes plan to stay here for a week so you may not hear much from us over the next few days as there may not be a lot to tell unless you're interested in how many books we manage to read as we swing in our hammocks letting the breeze from the Gulf wash over us as the stimuli of the past few weeks settles within us. If and when there is anything to report...we'll be sure to bring up the blog as this is how we'll be able to remember all that we've seen and done as much as it is a way to keep all of you apprised of our adventures.
Till next time,
L & L
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