From Holbox to Mujeres in the Rain!

We woke to a cloudy day. Got up and started to get the bags organised for our departure at 10am. Ati had a handful of new mosquito bites on her face... The girls played Uno while I prepared breakfast. They had developed a new version which required rigging the game so they would have the maximum "black cards" (pick up 4 and change colour) and "strong cards" to do the most damage to one another. They tend to spend more time organising the game then playing, but that worked for me... I prepared more toads in holes and mediocre filter coffee... we ate in heats and then crammed everything with great difficulty into our exploding bags. OUr taxi driver was on Swiss time, much to our surprise, but so were we. We piled into the golf cart for one more journey around puddles, over bumps, and through the sandy roads. Got to the boat in good time.. the girls new the drill. We climbed to top deck where the girls took the front row for optimal view. We sat with ati just behind. They were of course freezing and asked me to pull out their sweaters in the first three seconds... then mimi came to cuddle after two minutes... On arrival we found our car in good shape in the parking where we had left it. I got out all the activities to keep them occupied during our journey from Chiqila to Cancun (porto juarez) to get the ferry to Isla Mujeres. We were making good time until we took a turn for Cancun we probably should not have, but stuck with it because... we were not in a rush and why not take the country road. The journey was not long only a couple of hours and the girls passed out soon after we left. We enjoyed reminiscing about our family trips in our childhood listnening to reggae playlist on spotify. The rain started to come down pretty hard... the girls kept sleeping. We arrived at the parking of the port and were ushered in... climbed to the top floor and took what looked like the very last spot on the top floor. LUCKY!

We woke the girls and get them stoked about our journey and over their grumpy wake up by telling them that we were about to take a boat to an amazing island to see turtles and dolphins... We walked the 200 m to the boat embarkation. The girls asked to buy every second thing in the shop while alex got our tickets. They were hungry; it was late... we took turns peeing and getting cash. Got on the express ferry to Isla Mujeres, grabbed the last two seat for the girls and were offered two for us just behind. The trip was just 18min... I fed the girls almonds, crackers and cashews to keep them sane. On arrival we found a cabby who took us to a massive grocery store where I spent 20 min or 45 (depending on who you ask) getting supplies, on the recommendation of the lady from whom we were renting. I made my way around the shop with Ati in the cart. My priorities were beers, reposada, diappers, breakfast and lunch. This landed me with peanut butter, tequila and limes...

Got back to the car with smushed bread and found everyone surprisingly cool. We made our way to our home where Bruno and his wife were waiting. Villa Miriam was a simple and spacious place which had not be renovated for some time. There were three bathrooms, a large kitchen and big windows. It was in a locked estate with 5 other houses. We didn't notice at first, but clearly a feud amongst the houses that resulted in our access to the beach and pool being curtailed. This issues was overshadowed by an offer of two 5$ vouchers for the beach bar two doors down.
Bruno and his wife left us to settle in after a decent introduction of the place. I discovered that much of what I had bougth they had provided... but after arrive in Holbox in the end of the worls withouth network and without even so much as a bottle of water in the fridge, I was not going to make the same mistake twice. I had got pasta and pesto and prepared carotts and frozen brocoli. I made it all... shook powdered parmesan onto the fussili with pesto and offered it to mimi and Ati... they were thrilled. Zoe was less excited and somehow realised that she had probably eaten enough almonds to provide the calorific intake she need until next week. She ate barely anything except carrots and broccoli. Once the kitchen was cleared the girls discovered that they could run around the house out one door and in another... past the hammock and through the cobble stones.. this provided hours of entertainment.

Alex finally put them in front of a cartoons in spanish, which he called *educational* because it was in another language.... while we figured out if we could do something with the rest of the day. As we got online we saw that the turtle sanctuary was closing and so were most of the restaurants around us. In the end we ordered in and I made my famous lentils. It was not the cheaper option, but it was the option that meant we could put ati to bed and enjoy a meal with the other tired girls. Much of take-out sucks and this was not exception: the fired stuff was soggy although rest was fine and tasty. The shrimp cevice was delicious, the guacamole too, and after a quick dry fry on the pan, the jalepeno poppers and onion rings were also pretty good. We put the girls to bed and then I promptly passed out on the couch while alex watched about 10 games of hockey. He was so happy to be in the right time zone to see so many of his favourite teams and players. We crawled to bet just after 1am... and slept like babies with the breeze flowing through the room from one window to the other.Read more