Meeting new friends....

Last night we were invited to our brokers house El Gran Escape for a birthday BBQ for Joe Mendez the owner of Pearl Realty.

Julie's house is lovely on the south end of the Isla near Punta Sur.  We had a lovely day at the beach yesterday before the BBQ.  I got a tube to float on and it was wonderful! Simple things...

Julie's house is gorgeous! Right on the water with huge pool, four bedrooms, outdoor kitchen, etc. We met some new people, ex-pats that live here full time on Isla and some that live here part time.  The one thing we here over and over from part timers and full timers on Isla is "that it is the best thing they ever did".   "Haven't looked back since", "happier than we have ever been", can't wait to join that group!

We met Colleen on the sunset cruise but last night met here husband Michael who is a chef and prepared an amazing dinner for us. Marinated Filet mignon, polenta with rosemary, grilled zucchini and eggplant, garlic spinach and swiss chard with Julie's potato salad.  It was all wonderful.  We also met Mary Jane and Don from Saskacthewan (spelling)...really nice couple who have a house on Salina Grande.  They kindly offered to take us home in their golf cart and we swung by their house to have a look.  It was lovely right on the water with fabulous views.  We also met Jennifer and Todd from DC who have come here to join Pearl Realty and try Isla for a year...really nice people and a lovely evening!

Julie's house is available for vacation rental at this site:
http://www.elgranescapeisla.com/

This and That...

I swear the longer we stay here on Isla the more right it feels...days drift into nights that give us so much pleasure.  We have started a little routine.  We go to Playa Norte in the mornings about 9:30am before it gets scorching, stay for a couple of hours, go for some lunch come back for a siesta and then a wander in the evenings for drinks first them try to decide from the enormous variety of restaurants where we will eat! Love that!

We had a power outage day before yesterday.  It was out for a couple of hours starting about 5pm.  We hung out in the apartment sitting outside watching people walk by with flashlights and the police were out in full force as well, slowly cruising the streets to make sure nothing bad was happening and of course it wasn't.

We walked down Hidalgo in the dark and saw many people sitting in bars and restaurants with candles and La Terraza which is a great place just down on the corner is on the second floor and everybody that was caught up there in the dark were hanging over the balcony laughing and pointing there torches down on Hidalgo laughing and saying "come on up its a party".  Great atmosphere, the vendors outside there stores were still sitting in their chairs and playing tricks on people.

We walked by one place and I felt something at my feet and almost jumped out of my skin!  I looked down and all I could see was a black furry thing which looked like it could be a small rat or huge spider.  I screamed something and they all started laughing their heads off and one guy came over and picked it up and showed me it was a fake mouse on some string or something, scared the crap outa me..lol...

Here are some pics from the last couple of days....

It was such a lovely evening in the square....

This is from Pita Amore...absolutely wonderful!

Outside Pita Amore

We walked out of the restaurant and across the street the most adorable poodle with a mayan dress on...

Sitting on the sea wall after dinner

Sunset Cruise

Julie Swanson our broker from Pearl Realty treated us to a sunset cruise around the island.  It was amazing!  The boat is called Induna, skipper is Storm from Australia.  Great guy and wonderful crew!

You can schedule a charter with him at Indunacharters@yahoo.com

We took off at 4:30 for a lovely cruise.  On board there were just 7 people!  We were served drinks and lovely ceviche and guac while we cruised the caribbean, doesn't get much better than that! Here are some pics...

After the cruise we went Bahia Tortuga for drinks and listed to a band, cool place people were dancing and it was a really lovely setting, ended the evening at La Terraza a few steps from our studio, had some empandas and listened to another band there...really good!

Yesterday was one of those perfect Isla days, hot, and blue blue blue sky, went to Playa Norte early and swam and swam, water was like glass...absolute heaven!

Back on Isla!

Yeah we are back! Been here four days now...getting lazy on the blog!

Ok so we arrived and are staying at Maria Pilar in the centro.  Gladys Galdamez is running this place and we know her from her previous apartments in the centro where we stayed a few years back.  She always makes her places very homey and all the necessary things in the kitchen, etc.  We stayed upstairs in the double room first night, $35, then moved down to the studio for $50 per night with a lovely area outside to watch the world go by with a couch a table and chair for eating and rocking chairs to relax.

Its sooooooo good to be back here! I am glad we tried Merida and went to Chelem for a different change of pace but bring me back to the island man....we have missed good food! The food in Merida left much to be desired and the lack of food in Chelem was driving me crazy!

We love the quiet hustle bustle of Isla along with restaurant after restaurant and bar after bar...first night back we went to Comono's and found they now have a rooftop bar with double beds and hooka pipes!

Fabulous view of Hidalgo from there....

Had a wonderful arabic salad...about time for some veggies! Graham had the fried cauliflower, really good.

This is our lovely front patio at Maria Pilar....

Dinner at Angelos on Hidalgo...amazing arrechera steak!

Yesterday we met with Joe at Pearl and Domingo our architect.  We went over the plans he had done and made some changes.  Widened the kitchen and pushed the master on the second level closer to the sea.  We were worried about losing ceiling height with this move but he said we will still have 15 foot ceilings!  So this means that the tv room in back of the bedroom will be larger and will be more like a small bedroom, great for guests!  

Also the best news is we asked for another pool on the roof and a cone shaped palapa with a table and circular seating to watch sunsets.  Also big is that we now have two full bathrooms, instead of one and a half!!!! Woohoo! We will also be putting a bodega on the roof to house the washer and dryer.  This makes more room in the kitchen.  We are soooooo excited about these addtions and changes and cannot wait to see the final digital plans.  He said they should be ready by next week!  We will also go to Cancun with Joe on the 30th for closing of the house.

Its all happening and we cannot believe our luck with this house and location and the wonderful people at Pearl Realty.  Joe Mendez, owner and Julie Swanson our agent.  Who by the way is taking us on a sunset cruise tomorrow night..hope to get some great pics there!

Lazy days at Casa Rosa...

Well we are on our last weekend here at Casa Rosa and it has been so lovely!  Karen and Tony are wonderful people and we have really really enjoyed our stay here.

They both go the extra mile to make your stay here fun and relaxing.  Today was Mani-Pedi day and we all had our feet done on the terrace after a fun day in Chelem at the Funky Market.  Karen went to Progresso on  her scooter to pick up Perla who did a wonderful job on our feet!  A lot of the restaurants were closed due to everyone being a the market and we were starving!  We found a small hotel with a restaurant but when we walked in the man in the bar said the cook did not show up today.  We said Gracias and were going to leave and he said in spanish, I can cook you some eggs and were like "can you"?  He said "of course"!

Next thing we saw him dashing out of the restaurant after serving us coffee and beers and he returned with a bag, obviously from the store!  He actually ran out to buy us breakfast to cook! I love the mexican people so gracious and so friendly.

He came out of the kitchen half an hour later with scrambled huevos with ham and cheese on top with black beans and a whole plate full of toast and jam.  We were so grateful and it was good!  Such a lovely man! Thanks Alex, at La Garza Restaurant.

Its cooled down tonite a bit windy but still so beautiful and relaxing here. There is a laundry full of books and dvd's to watch and have gone thru at least 3 books so far. Tomorrow is our last day here and we are going into Progresso to have some lunch on the beach and hang out.  Then on Monday morning Karen will drive us to Progresso and we will catch our bus to Merida then Cancun...we can't wait for Isla!

Here are some pics of the last few days....we will return to Casa Rosa and Chelem!  It is a wonderful lovely area full on really nice people and such a sleepy little place on the Yucatan.

We got plans for the house!!!!!

OMG! So freakin excited! I am going to attempt to post these hope it works...we love the plans and his ideas for texture and use of space and light!  We are over the moon! This is a dream come true for us...feel very very grateful and excited for our future!

This first pic is to show how we can capture as much as the view as possible, the design is a bit too modern for us but that all can be changed.

This second pic is definately more our style.  The combination of rock wall and talavera tile on floor is very much us!

As is the rock wall here with the tile...love it!

First Night in Chelem...

Well our first night here and it was so lovely! Can't say enough about Karen from Casa Rosa, she picked us up at our house in Merdia.  Then took us to the Chedraui supermarket, where we stocked up on groceries etc.  Drove to Chelem, about 30-40 minutes and we were here!

Casa Rosa is so comfortable and Karen and Tony have put such lovely touches everywhere.  The apartment is light and bright with windows throughout to enjoy the gorgeous views of the Gulf of Mexico.  Right out our front door is the very large terrace facing the sea.  Lounging and swinging and anything you need right out your front door.  Small pool on the first floor when you walk in and a very cosy courtyard to sit and chat with your neighbors.  Which is what we did last night.  Met some lovely people and sat with drinks then we all walked down to La Playa Restaurant to have a really good meal.

We had the Casa Rosa special which is a whole fried fish with skewer of shrimp and vegetables, others had mostly fish and Hope had the Pasta La Vista, which was a garlicky cream chipotle sauce with mushrooms and shrimp...too die for.

Now I do have pics but Hope has to email them to me! I forgot camera..duh!  We walked home in the dark with our torches and Hope had on her miners light on her forehead to guide us, hysterical.  Came back and sat in the courtyard for a nightcap then off to bed.  This apartment is sooooo comfortable! The bed is wonderful and the breeze throughout the apartment is amazing! Slept like a baby...woke us this morning to the most beautiful sunrise and feeling very lucky to be here.  It is still cold and snowy in Seattle.

I can't imagine going back to that ever!  We will have to though...although at least when we get back it should be better weather..here are a couple of pics of terrace and courtyard and will post pics of dinner later...