his dive story

17 July 2012

June is nesting season for sea turtles. We didn’t know this when we arrived in Tulum and the hotel staff kindly informed us that we should venture out at night to see the giant turtles nesting. I knew Joana loooooves turtles as she always wanted to see my dive videos and pics of turtles. It was our last night in Tulum and we decided to go for a walk looking for them. I had my bright dive torch with me. At first, we were thinking yeah, no way man that we will be so lucky to see turtles….

It was about 15 min. into our walk in the pitch dark when I spotted a large dark hump on the sand with my torch (I didn’t want to flash the bright torch too much as it will scare away the turtles who are planning to beach). I knew immediately that it was a turtle and we followed her as she struggled to move her large body forward on the sand searching for the right spot to lay her eggs.

Then we saw another one as she was leaving for the beach. These turtles always come back to the same locations to lay their eggs and with all the resort developments up and down the coast, some will not have the chance to lay their eggs and will be force to lay them in the sea where they will be eaten by fishes. Sad but a reality…

Conservation groups are helping identify locations and are trying to protect or at least safeguard the eggs until they hatch. It was a really magical night and one that I will always remember. The next day, we went out to retrace our steps to see where the eggs were laid. You can see loads of turtle tracks everywhere on the beach. Enjoy!

Want more diving posts? go here

– James

a few things

16 July 2012

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this weekend we had dinner at krave, a restaurant at grace bay club, by the estates, i had yet not tried. the setting is awesome, quiet and a bit more relaxed that their high end restaurant anacaona (and i still can’t believe i was able to resist this!).

we also watched the film che, it has two parts. it’s been a month since we’re back from havana, so we found it really interesting to learn more on cuban history.

did you see the second post on our trip to mexico? i’ll be posting the last one this week, so watch out.

wishing you all a happy week! oh, and i hope you like my new logo – thanks to sweet joanna from waterfall creative!

sources picture and print

love these

13 July 2012

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so in love with these beach paintings by katie from paper fashion.

mexico | merida

12 July 2012

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merida was our second stop in our trip to mexico. we stayed in a small hacienda – hacienda vip – with only four rooms and very centrally located, near the plaza mayor – cute, don’t you think?

after checking-in and walking to the main square, we had dinner at chaya maya, a restaurant close by, specialized in yucatecan cuisine, and recommended by our hacienda. on the second night we went for street food and dinner was even more successful!

on our first day in merida we decided to drive to uxmal – it is considered one of the most important archaeological sites of mayan culture, together with chicken itza and tikal (which we missed). besides the pyramids, i specially liked the ballcourt for playing the mesoamerican ballgame.

it was not crowded at all so we spent almost a whole day relaxing at the ruins!

back in merida we wondered through the streets, with some tourists and many locals, we visited the san ildefonso cathedral and the cathedral of merida.

we ate delicious quesadillas at the plaza mayor, and had ice pops at janitzo on the other side of the square – the mango one was da best! we then walked though 60th street, closed it for pedestrians at night, where i bought mexican bracelets and colorful embroidered shirts.

on our last day before leaving we decided to have breakfast at the market, where we had the best mexican food of our trip.

we started with fresh fruit, followed by pork tacos – having pork for breakfast is so not me, but i TRULY enjoyed it and would have these again in a heartbeat.

we spent our morning taking pictures, talking to vendors and wishing we had a market half the size of this one in turks and caicos. i don’t know about you, but spending time in markets really fulfills me – specially the food ones – the colors, the smells, the flavors, the variety, and the culture that it represents!

before leaving the market, and to finalize our breakfast, we had cheese empanadas and polcanes. polcanes are typical from yucatan and were a true discovery for us. made from deep fried corn dough topped with shredded pork, beans, tomato sauce and cabbage – i’m salivating here!

it was time to leave merida and drive to tulum for the last leg of our trip, so we decided to make a stop in izamal – just a small detour, and totally worth it.

izamal, just an hour away. it is sometimes called the yellow city, as most buildings are painted in yellow. what really took us there was the monastery of saint anthony of padua – also in yellow, it’s stunning!

can you tell it was pouring and so hard to take pictures?! here’s 2 minutes with no rain…

read the first part of our mexico trip right here.

of course

9 July 2012

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we had a quiet weekend – had plans to go out for dinner on friday but the weather was threatening rain. when it rains we never go out for dinner, it sounds like we are lazy, but it’s actually because there aren’t many restaurants with indoor seating!

and when we woke up on saturday we were out of power…island wide? yes, it is possible. out of power for the whole day, and finally got it back at nine in the evening, just in time to save all our food in the fridge. but we had a good day. with no power…no cooking, no light, no tv, no internet, no mails – it seems you have more time for yourself, to spend time with your thoughts, to tidy up, to talk and to read.

we went to the beach too, of course.

i do hope you had a great weekend and here’s to a good week ahead!

image via pinterest, author unknown