We are in beautiful Paa Mul – about an hour south of Cancun – visiting my sis Kitty and family.

We’re enjoying a much needed vacation. The girls are enjoying the water and non-stop swimming, picking up shell fragments on the beach, and playing with kilo and their cousins.

We flew down on Apr 6. We were up at 4am and traveled all day long. But the flights were all on time and fairly pain free. The girls are getting easier and easier to travel with. We had a long layover (2.5 hr) in Houston, but it was just fine as it broke up the segments of being stuck in one seat and Catie could go pee as often as she liked (!)

We had a rather long wait through customs, but were able to clear without much trouble. We muled down a bunch of stuff for Kit & Jaime (including about 50lbs of cytomax for Jaime in these huge jars). The xray machine guy asked me about them and I explained it was a liquid food for my intestinal problems – in Spanglish and hand gestures. I was a little concerned about customs, but it was no problem.

Wednesday was a laid back day of pool and beach for Chet & the girls and shopping for me & Jaime. Weds is fruit & veggie day. I was also trying to find a more comfortable sun shirt for Catie. We picked up HC Monterey arrachera (YUM) for dinner (plus an extra kilo for me & Chet to nibble on).

Kit & Jaime’s friends from Canada were hosting the harpist performer/instructor that has been teaching their daughter. The harpist gave a concert at the Paa Mul restaurant at 7pm. We all went over for a wonderful evening of music (for the adults) and running through the dark beach (for the kids). Aunt Michelle, Sebby, and Zane will be glad to know that we ordered THREE plates of fried calamari in their honor. The kids still inHALE it at first sight.

Yesterday (thurs, 4/8) we had the unexpectedly cool pleasure of snorkeling with the sea turtles of Akumal. Because of semana santa the playa is busier than usual, but we were still able to find a shady spot and enjoy the water without feeling horribly crowded. The beach near the turtle snorkeling spot is perfect for kids with a long shallow, soft-sanded bottom stretching out quite far.

Catie wasn’t ready to go out too far, but Becky was eager to go see the turtles. I wasn’t sure how my back would do so I took a boogie board with us. After Jaime & the kids & their friends came back from their swim, Chet and I borrowed some snorkels & masks and took Becky out in her life jacket. Despite all the arching, my back did fine and we SAW A TURTLE!!!!

I wish that was my photo to the left, but it is from the CEA site (link above) – but that is really how it looked – the same amount of grass, the same species of turtle – only we were looking from several feet above, not from NEXT to the turtle and the water was less blue. The coolest part was when the turtle would come to the surface for a couple breaths of air. Seeing them flying though the water with their flippers moving is amazing and then popping up above the water to watch them take a breath and then dive again is way cool.

We also saw some medium sized fish – 6-9″ or so. When Chet and I went out our second time we also saw a ray. I wish I’d had a waterproof camera, to get a pic of Becky with the turtle. She was so excited when she saw her first fish – she switched from her goggles to a snorkeling mask and that worked really well for her. Then she and I came upon a turtle with NO ONE else around – that was so cool – our own private turtle encounter. She was pretty excited.

We ended the day with a bonfire on the JanTen beach. The girls got a lot of sun yesterday so we’ll take it easy today.