My tribute to the Isla Mujeres cemetery…
I decided to spend a little more time in Isla’s tiny cemetery on my last visit. I wanted to do this post showing respect for those who have passed, while illustrating the uniqueness, color and history of this special (and crowded) place. I try not to step on the graves when I walk through the cemetery, which is extremely difficult considering almost every square inch is “occupied”.
Some of the graves are very colorful and well cared for…
But a lot of them are in disrepair and probably haven’t been visited by anyone in a long time.
One thing I particularly noticed on this visit were the little angels that sat on some of the graves. Some of them were adorable, although there is a sadness about them.
You can really see how much damage the constant salty sea air does to them.
I’m not too sure about this one, though…kind of strange…
Raising arms…
Maybe this person was a guitar player…
Then there are the shushing angels…my favorites…
I spent more time looking into the little enclosed areas on the tops of some of the graves…I don’t know what they are called.
In addition to candles, flowers and/or statues, it was interesting to note that most of them had either cups or soda bottles inside these areas. I posted a question on the Isla Chatter Board about what these meant, and I received this reply: “I asked a Mexican this question. It is for the dead person so they can have a drink. They leave it for them and it acually evaporates. They said the person who cleans the cemetery probably turns them over when they clean.” So there you go.
I also noticed that some had the face of Christ leaning on a wall…
I don’t know what this one was all about…
Interesting crucifixes…
One of the sadder things I noticed is that a lot of the people buried in this little cemetery weren’t that old. Many were just in their 40s and 50s. And some younger ones…
Very sad…
And Mundaca, the resident pirate…who apparently isn’t even really buried here…
After I took my last photograph here, I looked around and saw this little guy. Hmmmm…not a good omen in a cemetery…
So, I turned around to leave, and just about jumped out of my skin because a woman had walked in without me hearing her and was standing right behind me. Geez, you just don’t do that to people in cemeteries! Haha!
So that’s my little walk through the Cementerio Municipal. The caretaker encourages visitors and doesn’t mind if you take pictures…just be respectful.
Why do Isla lovers love Isla?
My most recent trip to Isla was just a relaxing getaway. I didn’t want to think about anything…just veg. And I can’t think of a better place to do this. Isla seems to have “healing powers”…a place to let things go and just appreciate life. I don’t feel that in Texas. I am not a native Texan…I don’t wear cowboy boots, I don’t do the two-step, and I’m not a country-western fan, so I don’t feel that loyalty that so many natives feel here. I guess I’ll always be an outsider…which is why I enjoy going to Isla (or anywhere in Mexico for that matter) to get away from all that.
So why do I love Isla? Let me count the ways. First of all…to get my toes in the sand…
It’s always the first thing I want to do when I get there.
Not to mention the serenity…
Secondly…I love the colors and the activity. Waking up after my first night, I head out to breakfast and/or coffee and just love watching the activity as the island comes to life. Vendors delivering newspapers…
And just exploring what may have changed…
Then there’s the food…
The shrimp cocktail at Picus…
The fish and chips at Bally Hoo…
And the Huevos Motulenos at Tacostumbras…definitely the best this time around…
Not to mention the views from your table…
There’s laundry day…
The familiar…
The quirky… (I’m sorry, but it would haven’t taken about 60 seconds to paint the back side of the ball on top of that post, but I guess because it was at the end of the malecon, it didn’t matter…haha…that’s Mexico.)
The shopping!!
One of the best shops on the island in my humble opinion…
And the animals. This little sweetie was laying on the sidewalk and I clicked my tongue so that it would look at me for a picture. Well, it got up and walked over to me and just sat at my feet while I massaged its ears. Sooooooooo cute…and I love the sweater!!
I’ve seen this little guy begging at Cito Cafe…
I decided to bring my cat, Nutter, along on this trip…
Haha…I kid. This is a cat who took up residence next door to the Hotel Plaza Almendros. Here’s Nutter…
Amazing likeness, huh? Apparently, the vast majority of tortoiseshell cats are female…just a little tidbit of information. Anyway, this little sweetie would wait for me outside the hotel every morning, so it was like going out and greeting Nutter each day. In fact, I would go outside and say, “Hi, Nutter!” She didn’t care if I didn’t get the name right…she was down for a little affection.
Then there are the people…the hard workers who walk up and down the beach every day…
The hard working fishermen…
And the children…
And some interesting characters??
And, finally…the water. That beautiful, blue, clear water. Every time I see it, I can’t believe it…and look for ways to remember it in my everyday life.
I don’t know about everyone else…but that’s why I love Isla…
Welcome to my new blog…
Some of you may remember me from my other blog, Choosing Doorways. I decided to start a new blog which is totally dedicated to my travels in Mexico. Since I have come to love the country and all it has to offer, I thought it deserved a blog all to its own, separate from my life in Texas. Between you and me, however, my life in Texas is not nearly as fun or interesting as my visits to Mexico, so I haven’t had much to blog about at “home”. To be honest, in the past five years I have felt more at home in Mexico and spend much of my time thinking how I can end up there some day. I still have a lot to explore and am looking forward to learning much more about Mexico.
I’ll start out with my most recent visit a week ago to Isla Mujeres. It was a spur-of-the-minute kind of trip because of a surprising drop in airfares between Austin and Cancun right before Christmas.
This was my seventh trip there, but I just wanted to go to relax, eat some good food, and soak up some sun (and cervezas and Margaritas, of course). Because all the electronics in my house were stolen the week before I left, I did not take a laptop this time (which I missed). I did, however, get a new camera (a Canon G12 to replace my G10), which I gave a good workout during my stay. I thought these shots just before landing in Cancun were pretty interesting.
I wonder what those pink areas are??
My first day was pretty uneventful as I didn’t arrive on the island until about 4:00 p.m. I used Best Day for shuttle service again and I was very happy with them. I’ve heard some people complain about them, but I’ve always had the best of service. In fact, most times I’ve used them to get to Puerto Juarez, I’ve been the only passenger. Same thing both ways this time, as well. In fact, my solo ride to the ferry was in a big black unmarked SUV…made me feel like people might think we were with a drug cartel…hahaha!
Adios, Puerto Juarez…
Hola, Isla…
This guy was playing soft samba kind of music…it was actually very nice.
Rueda Medina is a mess right now with the northbound lane under construction. They did make some progress while I was there, so hopefully, they will be finishing soon. I think it has to be hurting the businesses on that side of the street.
I stayed at the Hotel Plaza Almendros…which I will never do again during times when school is not in session. WAY too many kids there this time. I should have taken someone’s suggestion of staying at the Suites Los Arcos instead. Live and learn.
Sidebar: As if it wasn’t bad enough that the kids could be noisy, the couple that checked in to the room next to me a couple days after I arrived were even worse. The first night, they woke me up at 3:00 in the morning with their arguing…which lasted about an hour…seriously. Actually, the woman was doing all the arguing. The guy would just mumble something every ten minutes or so, which would just set the woman off again. I should have complained or knocked on the wall, but I kept thinking they would stop. It wouldn’t have been so bad if I could have actually heard what they were saying because that would probably have made it MUCH more interesting (haha), but the concrete walls muffled their words. Then I didn’t hear or see them for a couple days and I thought they were gone, but then they showed up the day before I left. Weird.
I walked around a little bit before heading over to Picus. This is the new sculpture where M&Js used to be.
And they “recycled” the old destroyed sculpture in the wall next to the malecon…I’m guessing they’re going to leave it there.
And here’s the new statue in the area that goes to the malecon from the zocalo.
I forgot to take pictures of my food at Picus, but I did get a shot of the view from my table.
And when I checked out the bathroom, I saw that they changed the mirror. This is what it looked like last year…
And here’s what it looks like now. Maybe too many tall people complained!
My first sunset of the week…
Then I checked out the Christmas decorations in the zocalo…
A short first post, but it gets better.
Random Travel Musings 
