A Visit to Xcacel

Xcacel is a environmentally protected turtle beach located about 13 miles south of Xpu-Ha and about 12 miles north of Tulum. It is actually right across the road from Chemuyil where we go out for pizza and is the beach that people could camp on years ago. There used to be a sign at the road but it was gone so I’m glad we knew where the entrance was located. There is a guard who explains the rules and asks for a fee, we gave him 33 pesos/person but we heard that 20p is enough.

There are two bays and a small Cenote that you can visit. We got there early and it was empty.

Looking North                                            Looking South

The beach was not as nice to walk as Xpu-Ha’s because there was a sand wall that you had to walk above to stay out of the water, and it was very soft sand.

The next bay was rocky in places and there were empty turtle nests everywhere. The turtles lay their eggs starting in May and hatches go on until November.

And through the magic of Photoshop, all of us are on that log.

After our beach walk we stopped to see our friends, Glen & Maureen from Alberta, at Tanka Bay. They own 3 lots at the end of the road and stay in their 5th wheel but may build a new home next year.
Since we were so close to Tulum, Robb suggested that we have a lunch at El Camello which is right on the highway on the south side of town. I didn’t take any pictures of the restaurant or my food, because I was too busy enjoying the great Veracruzan style fish fillet. A great tomato, pepper and onion spiced sauce. One of the best that I’ve had. I did take a picture of their sign.

Why do we come to Mexico and stay so long? Have you seen the snow back home in Ohio. Where is my driveway?

Or the snow at our cabin in West Virginia.

I’m not sure when we will come back to the USA. But, we do miss our family back home, so in a few weeks we may start moving north.

COPA RIVIERA MAYA 2014

It was a fun weekend watching all the sailboats get ready for their biggest race of the season.

On Thursday night a new camper arrived pulling some sailboats. By Friday morning our beach was full of Hobie 16 catamarans and one Laser. Something was going on. They all spoke Spanish so it took us a while to find someone who could tell us that it was a small part of the COPA RIVIERA MAYA 2014.

The sailboat race was being run out of Puerto Aventuras and included some of the best sailors in Mexico and guests from abroad. They expected about 180 sailboats to be entered and there was not enough room at Puerto to launch the Catamaran class. The other race categories were Bic Techno, RS: X, Optimist, Laser and 420 as well as the 14 Hobie 16’s on our beach. Most of the small Dories in the race were piloted by young kids and all three days were very windy.

They got all their sails up and ready to drag them into the water.

The surf was up on all three days as the 14 boats in this class launched from our beautiful white sand beach

One had a little bad luck on launch but quickly got it back upright from the shallow water. We watched all the boats launch and try to avoid the coral reefs which guard our beach. One boat had a real problem figuring out how to sail out without hitting the reef. We could tell they were very new at this and we picked them for finishing last. We were right. The rules are that there 6 races per class over the 3 days, you get to throw out your worse finish using your best 5 races to determine the winner. These guys only finished 2 of the races in the allotted time.

I think this couple finished in the top 3. When we watched from our beach we could see hundreds of sail boats and sail boards stretched out for miles from Puerto Aventuras all the way to our bay.

Not much else has been happening here, which is why I haven’t been blogging. So it was fun watching all the action in the rough seas. I saw a lot of small sailboats flip out there but there were plenty of safety boats to help get them get upright. Most wore wet suits and all wore PFD’s.

If you have a Facebook account you can probably get this short video about the race. Copa Riviera Video

Sunday Night was our annual Super Bowl party. This year we watched it on a USA TV station using Gerry’s satellite dish. Ann & Gerry provided a pot luck dinner for a few of the campers.

Got my beer, got my food, here comes the kickoff, followed by a safety. A bad start for the Broncos, followed by a whole lot more of a bad night for Denver as they lose their fifth Super Bowl, setting a record for most lost. We gave up after the half time show. The final score was Seahawks 43, Denver 8.

A Fun Day Watching Them Make A Corona Commercial

We have had a spell of cool weather, But it has been dry & sunny.

On Wed. the place next to us that has a little bar was being used by a crew of 80 persons making a Corona Beer Commercial.

They took over the little bar, extended the deck toward the beach and rearranged the inside.

The real star of the commercial is the beer bottles.

The prop guy has specially made bottles which he fills and adds foam on top. He coats the bottle with something that make them shine.

The bottles were put in a Coleman cooler filled with ice and the actors hands took the bottles out one at a time until the cooler was  empty and then slammed shut.

Then the cooler was refilled with ice and a few more bottles and limes were put back in the cooler.

I’m not sure how this all fits in, if at all, to the next story.

Then I spotted this actress getting ready for her job as bartender.

She is filmed passing out a few bottles to the patrons, more actors.

Including these two guys who after they get their bottles.

They turn and kick their shoes off as they step off of the new deck to walk down the beach to the waiting chairs.

But guess who is in their way, why it's Peggy & John looking for a free beer.

But now the weather got really cloudy so they stopped filming outside for a while.

I think they are going to be filming here on Saturday unless the weather clears.

Here is one of the commercials that they released in March.

http://www.ispot.tv/ad/7gso/corona-extra-shoes

So Peggy got into the swing of things at the La Playa Beach Club at our campground.

I guess we really “Found Our Beach”

Two year’s ago the did this setup for their commercial at Al Cielo Hotel down the beach a ways.
They used a NY City cab and built their own bar right on the beach. See the Actual Video

Finally got to go paddling again

The weather was rainy when we got back here on the 5th. But we then has a beautiful week of warm weather before another cold front, they call them Northers, came in again, So for the past 4 days it’s been high in the 70’s and lows in the mid 50’s. Pretty cold for the Mexican beaches but very pleasant for walking the beach,

The campers had a surprise birthday party for me the day after my birthday, since on my birthday we went out to dinner at El Fogon in Playa with Claude & Mags and didn’t return until after dark.

 

 

 

 

 

Helen took all of these birthday party pictures.

 

 

I took this short 2 minute video of what our little campground looks like here at Xpu-Ha. Try this link to watch it. Xpu-Ha in two minutes

So finally two weeks after the my surgery I got back in my kayak and paddled for 1-1/2 hours in the cool calm seas.

Lazy in Mexico

Gosh I hardly took any pictures and didn’t do anything exciting. So I haven’t been updating our blog. We did fly home on December 20th for our Family Christmas celebration at Joan’s house. I thought I would post this picture of our 4 kids, since all of our 12 Grandchildren were not there this year.

We were supposed to fly back on December 29th but on December 27th I had to go in for out-patient surgery to have a hernia repaired. This delayed our flight back to Mexico until January 5th.

We always take the airport bus to Playa and a Collectivo to Xpu-Ha but our good friends Claude & Mags insisted on picking us up at the bus station in Playa to save us the long walk down the campground driveway carrying my 19 lb. backpack. The doctor had put a 20 lb. limit on me for a few weeks.