Xaman-Ha

This morning we finally went to see Xaman-Ha, a bird sanctuary in Playacar that we had planned to visit for a while. It’s not very big but you can see flamingos, pelicans, macaws, tucans…and many other local birds whose name I forgot. M & O loved it: they just want to see more, more and more animals.

After the “jungle tour”, we went to Sam’s Club to get stuff for the new house: sheets, towels, pots and pans ($50 dollars for 17 pieces, not bad). It is kind of refreshing to be in a country where they sell product made in that country. “Hecho in Mexico” instead of “Made in China” is a nice change! We are looking forward to be in the new house and to make it homey.

Playground

Alain spent most of the day at the Internet Café, so I took the kids for the afternoon stroll with our now traditional stop at the beachside playground. Our new routine is very much like in Brooklyn, except that here, they get to breathe the air from the Caribbean Sea while they play.

At the playground, a woman started to talk to me in all kind of languages until I finally figured out she was Italian. She was selling handcraft jewelry so I felt obliged to sustain her effort by buying something. I did not really like anything she had, so she went home and came back a little later with the bracelet I wanted. She had traveled all over Mexico and finally settled in Playa with her boyfriend. She is from the province of Sondrio (close to the Suisse border) and she does not want to go back (who can blame her!).

Xcaret

Xcaret is a must-see for tourists with kids. It's an eco-park with all sorts of animals in an amazing setting. See their website for details: http://www.xcaret.com/. What it is amazing is that even in such a touristy destination, you have a total respect for nature and the all constructions are totally immersed in nature. The restaurants have a delicious buffet, and everything is organized, but without been obsessively organized.

We saw plenty of tropical birds, turtles, and all the animals that M&O see in “Diego” their favorite TV show. We bathed in a natural pool while a big rain storm came down on us. It was fun until the thunderstorms started so we decided that it was better to get out and run for cover.

After the thunderstorm experience, we were kind of tired and we could not decide what to do next so we started to follow a large group of people that were all going in the same direction. We got into a huge theater where we saw an impressive 2-hour show. It was about the history of Mexico, starting with the Indians, the Spanish conquerors, all the way to early 20th century Mexico, all with dance and costumes.

The first part about the Mayan culture was the most intriguing: we show a game that was sort of ancestor of hockey, but he ball was literally in fire! The kids were fascinated.

Life like in Cefalù (minus the Cathedral!)

Living here is like living Cefalù: you go somewhere and you meet someone you know, you stop by for a little chat and go on with your day. Today, I went to Monex again to give them the rest of the information they needed..

On the way there I met Vito, who was at Café Gitano just across from Monex. Café Gitano is owned by Benedetto, a guy from Palermo… I am sure soon I will find a long lost cousin.

I forgot to mention a major improvement in my life: I do not do laundry anymore. One year of no washing, drying, ironing, and folding sounds pretty good to me. I guess I could do this in the States as well, but here, I trust the Italian guy who owns the local Laundromat, I know he’ll use the good Mexican soap and not some cheap version of Tides. Plus the folding is impeccable. On the top of that, I get a discount!

In the afternoon, we discovered a new beach south of Playa, close to the Copacabana Hotel. There were few bungalows with some hippy French tourists and a family of Mexican and basically that’s it. The water was warm and clear. I also came to this sad conclusion: Oscar is like Alain, he prefers the beach at sundown!

Music and Carnival

You know that you have extra time when you can plunge in a book and not let it go until the end. My friend Elin gave me this great book for my birthday, which brought me back to Brooklyn, complete with its odors (!!!) and the city’s mugginess. Well for now I don’t miss the city, but I do miss the people….

Jorge, M & O little friend, went back to Mexico City today, so we all said goodbye and took few pictures. Matthias found his class album, and looked at the photos of his friends from Park Slop. He said he misses Bianca and asked me if she will come and visit. We hope she does.

In the afternoon, we took the kids to the “carnival” (small amusement park) again, and on the way we did a late afternoon stroll on the beach.

The beach at Playa is not just a place for tanning and bathing: at sun down, you have all kinds of activities taking place right on the beach, a real social life. There are a lot of bars with tables, tourists, and late bathers and just people walking around.

There was a local band playing on the Plaza Principal. They were pretty good and Oscar was dancing to the music. We got closer and discovered that the audience was 100% Mexicans, not one tourist! No one was dancing yet, and there was food and drinks but I did not know what the occasion was.

At that point, Matthias was putting pressure (as only Matthias can!) to go to the “Carnival” so we left even though I would have liked to stay longer. The rides are not expensive (10 pesos, 90 cents) but they give you a lot of value for your money: the Merry-go-around last forever, like a good 15 minutes.

Another woman in Oscar’s life

Oscar seems to like all the women of Mexico. We met Carolina, a very cute and sweet 17 year old, here in vacation with her older sister and her niece Anjelica, a very determined 2 year old. But Oscar loves Carolina and he glued himself to her all day at the pool. I made sure that Carolina was not annoyed by him but she kept saying that it was ok. She seems to like children, and she is taking good care of her niece.

Carolina wants to study medicine but, this year, she is going to go to Canada for 6 months to learn English. Jorge’ cousin also went to Canada to learn English, so I asked her if it was a coincidence, but it’s something else. In the States, people look down on Mexicans, not in Canada. Keep him mind that these two people are the White Mexican and they do not fit at all the physical stereotype.

The amazing thing it is that she is clearly from a right wing family and she considered the leader of opposition party to be as communist as Castro, but still she does not like Bush.
I clearly have to understand more about this country’s political and social make up.

We receive the lease from our new landlord: 18 pages long! Much more than the 4 we had in the lease we create to rent our own house. Oh well… all that redundancy in official documents really reminds me of Italy. Same love for important words, the abundance of sections and subsections, etc…

At least Alain will now stop asking me all the time to call Raul. This is how it works in Mexico: if someone tells you something is going to happen tomorrow (like an email), that means it is going to take a few days. Once you know that, there is no need to panic.

Vive la liberte, vive le Mexique!

I know it is suppose to be a French celebration but Mexico feels like real freedom right now. For having been part of an over-ruled world for so long it is good to know that you don’t have to wear the seat belt all the time, and you can talk on you cellular at a traffic light without having to pay 90$ fine, and you can double park for a second or two without paying 130 $ fine. Sorry Bloomberg you will not get my contribution for a year! That is the proof that sometimes, bending the rules makes life easier for everybody.

I spent the morning running errands (it’s beautiful word that my friend Cary originally thought me… I always wanted to lightly translate in Italian with “errare”). You know you are not a tourist when you have to give up few hours under the sun to do stuff.

First, I went to Monex (a kind of upscale Western Union) and the lady in charge is actually my neighbor. Every morning, even before M & O, she is swimming doing laps. I did not recognize her because she is swimming with a cap and goggles, but she recognized me. I have been here not even 3 weeks and I can’t even think about doing something anonymously.

I called my friend Stefania from the Internet Café, I can’t wait to have broadband so I can have my regular evening phone conversations and my daily updates, so it would feel more like we live in a different neighborhood than a different country.

While I was running my errands, Oscar was shopping for another mother at the swimming pool. Apparently Alain said that he fall in love with Jorge’s mother, and he was hugging her and did not want her to go. These men are all the same: anyone’s mother is good enough! (I told you that Oscar has a thing for “older” and “latino”). I guess, after he got reprimanded yesterday, he realized that maybe he did not have such a good deal. He also changed his name to “San Diego”. I fail to see what my son has in common with a Saint but that is what he answered when his newfound mother asked him for his name…!?

Talking about names, I don’t even attempt Veronique anymore: I go straight for Veronica (or Beronica as they pronounce it) and I suddenly realize that my life is so much easier.

In the States I used Veronica for the restaurant or the dry cleaner. Here is for everybody, and it is part of the general rule of relaxation. Why I do want to explain all the time that I am Italian but I have a French name and all that blablabla and now that I am thinking about it, I should have done it long time ago… who knows, maybe I haave some missed opportunities because someone could not remember my name.

Alain tonight felt patriotic (Bastille Day) so went for a stroll (the famous “passeggiata”) on the Quinta. It was very pleasant, there was a little breeze and tourists are starting to fill up the restaurants and bars. The kids had ice-cream but after an entire day of swimming, they were exhausted.

The Movie

After a quiet morning practicing jumping in the pool, I thought that I should take the kids to the movies. They deserved it since they were dragged through administrative tasks this past few days. Alain stayed home to get some work done.

Here we are, mother and two kids in the car going to “Pelican Plaza” for our first movie in Spanish. We went to see “Cars”, and I was thrilled, as you can imagine. Well at least I got to listen to some Walt Disney in Spanish.

On the way out from the theater, there was a inflatable castle-trampoline. Of course, Oscar had to do an Oscar “thing”. First he wanted to go in, but then he did not want to wear the paper bracelet and he put his shoes back on, in sign of defiance. Then he came back, reluctantly put the bracelet, got in, cried the all time and did not want to jump.
I could have killed him so I decided that it was better that he stayed in the trampoline for his own sake.

On the way back, he got a major reprimand, and we start taking away privileges and see how it will work! Or will not… What will he be at 15???! Matthias was also defiant because I was reprimanding his brother. Alliances are nice but you will have to live with the consequences.

Car Insurance

The rule is everything bureaucratic takes half a day. Today, we had to buy car insurance, which, by the way, is $400 dollars per year!!!!! That is A LOT less that what we pay in Brooklyn. Anyway the lady from the insurance company had big boops and fake white flower is her hair, but was super nice. She made all kinds of phone calls, she sent faxes, she gave candies to the kids… all this took almost 3 hours.

Finally we went to pick up our gray Pointer Volkswagen. So I met the famous Amir, Israeli, part owner of the Internet Café, part owner of the car, part real estate agent. A tall, bold, muscular guy, that plays domino all day with his Mexican associate. He told me he was born in a kibbutz, which in itself does not tell me much, but he continued saying that he was playing professional basketball in Italy and then he also lived in NY and Atlanta. So I told him about my Israeli athletic connection to Vlad and his brother, and he said he knew them. Go figure… I have to double check!

I also had a long conversation with the Italian guy who owns the cleaning store next to our house. It is interesting to know every life story, because every story is a bit different. He moved to Playa not long ago and before that he was living in Belize for four years and before that in Texas. He gave me few tips about life in Playa and the Italians he knows here.

The kids finally realize that “Mexico” is not only a beach, and that we are “in Mexico” even if we are not actually at the beach. Sometimes when they get reprimanded, they say they want to go “home” (which they also refer to as “the trampoline house”). I feel a little self-conscious but I know it is just a way for them to refer to a place where they feel cozy. Friendship is something that already means something to them, so I also say that I will not move them around from 12 to 18 years old and I will try to hold to that promise.

We are in the paper!

I just bought “Il Sole d’Italia” (Vito’s paper) and we are officially mentioned in the article about the celebration of the World Cup in Playa del Carmen. I guess a French-Italian family watching the match at his office was news-worthy!

It is finally sinking in that we are becoming Mexican residents. Up to know, I have been amazed by the fact that so many things that are the same as in the States. But today, driving in the Calle Benito Juarez (a busy commercial avenue) we could see street vendors, men riding bikes with a sort of cart in front, mothers crossing the street with sleeping baby in their arms, and flocks of tourist who appeared a bit overwhelmed by the heat and the new environment… it was more than obvious that we were *not* in the United States!

We put in a deposit on the new house, and we are really looking forward to move on August 1st. Alain wants to buy a desk and an office chair and even a TV with a TV stand! I could live with the TV being on a chair, but Alain said we don’t have to live like students… I think we can… we are student of a new life.