wildwahinepaddler

Beautiful lake!!

This is one amazing lake in Mexico! It’s turquoise blue and a mix of fresh and salt water and it’s warm!  The good news is that they have stand up paddle boards!!!!  The bad news is that it is super windy right now and too rough for paddling or kayaking……so I am hoping that it calms down in the next couple of days so I can get out on a board!  We will also take a boat trip tomorrow and be able to swim in some more cenotes.  One of them is about 250 feet deep!  We are loving it down here in the Yucatan, except for one day I got chewed on massively by mosquitoes at one of the cenotes and was itching for two days.  Now I am getting smarter and taking my bio-safe insect repellent wherever we go!  One day we are going to Chetumal down by the border of Mexico and Belize to explore.  I hope I get to paddle soon since I haven’t been able to at all yet.  I sure miss paddling!!  More later…….  Adios!

Cenote Azul

Our first “cenote” to swim in!  Just a short hike into the jungle and a beautiful pool to swim and snorkel in.  I saw such interesting fish with “bug eyes” which I guess is so they are able to see in dark places in the pool.  There was even a turtle sunning itself on a rock!  Then we went to Akumal, which is the cutest little beach town with nice beaches and we swam and snorkeled there too.  I hung around with a school of about twelve black striped fish and I saw some other interesting fish too.  I will have to look them up and find out what kind they were.  After the beach, we stopped in Playa del Carmen and walked down to the beach.  A Mexican wedding had just taken place and down by the beach there were Mexican performers singing traditional songs and dancing.  Then we stopped in at a cafe on the beach and had a pizza.  It was a very nice outing!!!!  The Yucatan is great!

Playa del Carmen

It’s been a while since I posted last.  We didn’t have internet for a couple of days here in Mexico and although we have been busy, our first big adventure is scheduled for this coming Monday and Tuesday when we take off for Chetumal, the border to Belize, and a couple of days at Laguna Bacalar.  The Caribbean Sea is so warm,  and the sand is so white contrasting with the turquoise water!  It’s very beautiful!  Two years ago when we visited here, I looked around for a stand up board to rent and couldn’t find one anywhere, but while at the beach in Playa del Carmen, I scoped out two places that had them for rent!    I have been told that stand up paddling just started getting popular in the last year here.  I hope I can rent a board and get in some paddling while I’m here!  At some point we are going to an Eco park called Xel-Ha which is apparently a huge water park with snorkeling, swimming, kayaking, and perhaps paddling, so we’ll see.  Along the way to Chetumal, we are going to visit some Mayan Ruins and look for Cenotes to swim in.  I can’t wait!  I’ll take photos and do some posting about our adventure.  Last time we visited, we stayed down in Cancun, but this time we are staying near Playa del Carmen and are basically in the “jungle”!  Along with the jungle, comes a lot more critters and insects, so I am getting more than my share of insect bites!  Today I will be looking for something to relieve the itching.  At the Grand Mayan Resort they are involved in “sustainable tourism” and house a few jungle critters like Flamingos, crocodiles, birds, turtles and a critter I had never seen  before called a “Nasua“, which looks a bit like a large raccoon with a long nose.  The Nasua are all around the resort and we saw one the other evening running into the plants by our building!  They are apparently friendly, but can also bite, so we will be leaving them alone.  I’ll post more later……..Adios!

turtles!

I could not have asked for a more perfect day if I had ordered it!  Blue skies, sunny, and just a nice breeze blowing and perfect paddling conditions.  I really wanted to go down to the boat ramp so I paddled south.  Just as I was coming into the boat ramp area, my first turtle surfaced and then another one popped up too!  The turtles didn’t make me wait either and before I knew it, I had counted ten more turtles, had sat in a turtle triangle and got surrounded by five turtles!  I even saw “Bumpy” today!  I mostly had the place to myself, except when three other paddlers came by.  A woman paddler came up by me and said she lived in Alaska but has a condo by Kam III and she said she tries to paddle whenever she is on Maui.  Then she told me that whenever she gets to paddle, she always sees me surrounded by turtles!  Then she said, “What a life!”  Well I have to agree!  I told her paddling and the turtles keep me sane!  The day was so nice that I kicked back on my board, pulled my hat over my face, and just listened to the turtles splashing around me.  It is so peaceful!  When I had counted seventeen turtles I decided to head back to Kam I, but as soon as I started paddling, I noticed a big turtle right under my board!  I stopped for a few minutes to visit with the turtle, and then two more turtles surfaced and I was sitting in a turtle triangle once again!  What a nice day!  Conditions were perfect on my way back and it was difficult to come in, but I wanted to swim too.  The conditions stayed nice all the way through my swim and it was still nice at the beach when I left.  I’m so glad it was so great today because tomorrow is a travel day.  I will be posting while we are on our trip to Cancun, so stay tuned!!!!

Love those turtles!

We had some stormy conditions the last couple of days and we even got some much needed rain!  I did miss paddling, but today was sunny so I was going paddling.  When I got down to the beach, the wind had started to blow from the north and by the time I got out paddling, the wind was blowing pretty good.  I went out anyway!  I figured that I would at least get out in the water.  I decided to paddle into the wind, so I headed north.  I really wanted to go down to the boat ramp, but I was concerned about the wind.  On my way north, I ran into a paddling friend.  She had just come from Kalama Park and said she’d been following Manta Rays!  We both headed north, but it was still windy.  The visibility in the water was good and I saw the same school of yellow fish as last Saturday!  I also saw some Unicorn fish mixed in the group!  We paddled just outside of Kalama Park and soon a couple of turtles surfaced.  It was slow going, but finally the turtles started to pop up!  By the time I had counted a dozen turtles, things started really happening.  Suddenly, there was a turtle line of three turtles; I sat between two sets of two turtles; and at one point six turtles surfaced and we were surrounded!  I’m sure there were at least eighteen turtles for the day and maybe more, I’m really not sure.  My friend had to leave and the wind had backed off nicely, so I kicked back on my board and just floated, listening to little turtle splashes!  It was so peaceful! The conditions stayed nice on my way back to Kam I and all the way through my swim.  I am so glad I went out today!  I hope it’s nice tomorrow too…..

Wow, another gorgeous day!  I headed out paddling and ran into a paddling friend.  She was pointing north and then I saw the Manta Rays!  We followed the two Manta Rays down to Cove park.  At one point I was paddling right next to one of the Manta Rays!  We followed them back and forth and then the turtles started to surface.  There were so many turtles of all sizes!  I don’t usually paddle north but today it was spectacular in that direction so we kept paddling north and ended up outside of Kalama Park.  I didn’t realize that there was so much coral that way and in some spots, the coral juts up right to the water’s surface!  After counting a dozen turtles, I lost track.  I was sitting watching two turtles out in front of me, and then a really little turtle popped up right next to me and took me by surprise!  Then we paddled south and suddenly I had turtles to the left of me and a Manta Ray on the right of me!  Then it happened again!  We also saw a couple of schools of fish…. one school was yellow fish and the other striped.  All the sea creatures seemed very happy to be swimming around the coral!  I don’t know how long we stayed down there, but on the way back, we ran into another Manta Ray!  The water was so clear you could see everything under the water.  I hated to come in, but I wanted to swim too.  The wind only came up a little bit, which made my swim somewhat choppy, but it was really nice too.  What a nice day and what a lot of sea creatures in one morning!  I never made it down to the boat ramp today either…..it was too much fun paddling north!!

Kalama Park

This is a photo I took yesterday at Kalama Park.  It was a perfect day in and out of the water, but I was spending the day with my two-year old grandson.  We enjoyed watching the stand up paddlers and surfers and the water was super clear, as was the air!  The trade winds have come back to rescue us from the VOG, so I am very happy about that.  Today was just as perfect as yesterday and I was definitely going out paddling!  It was great to be able to clearly see the islands of Lanai and Kahoolawe for a change!  I paddled down to the boat ramp and got lucky that I was the only one there, except for two snorkelers.  The first ten turtles surfaced, but they didn’t stick around and I think it was because of the splashing that the snorkelers were doing.  The snorkelers were visitors from Canada based on the accent I was hearing, so when I got a chance to speak to them, I told them if they weren’t splashing around the turtles would get very friendly.  Finally they swam away and before long, the turtles started to pop up!  It was so perfect down at the boat ramp that I just laid back on my board and listened to the turtles coming up to look at me.  When I did look up, I saw three turtles all around me just floating!  A paddling friend showed up and she told me I was surrounded again!  I hung out with my friend for a while and we saw a turtle line up (three turtles floating all in a row!) and we got to sit in a turtle triangle too!  I am pretty sure I counted at least twenty turtles down there for today!  My friend had to leave and I decided to paddle back.  My friend told me she had been surrounded by Manta Rays earlier further north, so I thought I would paddle that way and maybe see them, but there was no sign of the Rays.  It was hard to go in since it was so very nice out on the water, but I wanted to swim while the conditions were so good.  My swim was delightful!  The reef was clear again and it was teeming with fish, especially the Humuhumunukunukuapua’a fish!  (I hope I spelled that right!).  The day stayed just perfect, and it was still nice when I left.  I hope the next few days are just like today!  We’ll see…..

I love turtles!

I could not have ordered a more perfect day for paddling!  No wind today and calm conditions were the order of the day.  I paddled down to the boat ramp and up popped my first turtle and it was “Bumpy”!  It is such a friendly turtle!  Bumpy swam next to me and then dove under my  board and came up on the other side of me.  Then a paddling friend showed up and we had quite a day of turtles.  There were so many of them!  At one point I looked over at my friend and saw that five turtles had surfaced all around her…… so I paddled over and cruised up next to her and we were surrounded!  Then the same thing happened again!  I asked her if she thought it could be the same group of turtles, but who knows!  There were big turtles and little turtles and the water was so clear we could see them swimming under the water by us.  The conditions stayed so nice and on the way paddling back, two more turtles surfaced outside of Kam II.  We ended up following one of them all the way to Kam I, where two more turtles popped up too!  It was so nice that it was hard to come in from paddling, but I wanted to swim before any wind came up.  A few minutes into my swim, a turtle appeared and it was swimming north, so I turned around and swam with it.  The turtle was swimming fast and it “out swam” me!  I guess it wasn’t interested in any company today.  Down at the reef the fish were plentiful and I even saw several Rainbow fish!  The ocean stayed calm for my entire swim.  It was just a perfect day at the beach and out on the water!!

Here come the turtles!

Well….. today’s conditions were a “mixed bag”…… the day started out with Kona winds blowing from the south, so I paddled against the wind all the way down to the boat ramp.  There had also been a cane burn, so the smoke plume was rising into the air, but the south wind was holding the smoke back and it was just rising up instead of blowing southward.  It was a shame since the wind had been working on blowing the VOG out to sea and now there was also smoke in the air.  By the time I passed Kam III, two turtles popped up to greet me!  Then when I got down to the boat ramp, the turtles made me wait.  The wind continued to blow Kona so the conditions were not calm, but finally I spotted a turtle out in front of me.  When I paddled towards it, two more turtles surfaced and I was sitting in a turtle triangle!  One of the turtles I recognized as “Bumpy”, and it came right up to my board!  It is such a friendly turtle!  Bumpy “cozied” up to my board and swam right next to me…..so I quickly laid back and dipped my arms into the water.  The turtle slid right under my arm, rubbing up against it!  Then I just laid there listening to the splashes and when it got quiet, I sat up and the turtles had disappeared.  The wind was not backing off so I decided to paddle back, but suddenly one more turtle surfaced!  On my way back, I ran into a paddling friend.  She told me she had seen the Manta Rays earlier and we paddled together for a few minutes and chatted.  Suddenly the wind backed off and it got really perfect!  Now it was going to be difficult to go in, but I wanted to swim in the nice conditions.  On the way in, I spotted a fleeting Manta Ray down in the water.   The calm water prevailed and my swim was great!  I even saw more Unicorn fish today down at the reef!  By the time I left the beach, the wind came back in crazy.  I hope the wind doesn’t come in early tomorrow!!