Okay, I Lied...

This is another Cancun post. I forgot that I was planning on sharing parts of my journal entries with you from my trip to Cancun. I'm know you're sick of hearing about Mexico already, but this is more about journaling than Mexico!


The first couple days there, there wasn't much to do other than journal, play cards, eat, drink. And I started thinking that we should've brought some board games, or more art supplies, or something....

But after the first couple days, I didn't end up journaling as much, since the sun was out and the beaches were beckoning to me to come out and play. So I only did one page of journaling for the entire trip, unlike my European vacation, where I almost filled half of a composition book with entries!

I planned the page like a weather board, with my "days of the week" tape, and a little depiction of the days' dominant weather patterns at the top. It was a nice way to remember a little bit about each day, and didn't put a lot of pressure on me to spend too much time working on it. Usually I ended up working on it the next day or night after. 


I wasn't surprised that I didn't work that much in my book. Typically with beach vacations, I'm rarely indoors. I will sometimes only make my entries after returning home, and only using scraps and bits that I collected during my trip.... more like a scrap book than a journal entry. They definitely aren't as fun as art journals, though, so I try to add something to them. This was an easy way to do that. Like I said, I am a beach girl, and if there's an ocean out there waiting for me, it won't have to wait for long!

Food in Cancun

Aztec tortilla soup with accoutrements

So, I don't know if you've been to Mexico or not, but one of my favorite aspects of going there is the food. It's not like going to a Taco Bell. Trust me. It's so much better and healthier for you! I love the flavors, spices, freshness... it speaks to me.

Breakfast buffet

In the mornings, we'd go down to the breakfast buffet in the main restaurant at the resort and I'd get fresh eggs with housemade salsa, some wheat toast, and my favorite... fresh papaya, pineapple and various melon slices. Mmmm... I'm telling you, the fruit is out-of-this-world ripe, so sweet and juicy and perfect! Every day I had fruit like this! (More than my photo shows, haha, I didn't take pictures of my seconds!)

Pina Colada under a palapa

 In the mornings, with our coffee, we'd also get one of their six fresh fruit juices with our meals. (Typically: watermelon, guava, "green juice", cantelope, coconut, and orange juice.) And in the afternoons, it would maybe take the form of a pina colada. Let me tell you, their drinks were made with fresh fruit and coconuts, and tasted so much more delicious than you can imagine. They are the reason that the drink is so popular! I wouldn't bother getting it in the States, though. Not the same at all. 

On our last afternoon in Cancun, our favorite waiter/person in Cancun, Enrique, made sure we had a meal to remember! Grilled seafood, beans, guacamole, handmade tortillas, were all displayed for us to make our own tacos! There was also grilled skirt steak, which I ate some of, because I didn't want to waste what he'd brought. It was amazingly delicious, even though I don't eat red meat, typically. (I did in Mexico and occasionally at home when I really need iron.) A yummy fresh sangria topped off the meal! He brought us chilled shots of El Jimador tequila, too, which is a smooth tequila if ever there was one, but I couldn't do it on the last day, so lucky Keith got to take the two shots! We ate & drank like royalty here! It was wonderfully decadent, and I have to say, it's a good thing we only do this once a year! I gained some weight on this trip, despite the heat and walking and swimming. It was inevitable!


Oh Mexico, I love & miss you!

The Color of the Ocean in Cancun

Depending on the quality of the light, the color of the ocean varied. It was beautiful regardless, though, don't you think? That ocean just pulls the eye in like a strong undertow. You can't stop looking at it when it's there....

Beach Combing in Cancun

You know there's nothing I like more than looking for seashells. I grew up walking next to my grandma, as she showed me the beauty of nature in the found bits of wonder along the edge of the surf or at a river's edge. Little clam shells or whorled snail shells were just as wonderful as a sea-smoothed pebble or shiny seashell. They all were equally fascinating to my grandma, and thus, to me. 


In Cancun, there was always a bit of something along the edge of the beach near the surf, as well as up in the sunny, dry, cool, coral sand. Every now and then, I'd find the shiniest creamy-white margin shells, or olive shell. There were many pieces of sunrise tellins, as they're quite thin and break easily. At first, most of the shells I found were sturdy calico clamshells and Lucines. I also found a couple varieties of venus clams, like the royal comb venus and king venus. There were a few "turkey wings" which I've also found in Puerto Vallarta.

Corals, Lucines, venus & calico clams, scallop, thorny oysters

I found a cowrie shell, but not laying on the sand. Indeed, most of the shells I found were in one day of digging in the hardened bank of sand that was exposed one morning after a shift in tides. We walked out onto the beach to see many people digging with hands or broken shells, and finding large conches and other seashells! It was bizarre, but we played along. Any chance at pretending I'm an archaeologist and I'm THERE. 

Moonsnails, olives, margin shells & one cowrie

Sunrise tellins

Corals & some top shells

So with the sun to our backs, we dug away at the sand bank, and found many wonderful treasures that would have remained buried under the sand, or crushed underfoot, or washed back out to sea. I loved the excitement that people found in unearthing their natural treasures! People would gather round a particularly nice specimen that someone had dug up along the bank, and then the excitement would grow... maybe the next lovely shell would be dug out by me?

We did find some chipped conch shells, as well as a shell that I think is a West Indian Chank. I've found smaller shells like it that have the same shape, though from other locations. My prize find, however, was a kind of oyster shell that I've never seen before... it has a kind of horn on it, which is unusual. Even Beatriz thought it was unique, and she lives there! Have you ever seen it?

I've been researching Caribbean seashells, oysters, etc. I haven't found anything that looks quite like this. The top of it seems like it used to have leaves, like a thorny oyster. But none of the thorny oysters have the horn! I love the deep oranges & reds of the outer shell. It looks like a sunset... I wish I could find out what it's called, or where it's typically found.


It was a wonderful hunt and K and I both had a lot of fun! The shells all survived the trip, and have been cleaned, dried and will soon be further researched. The prime shells will be put into a new organizer for my Cancun Shell Collection, and the rest will be displayed in our home. I have a few nice ones set aside for Keith's mom, too. She also loves seashells like me, and I'm excited to give her some! 

Cancun, Mexico

Hola Amigos. Buenos dias! How is your summer so far? (Or winter if you're down under...) I'm feeling good, having just returned recently from sunny Mexico! As you may know, it rained the first two and a half days that I was there. I started thinking, "I've made a BIG mistake..." but then, it cleared up halfway through the third day... lo, and behold! SUN! Well, "sun" is an exaggeration on the third day. It was really more like "not raining" and therefore, we were out taking advantage of not getting rained on. It was a great day for beach combing! When it DID rain, we hung out in the bar... played cards... just goofed around, really. We went out in the rain when it wasn't crazy windy, but it mostly WAS crazy windy. Apparently it was a tropical storm front named "Angela."

Waiting for a drink

Dominating in gin rummy

Oh, and check out our night time view from our room's balcony... It was pretty cool!

 The ocean was on the right, and the lagoon (which you can't see here) on the left of the strip. I have day time video of the view, and plan to put something together of the trip. It just may take a while, with other things on my plate at the moment.

Once the rain stopped, though, it was full-on gorgeous every day. It was also a lot hotter than the initial few days. It made it harder to stay out in the open... luckily there were lots of palapas! As there was wait service to the palapas, this was not a problem! In the morning, you could find a spot easily... but wait too long and you might be stuck without a table for your drink and food! Still, if you miss out, you can always get a canopied bed to lay on....

Rent for $25 pesos an hour

 These only came out when chances of rain had disappeared. Lush, right? We were too cheap to pay for it, but it looked really inviting... and it was next to this awesome little bar called Kuku's...

 One side had a big hot tub that you could relax in, with poolside service. The other side had these big swing chairs. They were very comfortable, but when the sun was aimed at your back, you'd burn without SPF 100!


The hot tub side had little tables, which are just above water level. It was perfect on the days when we first got there and it was drizzling. Once the sun was out in the middle of the week... no. Too hot. 

You can see how the sky was still gray in these photos... it was the third day, when it had stopped raining, and people started coming out again. Unfortunately, because it wasn't that sunny or too hot, we got burned because we didn't feel the UV rays on our skin. The day after this, I stayed well out of the sun!

Iguana on the resort

Iguana at El Rey ruins

There was plenty to see around us, though. During the day, iguanas came out to sun themselves... they bring me back to a prehistoric time of dinosaurs... they're not like the little lizards back home! There was also an archaeological site that was walking distance from the resort. We went there the day before we left. It's called El Rey (The King) because of the remains of an ancient Mayan king that was found there under a statue of himself. It's the end of the Chichen Itza string of ruins, and it's extremely old. The coolest thing about it, though, are all the iguanas that have taken over the site! I'm not kidding, there are hundreds of them there. They each have their territories in and around the ruins, and if you bring some fresh fruit and start waving it around, they all start to come over to you for a bite. They LOVE fresh fruit... who doesn't?


The other amazing thing we saw, which was at night, was the sea turtles coming in to lay their eggs! They are massive, and crawl up the beach towards the resorts. Once they dig their holes and lay their eggs, the hotels have people who remove the eggs, count them, and put them up higher on the beach in a fenced in area... otherwise, all the tourist activity would dislodge and possibly destroy the eggs. We saw one sea turtle mama leaving, and we all stood around (giving her plenty of room) and watched her re-enter the sea. She was beautiful. They don't like people snapping photos of the turtles at night because it can disorient them, which I totally understand, so I took a photo of her tracks after she was already in the ocean's embrace.

Sea turtle tracks... looks like a tractor left them!

Finally, I want to mention that we had the most excellent service at the Omni Resort, where we stayed. There was one server in particular, named Enrique, who was awesome! He brought us delicious foods that weren't even on the menu! He was on top of our drink situation, and he was super fun and cheerful, and waved at us when we walked past the restaurant on the beach. We wanted to take him home with us! The feeling was apparently mutual because on our last day, he told us that the next time we came to Cancun, that he wanted to have us over to his house. Which we plan on doing!

Enrique: server extraordinaire!

He was such a nice guy, and shared the same taste in food that we had... he was always bringing us fresh guacamole, and plenty of freshly grilled seafood and their delicious homemade buttered tortillas, with a side of super HOT salsa, freshly made with habanero chilies. I could only dab my food with a drop of it. Seriously, people, it's hot.


When we were under the palapas, we had our favorite wait staff there, too. Her name was Beatriz, and she was very friendly, always remembered our room number, and was genuinely a nice person. She was awesome! Not everyone is always genuinely nice to you at resorts. Some people are just nice because they're hoping for tips. Who could begrudge them? But there are a few people who are just awesome, and you have fun around them because they make things extra special for you. That was Enrique and Beatriz. They were loving their jobs, (they're obviously "people persons") and have fun meeting people and showing them a grand time while they're on their Mexican vacations. I love being around people like that, don't you? It was definitely bittersweet leaving Mexico. It was a lot of natural beauty, amazing food, and nice people... but alas, I'm always as happy to be back home. I love living in America, and appreciate it more every time I return from somewhere else. (And of COURSE, I missed Jimmy Boo and Beckham with an ache that was unreal!) It took a couple days to get home, due to flight issues on our return trip, but the airline put us up at a nice Hyatt in Charlotte, NC, where we were taken care of in southern style, and by the following afternoon we were home!

 In another post, I'll share with you the excitement of beach combing here, and what goodies I found! Stay tuned...

Message from Cancun!

Hello Friends! I'm in Cancun, and decided to pop in and say hi because it's pouring rain outside! Just had a delicious meal with a Tequila Sunrise, when the rain started coming into the outdoor restaurant... sideways. Yes, it's the rainy season, and this is to be expected.


I don't have any photos to post yet because I'm not actually on my own computer, but one of the ones in the business center here at the Omni. Other than pricey WiFi access, I fully recommend this place to anyone planning to come to Cancun! It's gorgeous, the service is amazing, the food is delicious at all their restaurants, and the rooms are beautiful! I haven't actually left the resort since arrival yesterday! There's a lot to explore here, and the seashells on the beach are abundant! 


I hope that you are all having a lovely weekend! Mine has been wet, wild and woolly! I'm not saying that sideways rain is new to me, since I live in PA now... but it's different when the palm trees are thrashing about, and the lightning arcs across the sky, with its resultant thunder sounding like the gods are up there bowling strikes. It's intense!


Take care, my lovelies, and I will be in touch! xoxox

My Bag is Packed...

... and Jimmy Boo is packed up, too. Not really, but I wish I could take him with us. He fits quite nicely in my suitcase, see? He doesn't mind the cozy fit, either. I think he just wants to escape Beckham's clutches. Lately, Beckham has been biting Jimmy Boo more. I'm not sure why, and Jimmy Boo is just too sweet to do anything about it, really. (Sometimes he retaliates, and sometimes he even starts the kerfuffle, but mainly he's a hapless recipient of feline terrorizing.)


I've got the suitcase almost ready. I only need to pop my beauty products in there, and I'm ready to go! I'm very excited about this trip to Cancun, as I've never been there! 


I want to check out Xel-Ha, a marine park that looks amazing, which my friend Tim told me about. I also want to see El Rey, some very ancient ruins that are close by. Apparently, at El Rey, there are iguanas who live there and will approach you if you bring some fruit for them... I really want to see an iguana up close!


Mostly, I just want to relax on one of the beautiful Cancun beaches... they look so beautiful, and the water is so blue. It reminds me more of the Caribbean than Nuevo Vallarta, which is on the Pacific side and which has that steely blue color that I'm used to. It will be fun to see what sea life is around us, and maybe we'll get lucky and spot some dolphins, sea turtles, or find some bioluminescent phytoplankton! (I saw some in Nuevo Vallarta, dotting the surf at night, and it was quite magical!)


I've got some posts lined up for the first few days that I'm gone, but I'm hoping to be able to send a couple blogs from abroad. I know, I should really unplug, and I just might. If you don't hear from me from Mexico, don't worry. I'll just be 'sipping margaritas by the sea, mamacita,' and taking a dip in that warm blue elixir of the Gulf of Mexico...

K and I, last year in NV, Mexico

Hasta luego, my amigos! xox

Turning Point

So despite feeling kind of funky these past few days (I'm attributing my discomfort to the rapid changes in barometric pressure) I worked on this video quite a lot. It took me several days to go through my footage (of which I have little) to put together something that described my whirlwind life last year. You could say that it was my "turning point." Although, even though it was a drawing challenge, I chose to describe it in video, rather than a drawing.


Here it is. I hope you enjoy it: 

Untitled from Shari Durfey on Vimeo.

Missing the Ocean...

Take a walk along the beach with me... I'm missing the ocean very much. If there were one place that I could say always makes me happy, enriches my soul, feeds my body, it would be at the edge of the sea. 

Green Sand Beach, Hawaii

Ho'okena tide pools, Hawaii

Mexico

Northern California coast

Bahamas

Bahamas

Bahamas

Bahamas

Bahamas

Bahamas

Santa Monica, CA

Santa Monica, CA

Mexico

Mexico

Mexico

After reading Shannon's blog, I realized that I wanted to take a trip down memory lane, as I currently live a bit of a drive from the ocean. I needed to remember the sound of the waves crashing next to me.... or the sweet susurration of the gentler waves against soft sand... shhhhh... shhhhhhhhhh... shhhhh.... I've always loved that sound. The little treasures of Mother Nature tumbling along the water's edge, leaving a lacework tracery for the sea birds to follow. Rich and pungent sea weed sending its organic smells into the wind... all these things make me indescribably happy!


What places make you feel the most happy, the most "at home" and balanced? For me, it has always been walking at the feet of the ocean, or in her arms, floating, swimming. I hope you've enjoyed your walk with me along many edges of her vastness....