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GoCozumel Monthly Newsletter, November, 2008
A personal look at the island, written by an American who has lived on Cozumel since May 2000.
The Day of the Dead November 1 (All Saints Day) and November 2 (All Souls Day), coincides with the Day of the Dead celebrations in Mexico. It’s called El Día de los Muertos and it’s a tradition and celebration that is often misunderstood.
Basically, it’s a time when Mexican families remember their dead. They often gather at grave sites, decorate the graves with flowers and place offerings of food at the grave site. They gather to tell stories about their departed relatives and it’s a time of celebration and remembrance. Tradition has it that it’s during these times, that the spirit of the deceased can come and visit with their relatives for a day.
This is not a morbid occasion, but a festive time. In the homes families arrange ofrenda's or "altars" with flowers, bread, fruit and candy and there are pictures of the deceased family members. In the stores you can find chocolate skulls, marzipan coffins, and white chocolate skeletons. Special loaves of bread are baked, called pan de muertos, and decorated with design of bones. It’s a rich egg-batter bread sprinkled with sugar and it is good luck to be the one who bites into the plastic toy skeleton hidden by the baker in each rounded loaf.
Holiday decorations Beautiful holiday decorations and lights are up all over town.
Cozumel for the holidays Although they are a limited number, there are still a few quality vacation rentals available for dates during the holidays. You can see a list of the updated availability online at
http://www.gocozumel.com/christmas-newyears.htm
Humane Society Holiday Party XIII Annual Xmas Dinner Party to benefit The Humane Society of Cozumel..
Sunday, December 28 at the Money Bar at Dzul Ha Reef.
Take the old oceanfront road south of town about 6.5 kilometers.
The fun starts at 4pm and continues on the beach with
appetizers, live music, dinner, salsa and a cash bar. Drinks are 2
for 1 from 5-7pm.
Door prize and raffle
Tickets are $30 US or $400 pesos per person for adults and for hildren under 12
tickets are half price. Tickets available at: Rock´n Java, La Cocay, American Discount Drugstore and The Money Bar at Dzul Ha Reef.
I received this from the president of the
Cozumel Humane Society.
"The puppy featured on the poster for the Humane
Society Holiday Party is Scooby; a beautiful, playful, smart, house-broken, well socialized with people and dogs and, by the way, up for adoption! She is particularly special to me because I fostered her and her siblings, who came to us in a cardboard box as tiny babies and with no mother. They were so infested with worms and giardia that in spite of the vet´s efforts and my nights of little sleep, 6 of the 8 puppies slowly wilted away and died. Only Scooby and her little brother Mr. Bean survived, but they were so ill that as the others perished my hopes that these two would make it were getting slimmer all the time. The morning that I feared I would find them dead, I walked to the room and saw two little, sick and skinny puppies sitting with their heads hanging low, and very weakly wagging their tails at me. They had made it. From that day on they started making slow progress and after two weeks are now both beautiful and healthy.
Scooby is still living in my house, happy to be growing with a pack of six other dogs, five cats, a pelican and a few turtles. Mr. Bean is also in a house with a pack of dogs and although a little weaker generally than Scooby and with a few bald patches recovering from fungus, he is healthy, funny, potty trained and happy. And also needing a home.
If anybody out there feels that they can give a very special home to Scooby, and or Mr. Bean (or Beanny, or Beano), we will do whatever needs to be done on this side to make it possible for them to travel to their final happy home."
To contact the Cozumel Humane Society about Scooby, Mr
Bean or other animals, email the Humane
Society
Margarita glasses
Recently had shelves made for my hand painted margarita glasses, and they turned out quite well. I bought the glasses at a store on a side street of the main square. The bar in front serves their margaritas in these glasses, and their store sells not only the margarita glasses but hand wine glasses, martini glasses and matching pitchers and glasses.
If you are in the main square, standing at the clock tower with you back toward the ocean, walk down the street to the left. About ¾ of the way down that street you will see a bar on the left with tables and chairs out front. They are normally open Monday-Saturday. Normally they open between 11am and noon and they are closed in the evening. I’ve eaten lunch there several times and it’s quite good.
New road from Ave. 30 to Ave. 65.
There is a new road that has recently been opened that goes from Ave. 30 South up to Ave. 65. If you go all the way south on Ave. 30, past DIF and turn to your left, the road is wide and there is a median being built down the middle. That road goes all the way up to Ave. 65.
At some times during the day, the main oceanfront road from just south of downtown to the cruise ship pier Puerta Maya has a good bit of traffic because of all the taxis picking up or delivering people to the cruise ship piers, hotels and beaches south of town.
Now when I want to go south to the Caleta for scuba diving or even farther south to one of the beaches, instead of taking the main oceanfront road I have been going south on Ave. 30, turn left and go to Ave. 65. I turn right onto Ave. 65 and continue until that street ends and turn right again onto the road leading to the vehicle ferry.
When I reach the oceanfront road and turn left, I’ve missed a good bit of traffic.
The Garden
Il Giardino means “the garden” in Italian, and this is the name of a small restaurant that may be a bit difficult to find, but worth it. It’s in the residential area knows as Corpus Cristi and it’s On Ave. 15 Sur, #1133, between Calle 17 and Calle 19.
They are closed Mondays, but open Tuesday through Sunday. The hours say from 11am to 6pm, but in general, I’d say to wait until at least1pm as lunch time normally doesn’t begin until about that time.
You’ll be welcomed to this small, restaurant by the owner and chef who speaks Spanish, Italian and English. You can sit at a table in the lovely garden or inside.
When we went, two of us had the special that day which was pork loin and marinated portabella mushrooms. One person had chicken and one had ribs. Their lunch menu is varied, and prices range from as low as 45 pesos but most selections are 50-60 pesos and the shrimp is 110 pesos.
We returned again on Sunday for their delicious lasagna and the price was only 50 pesos and we’ve been back again on another Sunday. On Sunday, the owner said it was best to wait until around 2pm for the lasagna to be ready, but don’t wait too long! It might be all gone.
French Quarter
If you need to feed a group of people and you haven’t the time or energy to do all the cooking yourself, I found a marvelous solution. I went to French Quarter and arranged for them to do all the cooking for Thanksgiving dinner for a group of friends and family. Then, I picked it up at the restaurant about an hour ahead of time and brought it back to the house. It was easy and delicious! They made deep fried turkey, corn bread dressing, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes and gravy. We really enjoyed it and enjoyed the left overs the next day too.
The French Quarter is on Ave. 5, between Calle 3 and Rosado Salas. They are open every evening except Tuesdays.
EXCHANGE RATE During November the exchange rate that we saw at the money exchanges and the banks when changing dollars into pesos on Cozumel varied from 12.5 to 13.1 pesos to the U.S. dollar.
Gracias y hasta luego,
Kathy at GoCozumel.com
Below
are links to the months of our newsletter that are now online
