Last year, we won a trip to Mexico.  We liked it so much, this year we paid for the privilege to return.  We went to Cozumel, and it was lovely, colourful, warm and most importantly, relaxing in every possible way.  It was a few months ago, but for all practical purposes, we have barely seen the sun since.  The late and rainy spring here in Saint Paul, Minnesota makes us extra glad we were able to have a winter getaway.   

We spent the majority of our time in Cozumel on the beach.  I spent a good portion of my time on the beach considering this functional branch and palm leaf umbrella that filled the gaps between the palm trees on the beach, providing shade.  I wasn’t thinking about making one, or how someone made it, just that it exists, it is functional, humble and pretty and provides shade.  That is all I could ask of the umbrella, and of myself.  That, and snorkeling every day to look at the sea rays, seashells and pretty fish.   This is a fire-breathing dragon sunning himself at our resort.  Someone might mistake him for an iguana, but that person would be wrong.  According to our scientific research, this is a fire-breathing dragon. Here is me, posing with one of the books Bjorn read on our vacation.  I might have taken this picture to show off the manicure I gave myself on the beach.  Bjorn read two books on our short vacay:  Love Rock Revolution – K Records and the Rise of Independent Music by Mark Baumgartner and Big Day Coming – Yo La Tengo and the Rise of Indie Rock by Jesse Jarnow.  He devoured them and clearly enjoyed both of these non-fiction histories of his one of his favorite indie record labels and his favorite band.  Since the trip, we have joked that Ira Kaplan and Georgia Hubley (of Yo La Tengo) were on the trip with us.  Side note:  on our vacation I only managed to read 5 magazines and one chapter of Big Day Coming and paint my nails.  I really needed to be on vacation.  

Classic vacation photo:  the subject is extra good looking, you can see a reflection of a palm tree and the ocean in his Ray Bans and there is a guy taking a snooze behind him.  And the model is extra good looking.  That good looking vacationer came up with the perfect drink for a Mexican vacation or a Minnesota summer day: the Sideways Sol.  This consists of a Sol beer and a shot of tequila.  Add salt and lime if you like.  This is a simple drink for vacation in Mexico slash summer.  Don’t over think it.  Don’t complicate it.  Just enjoy it. This is what I mean about Mexico being colourful.  There are mod murals on walls like this one.  I don’t know what it is advertising, but I love the colour scheme.  

This is another mod advertising mural.  The colours of Mexico are vibrant, saturated and I can’t get enough.Eating off-resort favors the bold, experienced and bilingual.  For a taste and texture adventure, one option we came across was tripe tacos.  They are reportedly tasty!We could have ventured out to eat, but we didn’t.  We took the path of the utmost easy-going every chance we could on this vacation.  Early every morning when we walked to the beach we passed the snack bar at our resort where the cooks were scooping out the ripe green, soft interiors of halved avocados with large spoons, and chopping scores of tomatoes and onions and piles of cilantro and limes.  The result was a lovely plate of chips with pico and guacamole like this one, that we enjoyed several times throughout this lovely, lazy, restorative trip.  I hope, I so hope that we’ll get to go back.