New Fruits

Food here in Mexico is OK. When I used to come here on vacation I used to love it, but now it has become a bit 'samey'. Everything served with tortillas, cheese, lime, salt lots of oil and chili peppers. Its tough to cook in the summer because our apartment is so HOT. My BF and I have 2-3 favorite restaurants which we go to quite often. We have menu favorites and because I am vegetarian my choices are limited - in short food is becoming dull.
The only exception to this, is fruit and I have recently discovered two new fruits:

Pitaya (five star fruit rating - a must try)
I love this new fruit. It comes from a climbing cactus, that grows on walls trees etc. It is a beautiful bright pink on the outside:And white with little black seeds on the inside:
It is about the size of an apple. You peel the fruit with a knife and eat the flesh inside. It is really delicious. Its so different from any other fruit I've had that its difficult to describe it. The flesh is a bit like melon in texture with tinsy little black seeds that just give it a little crunch. It's as sweet as a strawberry but quite a unique taste. I love them as is, or blended with ice 'pitaya water'.

Tuna (one star fruit rating)
Also the fruit of a cactus, (as opposed to a tasty game fish). I was very excited to try the tuna, following my experiences with the pitaya. Sadly I was sorely disappointed. Dull green on the outside: and... dull green on the inside:It is filled with pretty large hard seeds that you would not want to swallow. I would not bother with this fruit. Unless I had a bad tuna, when it comes to cactus fruit, Pitaya is the way to go.
There are many other fruits that BF will buy and make me taste. Nothing very nice as of yet but I plan to give each of them a write up.
There is a store that I call at almost daily to buy a mixed fruit salad and some fresh juice or another. We like watermelon (sandia), pitaya, and strawberry (fresa) so far. I did try chaya water and it was OK. The chaya is a green leafy plan a bit like spinich. Very good for you, I expect, and taste wise it is definitely manageable. Next time I plan to mix it with orange or pinapple.
More exotic fruits to follow.....

Terapia Holistica

Today I decided to visit Eduardo (Jesus Eduardo Orduno), a holistic therapist operating in Cozumel.
Eduardo lives near town and gives his consultations under a roof top palapa with drapes covering the sides for privacy and shade. As a starting point he asked me why I'd come to see him. Actually I feel happier and more peaceful now than I have in a very long time, but I still have some nagging insecurities and in general desire a higher level of peace in my life - so I thought 'what the heck' lets give this guy a go.
Eduardo explained that he worked with 27 (somewhere in that region) points in the body where the spirit/ soul and the body connect. At these points it would be possible for him to detect problems in the psyche. He uses a dousing pendulum at these points and if the pendulum swings back and forth, all is well. If it moves in a circle then there is some blockage. He then works with glass slides containing flowers and metals. He places these on your hips, belly button, throat, and between/ above your eyebrows (third eye). These also operate to re-balance any abnormalities. I was asked to breath slowly with my eyes closed and hold my breath for a few seconds on the inhale. I did a little mantra meditating as I listened to the birds singing in nearby trees. Eduardo found no real problem areas, although reactions suggested I often had a troubled mind.
The end of his treatment is to place his fingers at your inside elbow and ask his pendulum which flower essences will assist you. He narrows down from 100s of flowers by asking his pendulum yes/no. He was a lovely spiritual guy and by the sounds of it provides healing to a great many souls in distress. I enjoyed the experience a lot. All of my flowers had properties such as, forgiving myself, accepting past 'mistakes' as learning experiences, letting go of self doubt, being happy in the now etc... He said that I was operating at a pretty high level, spiritually, and that the flowers he'd given me showed that. Apparently there are levels/ steps of healing and I'm operating one the highest level. That's nice to hear because after all of these years its kind of how I feel.
So following this process the soul lets Eduard know which flower tincters to add to a small bottle. He gives this mixture to you as part of his serivce with directions on taking the drops every so often (the dosage is also determined by your spirits needs comunicated by the pendulum), but generally once every 1-3 hours, 6-12 times a day.
It was a pretty cool experience and I would recomend it. Lets see how I feel taking his flower mix. All of their properties promote exactly what I want to accomplish. I think just the act of thinking about your goals at prescribed times through out the day is a good one. I guess its a bit like meditation beads. You meditate with a set of beads and soon just picking up those beads assists you to a medatative state of mind. The taste of the drops may do nothing more that: remind you of your goals and inner beauty, or they may indeed possess properties which heal the soul.
If you are feeling low or have any specific problems, worries or depressions, or like me just searching for more balance, I would recomend Eduardo. I will report back.

One other thing that Eduardo sugested is that for general skin health a glass of carrot juice a week is a must - this is a real wrinkle reducer/ preventer. Say no more - as soon as I got home two glasses of freshly juiced carrot juice.
Oh yes he also said not to worry abou the pre-cancer cells on my back - they were healed and would not return.

Bird Update

So my little friend never did come back. I had a look on the internet and think that he is a love bird. I hope he made it to the jungle and found some little love bird friends.

Skin Cancer

So I'm going to be like one of those people who have had a tracheotomy due to throat cancer and stand up on buses to warn people about the dangers of cigarette smoking.

When I was in New York last summer friends (applying sunblock for me) noticed an odd looking bit of skin on my back. Just above an average sized freckle this piece of skin is about 6mm x 4mm and looks like a fresh scar. Before I left NY it seemed to have faded so I stupidly ignored it instead of going to a decent specialist in New York at a time when I had health insurance. Anyway a few months ago I became aware that the said mark was still at large. I didn't like the look of it so I went to see a local doctor here who'd helped with my chest infection. His best guess was a fungal infection. 10 days, a course of fungal cream and $90 later this was ruled out as a cause.

After much searching I found a dermatologist in Cozumel. Her diagnosis was, as I feared, pre-cancer cells. She prescribed a 30 course of 5% Fluorouracil cream. This is a topical anti cancer agent (chemotherapy cream).

I was not convinced by this doctor. She had many certificates on her wall but did not use a light of magnifying glass or any of the usual doctor tools to come to her diagnosis. I find these things comforting. Anyway I came home and did some research on the internet. I'd been avoiding this so far because I did not want to scare myself. It looks like I probably have a Actinic Keratoses legion. Only 10% of these ever become squamos cell carcinomas (cancer) and the cream she'd prescribed was a pretty common treatment with a reported cure rate of 80-90%.

I was a bit freacked out at this point and really wanted to have it removed and sent to pathology, afterall psoriasis orr eczema can often be mistaken for Actinic Keratoses. After much angsting, and correspodning with a dermatologist in Playa who confirmed the treatment as valid, and discussing the matter with a friend in New York who'd used the cram for treatment of similar legions before, I decided to go with the treatment my Cozumel dermatologist recomended.

I have just finished the treatment. The cream basically burnes the affected area away. I went back to the doc and she said she could not tell if the legion had been cured until the skin healed. Another course of a different cream for 10 days should do it.

So I will find out soon if it has gone. Either way I think I am going to consult with a dermatologist in England when I get home in October.

What steps am I taking to avoid more damage to my skin? Well I work as a scuba instructor and am in the sun a lot so I bought three dive skins. These are t-shirts made of a lycra type material with a UV protection factor of 40. I wear these all day when I am at work to keep my back out of the sun as well as factor 80 sun block on my face and ears. I have always been very careful about applying sunblock to my face - purely driven by vanity but I would always leave out my ears. Ears are aparently a common place to get skin cancerr so they are now part of my regime. I reapply sunblock each time I get out of the water and always keep a bag containing a selection of sunblocks in my car.

I am lucky in that I was not really exposed to the sun in my teens when most damage occurs. In my 20ies though I was a bit of a sunworshiper and also spent a little bit of time on sunbeds. Unfortunately I will probably never know if this was a pre-cancer or something more inoccous, but I figured either way I need to look after my skin more.

So I wanted to ask people to be more responsible in the sun. Apply sunblock regularly and wear a t-shirt if snorkling or surfing. I work in a hotel and see badly burned people on a daily basis. Burning on the first few days just seems to be part of their vacation routine. 'No use in crying over spilled milk', they say but it takes just a little bit of effor to protect your skin and its well worth it.

Little Bird

Today was just like any other - actually I was a bit more tired than usual, having just spent two days teaching an advanced open water class. When I opened the gate to the yard outside of my apartment I heard an unusual bird call. I looked up into the tree and there was this little colorful bird. Obviously an escaped pet:

He was very interested in me and I wondered if he was hungry. Probably if he'd escaped from a cage he would not know how to feed on his own. He did look a little fluffy and young. So I tried to tempt him down with bread crumbs. I then walked up to the roof and held my hand out to him. I was within about 5 inches and he was quite comfortable. Honestly I was just a bit scared of being pecked or I might have coaxed him onto my hand.

After consulting with Julio I grabbed some gloves from the car and re-attempted contact. This time I was armed with papaya. He was really interactive but very warey of my hand. Twice he jumped onto my gloved finger to take some of the papaya. The second time I moved him closer towards me and he got scared and flew into the higher branches of the tree.

I then decided to stop molesting the little guy and left the papaya on a branch for him to eat. After my afternoon snooze I went back outside but he seems to have gone.

I feel sorry for birds that are kept in captivity, on the whole, although my friend Fernando has a little bird who is a real character and thinks he's one of the family.

This little guy though is clearly domesticated and I'm worried he will not be able to survive in the wild. Part of me wishes I'd been braver and grabbed him to keep him safe from the nasty big Mexican birds and part of me thinks he'll be better living free, even if it is a short little existence.

If he's around later Julio may try to catch him. Either way I really enjoyed my encounter with this little bird.
Does anyone know what he is????? Or have any views (preferably informed) on whether or not he's likely to be able to survive in the wild?

Parents visit

YES I'm still alive. I've just dropped my parents off at the airport in Cozumel after a weeks visit. Pretty tearful dropping them off and no sooner had I pulled out of the parking spot I was in, did I get pulled over by the federal police. My car carries New Jersey Plates and a Mexican permit which has expired. The law here is that you do not need to renew your car permit if you have a valid FM3. Unfortunately the Federal Police are famous for not knowing this. Anyway luckily for me I was very tearful when I was pulled over. I find tears are very helpful in these circumstances. I used the quite genuine tears for my parents departure to convince the federal police to let me go on my way with not much bother.

So PARENTS VISIT. We had a really lovely time, marred only by the heat (oh and mosquitos). My parents are not used to extreme heat and relaxing into an Island pace, lounging by/ in the ocean took them the whole time they were here to get used to. Even then, frequent trips into A/C buildings were a must. My parents skin, unused to evil mosquito bites, became very sore and swollen when they were bitten (unused to having to lather on bug spray at sun set and in the mornings in the garden, they were bitten frequently).

The flight from England is pretty grueling, although THOMPSON AIR now offer direct flights from London to Cozumel. After a 10 hour flight they were exhausted. I'd booked them into a hotel called Hacienda San Miguel. Its a very good choice if you are visiting Cozumel and want to be in walking distance of town but in a quiet setting. They have well kept gardens filled with, red flowers, well groomed bushes, little lizards and lively humming birds:


Here is a picture of their room:

We spent many mornings drinking coffee and talking on this little terrace.
It does make me very sad that I do not live in the same country as my family. I also have a great fondness for England, although I have to say I didn't much like me for most of my adult life in England although there are many reasons why I choose to live here and not there.

Why not England or New York??

1. I think I had a hard time with the transition into adulthood in England. I didn't much like myself there and going back reminds me of that me.
2. Really I think its true to say that I have struggled with a pretty serious alcohol problem for much of my adult life. Having struggled over the years to get on top of this and perhaps even just as a function of getting older I've pretty much conquered this but again the prospect of moving back to the UK scares me because drinking, as a way of life, is how I know living in England. Pretty much all of my old friends drink, a lot, socially and I'm not sure I could slot back into that without it becoming a problem for me.
3. England is cold and the Ocean is freezing. I love diving and swimming and even just looking out over the tropical waters of the Caribbean.
4. The only way I could afford to live in England or America is by working in an office. Not to put to fine a point on it, I find this way of living soul destroying. I can't do it anymore.
5. Now this one is a toughey, but MEN. Now I know there are some wonderful men in England and in the USA and many of them are my friends, but I have again and again been devastated by the behaviors of men I have chosen to become involved with. Sex in the City is a pretty accurate portrayal of the dating/ relationship scene in New York. I know bad relationships are everywhere as well as here in Mexico, BUT here I have been lucky enough to find a lovely, wise, honorable and caring man the likes of which I've not encountered before. I think my man is one in a million and probably nothing typical of Mexico BUT I'm going to stick my neck out and say that in my view big cities attract (or create) f**ked up individuals who go around treating each other terribly.
   
6. I love my simple life in Mexico. I've stopped living like a crazy worker aunt. I have free time for yoga, meditation. Sometimes it can be uncomfortable to just relax without filling my life with work, stress, teaching, but I'm learning a lot about myself.
   

Things I miss about England and New York

1. My FAMILY - I miss my parents brother, and extended family a lot.
   
2. FRIENDS - I have the most wonderful friends in the whole world in Newcastle, London and New York/ New Jersey (as well as a few others scattered across the States and the world). I miss you all terribly and hope to maintain annual month long visits to the UK, via NYC.
3. I miss the English countryside and North Eastern British beaches. The Jersey Shore, Lake George, the Berkshires
   
4. Marmite, white bread, salt and vinegar McCoy's crisps. NY pizza, sushi, health food, bagels
5. Joico hair products, discount shopping
   
6. ENGLISH - I'm still struggling with Spanish - I miss being able to interact with everyone around me easily.
   

So it was lovely to spend a week with my parents and sad to see them go. Next time they will avoid the heat of June, July, Aug and September. I'm also pleased I will be seeing them for a good three weeks in October.

The Moon

Tonight we had the most beautiful moon. The moon is full this Saturday so it is already pretty big. I've never seen such a halo around the moon. It was really beautiful. Julio and I climbed up on my roof to take photographs.
You will be looking at the same moon in Newcastle, New York or Berlin, but I bet yours does not have this amazing halo. Hopefully my yoga group are doing a full moon celebration on Saturday. It is likely that the halo will stick around until then - I'm guessing it is caused by humidity...