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| Us - a long time ago, 1980! |
Our weekly blog Notes From Paradise started as an email sent in June 2009 to twelve
members of our immediate families.
Over the next two years, the list of
followers grew to 500, and then in September of 2011 we switched over to an
internet blog page.
We have had almost 630,000 page views, since 2011. About a year ago we changed the name to Notes From Isla Mujeres Mexico, to make
it easier for new readers to find us.
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| Hacienda Mundaca Park |
We’ve written blog posts highlighting the
island’s intriguing history and the enchanting Mexican culture.
We’ve
introduced ourselves to many of the old-time islanders to listen to and to recount
their fascinating stories.
We've traveled to several cities in Mexico and written about their history, culture, and attractions.
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| Izamal near Merida |
We’ve narrated some of our more memorable
experiences like watching the chaotic Carnaval parades, or trying to stay awake
for the New Year’s Eve bash in Centro only to be outlasted by the
three-year-olds.
We have written several times about being Mickey and Minnie
Mouse in both the annual Christmas Golf Cart parade and the Day of the
Kings festivities. Putting happy grins on the kid’s faces is the best reward.
We've bragged about Isla’s sugar-white beaches and the endless sun and then grumbled about tropical storms and
hurricanes.
We’ve written about swimming with whale
sharks, the sea turtles nesting on our beach, helping friends rescue a trapped mama turtle, the roaming crocodile, and our lounge of lizards lounging in our backyard.
(Apparently, a group of
iguanas hanging out is called a lounge of lizards. I love that expression!)
We have promoted many of Isla’s hardworking
charity groups, such as Isla Animals, HALO (Helping Animals Living Overseas, Isla
Has Talent, the diabetes clinic, the free dental clinic, Helmets for Kids,
Ruben’s Kids, Plogging for Isla – exercise and trash pickup – and many more.
If we liked a new business or restaurant we
happily gave them a free ‘plug’ in the blog. Neither one of us ever asked for anything
– no discounts, no freebies, nothing. We enjoy the successes of our fellow islanders.
We were told several times that we should ‘monetize’
our blog and make some cash off of the advertisements, but quite honestly we
couldn’t be bothered with writing articles that pleased our advertisers.
We wrote
what interested us. We did however try Goggle Ads, and are happy to report that
in total we made about $109.00 in revenue!
Woo-hoo! Impressive!
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| The Adventures of Thomas the Cat |
The discipline of writing a weekly article
has given me (Lynda) the confidence to self-publish four books. My first book
was a bilingual book for children, The Adventures of Thomas the Cat, followed
by the three Isla Mujeres Mystery series, Treasure Isla, Trouble Isla and
Tormenta Isla. Book #4 Temptation Isla will hopefully be launched late in 2018.
And we’ve tormented our family and friends
with being included, photos and all, in many of our weekly ramblings. We have had
hundreds of people tell us they really enjoyed reading our weekly articles, but
we are signing off with this post.
We would like to thank our families, friends,
and faithful readers for your support for the last nine years.
Thank you all!
Cheers from Paradise
Lawrie, Lynda and Sparky
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8 comments:
Thanks for all the years of your blog, I always enjoyed reading it. Enjoy your retirement and enjoy. See you around Kevin
Have enjoyed your posts a lot and all the pictures. Dont blame you at all for the hiatus. Sorry about your golf cart ordeal. Enjoy paradise and will be awaiting next book. Bests wishes from Lynn and Wayne
Thanks for all the years of treating us to your photos and news from Isla Mujeres! We're going to miss the weekly posts, but you and Lawrie deserve a break! See you on Facebook and hopefully in person sometime this next year!
Love, Becky and Craig
Your weekly blog helped us feel like we were right there in Isla year-round instead of short visits throughout the year. Thank you for this. I pray your gifts to others, given so freely, will continue to come back to you a hundred-fold. Cheers!
Thank you so much. We have appreciated learning more about Isla and always enjoyed a good laugh. We will miss your blog and wish you well. God bless!
We understand why you're 'retiring' but we will miss your weekly ramblings very, very, much! I always look forward to Friday to see what you have been up to!
Guess we're just going to have to get to Isla someday to see paradise in person!
All the best to you both!
¡Hasta Luego!
We have looked forward to your "Notes from Paradise" each Friday, with your witty stories about life on our beloved Isla. It was always such a refreshing and positive read in a sometimes negative world. We will miss your personal stories about life in this magical place, always laced with a healthy sense of humor and whimsy. Thanks so much to Lynda, Lawrie, Thomas, and of course Sparky, for helping our Fridays start with a happy, fun read! All the best to you all. We love you.
LeeLee and Bones
I'm sorry to hear that! I wish you both the best. :)
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