A week off for us - entertaining family members for a few days!

Just a few colourful photos to keep you entertained.  

New camera has a HRD Paint program.  Fun to fool around with - hope you enjoy!

Painter jazzing up house on Juarez

Looking down on square from The Reef Bar

Fun colours on Juarez Avenue

Tuggui popsicle salesmen headed back after long day

Another colourful street

Cheers Lynda & Lawrie

Colour on the water!



Caribbean Island water taxi (passenger ferry)

 Wow!  Would you look at the colour of that boat?  Eye-popping purple and green!

The recent repainting of the Caribbean Island one of the several passenger ferries that traverse the 8-mile stretch of water between Cancún, and our little island - Isla Mujeres - brought to mind the various boats that we see on a daily basis.


Boats to go fishing.  Boats to transport people from the mainland, to the island and back.  Boats to take tourists snorkelling, diving or swimming with the whale sharks.  Some are ordinary work boats, and others jazzy multi-coloured tour boats.  Ghostly grey navy ships, red, black and white Coast Guard cruisers, pale blue sailing boats, sleek black 'bad boy' yachts, and car ferries - boats, always great subjects for photos. 



Commercia fishing boats


Settled hundreds of years ago by the Mayas and later colonized by Spanish explorers the island of Isla Mujeres is situated in the Caribbean Sea, north-east of the City of Cancún.  Cancún and its multi-million-dollar hotel zone, generating nearly 10% of the Mexican GNP, were created out of a sand-swept stretch of beach in the mid 1970's by the National Fund for Tourism Development.  

For the islanders who were very self-sufficient up to that point living primarily on fish, shell fish, and turtle meat, they now had better reasons to cross the water in a boat.  Groceries. Supplies. Restaurants.
All the trappings of 'civilization.'

Panga fishing boat in a smokey dawn

Living here on a permanent basis we have become attuned to the nautical comings and goings around the island.  One of my early morning treats is to watch the fishermen navigate their small brightly coloured pangas along the reef in front of our house, picking up their nets. 

Later in the morning turquoise and blue tourist boats drop vacationing snorkelers into the surf.  At one o'clock precisely a bright yellow tour boat passes by on its daily circumnavigation of Isla.  I have - twice - had the pleasure of adventuring several miles off shore to swim with the gigantic but benign Whale Sharks.  Lawrie and I have been deep sea fishing a number of times with Charlie Simpson and various friends. 



Whale Shark - benign giants


 Isla Mujeres is a maritime community.  The ocean defines the activities.  The boats are the local workhorses, adding character and flavour to the island; the wild paint combinations, the stacks of nets, the rusty anchors, the wooden fish cleaning tables awash with fish scales, blood, and innards.   


It is Isla.  It is beautiful.  And it is very colourful.
 
That purple and green boat - it fits right in.



Frigate birds dive bombing a ray carcas



Colours of the Caribbean

Colour: It's surrounds us. 

Colourful fishing boats

It’s hard not to get caught up in the extravaganza of colour on this little Caribbean island - Isla Mujeres. 

There are blues in shades of azure, cobalt, navy, sapphire, cerulean and indigo, and greens running from jade green, and emerald, to bright lime greens. 

Other colours of the island palette include crimson, scarlet or ruby reds, with a little added zing of papaya, orange, lemon and banana.  Wow! 

At Punta Sur, Isla Mujeres

In Canada we grew up with more sedate colours reflecting the thick forests of conifers, dark northern Pacific grey-blue seas, enlivened for a few months with splashes of spring blossoms.  

Each year I could hardly wait for spring to arrive to brighten the dun-coloured landscape.

Living in the Caribbean, I can hardly wait to open my eyes to start a new day.

Our northern tastes in colour reflected our environment – nothing bright or fun, just staid creams, grays, dark blues, deep greens, and browns.  The houses are typically painted neutral colours unless you are lucky enough to live in a 'painted lady' the grand dames of the Victoria era.  We blended with our surroundings. 

Here on Isla the houses, clothes, and even municipal structures reflect the brightly-hued environment.  Clothing - anything goes for colour including accessories, and shoes. 

One of our favourite buildings in the Centro

Houses and businesses alike are painted a happy hodgepodge of orange, green, pink, blue, yellow, purple, red or whatever colour the owner had access to, or enjoyed. 

The seawall protecting the eastern side of the downtown (Centro) has been painted several times in the three years that we have lived on Isla.  It was pink and blue, then yellow and pink, and more recently a brightly painted collection of various scenes depicting turtles, fish, and the national flags from nearby countries. 

Brightly painted building in Centro

During carnival - the week long festival at the end of winter leading up to the beginning of Lent - well, everyone just has too much fun dressing in vibrant costumes for the daily parades and dance competitions.

We may have arrived late to the party, but we are happy participants in the festivities.

Hasta Luego

Lynda, Lawrie and Sparky

Get your Isla 'fix' - Murder and mayhem in paradise. 

Isla Mujeres Mystery series available in e-books and paperback. 

The perfect antidote to highly contagious northern blahs.

Lynda L Lock - paperbacks and e-books