STRANDED IN PARADISE (KIND OF)

Isla Mujeres is 4.3 miles long, less than a half mile wide and is about 8 miles from Cancun. The north end has most of the tourists, souvenir shops, restaurants, hotels and a great beach. About two thirds of the way to the south end is the town where the locals live, which is where the main grocery store is and also includes some good restaurants. The very southern end is the most eastern point in Mexico and the first to see the sunrise.

As our first group of guests (Jaynece, Harpo, Pete and Elaine) visited. Everything was going as planned. Delana, her sister Jennie and Mom had finalized their trip to Cuba; Al was all set to fly down to vacation for awhile, help get the boat ready and then sail back to the States with Jennie, Delana and I.  

Everything was still looking doable while Mary and Bob were here.

    Then while the third group (Jean Marie, Lori and Patti) visited, the warnings and border closings        became more of a concern.

   So, while Delana's younger son Colin, daughter-in-law Lindsey and 20 month old granddaughter         Ella were here, plans began to understandably change. Delana's sister and Mom, as well as Al, all                                         cancelled their flights to Isla, as well as the tour of Cuba. 

By St Patrick's Day, which was just last week, there were beginning to be far fewer tourists, but everything was at least open. 

  A week ago Thursday I walked to the grocery store. The vegetable stand looked normal.

The guy who sells limes out of a wheel barrow was there as usual.

As you walk into the grocery store there are an assortment of motor bikes/scooters for sale. With the current exchange rate they sell for between $750 and $1000 each.

This was the first mask I saw. It was at the grocery store. Now all the cashiers wear them and some of the other employees do to. I've seen a few police officers with masks, as well as some others, but it definitely isn't the norm.

The grocery store had these 'only buy three' signs in front of the toilet paper, as well as some other items.

They've been stocking the shelves like crazy, they're all full, plus there's a lot of boxes in the aisles.

I've been tempted, but haven't bought a BIMBOLUNCH yet.

A week ago today we left the marina and sailed up to Playa Norte and anchored for two nights.

From the boat we swam in with a cooler and hung out on the beach for the afternoon. This beach has the nicest sand I have ever seen. You can see how empty it is. We spoke with a few Americans, Canadians and Europeans all expecting to fly back to their home countries no later than last Wednesday. The rest of the tourists, as few as there were, were all Mexican.

 It's hard to tell but in the above photo there are only a couple people on the beach. This was taken last Sunday.

 This photo was taken of the same area just a week earlier. The week before that there were many more tourists still.

After our two nights anchored out we came back to the marina this past Monday morning. Tuesday on my way to "workout", this is what the main street looked liked. Normally this street is full of motorbikes/scooters, tourists in golf carts and taxis.

On my way I also went by several closed restaurants.

After "working out", I went to the grocery store to see if it was true that the sale of over the counter beer, wine and spirits had been banned for 40 days. Sure enough, "By official disposition the sale of all alcoholic beverages will be suspended until further notice". This virus thing is now getting serious.

By the middle of this past week there were no more guests at the hotel portion of El Milagro and the marina was down to 11 boats. Two of the four women staff had left to be with their families on the mainland and several of the men had moved into the hotel with their families, I guess to keep both them and the hotel safe. The owner is committed to keeping everyone employed.

The fish coop next door isn't fishing, because without tourists, and with so many restaurants closed, there's no place to sell their catch.

I spoke with these conch fisherman. They couldn't sell their catch either, but still needed to feed their families.

Since Delana and company aren't in Cuba and I'm not vacationing with Al, Delana has gotten more serious about yoga.

And I've been doing my "workouts" at the baseball stadium. This is Chu Cho. He's the groundskeeper during the week, while during the games he's in uniform near the stands on the first base side with a pen and notepad. I'm not sure what he's doing though.

We've also gotten into some boat projects. This one was really a pleasant surprise. This photo is of our house batteries, which power the refrigerators, lights, pumps, toilets, fans, electronics, auto pilot, etc. Even though they are less than three years old it didn't appear that they could hold a charge and were consistently below 12.2 volts. So we were thinking they needed to be replaced. That's until I read a post saying that the voltage display on these boats was often wrong. So instead of using the display, I tested the batteries with a multi-meter and found out that they are in perfect condition, which puts off a huge expense.

These two guys are in the port engine compartment removing the clutch assembly so the cone clutch can be lapped. It would cost much more to have that work done in the States and I'm really too big to fit in there.

Delana's has continued making home made yogurt.

We've defrosted refrigerators.

Delana was hoisted 70' above the water to replace a block.

Plus, I'm still the best fed cruiser in the Western Caribbean.

Yesterday was supposedly the last day any bars/restaurants will be open, so a group of us cruisers got together for some last drinks. Before you judge, we're a pretty isolated bunch the way it is.

El Milagro has now closed their gates.

It's still a beautiful place, but considering it was full of people and activity just over a week ago, it's sad to see it empty.

We'll be at El Milagro for another week and then join the other cruisers in this anchorage and/or do some sailing/exploring elsewhere. It will be good to be at anchor again, but at the same time we'll miss all the conveniences that go with being at a marina. 

Ok, though we're not really stranded and this isn't exactly paradise, we feel very blessed to be where we're at. We wish all of you the best in getting through this. Once things begin to normalize in the States, our goal is to be in Chesapeake Bay by early June.