"Life's a Beach"

"On the 12th day of Christmas my true love gave to me...." This beloved traditional holiday song is the inspiration for our Holiday Giving blog series, "12 Days/12 Ways", a promotional effort of goodwill we started last year to draw attention to 12 not-for-profit groups or charitable organizations in Playa del ...

Recently, my pal Mitch and I enrolled in an interesting conference to be held over a weekend at the nearby Hacienda Tres Rios Resort. Having had the good fortune to be a guest at the resort for previous events, I had a feeling that this would be an interesting weekend. Certainly we would be in luxurious accommodations and enjoying fabulous food. ...

I was super curious about how the dry cenote was looking now that it had been opened up a bit, so Mitch and I took a trip down to the job site. A few decisions needed to be made about the retaining wall for the cenote stairs and the "jumping platform" at the end of the pool. Sev had worked up some new drawings that Jeff would need to ...

So, I though you all might like to see what some of the cenotes look like that have been found in our little Xpu Ha neighborhood. This is the cenote that is on Jeff's lot. He is Mitch and Sev's builder and has completed several homes in the same enclave. His experience dealing with his own cenote has given him invaluable insight as to what ...

Yesterday, the kids had a day off from school to celebrate (early) Benito Juarez' birthday, so I packed them and their bikes into the Xterra and we set off on a much needed adventure. Our first stop was Coba, about an hour and a half from Playa del Carmen, where, for $81 pesos ($51 pesos for my entry fee and $30 pesos for my bike ...

Of the interesting features unique to this area of the world, I think the hundreds of diverse and mystifying cenotes are my favorite. Each has its own distinct attributes and characteristics......its own personality. Recently, we welcomed a new family to Playa del Carmen, our friends Wyll and Maria and their two sons, Anthony and Aidan. Saturday, ...

Well not really but my brother and his friend did take us to the Becket Quarry for a fun afternoon of "cliff" jumping and tadpole catching. Founded in 1991 by concerned local residents, the not-for-profit Becket Land Trust now owns and maintains the 300 acre Forest and Historical Quarry purchased and donated back to the trust ...

Cenote Dzitnup in Valladolid  

In our efforts to design our own home we have been doing a fair bit of investigating. Much of this time has been spent visiting other homes in the area such as those being built in Sac Be and checking out what building materials and methods have been used in the construction of the buildings. While we are trying to employ as many ...

Early this week, our friends Dean and Jody flew in from Minneapolis to spend a week on the Riviera Maya. We met four years ago, while we were planning our move to Playa del Carmen. We have seen them again just one time since but we all get on quite well and were really looking forward to this visit. I wanted to plan a fun day for all of us, a ...