FROM COZ TO CLAUS

Time was up on our tropical getaway to Cozumel. The lost luggage was returned (now to make a claim) and the last dawn glowed like the end of our rainbow. Uplifting to walk among the bougainvillea. Take off gave a drone-like shot of the busy harbour. A last farewell to the coast of Yucatan...

Masked and a bit reddened, out the window the sun set on the shortest day of the year. Nothin' but brighter from now til June!

BUT. Drastic re-entry restrictions on arrival back home. Passports got red or green stickers (Christmas cheer?) Guess who got chosen for a random COVID test? Serious registration, testing, tracing. 36 hours later the results came in email: negative, again. Like dodging Omicron bullets these days...

Coz was snorkeling but Toronto is skating, in at least 3 rinks within blocks of us. 

On the harbour, still no ice cover. So the usual kayakers paddled in a group of 3. But the new guy on the block wore a red suit, steered a sail instead of  a sleigh, and was guided by a red nose. Hi Santa!!

Merry Christmas, even with restrictions and bad omens! One giant snowflake ---- promising more for the New Year?

LOST, FOUND, TESTED

Early in the week ferocious winds rattled our windows and wrecked havoc on the streets. Enough! Travel restrictions had been lifted and cheap packages were available, so let's finally leave town. Cold enough the plane had to be deiced, but soon the water turned turquoise and the clouds were fluffy. Isla Cozumel!

Happy to arrive in our beloved Mexico but within an hour all turned sad/angry. The only time we had ever taken a checked bag ---- and they lost it!! Meetings, forms, languages, hanging around at the airport for hours. Taken to the hotel (our room upper left in picture) but without clothes, toiletries ----- and snorkel gear, etc. Had to get hot-weather shorts, tops, razor, etc. What would you need to get by? In the meantime, 4 cruise ships a day and ---- a brazen wild coati mundi scrambled around the pool!

Took a daytrip ferry over to Playa del Carmen, last there a few years ago. As usual, all built up with emphasis on shopping, and shopping. Too bad, it was a classic fishing village that was too good to be left alone. Nice beach but the best sight was this 1954 Ford woodie wagon. Give me the keys!

4 long friggin' fretting days later ---- bag delivered after midnight! (Where has it been?)

Within hours catching up with our bums in the ocean and swimming with the fishies. Ahhhhh. 

And a must-do for the Guy ---- a motorbike cruise right around the wild side of the island, about 95 km on a red Honda. Some salvation...

The weather has been ideal with warmth and breezes. Tropical dawn, full moon, a hint of a rainbow (good luck to come?), and classic sunsets. 

But Omicron has burst out while we've been gone. We're double-vaxxed and boosted too but still need PCR tests to get back home. Is it beginning to look at all like Christmas??

OUT THE WINDOW: NORTH OR SOUTH?

Ferocious winds last night rattled the windows and knocked out power for hundreds of thousands. Before that, we had walked the  shore trail past this stone ship commemorating the influx from the Potato Famine in Ireland. Many thousands found food and a home in Toronto 1845-1851. Sailing past on a shakedown run was the world's first all-electric ferry which will serve the island airport run. A boost for the city, like a booster shot for this guy...

The monthly daytrip north to the home on the hill was cheerful and chore-full. The pond ice still not thick enough for a skate! 

Those 100kph winds had been forecast all yesterday so planes and boats on the harbour scrambled. Small and large craft came to safety in the quay below. A small tug pushed in a larger tug; how's that for a

 David and Goliath?

These December days the sun is rising so far south that it reflects glare to us off windows in the north. Let's get packing --- north or south?