Month: May 2013

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Building A Boom

Building a Boom On our way down here from the US off the coast of Cuba we broke our main boom. The seas were up the wind was up and from the north against the Gulf Stream but that was not what broke our boom. It was may fault. I tied a one half inch line just past the boom fang as a preventer. You always use a weak line for a preventer just in case you have a jibe and we had a bad jibe but the jibe was not my fault the swells were so big our home built drive unit on the auto pilot couldn’t keep up and the wind turned us on top of a wave, the rest is history. But in defense of our auto pilot, very few can. We never disengaged it. It found our course and we went on our way. Pam had wanted to reef. Now I am afraid I will be hearing about reefing and perventer lines for sometime. We sail on down wind with the sails all twisted to the anchorage in Isla Mujeres, Mexico. We found a dock bought some mystery wood and now we needed to repair the Pamela Ann. The Pamela Ann is not a store bought factory built beauty. She is homebuilt maybe the most homebuilt boat we have ever seen. We drew the plans for her. I never finished school only eight grade I am not a navel architect. I just love boats old boats so we studied old boats then we set out to built her. From the first peace of steel in her kill to a base ball bat a top. Her topmast to hold her masthead light. Being all home built we had another problem we built the boat in Southport ,North Carolina. We built the club foot boom while cruising in Mississippi after Katrina on a dock that had fell in. We had to take the dink to shore even though we were in a marina. I designed that boom to. Made it to heavy. Now that we had to build a new boom I decided to splice the club foot boom to the stump of the broke main boom then build a new club foot boom. lighter this time. This would take care of both problems. We needed epoxy glue. Went to Cancun. One thousand five hundred seventy pesos at Honda Marine. I had something else I wanted to do build a new floor over the motors in the cockpit. The floor was built out of wood covered with fiber glass. Now water was leaking in to the boat when a big wave rolled under the boat. I found water was coming in at the scuppers. I thought water was back feeding in to the bilge through the through hulls. I designed a new floor to be built out of all fiber glass. This would fix the problem for good maybe. Now to find fiber glass stuff. Three cab rides in Cancun finely found the place, no one spoke English. Bought a milk jug of resin, cloth and something in a bag like maybe talcum. Back at the Pamela Ann found half the jug of resin was bad just one big lump. Needed wood to make a mold. I found wood at a little shop that makes core door on the island. Whole shop maybe ten by sixteen feet. This wood is some type of pine boards one by tens maybe eight feet long. Needed more resin found and old bandit here on the island that sells boat stuff. We really like this old bandit but he will cheat you. Bought more resin in a milk jug found a lot of it bad .Old bandit said “ Good stuff you mess up.” Now we carry our on jug when we go. Have taken the advice of other boaters and won’t buy anything with out a label or any thing that has been opened, never no what you are buying.
We had another problem Mardi Gras it’s called Carnival down here. The owners wife took over the place I was working. Making Carnival stuff. Findley after Carnival we went back to work on the Pamela Ann. There was some Mexicans clearing off some mangrove trees next to our dock stared pull there fishing boats up on the bank, had a fat Mexican kid maybe fifteen with them that stared to come over and mess with everybody’s stuff, didn’t think a thing about going aboard your boat down inside where ever he wanted to go. We keep the power cord unplugged unless we are using power, dock has bad wiring. Go to the store come back power would be hooked up lock cross treaded. combination lock numbers changed, find him playing with our tools. Went to the owner he said he would try and talk to them maybe soon. I said “Were are leaving.“ Soon came that day. Rent is high here for a dock with low power, no bathroom just a place to tie your boat . We love being here living with the Mexicans they treat us great but this kid had to go. Nothing changed, went out one night to see what the racket was, ten kids on the commercial fishing boat jerking on doors and playing with the controls. I said “Leave!” Kids just laughed. I said it again, Fat kid said “No” this time I stared to yell and curse. All the kids stared to run but the fat kid. He finality left. Went found owner. “This has to stop.” I said “Now!” He went back had a talk with fisherman, didn’t see fat kid on dock not out at the end where we are anymore but found stuff messed up when we came back from leaving the boat. Came back one day found fat kid hiding with other kids laughing, Went to our boat found water running. I had taken the new floor out of the mold to finish it up left it on saw horses. It was gone there was a spigot broken off our water pipe. Looked for my floor, finely found it under the boat had to go down and get it. Could not find owner told his nephew. We don’t speak Spanish but owner’s nephew is Mexican. He said he knew what fat kid was calling me and he didn’t like it . It has to do with your mother. He found the owner didn’t see fat kid for days was told fat kids father came back beat kid so bad he could not come to docks. I didn’t want to hear about kid beating just wanted him to stay on their side, kid still comes over even today when he thinks we are not here. Other kids I don’t see anymore, their mothers won’t let their kids be around the fat kid.

 

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Decided to build the boom in jig set up close to our boat. Screwed jig to dock. That’s one good thing about being here if we were in a gated marina we would not be able to screw anything to the dock. Found out there was three types of wood all light in this boom this was the most difficult job I ever done the wood was twisted curled up not one board the same size but finality I took it out of the jig it is straight, at least for now. And now we have a solution for the fat kid it won’t be long maybe a month before we will be leaving on our old home built little schooner for Belize, with our reworked main boom, a new floor in the cockpit, a new club foot boom and with great memories of our time in Mexico.

 

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Chichen Itza

Chichen Itza
We got up early enough to eat a little cheese toast before we left the Pamela Ann met our friends made the fast ferry to Cancun and caught the bus for Chichen Itza .I felt like something would go wrong. We had set for a promotion at a hotel for this trip we had lied to the people at the hotel we were told to lie and say we were there staying in a hotel not to tell them we were there on our boat and we had been lied to by the people that sent us to the hotel we were told ninety minutes Max. There all day.
The bus we were on was small went to a parking lot filled with bigger buses. We had a piece of paper with “Trip to Chichen Itza” written on it and that was all. Our friends were given a hundred dollars cash. The paper the bus driver had said they need to pay the hundred to the bus now they got on. Now they said they might have to send Pam on one bus me on another. I said “ Not happening, call a cab we will go back to the ferry. They moved some people around we got on the same bus as our friends but one seat back, in front of us was a fat young man maybe twenty four with his Mumme or that what he called her with there seats all the way back. Maybe this was punishment for lying. The ride out of town was great we liked seeing the Mexico country side. The fat mans Mumme kept pulling down the shade I would say no and put it back up. We went by a large junk yard. This made things seem real not what the tourist come to Mexico to see for me I want to see real Mexico. We had a guide on the bus spoke bad English but he was entertaining I tried to lesson to him but mostly I was looking out the window we were on the toll road a small four lane highway they say it is expensive very few trucks no cars but we stopped about every thirty minutes, so we could go to the bath room our guide said we could go number one on the bus but number two we would have stop the bus and go in the jungle. The Yucatan is mostly flat the jungle the guide called it is trees maybe thirty feet high, you would not find trees for lumber here maybe that way so many houses are built out of small poles stud up on end then plastered in side with cement. We left the toll road went through a small town. This was what I wanted to see. There was a restaurant maybe, restaurants here are not what you see in the states maybe a few poles to make a lean-to porch under the porch will be a table or two a small stove the size of a camp stove maybe just a one burner they will be making something with mystery meat chopped tomatoes and peppers in tortilla bread. they call what there selling a lot of names for what’s in it but it is all mostly the same to me. There was a dress shop maybe ten by ten feet with dress out side, a small grocery store. No red light but had two speed bumps. Speed bumps are common down here. We were stopping to go to a natural under ground pool. We went by a field of henequen for making rope. I was looking for goats didn’t see a one but there is always poor dogs and fat chickens down here. We turned into a modern parking lot we were told we had thirty minutes to be back on the bus when we left the bus a man was making pictures of all the couples Pam said no turned her back on him but he caught me I said no I m not buying pictures. There was a large gift shop and a small museum we went on to the under ground pool. As tourist someone is all ways trying to sell you something .On the bus it was silver jewelry with Maya letters of your name. There was a man made tunnel down to the pool the pool was large there was a hold in the top over the pool were the rock had fell in the pool at sometime that let in light. There was a lot of bats hanging on the ceiling or flying in and out of the hole in the ceiling it was something to see. We didn’t go swimming but I wish we had.

Under ground pool

Under ground pool

 

Back on the bus they past out very small cups of tequila for ever one to taste. Our guide said this was honey moon tequila then they started to past out bottles of this tequila. I past the bottle on back finely the people behind us said “No this is yours.” I looked and there on the bottle was my picture. I thought I would give our bottle to our friends then I found out it was for sale not free. When I tried to give it back our guide said “John Wayne doesn’t want his.” Ever one laughed. I think we were the only ones that did not buy a bottle. In the picture on the bottle , I did look like a man with swagger but the truth is I just have arthritis in my knees. The next stop was lunch. Off the bus we were herded to a large building there was a gift shop next to the lunch room. The guide said we could shop before lunch, finely we were in, buffet Mexican style but there was nothing I had ever seen so I went for chicken. It looked like it had been cut up frozen then maybe boiled the rest I just got a little of what looked like I could eat they had potato sticks so I got some, turned out the sticks were raw we were told the meal was free but we would have to pay for our drinks. We ordered small Cokes in glass bottles when we went to leave and pay for our drinks they were three dollars US a piece.
Next stop the parking lot at Chichan Itza .There we were given another guide, a big woman she said she was Maya. Most Maya people are very small some are just tiny. We went inside and there it was the main temple. It’s big and very impressive our guide stared to tell us the reason the steps were small was because they would walked up buy walking from one side to the other not just straight up. Now let me make this statement Pam and I have been married forty nine years but she won’t set with me in any class we have been in together she said I argue with the teachers but this guide was just wrong that will work on a hill but not on a ladder or steps .I soon lost interest in what she had to say. I read a book about this place that said there were people working here in the fifth century that they abandoned this place for a couple of hundred years then came back and had left again before the Spaniards came. But why? Why had they built this to begin with why had they left, why come back? The guide said they were geniuses I am not sure but one thing for sure they were good at making things out of rock and without any metal tools they had learned to write had discovered the Equinox, chocolate and latex used in making rubber. But why build this it has no practical use. Maybe one answer is there is a lot of rocks here. The ground is covered with rocks in this part of the world maybe they stared as rock piles, some where one rock pile was nicer than another then they stared to build better rock piles then the head gamers came, convinced people to build bigger better rock piles maybe the head gamers used there head games to make people think they could make it rain if they built bigger and better rock piles and called them temples all over the world even today head gamers are still making people think they can give them something if they will just believe and follower them and they are still a lot of people that will drink the “Kool -Aid”. For what ever reason its here its old its big and for sure it a wonder. We went to see the well. every where here someone is trying to sell you something. There’s not a lot of ways to make money in this part of the country maybe there has always been a monetary value to this place maybe people came here to buy or sale This was not a wonderful place for all. There was awful things that took place here. Torturer, mutilation and sacrifice in rituals held by the head gamers.

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On the bus on the way back we stopped in a small town with a town square, there is all most always a park in the square. There was a beautiful church there. Our guide said the Spaniards tore down a temple to build the church. On Isla Mujeres the Jehovah Witness are working the island ever where every day knocking on doors taking them their message. What will they build?
Would we go back again? Maybe not now but we plan to see more of these temples. They every where here with a lot still abandon in the jungle. We want to go to one of those in Guatemala. There is an outfitter , will take you two days in two days out stay one day to see a jungle temple on mules, won’t that be great. We will see when we get there.

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Jessie

We were in Cancun shopping with friends and let a man talk us in to going to a hotel promotion for a free trip to Chichen Itza . The next morning when we came over from the island of Isla Mujeres paid the ferry one hundred forty pesos to Cancun and before we went to the hotel we were told to lie about where we were staying and how we got there. Don’t tell them you are here on a boat. We were there had paid the ferry to get over so we decided to just roll with it. My granddaddy always said you can’t cheat a honest man but its easy to cheat a man that will cheat you. Lying and the fact we didn’t have enough in the bank to pay for a room in a hotel for a week. I felt like we were trying to cheat them out of a trip. After we got there we found out we had been lied to. We were told ninety minutes. It took all day.

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Now we were back on the Cancun side again had paid the one hundred forty pesos one way for the ferry ride. We were told to be there at seven in the morning and we were. It was now eight forty five and no bus. I said “Let’s just forget it.” Pam said “No I want that trip for what we went through It was bad.” All those smiling faces everyone so well dressed, pretty food I could not eat, the only way we could live there would be to lie about who we are, what we have, what we liked and I would have trouble wearing all those fancy cloths. Well I said less go down town find the man, find out what went wrong then. I want to go find some wood to build a boom out of. We need a new club foot boom for the Pamela Ann. Our friends said they wanted to go to Costoes but they would go with us to find the man. We didn’t find him but we found his boss he immediately stared to make it our fault said we should have stayed at the ferry, bus ran over someone and was running a little late but we could go for another promotion. We said “No reschedule.” He did, our friends left. I ask him how to get to a lumber yard he said didn’t know. A very little Maya man walked up and said he would be our guide for the day no charge in broken English. Pam said “No.” I said Wait a minute, I need that wood.” I ask him again what it would cost he said his name was Jessie and nothing. Needed to practice his English I said “OK” Pam gave me the eye. I said ”What? I need the help and look at this little guy he weighs maybe eighty pounds. I think I can take him if he gives us any trouble. Pam said “Yes but he may have bigger friends.” Jessie went for a cab. I ask the man if he new this little man he said no he probably lives close by with his daughter or granddaughter that’s how most old men live down here. Their pension will hardly feed them. It’s not like the big checks people get in the states. Jessie stopped two cabs there was a lot of loud talk then they would leave finely Jessie stopped a cab said “He take us. all bandits. Jessie save you.” We got in the driver didn’t look happy but now we were flying through town dodging dogs, chickens, buses and people.” It’s taking too long.” Pam said. “Where are we going?” I said.” Maybe we are being kidnapped for our big social security check. “ Pam said That’s not funny and I mean it.” Finely we stopped at a yard filled with lumber stacked up to dry. Pam and I got out walk in front of the cab then Jessie and the cab driver went off I didn’t know what they were saying but it was loud when they stopped Jessie said “He wait“. We walk up to a woman behind a very old desk I ask for cedar in Spanish I had my dictionary with me, a very skinny man had come and sat down in a chair, he jump up and with his hand motion to follow him, we all went through the yard to a shed there in the back was a stack of the most crooked lumber I have ever seen not a plank the same size but it was very light I said how much at this Jessie went off the skinny man came back with something in Spanish this went on for a few minutes then the skinny man left. I said to Pam help me pick out ten of the best boards here Pam said” There’s not a board here we can use.” I said “Just help, we need to build a boom out of something . I will have to make it work for now. I said “Jessie go find the man I need to know what this will cost when they came back the man was not paying Jessie any attention he just grabbed up all of the boards and left. Pam said” What now?” I said” Follow the skinny man and the boards I guess.” Back at the desk the woman said one minute in Spanish the rest I didn’t catch much of but one word Jefe that is pronounced heff- fay in Spanish “the boss” when the old jefa finality came back I ask how much it was just like pulling a trigger Jessie went off he and the old jefa went at it. Finley he measured the boards taking a long time then he said in English “One thousand two hundred pesos.” Jessie went off again this time the old woman and the skinny man joined in. The old jefa said “One thousand pesos.” This time Jessie stared to jump up and down at one time the stared to jump backward patting his butt with his hand saying something in Spanish the old jefa said nine hundred peso waving his hands that he was through. I said okay, and it all stopped the woman took the money Jessie said “Bandits all bandits Jessie save you.” The skinny man grabbed up the boards and headed to the cab the driver had two old bath mats all ready on top of the car and a very old rope. I said “ My kind of people.” Pam gave me the eye again. Her last car was a VW Rabbit convertible I put together. She wouldn’t let me drive it to the lumber yard back home said I would tie something on top. On the way to the ferry I said to Jessie that we need to stop at a hardware store. Hardware stores here are not nothing like the US the smallest one I have been in was about six by eight feet you stand out side and tell them what you want and they sometimes carry more than you would think. We stopped at a store maybe ten by fifteen in size, looking for duck tape, no tape, found some small line made the mistake of asking how much. The man said “Twenty peso for thirty meters.” Jessie went off everyone in the store was in on it. The man said “Ten peso.” I said “Okay” everybody even the Maya understands OK. Down here. Bandits all bandits Jessie said. Back at the ferry I said to Jessie OK now OK. Then I ask how much to the cab driver he look down and said “One hundred pesos.” he had been with us almost three hours I gave him two hundred pesos that less that twenty bucks US I turned to Jessie now how much for you? “Nada” he said I ask in Spanish “
Where you live? How you go home? “Bus.” he said I gave him one hundred peso. I had tied up the planks in two stacks. Jessie put the money in his pocket then grabbed up all ten planks and headed for the ferry loading dock. “ Stop JESSIE Stop!” I said I took a stack. Jessie went right on under the rope at the dock with his and he and the men on the dock went at it in Spanish, came back got my stack said “They load.“ Pam’s camera was down, low battery no pictures of Jessie but we have his phone number.
Paid for the ferry ride back to the island. Pam and I went out on the street with our ruff crooked stacks of lumber no cab would stop Finely a man stopped in a old van, window missing. back open. Only speaking Spanish. I showed him a peace of paper with our address on it for our dock. “How much?” I ask. ‘Forty pesos” he said. “We normally pay twenty five.’ I said. OK
Back at the Pamela Ann I ask Pam if she was tired. She said “Trying to keep up with you and little Jessie, I am exhausted .“I said to her “Do you feel freer down here. No one has stopped us in our dink down here. How many times have we been stopped and every thing checked by the marine police from New York to New Orleans. In the states with us just going from the anchorage to marina they stopped us almost every day in Key West . Remember that cop yelling at us in Mandeville, La because I was riding our scooter barefooted . Pam said I remember all those seatbelt tickets we paid for you not wearing your seat belts.
The man at the hotel said his mother was from the states but his father was from here. He said he had lived on both sides of the boarder and the police and the politicians down here are not as interested in your everyday life here as they are in the states.

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Pam said “I wonder what a California, highway patrolman would say if he saw that old truck with no doors and no windshield driving around here everyday,?“ “If it was in the states.” Like I said “I feel freer down here.” Then I ask Pam “Do you remember in the movie Romancing The Stone were Michael Douglas was on top of a mountain, lost his jeep, all his birds he was catching to sell to buy a boat, fought off some bandits met, Kathleen Tuner, was trying to walk down, got caught in a rain storm then, a mud slide, ended up at the bottom of the mountain with his head between her legs wiped the mud of his eyes and said “ This is turning out to be one hell of a day.” I ask her” Do you ever feel that way down here? She said “There have been a couple of days since we left Alabama on this cruise that would fit in to the category” <One Hell Of A Day.>

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“Promotion?”

We were shopping in Cancun when we were told we could take a free trip to the old ruins of Chichen Itza by a man wearing the most pointed shoes I have ever seen. Ninety minuets at a huge hotel with a free breakfast, was all it would take There is no way I would buy a used car from this man but Pam and our new friends wanted to go. I finally gave in and we were told to be at the Ultra Mar Ferry dock on the Cancun side at seven the next day.
Back on the Pamela Ann the next morning. we had a cheese toast, hot Earl Grey tea for me and coffee for Pam ,up and ready at six , picked up our new friends and with a taxi. made the ferry by six thirty, paid fourteen hundred pesos for the trip over from the island to Cancun and we were set.
When we got to the Cancun side we left the ferry dock, walked out on the street just like we were told and to my disappointment there was our man. A short ride back to his little hole on the street at Tulum Ave He was in a hurry called a taxi put our friends in and they were on there way, said we could not go together and told our friends not to tell them at the hotel we were here on a boat, tell them we were in a hotel in Cancun told them how much they were paying. He told us it would be a few minutes before we could catch a taxi. Almost a hour later we were off with our instructions of the hotel we were staying in and how much we were paying.
In the cab on our way I told Pam I don’t like lying did not know we would have to lie to get this trip. She said she didn’t either but we were on our way so just roll with it. I didn’t know how far it was to Tulum. It turned out to be a long way but I liked seeing Cancun we went by a Grainger’s ,Sears a Caterpillar place and I soon found out Cancun is a city not a town.

We finely turned off the highway on to a road then turned on to another road. There I said to Pam we are close look at the people and what they were wearing some had on jogging clothes some running clothes even some were wearing vented clothes with field glasses. “Bird watchers” I said .
We lived in a gated community in the states for a short time. We had the Pamela Ann there on a rich man’s dock so we could live there and work on his boat. I could not believe how many times people there change there clothes. A robe to take out the trash jogging clothes ,tennis clothes, golf clothes. Change to go to the bank, change for work. It went on all-day everyday.
In a few minutes we were there. All smiling faces. A woman met us there to take us in smiling then it stared. She wanted to see our credit card. I said” No” Then she said just the expiration date. When she went to get our agent Pam said” Behave.” Our agent said he had just a few questions before we had our free breakfast. Our names, where we were staying how much we were paying and how much our plane ticket cost. I had no idea what it cost to fly so I said “We paid more than we will next time and I not going to say how much. “Now “I said “Can we ask you some questions?‘ Where did you learn to speak English?” You sound like you are from the states.” He said “Mexican father my mother was from the states.” I said “One more thing is that hand made Italian shoes you are wearing?” He would not answer. “I have just a few more questions” he said Where do you go when you go on vacation and if you could what country would you go to if you could? Pam looked at me and almost together we said “China!” for the country. Pam looked at me and said” Champing “ for the vacation. “Primitive camping she said sometimes we take a pan. Then I said” We always take matches, making fire just to hard. I was hoping he would stop with that and let us go to the buffet but he just went on and on. I ask ”Are you a head- gamer? Sounds like you are trying to get in our heads.”
That stopped him and we went to the buffet. It was a buffet of beautiful Mexican food I went for eggs, bread and fried potatoes. I tried some other stuff, decided to eat more eggs. When we went back to our table he started again trying to sell us a deal for a two week stays for ten years if we would pay for ten years, all up front now in cash we would get a discount and we would be part of his family of luxury hotel vacationers, sounds good only one thing the money we had in the bank would not pay for his shoes. This went on for hours. There is only so many ways to say “NO“. Finally we went down on the beach. There back about sixty feet from the water were palappas with beds inside. He said if we stayed there in their luxury rooms we could sleep there if we wanted to. There was a phone there, said we could call room service and if it was too hot we could have someone come and fan us and spray us with a mist of water. Pam and I have been married forty nine years some people say we can communicate without speaking, she gave me the eye so I said nothing but I am not a let someone fan me kind of a guy.
Then they stared to tag team us but finely the boss came and put in his computer; “We were not ready to live the good life.” It was way after lunch, we ask if we could eat lunch the woman said no that we didn’t join, all the time smiling that wonderful smile they all had. We walked outside to wait on our cab. A man came out wearing alligator cowboy boots, a big cowboy hat and a Harley tee shirt. I ask him if he road. He said he had a collection of Harley Davison back at his estate in Ohio. I said.” We road “ He said “Who is we?” I pointed at Pam and said “We have a old Honda four-fifty back in the states. He said “Two people can not ride a four fifty they are to small to ride on the open road. He tuned his back on us and said my private car is here. The driver was wearing a suit, got out opened his door for him took his hat opened the trunk put the hat in a box and they were off.

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“Our trip to Barber’s Motorcycle Museum, Lees, AL

Finally an old cab came for us.
Pam and I talked about smiling all day what that would be like on our way back to the ferry, fourteen hundred pesos for the ferry and we were back on the island. A cab ride to Chedraui ,that is the most modern grocery store on the island. I wanted comfort food something Pam cooked we decided to walk back to the Pamela Ann about mile. On our way there, their was a Yamaha 50cc Zuma that came by us with a small wooden bench built between the seat and the handle bars, there were two kids on the seat holding a dog a man driving, a kid between him and a woman, the woman was holding a bag of groceries that is five, six if you count the dog they were happy, talking and riding and we were walking. Back on the boat I got my comfort food ,chicken and rice. That’s another thing I think the “well to do” think more about what their food looks like than what it taste like.
We had a Zuma back in Louisiana. I wish we had it down here it would be perfect for this island they are very popular here. Honda nineties are the most popular “ ride your hold family” bikes down here. If we had our little Zuma back and down here Pam and I would ride it all the way to Chichen Itza. If we had our four-fifty down here it would be a dream to ride to Chichen Itza but for now we will just ride the bus to Chichen Itza.
Live our life the best we can and let the “well to do” live “ The good life.”

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