Where's Wayne?

A small island (5 miles long, 4 blocks wide) just north of Cancun. An easy flight from Austin ($150 R.T.) and a short taxi ride to the port ($50 for a van, holding up to 8 people). Then a $3.50 fast boat ride across the calm bay.

I've been going to Isla since the early 70s, and although it is more densely populated, and there are many more tourists, it has maintained it's laid-back fishing village atmosphere. Not at all like Cancun....

When I first arrived in the early 70's, Cancun was not a resort. One had to fly to Merida and travel by bus (over 6-10 hours) to get to the port. And back then there were no fast ferries... Just slow ones. Or one could fly to Cozumel, take a boat to the mainland, then travel by taxi up the coast to the port to Isla. Now that Cancun has been developed, it is easy to fly there and get to Isla.

In the early 70s all of the streets in Isla were sand, except the main road from the north tip to the coral reef on the south tip. Today most of the roads are paved or inlaid with concrete pavers.

When I first arrived in the 70s there were few hotels for tourists. I stayed in Las Hamacas, a place to hang a hammock under a palm covered roof right next to the beach. Today there are resort hotels, but it is still possible to stay in the Hostel to avoid high prices. The resort hotels are not the key feature of the island. Laid-back mid-range priced hotels and cheaper accommodations are the more popular places to stay.

Our hotel was mid-to-upper end. $85 per night for a bungalow crawling distance from the beach, with a patio with hammock hooks and a patio table. The garden around the pool was tropical with a myriad of tropical flowers and Iguanas lazing on the warm sidewalks. Food is cheap, seafood their specialty. Ihad a large lobster tail with a huge ribeye steak for just over $20.

Here is an nice video about consumerism and the negative effect it has on our planet and human beings. Watch this before you take your next shopping trip. It has become very popular with teachers in public schools.

http://storyofstuff.com/

March was the month my mother passed away. Although she survived lung cancer through chemo and radiation therapies, she was suddenly stricken with an aggressive strain of Leukemia. In early March she developed a cough, which the doctors thought was brought on by spring pollen. A week later, they diagnosed her with leukemia and transferred her to an Austin hospital. Five days later she passed away peacefully at 2 a.m., March 16th, just weeks before her 79th birthday. My last 15 months in the USA allowed me to spend some quality time with mom, during which I learned from her how to assist her with her difficult journey through the ravages of cancer. We spent her last five days in the hospital room and I was with her when she finally took her last labored breath. Her cancer no longer causes her pain and suffering.

I have been living in Austin since September, 2008. I'm working at the Hyatt on Lady Bird Johnson Lake and living on Mt. Bonnell, reconnecting with friends and work colleagues from my days in Austin in the mid-to-late eighties, while meeting new and interesting people. I work four days a week in Austin, the travel to San Marcos to stay my three days off, so I can assist my mother in her efforts to remain in an independent living situation. Austin is a great place to live, and I enjoy being able to stay in San Marcos on my TWTh weekends each week. I continue to live in Austin without a car and load my bicycle onto the front of the Texas State shuttle bus each week to travel to San Marcos.

THE FOLLOWING PHOTOS WERE TAKEN AT A SAN ANTONIO CAR SHOW THAT TOOK PLACE IN A LOCAL PARK