Another Satisfying Day

Tree shower in Nelly's house

Yesterday was another very satisfying day. Learning Spanish is an important aspect of this satisfaction for me.  For many years, I have dreamed of getting my junior high Spanish (enhanced by sporadic travel) over the hump, of becoming more conversant by doing what we are doing now.  Also creating opportunities for Brook to have at least a second language is high on our parenting to do list.  We’ve been trying to make it happen in Vermont since Brook was three, with minor success.  So here we are in Tulum and it is wonderful to be fulfilling my dream as a threesome.

Three hours of “classroom” learning is as much as the three of us are able to handle at this point.  We are establishing a nice rhythm to our days.  After class, we biked the short distance to Tulum Pueblo for lunch and then continued on to the beach.  We were considering a move to a beach-front hotel but determined that we valued the convenience of our current location and decided to stay here for eight days when our friends from Norwich, the Goodwin’s, arrive.

Cool shell faucet, too

We are planning to tour Sian Ka’an (1.3 million acres of protected coastal wetlands) by bicycle with Brook’s friend Azor, beginning next Wednesday.  Yesterday and today we are working on securing the bicycles.  This has and will to continue to provide us with fun opportunities to challenge our Spanish comprehension and vocabulary.

We ended up at a Vietnamese restaurant last night.  Sadly, it was similar to the bland food we had in Vietnam.  We were hoping that we would get a better impression of Vietnamese food.  I’m sure we’ll keep trying Vietnamese food.

Capoeira lesson

This evening we had a Capoeira lesson with Nelly’s husband, Mauricio, and her 9-year-old son, Max.  Capoeira is a Brazilian martial art. It is the only martial art of the Americas.  We learned about Capoeira and how to do it in Spanish, which was easier than it, sounds.  The African slaves devised Capoeira that disguised escape techniques using dance accompanied by music.  We had fun and appreciated the work out.  We enjoyed watching Max do his acrobatic moves such as no-handed cartwheels and Chinese splits.