Mara keep things running; we are supposed to have a computer in the lobby of the hotel so maybe once in awhile I'll be able to get online.

I've only snorkeled in Hawaii otherwise, haven't hit Bahamas or Australia... but who wants to go into the water in Australia what with all the "whities" out there, hee hee.

Anyhoo, that's where it is, surf around for webcam, Cozumel, some guy has one up at all time aimed (boring) at a pier where cruise ships come dock, so if you'd like to see at least the blue sky and blue water, do so!

Hurricane Wilma came and sat on Cozumel two years ago, and stayed there for three days, so the coral was pretty sad last year when I went -- although there was one little place protected by some rocks that still had great corals. I'm anxious to see how much has come back, and how much of the plant life has replenished over this last year as well!

GOTTA GO OUT THE DOOR -- NOW!

Just saying "howdy!"

If anyone EVER happens to pass through Bethany, MO, eat at Toot-Toots. BEST BUFFET EVER.

((AND YOU´RE NOT!!))

Shayla is going to do her demonic dance in your absence...

OOOH HAD TO TELL YOU GUYS WHAT WE SIGNED UP TO DO MONDAY NIGHT!!! From 9PM-3AM we´re going to be out with a biologist (they allow 15 people) to assist with SEA TURTLE stuff: measure them, find nests they put too close to the sea so dig ´em a new hole and move the eggs from the old one to the other one, check out the general health and well-being of the turtles, whatever it is that turtle biologists do. These turtles are on the endangered species list, and Cozumel is very proud of their turtles -- they come here to lay their eggs. Last year we saw sticks on certain beaches which marked turtle nests, and we saw turtle tracks on the sand.

This year we get to hands-on deal with the turtles themselves!

He has a list of Marsupials and a list of animals that are nocturnal. And he knows what animals live in each continent and what type of environment they live in. It's pretty awesome!

Well, we´ve snorkeled two places so far: at Las Piratas and Zool Xa. (I´m not certain how you spell the last one, it was called "Zool Ha" for years and years, this year the little beach establishment is now the "Money Bar" but everyone still calls the place by its old Maya name) -- anyway, we snorkeled both places. Piratas didn´t have much; Hurricane Wilma really wrecked up the coral when she sat on top of Cozumel for THREE days two years ago. But Zool Xa is coming back, bit by bit; not so much coral, of course, as that takes A LONG TIME to grow. But there are more sea fans and things like that, and the invertebrates are more prevalent. More tube worms and anenomes and urchins everywhere, and tons of different sea snails (we call ´em "sea shells" when they die, and collect them, hee hee, but they´re actually various sea snails -- that is unless they´re bivalves like clams or oysters or scallops). Anyway I saw a bunch of different kinds crawling all over, and lots of fish. No barracuda yet, but we saw a scorpionfish, and several flounders, and lots of parrotfish and angelfish and others I´d have to go look up in the book we brought.

It´s cool: they´ve put up those man-made habitats that are made out of recycled stuff. They just stick them down on the floor of the sea and let the sea critters start growing all over it. It encourages the regrowth of all the stuff that lives off coral, while they´re waiting for coral to regrow. So you snorkel along and look for these funny bell-shaped things with holes in them, and there´s usually fish of some kind hanging around. Most of them seem to hang near the purple sea fans, though.

Today we´re going to the south end of the island to meet with a friend we met last year. He is going to take us to a little reef he knows of to see what fish are there. Since it´s on the south end, he said we might get lucky and see a sea turtle swimming along, which would be great. The only thing that is a little scary is that this is the southend, so beyond there is just the open Caribbean, which is pretty big and powerful and has mako sharks in it!

So here´s hoping we don´t become shark bait!

OK, more later if I survive today... HAH.

And Mara, when are you going to start having Shayla do her evil dance thing? They close up the computer at 11PM here, and we´re usually out of the hotel ALL DAY LONG and past dinnertime, and during the peak time to get on and post someone else is usually using this, so I dunno when we´ll be posting. Maybe in the afternoon on Monday, depends on how much sun we get between now and then. We might be needing a day out of it!

And on the writing note, today is my apartment party, so if I do anything today it might not be til late. Most likely I'll try to get something up tomorrow sometime (Sunday).

I've just got to figure out exactly what kind of evil dance I want to pull out of my reperetoire.

We went to Corona Beach, which was FANTASTICO. Hehe, we found where all the fish live: TONS of sea fans, rock, coral, anenomes, tube worms (we played with them), flounders, lobsters, triggerfish, butterflyfish, parrotfish, grunts, and about a bajillion dudes that looked like 2-inch tetras that just hung around you like a cloud of color. Really, REALLY nice.

We didn´t get out into the special little reef with my friend; that involved swimming out through BREAKERS on the south end of the island, and I didn´t think I could make it. I tried the other day just to play in the surf a little to one side, where there´s sand, and ONE time when the ocean was throwing me back to shore I managed to get on my stomach and body surf in. But I got slam-dunked the other time.

THIS place involved taking off from an itty bitty place where sand stretches out between SHARP ROCKS, so I thought we´d better wait and see if the sea calms down a little more. I´ll still try it, but I was a little leery today.

But the other places were good: the one for the coral and fish, and the other to hunt for shells (Palancar Beach).

So we got a refund, GRRR. There's a slight chance we might get to do this Thursday, we're going to find out today.

Anyway, instead we went to Punta Sur and the mangrove swamp and saw some HUMONGOUS crocodiles. I got a really great shot of them, too. We snorkeled out to a reef there that was about 100+ yards out from shore (almost smack at the very tip of the island, so we had to buck the Caribbean there), then swam along the whole reef which was a kilometer long. THEN bucked the current back.

Talk about being tired. Mara, you'd never have made it! But it was awesome, GREAT corals, tons of fish and shells and whatnot. We saw another stingray and a BIG barracuda, almost as long as I am tall, we think.

We've been having fun with our friend Luis, he's taken us to his home and then snorkeling, and he's having fun taking a little vacation from work too.

The other great thing is going to the east side of the island, the "wild side," and go beachcombing there. I found tons of cool shells, little guys for the most part, but really colorful. I did find one absolutely perfect cowrie about 2.5 inches long with no chips or breaks and natural shine, it looks as if I bought it at a shell shop!

Speaking of "shells," while snorkeling yesterday we found a GIGANTIC lobster... HEAD. Just hanging in the water.

I shudder to think what ate HIM!

More later if I can, this computer is at a premium and there's one guy here who's on it ALL the durned time!

Honest, I'll try to post!

The GREAT news is that yesterday when we were snorkeling for the last day, WE SAW A HAWKSBILL TURTLE. I was snorkeling around a coral-encrusted rock, and BOOM there he was smack-dab in front of me. I floated there, looking at him, and he floated there looking at me.

What was funny was that everyone said you had to be in deep water to see a turtle, and down at the south end of the island where they come up to lay their eggs. This guy was obviously lost, hanging over the rocks right up by the shore near Corona Beach Bar.

Too, too cool.

Hehe... needless to say, we're back. The closest thing we came to a storm was while coming in to Denver; there was a cell literally sitting on top of the airport, and they closed it for a short time until it left. So we circled (probably into Nebraska, hehe) until it moved on, and finally landed okay. Things were clear enough then that our flight to Kansas City was right on time, so we just had the time to clear customs (the fastest and smoothest I've ever cleared them, too), recheck our baggage, get to our gate and board the plane. Our flight to KC was pretty much uneventful... because we DID fly up and across Nebraska and then back down in order to avoid the storm which was headed there. We beat it in, but by the time we got our luggage in KC it was so late we just stayed overnight there, and drove to Iowa today.

Lovely blue skies today too, yay.

We just got in a little bit ago, and now it's rehearsal. (Like I can even BEGIN to think of a line, sheesh!)

Anyhoo, we got home safe and sound, luggage arrived safe and sound, and we had a GREAT TRIP.

Afterward I'm heading off to Ohio to visit a friend. I'll be coming home sometime Sunday August 12, probably late. We're bringing a laptop, so I will try to hop online every so often. But, as those of you who have gone to conventions know, time is precious and more than likely I won't.

HITTING THE ROAD NOW!

The convention was great: I met the guy who did the voice of Salacious Crumb in EP6, and a guy who makes all the "dead severed zombie heads" and so on that get cut off gushing blood, ooey gooey, LOL; our play went well and the masquerade entry I was in got two awards.

Ohio was fun -- IF HOT AND HUMID. I went to Lake Eerie and found all kinds of cool crane or heron feathers and so on, and learned a LOT from my friend who does ceramics, so Mara I hope to be doing airbrushing sometime in the future!! In Ohio we saw the Perseid Meteor shower -- GREAT, WE SAW A BOLIDE!! and were "in" THREE tornadoes. Ok, so they didn't hit the actual property, but one went right over it, and the other two were close enough to spit on it. ALL THIS IN ONE WEEK.