Home, Home on the Beach...

Where the beach dogs and Sherwood will play...

As we headed down the road leading into Akumal, I turned the AC off and lowered the windows. Bella and Solavina had their pointy little noses at the windows, sniff sniff sniffing and looking very excited. Cejas was standing up in the back and looking a little worried. Missy was sitting in the back, looking at me with her funny little smiley face, wondering what all the fuss was about?

We passed the library on the left and the parking lot on the right. Drove past the Super Chomak - a first for us. It is usually our first stop in Akumal, to pick up the essentials, like beer, limes and grapes for the iguanas. Bob paused at the Arch so I could get a picture and then was making fun of me for having tears in my eyes. I felt like Miss America... so happy I could cry. We wound around the bend and saw Cueva del Pescador on the left and Turtle Bay Cafe beyond, and then the Dive Shop on the right, with CEA behind it. I was asking the dogs if they remembered and I'm sure that they did. The three beach mutts were all sniffing the air, and at one point, Bella started whining in an excited, little high-pitched voice. We went around the curve at Las Casitas, where the road is washed out from all of the rain, and then past the tennis courts and entered onto the main stretch into North Akumal. As we drove along, passing all of the beautiful villas, we noticed that there had not been too much damage from the hurricane. Some of the trees looked a little worse for wear, but the houses all looked the same... no damage. Then we got to La Buena Vida. It looked like a war zone. Sand was washed up into the middle of the road, which was narrowed to just the left hand/south lane. Bricks were stacked up alongside the road. Debris and furniture were strewn and piled everywhere. Piles of sand lined the road on both sides, with bricks, rocks and coral piled in it. The new road that Jamie had just put in after Wilma was washed out, and all that remained was a gutted lane of sand, and a bunch of pavers piled up next to it. But La Buena Vida was open, with the Mexican flag flying out front, in preparation for the Independence Day party on Saturday night, and workers were out with wheelbarrows, taking sand from here to there, and others were getting bricks and pavers sorted and stacked neatly. We passed that and continued down the road to our condo. The road was bumpy, with lots of holes from the storms, but not as bad as we have seen it in other years. Some of the buildings still had boards over the windows, and the store that used to house the internet cafe that had become a real estate office was boarded up and looks to be closed for good. (will check on that later for Cheryl) We meandered the remaining part of the road and got to our condo. I took Cejas and Bella and Bob took Solavina and Missy gets to go everywhere without a leash because she will just never leave my side, and we went to the condo. Small problem - TILE! Cejas wouldn't walk up the landing to the stairs, so we had to coax him. He got onto the concrete and then wouldn't budge. I went and put the girls in the room, while Bob held onto Cejas, and then I had to carry him, all 52 pounds of Doberman fighting machine, into the condo. But - TILE there too! I carried him in and put him on the bed - safe spot, and we rushed back to the car and got all of the dog blankets and beach towels that we could find, and returned to the condo and put them down for him in little pathways, from the bedroom to the dining room to the kitchen to the living room. Thank goodness we aren't in the Dynasty mansion or I don't know what the poor dog would do? Probably have his own little doggy mansion out back... anyway, we don't need to worry about that today.

Bob brought up what we would need for the night, and the dog beds and the dog bowls. Then he got back in the car and went to Super Chomak and got some dog food for the kids. We fed them, had a beer in our chairs overlooking the bay, watched the beautiful peach and pink clouds of the sunset. The dogs all made themselves right at home, and Solavina went over to the window and looked out to survey her domain. I swear that she remembers being here. We both fell asleep in our wooden beach chairs that are the most comfortable chairs on earth. At some point, Bob got up and went into the bedroom to sleep, but I ended up sleeping on the futon in the living room, with the dogs all cuddled up with me, next to me or on the floor below me. We all dreamt of our first day in Akumal, tomorrow. Or, as we say here, manana.