Easter in Regina then back to Hamburg, Germany

We arrived back into Regina late evening on Wednesday, April 16.  It was barely above freezing, trying to snow, and our poor little Mexican rescue dog shivered for two days until we bought her a t-shirt dress and, if you can believe it, a dog parka with a fur-trimmed hood!

Cheryl, Alex, Chris, Shawn - Easter dinner

Shawn carving the Easter turkey

I think I shivered for two days too but the weather did improve a bit.  Stayed with Lonny, Cheryl and Greg in Regina as Alex moved into her own apartment the day after we arrived.  Her and Shawn got a great two bedroom apartment so we had Easter dinner there the day after they moved in.

Eric and Greg eating Easter dinner at Alex & Shawn's

Lonny, Ed, Shari, Cheryl, Easter dinner at Alex & Shawn's

Alex strikes a pose!

Greg had use of our Ford Escape through the winter and it survived his driving okay but it's age is starting to show.  We needed new brakes, brake lines, battery and part of the trim snapped off in the cold weather.  Time to go car shopping!  :)

2014 Nissan Pathfinder

I test drove the new Nissan Pathfinder SL.  This would look GREAT pulling our little T@b trailer!  Well, maybe next year as the Escape is running great again now that it's had a little overdue maintenance.  I am highly recommending Landry's NAPA Autopro Service at 180 Winnipeg St. N. in Regina.  They got me in same-day (twice) for both repairs and offered great friendly, informative and affordable service.  

My birthday present, a Think Tank Airport Takeoff Rolling Backpack bag

Although we didn't get a new car, I did get a great birthday present from Chris; a new rolling backpack carry-on bag from Think Tank.  It's a great bag built tough to handle the weight of all my camera equipment plus it has a laptop pocket.  So I can finally drag all my camera gear back and forth to Mexico without wrecking a new bag every year ... I hope.

Our apartment on the top floor of Sternhauser apartments, Hamburg

So after 9 days in Regina and a couple of day trips to Swift Current, we're off to Europe again!  Back to Hamburg to see our medical genius guy, Professor Heinrich Seegenschmiedt.  This is our 5th trip to Hamburg and although I have grown to love this city a lot, we're really hoping this will be the last time here.  I thought I had trouble sleeping for the first few days here each time due to jet lag.  But now I'm thinking it's because I can't get comfortable enough to sleep on the plane, jammed into a sitting position in my 30 inch space.  Damn I wish I could afford to fly business class all the time!
 
This time we're not staying at our usual Courtyard Marriott.  We found some furnished executive apartments in Norderstedt for about half the price and they're double the size with great features.


We're on the top floor (unfortunately it's a 4-storey walkup) in a studio suite in the north of Hamburg, just 5 train stops from the clinic.  As we're arriving on a Saturday, the office is closed so they left our keys at the Park Hotel across the street.  We had no problem finding our building then hauling our suitcases up the 4 flight spiral staircase.  But as we walked into our apartment, in this non-smoking building, the stench of cigarette smoke nearly knocked me over.  The place really reeked of long-term, constant cigarette smoke and unfortunately the office being closed until Monday, there's nobody to complain to.  Hopefully the weather will be good enough over the weekend that we can get the place aired out a bit.

Bells on the Norderstedt City Hall

We're pretty "jet-lagged" today so all we did after arriving this morning was to walk the neighbourhood a little bit and buy a few groceries.  We found a nice little street-side Italian restaurant for supper and had the special, pasta stuffed with ricotta cheese and spinach.  I may have ordered something else but this was the only item I could decipher in the German menu.  I asked the waitress what another kind of pasta on the menu was and we ended up playing pictionary as she tried drawing a tomato for me.

While we were out we suddenly heard this great glockenspiel music.  The source turned out to be coming from the city hall, with all of the bells on the outside wall.

It really is a nice building we're staying in though and a great little apartment, well furnished but a little sparsely equipped in the kitchen.  We tried out the gym and sauna in the evening and were the only people around.  We both fell asleep in the sauna but luckily woke up before we cooked to death.

Lucy's new family

Thank you to everyone who helped share our facebook request for a new family for Lucy.  She was adopted today by a wonderful family in Regina, SK.

Lucy did not like the snow and freezing rain in her outdoor toilet so we got her a little pink t-shirt dress and a parka which really helped her adjust to the weather conditions here.

This evening Lucy met her new family, Nick and his parents Kim and Mike.  They were thrilled to be able to adopt Lucy and Kim was more tearful than we were.  We know she's in good hands with a loving and caring family and we couldn't be happier with how things turned out.

Lucy in her new ladybug t-shirt dress.  FINALLY warm again!

Lucy playing with her new big buddy Bauer.

Lucy in her new Canadian parka.

Lucy with her new owner, Nick.

Hasta Novembre!

Well our time here for this winter is nearly over.  We'll be back in Canada April 16, returning to Celestun around the end of October.  This past week has been busy though; pilates, dinner out at some friends, our last expat dinner, and a birthday pool party at our house.

The automatic sprinklers I installed in all of our flower beds seem to be working okay and the flowers are blooming like crazy.  Will be so sad to return to Canada tomorrow and be back in the cold and snow.

This past week has been so hot here that the dog keeps jumping into the pool to cool off.  It's been around 35 to 38 every day.  Actually starting to look forward to a little temperature relief soon.
And our rescue cat Chester adopted some new parents, Richard and Jose from the Hacienda San Pachul in Kinchil.  They thought they'd be leaving my birthday party with leftovers but instead they left with a cat!

We had a fun evening Wednesday at Marie-Francois and Nicole's, along with Peter and Sandra.  

They have a fantastic view of the ocean from their rooftop patio.

The next day was my birthday and we had a little barbecue pool party at Casa Piedra with Karen and Wanda, and Richard & Jose.  Jose got behind the bar and made us all Sour Orange Margaritas and also surprised me with a cake!

Friday night was our last expat dinner at Guiterrez Restaurant which gave us a chance to say good-bye to everyone as most of us are leaving to return to Canada for the summer.  It was a beautiful evening on the beach with a fantastic sunset.

Tuesday morning Chris, Lucy and I drove to Cancun with Karen.  Lucy turned out to be a great traveller, sleeping all the way in the car.  Overnight at the Comfort Inn next to the Cancun airport was fine then Karen drove back to Celestun on Wednesday and we checked in with Lucy for our flight back to Canada.  Lucy snoozed in her little travel kennel for about three hours at the airport then onto the plane and stuffed under our seat for the 5 1/2 hour flight to Canada.  I think she would have slept most of the flight but I gave her 1/4 of a child's gravol just to be sure she didn't wake up and have to pee or anything.

Lucy made it through customs with no problems and then had the shock of her life when Chris took her outside to pee and discovered what COLD weather feels like.

By Friday, Lucy was REALLY not happy with the outdoor bathroom arrangements in the freezing rain and snow.  The only doggy T-shirt we could find to fit her was a pink frilly dress with a giant ladybug stitched on the back.  She was not impressed but she FINALLY stopped shivering.  She was more comfortable with the little parka with the fur trimmed hood.  She actually could stand outside in the sleet without whining to come back inside.

Mangroves of Dzinitun

The Celestun protected biosphere and the ria are full of thick vegetation called mangroves (manglares).  This is thick jungle growth across the swampy land and along the ria and right out over the water, forming tunnel-like channels and large areas of thick, twisted growth shading the water for fish and crocodiles to hide in.

Last week, eight of us decided to go on a night-time canoe adventure through the mangroves and along the ria.  Our pilates instructor Sandra made the arrangements with Thomas and we all met up after dark at 8:30PM in a parking area near the beginning of a boardwalk into the Manglares de Dzinitun.

The boardwalk over swampy land to the mangrove channel

The boardwalk takes you across the swamp, twisting and turning as you make your way deeper into the jungle.  The boardwalk is apparently several km long and is a nice walk during the day but at night we had to walk slowly and carefully to avoid the odd broken board or change in elevation of each board.  After about 1km we arrived at a group of canoes waiting for us to begin our tour.

The cost was 450mxp per canoe and each canoe held two people, but had room for three, plus our guide standing at the back to pole us through the shallow waters.  We only used three canoes as our tour was delayed a few days due to windy conditions on our original night and unfortunately Sandra and Peter were unable to join us when we finally went.  It was pitch black as we moved quietly through tight channels and tunnels with the only light coming from head lamps on each guide.  Chris and I also each had a flashlight to shine around the shoreline, looking for wildlife.

It was an eerie feeling, moving through the water with our total view being a small spotlighted area from our guide's headlamp, moving around across the huge tree roots, across the water, then across one of the other canoes.  I found myself getting dizzy, almost unsure of which was was up and what direction we were going.

Marie-Francois and her brother Pierre

Nicole and Marie-France

The mangrove channel at night

We shone our flashlights along the shoreline, looking for birds, racoons, possums, crocodiles or any other wildlife that might appear.  The naturally formed tunnel-like channels were so low at times that we had to duck to get beneath branches and roots coming down from the manglares with branches scraping across the sides of the canoe and brushing against us in the dark.

Poling canoes through the mangrove channel

It was a beautiful trip out across the ria in calm waters with clear skies and millions of stars.  Our progress through the water kept disturbing herons, roosting for the night in the branches.  Their strange human-like "laughing" was startling at first then became commonplace as we made our way along the ria.

Hundreds of fish were jumping all around us in the shallowest parts of the ria, even hitting the side of the boat and three landed right in the boat; breakfast for our guides tomorrow!

Trees putting down roots into the mangrove

Our main goal was to spot crocodiles and all the headlamps played along the water by the shoreline as we poled our way along, hoping to spot their eyes glowing which is usually the only part you see above the water.  Unfortunately, after three hours and sore butts from the hard wooden seats, all we saw was fish and herons.  We made our way back along the ria then through the manglares channels again and arrived back where we started at about 11:00pm.  Even though we did not spot any crocodiles we all agreed that it was a great experience and we would highly recommend it.

Canoeing in the ria at night

Lucy needs a new home!

Our 14-week old rescued Mexican Beach dog, Lucy is coming home with us to Canada on April 16 looking for a new home. She is a healthy, happy, female with all her shots. She likes playing with other dogs and cats and loves splashing in a shallow swimming pool. Mexican Beach Dogs are intelligent, extremely loyal and protective and make great household pets and watch dogs. PLEASE help me find Lucy a GOOD home in Canada ASAP!!!!!

Lucy, April 2, 2014

Lucy snoozing on my shoe

Lucy snoozing with Chris

Lucy and Roger in our pool

Lucy and her good buddy Ruby

Lucy sliding out of her kennel half asleep

Lucy snoozing against the wall

Lucy, about 8 weeks old