Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Mexican Holiday - 8th Day



It was a Sunday. We decided to have a relaxing time mainly on the beach. Had I been home I would have joined with other Christians in worshipping Jesus at my local church. I can only remember seeing one church building at Playacar, most probably where Catholics attend mass and other services. From things I saw in that part of Mexico it would appear that the cross is a popular symbol associated with Jesus and in particular it seems to be used as a symbolic motif for protection from physical harm. Many taxi drivers hang crosses behind the windscreen of their cars. I saw one man who had a cross tattooed on his back. The local lifeguard overseeing safety at the beach had a red cross printed on his tee-shirt and his VHF set had two crosses emblazoned on it. His jet ski boat also had a red cross on it. At Playacar there were porcelain crosses on the side of a house, and in several of the trinket stores there were brightly decorated ceramic and plastic crosses.




I was a little restless and I needed to burn off energy; therefore I did a considerable amount of walking along the beach. There was a force 4 onshore wind which caused the waves to break onto the sand. I enjoyed watching the aquatic activities, including swimming which was not banned by the lifeguards. Several parasailing boats were out on the water, because the conditions were ideal for them. They could manoeuvre their parachutes so that they hovered over the beach, which must have been thrilling for their riders. The operators of scuba dive boats anchored just beyond the breakers had to take great care not to misjudge things when loading and offloading crew and equipment. Had an anchor dragged, and an engine failed, their boat would have been stranded on the sand.





Windburn was added to the effect of sunshine on my body, and at last, the factor 30 sun cream was marginally penetrated so that a light tan was imparted to my skin. I really felt that I was on holiday and that I was benefiting from vitamin D derived from sunlight. When I returned to our apartment at the hotel I noticed there was a large blister on the inside of the little toe of my left foot. This I treated with one of those special plasters that resemble skin and which act as a temporary covering for preventing further abrasion and infection.



That evening we used Skype on my miniature laptop to keep up to date with news at home. Reception at the hotel via the free WIFI was just adequate for seeing blurred images on the computer screen.


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