Cozumel, Mexico

This is our third trip to Cozumel, Mexico. The last time we were here was 2012 and we went to Chankanaab and saw the sea lion show and Mayan exhibit. This time Michael arranged a bike tour of the city.

I thought this sign was very funny.

Jacob and I smiles before we got started.

A local church.

Inside the church.

Our group of 9 was a hurry up and wait group, emphasis on wait. 

Our guide took us to a farmer's market and these green squash are chayote. I had recently cooked with these so I was glad to have recognized them.

Mamey Fruit, aka Pouteria Sapota. This was a new  fruit for us. Jacob was brave enough to try it but he didn't like it. We thought it was a sweet, soft fruit.

This is the lunch stall where we had a snack.

Chicken Salbutes. This was the snack we ate and Jacob loved it. He really has been an adventurous eater on this trip. Now we need to find them in LA.

Costa Maya, Mexico

When we got off the ship in Costa Maya, this was our view from the port. Symphony of the Seas is the biggest ship on the ocean and you can see why, it dwarfs regular ships.

We had nothing planned for Costa Maya. We took a walk down the medium of the street. It was a nice walkway. It was hot and humid so we did not spend much time on this city. By the evening it was raining and our pool show was rescheduled for another day.

This was our turn around point.

The last time we were in Costa Maya was 2012 and we went to Mahahual beach and Jacob was this big.

The Solarium at night.

Towel adventures.

Roatan, Honduras

Our first time on the island of Roatan, Honduras and we had a very nice time. Michael hired in advance a driver name Shelford Dilbert who was our guide for the day.  The air conditioned van was nice too. 

Shelford was born on the island. He answered all our questions and gave us a good tour of a small part of the island. Traffic was an issue with seeing much of the island.

We took Shelford's advice and ate the local dish of iguana, rice and beans and fried plantains. It was delicious and yes it 'tastes like chicken'. Jacob ordered fried chicken but he actually liked the iguana better. He is becoming quite the adventurous eater.  It is actually illegal to kill iguana on the island so go figure why it was on the menu. I would definitely go back to the island of Roatan.

Miami and Boarding Day

Miami Beach.

Jacob was smittened with the glass houseboat.

Miami.

Miami Beach.

Boarding day. We were able to get on the ship by 10:30-11:00AM and have lunch on the ship. Rooms are usually ready by 1:00PM.

Line dancing, the Electric Slide. I did a class of line dancing every day.

Central Park, deck 8.

Grass/plant wall, Central Park.

Ship art.

Balloon Drop with Mike the Cruise Director on the Royal Promenade. Jacob made us stay up until Midnight to attend. It was fun but noisy, everyone popped the balloons. All in all a good first day.

Manawakie Eco Nature Park

Manawakie Eco Nature Park is located on the island of Roatan, Honduras. The brochure for this park states "Culture, Sloths and Monkeys". Enjoy the fun pictures.

As you can see Jacob is having tons of fun. This was his favorite activity.

This was the inquisitive monkey.

Trying to steel Jacob's glasses.

He was also angry monkey and really hated Jacob. He got into a bite fest but Jacob said it didn't hurt. His tennis shoes still have monkey bites.

Michael was up next. The kid in the Batman shirt was our guide.

Curious monkey again.

Going down.

Coming out. He would even search your pockets.

Monkey selfie with Jacob's phone.

Angry monkey.

Baby monkey. He was only a year and a half. Very docile. He wasn't doing so good, the staff said he wasn't eating. He may have been the one they rescued.

They had a parrot exhibit with about 4 of these green parrots. It was molting season so not looking pretty. I was able to whistle my birdie magic and he seemed pretty happy.

This parrot was used to humans and readily transferred person to person.

Sloths are my new favorite animal.

They are so cuddly and cute.

This male sloth was called "real deal" as he had two girl sloths; one pregnant and one with a baby. The enclosure is growing.

Family photo.

This was the sloth keeper.

This was our first stop and by far our favorite activity. We really enjoyed being on the island of Roatan.

The MR2 is Back from Camp

Michael, again.  In just a week, the rest of the automatic to manual conversion was done by ETL Motorsports.  There was also a small oil leak from the distributor o-ring that was also fixed.

Diane and I drove out to pick up the car and I drove the car home; all was fine.

Amazingly, on Craigslist, I was able to find a manual shift boot for the interior, new in box, purchased by the seller from a Toyota dealer in 2002.  So that solved the problem with that ugly old part.  With that part I could reassemble the interior.

The Interior All Done

And here's the Frunk also Re-assembled

I knew the suspension and tires were old.  But driving in the rain last week it was clear that there was a safety problem.  So, lastly, I took the car to the mechanic on the corner, Carlos, and he put on new tires (I ordered from Amazon) and new struts (I ordered from Rockauto).  Can you believe it?  The car had the original struts from 1988; no wonder!

Now things are proper, wet or dry, and I have confidence in the car's handling.

It's impressive how inexpensive things can be on an itty bitty car.  The struts were about $30 each, and the tires $40 each.  One thing I've learned is that cars with 14" wheels are rare now, and all the big tire companies don't make any tires for these any more.  So it took a little searching.

Happy driving!  For me that is.

MR2 is at Camp ETL Motorsports Garage

I figured that while the MR2 was at the garage we'd have a photography blackout, but these guys have been documenting progress.  ETL Motorsports specializes in mid-engine cars like the Toyota MR2 and Porsche Cayman.

Here's the old automatic transmission removed from the car

...and the spot it came from

New pieces going in

Clutch in

And here's ETL's Instagram Page