Currently viewing the tag: "Puerto Morelos"
Looking for a great vacation rental in Puerto Morelos. We recommend Casa de los Viajeros.
Located steps from the BEST beach in Puerto Morelos and just an 8-minute walk to the main town square, it has a FANTASTIC location. Click here to see the location.
Owned by the former owners of Alma Libre Bookstore, Casa de los Viajeros offers either 1 or 2 bedroom private apartments.
For more information visit the website and then have a great vacation!
And to find out more about your favourite beachside community, visit InPuertoMorelos.com.
In our first edition of “Restaurant Recipes” Chef Anthony Chalas of La Sirena Restaurant & Bar invited us into his kitchen to see how easy it is to cook the invasive, but delicious lionfish.
Before we started we wanted to know what led Anthony to the kitchen. He told us that he was basically born there. His father is a Greek chef and still Anthony’s favorite cook, while his mother was an expert caterer for more than two decades. Anthony worked his way up through the ranks of many restaurants in New Jersey. He even travelled to Greece, where he spent time working in kitchens and honing his craft.
Anthony’s top tip for wanna-be chefs is to always start with a really hot pan. A big mistake people make is putting food into a pan that has not been properly preheated. His other tip was to not be afraid to finish dishes in the oven.
Anthony opened La Sirena Restaurant & Bar in Puerto Morelos just over one year ago. Featuring Mediterranean cuisine in the restaurant and live music in the bar, it has been a great addition to our little fishing village. He invited us into his kitchen to see how he makes his signature dish “Blackened Lionfish”, a dish that he and head chef Tomas Juarez Rodriguez co-created for last year’s Puerto Morelos Food and Wine Festival. Now he shares his secret with you.
Cooking lionfish may seem like a dangerous task, but it is not. Here in Puerto Morelos, the people at the fish co-operative are happy to fillet the fish for you, removing the poisonous spines that could cause you problems if not handled properly. If you wish to do it yourself, here is a video that shows you how.
Blackened Lionfish (Pez Leon) With a Dilled Sour Cream(recipe below)– Serves 4
For best results make dill sauce ahead of time
4 lionfish filets
2 Tbsp olive oil
Blackening Seasoning
Mix equal parts paprika, cayenne, oregano, thyme, garlic powder, onion powder, white and black pepper
Dilled Sour Cream
1 cup sour cream
1/2 bunch of dill finely chopped
1 clove fresh finely chopped garlic
dash of Worcestershire sauce
squeeze of lime
salt and pepper to taste
Begin by making the dilled sour cream. Mix all ingredients together in a bowl and refrigerate 1 to 2 hours to let the flavours blend.
Cook the lionfish begin by heating 2 Tbsp olive oil in an oven-safe sauté pan until very hot.
Gently coat both sides of lionfish filet with Blackening Seasoning.
Place fillets in a hot pan with the rounded side of the filet face down. Allow to cook 2-3 minutes until blackening is complete. Flip fillets in pan, cook another 2-3 minutes to blacken the other side. Move pan into a preheated 350 F or 170 C degree oven. Allow to bake for 5 to 7 minutes until cooked through. Move to plate and top with a dollop of dilled sour cream. Serve with spinach or your favorite fresh vegetable. Also goes great with rice. ENJOY!
Photos by: Robert Birce
Mexico has so many amazing cuisines and an equal number of restaurants to go along with them. We are starting a new feature which will take you inside the kitchens of some of our favourite dinning establishments. Not only will you get a look at how those wonderful dishes are being made, but the chefs have also agreed to share their secret recipes with you! So keep checking back here. We will have our first “Restaurant Recipes” feature next week.
Recently we had friends staying with us that couldn’t believe how close we live to nature here in Puerto Morelos. For those of you not familiar with PoMo, we are a thin strip of land located between the Caribbean Sea and the mangrove. The mangrove or el manglar is a living, breathing, vibrant area filled with trees, plants and plenty of wildlife. Our home is only steps from the beach but it is even closer to the mangrove which gives us an amazing opportunity to see lots of birds and other animals.
The wildlife usually stays pretty close to home in the mangrove, but the other day we had a visitor in our garbage can. Now a raccoon trapped in your trash can may not be a big deal for some people, but we are a couple of city kids, so we were a little perplexed. Luckily a friend from Montreal had the stunning idea of just putting a palm branch into the trash can, so the little fellow ran up, out and back to the mangrove.
Crocodile Hanging in Puerto Morelos
The other day on a walk to our local supermarket we came across this happy fellow, sunning himself on one of the mangrove viewing points. He or she, we didn’t get close enough to find out, must be quite young as he was only about five feet long. He didn’t move a muscle, so we got a chance to take a good long look at him. Very cool. “Old school technology”as Rob calls it. When we passed back the same way about an hour later he was still in the same place still working on his tan. Our friends that had stayed with us just the week before had really wanted to see a crocodile, so this post is for them.
This is the route we take from Laredo, Texas to Puerto Morelos, Mexico. Pulling a 25′ travel trailer it takes us about 40 hours behind the wheel. Our average speed is about 70km/hour or 44 miles/hour. In the USA we easily roll 100km/hour. The difference between driving in Mexico and the USA is the road quality and those unexpected delays that you are bound to come across.
We recently crossed from the USA into Mexico at the Colombia Solidarity International Bridge. This crossing is a bit out of the way, but Bridge 2 in downtown Laredo is a bit tight for RV’s and the permit process is easier at Colombia. The Colombia crossing is 26 miles to the west of downtown, off of a toll road (if you are coming from the north). There are no toll booths on this road. We have used it twice and happily waited for the state of Texas to charge us. They never have.
This year we stayed at Vaquero Village & RV Park, just off of the I-35 and Highway 285 the night before we crossed. We had never heard of this place, but it worked our very well as a jumping off point for crossing at Colombia. The owner is a very nice Mexican who couldn’t understand why we would want to cross the border. This place has good Wi-Fi if you park at the back of the campground near the office. One tip make sure you get gas before you leave the I-35.
There is a toll to cross the Solidarity International Bridge, it can be paid in pesos or dollars. Once you cross the bridge you are at the Mexican border. Keep to your left and go through the gates where you will get a red light or a green light. We suspect this is done on weight as we are heavy and usually get a red light. It doesn’t seem to matter, which colour we get, they always stop us. This year to our surprise, after getting a red light, they sent us to the x-ray machine. This crossing now has a new vehicle x-ray, large enough to fit our truck and trailer into easily. Once you drive into the x-ray you are asked to to remove any pets and yourselves from the vehicle and stand behind a cement wall under a shade cover while they scan the vehicle. This takes about 5 minutes.
Once you are cleared to go, you can move on to getting your visa and car permit. The entire adventure took us about 40 minutes. The 25km check point that was always a big hassle seems to have been made redundant for Aduana. They only checked our immigration papers and waved us on. Then it was off to Saltillo.
This is our Lady of Guadalupe who guards the front door to our home.
December 12th is the Dia de la Virgen de Guadalupe. Derived from the catholic religion, Our Lady of Guadalupe or the Virgin of Guadalupe is seen everywhere in Mexico from candles in people’s windows to statues on cabbies dashboards to full alters in front of homes. Some believe her to be a darker skinned version of the Madonna or the Virgin Mary, who was first introduced to the culture by Cortez. While other believe that she was a vision seen by a Catholic clergymen in the 16th century.
Leading up to December 12th the “Guadalupeans” show their devotions to the virgin by praying, biking, running, walking and illuminating their home alters. In central Mexico those that worship Our Lady of Guadalupe make a pilgrimage to the Basílica of Guadalupe in Mexico City. People in the Yucatan that do not have resources or time to do this so they show their devotion through long, grueling journeys.
On our most recent trip to Valladolid we saw dozens of groups of young men and a few girls biking through the city.
We then returned to Puerto Morelos to find a parade leading to our own church right past the square. On December 12th devotees will flock to churches and homes throughout the country for masses. The mass will be followed by a celebration and as always in Mexico, a large meal. The tale of Guadalupe runs deep within the Mexican culture and there have been many books written about it for children and adults alike. For the quickie version of the tale, check out Wikipedia or Smart History. They tell very two different stories.
To all our friends who are away from our little town, remember “Puerto Morelos misses you”. Come back soon.
On our last day we drive from Saltillo to the border of the USA. It takes us just over 3 hours to get to the crossing at Colombia, just west of Nuevo Laredo. We cross here, instead of in Laredo because the crossing has more room for RVs.
People ask us all the time how long it takes and what it costs. So here are the states from our trip from Puerto Morelos to the US border.
Hours: 41 behind the wheel
Kilometers/Miles: 2901/1803
Average Speed: 71km/hour or 44 miles/hour
Tolls: $3484mxn ($271 USD)
Gas: $9079mxn ($706 USD)
Camping: $2028mxn ($158 USD)
Total Cost: $14591mxn ($1135 USD)
Tolls for a truck and travel trailer are about double what you would pay for a car. If you were not towing an RV you could do this trip much faster and much cheaper. Flying would be cheaper and fast again, but not as fun.
We took 11 days to do this drive in so that we could stop and visit friends and some of our favourite places along the way. Temperatures ranged from 37C (99F) to 7c (45F). We were as low as -6meters (-20feet) below sea level to as high as 2616 meters (8523feet), all in a five hour drive. This completes our 12th round trip from the US border to Puerto Morelos and back. It may be time to start flying.
We still have 3,494km (2171 miles) to go. We’re not even half way there!
Day one is never an early or easy day for us. Packing up your life for the next six months takes a lot of time, co-ordination and work. It is late afternoon before we get out. We drive straight through Playa del Carmen and Tulum.
We only try to make it as far as Bacalar, 4 hours south of us, which puts us very close to the Belize border. We spent the night tucked away in front of our pal Jimmy’s place (a big Thank You!) in this quiet, little lake side community.
It is always nice to see a friendly face on the road and even better to have a kitty that curls up on your lap.
It always feels good to get on the road, but we will miss our little town.
Hasta Pronto Puerto Morelos.
Don’t miss our latest newsletter!
Alma Libre Bookstore is closing for the season. It is that time of year again. Today is our last day open, so stop in and say “so long”.
We will be packing up our truck and travel trailer soon and heading north to Calgary for the summer to go back to our day jobs in TV. Keep an eye out here as we will try to post updates from the road as we drive north through some amazing areas of Mexico.
We will miss our friends and our lives here in Puerto Morelos, but we will be back before you know it. Thank you for your support through out our season. Watch for Alma Libre Bookstore to open again in mid-November when we return with tons of new stock.
Hasta Pronto!
