Beautiful, graceful and deadly. The Red Lionfish (Pterois Volitans) should not be in our waters. Known for their ornate beauty and venomous spines, lionfish are native to the coral reefs of the South Pacific, not the Atlantic Ocean or the Caribbean Sea.
The introduction of this creature to our waters appears to have happened in 1992 when Hurricane Andrew destroyed an aquarium in southern Florida, releasing six lionfish into Biscayne Bay. In addition to this, it is thought that many more fish may have been released into waters off the U.S. coast by unhappy aquarium enthusiasts.
Lionfish in our area are termed an invasive species. There are two large problems with these fish, due to their venomous spines they have a lack of predictors and they are voracious eaters dinning on the smaller fish in the sea, endangering many species. They have caused such a decrease in marine life in some areas that extreme measures have been taken to try and get rid of them. One marine park in Roatan, Honduras even tried to train sharks to feed on the lionfish to try to decrease their numbers. Here in Puerto Morelos we have a rule, see a lionfish, kill a lionfish. It is the only way we can protect our reef.
Lionfish don’t interact well with people either. Their spins, although not deadly, can cause lots of nasty symptoms when touched. The good news is lionfish spines are used defensively, not offensively. If you don’t touch them, they won’t touch you. Still, these are not fun fish….unless you are eating them. They are yummy! And the best thing we can do to get rid of this invasive species is to dine on them.
On the next Salsa & Sun we will start a new feature called “Restaurant Recipes” where one of our favourite chefs will teach you how to cook lionfish.
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.
The smart phone is part of our daily lives. Having one in Mexico makes things a lot easier. Even a simple trip to the grocery store goes more smoothly with a loaded phone in hand. Next to social media apps, these are the ones that we have found the most useful while living and traveling in Mexico.
XE Currency Converter
Cost: Free
With the constant change in the pesos to dollar exchange rate, it is nice to know what you are actually spending.
Spanish Dictionary and Translator
Cost: Fee
This app, by Curiosity Media, doesn’t have every word in it, and falls a bit short of a good old Webster, but it does the trick in a pinch. Not only does it show you the written word, it will conjugate the verb for you and play the translation so you can hear the pronunciation. The app has a few games on it to help you learn Spanish, plus a word of the day feature to remind you to keep working on your language skills.
Google Translate (World Lens)
Cost: Free
This app called “World Lens”(was owned by Quest Visual but has now been bought by Google) allows you to point the camera on your smart phone at any printed material and it will translate it for you into another language. It is best for signs or labels. It is not really meant for documents. I have the Spanish/English extension downloaded. It is not perfect, but this app has come along way. Now that Google owns them, they have been incorporated into their Google Translate app on iTunes, but it is still called “World Lens” on Google Play.
Units Plus
Cost: Free
“Units Plus Best Unit & Currency Converter” is a handy metric to imperial conversion to have. It converts meters to feet or temperatures from Celsius to Fahrenheit. This app converts length, area, volume, speed, weight, time, temperature and more. Handy for everything from cooking to renting a 200 square meter apartment. It does have a currency converter on it as well, but I personally prefer XE Currency Converter.
Skype
Cost: Free to Cheap
We no longer have a phone in our house. We rely on our cell phones for local calls, but for long distance to Canada or the USA we use Skype. Pronounced sky-pee in Spanish. Skype to Skype calls are free. Or you can use Skype to a land line or cell for only pennies a minute.
All of these apps are available for both Andriod and Apple products. What are you favourite apps? We would like to hear about them. Add them to the comments at the top of the post.
Ingredients for Mango Avocado Salsa
Wonderful, fresh fruits and vegetables are one of the many great things about living here in Mexico. We now eat so many more of them because they taste so good. After a lifetime of living in Calgary, where the produce was hard and tasteless, especially in the winter, I don’t think we really knew what “fresh” tasted like. Now it is such a pleasure to have great greens available just down the street at Chulim or from the passing vendors. When mango season starts you can hear the call of “Mango, Mango, Mango” from the loud speakers of the passing produce trucks as they come door to door. And since we have moved here, my love of avocados has increased. What better way to enjoy fresh mango than with avocado. This recipe takes full advantage of our best local produce. And you can spice it up or down to meet your taste.
Lovely Red Onion
Since moving here I had to learn essential skills like how to slice an mango.…
and an avocado. Including the knife twisting trick to get the pit out.
My favourite new gadgets is a pairs of herb scissors that I use for chopping up cilantro.
No Mexican recipe would be complete without the ubiquitous squeeze of lime.
Finish it all off with a little sea salt and some habanero pepper to taste and you have a wonderful side dish for chicken or fish. It also makes a great appetizer with tortilla chips.
¡Buen Provecho!
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.
The USA Border to Puerto Morelos, Mexico
We have complied our stats from our latest drive from the US border, crossing at Columbia near Laredo,Texas to Puerto Morelos, Mexico and here is how it breaks down. You can compare these to our trip north in the spring of 2014.
Distance Covered: 3124 km or 1941 Miles
Hours behind the wheel: 39.5 (Google Maps is a little optimistic)
Number of Days Driving: 6.5 days
Camping at Mayabell
We took a total of 9 days to do this trip, taking an extra night in San Miguel de Allende and Cholua, Puebla. Our prices in gas and tolls are based on driving a truck and pulling a twenty-five foot trailer.
Cost of Gas: $10,490 pesos or $771 usd
Cost of Tolls: $4328 pesos or $318usd
Cost of Camping: $1614 pesos or $119 usd for 7 nights.
Cost of Repairs: $650 pesos or $48 usd
Road Side Service
While on the Arco Norte around Mexico city we heard a strange noise coming from the back of the trailer. We pulled over at the nearest Pemex to find that we had a broken trailer spring. This happens to us often, so we always carry spare springs. All we really needed was a mechanic who could change out the broken one. There was a mechanic where we stopped, but he was on the wrong side of the toll fence and he couldn’t cross over. We then went to a tire repair shop, they couldn’t help us, but they did have a buddy who was a mechanic. Within twenty minutes he was there replacing our broken spring. Forty-five minutes later we were all set to go…. but as we pulled out of the parking lot, we heard this terrible grinding sound. So back to the mechanic, only to discover that one of our brake assembly had fallen apart. All of the pieces were still inside the wheel so he was able to fix it and we were back on the road after only an hour and a half delay.
Hope you were able to get a cake! Costco in Cancun seemed to have a shortage of them yesterday 🙂 And you know that they will sell out of them today. If you are not familiar with the tradition of Los Tres Reyes Magos you can read about it here. In the mean time, Happy Dia de Reyes!
Will you be wearing red or yellow underwear when you ring in 2015?
If you haven’t noticed, even the new Chedraui grocery store in Puerto Morelos is selling red and yellow under garments. It is a Mexican tradition to wear a pair of either colour when you start off the New Year. If you wear red panties, you are hoping for a year filled with romance and love. If you wear yellow panties you are hoping for a year of prosperity, luck and money. You can’t just wear any old pair of underwear, they must be a new pair, worn for the first time as you ring in the New Year.
So what colour underwear will you be wearing as you ring in 2015?
¡Feliz Año Nuevo from Salsa & Sun!
Feliz Navidad from Salsa and Sun. We hope that you have a wonderful, warm Christmas filled with family and friends. And if you are lucky enough to be spending the holidays in Puerto Morelos, drop in and see us at Alma Libre Books & Gifts. If you are not, we hope you find a trip to here in your Christmas stocking.
Peppermint & Salted Caramel Ice Cream
Christmas in Mexico is so very different from Christmas up north. Since moving here we have started some of our own, new traditions. Now instead of making heavy fruit cake to celebrate the season, we make ice cream. It goes down easier on those hot winter days. There are two kinds I make for Christmas, the tradition Peppermint Ice Cream (which we have never seen in Mexico) and our newest favourite, Salted Caramel Ice Cream. Rob found this recipe on the internet and I have made it several times and it is a winner! It comes from Constantly Cooking.
Making the caramel from scratch.
Adding the caramel to the base.
This ice cream maker was a Christmas gift from my Dad to my Mom when I was a kid. It still works great to this day.
The only difference with mine over the original recipe is that I use Mexican Vanilla and Vanilla Sea Salt, both which are available at Alma Libre Books and Gifts in Puerto Morelos. Sprinkling a little extra vanilla infused sea salt on the top of the ice cream before serving really adds a nice kick!
