WINE DINE & TRAVEL MAGAZINE SUMMER FALL 2015 HD.pdf

Dear Ron,
It seems flamingos share at least one trait with humans. They, too, grow
more colorful with age. But they do it literally. Flamingo chicks start out
drab grey then blossom to flamboyant pink by the time they might be
receiving AARP solicitations. The color changes comes from their diet of
shrimp and algae. Also, flamingos are monogamous and a flock is aptly
called a flamboyance.
Those were just a few of the flamingo facts we learned on a day-trip
to the seaside town of Celestun, about 60 miles from Merida. Here’s
another: At one time the Yucatan’s flamingo population had shrunk to
1,000 but conservation efforts created a flamingo boom. Now there are
some 35,000 along the Gulf Coast from Celestun to Rio Legartos.
Restaurare (Tulum) – One night we walked a few blocks south of our
hotel to this intimate, open-air vegan restaurant embraced by palm
trees on the jungle side of the Playa strip.
When we asked waiter/manager Roberto Terrazas where to sit he said,
“It doesn’t matter. The mosquitoes are the same everywhere.” Later he
hung bowls of smoking copal on trees by the tables explaining, “Bad
vibe for mosquitoes.”
But no bad vibes for dinner. The tropical evening was soft; dining was
by candle light. We ordered the Restaurare’s mole and some kind of tofu
dish stuffed with veggies and wrapped in leaves. Dessert was a baked
cupcake of dark chocolate from Tabasco. All delicious.
Celestun is flamingo central. The docks are lined with flat-bottom
power boats to take tourists through the area’s lagoons and mangrove
swamps. We were the only gringos in our group of nine. We boarded
two boats — the “Marilu” and “Alexander” — and sped toward what,
at a distance, looked like long floating ribbons of pink.
Turns out the flamboyances were walking, not floating. Their stilted
legs lifting them above the shallow lagoon waters, which range from
just 8 inches to 5 feet deep. Oh, one more flamingo fact: those backwards
knees are really their ankles.
The boats had to keep at least 20 yards from the nearest flamingo.
“They’re very nervous,” said our guide, “We’re not allowed to get too
close.” Still, we were close enough to be awed by their clacking, clicking,
stalking, and flapping; their take-offs and splash-downs.
But flamingoes weren’t the only stars of the boat ride. After slipping
deep into a shadowy tunnel of mangroves, we pulled up to a dilapidated
boardwalk that creaked through a pristine freshwater spring (“ojo
de agua”) filled with tiny fish and overseen by a couple of crocodiles.
Apparently there are no ecological limits for croc viewing. The nine
of us edged across the beat-up, broken boards, closer and closer. Ten
yards, five yards. Then, on cue, one of the crocs smiled.
We’re happy to report, we saw no pink — or grey — feathers between
his teeth.
Love,
John and Jody
Dear Ron,
We were looking for restaurant El Camello Jr. We’d heard it was the best
down-scale place in the city of Tulum.
Not certain of our directions we asked a local cop. He smiled and pointed
north. “Dos cuadras (two blocks),” he said. Then he added, “ceviche,”
and made a lip-smacking motion with his mouth and fingers.
The cop was right about El Camello’s ceviche – a heaping bowl of shrimp,
octopus, clams, white fish, cilantro, tomatoes and onion – and his critique
could have doubled for our food adventures in the Yucatan. All in
all, lip-smacking good.
Here are some culinary highlights of our two-week trip:
Afterwards we talked to Roberto about his meatless menu. He claimed
that the Restaurare recipe for mole included 52 ingredients, including
six kinds of nuts and six kinds of chilies. Basically, he said, “It’s whatever
grandmother has in the house.”
Chocolate Maya (Valladolid) -- After finishing our tour of this
mini-chocolate factory/museum we began tasting their chocolate varieties:
chili and honey, ginger, tequila. All made with 100 percent Mexican
cacao.
Co-owner Astrid Laurent was particularly proud of the cacao/anise-liqueur/honey
variety. “It’s like Yucatan: an explosion of sensation, an
explosion of flavors,” she said.
Afterwards we ordered more cacao-based goodies in Chocolate Ma-
92 Wine Dine & Travel Summer/Fall 2015