In Mexico, every cook has her own tamale recipe, her own sauce, her own masa mix, her own flavours. I didn't get any family secrets from Juantia (who bore holes though me with her icy stare), but Gleacelda galdly gave me a few moments of instruction in how to make tomales in her (pretty darn good) English. I kept up with my extraordinarily bad tourista Spanish/action charades.
Just off the beaten path and worth every step (or stagger); Cantina Habanero boasts the best burger in Puerto Morelos, Mexico. South of Cancun on Highway 307, Puerto Morelos is a cozy fishing village developed enough to be convenient yet small enough to be Mexican, where I stumbled upon a vision, in search of a cure.
The sun is thin, rising behind the mountains to the east that are the ridgeback of Roatan, a 40 mile stretch of land surrounded by reefs. The home beach - West Bay Beach is a sunset beach, shaded by the mountain in the early morning, it makes it a cool walk, swim or... run. It has been my practice for the last two weeks to go to the beach as the sun comes up and... move.