Feliz Navidad!

Christmas traditions find the Skillmans doing one of two things; heading up to the snow and chopping down a Christmas tree or heading out of town and cashing in airline miles. Whatever we find ourselves doing one year, the other is done the next. It takes us that long to either recover from the chopping and tree trimming or the acquiring of airline miles. This year, happily, we were long on miles and short on trees. On the morning of our departure, Mother Nature tried to give us a scare when we tuned into the Weather Channel to get a weather update. Across the screen were flashing these words, “Arctic Assault”, “Freezing Fog”, and “Epic Snowfall”. For a worried moment there we thought we’d end up chopping and trimming after all.

Our original plan was take the kids on a cruise and see Panama. Poor Connor had been studying the fascinating history and technology behind its famous canal. Itinerary’s got changed at the last minute, much to Connor’s distress, and he howled, “You mean I learned all about the Panama Canal for nothing?” Apparently so.

By a stroke of good luck we found a small weather window in between the “Freezing Fog” on Saturday and the “Arctic Assult” that came on Monday and made it out of town while holding our breaths on Sunday...

We first stopped over in Cozumel, Mark and I had visited the island a couple of times back in the 90’s for some great diving and it is the legendary site of the infamous moped-throttle-brake conspiracy that left poor Kathy Williams with blue “eye shadow” across her nose for the remaining week. We were surprised to see our sleeply little island had morphed into a teenager, all broken out with the blemishes of famous American franchises and an appetite for a bigger social life. The dive spot where we’d fogged many a mask and logged our first night dive was now buried beneath a massive cruise ship dock. We wished we had the time to see if our favorite dive shop Studio Blue had survived the island's growing pains but we had to hit the ground running to catch the early ferry across the channel over to Playa del Carmen.

We hired a driver to take us the 45 minute drive to see enduring stone ruins of Tulum that sit upon the edge of a bluff overlooking the beautiful Caribbean Sea. Tulum, one of our favorites, has a coastal "Mayan-Malibu" feel compared to its inland and LA-sized neighbor Chichen Itza. Our visit was enriched by the good fortune of having a Mayan guide accompany our family and he generously imparted his vast knowledge of his ancient heritage and family customs to us. We spent most of the warm afternoon wandering through Nephite and Lamanite country noting, as Mitchell pointed out, that from the height of the ruin’s doorways, Arnold Freberg’s masterpiece paintings may have over-exaggerated Nephi’s and Moroni’s stature a tad bit.


After a great day exploring the ruins we headed south to one of the most beautiful beaches we’ve ever enjoyed (sorry Megan’s Bay). The sand was the most shocking white and reminded us of the snow we definitely weren’t missing back home.


Our next stop found us in the most beautiful places we’ve ever seen, both above and below the ocean. For years we’ve been dreaming of Belize and found it was more than our imaginations had even ventured to dream and that every picture painted by our friends of this spectacular country paled in comparison to the real thing. There are simply no words to adequately describe it. The word “paradise” falls short in blandness. We took an exhilarating boat ride through the mangroves out to Caye Caulker, one of the 450 islands Belize calls her own, all the while not daring to close our eyes, even to blink, for fear of missing a single shade of the limitless palate of blues and greens of the water (Belizians claim there are 28 different shades). The sheer beauty all around us is the kind that inspires poetry and song. You’ll be glad to note I did not compose either so you’re all off the hook!


Just off the Caye, we took the kids snorkeling. The ocean floor was a carpet of Conch Shells and Coral. Connor and Chloe were excited because they not only “found Nemo” but Dory and Gill too, along with more fish of every size and brilliant color. Our favorites were the stingrays that seemed especially tame and curiously came to swim with us. Mark decided to take advantage of the friendly sea life to play a prank on us (as he is famous for doing to his fellow divers-luckily this one did not involve turning of our air tanks), a ray swam by and on its back was written “HI”, we looked around and there was Mark swimming with them and scrawling memos on their algae covered backs. Mitchell, who’s developing quite the sense of humor, later suggested that he should have written “wash me” on them. Later, we jetted off to a shallower reef where we got in and swam with a whole school of rays eager to eat the sardines we brought to feed them. It was intimidating at first because there were so many and they had no concept of personal space, but we soon got comfortable with them and discovered they acted just like house cats, wanting to rub up against us and get pet just like a cat would. We had about 30 or so come to us and they were brushing up against us, five or six at a time, all of them wanting to be pet. The sensation was like getting tickled and a chorus of laughter echoed up through our snorkels.


Caye Caulker is a laid back island (are there any that aren’t?), where we came ashore to have lunch. There are no cars on the island and the only mode of transportation is to walk (barefooted of course), ride a bike, or if you’re in a hurry, take a golf cart. We were forewarned not to walk too fast, folks on caye caulker frown upon schedules, people in a hurry, and those that like to worry. Our kinda place!


Our last stop was in Honduras on the island of Roatan. Home to lots of crazy monkeys and exotic birds which of course we had to take a trip into the jungle to see for ourselves. This was a crazy day that left many of our sunglasses in disrepair. These moneys are serious about hassling unsuspecting tourists wandering through the jungle. And hassle they did! Among their petty crimes…Mitchell proved the term “monkey slapped” is a real thing, Connor knows first hand that monkeys CAN sense fear and will take complete advantage of that knowledge, Mark was lucky he didn’t need stitches after getting bit in the eyebrow by an bossy monkey who didn’t like Mark claiming ownership of his own sunglasses, and a few of our fellow hikers are missing their baseball caps. Happily, Chloe, Chey, and I are the only ones that came out of the encounter unscathed; they liked to play with our ponytails but no harm done there.






The jungle was like opening a box of crayons revealing brilliantly colored birds at every turn. Of course they’d be the jumbo sized crayons as they are huge and heavy and sport very large and intimidating beaks.




Before heading home we headed up to Florida to visit Mark’s mom. We had a great time catching up, celebrating Christmas, and playing at the beach. We spent Connor’s birthday dinner at Sonny’s eating off the menu we’ve grown to love (The Williams will not be surprised to hear that I carted another case of cinnamon country crock home with me for my sweet potatoes). Ribs, Sweet Potatoes, Corn Bread, hush puppies, and Fried Okra…the stuff southern dreams are made of! It’s been too long since we’ve been to Sonny’s!

Another perfect Christmas…Warm, Fun, and Filled with Family.