'i like a good beer buzz early in the morning'

'Noodling' is this: take a tubular floating device into water and then flail around in some attempt at water aerobics, kicking arms and legs, or simply float with your head back on the noodle, being rocked in the cool embrace of Senor Cortez.

Here's what Mr. Texan does: He takes his bright yellow noodle and somehow manages to balance his body on it, using the noodle like an air mattress. His head rests on one end of the noodle, the other end pops up between his legs looking rather, uh, obscene. He threatens to paint the sticking-up end flesh-colored and do a little sculpting. We're discouraging him from this artistic expression. So he lies back, floating on the noodle and lets the seas push him to shore where he is usually pummeled and sanded and rolled around, then he paddles out to the sea and repeats. This is especially fun when Mr. Texan stands and his shorts have slipped down a little.

As we noodle, not only are we on the look-out for creatures in the sea (and we swear we saw a dorsal fin one day) but we have to be careful of creatures on the sea. For instance, we noodle close to the boat ramp and sometimes we wonder if the panga captains can see us as they race to shore, the bow of the boat pointing straight up out of the water, blocking us from the captain's view.

And then one day we had an interesting interaction with a pelican. They're big birds, as you know, but they are even bigger when only your head is sticking out of the water and a pelican is sitting ON the water, swimming towards you, having decided to check you out. Or is he checking out your blue noodle, thinking it's a little crab? Or is he interested in The Texan's red hat? We can't tell as he circles us. I'm a little freaked because the pelican looks so big and his beak looks so long and strong. Finally he goes right up to Mr. Texan and reaches out to grab his hat. Mr. Texan has dealt with pelicans before as they try to steal fish off his boat, so he just flicks the pelican on the beak. The pelican backs up a little but stays with us. Now that I know Mr. Texan is going to protect us, I enjoy having the pelican around. He stayed with us all morning.

Lately we have changed our routine a little. We head out later in the morning, around 10:00, so that we can be out there when the seas kick up around 11:00. It's amazing how much more exercise we get in the rougher seas. Going out later means that we have our after-noodle cerveza at the more civilized hour of 11:30 or 12:00 which isn't as much fun as drinking beer at 9:00 but enjoyable, nonetheless.

As we sit under the palapas drinking beer, we watch Ricky Retardo as he soars back and forth 'eeping' for his mother or anyone else who will give him food. We notice that he'll beg from other gulls and pelicans. We wonder if he isn't pulling a helpless routine - when he gets all hunchbacked and eep-eep-eeping - in order to be fed. Maybe he's not dumb; just lazy. Or sly.

Ahhhh, this is the life, we say, as we let the breeze dry our suits. We usually have just the one beer, then we go to our trailers for showers, lunch, naps. I know I bitch and moan about the heat but I know that I'll miss these swims once the weather cools and the snowbirds return. These days it's easy to be happy and optimistic, taking life one cerveza at a time.