Bye-bye, til tomorrow

This visitor at the beach of Grand Bahia Principe Akumal was anything but shy and it came and went as it pleased - which pleased the tourists immensely. They sometimes flew above our heads in groups of three or four and it never ceased to amaze me how such big birds managed that degree of gracefulness. Now I'm definitely a fan of pelicans :)

Time for a snack

This and a few other friendly pelicans became regular visitors at the beach of the Grand Bahia Principe resort. They flew low and right by us and never hesitated to get in the water just to freshen up or fish among the tourists. They didn't mind the many people who flocked (pun intended ;) towards them with all sorts of cameras in their hands, eager to record those funny moments and amazing creatures.

I can say that I am now a fan of pelicans because they don't seem to fear or even mind us :)

Making the most of each moment

Parasailing is always a big thing at the Caribbean resorts. I still haven't tried it but I sure was glad that I had my feet on the ground on this occasion, to be able to take this photo of the colours of the Mexican flag flying high in the stormy sky.

My kind of summer picture

I got back from the Riviera Maya about a week ago and I'm now starting to sort through the 200 or so photos I took during the week I spent there. So, expect a few more in the coming days...

This is one of the beaches of the Grand Bahia Principe Akumal resort where I stayed - a very beautiful and quiet beach, even more so underneath stormy skies.

Wet microburst

This is the kind of thing that brings down planes... This one didn't.

What it did was leave me mesmerized and in awe of the phenomenon... I must confess that I was crossing my fingers in hopes that it would somehow develop into a water spout... As they say, give them an inch and they'll take a yard!
Anyway, in the end I was just thankful that Mother Nature put on this show when I was (for once!) at the right place, at the right time...

Impromptu

It was way too hot for me that day... I couldn't convince myself to get up off my beach chair but this photo was just begging to happen...

And here you have it - a hymn to laziness!

Peeking out the window...

... on my way to Cuba, I caught a glimpse of the Bahamas.

This is one of the many photos I took out the window since I was hopelessly drawn to that "red engine casing/clouds in the background" combination during most of the tiresome 8-hour flight...

The thin stripes of land down below stirred up my imagination and look forward even more intensely to the warm waters of Varadero, which I had been missing dearly since 2001.

A few hours later we finally we landed in Cuba - the place to be for great sea- and skyscapes!

Refreshing fly-by

This seagull was clearly having fun around the fountain - it kept circling the jets of water as they went up and down...

Looking at it against the sun, my eyes were locked in the flight pattern, admiring how it managed to fly through the mist and not get caught by those powerful "geysers". I truly envied that bird's eye view (in the most literal sense ever!) - it was a hot day, way too hot for me and it looked exquisitely refreshing... I bet no seagull ever envied our way of life :)