Solar Heating On The Way

Things are moving right along at swim school. We have several families learning to swim together. They fill up our Saturdays. The kids come during the afternoons after school hours. We have been rained out some afternoons, as it seems the rainy season is finally here. Pablo is taking in more therapeutic clientele. He has two folks with bum knees who he is working with. One is a nurse who has been in aquatherapy for months at another location. She improved more in one session with Maestro Pablo than all the months at the other place. We are looking for a course Pablo can take to become licensed in aquatherapy. Our morning exercisers continue on with their programs and I am hoping that some of the snowbirds might be interested in pool exercises. They are slowly returning to Mérida.

Next up for us is solar heating the pool. I have been searching for months for someone to help us solarize the pool. Once the cold fronts start marching in the pool water will be too cold for me. I can not even picture little kids with no body fat in there! So I called upon last year's electrician/plumber Miguel and he is interested in the project. Pablo and I are researching all we can online. I am printing out information for Miguel. Hopefully by the end of this month we can boast a solar heated pool and continue our classes throughout the winter months. If you are reading this in Canada or Michigan, you may wonder how cold this water could be if it is still in the 90's outside during the days. The water is pumped from a well that was dug for the pool on the property. There are no rivers in the Yucatán. All the fresh water travels underground. This means the water we fill the pool with is like the cenotes around here, freezing cold. The sun warms it up and we have a cover for it that also helps hold in the heat. But on a cool morning, say 70's, at 8am it is not easy thinking about freezing ones nipples off. Therefore we need to heat the pool. It broke my heart seeing it full all winter and never using it. The only swimmers were the Canadian family that house/cat sat for us when we went traveling over the holidays.

We have learned a lot about taking good care of the pool so we do not have to empty it every time a kid pees in there. We have accepted our fate of scrubbing the pool once or twice a week as if it were our luxurious yacht. It is worth it. Right now it is high noon, hot and humid. I am going to finish this newsletter and spend a little time in the pool before I start the crazy afternoon of Mommies, Grandmas, little kids, creating receipts and ice water service.