Saturday: Family Fun

While Maestro Pablo is outside teaching class, I hear a lot of this: "Uno! Dos! Tres! Vamonos ya!" On Saturdays, however, I hear tons of laughter.

This is the group that wins my prize of the season for having the most fun. They come every Saturday and spend nearly two hours working out. A family that plays together, stays together! We met Mildred, bottom right, in our Mayan language class. She brought her husband and brother to learn to swim. She also referred her nephew to Ko'ox Báab classes. That was last year. These folks completed the course and are comfortable in the water, but have come back to sharpen their skills, maintain a weekly vigorous exercise campaign, and enjoy some fun time in the swimming pool. We all also make an effort to use a little of the Mayan language we study, making it a constant learning experience. ¡Ko'ox Báaxal! or...Let's Play!


Left to right, Mario, Valentina, Alonso, Angel and Mildred.


Pablo always concocts a series of obstacle courses, races and contests both out on the warm-up mats and in the water. Here they are learning to work together by moving this hula hoop around the swimming pool. It is not as easy as it sounds, but it is "muy divertido" to see them do all kinds of silly things. They have such a good time, and they work so hard, I always make them juice or Gatorade to replenish them after their Saturday afternoon exercise.


Uno! Dos! Tres! Vámonos ya!

By the time I grabbed my camera I had missed the funniest moments, but still, this is a pretty good example of what I hear from my office, where I am usually battling with the computer while they are out there splish splashing away! I get a charge out of it, and it gives the feel for who we here at Ko'ox Báab.

All's Well With Ko'ox Báab

Theresa and Sak Boox at morning exercises.

Although I haven't posted here for months, Ko'ox Báab (Let's Go Swimming!) is alive and well. From November through March we battled cold weather. It was a cool winter for the Yucatán. One hard core swimmer/exerciser, Mike, came almost every day during the cold months. I sat out by the pool and cheered him on, enjoying hot coffee. But the rest of us chickened out, even with the pool slightly heated. The problem for me was the air temperature was 10-20°F cooler than the pool, so not only did you have to get used to the cold water, you had to get used to the cold air afterwards. Bah humbug!

We were operating the solar panels, which heated the pool up to 75°-78°F most of the time. Other folks with pools said theirs were holding steady around 68°-70°. We had many nights in the 50°F range. It may not sound like a cold night to a Michigander or a Buckeye, but imagine if you set the heat thermostat to 50°F inside your house. It would be cold, wouldn't it! Our houses are built to keep the heat out, hold the cool inside, so from Nov-Mar we were snuggled in sweats and covered in afghans most of the time.

April arrived with a heat wave. It jumped to 107° at the beginning of the month. Usually April is a little milder with a few showers. We have only had about 5 drops of rain in the past two months, no April showers here!

Some of our students from last season decided to come back. The parents tired of the ballet and tai kwon do lessons and returned to the pool. The kids get a good workout, get cooled off, and just as we exercisers say, generally eat and sleep better when swimming every day.

Pablo has a full schedule in the afternoons and on Saturdays.
This year, with the pool temperature stable in the mid-80's, he is teaching younger kids. He has students from 3 years old to 35 years old. They all have fun, including Maestro Pablo! He is a very creative instructor, always finding new games and obstacle courses for the people to enjoy. There is never a dull moment here. That is how we like it.

Can Ya See Us Now?

I posted on Lindi's Ideas, but it also belongs here. We had the sign painted on the side of the building. Guys showed up one day and asked if we wanted to upgrade from the moldy cardboard sign we had nailed to the front of the building. For 300 pesos I figured we couldn't go wrong. The back yard is colorful. We might as well stick with our theme! Ko'ox Báab! Vamos a nadar! Let's go swimming!

The Heated Pool

Follow the pvc pipe down the length of the pool and up the side of the house to the roof. Note it is sunny up there. This photo was taken around 8am. The south facing solar panels are located up there and start receiving good rays around 6:30am. They get sun all day.

Quite a few pvc pipes were added to the filter system, but luckily it was set up with the pukas (places for fittings) all there. This is what the filter looks like. Only Pablo knows which knobs to turn where, but I will figure it out.

Here are the panels on the roof. The water comes up from the pool and heats up when it passes through these pipes and panels and shoots back down into the pool.

Close up of the panels and the pool below.

Cats Sak Boox and Lorenza make final inspection of clean swimming pool before we turn on the water to fill it up. The two females are fascinated by the water and wade up to their thighs, if cats have thighs, that is. Brother Busmo is curious but not enough to get his patotas (giant feet) wet. Mokito wonders how he ever got out of the pool when he took his two unexpected swims early in his kittenhood.

I posted these shots on Lindi's Ideas blog page, but thought they should be posted here also. We had the solar installed over a week ago, and the pool is now at a comfortable 83°F. In the early morning, it is a little cooler due to night time cooling, like 80°F, but the pool exercisers are happy. We get to exercise all winter!

I am getting an hour of exercise with class in the morning and then spending some more time there later, reading a little in the sun, then swimming in the water that feels slightly warmer than the air. It is heaven.

The warmer water makes up for the lack of daylight. Living in the tropics a person gets used to the longest day bringing about 12 hours of light, but the winter schedule where I have to turn on lights outside for students at 4pm....well, the day is just too short!

The Solar System

The weather has been odd this year. There was no true rainy season from July to September for Mérida. Other parts of México and Central America were inundated, some still are. But we had a dry spell. A hot dry spell. It was good for the swim school.

We took a break in late July and traveled around Central America for a few weeks. Upon our return the students were waiting, some chomping at the bit, to get back into the pool. Due to the lack of rain, we cancelled very few classes and all went well through September.

October was rainy. We had one minor cold front pass through, which took some of our younger kids out of the water. The pool cover helps hold in the heat, but the ground gets cold at night and cools down the water temperature. We were also rained out quite a bit this month in the afternoons. It is a shame because we're working with a pretty full schedule.

Pablo gets up at 6am or so and starts to work in the patio. He cleans the pool and puts in the chemicals it needs. He cleans the mats outside and brings out the tools and toys for the day. He has been doing this in the dark. We start class at 8am and by the time we finish at 9am the sun is just peaking over the tree top next door and barely touching the swimming pool. This past weekend we turned the clocks back. At least Pablo can now work in daylight and the sun pops out at 8am instead of 9am. And then came the cold front.

This is a real cold front. This morning, Maestro Pablo, Mike and I did our warm up exercises and got into the pool. (The others are waiting for warmer water!) We walked and ran laps in an attempt to maintain our body heat. The pool measured in at 77°F. The outside air? 71°F. I will admit I RAN from the pool to a hot shower after it was over, but we did it. We all feel better if we do our morning pool exercises.

We have been researching solar heating for the swimming pool half-heartedly for a year. Last year at this time the pool was finally renovated, filled, and ready for swimming and it was too bloody cold! The only swimmers were a Canadian family that house and cat sat for us in December. Oh, and Lynne from Alaska got in the pool just because it was filled the day before her two month stay here ended! Basically you had to be from 36°N or above to think the pool was an option. My friends outside of Mérida tell me: "We northerners still think 75-80°F is warm enough to swim in a pool." Well, we tropical people think if the pool is below 80° it is only melted ice. We get used to the temperature being above 90°F for 24 hours a day from April through September. When it rapidly drops 20° around us we get cold.

Upon our return from vacation in August we started researching in earnest the solar heating system for the pool. Pablo and I separately investigated over the internet, spoke to people, drove around to pool service companies. We talked to everyone listed in the phonebook and newspaper. I searched the Merida Insider and begged the knowledgeable gringos to help. I offered to bring a friend in from Hawaii who could put it together AND explain it to me! To no avail. We were so frustrated. How could this, one of the sunniest places on earth, not have solar power available and inexpensive? It seems to be a waste of energy. Our electric bills go up, we seek sources for energy, and then it is not available or not affordable.

The doorbell just rang. It is the solar system. The guys are here to install the panels on the roof, hook them up to the pool filter, and we are finally, actually, truly heating the pool. Today, folks! October 31, 2008. I imagine it takes a few days for it to actually heat up the pool. I don't know the specifics yet. As I said, the doorbell just rang. Time to learn something new. ¡Viva Solar Power!

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.

The Boat

The exercisers fessed up and said their lives were miserable without us. Ok, that is an exaggeration, but they did say that the routine of meeting here five days a week at 8am for pool exercises had helped everyone's outlook on life and they did really miss us while we were gone on vacation. We thought we had arranged for the pool to be clean and the gates opened at 8am so they could continue their routine, but there were a few snags with that arrangement.

Yesterday everyone arrived all smiles and ready to work out. Slave driver Pablo was rather easy on us having had a few weeks off. Everyone, myself included, agreed how much better we feel maintaining this exercise program. We eat better, we sleep better, we feel better in general, and are firming up and in some cases losing weight. Later in the day when the temperature crosses that 100 degree mark it is not as unbearably hot as it would be without our daily cooling off.

So why is this article called the boat? Because I have realized that owning a pool is much like owning a boat. I should paint a name on the side! For my afternoon cooldown I now take tools into the " boat" with me, a brush to scrub any new algae that is contemplating formation on the sides or bottom, a strainer to catch little leaves and these tiny weird black grease balls that show up on the surface, the chemical test kit to make sure the "cocktail" is just right.....but hey, it is just more exercise and cooling off, isn't it?