Tuesday, March 2, 2010

¡Viva la Mexico!

Heya, gentle readers! This post (brief as it is) is coming to you live from a hole-in-the-wall internet cafe in Tulum, Mexico, where I´ve been busy diving in underwater caves (called cenotes), eating tamales from street vendors, climbing ancient Mayan ruins, snorkling with sea turtles and baracuda, salsa dancing until four in the morning (and drinking waaaaaaaaaaaaay too much tequila in the process - no mas!), getting far more tanned than any gringa has a right to become (and yes, my cautious familia, I promise I´ve been wearing more sunscreen than clothes, though that´s not hard to do when you live in a sand-floored cabana on the beach)!

A few travel notes from my journal:

Judy Collins´Amazing Grace piping out from the Los Arrecifes cantina to the accompanioment of waves and full moon, ¨coming in at #57 this week¨from an old Top Whatever countdown list - way better than the almost constant tinned music that they usually play. Paradise paved, certainly, but not completely lost.

The bicycle pushcart from the bakery that a teenage boy drives around town selling sweet buns from and honking his horn as he passes.

Opening coconuts filched from the trees surrounding Los Arricefes with a machete every morning, squeezing in fresh limes, and drinking straight from the shell.

Skinnydipping at sunrise.

The ghost crabs that scramble up through the sand and out across the ground in search or whatever food scraps they can find, leaving their cuneiform trails through the dunes and across the floor of my cabana.

The gecko that squeeks at me from the thatched roof every night.

Almost climbing coconut trees, but chickening out every time at about 5 feet.

Papayas with lime at every breakfast since arriving in Mexico.

Swimming in the aqua waters off the Cancun coast with Matthew, and carrying him around on my shoulders. His urchin look - red crocks, long shorts, blue and white striped shirt, topped with too-long red hair and his uncle´s "Fifel the Mouse" hat atop a grinning, pointy-chinned kid face.

Feeling beautiful. Long shorts, ranchera hat, sarong, or (most often) nothing but a bikini, hibiscus blossom, and cowrie shell earrings. Barefoot. Tangled hair, curved tummy, and still-young everything else. Mexico makes me feel beautiful.

Alright, amigas y amigos, enough posting from Paradise. I have an evening to attend to.

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