Friday, June 6, 2008

Hot and Sleepy in Merida

San Cristobal was lovely....except that it started to rain. At first it was okay-a nice break from the heat. The first night there we went out to eat and salsa dancing. That was a blast. The next day we could have gone horseback riding or for a speed boat tour through a river/rainforest, but with the weather we all decided to do a bit of exploring. That turned out fine because I landed up finding a yoga studio and taking a class.

The teacher is originally from Louisiana, but relocated to San Cristobal 5 years ago. It was so amazing to practice yoga with these women. We partnered up and did an assisted cobra with each other. My partner was pregnant and had to use props. The OM we shared at the end of practice was strong and beautiful.

After class I asked the teacher out to lunch. She and I had a lovely time chatting at an organic vegetarian cafe. Come to find out, she has a friend who is building a health and well being center with a yoga studio. She plans to dedicate more time to teaching yoga, but was worried about having to leave the studio without classes for six weeks while she travels at the end of this year. I told her I might know someone who would be interested in coming to stay for a month and sub her classes!!! Me, me, me!!!

When we were done I overheard someone talking about massage and asked if they could recommend someone. She did and later that day I came back for a delightful one hour massage...for $20!! I do believe that was one of my best days yet...magical.

The next morning (still raining) we were on a bus to Palenque. On the way we stopped at 2 waterfalls. Normally they are blue and we would have been able to swim, but because of the rain they were brown and crazy strong. Foiled by the rain again. But, I was able to walk out underneath and behind one of the waterfalls (another amazing experience).

We arrived at Palenque and had a fabulous dinner (the place was so good we went back for dinner the next night and for breakfast the next day). Then we all hung out under the covered patio drinking, chatting, playing Yatzee, and eating delivery pizza (still raining).

The next morning gave us a slight reprieve from the rain as we went to my favorite ruins yet. These were set in the rainforest. I wish I could put up pictures. This little boy followed us around the whole time helping out the guide just so we would buy his necklaces afterward for $1. After lunch and a swim I went with a friend into town to make a call (you cannot call international from a hotel phone) and on the way back it poured. I mean it realllllly poured. We landed up completely soaked and when we got back two of our other friends were playing frisbie, so we joined in. That was another favorite memory thus far.

Yesterday we boarded a bus for NINE hours to Merida. Nine freakin hours. The good news is that it was happy hour and we got 2 for 1 cocktails near the hotel. Today we spent the day exploring the city and except for two quick downpours it has been hot and sunny. Thankfully!! Tonight myself and a few of the others are going to a ballet and symphony performance at a beautiful theater.....after the 2 for 1 happy hour of course.

Some more fun observations:

*there are old school VW bugs everywhere throughout Mexico. Everywhere.
*Mayans used to use Jade as fillings for their teeth.
*I saw huge live beetles decorated in jewels.
*The public markets stink no matter what city you are in. I am still gagging over here.
*Mexican signs printed in English are very often slightly grammatically incorrect. Ex: Please dont put the paper on the toilet OR Dangerous not to swim.
*the average and acceptable tip here is 10%....and the service is not great. Typically half of our food comes out at once and the other half of our food comes out about 15 minutes later. The waiter can almost never remember who ordered what and is always giving us someone elses order.
*The damn keyboards here are all screwy. Its hard to figure out how to get to an apostrophe for example.

Adios for now....Im off to get ready for happy hour!!

3 comments:

GoodEnough4Me said...

How cool your days have been! I am rightfully jealous and very happy for my dear friend! I can picture all of these wonderful happenings from the beautiful, descriptive words!

Now, on to my day . . . I went to my daughter's 9,367th PPT . . . forgot my laptop and didn't realize it 'til I drove the 40 miles to the center . . . realized my glasses were in my laptop bag . . . which led to my assigning a VI to be POC when she is not even trained as one (but caught it before she came on-just in case "Manager" Shawna gasps-hehe) . . . dealt with a call-out and listened to my back up tower beep incessantly . . . tried to hunt down the Visiting VI Policy, couldn't find it in old e-mails and nowhere in desktop computer, so I made up my own rules for visitng VIs . . . went grocery shopping and spent $350 when it really should've been $150 . . . now have a dining area full of hormone-raging 17 year-old boys, each one talking louder than the next, bragging about their physical prowess and talking in hushed tones about girls when they don't want the old hag to hear. . .straightened out my bedroom mess . . . enjoyed time with my husband and daughter watching t.v. . . .am now going to have a glass of wine and dream of salsa dancing and Mayan ruins . . .Be safe! Can't wait to see pics!

MOM said...

If I've told you once I've told you a million times even if their internet is slow you only need to blog two words so I don't have to panic after five days of not hearing from you - I'm ALIVE! So glad you are having a good time. The bus drive sounds too long. Do you at least get out to stretch? I called Grandma after our call. Eight more days until your back! I can't wait. I am glued to the computor twice a day anxiously waiting for updates after all I am loving your blogs. Oh, Snarf seems worse it is coming close to putting him down. I will call Nedda later to confirm. Love,MOM

MOM said...

I forgot to tell you that Matt and I have decided what we want you to bring back from Mexico. Two of those VW bugs.