Nueva Entrada

Hello Everyone,

I have arrived in Mexico safely, and have been in Tulum for the past two days. In total, I traveled for 20 hours and it took two planes and two buses to get here from San Francisco. The first debacle was that I forgot my Lonely Planet Mexico book and so Julie and I have been pretty much playing it by ear since we got here. Things have been working out well for us though, we have been effortlessly meeting people who want to share their travel tips, befriend us and eat meals with us. The international backpacker sect can be pretty annoying but so far we have been lucking out.

We got off the bus in Tulum, and were just standing on the street a few blocks down from the bus station trying to figure out where to go, when a German dude came up to us and asked if we were looking for a hostel. I initially shot him the stink eye but then thought better of it and accepted his help to. He led us to this great hostel where he was staying, Casa del Sol, and rescued us from staying at this crappy hostel where apparently someone had written "This hostel sucks, go to Casa del Sol" on the bulletin board in German.



Casa del Sol is this crazy Pipi Longstocking building with many levels and thached roofs and hammocks everywhere. We have our own cabana (which looks like a hut) with two beds for a little less than $15/night. The downstairs is wide open, there are palm trees growing inside, a kitchen hang out area and the dormatorio where people can rent a bunk bed for $10/night. The owner, Carlos, shuttles people to the beach and ruins everyday at 10am. Well its supposed to be 10am but time is a different concept here...its slower, which is nice. I´m on vacation.



We had dinner with the German, whose name we could never understand, and his friend, Jan, who were both in Mexico for a conference on sonic rays (they are physicists). The German is also a vegetarian and told us "good luck" on finding food to eat in Mexico. So far we have been fine, but I foresee a lot of beans and corn tortilla chips in my future. We all went back to the hostel and drank beers and talked politics (my favorite!) until it was time for bed. This morning we met a girl named Maria in the hostel who recently had a feminist awakening (also my favorite!) . She is in art school in Mexico City but took a semester off to work for a domestic violence shelter in Cancun.

Julie and I went to the Tulum ruins, which were not that impressive because they are small in stature and you are not allowed to hike on them. Plus, it was like 100 degrees with no shade and there were about a million tourists there. Luckily, some Europeans were there to let everyone know that hiking in bikini briefs is acceptable for pèople of any gender (awesome). Gotta love those speedos, no? We didnt stay long and instead walked down a long dusty road to the public beach to find Maria. She was chilling with a couple who had set up camp and have been just living on the beach in a tent for the past two weeks. The girl was a gringa from Wisconsin and the dude was an artist from Mexico City. We stored our stuff with them and ran into the ocean. I have never been to the Caribbean before and the water is as amazing as they say. It was warm but still refreshing and so clear blue I could see all the seaweed below me perfectly. It was extremely salty which stung my eyes, but I was so bouyant, floating was effortless. There was a storm out at sea so the current was strong and the waves choppy and I did feel like I was getting tossed about, but it was still amazing.

I have been discovering that my Spanish is not as good as I thought it was. Julie´s Spanish is strong from the language school schooling she was getting in Guatemala before she met up with me, so together we do alright but many people here are bilingual due to the large tourist factor, so I dont have to try very hard. Its not really good for my learning but when people speak to me in English I just automatically answer them back the same, what can you do?

There are many cenotes (underground lakes) around here and we are hoping to visit one tomorrow. Apparently they were sacred to the Mayans because they considered them the perfect fusion of the four elements. I am very excited and am hoping that subterranian swimming will lend itself to less sun exposure. Despite my rigirous application of sunblock, I got seriously burned today and had to go buy some aloe vera on the double. I am on the lookout for a good hat and am actually considering buying a sorong (somehow they make sense here).

Anyway, thats the big update for now. We are going to head south this week and may enter Belize. Next week we are going to head back north and west and see the big ruins like Chitchen Itza (sp?). Its hard for me to be in such a humid climate after living in temprate San Francisco for the past three years. Also, I hate being dirty and bugs upset me, so this vacation is testing my limits, but I can´t let the OCD control me, so I will perservere. I miss everyone a lot but I miss Finn the most