my hot reality: just a lucky so and so

Hola!

I am in Akumal, Mexico which is a few hours south of Cancun along the Caribbean coast and it's beautiful. My friends Scott and Doreen own a condo here and offered to let me stay in it for a few days, what a treat! I am sitting in the living room which is on the beach overlooking the bay of blue blue water. In a bit I'm going to explore the condo a little more to see if there is snorkeling gear somewhere.

I got in later last night than I expected to and the bus just dropped me off on the side of the highway so I was really unsure about what to do, especially after not sleeping and traveling all day. Not the ideal situation for being able to think. With a stroke of luck, I decided to head over the overpass toward the ocean even though town was on the other side. There was a guy with a bicycle passing and so I asked him if he knew where the Iguana condos were and he said "oh, you must be Sra Doreen's friend, I work there!" whew. talk about lucky. Anyway he walked me over to the taxi stand because he said it was much too far to walk after a full day of traveling, especially in the dark. I was so grateful to him when it was about a twenty-five minute taxi ride. He also called the guy working the office to say "don't leave, she's on her way" because they were just closing up for the night. So I got here and didn't have to wonder what on earth I was going to do at the front step of a closed up building late at night a few miles down a dark winding road. So yay for the right place at the right time with some helpful people.

I remembered that it would be hot and muggy but I don't think there is any way to actually remember what that feels like. How hot it really is. I'm not sure that I would advise to anyone to head to Southern Mexico in August, kind of a silly thing. But being right on the ocean with a breeeze and air conditioning in the bedroom to cool it down before sleeping make it perfect.

i haven't figure out yet how to transfer pictures from my camera onto this computer (geoff put the umbutu operating system on so I have to learn everything all over again) but I'm sure I'll figure it out before too long and post some of the condo and the bay.

I am also of course finding myself deciding that even though I get to get rid of a bunch of stuff in my backpack at the orphanage, I'm not willing to travel anymore with how heavy it is so I'm ditching a bunch of stuff here. I wonder how many times I will have to go out into the world before I finally learn that lesson. Maybe not too many more.

So I'm here, I'm safe, I'm happy and I'm relaxed. I'm also really looking forward to getting to the orphanage and wont be surprised if I find myself ditching the plan of staying here until Monday and just getting on a bus headed South.I've changed the Yucatan tour plan for going straight south through Belize and taking a ferry to Livingston, Guatemala and then a boat a couple of hours upriver to Rio Dulce and casa-guatemala.

Love!
MJ