We had time to rest after our tour, dinner at Na Bolom was not until 9pm. We got there a little early and watched as everyone arrived. The house at Na Bolom is an old spanish style with many inner courtyards. I told Mimi that someday I want to live in a house like this. It is what I think of when I imagine a dream house. The largest courtyard was lit with hundreds of candles, there were over 50 in a large wrought iron stand in the shape of a heart. The tables were arranged as a large U with braziers of coals burning around the edge of the courtyard and pots of smoking incense filling the air with the distinctive smell of copal.

It was an eclectic crowd, people of all nationalities. There were many courses and a lot of time between them, lots of talking and even dancing during the dinner. I enjoyed the food but it wasn't the highlight of the evening. More interesting was the environment and the people we met. The european couple we had met earlier on the tour were there, Tanja & Jean-Philippe, and we enjoyed talking with them. It turned out they heading to the coast next and looking for a place to spend some time on the beach. We offered them our condo and they are going there for 4 nights.

A little before midnight we left and went to the central plaza thinking there would be a lot of fireworks and people. It was fairly empty with a few people selling hot ponche from steaming cauldrons, a big bonfire with some young people singing around it and a few small fireworks. We stayed awhile and then happily went home, it had been a long day.

The 4 of us (Patti, Bobby, Mimi and I) arrived at Na Bolom before 10am for a tour of the Mayan villages of Zinacantán and San Juan Chamula. This is a tour that it seems everyone who comes to San Cristóbal goes on. Mimi and I had not done it when we were here 3 years ago, I felt it was a little uncomfortable to go on a paid tour of someone's house and village. These towns are in the hills around San Cristóbal and are said to be unfriendly to tourists, which considering the zoo aspect of it I can well understand. Usually it is recommended that you go with a guide that is familiar to the residents and that pays for the privilege of bringing strangers into their world. OK, so we decided to go with a guide from Na Bolom. Our guide's name is Maria and she is actually from a small town down the mountain and closer to Palenque. She lived with Trudy Blum at Na Bolom for 20 years before Trudy died and speaks her own dialect of Maya as well as the Tzotzil of the highland Maya. She also speaks spanish, english and german!

Our first stop was at a home in Zinacantán. It was a typical home with dirt floors, board walls and several generations living there. Our contact was with the matriarch, Maria and 2 of her daughters as well as 2 of her toddler grandsons. The first picture is of one daughter, Juanita, demonstrating the backstrap loom that is used to make the colorful and beautiful artesenia from the area. The next one is her younger sister making tortillas in the kitchen.

They allowed the 9 of us on the tour into their home and demonstrated many common tasks, they were paid for this and they also were selling handicrafts that they had made and that others had made. It actually began to feel like a straightforward transaction and I started feeling better about the whole thing. It was not like going to a zoo, we talked to them and they explained and we all benefitted. We were invited to eat the tortillas and cheese that the younger sister made and it was excellent. This last picture is of the mother,Maria, at right with Juanita and the youngest sister. I didn't get the younger sister's name and she was very shy and didn't speak much. She laughed though and smiled a lot as did the other two, they were clearly enjoying the interaction and the profits. The mother did say that because it was NYE, she was going to spend the equivelent of $100US for flowers, food and drink for the family´s celebration. While we were there, another daughter arrived with several florist displays as well as boxes of food. Clearly her arrangement with the guide Maria was helping her family enjoy life more.

This pic of the outside wall of the house shows the adobe and stick construction which is typical of older houses here.

Next we walked through the village and toured the church. They had an elaborate posada constructed in one of the side altars. We were given permission to photograph the outside only. Photos are an issue with many Maya, there are rules and laws in the highland villages about where and who you can photograph. This was another reason I started to appreciate having our guide Maria, she understood the many rules and got permission for us to take pictures where possible and warned us when we should not take out our cameras at all.

The church was busy with many people praying and lit by hundreds of candles and twinkling Christmas lights. Mimi actually stayed for awhile but eventually I found her outside in the patio. She was raised catholic and sometimes is uncomfortable with being in catholic churches.

Our next stop was the town of San Juan de Chamula, famous for having the oldest catholic church in Mexico and also famous for its market and the mixture of catholicism and traditional mayan religion in that church. The church was taken from the Catholic church by the residents in a ceremony many years ago, it is now theirs and has no association with official catholicism.

I've read many descriptions of Chamula, seen lots of pictues and nothing prepared me for the intensity of being there. I am sure I won't do any better at describing the enormity of the sensual assault that surrounds you when you walk up the street towards the central plaza. First of all we were very lucky to be here on New Years Eve, it is an important date for several reasons. First, the men who have been off working somewhere else are home for the holidays and there is a joyful, celebratory overlay to the usual scene. Second, the usual Sunday market was not going to be as large because of a Zapatista march in San Cristóbal on January 1st so this Saturday was replacing it. Third, it is a time for closing up the year and requesting benefits in the new year so the church was especially busy.

Our guide had a tough time keeping the 9 of us together and getting us to the church as the walk through the market was mesmerizing and we kept wandering off. She had to pay a tourist fee for each of us to enter the church and we had to enter together. The Chamulans are also very touchy about having their picture taken or having any of their important people photographed or the inside of the church photographed. We were told we could take pictures of the outside of the church and this is the only picture I took. I watched other tourists taking pictures and saw the heads turned away or faces covered and the angry looks and I didn't want to be part of it. The kids will offer to have their picture taken for money but the adults do not look pleased with it although they will demand money if it looks like they may be in a picture.

It is impossible to really describe the inside of the church, you can paint a word picture but the sensory effects are missing. It was lit by literally thousands of candles, huge banks of them on tables, altars and lined up on the floor. There are no pews and there are people all around sitting and kneeling on the floor with pine boughs and candles around them. There are chickens tied and laying ready for sacrifice, boxes of candles and other items stacked under tables and perhaps 50 or more figures of saints along the walls, each with a table of candles and more candles on the floor in front of them. It is smokey from the candles and from the copal burning in dishes around the room.

I was looking for a sign that it was staged or that some of it was for the benefit of tourists but I did not see or feel any of that. The faith and the intensity of the chanting, the looks on the peoples faces as they prayed, all of it seemed very real and very sincere. There were probably 100 people, men, women and children, in the small church. Maria said that the association of drivers were there at the time, that they had brought the many boxes of candles and were praying for a successful year. She also told us that the saints along the left of the church were for men and that many of them were praying for a good wife. Along the right side were saints that the women prayed to and there were many women kneeling on the floor in front of masses of candles chanting in Tzotzil Maya. The blue tables were reserved for men to set up candles and offerings on and the green were for the women as those were the colors of the genders to the Maya.

To say it was chaotic is an understatement, all the people and the activities and the chanting and the kids running in and out and around everyone... There were tourists there as well, many of them Mexican, probably about 20 total and we wandered around with everyone else and were pretty much ignored. Lots of noise, everyone talking in a normal voice, the chanting and the kids being kids. In spite of that, the feeling of reverence and intense faith was powerful. I stood to one side for about a half hour just absorbing it all, it is one of the most amazing things I've ever seen.

A bit dazed, we left and wandered through the huge market for an hour or so. The 4 of us went down a side street and sat for awhile at a small stall and drank a beer in the shade. We shopped a little, found some nice things and I got a kilo of copal which is my favorite incense. We got a collectivo back to Na Bolom where the jeep was parked and came back home drained and ready for a nap.

The last 2 days have been fascinating! I'm working on a couple posts to describe all the stuff we've seen and done.

First though, it has been bothering me since I posted that bit about the german caravan and the euros. I thought about just going back and deleting it but that seems dishonest. That was stereotyping of the worst kind and I apologize. Of course I have many european friends who are not like those I was describing. To make the karma value even higher, we met a wonderful young couple on NYE, she is german and he is french, and we really enjoyed them. The whole day I was mentally eating my words. Yes, we have encountered euros of the type I described more than once here in Mexico so I was not making it up. I just know that they are not descriptive of the whole lot. Mea culpa and all that.

Slept in until almost 10am today, that's our usual get up time but for the last week we've been up by 7:30 at the latest. Partly because it would get too hot to sleep around then and partly because we were traveling and had stuff to do. It felt really good to sleep in and I have to admit it felt good to sleep under a down comforter with hot water bottles on our feet too! Yes, it is cold at night here. Probably only in the 40's but feels freezing to us. It gets up into the 80's in the daytime but as soon as the sun drops, the temp goes with it.

By the time we got up, the German caravan was gone and there were only about 3 rigs here. We moved over to the sunny side where there are hookups and got set up. Patti and I went to the mall across the street to do some grocery shopping and then went into the centro to pick up the laundry. While there we went up to Na Balom to see about getting a tour with Pepe out to some of the pueblos in the area. It's something Mimi and I didn't do the last time we were here and it seems like it's one of those things you are supposed to do while here. So, we are going tomorrow at 10am on a tour. While at Na Balom we found out that they had room at their big NYE dinner tomorrow night at 9pm. So, we made reservations for that as well. It looks like a great menu, the location is fantastic and the company will be good.

We set up the sat dish today as well, had some problems getting it to register online but it's on now so I'm off to post the blogs I've been writing all week but not able to post.

The German caravan is still here, we had heard they were leaving today but apparently not. They aren't the friendliest bunch although there are a few who will speak to us and return smiles of hello. It's so odd to meet people who come such great distances, spend almost all of their time with the people they came here with, rarely go anywhere except the occasional organized tour, and aren't even friendly to other travelers. Part of it is probably the usual European dislike for the US and its citizens, it seems that the longer they are here and the more they are mistaken for us the madder they get. They need to just get over it in my opinion. One thing you can say for most North Americans (US, Can & MX) is that we are friendly to most everyone, that tight-assed attitude is pretty much a european specialty. The only real exceptions are the french Canadians but you know where they get it.

I got a kick out of this german man traveling alone, he seemed such a stereotype. He would set up his table and utensils carefully, then sit and eat his meal quite methodically. I took a picture of him out our back window.

We spent today cleaning up the tope destruction in the rig and hanging out with Patti and Bobby. Patti and I took off in the afternoon and went into the centro to drop off our laundry and do a little cruising around. We shopped a little and people watched and enjoyed ourselves. We have some things we want to get while here, so we were checking out some of the markets to figure out prices and quality.

We used our barbeque to make dinner and spent hours playing Mexican Train dominoes. We really have a lot of fun with B & P.

I've added this picture of our camp spot at Nututun Hotel and the swimming area under the restaurant. It was a really nice place to stay.

The huge Ceiba tree was cool. Ceiba's were called the Tree of Life by the Maya and were thought to reach into the underworld with their skirt-like roots and up into the heavens with their branches. They are usually the tallest trees in the jungle and they grow wide, straight trunks that don't branch out until over the canopy. Usually they are home to numerous bromeliads and orchids, they have a small fruit that birds and monkeys like so they are often found among the branches.


This morning we headed up the mountain to San Cristóbal de las Casas. It's a slow drive up and down mountains on a narrow 2 lane road that passes through numerous small towns each of which has several topes or speed bumps that bring you to a complete stop to get over them. We did not hook the jeep up to the Lazy Daze, we're still nervous about the tow bar and it is easier on Tortuga's transmission as well if it isn't hauling the jeep. I led in the jeep which was helpful because some of the topes are not marked and if I missed them in the jeep, Mimi could see it. Even so, we had cabinets empty out, the refrigerator contents scrambled, lots of stuff in the bins tossed around and various other things related to the up and down of the road and the topes. It also helped as I could get far enough ahead to see around curves and signal the drivers behind Mimi that were desperate to pass her. There are few places to pull over and mexican drivers will start taking bigger chances in their need to pass a slow vehicle. It's in all of our best interests to get them around us safely and gone.

About the small towns we went through, they are mostly indigenous villages of Highland Maya, some are Zapatista and some aren't. There are a few with signs painted along the road stating that they are a Zapatista pueblo with communal medical and social institutions and not governed by the Mexican govt. There are children and women selling things at all of the towns, they set up at the topes and when you stop they offer you artesenia or food items. Some of them have a rope or string tied across the road and they raise it as you approach to force you to stop. I noticed that the locals didn't even slow down and the women holding the rope were pretty good at dropping it just before it was hit. I tried it a couple times too and they dropped it right at the last possible moment.

The women in these pueblos are mostly dressed in traditional clothes, different styles for each pueblo but everyone the same in the same town. I start referring to the towns by the traje of the women... the blue satin with rick rack town, the hot pink and white vertical stripe overblouse town, the hot pink and green embroidered neckline town, the dropped shoulder red embroidery with lace edges town, etc.

A theory our friend Henning has is that distinctive clothing tied to a town and a job (everyone in a pueblo had the same job too, bricklayer, wood carver, etc) was a control tactic by the Mayan ruling class and that the Spanish continued it and now it is considered "the way we do things" and a point of ethnic pride. It makes sense. Easy to tell if someone from the wood carver town is over talking insurrection at the bricklayer town when you've got them all dressed in uniforms. Most of the men now dress in modern clothes, it seems to be the women who carry on the tradition.

Life is hard for these people, particularly the women in my opinion. Women's work includes gathering (from great distances) firewood, hauling it home using a strap around the forehead, all domestic animal care, cooking, cleaning, producing enough artisan items to bring in some money for things you can't produce, hours of shucking and soaking and grinding of corn and, of course, having a baby a year and taking care of all the kids. Plus you add in the time standing out there on the road holding a rope trying to get passing cars to buy some of the stuff you've made.

We pulled into San Cris and got to the Hotel Bonampak which has a walled grass field alongside that is an RV park. As we rounded the corner into the field we saw that it was pretty much full of mainly european RVs. It turns out it was a German caravan. There were no legitimate spots with hookups left but we found a place at the end where we fit.

Our friends Bobby and Patti had pulled in an hour before us and saw us driving in from the hotel restaurant. Perfect timing! We got settled and joined them for dinner and catching up. We figured out we had first met them exactly one year ago in San Miguel de Allende. Since then we've spent a couple months together on the beach in Jalisco, an Escapade in El Centro, a week at their place in Vancouver Wash. and now we had arranged to meet here in Chiapas. They are coming back to the Yucatan with us and plan to also go to Guatemala and Honduras with us in Feb. They actually entered Mexico earlier than we did this year but spent several months in the Baja before taking the ferry over to the mainland.

I woke up at 6:30am and went out with the dogs on a walk. It was very cool, almost cold, and there was a lot of mist hanging over everything. I was down by the river and met a woman, Estela, who was there with family, they were on a camping trip and had tents set up. We were talking and she said we could join their boat if we wanted so I went off to arrange it. It was a great deal as we only had to add $250pesos to what they had paid, so it cost us less than $25 Us for both of us. While I did that, they were packing up their tents. We left at 8:30 am.
I always seem to wear the wrong thing for whatever I'm doing. I had decided that I would wear shorts and my crocs so that bugs wouldn't grab onto my pant legs or get in my socks as I walked through the jungle. Everyone else wore long pants and tennis shoes, and had jackets for the boat ride. It was cold going up the river in the mist, an unusual experience in the jungle.

It was a fantastic ride even so, with jungle towering 100' and more on both sides. The Usamacinta is wide and green and deep so, although it is moving swiftly, the surface is calm and smooth. I have been reading John Stephens account of visiting this area in the 1800's and he speaks of 20' to 30' crocodiles so I asked the boatman. He said there are still crocodiles in the river and they are up to 4 meters (12'). I asked him to look for some on the way back but he had his earphones on and his cd player in his lap and was in another world.

You enter the site at Yaxchilán through a building on one level, go around several corners in the dark and up some stairs, the information says that many of the buildings on this site are on multiple levels with back stairs and tunnels between them. You then come out into the Gran Plaza with buildings surrounding it and on one side a huge staircase going up to a temple on top of the hill. It's 133' up the stairs, and then the temple has a large roof comb and several stepped patios. Along the big staircase up the hill, there are side temples and houses. It's an impressive site, with some of the original plaster and murals still visible after approx 1500 years! This was the home of the Shield Jaguar dynasty which included at least one woman regent.
The temple on top of the hill was built by Shield Jaguar IV and definitely commands the whole city. The Gran Plaza was built along the river after raising the bank with rock and morter to a level above flood stage and to support these massive buildings. I did climb up to the top, there's a picture to prove it!


The boat trip back was even better as the fog had burned off and we could better see the jungle in both Guatemala and Mexico, the river forms the border between the 2 countries. When we got back to Corazol, we were tired but really happy with the trip. We exchanged information with our new friends and promised to call them when we next go through Cuernavaca, their home. Estela is a retired nurse who now works part time teaching at the University, her son Edgar is attending the technological university. We really liked them and felt it was a serendipitous moment that we got to meet them and share the boat ride.

There is another mayan site worth visiting right up the road from where we were, Bonampak. We considered going there and staying another night but we were tired and wouldn't have appreciated the ruins.

So, we headed back towards Palenque. It's really a gorgeous ride, I love the small cone mountains and the mayan pueblos, we stopped along the road once and became the instant focus of a herd of cows. I had to take their picture they were watching us so intently.

Once back to the main road (about 3 hours) we went to a nice hotel we had seen that is in a bend in the river with a beach and restaurant overlooking the big pool created. They agreed we could park there - boondocking - for $150 pesos (-$15US) in a lovely spot under a giant Ceiba tree. I thought it was a big steep until I looked at the room prices, a room for 2 started at around $120 US a night.

We've seen some wonderful birds in the last couple days. We both like looking for them but Mimi is the one who has the eye for it and also who can identify birds, she's really good. So, while at Yaxchilán we saw Keel Billed Toucans, Oropendulas, an Elegant Trogan and a Flame Colored Tanninger.

We left Conhuas around 9am and got to Palenque around 3pm, we decided to continue south to Frontera Corazol that night and we almost made it before dark. It is a beautiful drive, cone shaped mountains all around and when it has not been cleared for cattle or farming, the jungle is very high and very lush. The first part of the road was mainly cleared, lots of cattle and corn and small mayan towns. The last part was wilder and through beautiful jungle and over some hills.

We got to the river and the restaurant Escudo Jaguar about 6:30pm. For $50 pesos (less than $5us) we could park in their parking lot which is where the boats leave for Yaxchilan. We had dinner in the restaurant, nice grilled chicken for me and breaded chicken for Mimi. We went to sleep early, it had been a long 2 days.

This is the restaurant to the right and our overnight camp spot.

We were late leaving Calderitas as we hung out talking with Kathe and Colleen in the morning. We got to our place in Conhuas, La Selva restaurant, around 5:30pm and decided to spend the night. Demetria was in "Asamblea", I believe that the whole village is some form of protestant. Her son offered to go and get her but we were tired and said we would see her in the morning. It looks to me like most of the small pueblos along this road, that cuts across the bottom of the Yucatan peninsula, are no longer Catholic. I see very few shrines or Catholic churches and many Assembly of God and other protestant sects. The missionaries have done a lot of work along here and in much of southern Mexico. I'm not sure I like it, the Catholic church has a long history of including indigenous culture in the church and the protestant sects are not as accepting. They require obedience to their tenants and that includes very little of the culture and traditions of the people they convert.

The next morning we talked with her and bought the 6 mini-hammocks she had made for us. They are beautiful, her hammocks are the tightest I have ever seen.

This is a picture of the outdoor shower at Maricasa in Calderitas. I just love it!


Also a picture of a wild papaya on their land.

We're heading west in a few minutes, towards Chiapas. The plan is to turn south near Palenque and go to the Guatemala border which is the Usamacinta river. We will visit the ruins of Bonampak and hopefully take a jungle boat down to the ruins of Yaxchillan. Probably no internet but I'll take pictures anyway.

We got to enjoy the condo for 2 days before we left, I really like the colors. I tried to get a pic the morning we left but the light was coming straight in as it was early morning and the pics are kind of blown out.

We finally got out on the road at 4pm on the 23rd. So, it was dark and around 9pm when we got to our friends land in Calderitas. We found the gate and pulled down their long driveway through the jungle. They were up and we had a good time chatting for awhile. They had some preliminary plans for the houseing development they are working on and we got to look at those. Really nice. They have accomplished a lot since they bought the land.

This morning we could see just how much work they've done. There is a lot more land cleared and it is starting to have a park like feel to it. The weather has been pretty good, it's hot in the afternoons but that means it is time to sit in the shade and talk. Around 4pm, a breeze came up and it was pleasant.

I was thinking about the weather this afternoon, I realized that many of my friends would not like this weather at all. It's hot and it's humid but the air is fragrant and feels like soft silk. Sometimes you just sweat and have to kind of get into the zen of sweating. The jungle is so present when you are in it, it isn't like a nice vista somewhere it is right in your face. It's full of noise and smells strongly of life and decay.

Lots of birds here, we saw a pair of parrots and heard a toucan. There are the loud and raucous Yucatan Jays that schreech and complain whenever something comes into their space. I always want to see before I step when I'm in the jungle, I am not a big fan of insect world. But having to have that kind of awareness is sometimes good, I know I never just sit somewhere or step through brush without looking carefully. What I hated was getting out into the brush last night to open the gate. There was no way to stay on the road so I had to walk out through it in the dark. I admit I got back in the rig and brushed myself from head to toe, even taking off my Crocs to check inside them.

Kathe & Colleen had a dinner to attend on xmas eve so Mimi and got out our new barbeque, a couple of rib eye steaks we'd smuggled from the states. We grilled baby potatoes, carrots and mushrooms and had a cucumber and dry doble cream cheese with balsamic vinegar salad. We had a wonderful dinner alone in the middle of a lush jungle. Feliz Navidad to all of you.

The other night we went to a karaoke/full moon party at the local beach bar, La Buena Vida. While we were there we met a couple that live at the RV park up the road, PaaMul. They invited us to the Crab Races held there on Friday nights. So, tonight we went crab racing! It was pretty funny.

They have about 30 of the big, black hermit crabs that they keep under their rig and feed dog food to all winter. When they leave in the summer, they let them go. These guys are up to 4" across and have loooong legs and pinchers. They have numbers painted on their shells and they put them all in a bucket inside a circle made from a huge buoy rope.

For 10 pesos you buy a ticket with a crab's number on it. At the start of each race they turn the bucket over in the middle of the circle, inside a rolled plastic noodle, and off they go. Before the race they announce what the winners will be, such as 4th one off the rope wins dinner and 6th one off the rope wins the money. As the crab touches sand outside the rope, it is picked up and put back in the bucket and its number called out.

A lot of the crabs go to the rope but then they just walk around on the rope and never come off it, they're called 'rope runners'. Some crabs, usually the ones we had tickets for, don't go anywhere. They just sit inside the noodle. I decided they are probably the smarter ones. They have about 6 races a night, by race 4 I was amazed that any of them took off but they do. Mimi says it is because they have brains the size of a grain of sand, I figure the ones that just stay inside the noodle have a couple of grains to rub together. Whatever you do, you're going to the bucket, why run?

The races are held in the sand next to the restaurant & bar, so drinks are consumed and cheering increases. The tickets sold out for a couple races, there are only 30 crabs, and only one ticket per crab. I was kind of disappointed that I couldn't pick my own crab but I gotta admit, the one I thought was going to be the winner rarely left the circle. Plus, the first one out doesn't win and it's pretty hard to pick who will be number 6 off the rope. They have 'crab spotters' around the circle to watch and grab the crab as it puts that first claw down.

The reason I don't have pictues is that the batteries died on the camera - at least I hope that is what happened. It may take me a bit to find some to replace them.

We bought a truck! It's a 92 red Toyota with a camper shell, almost identical to the one Mimi owned in Marin but - big deal here - this one has air conditioning! It also has mexican license plates so we don't have to take it out of the country when we leave. It will stay here in Akumal. I just think about how much stuff I can get in the back, tile and furniture and ... hoo boy, first I have to save some money up from buying the truck.

This also signals our decision to spend more time here in Akumal. We bought this condo to live in in the winter but that hasn't happened. We still intend to travel most of the year but we are more committed now to spending longer here. As usual, our plans are all jello so that may or may not happen. We are planning to fly back down here in May though to supervise some remodeling, we will need a vehicle for that... now we have one!

Here are some pictures of my grackles. I put oatmeal out for them on the pillar a couple times a day and if I am late, they stand there and yell until I come out. What amuses me is that the males have to stick their noses up in the air whenever another male lands. They both stand like that and posture for a bit while the females (the lighter brown ones) get in there and eat. Classic!


Once the nose business is done, everyone eats.

We went into Cancun today looking for lights. Got to one place too late and it was closed but we didn't see what we wanted looking in the windows. So we went to Soriana which is my favorite grocery/everything store in Mexico. They are building one in Playa now and I'm thrilled.

It's a really nice grocery store, the most beautiful produce including really ripe tomatoes that aren't Roma type. In most of Mexico all you can find are Roma tomatoes and not very ripe ones either. Soriana had huge bins of really red, really ripe Beefsteak tomatoes, Roma and even Cherry tomatoes. They also have a candy maker and had the most sumptous display case of hand made truffles and chocolate strawberries the size of a baseball. I did not buy any of the candy! It wasn't just restraint but it's hot and it is 65 miles back to the house and I just knew they wouldn't make it. I also knew I'd probably just eat them on the way home anyway.

By the time we got out of Soriana it was dark and we went through downtown so got to see all the xmas lights. The Guadalupanos were out on the highway running in the dark, I worried they would get hit. Groups of kids, usually teenagers, from different churches vow to run from one town to another during this week celebrating the Virgin of Guadalupe. They have support vehicles that follow them, decorated to the nines, with their flashers on. There are usually several of the kids running with a torch and the rest, along with the adult chaperones, are in the bus or truck following. They spend nights at churches along their route and also stop for a big meal in the afternoon at another church. It can take them days to run if they've picked a town far away. It's a great adventure for them and I'm sure it is a lot of fun. We passed 5 or 6 groups on the highway today, Monday is the feast day for the Virgin of Guadalupe. She is the patron saint of Mexico and highly venerated throughout the country.

Luis has been coming up every day to help Mimi paint. He can't be over 5' tall but he finds a way to get to those high ceilings. He's been teaching Mimi the mayan words for things like ladder and wall and ceiling. Mayan is really, really hard to pronounce. When Mimi doesn't get it after a few trys he switches to the spanish word but in his heavy mayan accent that one is undecipherable too. They're doing all right though, they communicate.

This is the way Luis blocked a shelf so he could get on it to reach the ceiling in the kitchen. It worked, even Mimi got up there and used it while he was at lunch.

It's coming along all right, still part of the living room to do and one bedroom and bathroom. We've got 2 weeks left before we have to leave and the place is rented. I've been searching for light fixtures to no avail. I've found a lot of them but none that I like or that I think will hold up well to the humidity and salt air. I searched Playa today, I went in every rustico furniture store and I've already looked in all the big box stores. I want wrought iron if I can find it, we have one fixture in that and it is the only one that has held up all these years, I've replaced all the others 3 or 4 times. No luck so I'll have to go to Cancun tomorrow.

Here's another pic of one of the toucans around here. This one was taken by Mike from Pittsburg who was vacationing here. They are such improbable birds.

The painting continues. I'm not doing any more, my neck was killing me. Mimi continues and today Luis arrived to help in the afternoon. I think he's coming back tomorrow, one never knows. Because we are on the top floor, the ceilings are very high. I'm guessing about 17'. It's nice and it keeps things cooler but it's a long ways up there to paint.

We haven't been doing much else lately. We went into Playa to shop and get more paint supplies on Monday. We've been out to dinner once and taken the laundry down to get it washed. Pretty boring. The electrician came up and bored a hole through the wall for the internet cables, he's coming back sometime to put the covers on it.

I'm still feeding the grackles on the deck and also a tiny bird that comes here everyday looking for bits the grackles missed. He's really cute but I have no idea what he is. He has a yellow chest and black and white striped wings and is about 2" high.

Here's a pic of our new green bathroom. I still like the color which is good after staring it in the face for so long while painting all the corners.

I just snapped the last pic to show what our living room looks like right now. Pretty boring watching paint dry no? I'm trying to keep up with posting to this blog but sometimes there really isn't much to say.

I am starting to look at maps and figure out where we might want to spend Christmas. We're going first to the Usamacinta river on the border of Chiapas and Guatemala. I want to go to Yaxchilan and Bonampak which are mayan ruins along there. To get to Yaxchilan you have to take a boat trip down the Usamacinta which is a big part of the attraction for me. After that, we aren't sure. Our friends can't make it to San Cristobal by the 25th so we are free to decide where we want to go. It might still be San Cris, I haven't been there around xmas and it might be interesting. It might just be some little town down along the river. It's not a big holiday for us but we do like to be somewhere that is interesting. There is also a lake district in Chiapas that I've wanted to see, we might wander along that way. I love looking at the maps, so many possibilities.

I saw the toucan today! I was out in the road talking to Henning and it flew right over my head and landed on a bare branch nearby. It let me stand and look at it for several minutes before flying down the road. I called Mimi and she was able to get a picture of it. It's so exciting that they are returning and that they survived the storm. (you can click the pictures to see them full size)

Painting began today, but it is Mimi and I that are doing it so far. One of the workers here asked for a loan from the management yesterday because his wife needed to go to a dentist. He got the loan but must have gotten lost on the way home to take the wife to the dentist, he showed up drunk for work this morning and was sent home. So, they were down a worker and didn't have one to send us as a painter. Maybe tomorrow.