Flamingos at Celestun

These are the flamingos of Celestun. The video quality is poor but the normal pictures didn't turn out. Watching the video again reminded me how loud these birds are. And there were so many of them. I wish I could have captured some of them take off flying out of the water. The flap their wings and run along the top of the water until they're going fast enough to fly. It's beautiful.

Beetle

This was an exotic beetle I picked up in Ek Balam. I wanted to capture it alive, and had it in a bottle, but it died after only a couple of hours, perhaps because it was too stuffy and hot. It had red and black striped legs, and a pattern of red, black, yellow and blue on the back exoskeleton. It was about 1.5 inches long, 3/4 wide.

Dehydration

The last couple of weeks I have been going through bouts of dehydration. I don't know if they are related to my trip to Mexico, but that's an easy explanation. Symptoms have included gastrointestinal trouble, orthostatic heart rate, headaches, etc. Most recently, I wake up several times throughout the night in cold sweat. My mom said cold sweat sounds like a symptom of menopause, but I don't think I'm old enough for that.
I need liquid - referring to the physical state of matter as well as the economics term. My liquid assets are as low as they have been in years. I am also going broke because I don't have a job, and of course I blew a lot of liquid pesos in Mexico. So Mexico will dry you out. On the bright side, the country is beautiful, and as Ralph Macchio may have said, whatever doesn't kill you only makes you stronger!

Wonder of the World

On my way back to Cancun to fly home, I stopped at Chichen Itza. On a coolness scale from 1 to 10, this place is a 9,95. It would be a 10, but no one is permitted to go up any of the pyramids (Mexico is not as free of a country as America, no offense to the good people of Mexico).
My camera was broken, so no pictures. But pictures couldn't do it justice. The archaeological zone is so big, probably twice that of Uxmal. Many of the structures serve as calendars, with windows aligned to important points in the patterns of movement of celestial bodies, i.e. polaris, venus, the sun. So, basically, you had to be there.

Ek-Balam

This weekend I went "camping" with some buddies to Ek-Balam. It's about a 3 hour drive, but we got a late start Thursday evening, and ended up stopping in a neighboring town, and sleeping in a hotel. Get this: 2 nice, clean rooms with 2 double beds each, hot water, cable, and anything else you could want at midnight, for $45. 4 beds for 45! And it felt great to sleep in a bed!
Friday morning we went to Ek-Balam, which is in central Yucatan. Ek-Balam is Mayan for "black jaguar", and was the name of an important post-classical Mayan guy. There is an archaeological site, which features some impressive ruins. And there are some "ecotourism" places as well. We camped at one of those places Friday night. It was the first time I ever saw an "ecological" bathroom. That whole concept is a bad idea, and if you see one you will know what I mean.
Saturday, we took bikes down to some less-impressive caves. Although the tour was cheap ($10 for the guide, and $2 to rent a bike) there were drawbacks. My bike was missing the platform of the pedal for the left foot, and the chain broke about 3 km into the trip. So I jogged the last 2 km, and on the way back, the guide loaned me his bike. Believe it or not, his was in much worse condition than mine. All in all, it may be best to avoid the Ek-Balam ecotourism sites.

Garbage Man; Coca Cola

The sanitation industry is a whole different ball game in Mexico. The garbage man comes by two or three times a week, and I usually hear him when he comes, but I can't figure out what the schedule is supposed to be. He has come weekdays in the evening or very late at night, or even 9am on a Saturday. Last night he came at 2:30 am, and I heard him, and it woke me up, but I didn't even try to catch him, even though I have been trying to "take out the trash" all week.
If you know when he's coming, you can leave your stuff in bags outside your gate. When I see bags outside peoples gates I leave it out. But if he doesn't come, the cats and dogs get into it. Aside from that, there is lots of garbage in the streets and gutters. Littering is common.
A couple of weeks ago, I heard the garbage truck and went out to give them my garbage. The guy who took the bag from me asked me for a drink, so I got him a cup of water. He drank it and got back to running alongside the truck. After he left I realized I should have given him something else. People here don't typically drink water. Why? I think because (in restaurants) it is about as expensive as soft drinks, and people here like their coke.

Scorpion

Yesterday, at 5PM, just as I sat down to eat some black beans and rice, I felt something on my leg. Apparently, a small scorpion had been under my seat, and when I sat down he was startled and climbed onto my shorts and then onto the bare skin of my knee! If that had happened to me two months ago, I probably would have caught the next plane back. It scared me like few things could. But it didn't kill me. Quite the contrary. This picture was taken moments before its unearthly demise.
Tom - 1, Scorpions - 0