HI!
well, i've decided to restart my blog. i realize it was started for mexico and my mexico postings were entirely unsatisfactory, but life goes on.
First, i believe i should put a nice cap on Mexico.
ahh mexico. I really truly loved my life in Mexico. The first three months were such a fantastic time of learning and hanging out and having fun on a private beach with 29 or so brittish and american peers. I learned about coral, science, cooking, spanish, brittish, and TEFL. Also i became accomplished at shaving in a bucket, showering once every 4 days for about 10 minutes under a single stream of freezing water in a dark stall, shampooing in a bucket, flushing with a bucket, doing laundry with only one alloted bucket of semi-fresh mangrove water (before you think it's tooo gross, it's also the water we used to wash dishes), wearing a sarong, and climbing into and out of a mosquito net covered top bunk while keeping out sand (difficult when the floor is the beach...). I was sad to leave Punta Gruesa, and would have considered applying to be a scholar if the timing was different.
The second three months were many things. WONDERFUL - diving up to three times a day every day in idyllic reefscapes with massive fish, huge healthy corals, and many turtles and eagle rays. EMPOWERING - learning what it means to be a Divemaster, learning more than i ever thought i'd know about diving science, fine tuning my dive and rescue skills, and finally working as an unofficial divemaster, giving dive briefings and leading groups of divers underwater. TIRING - being one of two people responsible for gathering everyone's dive gear and tanks in wheelbarrows, wheeling them across the sand, down to the long rickity dock, loading it onto the boat, and assembling all of the gear while still trying to be the first ones on the boat, ready to go. EXCITING/AMUSING/FRUSTERATING - learning to live in Mexico. walking down a dusty dirt road barefoot with an empty 20L water bottle, paying 20pesos, and returning with a full one. learning the timing of the fruit and veggie trucks (only source of fresh produce) and then remembering the names of veggies and fruits. doing laundry in a manual machine which turns white gray. cooking three meals a day with one pot and one skillet. Learning to adapt quickly when refrigerators randomly stop/start working, and/or the electricity goes to half, especially when you've just arrived home with two bags of fruit and veg. HARD - learning to live VERY closely with my french roomate. trying to understand her moods, trying to not drive each other crazy, learning to still have fun with each other. BORING - sitting in the empty shop, reading for hours on end while nothing happens and yet you can't leave the shop. BEAUTIFUL - the beach, the shop, the house, the reef, the foliage, the people, the town. DELICIOUS - the leaky palapa. how i miss linda and marla and their culinary masterpieces. well, marla's culinary masterpieces. Linda's alcoholic masterpieces. now that they're back from their honeymoon, i wish i could pop back down for another 4 course meal (pre-dinner drinks count as a course).
Then there were my random mexican travels and experiences. we went everywhere.
Playa del Carmen - visiting friends, having fun nights out, meeting locals, shopping.
Tulum - beautiful beach, wonderful friendly people and hostel, fun shops, excellent tamales,
Cenote Diving in Dos Ojos - most fantastically unexpected, unreal experience. swimming through crystal clear water punctuated by stalagtites and neon blue jets of light, feeling as if you're flying. Just incredible.
Centoe Swimming - always refreshing and exciting. from open pit cenotes, entrances through 30m spiral staircases, entrance by jumping through a small hole in the ceiling about 20 feet into the water, and huge, expansive cenotes filled with hidden entrances to back pools.
Coba Ruins - breathtaking. Getting there early in the morning allowed us to be the only ones we saw for the first hour and a half while we biked through tiny jungle paths over tree roots and rocks under dense vegetation that would suddenly open onto ancient ruins as if we were discovering them for the first time. also one of the few where you can climb to the top of the grand pyramid - a good 2.5x taller than the forest around us. (slightly terrifying trip down)
Bacalar - the lagoon of 7 colors. a beautiful freshwater lagoon and a very cute little town.
Chetumal - the capital of Quintana Roo, a sprawling, bustling city on the chetumal bay.
Cozumel - A fun, thoroughly carribean island, largely undeveloped, with spectacular drift diving with massive parrotfish.
San Pedro, Belieze - A brisk, windy, 45 minute boat ride away from Xcalak. Bustling with golfcarts and tourists, it was a welcome voyage into civilization, with pretty pricy but very plentiful stores.
Though at the end i was ready to move on, ready to come home and begin the next adventure, i LOVED my mexican life. and i don't think i realized how much i loved it until i came home.
It made me more aware, allowed me to be separated from my American context and develop a new mindset of minimalism, simplicity, and realness. i became a vegetarian in mexico. i became aware of my responsibility to the earth as a consumer. I think i became a better person. it's important to remind myself sometimes of these things, because it is shockingly easy to slip back into Americanism. that's the thing that surprised me the most about moving back home - how quickly and seamlessly i slipped right back into what i was doing/thinking/planning as if mexico hadn't happened at all.
i realized how much where you live, the culture you are part of, really does affect who you are and how you live.
