Ruins, Cenotes and Flamingos

Four days is the perfect amount of time for us on a road trip. For this amount of time, the kids can hold it together and we can pack in a mountain of activity. However, to make things just a little more complicated, I had to drink too much on the lobster/booze cruise the night before our departure and caught some kind of flu. So, as we cruised down the Cuota (toll road) toward Merida, I could feel a fever coming on. The first night in Merida we caught the Easter celebrations in the main square. They close the roads to traffic on Sundays, so it was peaceful and pleasant. The next morning, despite that I wrestled with a fever all night, we explored a Mayan ruin south of town called Uxmal. This ruin was particularly scenic because its structures are built on hills, making for some amazing vistas. After about of hour of ruin exploring, I was ruined and Ilana drove us home. But, that afternoon, we made it to the art museum in the main square to catch a modert art exhibit that the kids really enjoyed.

The next day, we drove deep into the heart of rural Yucatan to find Don Victor's hacienda where we went on a horse drawn railroad car from underground cavern (cenote) to cavern on a swimming extravaganza. (This is one of my favorite things about the Yucatan!) It's like spelunking, while swimming. And, best of all, the water is clean, cold, and full of fish.

From there, we journeyed across the Peninsula to the North coast. The next morning we took a 4 hour flamingo tour that was amazing. We had a close encounter with two giant crocodiles and saw a myriad of birds including flamingos, blue and tri-colored herons, ibises, ospreys, hawks, roseated spoonbills, white pelicans, egrets, cormarants. In addition, we floated on top of some super salty water and took mud baths.

That afternoon, we high-tailed it back to Cancun, where our condo awaits, the weather is always warm, friends are around, the food is expensive, the beaches are large, and the bikinis are tiny.

To Belize and Back

Well . . . the kids visas had expired . . . and apparently the school didn't think it there responsibility to put the kids on my work visa (Ilana never got one!), so we were left with the dilemma of what to do. We decided to not wait until our final departure at an airport to see if the Mexican officials will notice the overstay. So, we headed to Belize-- 6 hours on a bus to Chetumal, another hour to the border. And, surprisingly, we pass out of Mexico with no problems. Then, we enter Belize with no problem. So far, so good. We then walk around a fence and go through the Belize customs for exiting their fine country. This is where it starts getting ugly. We were extorted a rather large sum by the Belize official who noticed the time between Mexico stamps in the kids' passports. We had very little choice but to pay it. Then, we walked across the free zone and to the Mexican border to pass through the Mexican immigration. They also noticed the error, only we had already left Mexico and now had Belize stamps in our passports. The official raged at me and I feigned complete ignorance of Spanish. Finally, the angry bureaucrat stamped our paperwork and waved us through. It was exhausting, scary, grueling, expensive, and completely avoidable.

We tried to make the best of things by exploring the 7 colored lagoon in Balancar and by swimming in the famed Cenote Azul. But, in then end we still had to spend another 6 hours on a bus which broke down and a became a 9 hour oddysey to get back to Cancun.

Turning 40 and Beyond

Well, my 40th birthday came and went. Luckily I knew myself well enough (after 40 years) to ask for a party that was my style. We were on one of the most beautiful beaches in Cancun, it was a Sunday afternoon so families could come, and we only invited a small circle of interesting people. There was plenty of alcohol and snack foods and the party didn't go on forever. This was my kind of event. My favorite part was the visit of Mendel, the rabbi from Chabad Cancun, an his family. He has an amazing sense of spirituality, which immediately affected the tenor of the party. Also, we brought the school's guitar and discovered that Eduardo, our neighbor, is a brilliant classical guitarist.

My sense of being forty is the following: In your 30's, life is a wild adventure ride, like a rollercoaster. But, in your 40's you discover it isn't a rollercoaster at all, it's actually some kind of ATV that you are on and you are sitting behind the wheel. It's my decisions that will shape what happens in the next 40 years of my life. That's a powerful idea.