You saw me standing alone, without a dream in my heart, without a love of my own...

Tulum is beautiful, rustic, enchanting and imperfect. More pictures to come; here are a fewski:

The front yard:

The cabana:

The neighborhood -- ours is in the middle.


My reading room:

Drank cocktails here on non-rainy days.

Caribbean Sea:

Gratuitous awkward bathing suit shot 'cause I've been working at it:


El gato con el ojo con un problemo:

Testing the macro lens:

The loveliest of bartenders and outdoor showers. Mutually exclusive.


Papaya Playa with the best outdoor showers in my world.
Cool angles:

Artistic collaboration:
Pre-snorkeling:

Such a lot of world to see

I'm not sure I'm ready to write about Tulum to the extent that this last week deserves. There was so much vastness and newness and strange familiarity - to the specifics of this place and to the sea, which always overwhelms me.

Enough with the thickly veiled procrastination.

The basics: we stayed in a cabana on the beach at a small resort without electricity -- I think I've mentioned this -- on a strip outside of Tulum. Meals, drinks, outdoor showers all along the beach at the various spots -- all rustic and lovely. The weather varied from wet and blustery (relatively speaking) to sunny and beautiful, which it was the majority of the time.

Things I did for the first time this week:

1. Snorkeled above the reefs.
2. Seen, in the sea or otherwise, an animal that resembled a vertical hammerhead eel that hovers sideways.
3. Seen one of these in the wild.
4. Sunbathed topless.
5. Woken from a nap to see a scorpion (this, not this, unfortunately) walking by my bed.
   
6. Picked up a scorpion with a napkin and thrown it outside a bungalow.
7. Woken to hear Neil say, "Mother fucker - I just got stung by a scorpion."
   
8. Watched iguanas mate - or at least watched them mate other iguanas.
9. Seen things that look like really fat iguana-Gila monster hybrids either mate or fight, rolling down a hill in the process.

And many more, of course. Unfortunately I only have photos of two of the items above. I'll post one of them, and many more beautiful shots.

In the meantime, how have you been? Tell me stuff.

Birds singing in the sycamore tree

I don't feel like writing at all right now, which is exactly why I probably should.

I did an ill-advised thing this morning, though compared to many of the other ill-advised things I've done, it's fairly banal. I went to sleep at midnight, which is about as early as I ever do, and woke up promptly at 4AM. After lying awake, restless, for almost an hour, I got up to look for something to help me sleep, and found the Benadryl I'd bought for Louie to combat his allergies (apparently dogs can take it too) -- it was that or a shot of Triple Sec with a Listerine chaser. I was desperate for a couple of hours of sleep, planned to go into the office today and knew I would never make it through on four hours. I took it, got very sleepy, and woke up two hours later feeling like someone had slipped me a roofie. Not that I've ever been slipped a roofie, but from what I've heard it feels something like this.

And so I called in sleepless and spent the day trying to get work done, trying to send out packages, trying to get to the gym, trying to rearrange things in the apartment, and so on. Somewhat of a lost day, but at least I was awake for it; the old me might have stayed under the covers until Wednesday.

I did get a fair amount of reading done; I'm finally slogging my way through the fascinating-but-dense-and-in-small-print Peoples' History of the United States, whose author, Howard Zinn, died last week. As did J.D. Salinger, but you already know that. This is required reading for the liberal-minded, I've been told, and so I'm immersing myself in it. Right now we're on the verge of the Revolutionary War; I'm really looking forward to moving into the 19th Century.

Turns out Columbus didn't discover America, he discovered the Bahamas. Actually, Rodrigo did, but CC took the credit. Too bad; I'd love to have a long weekend because of Rodrigo Day.

Macy's Rodrigo Day Sale!

I had planned to write about the blackout of '03 and the magical night that ensued, but I shall have to do so later.

Hasta luego.