My daughter’s school is really something. Today the kids flew from Denver, CO to San Diego, CA, then they took a van across the border into Mexico. Her 8th grade class is headed to Tijuana for a week.

They will be volunteering at, and also staying at, an orphanage there. My daughter says that they will, among other things, help build a wall. The concept of a bunch of rich American kids going to Mexico to work illegally as construction workers just cracks me up.

I’m sure the trip will be great, it’s a whole new experience for all of them. I’m glad to see the school pushing the kids this way. And I’m very glad for my daughter to see somewhere in Mexico besides the Yucatan, even though by all reports Tijuana is pretty skanky.

The school told my daughter that she wasn’t allowed to spike her hair with colored gel in case her colors could be mistaken for gang colors. What a thing to worry about.

They also told the kids that this trip was about total immersion, which means they weren’t allowed to bring cell phones. So no contact for a week…I will spend a lot of time this week wondering how things are going.

The last couple of days in Colorado with my daughter were great. I took her to the new wing of the Denver Art Museum on Saturday. The new wing was designed by Frank Gehry, who is one of the architects whose work I deeply appreciate; it was a thrill to set foot in another one of his amazing buildings.

We went first to a temporary Impressionism exhibit in Gehry’s building. My daughter was raised looking at pictures of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings and could identify the work of Monet, Van Gogh, Renoir, Seurat and Degas when she was 5 years old. So this exhibit was a treat for her.

After that we decided to visit the Contemporary Art galleries, also in the new wing. I felt like a million bucks when I saw how happily my daughter flitted from one piece of art to another. She got up close to each piece to study materials and brush strokes, she talked to me about the meaning and power of each work and sometimes she sat on the floor to look at certain pieces from a different angle. She was so excited about the pieces she was seeing that it just filled me with pride. I’m not always sure I’m a good parent, but when I see her that informed and that excited about art I figure that I must have done something right somewhere along the way.

There’s snow on the ground, SNOW! I mean S-N-O-W! I can’t remember the last time I saw snow. I’m telling people that it’s been 3 years since I last had to deal with that stuff, but I don’t actually remember, it could be 4 years or more. But the interesting thing is that snow is not freaking me out the way I thought it would, in fact, I kind of like it.

The first couple of days I was here in Colorado I was freezing every minute. On Tuesday I had to take 3 hot showers just to warm up enough to not shiver constantly (and YES I was wearing proper clothing). I was about to go buy some electric socks. But then on Wednesday morning it was snowing when I woke up. I lay in bed, cozy and warm, and watched these fat flakes fall out of the sky. And it was OK.

I’ve had a few moments of being chilly since then, but I’m no longer deeply cold. People here are telling me that I just needed a couple of days for my blood to thicken. Don’t like the sound of that! I’m just grateful that I’m not shivering anymore.

Just a quick post from Colorado. First off, I’m staying in a home which has no furry creatures in it, and it’s very weird. There should be cats at least. I always feel this way when I travel, the lack of critters screws with my head.

Speaking of critters, I’ve seen zero street dogs since coming here, but I have seen dozens and dozens of people walking and playing with their dogs in parks. I almost never see people walking their dogs in Cancun. Today I also saw a number of dogs that were hanging with their owners at outdoor cafes, that is another thing you never see in Cancun.

Since arriving in the good ‘ole U.S.A. I have been eating nothing but ethnic food. In Cancun I eat Mexican food and occasionally Chinese food when we go out and not much else. But here I’ve got my pick of food from all over. Today we ate at my favorite Ethiopian restaurant (they don’t give you forks, you eat with your hands). Tomorrow we will get Thai food. And one of the best things about eating here is that there are so many vegetarian choices in the restaurants. The only reason I eat meat at all is to make it simpler to eat in restaurants that don’t know how to feed vegetarians. So I’m enjoying being able to get good healthy vegetarian food here.

The only big bummer here is the stupid weather. People here are all excited because winter is lifting and it’s getting warm in that wet, freezing ass cold, Colorado kind of way, in other words it’s not warm but people here are so burned out on winter that they think it is. I’m freezing here. I slept under 2 huge quilts, with the heat on, and wore my sweatpants to bed. What is that? Why do I suffer from the cold so much? I’ve always been like this, even when I lived up here in the frigid north and was supposedly used to this weather I was constantly cold.

The good news is that my kid is doing really well here. She’s become a bike mechanic, and has decided she loves acting, she’s working out a lot, and her manners have improved. She’s doing well in school, especially in math. She’s taken to reading Scientific American every month and is now saying she wants to be a physicist. She complains that her dad is too attentive to what she’s up to, but if that’s her only real complaint then it ain’t much of one. She and I are having a nice time together. Today we bought some painting supplies so we can make some art together, that should be fun.

Tomorrow I am off, up into the wild blue yonder. Anyone actually know what a yonder is? Tomorrow I head to Colorado to hang with my kid for a week. We’ve got lots of plans, mostly involving buying underwear (b/c she’s too shy to even tell her dad that she’s grown out of her bras) and having one too many frappuccinos at Starbucks, we will eat at our favorite pasta place and she will try to drag me downhill skiing (I love downhill skiing but am very rusty).

I have not even started packing clothes yet. But I did gather papers and files for my briefcase, I’ve got almost every password I’ve ever used, I have the phone numbers of almost every friend I have there, I have several web client files and an active file for a real estate deal I’m doing right now.

I have made some piles of things to shove in my luggage, but am completely at a loss for what clothes to bring. I know damn well what March in Colorado is like, it’s wet; it’s cold but not always, it might snow or it might be hot. But still, the concept of putting a coat, and a sweater, and a long sleeve shirt in my bag feels really weird. Second nature at this point would be to throw a bikini, a couple pairs of shorts and a couple t-shirts in a bag and call it a day. But if I do that all it will mean is that I will be clothes shopping by Tuesday. So I will do the weird thing and dig out some closed-toe shoes and find that old LL Bean fleece jacket I have and grab those never-worn bluejeans from the drawer.

I’m going to miss the kitties, the dog and the husbandito. I’m also going to miss the friends I talk with every day here. It will feel really odd not to check in every day with them. But it will be good to have a change of scenery.

In celebration of the fact that I’m heading to one of the whitest parts of the U.S. I leave you with a link to a blog which cracks me up. It’s called Stuff White People Like. And it kills me every time I read it. Enjoy.

We just took a quick weekend away and went down to the southern part of Quintana Roo and visited Bacalar, Chetumal and Calderitas. To get to Bacalar from Cancun took 4 hours of driving, and that was with heavy rain at times. But we didn’t do the whole drive straight through, instead we stopped at the Mayan ruins of Muyil, which are just south of Tulum, and walked around for an hour.

Muyil is a small site, but it was a perfect break for us. We had Sam (the wonder dog) with us, and he needed to get out and run around. Husbandito, being the eternal cheapskate, talked his way into the ruin without paying AND the guy let us bring our dog in AND the guy loaned us his very cute puppy for Sam to play with while we were romping about the ruin. (It was something akin to a miracle that I didn’t steal that puppy…it was damn cute.)

Once we got to Bacalar we had to find a place to stay, with the dog, and it was dark already, and we wanted to be on the lake (even though we couldn’t see it in the dark). I always feel like an idiot when I’m stuck looking for lodging after dark, it’s a great way to set yourself up to fail. On the other hand I hate to make a reservation ahead of time and then hate the room…

We found a place that had one room left, and a kind-hearted, dog-loving manager, it’s called Amigo’s Bed & Breakfast. Our room faced the lake, and the room smelled (and was) clean. The decor was on the trite to tacky side, and they didn’t have cable (just a few fuzzy channels on the tv), but all-in-all the room was great. I doubt if they normally take dogs, I think we kind of talked them into it. Fortunately Sam almost never barks, so he’s a good guest.

This is a view of the the lake at Bacalar, it’s a freshwater lake that is more than 25 miles long. Beautiful.

The next day we asked if we could stay another night, but guess what, bad planning caught up to us and our room was reserved for the night. So we had to leave and find another place to stay. But at least it was daylight. The first place we tried was willing to take us (it had been recommended by the folks at Amigo’s). So the second night we stayed at Casita Carolina, which is also right on the lake. We stayed in the round palapa room, which is charmingly decorated. Casita Carolina was lovely but we didn’t feel as comfortable as we had at Amigo’s, I think this was because their rules about taking dogs were more rigid and less welcoming. But I thought the decor was really lovely.

Here’s another view of the lake. The lake’s name is Las Lagunas de Siete Colores (Lagoons of Seven Colors).

Once we had found a place to stay we went off on our mission for the day which was to visit an area just north of Chetumal called Calderitas. We had been told to “have fish and beer” in Calderitas.

To get to Calderitas we had to drive through Chetumal. Chetumal is the capital of the state of Quintana Roo. It’s also right near the border with Belize. As we were driving there I found several radio stations broadcasting from Belize in English, which was a trip. It was especially fun because sometimes the Belize accent is difficult for me to understand. So as we drove to Chetumal I tried to repeat everything the announcer said, I was understanding only about 50% of it (I understand more than that when I listen to the radio in Spanish).

Chetumal has a bad reputation. I’m not sure what it’s reputation is but it’s bad. Some have told me that Chetumal is full of 12 year old prostitutes. Others have said it’s boring. What I saw supported the latter theory. The streets were wide, well-planned and had little traffic. I saw almost no garbage. I saw no 12 year old hookers, or any hookers, or any 12 year olds for that matter. In fact we saw almost no one. Chetumal has a malecon, which is a waterfront walkway. It runs along the shore for most of the city, and goes past the important government buildings. We found the malecon to be lovely and walked on it for about half an hour. We passed 2 whole live people in that half an hour. Chetumaleños don’t seem to hang out on their malecon and they don’t seem to hang out anywhere we saw.

I’m sure that Chetumal must have somewhere that you can get a good cup of coffee and watch people walk by. We didn’t find it. But we were only in the city for about 45 minutes.

We left Chetumal, driving on the road by the water and made our way up to Calderitas. Calderitas seems to be nothing but a few fish places all lined up. We picked the one that was most full of people, it was called El Rincon de las Tortugas. And we ordered fish and beer. Both were good. Our table overlooked the beach, and several vendors walked by selling goods. My daughter will be getting some earrings and a bracelet bought from those vendors. One funny thing about Calderitas was that on the beach were a gaggle of 12 or 13 year old boys who were playing soccer. It was hot out, maybe 90° F, but not one of them was wearing shorts, all were in long pants. I find that very weird. So we stuck out like the foreigners we were, wearing our shorts.

Once the beer and fish mission was accomplished we headed a bit further north to a Mayan ruin called Oxtankah (osh-tan-kah). Again husbandito played the “it’s late and we’re broke and aren’t we nice?” thing and got us in to the ruin paying just one entrance fee (do not try this at home, he’s got 46 years of experience). And again we were able to bring the happy dog into the ruin, and again there were other doggies for him to play with.

This is one of the pyramids at Oxtankah.

And this appears to be a Spanish-built church, which probably used stones cannibalized from sacred Mayan structures. I’m guessing at that, we couldn’t find an explanatory plaque associated with this structure, but that behavior was common for the Spanish here.

I have to say that the area north of Chetumal, in Calderitas feels pristine. Walking through the woods around the ruin we heard a few cows in the distance. We saw myriad flowers and butterflies. We heard birds and saw all kinds of flora. Hurricane Dean passed over that area last September and we saw some evidence of trees having lost leaves, but in general it was a vibrant forest. One cool thing was that we saw a line of leaf-cutter ants, carrying cut leaves on their backs. The line of ants must have been a quarter of a mile long! I do not understand for the life of me why they couldn’t find leaves they wanted that were closer to the home nest. But there they were, we found where they were cutting the leaves (they were papaya leaves from a downed tree), and we followed their line (trying not to step on them).

After our Oxtankah excursion we headed to the grocery store in Chetumal to buy a wine and cheese (and bread and carrots and ham) dinner to take to our lovely room. Then we headed back to Casita Carolina where we played dominoes for hours.

In the morning we took a long walk with the dog and then vacated our room. Then we headed to the famous Bacalar Fort. This fort has a long history involving pirates and everything. If you are a Caste War buff or a pirate buff it’s worth a visit.

This is a view from the top of the look out tower. The bridge over the moat used to be wood, so that it could be removed when enemies showed up. Now it’s stone.

The fort has a nice museum with plaques in both Spanish and (decent) English. We learned a lot. We read everything and it took about an hour to get through the museum.

And this is a view of the lake from the fort. The lake looks like the Caribbean Sea, but it’s a freshwater lake, amazing.

Outside the fort we met a lovely gentleman who uses a wheelchair. He was selling jewelry and carved wooded figures. He used to live in Cancun, but had a diving accident years ago which landed him in his wheelchair. We enjoyed his company immensely and bought more (nice) things we don’t need from him.

And finally I just thought this was a good photo, looking at the lake from inside the fort.

I must say that my only real gripe with Bacalar is the lack of coffee. There is a cafe there which supposedly sells REAL coffee, it’s right on the corner of the main square. But the owner has a family member who is sick right now, so it was closed. I wish that person a speedy recovery. And I hope they open back up soon because Bacalar without good coffee, well, I don’t need to do that again.

Next time I return to that area I think I will camp in Calderitas at the Yax-Ha Resort. And from there I will day trip to the Mayan ruins of Kohunlich and maybe to Belize and we will definitely visit the Museo de la Cultura Maya in Chetumal. And next time we will absolutely without question go out on a boat, either on the lake near Bacalar or on the Bahía Chetumal (which feeds into the ocean). And we will also be sure to bring our own coffee, just in case.

We recently took a trip over to the Mayan ruins of Ek’ Balam. These are some of my favorite nearby ruins and I’ve been to see them 3 times. The ruins are not fully excavated, when you are there you see tree-covered “hills” all around which are un-excavated ruins. Park officials ask that you don’t climb these hills. I hope that at some point money is found to finish excavating Ek’ Balam.

Ek’ Balam is located just a few miles north of the historic city of Valladolid. From Cancun or Merida you can take the Valladolid exit off of the Cuota (toll road) and then take the highway north toward Tizimín. You will pass through the town of Temozón and shortly after that you will see the road to Ek’ Balam on the right. From downtown Cancun it took us 1 hour and 45 minutes to get to the parking lot at Ek’ Balam.

Here are some photos for your enjoyment:

Ek’ Balam means black jaguar in the Mayan language

This symmetrical structure is appropriately called Los Gemelos (the twins)

These winged warriors are part of the incredible detail of the Jaguar Altar on the Acropolis, which is the largest structure at the site

Here is a wider view of the Jaguar Altar, high up on the Acropolis

This is another area of detail on the Acropolis, this is lower down on the building

This is a view of the Oval Palace, with the Gemelos to the left

If you do go to Ek’ Balam be sure to bring your bathing suit because there is a very refreshing cenote (fresh water sinkhole) nearby that you can take a dip in. You will need to walk about a mile to get there, but there are people more than willing to rent you bicycles to make the trip easier.

For more information on Ek’ Balam check out Wikipedia’s Ek’ Balam page.

One of my readers sent me a link to a lovely video. It’s titled “A Day in Santa Teresa, Mexico”. I especially love the music in this video. And I’m struck by how the video seems to depict a typical day in Mexico, and yet my own typical day in Mexico looks nothing like this.

View A Day in Santa Teresa, Mexico. I hope you enjoy it.

Ok, ok I’m finally posting photos of my recent trip to Isla Holbox. I hope you enjoy them.

The beach in Holbox is big and wide and you have to walk out into the water for a long way before it even gets up to your knees.

This is a typical street in Isla Holbox; a narrow, dirt road with one or two golf carts meandering by every few minutes.

This is the view looking east from the beach at Isla Holbox; the water there is more green than here in the Caribbean.

This is the view looking west, at sunset, from the beach in Isla Holbox.

My daughter and I just visited Isla Holbox for a few days. For anyone who doesn’t know, Isla Holbox is located on the northern edge of the Yucatan peninsula. It’s in the same state as Cancun and is just about 2.5 hours away; the drive from Cancun is 2 hours and the ferry is another 30 minutes.

Holbox is small enough that people walk, ride bikes or drive golf carts there. We saw no more than 5 normal vehicles and all were trucks, we saw a truck delivering soda, and truck full of cops, a garbage collection truck and a couple of private trucks. Last I looked Holbox had a population of just under 2000 people.

What I like about Holbox is that it’s completely and totally boring. There is just not much to do there. You can go for a jog on the beach. You can lounge around on the beach. You can have long leisurely meals. About the most exciting thing to do there is to go out on a boat to go fishing, or visit some nearby bird nesting areas. It’s truly a place where there’s nothing going on.

After about 12 hours on the island I found myself coming unwound. And I was able to relax in a way that I normally don’t. It’s just so peaceful and boring in Holbox that it’s hard to have any stress when you are visiting there.

The one bummer about Holbox is that I didn’t find a decent meal there. Everywhere we ate was mediocre. I couldn’t even find a proper cappuchino. Maybe I missed the good restaurants, but it’s a pretty small town and I couldn’t have missed much. When I was there a few years ago I remember a decent Italian place, but couldn’t find it this time (it either moved or it’s gone). Oh well.

I’ve got a lot of photos to share and will do so on another day.