Our Yucatan Trip - 1st 3 days, Aug 5, 6, 7 (Tues, Wed, Thurs) 2008

Our first night, Tuesday August 5th, we spent in Playa de Carmen which is the standard tourist town. We paid $2.20 a piece for our dinner of tacos by going to a "local" resturant on Calle 15 (as recommended by "Let's Go Mexico") and then $12.00 for two ice cream cones on Calle 5! Granted it was Hagen Das but it was a quick lesson on how important it is to know where to go!

The beach was beautiful and completely lined with hotels and resorts. This was not the Mexico we'd come to see so I didn't take many pictures. I did snap a shot of the the military patrol that we followed out of Playa de Carmen on our way to Tulum! And this was the "nice" town!

Here are some pictures from our days in Tulum, Mexico. We spent Wednesday and Thursday there.

Wednesday skycycling and swimming in cenotes at Hidden Worlds Adventures.

Thursday at the Tulum Ruins

followed by swimming and sunbathing on the beach in front of our $35 per night cabana!

The toliet and shower were in a seperate building and the electricity was a car battery that could light the single light bulb hanging from the palapa roof but we were right on the beach! The other places we checked to the left and right were $150 a night and they didn't have electricity either!

Our cabana was just far enough below the one sand dune between it and the beach that the wonderful sea breeze didn't get to it. After spending all of Wednesday night in our cabana sleeping fitfully in the still, hot air I made arrangements with the resturant owners to have a beach lounge chair left out for me so I could sleep on it in the area where they served food outdoors - literally on the beach. Jack sat up with me until everyone had left the beach for the night and then he retired to the cabana and his mesquito netting. I sprayed myself down liberally with insect repellent and streached out on the lounge chair. It was wonderful. I watched the stars brighten, listened to the surf, and enjoyed the wonderful ocean breeze as I drifted off to sleep.

Sometime around 11:30 or Midnight I was awoken by a "noise". Looking over at the "doorway" off the beach I could see a dark shape on the white sand. Visions of the HUGE iguana's we'd seen at the Tulum Ruins that day made me shudder at the thought of one coming any closer than it already was! Rolling off the far side of my lounge chair I shoved the chair in the direction of the "shadow". The end of the chair came up against something solid. Much more solid than I imagined an iguana would be. Maybe it was the low wall that seperated the resturants area from the beach proper. Cautiously I stepped over the knee high wall to see the "shadow" from that side.

It was a sea turtle! She had made her way up the beach to lay her eggs and had it in mind to make her way through the opening in the wall. I had startled her and she was already turning around. She was 3 or 4 feet long and moving as frantically as a sea turtle can in the sand. I moved away and she rested. It was a magical moment for me. I love turtles. Especially sea turtles (tortuga's). She resumed her trek back towards the water, resting after every two or three "strokes" in the sand and I moved along with her at a respectful distance. I waded in to the water as high as my knees with her which is when a large wave freed her from the sand and she disappeared into the dark water. I sent wishes with her that she find a safe beach to lay her eggs on tomorrow night and returned to my lounge chair smiling.

I'd thought about running for the camera and waking Jack up but decided against it. She did not need any additional stress and this was a memory for me. A reward for sleeping on the beach.

In the pre-dawn I woke again to sounds from the beach - this time it was a group of four armed soldiers or policemen making their way from the beach resort at the left end of the beach to the path between the two hotels at the right end of the beach. They didn't seem to notice me and I didn't move. With full daylight I saw lots of little lizard tracks around my lounge chair too. Not a magical moment at all.

At breakfast the next morning the owner of Trescelunas Cafe told me I was extrodenarily lucky to have seen the turtle... she has lived in Tulum for 5 years and has never seen a sea turtle! Jack wondered why I hadn't waken him. I explained I wasn't sure it would be a special thing for him and didn't want to break the spell of the moment. He seemed to understand.

Next installment will be of Friday's drive to Isla Holbox and our stay there!

Things are getting better every day!

I actually got up, showered, dressed and put makeup on yesterday! We went to breakfast and in the afternoon we went to a fund raiser for the new Klamath Falls Humane Society building. Sitting in air conditioning and listening to local musicans for 1 1/2 hours required a two hour nap when we got home but Hey! we went out of the house!

Our house guest, of the last 4 months, made the final move to her new apartment this morning! I will miss the talks we shared, between commercials and Jack and I's trips, but it is good for everyone to have their own space! Cyntzi has had a heck of a year and I'm hoping this is the begining of the upswing for her! Watching her deal with the medical issues as they've been diagnosed has given me a renewed determination to do all that I can... while I can! Cyntzi is only 5 years older than I and she didn't expect things to unravel as they have in 5 years!

Sunday is my 52nd birthday! And today Jack arranged for my birthday present! Finally, after many years of thinking, talking, and intending to do it I am signed up to go down the Upper Klamath River on Saturday! Class 4+ for 7 miles! Wha whooo! (That is not the same as a Class 5- right, Mike?)

I'll be in a guided "big" raft... not my usual Aire Strike inflatable kayak... for this one for two reasons. One - I've been told the water AND rocks are way to wicked for an IK and two I'm not sure I am recovered enough to see my own self through any whitewater just yet. I'm not planning on "sluffing off" but if I run out of steam there will be 5 others in the raft that can help compensate! I've felt better every day since last Saturday so by this coming Saturday I am expecting to be ready!

Cyntzi has dubbed me the "unsinkable Molly Brown". I kinda like that!

I'll post Yucatan pictures soon! Love to all!

We've been home one week today. On Monday Jack and I went to our respective doctors - the antibiotic seemed to knock out the fever and killer headaches but we were not "better". Blood tests show elevated liver enzimes and low white blood cell count for both of us. The dengue fever tests have been taken and sent off... Weakness makes us "take it easy" even if we are silly enough to mow the lawn or vaccum the carpet. One bout of activity requires 14 to 16 hours of rest!

Jack is now up and around more than I. Although we've both developed a red, full body rash I am the only one that has swollen up with retained fluids! My feet and legs ache more than anywhere else although I ache all over. Dizyness has become my constant companion anytime I am up and walking around! The doctor says there should only be another few days of this stage... and then up to 3 months to recover strength and energy.

This morning Jack shared he thinks he isn't being impacted as hard as I because he was inoculated for all the jungle diseases when he went to the Phillipines when he was in the military 45 years ago. Hmm? I think it's the female tendency to retain water. Don't know if that is one to pose to the doctor or not.

I have managed to get the pitures from our trip on one computer and will try to get them sorted and tagged. We did get around on what was our last trip to Mexico. Even if this isn't dengue Jack is clear he never wants to go to Mexico again.

I am reading a novel, Almanac of the Dead by Leslie Marmon Silko - which I had started before going to Mexico - and find it fits well with the read, sleep, dream routine I'm doing! The book is different than any other I've ever read and I have to do it in small doses.

Everything is in small doses right now!

We are home. We are sick. Doctor prescribed the antibiodic given for denge fever. Ciprofloxacin.
We were bitten by many, many insects or many bites by some bugs. More later.

Mike was hiking across a glacier in the Cascade Mountains near Three Fingered Jack last weekend and this weekend he's on the water with me and "the girls".

On Saturday, August 2, 2008 Shannon, Johanna, Mike and I spent the day on the North Umpqua River between Glide and Whistlers Bend Park! I floated this section many times when I lived in the Roseburg area so I knew it would be safe even with the higher than normal water levels all the Oregon rivers are experiencing this summer. There have been two deaths at Blossom Bar on the Rogue River - right where I went out of the raft the first year I did the Wild and Scenic Section with Willie and his friends! The newspaper articles say where people normally can push off the rocks (which I did when I went in) the water in now so forceful that the women were pinned against the rocks and not able to push off or come to the surface in the highly airiated water.

The waterfall just before the take out was the only technical section and we all took the slot on the far left side of the picture (River right) so we had it easy.


Some other boaters didn't know about the falls evidently and when they tried to get over to a safe slot they got stuck and really had a time of it. Johanna is sliding on by as they struggle to get their raft off the rocks! The guy standing on the rock really is running a risk of being left out there!! They did get through intact and with everyone they started with!

We had our lunch just below the falls discussed the dangers of skin cancer due to over exposure to the sun. We ALL got sun burnt because the day started out overcast and we didn't put sun screen on our legs!


It was a fun day - all splash and giggles white water! This was my July river day! A little delayed but I'll do another river in August to stay on track with atleast 1 day of whitewater each month this summer!



Tomorrow Jack and I depart for our 9 day trip on the Yucatan Pennisula of Mexico! There we have tickets for one day of skycycling, snorkeling in cenotes, and exploring caverns outside of Tulum on the Ultimate Canopy and Cavern Adventure. If interested you can read more about it at http://www.hiddenworlds.com/adventurepackage.aspx !

Our overall plans include seeing the Mayan ruins at Tulum and Chichen Itza, visiting Isla Holbox for the best seafood in Latin America (per the posts on Trip Advisor), spending a Sunday in Merida, exploring the Progresso area and any littl e puerto in between.

Will post again after the 15th!