I forgot to take the camera in to town today.  I conveniently parked Silverio's bike under a sign that said "If you drink, don't drive" and proceeded to have ceviche with cerveza for lunch.  I made it back without wrecking.  Silverio's bike has two brakes.  Neither of them work very well, but at least there's a chance of slowing down.
The sky was absolutely beautiful just now, but I could not get a pic.
Jim gave me some kind of powdered root for the bike injury, and it's really helping.  The wound is barely seeping, now.
Troy, that peacock was back at Mayalandia. 
Those other birds are a cute pair of doves and some kind of woodpecker.  Of course a black cat crossed my path, so I had to include that.
The other night, some kind of animal was making a weird sound and when I asked Celso what it was, he drew a picture and told me the Mayan name.  Well, that is what that beetle is.  Those are 12" tiles and size 10 feet -- so it is a really big bug.  I watched it crash off of a 2 foot high sidewalk and move right along.  This particular specimen really does only have 5 legs, but that does not seem to hinder it.
Listening to Louis Armstrong (and assorted jungle creatures, with the trobodores in the background) and getting ready for bed.  Love ya :)

This morning I was chatting with Jose, whose English might even be worse than my Spanish, so we had to use pantomining quite a bit.  Then he starts laughing and he says we are like those guys with the white faces and moved his hands around like he was in a box.  I laughed and said "mimes"! Naturally he wanted to know what the word was in Spanish and as I looked it up, he asked Fernando who said "payaso", which is a clown.  I said, No, the friends of clowns.  And by then I had looked it up and mimes are mimos.  I said that's perfect because Luis is a clown and we're his friends.   :) 
Walking back to my room, I saw Luis in a different room, asking Juilio something.  When I was out of sight, I meowed.  I've been waiting to do that for a long time, but I never wanted to do it where any guests might notice.  He didn't say anything; but just now, Luis walked the whole way down the driveway meowing like a sick cat or perhaps abandoned baby.  They are such a great group of people.
I've been kind of stalled on two projects:  Reprinting the spa "menu" and creating an online store.  I need the owner, Belisa, to make sure the spa menu conveys the message she wants when it is in Spanish, and also to see how she would like it put in the books.  I have everything I need to create an online store for the boutique, but I don't know if she would just like everything listed online to browse, or if she would actually like to set it up to purchase items, which obviously I would need to hand-over to them as I am not involved in the money here.  So, the point of all that was that she is coming tomorrow :)  Her husband is coming, as well, and he is very interested in Jim's projects; so a few things that we have been working on will be able to be wrapped-up and I, for one, will feel a sense of accomplishment.
Speaking of accomplishment...  I had a brainstorm to download Oldies rock songs that contain clear pronunciation of words that the workers need or have trouble with.  Then I am creating lists of all the phrases they can say once they learn the pronunciation in the songs.  That way, they can basically teach themselves and check on their own pronunciation while messing around.  They are always playing music and singins in the bar.  Even some stuff in English.  There are only about 5 CDs, and one is a Broadway Hits, and another is Michael Jackson.
Well, it's a great morning.  I couldn't go to sleep until 4 AM because my neighbors kept moving the porch furniture around and slamming their door.  Celso even heard their door slam at 2:30, when he was in the Hacienda.  Of course they were Americans...  But they left.  In retrospect, I think they were going outside to smoke.  But when I was awoken from a light slumber by people shuffling around a few feet from my door in the utter darkness of the jungle, I had quite an adrenaline rush.  Then when they went outside the 2nd time, they slammed the door, and an hour later, they went out again when I was still not asleep from the first time...  Of course Celso woke me up at 5 and we had a lesson until 6:30, when I went back to bed.  The neighbors left (noisily) at 7, and then I slept properly until 10.  Well, everyone noticed and even the gardeners are saying "Oh, buenas tardes" ha ha...  But that's cool.  I've had 4 hours asleep and anytime from now (1:00) on out, I can take a proper siesta and not get picked on :)

The delightful lady from New Zealand is Gabriella.  She said that she is doing a motivational seminar for Heinz managers next week and she'll tell them about sitting in the hut in the rain and eating tomato soup.  http://www.gabriellagoddard.com/goddard-bio.htm
Today, Chef Josue mentioned the soup again, and another visitor asked how it was made.  Jim had just said that we cooked it over the fire, so I couldn't figure out what she wanted to know.  Chef Josue launched into a beautiful description of the soup which was spot-on.  He even said "I think there was a little garlic", which was totally accurate.
So, the lady today gave a presentation in which she spoke and showed a video that ran for 75 minutes.  When it was over, Manuela whispered "you're okay -- it's over now" :)  Thank goodness that Jose came in with Jamaica Flower iced tea for all of us.  Of course the video was mainly in Spanish.  Then, at one point, it switched abruptly to Mayan.  Jim whispered to the Mayan speaker beside him "Did you understand that" to which he replied "nope".  It was a different dialect.  The highlight of the presentation was when somebody was talking that the guys actually know.   They were all excited and talked about that in Mayan.   Then Lorenzo sat down on the arm of the lady's chair and made random comments in Mayan the entire time that particular man was talking.  The message was to save native seeds.  We have that in the states and it's called seedsavers.org.  Somehow, this presentation obscured the message with a thick coating of new age stuff.  http://www.themayaseedarkproject.com/  At one point in the video, a body-less head talks in a rock.  I'm still giggling about that.  Nobody laughed.  I was really impressed with them. 
Luis is walking around meowing when nobody can see him...  Bromiando = joking :)
The woman explained that she couldn't hang-out with Jim, Gabriella, and me yesterday because she had to prepare for a love fest that will occur tomorrow.  She actually repeated it in Spanish to all the guys. 

Our new friend from New Zealand said that my soup was the tastiest thing she has eaten in Mexico.  As she lived in Mexico D.F. for 5 years, I took that as a huge compliment.  Of course she may have just been kind.  Jim said that he tried some soup without salt, cheese, and lime, and that the condiments definitely made the meal ;)  Chef Josue also liked it, but now I will attribute that to cheese and lime, as well :)
We cooked pineapple and mame (um, it tastes just like papaya, but it isn't...) over the fire in some butter.  I scored a new frying pan for Jim.  His is thin and also has a hole.  Our friend, Abraham, gave me/ us one from the maintenance shed that is much more durable, and slightly larger, but has lost its handle.  Nothing that a bit of corrogated cardboard can't fix in a pinch ;) 
My friend and neighbor, Debbie, remembers the bicycle incident...  Gladly this crash was minimal.  The worst casualty was my new pair of pants; but after they make it through my personal Mayan laundry service, everything will probably be back to perfection.  The other day, I was lounging around at 7 AM and drinking coffee while I chatted with one of the laundry men.  He said "You know, I did not iron those pants..."  I was like, thanks, I've never ironed them... but I felt embarassed.  They take better care of me than I do of myself.
Debbie, the lady from New Zealand is delightfully like you.  You even share a haircut.  And, she wore a turquoise shirt to dinner this evening :)

Today Celso woke me up before 5 AM and we had a lesson until 6:30, when he needed to go around and do wake-up calls.
Philiberto is the lead gardener and this week he is on vacation.  So, he is working as a waiter in the restaurant and learning English.  He did go and check on the gardeners, as well.  We had an awesome English lesson for another hour and a half.  He is just learning English from the very beginning.   So, I downloaded some golden oldies to help with pronunciation (Up, up and away; Sugar pie, honey bunch; etc...).  Fun.
This afternoon I borrowed Victor's bike to ride in to Piste.  Turns out that there is no right brake.  In order to not repeat the Labor Day 2008 fiasco, I abstained from trying the left handed break.  I just used my shoes to slow down.  At one point, I wiped out all over the sidewalk right in front of a lady...  Just one more scrape added to the collection on my shins.  I asked Victor how he slows down, and  he showed me:  The left-handed brake is connected to the rear tire.  I wrecked for nothing.  Not to mention all the rubber that was burned off of my Tevas ;)
I'm off to cook with Jim and probably the lady from New Zealand who is writing a book about a character that is surprisingly like Jim, and maybe also with the lady that is lecturing on plants and is here now, not September as everyone expected.

5:30 lesson with Celso, also picked some kind of fruits that start with an "M" and apparently taste delicious pureed with milk...  I have to wait for them to get ripe, but I will update you :)
8:30 met-up with Bibiano in Chichen for the insider's guide.  Those pictures of trees are actually a pair of white birds with colored heads.  I forget what they're called.  You really can see them if you are into birds.  If not, it just looks like branches.  Bibiano was surprised that I could spot the birds so easily, so of course I mentioned that my mother is a birdwatcher.  There was another cool bird which I of course do not remember the name of and it flew away before I took the picture.  I'll ask Bibiano later.  He's the guitar player around here in the evenings, but we just got a bus-load of people, so he'll be busy for awhile.
After it got too hot to enjoy sightseeing, I walked in to Piste to buy  my three favorite foods:  wine, fresh fruit/veggies, and yogurt.  On the way back, Bibiano drove by and he turned around to pick me up and give me a ride back to the Hacienda.  He said "Baby, you can't walk in the heat.  I will drive you."
When I arrived here with my loot, Marciano was still cleaning my room.  He said that I there was no reason to walk to Piste in the first place -- it was kind of far to walk.  I should ride a bike.  I said (obviously) that I don't have a bike.  He said we all have bikes -- I have a bike.  Anytime you want to go to Piste, just borrow a bike.  It's no problem.  :)
Randomly I leave tips for the mosos who clean my room.  Today was Julio's day off, [Julio is the only one who never comes to classes, so I know the other 4 guys a-lot better, even though I've lately been spending lots of quality time with Julio] --  so I left one of my students (who this week was Marciano)  $50 pesos and a bag of Oreos from Elyse's wedding.  When I came back, I had towel animals and flowers.  He wasn't quite finished, so I left my loot under a chair on the patio and sat in the hammock to make a dent in "The Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson (highly recommend it!).  Marciano finished cleaning the room and then put away all of my groceries, and organized the fridge so that everything looked beautiful in it.   He also decorated my room with my new striped shopping bags and placed the adorable D <heart> E bag from Elyse's wedding in a prominent position on my table.  He said I will hate to leave.  He's right!
I spent the rest of the afternoon reading and napping.  This morning I actually paid to enter Chichen since I was planning to look around and take photos, so I will probably meander over there shortly to take in the sound and light show.
Big flooding in Iowa -- everyone's fine.  I'm trying to post a video of the dam breaking; and I will if I accomplish it before my patience for technology wears out.  Fortunately the actual story includes the word "dam!" -- so I don't think it actually counts as swearing if I mention it while trying to insert video into this webpage...
Troy spent the day not working.  (Yay, Troy!)  Of course he had Grizzly Bear to snuggle.  Later he went golfing, and now he's headed over for man and beer time with neighbor Steve as apparently all of the women are on adventures.
Looking forward to another wonderful week!  Take care :) 

I am really happy to be back at the Hacienda.
Jim (volunteer of 8 months...) was stopped in Chichen on his weekly banana run.  He told the guard that he volunteered at the Hacienda.  The guard said "Oh, I knew about the blonde girl, but I didn't realize there were more volunteers"...
Spent most of the day reading on the hammock.  I was supposed to have neighbors, but they didn't like the room.  I don't know what is wrong with people.  It is really beautiful.  I contemplated taking pictures of it in the late afternoon sunlight (through the windows), but I didn't.  I'll have to take some while they're cleaning.  People are nuts.
Another Saturday night and Troy bought pizza for all of us.  Got to love a guy like that.
Looks like it might rain.  I am working on "Devil in the White City" and might finish it this evening if it does rain.
I spent a solid hour chatting with Julio.  New flowers in my room.
Luis, the waiter who I've been convinced hated me all along, has not been here since Tuesday.  This morning, he said "Oh, Shelby!  (someone in the family) was sick and I wasn't here Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday.  Then I came back on Friday, and you were gone!"  Later, he brought my computer to me before his shift was over so it would  not be left out if it rained.
Thanks to Magali for taking the new photo of my new outfit.  I bought an assortment of clothing in a particular store on 5th ave in Playa that I just really liked.  One of each:  Shirt, shorts, capri's, pants, skirt, hat.
Have an awesome weekend!

Of course the wedding was absolutely beautiful and Elyse was stunning!  I didn't take a single photo; and I'm not sure what the link is for the wedding photographer :(
Oh the way there, there weren't any seats on the next bus from Valladolid to Playa, so I walked around and found a collectivo.  Sure we barrelled through construction zones at 110 km / hour in an un-airconditioned car without seatbelts and only AM radio, but it only cost $130 pesos ($4 less than the bus) and I got there in record time :)
I bought both dresses and a pair of sandals en-route.  One while walking around Valladolid, and the other in Playa -- both off of the mannequin in the front of the store (window-shopping)...  My cute little leather sandals with pink and orange leather flowers on the toe cost $150.  Bibiano said "wow, they gave you the Mexican price!"  :)
The Royal in Playa was spectacular and everything seemed perfect to me.  I am so fortunate that I was able to see Elyse and Dan officially begin their life together.  What an adorable couple!
I am really glad to be back at the Hacienda.  There's no place like home ;)  This morning, Julio peeked his head in the window to see if I was home.  He made the bed a different way while I was gone -- covering up all the pillows so they didn't get dusty rather than turning everything down like every other day.  He told me I am going to have "neighbors" today.  They know I try to be scarce when there are other people next door.  Usually, I spend an inordinate amount of time on "my" hammock, but it really is shared by both rooms. 
When I was leaving on Thursday, I walked through Chichen Itza and obviously past MayaLand, and one of the trobadores was painted-up in a costume.  I didn't recognize him at all, but they knew the precise moment that I left.  It is really neat to be so well looked after.

Probably I will not manage to call on time, but it is the thought that counts...