SVL

Just a quick post... we're all sadly realizing that there's only 2 and a half weeks left, but I've put off the inevitable by delaying my flights - just by a little bit. After the program finishes, the plan is to go to Playa for a couple of days partying with the group, then north to Merida for a few days, Chichenitza to see ruins, maybe to Uxmal to see some more (my friend Daniella from Merida says that these ruins are in the jungle, which could be a little "Indiana Jones"... cool), Holbox (pronounced Holbosh) to see whalesharks, then south to Belize for more diving (mainly the Blue Hole, which Jacques Cousteau created by blasting a hole in the reef to get his boat free - a little controversial really) and rain forrests, possibly Panama to stay at a friend's B&B, then all the way back to Cancun for my flight to NYC!

In other exciting news, today we witnessed deadly Squirrel Vs Lizard treetop fights, which resulted in mummy squirrel tumbling 14 ft to the ground while defending her treetop nest from the mean and scaly iguana. She lay dazed and motionless for a good 5 minutes before stumbling off into the mangroves (where she'll probably end up getting munched by bigger and meaner lizards). Meanwhile, daddy squirrel tried ninja-speed darting attacks at the lizard, but that didn't really work, and so now the baby squirrels are probably lizard poo.

And of course tomorrow I turn 35. It would be nice to be home with friends and family, but really, I think this is a pretty damn good alternative. After teaching tomorrow, we're going up to Gustavo's restaurant. He's putting a little party on for me and a few of the gang. We became friends with Gustavo just a couple of weeks ago, and as it turns out, he had only must moved down here with his wife a few days before we'd met him. Anyway, he's a really nice Mexican guy whose wife grills some mean arracherra (marinated flank steak) and she makes an awesome mole. I'm looking forward to tomorrow's feast - we're promised some special dishes! Mmmmm.