la buena vida

How can you not love it? I did the conference thing in Florida, which was actually really fun and quite productive for work. Got to hang out with the boss man a bit, whom I see maybe once a year, got to meet all of our Bonner partners, some reps from other cool organizations (check out the Pulitzer Center for news coverage of international issues and RESULTS which is an advocacy organization).

And now I am working, poolside. I took a real live vacation Monday - Wednesday, heading to the secluded beach cabanas of Tulum, meeting Oaxaca Lindsay over there for a few days of complete bliss. It is absolutely insane to me that places like Tulum aren't populated with massive resorts and things. Obviously there are, but where we were was pretty abandoned (partly because of the pinche swine flu, but even if there were more tourists at the cabanas, there just really weren't that many cabanas to be occupied).
We spent the first few days riding our bikes and checking out the local sites. The water in Tulum was seriously all kinds of greens and blues and it kills me how unbelievably clear it was. It also kills me that I have not found a home someplace like that because I really think I should. Perhaps tourism is my calling and I need to take up residency at such beaches.
Anyway, aside from the beaches, my other fav part of Tulum were the cenotes, which are scattered around the region. I've never heard of these cenotes, but apparently they're all over the region. Supposedly some meteor hit and created these underground caverns, which have since been filled with rain water and are great for diving. Some scientists believe this meteor played a significant part in the extinction of the dinosaurs. We just went to one, but it was INCREDIBLE. The fotos don't do them justice.
When not biking around checking out cenotes or frollicking in the crystal clear waters, we basically hammocked it up a lot, read a lot (I'm reading Even Cowgirls Get the Blue by Tom Robbins - love him), and chatting it up with random people. It was such a great few days.

I bid farewell to Lindsay on Wednesday, and went on sola, flying from Cancun to Mexico City to Puerto Escondido on the Pacific Coast. Kate and crew are meeting me here tonight, so I'm working from my hotel pool. The beach here doesn't really compare to that of Tulum, but there is a pool, hammocks, delicious mangoes, and tomorrow we start our surf camp, so I'm super excited. Although, yesterday I went out and watched the surfing a bit and it seemed pretty intense, so I'm also a little nervous. Hopefully we don't die.

Anyway, I don't think it gets much better than this. I've already done two conference calls today, all while sipping on agua de mango and taking intermittent dips in the pool. =) Hope your week is going as well as mine!

Peace.

P.S. - So tourism is still slow and you can tell it's hurting these communities. Especially traveling sola, the Mexicans are loving talking to me, mostly about the conspiracy that was the swine flu and how it's hurt the economy. Tulum was insanely empty and most of the beachfront restaurants were completely closed because there was no business. Some of the cabanas too. If anyone is looking to take a quick break from life, flights to Cancun are cheap. You can take a bus from Cancun to Tulum for 100 pesos (2 hours, less than $10) and cabanas are cheap and they're usually willing to bargain since occupancy is so low (we stayed in a really nice one for 300 pesos, which came out to about $12/night).

Our cabana at Diamante K, which is apparently owned by some famous telenovela star!It seriously is one of the most amazing beaches I've ever seen (and I like to think I've seen my share of beaches). Plus, you can rent a moto, take a collectivo, or ride your bike to cool ruin sights (either the main ruins on the beach or Coba ruins, which are super cool, situated in the jungle). I think the Department of Tourism here should hire me up. =)