Current mood: anxious
As many of you know, I've just spent a week in paradise. Well, ok, not exactly paradise, but Cancun, Mexico. My dad has a time share down here and he's had it for so long and built up so many "free" trips that to celebrate his retirement he took the whole family. YEAH!!! I know!! Pretty freaking fantastic, yes? This is no ordinary resort, either. It's all inclusive. That means all the food and drinks(regular and alcoholic..not that I would take advantage of that part...ahem..Pina Colada anyone?). The "whole family" consisted of:mom, step-mom, her mom, her aunt, my sis and brother-in-law, and step-brother and his wife, oh...and me. Well..to be honest, my husband was supposed to go but I'll get to that in a minute.
Ok, I'll get to that now, my husband and I had been having problems and..long story short, we decided to part ways, which meant that I would go alone. Scary prospect, huh? I'm soon to be 44(in October) and I had taken very few trips alone. I had never flown, never parasailed, never snorkeled, never rode a mexican bus to the local Wal-Mart(yeah...they have one about 10 miles from the hotel). But, I decided it was time to take the first step and get out of my "comfort zone".
At least I wasn't completely alone, the whole family was here and very supportive. I love them all. This experience has taught me a lot. Not only did I walk on a beautiful beach almost every morning, I also watched a huge sea turtle crawl from the carribbean come up to the beach, dig herself a nest, and lay her eggs. About an hour later she hustled back to the ocean(they have a sea turtle hatchery here-the staff collected the eggs and put them in a roped off beach area for hatching...3 months the new sea turtles will hatch..and go back to the wild). while we were here about 400 sea turtle eggs were collected.
I snorkeled and saw all kinds of ocean life(never swam in the ocean before either...thats 2 points..thank you) I was supposed to go parasailing, but the morning of the trip I woke up so ill I didn't get out of bed at all that day. Monteczuma's revenge? nah..I prefer to think I had a bad shrimp the night before. By the next day I was totally fine. I've seen the Ruins of the Mayan empire at Tulum, and on the one and a half hour bus ride there, I saw a life that most americans never get to see.
The people here are hard working, friendly, open and they scrape for every tiny convenience they have. We americans are so spoiled. We think we "HAVE TO HAVE" satellite tv, cell phones, internet access. You know what? 80% of the population down here collects rain water on rooftop receptacles. A lot of the workers in my hotel ride a bus 2 hours a day to earn about $30.00.
On the way to Tulum if you glanced past the shops into the streets behind...you saw a life that you never imagined. Tiny apartments house whole families, usually in the space of what you call your kitchen/dining room. You learn to appreciate the bounty that is ours, that we take for granted every day.
Today is my last day in paradise, tomorrow the flight home and I begin my new life. Since this marriage thing clearly is not for me...um...I'll be the lady who at 80 years old has a Harley and tattoos and wrote the book about the solo cross country motorcycle trip she went on back in the day.
Look for the book in about 10 years, and in about 15 years if you happen to run into a silver haired, tall woman with deep green eyes on a motorcycle(may not get a Harley..but I can dream). It's probably me, and my younger boyfriend. *grins*
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