I only have five days left in Mexico.  This fact hit me out of the blue, and like a ton of bricks.  I am sad.  I am not sure I want to leave.  And I am suddenly almost paralyzed, with the thought that my life will be oh so normal again, in just a few short days.  The first time I ever traveled, was with two people I still consider to be two of my best of friends, Dannie and Leah.  We met at the concourse of DIA in 2001, and flew to Paris together.  On the airplane, we stole drinks from the stewardess, since we were not yet 21.  We got good and drunk on that plane, and were...

I'm in Campeche.  I'm having breakfast with the owner of the house I'm staying at.  She has dug out maps, history books, and magazines, to show me what I might do while in Campeche.  She is an amazing woman. Originally from Mexico City, she came to Campeche five years ago, fell in love with a house and bought it.  She rents out rooms, to make up for the expenses.   Campeche is the most beautiful city I've seen.  It has a fortress that surrounds it, built hundreds of years ago, as a defense to keep pirates out.  The entire interior of the fortress was named a UNESCO heritage site, almost 20 years ago.  Each building inside the city wall is...

I am in Mexico, distant from the headlines in the United States.  It would be so easy to dismiss what is happening in the United States right now. Just as easy as it is to dismiss what happens  everyday to people of color.  I sat at my computer yesterday, and like 4 million other people, I debated weather or not I needed to see a  man be executed.  I watched it.  And then I watched a woman film the aftermath of her boyfriend's murder,  all while calling the killer "sir".

I've developed two small calluses where my palms grip the steering wheel.  By my accounts I have now driven close to 2,000 miles in Mexico, which makes me an expert in this Mexican driving business.  Ok, well maybe not an expert, but definitely capable of getting myself from point A to point B in one piece.  Before this, I had never driven outside of the US, and it was definitely the most terrifying aspect of this trip.  In my head, I envisioned dirt roads, high on a mountain top, with banditos around every corner.  Most of the time, this could not be further from the truth....I have stuck to driving on cuotas, (toll roads) whenever possible.  These roads are almost...

My trip to Merida was ominous from the start. A trip that was supposed to take six hours took more than ten, and I arrived in Merida just as the sun was setting.  I opened the door to discover an empty pool.  I turned on the shower to discover that the water was scorching hot.  I went in to town the next day for fifteen minutes, to find that walking anywhere in the middle of the day was almost unbearable due to the heat and oppresive humidity.  I canceled my week of Spanish classes, knowing that I would be miserable walking 25 minutes to the school each day.  Instead, I bought a bottle of wine, some pasta, and locked my...