Seamail No. 6 ...and 8

ok, so we know this says seamail no. 6 - and that's because we started writing it ages ago, while we were traveling around the yucatan in mexico. we never got around to sending it because we were too busy enjoying our trip, and then when we were robbed, we forgot alltogether. so here is what you've been missing...

Hola family and friends

We are writing to you from the lovely city of campeche, which is on the gulf side of the yucatan peninsula. Two long days of driving brought us here from puerto morelos, but we have seen so much that it

feels like much more than that. Perhaps, though, we should tell you about the past two weeks, since we've been sort of slow on the seamails lately

Biggest news is our trip to xcaret. It is an 'ecopark' about an hour (2 bus rides) south of puerto morelos.    We went there as a treat for

my birthday, since the entrance fee is sort of pricey, but it also was useful for my project. At xcaret they have a large sea turtle conservation program-hatchery. I was able to speak with victor

vasquez gomez, an employee in the turtle area, and he gave me some really helpful information about how they care for the turtles, where their funding comes from, and how, in general, a conservation station

like theirs works. Victor is my friend because he offered me a job someday in the future, basically saying 'come back someday! I'll give you a job!' (in spanish, of course). He helps care for about

600 turtles at the center - this includes numerous adults and juveniles on display in tanks and in a large natural looking lagoon, hatchlings that will be released, and sick turtles that have been

brought in for treatment. We saw probably the

craziest turtle i'll ever see that day - a siamese twin turtle! It was proably about 4 years old, and it had two heads (one at each end of the shell). Each head seemed to control two flippers, so it was

always swimming in circles with no rudder to control direction. Crazy. Other highlights of xcaret included an underground river to float/swim in, dolphins, jaguars, monkeys, butterfly house, and a

really cool night show featuring over 200 performers with an exhibition of two mayan ballgames (one where the ball is on fire, and the other where players move the ball by bumping it with their hips). Enough about xcaret.

We did some other stuff too...it's getting hard to remember now. I was able to have a good talk with enrique (one of our dive instructors) about his views on ecotourism and ecological issues in

mexico - great things to add to my project. We also went diving with him again - this time to see an intentionally sunk mexican military destroyer. It was sunk 3 years ago to facilitate reef growth and it

was really amazing. In the ship was fully intact machinery including the huge engines, and swimming through it was reminiscent of video we've seen of titanic expeditions. A huge cannon was mounted on the front of the ship, and every surface was covered with tiny marine organisms. Overall, very dramatic place to dive. Sea life viewed in this and another dive that day included: two large sting rays, lots

of fish, and a tiny seahorse!

So that brings us up to yesterday, when we had to leave our lovely home in puerto morelos. We spent last night in merida at a really unique hostel, and spent this morning seeing the sights around that

colonial city.    It was a really strange place with extremely narrow streets (claustrophobia!) and lots of 17-1800s architecture. Probably the strangest thing we saw was the HUGE marketplace...filled

with everything from shoes to fruits and veggies to religious shrine items.    There were huge rooms where meats were strung up on hooks and people just point to what they want. The whole place was an assault

on the senses - sights, smells, sounds - it was very very crowded. This is how mexico is supposed to be, not like our cush touristy riviera maya area. Jerad could easily see everything, considering that he seems to be about 3 feet taller than any mexicans...they're short. We found some good deals.

ok. that's the end of the stuff we wrote before - now we'll try to remember everything else and put it here.

we stayed for two nights in campeche at a really nice, brand new hostel overlooking the town square and two blocks from the gulf of mexico. beautiful view. beautiful city. campeche's historical center (where our hostel was) is surrounded by a hexagonal military fortress-wall. several other samller military garrisons surround the city overlooking the coast. (these are great places from which to watch sunsets, as we found our second night.) while exploring the city, we happened upon an arts center where we were invited in to hear a practice session of a world class argentinian pianist who was performing that night at the historical theatre. that day we also went to a botanical garden and an archeological museum (both inside military garrisons). that night we played a rousing game of uno with the two guys who ran the hostel and the only other guest - a crazy frenchman. what made the game interesting was that our uno cards are (were - they were stolen) in spanish. salto! tome dos!

next day - we drove to chichen itza - a huge, beautifully restored mayan city. lovingly referred to by many a tour operator as 'chicken pizza.' we were pleasantly surprised to see that it has not been converted into a tourist trap, and that the ruins are spread out enough that the crowds aren't really bothersome. we took lots of great pictures, none of which will ever be seen because jerad's camera was stolen. boo.

after chichen itza we drove to tulum where we stayed at a really cool hotel on the beach called posada del sol. the owners are artists and they got really creative in the rooms with some interesting tile and such. that night we went to l'incontro (our favorite little italian place in tulum) for a delicious dinner and the sounds of 'splash' a jazz-reggae band from cancun. it was lots of fun.

next day we were robbed, and you know that basic story.

the days following that were hectic, to say the least. we tried to get a passport for jerad at the consulate in cancun, but they were less than helpful. only after repeated pleas did they say we could call the embassy in merida to ask for an emergency passport (otherwise, we were going to be stuck in mexico for a minimum of three weeks). the next day jerad took the four hour bus ride to merida, but got there too late to be issued an emergency passport that day. this was two days before our scheduled date of departure for costa rica. meanwhile, i was calling airtreks, the company we got our airline tickets through, trying to figure out whether or not i'd even be able to go to costa rica. (luckily all i needed was a copy of my ticket and the police report. whew.) i also spent time talking to the insurance company and bank of america trying to see if we were covered. we weren't. finally, the next day, jerad DID get a passport after staying the night in merida. i spent that day finding a new backpack for us and replacing some other stolen items. that evening jerad arrived back from merida at about 6pm - about 14 hours before we had to leave for the airport.

with a sigh of relief we packed our things, made a terrible meal in the hotel kitchen (which ended up making jerad sick for about 2 days - i didn't like it, didn't eat it, and didn't get sick), got some sleep, and in the morning headed to the airport to commence our journey to san jose.

so now you're caught up until seamail no. 7, which we sent four or five days ago.

since then, we've spent three nights in the tiny pacific coast town of nosara at a pizzeria, which happened to rent cabins. everything there was very beautiful - our room backed up right to the edge of jungle, and every morning we were awoken by a family of howler monkeys who lived in the trees above. the sound they make is strangely identified as howling... it sounds more like extremely deep throated breathing - and is very loud! i'd heard them before, but at first listen, jerad thought a dragon was attacking the town. at any given time you could step out the front door and watch between 6 and 12 monkeys sleeping-eating-moving around the trees. one time jerad even had a howling conversation with the noisiest of these monkeys.

we went to nosara because it is the largest town near ostional - a marine wildlife refuge. unfortunately, it is really difficult to get to ostional from nosara, especially in the rainy season. mistake no 1. mistake no 2 was that there is no real bank in nosara, meaning you need to bring in any money you might need. we were not aware of this. mistake no 3 was unavoidable - we were told and read that thousands of sea turtles would be nesting at ostional this week because it is just before the new moon (this is called an arribada). apparently this happened last week, and we missed it. we spent one night on the beach looking for turtles with no luck. alltogether very disappointing.

another thing that happened in nosara was that we were robbed again! lovely! luckily, it was just flip flops this time, and a hat. unbeknownst to us, local kids like to watch tourists come to the beach, set down their shoes, and get in the water. they wait till you aren't looking and run off with your things. nice kids, eh? also stolen was our hotel key, which meant we had to switch rooms, and overall the whole deal was just REALLY annoying. but we're old pros at getting robbed now. that afternoon, we took surfing lessons. we were going to say that we learned how to surf, but that's really not the case.

we're suspicious that our instructors are the reason we didn't really learn how to surf. rick, a middle aged californian (and the stereotypical image of a surfer) and his instructor-in-training, susan didn't seem to care whether we learned or not. they didn't answer questions, and near the end of the lesson when they said they were going to stand on the beach and watch how we did, they just sort of left...without telling us. i guess that was the end of the lesson. so there we were, not knowing how to surf, on a beach with a strong undertow, attempting to surf. it didn't go well. but we tried, got bruised, found out that surfboard wax pulls your hair out, and realized that we were not meant to be surfers. at least that's our first impression. maybe we'll give it another try sometime.

so now, bringing you fully up to date, we are in nicoya, a town of 25,000 that is inland on the nicoya peninsula and has (gasp!!) atms! we're not sure where we are headed from here, but we may take another stab at ostional tomorrow, then move north along the coast. bus travel here is a bit sketchy...posted schedules are, more often than not, wrong, and the buses are forced to ford many rivers on the washed out roads. too much rain = no buses today. overall we're really enjoying ourselves and nicoya seems like a really nice place.

ok. that's all for now. sorry it was so long - now everyone is caught up and we're only going forward from here. as always, look at the websites if you want...no new pictures. my camera IS in the shop, though, so there is a glimmer of hope for the future.

with love and howler monkeys from costa rica,

liza and jerad