More from the Yucatan 1/2/13

Hola Lois and other dear friends following on the blog.

I regret very much that I have not been able to respond to each and every one of you dear friends who have posted comments on my blog with words of encouragement and gratitude.  Your prayers and thoughts are what keep me on the road and out of harm´s way.

You will see on the blog now my responses to some emails I was able to answer and get a flavor for my journey, experiences and hopes for us all. 

I was in such a rush last evening to not be on the road after dark I forgot to wish all of you dear friends a Happy New Year but more - transformation in the year ahead.  

As it was, in the waning daylight two cars, headlights ablaze, came at me on a  two lane stretch out of town with no shoulders.  There was a place to step off, no careening into the brush.  It gets even more ¨exciting¨ when three try to do it at the same moment - that on an earlier journey in Central Am.  I very rarely bike after dark.

The family ran out of masa for corn tortillas after our New Years eve fiesta so Sixto and I and his young son Ismael drove into town last night and bought three kilos.  Sixto knew the lady and we waited a few minutes while the corn was ground into flour - not much fresher than that.  Without it we´d all have gone a bit hungrier.  I´ve grown quite fond of this family over my stay with them but it´s time to hit the road again.  If you want a real cultural experience apart from the tourist trail, learn a little Spanish and come.

Sixto is trying to preserve traditional Maya culture and is living in a very humble way.  When Sixto is working part of the family lives in town and he stays at Casa Maya.  I have my casita (tent) in the shade of some large trees nearby.  Araselli and the kids return in the early AM to fix breakfast for Sixto before he drives off to work at Chichen.  I´m included and accepted as part of the family.

Just as I was headed to my tent after dark last night I looked back to see smoke from an evening fire rising through the fronds of the Casa Maya;  the smoke back lit by a single bulb hanging outside the bano (toilet) - magical - the smoke not the toilet, although this one works rather well, the water gravity fed from an overhead tank. It´s a flush version rather than the dry composting one at Gabriel´s place.  Sixto is doing much better than many with a government job compared to others who have far less here. 

My sense of it at this point is that this is our year to make a major turn, to create a New Heaven and New Earth.  A rising tides floats all boats ready and able to journey forth in a new direction.  Are you ready to follow your dreams, passion and hopes with open minds and hearts or your worst fears.  Your thoughts and mine together are the energies of creation.  There are none higher than Love and Compassion because that is who you/we are.  That is the awakening, the remembering happening even midst the chaos.  The choice remains yours to give it all you´ve got or not.  We sink or swim together.  But most of all we need each other working as one to pull off a very last minute ¨Hail Mary.¨  I am in the game, join me - there really is nothing to lose.  

Don - Peace Rider