design

cozumel:    september 2004

Quisiera que estes aquí Outside a church downtown Freshly picked Playa del Carmen, on the West coast of Mexico proper. On the right is the much-hawked timeshare. Coba, the second-tallest Mayan temple. Getting up wasn't too difficult, but the vertiginous view back down made the descent treacherous. View from the top of Coba. Dozens of other temples are still buried in the forest.
Hoop from a Mayan ball game. The winning team sacrificed a player in oblation. The Mayans called this a tourist tree. See how the bark is all red and peeling? Our multi-talented waiter Alvaro constructed a grasshopper from a palm frond. He could also balance a bottle of Corona on his head. Alvaro took this family photo, with the men donning the requisite corny sombreros. A local aquarium transferred its dolphins to our hotel swimming pool for safekeeping during the imminent hurricane. First, they'd splash the dolphins with water and slap their backs . . .
And then splash. A <a href='/media/dolphins.WMV'>movie</a> of the handlers putting a dolphin in the pool is available. The dolphins swam in small pods, pretty gracefully, considering they were in the shallow end. The dolphin on the right was a calf. See, I wasn't kidding about the dolphins in the hotel pool. Another perk of the hotel: creative housekeeping staff. My brother and I goof off in the pool (pre-dolphins)
We went on two or three dives a day from this port, on a boat similar to Aries Liam (my brother) getting off our dive boat Liam does the heavy math in the dive log. Chedraui was our favorite supermercado. A lot like Walmart with Kahlua. And everything was on sale sale sale! Mexico is renowned for cheap prescription drugs, including the Orwellian mind-control variety.
Clowns hanging from the ceiling of a shop Clock tower in the plaza downtown. We rented this precariously-constructed riding lawnmower to drive around the island Bicyclists and drivers shared the skinny lanes The crab sedulously digging a hole under my hammock, sisypheanly oblivious to the waves that kept filling it in. When the hurricane finally arived, the waves on the East side of the island were wild.
And with the hurricane came one night of torrential rain. Remember that windowless jeep we were in? Oh, how I missed glass!      

< Return to main photo list