Ruins and Geography

"Without geography you're nowhere," according to Jimmy Buffet. Viewing a couple of postcards and largely from reading "A Piece of Salty Land" by Buffet, we are heading to the ruins at Tulum.

The cruise ship docks in Cozumel, Mexico for eight hours on Wednesday and for seven of those eight hours DH and I will be on a tour of Tulum, the Mayan ruins south of Cozumel. Am I excited? Maybe....these excursions often end up more survival training than a look into an ancient time. If my current cold subsides, if my energy level is high and if it's not too hot and sunny (fair skinned sunburns quickly), then perhaps I will find it enjoyable. Working to get to a trim weight also means that if I can't do it this year, the time may never come.

Further hesitation comes from the fact that I have studied ancient, European and modern art history, humanities and decorative arts. Mayan culture was never mentioned. So I venture into the great unknown of Pre-Colombian - western hemisphere cultures with very little understanding. Getting there may be difficult but the photo opportunity appeals to me.

One more update on the soon-to-bloom orchid. This is the third day of photography and one of the three full blooms is spreading wider each hour. Am I worried that I will miss the full blooms when we are traveling? Not. Past experience with orchids is that the blooms, while slow to open, are also long lived. One week in the life of an orchid is not a lifetime. The color shown is closer to the vivid intensity than the previous pictures and is the reason I bought this orchid.

What are we doing New Years? Besides taking antibiotics, cough syrup, Airborne, and lots of liquids. We have leftover chicken-n-cornbread stuffing from last night. How thrilling is that? I may drink a lot of champagne just to feel better.
Downloading dance cd's onto the iPod is practically a full time job today...while I had five playlists organized I realized that there is a lot more memory available. Pulling out cd's I found lots more dance-able tunes for practice. Fear that someone will request a song and won't be able to find it on the iPod keeps me checking lists over and over. Once we board the ship, what's there is all there is.
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