Yesterday we had a lazy day.... Carol stopped by while we still in PJs and we arranged to meet for dinner. Bill and I headed out later for the market. Bill bought a hat and went home while I wandered around the market for awhile. I love markets...looking at all the stuff people sell and buy for their daily needs...many, many shoe stands and stores here. I tried to replace my sandals but I wear one size larger than they carry in women's shoes.... We all met for dinner (Carol, Martin, us and two of their friends) and then attended a free classical guitar concert at the University (a block from our hotel). The guitarist was 17! Today we took the public bus to Celestun, where there is a large bird reserve/sanctuary. The two and half ... read more

Sunday We woke this morning to a multitude of bird songs…but it was hard to spot a single bird! I did see a small yellow and olive bird on the way to breakfast and glimpsed the magnificent green jay while eating. Yesterday, there was a large bird with a very long tail outside our room…it could turn its tail like the hands on a clock! I’m writing this outside our room and can see birds moving in the trees right now…The skies have cleared and it’s getting warmer. Last night the “Canadian weather” as they call it, lowered temperatures enough that I needed a blanket in the middle of the night! I am starting to feel better finally! Sunday PM Well, quite a day! On a suggestion of the owners of our hotel, we visited the ... read more

We decided that we would get up early and travel down to Campeche, a walled, colonial city to the south, before driving back to Merida. There are two choices to get there: the "short" road and the "long road". While the long road looked interesting and not much longer, it was explained that there are hundreds of "topes" or speed bumps on the long road. We took the short road. However, as we found in Ticul earlier, road signs are not always there to help you...we ended up turning too soon and found ourselves passing the ruins of a great hacienda, followed by a small village. We got directions (I don't think that the older man I spoke to had ever conversed with a tall gringra before...), took a few photos, and found the right road. ... read more

After being rebooked again in the middle of the night, we left Austin at 9:30am, changed planes in still frozen Dallas, and arrived in Cancun at 2:30pm. We quickly found a bus from the airport (where we met up again with the young couple from Bellingham who had been on our original flight from Seattle) to the bus station, and then caught a bus to Merida within ten munutes! The toll road to Merida passed through flat, low jungle for most of the four hours, with little or no signs of human habitation. Merida is a large city, with a beautiful colonial center, where we are staying. We had a great Yucatan style dinner last night, and now heading out for walk, after a late breakfast. Unfortunately, I've come down with a terrible cold.... Later... We ... read more

Day 16 continued Teramo to Vieste We traveled through a warm, sunny day to the south of Italy. We took both backroads and the autostrata, staying mostly along the coast, and ending up on the Gargona peninsula this afternoon. We actually navigated right to a B&B in the oldest part of the city, without a hitch. After the nightmare of our last attempt, with the GPS and locals sending us down impossibly narrow deadend streets in Ascoli (where Bill stayed much calmer than Lynn even though he was driving…), this was wonderful…the B&B was open (much or even most of this area closes up in the winter), reasonable, and newly renovated (The original building is from the 11th century.) We checked in, and then walked around town before it got dark. Being Saturday night, there were ... read more