San Blas

i´m super loving being in mexico. it is so, so awesome. all of these towns we're riding through have been so cool. outside of mazatlán we stayed in this town called Escuinapa, and it was just really awesome. we got in as the sun was setting, and it seemed like the whole town was just out and about, hanging out on folding chairs in the middle of the sidewalk or chilling in the town plaza. you never see that many people outside in US towns or cities. Erik and i went out for dinner, and i ate marlin. that´s pretty cool, huh? maybe i´ll be the first kid on the block to eat a marlin. it tasted great, kinda like a cross between lox and tuna. the next morning we ate breakfast in the market at this little food stand, and we got scrambled eggs with chiles and tomatoes, beens, cheese, a huge stack of fresh tortillas, and coffee for $6.
I got erik this giant wonder woman piñata for his birthday, and everyone has just been cracking up when he rides by, because he strapped it to the back of his bike. no one in mexico has blond hair like erik, and kids on the street yell, "Santi Claus!" when he walks by. it´s pretty funny. when i ask people to guess his age, they always think he´s 40 or 50. one day this guy thought he was peter's dad. then yesterday this guy asked me if he was my husband, and when i said no, he asked me if erik was my dad. ha ha...
so yesterday for erik´s birthday we stayed in this totally posh hotel with air conditioning, and there were white terry cloth robes in the closet and we got a bottle of white wine, cranked up the AC till the room was only 60 degrees, and took showers, and hung out in the white robes getting tipsy. it was like the most awesome thing ever. we kept just like cracking up because we felt so posh.
mainland mexico feels significantly cooler than baja, which is really nice. it´s super humid though. so still hot, just not as bad as baja. it´s a really nice change to go from the desert to this wet tropical environment. everything seems to just grow like crazy out here. huge flowering bushes with orange flowers, vines, wild marijuana plants, giant snakes, armadillos, and so, so many butterflies. the birds are really crazy too. i don´t recognize any of them, but some fly by with these huge elongated tail feathers that are at least as long as their bodies, and other ones seem to live near these marshy areas and they have huge pink feet and legs and black and white bodies. sometimes i look up and see whole swarms of dragonflies hovering overhead, and down along the side of the road are enormous yellow and orange crickets that are as big as two of my fingers put together.
it rains for a little bit everday, but it´s warm, so it doesn´t bother me too much, and afterwards it´s so hot that you dry off fairly quickly. it seems like a lot of places must just flood constantly. ok, hope everyone is doing awesome. the past couple of days i´ve been in a much better mood, and this morning i didn´t even have diarhea. yay! love,
-jessie