Saturday, August 18, 2007

A Run to the Boarder, With a Quick Retreat to Mérida

So as I reported last week, Scott left the project this week to return to New Orleans for the fall semester. Dan also left this week to attend the first birthday of his first grandson, although he will return. So that left me out at Xtobo with the boys from Ucu for the rest of the week. Anselmo now gets to ride shot gun, and Erik is learning the fine art of stadia rod holding. Lot’s of clearing got done, but the mapping is going a little slower. I did catch up on some photography though, anyone want to see some pictures of rubble?

But the big fun of the week had to be today. I entered Mexico back in mid February at which time I received a 180 day tourist visa. Having renewed similar visas before, I was not overly concerned about the procedure this year. However, when I arrived at the immigration offices last week I was informed that 180 days was the maximum tourist visa allowed by law. No worries though, all I would have to do is cross the border and immediately reenter Mexico. Sounds simple right? Well today I drove to Belize (which ended up being about 5 hours away instead of the 8 or 9 I had thought it would be). Upon entering Belize I was greeted by Michael, one of the country’s delightful residents, after which point I don’t quite remember what happened. Something about, “Leave your truck here and lets walk back over the boarder,” and for some reason my wallet is a quite a bit thinner than it was in the morning. Nevertheless, I have a new visa and a new import permit for my truck. Let’s just hope I can finish all this up by this coming February before my papers give out once more.

The quick retreat had something to do with a tempest of some magnitude, also known as hurricane Dean. This second new friend of mine is making a hard track towards the Yucatan peninsula. Right now it looks as if it will give the east coast a good thrashing, and provide us with a bountiful supply of rain. Seeing as I live in a concrete bunker, I’m not too worried about being blown away (after all it’s not a house of straw or wood). So I’m ready, let Dean come, and huff and puff, but he won’t blow me away.

1 Comments:

Blogger Catherine said...

Good luck with the hurricane! I hope your site stays in good shape with the winds. Who knows? Maybe Dean will unexpectedly help with some of the clearing... ?

4:22 PM  

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