Let me tell you about my truck.

or at least, about driving in Mexico, since I did a bit today and will be doing some more from here out.

Today I got behind the wheel of our year or two old Toyota Hilux (it's called something else in the US, but I'm not sure what). I think this is the nicest and newest clutch I've ever driven on. It's really great, very smooth, except when I was sliding down a hill into some wetlands... but I resolved this with the handbrake trick (see my aunt, my older brother, my mom, or Ross Marshall if you need to be schooled in this, because they are probably the people responsible for me knowing how to do it, though my dad ultimately taught me to drive stick, which ultimately got me invited to Mexico. Thanks everyone!).

So, driving in Mexico. It's on the right and all. Really no different from other places I've driven. It's pretty easy to sum up nearly every car on the roads here: various Toyotas, Nissans, Fords and Dodges that have different names than we know them by in the US, and old VW bugs. Some of the rural roads are a little scary. Various levels of paved and not paved, dirt and rocks, chickens and cows and other hazards... it's interesting. They have speed bumps everywhere... really. Highways, in the city, in the rural towns... everywhere. It's smart, I guess. No one speeds. It's especially smart when they're right before a stop sign or major intersection to ensure that people don't run it. But it's kind of strange to be driving 100km/h and then have a sign warning you that TOPES are coming up, and you need to drop to under 10km/h. Maybe not strange, maybe just different. Everything here is different for me though! And I'm enjoying the adventure.

I think the funniest part, are the street names. Most major roads have names, or at least numbers, but most people just call them "the road from Zoh-Laguna to Nuevo Becal" or something like that. The only street names I know in Chetumal are pretty interesting: we live on Bugambilias (named for a pretty flower that grows in the median), to the east is Quatro de Marzo (March 4th... I wonder what the significance of that date is here?), to the west is Javier Rojo Gomez, and the main boulevard is called Av. Insurgentes. (Even more interesting is the kindergarten on the boulevard that bears its name: Jardin de Ninos Insurgentes. Insurgents Kindergarten.) Yeah.

Today ended up being a 16 hour work day, and we're heading back into the field tomorrow and Saturday. On Sunday, our goal is to work for half a day and then relax a bit, perhaps by the Bahia again or maybe at some Mayan ruins nearby...