t minus one week

The rains continue! The good news is, it is no longer eight trillion degrees out, and I don't have to reapply sunscreen every thirteen minutes. The not so good news includes the intense humidity, the loss of regular access to our rooftop office, and the mosquitoes.

The bracken continues! Yesterday was a long day spent at Ecosur, working out the details of my last week here, among other things. There was a bit of a faux-pas with some files, which lead to some confusion about what I needed to do (something like double digits more ejidos in seven days)... but a little bit of decision making later (yes, I am capable of doing that when necessary), it looked like I needed to visit five more of these farming villages to check out their bracken situations. Today I did two with the help of Alex and my interns. Two down, three to go? Seven more days? I might actually have time to be a tourist a little bit!

Things to do before leaving Mexico (feel free to make other suggestions):

• visit the market to take pictures
• go to Belize*
• acquire tequila for my brother and his fiancee (anyone who knows me knows this is true, and that in no way is said tequila for my own consumption)
• clean the mud off my boots so they can reenter the United States (current status: biohazard)
  
• probably some other shenanigans

I guess I didn't really think that list through very far. Oh well.

*Since it's down to myself, Irene, Juan-Pablo and Alex with US, Venezuelan,Colombian and expired Mexican passports, respectively, we cannot actually all go to Belize-- they need visas. Well, and Alex needs to renew his passport. Since I don't speak Spanish, I'm a bit wary of going alone, but there's a free zone 15 minutes from the house... I'm determined to go there! ANOTHER COUNTRY IS 15 MINUTES AWAY! Come on, you should have me figured out by now!