Rain, we don´t mind

So, we are now waiting for a night bus that will take us from Palenque to Tulum. We are doing a runner. Palenque is one of the most stunning ancient sites in the americas. It is also set within rain forest. The clue is in the name. Last night Jamie woke up around midnight, got out of bed and splash, stepped in a big puddle covering half the room. Half our hotel was leaking, some rooms were inundated. After 4 days of heavy storms, including pummeling thunder, it is a bit of a mess in places. We got a few hours of dry weather this morning to see the the Mayan ruins and waterfalls, and it was amazing, with the highest palaces having views across the Yucatan penninsula. But it is time to get cracking and get back to the beach. It was impressively humid and a stunning jungle setting (of course the famous local howler monkeys escaped us this time) and fascinating - particularly the revelation for Anna that humans have been playing silly ball games for millenia, which in some cases were life or death.

Speaking of silly games, it is about time we mentioned the backgammon. In our downtime, and at suitable dining or drinking locations we have been continuing our mortal struggle. So far Anna´s skill and festidious mental preparation have been a match for Jamie´s jammy luck. We have just started the third series-of-series-of-series in the Americas Royal Celebrate Eternity (ARCE) Backgammon Cup.

In other news,
In Vegas we met the Big Mid Western couple in the Stratosphere sky bar. They were off to their drive through wedding in a chevvy and suggested we do the same.
In San Blas we saw a one-legged girl surf ((stand-up i.e. much better than Jamie).
At the Grand Canyon Moby´s In My Heart played very loudly from Jamie´s phone for no reason during a particularly moving and idyllic vista moment.
All guitar teachers should teach how to change spanish guitar strings to save hours and hours of agony.
We still havent seen dolphins (2 guys in Bahia de LA saw ´hundreds´ and we didnt realise our boat taxi in PE was also a dolphin watching boat until later).

Next stop Tulum and the beach... more ruins... and let´s keep an eye on that hurricane... pictures next time we promise (just a few to go with the blog... we only have 1846 to choose from...)


Palenque in a break from the rain