Hotel Inglaterra Puerto Morelos

Moved into an Ashram today - only 60 pesos a night including chanting, tai chi, meditation & yoga - first lesson 5.20am! - thought I might hang out a few days if I can stand the heat - no fans! - but more importantly no beer and no coffee!!!! It's only 15 mins walk to the town of Coatepec, the coffee capital of Veracruz, so I can get my daily fix! Day one & already met the guru & done 1 hour of yoga with him. Reduced program of ...

... m going to keep surfing and possibly host some day. I was hosted by a girl and her family and they accepted me like family. They only let people stay for a day so she said I could stay at her friends house the next day. Her friends house was nice and it had a pool. They ended up taking me out on the town and we had a good time.

... und Ob**armen bewegt w**den, wobei ** hi** in El Tajin von 3 Spiel**n so gut wie moeglich zwischen den zwei schraegen Seitenwaenden hin und h**gespielt wurde. And**swo musste ** durch einen kleinen Steinring gestossen w**den, was uns schon mit Hand und Fuss schw** gefallen wa**e, von d** Huefte mal ganz zu schweigen. Es gibt v**schiedene V**sionen, was nach dem Spiel passi**t ist. Klar ist, dass das Spiel nicht zum Spass gespielt wurde, sond**n es war ebenfalls ein wichtiges ...

Written from Jalcomulco, Mexico: A phone call was just received directly from Jordan at 19:35 our time. Joel is awake and recognizes his brother as well as other friends and family. He has little memory of the incident but is making jokes and talking about kayaking. One lung continues to labour but the doctors plan to take him out of the ICU tomorrow. The family will be sending us further updates as they come along.

Written from Esprit in Jalcomulco: 15:00hr We have had a particularly good but particularly long night hence the delayed update. Yesterday evening Joel's condition was trending very favorably and many of his vital signs and organ functions had drastically improved. Joel has displayed normal function of his heart, stomach, kidneys, liver, pancreas..... his lungs are drastically improving but remain laboured and potentially susceptible to infection. Although still ...

We are still in Jalcomulco despite the fact that we should have travelled to Huatulco on Saturday. It started when the bus and van broke down last week and were not fixed by the time we should have left. We had a day finishing our first aid testing on Saturday then a planning day on Sunday for a two day Barranca Grande trip, to be planned and carried out without any instructors, starting on Monday.<br><br><br><br ...

... a much steeper path than the way into Chopilapa, and also up some more ladders. We hiked back to the same level that we had walked earlier in the morning so we were really hot and tired by the time we reached the top, but there was, of course, another great view. After reaching Buena Vista we got back in the van and drove towards Jalcomulco, scouting a route for a new cycle tour which Esprit might run. On the way ...

... a very Mexican thing I think) the ants moved in for the kill. They were in my pants and my sleeping bag and on my arms and over Jim's face and Stef`s clothes. And they bite! I did the ant dance for a while until Stef and Jim got up. Jim went off to find somewhere else to sleep and wede-anted and woke up the others. We ended up creeping into the house in the middle of the night to move into their front room. We did finally get agood night`s sleep though. To be continued....

We arrived in Jalcomulco this morning on the roof of the bus, which was an interesting experience with the rain, overhanging trees, low power lines and only the cam straps on the rafts to hold onto. Whilst this is the ultimate cool way to arrive into a small Mexican town, I am numbering this as the third most scary experience of my life. Jim thinks I would not have done it at all without scary experiences one and twi which happened yesterday. More about that later - first some ...

... blast even though it's very dark going through some of the caves and you are in water. The bats hanging and lurching above us was freaky and I was wondering if I was the only one thinking "snakes"? I didn't want to scare the kids so I kept that thought to myself and stayed very close to my man!! Today, we are relaxing after yesterday's very long day.