Suave Vida Hotel and Suites Manzanillo

... gorge. So buggy that I didn't hang around & luckily got a ride back up the hill first try. Had intended to get up for the 5.20am session today, but as I had slept badly the previous 3 nights, turned over & went back to sleep - will try again manaņa! Got in my exercise with a walk to the viewpoint on the top of Cerro de los Serpientes - had some company in the form of a big black hairy dog from the Ashram called Aries - he pretty ...

I heard about couch surfing dot com so I decided to try it out. It's a bunch of people that are willing to let random people sleep on their couches. It's a pretty cool idea but it's a little sketchy at times and you never really know what you are going to get. Fortunately I ended up with some really cool people the first time so ...

... die Seilenden an ihren Hueften befestigen. Nach ei***** Zeit lassen sich die 4 "Flieg**" zeitgleich nach aussen fallen und fliegen, Kopf nach unten, langsam um den Mast h**um, waehrend sich das Seil langsam imm** weit** abwickelt und fu** die Drehung sorgt. Jed** d** vi** vollzieht 13 Drehungen, bis ** unten am Boden landet, was insgesamt 52 Drehungen sind und einen vollen Zyklus im Kalend** d** Totonaken darstellt. Es wird uns **zaehlt, das das Ritual urspruenglich zur ...

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.

... securely in the hands of Canadian medical experts the WILD crew will be participating in a full Critical Incident Stress Debriefing before loading up and transferring to Huatulco for a final group paddle into the Pacific. Spirits amongst the group are currently as strong as possible under the circumstances.... everyone has passed their thoughts and energies along to Joel, Jordan and his family and are now prepared to move forward as a group for future adventures.

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.



Jalcomulco, Mexico smartmishmash

So, after our hectic night with the ants we awoke early the next morning to hike up to Cotelamani - a large hill which sits in the middle of the convergence of 9 canyons and therefore a site of special spiritual importance locally. In ancient times, the dead were carried to the top and buried there with their possessions - a real honour considering that the hike is 1 hour up a steep and difficult path without a load ...

... enough Spanish to cover for all of us! We went back to the house where we were staying and made our dinner (gnocci -mmmm) on the open firein the kitchen before heading to bed on the porch. While we were setting out our beds we noticed the ants. They were crawling up the pillars so we made sure to move our beds closer to the wall and away from them....or so we thought! Apparently these ants (ormigas) hunt you out for the heat and, after the loud music in the village ...

... restaurant was regularly sprayed against such pests. Not 10 minutes later an assertive black snake with white bands came menacingly slithering up onto the patio! ***** balls, here I was preparing to spend a night alone, and exposed on this precarious patio! Hose promptly terminated the snake with a rake handle and reasoned that all this rain must have diluted the effectiveness of the spray! Ya think? Truth be told it was only about 50cm long, but I was still a bit ...

... make 50 pesos for a 10 hr day ($6.oo Canadian), corruption is high. Had a great night and wandered back to the hotel. The next day I went for a visit to the Turtle sancturary where they protect and release around 2000 baby turtles, 2 meter crocodile, and left a couple of soccer balls with Lil-David to take to school. This is the first donation of the St Albert Fire Fighters Athletic Association Soccer collection ...