Saturday and Sunday

Saturday and Sunday, veinticuatro y veiticinco de septiembre
We were excited and relieved that our workshops during the week had gone well. There were so many factors involved in organizing it that it could have been a big bust, but with the help of Stephanie Sieveke at Amextra it came off pretty well. From her office telephone she coordinated the other participants and got them all to the Ibis Hotel on time. Speaking in Spanish over the telephone is still difficult for me, so I appreciated her time and effort to make the program a success.
The hotel Ibis is located in an industrial park next to a Home Depot and surrounded by freeways. There is a shopping mall next door, but that's about it. Susan and I were somewhat frustrated that we were “stuck” at the Ibis instead of downtown where we could have seen the sights. But without a car it was impossible to do much, and it was a $30 dollar taxi ride downtown.
We took some time in the morning to sort our stuff and get organized, and took a few clothing items to a fast laundry nearby who promised to have them done by 7:00 that evening. Actually it was okay because we needed the time to rearrange and pack, because we were leaving early the next morning. Also, it was the first day that we could sleep in a little and have breakfast. All week we had had to eat a banana in our room and run, because Gaudi would show up at 8:00.
In the afternoon we met Guadi and Ruthie and Luis and his wife Bere for an early dinner. There is a nice Posole place not too far that we've been to one other time. It was very pleasant to sit and talk for a while with them and talk about the various programs we have done together over the years. When we came back, we took some nice photos together that I'll send to them when we get home. We spent the rest of the evening resting and getting ready for the next leg of our trip.
On Sunday morning we left fairly early for the trip to the airport. The day before I mentioned to the door guard that we would be leaving and he said he would arrange for transportation. There is a taxi stand just across the street and I assumed he would call one of them. Instead, his friend pulled around the corner in his car and started loading our bags. He was nicely dressed and his car was clean and larger than many of the taxi's but it was a surprise and made me a little uncomfortable. I've read that people disappear there when taking an unmarked taxi, especially at night. This was Sunday morning and arranged by and in view of the hotel staff so I felt it was okay. He was nice guy and played his CD's for us on the trip to the airport and got us there in plenty of time, so it was a fair deal all around.
There was something wrong with our ticket on Aero Mexico and the agent had to fiddle with it for a while but finally gave us our boarding passes. Even in a big new automated airport like that, there was only one clerk who could take money for an excess baggage fee. Luckily we had plenty of time, though they changed our gate at the last minute from one side of the terminal to the other. Susan watches the monitors closely and spotted the change right away so we were able to get over to the correct gate.
The flight to Villa Hermosa was nice, the plane was not crowded so we could spread out a little and the Aero Mexico attendants were pleasant so it went very quickly and we arrived at the very small Villa Hermosa airport. When you get off the plane you are hit with a blast of warm humid air, very different from Mexico City. We definitely were in the tropics.
After picking up our bags we walked about 50 feet to the bus ticket counter and got tickets to Palenque. The buses leave directly from the airport and coordinate with the plane flights so we just walked out the door of the airport and got on the bus and took off, very convenient. It was a sort of mini bus but very nice and we had an enjoyable 2 hour trip to Palenque. We saw our hotel as we came into town, and were just a couple of blocks away from the bus station, but it was really hot and steamy and we opted to support the local economy and take a taxi to our hotel, the Hotel Maya Tulipanes.
The Maya Tulipanes is a nice enough tourist hotel with a swimming pool and a good restaurant. They are listed in the guide books as being sort of expensive, but with the fall in tourist business their rates are very reasonable. Tour groups come in and out almost every day, but we are here all week and so are sort of treated as special guests. The staff knows who we are and our food preferences and we get special attention. It's funny when we come strolling back in the afternoons covered in sweat and dirt and walk past the tour groups in their odd outfits, we get some strange looks for sure.
We got in on Sunday afternoon and planned to meet with our local coordinator, Edmundo Horta, but he was having all sorts of complications about his camp and so decided to wait till Monday morning to get organized with about what he wanted. We had a very tasty dinner and spent the evening getting ready for Mondays first day of work.