Table Rock Hike, no rest for the weary

Mexico

Our honeymoon was packed with new experiences. I don't really know how I had the energy to take on a foreign vacation after the wedding day and all the planning that led up to it. I mostly just wanted to spill over and rest a while. But there was so much to see and do, since neither of us had ever been to the coast of Mexico.

Here are some snapshot details from our trip:
1. We climbed an ancient temple. It started pouring rain as we were reaching the temple's summit. So we found shelter in a cave where we could wait out the storm. It was stunning (just the two of us) looking out over the ruins at all the jungle below us, engulfed in blankets of rain. When the rain let up, we hiked back down. Josh stayed a few paces behind me down the steep stairs to make sure that I kept my balance. He grabbed my hand a few times to help me gain footing. This was one of my favorite parts of the trip.
2. In Coba, (the city of ruins) we walked back into town after our hike. We came upon a murder of vultures landing in a tree overhead. I couldn't look away, their eerie bald heads. All of a sudden, I was stumbling to the ground when my foot caught a pothole in the road. Josh pulled me up; my knees and hands were scratched and bleeding. "I don't know what just happened. I think they just really frightened me," I said. It was spooky. 
3. Our hotel concierge, Antonio, was a short, thin man with a thinning, gray ponytail. As a native, he gave us advice about everything and anything. When he talked to us, he leaned against the drink stand, one leg crossed over the other. He got along well with Josh. They could talk all morning. (On the day we left, Josh asked if he could pull our tiny, blue rental car in the front so we could load our bags easier. In response, as Josh was walking toward the car, he didn't hear Antonio say, "Of course Josh. Of course, of course you can." It was sweet the way he said it, with a sense of adoration in his voice. I smiled as I watched Antonio help Josh with the bags. He really cared about Josh, like many do.
4. Josh brought a hermit crab the size of a baseball into our cabana one morning. We gawked at it for a while. Then he let it out on the deck. As I got dressed, I watched its claws inch from its shell--its antenna feeling the wood deck. It slowly crawled away and disappeared.
5. I did yoga most mornings with our fellow iguana friends that liked to sunbath on the deck. A pelican flew by me as I was in Warrior One position. I could see its dewlap tucked behind its beak as it glided.
6. In Akumal, I watched a young mom and her little girl sitting on a curb in front of a throwaway tienda. they were sharing a red apple cut clean down the middle. The mother shuffled her flip flops as they talked and took bites of apple.
7. In the cenote Dos Ojos, I watched Josh dive deep into the bottom of the cave--his snorkel instantly filling with water. He moved fluidly, with his legs and head steering, his arms tucked to his sides. It made me smile to see him so free and so loose. As for me, I glided along the surface, with my life jack buoying me up, my flippers pushing me along, and my snorkel gear exposing the underwater life.
8. Every morning we ate fresh fruit, a sweet roll, and a fresh cup of tea from a big wooden cup. It was so peaceful and lovely sitting in the open cabana (which also functioned as the reception room) with Antonio. The breeze, the sun, the shade, and the quiet all felt foreign. The wind carried a different smell: a little musky and salty. I loved the fresh fruit, minus the papaya, which wad totally gross. It looked so good and I wanted to like it, especially as a fruit aficionado, but its funky texture and pungent smell threw me off. Antonio probably thought I was a picky eater when he saw my left over papaya cubes each morning.
9. We ate at a restaurant called Puro Corazon, which was just the right place for us: full of local hippies and music. Wafts of weed, the smell of squeezed citrus, sweaty upper lips, frizzy-haired children playing with rocks, cigarette smoke, candle light, live music, body odor.
Josh: "What does it make you feel when you see people playing music? Do you wish you were up there?" He asks me, as we watch the band--chins rested on our hands.
Me: "It's interesting and surprising to hear what comes out of people. It's nice because it's all interpretation and I like that. I would love to sing, but not necessarily with these bands. They are making their own thing, ya know?"
A little girl, with light, tanned skin and light curly hair gets up to sing on stage with her daddy's band. I only heard her speaking Spanish before, until she sings. She sings boldly into the mic the Katy Perry song "Fireworks." Josh and I watch, just smiling to each other. It was so cute.
10. On the morning that we Tulum, Antonio got really political. I remember him saying, in regards to the Mexican government, "In Mexico there is no time for heroes. Whoever speaks gets shut up." His comment seemed pretty telling in a lot of ways.