We'll Meet Again at UMAR Huatulco

Here's a big shout to all our friends, students and colleagues from UMAR Huatulco.

It has been too long since we've seen each other and it will be a while yet before we return. You are never far my thoughts. I hope everyone is safe and healthy.

This wonderful song from Vera Lynn is a promise to survive through difficult and dangerous times. Sing along . There are subtitles.

Lyrics: We'll meet again, don't know where, don't know when
But I know we'll meet again some sunny day
Keep smiling through, just like you always do
Till the blue skies drive the dark clouds far away
So will you please say Hello, to the folks that I know
Tell them I won't be long
They'll be happy to know, that as you saw me go I was singing this song
We'll meet again, don't know where, don't know when
But I know we'll meet again some sunny day

And remember, if someone is standing close enough that you can smell their breath, step away immediately. Not everyone cares enough to be careful with other's health and safety so, remember, you have to protect yourself.

Road to Cacaluta

Tuesday was the first of the pandemic days. I found a message on my phone that morning from the night before. Cacaluta. 8:30. The idea was inspired. The time was a tad ambitious. I had breakfast, packed all my things and was on the road by 10:30ish. It’s not good to wait too long. The sun gets intense.


Cacaluta is quite the beach but we rarely go there because it isn’t the easiest to get to. Once you get to the park gate just down from the fork to Playa Maguey, it’s another 3 km over a rough road through the woods with a fair bit of beach sand to spin your tires on. That’s why most visitors arrive on ATVs or get dropped off by boat.

For me, the toughest part of the trek was the first major hill. I didn’t even try to tackle it. I just got off and walked the bike. It was way too early in the day to grunt my way up a steep mountain and this was the kind of trip that made you wonder if 2.5 litres of water was going to be enough.

I’d heard that Cacaluta was pegged for hotel development. The proof is there. Road improvements have begun. It’s only smooth dirt for now but the road has been doubled in width. Big concrete pipes for drainage are lined up on the side. That doesn’t mean it’s all going to happen overnight. It could be years ahead.

I came close to a serious wrong turn when I saw the sign that reads “Tanque Cacaluta”, pointing to the right.
I almost took it but it didn’t feel right. I came this way back in 2002 by taxi and it didn’t feel the same. Besides, I didn’t know what “tanque” meant. I still don’t. I was heading for Playa Cacaluta; close but not quite the same. My instincts were right. Just down the next hill was the fork was the fork for Maguey and Cacaluta. This was what I remembered. Don’t forget this if you ever pass this way.


The gate isn’t much further ahead.
Fortunately for me, there is a man working there in the shade behind a shack. Saul advised me to hop off the bike and take the trail straight through the woods instead of the 3 km. I was a bit dubious. Sure looked jungley in there. Saul assured me there were no snakes , which I didn’t believe for a second. I almost stepped on my first snake at UMAR last week, right on a red brick walkway. There are snakes in these woods. Whether or not they’re timid skinny yellow things like the one that ran for its life from me or twelve foot Mexican South Pacific rattlesnakes like the one stuffed in attack mode at the ROM in Toronto is all that really matters. I took Saul’s assurance to mean my chances of dying were slim. Much as I prefer 100% guarantees, I took the trail. I can be a fraidy cat but I try not to let it stop me from doing things. I took this pic of Saul before stepping in, possibly the last person I would ever see.


In I went.


If a snake wanted to get me, there was very little I could do about it. There were a lot of coiled and twisted vines, branches and roots in there, many of which looked like huge motionless snakes. This one was my favourite.
I approached it carefully, waiting for any sign of movement.

Besides the rustle of salamanders in the dry leaves and the music of the birds, I heard a larger animal crashing through the brush. Not moose or bear large, maybe something knee-high, probably with claws and teeth.
It was only a ten minute hike, fairly easy going with only the occasional stump or fallen tree to lift the bike over. Just before breaking out of the woods, there’s an old barb wire fence just a few more steps away from a wide open field and a small house. From there, you pass through a mango plantation and rejoin the road that others would have taken from the gate near its end.






I knew my friends were there. I’d passed their scooters back a bit but Cacaluta looked deserted. Way down by the rocks, I finally spotted some very tiny people playing Frisbee. They had set up camp between some rocks for shade.



Cacaluta feels like the end of the earth, especially when no one else is there. These pictures show less than half of its convex spear shape.

Pay Day Will Come

UMAR is empty except for iguanas and security guards at the gate. We’re getting paid and don’t have to go to work. The word came to vacate on Monday afternoon. The students had already left and Mike was entertaining us in the air conditioned comfort of the Auto Accesso lab with a fun game for the classroom. The place was a ghost town within five minutes.

Luckily for me and my students, all of our midterm exams have been completed, except for a very few no-shows who I will be glad to take care of when we get back. Let’s hope their reasons for not arriving weren’t too serious. Now I have all the time in the world to get that marking done. When we all get back, I’ll be ready to print off the results for administration and carry on where we left off.

Tomorrow is pay day and not a minute too soon. Since discovering myself with 400 pesos total last Saturday, outside of my emergency funds, I have been living in austerity. I made the mature decision to pay 300 of that right away on the power bill. If they cut you off, you have to pay a substantial fine to get hooked up again and, besides, you don’t have power for a while and that’s not fun. OK. 100 pesos for a week. Ulp. Well, I have food in the cupboard, power and lots of clean drinking water. That shouldn’t be too hard. There is a welcoming dinner party for Li from China on Thursday, just in time. But a spontaneous dinner and drinks affair came up for someone’s birthday yesterday. I definitely had to bail on that one. One more day.

Today the unexpected happened. I ran out of gas. If I was tough, I would just go without coffee tomorrow morning. But I’m not. Neither am I ready to break down and hit the Canadian funds. I have been working here since January and it’s high time I had some new localized emergency funds put away. I have to live within my means. So I’m bombing up to school to get that coffee machine I bought for the office. I can use it as a kettle until the money arrives in the bank and get the gas tank replaced. Maybe I’ll find some loose pesos on my desk. I’m short exactly one peso for a pack of smokes and I’ve already dug between the couch cushions.

Look what I just found under the cushion of my desk chair. I’m going to invest this in cigarettes.

When I said I had plenty of food, I never imagined myself eating cold chicken soup or cold spaghetti sauce over dry uncooked noodles. I am so close to making it until pay day. I can’t give up now. Aw shoot. I just heard the “awooogh” of the gas truck. Nothing I can do about it.
Off to school again.
Here are two good reasons helmets are such a good idea in Crucecita.


Alright. Normally hidden wildlife is out enjoying the peace and quiet of a deserted campus. These pheasants didn’t even cluck away from me.






It turns out that maintenance staff and some clerical workers have been left behind. They must be classed as essential services. With so little work to do, these ladies went overboard on the cleaning, even arranging the loose papers on my desk in a neat pile with a paper clip. I was so impressed.