Ah, the irony!

I am in a bungalow in the middle of the jungle on a forgotten truck road in Yucatan, near the tiny village of Xpujil. I have a wireless connection and Internet via satellite, the other couple that we share this restaurant patio with has two laptops, and Ian, an Englishman who, together with his wife, is traveling with no time frame or end in sight has just sent a fax.

There is no escaping technology on this trip. So far, everywhere we went the net was readily available: hostels, Internet cafes, wireless in coffee-shops. Most places would give me an Ethernet tap upon my explaining that I need to hook up my laptop. If they won't, I just walk across the street to the competition. And I can check my bank accounts online without worrying that every one of my keystrokes gets recorded.

So how are we doing so far? We've had our share of heat exhaustion already - no matter how much sunblock we use or how much water we drink or whether we're wearing hats, we are just not used to this insane Mexican summer heat. Occasional headaches are the most prevalent symptoms, but they should disappear as we're getting better accustomed with the weather.

Unfortunately, although I have taken many precautions, I wasn't able to avoid getting my stomach into trouble. After a few days of diarrhea, not wanting to take the kill-em-all antibiotic prescribed by the travel clinic, which we keep as a last resort, I decided to see a doctor today and bought some Metronidazole and some charcoal mixed with Furazolidone. They seem to do the job so far and hopefully they won't scorch me on the inside and kill the good together with the bad.

One thing that we realized so far is that we need more down-time days. A couple of consecutive days at the ruins or on the road in this heat would drain the last shreds of energy out of anybody... Hanging out on the fresh patio of this jungle lodge run by a crazy and sarcastic English lady is a welcome break from the loaded schedule that we prepared for ourselves.