Bird blessing

Alla reminded me of a scene in a movie where a bird soils a visitor’s head and her Italian companion remarks that this indicates good luck ahead. Alla thought of it yesterday after dragging her sleeve through a huge and gooey dropping on our table at an outdoor café at the Tres Rios resort. We found ourselves eating at the café because we arrived early and our room wasn’t ready yet. Mysteriously, the woman at the desk said that she needed to figure out which room she should assign to us. After dragging her sleeve through the bird droppings, Alla announced that this was an omen that we would receive a great hotel room.

In fact, we received two great hotel rooms, interconnected. I can offer two or three guesses as to why we received this surprising luxury, but we’re not worrying all that much about the details. While we don’t need it, we do find it pleasant. And I did like having someplace to go when Alla started snoring last night and I couldn’t wake her up easily.

Our rooms face the ocean, a manmade lagoon, and the well-landscaped pool area. Tonight as I write this, a mariachi band plays in the courtyard below us. They played really well at first, but they’ve been playing for about three hours now and I think they’re getting a little tired. Still, we enjoy the serenade and trust that they’ll quit by the time we go to bed.

We spent much of today in the pool area because it’s sheltered from the wind. While the wind blew down the ocean beach all day today, we didn’t notice it near the pool. A rather tame coati came out of the jungle to steal food from the diners at one of the poolside restaurants. She came back after stealing an entire calzone from the table beside me, and let me pet her even though I didn’t share any of my pizza. The fur at her neck is pretty soft, but the fir down her back was stiff like a brush.

We saw other wildlife yesterday when we walked along the jungle trail through a mangrove swamp and past numerous cenotes. I particularly liked a big yellow bird and I was quite amused by the little crab that crawled onto my foot as I dangled my feet into the biggest cenote. Just as I was about to call Alla’s attention to the cute little guy, he pinched my toe hard enough that I kicked him off of my foot. Unoffended, he came back after a few minutes and tried to crawl onto my foot a second time. I didn’t stay this time for him to climb on.

From 2011-11 Cancun