¡Bienvenido!

Eureka, I have found it!
I can´t quite digest the fact that I am now sitting in an internet cafe in Cancun . . .
I was supposed to be at the Portland airport at 6 am to catch my flight. I was still packing up my house, in Bellingham (5 hours away) at 11:30 pm. My roommate finally called and said, "Just leave!! I'll finish the house," I conceded and left her the mess. Sorry Lindsay. I booked it to Puyallup for a quick sandwich and hug from my mom, then sleepily, and frantically, sped to Portland. A groggy Elizabeth dropped me a the airport at 5:50 a.m, where I was involved in a Home Alone type sprint through the airport.
I had a whole row to myself on the plane, which was wonderful for passing out in. I landed in Mexico City and had a connection to Cancun, which I almost missed. I didn´t account for the time change (2 hours), so I took my time to buy a sandwich, read my book and rest. Before taking a nap, I decided to make sure I was sitting at the right gate. Upon asking, I got a frantic look, and the woman yelled, ¨Puerta 21!" Her frantic-ness told me I should probably hurry. Another sprint through the airport found me at Puerta 21 as they were closing the gates. Go me.
By a series of lucky strokes, I have made it to Cancun, and have had a pretty randomly hilarious time so far.

On the plane I made friends with Josh from Oregon. He, on our previous connecting flight, made friends with Josh from New York and Daniel from California. They all decided to follow me to my hostel (a very small, quaint, sickeningly hot-with-no-air-flow, place. We are sleeping in room GRYFFINDOR. Hooray for Harry Potter fans across the world).
To know the hilarity of my little possy though, you must know more about them. Oregon Josh is an alcohol and drug counselor in a wilderness program. He grew up wanting to be a cowboy, and frequently takes trips to Mongolia, where cowboy enthusiasts are fruitful. He works on a mule farm in his spare time, and is currently in Mexico to attend a better-yourself workshop. New York Josh is also part a New York Mafia-esque organization - he´s in the drug business. They exported (as he says) him to Oregon to deal. This Josh is hippie extreme. He has dreadlocks down to his knees and, "loves to chill where people are having a good time." He hasn´t worked a job in 8 years, and has been surviving and travelling off his drug money. Daniel is a very skinny, pale, clueless guy. He recently overcame skin cancer, and is using his time and money from disability to travel. He also is part of the drug cartel, growing and selling shrooms from his 6 acres in Oregon. He is very timid and awkward, and vegan to boot. He has come to Central America with hopes of investing in some land.

After all our long travels, we went out for fish tacos and cerveza. Daniel´s system can´t take food very well, so he brought along a bottle of enzymes, and a bag chalk full of medicine to protect him from every possible headache, stubbed toe, broken elbow or parasite he could possibly ever encounter. I think he was expecting dinner to be licking the dirt road . . .
Anyway, as a group, we were pretty random and pretty hilarious. Mafia Josh would talk about business being slow on the LSD front while Oregon Josh would say, "LSD? I just helped a kid get over that crazy stuff." Then Daniel would nervously quiver and pop a pill.

To keep cool in our beds last night, we all soaked our sheets in cold water and slept in them. Daniel said he woke up after an hour and was groggily confused, and thought he had wet himself. Oh, Daniel.

Today, Regular Josh and I found a place to eat eggs and beans - mmm Mexico food. We watched 2 hours of extreme sports - speed rock climbing and snowmobile jump/flipping. It was highly entertaining and involved more forearm muscle than I will ever hope to see in my life. As Josh left to catch a bus to his workshop, I sat with Mafia Josh. He is the closest to my age, being 25 (the other guys were in their 30s, but furthest from any life style I have encountered. He has crazy stories from his 8 year - and counting - drug career. He is very loud and grunty, rather droopy eyed, but extremely nice and willing to humor my curiosity. He taught me about the banking systems of different countries, school systems in New York, and the drug economy of Portland. I asked him what the legalizing of drugs would be like, from his perspective, and he said it would hurt him at first. But then, he would just find some way to make the drug fancier. He would sell his own line of "Prada and Dulce and Gabana weed." Fascinating. His eventual hope in life is to head research in Central American rain forests to discover and patent new drugs.

We walked around town a bit, then Mafia Josh left me at this cafe while he went looking for Daniel, who is probably nervously hiding in an alley.
Now, I just wait around for Erin. And sweat. I will be waiting and sweating all day.