A Day at La Aldea (Tuesday, September 11, 2007)

The driveway to La Aldea twists up a hill (doesn’t everything here?) and curves around to a parking area – and you are in a little Mayan village. The hotel is made up of bungalows that are done in the Mayan style – oval stucco buildings with palapa roofs and big, roomy porches shaded by the palapa overhang. There were hammocks swinging on each of the porches, and beautiful gardens all around – with lots of butterflies flitting everywhere. A lot of the flowers looked like daisies, but in all different colors – pink, yellow, peach, white – and the butterflies seemed to really enjoy them. I am going to have to plant some of them around the condo so we can have a butterfly garden there. I have one at home in SF – another story for another time.

Bob parked the car away from the office (our new trick) and went in and asked about a room. The girl at the desk asked him if he had reservations and he said no… but we couldn’t see that it would have mattered because there was only one other person staying there besides we (I know that sounds funny, but that's just correct grammar for my mother!). More on him later.

The girl told us room #4, and we thought that was a good luck sign. Our condo in Akuml is La Iguana #4. We took Missy and Cejas to the room first, and Cejas wouldn’t walk through the door. You got it – tile floor! I had to pick him up and carry him into the room and he immediately jumped up on the bed before I could put down a blanket or a towel for him to lie on, which I always do. I don’t mind having dogs on the beds, or having dog hair on the bedspread or comforter, but I know some people might not like it, or might even be allergic, so I try to make sure that if the dogs are on the bed, they are on their own blanket at least. Plus, if there are any critters hitching along with them, hopefully if they fall off, they are on our blankets and not on the hotel’s. I went back to the car and got Bella and Solavina and we unloaded the dog beds and bowls and gave the dogs some water and food and calming tablets. These are the best thing ever! They are all natural, and have chamomile, ginger root extract, and some of them have tryptafin (the chemical in turkey that makes you sleepy) and they relax the dogs and make them drowsy. We used them for the dogs for the first trip to San Diego in June, and they really helped. We haven’t had to use them this trip, so far, but we want to go to the ruins so I thought they might help the dogs to just sleep while we were gone for an hour or so.

Bob and I changed into our adventuring clothes – cargo shorts and T-shirt, with big floppy hat and hiking shoes for Bob, surf shorts with a pocket and a tank top for me, along with my trusty Crocs. Bob had to put socks on for the first time in over a week and his feet felt funny! We made sure the dogs had enough water, spread the blankets out on the floor for Cejas, made sure that all of the windows were closed and that Bella couldn’t get her little tiny pointy nose through the curtains, turned up the AC for them, and set out for Palenque.

Pictures: The bridge out of Villahermosa; country side on the way from VH to Palenque; "Downtown" Palenque; the dogs on the bed at La Aldea; the front porch of our room. Sorry these are a little out of order.