This was going to be my last entry about the Melaque trip. In my head I had composed a brilliant summing-up -- so brilliant that you, members of the jury, would have been so moved by my logic that you would have sat in stunned silence, eyes fixed on the middle distance, thinking: "What more can be said?"
That, of course, would have been a foolish plan. "No more saying" means no more blogging.
All great plans are merely fodder for God's laugh track that accompanies this situation comedy we call life. Here is the tope I hit.
When I returned from La Manzanilla last December, I drafted a list of factors (what excites me -- for now) to consider in finding a place to start my adventure in Mexico. They were:
- university nearby
- archaeological sites within driving distance
- central location for other archaeological sites
- warm, sunny days; cool nights
- new acquaintances -- some with a love of food
- the challenge of a new language
- time to read; time to learn; time to rest
- daily learning to survive
- facing mountains of difficulties -- and being repeatedly crushed
- long walks with Professor Jiggs before breakfast and after sunset
- living outside of a car
- offering help to others
- graciously accepting help from others
And here was where my grand idea crashed. I was going to write a post that would ask if each factor is still valid, and, if it was, grade each factor based on what I now know about Melaque.
You can see the problem. The post would not only violate Juan Calypso's well-founded no-post-over-1000-words rule, it would have been so long it probably would take readers a week to load it.
A big post also has a tendency to diffuse the comments. And I would like to get a good dialogue going on each of the factors.
That is the commendable reason. The less commendable is that I can milk another week of blog topics out of the summary. At least, they are topics everyone must face in one form or other when moving to Mexico.
Let's talk about why having a university nearby is (or is not) important. Next time.
