We are heating up here and we hear that it will start to cool off in June, around the time that the rains come. We are looking forward to that. The mornings here are lovely, but the afternoons get a bit warm for us - high 80’s right now and usually sunny. It’s fine if you pursue indoor activities, but being active outside is a bit uncomfortable. People who have lived here longer are just now starting to be comfortable temperature-wise. In fact, sometimes we see Mexican people wearing black sweatshirts and walking or jogging in the middle of the day when the car thermometer reads 90+ - I’m amazed by their heat-tolerance! We’re not there yet…still have that northern Yankee blood!

We haven’t done too much exploring here in Mexico yet. Except for our trip to the coast last month. That was great. We had beautiful weather and we got to do an intro. to scuba day with a short ocean dive. I’ve been wanting to try scuba for about 5 years now and we finally did it! I think we will pursue certification later this year or maybe next year. It’s harder than it looks and I had a little trouble with sinking and with clearing my ears, but I think I can overcome these issues for the chance to “swim with the fish.” I love the ocean and have always been drawn to it.

My one fear about being at the bottom of the ocean was how I would react to the eels (they are waaaay too snake-like for me!) As I think I shared with you, I have an irrational fear of snakes and a friend told me that the worst thing you can do while diving is panic. He said, as long as you don’t panic, you’ll be fine…the only thing that panics me is snakes, so you can imagine my apprehension about how I would deal with eels. Well, I didn’t ask my angels for help with this (although I could have) but they helped anyway! Before we could get to where the cracks and crevices were and where I know eels hang out and surprise divers, we saw a small almost mauve-colored eel in the sand, not lurking about to startle me! It was such a blessing because I didn’t panic and then my fear of panicking disappeared. It was almost as if the angels wanted to say, “See, there’s nothing to fear…”

The other most totally incredible thing about our trip to the coast was we got to see the volcano in Colima erupt. While at the coast we heard that the volcano had had one of it’s biggest eruptions in years. No one was hurt, but there was much talk about the eruption. We had seen steam coming out of it on our way to the coast, and we had heard that is quite normal. It was pretty, but not a big deal. On our way back we decided to detour and go near the volcano. Well, we were driving along and looked up to see the most incredible plume of lavender/grey ash. We didn’t stop to observe it or take a photo, I don’t know what we were thinking…of course it disappeared rather quickly and there was even more cloud-like cover in the area. We then were in search of a spot in which to see another plume - we only caught a glimpse through an opening in the cloud-cover, but it was enough to say we saw another plume. It was very cool! But the best part was yet to come.

On our way home, because we had delayed so long in Colima, we were driving at sunset (not a good thing to do in Mexico - the roads get very dangerous after dark) and we saw the most incredible sunset I’ve ever seen in my life. I love sunsets and sunrises so I’m usually very observant and I’ve never seen anything like this one. The colors - the reflections on the clouds - the place where we were at the time was very flat, so the depth of the sunset and the scope of it were tremendous. We were driving into it and it surrounded us. Even Keith started “wowing” about it and we agreed that it may have been a once in a lifetime sunset. I feel so blessed to have seen it. The image remains in my mind. I think we took a photo out of the window because there wasn’t a place to stop, but of course it cannot capture what we saw. It sounds cliché, but it was breathtaking.

After Colima’s eruption the dramatic sunset filled the entire sky

We still had quite a drive ahead of us in the dark and we took a wrong turn which made things worse, but we made it home safely and we would not have seen what we saw if we had arrived home before dark.

Shortly after we moved into our new home, we were out for a morning walk when Keith said, “Look, Leigh, Colima erupted again.” Sure enough, we could see the plume from our neighborhood!! (It’s many miles away, not sure how far “as the crow flies”). We sat right down and watched it dissipate (what we had neglected to do the first time!) and that evening we had a gorgeous sunset here at home. We have a terrace that allows great visibility for sunset viewing. It is one of the things I love about this house.

The one thing I don’t love is that I got stung by a scorpion shortly after we moved in. I’m fine now, but it was a most unpleasant experience and caused me to be paranoid and jittery for a few weeks. But that’s another story or another day. I didn’t intend to write a book when I sat down, but it has nearly turned into one!