Feliz Año Nuevo! Welcome to Winter Sabbatical 2023. I made it to Chelem last Monday after some travel complications. We were part of the hundreds of thousands left stranded by Southwest Airlines last week. Tim and I were scheduled to fly Southwest to Houston then American to Merida, arriving on Christmas night. After our flight was canceled, the fastest way we could get to Mexico was to drive from Nashville to Atlanta Sunday night and catch a Delta flight to Cancun Monday morning. Once we made it to Cancun, we rented a car and drove four hours to get to Chelem. While the hitch in our travel plans was super frustrating, there were people in far worse situations. All the airlines were affected by the nasty winter weather that hit most of the country on Christmas weekend. One guy on our canceled flight had already been stuck at the airport for two days and missed celebrating Christmas with his kids. Tim and I were grateful that we only lost one day of our time together and that we didn’t check any bags (which would have likely ended up lost). Thankfully, Tim was able to change his return flight so he could spend another day with me. What a fiasco!

You may remember that I had some persistent and annoying problems last year. WiFi was spotty when it worked or totally out for days at a time. Our building had several power outages; some days flickering in and out and some days out for hours. Hot showers were hard to come by, due to sharing one tank with the entire building. I’m happy to report that steps have been taken to avoid those snafus this time around. WiFi is far more reliable now that we have a second source. The building invested in a generator. GLORY HALLELUJAH! We’ve already lost power a couple of times since our arrival, but we’ve hardly skipped a beat with this backup system in place. The water has been finagled a few times. I think our unit is currently hooked up to our own hot water tank. 

I’ve just returned from my first trip to the farmer’s market. I don’t want to cook as much this year, so I brought home several precooked freezer meals. I found some marinated skirt steak and ground beef, a little bit of produce, a couple of pastries, and key lime pie and brownies for a treat later in the week. The pie will be sliced up and frozen so I don’t have to gobble up the whole thing within a few days. I have orders in with a couple of other people that prepare and deliver food; I’m excited to buy homemade ice cream from The Scoop Goddess again this year. It’s hard to find a good selection of ice cream in the supermercados. I guess it’s not a popular treat here in Mexico.

The Booty

I’ve been asked what my agenda is for this year’s sabbatical. I’ve decided it’s best not to set expectations so that I won’t beat myself up if I haven’t met them by the time my stay is over. But there are a few things I want to do while I’m here. I have a large cutting garden to plan. I’ve brought lots of books to read and a list of shows and movies I could watch. I brought art supplies, paper, and coloring books in case I get the urge to create something. I’m really hoping to write a few stories for a possible sequel to my upcoming memoir. I haven’t felt very inspired lately, so I plan to find literary journals that are searching for themed submissions. I think this will give me the push I need to write again. 

I wish everyone a healthy and prosperous new year! I’ll leave you with the latest sunset pic.