OR DAZED AND AMAZED AS I FIND A NEW FAMILY!
My collectivo van from Merida was finally simple to get and oh what heaven to escape from the sad remnants of that fine city of Merida. I squeezed on the very busy little bus with my bags half on my lap and half under my legs and basically in the way wherever I squidged them, but at least I was on my way. The tourists aboard seemed terribly excited to escape also, it seems that I wasn’t the only person crushed with disappointment with Merida’s recent unpleasant and frenetic transformation. We bumped along merrily for an hour on boring roads and motorways until suddenly we turned off and the scenery completely changed. We were on the extensive reserve of Homun. An oasis of cenotes and ranches and a place to escape to. Instantly I felt calmed and we tourists were hushed. The locals gradually got off in their various villettes for a normal days work and we waited to also be disgorged from the bus for more glamorous escapades.
My stop was on the main road before the centre and involved a short walk dragging my case up a small road away from civilisation. I finally felt at peace and knew in my heart that I was coming home. This dusty track was leading me to happiness and would soothe my soul.
The hand painted signs periodically nailed to trees announcing ‘Hostal Oro Verde’ kept my spirits up as I left the tarmac and was on a single path leading into the countryside. Cows mooed, dogs barked and birdies sang, but above all my path was strewn with butterflies that would be disturbed by my footfall and fly up in clouds of glorious colours. Mostly orange but also yellow and some mauve. It was then I noticed the heady aroma of grass and wild herbs and it was then that I knew I would finally be able to rest my weary head, for this indeed was paradise.
AT LAST, HOME SWEET HOME.
They say you know as soon as you arrive at a place you get a gut feeling. This was such a place, and indeed my gut would also be grandly rewarded with the simple but excellent home cuisine! Every day I would eat there as it was so delicious and healthy, a far cry from what I had been forced to consume thus far when I didn’t have access to a kitchen. Soups, stews, salads galore sprinkled with seeds, fruits with homemade yoghurt, fresh tortillas and sauces made with different spices ground up in the kitchen. Omelettes filled with amazing and different fillings invented freshly by Dulce every day. Nothing was too much for this couple with their vision of wonderfulness and generosity of spirit. Hard working but always up for a party and their son my favourite pal there, studying at the local school in the morning, then, on his return he would eat his lunch and head out back to the garden in his secret area for a siesta and a bit of a chill, then later build a fire in his own domain to escape to under those beautiful skies.
Through an enormous broken archway to what I would later find out was the old ranch entrance, and suddenly it was there, the house my refuge with its barking dogs and a litter of tiny puppies. It was almost an overdose of cuteness along with yet more butterflies and now a very clean cut single storey finca-like building. A papaya tree with fruit completed this idyll. I knew at that moment I would be staying for more than the two days I had designated for this jaunt.
A German chap came out and greeted me as I collapsed and threw my stuff to the dusty path outside, did I speak Spanish? Yeah, great then so he could carry on with his doggy work while I settled in the host, my lovely Dulce.
Love at first sight! And later the same would go for her husband and son. Although I still had an anxiety about sleeping in a ‘dorm’ I could clearly see the benefits outweighed the fussy side of me wanting my own room. Although I never did really get over not having my own room I did kinda manage it by drinking quite a lot and resting while people were out. This wasn’t really a problem in this fastidiously clean and ridiculously loving family environment. Old birds you gotta try it one time I guess. Seeing as I will be going back under threat of death if I don’t, I will definitely take a hammock though, as my German friend did, and sleep under the stars in the garden. I suppose some birds really do want to fly solo even in this respect.
As I unpacked and chatted to Dulce while she attacked the mountain of washing she had that day. My nerves and hidden anger at how Mexico had become so ruined in such a small amount of time, melted away as finally I had found exactly what I had been searching for! This rarely happens in life, a sudden expulsion of all this bad and a kind of new faith that all, actually, is well, I could stop feeling so desperate, I just hadn’t been looking in the right places. It was my fault for trying to find it in all the places that I had been before in Mexico all the places that were already commercial the first time round and that have since become a shadow of their former selves. I was doing the thing that I always chide other people doing. I was going back. It never works and always is a disappointment. This was new and I was going to reap the rewards.
Here at Oro Verde (which translates as green gold) I was completely at peace after just a few minutes. With just the buzz of the washing machine and Dulce chatting with me about this and that as if we had known each other for years, I mellowed into a kind of soporific trance. Her husband Aleph turning up with the beers I had casually requested only made things more perfect and more dream-like. I was home and that’s all there was to it.
During the course of that first day I ambled around checking out the nearby fields and the back garden where Ivan the German slept in his hammock and had been staying for over a month. He had only planned on staying a couple of days and had ended up a semi permanent resident caring for the two naughty dogs and the six tiny puppies.
I for one just ate the fine food and drank beers and smoked like a chimney gradually ridding myself of the stress that had accumulated on my weary shoulders for the last two weeks. Now finally I had a mission. Now I could investigate if this could be the place of sanctuary for the next few years of my life. Now I had found a place of pure water filtered through the limestone rock base, the fertile soil, the natural village people, farms and animals, birds and wildlife, and the butterflies, the countless fluttering seas of colour. Here I could imagine a pure life and a utopia away from this now hostile world.
I would visit a couple of cenotes fully in the following days, but this beauty with its danger and brutal beauty hooked me. Aleph took some pics for me as I dreamily, but cautiously, circled it and sat upon the heated stone for a little meditation and earthing. The quartz and limestone there pulsed energy through me and finally flushed out the dismal and broken feeling that I had had most of the time this trip to Mexico. It would be my temple for the next few days where I would come and sit bare footed and bare bummed to accept my healing and love. The birds took over from the night sentry of bats who were the guardians of the night, and would come and fly circling and tweeting around the dark echoey cave in their mad exultation of the sun that came through the top. This happened every day, this was a sign of the glory of mother earth. This is what brings you back home again.
The many cenotes in the area I will discuss in my next meandering account of this area of great beauty. They all have very different things to offer, but me as a solitary oddball, chose just a small handful as I will explain. They all offer very different experiences which is wonderful, but I also had work to do relating to animals and wildlife again, and roaming the fields identifying the local herbs and plants so I really didn’t want to be ruining my vibe by bumping into loads of tourists after having achieved harmony once more! I just went for isolated ones.
I would marvel at the stars that night wrapped in my sons hoody that I had pinched in England feeling ridiculously glad of it in these brittle bright starlit nights, indeed I would sleep in it for the whole week I was there as the nights were as bitter as the days were mercilessly hot. I downloaded an app on my phone to identify the clearly visible constellations in that pitch black sky unmolested by other light. I staggered to bed early that first night but despite my fatigue and all those beers I had trouble sleeping, so in love was I, with my new home.
More later my old birdies, I love you all.
Old Bird Travels Solo! 