The demonic eyes in the stone mask stopped me in my tracks. This was Chac, the Mayan rain god, the most important deity in a land where the only source of fresh water was infrequent rain. I could easily imagine its hawk-like beak flaying the flesh from my bones. The stone visage guarded a stairway … Read more

I pressed my nose to the bus window as we rolled into Merida, one of the places in Mexico that I had yearned to see for years. My brow furrowed in disappointment; the city looked nothing like I had envisioned. With its location in the northwestern corner of the Yucatan, just inland of where the … Read more

I hopped in a taxi at the bus station and asked the driver to take me to the Zocalo. “Perdon?” he replied.  Thinking he hadn’t heard me I repeated my request, but he still seemed perplexed.  “La Plaza Principal?” I tried. That did the trick; we were instantly on our way to the main square … Read more

Somehow the man in the Chihuahua park knew I was easy prey. From a distance he slouched against a hand cart and looked me over. His first pass was casual, just a slow saunter past my park bench, without even a glance in my direction. Old addictive thinking patterns resurfaced, patterns I thought I had … Read more