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| April Calendar "Cows Aglow" 11x14 Pastel Plein Air |
2018 was not finished handing out discouragement.
We headed to the Yucatan, our annual get away from cold and mud season. I was viewing this time as an opportunity to renew my head and hand in my craft. Warm up my body and my creative juices, get ready for spring and painting outdoors plein air. I packed my backpack accordingly with paper, pencils, pastels, sketchbook, power cords, and etc’s - everything ready for action.
Sounds like a plan. Right?
The first four days of travel went as predicted, a car, the road, a favorite place to stay in Valladolid, sunshine, good food, beginning a new sketchbook. Traveling back to the coast, we stopped in Tulum at a grocery we have stocked up at for years.
The hubris of familiarity was the downfall.
We returned to the car to discover we had been robbed - our backpacks were gone. Just the packs, which contained the core of our travel accoutrements: Chris’s passport, camera, computer, Kindle, wallet, id, journal, sandals, itinerary. Me, that pack full of new start art supplies and of course, cash.
No one is ever ready for that.
We went through the stages of grief, rip off, denial, recognition, now what, communications, police report, decision making, action- more or less in that order.
Don’t ever forget this is Mexico. Ever. There are bad angels and good angels - efficiency and lack of.
We looked at our pluses and minus’s. Because I chose to squirrel away things in different bags, the pluses were I had my passport, wallet, cellphone, iPad and not to be thought of right away - The keys to the car back in Montreal.
All really good things - and - no one got hurt.
Another plus we had the police report in hand which has come in handy several times. The US consulate was only 40 miles away from where we were staying. A temporary passport was issued in 24, two days after that Wednesday.
Did I mention it happened on Chris’s birthday? No wonder we avoid celebrating birthdays.
***One angel back home - an Adirondack Stage Rat, sent Chris the replacement script of
Kimberly Akimbo in a pdf. You know those crazy emails from friends hacked emails? "We are traveling in Mexico and got robbed. Would you send Chris the script?" Not money. Too ironic.
My hope still is that bag of art materials isn’t lying on the jungle floor crawling with bugs and slithery things - that the “perps” gave all that stuff to a neice or nephew and it saves the kids life. That is where I have kept the backpack in my mind - in a kids hands being used. Denial right?
I did not make any sketches. I read. I rode a bike, swam, and walked, all really good things for that recovering hip.
We had pesos enough for the duration.We tallied pluses and minuses, thankful for the huge help from our gracious friend Roberto, the manager of the place we stayed. We made a friend on the beach who made us laugh at our situation: “Hey you’ll never qualify for the Pro Leisure Tour if you aren’t drinking a beer by now.”
Our mantra when in Mexico is when something goes awry, like finding oneself rescuing one of the kids via internet; the bus has a grievous oil leak miles away from the destination; or one receives news of a relative becoming very ill, has been:
It sucks, but it sucks in Mexico.
It may be cavalier to some but it has got us through some predicaments while traveling.
***
… Then we went home. It snowed feather comforter flakes that returning Sunday. Eight inches. April 22 Earth Day.
***
Life - the reason for reduced or no postings on SM. Why there is a block in creativity can be as huge as the loss of a loved one, an illness or accident or just plain fatigue with the game of getting work out there.
Stuff happens.
To be continued…
Artliveslong, Diane
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