Mornings in Yelapa 4

We´re in Vallarta today, mainly for me to see a doctor about my infected hand. Get a cut or abrasion here in the tropics and, unless you treat it as already infected, almost certainly it´s going to get infected within a day or so. I had the misfortune to fall while climbing down a steep jungle path in Yelapa a week ago -- a week ago! So the doctor I saw this morning took one look at my hand and told me it was "very infected" and prescribed penicillin twice a day for five days by injection. Then I went to a farmacia and filled the prescription at a cost of some $35 US. The visit to the doctor cost about the same. Mexican health care, by the way, is reportedly one of the best in the world.

Our weather has wonderfully improved. Yesterday there wasn´t a cloud in the sky, it was gloriously hot and sunny, and we went to the beach. But because of my injured hand, I couldn´t go swimming. Ah well. Just basking in all that heat and light after a month of mostly cloudy weather was enough: what we came here for.

Little by little, through talking to Yelapa residents, we´re getting a feel for the community -- its pros and cons, family squabbles, environmental concerns -- what lies beneath the surface, in short, in what appears to the day-trip tourist as a paradise without serpents. Paradisal Yelapa has its serpents, all right, but it remains a paradise to us gringos.