20 Years Later....: Some Background History

by Giovanni

So, who is Giovanni? you may ask if you haven't heard any/much of the story?

In 1991 and 92, I was traveling around in Mexico and Central America for 9 months total. Here is a little something I started to write one day:

1992

I was tired and cold from the air conditioning, my body sore from being on the bus for so many hours from Merida. I had been traveling through Mexico and Central America since September when I arrived in Palenque in April, not knowing that this place would change my life. The bus arrived very early in the morning, still dark, with the smells in the street from the night before still lingering in the humid air. The taxistas were approaching the gringos asking us where we wanted to go in their broken English, me answering in my broken Spanish.

By Giovanni

Up until recently I had avoided the gringo trail, therefore not seeing many gringos, but also not seeing some of the beautiful tourist destinations that they went to. We originally started out with a People’s guide to Mexico, and that’s it. No Lonely Planet to tell us where to go, eat, sleep, drink and change money. But I think we saw a different view of Mexico this way, staying in family’s homes, eating la comida corrida and traveling by chicken bus and combis.

I must’ve heard of Maya Bell from other travelers. I told him this is where I wanted to go. It was still dark, so I hung out in the restaurant waiting for the sun to rise. There was this incredible screaming noise emanating from the jungle. I had never heard anything like it in my life, except perhaps in a horror movie. It was the howler monkeys which when you actually see them, they are small and appear much less menacing than they sound.

With daylight, I could see what the place looked like. It was an area carved out of the jungle, with a path of palapas around the exterior of the space and grass in the middle. There were beautiful gardens and tropical flowers. I chose a spot under a palapa to hang my hammock and quickly made friends with the other travelers. Some had been living there for months. I was traveling alone at this time, so it was easy to meet people. There was Crystal, a hippie in her 50’s and a long time resident there, another young American woman named Beth, Alfonso from Mexico city, and Giovanni, the Mexican artist from Playa del Carmen painting a mural in the restaurant.

So, that was how it started. We fell in "love", made plans for me to come back soon, and then life happened. I met James, he met his wife, and now 20 some years later, here we are.

More to come......