When Will I Learn My Lesson?

I try to keep a balance between posting about Mexico and posting about writing. With NaNo on the brain my posts have been heavy on the writing, so last night I was thinking I was due for another Mexico post. Problem is, nothing much has happened.

On Saturday, Ibis and I went to Ixtapa Island - a little island just offshore of Ixtapa, go figure - and had a lovely afternoon snorkeling (him), reading (me), and hitting the volleyball around (both). We even met an American man who works in the area, a man who we both said is the most normal ex-pat we've met. Yes, we got his number. ;)

That's all fine and dandy, but that doesn't make up an entire blog post. So last night I thought to myself, ah, something is bound to happen.

I really should know better than that.

While I was writing I smelled smoke, but didn't think much of it. People are always either cooking or burning things, and it usually goes away after ten minutes. But this persisted. I finally went to the window to see who's meal was out of control and saw smoke billowing from one of the homes below us. Thick, yellow smoke, with burning embers flying all over the place.

I had been so engrossed in my writing I didn't notice that the condo had filled with smoke, so I quickly turned to fans to point outside. Then I went back onto the deck to watch. It looked like they were burning something in their small courtyard, but one stiff wind and it would be out of control. Every now and then a flame would lick over the edge of the roof, taunting me. A nearby tree lost half its leaves and smoke covered the side of the hill.

I kept waiting for the fire department to arrive and put an end to their fun, but no such luck. Soon my freshly washed hair reeked of campfire and the house smelled like a bonfire, and after an hour the fire burned itself out.

From now on I'll stop myself before I wish for something to happen for the sake of my blog. ;)