We go to visit the Reforma’s – friends of Paulina and Arturo, Conan’s mom and step-dad.

The Senor Reforma and his wife live near a place called Rio Grande, out in the country.  We visit a lagoon while we’re there, and spend time relaxing at the beach, and it is an adventure in many ways, but just one story for now.

{As I write this, I’m waiting for someone else to wake up so they can find the matches so I can light the stove and make coffee.  The matches are usually in a lovely little bowl by the stove – but not this morning.  And my best searching skills didn’t uncover them.  I know there are more somewhere, I just don’t know where.}

Anyhow, we visit the Reforma’s, where we eat the best fish ever, and have a wonderful time.  The first night, we stay in this hotel that’s very nice.  The people who own it are friends of Arturo and Senor Reforma, and the rooms are very nice, and there’s coffee in the morning, and it’s lovely.

But, it’s about a 15 minute drive from the Reforma’s house.  And there’s another hotel that is just up the road from them.  So the second night, we leave the Reforma’s place, full and happy and tired, and decide maybe we want to stay at the closer hotel.

So we stop and check it out.  In many ways it’s beautiful.  And it has air conditioning.  But it’s so close to the lagoon that there are lots of mosquitoes and other flying creatures, and we decide, no, better to go back to the first hotel.

So we make that drive – this is part of the road:

I’m taking these from the car window as we drive along – slowly.  Not that night, because it was dark then.  Um, obviously.

Anyhow, Arturo, and people who live there, know when the water’s too high to cross by certain rocks at either end ~ if they’re covered, you can’t pass.

So it’s perfectly safe, and it’s just a small part of the road, and really beautiful.  This isn’t at night either, it’s just real shady in the middle part.

Back at the hotel, they’re all just about ready for bed themselves, I think, but they get up and make sure our rooms are ready, and we all have a beer to celebrate, and go to bed.

I take a shower, which feels wonderful even though it’s cold water.  It’s very hot in Rio Grande.  When we left Juquila it was maybe 65 or 70 degrees, but an hour later, it’s at least 90.  Quite suddenly, like passing through a doorway and WHOOSH, it’s hot.

So I’ve been living in 90 degrees for two days now, and am getting used to it, but a cold shower is a wonderful thing.  I go to bed feeling safe and cozy and content.

The next morning, I get up and dressed, and am trying to do something with my hair {don’t ask me why, it’s really hopeless.  Fortunately, the water is soft, so it’s not as bad as it could be.}

Anyhow, I brought a curling brush, and am pretending there’s some point to using it, when I hear this odd noise.  It’s a kind of ~ thumping?

I look over, and it’s ~ it’s some kind of CREATURE crawling across the floor.  Ir’s so big, I can hear it walking.

OH MY GOSH!!  WHAT IS THAT?

I don’t know what it is!  It might be ~ is it a huge crab?  Maybe, I guess it could be.  I don’t know!

As I watch, it makes its way across the room and begins to climb the wall.

Do crabs climb like that?  What if it’s not a crab?  Omigod, what if it’s a spider?  Dee said that Alix had asked him if I’d had any trouble with spiders ~ what if this is it?  My first one!! Omigod.

I scoot over to the door, keeping my eye on the creature, and look out in the hallway, but no one’s up yet.

Omigod, omigod.  What am I going to do now?  It’s all the way up in the corner of the ceiling, by the curtains.  It’ll probably disappear into some crevice or something, and no one will even believe it happened.

No, wait, I’ll take a picture of it!  Then they’ll believe me!

So I grab my camera and shoot this:

Do you see it?  It’s up in the corner.  I didn’t crop it down because I wanted you to have the perspective of the curtains and the wall.  But it’s huge.

So I think, no it’s too big for a spider.  But  I’ve seen some huge spiders out in the country in my Mom’s basement, what if it’s some kind of killer Mexican spider?  What if it starts a web by swinging down from there, and OMIGOD, what will I do then???

And I go back out in the hall, and this time, there’s a woman out there, she’s knocking gently at someone’s door, apparently trying to wake them up.  I think at first she’s one of the owners, but she really wasn’t, she was just a neighbor.

At that point, I’m not even worried about it, I approach her and start trying to tell her about the killer creature in my room.

She thinks maybe I want a tortilla?

I’m like “No, No, non tortilla, es ~ es ~ AH!”  And I make the universal sign for “Wait,” and rush back to my room for my phone camera.  Triumphantly, I show her the picture of the killer creature on my ceiling, which at that point is crawling behind the curtains.

“Donde?”  She says, which ~ aha ~ I know means “where is it?”  And I gesture and she follows me and of course it’s disappeared behind the curtain.

Fearlessly, she moves the curtains, and finds it clinging to the back of the curtain.  Smiling, she peels him off and shows him to me.

I know, it’s weird lighting, but there it is.  It is, indeed, a crab, not a killer creature at all.  And I was so scared!

Well, not totally scared.  Just a little anxious.  Right?

And thanks to the nice lady, I’m totally reassured.  By that time, the owners are up, and I give up on my hair and go downstairs to find coffee.

People are awake here too now ~ that means matches… and coffee!  Yay!