Perched picturesquely above the Caribbean, the ruins of the Mayan city
of Tulum are beset daily by wave upon wave of tour buses. So we took
advantage of our location a couple miles away in town to get there
well before the worst of the crowds, when the park opened at 8:00.
Definitely worth it; when we left, the line for the ticket office
looked to be about 20 minutes long and growing.

After the monkey reserve, we headed back down the road a few
kilometers to the archeological site of Cobá, home to the tallest
Mayan building in the Yucatan. The various temple and building groups
are spread out, but the cheap bike rental makes it easy to wind around
big tour groups and spend time looking rather than walking. I
personally don't have much of a historical frame of reference beyond
"pre-Colombian" to really put the site into context, but the fact that
the top of the temple (142m) is by far the highest thing visible from
one side of the horizon to the other is impressive enough.

We woke up at 6:30 this morning to drive to the Punta Laguna Monkey
Reserve in time to catch them still on their morning rounds having
fruit for breakfast. The reserve encompasses a 2km-wide lake,
surrounded by tropical forest that's home to 400-500 monkeys (spider
monkeys and howler monkeys), jaguars, pumas, and other endangered
wildlife. Our guide helped us find a few different groups of both
spider and howler monkeys, inducing the latter to make startling loud
calls to each other, plus gave some language lessons in his native
Maya on the side. Well worth the early wake-up and hour-long drive
into the jungle.

A barracuda and a bonito. The bonito was immediately turned into the
ceviche pictured below.

Hey, that's kind of pretty.

Fishing tomorrow morning -- hopefully I'll have a good trophy photo to
post. Sian Ka'an birdwatching, Mayan ruins, and monkey reserve still
to come.

Just got back from an afternoon outing to Upton Park to see a
relegation battle between West Ham and Aston Villa. I got a pretty
good seat buying a single online a month ago or so, as you can see
from the photos. West Ham went ahead in the second minute when Robbie
Keane found himself the lucky recipient of a blown offside trap, but
they were abject for most of the rest of the game. Most of the
spectators around me attributed their poor showing to missing Scott
Parker in midfield (phrased slightly differently, though). Villa
finally went ahead in stoppage time, and the stands emptied. Still,
it was a great afternoon, beautiful weather, and fun to see another
stadium.

Thanks to my friend Marcia for introducing this to me last year. It's
from a Spanish stand at the Borough Market in London -- grilled bread
drizzled with olive oil, grilled chorizo, roasted red pepper, and
rocket (arugula). Heaven.

Pictured also is the line around the block for Monmouth Coffee. I had
planned to stop back there as well, but didn't see a half hour wait
being worth it, and hit a less popular (but also tasty) coffee stand
instead. The hardest part of the market is walking past all the
cheeses that I can't realistically bring home. Quel dommage du
fromage...

Today was spent on a counter-clockwise circuit around the north of the
Isle of Skye. The landscape is almost entirely denuded of trees; only
the peat bog remains. The islands are formerly volcanic, and the vast
sweeps of the remnants are just unbelievably beautiful.

There are Highland Cows (pictured below) and baby lambs just weeks old
(not pictured), plus seals (couldn't get close enough to reliably
photograph) and golden eagles (not fast enough to photograph). The
final photos are from Neist Point, the westernmost point in Skye. The
only thing between there and North America are the Outer Hebrides;
watching the weather come across the Atlantic to finally land on the
Europe is fantastic.

I had a fantastic dinner tonight in Portree -- langoustines, scallops,
salmon, and mussels, all pulled out of the water within about 20 miles
of here. Currently at the pub that has both wifi and the Champions
League match between Manchester United and Chelsea. Not bad.

Left Edinburgh early Monday morning en route to the Isle of Skye, via
a windy route around the western highlands of Scotland. It's
basically impossible to take a bad picture here; nothing but gorgeous
vistas in every direction you look.

The castle pictured below is Eilean Donan, a former Mackenzie clan
stronghold that was at times in the 16th-17th centuries maintained by
constables from the Macauleys (ancestor shoutout). Not only one of the
most photographed in all of Scotland, it also served as a set for the
horrible 80s B-movie The Highlander.

I spent the last couple days indoors at the Scottish Ruby Conference,
but today I finally got to get out and enjoy the spectacularly
unseasonable weather around Edinburgh.

Tomorrow I'm headed to the Isle of Skye for a couple days, but for
today I'm just hopping from cafe to restaurant to cafe, enjoying the
sun, and snapping photos when I get the chance.