Where I’m from, March usually brings people together to do things they haven’t been able to do during the cold windy wintry months. The end of March promises strolls along the river to take in the scent of wild baby buds blooming, or picnics in the park on a Sunday afternoon with hummus and olives and a sweater of white wine. Washington DC, my home city, just experienced the longest freakiest winter it has seen in years. The snow lasted through the end of March and just now, as we enter our second week of April, has the frost settled down and buds that haven’t already been tricked into unfurling and then died as the cursed snow returned, have begun to gently color the naked branches lining the city streets. I blow a kiss to my chilly friends and family up north as I bake in the heat of the Caribbean sun.

Several weeks ago here in Carrillo, the Na’atik team and students from the University of California Santa Cruz enjoyed the opportunity to soak up what the turn of Spring has to offer here in our verdant steamy jungle. A group of the UCSC students aligned with the CAN program (Community Agroecology Network) visited Na’atik for an introduction to life in this small city in the heart of the Maya Zone, played name games to get to know one another, and listened to testimonials from MY Project students studying at Na’atik about their experiences learning English along with their lifestyle in the Yucatan, hobbies, and cherished cultural traditions.After our introduction and circle-up, we had a bite to eat and set out on an adventure to the nearby Laguna Ocom and Cenote Sijiil Noh Ha to kayak through the Spring-kissed clear warm waters. We arrived early afternoon as the sun danced on the surface of a strong golden current, a decent wind whipping up little waves in the lagoon. Some CAN students rented kayaks, others took the small jungle trail occupied by multicolored butterflies and the forbidding tabanos (horseflies) to meet us at the cenote Sijiil Noh Ha.When I enter the cenote’s waters, the color of my skin always boggles my mind. I know I’m white, with a slight tan from being down here for eight months where the sun is strong and constant, but no matter what bit of tan I may have, my skin in a cenote looks iridescent. White shiny moon-glowing skin against a backdrop of deep blue or black (depending on the time of day you are swimming and the angle of the sun hitting and illuminating the water). It’s a wild thing to see. I am the ghost of the cenote, long white legs flailing around in a deep abyss of smooth full-bodied waters.The CAN crew jumped in and soon the cenote was full of several other ghosts and others who glowed golden and fit right into the delicious waters like I imagine the Maya people who inhabited this jungle before us once did. It was a really lovely day, relaxing, purifying, and accompanied by an hour-long session learning Maya in preparation for the CAN students’ journey into a small Maya village north-west of Carrillo to study and promote the rural livelihood and sustainable food system in the community through participatory action research. At sunset we climbed the four levels of the mirador wooden look-out tower and took in skyscape of neon orange, pomegranate pink, and violet overtones above a darkening emerald forest. The stars began to glimmer and just as the last bits of orange gave in to the purples and blues of the night sky, we descended and headed home down a rocky overgrown path with skin cleansed, minds relaxed, and bodies happily tired and at ease as dark settled in all around us.

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