soy aqui!

Hello!! Sorry it's taken me a bit to find internet and find time to update..
I'm alive here in Akumal. I have only a limited amount of time, as this internet cafe es MUY expensive. However... quick run-down... Got to Lucy's place after a hellish day on Thursday and a very comfy, unexpectedly expensive night's sleep in Akumal.. I arrived at her Ranch late Friday afternoon.
Lucy lives on 35 acres in the thick of the jungle. I swear. It's about a twenty minute bike ride to the highway, cross the highway, and just a short jaunt to the beach.. So. Lucy looks like our old family friend Dana McClintock but a little more high strung, and the ranch is just beautiful. Really rustic accommodations - roomy palapa-roofed one-room structure with a bed and mosquito net, table, water jug, dresser, and nada mas. Her house, up the driveway, is where I spend most of my day... Or at least, have so far. I am up at 6:30, go make coffee in her kitchen, say hello to the pups, and then read for a while until 8, when my workday starts. I've finished two books already. Yeah. Then I feed the dogs, feed the horses, feed the chickens, water the avacado/lime/banana/papaya trees, take the dogs on a short hike through the jungle, and then come back to the house to do whatever Lucy needs me to do. Yesterday I spent two hours rebuilding her compost area and turning it with a pitchfork to aerate it. Afterwards, I weeded and piled rocks, then cleaned out the horses' little lean-to, played with the pups some more, and settled down with my book. I am relatively tan already, which surprises Lucy (and me, actually..) When I first got here, her employee Rudolfo jumped up and exclaimed "she looks like she's been kept in a box all her life! so white!" and in some ways, I guess that's kind of true. Not that I was sheltered, but this ain't Kansas anymore if you know what I mean.
Anyhow. Things are really good, the days are full of rewarding work, and I have two other WWOOFers here to keep me company! On my first day, I was picked up by an Israeli volunteer and his English girlfriend and brought back to the ranch, but they left that same day to go to Guatemala... so the two left are Simon and Elaine, a brother and sister duo from Ireland. Simon is younger and works mostly with the land... Elaine is thirty and works for the Irish equivalent of Doctors Without Borders, but is on leave right now to flex her veterinary skills with Lucy's 17 dogs.
Que mas.... I had my first visit to a cenote today (bushwhacking through the jungle with a machete. Very Lara Croft) and then helped Lucy out with her shopping for the restaurant and the ranch.
Ay yi yi.. So much more to tell but I have to hop off or I'm gonig to break the bank with this session.
Love to you all. :)