The Rosas-Standring Family

Well, I have been writing from home for a while now and I really like it.. but we are broke - so when a job literally came knocking on my door- what else could I do but consider it.

Now I have worked 1 of the past 6 years for companies that I did not own and it has been almost 2 years since I worked on anything but freelance writing and my Tulum Living website- which at the moment makes no money at all - but there is always the goal. Anyway.

I was invited on a tour recently that my friend is the tour guide for. It is a really fun tour that takes you on a serious 4X4 trip through the jungle. And I mean a serious 4X4ing trip. I have been 4x4ing before tons of times but in mud, snow and sand dunes but this... this is totally different. In the jungle we visit a tall tower that over looks the jungle, some dry caves, small cenotes.

After the 4X4 ride we take them on a zip line and then into a cenote where we will look at a ton of stalagmites and stalactites. After the cenote we are off to a wonderful Mexican bbq! Yummy! I am really excited to start.

I am really excited to possibly be making some payments towards something that we want to get done but I do not want to be away from my family much. But I could use a little break. It is sort of my turn.


Here is a post from when I went of the tour before. It is really cool

I am so excited that that things seem to be going really well. Ruben loves being a sommelier at Dreams Tulum and it is something that he is really good at. Anyone who has met him knows that he is definitely that hot Latin lover looking kind of guy, and when he comes up in his great suit with his large wine medallion I just love it. I love that he is actually doing something he really has an interested in. We used to love to go to wine country when we lived in San Francisco and in fact had our honeymoon there.


Then there is the other exciting news that I am going to be writing for www.todotulum.com. This is the one of the largest and most popular website in Tulum and they are wonderful partners with so many great businesses. And I get to do something very similar to what I am doing for my own project www.TulumLiving.com. Ad even better, they are really happy about what I am doing with my website and see it as a valuable service for Tulum so there is no conflict of interest.

And I am getting more responses to my babysitting in Tulum and that is great. I love to do it and it is a great way to make some money. And I love the idea of a couple having a magical dinner in paradise- on the beach- in the moonlight- WITHOUT the kids.

We got to stay at a very beautiful lace on Tulum Beach called Millamores, formally Casa Magna. This is Pablo Escobar's old place and it was amazing.


With the growth of some great new friends and some really positive out looks- and just feeling at home here. We are so happy right now. I know that I will not be happy every day all the time, but I am so thankful that it has been so much more often.

Tulum is good. I am bummed I have been so busy to post stuff but trust me... we have been having so many good days that when I do... it will be worth the wait.

Okay... this is a learning day for me. I got up like usual and made breakfast for the kids. Today... it was going to be oatmeal. So everything was all set, the oatmeal is ready, the kids are back from the little store with the milk and everyone is at the table.... and then

Lena starts to get very upset because there are ants in her cereal. Now for one - ants are simply part of our lives here. There are so many of all sorts of sizes and they are everywhere. But when I went to look at her food there were so many bugs. I went to the bag of oatmeal and it was completely covered in bugs. They were not ants but it was awful. The I looked in the fridge and they were all over the food in the fridge. HORRIBLE!!!!

I had to throw out a bunch of food. This is horrible in general but even more so right now because the axe finally fell on Ruben. Not too bad but he has the next 4 days off. We paid our rent and that took all the money we had which is fine but then to unexpectedly have 4 days off. That is not good.

Oh well. At least it is only 4 days and not a month like a lot of other people.

The tourism here in Tulum has really been effected by this whole swine flu situation. I just found out from Cancuk in Cancun that there are now 3 cases here in Quintana Roo. Here is her update "Just to update you, there are now 3 confirmed cases in QRoo, one in Chetumal, one in Felipe Carrillo Puerto and one in Cancun. Sad, but true and not unexpected. I just posted an update on my blog. Sigh....
" The tourism has been hit hard. Yesterday Ruben showed up for work on the bus and a rep from the hotel got on the bus and said that the following people were to stay and that everyone else was off. Ruben was very happy that his was one of the names. They had a meeting and were told that the staff for restaurants just went from 200 to 15 for the next week. There are only going to be 2 restaurants open each night and they will rotate. They were told to keep it up as they were selected for being the best. That made me feel really good. I always knew he was great but it is nice for him to get recognized for it.

The good news is that because there will only be 2 restaurants open each night - then they for sure will be busy. That is very good news.

Ruben got really lucky the other day because he has a table of 6 that just adored him. They were there for a wedding when their party went from 40 people to 6. But they had a great time and were a really fun table for Ruben and they tipped him very well which was really nice. He also had another table that came in at the very end of the night that was really nice, easy and tipped very well.

He ran into both of those parties again last night. Thanks goodness. With so few people at the hotel getting 2 good tables each night is nice.

In other news I finally got my roof blocked off with fabric. With all of the winds here I do not know how long it will last but I am loving it. I know that this seems strange but we are probably going to put the kids swimming pool up here. It is a great spot to go and hang out.

I am really wanting to get more into yoga. I thought that in the mornings on the roof sounded like a nice idea. We will see how it turns out.

My garden has taken some serious turns. Check out my diosa domestica blog How to Cook 1 Handed for all of the pics.