The House Hunt

I spent the second half of the day trying to find a place to stay and learning Mayan with Chalo, a sweet, extremely patient ejidatario who's become one of my first friends here in Carrillo. We decited the rent quotes might be a little lower if I stayed in the car while Chalo got a price. The first lady we talked to said whe was out of rooms, but she had a little palm-roofed house in the the back for 400 pesos a month. Ing. Victoria had given me a budget of 600 - 800 pesos, so at first I thought we could try and get something a little more upscale.

We drove around and looked at the other rooms in town. Most of them were concrete, and they looked like sweltering ovens to me. I realized that without an air conditioner, living in a sealde concrete box is a really bad idea.

That much should have been obvious. The Mayas have been living with this heat for thousands of years, why wouldn't their houses be naturally cooler?

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