Or more specifically, the Yucatan, which thinks of itself as rather different from the rest of the country. People here are so nice–plain old nice. I’ve asked for directions and had a man lead me to the bus and flag it down for me, and three times when I asked the way to a certain street at a stoplight, the other driver told me to follow him. (I get lost a lot.) The people here are genuinely warm and kind, and seem completely family-oriented. Utopia.

So it’s fascinating to me that every museum and religious site I go to, be it ancient Mayan or contemporary Catholic, and book about Mexico I read, stress death. I can’t wait to see what the Easter celebrations have in store.