End of the End of the World Rally

What exactly does one do after the world ends?  We wake up early as everyone is supposed to be loading into a van for a tour of the ruins as the world crashed around us.  We know that because of the dog we would have to follow behind in our vehicle.  With our tired state (and the fact that we might still be feeling the effects of the mezcal from the night/few hours before) we opt out of the tour for a bit more shuteye and some quiet conversation with Nate and Sarah from The Long Way South.  We both are used to traveling more slowly than the rally allowed and are both really excited to return to our normal ways on the road. Our day is spent lounging in the lagoon, napping and resting our weary souls.  Somewhere in the afternoon a mention of Catan is made and we all (okay, those of us who are already obsessed with the game) roll out of our vehicles giddy and start setting up for our afternoon entertainment.  We teach the newbies how to play and settle in for our first two games since leaving Portland.

Some teams come around for hugs and handshakes as they set out for their next destination and Christian and Persephone (the rally creator/hosts) come by to let us know they are heading north to meet friends in Playa del Carmen.  We had been tempted before to join them in the house rental and now that we know/love them we think momentarily about begging our way back in...but its still too expensive for us to swing despite our thoughts of lounging in a large bad and a pool for christmas.

They also deliver some bad news.  The judges have been asked to recount and they have decided to change the way they tally the points.  It appears we are no longer the overall winners of the rally.  Team Astrid is announced as the winners in the new math and the boys get to take home “the trophy” after all!  We are happy for them as we know how hard they worked and how focused they were on winning it all. They joined for the sole purpose of winning as where we just wanted to finish under our own power.   As they say, better to be winners for a day than not winners at all!

We realize at some point in the afternoon that the world has already ended, but things seem quite normal around us.   Certainly if playing catan on the shores of a tranquil lagoon in the yucatan is what the imploding of our planet is all about you can count us in!

We didn’t expect the world to end, and we didn’t expect to have as much fun as we did in the rally or to walk away with as many new and genuine friends and we just did.  We have heard from many that what 12.21.12 was really about is change/reinvention.  A new energy and direction and an opportunity for people around the world to set things in a different direction.  We feel like we started that process a long time ago, but we are excited to see where what changes continue to occur for us in the coming months/years.  If all of our last minute decisions turn out as well as our hairbrained idea to join a few crazy offroaders for a journey across mexico...then we be just fine on the path ahead.