Star Gazing in Mexico

Beunos dias! I arrived here in Veracruz just over 24 hours ago, and was instantly overwhelmed by how unbelievably humid it is here at sea level. I'm pretty sure that I haven't been below 4000 ft. since we moved to Boulder last year, and that means that I'm not used to humidity at ALL. Not only did I leave freezing cold temperatures in Boulder for mid-90s here in Veracruz, but the pores on my face instantly opened up and I felt like I was walking through a dense fog the moment I deplaned.

Anyhow, when I woke up this morning, this was the view from my hotel room. I suppose it could be worse...

Oh... you want to know what I meant by star gazing? Well... I just spent the evening watching Mel Gibson. Yeah, the Mel Gibson. He's apparently here in Veracruz filming a movie. This afternoon while I was sitting at the pool, I was told that he was staying here in our hotel, and that he'd been spotted in the fitness room a week or so ago, but no one had seem him lately. Cut to this evening, when a couple colleagues of mine and I went to the lounge at the hotel next door. As we walked in, we saw one of the waitresses giving someone a neck massage and one of the guys I was with commented that evidently you can get massages from the wait staff. We laughed at that, and looked around for a table. As I looked around the room, my gaze passed by the table where the guy was getting the massage, and I realized out loud to my co-workers "yeah, that's Mel Gibson."

We found ourselves seats, and one of the guys graciously offered me the seat with the Mel Gibson view. So the rest of the evening (2 1/2 hours or so) we chatted, had some food and drinks, and I watched Mel Gibson. In case you're wondering, he looks the same in person.

That's all. I need some sleep. More soon, maybe even with some sciencey bits.