TULUM — So rather than taking the 2:45pm bus today from Tulum to Chichen Itza for the Synthesis 2012 Festival and tomorrow’s end of the Mayan Long Count calendar as planned, my sweetie’s bout with some bad ceviche has delayed us by a day.
And frankly, I can’t say that I’m disappointed as I hear the stories flowing back from the festival. The universe does indeed seem to give us what we need.
The promised shuttles from here and other Yucatan cities have been “wonky” at best, says my festival contact. Performers and others promised rooms by the festival say they’ve been given away. Even the sound system for the festival’s DJs, bands, and speakers was turned around by locals threatening violence, the performers say they were told yesterday.
(The festival’s Candice Holdorf told me: “Apparently another sound system was found locally so festival is proceeding as planned.”)
“If it’s a mess, we’ll come back here and make the best of it,” Jeff Scroggins, a musician with Minneapolis-based Earthshake World Rhythm Ensemble (whose drums don’t need amps), told me as he related the lowdown while waiting for a private shuttle they arranged.
He wants to be in Chichen Itza for the big day, but he says he’s perfectly happy to just come back to Tulum if they aren’t feeling the Synthesis scene. “We’ve been staying on the beach all week and just manifesting gigs. We’ll be fine.”
So will I. There’s either the wonky morning shuttle, or our afternoon tickets on the luxurious Ado bus to Chichen Itza. Or there are various festivals in Tulum, Playa del Carmen, and other Yucatan spots celebrating the Mayan moment, winter solstice, and galactic alignment.
Whatever it happens, I plan to just be present for this moment and let energies of the universe take me where they will.