Bad news

Ok, so:

1. Sorry for being a jerk and not updating this recently.

2. We're leaving Mexico, stat. We're in Veracruz right now and we're getting the hell out of dodge as fast as possible. We're going to try to make the U.S. border in three days and get back to New Orleans in another two. It will probably be more like four and three, but hey man, I can dream, right?

2b. Ben is out buying us all the tunafish and crackers we can carry. This is serious.

2c. We've been wavering on whether or not to stay or go. We "evacuated" Mexico City two days ago, hoping to get a better idea of what was going on and to get out of the immediate infectious area. But in Veracruz, while there are still folks on the street, lots of them are wearing cobrebocas (surgical masks). Today was the proverbial 'nail in the coffin' (no pun intended) or the 'sign from God': we got an email from a Couchsurfing host we had lined up in the future that their current guest has just unexpectedly come down with flu like symptoms (unknown what it is yet, but very likely it is this swine flu). They are in Villahermosa, Tabasco. The flu shouldn't be there, and yet it seems like it is.

2d. Hence, we are getting out, ASAP. If you feel in any way that you may have flu, get yourself to a hospital, stat. You can take Tamiflu and you'll be ok--it's not the flu that kills you, it's the inflammatory doodads that your body creates that make your lungs explode and fill up with water, drowning you from the inside!

2e. Be safe; sorry this is bulleted.

3. Sucks that this is the way our trip ends. :'(