Where would you go if you needed to get away from it all? What if you never came back? Your life would change forever as it did for Kristine Ellingson in Mexico. She left her life in the U.S. and moved to the vibrant land of the ancient Maya.
Kristine was a successful American jewelry designer with two grown children and a marriage on the rocks. Needing time to find direction in her life, she left her home in Oregon for a trip to Yucatan. To her surprise, her visit became permanent. She found that taking a leap of faith can lead to a life full of adventure and meaning.
Join Kristine as she recounts her journey finding a new home and family in a peaceful village near the Mayan ruins of Uxmal. From Spanish flash cards to falling in love with a Mayan hotel desk clerk, a transformation occurs for both Kristine and the village. In spite of being an outsider and looking nothing like the Mayas--she is tall and blonde--the village accepts her and she becomes an integral part of their community.
She creates multiple businesses in her village, fusing two cultures, two beliefs, two ways of life. Twenty years later, and still married to the Mayan hotel clerk who is now her business partner, Kristine shares her real life stories of love, pain, loss, and learning.
Overcoming the typical expat story of frustration with another culture, Tales from the Yucatan Jungle: Life in a Mayan Village brings two worlds together and gives glimpses into a sacred, rich Mayan way of life.
Kristine allows readers to see a world seldom seen by tourists. She describes:
* Being brought back from the brink of blood poisoning death with the help of a "curandero" (a traditional healer)
* Caring for dying family members where there are no funeral homes
* Buying a daughter for 10,000 pesos
* Using childhood horseback riding skills at the village rodeo
* Giving appropriate Mayan weddings gifts--not dinnerware
* Building a house that the villagers think might be a hotel because it is so large
* Discovering that her Oregon lumber camp upbringing prepares her to live in a Mayan village
* Being fingerprinted when getting married
* Surviving harsh Mexican motoring laws after a traffic accident
* Getting lost in Merida, capital of Yucatan, before knowing Spanish
* Striking fear in salesmen while test-driving a truck because women did not drive 20 years ago
* Participating in a shamanic ceremony to heal the land
