Albatrossity
In 2011 Elizabeth was working on a book that combined her interests in landscapes, archaeo-astronomy, and time. The book was to be published in 2012, just before the end of the world event that was allegedly predicted by the Mayan calendar. So naturally she wanted to go to see Mayan cities and observatories, to put the final touches on the book. We found a perfect tour, visiting various Mayan sites in Yucatan, and convinced my brother and sister-in-law to join us for the spring equinox in the land of the Mayans.
Some weeks before the trip, the US State Department issued a travel alert for US citizens traveling to Mexico, based primarily on an uptick in drug-trafficking violence near the US-Mexico border. As you probably know, that is nowhere near Yucatan, but nonetheless most of our tour group dropped out of the trip. We looked at a map and decided that was silly, so we kept to our plans.