Living on a Beach

On the beach in a tent! Yipee! I have finally made it to nature! There are coconuts with new stems popping out of the ground! They could have fallen off a tree on the beach or washed up from anywhere in the carribean!

Some one opened one today and we ate the flesh right out of the fruit. There is a couple form England wo keep a fire going at the camp almost all the time and food has been several avocados a day, salad and other fresh food. Eating very healthily...and very cheaply...

More on the beach later...

Nature interlude

Went snorkeling in acouple cenotes with Jess, One was a sinkhole, and the other a cave. Both had fresh water. The ground in the Yucatan peninsual is mainly limestone which was carved out by water. The whole area has a crazy network of underground rivers, great for high quality dihydrogen monoxide as well as expploring either on foot in try ones or in scuba gear! Can`t wait to try that.

There is a tree called a Pich (pr. Peach) that has roots as long if not longer than the tree is tall. The roots go all the way through the ground into the cenote and you can see them floating at water level and a few inches deeper. The astute reader may ask...well how does this tree get water while it is burying its way 4 or 5 meters into the ground? The answer is surprising...It has other roots dangling off the branches that absorb moisture from the air. They must also help if the water table drops and the roots need to grow a poco more.

There are also many iguanas everywhere. I think they are the central american version of the rabbit. Anyone wanna mate like iguanas?

Playa Del Carmen

I moved to Hostel Playa, where for 135 pesos a night, roughly just under $13.50can you get a bed and a place to cook, ingest and expell food as well as a place to wash yourself. It is a bit of a party hostel and also has many areas with hammocks strung up and a quiet roof.

I Ran into Pat, a friend from montreal, and he helped me get accostomed to the customs of slightly more Mexicoed Mexico. Of course food came from walmart across the street...go figure, all the best food and freshest fruit was at walmart, and it seemed to be the only place I found with food, atleast it is localish.

The Hostel had a full kitchen with a blender so smoothies came along alot...mmmm.
Partook in scuba courses and now I have a whole new world to study....all kinds of interesting plants and animals. One fish swam on its side across the bottom like a stingray but you could tell his eye from the bottom was now on top and his/her mouth was in the position and carried the movement that it would have of a fish normally swiming on its side. It appears to be in the middle of evolving to fully live on its side as opposed to being vertical. It blends almost completly with the sea floor. And thats just the start...

I did the course with a new friend from Sweden, Jonas, who invited me out with his family one night and we went back to the restaurant in the cave.... I learned some new words I can´t remember and had a great time. In Swedish there is a word for swallowing slat water.... its a word i was able to use alot..when i remebered it!

Ofcourse if I see one of my sisters in mexico I will see the other the next week! Sam and Marvin came to stay for a week up the beach from playa... we got to play a few times....including dinner in a treehouse type restaurant and a cervesa in Alux....

The beach in playa is great although quite crowded. Lots of all kinds of people travelling there, and the nightlife is quite nuts....Even found some Psy-Trance....and bars have dancefloors on the beach!

building...the onThe best place for veggie food i found was a small veggieburger place ran by a woman and her daughter was often there. She made the burger form scratch, smiled as she cut your tomatoe, and made great smoothie/energy drinks. There is a sign oainted on thee in the picture and it is on 25th ave between 4th and 6th street. Its hugs and only 5 bucks...maybe a little pricy for a meal in other parts of mexico, but well worth it...the sign even says organic.

Next stop is Tulum.... Finally time to open up my tent!

Resorts

Besides the comfort and good food, even for a vegan, the resort did leave me wondering about such vacation ideas. It in no way felt like being in Mexico other than the holas we got each day and the really good weather and warm water. It seemed like a canadio-euro-american compound, almost like an embassy that is legally part of another country. A server was shocked when I was going to eat some food he cut in half at a buffet to see if it was veggie. I had to insist that he let me eat it and not throw it out.

Resorts are getting bigger and bigger, and are swallowing up the beach front. While I have not yet done much research, it is clear that atleast sea turtles lay their eggs on the beach and that they will not be able to do so successfully if there are no more natural beaches left.

In the USA with the flooding a couple years ago and the tsunami in Asia, the reasons for the mass devastation was in part the lack of natural forest and aquatic plants around the coast. This is supposed to absorb excessive water and when removed will allow flooding. While the Mayan riviera is covered at least in part with beaches, just behind them is or was forest natural to the coast. Now it is exchanged for planted rows of palms, palapas shade structures for beach chairs and swimming pools.

What is the actual cost of vacationing? Having super compounds that take up resources and create lots of waste may be stimulating part of the economy but the workers at these places seemed to have to keep their heads down when not muttering Hola as you pass by. So many people to support so few in a fake lap of luxury. Although that is how I saw it, I did still have a great time, but that was more the company than the area.

Cancun and Puerto Aventuras

I spent 2 nights and days in Cancun getting acclimatised to Mexico. Its much hotter then home and the return of humidity was welcomed. While breathign in Alberta is much easier then Montreal, the humidity is somehow a warm blanket of old feelings. It also allows for things to burn much slower :) And there is a smaller threat of forest fires even in the dry season (around the Yucatan, I know there are firefighting programs in Jalisco, in partnership with the gov of AB)
In Cancun and possibly elsewhere too, you can have a beer onthe bus, not even wrapped in a paper bag. But for some reason on Sunday (Domingo) you can´t buy a beer in a store after 2pm, and 5pm in Walmart!

From the tourist entrapment of Cancun I headed to Puerto Aventuras to join my sister for a week in a resort. Puerto Aventuras which is between Cancun and Tulum is a gated community consisting of a marina, resorts and condos. My cab driver had to give his cab license to the guard and have it returned upon leaving.

The resort-Hotel Sunscape is an interesting place. Upon arriving I was thrust a serving of juice and cookies and about 50 people said hello to me. It was very welcoming until you tried to say more and realized they are only paid to say hello. Although after a bit of time some folks did open up. The room was swell and the beach and pools were great. One could snorkel and see hundreds of fish right at the beach of the hotel.

That night at about 4:30 am kiddo showed up. (that´s Jess my sister) We spent a week together exporing the mayan riviera and playing or reading or tanning non stop. I was also introduced to strawberry margueritas...yummy. I got to enjoy my own and the half of Jester´s that I had to take away before she fell over and was done for the day! We snorkled in the ocean and in a lagoon, a mix of frsh and salt water as well as in a cenote (cinotay) which is underground, one was an open sinkhole of fresh water and the other was a cave. The sinkhole had catfish and a cliff i somehow mustered the courage to jump off of.


We also went to playa del Carmen where we met up with a friend from highschool, (Hi Joel) and his sister Jen. We went on a ´´double date´´ with our sisters. As for sticking with mexican time, we only had to wait 2 hours for him! If you ever have to meet someone in mexico buy a car or jog, would be quicker than some of the transit! Thanks to Mr. Lester and the internet he was able (in montreal) to help co-ordinate our meeting up!

We ate a restaurant suggested by a van driver and it was the neatest place i had yet seen in mexico or almost anywhere. A restaurant and lounge in a cave! Stalagtites and all. It needs to be visited to be properly appreciated, but when I was living in Playa I went back there 3 more times! It aparently goes on for kilometers! The name is ALUX and any cabbie will know where it is. (On Juarez, 4 or 5 blocks west of the main road)

After Jess took off I headed to Playa del Carmen to stay in a Hostel and learn to Scuba dive...

Cancun Aeropuerto

I landed in Cancun on the 15th of February after a rollercoaster flight to Phoenix on a tiny plane (so much fun) and a normal flight the rest of the way in a 737 or somerthing similar. After being grilled by the mexican immigration agent about whether or not I was really travelling alone she passed me her phone number and sent me on my way. The cusoms officer was next and while he didnt give me his number I did give him a surprise. I said i had a spice kit which he wanted to see but he insisted on opening it himself. Spices should be kept in containers and not bags when travelling as I have just learned and when a container of many spice bags is opened it tends to explode! I had a good laugh and he made me pack it up and I was in Mexico.

California

I must begin with the end of the last post and that is ofcourse talking about long johns. They are the secret to a happy winter anywhere in the north! They are the key to the out-doors in winter! Some people get depressed in winter being cooped up inside, but some solid under armor...I prefer smart wool myself (even though its not vegan), and winter is a blast!

Now for the first time I am skipping half of winter! But I did spent October to February working outdoors in the mountains so I think I´ve earned it.

California is quite an interesting place. I have noticed that taking Yeye (my car) over 110 km/h makes hime unhappy. And burns way more fuel. But in California, what I believe to be an eco concious state, it is impossible to go under 130km/h and feel safe. At 130 you can still be passed on either side simultaneously, but atleast the vehicles are not zooming by in a blur anymore! I flew across and then down through California, making it in one day from just east (to the right) of Reno down to Santa Monica to touch base with my cousin Geoff or Jeff, and his wife Susan. I was delighted to be their very first guest in their new home and was treated very well. You guys are welcome in my tent anytime! Getting there I drove on winding highways in the mountains, saw many people with ski racks going to and from Tahoe, drove on part of a highway owned by a synagogue, (one of the shoulders seemd to have the end cut off) and saw where lots of food that is shipped around the world is grown.

Shortly after entering the state there was a toll booth like stop to check what if any food you are bringing into California. This is a necessary and incredible stop. They moniter most major roads into the state to ensure no possible contaminants of the food supply come in. The importance of this is huge as they supply food to a whole lot of people!

Santamonica was beautiful and I also got to see my neww baby cousin Lindsay (sp?) Who came from Kimberly and Kevin, also living around LA. She was a darling although she didnt say much.
Here she is with her granparents....

An incredible drive to do around LA is the Topanga Canyon Road fromt he coast to the 101 or the other way....Absolutely gorgeaous, you begin in the city and suddenly you are in an isolatted area of beauty, still some houses, but deffinately a feeling of nature... Then coming out to the ocean!

Just as I was reaching the ocean a cop passed me, something that usually catches my eye (persistant feeling ofJewish guilt perhaps) and then I parked. Sure enough the po-po pulled up as I was getting out of my car and began to question me. He was wondering in a tone as welcoming as the buzz from a nest of hornets why I did not have a front license plate. I told him I didn´t need one and quickly elaborated that I come from a place called Canada (C-eh, N-eh, D-eh) where not all provinces required it. That seemes to satisfy him enough and I went on to be the only person on the beach to jump into the ocean without a wet suit. I was also the only person to jump out of the ocean as soon as he jumped in. But it was super refreshing. Water is bnever cold...only varrying degrees of refreshing!

From Santamonica I visited my grandfather´s sister who no one had seen in 20 years, and stayed with her for a few nights. Her name is Ruth and her husband is Morty. They are both sharp and with it, knowing much of what is going on in the world. I was very impressed with them. Morty golfs 3 times a week and is 90 years old. When I asked him his secret he said...Sex! I half hope he is joiking and 99% hope I can be as active as him at his age and beyond.

After an overnight hike in California where it hailed and snowed, I left Yeye in their garage in Palm Springs and hopped a plane to Cancun!

From Canada to California

I am playing catch up, trying to get up to date with the blog.

I began my journey in my trusty car YEYE, driving off from Calgary Alberta sometime around the fist week of February. For once entering the United States was not an issue and I was welcomed with open arms. (even the border guard supported my right to bear arms by not removing them from my torso! what a guy!)

I drove down from Montana into Idaho, then Utah and across the top of Nevada. I am very lucky that i don´t gamble! If i was not stuck staring t majesctic scenery, I was looking at the casino that had the very best odds in the whole country! It is incredible how many casinos offer the best chance to win in the whole country. (Almost like how my sister is the only one who gets 50% off in every store in mexico, just for her, according to the seller...more on that later!)
Almost every exit with a gas station and some without form Idaho to Sacremento has atleast one shiny casino and a few less shiny holes in the ground that just suck money right in. The highlight of this is what I found in one of the few casinos i decided to explore. A Star Wars Gambling machine.... move over sabbac, here comes the star wars one armed bandit! (A la creature in mos Eisly when Obiwan was done with him)

And these hinndreds of casinos were far from empty! Something tells me that this part of America has some issues to deal with.

Reaching Reno, I was surprised that it was surrounded by mountains! Absolutly beautiful! I couldnt believe it.

Unfortunately I did not find a single hitch hiker the entire time, but I had spannish for dummies to keep me company. Being alone in the car made it easy to see who the dummy was though.

As soon as I crossed into California I had the windows down and was blasting the Psy Trance! Great beats, sun shining, what a beautiful drive! The mountains in north Cali are spectacular, great pines, awesome views and I finally got to take off my long johns! I did it on a street corner, if you were there watching, sorry. After wearing them for several months it was quite a pleasure! For all those with a horrible sense of geography and climatology, California is warmer than Alberta.

More on Cali coming up...

Number One

Greetings!!

Welcome to the very first post of my very first blog.

The purpose of these writings is to be a non personal accompanyment to my travel journal. Hopefully these entries will share information and knowledge as well as open discussions about many topics. Feel free to reply to anything, especially what you don´t agree with!

Enjoy,

Mike