Sunday, December 23, 2007

Picture Play

I enjoy pictures. Not only do I like taking them, but I enjoy trying to find the beauty that is sometimes hidden from view.

I have updated my my Color and Black and White albums where I post my absolute favorite pictures that I have taken.

Color


Black and White

Wednesday, December 5, 2007

Email Subscriptions

With luck, I have determined how to make is so the emails that everyone gets for my blog are actually readable. Sorry it took so long to figure this out. Also, I believe I have added a subject line to the emails as well. All emails from my blog should now have the subject line "Daniel's Travel Blog". This should hopefully make it easier to spot instead of looking for the email with no subject line.

I subscribe to my blog as well so that I know when the emails are sent out. For some strange reason, my Gmail has been marking these emails as spam and they are being filtered out into my spam box. If you have not been getting emails from my blog I would try looking in your spam or bulk folder because you may have the same problem. Although if this is the case, I don't know how you are going to read this post?

Additionally, I have now set it up so that when I post a new blog, the emails for it should go out in the wee hours of the morning (Pacific Standard Time). In which case I am posting this blog at 6:19pm on Wednesday, December 5, 2007. You should now receive the email about this post between the hours of 3am to 5am tomorrow, Thursday, December 6, 2007. From now on all blog post emails will be sent out at this designated time (at least that is what I told it to do...we shall see if that is the case).

Hopefully this makes things easier for some of you who would much rather keep up with my doings without having to leave the comfort of your inbox.

Tuesday, December 4, 2007

Thanks to Google

We live in a wonderful time of information exchange; a time when information travels at the speed of light rather than the speed of foot or ship. I can do things with technology that makes my life so much easier, and in my opinion, more fun. I love technology.

At the forefront of the next wave of technological innovation is Google. I must give thanks to the people at Google for allowing me to be able to do the things that I want while I am away on my travels. If it were not for Google I would not be able to make this blog like I want it to be or stay in contact with so many people so easily.

I conceived of being able to show all of you as much about my traveling as possible long before I ever made this blog. I also wanted a way to keep records of my travels in a place of permanence. I will be able to revisit all these blogs now and forever.

There were very particular things that I wanted to be able to convey while I was determining which blog service would be the best, like: my pictures, a map of the travels, a calendar showing where I have been and what was coming up. I looked at all the blog services out there and Google's seemed to be the best choice. It just so happened that I could make my own map with Google; I could make my own calendar with Google; I already had pictures online with Google. They had everything that I wanted and they made it seamless and simple to be able to roll them into one package that works almost all the time. I could not be happier with Google's services. They never cease to amaze me with their products and somehow most of those products are always free. I have been on Gmail now for a while and I cannot imagine going back to the crap email services that I used prior. I love everything these people have done for me.

I felt I needed to share that with all of you and hopefully someone from Google will read this and feel like they are making a difference out there with all their painstaking hours, because truly, they are. All of their effort makes keeping in contact with all of you extremely easy and fun.

Thank you Google, and thank you to all of those people at Google who have made my life more easy and fun.

With New Eyes


I am home. It is certainly the home that I left behind not that long ago, but it does feel much different.

I flew into SFO and got onto BART. Traveling on BART was a new experience, unlike any BART outing I have had before. It occurred to me as I was riding home just how diverse the Bay Area really is. Nowhere is this more apparent than on BART. Every single person that gets on is of a different culture, background, race, sexual preference; some smell nice, some smell bad; some make a lot of noise while others make no sound at all. Ipods a plenty...this is defiantly my town, I thought. I got off at the Fremont station and proceeded to walk home. I cannot put to words the feelings of euphoria that I had while making this walk home. Hundreds, if not thousands of times have I drove, biked or walked down this stretch of road, but never before have I had such a wonderful feeling while doing it. I was so happy and thankful looking around at what I saw. There were flat, clean roadways; sidewalks that stretched on for miles all at the same general height; landscaped yards and medians as far as the eye could see! It was a marvelous experience; like visiting an old friend for the first time. Near the end of my walk, I came into my neighborhood. I could not help but get the sense that I was in a rich part of town. Looking at all the houses that had Christmas lights and perfectly kept grass and the different kids of lawn ornaments to suit each homeowners style. The houses were clean, beautiful, fresh and ohhh so much like home.

It was this night that I truly realized just how lucky I am to have grown up in such a wonderful neighborhood, city and country. I have all the opportunity right here and right now that this tiny world has to offer at this point in history. I can wake up one day and decide that I want to travel the world, and actually do it with relative ease. Never before in the history of man has travel been so easy to do. I was over 1000 miles away from home and in about 3 hours can cover all that land/sea to get where I want to be. Our ancestors could never have dreamed of the amount of freedom we have in this country. It is truly amazing the amount of opportunity I have to be able to make my life what I want it to be. You really cannot blame illegal immigrants for wanting to come to our country. If I were in their shoes, I would probably do the same thing. It is this opportunity that drives them. I now feel very fortunate to have been born into that opportunity.

I shaved earlier today, but above is how I looked after I woke up this morning...quite scary is it not?

Monday, December 3, 2007

Home for the Holidays

Today marks the day when I leave Mexico, perhaps for good. I am not sure where in the world I will be heading to next with regards to my travels. For now I know that I am going to be home for the holidays. After the new year, I will certainly be embarking on another adventure out into the unknown. Right now my current adventure it leading me home to those I know and to areas I am familiar with.

I am quite excited about returning home. It will certainly be nice to be in an area where I can communicate with most of the people around me. I feel like a lost little child when I cannot talk to those around me. I cannot wait to listen to my music, take a nice long bath and get into some nice cotton clothes.

I realized yesterday looking over my last blog post that something happened when it was published and lines of text were somehow moved from one area where they should have been to other areas in the body of the blog. I have since fixed the problem (I hope), and it should now read much more clearly.

Saturday, December 1, 2007

Of Mexico

When conceiving of my travel plans, trying to determine where it was in the world that I wanted to go, Mexico never made it to the list. In fact, it was never even a consideration for me. In my mind, Mexico was the place where American kids who were not quite 21 went to get drunk and high until the night ran into day. It was a area where living conditions are so poor the natives would risk everything they have to come across the northern boarder illegally in an attempt to make a better life for themselves and/or their family; in some cases even leaving behind their wife/husband and children in the process. The country never appealed to me and I did not feel that there was much to be gained here. Of course, there is always something to learn anywhere you are. There is some lesson to be taught. I just have to keep an open enough mind to see the opportunities arise to be able to take advantage of them. What then has my time in Mexico taught me?

There are certain things about America that I took for granted; things that I now have an appreciation for...super markets, for instance. In the areas of Mexico that I have visited it has been very difficult finding one store to meet all your needs. In America, stores that have everything are everywhere; we thrive off of them. I felt like a little kid in a candy store when I finally found a super market here in Puerto Vallarta. I walked in and just looked around at all the things that I could buy if I wanted to. I did not buy anything that first time inside, I just walked around for probably a good half an hour with a big smile on my face smirking here or there when I saw something that I never really knew I missed. Last night I went to the super market and bought cookies, pringles, edamame (soy beans), imitation crab, rice and martinellies sparkling apple cider for a nice hefty bill of 270 Mexican pesos (roughly 27 USD). I did not care for the outrageous cost though, because it made me happy. That night I ate both the cookies and the pringles in one sitting. I suppose it could be said that I took American comfort food for granted.

Now onto water. Never before have I ever had a need to be worried about what little bugs could be living in the water that I am consuming. Being in Mexico, this is something that I find myself constantly thinking of anytime I eat or drink anything. I look forward to Monday when I will be back in the states and I can go and stick my face in a sink and drink if I want to; I highly doubt I will though.

Smooth pavement comes to mind. I never considered pavement in California to be all that wonderful, but compared to Mexico we have it good. When walking here in Puerto Vallarta I find I am looking more at the ground then at the scenery passing me by because I am worried about twisting or breaking my ankle due to the rocky roads and the sidewalks that can be completely non-existent or 5 feet high off the ground with many variations in between.

I certainly took for granted the ability to be able to communicate with people. I have mostly been in larger resort type towns which made it easier to get by; but even still, most of the people do not speak English and I speak no Spanish at all except for "No!", which I have been using quite a bit with the children at the shelter where I am volunteering. The kids, of course, pay no attention to this command as I cannot communicate anything past no. I look forward to being able to properly scold a child for their misbehaviour.

I have learned that as a whole, the Mexican people are very hospitable and will go out of their way to help you. I have heard many stories in my short time here from other travelers about their troubles and how the native Mexican people went out of their way to help them often times going much more out of their way then would be considered normal hospitality in America. I have heard two tales of people who had all of their things stolen and how they were given money, offered places to stay and how the people went out of their way to make sure they were taken care of. Other tales include families going out of their way to give accommodation to travelers, not because they were in dire straights but only because it was in their nature to help people out. I had a run in with a very nice native Mexican on a bus while on my way here to Puerto Vallarta. He spoke English fairly well and we talked a lot. He wanted to take me to his ranch where he and his 17 year old wife lived which was 2 hours east of Puerto Vallarta out in the country side. I declined because I did not like the idea of being out in the countryside by myself with two people I do not know from Mary. Also, being the person I am, I was very suspicious of his intentions. I am quite sure he wanted nothing more than to help me though, and help me he did. I really did not have any clue how to get to the hostel I am currently staying at. After describing where I was intending on staying he communicated with another bus driver and then told me to get on the bus. After an hour the bus driver told me to get off and I was right outside of the hostel. I am quite grateful to Jose for his help...but I would still not go to his house by myself. I cannot decide if I am being overly cautious or if my instincts are steering me in the right direction.

With the exception of literature, I have learned that art is international and universal. Art has a way of communicating things that anyone and everyone can understand regardless of race, nationality, language, background and culture. I may not get the same reaction, feeling or thoughts from a particular piece of art as someone else even of my own country, but I will have some kind of reaction. When an artist takes the time to create something that they have poured their soul into it shows through to the observer no matter who they are. I have always had a particular fondness for art in all its countless forms. I now have a respect for it beyond what was there when I first left the states. One of my goals in my travels is to find an art form that I can communicate through.

I have always been somewhat of a loner. I tend to live my life inside my head rather than where I happen to be at any given time; for this reason I think people tend to not really understand me and perhaps even shy away from being acquainted with me. I now know that this is no different even among travelers. Before I left the states, I had the thought that social groups among travelers may be different from those that I have experienced in the states and perhaps I would more easily fit in. So far, things seem to be about the same in this respect. Traveling people (for the most part) are great though. I have had the pleasure of meeting people from all over the world such as: Canada, Australia, England, Sweden, Spain, Germany. In general, travelers are very kind and are typically quite eager to share their travels with you. The typical meet and greet starts off with, "Where are you from, and how did you get here?". This greeting almost seems like an international standard for traveling people. You are initially defined not by your personality, but by your path and travels. Already I have some traveling cred, as it were, because I have been on a sailboat. One of the things I think is really great about Puerto Vallarta is that there is such a huge contrast of travelers that come this way. I have met people that have been traveling for years and have been all over the world. I have met people that are here for 3 days just to get away from their routine. I met an alcoholic who lost all his possessions because he passed out drunk on the beach and when the cops awoke him to kick him off the beach he saw the wheel tracks from where they drug off his luggage. I met a young guy on vacation that works for ILM (Industrial Light and Magic), the special effects house that George Lucas created when he was filming Star Wars, that develops tools for graphic designers at Lucas Arts. Very cool, I thought. The most intriguing people I have met so far, though, was this young couple, Leah and Jack, that biked from Idaho down here to Puerto Vallarta. When I say biked, I do not mean motorcycles, I mean bicycles. Talk about traveler cred. They have seen and done some very cool things in the short time they have been away. I can think of no better way to really get a feel for a country then to ride through it. They took off this morning from the hostel and are headed "south". Check out their blog here. Awesome people, and they are both alums of the University of Oregon, to which I hold a particular fondness.

I have learned to bring Imodium AD with me from now on.

And if you cannot tell, I have learned that I enjoy writing these blogs.

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

ODDITIES: Mexico

There are some things about Mexico that I find strange. I suppose that there are oddities about any place. I would think that when a person from another country comes to visit America, there are things that would seem a little strange to them. It is with this in mind that I have created this post which is poised to be the first in a series of posts entitled "ODDITIES". This is where I will share my observations, thoughts and experiences about such things that I find just plain strange, odd and completely out of the ordinary, as far as I am concerned, with regards to the locations around the world that I visit.

Mexico:
I love dogs. They are the one of the animals that I typically have a close bond with almost immediately after meeting them. If I got along with people the way I get along with dogs I think life would be much easier for me...at least that is the case with American dogs. In Mexico, dogs seem to come from a completely different breed. Dogs are not typically leashed, which I personally think is absolutely wonderful. They are allowed to wander freely about. They go where they want and seem to do what they want. If and when I ever will be fortunate enough to have some dogs to call my friends again, I hope to be able to let them roam free as much as possible. I feel it to be cruel and unusual punishment to keep such an animal, any animal really, locked in one place blocking their free movement. I think it is great that this seems to not be the case here in Mexico, however, I do not feel that it is an act of generosity or of kindness from the Mexican people as a whole. The dogs here seem to be quite afraid of people in general. Any attempt I make towards befriending a dog ends in them either completely ignoring me, them running away and cowering, or them barking while running away and cowering. So far since I have been in Mexico I can only recall one instance of having what I deem to be a normal greeting with a dog. I find that most of the dogs I come across look particularly malnourished and mistreated. There may be more to this story, though, because I have not come across any hostile or otherwise aggressive dogs like I would assume to come across in the event of dogs that have been mistreated. In any case, it is certainly an oddity.

Everyone has a cell phone. I would not be surprised to see that there are as many cell phones here in Mexico as there are in the states. Even out in the rural areas of the country where it takes 2 hours to drive to the main road; 2 hours just to get to the main road, not even to another town, 8 year old children are running around with cell phones. Very odd, I must say. On a related note: If you are in Mexico and want to hear some music, apparently the only way to do it is either by having some music on your mp3 capable cell phone and blast is so everyone can hear or to run your car constantly and turn up the volume so the whole block can hear. I have lost count of how many times I have seen people walking down the street listening to their choice music on the loud speaker of their Motorola Razor.

If you are out walking through a town in Mexico and you happen to have a need to throw something away, you better hold onto it because the odds of you finding a trash bin in Mexico is about the same spread as finding an iPod in Mexico. In other words, it is not going to happen. It seems that most of the population does not hold onto their trash, they decide to throw it where they happen to be at the time. Pollution is rampant. Look in any creek or river and you are hard pressed to find an area that is not littered with bottles of all sorts and wrappers from any numerous amounts of items. I come from California...this is very odd to me.

Have a need to get somewhere in Mexico? Get on a bus. The buses go everywhere here. They are cheap, efficient and frequent. If it were not for the fact that it takes forever to travel from point A to point B there probably would be no airlines in this country. In fact, they are so good I feel sorry for Mexican tourists that visit America. They must have one hell of a time trying to get around. Most of the buses that I have been on have actually been quite comfortable as well. The seats have plenty of room and a lot of them had movies to watch while we were on the go. As for the quality and selection of movies, that is another story.

So far, I have only seen one Starbucks.

Sunday, November 25, 2007

Puerto Vallarta Pictures 2.0

I have added more pictures of the shelter I am volunteering at.

Puerto Vallarta

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Puerto Vallarta Pictures

Pictures of Puerto Vallarta and the shelter I am volunteering at.

Puerto Vallarta

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Making Head Way

I am very excited because today is the first morning I have woken up here and have actually felt pretty normal. I am hoping this means I have reached the peak of whatever sickness it is that I have and I can concentrate my efforts on more important things.

Yesterday morning was probably the worst I have had here in Puerto Vallarta so far. I was feeling absolutely terrible and worn down. I did not feel like doing anything what-so-ever. After wracking my brain trying to figure out what I should do, it occurred to me that I could just travel home now for the holidays. This thought had an immediate effect on my body. I suddenly felt better, more alert and happier. It was then that I realized that a lot of this could all just be in my head. Sure, I was feeling pretty bad and I knew that my body was quite unhappy with whatever sickness was going on, but if it was all just my body why would a single thought make my body feel better? I made a decision right then that I was not going to let this sickness rule my time here.

With what little energy I had, I went to the store and bought some imodium AD to hopefully curb my bodies reaction to whatever it is that I have. I decided that from now on any water that I consume is going to be boiled even if it is bottled. The thought of food was utterly disgusting, but I knew that I needed some sort of sustenance if I was going to go up and volunteer. I made some rice for myself and evidently put waaaaay to much salt on it. I did not think I put that much in the water, but alas, I am no experienced cook. I ate as much rice as I could muster and then took one of the imodium ADs. Not much longer after that, I threw it all up. Oddly enough, I felt quite better after this then I did earlier in the morning and I then went and volunteered up at the childrens shelter. When I was finished it was about dinner time and I came back and made some fried rice with egg in it. By that time I was really hungry and ready for some food and some clean water. I ate a lot and drank a lot.

I hope this marks a turning point for me here in Puerto Vallarta. These last few days have not been very fun, but I hope that yesterday turned the new leaf and I can now give my time to more worthy causes.

Friday, November 16, 2007

Puerto Vallarta

I have been staying at the Oasis Hostel in Puerto Vallarta for the past two nights. I was hoping that when I arrived here in Puerto Vallarta I would have numerous emails from most of the different volunteer organizations that I sent emails to, unfortunately that was not the case.

So far I have received three reply emails. The first of which was written all in Spanish and as far as I could tell basically said that they would welcome my volunteer assistance come January. That is great, except I am trying to find something between now and when I leave to come back home for the holidays. The second email I got was from an organization quite a long ways south of here. It seems that transportation down there would be a large problem, especially if I were to take a bus which might take me to Mexico City. From what I have heard, just assume that if you are in Mexico City that you will be held up at gun point and robbed. I do not really like the sound of that so I am thankful that I got an email yesterday from this organization: Refugio Infantil Santa Esperanza.

Tomorrow I will be heading up the street where their orphanage is located to see about volunteering there. Hopefully all will go well and I can stay here in the hostel I am currently staying at while helping out with the children at their facility which is a 5 minute walk from here.

In other news, my body is reacting negatively to something I ate and I am soiling what were some clean garments of clothing earlier this morning. I will be taking the rest of this day to relax here at the hostel reading, sleeping, writing and watching movies. I hope to not spend to much time in the bathroom. Tomorrow will probably be my first day volunteering and it would be unfortunate if I spent it all indisposed with other problems. With hope, this will not be the case.

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Bus-ted

Okay, I am ready to leave Cabo San Lucas. The Cabo Inn is charging me 50 USD per night. I think they are trying to give me a hint to leave and I am taking it. Believe it or not, this is the cheapest place to stay in Cabo. I am glad to be moving on. I am not really a partying person and this is party town.

Shortly after writing this blog I am going to be hopping on a Bus for La Paz. From La Paz I will take a ferry to Mazatlan and then get on a bus there to head down south to Puerto Vallarta. It should be interesting. Apparently Mexico`s bus system is one of the best in the world. You can get anywhere by bus and if you are willing to pay, the buses are rather nice. If you are not willing to pay you are roughing it cattle car style. I think I am going to go for the former instead of the latter. Hopefully the trip there will not take to long although I believe the ferry ride itself is 12 hours long. I could be out of contact for quite a while depending on when and if I find accommodations. I have an actual hostel picked out in Puerto Vallarta, but since I do not know when I will be getting there I cannot reserve a spot in advance. Hopefully they will have room for me and I will not be stuck on the street.

Sunday, November 11, 2007

Volunteering and Christmas

I am currently doing all I can to find some volunteer work somewhere here in Mexico that is relatively close to where I am curretly am. I have sent out a couple emails, but have not recieved any replys as of yet. I am hoping that I will find something meaningful to commit some time and effort to. All of my previous volunteering has always turned out to be a very positive experience and I can only hope the same will happen here.

I now am staying by myself here in Cabo San Lucas. My crew mates who stayed with me the last two nights have now moved on to other things. I am paying 20 USD a night to stay at the Cabo Inn. It is much less expensive then most of the accomodations here in Cabo, but 20 a night can add up fast. I have sent out a couple of emails through the Couchsurfing service, but have not had any replys to them as of yet. There are not many people on Couchsurfing that are offering a couch here in Cabo, unfortunatly.

I feel a little bit uneasy currently due to my stagnation. I decided while on the boat of terror that I wanted to come home for Christmas to see and be with my family. I am looking forward to that, but that feels quite far into the future right now even though it will arrive very fast I think. I feel that me wanting to go home for Christmas will hurt my chances of finding some volunteer work. It seems that a good number of places want a certain time commitment from their volunteers. I am keeping my fingers crossed that I will find something. If I cannot find anything volunteer wise relatively soon, I will need to come up with some kind of alternative plan. Right now that tentative plan is to head to Puerto Vallarta even though I know I am not going to be taking a sailing vesstle into the South Pacific. Although, in order to get to Puerto Vallarta that means I will probably have to crew on another sailboat...not really something I want to jump right up and do at the momment. I also do not really want to stay in Cabo San Lucas.

Cabo is quite expensive as it is frequented by tourists from all around the world. It is nice to be in a part of Mexico where many of the locals understand English though. I get stopped by guys at least twice a day trying to sell me cocaine and weed, however. Drugs are rampant through this area, in which case I feel I need to be on my guard everywhere I go in the city. I am constantly watching those people around me and keeping a very close eye on where their hands go. I hate to be judgemental of everyone around me, but I feel I need to assume that everyone I see is a potential threat to my well-being in order to stay safe; not really the greatest feeling in the world.

Sailing Pictures

Here are some photos from the drive down to San Quintin, Sailing and my room in Cabo San Lucas. The photos of the dolphins did not seem to turn out all that well, unfortunatly.

Sailing

Friday, November 9, 2007

Realizations

Well, I am still alive. I made it through the ordeal that was sailing down from San Quintin to Cabo San Lucas.

I have determined that sailing is not my thing. Sailing out on the bay for a couple hours or even a day is cool with me. I would do that every once in a while. Sailing blindly through the night while huge waves crash over your boat while it is constantly taking on water and your captain has no knowledge or opinion about what to do to fix any problem we get into is certainly not for me. I lost count of the number of things that broke on our boat during our trip. One of which was our outboard engine which is basically a lawnmower engine designed to push around little tiny boats through the water, but this was being used to push a 28 foot Piver Trimeran built in 1964. In the sailing community these boats have a terrible reputation. The designer of the boat, Mr. Piver, basically sold the blue prints for his boat design and then touted that it was the greatest things since sliced bread and that anyone regardless of their experience could use his designs and build one of these boats in their backyard and then sail them safely around the world without issue. Needless to say, people did build them in their backyard and people did sail them around the world except some people did not build them as good as they could have been built and people died. Thankfully, that did not happen to us. The boat did seem to run into problem after problem, though, day after day. Practically every night when the sun went down I was in fear that that would be the last night in a fully functional sailing vessel. The two other crew mates seemed to share my fear, however, thankfully, they had some experience with sailing; come to find out they seemed to have more knowledge of the boat we were sailing on then the captain himself. If it was not for Jason and Pete I probably would not be typing here today.

With every day feeling like they could be my last I was thinking about death a lot. Prior to my days in High School I used to be very afraid of death. It used to scare me to the point of throwing up just by the mere thought of it. I have since lost my fear of death until this trip. It is not so much the fear of actually dying that was getting to me, it was the fact that once I was gone I would never see certain people in my life ever again. That thought really struck a strong chord and I can now say that I am indeed afraid of death once again. It was a realization that death is for certain and that I only have a limited amount of time to spend with those whom I love.

To sum up, this sailing trip has taught me two things: 1) That I have absolutely no passion what-so-ever for sailing. 2) Seeing and spending time with those people that I love is probably the most important thing in my life. Time is limited and there is no telling what tomorrow will bring.

Now onto other lighter matters. While I was sailing I saw lots of wonderful things which include: whales, dolphins, fish, a turtle, lots of birds, bio luminescence, starry skies, shooting stars, many sunrises and many sunsets. All of which were exceptional and amazing. The one memory that stands out in particular happened just yesterday during the day. We looked behind our boat and saw about 20 or so dolphins skimming the surface on our right side. They were traveling fairly fast and looked to be playing. After watching them for about a minute they all changed direction and started heading straight for our boat. At which point we looked to our left and saw a huge mass of dolphins literally surround the rear of our boat in a U shape and then they all converged at the center of the U all at the same time. They must be some of the most intelligent creatures around. Basically what they did was drive a school of fish to the very rear of our boat and surrounded them. Scarred by the noises that our boat was making on the water as it passed over the surface the fish did not dare come close to us and in essence the dolphins trapped the entire school. Once they had them all surrounded the dolphins pounced and it was a feeding frenzy. There must have been at least 200 or so dolphins all working together in coordination. They knew exactly what they were doing and executed it perfectly. Certainly not the first time they have done it before either because the birds in the area were privy to the action. They were swooping and swarming around the center trying to pick off what fish they could. I find it amazing how humans have disturbed so much around us and destroyed much life, but still many species continue to thrive and actually use us in order to survive. Utterly brilliant animals.

I did get a couple pictures of the event although I doubt they will come out to be anything of significance to look at. I am hoping to be able to come back to the internet cafe tomorrow in order to sort through what pictures I have taken and hopefully I will be able to upload a good number of them.

Friday, November 2, 2007

Turtle Bay

I am currently in the city of Turtle Bay in Baja California. Turtle Bay is a little hole in the wall, or in this case, a hole in the rock that is located in Baja California some 240 miles south of San Diego. Although, I believe those are nautical miles which I learned are longer than normal miles because it takes into account the curvature of the earth. If you were to measure the distance between point A and point B of a nautical mile it would be the same as an American mile, however, for some unknown reason, they thought it would be good to take into account the curvature of the earth when it comes to a nautical mile. In any case, Turtle Bay is quite a long ways from San Diego.

I must say, Mexico is a very dusty, dirty place. I am not even sure I would call it a third world country, but man is there a lot of dirt everywhere. I could not wait to get out of San Quintin on Monday. We did not actually leave San Quintin until Tuesday afternoon. After we set out, things started off really well. I saw a whale and then dolphins were swimming along side of our sailboat for about half an hour. It was not until night when things started to go south (no pun intended).

The skipper of the boat, Walter, got sick almost immediately. He was out of commission for a very long time. That night I determined that I do infact get sea sick, but only when the sun is down. When the sun is up I am fine, as soon as there is no sun I have issues. That night we hit a fair amount of wind and some of our sails got messed up pretty bad. Our front sail got to the point where we could not furl it back in, which basically meant that when the winds picked up at night like they did we did not really have control over the boat. For a couple of hours we were sailing in a North East direction which is not very good considering we were supposed to be going south.

Day number two which was Wednesday, I was happy to be alive. The day went fine for the most part, but we found out our boat was taking on water in one of the hulls. That is not good. Thankfully we have 3 hulls. Although today we found water in the main hull as well. Anyway, that is another story. So we had a lot of water in our left hull going into the night on Wednesday and we were headed South when I was trying to go to sleep. Wind was coming at us from the East and so were the swells of waves. The problem being that since we had water in our left side hull that side of the boat was already sitting lower in the water then it should compared to the other hulls of the boat. Since we had both the wind and the swells of water coming at us from the right side of the boat that put even more pressure on the left side of the boat to sit even lower into the water. The kind of boat we are in is quite reliable except when there is a lot of weight on board. Especially a lot of weight on one side of the boat. If the left side of the boat were heavy enough and had enough force on it, if it dugg into the water on the left it would not have been that hard for the boat to flip over. Of course I am thinking and realizing all of this while I am trying to sleep, our skipper is still out of commision and cannot really think straight and the other two guys on the boat are trying to get us where we were going as fast as boatly possible. I was freaking out a little. Obviously we made it through the night though and came out okay.

We got into Turtle Bay yesterday and we will be leaving tomorrow morning, I believe. Sometime on Sunday we should be hitting our next stop. I forget what it is called but apparently it has no services like Turtle Bay. Meaning I will not have access to things like phones and the internet. Anyway, as long as we keep the water in the hulls to minimum, sickness of those who know what they are doing to a minimum and with a little bit of luck maybe we will make it through this thing alright.

I have never used a computer in a country where English was not the native language. I must say I do believe a Mac would be better in Spanish then this thing I am on right now.

I do have pictures that I need to upload, but I will not do that here because I am getting charged by the second.

I hope you all are doing well.

Sunday, October 28, 2007

10 Days Gone

I have met up with the skipper of the boat that I am going to be on and I am going to be staying with him tonight at his apartment.

We will be leaving early tomorrow morning (Monday 10/29/07) for San Quintin in Mexico where the boat is currently ported. There will be a total of four of us on the boat which is 28' long. Basically it means tight quarters. As I type, the skipper, Walter, is making phone calls trying to get the motor on the boat fixed. Even if the motor is not working we are still going to be sailing. Should be an interesting experience. According to what Walter is saying, we will be on the boat for a total of 10 days, in which case I will probably not be able to update my blog for a while. At least 10 days, possibly more. I am not sure if I am going to have access to a computer and internet once I get down into Cabo San Lucas.

My main goal once in Cabo is going to be finding a boat that I can crew on that is headed to Puerto Vallarta. PV is where a lot of boats that want to sail into the South Pacific congregate before heading out to sea.

I am having reservations about being disconnected from everything for an extended period of time. I have never been in a situation where I could not pick up the phone to talk to those that I miss. I guess it goes back to that old saying; you never know what you have until it is gone (or something like that).

Saturday, October 27, 2007

Slow Boat to China

As most of you know I have officially left for my travels. I am currently in San Diego staying with my cousin Jesse and his wife Kristen along with their cats. I was originally going to be staying with my friend Peggy in San Diego, however, due to the wild fires that are still burning in the area, she departed for LA. She will be coming back tomorrow (Sunday, 10/28/07) and hopefully I will be able to see her before I leave on Monday. Thank you Jesse and Kristen for allowing me to stay with you even at such a late notice.

My flight to San Diego went okay. I flew South West from Oakland to the San Diego Airport. The flight was supposed to be only a little over an hour long but it ended up being about 2 hours and some change due to low lying fog that was covering all of San Diego early Friday morning. We were fortunate though and were able to land safely at San Diego. At first they were going to reroute us to Las Vegas which would have put a little damper on my plans; thankfully, I did not have to deal with that. I was also lucky that my cousin, Will, was also visiting and he was able to pick me up from the airport even at such an ungodly hour. Thanks Will, I appreciate it.

It has been nice staying here visiting family. I actually do not feel like I am doing anything adventurous at all. It simply feels like I am visiting family, which of course I am. I find it hard to fathom that in only a few short hours I will be on a sailboat with 2 possibly 3 people I have never met before in my life. I hope they are nice people.

I am unsure where I will be sleeping tomorrow night. I am gong to be meeting the skipper of the sailboat tomorrow for sure, but I do not know if I am going to then stay with him or what is going to happen. The unknown is surely unnerving, and there are a lot of unknowns when it comes to my trip. I think that is why it is so stressful for me most of the time. A lot of people keep asking me if I am excited for my trip; I will be excited when I know for sure where I am going to be and what I am going to be doing. I find it difficult to be excited about the unknown possibilities that lie ahead. I am excited that I am not at work though. It makes me smile every time I think that right now I could be working.

I await the day when I wake up for work, then smile.

San Diego Pictures

Here is a link to some pictures that I took while in San Diego:

San Diego


I have also recently updated my Color and Black and White albums. Take a look:

Color

Black and White

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Insurance Trouble

Now that I know the date I will be leaving the country I can make an insurance policy; I tried to make one with the company that I mentioned before in one of my previous blog posts, but ran into some disturbing difficulties.

After creating a user account with the website they ask for personal information of the policy holder. That is all fine and good and to be expected, however, what I did not expect was that I was going to be sending all this personal information like my full name, date of birth and address over unencrypted internet channels. For an insurance company that resides all online and states that one of their main goals is the security and privacy of users personal information, it is quite unnerving to see that I will be sending vast amounts of personal data for anyone and everyone with the knowhow to read, use and/or sell.

It is coming close to trip time and I need travel insurance. I just hope I do not have to find another company because this one is negligent.

Confirmed Sailboat

I have officially found a boat and a skipper that is willing to take me on their ship down to Cabo San Lucas. I will be traveling, as of right now, with three other people on a somewhat old school sailboat with no "head", as they like to call it.

Instead of leaving straight from the port in San Diego and traveling down with the rest of the fleet, we are going to be driving into Mexico to San Quintin where this sailboat is currently docked. Apparently it is about a five hour drive from San Diego to where the boat currently is.

I have never been in Mexico before, and I do not much like the idea of driving through Mexico after some of the stories I have heard. The skipper of the boat is fluent in Spanish though. Hopefully if we run into any trouble he will be able to talk our way out of it.

I am excited that I have found a boat and this will give me time to see friends and family while I am in San Diego in the days prior to leaving for Mexico on the 29th.

Monday, October 15, 2007

Possible Sailboat to Cabo

I may have caught a break and found someone who might be willing to take me on their sailboat. I hesitate to make this blog post because I feel I may be jumping the gun a little bit and in doing so may shoot myself in the foot. I have a good feeling about it though, and hopefully all should work out.

His boat does not sound to be the greatest of accommodations, however, this does not bother me. If it floats, and it gets me down to Cabo then I should be fine; I do know how to swim after all. I will post once I know for sure that I have secured passage aboard. For now I am hopeful.

Tuesday, October 9, 2007

Packing & Relief

I am very pleased to say that I have packed relatively everything into my backpack! The thought of packing has been a stress on my mind and I am very glad to have it completed.

I thought I was over packing way to much and it was stressing me out to no end. I thought that with the amount that I wanted to take there was not going to be any way I was going to be be able to get it into my pack; and even if I did I was going to be breaking my back trying to lug the thing around. I thought that my pack was going to be coming in somewhere around 50 lbs. I am pleased that now that I have pretty much everything packed I am only hitting 35 lbs. This is a great relief.

I will be adding a few more pounds, though, because I have not received my water bottle. It is on order and has not arrived yet. My filled water bottle should probably add on another 3 pounds or so. I also do not have any food in the pack currently, but who needs food.

I am also very relieved with regards to what is in my pack. It seemed like every day there was something new that would come to my mind that I wanted to take. I think today is the first day in a very long time that I have not thought of something else that I needed to remember to take.

I feel very comfortable with what I am bringing currently. As long as I do not hit any snow, I should be okay. If I do hit snow I just better be close to a place where I can buy a very heavy coat otherwise I might be raiding houses for warmth.

Things finally feel like they are coming together. The next big task is San Diego and actually finding a boat that will let me crew with them. Actually, no, I take that back. The next big thing I have left is to read the last Harry Potter book, but that is no chore.

Thursday, October 4, 2007

Mexico?

Well, it seems that finding a sail boat that is headed directly towards the South Pacific is highly unlikely at the present time.

Apparently, right now most sail boats that reside on the West Coast are making their way down south to areas like Puerto Vallarta in Mexico. From here they can sail up and down the coast of Mexico for a few months until it is safe to make the passage across the ocean into the South Pacific.

There is a boat race that leaves San Diego on October 29th called the Baja HaHa. I am hoping to find a boat that will take me as crew in this race even though I have very little experience. Once I make my way down to Cabo San Lucas I can hopefully find a boat that is continuing on to Puerto Vallarta and from there eventually make my way into the South Pacific.

Mexico was not really on my travel itinerary from the start of my plans, but I guess it is now. I do like the idea of learning and honing my sailing skills before I head out to the Pacific though, and Puerto Vallarta could be the perfect way to do just that. This could be a great opportunity to learn a lot.

Monday, October 1, 2007

Crewing and Sailing

After speaking with Frank Deggman (professor of sailing at Cal State Monterey Bay), I have determined that in order to find passage aboard a sailing ship I really need to start learning about sailing, in general, since I have absolutely no knowledge whatsoever about it. I also need to go down to ports, docks, and marinas to talk to people in person. Develop relationships with the people that deal with sailing first had. The likely-hood of me being able to travel on a boat when I have no experience an no connections is very slim. Even if I did find a boat that was willing to take me, it might not be the best idea considering they are probably taking me simply because they are very desperate. Traversing a large body of open sea with a desperate skipper is probably not the best idea; especially if I know nothing about the crew.

Right now I think I will take a 3 pronged approach to tackle this problem:
1. Learn as much as I can about sailing via online resources
2. Find classes that can teach me a base of knowledge to work off of with regards to sailing
3. Try to find people who are willing to teach me about sailing
a. Contact known individuals who know about sailing
b. Travel to the ports, docks and marinas in order to find knowledgeable individuals and develop working relationships with them.

Unfortunately, this may take time. I always have my backup plan to fall back on; I can rent a room aboard a cargo ship for fairly cheap. Certainly not as fun, and I would not be learning anything, whereas this sailing thing fulfills 3 of the TREK goals: People, Culture, Knowledge.

Saturday, September 29, 2007

Travel Insurance

Yesterday, I found a travel insurance company, worldnomads, that has me quite excited.

I have been anxiety filled for some time about the prospect of finding insurance for my trip. I do not have a high opinion of insurance providers based on the recent experience I had when my car was stolen...but that is another story all together. What a wonderful scam the insurance carriers have going. I too would love to own a business that the law forces everyone to use and I get to determine when I pay my customers. Anyway...

Worldnomads seems to good to be true. It might actually be, I am still looking into it. Their website is extremely clean and straightforward, which I love. This morning I read through their policy and could not find anything to suggest they were trying to pull the wool over my eyes. They offer seemingly great coverage for a fraction of the cost. I can extend my coverage at anytime while I am traveling and I can make claims online in the event of an accident. They are an all online company, which is the only way I can figure they get away with being so cheap.

I like to think that we are in the communication age. Never before have the people of the planet been able to share information and news at such a fast speed. At the forefront of this age are computers and the internet. It is, therefore, great, for me, to see businesses and companies decide to build their business models upon this fairly new concept. For me, these are the people that get it.

I just hope this is for real and there is not some catch somewhere along the line. For the time being, however, I feel a great weight lifted off my mind.

Friday, September 28, 2007

Picture Post Example

This is an example of what a blog post will look like that has a link to a newly created picture album on my web album.

Pictues of Me

Thursday, September 27, 2007

The Beginning

I am eagerly anticipating what lies out there for me to find, discover, and experience.

I have wanted to travel for years and now I am finally doing it. The closer I come to venturing out that door the more scared I become. I find that I use my need to be fully prepared as an excuse not to leave.

It is an internal battle between leaving and staying. It is a futile battle because eventually I will leave. I take actions that will prevent me from leaving for a time but then I take other actions that force to have to leave.

I find that I no longer feel comfortable at home. It does not feel right being here. I no longer feel like I belong here. I find that I am easily depressed when I am home. I order to keep from the circle of depression I am trying to concentrate my time and efforts on the work that I need to do prior to leaving. The largest of which is finding medical insurance and, of course, a boat that will take me into the pacific.

I find that I get annoyed by my friends and family when they inquire about my trip. This is an unusual feeling. I feel guilty for having the feeling. I know that my friends and family are just curious, worried and excited for my trip. I know that I should feel happy that there are people that care about me and my travels; I do sometimes. More often then not, however, I have a recurring feeling of annoyance towards them. I feel this is for two reasons: 1) I already feel guilty that I am not traveling yet and their persistence in asking only deepens my guilt. 2) As distant and as closed off as I normally am from my friends and family I believe it will be difficult to leave them all. The more annoyed I become with them and the more distant I become with them the easier it will be to leave. I highly doubt that last statement is true. It will be difficult in any case I imagine, but because number 1 is most assuredly true, number 2 is hard to shake off.

It is funny to look at the mind games we play with ourselves; leading up to my trip, mind games are all I feel I am experiencing right now.