Wind And Waves

in Paradise…..one can feel sad and lonely!  Whats up with that?!!!

I’ve been hanging around one of the marinas lately. Larry took this picture of me, on a tour of the island on his golf cart. This island is so beautiful.

The marina, to me, it is one of those places thats like hidden jewel. Almost nobody knows about it. There I have found a little community full of friendly, adventurous people with all sorts of backgrounds and stories. Last night we sat around playing guitars, accordian and singing pirate songs!  One of the fellow’s whom I just recently had a conversation with,is thinking about someday taking kids and corporate workers on their boat,an Outward Bound kind of adventure. I was super excited to hear this! I bet it would be an amazing experience. One of the things that really excited me hearing this, is the marriage of two very different leadership styles. Steve was trained in the army and is a sailor and then his wife, has masters in leadership……..! There are some really neat things churning in the world right now.

Another fellow I met, named Storm (which describes his personality perfectly) is working on fixing up his Catamaran that he built and raced……so he can sell it and take it to Columbia to sell and then start building a pirate ship….to take kids (specifically orphans…he himself was one) out on, show them a side of the world they have had no exposure to.

This picture was taken at Stuart and Chucks house. They’ve got their boat in the marina and have a house on the cliff. Se llama Casa Amarilla porque la casa es amarilla! Por Sopuesto! Their house is like my dream house. The Colors! Thats what really gets me! Its beautiful, with nice open spaces,sweeping views of the turquoise ocean, thick dark woods and all the primary colors. It makes you happy just walking into it. Things just seem to come together perfectly. When I complemented Stuart on it, she shrugged it off. But really, I think you have to have some kind of talent to make it all come together so well. As much as I LOVE making/decorating spaces…..I’m not sure I could make it come together and feel as good as their house feels. They had pictures hanging on their walls from an artist named Jess (check out his website) incredible!

And I got to meet Jess…..a sunny and bright (seeming) individual just like his paintings.

Everyone on the island, has been so incredibly friendly. I met a random fellow who lent me plently of money and then my mom wired me a little bit to get by (I need to find work NOW! Another fellow bought me the most extravagant breakfast I’ve had yet…….Its been really wonderful feeling so taken care of and trusted by complete strangers. I’m making friends on the island and it makes it tough to leave, not to mention the beauty I’m surrounded by. If anyone is thinking about a Mexican Vacation to Cancun or a white sand beach scene like Cancun or Vallarta……. I totally reccomend Isla Mujeres. Much less crazy, and more genuine and a small town feel, still with awesome snorkeling and swimming and the best part………..lots of marinas 🙂 filled with people sailing around the world..!

Oh my goodness. I did it. Just what I’ve been afraid of doing……for the last 6 months. I lost my little “bolsa” which has ALL my money in it. Doh! Don’t ask me why I put ALL my money in there, I Keep asking myself that over and over and am getting sick thinking about what I should have done! I was sitting on the malecon (boardwalk) looking out over the sea (dreaming of sailing to Cuba and wondering what it was like on the sailboat right now for Garance and her new friends) I was juggling a few things in my hands (my money bag “bolsa”) my camera (I had just been taking sunset shots) my backpack with my journal and favorite book “Writing Down to the Bare Bones” my journal,pen………and a melting ice-cream cone. I got up and walked away….with out my bag! Oh my gosh. I realize about 5 minutes later when I was in a pharmacia fantasizing about buying some really good smelling sunscreen (coppertone!…after all, I am in that dreamy tropical place that the smell always make you think of!) I decided against it (my budget is to tight to spend 140 pesos on sunscreen I don’t really need) I went to buy a bottle of water instead and thats when, in horror, I realized I had left it on the malecon. I frantically raced out of there and prayed to god the whole way back, that it would be sitting there, but it wasn’t. Of course it wasn’t!  I still have my passport, though…..that is good. 🙂 I’m sitting here trying to write this entry at a cafe (who’s architecture and music….I LOVE) I’m looking at a fellow from Cuba who has been soo nice to me. His eyes are hard no to look at. THey are amazing. He’s sitting here reading a book while he waits for customers to come in. He is quiet and kind seeming with a gentle demeanor. He grew up in Cuba. As I’m talking to him, I’m busy slapping down a slew of stereo types on these Cuban people I hardly know and am so curious about (they are beautiful,they are gentle, they like books, there are empathetic………..I want to visit their land so bad! I fear that in our exchange, he can tell I’m slapping down all these new stereotypes on Cubans. I feel extra sensitive to our human tendency to do this. When I was in Chiapas, there were almost NO Americans anywhere and so I was the “American” Oh, she’s blonde….Americans must be blonde. OH, she likes strawberry popsicles…American must like strawberry popsicles…….you get the idea! I could feel the stereotypes being placed on me. Though I try to stay away from stereotypes, its such a natural tendency. Our brains are doing the best they can to understand the new world around them and by placing info in ready made categories, its much easier to understand the world and have a sense of control about it. One stereotype I ran into a lot, when I was living with Sonia in Chiapas was that all Americans are prejudiced against black people. Whenever we had dinner parties with her friends and or relatives…….they asked me what I thought about Obamba and the fact that he was “negro”. At first, I assumed they were disapproving of it but then after a conversation with Sonia, I realized they assumed I was! Imagine, all of this conversation is happening in Spanish…..so there are bits a pieces I’m missing!

Ah, la vida. I still can’t believe I did that. Now what???!

So, as I write this entry, I’m still in a bit of a transitional space because Garance has found a sailboat to Cuba.  Since I split ways with my brothers, I sent an email to Garance to see where she was.  She happened to be where I was going!  So she gave me some good advice to naviate through Cancun quickly and cheaply get to Isla Mujeres……where there were sailboats going places!  We’ve been exploring/hanging out/talking to people/reading/swimming/tanning….for the last week.  I especially love hearing her talk about her love of people and places.  After hearing so much about Paris…I would love to go!   She came rushing into the hostal where I’m staying this morning saying that she had found a sailboat and was leaving for Cuba NOW!  Since I met up with her in San Cristobal, she was talking so excitedly about going to Cuba.  This is a dream come true to her and I’ve got front row seats 🙂  and now I’m feeling sad that she’s gone and reflecting on our travels together.  I’ve never met anyone like her.  She  has a very intuitive way of traveling……she seems to have an underlying understanding of how people tick and isn’t in the least bit scared to Go For it!  She is from Paris and decided that off the little money she had she would spend a year traveling.  Which so far has brought her across Canada (it had always been a dream of hers to see the Rockies and the grand nature)  Across the U.S and all around Mexico……..so far!  Her stories bring alive places I’ve lived or traveled near but had no idea they existed. She has introduced me to the wonderful world of hitchhiking.  In the picture above, we hitched a ride through the mountains.  THe sun was setting and the lush green of the jungles shone.  The whole ride we joked and laughed together.  So fun!  SHe helps me to recognize all that is there within the moment.  SHe so optomistic…….and with complete sincerity.  She must be getting so much energy off her moments to fuel her across the countries.  Sometimes traveling can be hard, especially when you budget is about 50 pesos a day!

Sometimes speaking with her is frustrating because she doesn’t understand English like a native speaker so I can’t express some of my thoughts about what we were seeing that I would have really liked to share.  BUt…the way she put the English language together, brought a life to moments and peoples and situtaions that I had never seen before.

She talked about wanting to see a grizzly bear SO bad.  She said matter of factly though, that she better read up on the bear to understand its behavior when she sees it.  Its funny, sometimes when she talks, she seems a little crazy…..but you see how serious she is and then you watch it happen just like she wanted it to…..and its amazing!

So, this morning, when she came in to tell me she had got a boat, I wasn’t the least bit surprised……..even though everyone had told us the wind was bad and she had just missed the weather window for boats going to Cuba.  Wow.

I was soo excited for my brothers to arrive in Chiapa De Corzo and to jump in the car with them and continue on to Columbia.  But……to no avail.  We couldn’t get along!  Jeremy and I got along fabulously.  Wesley and I on the other hand…..  We can’t seem to get beyond judgment of each other’s punkish ways.  It became clear to me, quite quickly, that this wasn’t going to work.  For one thing, we were on different schedules.  They like to stay out late hanging out and then sleep in.  I like to go to bed around 10pm and wake up early.  So after exploring the ruins at Palenque, we went on our separate ways.  Me to the Carribean side, them, down to Lake Atilan in Guatemala.