Wind And Waves

I met this fellow at the station. I was trying to smoothly out of the corner of my eye see what he was reading. THe cover was turned up, so I couldn’t quite see it. Finally after a few minutes of this i got the courage up to ask him what he was reading. ” The monk who sold is Ferrari ” As it turned out……he was reading a book by the same author of the book I had in my bag! I could hardly contain my enthusiams upon discovery of this. ANd we started chatting animately for quite some time until I had to dash out to catch my bus. He gave me a brand new book in Spanish that he had in his bag, that he reccommended I read. What a gift this is! Given our connection on the books we were both reading, I have a feeling he has given me a gem of book. Now if only I could get through the Spanish…….this will be a perfect thing to be reading while I’m in school!

Before Chiapas though………..Two days in Guadalajara for new years. I’ve always wanted to go to Guadalajara. hell yeah!  I was lucky to stumble on Hostel Maria (they have an awesome website using flash…for those of you working on websites and needing inspiration!) a Great cheap place to stay, right in the middle of a beautiful part of town near the cathedrals.

Oh my! I’d like to spend more time in Guadalajara. What a beautiful city. The architecture is old and beautiful. The people seems studious and the climate is refreshingly cooler. I needed a sweatshirt in the mornings. It was pretty funny, on my early morning walks, I would see people in down parkas, with gloves on! I think it was probably about 60 degrees at the lowest!

the people I met at the hostel were an incredible group of people. Very kind,generous,curious, intelligent and friendly. I was quite taken aback by this new crowd of friends. I felt in with them immedietly. I felt like we had known each other for a long time. This helps affirm my decision to take a little break from the ocean. It was so refreshing to be around a younger very curious and intellectual energy. Two of my new friends were working on their PH.D’s. This gets my mind ticking……if I could find something I’m obssessed with……..maybe I could go for a PH. D and travel and gather research for the bulk of it. What am I obsessed with?? education/self discovery/culture…………hmmmmm.
Among others I spent a couple days getting to know were Anja who is down from Germany bicycling from Alaska to Panama. Hell yeah! She was so fun. I’m looking forward to her visiting me in Chiapas. Check out her website. www.gonebiking.de Also a couple of Columbian girls who were so friendly and comfortable with themselves it made being around them a real joy. Also, made me really want to end up in Columbia on this adventure of mine. I get such good feelings about that country. I’m told that Cartegena is the romantic city……….mmm sounds good to me!

New years day in Guadalajara is photographers paradise, let me tell you! Families dressed up walking around the beautiful city together.

Zooming through a flock of pigeons. don’t you wish you could do it too! It was time to go way before I was ready too But, school was starting in a couple days and I had to get myself to Southern Mexico. Bus transportation in Mexico is really great. Cheap, nice. Nothing like an American Greyhound trip.

I absolutely love being on the water and feel as though I can never get enough of it!  But, honestly, I soo long to be in control of my own world.  Perhaps I’m a control freak, (like I accuse my Dad of being)!  I found that I was playing control games in the way I was communicating with Skip.  His scope of reality was different than my scope (naturally, I think everyone see’s reality from a different color of the spectrum).  There was a kind of a drudgery and look forward to whats going to happen, perspective, that I found to be hard.  I needed a refreshing perspective  AND I’m feeling like I’d really like to be in a more empowered position…..like, start up a business and earn enough money to buy a boat or go for my captains license so I can be a delivery captain…..or learn to teach English so I can stop and teach and get to know a community and feel more integrated and offer what I’ve got to share with the world. I’m having a wonderful time hanging out and getting to know other cruisers but a piece of me feels like I’m missing out on the rich Mexican culture going on all around me (well, you can’t miss out on it, its so engaging and colorful)  but I think I could be spending more time trying to understand or at least working on my conversational Spanish! (after all, that is a huge reason for heading South! )

So… There was this TEFL school in Chiapas de Corzo, that I have had my eye on for awhile.  I’ve been wanting a TEFL certificate and the thought of getting one Mexico seems to make a lot of sense!  So, after much deliberation (why are decisions so difficult for me!?)  I hoped on a bus, headed to a small Town in middle of Chiapas!!  is this really happening!!??

Finally, the boat was ready to go! We were both SO happy to be pulling out of the marina. I can’t even tell you how happy we were! There is so much cement at the marina…..the sea brings a gentle expansiveness to life. We sailed to a little village that can only be accessed by the boat. We anchored there and had one of the most
unrestful nights of sleeping ever! The waves were so big, I nearly rolled out of my bed. Perhaps thats why, in the book, they suggest you don’t anchor over night, DOH! . But! In the morning, the sunrise was beautiful! I think perhaps it was one of the best I’ve seen. Even though I was rockin’ and rollin’ all night, I felt really good in my sleep. The lay of the land was great feng shui. Mountains swooping down into a valley and then coming into a protected little bay.

Christmas! It so didn’t feel like Christmas. I hardly ever got that Christmas “feel” But, as usual we had a blast. While  Skip worked on getting the boat ready, I made up a salad (with lots of chopped vegies because by now, I have gotten quite good at it) and some salsa that Skip taught my how to make (its pretty darn good…..)  We went to Philos where lots of creative dishes. The food was delicious and everyone seemed festive and happy to be there. I met some amazing people that night. (I know, I say this all the time, I just keep being surprised about how amazing people are!) There were these two women who sat at our table who had sailed all over the world. There was a band playing and its was difficult to have conversation, which is too bad because I would have loved to hear some of their stories. I bet they had a lot to say and they were so quiet and humble, you would have never guesses they had such stories! They had met Tania Abia (my heroe!) ANd……get this………said I reminded them and lot of her! That made my night. They encouraged me along in what I am doing and mentioned that I should really try to write an article for some of the magazines………….I should…………

(By the way, Richard actually published a little article about me in January Lattitude 38 I’m famous for a month……in S.California that is)

As the night continued, I met a fellow named Eric about my age sailing all around and I met three hombres on Canela.  Brazilians around my age, sailing around the world! Check out their blog…. They told me they had been inspired by the book Dove. Same as me! They were all a LOt of fun to get to know and I didn’t want the night to end. I also met Marie, that night. A young smart adventurous woman like myself who was crewing on another boat and getting set to head into the interior of Mexico. The Brazilians encouraged me to come back to their boat and we could all play guitar and tell our stories of traveling the world. Tempting…….but don’t know about being on a small boat with three drunk Brazilians who have been at sea for the last couple weeks!

In the midst of all the work needed to get done in order to set sail……..we took a day and explored Puerto Vallarta. We both brought our cameras and were delighted to find that we have a similar eye and passion for photography! So, it turned into one big photo shoot, with lots of energetic little intereactions with different people along the way. Some times I have to pinch myself because it all seems so perfect. Skip and I’s connection is really something special. Not in a romantic way, but artistically we share
many similar ideas and appreciations. It’s been quite a treat getting to know him as he is empathetic to the way people feel and very insightful and perceptive. From this excursion, we have soo may good photos…..I’m trying to figure out a way to download them to Picasso or something that holds a lot of photos. Stay tuned 🙂

A Fellow making cigars in a Cigar factory. Lots of Cuban cigars for sale here. His hands were so trained in this art…….you could tell he’s been doing it for years.

Skip loves good bread……and we were thrilled to find some! He’s enjoying it with a cup of tea (he used to live in England) that was given to him by a fellow in an “up and coming” gelato shop.

So…..the time has come again for me to find a different boat.  Wayne is heading back to the states for a couple months.  Man!  I can’t wait till I get my own boat……the process of getting settled in a new boat so daunting for me.  But! I had met Skip and spent time with him already.  He is single-handing it around the world and told me he would love to have some crew as he gets closer to Panama.  So, I decided to get on his boat!  He was kind enough to open up his world to me and its been quite a learning experience.

I really love walking. Sometimes people think I’m crazy when I set off on a long walk (especially here in Mexico) but gosh, they don’t know what they’re missing! This is probably why I so thoroughly enjoyed hiking the Appalachian Trail. You get to walk every day for a nice long time. Its such wonderful way to sort your thoughts,absorb nature and move you body!

The artist of this painting, humbly agreed to let me take his photo.