Dec 18, 2008

I can't believe it;s Christmas in only 7 days. This morning I woke up on a small beach near Cabo Pulmo, inside a national aquatic park. Apparently we can't camp here for free so we are picking up and moving again today. Our destination is Aguas Calliente (hot springs in Spanish). I am very relieved about it. Sand has invaded my entire life now and I'm looking forward to being able to bath in fresh water and maybe washing my clothes as well. To get their we will have to back track to La Ribera and then up the highway to a town called Santiago. I learned this from some other people we met the other night who were also camping on this beach. They had a map and let me look at it to get an idea of where we were in relation to anything. All I really knew before that was that we were somewhere on the sea of Cortez and we were between La Paz and San Jose.

Getting here was one of the funnest days on the road thus far. It took us three rides all of which were the first cars to pass us on the road. The first was a Mexican man and his son who lived in one of the pink condos near where we camped the previous night. The man owned a pushy dog that had tried several times to get at our food while we cooked dinner and he fished on the beach. They told us that they could take us to the highway. I sat in the box of there truck and Jaime sat up front with them. As we drove on the dirt roads in the back country it seemed like they were just taking us into the middle of nowhere. I felt uneasy but soon we stopped by a Marina with a water truck parked in front and the man in the truck refilled our jug of water for us free of charge. After that we took a 5 minute trip down another dirt road through the desert and were soon on the side of the highway. We said thank you and goodbye and crossed the road to put out our thumbs again. Before the two Mexicans had even pulled away we were picked up by an old grey dodge camper van and we were off again. The driver was a funny Czechoslovakian man. He was very friendly although his English wasn't the best. He told us that he used to live in Kelowna(a town near where we grew up) but now had a home in LA. He was in the Baja looking to buy property on the east cape somewhere. We talked about travel and places that we had all visited before. He and I agreed that France was our least favorite destination because the people are terrible. He drove us right into Cabo Pulmo and said goodbye and we wished him good luck finding a piece of land. In town we bought some food for the night. The town was small and had only one store and I was upset when I learned they had no beer and the only type of cigarettes they had were extra lights. I sucked it up however and we started on down another road that Jaime told me would lead to a fantastic beach her and Di went to before I came down. Once again we were picked up right away by a mother and daughter from Washington state. They were going to the same beach for a day trip with there dog Archie and were quite friendly as well(everyone down here is). It didn't take long to get their and we set up camp under a palapa umbrella. I didn't bother with my tent. Jaime convinced me to go for a walk around the rocks to another beach that she said was very nice. It was clear immediately why this place was a national park. The beaches were littered with coral fragments and empty crab and lobster shells. The lobsters were a type which I had never seen before. The shells were a Deep purple fading to an electric blue on the top and each of the spikes on them was orange with a white ring around it at the base. After getting back to our camp I decided to take out my snorkeling mask and go for a swim. The water was warm and underneath I discovered a utopia of sea life only 100' from my camp. There were many different brightly colored fist and corals everywhere. The fish were florescent with every colors of the rainbow. I also saw several squid and was stung by a jelly fist that I never ended up seeing. I was later told by our neighbors on the beach that there were microscopic jellys here and you could not see them but they still stung if you touched one. It didn't hurt much until I got out of the water but it went away in an hour so I didn't really mind. After my swim I went and bathed in the sun on Jaime's blanket for a couple hours and she took out my goggles for a swim of her own. Afterwards I went and introduced myself to the neighbors.

The people we have met on this beach have been wonderful and extremely friendly. Maya is and extremely positive hippie from North Carolina whose birthday is today. The other two we met here are Iron and Nick, two interesting characters from the US. Iron is about 40 and from Idaho but grew up as a foster child in California. He bought an awesome RV off a farmer in Idaho and is driving it around the Baja with Nick. They named it the mańana mobile (tomorrow mobile). Nick is a little younger than Iron and has a very funny personality. He seems to have no sense of appropriate discussions, then again none of us really do anyways. They have been drinking, smoking, and sniffing there way around the Baja for 2 months now. Last night they were gracious enough to share there fire with us and after we shared almost the last of our weed with them Iron decided that the previous plan of them not drinking was over with. It didn't take long for him to invite us in for several shots of bourbon whiskey a brand of which I have never seen before and can't remember the name of anyways. Jaime and I had some veggie enchiladas for dinner and I complained to Iron about my lack of carnivorous food on the trip thus far. He said that if I continued on this diet I was likely to be taken out to sea by the next big wind that came around and if I was lucky I might even get to the mainland that way. Iron forces Nick to sleep outside of the RV and he has a tent that they take around with them. Inside the tent Nick has the biggest air mattress I have ever seen, it literally almost doesn't fit in the tent. They have a black lab with them named Ouzo who is apparently completely useless as a guard dog since they were robbed pretty easily a few days earlier. She does however love to play fetch and will chase a ball quite a ways out into the water if you throw it that far. We sat up and talked longer and longer and Nick and Iron smoked a lot of there weed with us too. We also finished off the bottle of bourbon and when that was done Iron decided we needed to dip into a humongous bottle of tequila he had sitting with the rest of his rather large liquor collection on the counter. Maya told us all about a campaign she wanted to launch some day against circumcisions and we all kind of laughed at it a little because it sounded a little silly. Nick cracked several Mormon jokes as well which seemed to fly over Jaime and my heads since there aren't to many Mormons in Canada. Everyone else thought they were great though. At one point in one of our discussions out of nowhere Iron sat up and said "if I get on the bike right I could be back in an hour with an 8 ball of coke". Nick then replied "wanna bet on it". I knew Jaime wasn't apposed to the idea though we didn't have nearly enough money to contribute. Though I'm pretty sure had it happened with everything else these two shared with us they wouldn't have much trouble sharing cocaine either. Also however if that had happened we probably would have had a difficult time traveling today or even waking up early for it. After several... and I do mean several more shots of liquor the night slowly wore down and we all soon made our way to our respective beds. Jaime and I slept under the stars and I slept quite well.

This morning I woke with the sun which has now become normal for me. It's strange to think that with my regular schedule back home I haven't been awake before 10am for about 4 years and now I am up at 5 at least every day. Jaime however slept in for quite a while. This annoyed me a little because I wanted to be on the road early today before the camping collector came by to get money from us for sleeping on the beach. I went over to Nick and Irons RV to see if they were awake yet though and saw Maya returning from some yoga on the rocks. I wished her a happy birthday. After I said hi to everybody I went for a short hike around the beach. Sand was in everything now even in my ears which really bothered me. When I run my fingers through my hair the sand salt and oil in it hold it in place far better than any product you can buy in North America. When I returned I went over to the RV again. Nick and Maya were their having some tea outside. We chatted about this and that and joked about the night before. Iron began to make some oatmeal inside for everyone to have for breakfast. We laughed that Jaime would have to wake up or hers would be cold so I did the polite thing and went to wake her up. She was rather rude about it when I did so I left her their to do whatever she felt like. I took some toilet paper and took care of some business and went back to the RV. The food was almost done and Maya had brought some fresh raw honey to put in the oatmeal. Jaime ended up showing up anyways and the food was delicious. After it was all done we washed our dishes. Nick and Maya had already left to go swimming. Nick wanted to catch one of the lobsters and was dead set on eating it for dinner. Jaime went out for another swim to and I stayed on land and played fetch with Ouzo. It is windy and overcast today as well which means that traveling should be great since it won't be to hot out. I got my things together to leave and Jaime eventually but slowly did the same. I cleaned the cuts in my feet and prepared for a long day on the road.

Dec 17, 2008

Yesterday marked the first time on this trip we had to make camp twice in a day. Getting to La Ribera was a piece of cake. That morning we simply hitch hiked from the highway just up the road from where we were camping the night before. We were quickly picked up by a local fisherman named Jesus who drove us all the way into town. He gave us directions on how to get to the beach. I even spoke a little Spanish with him which was fun. I was beginning to improve. We stopped at a mini super in town for some some provisions. Food, toilet paper, water, cigarettes, and a Ballena were on the list today. We also bought some junk food. To get to the beach we had to walk through a 1 km stretch of desert between the town and the sea. You could still see the town but it was a little ways away. When we got there the spot was perfect. There was a very large open palapa hut and we decided to make our camp under it. Since we had a roof we didn't bother putting up our tents. In front of it facing the sea was a sandy road with a row of about 15 smaller palapa umbrellas running parallel on the other side. At the end of the row there was an old wooden life guard tower. The place also had several garbage cans with painted heads of dolphins and seals(not real ones) as the tops. It looked like there had once been a resort or an amusement park here that was now long gone. The place seemed perfect and the sea was beautiful.

Jaime and I climbed the tower to hang our, drink some beer, and smoke a J. I started a fairly poor water color painting on one of the rails at the top of the tower and Jaime juggled some hacky sacks beside me. After a while a truck pulled in near the hut and parked next to a tree in front of it. We said hello to the two men inside and talked about how nice the day was. Shortly after they left and we wondered aloud what they had been doing there. I climbed down to find a place to go to the bathroom and get my cell phone. Near the tree I saw 5 empty Modello cans where the truck had been parked. That answered that question. After the bathroom I got on my cell phone and made a few calls home to make my friends and family jealous of my fortune and just to chat mostly. Then I climbed back up the tower to paint some more. A few hours before the sun was ready to go down another car drove up by our camp. They stopped and parked right in front of our things and just sat there with the music on. The car was a beat up old Mazda with tinted windows all around so we couldn't see what was happening. Jaime was already on the ground after dropping a couple hacky's while juggling and we exchanged semi concerned looks. She walked over to our camp. She said hi to them and they exchanged some more words I couldn't hear. Then the two men inside opened the doors and I saw that they were drinking as well. I decided to climb down too and lit a smoke. I walked by the car and said hello and it was returned. The driver was a chubby faced Mexican with a blank expression on his face and short cut hair. The passenger was in better shape but his entire appearance just said bad guy. He had long black and silver hair with a poorly kept goatee. His face was hard and his eyes especially gave him a mean look. He asked me something in Spanish that I didn't understand. I told him I didn't speak very well. He just smiled and in English said " that is okay" I decided to chop some firewood and thought that if they had bad intentions the sight of my hatchet might make them think twice. Just then a Policia truck rolled by our camp. I thought about talking to them about these guys since I was getting a bad feeling from them. What could I really say though? Excuse me officers but these men are drinking on a public beach and making us feel uneasy. The Policia just waved and drove by. At that moment I realized that there wouldn't be another Policia vehicle by here for at least another day probably more. These two would know this as well and I began to feel more uneasy. The hatchet didn't seem to scare them and they both got out of the car and leaned against the poles of the hut and drank more. Jaime gave me a worried look and I saw the mean looking one go back to the car and reach into the glove compartment for something. Jaime told me she had seen him put on some rings and a necklace. She whispered to me asking if she should get out her pepper spray just in case and I nodded yes. I was glad to know we were getting the same feeling from these guys. They never really did anything unfriendly but we weren't sticking around to see what happened when the beer ended and the sun set. We quickly decided to pick up our things and walked farther down the beach. There were some condos in the distance and we agreed being a little closer to people would be a better idea for the night. We set up our camp quickly and started dinner before sun down. I had some carne asada tacos that a very nice couple from LA had brought us that morning on their quad. I was happy to have meat again. Jaime is a vegetarian and we only had one pan to cook in so I was usually polite and didn't bother buying meat to eat since it would take more time and would have to be cooked separately. This was a treat though. I also made some green onion cakes with some of the flour that Devon had left us and Jaime made a guacamole from a squished avocado in her bag. After dinner we smoked a joint and talked about our experience with the creepy Mexican guys and played a couple games of cards. I fell asleep in my tent and she stayed up to watch the stars.

Dec 15, 2008

We arrived at Los Barilles yesterday after a long morning of hitchhiking. We sat and waited at some trisection between La Paz, Cabo, and San Jose for an hour before getting a ride from a friendly Mexican man driving a hotel van. He told us he was a chef for a fancy hotel in Los Barilles and that he had trained for his red seal in France. He dropped us off at the beach right downtown and wished us luck on our trip.

Saying goodbye to everyone at San Pedrito was a little hard. We had spent so much time together that we all began to feel like a family a little. Saying by to Dale wasn't as hard but you had to admit he was a pretty good guy. He talked a lot but for how much crap I had to listen to he did smoke a lot of weed with us all. In turn we fed him some pretty quality meals so I think it was a fair trade off. Saying goodbye to Samuel and Daniella was a little harder though. Samuel and I had become good friends through our mutual interest in trying to live off the land here though he was far better and much more knowledgeable about it that I was. We all hugged and exchanged emails though and first thing in the morning Jaime and I were on our way back down that dusty road.

I now find myself thinking in Spanish 70% of the time though I don't always understand what it is that I am even thinking. I just repeat sentences or words I have heard before over and over in my head. Jaime is almost fluent which makes me a little jealous so I try my best to learn quickly. I can tell that I am improving though I am now capable of carrying out short conversations at the store. Even when we hitch rides with Mexicans I can understand a great deal of what is said back and forth between the drivers and Jaime. Learning a new language is certainly exciting and I can't wait to keep getting better. I read my Spanish dictionary as often as I can as well to try and remember things out of it. Though the best way I've found so far is to keep listening to everybody around me.

After our first night in Los Barilles we noticed three other towns further down the beach. We decided to walk to the next one each day or two and check them out. Los Barilles was very expensive for such a small Mexican town and I was still waiting on some money back home to arrive. Home is on my mind a lot these day. The tension being around Jaime every day all day is always making me wonder if I am doing the right thing keeping on with this journey. I am certain beyond a doubt that there will never be any romance between us again. She simply cannot commit to anything though I'm not sure when i ever asked or implied to her that I wanted that. I feel bad for her though knowing that some day reality is going to hit her hard and she will have to deal with it. Her freedom is very important to her but she has loans and other things to worry about back home. Her plan to sell jewelery like the Mexicans is a nice dream but it won't pay off her debt and I doubt to many tourists come to Mexico to buy there souvenirs from white girls. She keeps talking about this foolish puppy idea as well. I try to reason with her but she has no interest in listening to anything intelligent if it disagrees with her point of view.

Cleaning our feet has now become a daily ritual. Jaime's cut from the waterfall hike is bad and she has a nasty looking blister on one of her toes. My cuts are all still pretty fresh and I have also developed a blister on the outside bottom of my left foot. We use our hydrogen peroxide sparingly but are out of bandages now.

Mescal us a weird trip. I woke up still feeling drunk with the sun rise. The higher it climbs the more sober I become and I fear that I will be gripped by a hang over soon. It's an odd liquor costing $1.50can for 1L of only 25% alcohol that makes you feel more high than drunk. Sort of like taking a small dose of magic mushrooms with a mickey of bad tequila. You don't hallucinate but your brain begins to function on a different level. Tasks like walking away from the fire to go to the bathroom take on a whole new set of challenges. The stars in the night sky seem to move and then reset themselves and at times it feels like the world around you is moving as well. The whole experience is very surreal but you don't ever feel like you are going to freak out about any of this. It's not something that I would drink on a regular basis however.

Last night while drinking Mescal Jaime and I discussed a lot of things including how we would get to the mainland. She suggested we keep out eyes open for cheap flights to Mexico city and try to make our way east from there. Possibly over to Cuba eventually. That sounded great to me Cuba would be a fantastic way to end my journey. We also thought that trying to work on somebodies boat from La Paz might be a good idea as well. With Christmas approaching in less than 10 days now, we agreed that it would be best spent in La Paz and we needed to do something really fun for it as well.

Today we are going to break camp and hitch to the next town down the beach. Jaime thinks it may be called Aquas Calliente from a map she saw in town. If it indeed is then this could be the place with the hot springs we heard about before. I hope so I could use a bath in some real water.

Dec 13, 2008

Today isn't that great, well actually since I am writing this at the end of the day in my bed. I must confess at this point I am feeling good about most things, but I did have 2 double gin and pear juices before I came in here. Last night after I asked Jaime what was up I got a really strange break up even though we weren't really dating speech with hazy excuses for why and wreaked of mental practice and politeness. It went along the same lines as a lot of break ups I have had in the past with one one major difference. I remained reasonably rational through the whole thing. My general reaction to such a conversation would generally be an shit storm of carefully crafted insults based on minor details or undesirable traits I memorized throughout our time together that would seem hilarious to only myself and my friends(if present). I think though that I have seen this coming for so long now that I have just become comfortable with the idea though. I carefully weighed my options in my head. I could have done what was natural to me and been left on that beach with no knowledge of how to get home or anywhere for that matter. This was not the best idea since my Spanish was lacking and Jaime knew the language area and people fairly well at this point. I decided that this course of action would probably lead to me going home fairly soon and the idea of traveling with my ex as apposed to going home only a couple weeks in was not what I wanted. We agreed to continue traveling together as friends and even smoked a joint. I slept very well and felt satisfied with my decision.

The next morning I woke before sun up got up shook the sand off me and my sleeping bag. Then I took a walk to brush my teeth and take care of other morning business and walked to the tap to refill the water jug. I thought a lot about the night before and realized I wasn't as happy with the decision as I had thought I was last night. I decided however to stick by it for the sake of having a traveling companion. When I got back to the house Dale was up smoking weed by the fire and watching the sun rise. Samuel came by and mentioned the oven we had built yesterday so I decided to go and get ingredients for making beer and cheese bread. I mixed it all up in a bowl and Samuel got a fire going so we could use the coals in the oven. Amanda and her boyfriend Franky were getting the last of there things packed into their mini van. It was sad that they were going, not because they were particularly nice, well he was always quite friendly but mostly cause a lot of the great things at the house belonged to them and the place would be left bare again. I was particularly upset about the hammock in the front which I love to lounge in whenever I could and play my guitar or write. At the same time though it felt like the time had come and it was time to move on. Hopefully the next people to inhabit this place treat as well as they did.

In the afternoon Jaime and I went to Soritos to see Bart and ask him about deep sea fishing with his friends in San Jose. We walked down the beach and up one of the roads that led into town that Samuel had shown the day before. I wanted to buy some more cigarettes since i was out. Before we got to the store though we were picked up on the road by an older couple from California in a camper van. They told us they lived down here near Todos Santos. They drove into Pescadero and told us that they wanted to stop at the surf camp in town to pick up some t-shirts for their family and friends back home. Perfect for me so I went to the store while they did that and filled up on cigs, beer, chips, and hot nuts(the most amazing snack food ever). The surf camp was cool but a little boring since nobody was there so I went and had a smoke on the steps outside. Jaime went to get water and I asked her to get me another beer as well. The couple came back out and we waited a moment for Jaime to return and we were on our way again. Luckily they were going to the same place as we were and they dropped us off by an awful looking set of condos being built. We walked along the beach to Bart's camp site. He was up on the bluff and waved to us when he saw us coming his way. We sat and talked with him for a couple of hours about this and that. He told us about plans he had to go to Costa Rica in the new year. He also told us that Di, Stu, and Devon had made it back home in only 3 days. That was record time for the distance they had to travel. We all agreed that Stu was probably a real pain in the ass for most of the trip so they didn't stop to much. Eventually Jaime and I left and made our way back to the beach. We stopped in at the bar for the Soritos resort so Jaime could use the facilities and I wandered around and found the younger guys from Vancouver island eating fish and chips and playing pool. They had left our camp a few days earlier with Princess who drove them here and then took his Jeep to La Paz to catch the ferry to the mainland. I played a short game with Mike and then Jaime and I continued on back. We decided to just climb the hill that separated our beach from the Sorritos beach and walk back. The walk was nice and Jaime and I talked about our view on life. The talk was long, deep, and interesting. All in all though it reaffirmed my belief that we would have never worked out as a couple. It also made me wonder how long we would be able to travel and get along before our differences caused an angry argument and ruined the friendship. Part of me still misses the affection we had very much, but after that talk whenever I look at her I wonder what happened to the girl I came down here for. When I look at her now though she is a completely different person. Situations like these have become fairly normal for me over the years but never on this grand a scale of being in a foreign country with no return ticket. She said she doesn't mind me being around but it still feels very uncomfortable. I suppose I could go it on my own and probably do alright for myself but I still have a great deal of concern for her. Think about it a tall slender attractive white girl with blue eyes hitchhiking alone in Mexico. Not to mention her extremely friendly sometimes very naive demeanor. I know she realizes what kind of danger this poses for her but she simply chooses to ignore it in the belief that being positive will make sure nothing bad happens to her. I feel bad writing about her in such a negative tone but she is far to carefree for her own safety and I am a little more cautious. I am glad however that we are still friends and I hope it lasts. Whenever we do finally part ways I wish her all the luck and safety she will need to get through this journey of hers.

Before we got back my feet began to hurt again so I took of my shoes and walked barefoot in the sand the remaining distance. We got back to the house and smoked some weed and watched the surfers at sunset. Dinner of course was the topic of discussion. We still had half a block of cheddar left from the bread I made so we made veggie quesadillas and Samuel and Daniella made pasta with tomato sauce, some rice, and grilled squash. It was all delicious and afterwards I rolled a big fat joint and we smoked it with everyone. I also drank the last of the gin the boys from the island had left and mixed it with pear Jumex. It was incredibly tasty. We all went to bed after except Samuel who stayed up with Dale trying to make a basket or something out of some leaves. I was a little sad but not surprised to see Jaime sleeping outside again but I went to my tent and quickly forgot about it and went to bed.

Dec 12, 2008

My camera doesn't work, all my clothes have sand in them, and to top it off my guitar is fucked. The neck is separating from the body due to the change in climate and humidity i think. Or it could just be the guitar was cheap in the first place. Amanda had a guitar that has been sitting here for days and I took it upon myself to tune it today. I have been playing it all day since and asked her if she would want to sell or trade it. She said that she would think about it but I am not really counting on it now. Especially since today I accidently used their water to make a shower with. I gave them a gallon of our water to replace it though so I think she isn't to angry with me. Samuel and I made an oven with some cinder blocks we found in the area today. Then we took a long walk into town tow get supplies for making dinner with. After we got back everybody else went into town and I was left all alone. My mind ate away at me a lot more about Jaime when I was by myself. So I tried to keep myself occupied by preparing dinner. I got some chicken and vegetables and made a peanut sauce for a stir fry. When everybody came back we started a fire and got dinner going.

Dinner was a feast. The stir fry with wild rice was delicious, everybody loved the peanut sauce but I wasn't as happy with it. Then out of nowhere Daniella brings out this amazing vegetable curry that somebody had given her earlier. Nobody expected it and it was incredible. Dale an old time hippie from Vancouver smoke a bunch of weed with us and told us a ton of stories(40% of which I think were bullshit) mostly about selling mushrooms on Rhek beach in Van. Vancouver in general was a fairly regular topic of discussion since it seemed to be a focal point that most of us had been to at one time or another. Samuel unfortunately missed dinner to to an allergy to sea food that we ate last night. Everybody else had a great time though.

Jaime was continuing to ignore or avoid me again. Her posture was always in a way that had her back to me. I decided that I was going to have to talk to her about this before it ate away at my brain and made me do something embaressing like getting drunk and accusing her of ridiculous notions. After dinner I went to the tent and she was already asleep. I knew this couldn't wait til morning but I didn't know what to do or how to bring it up. I tried to sleep and spooned with her. I woke up again shortly after to her moving. "I'm going to pee!" she said. It was a full moon and when she came back into the tent I felt the air from outside come in and it was quite warm. "I'm sleeping outside" she said, and grabbed her sleeping bag. I decided this was my chance to get this out finally so I told her that I would as well.I set out my bag beside hers and put my water bottle and my smokes beside my pillow. I was still fairly drunk from the beers at dinner and feeling ballsy enough to bring up this awkward topic.

Instead I pussied out and talked about the stars and how big the moon was and a bunch of other lame bullshit for half an hour. I smoked two cigarettes and then came that awkward silence where we ran out of mutual ground to get along on and all that was left was the real topic laying on both of our minds. I could tell something was up with her too by now. We both knew there was more that needed to be discussed but remained silent for what seemed like forever. The quiet tension between our sleeping bags was so tight that if somebody had walked by and kicked a couple grains of sand our way it would have cut it. So finally I worked up the guts and asked her "Why are you ignoring me?"

Dec 11, 2008

We have been on this beach for almost 3 days now. It's name is San Pedrito and it is a wonderful place to spend some time. There is a large community of people living here. Down the beach towards the rocks are the long term campers. Hippies and surf enthusiasts who come here for the winter to escape the cold of Canada and California and catch some good waves. The majority of them are from British Columbia but there is a strong base from California as well. Near where we are staying there is an abandoned house that used to be the bade for an RV park but it was destroyed by a hurricane I am told a couple of years ago and now sits here empty. There are several people camped out around the house as well but not for as long term as the ones with campers and RV's by the rocks. The temporary campers consist of three teenage boys from Vancouver island, 4 twenty something year old's from Gibson B.C., a couple from north Vancouver, A girl from New Zealand and her boyfriend from Italy, and a couple from Tijuana/San Diego. The guys from Gibson it seems went to high school with Buzz the guy from north Van and ran into each other here by chance. They have all provided sufficient male comraderie for me since Devon is now gone and it is only Jaime and I at this point. Buzz is probably my favorite though. He walks around all day in a pair or rediculous short red shorts smoking 2 packs of Marlboros a day and drinking a countless amount of Ballenas. I don't think I have seen him without a beer in hand since I arrived here. His girlfriend Michaela is very friendly and invited us to move our camp closer to the community when we met the first night around the fire. Samuel and Daniella, the couple from Tijuana/San Diego were the first people we met when we arrived and Daniella old us about a tap under a palapa down the beach where we could get fresh drinkable water. She also told us that where we were building our camp was not a good place since the tide had been coming up to that spot in the mornings lately. Amanda the girl from New Zealand has taken it upon herself to clean up the abandoned house and has even done some incredible paintings on a lot of the walls inside and out. This prompted me to buy some spray paint in town the other day and add my own contribution to the house the other day.

I am told that the hut was quite a mess before Amanda showed up and there has been a large effort by a lot of the people living here to clean it out and keep it clean. The younger boys however haven't been keeping the area to clean. a few yards from the house sits and unfinished palapa they were attempting to build with bamboo and leaves from the surrounding areas. The original site for the hut I'm told turned out to be on top of a grave for a local surfer who died on this beach and they were warned away from it when somebody told him that he was burried right where they were digging. They moved the site over a few yards out of the rock circle that marked this grave but now it appears they have given up on the project and now it sits half finished in the middle of the beach. One of the guys from Gibson is also a guitar player and he and I have been jamming a little around the camp fire at night to keep everyone entertained and it turns out that his other 3 companions are all in a band together so we have some singing to go along sometimes. As I write this right now they are all deeply engaged in an experiment to find out if it is true that a cockroach can live for 3 days with it's head removed. They have been debating and arguing about how long it will last and gauging how fast or slow it is moving from time to time. One of them purchased a fantastic storm trooper mask at a Toys'r'Us in Cabo and they are taking turns wearing it as well. There are buttons on the side and when you press them they spout Star Wars phrases in Spanish out of a speaker. It is incredibly entertaining.

Since we have been here Jaime hasn't been feeling to well though and I wonder if that water we were told was okay to drink really is. However Samuel and Daniella have been drinking it for weeks they claim and I have since we got here and it hasn't bothered me. I also managed to complete my crab trap today with wire and mesh I bought at the Fereteria in Todos Santos. The Mexicans in the store however looked at me like I was an idiot for buying such a small amount of stuff and my spanish is still not up to par so that didn't help much either. I got a lot of looks from them that said "what are you stupid what do you need 2 meters of mesh for?" Getting the trap out to sea however proved to be a bit of a challenge. Cootenay(or princess as he is called) lent me his surf board to take the trap out and I tried to launch it from some rocks but was continually bashed by strong waves knocking me the board and the trap around in the water. The trap was crudely built so it had a lot of sharp edges and the rocks while already sharp were packed with barnacles and other annoying things. After 20 mins of trying to get out I gave up and threw the trap out to sea with its buoy attached by 100' of rope. However now have a lot of really bad cuts on my legs and feet which were bleeding heavily when I arrived back at camp from my adventure. They hurt a lot but I have been trying my hardest to keep sand out of them to reduce the chance of infection. That is quite a challenge though considering this is the beach and sand finds it's way into everything here.

Things with Jaime have become strained a little. We don't fight but I continue to get the feeling that she doesn't want me here anymore. She never seems to talk to me and always goes to sleep before I get back to the tent at night. Whenever I hang around with her she leaves after 5 or more minutes and goes to hang out with somebody else. What sex we do have has declined rapidly in quality and enthusiasm. Though there was one incident which I thought was a little funny and I don't think she did as much. One night after dinner we were fooling around and I was feeling around a little(you know). A moment later she began shouting that something was burning and took off out of the tent naked and running for the ocean. It was late so nobody was up but I was left alone and confused so I layed back down trying to figure out what the problem was. When she returned she was very cold from the water and cuddled back up to me in the bed for warmth. I asked her what the problem was and she said that she didn't know but that her private area began burning. We both thought about what could have caused this for a moment and then she asked me "Did you cut up jalapeno's for the salsa tonight?" At first I didn't understand until the light came on in my head and I realized what had happened. I apologised to her for my foolish mistake and we went to sleep. I knew from our second day here together that things weren't going to work out between us but I really didn't expect them to start going downhill so soon. Then again I knew what I was getting into going on this trip. Chasing a girl you have known for 6 months to Mexico is pretty stupid to anybody with the exception of the illustrius rick and complete narcisists. What the hell I thought though when I began this. I had saved a bunch of money from collecting employment insurance for my broken ankles all summer and I certainly didn't want to stick around for winter in Canada if I could help it. I had a bad feeling though since the ticket was booked that things would go sour somewhere but I don't want to leave yet nor do I want to leave on bad terms. We have a lot of mutual friends back home though and besides she hasn't really done anything to bad other than acting slightly indifferent towards me occasionally. Perhaps she is just feeling bad and I am reading to much into things but still I remain cautious and know that only time will tell. There are plenty of other things to keep my mind distracted in the meantime though. My drinking and smoking hasn't been extreme, but it certainly hasn't been mellow either. I generally smoke one pack of Marlboro reds in a day and I don't think I have gone a single day yet without consuming at least 3 Ballenas.

The other night we had fish burritos for dinner with some fish I bought from a local fisherman earlier in the day. While we were prepairing it over the fire a bunch of the group noticed a large fire in the desert far down the beach. Immediately dinner was abandoned and we piled about nine of us into Princess' Jeep Cheroke and took off down the beach. Princess drove like a mad man in 4 wheel until we reached a road that would take us closer to the fire. When we got closer we saw that it was inside of a large area fenced of by a 14' cement wall. We soon realized though that the fire wasn't as cool as we had anticipated and we made our way back to camp. Not before stopping in town at the Pemex(Mexican gas station) to buy some more beers and cigarettes. When we got back to camp the fish I had prepaired was burnt but we ate it anyways and it was excellent. We had it with some salsa that I had also made and some guacamole care of Jaime. After dinner Jaime went to bed and I stayed up and drank more beers and shot the shit with everyone for a while. Shortly after I went to bed dissapointed to find her asleep already. No sex again!

Dec 7, 2008

I didn't wake as early as I intended to today, Devon and I had made plans before going to sleep last night to get eggs in the morning and use the remaining tortillas and veggies to make breakfast burritos. We walked to the store that sold groceries which was only a block further than the mini super and purchased eggs, a green pepper, and Manzana(apple) Jumex. When we arrived back at camp Jaime was out swimming in the sea. We took the dishes down to wash them in the shallow tide. Most of which were only knee deep. Suddenly out of nowhere a wave about neck height for me came in and hit me in the chest like a punch from a pro boxer. Devon got it bad too and lost all of his dishes in the wave. He scrambled to recover everything but lost the spatula. I managed to hold onto all of mine and even caught the two bowls I had left higher up the beach that the wave had grabbed and pulled back to the sea. Devon thought that the spatula was under his foot in the sand and dug frantically for it but found nothing. We both exploded into a fit of laughter and continued to laugh as we made out way back to camp. Jaime had the fire going again and we all prepared breakfast together. Jaime poured the remaining Mescal into the Jumex and and we drank it with our breakfast. After breakfast we cleaned up our campsite and packed our bags. That was enough of this beach we had decided. Devon had to get to his aunts camp in Soritos soon because she was driving back to Canada in a couple days. He was out of money and needed to find a way home so this seemed like the most logical solution. The first truck to drive by gave us a ride. He was a middle aged Mexican man with a kind face. He must have been a construction worker since he had tools and reflector jackets scattered around his truck. He had some really funny American romance music playing that sounded like something my Grandmother would listen to and drank a can of Modello while he drove us into town. Through the desert we passed a lot of cows and a few wild horses. He was kind enough to drop us off at the San Jose Mega(Mexican version of a Wal Mart) and wished us good travels.

We parked our bags by a table in the food court. Jaime went to buy something or other, Devon started reading a book at the table and so I asked him to watch the bags while I went for supplies for my crab trap. Unfortunately the Mega didn't have anything I could really use. Jaime came back with some tang mix and a bottle of water. We filled out water bottles with the water and then Jaime poured the rest of the Mescal and the tang mix into what remained of the bottle of water she had bought. We made our way through the parking lot and across a terrifying traffic circle and waited at a bus stop. The bus came fairly quickly and took us all the way to Cabo san Lucas for only $2.50can. The bus was packed and took just over an hour to get to the far end of Cabo. It was awkward having our bags on board since they took up a lot of room in the aisle. I tried to hold mine on my lap but my guitar still had to sit in the aisle. We were dropped off at the last stop on the highway leading out of Cabo and began walking up it to find a good place to hitch from. We were quickly picked up by an awesome rasta woman named Miriam. Miriam was from Puerto Rico, but told us she had grown up all over the world. She was very opinionated but very funny and quite friendly. She told us she had no money and not much gas but would take us as far as we needed to go or as far as the gas would hold out. I was relieved to get a ride with somebody I could speak to in English since my Spanish was still not very great. She told us she had just opened a hostel in Pescadero and invited us by for dinner some time and a place to sleep if we needed it. She told us it was $5 per night or we could do some yard work for her and stay for free.

She dropped us off by the side of the road in what seemed to be the middle of nowhere. I bought a $5can bag of organic coffee from her that smelled amazing and we said goodbye. Jaime and I agreed that we would have to see her again at some point. We could see the ocean to the west through a large stretch of desert and the three of us began walking down a long dusty road surrounded by cactus and dry shrubs. We arrived at a large camp ground that sat behind a bluff just off of the ocean. It was about an hour before sun down and the sky was already turning a brilliant orange. At the camp I met Jaime and Devon's aunt Di, their cousin Stu, and Bart a cool older man who owned the camper everyone was camped around. We dropped off our bags and borrowed Di's truck to go into town for provisions. The town was Pescadero and we stopped at the first mini super on the highway and picked up some beers and a couple free ones with our bottle cap collection we had accumulated. Stu made us finish one in the truck before we got back to Soritos. That night Jaime, Devon and I cooked enchiladas for everyone and we sat on the bluff around the campfire and drank beers and smoked a lot of weed. I played some songs on my guitar for everybody and Stu made a few requests that I was happy to play for him. Stu also lent Jaime and I a small foam mattress for the tent which we gladly accepted. Bart had bought some mesquite wood for his fires and it had a wonderful smell and burnt very hot and very slowly. The coals got so hot that they actually glowed a brilliant white at the middle of the fire which lit up the surroundings quite well. Devon warned me that there was a lot of dew in the mornings here and so I decided to just go straight for the tent this time and Jaime agreed. Eventually everyone crashed and Jaime and I went to the tent for some of the best sex we had since I arrived. The next couple of days seemed to flow together in the same sort of manner. I played a lot of guitar and got to know my new friends here a little better. Stu as it turned out was the son of a friend of my Dads from work and Di I deduced was his Ex. Stu was a good kid and really friendly but he was only 15 and Di let him smoke weed and drink which I didn't fully agree with but said nothing about as it wasn't my business. When she did try to give Stu any sort of rules he would have a fit and speak to her in a manner that shocked me but nobody else seemed surprised. If I ever spoke to my Mom like that she would kick my fucking ass is what I remember saying to Devon and him and Jaime both agreed that Stu needed some discipline in his life but wasn't likely to get it from his Mom. Di was very nice and I felt bad for her the way her son spoke to and treated her. I didn't get to talk with her a lot but I found out she ran a landscaping business at a ski resort back home with what was apparently her very recent ex boyfriend. She seemed sad about him and I found out they had a rather bad break up just before we had arrived. Bart was an friend of Di's who was a little in love with her and couldn't seem to get to the making a move part or perhaps he was just to polite to do so. He and Stu had quite a few arguments though and he deeply disapproved of Stu's attitude towards his mother. They usually said some funny things to each other like Bart telling Stu "If your mother wasn't around I would kick your spoiled little ass all over the place." or Stu to Bart "you are just a fucking cranky old shit that nobody wants around." I think underneath all the fighting though they liked each other a lot more than they showed. Bart and I got along fairly well even though everybody warned me that he could be very cranky. He seemed to warm to me however but I made sure not to cross him even though I had no way to really. I was always very polite around him and I think he appreciated it. I helped cook whenever I could and did the dishes often as well. Elsewhere in the campsite another campers dog had given birth to black lab puppies that were adorable. Unfortunately Jaime began to get the idea that she should take one of these dogs and train it to be her traveling companion. She was under the impression that after I left the dog would protect her from harm. I tried to explain to her that a puppy shouldn't be raised on the road until it was a little older and that these puppies would not be nearly big enough to protect her from much more than large bugs by the time she was finished her trip. Not only that but the responsibility of feeding it getting it shots and then getting it back to Canada after everything else was far more than she could handle. She disagreed of course but I remembered in my head that she once told me she had to get rid of her cell phone because a 3 year contract was to much commitment for her to handle. I really hoped that she wouldn't come back for one of these dogs. On our last day in Soritos Jaime Devon and I hitched about 15km down the highway back towards Cabo to a road we were told would lead us to some water falls. We had heard about them from Di and Bart who went a few days before we arrived. From the highway we had to walk about an hour in before we got to the first fall, a small stream falling about 20' down a nice rock face. We had to climb up it which was difficult and a little scary for me since I had broken both my ankles this June falling from a similar height. I took off my shoes to make things easier. After the first climb we followed the stream through a flat bed for another km or so until we reached the next fall which was a little higher and at the top had a big section of bamboo standing about 15 feet high. We knew there was a trail through it somewhere from what Di had told us but little did we know we had climbed up the wrong side for that and ended up having to make out way through the thick brush. We had to turn back and make a new trail a few times and there were moments where I was not the happiest camper. Jaime seemed to love the whole experience but Devon and I got a little grumpy. Finally we found the trail and made our way out only to walk even farther down another section of flats to the next waterfall. Devon got ahead of Jaime and I and so we stopped to drink water and kiss occasionally. At one point we passed very close to a couple of cows one of which I thought was going to charge me for a moment. Finally though we made our way to the last waterfall which was several levels cut into a large rock face. A family of goats was nearby and curiously followed us up the rock face. The ease with which they climbed made our efforts look pathetic but they kept following us until we reached the top. Once we made it to the top Devon said he wanted to go farther and see if there was more I protested but was over ruled by the majority and so we trekked on. We never made it to any other water falls but on our way back Devon spotted a fenced off area with a grapefruit tree in it and we picked a few. They weren't quite ripe but were still delicious. When we got back to the waterfalls Devon took off somewhere and so Jaime and I decided to shower under the biggest one and make out in the water. I probably would have tried for more but I didn't know where Devon was and I doubt he would have appreciated returning to see that sort of thing. We washed ourselves with some shampoo and soap I brought with me and it was incredibly refreshing. The water was a little cold but I didn't care, it was better than ocean bathing any day.

The walk back was much faster but my left ankle began to hurt a lot when we reached the road again and Jaime had cut her foot pretty badly on some of the rocks we climbed to get to the falls and so we both looked pretty pathetic walking with limps. Once at the highway we hitched a ride in the back of a truck belonging to a nice couple from California and they even gave us blankets for the cold, which really wasn't that cold anyways. They dropped us off on the highway at the road to the campground and we walked back again.

That night Bart took us all for dinner at a restaurant in Pescadero. I ordered two hamburguesas(Mexican hamburger) which were the best best hamburgers I have ever had. They were loaded with condiments and vegetables and the beef patty itself was huge. I had built up quite and appetite from a long hike we did to some waterfalls earlier that day but only managed to eat one and a half of my burgers. I saved the other for breakfast. I drank a Modello light with my meal which tasted a lot like watered down beer. Stu kept playing with a chiuaua that the restaurant owners had even though he claimed to hate that type of dog. After dinner I stepped outside for a cigarette that Bart lent me since mine were all out. I found out that in Mexico you can smoke pretty much anywhere though and sat back at the table. Bart took some pictures of everyone with my camera including a couple of Jaime and I eating which came out goofy looking. After dinner he paid for everything and we bought some more beers on our way back to the camp. I thanked him for his hospitality.

The next morning I ate my leftover hamburguesa for breakfast and it was even more delicious cold. It tasted like a taco salad inside a hamburger bun. Stu smoked the last of his weed with us since he and his mother and Devon were leaving for Canada that day. Stu told us that he wanted to stop in La Paz to buy some Vans high tops which he had struck a good deal for a week previous. Unfortunately for him they were towing Bart's dirt bike and trailer back with them and he had no intention of letting them stop in the city and getting a ticket or worse his property stolen. He told this to Di and the plan was vetoed. Stu kicked up a big fuss about this but Di really just wanted to get home anyways and seemed very stressed. Jaime and I felt bad for her and Devon since we knew he would complain about it for at least a couple days while they drove back. They had made plans to drive and sleep in 3 hour shifts so they would only need to stop for gas and could make it back in good time. We went with them into town and stopped at a blanket shop on the side of the road so Di could get some souvenirs for her friends back home. The man inside tried to sell me a hammock for $200pesos but I wasn't about to spend that much money on more shit to carry with no place to set it up really. Even though it was nice and I did want to buy it. They dropped us off on the highway outside of town on a dirt road that led to the beach and we all exchanged hugs and said goodbye. Then they took off and it was only Jaime and I now. We made our way back into the desert towards the ocean down a long dusty road.

Dec 6, 2008

This morning we all decided to bath in the sea. The waves were much smaller than the day before. Jaime brought down last nights dishes and cleaned them in the sand. I washed my hair and then worked up the courage to swim out farther. I have a bit of a fear of the sea. Not so much for the water but the large, poisonous, and deadly creatures living within it. I think I have watched shark week to many times on discovery channel and it has brain washed me a little to be afraid of the water. Watching Piranhas and jaws a bunch probably hasn't helped either. Devon and I started body surfing and we rode a couple sets. Unfortunately however the waves tend to drop you right onto the beach and I suffered a gnarly scrape to my right kneecap. It looked as though somebody had rubbed 30 grit sandpaper on it and the salt water stung like hell. We all went back to camp and organized a bit. Devon made fun of us for sleeping indoors the other night but we both just ignored it. Devon used an empty bottle of this incredibly delicious brand of juice called Jumex to brew some tea. Jumex bottles are made of tin and are about 1.5L for the largest with a metal screw off cap for the top. They make a perfect substitute for a pot if you don't have one since they can boil water quite easily in them. They can be used for making soups, cooking rice, or just boiling water and everything in between. Devon also made more banana pancakes for breakfast.

After a little more sun bathing and tuning my guitar again, Jaime and I went to explore further down our beach. We eventually spotted some hammocks in the distance under some palapa huts. We went and layed in them for a long time and fooled around some more. getting two people in a hammock is a difficult maneuver but making out as well is really tricky. I would have probably suggested we have sex to but the difficulty factor seemed to high and so I decided kissing would suit my needs for the time. We made our way back again and discussed what to have for dinner. Jaime thought the super mini might have some veggies so her and Devon went for them. It seemed like they were gone forever. All I did in the meantime was play a little music on my guitar and read more of my Spanish book. When they came back I was up on a hill overlooking our camp trying to take some nice photos of the sunset. In their possession were more beers, tortillas, cheese, and vegetables. We made up some quesadillas with salsa and guacamole. Jaime suggested we buy some Mescal later and I agreed it sounded like a good idea. Devon warned me about this however. I told him I had drank it before in Canada and it was never a problem. I suggested before we do that that we go run around on the golf course that Jaime and I had seen earlier on our walk to the palapas. We all agreed and I was excited about the prospect of fresh grass under my feet. I had spent my summers growing up on a golf course that my grandparents lived on and really enjoyed the feeling of bare feet in grass. The sand also was particularly hard on my feet.

We all soon found out though that Mexico has much different grass than what we remembered from back home. Devon thought it was fake right away but after pulling a little out of the ground I confirmed that it wasn't. It had a rough dry feel to it though like astro turf. It seems that in more ways than one Mexican grass just cant stand up to Canadian. We decided to keep exploring anyways but lost sight of Devon in the dark after he wandered ahead. We found him lying on the grass finally and started to make our way back to camp. I heard some music in the distance and was pleased to hear it was Sweet Child of Mine by Guns'n'Roses. We decided it was time to get the Mescal and start the fiesta now. Halfway back down the beach however I noticed a large fire where our camp should be. I asked Devon if he had left some wood on our fire? He looked to the same spot and started to accelerate his walk. I took his cue and did the same. I grew more concerned the closer we got to it. I began to see silhouettes or people around the fire moving. Devon must have also seen this and he sped up to a jog. Jaime of course being completely oblivious to her surrounding noticed none of this and was left behind to day dream or pick up feathers. This was bullshit though we had left the camp for an hour tops and now some fucking Mexican bandits were burning our shit in our own fire.

Fortunately as we got closer though we saw that it was simply another camp just beyond ours full of Mexican teenagers playing music and having a good time. Devon and I were both relieved since we had pretty much thought the same thing. We sat down and had another joint and some more beer and explained to Jaime who finally arrived why we had left her behind. She of course was completely unaware of anything that had been going on which frustrated Devon and I a little. After the beer and weed Jaime and I went to the store again and bought Mescal and a bottle of Fresca to mix it with. On our walk back we saw that the camp beside us was now locked in an intense game of what looked like soccer baseball around the fire. We all drank more beers and the Mescal which Devon told me would give me a terrible hangover in the morning. We watched the stars come out and I got a slightly uneasy feeling not being able to see the big dipper which is almost always visible in Canada's night sky. We talked about food some more which had now become a very common topic of discussion. I began to devise a method of constructing a collapsible crab trap with some wire and netting. We all talked about how great some fresh crab would be and I decided it would be my mission to catch some at one point in my journey. Devon soon went to sleep by the fire again, Jaime and I made another attempt to sleep outside again. We made our bed and had some very enjoyable sex and fell asleep. Once again though the wind came in the middle of the night and we moved indoors again, which prompted another round of sex before a more comfortable sleep than I had outside.

Dec 5, 2008

I woke at sun up this morning after only a couple hours of sleep last night. I tried to cuddle up to Jaime for a little comfort on the hard floor. While it almost worked, unfortunately the softness of a warm woman couldn't overcome the tremendous discomfort of the cement floor grinding on my hip bone. Eventually I gave up trying to be comfortable and went outside to tune my guitar which had gone wonky from the altitude and now had a rather large crack in the back of the neck where it met the body. Everybody woke up eventually and we all smoked a morning J and gathered our things. Luis walked us to the market where we bought some food for the day and said goodbye to Luis. He gave us directions to where we could hitch a ride to a beach to sleep on. In the market we bought some veggies, fresh tortillas, water, tequilla, and cigarettes. When we got to the spot Luis told us about we put our thumbs out for about 5 cars when a nice black VW jetta pulled over and picked us up. The driver was a nice man from Argentina who told us he was late for work but didn't care and drove us right to the beach we were trying to get to. The beach was called La Playita and it was beautiful. It was located right where the sea of Cortez begins and the Pacific ocean ends. The waves were very large and only started about 20 feet from shore.

We set up our camp and then began the grueling task of doing nothing at all. Devon went for a short swim, but after seeing the 10' swells that were landing right on the sand Jaime and I decided it wasn't the safest place to go for a dip. We all layed around on the beach most of the day and took in the sunshine. I was pretty pale from the Canadian fall and the beginning of winter. Devon however was very dark and even Jaime who had previously told me she never tanned even had more color than me.

Around dinner time Devon got a fire going and Jaime and I chopped up some garlic, onions, and tomatoes and fried them on our tiny fire. We wrapped them in the tortillas Jaime bought from the tortillaria earlier and drank tequilla with our dinner. We also had sliced avocado which I generally dispize but is now beginning to grow on me. After dinner Jaime and I went for a walk to collect more firewood but were sidetracked by a brief make-out session on some rocks. Upon our return to camp we drank more tequilla and chatted about nothing particularly important for hours. Later on Jaime and I took another walk down to a super mini I had noticed when we drove in earlier. We bought some more Pacifico and had another brief stop on our walk back. We shared the beers amongst the three of us and discussed what we should eat the next night. After the beers were gone Devon made us some banana pancakes. After we ate them he passed out in his sleeping bag by the fire. Even though I had set up my tent Jaime and I decided to sleep under the stars as well. We had a short but nice bit of sex and shortly after falling asleep I was woken again by a cold wind that had come in off the sea. We both decided to relocate to the tent and had some more sex which was funny because at one point I got to loud and she told me to be quiet since her brother wasn't to far away. We passed out again shortly after and I had a much better sleep than the previous night.

Dec 4, 2008

The adventure began interestingly enough, but then again what adventure isn't interesting? I landed in SJD(San Jose del Cabo international airport) at 4:45 local time. Customs was a wonderful pain in the ass to go through and I saw a couple of less desirable looking fellows on the same flight as me get the red light and get taken aside and searched. I prayed I wouldn't have to go through the same ridiculous bullshit as well. It was already stressful enough having the drug sniffing dogs smell my guitar case back in Vancouver when I was making my way to the plane. Especially considering the night before had been spent smoking a lot of purple kush with my cousin Tyler, who drove me to the airport this morning. Fortunately I made it through everything with relative ease even the metal detectors which I was sure would sound off due to the metal pins in my ankles from surgery earlier this year. I had a doctors note with me in case of this but fortunately I never ended up needing it. The flight itself was long and irritating with a stop over in Calgary for an hour where I ate a chicken terriaki sub from Subway and talked to a couple waiting for the same flight in the terminal. The man whose name escapes me asked me if I intended to smoke weed down in Mexico and told me a story of the last time he went. Some hippie looking fellow with long hair staying at his hotel and taking the same flight back apparently spent a week and a half of his vacation in jail for buying weed from an undercover. I don't know why I felt the need to lie to this man but I told him that I had no intention of taking any drugs down there. On the flight there was a crying baby that I remember wanting to smother at one point so I could get a little bit of sleep in my 5 hour journey. I didn't end up getting much though and the snack food they served was less than desirable. The orange juice was good though and I tried to take a few pictures or interesting things I saw from my window seat. None of which were very interesting. I slept while we passed over the grand canyon which made me a little upset since I had never seen it from any height and thought it might look interesting from the sky.

When I got out of the terminal finally I was greeted with a big hug by Jaime.She was with her brother Devon, and a Mexicano named Luis. Luis was medium height dark skinned with dread locks and a beard. He kind of looked like that guy from Kung-fu the TV series but more Mexican. He was friendly and spoke a little English and offered to carry my guitar for me since my other bag was already quite heavy. We took a bus into the city and Luis played my guitar while we rode into town. I watched everything I could out the bus windows while we rode in. Mexico was just as I had imagined it. Decrepit looking buildings, stray dogs everywhere, taco stands and restaurants on every 2nd corner. It was great and I couldn't wait to get right into all of it. I was surprised however to see that most of the vehicles on the road were very modern and mostly gas guzzling trucks and SUVs. There was graffiti on everything but almost all of it was poorly scribbled tags that were unreadable. We went to Luis' house which was near the old center of the city. His house, if you could call it that was a cement building with 2 other apartments in it, one above and one beside his. Inside was a small room completely cement with tile floors and a less than appealing looking bathroom at the back. The bathroom had a toilet a sink and a shower only separated from the rest by a curtain. Next to the toilet was a garbage can full of dirty toilet paper. I already knew about this rule, that in Mexico you don't flush your paper due to the poor plumbing and sewer systems all over the country. In the main room there were tools and other junk scattered across the floor and a foam mattress in one of the corners. There was an electric element on top of a milk crate for cooking and several photos and drawings on the ground by the door. Our bags were in another corner in what appeared to be some type of closet.

I really wanted a beer so Jaime and I left for a couple while Luis began rolling a large joint. We went to one of the Pacifico corner stores called super mini's. Each one had a different name I learned and I was also told that there were two main types in Mexico. The Pacifico ones which sold Pacifico, Modelo, and Corona were apparently the most popular. The Tecate stores which weren't as popular sold Tecate, Sol, and Dos Equis. Both stores also sold all your regular convenience store items like junk food, water, pop, TP, etc... Jaime introduced me to the Ballena right away which was a 1.2L bottle of Pacifico which cost only $1.70can or $17pesos. We bought two and took them back to Luis' house. The joint had just started when we got there and I popped one of the bottles with my lighter and discovered that they made a fantastic loud noise when I did so. Devon popped the other one and told me how much he loved that sound. We passed around the beers and the joint. In Mexico the people always pass to the right which confused me for a little while at first but I eventually got used to it. I announced that I was hungry after we finished the beers and so we all went out for food. Luis took us to this fantastic little restaurant with open walls to the street and a man with a guitar playing Spanish love songs inside. I tried to order in Spanish and inadvertently was drawn into a conversation that was way over my head for what little I knew. The waiter was polite however and spoke English as well and everything was sorted out. On the table there were about 10 bowls and 1 ramekin all containing different salsas and other condiments. My favorite of all were these pickled potatoes and onions that were very spicy but quite delicious. Luis invited us to stay the night at his house over dinner and we all agreed since it was already night by this time. I paid for everybodys dinner as a good gesture for them coming to get me from the airport and we made our way back to Luis' home again. Jaime and I decided more beer was in order Luis gave us some money to get him one and started to roll another joint. When we got out the door Jaime began kissing me which was quite nice since we hadn't seen each other in almost a month. I had missed her and it was great to be able to make out a little again. We took the empty bottles back to the super mini and I was happy to learn that when you return an empty you receive 30% off your next beer. Also if you collect 6 of the bottle caps and return them with an empty you get a free beer. What a country.

At Luis' we drank some more and smoked the other joint and told stories of the last month or so we had been apart. The weed was not to bad to my surprise since I had been told by many friends that Mexican weed is crap. Devon went to bed shortly after on the floor of the apartment. I didn't want to sleep just yet I had only been in Mexico for a couple of hours and I wanted to take in as much as I could before I went to bed. Jaime, Luis and I decided to go to the town square and drink there. We poured the remaining beer into our water bottles and set out. It was only a few blocks from the house I was told. When we arrived I noticed an enormous Christmas display set up right in the middle of it all. It seems Christmas(Navidad) is very popular in Mexico and this display they had built would put most of the Santa's village in any mall back home to shame. The main tree which was fake stood about 40' high and was decorated beautifully and very evenly. Their was a bunch of statues depicting the birth of Christ as well and lights hanging all over the place. We sat on a bench and Drank our beers and after a while a few Mexicans that Jaime and Luis seemed to know came by. I introduced myself and a couple of them spoke a little English but it didn't take long for a lively conversation in Spanish to start up and I did my best to keep up. I only spoke a little Spanish at this point but I could understand a fair amount of what was going on. After the beers were gone we all went out separate ways. Jaime and I stopped to make out behind a building on the way back to Luis' place. When we arrived she set out a blanket on the floor and we slept in our sleeping bags on top of it.

Sleeping that first night was a challenge Between the loud trucks with megaphones driving by shouting in Spanish, the roosters across the street that didn't seem to know what time it was, the stray dogs fighting in the street, and the uncomfortable cement floor I had to sleep on I didn't get much sleep that night. On top of it Devon snores and when he shuffled around at one point in the night he knocked over my guitar.