Canadian Nomad

My first two weeks in Zihuatanejo have been a blast. After working through the Olympics, seven days a week and taking the odd night shift at the bar it’s nice to kick back and relax. It’s exciting knowing that the first apartment I’ve ever rented is in Mexico. The kitchen is outside on the patio, along with a hammock down the center of our dining room. We wake up to the sounds of the parrot downstairs cackling then screaming bloody murder.

Kyle has introduced me to a bunch of locals who I get along really well with. They have taken us out to many popular events and local bars. Thus far, we’ve been to an outdoor concert on the beach, a fishing tournament in town where they are catching Marlin and the anniversary of a bar opening. Also, I have seen many beaches since I’ve been here, my favorite was Barra De Potosi.

I have been reluctant to go out on my own for fear of getting lost. Though, the other day Kyle gave me a grocery shopping list and booted me out the door. To my surprise it wasn’t as scary as I thought and I did not get lost once! I came home pleased to tell Kyle that I made it back in one piece and did not break down crying at any point in my travels.

On Sundays almost the entire town shuts down, so Kyle and I decided to go adventure. We found a huge staircase that looked like an exciting challenge for us to climb. Also, after the lunch we had we could afford to do some cardio! Once we climbed to the top of the stairs we found a cute little village. The village was very poor; their homes had dirt floors, sheets for doors and a bush outside as the washroom. Kyle asked one of the men living in the village to show us where the best view would be. We trekked through the bush and up the hill to a clearing where you could see the bay of Zihuatanejo, La Noria, Las Gatas and much more. It was absolutely stunning. Afterwards we insisted that we buy our new found friend Jose a beer, we would have never found that lookout if it weren’t for him.

Tags: Beaches, explore, Zihuatanejo
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Feb 14th, St. Valentines day was the start of the most recent part of my journey. That evening I went to a local bar to hang out and see what kind of local festivities were going on. It turned out that it was just a slightly busier night then usual. That is all. But then a weird set of coincidences started to happen.

I met a person from Canada. Not terribly unusual, I admit, and we got to talking. The usuals “oh what part?” and “oh really, I used to live there.” Then I mentioned that I used to live on the other side of the country. Well it turns out that this guy not only lived on the same street as me in New Westminster, BC but also on the same street I grew up on in Ottawa. How strange. Further he turned out to be an excellent web programmer who owned property here in Zihuatanejo. My rental was just about up at my current apartment and With times being tough down here, his geodesic domes were being left un-rented.

Back to the night at hand. I met a group of really fun and curious group of Mexicans at the bar and was practically pushed into talking with a shy but cute girl from Morelia, Mich. We hit it off and started going out. Food, parties, shows, and just hanging out it has been an interesting couple of weeks.

I moved out of my place in La Noria and moved into my Canadian friends place near La Ropa Beach. We decided to try to push each other to program online to make money. It worked and we are both doing fairly well right now freelancing and competing with Indians and script kiddies for online work. The plan has always been to take it slow, earn dollars and spend in pesos. Simple enough, it took longer then expected to get here, and it still has some ruff spots, but in general I hope this works. Time has passed and times have changed. I have settled into a pattern here working most weekdays, hanging out with friends in the evenings and weekends and generally enjoying myself.

But with a group of Mexican friends I can say I am learning more intricate things about the culture and people here. But then how to describe such things without coming off as a person who is judging, misinformed, or generally naïve? There is certainly nothing like black and white in any culture and this is no exception. Most of the people I have met have been honest, good people with good intentions and interesting things to say. Others seem to be just out for a buck or barking up the wrong tree, but this is just par for course in what merely feels like a magnified reality.

Tags: Beaches, Friends, Mexico, Travel, Working, Zihuatanejo
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A cool breeze is hitting me on this shady patio as I look out on the lagoon in Zihuatanejo, Mexico.  It is the first time I have felt that I could really get to work since I got here.  There is no internet at my apartment and working in coffee shops when I don’t drink coffee just feels weird.  Also the midday heat at some of those beach side vendors is just too much for my northern blood.  I really haven’t worked in over a month now because of friends and family in to Puerto Vallarta for Christmas and New Years and then finding a place in Zihua that is comfortable enough to just sit and work.

One of my favorite bloggers, Tynan, just posted an article called “Do Something Now,” as well as some of the comments reminded me of why and how I started this journey three and a half months ago in the first place.  I wanted travel in my life, and lots of it.  I wanted to be meeting more people and have fun learning a language.  I wanted to build a business that I could run from anywhere.  I wanted to live a life that used the online world, and wasn’t run by the online world.  When I arrived in this city, I fell in love with the atmosphere, the people and the landscape.  This really is a great place to escape to (I have met a few that seemed to have gotten ideas from the Shawshank Redemption).  I found myself an apartment for the month with one problem: no internet at home.  I could have found another apartment, but I don’t think I could have found another place this nice for this price easily.  I tried to find cafés that had internet, but they just weren’t working well for me, then I tried going to internet cafés that were air-conditioned but they cost an arm and a leg.

I started to get the idea that I needed to create a situation where I could work offline and just send in my work when I could get a chance.  This was something I had thought about before, but had not really gotten set up.  So I spent a few hours getting things ready, and started trying to work.  I started making lists of things that needed internet and things that didn’t.  Kinda like to-do lists for the internet cafés.  I tried to only go to the computer when I had a list of things to do with the computer.  And with the strong separation of work and access to the time drain of the web I got a nice set of things done, but at the end of every day when the cafés closed I would always feel like there was more I could have accomplished in the day.  When I was working offline I would sometimes come up with a problem that I knew had been solved before and would usually just be able to look up, but instead I would have to wait or spend a few hours reinventing the wheel.  I currently don’t think I’m ready for this kind of disconnectedness while working.

I talked with a friend over drinks and dominoes last night and he said I could use his mothers place.  It really is ideal.  It has a view, a breeze, internet and no hourly cost.  I don’t think I’ll be able to thank him enough.  I will keep working on this problem, but for now I have a place I can go where I can really get stuff done and have the internet at the same time.

Tags: 4HWW, Canadian Nomad, Computer, Four Hour Work Week, Getting Away, Lists, Mexico, Offline, Personal Development, Tim Ferriss, Travel, Tynan, Working, Zihuatanejo
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