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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This part of my journey has been purely about slowing down in this speed obsessed world.  No pressure mon!

Once all my papers were in order and bank accounts restored I headed down to Tulum, Mexico via Valladolid.

Tulum has beautiful white sand beaches and crystal clear waters that are just made to look that much more exquisite by the  ancient Mayan temples in the background.  Here I spent a few days soaking up sun and piña coladas.  It’s a hard life, luckily no sun burn 🙂

From there me and a few travel companions headed south to Belize with the goal of going straight to Caye Caulker.  Instead the bus arrived late to pick us up, and had many long stops along the way and arrived half an hour later then the last water taxi to the islands.  With our late arrival in Belize City and having heard nothing but horror stories about the city we quickly got ourselves to a hostel.  Now given the state of Belize City tourism and the general apprehension even the most experienced travelers had about even going in the first place to Belize City you would think that the prices for the hostel would be less then American prices, but such was not the case and we shelled out more then our fair share for the beds.  The city itself was pretty nice, though the poverty was quite apparent.  We went out for a traditional Belizian dinner and enjoyed a bit of their nightlife.  Country karaoke anyone?

First thing in the morning we had breakfast and took an early water taxi to Caye Caulker.  The moment I saw it, I loved it.  The first thing I noticed was that there were no paved roads, only white sand roads.  The only cars were those of the police and if you really felt the need to motor around you could take golf cart style taxis to get from one side of the island to the other.  Prices were back to normal and the people were friendly.  As soon as I checked into the hostel I found my way to Raggamuffin Tours where I got the last spot on a snorkeling sailboat out to the barrier reef.   I wish I had an underwater camera with me.  I saw fish of all sorts of amazing variety, pet a nurse shark and a sting ray, free dove to see in underwater caves, and witnessed endangered turtles in a marine reserve swimming around.  Breathtaking and beautiful.

Slightly tipsy from the rum-punch they served on our way back I went out for dinner.  Later me and a few friends went to a bar/restaurant called Herbal Tribe where we had a few drinks and talked with some amazing local characters.  I had a long philosophical discussion with a gentleman called ManDingo, a self proclaimed prophet and generally interesting person.  I look forward to seeing him again.

I spent the next day just lounging and exploring the island and left the next day for Flores, Guatemala.

Flores is a small town on an island in a lake surrounded by Santa Elena a town of slightly larger population.  It is about an hour from the famous Mayan ruins of Tikal.  I explored the island, had some down time and visited the ruins.

What set these ruins apart was the jungle backdrop.  With howler and spider monkeys around as well as birds of all types, crocodiles and other fun wildlife chasing after me.

Also just the sheer area that the multiple ruins covered.  It was certainly an impressive site.

So now I am in Quetzaltenango(aka Xela), Guatemala for the next month to focus on language learning and business.  So probably less excitement and relaxing and more self development stuff for the next little while.

Later!

Tags: Barrier Reef, Beaches, Belize, Belize City, Caye Caulker, Country Karaoke, Crocodiles, Flores, Free Diving, Go Slow, Guatemala, Herbal Tribe, Jungle, ManDingo, Mayan Pyramids, Mayan Ruins, Mexico, No Paved Roads, Nurse Shark, Philosophical Discussion, Piña Coladas, Quetzaltenango, Raggamuffin Tours, Santa Elena, Snorkeling, Spider Monkeys, Sting Ray, Tikal, Travel, Tulum, Turtles, Underwater Camera, Underwater Caves, Valladolid, Wildlife, Xela
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