Canadian Nomad

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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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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