Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Misunderstanding and fear


So its been awhile since Ive last posted here, it may well be because I'm lazy, but I'd like to think Ive just been having too much fun being a hapless good for nothing, mis-colored mexican bum. I have to say it sure is an interesting trip being a foreign gabacho in a utterly Hispanic city. Its a challenge everyday, especially not being able say more than ten words to most of the locals. Now don't get me wrong, I know enough of the necessities to get by. I'm not at a loss for finding the crapper when the questionable meal I ate at the local market decides to make its grand exit. My difficulties pretty much all arise when I'm confronted with someone whose job isn't to cater to the throngs of zombie-like tourists in the historic center. It seems once we leave the well trodden areas the speed of the language cranks up a few notches to complete intelligibility on my part, so after the local that I'm trying to buy something from quits jabbering rapid fire Spanish at me, I'll just give them my goofy western smile and my most eloquent "speak only a Lil Spanish" then try and go from there, most of the time I make out OK, and the rest of the time I probably wind up paying a couple extra pesos, with no one to blame for it but myself. Luckily for me I'm in this crazy mess with someone who can seriously back me up in that department, because when I get right down into it i barely say ten words when I'm out and about with Cassie, I just shut my mouth and let her do all the talking. Besides most people will give a little more leeway to a pretty Hispanic girl, instead of the scrawny gringo by her side. Besides having not even one soul to talk to about anything other than monetary transactions, me and the lady have been making out really good, spending most of our time lazily enjoying all that this town has to offer, from the vibrant craft fair on sundaes to the many museums the city holds in store for us, whatever time we have left over we spend reading, writing, and handling the general maintenance of life, food, water etc. It seemed everything was roses and sunflowers until all this nasty business about swine flu showed up. Just stands to figure, I've always had impeccable luck, so if the biggest pandemic since 1918(if the media is to be believed) is gonna break out in a country, it might as well be the one i'm vacationing in! After the initial shock I decided its actually almost ghoulishly interesting to watch a thing like this blossom from the inside. In a matter of days we've gone from warm greetings out of smiling faces in our favorite local eateries, to fear and loathing from behind surgical masks. It's not really a suprise to see this kind of reaction, with fear and terror being espoused from both sides of the isle on every news channel on every continent, it's enough to make most sane people crazy, luckily I count myself separate from that deranged group of sycophants and am just doing the best i can to keep my head on an even keel, which, let me tell you is not the easiest trick. Even as I write this the gruesome toll is reaching new highs, somewhere around 150 poor fuckers in Mexico alone have died since the outbreak started, but a little of my luck holds out, since not one has been found anywhere near Merida. And besides, what is there to really get worked up about anyway? In the grand scheme of todays fucked up world, whats a little more fear and death? It all just kind of blends into the constant media terror barrage, to become some type of morbid background noise. But still even as I think this, I can't help but be anything but curious, with the stories piling up one after another, along with its relative proximity, I decided to look into some facts about it and see what the big scare really was, at its core. And after wading through the shit that the media pumps out, along with other independent sources, Ive come to some interesting facts, that this whole grizzly mess is a combination of viral code from two types of human influenza, bird flu from North America, swine flu from Europe, and swine flu from Asia. So apparently a bird with avian flu infected a pig in Europe that already had swine flu, then those pigs infected another bird which then flew to Asia to infect another type of pig that already had another type of swine flu, which then finally infected apparently two humans with two different types of flu, in Mexico nonetheless, does all that sound believable? I'm not an expert or anything, but also I'm not the first to question how this naturally occurred, you can find plenty of conspiracy theorists spouting all kinds of crazy things, but it stands to reason that someone with a pretty hefty chemistry set came up with this whopper. Now I'm not saying i know who committed this heinous act, but it's a vile act nonetheless and the dirty little fucker, or more likely, group of fuckers that did it need to be brought to justice, if not for killing 150 innocent people, then for inconveniencing me on what's supposed to be my long awaited sabbatical from the normal hum drum American rhetoric of fear and terror, but at least they can't come here and make me get a job! Also i gotta say I'm not looking forward to the poking and prodding that I'm going to receive upon landing back in the states. Anyway enough of that, I'm looking up and moving on, in just 5 more days we'll be in Tulum, so until then i bid you good bye.

Friday, April 17, 2009

Flickr

Just figured i'd throw this out there as well, if anyones interested, along with my blog, you can follow my Flickr account.

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Merida!


So here we are in Mexico at last! It's been quite a trip getting here, but it only took us 3 days and 3 hours. I gotta say even from moments before landing i could tell it was two different worlds, and i haven't been disappointed! After a short trip through the more urban region of Merida we arrived in downtown, the vibrant cultural center of all Mexico where we're staying. After meeting Mr.Fernandez the cool older gentleman(and that actually counts for something here) he showed us our great little studio apartment only two blocks from the center of town. We didn't pay much for the whole month and we got everything we could possibly need right off the bat, from maid service once a week to 5 gal jug of clean drinking water(so sweet) and wifi! Needless to say we're pretty escatic with everything so far. And after a night of sound sleep to recharge our batteries from the trip we set out with nowhere particular in mind and wound up wandering around the cultural district for quite a few hours. Now while it really is two different worlds, from the language to the colonial architecture, at the same time so much is similar, because while USA/Mexican cultural histories are extremely varied, it was not long ago that they merged onto basically the same track. Capitalistic free market economics has put its stamp on this cultural center like it has so many others. You can tell simply by walking through and going into shop after shop that although they contain many beautiful wares that are handcrafted, they also contained an array of obviously mass produced wares. And it is a shame to see the wonderful handcrafted wares of an entire people be forced to sell for pennies of profit just to compete with the standard stuff sold everywhere , and who wants to see a wal-mart and mcdonalds on vacation!? But even faced with obvious economic terrorism from the all powerful capitalistic pig god, the people here are warm friendly and respectful, even if they are a little eager to hawk there wares, who can blame them? Alright well there's an free music festival downtown so i gotta jet, for now, but not forever.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Houston finally


Houston 02
Originally uploaded by RamblinTymer
So we get on a greyhound bus in NYC heading south to eventually wind up in Houston, TX, piece of cake right? Wrong! Let me start out by saying that this is the first bus ride I've had since ski club in high school, and the longest one I've been on ever. Regardless of that, it was still a very long uncomfortable trip with little to no leg room, and in Louisiana, no AC. I was thankful just to have Cassie beside me and not a screaming baby! But still even with all the hardships we met some cool people, like retired army Sgt Mike who was kind enough to kick us down a free pillow, and totally restore atleast my faith in humanity. In the end we came through it, albeit a little worse for the wear, with a crick in our necks and nothing but corporate junk in our bellies we arrived in the lone star state. Now we relax and take it easy recharge our batteries and get ready for the real adventure which starts tomorrow...

Monday, March 30, 2009

The Game Plan.

So here we go, a crash course in escaping is in the making! There's not much to tell at this point things are getting wrapped up on the home front.. Plans being made, appointments kept, bags being packed. We're leaving on the twelfth of April from NYC port authority on a bus to Houston and then from there it's a plane across the gulf to wonderful little Merida on the Yucatan peninsula, not exactly a tourist destination but that's how we like it, subdued, layed back and full of culture. From Merida all avenues are open to us, but up high on our list are the various ruins that dot the landscape, from the uncovered chichen itza, to the overgrown jungle temples of coba. The fact is, it doesn't matter what we do as long as we're doing something to get out of the daily grind! When it comes to suburban life in America, it is great for alot of people, even most some might say, but not us! We have the wander lust and the urge to scale peaks and see things beyond our zip code, because life doesnt really happen between your house and your job, and we're going to prove it, if not to anyone but ourselves.

-Stay tooned-