My heart jumped in!

   So after a very good time the day before, I did not want to get emotionally involved with anybody. But as some of you may know, that doesn't matter if you want to or not. If there is a slight chemistry between the both of you, there will be a an equal amount of lust. Anyways to make a long story short, we began to we started to become an item. She followed me to my next destination, which was Mexico City, Distrito Federal. Where I was finally able to see that glorious green, white and red flag fly high and mighty. Since I was a child, I would see this flag and plaza full of people and singing the national anthem. Checked that off my list. And went ahead and booked a trip to the pyramids of Teotihuacan. Where a big group of us from the hostel in Oaxaca took a tour. Mostly everyone who was there came from the same hostel from the previous city. I felt a really deep connection to this place, it might be because my grandfather was Indigenous a few mile from where we were standing. After a few days here, it was enough a big city is just that, a big city. I planned on going back to Tijuana, Mexico where I am originally from, and in a drunken haze asked Leonora to come with me, she responded with a positive answer. And so our adventure together began, but the dooming question of whether it was a good idea to bring her home or even begin a relationship with her, was still lingering around and I proceeded to go through, even if my heart was on the line.

The Burning man Webcast.

http://www.ustream.tv/burningman

King of the world!

Taking in the sun and beauty!

Hierve el Agua (thermal waters)

 

 

My first act as a tourist...

So, the next day I went back to the hostel I originally decided on and managed to snag a bed in a dorm. After checking in with my family over the internet, I sat next to a girl named, Rosita, she was from Sweden. She let me know that she and a couple of friends are going to a place called, Hierve el Agua, which is a place where mineral water springs out of the ground "thermal waters". She invited me and I invited Thomas. So, when her friends came out of their dorm, I was stunned by the most beautiful sight I have ever seen. It was a girl, of course me being the type which is not big on relationships or anything committal with one person, didn't say or do anything to attract her attention. And the trip began with a quick stop at a local eatery, followed by a taxi ride about an hour or so, to the town just before "Hierve el Agua". At that point we had time to get our choice of beer from two main stores, one with Modelo beer and the other with Tecate beer. Being the Mexican that I am, I chose to go with Tecate. The girl that I found attractive by the name of Leonora, asked me, why I was going to that store, and I answered, "Good memories". She followed me, and we both bought a six-pack each. Arriving to Hierve el Agua, we had to pay, which I had no intention of doing, but did anyways. taking a walk down to the thermal waters, we all settled in and began to enjoy this beautiful oasis. I had the best experience and was very glad I decided to do a tourist attraction. On the way back, our original taxi driver was waiting for us. He thought it was a good idea to take us to a Mezcaleria, which is a privately owned business, where they sell alcohol, with varying ages and taste. On the ride out of there, I only remember kissing and making out with Leonora, while the taxi driver laughed his ass off, still to this date don't know why. Haha. I remember very little from that night, but the parts I do remember were very good! Including the part where both she and I got caught on the roof of the hostel.

My money came in!

So, after two months in the mountains of San Jose del Pacifico, it was tax season. I had been anxiously awaiting the return of my taxes, to continue traveling. I had to leave my brother, Jorge, behind because of some business deal he had underway. The day I received my money, I had packed my bag and without saying goodbye, I vanished. Leaving without the whole goodbye part was kind of a dick move on my part, but I grew very close to everyone there and just hate to say that word. Plus, they understood completely. So, my brother and I, headed to the town of Miahuatlan, where I was wired my funds. I gave him a few dollars so he can have some change in his pocket. After telling him, see you later, I was on my way to Oaxaca city, Oaxaca. I arrived within a few hours and spent hours looking for a particular hostel, where I was to meet, Thomas, who was coming from the hostel I was working at. I finally found this hostel called Media Luna. The receptionist greets me and invites me in, gathers all of my info and starts leading me to my dorm bed. All of a sudden, a girl from Chinese descent, started to yell, "No boys!" over and over again, which made me a little embarrassed. We find out that there has only been girls in this co-ed dorm for the past week and she didn't want me in there. I burst out laughing and finally told the receptionist, that it was ok, I would go find another hostel for the night and return the next day. I rented a private room, which was the first in a while, and got ready for the night. I returned to Media Luna to look for my friend, and found him. We decided to go out and have a few spliffs and drinks. Guess who was wanting to tag along? Yes, the Chinese girl, she was now very friendly. Haha. So, after the smoking, we continued with the night leading to a club. The club was dead, except for a group of girls that looked underage, which I was not going to partake in. Suddenly, the Chinese girl, looked at me and said, "When are you going to kiss me?" At that moment, I realized this girl is weird and I let her know that, you can't kick a guy out and expect him to kiss you after doing so. After several drinks and laughs, we decided to call it a night, with open plans for tomorrow.

City of Miahuatlan.

San Jose del Pacifico. (City in the Clouds)

Cartagena, Colombia.

Going up...

  
So, Arriving at the local town of San Jose de Pacifico, we were unsure on what to do. Very little money and nowhere to stay, we stayed at the hostel we originally stayed at for the day. Later that evening, I had to take some time to myself to think and come up with an idea or a plan to generate money to support ourselves. I walked down to the town and asked around if anybody needed any help and to my surprise it revealed only one lead. A local man by the nickname of Don, walking around looking for this Don took quite a while but finally a truck passing us, was waved down. We let him know our situation and he let us know that he needed help and that he would give us free room at his place(basically a shack) but beggars can't be choosers. The next day we arrived with our work clothes and started our day at 6 of the morning. Working as a lumberjack, who would have thought. Day after day, We wake up at sunrise and work throughout the day into sundown. and were only paid 50 pesos a day, which equals about 3.50 USD. After about 2 weeks of breaking our back for nothing, we left the man. We went back to the hostel and offered to help with a plumbing problem they were experiencing which had been going on for a long time. Basically, we were allowed to stay in exchange for work, which is not uncommon for travelers to do. However, we still had no income coming in to support ourselves with food and other consumables. We had to do, what we had to do in order to survive. We started an illegal drug business, that was basically buying "hash" in bulk for 100 pesos each 10 gram ball and selling it at whatever price we wanted. The owner of the hostel did not know anything about this, it had to be on the down low. We stayed there for about 2 months doing the same thing day in and day out, not only selling hash, but mushrooms(which grow naturally in the area), acid, DMT, and MDMA. We were not proud of what we did, but understand desperate times call for desperate measures. At the end of the whole stay there, there was no significant amount of money saved up because even though we raised the price from 100 to 250 pesos, we did not do it for monetary gain.

Earning what I am worth...

I decided to start earning income for my blogging. As long as I write and perform the actions that I am most willing to undertake, why not earn a little on the side? After all, I am only going to be blogging about issues or ideas that are of my concern.

A brief summary of what I intend on accomplishing with this blog. First and  foremost, I would like to share my thoughts, opinions, and interest with whoever would like to know.  Secondly, the idea of networking and getting to know other bloggers such as yourself is really a key element in the world wide web. Last, but not least, I would like to earn income, while executing my passion for writing.

I have had a journal with me since the beginning of the year. Writing down anything that pops into my head. I started my journaling because I had no one to express my true feelings and if I did I was nervous about how others would perceive me. I have always taken care of my image and really care about what people think about me. But, after starting my journaling, I found that talking about your feeling or any concerns become much easier when you put the pencil to paper.

Now, I know I am not a college degree writing sort of person but, guess what? If you are here to judge, then I suggest you keep on moving along because this is my page and I have no time to waste on negative people. So, If you are still reading and think you will have a good time reading my post, hold on, because this has the potential to get really interesting

Too much beach...

   Returning from the favor I did, I told my brother the host tried to make a move on me. He told me not to take it seriously and just forget about it, so I did. It was the morning of the third day, feeling like going for a swim, Jorge and I, were out in the sun and sand the whole day. Nothing special or eventful happened. That night however, we met up with one of the girls from the previous hostel and another group we met at Mazunte, to go to the first year anniversary of a institute used for events. Circus performances and music and of course, beer. After lots of dancing and laughs it was interrupted by a song of SKA. Which if you put on a SKA song after I had some drinks its going down, I make my way through the crowd by pushing everyone ( not the only one ) and I feel someone push me. It is not uncommon or weird to feel someone push you, but after he intentionally followed me and kept pushing me, I understood he was looking for trouble. I ignored him as much as possible and at the end of the night he came up to me and was looking to fight, which I quickly diffused the situation, mostly because I didn't want any problems in my new town. After the party, the whole group came over to our place and had drinks.  The host came out screaming and hollering, talking about we can't be hanging around as a group and no drinking and blah, blah, blah. I told him to fuck off and reminded him how much we paid to stay at his little broke down place. He responded with a "get off of my property" remark, so I asked him for my money back and he said that he didn't not have it anymore. So, he forced us to leave otherwise calling the cops and we had an awesome night sleeping at the beach under the stars and sounds of the waves crashing down. The next morning, we had breakfast after retrieving our money. We decided to take to higher ground and we went back up the mountain. I grew up with the beach, so it really wasn't bad for us to leave. Close to 3 hours later, we were back up in San Jose del Pacifico.

On the road again...

   So, my brother (Jorge) and I were offered a ride to the beach we were heading to. Three hours in the back seat of a car that is made for three people is holding five. The ride to the coast was very windy on edges of mountain side and barely enough room for two lanes. Three hours later we arrived to the road that lead to the beach town of Mazunte. About a mile or so before entering this town we told the car to drop us off. Jorge and I had plans to join what others called " a rainbow gathering", we were told that over a hundred people were gathering for a celebration of life, but really we were just interested in camping for free. So, on the side of the road, we entered the dry forest and walked about a mile or so. Up and down hills trying to find signs of people, finally we came up on a old volkswagon hippie van that had a tarp on one side. From the other side of the van we heard someone say "welcome" and a naked girl was washing dishes. "Hello" we answered and continued around the van to find more naked people just lounging around guys and girls. A total shock to us that are not used to groups of people with their dicks hanging out, one of the guy opened up his arms as for a hug and oh my god, that was the cherry on top of a weird experience. needless to say we didn't stay long there, we actually walked to the town and found a space to set up the tent for 1500 pesos for the month, which equals about 115-120 USD. We were out of money down t our last 20 dollars and had to find a source of income immediately to avoid being bums. We actually went down to the beach and had seafood for free by picking it up ourselves, if you are imagining lobsters and fish, I will continue to let you think that. The next day our host of the home we were staying at had asked us for a favor, he asked for one of us to drive him to a town about an hour away were he had to attend an event. Being a the nice person that I am, I offered myself to take him. Our host was gay and he took a liking to me asking very personal and odd questions, I was feeling very uneasy and not comfortable the whole time. We arrived to this massive building were it turns out that this guy was a head coordinator and he had to oversee the whole production of this  contest of miss Oaxaca. Over two hundred people were attending and I stuck out like a sore thumb. This guy was buying me beer after beer after beer trying to get me drunk I suppose. At about 3 of the morning, I was feeling buzzed and had to drive back to the Mazunte. The guy had tried to make a move at me and I clearly let him know that it was not in his best interest to try that again, there wasn't that much talking after that.

Waking up in paradise!

   Waking up to the sounds of birds chirping and sweating from being in the sleeping bag while the sun is hitting the tent. If you have camped, you know what I mean. I opened the window to our new front door and I could not believe my eyes. We managed to wake up "on top of the world". We were at 2800 meters of altitude, with an amazing view that led the eyes down the mountain straight to the coast. San Jose del Pacifico, Oaxaca, Mexico was where my brother and I managed to end up. After introductions with everyone that was staying at the hostel and smoking various different joints, we settled in just right. Talking about smoking, it was my first experience with joints that had filters, tobacco, and hash. This small little town of about 200 people is considered one of about 80 "magical" places in Mexico. It is a very mountainous area, with big forest everywhere and trails starting at random points, just off the road. Since I was into trying new things and all, a group of people I met that consisted of 2 Canadians which we very sweet, 1 French really weird kind of "hippie", 3 Americans including myself, and 2 Mexicans, decided to take acid and venture up the mountain to be with "nature". So, up the mountain we went, as we approached the area that was designated base camp, everyone tripping went their separate ways. I am still at base with this dog that followed us up the mountain and out of nowhere, I get this feeling of dog being a guide and he was leading me into the wilderness. The dog sniffing the ground like chasing down a suspect and I still thinking that this acid I took still has not hit me. While walking up I come to find one of the Canadians, very sweet girl so, in touch with nature and seem free spirited. Walking barefoot through the forest, I am noticing poison oak throughout the floor all around us and I ask her, why? She responded with her French accent "take them off and you will see" By that time, I was definitely feeling the acid, when I started to walk I felt like I was walking on clouds! I saw many things that were not making sense as in a stairway into the sky for example. It was a very eye-opening day for sure, I felt so in touch with the earth and at the same time I knew I was tripping. After about three days of just smoking weed, chilling around the whole town and meeting new friends, we decided it was time to go. We headed to the coast, and so did our Canadian friends and one American.

When I left...

   When we woke up it was time to leave we had a bus and it was leaving soon. We stopped by the pawn shop in downtown Tijuana to buy a camera where we got ripped off. Anyway, we boarded our bus at a terminal, where we started to meet the people that were going to be riding the same bus with us. we thought we would arrive at out new destination within a day or so, turned out our bus ride was a 3 day ride. Many different stops all along one stretch of road going from Tijuana straight down to Oaxaca. Different landscapes and sceneries that filled me with inspiration to keep searching for happiness. On the third night of our trip, we arrived in the city of Oaxaca at 9pm. We soon took a mini bus that added an additional three hours to our trip to a lone city where we heard that many people who travel head to. The minibus went up winding roads and it felt like we went up the mountain until we hit the clouds, mostly because upon arrival, we were surrounded by darkness and fog. So there we are two guys in the middle of the night, in the middle of nowhere, with no actual place to go. Liberating, I tell you. The scene was straight out of the a horror film, dark, foggy, one road with a side road heading further up the mountain and with one street light for the center of this town. Out of the darkness of the night from the one street that headed up the mountain came two girls with large backpacks. We asked them for help finding a hostel or cabins and they pointed us in the right direction. What these girls were doing at midnight walking down to this ghost town was beyond my comprehension but it turned out this girls were from Sweden, they were super nice. Heading up in with the directions we were given, we came to a split in the road one curved to the right and the other headed straight up, and looked like an alley. Not wanting to die the first day, my brother and I chose the obvious one, where we came across a lone African man walking aimlessly down the street. We asked him where we could find the hostel we were recommended. He answered " I am staying there but am lost as well" with a thick Nigerian accent. So after some minutes of recalculating his steps we found it, we stepped in the door and a wave of thick smoke bombarded our bodies. Welcomed by the hostel "receptionist" we settled down and smoked a joint with our new friends. We were told there was no room available, so we slept in our tent outside underneath the very bright stars.

January 2014

   In the month of January, I was still employed by one of the biggest companies in San Diego. I was very enthusiastic about my work, I would always be in early in and late out. Many companies like people that help the company grow without employees receiving a cut of the money that is being generated. Sad but true. Anyways after two years of employment I had acquired an injury, that put me out of work for two weeks. After visits to the emergency room and urgent care offices no body was able to help. I had been living in extreme pain for two weeks and I still had to wait for my primary doctor to come in a month later. At that point, I remembered that Tijuana has chiropractors for way less than American chiropractors. So I decided to head down and get my injury taken care of. Immediate relief of pain as soon as this happened I crossed the border back over to San Diego to find out my employer had taken my work van and had relieved me from work due to absence. This sent me on a roller coaster of emotional and mental ups and downs. That night I took a decision that changed my life. I decided I was not going to do anything that did not fulfill my hearts desire. I come from a better off family compared to most Mexican neighbors I had living in Tijuana but, I had to work very hard to earn my house, my truck and car. After I had all the things I thought would make me a happy little normal citizen, I found myself feeling lonely and tired of all the bullshit that comes with it.
   The following morning, I woke up to a bright sun shining through the window, my dog breathing heavily next to my face and feeling free! I packed all my furniture and a few other things onto my truck and took a ride to a thrift store that would receive my goods. I donated all my material belongings in a matter of hours. I packed my truck with clothes and a few other things I couldn't really give up and headed for the border. At this time my truck was not legally allowed to cross into Mexico, so after all this in the morning they sent me back from Mexico to California, not only once but three times.
   Finally, I made it across the border the feeling of freedom was even greater. I went to the only place I knew where to go for a reassuring pat on the back. My brother (childhood friend) was not expecting me at all especially during the day and now I show up in my truck with stuff in the back, so he still doesn't know what is happening. I tell him about the whole situation and he starts giving me these suggestions about how to get my job back. That was the thing, I did not want my job back I wanted to be Happy!
   The day continued into the night of deep conversations and life goals and that is when I realize, I need to escape. I came up with a solution to get me away from everything and go to a place where no one recognizes me and feel the absolute freedom. That night I sold my truck for six hundred USD and the following day me and my brother bought bus tickets to Oaxaca, Mexico.

The Idea of Blogging

   The idea of blogging came from part of my journaling I have done while traveling away from "home". It is not until now that I have chosen to start this blog, partly because I have been busy running around trying to get things in order. More of a financially stressed mess, that had me tied down. Now that I am all settled in let us begin.
   Blogging for me, is just another way of writing in a journal. I can put everything I feel and everything I want to say and no one can do anything about it. The reason I started journaling was because I have a hard time vocalizing my feeling and my opinions. When I do put that pen to paper I feel like I can just go writing on forever. You may ask, well, why didn't pursue a college degree in journalism or pursue it in a different way? I can answer this question by saying I did not feel motivated enough to go through additional years of school, now I wish I could go change my grades back in elementary school.
   Now blogging for me will consist of some of my past, my present and my future experiences. So I hope enjoy reading this as much as I love writing. I will be uploading video logs as well but, that would be at a later date.