Australia Day

Nothing much to report here.

Know Before You Go

Due to overwhelming interest in the Mexico English field, and Puerto Escondido in particular, mi brilliant amiga Marcela Cameron has put together an extremely informative, perfectly honestly website to help fellow JW's with their travel plans. The introduction to the website it worth a look over if you are considering coming to Puerto, or Mexico in general. Behold:

The next few lines are not to discourage you from coming, but to give you a reality check.

Make sure what you are getting into before you come all the way here just to realize it’s too ‘third world’ for you.

Mexico is a ‘third world’ country in more ways than one. There is no such a thing as a regulation on noise pollution, so you can have the local counsel playing music so loud that even when you are ten blocks away from it, you think the music is actually playing under your bed. The local Tortilleria will punctually have a small car, every morning at 6 am blaring music from the back of the trunk to let you know that hot tortillas are available, once they leave it will be the gas and then the water delivery guy, all with their own, very loud way of letting you know they are there.

There are oh! so many stray dogs, barking well into the night, cars noisily struggling up a hill at all hours of day or night.

Mosquitoes are merciless too, and although we don’t seem to get dengue fever that often they are still very annoying.

Accommodation is hardly ever what you would be used to at “home” the places are usually quite run down and poor design makes them quite hot and off course drinking tap water is unheard off.

Most roads are in a deplorable estate, they cover one pot hole and three seem to appear out of no-where making driving quite interesting.

Although, once a month goes by, with your stomach a lot more settled and a glass of wine or a beer sitting at the beach, watching the sunset surrounded by friends, the annoyances of small town México fade into the background.

When we first moved to Mexico four years ago, I was ready to leave the moment I set foot on this place.

The beaches seemed packed, to me more than me on the beach is too busy, everyone was trying to overcharge us, our bank cards wouldn’t work our apartment was tiny hot and smelly and the water unreliable. I was hot, sweaty and dusty all the time, I couldn’t believe I had travel so far to be so miserable, but once we got into a routine started to go witnessing and found interest, I started to forget about the annoying things and soon enough they became the norm.

Marcela's Puerto Escondido website can be found here. There are plenty of places to serve in Mexico, and the world. So as Surfline says: KNOW BEFORE YOU GO.

Armageddon Fire Drill

Mi casita por ahorita 

At least now I know how I'll react if there's ever a massive earthquake and I happen to be trapped in an oversized sheet, encased in a mosquito net, housed in a bat cave. I was awoken from a light sleep last night when I felt that familiar 'earthquake' feeling us Californians know and love...the floor rolling underneath your feet, the sudden loss of balance. I ripped off my eye mask to see what was transpiring, but realized I had inextricably wrapped myself in a giant white sheet and couldn't get out. I used my jaguar reflexes to tear myself out of the sheet and heard the loudest crash I had ever heard. "This is it," I thought. "I'm going to be crushed in an earthquake." I wasn't going to take this lying down. I burst out of my hermetically sealed mosquito net and stood in a warrior stance, adrenaline pumping. The earthquake was over.

Wait. The only thing disturbed in the room was the giant bookcase at the foot of my bed. The "earthquake" I felt was of my own design. Somehow in my fitful sleep I had kicked the bookcase over with my grandota strength. Maybe I need to lay off the Pilates.

Anyway, I survived the night and have just finished picking up and alphabetizing all of the fallen items. I'm staying in a brother's place while he is out of town, I hope he isn't too horrified with what I've done. I love the little cave. It's pretty rustico, but behold the view from the toilet!

Yep, that's the ocean. Unbeatable in my book. Also, I bought a few shares in Italika Motorcicletas by way of a sweet F125. They're inexpensive and prone to falling apart, but at least now when my bike breaks down I will be able to embrace the problems as my very own!

Continuing my attempts at being responsible, I went over to the Transito office to register the bike in my name and get license plates. Marcella (bottom right) went with me to help. Her and the rest of Puerto Escondido. 

Ah, Mexico. Orderly lines and a sense of rhyme or reason? Who needs them!

Hm. I'm pretty sure there is a rat running around on the palapa roof right now. Or an iguana. Either way, I've got to hop in the shower, so hopefully whatever it is won't choose now to hop on my face. 

Estoy Aqui!

I'm here. Just getting settled. Have formed the Puerto Escondido Helmet Awareness Society. As you can see, people are already scrambling to join. Off to swim. Post soon.