Greeneyedgrandpa

Leaving in 4 hours. I have a small solar panel recharging systen in the vatn now. Hopefully, I will be able to run and charge my laptop and a fan and a lamp through the inverter. and also charge the secondary battery, drill motor battery, and a small heater. My 2 drivers have been instructed to put the pedal to the medal if they wish, and see if we can make San Diego in 26 hours. Once in town I will drop the riders off at their locations and see how the van handles 350 bs lighter I've got until the twenty-eighth to get into Mexico, at which point my Washington driver's license expires for thirty days. At that point I hope to be firmly entrenched into Mexican life. I'm taking my 26-Spanish CD set. I'm ... read more

The next blog series (Death Valley. . .) will start on January 24th, and will be from on the road: Seattle, San Diego, Borrego Springs, Death Valley N.P., Loreto, La Paz, and Todos Santos. Then back along a similiar route to the always beautiful state of Washington. Main features will include pictures of sagebrush, talking Joshua trees (mezcal ceremony), and whales blowing their holes. I hope to post once a week at minimum, and if I get in a bind, once per hour until I get rescued. I have 2 drivers who have volunteered to drive me to San Diego, while I lounge in the back of the van watching Groundhog Day and other silly movies. I have promised myself to not stop in Las Vegas, where I once spent $700.00 in the first hour, before ... read more

We took a taxi to La Bocana on a tip from one of the waiters at our local beach. Great action! Our taxi driver put the pedal to the medal, and it was like a roller coaster for me in the back seat, for about 10 miles. A huge expanse of beach and killer waves. Too big for us. We walked up the beach (eastward) to where Rio Copilita dumped into the ocean. While swimming across it, we noticed that the fresh water doesn't float a person as well as saltwater. It was a near miss, almost dumped my pack into the river. La Bocana is a small place, with a hotel that had 2 rooms. One is $50/night, and the other with kitchen is $80/night (this one was booked). We had some Mexcal and beer ... read more

Took a taxi into Crucecita to buy my friend a bottle of mezcal. I asked around and found out there is a store that sells only mexcal. I was almost there and came across an old man sitting on a box on the sidewalk. He saw me looking around and he said, "What are you looking for?" I said mexcal and he said two blocks up and on the other side of the street. I soon found the store, and went in. On the back wall, they had to the left mexcal and to the right, tequila. The young Mexican man told me about which bottles were aged in oak barrels and so on. I told him I wanted a bottle of the best mexcal in the store, and he spun around, pulled a bottle off ... read more

Many interesting things in town today. My first outing was to the local beach, came in the back way to avoid the the waiters. Hung out for an hour on my new yellow beach towel, watched the waves come and go. Got all hot and sweaty within the first 10 minutes. It was 96 today, and the ocean temperature is 83. The saltwater is good for my skin, seems like it makes my fingernails grow faster. I've heard that if you are standing on the beach, you can see for 12 miles to where the earth curves away on the horizon. The boats look pretty small out that far. I was on my way back to the apartment when I heard a man call my name, "Ricardo!" It was Carlos, a waiter I met yesterday. I ... read more

I rented a cab driver (Silvario) to drive me around for an hour: Super Che, art supply store, glass shop, bank, taco stand, and back home. Time away from home = money spent. The weather is about the same everyday. High 92, low 72. The currency here is interesting. (one dollar = 12 pesos.)Coins go like this, in pesos:1, 2, 5, 10/ Paper money is 20, 50, 100, 200, 500 pesos. Frequently vendors cannot break a 50 or 100 peso note. Also, the water guy charges 25 pesos for a 5-gallon bottle of drinking water, Super Che: A little of everything, big store, items packaged in small quantities. Kind of a Fred Meyer. Everywhere I go, I am the only white person. Bought AAA batteries. Art supply: More watercolor paper (nobody spoke english so Silvario had ... read more

Last Night Sunday night, went for a walk down to one of the cash machines. The machine hummed for a few seconds, and then said transaction is compl ete.It gave me my card back, no cash, and charged me $7.47 for the transaction. I went back on Monday morning, spoke to the manager but he spoke no English. Oh well. Later that day they posted a credit to my account. I hired a driver this morning to take me to get a piece of glass cut, buy some paint brushes and 5 gallons of water. Feeling good, warm and no rain. I'm in town, on the edge of a 50,000 population metropolis. There are four towns, two touristy, one middle class, and an old colonial town a few blocks from the beach called La Crucecita, where ... read more

Last Night . . . Sunday night, went for a walk down to one of the cash machines. The machine hummed for a few seconds, and then said transaction is complete. It gave me my card back, no cash, and charged me $7.47 for the transaction. I went back on Monday morning, spoke to the manager but he spoke no English. Oh well. Later that day they posted a credit to my account. I hired a driver this morning to take me to get a piece of glass cut, buy some paint brushes and 5 gallons of water. Feeling good, warm and no rain. I'm in town, on the edge of a 50,000 population metropolis. There are four towns, two touristy, one middle class, and one slum area called La Crucicita, where the real life is. ... read more

Tuesday, December 04, 2012 It was raining on the way to the airport, but when we were almost there the rain stopped. Terry tried to turn the wipers off, but they wouldn’t shut off. I told her to have one of the guys at the auto parts store pull the wiper fuse, or worst case, disconnect the battery when she got home. Omen of things to come? Terry dropped me at United and the trip had begun. Forty dollars for the second checked bag, ouch. . . .waiting for my flight to go off. ate a package of fruit Starbursts to qwell my anxiety. made it onboard my first flight in five years. When I arrived in Houston, the United assistant told me the next leg of my journey had been cancelled. She was kind enough ... read more