A day before my birthday

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Soon we will be marking the historic day of my birthday. Last year I spent it in Madrid, and they declared a national holiday, and everyone got the day off, and we had a big march and stuff. Some people say it is a coincidence, because it is also Christopher Columbus day, but it wasn´t!

My Birthday, Oct 12, marks the day Columbus sailed the ocean blue. So much is wrapped up in that. Now here I am, a gringo of european descent travelling in the very territories Columbus (or Colon, as we´ll call him, for he is so called here) landed upon.

îmg=woah
In school we are taught colon is some great man, who discovered america, but it is a lie, for others had been here before. Colon represents the doctrine of discovery: he ¨discovered¨this land, even though there were already native inhabitants, and he claimed it for his queen...anyway, it´s all kinda messed up and ironic.

Many adventures to relate, and a few I forgot to mention.

One I mentioned in my poem, which was the giant centipede in our toilet. It lived there, in mazatlan, and we mostly let him be. Sometimes when we flushed he´d come out with the water, then crawl up the hole...that was neat. And today we got into Palenque, and saw a huge iguana just sunning in someone´s yard.

We took the bus last night from Peubla, it was a 10 hour ride. We got here exhausted, for the bus was pretty full, and we hardly slept a wink! So we got a room right away and took a nap.

Pueble was great, it is a fancy town with the feel or a european city. It really seems like you´re in spain or italy or something. The buildings have eloquent facades and steeples, there are tons of coffee shops, and the people seem sophisticated. At least in the center--surrounding the city is the same old poverty. But we spent our time in the center, for we spent only one night! Then we wanted to get to the quiet of the country, so we took the grueling ride to palenque, and here we are in an internet cafe with very loud video games blaring all around us, creating an awful din! Louder than anything in the cities...
Ironic.

I am sweating bad right now, stinking like feet and a lot of other things!
Tess bought me a really cool colorful mexican shirt for my b day, with all my favorite colors. She got a skirt which is complimentary, purple yellow and pink, while my shirt is blue, green, turquise, red. Tess and I also have matching friendship bracelets, which compliment our skirt and dress...

Considering how little sleep we got, I feel OK. We have been sleeping till about 10 every day, and getting out of the room at the crack of noon. My aspiration is to rise earlier, like 9. But things are slower here, thus time passes faster, for each day, you do less. ALTHOUGH I have to say our days are pretty packed! We are super tourists, sometimes doing guerella tour-fare...That´s where you like break into people´s houses and take pictures, do drive by photography shootings, etc. It´s deadly...nah just kidding! But we hit the sights hard, and are pretty exhausted by the end of the day.

So, our first night in Puebla, we were walking around, me with my guitar. These kids were behind us, about our age. They said, Gringos! So I turned around and said HI, as usual. Usually people who call you gringo are friendly...So they asked me to play a song. I played for them, and they enjoyed it. They were all already toasted. One of them played guitar, so he played us one, and they all sang in spanish. We ended up hitting it off and going around that night, playing, trying to make money, and finally back to their hotel for a few cervezas. They were all really nice. They were from another town, and we joked around, laughed a lot, played much music, and had fun.

A few of them were really into hip hop, so I busted some raps. It was really funny--we were in the courtyard of the hotel, and it was about 1040, some were trying to sleep. But I did some raps. They listened intently for a few lines, trying to catch my lyrics. Finally, I dropped the MotherFer bomb, as often slips out in raps. They got all excited: WOAH! DID YOU HEAR THAT? HE SAID MOTHERF&%·$ AWESOME! Was basically the response. I also said SHI·$%, and they love that as well.
But I remember when I was a kid, first hearing those words, I thought it was so cool too. Ah, to be that young and nieve again... ha ha! Now I¨m 25 I´m almost an old man.

So, we went into their room, drank some cervesas. I got to play them some nice songs, which was great, because they would listen so intently--at least to a few verses! But they didn´t even know what the lyrics meant. I need to work on my popular song repetoire perhaps...
Oh, the other funny part was when I busted my second freestlye. Four of the guys crowded around me after and said, OK OK, now what did it mean? What´s the translation, mas o menos, more or less. I was like, man, I don´t know, I just made it up and don´t remember what I said. It was funny to see their expectant faces though.

Later, we had dance time, and we all got pretty silly! They just had mexican songs on one cell phone, and that´s what we all danced to. We would´ve partied all night, but Tess and I left around 1AM.

Then next day, Tess and I took my guitar out onto a street and I set up shop. I picked quite to place. It was a pedestrian street with shops, and a lot of foot traffic. We set up right next to a guy selling belts for 5 pesos or 50 cent. I put my sombrero down and started to play. Tess sat down by the window. We were a perfect mockery of many peddlers, though we didn´t mean to make fun.

As for fun, at first I thought, no one is going to give me money, they´re all going by, not listening or caring. But then a few people stopped and threw in a few pesos! I need little encouragement, so I went with it...These 5 girls came out of the store across the street and started cheering for me. It was hilarious. They cheered for me after a few songs, throughout my playing. I had some fans!

People went by, dropping a few pesos in my sombrero. Tess sat there. Tons of people took pictures of us on their cameras and fell phones, some took video I´m sure. Look at these gringos by the side of the street, what are they doing there? It was so funny....

I played for about an hour, and then my voice was getting horse. I ended with my hit song, Rainbow, and that won the crowd. I picked up the hat, and this lady who had been sitting on the bench intently, listening, came over and gave me a 20$ bill! That´s like 2 dollars!

So it was time to go and count, and all told, I had about 111 pesos, not only enough to feed my ego, but also to feed tess and I a fat dinner at the vegitarian restaraunt, courtesy of the people. But since the money came so easily, I decided to give some back to the people, which I am doing now and again. Anyway, pueble is the gravy spot for buscin, though I suspect I would have done well in guadalahara, and mexico city too...

The other funny music experience was when we were at the palace in mexico city. This is a beautiful place on top of a hill in the biggest park in latin america! Whew. It is stunning. You look out over the city. We walked around, checking it out. I had already been rejected at 2 pianos in Mexico, DF. They seemed really tight about their pianos! But here, on top of the palace, was a piano! I looked around, not a guard in sight. At least I could start playing, and that´s all I needed. Usually then they´ll let me continue.

I took the cover off, which I had to untie. I opened up the present, and it was a steinway grand! A beautiful piano, and an old one too. I busted right into maple leaf rag. A few people stood around, listening, and I made it for a few minutes before an angry guard came up. He said in spanish something like, What are you doing? Who said you could do that? The listeners, which now numbered about ten, clapped for me. I walked over to them, and they gave me some thumbs up. Playing piano isn´t íllegal, they said. That´s right!

Other great adventures in brief:
We went to tetiuhacan, and it was great. We stayed in after they closed and walked around the back paths. It was so tranquil and special. We got to see the pyramids with no one on them. We had a nice picnic too, off the beaten path, and ate some cactus from the area, which filled us with the spirit of the natives, and also the prickles of the cactus. What you eat is the cactus fruit, and I wasn´t careful on the first, and paid for it! I got tons of prickles over my hands, and a bunch in my lip, and on my tongue. But those heal in a few days...

We worried we wouldn´t make the bus, but we caught it alright, and back to Mexico.

That city is great, although it does have the pollution. You don´t notice it so much though when you´re there, breathing it in all the time, turning your lungs black, so that´s nice.

I guess that´s about it. Times almost up...I´m sure there´s much I missed, as usual. Like how we saw about a million musuems in Mexico city, till it was like the twighlight zone, and everything kept turning into a museum. But we were both real impressed with that city. And puebla too! My first time playing on the streets (for a good bit of time, and with a hat) really made quite an impression on me.

Until later!
Colin
about to be 25....

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Photos

San Carlos
This was the view of the Beach from our house, really awesome! That was a long time ago tho, but we´re figuring out how to do photos.

it´s me!
this is me right now

Tess And Colin
Here we are in Palenque!

MMMM
My B day dinner

Sun and moon
Yin yang balance

don´t smoke
it´s not what you think