Furthering Our Education and Spanish 101

February 11, 2010 to March 16, 2010

The Photos

During our stay at Casa Caracol, we met Anne, a young lady travelling through Mexico by bike and she recommended the Spanish school Tierras Mayas, located in beautiful San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico.  With no other destination in the plans and wanting to start learning sooner rather than later, we bussed to Mexico City and caught the first bus for San Cristóbal.  Although we didn’t actually explore D.F. (de efe), we found it noteworthy that it took over THREE hours to get out of town.  And while a portion of that time involved crossing from one bus terminal to the other, ALL travel time increases because the city is SO congested!  After a days journey we arrive in San Cristóbal.

So once again we set down our packs and stayed in one place for a length of time.  And, as with our last month long stay (and apparent refusal to blog until it’s over) there is just too much that could be written about the day to day routine, therefore I’m just gonna cover the highlights! 

the City ~ San Cristóbal lies in a valley surrounded by mountains.  Which may or may not create the beautiful weather I consider perfect for camping (upper 70’s/lower 80’s during the day and lower 60’s/upper 50’s at night.)  All was not nirvana here, however.  There were (unfortunately) three rather noisy distractions to be noted, 6+ churches with indiscriminate bell ringing whenever the bell ringer seemed to deem it necessary, random explosions of fire works at all hours of the day and night, and the incessant barking of ‘stray’ dogs long into the wee hours, making it sometimes hard to get up in the morning in time for...

Spanish School ~ Obviously, it’s what we came for and while we did not walk away fluent in the language, we are definitely better equipped to attempt those long conversations we love so much.  The school was a little more than halfway up a hill in the center of the city (the main church was at the top!)  Once we signed up for our classes, we were offered one of the two apartments they rent out.  It was a perfect little ‘Penthouse’ apartment with a 270 degree view of the city.  As an added benefit, we also had (almost) exclusive use of the wonderful terrace looking out over the city, which we utilised for entertainment of our...

Neighbors & Teacher ~ Shortly after we moved in we discovered that we had a neighbor, sort of.  An Australian guy named Jonathan lived there while attending school, but after finishing school, he arranged to leave the majority of his possessions and wander the surrounding areas.  At the point we figured out we had a neighbor, he was in the last few days of his stay.  We did get to have dinner with him on his last night and he gave us many wonderful suggestions of places to visit.

Almost immediately Kim and Will, from England, replaced Jonathan.  Will and Kim met in Miami while travelling solo.  They decided they got on well enough to continue travelling together South to Mexico and further.  The twenty somethings were gracious enough to let us old fogies hang out with them and Will even began to spin poi.  We enjoyed many dinners together and one really awesome night of fire spinning, where we eventually coaxed the reticent Kim to give fire spinning a twirl.  Before they left, they bought a scarf and some rice so they could make their own set of practice poi.

Ailyn and Tomi, from Germany, soon replaced Kim and Will as our neighbors.  Initially they planned to travel for a while, but shortly after arriving, Ailyn received word that her master hat making test, recently postponed, was back on.  This drastically changed their trip, but I know they will travel again soon.  Tomi and Ailyn, both great cooks, knew of numerous phenomenal restaurants and we shared several meals with them, out on the town and at home.  Gregory even got to visit one of the local market areas with them while I persisted in Spanish class.  I believe they planned to leave almost the same time as us, however our paths separated as we went in different directions.

Although he was not a neighbor, we created at least one opportunity for paint night (well day) with my conversation teacher Daniel.  During class we talked about so many things that inevitably we ended up talking about body paint.  Daniel said that the one opportunity to paint had never manifested so I easily set up a Sunday afternoon to give him another chance.  While he played with a new medium and the visualisation of artistic ideas we picked his brain about everything from his ecotourism company to the history of Maseca use in tortillas, (which started out as a program to feed the indigent of Mexico but rapidly changing into a private monopoly) we neglected, however, to ask him about the strangeness we witnessed in...

Chamula ~ As the closest indigenous village, we would have been remiss in our tourist duties to miss visiting Chamula.  Despite being told that the indigenous beliefs strangely mix with the Catholic ideas, nothing prepared us for the absolutely amazing customs we witnessed.  To begin with, you procure a twenty peso ticket (about 2 bucks) just to enter the church.  Once inside, you must let your eyes adjust to the dimness of smokey candles.  Then it gets weird.  A completely empty center space approximately half a football field in length with the floor covered in pine needles.  Except for the places cleared and set up with vast candle arrays.  We watched a pulsadore go through the whole ritual of candle lighting, object blessing via waving eggs and a baggy of water over the lit candles and then waving the eggs and sprinkling the water over and around the people paying for his services.  The particular pulsadore we watched acted in a way that seemed very unprofessional to us as in the middle of one ceremony he not only answered his cell phone but remained talking on it for several minutes before resuming his candle lighting.  Nothing can impress upon you the bizarre mixture of ancient culture and new religion we observed in Chamula, especially when you realise one group has a dead chicken.

Just outside the church exists an open air market selling everything from food to handicrafts to masses of junk made in China, with very little of it being stuff we couldn’t find just wandering in San Cristóbal on the...

Pedestrian Avenues ~ Just about the most pedestrian friendly place with multiple walking streets.  And although we enjoyed the many pedestrian avenues with shops and restaurants aplenty, the constant stream of tourism creates the unique environment (at this point in our journey anyway!) of selling native crafts, trinkets, shoe shines and of course, candy or cigarettes to those tourists.  No meal or outing was complete without at least one indigenous person approaching with their wares and if one approached you, three more were standing at the ready should you even look interested.  The pushiest vendors sold cloth.  So pushy in fact they would block your path and hold the cloth right in your face.  In our infinite silliness, we decided that they were actually trying to convince you to pay them to remove it.  Walking everywhere (as one does when one’s car remains in Dallas) we created at least two games to keep us entertained...

Beso Bug ~ Beetles represent a large portion of the car population in San Cristóbal but knowing that Slug Bug or Punch Buggy would eventually lead to a real fight, we modified the rules a little bit.  Whoever sees a bug has to call out the color is Spanish and then claim a beso (kiss) from the ‘loser’.  If you call out the wrong color, the other person corrects and claims two besos for the win.  Not a difficult game by far, but Gregory found it slightly amusing that when I was distracted, he would be the clear winner, until I was focussed again and then it was much more difficult to find one before I did.

Switchback Kisses ~ Since we lived slightly less than halfway up a hill, it is fairly needless to say that there were many stairs to be climbed each time we came home... many stairs.  Fortunately the stairs were laid out with 2 different types of steps and multiple landings to avoid complete exhaustion.  Unfortunately, it was still a long draining walk to get home.  Being able to motivate each other all the way up eventually turned into a game of sorts.  We would separate at the bottom but at each landing the first one to arrive would claim a kiss when the second arrived.  This had the double benefit of giving the faster one a moment to rest while giving the slower one something to look forward to.  During one of my ascensions, I counted the steps from the bottom all the way to our third floor apartment... almost 300 footsteps all while trying not to be violently...

SICK ~ Monteczuma is a pure rat bastard as he afflicted us multiple times in our short stay.  We were both extremely sick twice, I was pretty bad off at least one additional time and we never really achieved 100 percent health after the first time we got sick.  Fortunately, there exists a great OTC antibiotic that really only works on the bad bugs and doesn’t completely destroy every good bacteria in your system.  We also drank a significant quantity of electrolytes and soups.  With the sickness and continual queasiness of belly, we were quite ready to move on once school finished.  However, Monteczuma had one more strike in store for me and we pushed back our leaving until I felt well enough to travel.  Once I did we began the strange journey that landed us directly on the Gringo Trail...

The Coolest Place You've NEVER Heard Of!

February 3, 2010 to February 8, 2010

The Photos

Once again I am at a complete loss for words.  How do you describe the indescribable?  I guess for the most part the best place to start is at the beginning, but at the beginning of our adventures there or the history of the place... too hard to choose.  So instead you get a rambling story in the order of our discovery and the hope that it will inspire you to venture there on your own.

Contemplate sitting down with someone you’ve just met who doesn’t speak your language (or you hers.)  And using Google translate, she begins to tell you about a place she believes to be phenomenal but she’s never actually seen.  She only has the recommendation of a FaceBook friend and the various images she has found on the internet.  But the sincerity with which she speaks of this virtual unknown is so enticing and the images she presents to you so unbelievable that you have literally no choice but to incorporate her recommendation into your trip plan.  And so slowly you begin to wind your trip in the direction of an unknown place called Las Pozas.

Envision yourself in the past, of noble(ish) English birth and after inheriting some small fortune through that most unjust agent named death, you start to shape the world around you into what you want it to be.  But being of noble(ish) birth you are surrounded by other so called nobles who find your desires strange and/or disturbing.  You are also a collector of art that appeals to you, but that makes you even stranger to those around you.  And now you’ve started to find the English nobility uninteresting and quite probably judgemental.  So you wander the world some and find a place deep in the Mexican jungle where you can do whatever you please.  You purchase eighty acres of natural beauty and you begin interlacing it with the most elaborate and amazing concrete structures taken from your travels and your dreams.  Of course eventually the money runs low, but fortunately you are a man ahead of your time and all that art you collected has now become popular and quite literally worth millions.  You spend the rest of your life (from 1949 to 1980) and all of your money (approximately 5 million British pounds) working on your dream.  You are Sir Edward James and you have created Las Pozas.

Consider in the convolutions of planning your trip, you do a little bit of your own research and discover Casa Caracol (meaning snail house - and the addition of more spirals to the world of Gregory), a destination that seems too good to be true.  Removed from the city life and situated on the edge of the jungle.  A magical place with tepees (or teepees or tipis, you pick your favorite spelling!) for lodging, a great communal space for resting and recharging and an atmosphere that seems to be exactly what you are looking for as the perfect compliment to the adventure that awaits you at Las Pozas.

Visualise a long and windy bus ride that you barely remember, because once you get to Xilitla, the town nearest this extraordinary location, you find it to be spectacular as well.  In this village, you are two of maybe a dozen foreigners, but perfectly accepted as you wander through the market and welcomed to watch and participate in their traditional dance during a festival.  At night fog envelopes the city creating an air of mystery and pockets of wonderful golden light.  You decide to stay for a couple of days at the self proclaimed castle turned hotel, that was the former residence of Edward James’ closest friend.  And you get just a glimpse of the wonder associated with what you have specifically come to see and already you are getting the flavour of something strange and a little bit removed from the norm, yet solidly in the middle of Mexico.  Once you are finally ready, you start the long walk down the meandering road to Las Pozas.

Two videos of sliding down the Fire Pole at the hotel... one significantly crazier than the other!

Without Backpack  WITH Backpack

And this is where it gets complicated.  Do I fully describe just a few of the sites available?  Do I completely gloss over any of the details hoping that one day you, loyal reader and future traveller, will wander there of your own accord?  I turn to my travelling companion and ask his thoughts... Gregory suggests a rambling detail of the wanderings of two wide eyed children starting at around 11 a.m. and ending with a scrambling escape over a closed gate and barb wire fence in absolute darkness and quite a bit of panic.  However this sounds way too unbelievable and certainly not the reality most of you have come to expect.  But what you have no way of realising is this is a wander through a combination of your favourite M.C. Escher and Salvador Dali paintings.

Las Pozas is a surrealist dream, in some spots man’s will clearly dominates and in others nature is slowly reclaiming land that will always be hers.  Towers of concrete, spirals of stairs and platforms thrust into the sky contrast with nearly indistinguishable paths, tree roots breaking through and a thundering waterfall at the end of a path.  However, stand marvelling long enough and you start to see the shape of things and doubt is created as to what is man made and what is not.  Having no real idea of surrealism before this moment, we believe Las Pozas defines it for us, but makes it hard for us to describe it to others.

As I presume you are starting to understand from reading this and seeing the images (it is unimaginable that you haven’t popped out of this page to do a Google image search for Las Pozas) only through experience can you fully appreciate this portion of the trip.  And I am left with how exactly does one describe the indescribable?  Vaguely and with lots of imaginings!

Next up Reading, Writing and Arithmetic... or something like it!

Some Silliness, then Some Blogging and then More Silliness.

January 14, 2010 to February 3, 2010


The Photos


Welcome back to XGRFH radio, you are tuned to 31.2 on your travel dial.  I want to ask if anyone remembers a little blog I used to read on here, ‘GandoR’s World Tour’?  ZOMG, what the hell happened to those guys.  I keep checking their blog and it’s the same entry I’ve already read... and not just once.  I read it, it was cute, then I checked back after a sufficient length of time and no new entry, so I read the last one again.  Still cute.  Then I checked back again and still no new entry so I read the last one yet again, but this time to see if there were hints as to where they were (there weren’t... and it was getting less cute!)  And then I checked back once again, once again no new entry.  So I reread the last one and ran it through several decoders to see if there was a hidden message about kidnappers, torture or a reference to the Blue Sun Corp.  (in case you were wondering, NO, there wasn’t and that Rebecca girl’s rambling broke two of the decoders!)  So now here I go again to check the blog and see if they have checked in from their wild adventure and ZOMG... real actual words!

*But First a Word From Our Sponsers!*

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So yeah, enough silliness for now, but not because there has been a sudden ban on sillines, but because I started this post 10 days ago and it seems to have stalled.  So again I’m gonna give the hightlights.

CouchSurfing ~ Awesome Sauce!  Every host has been fan freakin’ tastic.  I’ve gotten better about selecting and sending out requests.  I try to make them more personal and give them a feel for who we are and the response has been phenomenal.  I’m sure I will have more to say about the system as the trip progresses and a whole bunch of pictures of all the ‘couches’ we’ve surfed.

Hermosillo, Sonora, MX ~ Our very first Couch Surfing experience and it was spectacular.  Edgardo was a wonderful host with a great love for his city and a willingness to teach.  His sister and girlfriend were equally wonderful and we had several great conversations, one solely through Google Translate!  We had great food in the form of a 3/4 meter long burrito and other noms.  And our last night there turned into an impromptu face paint night (Edgardo was so entranced by the paints that he kept 2 small bottles of paint water, one of metallic and one of black light reactive!)  We were definitely sad to move on but move on we must.

Mazatlán, Sinoloa, MX ~ Our second surf of the couch was also wonderful.  The night we arrived Jeremy was throwing a party, so we immediately got introduced to a passel of people (hey look the correct use of a vocabulary word!)  Almost all of them were students at Tec de Monterrey, Campus Mazatlán.  We had a joyful day of blog writing from a hammock and even took a rather long walk up a hill to the lighthouse, where we got to spin flags for a bit.  Gregory taught Jeremy how to spin poi and we made a complete debacle of tie dyed socks for him (note make sure the material will actually take the dye!)  We spent a little bit of time on the beach with Jeremy and his crew, where we got in the first of TWO opportunities to paint.  The second came on the night before we were leaving (it’s possibly a trend but staying up all night before a long bus ride does NOT actually make the bus ride enjoyable!)  Also one night we had sushi, which was pretty strange in that none of it was raw, all of it had Philidelphia cream cheese and one had strawberries... strange and not partucularly repeatable.

One of the more wonderful moments of Mazatlán was when Gregory and I were walking back from the adventure of the light house.  Thinking we had gotten on a bus that took us almost directly back home, we ended up in a completely unfamiliar part of town.  Gregory asked for directions from several people and we carried on our way (no Kansas references please!)  We ended up walking what was essentially the long way home (no SuperTramps here, either!) and came across some young people spinning fire at the stoplights.  We spent at least half an hour talking to them, watching them spin and learning how to make poi on the cheap to share along our journey (or in case ours get lost or stolen!)  Gregory even spun fire to try and busk a little dinero but to no avail.  It was such an inspiration that we had to spin fire for our host and show him how the tricks he had learned so far looked ‘con fuego!’

Querétaro, Querétaro, MX ~ No I didn’t suddenly develop a stutter, the city and the state have the same name.  Not to sound too much like a broken record, however (as you probably intuited!) this experience of awesomeness was totally couch surfing!  Wait that’s not right... well, close enough.  Robin and his lovely wife Pepix, not only put up with us for an extended amount of time (see the glossy bit below), they fed us wonderful food, tried to teach us how to cook some for ourselves, let us borrow a tent and sleeping bag so we could escape to San Joaquín for a nice weekend and sent us merrily on our way when the time was finally right.

We also enjoyed a Couch Surfing event on our first night in the form of a Cantina Crawl, where we met many of the Querétaro crowd and enjoyed some fine rattlesnake mescal.  Among this crowd was the organizer of the event, Rodrigo, an artist of stunning talent in the pen and ink style and we were subsequently invited to a private gallery showing of some truly beautiful art.

So yeah I kinda glossed over a little bit there...

My new state of the art Apple MacBook Pro started glitching on me after we had been there a couple of days (Gregory thinks it important to mention a stumble and a fall but since I’m writing this blog, I will pretend I am perfectly graceful and it got sick eating Mexican Pop-Ups.)  Talking with Apple, they wanted me to use my install disks, which are safely in Grand Prairie, TX and generally didn’t think they would be able to help me without them.  So I asked Robin if he knew anyone with an Apple that might have disks I could borrow and Robin instead found me an authorized Apple repair shop.  It ended up being the hard drive, which was replaced at no charge.

While waiting for the repair to be completed, Robin urged us to visit San Joaquín.  It was beautiful and exactly the escape from the currently normal life that we desperately needed.  A perfect little vacation in the middle of our vacation.  We camped the first night and hoteled it the second night.  Staying in the hotel was not actually part of the plan, but it ended up being quite nice and we were able to leave our bags behind twice and go exploring.  In that exploring, we saw La Gruta de Los Herrera (caves and interesting rock formations) and La Cascadas de Maravillas (beautiful waterfall at the end of a very long downhill walk.)  We attempted to visit Zona Arqueológica de Ranas, but they were closed, so we wandered through the city some and eventually bussed it back ‘home’.

Next stop, Xilitla, San Luis Potosí, MX and a portion of the trip to fully expound upon if I can find the words. 

Heading South...

January 11, 2010 to January 14, 2010


The Photos


Leaving San Francisco was a completely different kind of adventure than getting there.  Although once more, we turned to CraigsList, this time to look for a ride share heading south.  Most of the southern routes from San Francisco were only going to Los Angeles or possibly San Diego.  I found one I thought would be perfect, picking up furniture from Long Beach, so I e-mailed him.  Unfortunately, someone beat us to him.  Trolling the list some more, I found a girl headed to Los Angeles.  Gregory called her, waded through the drama of her really small car and the possible discomfort it would cause at least one rider, but eventually she decided that as long as Gregory’s girlfriend didn’t mind being scrunched in the back, we were go for takeoff.  *note~Can you say annoyed girlfriend...one should at least meet the couple and determine who will fit more comfortably in the scrunchy backseat and not just assume.

For whatever reason, I can’t remember all the drama that ensued over this ride share but what I do know is that she kept changing the time to leave, initially by a day and then pushing back the hour at least 3 times.  Also despite her CraigsList notice saying LA, she eventually told us she was only going as far as Echo Park, which would leave us scrambling for public transport to our lodging in Long Beach at an unknown time of night.  Needless to say, I got antsy and started looking for other options.  While searching CraigsList and popping back and forth to my e-mail and FaceBook, we received a second e-mail from the first find asking if we still needed a ride, as his intended passengers had taken an earlier lift.  The only catch was that we would have to leave the next day (which was no problem since it was almost 5 p.m. and we had already agreed to leave the following day with flaky girl) and spend one night in a hotel.  Going completely against the etiquette of CraigsList, we canceled our arrangement and jumped ship to our first choice.  *note~yes indeed this caused more drama, involving at least two phone calls to tell us what cads we were for bailing on her.  Gregory handled it much more admirably than I would have.

Feeling much more secure in our plans, we headed to the city for our last, and technically only, night of San Francisco living.  We decided on the Green Tortoise Hostel where Gregory stayed during his April trip to San Francisco.  It was as Gregory said, quite hospitable and the awesome girl who checked us in chose to give us a room upgrade.  We trudged up the steep, steep stairs to our room on the ‘second’ floor (technically the third since you have to walk up one flight of stairs just to get to the lobby), dropped off our packs and headed out for some dinner in Little Italy.  My first hostel stay was both completely new and exactly what I expected.  We were privately in a semi-private room, which was great and not the dormitory experience I was wary of.  The drunken revelry and door knocking at 2 a.m, was exactly what I was dreading, yet figuring unavoidable.  We slept the night away, grabbed a quick shower, leisurely devoured some breakfast and headed to the BART station for our last train to the end of the Dublin/Pleasanton line where we met our ride out of town.

Our chariot arrived as a green Toyota truck pulling a U-Haul trailer driven by Randy, a former university professor, now Persian rug historian with a passel of Australian cattle dogs (really only 4, but that’s still a surprising quantity of a specific type of dog in one place).  Of the four, Panga, Sheila, Mirre and Laika, only Panga got to ride in the cab with us, and despite being put out that she was required to give up TWO of her favorite spots, she was the perfect hostess.  After riding with Randy for a day, we found out that his final trip destination was Arizona, and not just anywhere in Arizona...Bisbee, AZ, only a couple of miles from the border towns of Douglas, AZ and Agua Priete, Sonora, MX.  Talking it over during our first nights stay, Gregory and I decided that offering to pay a portion of the gas and helping to load the furniture would be a worthwhile investment to get us so much farther on our way.  Over breakfast the next morning it was settled.  It meant 2 more nights in hotels, but it sure beat hosteling it in Los Angeles or San Diego, then finding yet another ride south (and as it happens, we didn’t even have to pay for gas.)  It also placed us firmly on our path into Mexico.  Best of all, I was able to work on the blog while Gregory and Randy talked about all kinds of things and every mile furthering the beginnings of our real adventure.

This decision of course, put urgency and desperation into our need to begin CouchSurfing.  Being on the road limits one’s access to internet thereby reducing the rapidity with which you can respond to either the yea’s or renew your search if you only get no’s.  It also creates potential problems as you try to get people to send quick notes to your phone e-mail rather than through the CS website.  My preliminary blast of six ‘will you please host me and the crazy guy I hang out with’ was met with one no and one yes, but only as an emergency.  Initiate wave two, three more requests.  Immediately I get back a yes, even with the convolutions of text-mailing.  Hermosillo, here we come.

Randy, whose kindness radiated in the care he gave his canine companions, deposited us on the road to Douglas, with the admonishment that if we were not able to hitch a ride that day, we were to call him and he would see what help he could provide.  Fortunately, we were not required to further lean on him, as we received a ride immediately from Hector who was heading home from the Dr.'s office.

The short ride from Bisbee to Douglas flew by as we talked to Hector about our trip plans.  Originally we thought about hitchhiking, from Agua Priete to Hermosillo, but Hector talked us out of that idea saying that a cab to the bus terminal and then a bus to Hermosillo wouldn’t be terribly expensive.  Also, in his opinion, the bus would be safer and easier since catching one ride going exactly where we wanted to go seemed unlikely whereas getting stranded in some small town seemed inevitable.  He offered to drop us off where ever we needed to go in town and deciding not to delay any further, we elected for the border crossing.  Anticlimactic is the best description of crossing the invisible line from the United States into Mexico.  I’m sure that crossing all the other invisible lines will be more involved, even if they are as easy.

San Franciscan Adventures

December 12, 2009 to January 11, 2009

The Photos

San Francisco itself is an awesome area and I know we did NOT do it justice.  So sadly I’m just gonna give highlights...

Pocket Cave ~ Gregory and I did a ton of walking, across the Golden Gate Bridge; to and from Tantra classes; up, down, around and through both San Francisco and Berkeley; in and out of Muir Woods...  So much walking that I wish I’d had a pedometer just out of curiosity.  It’s true that at one point on the GGB (which was neither Golden nor Gated, but I digress) my knee hurt pretty bad, but that’s a low light and I’m focused on the highlight, which was walking hand in hand in pocket with my lover.  A most wonderful way to stay connected and to learn to read each other’s moods.  I am not sure how this translates in the warmer climes we are headed to, but I’m positive we will adjust and evolve.

Wicked Cool... but cooler than cool.  We arrived super early to the theatre on a Thursday night for the ticket lottery they have for each show.  After about 6 people they called my name, which meant we got to purchase ‘Limited View’ seating for $25 per ticket.  Wandered the streets to kill the two hours until show time, then found our seats.  Yep... when they say limited view... they mean Limited View.  Fortunately, Gregory the ninja, knows how to seat jump right as the lights go down and the curtain goes up.  This embarrassed me so completely that I sat there mortified, in the dark with blazing cheeks until the magic of the show took me away.  After the first act, the real owners of our seats showed up, so we booked back to our places to wait for the light/curtain tango and to seat jump again.  Clearly this is more about the experience than the actual musical, but what can I say... you need to see it to believe it because my words could NOT do it justice.  I’m pretty sure I found a rather large hole in the plot as compared to the L. Frank Baum book, which definitely makes me want to read Wicked and possibly other Gregory Maguire stories.  We did try to arrange for me to see it again with Gregory’s friend Brenna, but work overcame her and time ran out.

Muir Woods ~ Beautiful and breathtaking.  We bussed as far as we could to Mill Valley, then asked around for the trail leading to the park.  I’m pretty sure we missed a sign somewhere... not because we weren’t looking for it, but rather because I’m pretty sure it wasn’t there.  However, all was not lost as we hitched a ride from a gracious gentleman who deposited us directly at the gate.  Driving in with him, we realized just how much walking he had saved us.  Which makes it so disappointing for us that we can’t remember his name.  As for the woods, again it is the experience more than the woods themselves, but I will say I was initially underwhelmed as all the ‘trails’ seemed to be covered in walkways.  Eventually we were able to get off the beaten path and do some actual hiking.  In that trailing we eventually found a back way out (again with help... fools and small children... that we may be!)

Wandering down the Panoramic Highway to Mill Valley in the dark, we stopped to ask a man in his driveway how far the walk was, he informed us that 1) we had missed the trail head, that 2) it was still quite a ways and that 3) he or someone in his house would be heading to town shortly and could give us a ride.  The long twisty ride back to Mill Valley made me extremely grateful for the kindness of strangers as it had been a long day on my feet and I was beat.

New Year’s Eve ~ Our tantrika mentioned a clothing optional retreat in Middletown, CA called Harbin Hot Springs.  After researching their New Year’s Eve celebration we decided to go.  We rented a white cargo van, which we affectionately name Cracker (using both of our car naming systems in one swell foop!) and hit the road.  Regenerative is just about the best description I can use and despite missing the drum jam, we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.  Talking with a lovely couple over breakfast, they suggested we head west to Badoga Bay and then north to find some Redwood camping areas.

...and the fun we had after ~ Badoga Bay was not that exciting, maybe it was the fact that it was New Year’s Day, or possible even that we wanted to see nature more than cities, and even more likely that by the time we got there we had absolutely no idea what we were supposed to be looking for.  Despite their best efforts we were not eaten by the Badoga Bay cannibals (possibly a story for it’s own blog, or perhaps you had to be there!)  We eventually ended up camping in the only open campground on the Avenue of the Giants and hiking just a little to find the largest recorded Redwood and the trees he hangs out with.

Standing among the Redwoods felt almost like home, a little colder than home, but very similar.  I could sense that I was among family, although extended family to be sure.  Giving credence to my thought that ALL trees are connected to each other through their roots, a collective conscience if you will.  Since telling Gregory, he has decided another of his goals is to help me find my home.  I’m not exactly sure what this means, other than maybe I am a tree nymph who has lost her way.

The rushed drive back to Berkeley was not nearly so nice as leisurely making our way to a place unknown, but we needed to return the van by four o’clock.  We made it just in time, even with doubling back two Petaluma exits to drop off our completely non-communicative hitchhiker.

What else... oh yeah, I ran into a tree.  Smacked my left Frontal bone right above the Coronal Suture where it meets the Zygomatic bone (read the outside edge of my left eyebrow!)

(not my actual skull!)

The streets of San Francisco ran with blood... my blood.  While Gregory laughed!  Those of you flick’ring and FaceBooking already know this.  But you all must be wondering how an intelligent girl like myself runs into a tree?  Well, it wasn’t easy.  Long story, still kinda long, we were riding the Muni, as it turned a corner, the bus disconnected from it’s electricity line above.  An intriguing situation to be sure.  Once we disembarked onto the street, Gregory and I began heading to the BART station we had just passed.  Still wide eyed about the bus disconnecting, I was watching Gregory out of the corner of my eye while watching with the rest of my eye as the Muni driver ‘flipped his reins’ to reconnect the bus, leaving no spare eye resources to watch out for stationary objects... like fully grown trees.

Obviously I have lived to blog another day, but damn did I feel stupid.  And as for Gregory laughing, I guess I’ve let you think him a callous cad for long enough.  He held me close, found me napkins to staunch the blood flow, procured antiseptic wipes to clean my wound and band-aids to cover it.  Which for some reason is not enough to remove the sound of his laughter from my traumatized mind.  Fortunately, I know his reactions well enough (and we have talked about it since) that eventually I was able to realize his laughter comes from his fear that I had done myself some real damage.

And so publicly I apologize for the terrible fight we had about the incident.  I love you, Gregory Haley, in my own way... now go make me a grilled cheese sandwich... please.

Next up... leaving San Francisco and possible doubling back on any events I’ve miss in the telling.

Settling in California

December 12. 2009 to December 15, 2009


The Photos


Ah, California or to quote Gregory...

Berkeley, Berkeley, Berkeley (Chanted a la Eddie Murphy from the Nutty Professor)

Originally when I contacted our Tantra coach, I had hoped to stay with her or at least get recommendations for accommodation's.  Not in a position to host us, she suggested a search of Craig’s List.  Once we acquired Amtrak tickets and set up firm dates for our classes, I began to search.  Several intriguing offers presented themselves, the most tantalizing find... a student headed home for the holidays.  She was going to be gone from December 12th to January 10th, almost exactly the length of our course.  The asking price of $100 a week, for one bedroom in a three bedroom Victorian, with three flatmates, fit perfectly within our budget even giving us some flexiblility of funds.  It seemed perfect and I wanted to book it at once.  I was almost devastated as it seemed like someone already in town would likely get it but we eventually transferred $100 to her bank account to hold the room for us.  And, with lightened step and heavy backpack we headed to Berkeley.

... via an exhausting train ride.  Pricewise, Amtrack to California versus Greyhound to California is roughly the same.  Timewise... still up for debate having no reference information as to whether Greyhound had similar (or possibly even worse) weather conditions to deal with.  Foodwise, fairly sure it’s a tossup, since we didn’t really stop for food a lot on Greyhound and the stops I remember were Subway and McDonald’s which are cheap but not great versus the expense of a (arguably decent) prepared meal on the train and the complete lack of planning on our part to bring our own snacks and not pay exorbitant depot prices for crackers and sweetly flavored water.  Comfortwise, Amtrak is clearly the winner (unless you like it cool for sleeping but that may have just been the ‘broken’ train we were on.)  Real Reclining Seats, Multiple Electrical Outlets, Leg Stretching Room, Sunny Lounge Car, Dineresque Dining Car, Unknown Sleeping Bunks (cause we didn’t pay the additional hotel prices for beds!) and Bathrooms Galore.  We read, we watched movies, we slept, we ate... all while effortlessly moving westward.  And despite the ease with which we were traveling, it was an exhausting nearly 36 hours.

Ah, Leg Room (and Breggie!)

When I initially arranged our trip via Amtrak, I thought we needed to go to San Francisco proper (and we would have if I hadn’t found us the sweet housing deal.)  The train only goes as far as Emeryville with a connecting bus to the city.  Gregory soon figured out that we didn’t need to spend the time (or money) crossing the bay just to have to find our way back to Berkeley.  Talking to fellow pasengers on the train, we were told that a cab to Berkeley would be cheap enough and deliver us directly to our destination in easily less than half the time.  Catching a cab proved slightly more difficult, as Eddie Izzard pointed out in Dress to Kill, ‘...Taxis!  Of which there are *five*!  Five taxis, all going,  "I got people in."  Then when you get in, they don't know where they're going.’  Just before giving up and walking (not really... we had NO idea which direction to even start in!) our cab showed up.

Arriving at our new digs, we were pleasantly surprised to find we were diagonally across the street from the best grocery store in Berkeley, the Berkeley Bowl.  Gregory was almost dancing in the streets because he had been there on his last trip.  Of course, we went that very night to get food for the week and it was a pretty amazing place I have to say.  To me it seemed like a cross between a Fiesta and a Whole Foods/Central Market.  The produce and meat departments were very Fiesta like but the bulk goods and just about everything else in the store was Wholly Central Market.  Also of note, there was a Bikram yoga studio only a couple of blocks down the road with a super cheap introductory price to boot and a BART station right around the corner.

Cool Digs

We had absolutely no problem settling in and meeting the other flatmates, Jason from Arizona and Sandra and Damien, from Spain and France respectively.  Early into our stay we even prepared a meal for the 5 of us plus a neighbor.  Gregory and I made Pasta Primavera and (accidently overtoasted) garlic bread while Sandra made a mouth watering salad with the incredients that Jason procurred.  In typical Gregory style he learned a lot about them all and in typical Rebecca style I learned about them through listening to Gregory... we’ll see if that trend can shift some as we continue to travel.

Tantra classes started almost immediately.  Our coach, Jan Robinson, talked us through what expectations and goals had brought us to her and quickly assessed a plan of attack.  Sometimes it felt a little more like couples counseling than tantra, but her understanding (and ours as well) of how we already communicate and how to communicate better give us a good foundation to build on.  We defintely took a lot from the course and suggest it to anyone interested, but we do wish we had started it in Dallas, where there is less city exploration to be done.

Soon... more blogging... more fun! (and maybe even a ranty post about why this blogging thing seems so difficult, but maybe not.)

Words are not enough...

December 5, 2009 to December 11,2009

The Photos

Since last YOU heard from us, we had finished the City Museum in Saint Louis and we headed to points west... long pause... you kept checking back wondering if we were ok... wondering if one of us had killed the other... just wondering...

I’m sorry.  We are fine and currently tooling down the highway toward Long Beach and then further on to Tuscon... Feeling all the shoulda’s following me and making me feel bad.  Realizing that blogging when things are going right is slightly harder than bitching about what’s wrong (that’s Gregory’s supposition and it’s starting to sound correct!)

Let’s quickly get you caught up on what’s happening!

We moved from one lovely hostess to another by Greyhounding it to Columbia, MO to stay with the sweet and generous, hatedome queen Kara Carr (and her equally sweet and generous but much less hatedomey Ian!)  We stayed for 2 nights and had wonderful conversations, a round of the Glass Bead Game and then that hateful hussy put us to work sheetrocking her ceiling.  I mean WTH, we’re on vacation...

J/K it was great.  We got to contribute (which we love) and now everytime Kara and Ian look up at the ceiling they will think of us (and whoever else helps them with the next step.)  We got to meet her awesome Papa, who suppervised the construction and generally just got to hang out with wonderful people that we love.  Monday morning came early and Kara dropped us off at the Greyhound Station to start our long and weary trip to Denver, CO to spend some quality time with my dear friend David Price (and his foxy lady Laura!)

Backtracking just a little, let’s talk about Greyhound.  What an interesting way to travel (and I mean interesting in the way Gregory sees interesting which is what people tend to say when they don’t want to say something bad to one’s face!)  Don’t get me wrong, I would definitely do it again, just not anytime soon and not for a great distance.  For the most part it seems a very lonely way to travel and the people traveling seem fairly desperate but not for companionship just to be someplace different.  But enough of that... On to Denver.

David picked us up in downtown Denver and trekked us home to his den at the end of an icy roaded cul-de-sac on the outskirts of town.  He has a personable book and art filled territory with a genuine homey feel and a snowfilled garden that Laura adores.  Despite having to work some, David was just about the perfect host, giving us plenty of time to internet, though not to blog apparently ;-) and then carting us around to find entertainment at the best damned brewery in the states, New Belgium Brewery.

Their beer is TEH awesome, their brewery tour is phenomenal and everyone should have at least one Abby Ale... the award winning amber ale that started as the VERY first homebrew attempt of a truly exceptional man!  We made an expedition into Denver proper to spend some money at REI (the biggest one in the world and the one that started it all), to oggle the exhibits at the Denver Art Museum (‘DAM, that’s art?’), to learn some history (or attempt to anyway) at the Colorado History Museum and wound up the day meeting Laura at the WynKoop Brewery for dinner.

Eventually we prepared to say our goodbyes to the Colorado pack and Gregory arranged a brief hello/goodbye visit with Nikki Whitfield, who graciously drove us to the Amtrak station, where every click of the track was further west than I had ever traveled.

Next stop... getting to Berkeley, CA and the life we lived there.

Day 17 - summary up to now

To sum up

1. Leave Dallas in Uhaul to St.louis  - took furniture to Rebecca's family 
2. LOVED The City Museum - celtic knot humming voyages in the inner ear
3. Chatting with Anji, Katie and Jen - meeting people for the first again
4. putting up sheet rock for a ceiling in Columbia, MO- played GBG on the road
5. New Belgium Tour Fort Collins, Prognostication with David - 4 years till each world citizen owns a copy of every movie, book and song ever made contained on the size of credit card. New TheBallofLight.com website up on David's server space!
6. Train from Denver to San Francisco much better than greyhound! stopping for no reason
7. San Francisco Rebecca finds a room for rent on craigslist for $400 from a UC Berkeley Marxist student who went home for the holidays. YEAH saving $500 from the budget! three blocks from $40 month Bikram. Three blocks from the BART station very close to our Tantric class three times a week. yay REBECCA! the three people we live with are unique. A couple one Damien EE from france who really helped to develop the Lights for the BALL OF LIGHT. another chick who is from Madrid is here on a fellowship a MS in feminist archeology ?? let me tell you it sounded funny digging up dinosaurs and arks to free women-- but i guess it works.
8. Rebecca injures her knee and sits out a day.

I feel I will be blogging more about the moments that stand out beyond a regular days events. really enjoying the unplugging from the Dallas world. a couple more things to take care of and I will have turned off Dallas for a year. WOOHOO!

oh the places you'll go--Dr.Seuss

seen on Fishermans wharf

OMG!

December 4, 2009

The Photos

I hate that combination of letters but I was still left thinking OMG after 8 hours of playing in the most amazing place I have ever experienced, the St. Louis City Museum.

The day started reasonably enough, the place we wanted to go for breakfast had shut down since Gregory was there last and we ended up ordering breakfast sandwiches from a street vendor (not quite as suspect as it sounds... it's St. Louis for goodness sake!)

Breakfast, Before the Drop Off!

Anji dropped us off just in time to meet up with Lucille.  Gregory had been there a couple of times before so he got to watch each new surprise cross my face and got to see what drew me in and what made me shiver with fear.

I am really torn between trying to tell you each experience and just leaving it alone and hoping you will go experience it on your own.  So I guess that means I should give you the highlights.  Highlights include but are not limited to...

Slides... everywhere, long and short, straight and spiraled, fun and scary.  The really famous one is a 7 story shoe chute that is just amazing.

Monster Slide... Need We Say More!

Detours... every situation you come across has at least 4 visible directions to take and sometimes more.  At one point I came up through a hole in the ceiling to a place I had stood on and hadn't seen the exit down.

Climbing... up, down, around, through.  Come prepared to spend some time on your knees.  Several people I know have had the thought to rent knee pads and I'll tell you, if they had been available I would have rented them.  I don't think it really limited what I was willing and able to do (you butt scoot eventually to stay off the knees) but I do think it would have allowed me to explore some areas longer, I hardly spent anytime in the ceiling ducts because it was all knee work.

School Bus, Fire Truck, Tour Tram and Airplanes... I don't even know how to explain these items, but they are there and you just have to see them to believe them.

Caves... these are so wonderful, on many levels.  It's not quite spelunking, but we did find ourselves in a great little out of the way spot that made me wish for our headlamps.  Lack of light didn't keep us from exploring but it did keep us from finding the quarter that fell out of my pocket.  Oh well, think of it as a geo cache, some one go find it and let me know!  This little cubby hole we found was a perfect opportunity to sing some Devo and do some meditative humming.

Are you sold, yet?  You should be.

Around 3 or 4, my cousin Katie showed up.  We sat in the cafe to chat (and in Gregory's case meet for the first time) for a few minutes then we all started exploring.  Gregory forced the issue (Gregory interjects to say he made the offer for her to ride and I say his force of personality made him hard to resist) of Katie riding the Ferris Wheel on the roof with me.  I think it ended up being a conquered fear and then we showed her some of our favorite experience places and I hope that she decides to wander back to it sometime soon either with friends or by herself.

We Ain't Scared!

Plans we made for the evening kept us from staying the whole night (they were open till 1am) but spending an evening with our hostess and her friend was imperative especially since it was our last evening in St. Louis.  We were able to drag my cousin home with us so she could be introduced to the awesome Burners we know near her and hope to get her to an event soon.

Next up... Columbia, MO; Denver, CO; Berkeley and San Francisco CA.