100 Countries » 100 Countries

I Need A Life

admin — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 08:54:48 +0000

I have been spending way too many hours in front of the computer lately with no indication that anything is going to change in the near future. It’s not that I don’t enjoy what I’m doing, it’s just that I have a bit more on my plate than I planned to have. The consequences of taking on a new project.

This past Friday I had a full day to work without interruption because I was house / dog sitting for Dana / Dexter:

It worked out well (well at least if I want to continue not to have a life) in that I got a good deal of work done. It’s a good, quiet place to get things done. Now if I can keep up with this blog — although it isn’t all that exciting letting people know you are sitting in front of a computer all day

Change of Plans – No Costa Rica In January

admin — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 22:09:28 +0000

I had been planning to take off to Costa Rica sometime in January and do another month long stay like the one I did a few months ago in Mexico, but it looks like those plans have to be changed. The main reason is the new blog I started about a month ago – Penny Experiment – which will require me to be around to keep it going.

Basically, I have 100 pieces of postcard artwork coming in that I need to be around to photograph and put up on the new blog, and that would be difficult to do if I was in Costa Rica. I really don’t mind the delay as I’m enjoying the Penny Experiment challenge, but I will keep in mind the projects I launch in the future so that I don’t necessarily have to be around for them to be completed.

The other thing I have been thinking about is taking a multi-country trip to see how that works out with keeping up on all the blog and website maintenance that needs to be done. I’ve been resisting this because I’m afraid that constantly being on the move will make it difficult to get the work done (I really do need to spend at least several hours each day on the computer making sure things are running smoothly and cleaning up email and spam or it quickly snowballs out of control), but would like to try it out to see if I can find a rhythm that will allow that type of travel to work as well.

I’m looking forward to the New Year and really put the digital nomad life to the test…

Secret Hot Springs

admin — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 01:53:20 +0000

A well dressed man walks into the Internet cafe and scans the people sitting at all the tables. He instantly heads for our table and greets the man sitting in front of me. They talk for a few seconds and then Pep tells the man “This is Jeffrey. he is my friend.” We shake hands and then the well dress man is off to another table to talk to the person he had come to meet.

Pepe begins to talk with the ever present smile on his face. That was the mayor of the city. While this makes me glance over my shoulder and feel a bit strange that I just met the mayor and didn’t even realize it, the fact that the mayor would come to greet Pepe is no surprise. Pepe seems to know everyone and everyone seems to know Pepe.

I know Pepe because he is the leader of an organization that is trying to save the sea turtles along a 50 kilometer stretch of beach around Los Barriles. He was the one that organized the baby sea turtle release that I attended earlier in the month at which time I asked if he had a website. When he said “No,” I volunteered to meet with him to set one up. He asked how much it would cost and I said that I would do it for free and we would host it so there would be no ongoing costs as my donation and support for the project that he’s created.

Baja Turtles was now live and I was explaining to him and Dori Eagle, an American volunteer helping out with the project, how the admin area worked so that they could set up pages and blog posts in the future.This is how I found myself across from him at the Roadrunner Cafe having just met the Mayor without even realizing it.

As I finish explaining the basics of the blogging software, Pepe announces that he wants to take me to a secret hot spring in the hills if I have time. Never one to pass up an opportunity to go where most tourists never trek, I readily agree and the three of us are off. Pepe explains the we are heading into a national forest preserve, but that there were some people that already lived in the area when the preserve was created. These people still have their land although they are limited in what they are allowed to do with it. Pepe is a friend of one of these land owners who happens to have a hot spring on the river next to his property. Dori, who has been coming to Los Barriles for the past 7 years first heard of the hot spring a year ago, but has never been. Pepe talks non stop the 45 minutes over rough road about the forest preserve, about the ranch and about how he thinks that people would pay to visit the area as we head to the ranch of his friend and the secret hot spring.

We park the car at the ranch and can hear the water from the river nearby. Pepe goes and greets his farmer friend and then we are off to the secret place. a short walk down a dirt path and then over rocks to the river and the hot spring appears. Nothing has been done to it except to make a semi-circle river bed rock wall to enclose the hot spring and pool the warm water. It looks beautiful and the lush vegetation and trees are a surprise compared to the desert landscape that has been surrounding me most of the trip.

The hot spring water is the perfect temperature between warm and hot. It’s warmer than warm so that you aren’t disappointed, but not quite hot where you feel you need to leave after sitting in it for 10 minutes. Both Dori and I start laughing despite ourselves at how perfect this little hidden place is. You just don’t come across secret places like this very often because when they are as beautiful as this, they simply don’t remain secrets no matter how off the beaten track they may be.

I look at Pepe and tell him that the only thing missing is Internet and I would make this my permanent office. He laughs and says he will try and get satellite Internet for me. We spend the next hour soaking in the hot spring, marveling at the beauty and letting the water completely relax our bodies. When it’s time to leave, it takes effort prying us from the water.

On the way back Dori is so relaxed that she falls asleep despite the bumpy road and I realise that by inviting me to his secret hot spring, Pepe has paid me far more than what the website I helped build for him was worth…

Mexico Dentist and the Cracked Tooth

admin — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 17:50:41 +0000

I’m sure that there is a universal law that states that the pain you are about to feel at the dentist’s office is in direct proportion to exactly the opposite of how much he says that you won’t feel a thing. I wish that I would heed this wisdom more often.

If you have ever had a bad experience at the dentist or have sensitive teeth in any way, you are best advised to skip this post, or at the very least, go grab your old sports mouth guard so that you don’t grind your own teeth as you wince along with the episode.

I should have known from the beginning that this was coming. Sometimes, no matter how good or competent the dentist, the forces of nature have already stacked the cards against you. When he first began working on the tooth, after novacaining me up and the drill bit wouldn’t work properly (to his credit, he stopped and asked me to come back the next week instead of trying to finish), I should have bowed to those forces and left the tooth to another day and another dentist.

Now I sat in the chair already knowing what the problem was, but he wanted to take a look to see if he could do anything since his repair had failed a couple days before. I knew I had cracked my tooth (even though the crack didn’t want to show up on the x-rays) because of the familiar pain that came each time hot and cold water hit it and now, even when cool air hit the tooth. The dentist wasn’t convinced since his x-ray told him otherwise so he reached for the air gun.

“This shouldn’t hurt,” he assured me still believing the film in front of him over what I was saying. Then before I had a chance to protest. the shot of air hit the tooth and the exposed nerve through the crack that shouldn’t have been there and set off the sparkler inside my brain.

My nails clawing into his dentist’s chair and tears welling in my tightly shut eyes, along with the gargoyle expression that covered my face, convinced him that I was correct and the film was wrong. I did have a cracked tooth and I needed a root canal.

He explained that the root canal would be difficult, but he could do it the next day if I wanted. The problem was that I would be flying back home the day after not giving him time to make the crown the tooth would need after the root canal. I declined and said I’d take my chanced when I got back to the US or made a special trip to Japan (where I have dental insurance).

I should have left the chair right then and there, but the dentist thought that he could help. A trip to Japan would be a month off and he thought he could temporarily seal the crack so that it wasn’t quite so painful when water and air hit it. I gave him a questioning look that he answered before a word could come out of my mouth.

“There won’t be any pain,” he assured me.

I let out a heavy sigh and tilted my head with a half smile on my face the clearly indicated that I didn’t believe him.

“No really, there will be no pain,” he said with complete confidence. “I won’t use a drill and there is no need for novocaine. All I will be doing is placing sealant over the crack.” He then tapped the tooth and said’ “See, no pain. Just like that.”

Disregarding the universal law stated in the first sentence, I reluctantly agreed for him to go ahead and try.

My hands were once again threatening to tear of the rests on the dentist’s chair as he began. He told me to relax and that everything would be fine as he continued placing the sealant over the crack. The pain that I thought I’d feel instantly didn’t come and I just began to loosen my grip when it happened. You know those cartoons where a character puts their finger into a live electrical outlet and they begin flashing with their skeleton flashing every second as every hair on their body juts out as far as possible? That was exactly what I felt when the sealant seeped through the crack and hit the nerve.

Of course at this point it was too late to stop so the dentist started using the blue light thingy to make the sealant harden which basically made the above scenario happen again only with the pain 100 times worse. The assistant was literally having trouble keeping me in place so that they could get the sealant solidified as I tried to escape by holding the chair so tightly that I could somehow push my way right through the bottom of it. I wasn’t crying, yet tears were pouring out my eyes and my legs were a stiff as four by fours. When the blue light thingy beeped saying it was done, the dentist took it out in a flash asking me if I was all right. “Don’t worry, we are finished.”

It took another 30 seconds for the pain to recede and I could finally breath a sigh of relief that it was over. I was about ready to get up when the dentist said, “OK, now suck in real hard while smiling to see if it worked.”

I looked at him like he was crazy.

“Or we can use the air gun to test,” he said reaching for the tool.

“I’ll do it, I’ll do it,” I said quickly before he could get the air gun into my mouth.

It took me a good five minutes to get up the courage to do the air test and while it didn’t eliminate the pain, it did seem to dampen it a bit. The dentist was happy that it seemed to have worked at least to some degree and apologized saying that he didn’t think the crack was large enough to let the sealant seep through and reach the nerve.

Now after all that, I still get to look forward to a root canal…

Photo courtesy of Ammar Abd Rabbo

Free Range Cows

admin — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 17:56:55 +0000

I’m scared of cows. Not in the same way that the scorpion in the shower scared the hell out of me the other day which had my heart racing a hundred miles an hour as I sprinted to safety because I failed to notice it when I first stepped in, but I must admit that I have a new found fear of cows.

Cows in Baja Mexico are free range which means they basically wander anywhere they want and if you don’t want them in your yard, then it’s your responsibility to build a good fence. It also means that when you are walking the streets, it’s not uncommon to run into them.

My unknown fear of cows came to light during one of these meetings. The first thing that you notice is that cows are big. Not only are they big, they also have sharp horns. Not only are they big and have sharp horns, they look at you like you would make a prime bulls eye target if they are so inclined to charge you.

Upon realising these three things, I found I have a fear of cows and I now mentally pick my escape route on the off chance that any of the cows I meet decide to stage an impromptu Running of the Bulls Pamplona style. I have also found that you can never win a staring contest with a cow, but that is a story for another time…

Baja California Gaveyard

admin — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 21:46:54 +0000

I was wandering the other day and came across the Los Barriles graveyard. I always find graveyards in different countries interesting because they are often so different. Much like the colorful houses that are part of Baja California, the graves also stand out for their color as well as their complexity with ornate sculptures:

Storm Clouds

admin — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 00:35:24 +0000

It looks like this area of Baja California will escape Hurricane Rick. The hurricane has been downgraded to a tropical storm and made a sharp turn east so it appears that it will miss the entire Baja peninsula except for clouds and rain from the outskirts of the storm.

Those storm clouds are now coming in and giving me a different view as I work from the normal sunny skies, yet still beautiful in their own way:

Mexico Art Project Travel Book

admin — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 23:43:27 +0000

The first of what I hope will one day be 100+ traveling art books has been completed and I hope that I find someone in the next couple of weeks to pass it along to another traveler. The progress of the book can be followed in the sidebar and I hope that those that end up with it will update where it is as it comes into their possession.

I debated whether or not to begin the first page of the book or not, but after helping to release over 300 baby sea turtles, I decided to decorate the first page with the certificate that I received as part of that help:

I’m excited to see how this travel art project works out and where the books ultimately end up. It should be an interesting journey…

RV Hurricane Preparation

admin — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 18:08:25 +0000

People around town have started to prepare for Hurricane Rick. The good news is that it has weakened from a category 5 hurricane to a category 3 hurricane overnight and should continue to weaken as it heads towards us. If you have ever been in a hurricane before, category 3 is nothing to sneeze at and a storm you’d want to avoid if possible.

So while the houses board up the windows, what do the people do that have driven down here in RVs? They strap them down:

Those that live down here have come up with a more permanent solution to the wind storms by building concrete pillars around the RV to keep it safe:

Interesting, but I don’t have any desire to ride out any strength hurricane in a RV…

Hurricane Rick

admin — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 19:40:14 +0000

Tropical Storm Patricia put some worry into the people living in this area, but we got through it with a bit of rain and not much damage. Hurricane Rick looks to be another matter:

The good news is that this current category 5 hurricane is supposed to lessen in power and hit landfall as a category 2 hurricane. The bad news is the current projection is a direct hit on where I’m staying. The talk around town is hurricane preparation and bracing for a lot of rain.

I’m actually in a pretty good place to ride out the storm. I’m on the hillside so no worries about storm surge and I’m in the lower unit of the house which is built of solid stone and out of the wind.

The one major issue is that it’s a pretty foregone conclusion that power will go out and the house doesn’t have a back-up generator and it’s anyone’s guess how long it will take to get power and communications back up. That could mean days without Internet which is not conductive to me doing my work, but there really isn’t much that I can do but cross my fingers and hope that the storm decides to change direction and spare us any damage…