100 Countries

Had a friend that was vacationing The Esperanza in Cabo San Lucas invite me down to stay a few days. Took the bus from Los Barriles to Cabo San Lucas yesterday and will be here for a few more days. Most definitely a step up in class from where I have been staying since it’s a resort rather than a local house. Here is the current view as I write from the computer:

It’s a nice break from the routine I had adopted in San Barriles, but I think a few days is going to be just fine and it’s not where I would have wanted to spend the entire month. That being said, I’m certainly not complaining about the touch of luxury while I am here…

I take for granted having a reliable Internet connection and power supply but I’m quickly learning that even though I’m staying in a place that purports to have both, that is not necessarily the case.

The wifi I have at the studio apartment has been like rolling dice thus far. Sometimes it works great while other times it seems to vanish. The issue seems to be when the afternoon clouds and light thunderstorms appear. This seems to knock out the wifi.

I have somewhat found a solution to this by going to a local Internet cafe and getting everything I need absolutely done for the day taken care of there. Then if the Internet connection doesn’t work in the afternoon, I’m safe. Still, quite frustrating and would certainly be a much bigger issue if there wasn’t a local Internet cafe nearby. Definitely something to keep in mind when I travel to other countries.

I also had the second power failure in the week I’ve been here last night. The first one lasted about an hour and a half and was in mid afternoon. it wasn’t an issue since I had enough battery life to survive until the power was restored. Last night’s power outage started at 2:00 in the morning and was still going when I left the house for breakfast at 8:00. Since it was in the middle of the night, it wasn’t an issue (except for the dame electronics that kept beeping last night when the power went low and kept me up half the night), but certainly would have been if it had taken place during the day since I do have a limited computer battery supply with me.

These are just those little things you take for granted back home and can throw a big wrench into the daily plans when they unexpectedly happen here.

I have a new swimming partner! Her name is Daisy and I’m taking care of her while staying in Mexico (long story about how this came about). She loves the water almost as much as I do…

In the middle of Los Barriles where I’m staying there are two huge palm trees. I never really paid them much attention except that I did note they were really tall compared to the other palm trees in the area. Then on my walk home yesterday I noticed that they are used as cell phone towers:

Then as I walked closer I noticed that they aren’t palm trees at all, but cell phone towers that have been disguised to look like palm trees.

Not a bad disguise if I might say so…

One of the joys of visiting a new place is walking around and exploring. There is always something interesting or surprising that you come across that you just don’t see back home.

I love the colorful Mexican beach homes that seem to fit right in which is amazing since if you ever tried to paint your house a color scheme like this in the US, it would look awful:

I started to get into my daily routine and it is certainly one that I could get used to. I get up early and head down to the beach between 7:00 and 8:00 and swim for an hour or so. Swimming and walking the beach is my workout regiment for the month:

The sea is glassy calm in the morning (it gets a bit rougher in the afternoon when the wind picks up) and is a great place to go for a dip. Definitely a nice way to begin each day. It is definitely a good workout. My legs are still sore from the walk on the beach I took (forgot that beach walking works the legs much more than regular walking). I think I would be a lot more willing to get exercise back home if it meant swimming and walking at the beach rather than the gym.

Then it’s back to the office to do the daily work on the computer. Life could be a whole lot worse…

I spend most of my day in front of a computer so one of the reasons that being a digital nomad has great appeal to me is that it allows me to escape my little office room. I don’t mind my office, but when I have a choice between a wall with a cork board filled with notes in front of me and a view like this:

I think most people would be willing to leave their home office behind.

I am on my first leg of my first trip in hopes of becoming a true digital nomad (not having a fixed address and traveling the world while being able to make a living from an Internet connection). I’m currently cruising at 30,000 on my way from San Francisco to Dallas Fort Worth at midnight to catch a connecting flight to Baja California Mexico. I should arrive in Cabo San Lucas a little before noon. This flight actually has wifi access, so I could even connect up here, but the flight isn’t that long (3 hours) and I have plenty of offline writing to do during the flight.

My sister (who drove me to the airport) reminded me how lucky I am to be able to do this. I have no doubt that this is true. While it took a lot of effort to get to this time where I can actually give the digital nomad life a chance, there have been many things along the way that could have easily derailed it.

My main concern is whether I really will be able to gain Internet access in the house that I have rented for the month. The service isn’t located in the house, but from a nearby RV park that allows access. This whole digital nomad experiment could quickly go south if that wifi access isn’t available as I have been assured.

This is certainly an exciting time and I have high hopes that this all works out and I will be making a number of these digital nomad trips over the next few years.

On my way up to Oregon, I decided to make a stop at lake Shasta to have a late lunch. There’s nothing better than eating lunch overlooking a beautiful scene. The lake was pretty low, but that exposed the oranges and reds which were pretty spectacular (the photos don’t do it justice)

Even decided to take a self photo and I definitely looked like I had been driving too many hours and needed to get out of the car for awhile:

I need to learn to slow down a bit when I drive to stop and explore a bit more. I rarely regret it when I do.

I’m off to Oregon tomorrow, but getting a little work done today at my dad’s place in Pleasanton, CA. Working upstairs with this view in front of me: