Normal sights in my life

I don't have a lot to update, as I'm not travelling around right now. I spend my days doing... well, whatever happens. Lately, that has included and studying about the Mayan civilization, their culture, philosophy, and their calendar systems, and starting to learn about permaculture.

Here are a few things that I see regularly.



(home, sweet home)


(traffic jam)


(see my trailer behind the house?)


(we be jammin')


(a beautiful permaculture WOOFing farm)

Tada!

Don't drink on the bus in Mexico city...

...you might spill!


(good form!)

I went to Mexico city last weekend. Nobody calls it Mexico city. They call it DF (day-effay). DF is ridiculous enough at a normal time. Take that ridiculosity and multiply it by religious and cultural holiday (Santa Semana = Saints week, surrounding Easter), and you get a true whoopah! And whoopah there was! I was meeting my friends in the "touristy" area, and the whole place was PACKED, shoulder to shoulder. Mostly with Mexican's visiting the cultural center of their city during the holiday. I guess that's what you get in a city with > 25 million people.



(DF in Santa Semana)

While waiting for my friends, I decided to walk around. There was tonnes of street theatre going on... Astec dancers, hundreds of artisans selling their work, musicians, and of course, clowns.

There were a few hundred people standing around in a circle, having a good laugh, so I got close enough to see what was going on. Then, of course as the life would have it, I became part of a clown show. They saw a funny looking white boy, and called me into their circle. I have no idea what they were saying, but I threw out a few broken Spanish phrases once in a while, and put on a dramatic face and display of animated behaviour, and we all had a good laugh. I'm sure that most of it was at my expense, but what did I care, the people were having fun.


(3 clowns)

My friends that I met on the beach in Nexpa eventually came, and we spent the weekend touring around markets, and laughing.


(that might be booze)


(a totally normal underwear dance party in DF... why was I the only one in my underwear?)

A few comments on DF. The city stinks. I mean, of course it's got it's beautiful old downtown core with buildings older than Canada, and impressive displays of architecture and other things that bore tourists to death but we consistently go and visit, like churches and historical centres. But this is not the essence of the city. This is what people come to see, when they want to experience Mexico.

Actually, I don't know what is truly the essence of DF, but I got to experience it in a more local way, and I'll share a little of the experience.

We stayed at Betty's house, which took us > 1.5 hours to get to from the centre of town using the public transit (and surely would have been far more than that if we were trying to fight traffic in a car). She lives in a rough neighbourhood. To get there, we took two (of the TEN) subway lines to their ends, and then a bus for another 45 minutes. She doesn't go out of her house after 5pm, and doesn't like to be alone in public places, for fear of having some crime committed against her. And based on what I saw, these are not unfounded fears.

On the bus, we drove past entire neighbourhoods made of garbage. We passed through an area where they dump most of the city garbage (the source of the building materials for the previously mentioned neighbourhoods), that went on for miles in all directions. We drove past a river, well, I'm not sure I feel comfortable calling it a river, but what once was a river and now I'm pretty sure has a higher percentage of human feces than water. Nothing can possibly live in there, but I'm sure that some of the more poor people in DF not only use it to bathe, but to wash and cook with, and probably even to drink.

We are so unbelievably lucky. I am so thankful.

Of course, there's the pretty glitzy side of the city too. Modern buildings, pretty boys, and girls in skirts and make-up, paying far more than is reasonable in this economy to be able to show their faces in the more well-to-do restaurants and night clubs, while millions struggle to find clean water to drink. I suppose this is no different from any big city. But this is the biggest. And it was all right there, in my face.

When I got back to Tepotzlan/Amatlan, I need a few days just to recover. I was exhausted. No wonder so many people from the city need to escape for the weekend, it's just too crazy. And it gets inside you, and all over you, and you are blowing it out of your nose and washing it off your feet for days.

Am I ever thankful that I don't live there. But it was great to visit!

When opportunity equiKnocks, you gotta answer

AKA: Crystal bowls and Conch Shells


(this is a conch shell, just for you)

AKA: A field full of hippies


(not a hippy)


AKA: The adventures of Mango-face and the Mayan Superhero


(Mango-face in the middle, Mayan Superhero on the right, Superhero in training on the left)


My original reason for living here in Never Never Land, was because there was going to be an equinox celebration. I thought to myself that I would be crazy to head off somewhere else... there was no way that I was going to find another magical place like this, with people like this, that were having an equinox celebration, not in a year, forget about in a week. So I stayed.


And what an equinox celebration there was!


(the celebration)


(of course, no equinox ceremony is complete without a man in a cape, and a bunch of bubbles)


(playing the root shakra bowl)

I went over early with 3 of the people I´m staying with. We arrived at this place, unlike any place I've been to. It was a completely flat valley area (which they use as a soccer pitch), surrounded by mountains. At the risk of sounding hippy, you could feel the energy there. The sound bouced off the mountains, and the whole place resonated.






Daniel lead the gathering, which was a Circle of Sound ceremony, happening at the same time in over 25 countries around the world. Check the link for what they're all about.



It was 2 hours of bowl playing and conch blowing.

What a feeling there was there! I guess that's what happens when you get a bunch of people together and focus on having good intentions.

(The sign says: Harmony, Acceptance, Unity, Algebra, Compassion -- okay, so my spanish isn´t perfect)

Then a 15 minute silent meditation, a whole bunch of hugs and fruit, and we went on our own ways taking away from the ceremony a lot of good feelings.

But not before I danced with the Mayan Superhero! (and his brother, who is in training) He calls me Mango-face. That's what happens when you tell a 4 year old that your name is mango-face when he can't remember your name (granted, I did have mango down to my elbows and all over my face).

Hope you all got out and howled at the moon. Or not. As you wish! Really though, next full moon, you should try and do something creative. Draw a picture. Make some music. Paint. Sing. Dance. Whatever, just see if you feel any more creative when you do it. At night, I played music for hours and hours, with that feeling you get when you meet somebody special, or when you sing and dance in the shower pretending to be Elton John (don´t drop the soap), cause I mean, we all do it, right? ...right?

Inspired. That's the word.

Yesterday, love was such an easy game to play

Yesterday:

Show up at the tee-pees. Learn how to blow a conch (thank goodness for the years of practice tromboning and kissing-- sorry to all the ladies that I kissed like I was playing the conch). Give a half-naked baby a piggy-back while blowing the conch to the sun as it sets behind the mountains and palm trees.

Go home.

Get out the guitar. Play for hours and hours, tap into the ridiculous amount of creative energy that is floating around the place, and just let yourself go and sing what's in your head. Hopefully, as was the case yesterday, people will laugh and sing and dance along. Then jam with a fantastic drummer, before heading out and doing a chanting-crystal bowl ceremony, 7 crystal bowls playing the frequencies of the 7 chakras (this, I'm still contemplating... how do they know the frequencies of the "chakras").

Sleep.

Wake up. Eat delicious food. Mango. Banana. Avacado shakes. Omelet. Get an adjustment. Lay on the Earth. Go to market. Repeat.

Life, wow.

Enjoy the equinox tomorrow! Happy spring!

Tree-huggers

Yep, we're tree-huggers. We shit in the biffy, and eat only vegetables. But these people are all full of life, and have smiles that I couldn't find in the city. We've been laughing so hard that the ground around the place feels like it's laughing. Yesterday I laughed until I cried on more than one occasion.


(My kind of tree-hugger, a lady from the Temazcal)



(You've already met Charly, but darnit, he's just so photogenic. Note the rock vagina in the background.)


(Meet Nomi, my Israeli artist friend who lives in the trailer at Charly's)


(Meet Daniel, on the right, crystal bowl guru)

So, what's a day like right now?

I get up, maybe do some yoga with the people I stay with, or head into town for a yoga class of some sort. Or maybe we'll just laugh for a while, it's a good thing to do in the morning.

Then, maybe I'll eat something delicious, like a mango. Then a banana or 5.

Maybe next I'll read, or play some guitar, or just hang out with my new friends. Yesterday we cleaned out a space behind the house so that more people can camp here, if they show up. Who knows, maybe we'll go to town and buy some food, or maybe we'll just do some healing arts, like massage, shiatsu, chanting, stretching, etc...

At night, there's a good chance that somebody will stop by, and we'll have a jam session. Then head out to my tent, to provide a feast for the mosquitos, as there's no zipper to keep them out. But not to worry, Charly is just waiting for a zipper-fixer to show up one day, hahah! Awesome. It's just crazy enough that it works.

Laughing from the belly has got to be one of the best feelings on Earth.

Got Crabs?

While on the beach at Nexpa, I was reading Henry David Thoreau's "Walden". I've been reading it since the summer, it's a classic. But it's a lot to process, the kind of book that you need to take a break from every page or so to contemplate what he's actually saying.

Anywho, there's one chapter where he's describing the many incredible interactions of various species that he spends his time with (he built himself a little house on Walden pond and lead a very serene, simple life, growing and selling vegetables and living close to nature for a few years). One of them, was an epic battle that he observed between two kinds of ants. It was so well written, and inspiring, and got me thinking about all of the life that I just don't notice every day.

So I took this headful to the beach, and here's what I found.

Feel free to play your own little game of "where's the crab?"


(This is so you know what you're looking for)


(difficulty: *)


(difficulty: *)



(difficulty: **)


(difficulty: ***)


(difficulty: ****)

Travelling 101

Well, I'm living in a tent in the backyard of a healer that they call the Cosmic Mechanic, in the country-side of Mexico a half hour walk from one of the most magnetic places on Earth that has a magical energy. Although, last night I slept in a tee-pee beside what they call the magnetic vagina. How I got here, goes something like this:

As soon as I was physically well enough, I left Uruapan, and headed for the coast of Michoacan, to a beach called Nexpa. It wasn't my original plan. Originally, I was heading for another beach recommended to me by a girl I met in Monterrey called La Ticla. But when I was in Uruapan, I met a few crazy dudes who said that if I want to learn to surf (which was my original goal), I should head for Nexpa. So I did.


(Nexpa by day)


(...and by night)


I'm not going to lie. When I arrived, I felt like shit. I was still feeling the lingering effects of my chest infection, and I was lonely. I wanted to be sharing with somebody, but there was nobody there. This is a reality of travelling solo sometimes.

However, as always happens in the life, my mental and physical state changed, and one beautiful sequence of events started to unravel. This is the beauty and essence of why I never plan a trip. Of course, it's a good idea to have a general idea of where you're heading, and what you want to learn and experience, but being open to whatever comes up, if at all possible, is definitely the way to go.

I spent a few days totally not living in the moment. I was always thinking either about the future or the past. "Oh man, what am I doing?! I should go home and get a job in computers before I fall too far behind.... I should go home and do a masters in this or that... I should, I should, I should...." or "Maybe I should've gone there... maybe I should've done that..." Fool. This is not living. Then I remembered what was taught by a great teacher: a wise person always makes the best use of the time remaining. And I changed my mind. And then, wow.

I hung out learning about the theory of surfing from a couple of whacky Auzzie surfers and a Swiss guy. Alas, there was a swell in the ocean, and the waves and rips were too crazy for a beginner, so I wasn't able to learn to surf. I could've been upset about this, and was for about 5 minutes, before I realized that this is just the way it is, and I wondered what else would happen.

So, I was just doing my thing: reading, hammocking, eating, playing guitar on the beach, balancing rocks, drinking beer, etc (not necessarily in that order, not arranged by frequency of participation in each event). Chilling out. Waiting. Manifesting. Then, BAM.


(is that Jimmy Hendrix? I thought he was black...)


(I've got a lovely bunch of coconuts...)


(Balance is key)


Chapter 1: The Doctor, the Dentist, and the Hippy.
There were two gorgeous women staying in a cabin in the same cabanas as we were (the surfers and I). Naturally, as we had a lot of time on our hands, and people watching is just too much fun, and they were the only people withing eye-shot, we spent lots of time looking at them. We were sure they were lovers.

But then, one day, along came a man that was obviously a significant other of one of the girls. Interesting. One night, when the electricity was out (the guy running the cabanas was strung out on something like crack most of the time, and forgot to pay the electricity bill...), we were eating a meal and playing cards, and somehow we drank a bottle of mescal, and were into a party mode. With his lowered inhibitions, the Swiss guy, who spoke a number of languages fluently including spanish, went over and invited them to the party. We drank some beer, had some laughs, sat around a mammoth bonfire beside the Pacific, and called it a night.

The next day, I needed help with some spanish verb conjugations (ser vs. estar, the eternal battle rages on), so I went over to ask. From that moment, we spent all of our time together for the next 5 days, just really living life at the highest quality that we knew how. It was a simple, slow, mañana type time. Just, perfect. These were my kind of people, but it was time to part... or so I thought.


(Dentist, Hippy, Doctor)


The night before they were leaving, I was saying how I wanted to go to Teotihuacan, an ancient Aztec city, just north of Mexico city. Ana, the doctor, decided that it was a good idea to come with me, as she had a few more days of vacation (the others didn't), and hadn't been to Teotihuacan since she was a little girl. So off we went.


Chapter 2: Ancient Pyramids, and Mexico City

We tried to hitched out of paradise, but the first ride we got was from the bus.


(hitching away from Paradise)

So, we got to Lazaro Cardenas, where we parted with our other friends, and then took an overnight bus to Mexico city, and onward the next day to Teotihuacan.


(Ana, checking out the goods, aka: Pyramid del Sol)


(We're going to climb THIS? HAhahaa, now that's funny)


(blazing guns infront of the Pyramid de la Luna)


(Some steps were steep)



(Elvis may live in Tweed, but Travolta lives in Mexico!)


Wow. We ate mangos at the top of the Pyramid del Sol (of the Sun), and imagined what the life must've really been like, and what it must've taken to construct these massive pyramids.

Then after spending a day in Mexico City, taking care of business (fixing broken glasses, buying new glasses, eating vegetarian food, etc)...


(What is a typical picture of the most populated city on earth?)

...we decided to head to Tepoztlan, the mythical birthplace of Quetzalcoatl, the plumed serpent God, an hippy-magnet town extrordinaire. Not to mention, the place of the best ice cream in Mexico.

Chapter 3: Tepoztlan, Amatlan

Here we climbed the mountain to take a look at the view. At the top, we met a crazy animal and neurologist, both of whom took a liking to Ana and I, and invited us out to his home for dinner (only the doctor did this, the animal didn't have the proper hardware for human speach).


(talk about a wild high five)


(sweet view)

So we went and had a great party, and agreed to meet up again the next day. The next day, we went out to another town called Amatlan, a tiny little village, to look at some property he'd bought and go and visit a magical place with tee-pee's and one of the best traditional Temazcal ceremonies in this town, famous for it's Temazcal ceremonies.




While at the tee-pees, we met a Jewish artist who told me about this crazy place she's staying with a guy they call the Cosmic Mechanic.


(The Cosmic Mechanic himself)

Since Ana was leaving the next day, and I didn't know what I was doing, I thought this sounded like something I needed to explore. After Ana left to go resume her duties as a doctor, I adventured out to find this magical land. And that I did.

When I arrived, I couldn't believe what I had found. Charlie, the cosmic mechanic, took one look at me and said that he'd rent me a tent and I could stay in his backyard. So, after watching he and the artist to a chakra attunement on another man who is a world-renouned crystal bowl healer, I popped my tent.

That night, there was a party. People just kept showing up, which is extremely unusual, as Charlie says that it "never happens, it's usually so tranquil and solitary." Then later, after getting an unbelievable massage, we had an amazing jam session. Charlie is also a musician, and has an incredible array of instruments: a guitar, flues, recorders, xylophones, drums, a trombone, a baritone... and who knows what else is hiding in the rafters. Of course, we finished the night by taking the crystal bowls out into the yard and playing and chanting together.


(typical Mexico, at least in Amatlan)

The next morning we woke up before dawn and did some yoga as the sun was rising. Then off to the tee-pee's, where I spent the day trying to catch up in my journal and playing guitar. That place really is magical. It oozes creativity and good vibes. It's straight out of a fantasy magazine, with the palm trees, the sweat lodge, the tee-pees, and the giant vagina. It's a place where two mammoth rocks (which form a large ridge) come together, and open up at the bottom, forming a rock vagina. People have been coming here to meditate and worship for thousands of years, and the energy when you stand infront of it, even if you're not very sensitive, is noticably calming.

That night, I did a traditional Temazcal (sweat lodge ceremony, for those that didn't click the link above). I think part of my brain melted. It was one of the hottest sweats they'd ever done, said the man that runs the sweat.


(the blowing of the conch -- let the Temazcal begin!)

From start (the blowing of the conch, and the creation of the fire to heat the rocks) to the end, the ceremony lasted about 5 hours. It was all in Spanish. I understood about 3/4 of it, as it was delivered slowly, and stretched and tried to stay alive when I didn't understand what was going on. After the sweat, we joined together and ate a delicious meal. By the time it was all said and done, I was so bagged. The director said that I should just stay there, which I did. So last night I slept in a tee-pee.

And the life rolls on.

My life is magical.

Classical guitar

Last night I went to a classical guitar performance by a famous musician (at least in the right circles) named Juan Carlos. It was mind-expanding.