Preparing for the Big Day

October 8, 2000 -- Well, I just had a lovely weekend with my sister Carrie, her husband Mark, and my first niece Kayla. Holy smokes, is Kayla cute! She is only 6.5 months old, but her personality is right there, and it is all happiness and charm. What a smile that child has!

Carrie bought me 10 rolls of film at Costco for a dollar a roll -- unbelievable deal, you should all check into it. She also purchased me a stack of MCI World Com phone cards that I am hoping beyond hope to be able to use down there. I will be calling the 800 number ASAP to check if they are valid overseas and to see how I can use them.

Ticket Has Been Purchased!

So, I was clicking through Yahoo Travel, and clicked on Specials and saw this sweet deal on Alaska, 299 + fees direct from Portland, Oregon to Cabo. Just to double check how these deals work, I went to Alaska's website, and indeed, they offered the same direct flight for 100 bucks more though. Must have cut some deal with Yahoo. Anyways, just to be thorough, I clicked on the Specials link on the Alaska site and saw they were offering an even BETTER deal that wasn't listed on Yahoo -- 256 + fees round trip on a direct flight from Portland to Puerta Vallarta. It came out to 336 after taxes and the entry / departure tax they tack on, but still, very sweet deal. Pays to do your homework and check around a bit. There is also the Priceline routine, but this seemed excellent and I got to pick my flight times.

Anyways, I snapped up that ticket for November 7, 2000, returning December 20. This will be good just in case I've had enough and want to return for Christmas. My thinking at this time though is that I will barely be wrapping my head around Spanish by that time, and if I blow off my return ticket and stay longer, heading further South, I will really start reaping the rewards of knowing the language and thus be able to connect more with people. One of the first things I want to do is visit some little towns outside of Puerta Vallarta. One that really looks cool is Yelapa, an island that is a 45 minute boat ride from town. Here are some pictures.

Vows, Oaths, Prophecies, et al

Well, there are several things that pop to mind, but I will try to keep the list short. I'm sure I will be going back to these later and laughing at my naivety and stupidity, and I don't want it to be too embarrassing since I really don't know what I am getting myself into. Let's see...

• Learn to like the music -- Mexican folk and street music is wonderful. It's the pop music that has killed me a bit in the past. It tends to have kind of a stiff beat, often a waltz. It also relies a bit too heavily on cheap Casio keyboards or accordions, and the voices sometimes waver painfully off key. All that aside, I've been listening to it a lot lately to get my ear attuned to it. I find I am enjoying it more than ever before, and plan to learn more about the history of it while I'm there. It is great stuff if you are totally wasted and feeling like being sad and humming along.
  
  
• Learn to live with less -- This is out of necessity and a spiritual need to clean out the closet. The last few years I have acquired tons of shit and none of it seems to mean anything to me right now. OK, some of it does, but it seems that not only do you possess things, but things possess you. You get a table, but then you have to worry about moving it, polishing it, getting coffee spilled on it, etc. If I start adding up a lot of the stuff around me, I realize that some of these possessions are causing more grief than they are worth. Just a thought :) Anyways, this is a good opportunity for me to simplify and I'm considering taking the following. If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know!
  
  
• 2 t-shirts, 2 pants, 2 long sleeve shirts, 2 shorts
• Nylon rain poncho, fleece jacket
• Tevas, running shoes, hiking shoes
• Journal
• Toiletries, sunscreen, bug repellent, hand lotion
• Flashlight, tiniest Swiss army knife
• Spanish books, a novel, probably Vonnegut
• Maybe fishing gear
• Mask / Snorkel / Fins
• Short wave radio to catch the BBC
• Hand held recorder to capture sounds of day-to-day life and record my tunes
  
  
• Buy a guitar, play it -- This one should be easy. I believe instruments have personalities. Some guitars very distinctly like you as a person and let you know right away, others get grumpy when you pick them up and it's best to put these back on the shelf. May be a good friend to someone else, just not you. I also believe some instruments are wide awake most of the time and light right up when you pluck a string, other instruments are asleep and can't be roused. I have dreams about my new guitar and the songs I will write with it. I love the thought of buying it direct from the maker if possible. We'll see how this one plays itself out.
  
  

That's it for now. More later. Return to Travel Index.