Been AWHILE! Im in New Mexico!

Well Well Well, where do we even try and begin?????

The short story is, my girlfriend Adriana is visiting me from Monterrey, Mexico for the summer and I decided to take a big road trip with her through some states I have never been in. We left the Houston area on June 20th and headed for the border so she could renew her permit. After we got all that straightened out we headed to camp for the night in one of my favorite places; Bandera.

We stayed a night in Bandera then another night with a good friend from Mexico who has a 120yr old ranch house around Medina Lakes!!!! Then we hit the road again for west texas and New Mexico and it was quite a drive through some very beautiful ranch lands. I took her to see the famous Luchenbach, Texas (of the song "lets goto luchenbach") and some other cool things. We made it to Hobbs, NM around 12am where we crashed out in a Wal-Mart parking lot.

We headed out to Cloudcroft, NM the next day but most of the national/state parks are closed right now due to serious fire hazards and currently burning wildfires. We found a small RV park on the Apache Reservation that let us camp for $15 so we decided to stay the night there. We parked high up on a hill with a good view of 3 mountain peaks and warmed up some chili with red wine, romantic I know! We left again in the afternoon after a run through the mountains with Adriana that almost killed me.

After Cloudcroft we headed out through some beautiful areas of new mex and visited some ancient ruins of the Anasazi Indians. Then we headed north to Moriarty, NM and jumped on old Route 66 into Albuquerque,NM. We had dinner that night at a fantastic "New Mexican" restaraunt that just blew our minds, especially with the chili sauce. We listened to a really cool musician play who gave me a cd for giving him a $3 tip! The owner of the restaraunt came and personally talked to us about the food and to Adriana because she is from/lives in Mexico. We camped that night again in a damn Wal-Mart.

We arrived in Taos sometime the following day and promptly checked out the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge which definently made both of us nervous walking on. Around 680ft above the river and some 1200ft across, its a doozy of a drop!!! We camped again in a Wal-Mart (Im not advertising for them I swear! Cheap camping sites are a little hard to come by around here) and in the morning we headed out to check out the Taos Pueblo, the oldest continually inhabited place in the USA. Some of the adobe buildings are over 1000yrs old! The Tewa indians are great people if not a little secretive and guarded over their history and lore but who can blame them after the suffering the Spanish and later White settlers inflicted upon them. They claim to have started the revolution against the Spanish with freed all of the Pueblos in NM until the spanish later re-conquered them. Then when the US Govt had control, they assasinated the then Govenor of the territories.

We checked out the Earthships (sustainable livng homes Ive been researching for awhile) and plan to do a tour tomorrow morning before we head out to Colorado. In all its been a pretty awesome trip and we will be at it for the next month or so before we head back to Texas and then Adriana heads back to Mexico. Ill try and get this thing rolling again and see where it may lead and I will try and blog as much as I can from the road!

WOW! Long time with no update! Im back in the USA

Well, basically Im back in the USA!

I was getting a little bored living my dreams with no waves. OK, OK... basically I should have pushed on but I had been hanging out with the previous owner of a Wharram Pahi 42' catamaran that Im in love with. He hooked me up with the current owner who is moving to Colombia for awhile and the new owner needs a captain for the trip.

I have been talking with him and basically we came to an agreement about the trip and some work that needs to be done on the boat. So Im headed to Panama City, FL to live on the boat for a month or so while I get the boat ready. Then sometime at the end of Feb or mid March, we will be heading off to Colombia.

Im pretty excited about this trip and the timing is great. Ive talked to friends back where I was in Mexico, apparently still no waves!!!!!! This whole thing is about adventure so I will follow it wherever I have to go.

Im suffering a little heartache though. So many goodbyes and brief welcome homes. I got to see my family and friends for about 4 or 5 days and now Im heading off into the horizon once again. Im missing one of my best friends pretty badly as well and saying goodbye to her is always hard. But the thing Im finding it the hardest to deal with is not having my dog by my side. I left her back in Texas with my parents for awhile and its very hard after traveling with her for 3.5 months and being with her every single day and night. I love that dog... more than I knew. So with a heavy heart, I push on...

Florencia...stuck

Well we came up here for a vacation from a vacation. Joe (the guy that came with me back in 2007) introduced me to another guy at work awhile back and he has been telling us about this little town in the mountains of Zacatecas that he is from. So they decided to take a trip and I decided to meet them here. Ok, now the fun stuff...

We pulled in at around 9:30pm and basically the town was buzzing with people getting ready for the celebrations of Mexico´s bicentennial of the revolution. I witnessed the coolest(dangerous) Mexican fireworks display ever! Then a guy with a mock bull costume that shot freaking rockets and crap chased people around the town square.... I love Mexico. We went back to a bar and had drinks with the whole family and the bar owner. Someone a couple of streets over decided to express his joy with 4 or 5 shots from what sounded like an automatic so that was kind of cool.

The next day we went all around town meeting people with Medardo (the guy who works with Joe). His family is well known around here and so is he and we met all kinds of cool people. That night we had a big party at his uncles ranch and he cooked shrimp and mexican squash and all kinds of good things.We had mariachis playing all night and whole shebang, it was nuts.

The next morning, we headed over to another rancho nearby and had a favorite tradicion of this town. Fresh warm milk from a cow poured into a glass with a type of Nestle Quick or something and then mezcal is added. Rancho Escondido... a decent mezcal. After that we packed up and headed back to his parents house where we were preparing to go on a waterfall hike through the mountains. After 1 hour of beating down a rough road (I rode on the back of a motorcycle!!!) we got to the walking point. Medardo showed us how to get the fruit from the cactus, water from some plants in the trees and other things we could eat if need be. After some walking we came to a big mountain where there was some debate about where the falls actually where and how to get to them. Thats when we started climbing.... and boy did we climb. My dog couldnt make some of the climbs so in the toughest parts I had to carry her and let me tell you, that was some scary crap climbing with no hands and holding a dog. On the other side of the mountain we ran into some cowboys and they told us about the road that ran right around the side lol. Onward!!

We passed some extreamly old ranching houses, all made with brick and trees, still standing. At the waterfalls (2 hours later) we jumped in and enjoyed the fresh cold water. Its a little dry here right now so it wasnt at full potential but there was about 1/4 flowing with a 30ft-40ft drop.... basically a great massage!!!!! We swam for a bit and enjoyed the canyon walls all around us, chica even took a dip before a serious nap. We hiked back to the cars (another 2 hours) and came on home, all of us seriously tired and in desperate need of a nap.

A lot more has happened, like tequila and coke with the vice president of this town in his house, not being able to pay for one single beer or thing if someone is watching. This is the most hospitable place I have ever been to and the Salas family has accepted us like their own sons. For this, I will forever be greatful and have Florencia in my heart. I have already been scoping land and places to rent, and I have a handful of offers of places to park my van and live for free or next to free. There are also several standing offers of horses to the waterfalls next time.

Yesterday when we hit the road to head back, me to monterrey and Joe and Merdardo to USA I noticed the van driving a little funny in the mountains. Three hours later in a small town called MalPaso (bad pass) outside Zacatecas city, I noticed I had no reverse. Neutral is grinding and whining like hell and drive is slipping badddd! So I decided not to risk the 7 hour drive through the desert back to Monterrey. Its a semi arid desert but there is NOTHING. Just ranches. The bill to get towed to Monterrey should there be a problem would have been astronomical. So I returned to Florencia where almost the entire Salas family are mechanics, and good ones (ASE certified and all that jazz). Right now they are removing the transmission and checking out the damage and my options. Hopefully, I can be on the road in a week. I have been offered around 4 places to stay long term for the work and even offered money to help, like I said these are great people. Thats all for now, pictures soon when I get back to my laptop in Monterrey.

Im Here... Monterrey Mexico

The past couple of days have been a total adventure and its great to be back in Mexico.

I left Saturday for Laredo where I was going to meet my friend Adriana. She rode a bus across to meet me so she could help me get back to Monterrey where she lives. Its a huge city, about 2 million people and finding her house was going to be next to impossible so Im very glad she met me.

We crossed the border on sunday morning, at around 10am. I was filled with horrible thoughts of being murdered or shot and the anxiety was just filling in my brain and body. It was heavily taking effect on me and starting to affect my dog as well. We got a little turned around looking for the car permit building (Aduana) and I made an illegal u-turn, which promptly had me pulled over by the police. I was a little nervous about the police because here in this city, a battleground, you do not know who is a friend or foe. He talked with Adriana for a minute about how dangerous the illegal U-turn was but then said "well, we are both Mexicans so I will not write you a ticket. How about some money for some cokes for my friend and I?". I was about to hand him $10usd when I remembered my lesson about being a cheap ass in the wrong moments, so I handed him $200 pesos (about $17usd) and he was happy. He then led me the proper way to the Aduana where we got our permits and got back on the road to Monterrey.

Once here, Adriana had to leave for work as soon as we parked so I just hung out with her mom all day. She is a sweet lady and I quickly had to start remembering all of my spanish becuase she speaks no english. We took a walk to the park in their neighborhood and Chica (my dog) played and pee'd on everything. Back in the house I watched spiderman in english, had some chicken tacos and then went to sleep. I felt great!

Today Adriana woke me up and convinced me to go on an adventure with her. She had to do a favor for her professor she works for so we had to goto the other university across town and get some copies of some newspapers. We took a great city bus that got us there in about 40 minutes and I got to see all of downtown again. The university was nice and the library was very cool. The architecture was all concrete like most buildings in Mexico but the lighting was perfect and it made for a very "cafe" type of feeling.

After leaving the library we took the subway back to downtown! I have never been on a subway before and this was very cool, not to mention cheaaaap! It goes pretty fast and we were in downtown in no time! From there we jumped in a taxi back to her house and now here I am! Im sitting here enjoying the sounds of Xavier Rudd and the cool climate that Monterrey is having today. It is probably 88F today which is a nice break from the high 90's Houston has been having. Im about to take my dog for a walk to the park and I will take some pictures of this nice little neighborhood.

Ahh... I love Mexico. Im glad my fear and anxiety is finally dissapearing and I can enjoy myself.

Van almost finished...

le Van is almost finished! Well, the basics anyways. I started thinking about all the things I would like to have in the van and then I realized that I will not really know how to use my space effectively until Im living in her. So Ive decided this will be a learning experience and I will stop stressing!

Im actually excited right now about heading down there. I have been dealing with a ton of anxiety and other crap but it is finally making way to apprehension about just getting on the road. Im ready to be there!

Joe, from my previous trip, will be heading down there with a mutual friend Madardo to his family ranch in a little town in the state of Zacatecas. We will be camping for a few days on the ranch and celebrating Mexico independance day (from Spain) and hanging out. The town sits at 7000ft up in the mountains! Im ready for the cool weather!!!! Its been a scorcher this summer in Texas.

Predicament

Well... Im just sitting here looking over a few things; numbers, timing and a few other blogs of people who have made "the drive". The two blogs I have found both went through Mex and Central America around Jan-March and they found empty flat beaches at places I was scoring goooood waves.

So.. we have come to a cross roads you could say. I plan on jetting south in August.. when the last of the good southern swells will be filling in. I will be hitting all the same places at roughly the same damn time they did and I will possibly get skunked just as bad as they did or I did before. Well.. DAMN! This is CERTAINLY an issue.

Im trying so hard to maximize my dollar and wave counts but its almost impossible... I will indeed be heading through these places in the dead of winter, not a southern swell in sight. On the return trip I could time it just right but still... damn.. back to the drawing board.

OZ (Australia) is out right off the beginning because Im pretty sure Id blow all my cash within a year and never return to the states... or be brrrroooke as hell when I did and Id never make it to Central America... or maybe this is a better plan in the long run? August... the end of the aussie winter.. the beginning of the good surf season and warm water. Shit!!!!!!!!! My plans just went to hell.