Thursday, December 26, 2013

Holy?days

In all this postXmas and preNew year race, far from the familiar winter surroundings but still surrounded with "winterly" decorated palm trees and crazy russian tourists I don't know what holidays to celebrate anymore. Xmas is not really in our tradition, and the New year kind of loses its magic after being celebrated at the beach couple of years in a row.
So I guess the decicion to celebrate each and every day came automatically without even asking me for permission. And it kind of makes sense when you start seing the bigger picture with tons of turkeys being sold on 24th and Santa Clauses comming down on helicopter in the Hotel Zone in at least 5 hotels at the same time. And then will be the Three kings, and Valentines day with fluffy bears and hearts and roses, and 8th of march with men going crazy searching for flowers...and like this till the next "New Year". Very good commercial cycle, profits ensured.  Why only certain dates? why following those frames? Why not making every single day of your life worth celebration?

I've already started doing it today at the beach, right after work curing myself from flu not with paracetamol, but with an hour or two of my unprofessional but insanely happy surfing and buddy boarding attempts. Well, it's simply great to know that you can do those kind of things after work.

And now I close my eyes and see those perfectly breaking crystal clear waves and I know that some day I will ride them perfectly well...


Sunday, December 15, 2013

excitement

Got the tickets, we are going. That's for sure. 

I don't like planning trips, it just doesnt come out for me. There will be a plan, very approximate, with "must see" points, but the rest should flow. The experience shows that in travelling as in life as well,  it is good to have certain milestones of what you want to see and do, but if you stick too much to the plan, you can miss a good deal of superinteresting things on the way. The best adventures i've had were always starting with "what if we turn here?" so now again we'll take our chances. 

 It's time. Same places, same roles, same masks, same talks, just different faces that already seem the same as well.  It's insane, but my heart starts beating faster  if among all that artificial picture i see the bright eyes full of life and hear different types of questions. It doesnt happen that often, but when it does the conversation goes into different direction from "how much do people earn here? where can i buy tequila? they promised us VIP service!" topics. 

In the end travelling and tourism are two totally different things and I guess I prefer the first one.

The time is now.

Saturday, December 14, 2013

inspiration..

Maybe it's autumn turning to winter, maybe just general need to move on and change something again, but those last weeks were quite low on inspiration.

Recently it started comming back - like everything in life, ebbs and flows.It comes when least expected in form of colorful visions in a van on the way to the jungle; as a local nomad circus, whos participants are willing to teach you every(or almost every) little trick they know; as a lifeguard on the beach, who sees your desperation when the surf rental is closed and offers his buggy board; as a group of fisherman who decide  to give you a ride putting  you at the front and squizing alltogether at the backseat of the truck. Even waiting for the flight from DF at 2 a.m. with 8 russian tourists on board can be exciting when you have a good book and a contact ball :)

Those little moments - good to have you back. Or you were always here and it's me who stopped noticing it for a while?

Monday, November 25, 2013

Some travel sketches

Oh, all those posts about places to visit before you die...

Figured if I am in Mexico now, the most logical route would be heading to South America after exploring this country a bit further out of the boundaries of massive tourism destinations.

Chiapas, Oaxaca, rainbow trees, Acapulco, whale sharks... still way to go till the Latin America quest.

Maybe it is too early to plan, but it  good to rememeber sometimes that there are some really amazing places out there and it is only the metter of time..


The Great Blue Hole in Belize



Mount Roraima in Venezuela, Brazil, and Guyana



Salar De Uyuni in the Potosí and Oruro departments of southwest Bolivia




The Inca Trail in Peru


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The swing at the “End of the World” in Baños, Ecuador




Marble Caves at General Carrera Lake in Patagonia (Argentina and Chile) and Mount Fitz Roy



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to be continued...



Friday, November 8, 2013

all the world for those waves

I guess I am still learning a great deal here..It's 10 p.m.,  night sky is full of starts and lonely trucks are passing by the road. We are parked and waiting till 11 to start picking up tourists from hotel for the airport transfer. We enter to the second hotel and it feels that we ran into the gang of football hoolingas who've accidentally noticed the opposite team fans. Only five minutes of smiling, "yes, i understand you, sir", and  tons of verbal shit pouring at you and everyone calm and greatful is on the way to the airpot.

Yes, i am still learning a great deal here, and the biggest lesson of all NOT TO TAKE THINGS PERSONALLY is a treasure that I am taking with me and really want to share with all the lucky ones who´ve happened to work in service industry.

It is just so funny to see how some tourists are comming here with this "you know who are you dealing with?" attitude, how some of them seriously think you can control the weather, mexican mentality or solve all their psycological traumas from childhood. Probably at  every job dealing with people it is similar, but what surprises me here is that it looks like 12 hours distance away from  the motherland  makes people take of their masks and you can see them the way they really are with all the emotions on the surface.
And i can only picture how those who were the bravest here will come to their offices and wait quietly for the next vacation to express themselves.

Afterall, it was worth it. A deserved day off after all those night adventures started with a rainy morning and wispered gently that the waves were waiting. And they were, and they were perfect  - crystal clear, not too strong, smooth, breaking really fine near the shore. It was like being a child  - already supertired and red eyed after one hour still getting in over and over again, non stop. A thrilling orange-pink-violet sunset was like a little hint that it was a time to stop. But those two waves, taken all by myself...couldnt be more happy :)

Some beer with new friends and a first dreadlock in my hair... i love those kind of unexpected weekends... they are like a little travels without really travelling...

Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Starry starry night...

It's lovely on the roof, you feel like you can almost touch those thick white clouds that are slowly crowling through the night sky and just a distant sound of ambulance reminds that you are still in the city.

It's been a turbulent month, the last one. Going from fluffy pink-i-love-it-all state to wtf-is-going-on and i-dont-care mode was pretty challenging but the inner peace is getting back so i am able to write again.

A lot of questions were passing by through this head recently, a lot of dilemmas to solve, a lot of things to consider.

Would I ever be able to stop or will I always want to go somewhere new after 3 months of being in one place? How can i wait longer if after some calculations it turned out that to live in each country of the world for at least 3 months would take about 30 years? Is it right to sell your time for money to be able to afford the things or experiences you want to or is it equal to prostitution that is considered to be so wrong?

Four months have passed from 12 planned to spend here and I hope those 8 that are left will bring the answers my way.
And if not I hope by the time my immigration card expires I will have enough courage to say: Hello, world, I am a traveller, let's get to know each other better ;)


Tuesday, September 24, 2013

2 per day

Strange enough, but lately the interesting thoughts come with the frequency of 2 per day. The most valuable for me end up here with the intention to share and not to lose them in this slightly disorganized flow of people and places that i am experiencing at the moment.

Thought number one:

With the work in tourism i came to notice that we usually have our answers prepared to the most number of questions we get from other people. Questions like:

- How long have you been living here?
- What is the salary?
- Are you staying here forever?
- So, how does the profession of shaman work?
- Woow, those sea turtles are so huuuge! how long do they live?

And this list includes about a 100 questions more and about a 100 more standard answers. And not only at work, but in the real life it keeps repeating. You meet new people and very rare the conversation starts from something different. Don´t you sometimes wish to say something strange instead of the standard answer just to see the face of the person and to make it a bit more fum? I think i am gonna do this experiment in the next few days :)

Though number two.

This is not entirely my own thought, but i keep thinking on this aspect more and more with time. All the people we meet in life work as our mirrors. Like magnifying mirrors. Destiny will put us together with those who have certain traits of character similar to yours but 10 times more developed so that you can observe them from the outside and decide if you want to keep this trait for yourself or not really. For some reason it happens even more in the male-female relationships which always provokes the intention from one side to change the other. In the reality it´s always yourself that need to be changed or worked upon.

P.S. and the little tradition that i´ve created for myself a couple of years ago goes on.. Macedonia, Dominican  Republic, India.. now i´ll celebrate a Bday in Mexico.. which one would be next? ;)

Friday, September 13, 2013

Observations

For some reason i've started paying a lot of attention to the signs recently. The unviverse always sends something our way, we can ignore it, or we can be a bit more careful and thanks to those little signs make our way on this planet a bit more consious. I bet that the image of St George that was under my right foot during the 3 floors elevator ride must definitely mean something.

He is on the hourse defeating a snake. What would that be? My roommate is convinced that we interpret the signs the way we want and depending on our way of thinking we give them one meaning or another. Well, makes sense, and the interpretation that i've found on the internet and that made sense to me was that snake means the Ego, and the whole picture is about defeating your Ego.

Apparently Mexico is a very good place for practicing that. A lot of misunderstanding and misinterpretations come from the fact that our ego is so boosted that even a small thing is able to offend us. Even at work it's easily noticeable. No, they don't do those things to insult you, or to make you feel bad. It's just how this culture is and the people of this culture are used to work in their own way. And comming from Russia the first reaction on the poor excursion plan or on making you wait for 2 hours would be: omg, it's so disrespectful! Of course there shoud be some effort from both sides, but personally for me it's a very good lesson on patience and resilience.

It's been about two months since i'm here and another thing that i've noticed is that all this time i was in the state of waiting. Waiting till i get my documents, till i move to the new appartment, till i learn something about Mexico so that I can share it with tourists, till this till that.What i've realised yesterday and what i've felt from the inside is that recently i've unconciously changed the mode from Waiting to Inspired and being in Now and taking things as they are feels way much better. It's always like this in life - we are waiting for something and with that internal feeling we can't truly enjoy the present moment. We can, but not a 100 % because on the back of our mind we always have this nagging "and after that i will do..".
I love this current state of being in present - yes, some plans and dreams here and there don't hurt and it's necessary to have them to assure that you are going where you want to be going. What is not healthy is getting too much into planning because living the moment is what makes life so great.

Saturday, September 7, 2013

A day on the island

Its great to travel with friends, with family, with someone you love, but there is something about solo travelling that makes me not wanna change it for anything else..



This moment when you just come to the place and let the feelings guide you around is precious. You dont need to plan in advance, you dont need a lot of money, not even a map, just a bit of knowledge of the local language and some courage that will take you to the places you would not have seen otherwise.
I couldn't dream of a better day off then the one this week turning out to be a 14 kilometer return trip on an old bike to Punta Sur, the edge of the Isla Mujeres island.




Wow, its getting quite windy here and looks like the dark blue that is over Cancun now is moving this way. The wind is so strong that if you put you body against it and lean forward a bit, it's able to hold you and you feel like you are flying. And what can be more precious then standing at the edge of the island with the salty wind blowing in your face and enormous waves breaking down there? Well, maybe a  ride back in the pouring rain and a sea view with perfect for my stupid-beginner-surfer level waves.. Or a little stop at the beach on the way and getting in the warm ocean with pelicans flying around.. Or playing with the cuttest black dog that came over to see what this crazy girl on the bike is doing here?


And soaking wet entering the awesome Pita Amore place..

"hey.."
"did you get wet?"- the guys from the table next to me..
"oh, really, did i?"
"if you want i can bring you a t shirt, and i dont care if you give it back :)"

wow, appreciate it..


"would you like to order?"
"yes, one veggie pita please"
"oh, are you Sasha? Ricardo told that he met you couple of hours ago.. The wine is on the house"

The life is full of little surprises and awesome people, you just need to believe that those are the ones that will come your way.

Couldnt expect the better ending of the day then the ride to the plastic bottle island that i've read about in WIKI a couple of months ago and was so impressed with. 


It is real! and Richart lives there! very artistic, very sustainable, worth seing and mabe making one like that :)

Thank you world for this.

Monday, August 26, 2013

So far so good

"Paddle,Paddle, Paddle...here you go!!" - those sweetest words on saturday afternoon and the sensation of taking my first waves without anyone pushing or holding the board are  overwhelming. Oh, those moments when your eyes are a size of a 5 peso coin, you've been thrown in and out, have drinken couple of liters of salty water, have some  bruises already but you still want to go in and try to take one more wave, because it's damn worth it.

It surprizes me so much to hear tourists saying: "wow, you speak 3 languages, don't you wanna go to Moscow and get a good job there?". Get a "good job" to spend 3 hours a day on the way to work and get only 28 days a year to travel and see the ocean? No, thanks, i'll pass.

I feel like the week is a month long here, just because there are so many events that simply wouldn't fit in one blogpost. What to write about - a local sauna with shaman ritual or a helicopter ride over the islands? Or maybe about the night spent on the beach watching stars and weird flying objects? Or about the rain approaching Cancun and the most wonderful beach in the area turning competely dark in 5 minutes? Or about riding ziplines and offroad buggies as part of the job? I feel like it's just the beginning and the list will be only growing, at least for the next couple of months.

"Do what you like like what you do" - that phrase does make sence and i wish all the people who are still sitting in the office hating their job and saying "oh, i wish i could do the same, but..." would take the "but" out of the vocabulary.


Wednesday, August 7, 2013

little things

Little rainbow in the shower from the sun shining through the bathroom window makes my morning. That's it - the last day here and time to move to a new appartment, the start of something new again.
Our new home is empty - just the fridge, the stove and some kitchen shelves.  The move starts with hitch hiking the 55 year old car that is moving on 30 km per hour speed,collecting old things that people intend to though away. Task number one - check, our matress that fits in no other car is delivered up to the doors.
A lillte shopping, some green here, some blue there, cleaning up and it already looks alive.  The second night finishes with the undercover trasportation of and old pallet from wallmart backyard  at around 11 p.m. with the help of a guy who randomly stopped his bike in the middle of the night just to help us out(and yeah, of course he adores Chaikovsky and other russian classic musicians).
That's incredible how some places send people your way, people that kind of guide you, take you to the right path, give you the knowledge you need. It's like the flow is back, the flow of events, conversations, encounters. I still can't fully grasp the contrast of the things happening to me here- like getting in the bus that almost doesnt have any doors on my way to work, and tadadam-  getting back home on the caddilac. I still can't understand why so many people at work are complaining, come on - where in Russia could you go at night on the beach and see huge sea turtles laying their eggs, or have a coffee break watching the sunset over the sea on the way to the hotel transfer?

There are so many little things out there that remind us that life is a pretty cool thing, but seeing them or not is the choice we make.  What is your choice? What are the little things that make you happy?


P.S.  Just had a little insight a couple of days ago


"Libra () is one of the twelve astrological signs in the Zodiac". 
"Libre /ˈlbrə/ is a loan word in English borrowed from French. As it does in that language, "libre" in English denotes "the state of being free", as in "having freedom" or "liberty"."

Seems like there is a connection out there ;)



Sunday, July 28, 2013

adventure goes on

"Amiga, tengo un rancho, con caballos, tengo mango, aguacate, te gustan los caballos?" - says completely drunk official sitting next to me on the night bus back home from the beach. 

It's been exactly 2 weeks since I stepped on the land of quesadillas and chille and so far it is great. Of course there are some small bugs as at any work, but even the fact that I can be reading and  talking about ancient rituals and cultures and get paid for it is quite exciting.

There is this human habit that is very hard to fight - we tend to compare, everything. How much this, how much that, here it is like this and there it was like that, and usually decision on wether you like smth or not is born in comparison. I couldn't avoid it, and I am still wondering at what point i'll stop making parallels with DR. But the good thing about it is that i've already found replacements to most of my favourite places(the Dominican friends will understand when i say i've found my Duarte con Paris, Zona Colonial and Macao here), so it does feel very comforting.

It's just been two weeks, but with all the excurions from the company, my solo trips to the nearest beaches, meeting mexican families, every day visits to park with fireshow it feels like it's been at least couple of months.

And yet there are so many things to see and to discover, in Cancun, in Yucatan, the whole country is a mystery on its own, with all the different states, traditions, dialects, shamans, it looks like a year might not be enough... Step by step





Monday, July 15, 2013

first day in Mexico

The unexplored places do have some magic.

I’ve never thought of how Greenland would look like, and wow - it was like we were flying over some other planet – huge pieces of ice floating in the sea, snow covered mountains, crystal clear blue rivers and bright green! lakes. Maybe that’s why it’s called Greenland?  I’d happily google it, but the internet signal stolen from neighbors is just enough to update fb and check the e-mail.

So, the Mexican adventure has started with a 1,5 hour  line at the passport control, a sip of southern humid air and the driver who presented himself as Julio Patron “Narkobaron”(=drug diller, apparently a joke of some drunk Russian tourist).
Almost no food and at least 4 showers a day - that’s my normal reaction to the hot country.  And of course on the first day i just have to get out of the appartment and start walking in the direction that feels like the right one.
“What?? You’ve walked all the way till here?”-  I do tend to get such questions most of the time I’m in foreign countries. Here was not an exception. Guys, it’s just Russia is pretty big and the big distance in Russia and big distance anywhere else is a different story, though it would be nice to get a car at some point.

I've met iguana, it smells like flowers here and you have red blooming flamboyan and “Danger, crocodiles” signs everywhere around lagoon. There are almost more tourists then locals in the local buses and to my sirprise no good coffee in the supermarket. The Mirador is amazing - 6 km of the white sand beach with nice big waves and people camping there. Also i've found the open air gym and a surf school, so the first walk was pretty productive.

And i'd better go to sleep, cuz there are tons of information about Mexican history and culture that are about to enter my head.



Thursday, July 11, 2013

Rainbow

Nice sunny day - not even a cloud, St Petersburg is in a good mood today. Two cars one after another and finally the third epic one with the son of а Russian Orthodox priest who is fond of meditation takes us through the forest to The Place.


The first thing to notice is a big colourful sign "Welcome home" and naturally radiant smiles of the people saying "Good morning" even though it's about 7 p.m.

You get into the rythm very quick, and before you notice you are happily grating carrots in the common kitchen accompanied by the sounds of drums and flute. The food tastes divine after the day on a couple of cheese sandwiches and the common circle of people singing OM adds up some magic to it.

Living in the forest you understand how little we really need in life, and how many things the society and good marketing imposes. And damn it, sometimes it's pretty cool to be able to wake up in the morning, skinny dip in the lake and have a cup of fresh blueberry for breakfast.

People on the Rainbow are truly unique- anyone from old school hippies to yogis or just nature lovers from different cities, with different belief systems, different hobbies. Same kindness and good vibes.

An hour walk through the forest and I'm lucky enough to get a ride at the almost unhitchhikable road. And what a ride - straight to the city and with a 3 hour talk on personal development.

Back to "civilization", thank you Rainbow.




P.S. This Sunday the plane full of russian tourists will fly from Moscow to Cancun, Mexico and I will be on board.

Saturday, July 6, 2013

on the road again

New chapter in life, new blog that i'll try to update more often.

The inspiring posters on blurry background say - to be happy try to stay close to the things that make you feel alive...True
Some people need to have a place they call home, for me it's extremely important to move - my backpack, good music, warm wind in the face, that's the happiness.

I made a promise to myself that after i get the drivers lisence i'll be out of my hometown. And I was, and it was amazing - ants everywhere, small salary, 24/7 work with little interruptions for sleep,  but the summercamp for kids is really worth it. It's worth it because of the nature aroud, because of those 66 eyes looking at you when u're scolding them, those pictures they draw, those "please tell us a fairy tale before we fall asleep",  those "professor, let's play with us, pleeeeeease". It gives you energy nothing else can give.

This energy was well used for the crazy trip St Pete-Moscow-Kiev-Odessa(Black SEA!!)-Belarus-Moscow-St Pete- Finland- Pskov.

The sea is always magnificent, especially when it's glowing with light pink and purple in those 30 minutes before the sun starts going down, and it doesn't matter if it's Caribbean or dear to heart and almost not salty Black sea. And seeing dolphines splashing 15 meters away from the shore is indescribable..



And the road always brings along the characters i'd never meet if i wouldn't be travelling. 

Like on the train from the camp to St Pete:

-May I help you with your backpack? And by the way, there are 11 minutes left till the train to the music fest in the forest, would you go with me? 
-Errhh, I was going to St Petersburg, cuz tomorrow is my train to Moscow i've to catch, and i'd like to sleep well before...and i don't have a sleeping bag...and no tent... ehh...music fest? forest?bonfire?allrigh, let's go!

Or like in Kiev walking around:

- Excuse me, do you know how to reach that church?
- No, but I have a map (Actually a fancy touristic map :P )
- Oh, maybe we could go together?
- Fine, more people, more fun (and not everyday you so randomly meet a saxophone player who worked on the cruise ships and is opening his own orchestra now).

Or like in this little village in Ukraine near the Black Sea:

Young lady carrying the fridge all by herself to my room: "hey, finally someone young and without kids here, let's go out together ;)"
And we did, and finished the bottle of delicious ukranian sherry and this lady turned out to be a single mother raising 2 daughters in her little village, taking care of her 4 cows and a bull in the morning and working as a nurse in the afternoon. Ah, and also she practices martial arts...

And the final kick was on the train back to Moscow:

-Hello, I am specialising on coaching programs that change lives.
-Nice to meet you, I'm Sasha.

It's like this magic flow have started again - flow of people, adventures, little things that make you smile every day. This is what makes me feel alive, this is what makes me understand that life is damn good. And new adventure is about to come, i just need to book the tickets.

P.S. I almost know nothing about Mexico yet, except they have pretty good burritos and tacos and that there are pyramids of Mayas not so far away from Cancun.
I'm gonna be a tourguide there ;)