Contemplating life and exploring the South

I'm currently writing from a wonderful vantage point over looking the Tennessee River. It is an eastward view of a large smooth oxbow. The river winds around a flat fertile pasture land that leads to gentle rolling hills in the background. Every clear sky morning is ignited with a brilliant red sunrise. The hills and swirling river are bathed in soothing hues of blue and purple before being thawed in fiery golds and oranges. The rising sun accentuates the ridges of distant hills as it lights up the sky. Solitary birds and massive flocks explore the banks. Occasional barges push cargo up and downstream. A wonderful view, for sure, to return to a yoga practice and meditate on life.

Fall, A time for Reflection

Aña and I have been back in the States for just over two months now. I've wanted to update this blog for awhile. Leaving it alone with a mysterious post about our return to the U.S. was certainly not my intention. It is just that we have been staying very, very busy.

We left the Yoga House in Guatemala to return to Wisconsin. We were just getting settled in again after traveling around with Aña's brother, Matt. We were starting to sell homemade food and I was teaching some more advanced Yoga classes. Things were going great, but we decided in less than a day to return home. We received the tragic and upsetting news that Aña's father, Ted, had taken his life. In one note he left he stated he was "sick of the roller coaster of life". For him it had been a bigger roller coaster than many ride. It seemed he was finally fed up with the bipolar disorder he battled with for many years. Us returning home to be with family and offer as much support as possible is the only thing that made sense. As mentioned in the previous blog we had a very crazy trip back, but returned safely.

We were back about a week before Ted's memorial service on August 14th. The service was held at a Unitarian Universalist Fellowship. It was one of the most beautiful and heart wrenching and warming memorials I've ever been to. Stories were shared, songs sung, and many tears were shed. Aña, her two younger brother's beautifully compassionate eulogies held a common chord. They resonated on the creative outlook to life their father passed on to them. It seems many knew Ted as a great story teller with an ability to make friends wherever he went. There is definitely a noticeable void in the day to day life here in Appleton.

I spent a month living with Aña and her mom. I stayed busy preforming a variety of maintenance on the house and donating or selling excess material objects. With the help of some very generous volunteers we even tore down the adjacent one and a half car garage. It had a leaky roof for several years causing the infrastructure to rot beyond repair. I'll post some pictures of that project.

Then, I had an opportunity to run my folks bar in Northern Wisconsin where I grew up. I ended up working about six days a week for the month of September. The bar tending gig culminated in one very crazy but lucrative weekend; Applefestival. A festival where the town of 500 people hosts about 60,000 visitors! I relished in the beauty of Lake Superior and some of the best fall colors ever. My folks have a 29' sailboat and I made it out on the lake with them twice. I spent a great deal of my limited free time loosing myself in the woods hunting wild mushrooms. One interesting day I was just missed by a couple of charging does. I also saw my first wolf in the area since their recent comeback. What spooky majestic creatures!

Now, I'm back in Appleton living with Aña and her mom. I'm back to work on the house. This time fixing up old windows and getting the house ready to be winterized. The nights are ominously starting to get cold. I'm sure it won't be long before snow flurries are in the air. At least winter will give us time to figure out where we want to go next. The hot springs of Oregon sure sound good. Maybe next summer will do.

Yoga Travel?

Here is an interesting link a blog reader sent to me. Very interesting ideas for Yoga Travel and basic travel tips. Enjoy!

Article on Yoga Travel

Crazy Trip!

4 Days of Driving from Guatemala to West, Texas. We had to drive in 4x4 on back roads to get around protesting workers in Guatemala blocking the highway. In Chiapas, Mexico we drove through a tropical storm. In one city a street was flooded so much that water got into our air intake. Water was two inches below the floor boards. We were pulled out and a mechanic had us back on the road in an hour for about $20. Tampico, Mexico: pulled over three different times by traffic cops soliciting us for bribes. One let us go for $16, one let us go after half an hour of me getting pissed telling him he was a liar and corrupt. He told me "I had balls" before giving me my license and truck permission back. The third one let us go when we told him we didn't have any cash. Day four took us by 15 dead mutilated bodies in the highway in the state of Tamaulipas. Getting into the U.S. was a pain and then I was stung by a wasp on the leg and in between two fingers. 70 miles from my dad's house in Ft. Worth our truck threw a rod at 2:00a.m. Today we'll scrap the truck to cover the towing bill.

All in all, a crazy four day trip. Somehow, we still have a positive outlook. We are curious as to where the universe is trying to lead us.

Change of Plans

That's a funny title. Change is always happening all around us. With an unexpected change we will be heading back to the U.S sooner than expected. I haven't been able to write, or rather focus enough to write. I've been staying busy. Busy enough to distract my mind from the ramifications of recently transpired events. Busy saying goodbye to a lifestyle that was picking up momentum. Busy saying goodbye to new friends made. Trying to prepare for the culture shock of the return. A return to excess, naivety, corporate rule, and endless highways.

I plan to leave Xela, Guatemala tomorrow (Monday, July 26) around 6:00. Travel along the West Coast to the only break in Mexico's longitudinal mountains (Salinas Cruz). Then, crossing over Mexico's narrowest East/West stretch to the Gulf of Mexico. Hopefully make it though Mexico in four days.

After a short visit with my father working in Texas, onward to Wisconsin. How long we'll be there is uncertain. Where our path will lead from there is uncertain. The only certainty, that we'll be together loving each other. Growing stronger and wiser together.

May we see many much missed chronically distant friends along the way.

Sorry for the nebulous theme of change. I'll fill you in eventually.

Back on the Road with Aña's Brother

Two days ago we drove to Guatemala city from Xela. What a drive it was! Under normal conditions the drive would be scary enough. In addition to steep winding mountains roads, there is now debris scattered on the highway from Tropical Storm Agatha. There must have been close to forty (yes that's 40) landslides that had covered the highway to various degrees. In most places only half the highway had been excavated necessitating a reduction to two lanes. Many sites were being worked on with bulldozers and backhoes. In one place half of the highway was gone. It had slide down the mountain side. Another place was still flooded with half a meter of standing water. Glad to be driving a truck.

We made it to Guatemala City after four hours of crazy driving. Unfortunately the craziness level only exponentiated. The first part of our Guatemalan City mission entailed researching a way to extend permission to keep our truck here. We became lost a couple of times on busy one way streets with chaotic drivers. Eventually we landed in a secure parqueo near two of the official buildings we needed to visit. After confused officials tried to find loopholes in confusing policies we decided to retreat. We will have to try talking with some folks in Xela when we return in a few weeks.

The second part of the mission involved finding a recommended Korean restaurant. With more driving in circles, cars cutting us off, and blind buses almost pulling out into us this didn't go much better. We decided to abandon yet another part of the mission.

Luckily the third, and most important part of the mission, was completed with style and panache. We mainly went to Guate. to pick up Aña's brother, Matt at the airport. We arrived a few hours early. We were not allowed into the airport and had no idea to check the flight status. Luckily the vagabondgoddess is on our side. The first gentlemen we asked about this conundrum had a spiffy iPhone. With this he quickly navigated to the airline's website and confirmed the arrival time for us. We spent most of the time across the street at an outdoor food stand eating barbecued chicken tacos and sipping coffee. We were eating amongst airline workers, waiting Guatemalans, and motorcycle police with Uzis and other toys. I also spent some time sleeping in the back of the truck while Aña serenaded me playing Guitar.

Matt arrived safely and on time bringing tons of goodies we'd requested. The most prized goody is a wheel of our favorite goat cheese. Aña had thought the wheels were smaller than the massive one we're now travelling with. It ended up being a $100 5lb. wheel of our Humboldt County Humboldt Fog goat cheese. Just a little more expensive than we had counted on, but it's hard to complain.

We promptly drove out of the insanity that is Guatemala City. Driving at night here isn't the best idea, but neither is staying in Guate. Our plan was to head to the Earth Lodge in the mountains north of Antigua. The drive to Antigua was mostly fine. The only scary part was running into an unmarked flooded stretch of highway. This quickly slowed the truck down from about 50mph to a near stop. At least now I have a better idea of what it must be like to drive into a lake.

We reached Antigua around 10:15pm. We had to stop and ask several times to find a small unmarked road out of town. This road took us up about 300m (1000') to a tiny village. As per instructions we had to locate the pilas (community wash area) and park there. Then a step decent down a dirt path and we had arrived at the Earth Lodge. A remote hippy hostel. We threw some stuff in small dormitory cabin and began work on the cheese wheel. Waking up we realized that the site offered one of teh most incredible views in Guatemala. Three volcanic peaks nearby with one erupting every half hour or so. We'll spend three nights here since the third night is free. Then off to exploring the rest of Guatemala.

Stay tuned for more pictures and vagabond rambling.

Tranquility in a sea of Chaos

I just want to take a moment to assure family and friends of our safety. This might be hard to do considering recent events. However, we are very well informed and in a very safe place to live. Many recent events here in Guatemala have been devastating and ominous. Two recent natural disasters struck this tiny country; the size of the state of Louisiana. An active volcano near the country's capitol erupted killing several people, causing thousands to be evacuated, and created hazardous conditions raining down ash. Right on the tail of the eruption a tropical storm hit causing intense flooding and mudslides across the country. Besides natural disasters the political system has entered a period of turmoil. Drug cartels abound, the crime chief resigned, the attorney was just dismissed over corruption allegations, and in a political stunt some severed heads turned up in Guatemala City.

All this aside, we are in a relatively safe city. Quetzaltenango, or Xela, has a genuine small town feel to it. It only gets a little sketchy at night, but it's safe when walking in small groups. Although we are near the active volcano belt in Guatemala, we are relatively distant from any threat. Our house is also located at a high point so flooding during a tropical storm is unlikely. It was a kilometer away that people were being evacuated by small boats a couple weeks ago. As far as the political situation goes, we are white. Tourism makes up the base of the Guatemalan economy. Thus, we are fairly well protected and privileged over the mass populace. We also have a bad ass 4x4 truck and could get the hell out of dodge if need be. Other than petty threats of theft we generally feel pretty safe. For these we can arm ourselves with mace, our trusted machete, or a quaint hunting knife. It also helps being about a foot taller than most men down here.

We feel safe enough here that we are considering staying until late winter/early spring. We have been busy studying Yoga and making foodstuff to sell. I've even started teaching Yoga and would love to become more experienced. I've been teaching beginner classes in the mornings. My classes are usually in Spanish, but sometimes become bilingual. Aña has also been enjoying the steady Yoga routine. We are really getting into our bodies and making steady progress. We are constantly surprising ourselves with our bodies' capabilities. Along with the practice comes a great tranquility of mind that we are cultivating. Definitely worth sticking around for awhile longer. Of course, we'll see how events transpire.