Hola fam,
Checking in. It’s been a good few weeks since I last wrote. From Charcas i walked on to Venado where I met herders in a bar, watched a parade in town and camped near a stream.
A few days later in Moctezuma, a family invited me to their bar for the afternoon. I stayed about four days. we visited local springs, I slept on a mattress in the garage of their bar next to the beer fridge. Ate amazing gorditas each day from a lady named Reias. The Pozos Family took care of me.
Went on to Ahualulco, continued to meet people on the road who pulled over and offered water and snacks. I’m grateful to be well received. I stayed at a hotel in Ahualulco for a week where I recorded and edited about five hours of video for the garden course in Spanish. It’s twice as long as the version in English. Same content. I’m looking to share what I’m about with more folks. I did what I could with Spanish. Here is a link to the course: Www.udemy.com/curso-de-Permaville
One night there was a fiesta in Ahualulco. Different than Acapulco, a beach town on the west coast. I was in A-hoo-A-lul-co, a town in San Luis Potosí. There was a mariachi band, fireworks, amazing street food. A hermano called Fernando encouraged me to dance. Later I got in front of about a hundred people and danced to cumbia norteña music. I was the only one dancing at first. Then a few other guys joined in. one guy and I got into a bit of a dance battle, he took his shirt off, then I took my shirt off, then moments later the padrón stepped in and ceased the dancing. He had me stand next to him for a few minutes while the energy dissipated from the crowd. Then he released me. It was an awkward moment.
Later that night, I met a guy, a baker named Emilio, who lived in doraville Georgia, in northeast Atlanta for awhile. I met a number of people who lived in Atlanta. Marietta lawrenceville Gainesville Roswell chamblee forest park. Atlanta is probably second to Dallas of most common places visited on “el otro lado,” of the people I’ve met.
Stayed at at a church of a group of families leaving ahualulco. Daniel the pastor said he was living in the city, single, wanted something new, and in two years he became a pastor met his wife and now has a little girl, in a new town. Daniel said every person is following their own path. And each person is the only person who knows what that path is.
Walked on to Mexquitic. Met a guy Joel on the road. He recognized me from Facebook. He asked if I would be interested in working. I said I would. For the next week, I joined a crew helping build a hotel in San Luis. Four story renovation on a hotel, good project nice location, in the city next to a park. about eight guys working, painting, concrete, tiling kinda work. Stayed at Jalil’s place, one of the crew members about my age. Jalil’s mom made great food, tortillas, beans, eggs, onions cilantro homemade salsa. Excellent Mexican staples. It was a nice quickly arranged homestay, and I even earned a few pesos.
Walked on to San Luis city from Mexquitic, about 25km, stayed at a hostel then connected with the engineers of the hotel we were building and they let me stay at their office, which is also the recording studio of Hikuri Beach, a rock band who wear wrestling masks when they play. Awesome style! I got to see them play one night. Loca buena banda. Here’s one of their music videos. Great to connect with engineers architects and a rock band. Super chido.
A few days ago, I left my rickshaw at the office in San Luis and took a side trip to Rio Verde, a town in the jungle a few hours east of San Luis. I bussed to Rio verde and walked about 15km to Media Luna.
Media Luna is an incredible natural lagoon among a forest. Large tree roots line the edge of deep wavy freshwater ponds. I was talking with a guy called Aurelio, who said Media Luna is the middle of the state of San Luis Potosí and San Luis Potosí is in the middle of Mexico.
Weather is warm, water is warm. Many tent campers. There were about a dozen campfires going on at night. Cool scene. I brought a blanket and a poncho to sleep on and slept a few feet from the forest pond.
It seems this region, Huasteca Potosí, is full of waterfalls and lagoons like Media Luna. I could spend more time out here for sure. dense green foliage drooping over calm steady rivers. So deeply relaxing to be in this environment.
The road out this way is narrow and steep and windy and I figured it would be safer to head south on a wide road to Queretaro. Hence the bus ride, I wanted to experience the jungle briefly before moving further south.
So from here I’ll head back to San Luis, pick up the rickshaw and continue walking south toward Queretaro, later Hidalgo Puebla Oaxaca Chiapas and then I’ll arrive at the border of Guatemala. Rough plan. It’s about 1500km. I’m about two thirds of the way there.
I enjoyed working on this hotel last week. Nice to hang in one place a little bit, get to know people, get a routine. I may seek more work projects like this… short commitment, casual, a little cash, a little work. Good stuff.
In addition to physical work, I’m finding I enjoy researching topics and sharing my understanding of them, as I did with the permaculture course. After posting the course in Spanish last week, I found myself diving into new topics. Chemistry, physics, biology in particular. To share where I’m at.. it seems science seems to be a practice of observing how light enters our world and forms into substances, plants and creatures. And how to measure and categorize these forms.
I feel like I’ve seen glimpses of a simple rigid mathematical model that could explain what is happening in our world with quantum precision. And then i read a little more and find new info dislodges part of the model, then I try to patch up the model with new perspective. and I do this over and over. Try to see the big picture then zoom in to various parts and fill in gaps as more information pours in.
Some of the concepts I’m learning about involve cell theory, quantum mechanics and sorting elements by density on the periodic table.
Im looking to create a short conceptual description of sciences. To do this, I’m reading long wiki pages trying to deduce what info is important and what is extraneous. Hope to share more of this mental journey in a few weeks.
Life seems to be about two things.. where we are now and where we are going. Now is great, everything is great people environment food temperature water all is great. where are we going? how can we maintain, how can we improve on what we have now? Always gotta appreciate the moment and gotta have an idea of what’s next. Where are we now, where we going. Oh does something seem impossible? Okay. Think of something else.
As far as what’s next for this guy, looks like more road to walk, more folks to meet and more things to learn about on the phone.
See ya next time !
Brian