A few hours ago, sitting with my iPhone at the dining room table of my CouchSurfing host, I read an email from an LA writer friend (I know through IWOSC.org) — and I jumped up saying Yeah! I literally jumped for joy and exclaimed “I am so lucky!” Funny how I found myself saying “I am so lucky” today.
I have loved the iPhone since the day it came out. Compared to the Palm Treo 700 I’d had, it was part miracle and part dream. I love all that the iPhone can do — but when that iPhone became my ONLY communication tool I started to truly feel its limitations. I am a professional writer. I need to write articles, to pen this blog (which is something that cannot be done in actual pen). I need to compose text for client websites. And I WANT to be able to write to friends. That’s a lot of thumb tying. 1) My thumbs are getting sprained. Seriously, after two weeks of this they hurt. 2) I cannot keep up with the thoughts in my head so I am losing words and ideas. 3) I am sick of typing the letter c instead of a space, thus (no, not this!) composing gibberish. […]
[As posted on facebook] Today I spent the entire afternoon, until past 11pm working and never got outside. Even spoke to cousin Lisa and friend Mario. It’s just like being at home in, except that I am on a Spanish keyboard so I cannot use punctuation well and I wake and go to bed in a hammock. And that the speaking is via Skype since I no longer have a phone. The no phone is a PIA but the hammock part is cool. I am traveling!
After I was robbed, I immediately changed passwords — and for my email, even changed the username. That was a mistake though, starting a chain reaction that left me unable to filter spam and to delete emails for about 6 days. I could’t find or notice real messages under the weight of the unwanted. It was hard to give up my landline and physical address. It was harder to give up my AT&T cell number as that was my last phone line. But to lose access to my email, limited to wi-fi as it was, really cut me off. It was so great to get to my Merida CouchSurfing host, Daniel, and have a fellow Mac/iPhone geek to help me figure out the problem. I was great to not be alone in the problem. I am so happy to have my email back these past few days!
Today Daniel and I took a bus to his favorite mall. First Chinese food in the food court that tasted just like LA. Prices were similar too. Then we sat is a couple of comfortable chairs (my first in a long time) and had coffee at Starbucks as we used the Wi-Fi. Daniel was noticed by a fellow CouchSurfing host, Manuel. He gave me some good info about a developer I was interested in meeting. (Update on that: I didn’t get to call him. Also Manuel and I missed one another a couple of times in the next week.)
As I write this, over half my clothing is drying in the breeze on a Merida rooftop. By the time I arrived at Daniel’s, it was absolutly time to do laundry. Hand washing garments and hanging them to dry in my Cancun hotel rooms was not successful as 3 days later the items were still damp and smelled rancid. This morning after the other 4 guests headed out on their way, I showered, did some sewing, then did my laundry. Daniel showed me how to use the washing machine. Using a bucket, we scooped water from the rooftop cistern to partly fill the machine. Adding the clothes and a bit of detergent, I turned the dial at the bottom to 13 minutes and watched the agitation. After 2 minutes it was clear that my clothing was very dirty. However I didn’t want to mess with the dial. Instead I let […]
I arrived in Merida while it was still light. While on the bus I realized I had not written down Daniel’s address so I’d need Internet. That turned out to be a very pleasant surprise! In the bus station I asked a man for help asking for a McDonalds or such for Internet. The woman who worked there replied in excellent English that there is no need to Burger King or MD because the downtown was all Internet – gratis. And it was only 4 blocks down and 4 blocks to the left. I enjoyed the walk, buying a real Mexican ice cream pop (paleta) to eat as I walked. I got chocolate this time, but the fruit pops are the true prize in Mexico. (Good thing I had my bottle of water to wash my hand after. I was covered in drips on this dry hot and humid day.) […]
March 22, 2014
After waking in Vallodolid (va ya doulid) at 8:30 having a light hot shower and a leisurely morning that included doing my fingernails putting on makeup and Andrew’s bracelets as well as putting my hair up, I did some email.
I need to decide what to do about my work and writing. Can I really write on an iPhone? Get an iPad? Buy a new Air? I vacillate between the flexibility a new Mac brings me and the freedom of not having one. I have not yet released my upset over losing my Mac. Backpackers do travel with computers. I think everyone, save for a couple had one at last nights hostel.
There is a stylish church anchoring one side of the square but it locked up just as I touched the door. I walked through the small park, stopping to take a panoramic shot of it from church, past the fountain, to some of the regular buildings that are the style of this town. The town is Colonial, I am told. The buildings are right angles, deep golds and reds that are old world and elegant, simple, solid, honest, unpretentious, attractive.
After the solstice at Chichen Itzá I considered spending the night in the immediate town, a small village called Piste (Pee sta). I’d been told while watching the sun, of a big backpacker party in a park nearby and my tour guide had recommended staying in the village. I also thought I might walk back to the structures in the morning. I walked back to the tour bus with my friends of the day, then said so long and donned my pack once again. The village was just a few blocks walk. Passing the ADO busses, I asked around and got one lead on a hostel like place. Walking about a mile I failed to come to it. I met 2 hitch-hiking Spanish-speaking gals along the way, enjoyed the sandwich they offered, then saw them off. I gave up on staying in this town. No one knew of the park […]
It wasn’t planned, but when I arrived in Cancun I learned we were just weeks away from the spring equinox, a time when the ancient Mayan calendar (which is what the so-called pyramids are) would do a shadow effect of a snake crawling down the structure. (And traveling without a schedule enables you to hang around for things you discover along the way or for surprises.)
My first night in Cancun my CouchSurfing host and hostess took me to a park that I loved. As we drove there and I have yet to see a true street map of Cancun, I had no idea where it was. Last week my friend Susan and I walked there en route to her hotel and I was excited to be there again – but I still did not really know where it was as we’d doubled back there through side streets. Tonight, hours after I planned to be gone from Cancun, my local friend Juan suggested another hotel, a hostel, and it turned our to be right on Palapas Park and I found out this great park is just blocks from my hotel. I had walked past the street leading to it from the other side of the park many times So tonight I learned where I could have […]
As I remained in Cancun for a week searching for my stolen Mac, I did whatever I had to in order to get my work done and not let my clients done. Stopping into the Office Depot across from my hotel, I found it cool and comfortable so I stayed a while. My work tools of the day (March 19, 2012), and of many days to come: iPhone 3GS that once belonged to my cousin Elena, V-moda earphones, and a fabulous battery by Scosche. This battery almost didn’t make the packing cut as I favored their lighter battery and their solar battery, but it recharges my iPhone at least 2-3 and still shows 3 lights. I have come to rely on it greatly. What I am doing: using an iPhone app called Voxer to speak, walkie-talkie style with my friend, fellow web designer (and GoLive 5 Bible contributor) to update […]
When you are traveling alone the place you sleep makes all the difference. Unless you really want a solitary trip. After my first nights at the home couch surf hosts, I came to a hotel recommended by other folks living in Cancun. It is fairly convenient as I can walk to the places I wanted to be in Cancun. And it is clean. There are dorms so I thought I would meet travelers. However it is really a hotel. Travelers were far between. Most guests are from other parts of Mexico and while friendly, they are here for the beach, not to exchange travel info and go see a pyramid. Those 8 travelers I met were with one another already and I didn’t fit their agendas. You might look at a dorm room for 10 and say “No way. I am past that at my age.” I did. I am […]
When I decided to pack up my belongings and travel some of our great world’s roads with just my Mac, a few select pieces of tech, and whatever clothing basics that fit into my convertible backpack, I had no idea just what adventures in tech I was personally in for! What I knew: as long as I had my Mac I could continue to earn my living from wherever I was I’m the world. I would just need to not go off-grid (Internet grid and electrical grids, that is) for more than a week at a time. Easy, I thought. What I learned: even living in another state, staying in my hometown of NY, it was not easy to work. (in fact I took on a job that was much larger than its description and was quickly overwhelmed trying to get online, do the job, and actually get out and […]
Cell phones are big here. It seems as if every one has one. Walk into a woman’s room and you’ll here a woman speaking from her stall – just like I hear in Los Angeles. Yet pay phones are far from a thing of the past here. You can’t walk very far without seeing a phone and Internet cafe. Well, cafe would be a misnomer. It’s really a smallish shop with 2 rows of stalls. One row is of Windows towers for email. The other is of phone booths containing tabletop phones and a chair so you can enjoy your call. Payment is done through the shops proprietor. Hoping to find my stolen Mac, I visited a dozen or so pawn shops. The trip through Pawn Shops was shocking: the prices being asked for electronics was virtually the same as the prices in the local Office Depot or Sam’s Club. […]
Of course, I had to see Apple Resellers in Cancun. I plan to do so everywhere I go. The iShop, with 20 stores in Mexico, is the largest reseller, I believe. Coming to see them was more than a wish after my Mac was stolen. I was desperate to plug my SuperDuper! Clone into any Intel Mac so I could access my info, make sure data was safe and work out ways to get my work done. Anyway, here is the iShop. oh, the huge box in front is a promotion: bring in an old piece of technology and get 1,000 pesos off your new Mac. It was fun to check out the box each of the 4-5 days I came by.
One of the things I put quite a bit of effort into was finding the best solution for keeping my skin feeling fresh, clean and alive as I live out of a backpack.
(Posted to Facebook at 1:24pm on March 11.) I’m grinning ear to ear, internally shouting, yes! finally! I’m online! Internet is quite spotty in the real Cancun. (I hate to admit it but I went to Starbucks. In the hotel zone, of course. Starbucks is Starbucks. Nothing to report in that arena.) My roommate friends, 2 great women from other parts of Mexico, are at the playa (beach). I can’t take too much beach, and have the reality of work, so I’m wandering around the city. I’ll meet them later. (The update added later:) I did meet my roommates. I went across the street to look for a bathroom and they happened to see me cross the street. What a surprise to hear them call out to me. This place is crowded. We had a few tacos, then went to the beach.
I’m trying to use a little Nokia stick phone that was loaned to me and feel like an idiot. It is such a kludgy pain to use. I am sooooo spoiled by 5 years of iPhone! I am jealous of my new Mexican friend that sports an iPhone 4s that works here.
Tonight Mario and Osman took me to there other favorite place to eat. We were also joined by Peter, the Australian guy we met in the park the night before. Peter and Osman actually spent the day together. Marion had to work. In the morning I went down the coast a bit to see the resort areas. Later, before dinner, I went to a nearby Internet place to Jailbreak my iPhone 3GS. (My very first days without a phone were hard on people I tried to deal with. It was so hard to say no, I don’t have a phone and figure out what to do.)
I did NOT want to Jailbreak any iPhone. I believe in R&D and do not want software through any back door. But Apple and AT&T left me no choice. It is required in order to unlock an iPhone for use by another provider – even when that phone is out of contract and in fact, the owners of the phone continue to be clients of both companies via newer phones. By day two in Mexico I had had so many meeting complications due to lack of a phone that I headed over to an Internet place to Jailbreak my iPhone 3GS. (The process requires Internet access.) Jailbreaking was successful. However, my particular phone was not supported by the software available so i still had no option to make/receive calls. Frustration continued.
My host Marion and Osman picked me up at the bus station in Cancun. It wasn’t as straight forward as that because without a cell phone I was unable to communicate with them. But a few nice people and a calling card later, they found me. It was not an easy start for their hosting experience. I had expected to have all day to get to them but because Delta brought me in 5 or more hours late, that changed. Anyway, they brought me to a fabulous park for a dinner of Empanadas and Horchata. More later.
Delta’s 11:45pm flight out of LA on Sunday, March 4, 2012 with a flight to Detroit. Then, after a 2+ hour layover, I boarded their next plane to Cancun. ETA noon on Monday Mach 5, 2012. My arrival in Cancun was delayed by some airplane trouble, and their refusal to let us switch to other already-outgoing plans. (I’m sure happy that Delta didn’t fly a questionable plane but they could have done much better for us.) After several lost hours, they gave us a new plane. I arrived Monday night after dark, after 23 hours of airports/planes. I’d planned to have hours to find my way into Cancun, introduce myself to Cancun and find my way to the home of CouchSurfing hosts. However, that plan went out the window with Delta’s delay and darkness entering that window’s field of view. Instead, at the Airport I enlisted the help of one of […]
Nearly midnight when I took off, it was nearly 4am (7am locally) when I stepped into the Detroit airport. In 3 hours I’ll be in the air to Cancun. Cancun during Spring Break — ironic for the gal who never cared to do the Spring Break thing in college. (Me; hey let’s drive down to Ft Lauderdale and watch the college kids hang out. Yes! Wait, we’re college kids.) Ok, I did do spring break once. Still it’s ironic. I’m not a college kid and I am not heading to Cancun to party. I’m going for the serenity of the life there, the Carribean, and the Mayan sights/history/culture. A near lifetime of saying I want to see those pyramids someday is becoming real. I’ll see them this month – any day now!
I bought my next airline ticket. As March begins, I land in Cancun to begin to get to know the Yucatan area. Then, for up to a year, I’ll be exploring Guatemala, Belize, parts of the Caribbean, Central America & South America. Of course, you never know what will happen & where life will take you, so we’ll see where I really land up.
