10/24/02 After the 2 month process of getting my Chinook ready for a 2000 mile trek and attempting to put the rest of my life in order, I'm finally ready to go. l'm planning to leave Occidental , October 28th. On the way to the border in Sonoita AZ. Ill be visiting my parents & my friend Mark and a special added bonus , I'll be hooking up with the one and only, Isabel Jordan and traveling in some sorts together to Yelapa. Its really not such a burly drive. Once you arrive at the border you're already half way there!

10/25/02 Well did I say it wasn't burly? I just heard that there is a Cat 5 Hurricane that hit ground a few hours north of Vallarta....wholly moly! It'll calm down down but will add a flavor to the trip. Lots of Destruction! Maybe I wont strap the ping pong table to the top of the Chinook. Thanks to the recent addition of phones to Yelapa, I was able to speak with Saul, our local restaurateur who told of the damage to the beach restaurants (lots of new added sand) and Silent Jim's Casa and Severinos Bodega getting washed away and my kayak bodega injured too! Huge Seas!!! The pier is completely covered with the sea all the way to Anna Rosa & Ronco's. Ill speak with my landlords son, Emilio tomorrow and see what condition my palapas are in. ...Let the Adventure Begin!

11/03/02 Greetings from PV... My chinook drove flawlessly, especially with the the help of Frank, my master mechanic and my good friend Glenn, who, hours before I left installed some heavy duty springs on the rear end that helped so much! We arrove in Vallarta last night late but safe....The trip was great , just enough adventure . Shame on those of you that doughted my 75 chinook. On the first leg I visited German, Lindsey and Lailanni in the bay area and realized my first twist to this trip...the headlines should read SLEEP APNEAC MAKES 2000 MILE TREK SOLO!!!! my bizarre disease comes over me at will! 2 + hours into the trip and I'm driving by Braille! so... I slept instead of driving the 5 all night. I got up at 5am and started from there. I learned that I needed to stop every 45 mins or so, even if it was just for a minute or two and that pretty much worked, except for the time I was driving though Buckeye,AZ. and woke to a Highway Patrol telling me to pull over and take a break, I had been a tich wobbly for about the 5 miles he was following me! I had good visits with my family, I was so blessed to visit with my totally conscious grandfather, who had come out of no communication for months and got a last time visit in. It's terrible to be old!!! I'm counting on having the ability to check out when your ready....his good health is really causing him so much pain in the end. On a lighter note, I had good visits with my mom and dad and with my friend Mark in Santa Monica. Leaving there was a trip....trying to maneuver the LA freeways , in full rush hour with the limited visibility of my camper and the broken tail and brake light and the 5 different freeways I need to join on to... I pulled a Zen act that actually worked.

On Halloween, I met up with my traveling partner, Isabel in the border town of Sonoita. She was great! An Amazing 75 year old shamanic healer from Booneville with a pair of new eyes . She was lead, with me trying to catch most of the day... we left early 4:30 am and drove into the night. The pace was too fast for me , I prefer a week long trip but you have to go with the flow. I wanted to try and keep up with her, so a portion of the driving was done by ? a few close calls , but I'm alive!!! At night we would pull into a neighborhood and sleep. Both my chinook and her van were perfect for that. Lots of stories in between and lots of barren deserts , as in cactus not ice cream. Being hours ahead of schedule and brave we decided to visit San Blas and Tepic and the center of the Hurricane Damage...WILD! AND SO SAD ...I had to cry...such loss to old growth and to so many families in upheaval. I'll send up some pictures soon. We had an amazing crisis/adventure that I'll tell later.... Isabel runs a B & B in Vallarta , Tortilla Flats and that's where I spent today packing up my camper getting ready for tomorrow where vlads wife, Jenny,s dad, Tulin will pick me up in the Rio of Boca. I got this plan to use the river for loading instead of the ocean , I'll let you know how it goes. So tomorrow to Yelapa and believe it or not relaxation , which I haven't had lately. Oh yeah the relaxation comes after getting a ton of my goods up my giant hill. By the way I forgot to mention that we had great luck again at the border crossing!!! No one even looked in the back of our vehicles, second year in a row. Heres a picture of the secret route that me and Isabel took. So here I go ... hoping the season will be good and full of many different things. Thanks for all your love and support ,truly. I'm totally aware of how blessed I am to have you all in my life. Ill write in a week or so ...

11/06/02....All is well in Yelapa.
My journey to Yelapa was easy with the help of friends. I met Jenny's brother and Dad in Boca dodging the upcoming rain storm. We had a perfect spot on the Rio to load my cargo to his boat and when arriving in yelapa my landlord and a friend were there to start the long trek of hand carrying my goods up to my casa, which has one one the steepest hills in town. I 'm always amazed at the locals endurance and strength. As a gringo we can lift alot but as a Mexican they can carry long distances. The sight of 2 guys carrying my ping pong table through the village and all the comments were too funny....pong ping...well close enough...will they learn to play ,that's the question ? My casa's were in great shape and survived the hurricane but left a few inches of mud throughout the floor ,my friends Alicia and Vero had cleaned up 90% but the latest storm and done another number on it. I spent the first day drinking almond tequila and sleeping and the last few days setting up. it will take a few weeks to accomplish.. Today I'm in Vallarta and Im still working on getting electricity and phone for internet...manana...is the typical response....I heard its raining there in Occidental.... More soon!!!!

11/14/02 Its been a good week. I ve spent most of the week setting up my property and casas. Due to basically a life change of my friend Debra , I was given the entire contents of her house in Yelapa. Its really great to have stuff here. ya, you can do that minimalist thing but comforts in the jungle bring alot of joy. A couple of nights ago I was lying in my hanging bed, sweating of course. I starting looking around my freshly setup loft. nice...comfortable.... mostly all natural materials ....palm and rope ect....I had to laugh at the small glass disco ball I had bought at the swapmeet. May be it was too much, really out of place. Then suddenly I noticed a number of reflections and a dozen fireflies had decided to stop by to visit and you will have to imagine the size of my smile to see them reflected in my disco ball!!!! I must say, a must have for Yelapa nights.The mosquitos have been nice this beginning of the season, usually I'm quite polkadotted by now. Im only slightly dotted. Last night I woke to me scratching my legs with an orgasmic fever. comprende? Its funny that will all my body mass they choose my ankles!!!! whats up with that? why not a thigh or butt? Im almost done with my main house and I'm getting ready to start construction next week in my other casa. I plan a new loft and a new hanging bed and the bark of the palm tree for siding. I set up the ping pong table in my casita...its too funny... crazy gringo with a casa for his ping pong table!!!! My friend Emilio figures he can play after I explained the game to him. He wanted to know if the ball hurt if you got hit with it. Is the ball hard? anyway Im glad to have an opponent. I'm a day away from Electricity and about a month and some serious praying from a phone but I'm on the path. So once a week I come to PV for adventure ,tacos and internet. Im off to catch my boat ...and hoping the sea's not too rough!

11/21/02 Amazing another great week! This was the week of Electricity. Yes it's true ...I have power now!!! It was an adventure to get it. You see it turns out that my landlord had some sort of dispute with someone and they did not turn in my contract to the vallarta power commission so...that was the first delay. My landlord, Chuy,actually Maria De Jesus Joya Santana went to the commission and fought and let me tell you you wouldn't like to be on her bad side. Power and Honor at the same time. Then we were told to meet the power guys at the 10:00am boat and we would get power that day. So like clockwork I'm there as soon as they step off the boat and I realize the next problem, the local head gives them a to do list and he has his own list and Im not on his list and believe me its obvious that this fat gringo isnt going to get power today. So I dashed up the hill to Emilio, my landlords son and asked for his help. Off he went with 100 pesos that I thought might help and to find the power guys.Two hours pass and it was a joyous moment when the power guys and Emilio arrive and after another discussion and the passing of the pesos....and then the head of local power comes running up to make sure all is ok as it turns out that Emilio had to use all his powers to get them to come to the house including numerous calls to the heffe. Well I had such a fun night....refrigeration ,stereo, lights, computer....it was so cool that Emilio and I had wired the property ,with no electrical service and then to finally flip the switch!!!!! I even have a light in my Casa de Pong. The Irony was the first night I was at a friends and was anxious to go home and then we realized that the power was out!!! A Few more conversations , more food and at long last power. On a sad note I am mourning the loss of my Iguana, Lemonita who was eaten by one of my neighbors. I had just spent a great morning filming her and then the next day she was gone! They don't hibernate and she has been there for years sooo....you know that old tastes like chicken line. Bummer....I have been threatened that someone might eat her before...they joke...Casa Nada Iguana... On the whole, life in Yelapa is great. This year tourism is lean and people are struggling with money . As technology and modern appliances cost a pretty penny... Yelapans need more than the usual money to live. Those extras cost. This is one of the first time there were really any monthly bills. Electric bills ,Phone bills ,Cable tv bills. Throw in a hurricane and things all the sudden things get tight!

I am excited about taking a road trip to visit Armando, my friend who works at our YMCA, in his home town of Emiliano Zapata, Michoacan. Can someone in Occidental tell him I'm coming? I've had this dream to buy a guitaron there for years. It's like a acoustic Bass. So....to end....if your enjoying this or have the time to drop me a hello, I'd love it...for now yelapan@hotmail.com works or lazy@palapainyelapa.com I've been told the phone guy is working in a nearby town so this week Ill pray to the phone/Internet Gods. Asta

11/26/02 Its been a fun few days and Im glad to end November on a good note. I got a chance to hang out with Pilar Law. One sharp woman. She has been living in Sebastopol and is currently in transit to another paradise, in alot of ways. Yelapa connections are always strong. I survived another fiesta thrown by the Juan Cruz Family. It was for the baptism of Chilo and Sondra's daughter. This time I was able to walk home fine. Of course my drunkenness was greatly exaggerated ! Many different people told a friend that I had to be carried home...small towns, don't you love them? That same night I had a great dinner/conversation with Michael and Susan Smith of Sonoma. They are real heart people. For 20 years they have brought groups of nurses here to study Spanish. Pegge works with them and got rave reviews as a teacher this year. Sidenotes... Michael is on the SRJC School Board and his wife is one of the classiest women around.

The tuna are running here. Huge tunas! After eating tuna for weeks, I am working on my cooking skills and made the tastiest batch of refried beans with chorizo. Enough to eat all week. It's funny how something as simple as beans, really nourishes your soul. Next I'm going to learn to make sopes, sort of a thick , small tortilla. Also my lemon tree has been a great source of fresh Lemonada daily.

Interesting things happen here daily. While relaxing in a beach front casa, a gavilan flies in and lands on the railing near the hammock. They are a fierce hawklike , bird but large. My friend doesn't feel good about it. He attempts to shuw the bird away, but it stays. He takes out his rifle and shoots the bird, injuring it but not killing it. He puts it in a cage and decides what to do. Some people here, mostly the people who came from Chacala, feel that it is bad luck to have such an encounter. They feel that the bird is somehow watching them or is a person who has transformed into the bird.Some type of witch. This is especially true with owls. Well a day or two passes and in the night, a group of wild raccoons come in the casa, break open the cage and eat the gavilan live, all while the entire family sleeps. They wake to the empty cage and some feathers....end of interesting story...

The phone saga might be close to an end. I was walking down my stairs and ran into the TelMex men today. As a pro, based on my electricity experience, I offered cold beers and money for my already paid installation. They did decline, smiling that they had only 30 minutes before the last boat leaves and they would return on Thursday am...I told then I would meet them on the pier...based on my meter, I think I have an 80% chance of an installation. But I'm thinking positive. Does it seem crazy to you all that I spend this much time worrying about modern conveniences when I choose to live in such a remote village? Its because I don't want to go to Vallarta every week or so. Its a nice town but a huge contrast to Yelapa...hard on the mind and body and pocketbook. Why compute at all? because it fills my nights. Being solo...you can only play so much guitar ect....and your enjoying me writing, right?

I know Thanksgiving is close but I haven't figured out what day. I am going to do something special , I just don't know what.... Wavy Gravy and separately Howard Hessman of WKRP are here this week/month. Maybe Ill go visit them. Im sure there are more exciting things that I should share with you but my bed calls loudly as a light night drizzle begins .Tomorrow will be glorious weather! Any requests for pictures out there? want to see anything special? send me an Email.... yelapan@hotmail.com or lazy@palapainyelapa.com

11/27/02 Well I was sort of close with the weather...overcast and a little rain. But that was ok, I figure any rain is good rain. I sit overlooking the bay. It is so calm . I can feel it from my house. I will always remember a similar weather day years ago when me and Dianne went snorkeling. It blew our minds, so many schools of fish , so close to you, as if you were just another creature of the sea. It was different than most days somehow the weather had changed things. Make note, overcast /drizzly day, great for swimming.

I decided today to post this website out publicly. It feels a bit weird to be so out there but what the hell and I'm sure I will meet some interesting people, so if you enjoy it , please pass it on! Check out my December Journal for up to date, day by day, minute by minute, second by second, 100% pure yelapa stories and what I ate for dinner.