One year older

Sunday was my birthday, I am now 33 years old.  The celebration included a home cooked persian dinner (made by Dariush Samimi, my father), a trip to see Harry Potter with Amanda (they finally got it right in #7, in case you were wondering) and making a batch of salted pumpkin caramels with my buddy Maria.

Someone reminded me of a birthday message Sandman sent me years ago, maybe the nicest I ever got.  It went like this:


Day 1:

Nima Samimi reminds me of what a male human being would be like. I've never met one, but I've read books on the subject, and he fits the model. My planet has much to learn about this species.

Some may try to probe him, but he may not acquiesce to their wishes. Perhaps we should just take unobtrusive notes for a while.

Shazbot,

-Dr. Yrep Pi Ls

(Don't get the joke hidden in the signature?  Read it backwards.  It represents on of his many alter-ego's.)

Thanks to all of you who sent kind birthday wishes, they brightened up my week.

Road Trip

My odometer tells me I’ve driven in the ballpark of 15 thousands miles since February.  I used to get irritable and sleepy after a three-hour drive but at this point I can put in a solid 7 hours with no trouble.  I’ve compiled this list of driving tips in case you also want to fortify your road trip stamina.

1. 1.     Eat well.  Sugar, excessive fat and processed foods (i.e. everything they sell at rest stops) are guaranteed to give you a brief high followed by hours of fatigue and discomfort (and possibly the runs).  You’re better off pulling off at any small town and eating at a non-chain restaurant.  It’s rarely more expensive and always involves things very closely related to meats, vegetables and carbohydrates.  Fruit is ideal car food – I find oranges are the hardest to eat but offer an ideal water/sugar/fiber ratio for staying in the driving zone.  And no candy.  Sorry.
2. 2.     Where to go for the cheapest gas: avoid gas stations just outside cities, these are usually wealthy suburbs.  Poorer city neighborhoods usually have the cheapest city gas.  Once you’ve driven a good 45 min outside a city gas gets cheaper but always takes a jump in price just before and just after any sign saying something like “next gas 50 miles” – avoid those.  Small towns with one gas station can be pricey because they don’t have much competition.  Look for small towns, close to other small towns that have multiple gas stations.  One of them will often be a full 15 cents cheaper than everything else.  Might as well let good ol’ capitalism save you some money.
3. 3.     Stretch your back, arms and legs every ½ hour in the car.  Stop at least every 2 hours and spend at least 60 seconds stretching.
4. 4.     Yawn when you aren’t tired.  When you’re tired yawning is a sign that you need to pull over and rest; when you aren’t tired yawning helps release physical tension and makes your ride more comfortable.
5. 5.     Drink enough water that your pee isn’t yellow but not so much that you need to stop more than once every two hours.  A pee break doesn’t need to take longer than 5 minutes, just go in, do your thing, stretch for a minute and get back on the road.  Rest stops are designed to waste your time: resist.  Spend your time and money having one relaxed stop for a meal in a town.  Never spend more than an hour holding a full bladder.  It will tire you out and irritate you way more than it’s worth.
6. 6.     Entertain yourself.  Music, podcasts, books on tape (et al) are the long distance driver’s dependable friend.  This is also a perfect time to reflect on your creative projects.  The road keeps the restless and worrying part of your mind busy and allows your creative brain hours on end to relaxedly imagine fantastic new things.  I record my many incredibly awesome ideas on the voice recorder of my cheapo cell phone while I drive.  Before you know it you could be in Memphis or Spearfish South Dakota. 
7. 7.     In an ideal world, get some play/excersize once during a driving day – could be before or during (not after.  Too late).  That element of play and physical exertion is the opposite of staring at a road for 7 hours and the lightness of it will stay with you.   I keep a basketball with me and 20 minutes of shooting around earns me hours of happiness.  I had an especially fun time playing at a middle school ball court in west Texas under the beating sun.  Other possibilities: run around, throw a football, cartwheels on rest stop grass, brief walk at a scenic rest stop.

Happy trails, fellow traveler.  Send me a postcard.

(Touring with Chris on the West Texas Border Last April)

Flip-cam Hitchhiking

A brief movie of my various hitchhiking, bussing and taxiing trips in Mexico and Guatemala.  Recorded on a flip ultra hd camera.

Buffalo

You know how every time you go back to places you knew as a child, they're never the way you remember them?  They're smaller or newer or they smell funny?  They sort of don't exist anymore?  Somehow Buffalo is exactly the same as I left it every time I visit.  I love it.

I'm here visiting my earliest childhood friends, the Baraie's.  Tomorrow, off to my father's house in Seneca Falls, NY.

Here are some beautiful everyday things from Mexico, Guatemala and Belize.

Fortune Cookie

My fortune cookie today said an important package was going to come in the mail.  I really hope it's an iranian passport.

I'm working on new and half-written songs today here in Dallas.  Uncle Craig has been really good to me - over the weekend we visited (among other things) the Dallas state fair and had our photos taken with a blue ribbon steer.  I learned that antlers molt and grow back but an animal with horns has the same set for life.

My time south of the border is still percolating in my head; I can't help but see things differently here in the United States now that I'm back.  Over a lifetime of living here I have gotten so used to having access to more or less whatever I want or need - and to that being normal.  I am getting a fuller picture that our country is the exception and not the rule.  I'll try to post 4 photos from my trip for the next few posts:

This was a market I especially liked in Mexico City

The green fruit was very like a pomegranite - I forget the name now

Part of a massive Mexico City bakery, way bigger and fancier than usual

Mexico City trashman - the barrel swivels so he can dump it out

In all the countries I visited most people were really skilled at fixing things when they broke and recycling old parts.  I saw a family of 9 drive down the street in a car so old it undulated as if it had several moving parts.  Every computer I used had been somehow frankensteined together.  The incredible ingenuity and resourcefulness was inspiring.  I would like to be a part of a world that wastes less.

Slideshow

I'm back in Texas! Here's a slideshow of my last 9 weeks. More to come.

Here's To You, México

Dear readers,

I wrote this short poem in Mexico City two months ago (August 2010).  Enjoy.
-----------------------------------------------



The seeds of the sandía* are sperms
searching for flavor
and companionship

The caballero's* guitar strings
are a loom
to weave boleros*
of Metallica

Rain causes blackouts
and floods the streets
like a protest

The cheep plastic fork
scrapes my mouth
to make the chille covered fruit
burn brigher

Here's to you, México.





*watermelon
*gentleman's
*type of Latin American song with a slow tempo

Tulum

Yesterday I visited the Tical ruins, near Flores, Guatemala - they are the largest of the Mayan ruins and from the tops of the pyramids you can sit back in the shade and cast your eyes on miles of jungle in every direction.

That evening I took a half an hour boat ride around Flores, which is an Island.  I had awful luck with transportation yesterday - I actually swore out loud in English for the first time since I left the US. This morning I was supposed to wake up early to find my way to the bus station and figure out how to get to Belmopan in Belize...but I overslept. I was just about to leave the hostel when a guy walked in and said "bus to Belize!". As Westly Snipes ones said: "Even the sun shines on a dog's ass some days". I just crossed the Belizian border and am riding in a minibus, in my favorite spot - the front seat.

Top 5 comments about my visiting Belmopan, from various Latinos and foreigners alike:

1 why would you want to go to Belmopan?
2 there's nothing there!
3 all they have is a marcado
4 why would you want to go to Belmopan?
5 where?

At any rate, Belmopan is the capital of Belize, and I'm going to spend a day there on my way north.

I've had two month now to reflect on the challenges and strategies of traveling through Latin America. It is not always easy to find experiences that are meaningful to me. The most common budget traveler's strategy is to go from one tourist destination to another, staying in hostel dorms and seeing sites. I like to do this occasionally but get tired of it quick. Another option is to stray from the beaten path, to visit smaller towns and villages (capital cities?) and to wiggle your way into less conventional and usually more interesting situations and to meet people from that place. I tend to prefer that way but it can really wear you out and involves more risk - I spent about half of my time here with one health problem or another, partly because of my risk-taking. This two-pronged approach has done me well, it's been an incredible and eye opening few months. It's kind of the same as my radio-listening strategy at work: I start with hip hop and street humor on JAMN 94.5 - when it starts to drive me crazy (so sexist some times) I switch to NPR; when I can't take that white liberal voice anymore I go to conservative sports radio. When I've had more Obama bashing than I can take...I sing to myself and then repeat the cycle.

In spite of my fears that I wouldn't learn much Spanish, I am now a semi-proficient speaker. Just in time for Belize...where they speak English!  It was a British colony. But soon I'll be back in the Spanish speaking world of the Yucatan in Mexico.
-----------------------------------------------

The Next Morning

After a full day of traveling (5 busses, 2 taxis and a good 3 miles on foot) I am now in Tulum, Mexico.  Oy!  Belmopan was great - I was litterally the only tourist there and took a packed local bus with students and people returning from their work day both ways.  Then I tried to find a hotel to camp out in Belize City for the night...but they were really hard to find!  And I was starting to look like an easy target to the local hustlers, I got a lot of attention as the sun began to set.  I ate three fantastic things in Belmopan: a cup of soursop juice (sour, sweet, refreshing), a scoop of ice cream from a fruit I've never heard of (creamy, fruity) and a plate of stew beef with rice and peas, potato salad and pickeld onions.  It occured to me that black Carribean food is a lot like Persian food.  Rice dishes, stew dishes and pickels.  The only thing missing is the yoghurt.  I know in some carribean countries there are big Indian (from India) populations, Indian food shares roots with Persian food.  From what I could tell, Mexian and Guatemalan food was not terribly influenced by Spanish culture.  I read once that early conquistadores almost exclusively ate a salad of avacado, tomato and bread crumbs - they couldn't manage much more.

The tourist bus station had closed for the night by 6PM so I hopped on a 3 hour local bus to the mexican border (packed to the gills with people going back to their houses, isles filled with people.)  At midnight I crossed the border back to Mexico (and got royally ripped off in crossing charges by the border guard; I suspect late night oppertunism), then got a taxi to a bus station just across the border that happened to have a bus leaving for Tulum (a beach town 2 hrs south of Cancun) at midnight.   I managed to find a hostel that let me in at 4AM, caught a little sleep and enjoyed a cheap crepe this morning.  The family that runs this place is really awesome, it's nice to be off the road.  I think I'm going to take them up on their offer to rent a bike and snorkeling gear for 100 pesos.

So far I've only seen the town but the beach is supposed to look like this:

Guatemala

My father's new Iranian passport arrived yesterday; it took the better part of 7 years for us to get it.  With it I will be able to apply for my own Iranian passport and, with luck, will make it to Iran to visit my family there before I go back to work in February.  I'll be in the city of Shiraz with my aunt Shalah and uncle Abbas - here's a picture of a Shiraz mosque, though it is most famous for it's gardens:

I got the news at an internet cafe in Guatemala city, where I am now visiting the family of my aunt Betty and cousin Ian, who are originally from Guatemala.  Rosa and her son Yankell have been incredibly kind and welcoming.  It has been so nice to be with family, for the first time in months.

In the email about my dad's passport arriving, my stepmother told me they needed some things from me in order to send in my passport application: 10 passport photos, in full suit and well groomed, a copy of my passport and an official copy of my birth certificate.  Incredibly, Yankell just happened to have a suit and tie hanging in his mother's closet and while Doña Rosa was at work I walked to a nearby barber and have a set of somber looking (this is the islamic republic, remember) passport photos taken.  And then I was able to mail it off with 6 day delivery.  The incredible things is that if I had gotten word in most of my other destinations, that simple process would have been way more compilcated- the suit, the photos and expideted mail.  Guatemala city looks more or less like this from the neighborhood I'm in:

What have I left out; I never wrote much about San Cristobal de las Casas, the old city in Chiapas where I spent a really nice week.  I ended up in a place with a working kitchen and spent every other day in the marcado buying fresh foods and experimenting with them at night.  Sucesses included roasted chiles with fresh fava beans and chicken marinated in this rub made of chiles and ground pumpkin seeds and then fried.  San Cristobal:

There I with a friend to a nearby religious center (on horseback!), rented a scooter to visit a park 10km away and climbed massive hills that lead to two citadels on opposite sides of the city, overlooking the opposing buildings and mountains.  From San Cristobal I took a passenger van across the Guatemalan border (about a 12 hour ride) through luch rolling hills and mountain-top towns - and through incredible rain, blinding fog and areas where rockslides forced both highway lanes to share one lane (often overlapping with the blinding fog; I practiced not looking and trusting the driver).  I arrived that night in the city of Antigua, at the foothill of a giant active volcano:



Today or tomorrow I will probably move on to Livingston, Guatemala which is on the coast near Belize.  From there I'll move on to Belize and then back to Mexico to the Yucatan coast.  Then back to Dallas to see my uncle Craig, who has been a gracious host to me in Texas...

Chiapas

As I make my way farther south in Mexico I often think of one of my favoirte Chris Sand songs, "Belmopan is Belmopan":

Mexico city
is a lotus land
and Veracruz
it is a candystand
and Chiapas...
it is a desperate man...ay...
but Belmopan is Belmopan.

I haven't written any new songs in a while but have found new creative outlets, like poetry and list making.  Yeah, for some reason I feel inspired to make really great lists.  I played a guitar for the first time in a month yesterday - my calouses are all gone.

I just left a very poor rural area where I was taking language classes.  The landscape was lush and green (it being the rainy season), the air smelled of burning wood which reminded me of New England.  I have four more minutes at this internet cafe computer in San Cristobal where am now staying for a few days.  Next stop, Guatemala.