Shared World

Today in the Garden

Today, I traveled just inches away from the world that I have grown to know...in the corner of the garden just outside my door.  I saw a flash of color that drew me in to this mysterious place...by the driveway.

The Road Back

Top to Bottom:  Rio Hondo as it reaches Belize, and Pollo Asado and Squirt refueling station, Tulum, Mexico, my hotel pool where victory laps took place, Merida 2011-2012

I have been back a month, and as I watch snow flakes fall on a late evening in March, it feels a bit as though I never left, as it seems like winter is coming rather than going. This Yucatan trip was the hardest trip that I have made in some time.  Language acquisition was particularly important as I navigated the Yucatan Peninsula in crisscross fashion for months on end.  It was a project that I dreamed up several years ago.  It made me sit through Spanish classes at Instituto Cervantes, NYC, spend a winter watching only Latin films, buy verb flashcards, and a kayak that I would later strap to my back day after day.  I swam laps at the pool and carried heavy buckets to a hundred roofs, knowing that each one made me a little stronger and a little closer to returning to the kind of travel that I always loved. The preparation was often seemingly on the back burner as I felt a bit trapped in city life.  "Too many depended upon me," I was told.  But then it dawned on me that I depended upon myself as well, and I barely recognized the New Yorker that I was fast becoming.  I needed an exit strategy and it was named "operation cenote."

So with work completed, I left, and few even realized I was gone.  That is NY for you as there is always someone or something that replaces you quite rapidly.  I arrived to every travelers nightmare where nearly every bit of travel preparation that I had made promptly went belly up upon my arrival.  From car rental agreements to the beach house that I rented.  Then hospitalization and several epi pen injections, and a brutal recovery from severe burns caused by my prescribed medicine's interaction with the sun...and all this within the first weeks.  I had to roll with a roller coaster ride of experiences that no one could have anticipated.

I came very close to giving up, but then realized that I could convalesce in Mexico and gather my inner courage.  Luckily, I did just that.  I forced myself to bed rest, editing, research, plus very large breakfasts and a lot of DIY first aid.  I learned that every trip to the Pharmacy could be an entertaining language lab.  I Used prior travel medicine knowledge to help me out of a rather scary two weeks with second degree burns on 1/3 of my body.  I cried when I looked at myself in the mirror on several occasions.  I feared infection, scaring and more days of pain.  I am happy to report that though there were many days of pain and a lot of tears, I was able to ward off both infection and scaring.  It gradually appeared that I was on my way to being as good as new.

I celebrated my recovery with a nighttime swim in the little hotel pool. I shivered and was still shy about the amount of scars that were still visible at that time, but I thought,"tough, I am swimming anyway," and I am very glad that I did.  For me, being visibly wounded is often harder than being invisibly wounded.  It brings out my shyness to the point of nearly sidetracking my activity. As I get older, I keep the shyness at bay the best I can. I donned my most elegant swim suit and the silk sarong that my former students had once lovingly covered in inspired swirls of dye, custom made for me, and down the stairs I went to the pool. My private celebration was briefly interrupted by the muffled applause of a beautiful Mexican lady who knew a bit of my story. It was a victory of recovering past the point of dangerous infection, and from that point on, time would slowly heal the scars left on the inside and out.  More importantly it was a more private victory tribute to being able to believe in oneself no matter what.          

To be continued...

Reconnection

The summer has passed and my seasonal environmental job also draws to a close.  It marks a closing point but also a reminder and renewal of my closeness with nature.  Though at times working outdoors caused us a great deal of stress as we had to cancel sites and be bumped off schedule, it was a big reminder that even in a city as big as New York, nature rules.

It was a pleasure to view the city from dozens of rooftops and speak to the residents that inhabit these neighborhoods.  It is too soon to know how these days will influence my artwork and life, but I feel that these days etched into me and when I move on to quieter places for reflection and creation, these moments will follow me.

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Sun Sun and More Sun

Right, so this was my ultimate survivor summer, but I wasn't any more remote than the urban jungles of the South Bronx.  What did I learn?  A lot of Spanish phrases and a fair bit about sunblock.  

Throughout the receint months, I have been in an unusual situation for a New York dweller.  I have been outdoors more than indoors.  I have experienced all kinds of weather, but rain and extreme heat seemed to compete for my attention. Just yesterday, a calm cloudy early autumn day registered163 degrees on the roof where I worked with my crew.  I felt relieved that we didn't bring the heat gun device in the midst of August, because some details you just don't want to know.

So what did I learn, well, I learned that after testing 8 types of sunblock, NO AD brand reigned supreme.  Yup, the cheap one that i first encountered as an eight year old while tearing up Wet-n-Wild in Orlando, Florida. My Mom dipped me in the stuff long ago, and now I can buy it in mass quantities at any corner shop in Brooklyn, Queens, or the Bronx. It is sold in nearly liter quantities that you can transfer to smaller reclaimed bottles so to save your back.

I had a horrible reaction to the fancy organic indulgence sunblock, an event that alarmed me of the possible reactions to mineral based sunblock.  I also spent two afternoons administering first aid to three crew members that had Coppertone Sport reactions when it got near their eyes. Not fun for any of us.

The biggest lesson I learned was to just cover up the exposed skin and alternate shorts with long pants, short sleeves with long.  Not exactly earth shattering news to report, but sometimes simple solutions are the best.


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Play a Good Hand While on the Road

When off the beaten path, a good card game will save the day.  Cards pack easily, they are small, and they usually have fairly simple rules that can be translated well enough to carry you through a monsoon season.  When you are far from all things...the smallest entertainment will make a big impact.

Today, I found a pack of environmental playing cards that would warm the hearts of even the most icebound of travellers to the far North and South seas.  Never before have I seen a card game based around the food chain, let alone my favorite underdogs of the sea, Krill...but today was my lucky day.  Not quite sure how to play it yet, but I know it will end up on the far stretches of the globe as a treasured conversation piece.

In all things, a small, meaningful gift will be worth it's weight in gold in the bottom of your pack.

Happy travels.

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Weatherproofing Yourself - Part 1

I have just returned from the Midwestern United States and it's 14 degree windchill. It is windy, snowy and just beginning the long winter cool down. People are out sledding, skiing and generally enjoying the weather both there and in the comparatively balmy New York City, but there is one major difference-here everyone is seems to be ill. Granted, here it is much more crowded in NYC and the likelihood of coming face to face with someone with the flu is pretty good, but I think it is also impacted in part by how people dress for the weather.

Over a year ago I decided to weather proof myself as an experiment. Could I enjoy life here in the city more if I were out in the elements and prepared for them? It seemed like a simple solution to my complex situation of being an outdoorsy person in our country's largest city. I would get to be outdoors a lot more, I would notice subtle changes around me, and I would get pretty fit in the process. I had become a Starbucks clutching, impatient subway rider, and that had to go. I decided to forgo my monthly metro pass and the Starbucks for several months an used that money to purchase gear. The plan was to walk to my destination instead of wait for transportation. I only used public transportation when I was really far from something. Waiting for the crosstown bus became a thing of my past.

With any lifestyle change comes initial adjustments and the occasional setback, the most obvious one in this case was time. Where was I going to find the time to do this? It ended up being a simple early to bed early to rise solution that helped with the initial changes in my commute around the city. Walking takes time, but so does waiting. Walking resulted in a predictable arrival time where the transportation wait times varied wildly. It also fostered a better sense of community because I ran my errands while in transit, allowing me to shop locally and become aware of the small businesses that I want to support. I was able to come up with various routes that would combine something practical with something beautiful- I could have a picnic breakfast in Central Park and watch the migrating birds for a couple of minutes instead of staring blankly down a subway tunnel for morning entertainment.

In the next posts, I am going to go through some of the gear trials and explain what I found useful in my experiment.

Memories of Enua Manu-The Isle of Birds

After the doom and gloom of my traveller's first aid posts, I felt that I could take a bit of a breather and remind us of why we travel. There are two questions that are always asked of me 1) Don't you get lonely? and 2) Don't you get scared? Perhaps this old photo of me and my Cook Island pals will help to alleviate those worries.