Having a hard time adjusting to a stationary lifestyle

I have been living/staying in Santa Cruz for about two and a half months now since I returned from traveling. Already, I am having a tough time adjusting to a stationary life. For the six months I was traveling in Mexico and Central America, I never once stayed in one place for more than three weeks. This is why I wanted to slow the pace and settle down for a bit. Once I found a place to live, I started thinking about going back to school and finding a job etc. You know, all the things that normal people do. Well this brought me back to the same problem I always had: I can't get a good job that I really want until I go to school, and while I'm going to school, I will need to work 30 hours a week at shitty job just to be able to pay $700 a month for rent. And then I can hopefully take vacations IF my job will allow for it. And I have not been writing much since I've been back. I just don't know if this is the type of life I want to live.

I would rather live an exciting life, moving around from place to place, working different jobs all over the world, writing and taking lots of photos, meeting interesting characters and having all sorts of adventures along the way. This was my dream, but somehow the dream has been derailed along the way. When I was traveling, I felt as though I had a purpose and my journey was important. When I am here, I just feel as though I am some guy, once again lost and trying to find his way, with nothing to show for his twenty-four years of living on this earth.

I just bought a truck, so we will see where this truck and this life will take me...

New Travel Knife

Blade open

Blade closed

My old knife was either stolen or lost a little while back, so it was time to pick up a new blade. This is the type of knife that I have found, from my own personal experience, is good to travel with. Here are the reasons that this is a good travel knife:

1) Cheap. Can be easily replaced if stolen or confiscated by police, security, etc. (This knife cost me about $12 from Ace Hardware)

2) Medium-sized blade...not too big, not too small. Good for many different purposes, such as chopping food, carving wood, cutting coconuts, and also as a weapon.

3) Lightweight/flat. Not too heavy or bulky to carry in pocket.

4) Buckle clip. In case you prefer to carry it on the outside of your clothing.

The only thing I can think of that would make this knife better, was if it was a switchblade (blade that flips open). This would make it a better knife for self-defense if your life was ever threatened.

One month to make a decision

I have exactly one month, until the end of August, to make a decision. The decision I must make is to either settle down again temporarily and go back to school, or hit the road again and continue with my nomadic lifestyle.

I am subletting a room in the house I am at right now, and I must be out sometime around the beginning of September. School begins August 31st.....and so does Burning Man. If I stayed, I would need to find a "normal" job, and try to be happy living a stationary life, with the occasional travel excursions. Or...try to make and save as much money as I possibly can within this month, and then head out. If I choose to do this, I am forcing myself to work at least 5 days a week, and in my spare time, I want to finish my TESL certification course.

Big decisions to make...

Summer in Santa Cruz

An apple falls from a tree and lands on the ground with a thud outside my window. For some reason, I am inspired by this apple to write...something I have not done in months.

Why have I not been writing? I guess since I have been off the road, I don't feel like there is that much to write about. I have been thinking too much about which direction to go with my life, and in all that thinking, I have started to lose sight of my original dream. I have moved into a house in Santa Cruz, and have been considering going back to school and living a more stationary life for a while. But the same problem that I had with school in the past, now arises again. It is too big of a commitment, and I have a problem with long-term commitment, and being tied down in general. I already have plans to do things later this year that would interfere with school...music festivals, meditation retreats in the mountains, WWOOFing, the autumn harvest season. And like those apples falling to the ground, the minutes of my life are passing by, one by one.

The house I am living in now is only a summer sublet. So that means I have until the end of the summer to save up some money, or I could just leave whenever I please. So I will try to find some work here and make as much money as possible, and then hit the road after summer.


TIP: In areas where there are colleges and universities, a lot of students will sublet their rooms for the summer, while they are visiting back home. They will usually lower the price of the room dramatically. For example, the house I am in now, I am paying $200 a month less than it would normally cost during the school season. This is a good way to save a little money.

Things to do before you die

I think everybody has certain things that they want to do before they die. If you really set your mind to it, you can transform these ideas from just dreams, into reality.

Here are some things that I want to do:
-Become a certified scuba diver
-Bungee jump
-Sky dive
-Learn to surf better
-Practice yoga in India
-Learn martial arts in Asia
-Sail around the world
-Find a shaman to administer a proper Ayahuasca ceremony in the Amazon
-Learn to rock climb
-Hike the Pacific Crest Trail as well as the Apalachian Trail
-Study and grow medicinal plants
-Take a cooking class

What would you like to do? Don't let anything hold you back...you can do anything you want in this life!

Change of traveling-style needed

This trip through Mexico and Central America has been the first out-of-country, long-term travel experience I have done by myself. I have learned so much and have had such a great time, but I think from now on, I need to change my style of traveling a bit. The longest I have stayed in one place this trip has been three weeks, which is when I volunteered at the Bosque in Michoacon, Mexico. I feel like I have been just touching the surface of everywhere I go, just staying long enough to experience a little of the area and get an idea of what it is like.

This fast-paced style of traveling is no doubt exciting, but I have a longing to go more in depth, to truly get to know an area and the people that live there. I want to really get to know people, and form solid friendships that will last forever. Although, I'm not saying that I want to settle down yet either...I think I am still a long ways away from that. But from now on, I am going to travel at a much, much slower pace, spending at least a couple months in each place. I need to find the right balance that will allow me to experience new places and keep my sanity at the same time.

Climbing Volcan Tajumulco

Looking at a bulletin board at Posada Qhia in San Cristobal de Las Casas, Mexico, I noticed a flyer for a group called Quetzaltrekkers. It claimed to be a volunteer-run organization that does hiking trips in Guatemala and Nicaragua, with the majority of profits going to help local school children in the area. The advertised climb on the poster was for Volcan Tajumulco, which it said was the highest volcano in Central America, at 4,220 meters. I quickly located the volcano on my map, and discovered that it was only a little bit West of LAke Atitlan. I had planned to go to Lake Atitlan anyway, so this wouldn't be too far out of the way. Maybe it is a bit of a male macho thing, but when I read "highest in Central America", I knew I had to climb it.


About three weeks later, I found myself in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala, preparing to head out with the Quetzaltrekkers group for the Tajumulco hike. I did not even have the $400 Quetzales required for the hike, due to the ATMs in town being closed and my own lack of preperation. So I had to give them my passport as collateral until I could pay the fee. They had every type of equipment you may need available to rent, and I borrowed a warm sleeping bag, long underwear, gloves, and a light jacket. I opted to use my own backpack, which meant that I had to remove all my usual traveling gear and store it in a garbage bag temporarily. All members of the trek were required to carry a couple pieces of equipment for the group, as well as three bottles of water; two for drinking and one for cooking. With my pack fully-loaded, it was much heavier than what I usually travel with.

We rode standing in the back of a pickup to the bus stop, with freezing cold, early-morning air blasting our faces, preparing us for what was to come. After two very crowded rides on chicken buses, and a breakfast, we arriveed at the base of the trail. From here, you could see the peak of Tajumulco looming overhead. For being the tallest volcano in Central America, it actually didn't appear to be as big as I thought it would.But I later found out that this was because the point at which we were starting at was already very high in elevation. We set off, and almost immediately, you could feel the elevation's effect on your breathing. This, combined with a heavy pack, made for some slow progress. I felt as if we were pack mules loaded with huge bundles of supplies on our backs. The high elevation definitely took it's toll on us, and we were forced to take quite a few breaks. But nonetheless, the guides said we were one of the fastest groups they've ever had. Around 12:30pm, we stopped and ate a very healthy vegan lunch. Then we laid out and let the sun re-energize us before hitting the trail again. Quite a few locals passed by us coming down the mountain, who must have ascended to the top very early that morning. I was amazed at how so few of them had proper hiking gear; girls and women were wearing dresses, and some of them had only sneakers, and some even sandals!




After lunch, we got off to a slow start, feeling full in the belly, and a bit lazy. But our momentum picked up, and we could soon see the spot where we would set up camp for the night. Many of the trees on the hillside were dead, and the guides said this was most likely becuase of a few different reasons: One, there is a type of beetle that eats away at the trees, and two, the locals say that back in the 80's, the U.S. government had sprayed a chemical on the mountain in an attempt to destroy the coca plants that were growing there. We soon reached our destination for the night and set up camp. We brewed coffee and tea, then proceeded to climb up a small nearby peak to watch the sunset. The sun dissapeared over a sea of clouds that extended to the edge of the horizon in every direction. It was quite amazing.



After a dinner of pasta, we called it a night and prepared to get up early in the morning to climb the peak. We arose at 4:30am to the sound of fireworks and voices in the distance. Apparently, locals climb up the mountain very early in the morning to watch the sunrise. We gathered our sleeping bags and pads, and began to climb in the dark. On the way up, we passed a big, flat rock where the locals leave offerings. We reached the top just in time to see the sun come up, and there were already about twenty locals up there. Just as the sun had gone down, it slowly re-emerged from beneath the sea of clouds, revleaing the valleys and chain of volcanos that popped up from the clouds like little islands below us. The picture-taking began, with everybody asking others to take photos of them and doing crazy poses. One of the guides pointed out Volcan Fuego in the distance, which was actually erupting at that very moment. We could see a little puff of smoke on the distant horizon. I could also see Volcan San Pedro, which I had climbed just about a week earlier.



We eventually started the descent down the back side of the volcano. We circled around the edge of the crater, gazing down into the gaping hole. From this side, we could see the giant shadow cast by Tajumulco, spanning for miles over the valley below in a perfect triangular shape. When we got back down to camp, there was breakfast, as well as coffee and tea waiting for us. We enjoyed the breakfast, and started back down the mountain. Going down was, of course, much easier and quicker than going up. We reached the bottom and scarfed down some more food at a comedor, then waited for the chicken bus. Chicken buses are usually crowded, but I think this was the most over-crowded chicken bus I had ever ridden on. The bus was absolutely packed to the top, with people standing and hanging out the door. I didn't mind it though, as it made the experience all that much more memorable.

I definitely came away from the trek with some new realizations. Standing atop that volcano, I realized that there are so many amazing, mind-blowing things to be seen on this earth. I want to travel to every corner of the Earth, seeing and learning about them all.