Archive for October, 2004
About 15 minutes north of Bucerias, there is a little surf spot called “Punta de Burros.” Locals don’t talk about Burros very much because they don’t want you going there. Fortunately for them, Burros is a point that is not easily accessible. Just to the south there is a gated housing development, you have to have connections to get in. At one point I had tried to gain entry by dropping the name of someone who lives inside. The security guard informed me that I’d to have the person I know, call down to the gates to let me in. No dice.
To the north of Burros is an all inclusive resort, called the Palladium, that will not let you use their parking lot. I had made friends with one of the security guards one day and he had let me park in the employee parking lot to walk down to the ocean using the lot next door that the resort was expanding into. That day there were no waves. I’ve heard many good things about Burros, but most notably that when the swell dies down, there are always waves at Burros. It’s simply the most reliable place to surf and the least crowded. In the two months that I have been here, it’s become my mission to get in to Burros. My initiation into being a local.
Yesterday, I had gone up to Sayulita, and there was not a respectable wave to be had. So I took the slow, bumpy, back-road shortcut to Punta Mita and headed 5 minutes south to Burros to see if I could get in. At the Palladium, the guard (a different guy) told me I couldn’t park there, but that there was another road and the turn off was right before the entrance to the hotel, so I turned around and found the little road. I took it until I came upon a dead end, at a house with a huge entry gate and ominous looking motion detectors. So I turned around and headed back to the guard. He then told me that I should jump the fence, that people did it all the time. So once again I followed the road until the end and parked in a clearing just shy of the lone entry gate. Sure enough there seemed to be a cleared pathway and a fence that had seen better days. I decided to leave my board in the truck, in case there weren’t any waves and I didn’t exactly know what I was getting myself into.
The path worked it’s way down an over grown slope until it intersected a dried up river bed. I followed the river to a barbed wire fence and then up another hill to the left, over some large rocks and then along a fence that marked the boundaries of the properties. At about the five minute mark, I was sure that I was on a wild goose chase. The pathway seemed to be going parallel to the beach and I was almost positive I was going to end up on the highway (or what passes for a highway in Nayarit). I said “screw it” and trudged on. Just after this point the jungle leveled out and I started to hear the waves breaking not far away and my little journey became an adventure. I was determined to make it into Burros without the help of other surfers, I was determined to do it myself. The pathway sloped down a little and re-connected with river bed and through a clearing I saw the beach, pure and unmarked, nestled into the hip of a 50 foot cliff. As I came down to the beach I saw two lone long-board surfers trying to ride the small waves. I was mildly disappointed, but I was just happy to have found a reliable way in. I took in the the beautiful spot and watched how the surfers navigated the waves and the terrain (always important to notice what kind of terrain you are surfing on). I had accomplished my goal of getting into Burros and found paradise along the way.
Pictures to come, in the near future!
Tuesday, Oct 26th, 2004
Categories: travels
So I’ve been planning to go to back to LA this weekend, to see friends, take care of house stuff and to make my voice heard in this upcoming fracas they keep referring to as a presidential election. For some reason I just don’t know if I want to go back to LA. I love my friends and miss them terribly, but I know as soon as I get there that I will miss Mexico more. I just can’t seem to make myself press that “buy this ticket” button on the airline website. I wish I could just bop up to LA for the night or even for the afternoon, four and five day trips are just too long. what to do, what to do…
here’s a picture of me taken by my dad, in the subway in Mexico City. Check out his other photographs while you’re there. beautiful.
Here are some photos from a recent trip to Mexico City to meet with our architect, Fernando de Haro and his studio, Abax Arquitectos. enjoy!
For witty little captions remember to click the images:
[ Link to photo set ]
This wave had to be at least ten feet tall, possibly more. big storm rolling through. This photo was taken north of San Pancho. I’ve never seen the waves this big. The picture doesn’t do it justice. this wave was huge. and barreling down on the beach directly in front of me. heavy stuff.
It occurred to me yesterday, while floating over a wave, that my diet consists mainly of: shrimp, fish, avocados, tomatoes, onions, cheese and lime (lots and lots of lime).
I don’t know why you might find this interesting, but there you go.
Gettin’ pinched by the Man (or how I stopped worrying and started loving The Mexican Mordida System):
When staying in Mexico for an extended period of time, there is a good chance that at some point or another you will be pulled over by “El Transito” (the traffice cops), sometimes for imaginary infractions other times for legitimate errors (unintentional or not). The customary way to handle such situations is to plead ignorance and language barrier as the police officer tells you in half spanish and half broken english what your infraction is and how he will need to take your license card and you will have to come in to pay the ticket. As the conversation winds on (and on and on), you’ll begin to understand that if you give the police officer a sum of money (that you are usually left to figure out how much is appropriate) that he can forget about the infraction and let you on your way, as long as you don’t tell any of your gringo friends, because the police can’t have it known that they accept bribes. We call this The Mordida System, “mordida” loosely meaning “bribe”. It is always a good practice to carry an extra 200 pesos bill (20 bucks) in your wallet, in case of such occurrences. This amount is usually sufficient for the mordida. This will happen to you, sooner or later.
Americans with resident visas, what’s called an “FM3,” can bring a car into the country under an automobile visa, usually lasting 2 years or so. But when the visa expires, the person must bring the car back to the border and re-register the car with a new visa (ridiculous, I know). I recently bought a ‘96 Nissan Pathfinder from some friends of ours down here. We are now in the process of transferring the title into my name, in the states. It is still up in the air, whether I will need to drive the car back to the border to re-register it for another visa. As long as the car is over a certain number of years (eight I believe) you can buy a used american car in Mexico and not have to have it registered under a visa. At the moment, I do not have an FM3, I am here on a tourist visa and the car is registered under my friend’s names. I am in process of getting my FM3, so that I can legally live and work in Mexico.
Last night, I was driving home from my good friend Miguel’s house at around 1:00am. I noticed in my rear view mirror a “transito” pick-up trick, following me through 3 turns. On the fourth turn, a left hand turn, the red and blue lights went on and I knew I was doomed from the first time I saw the truck. The police officer, a mild mannered guy probably around 25 or 26, walked up to my window and offered his hand for a handshake. He asked me if I knew spanish and I replied yes (mas o menos - more or less). He politely asked me for my license and registration. I complied. He began to explain to me that he had pulled me over because I had made a left hand turn at the previous light, which is a two way street and apparently in Mexico you can’t make a left hand turn on a two way street. Now I have to plead ignorance at this point, I really am not sure if he was bullshitting me or not (so I am looking into it - survey says: yes, I was wrong), but I assume that he was telling me the truth at this point, so his reason for pulling me over was legitimate. I had unintentionally broken a traffic law. My problem was further compounded by the fact that the car that I was driving not only had an expired visa but that the visa specifically states that people without an “FM3″ may not operate the vehicle (i.e. me). He told me that usually he could forget about the traffic violation since it was pretty clear that I had no idea what I had done wrong, but that the visa and my lack of FM3 issues weremuch bigger. He then explained to me that he would need to impound the car and my license and that I could come pick both up tomorrow at the impound, after I pay the $150 impound fine, that I would also need to pay another fine for having a lapsed automobile visa and then I would need to go directly to the border to re-register the vehicle.
I was still trying to understand what this would mean.
I explained to the guy that the car was not mine (not technically) and that the owners had recently passed away (true, regrettably) and that their children who now owned the vehicle were in Colorado getting the car transferred into my name (true). So in effect, there was no way the owner could come with me to get the vehicle out of the impound. He then said that that car would have to stay in the impound until the owners could come and claim it. I was pulling my hair out, thinking of all the crap I’d have to go through to get the car out of the lock-up.
At seeing me distraught, the cop politely asked me to get out of the car and follow him to his truck. In front of his truck, he further explained my situation and I got more worried. At this point I started to hint that if there was anyway we could take care of it now I would be most appreciative. He explained to me that he didn’t want to go through the hassle of impounding the car and that I seemed like a good guy, but that he couldn’t take any money from me, because he’s an honest cop and he’s young and likes his job and too many gringos talk. I assured him that if we could take care of it here and now, that I would forget all about him and not say a thing to anyone. He then said, alright, and what was it worth to me and then he ran down the list of infractions, fines and the process I would have to go through to get the car released, all the while being very nice and polite. he was honestly trying to help me out.
At this point, I had no idea that I was being pinched. I thought about my wallet in my pocket. how much did I have there? 100 pesos maybe? I told the officer that I had maybe 100 pesos. He didn’t seem to like that, so I said that I could go to an ATM machine, if he knew where one was nearby. He then asked well how much could I give him. I thought about it for a second and blurted, “well, how bout 100 dollars?” He perked up immediately and gave me directions on how to get there and that he would follow behind me. We got in our cars, went to the ATM machine and I gave the officer his money. He smiled, thanked me, and said that if I obey the traffic laws, I wouldn’t get pulled over again, but that I should get the car situation take care of. and then he was on his way.
and I thought to myself, I just got pinched by The Man!
As I drove home the 20 minutes to Bucerias, I thought about the transaction and how it had unfolded in exactly the same way that people had said it would happen. and that I probably could have gotten off the hook by giving the guy the 200 peso note that ended up being in my wallet. Then I recalled a book I had read called Shock Culture: Mexico! In the book, the author explains The Mordida System and it’s unexpected benefits. You see, The Mordida System serves a really interesting purpose: to expedite small things like this, to keep them from bogging up the legal system and to keep the cops paid decently. Sure, there are people who abuse the system. Yes, I think it sucks that I got pinched for a hundred bucks, that’s a boat load of money, especially down here. But in the end, he didn’t pinch me for the hell of it or just because he could. He actually did me a service by not impounding my car and making me toe the legal line. He saved him and his boss from having to do all the paper work and he got paid very nicely, in mexico the cops get paid like crap. So even though I’m short a hundred bucks, I think I escaped relatively unscathed.
Well, I guess I have to chalk this one up to being well on the road to becoming an ex-patriot.
–
While surfing this weekend, in Sayulita, i was hit by two different novice surfers.
The first guy, didn’t look over his shoulder to see me already on the inside of the wave. When he saw me come up right behind him, he then pushed off me and jumped off his board, sending it straight into my left shin. ouch! The second guy got his board caught with mine and some how managed to put a large gouge in the nose of my board, about 4 inches long and an inch deep. most likely with one of his fins. On Saturday, i repaired the ding, like the McGuyver that I am. thank you.
I try to not to talk smack about beginning surfers since i’m pretty new to it, myself, but it does get my panties in a bunch when new surfers don’t watch the other surfers around them.
I sent this update out to my friends and family on Thursday, October 7th:
Greetings from Puerto Vallarta. life is good, down here, lots to report:
i went to mexico city with mom, two weeks ago to interview an architect (the one we are hoping we will get to work with, very talented guy). The meeting went well and mom and i spent 2 days touring the city, it being the first time for both of us. Mexico City is the most beautifully ugly city i have ever seen. it is amazing. you can feel that the city is alive, everywhere you go. the architecture is insane and never stops. there are rich neighborhoods and poor neighborhoods mixed with business centers all sprawled out in this valley between two mountain ranges, and going up into the mountains. the traffic jam never stops, but there is always something to see as you move from neighborhood to neighborhood. people out in all sections of the city. people in yellow racing car jump suits running through the streets trying to sell you cellphone minutes cards. the city is what you would get if you mixed 1 parts rustic european city with 3 parts south american city and 1 part industrial/business zone and 2 parts cutting edge world class architecture (how many parts is that now?). there were several sections of the city where you could see at least 10 skyscrapers being built within a few blocks radius.
the food was so so. we didn’t really get to go to any really top notch restaurants, but we did have the best sushi you can find in mexico. which was pretty damn good. we went to the city’s premier sushi/teppanyaki place and people were being served tortillas with their teppanyaki. pretty funny. i guess mexicans don’t jive with saki, we were the only ones drinking it in the entire jawnt. and there was only one kind. interesting.
the art was incredible. we went to the Museo del Palacio de Bellas Artes, which is a giant arts center, made almost entirely of marble and onyx in the 40s by a group of Italian architects and builders. they have several Diego Rivera murals and several by his contemporaries, they also had a Frido Kahlo exhibit which ended up being more about her life, then her actual art. but it was still pretty bad ass. We also went to their house in Coyoacan, which has been turned into a museum and houses most of Frida’s work and several smaller Diego pieces. that was a cool experience. the best part though was watching an hour long documentary on the symbolism of Frida’s work and her significance in art history. pretty cool.
we also went to a market called “Bazaar del Sabado” which is held in a really beautiful old part of Mexico City called San Angel. where every saturday, all the crafts people gather from the surrounding areas to sell their goods. the art pieces were insane. art of every kind. from all over mexico. top notch quality at pretty good prices. we spent the day oohing and ahhing and vowed to return when searching for stuff to decorate the interiors of the houses when the time comes.
we are going back to Mexico City next week, on tuesday, to meet with the architect again to have a 2 day brainstorming session. i look forward to being back in Mexico City, if nothing else then to marvelous at all the beautiful women that live there. whoa, too much!
Back in Bucerias, there has literally not been a single decent wave for a week and a half. ohhh the horror. we just moved out of the rainy season, and for some reason as the rain stopped, so did the waves. and i am sad. they are supposed to kick up tomorrow and over the weekend and then die back down the beginning of next week. i hate to say it, but this place can get a wee bit boring when work slows and the waves die down. so i’ve been reading a whole lot and trying to stay busy. I just finished Haruki Murakami’s “The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle”, 600 odd pages of pure rambling genius. but my social life has been rather lacking, so i need to start getting out there and meeting more people. still tons more to explore…
September is the month in between when the mexican tourists leave in late august and the american and canadian tourists start to fill in, in mid-october. In spanish, “September” and “hungry” are “Septiembre” and “hambre”, respectively, the locals call September “Septiehambre” because everything shuts down and everyone goes on vacation. it’s been a long slow month, which i will most definitely miss as all the gringos waddle into town and make me feel like even more of a schmuck that my spanish isn’t as good as it should be. (note to self: start taking spanish lessons already, lazy).
On a positive note, my friends Miguel and Raul design websites for a real estate company down here and take all the pictures and stuff, and they invited me to come with them on 2 nights of shoots last week. The houses were both insane architectural beach front houses basically. exactly the type of thing we are going to do, so it was interesting seeing different houses and how they were constructed and the details and stuff like that. i took a ton of pictures. one house was on the market for 1.5 mil and the second was 4 mil. crazy shit. wonderful houses both. so i guess it was a really good learning experience to see what they did right and how i would do things differently.
lastly, I’m in the process of setting up a nifty little blog that will have my daily musings, stories and such and tons of photos. I’ll pass along the url when i figure it out. And I set up this really cool service called Vonage. so i can make and receive calls in mexico as if i was in the States (through the wonderful power of the internet). At the moment, i have a Brooklyn number and if you call it from a cellphone it shouldn’t cost too much (i’m thinking about adding a second “virtual” Los Angeles number). [digits removed to protect the innocent]
call me?… si!
I guess thats really all for now. it’s hard to complain too much. it’s been awfully hot, especially since the rains left, but again, that’s really all i have to complain about. i miss you all and i will try to make it up most definitely make it up to LA, to cast my vote in this crazy ass election of ours. again, i miss you all, and hope everyone is doing good.
be well,
// Ed
click here for some great photos
(for witty little captions remember to click the images)
This was an email i sent out to my friends and family, on Sept. 3rd. About 2 weeks after I made the move. I am reprinting it here because i think it’s cute and it captures the feeling of moving to a new country and feeling at home:
I was dropping mom off at her weekly thursday Bridge game in old town Vallarta, yesterday. The streets are all cobble stone and the buildings don’t go past 2 levels. all old style buildings made from brick, painted white with red tile roofs and madera wood beams. disheveled buildings that showed their age and history of being built, added-on, remodeled, demolished and rebuilt over the course of 300 hundred years. it was around two o’clock and i hadn’t eaten so i stopped by a little taco stand in the middle of a side street. these ladies were selling fish tacos that smelled incredible, so i sat down to place my order. as i was waiting for my tacos, i looked up at the young girl, not possibly older then 17, with the most gorgeous smile, making fresh tortillas, and then I looked around me at the old streets and buildings and old socialist design inspired buses driving by and the school kids in their dark blue and white uniforms running home from school, and the steep mountains and trees above the city in the near distance with their apartment buildings poking out of the tree canopy. the beauty of it all. and ate the most delicious tacos of my entire life. i think i’m home.
So this is the first post of my brand spankin’ new weblog. I guess this is a good time to explain why I set up this thing. so here goes…
About 2 months ago, I was living in Los Angeles, working as a graphic designer. I had my own company, called “Quality Peoples.” I was designing and producing web sites for film marketing (JamesBond.com, Soul Plane.com, Delovely). Things were going great and business was strong, but i was feeling a wee bit unsatisfied. Someone very wise once said, you should change your career every ten years and my ten were almost up.
My parents have been living in a small town, called Bucerias, north of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico for about 4 years now. My mom, Mary, started a small business (Seggerman & Co.) to design and build vacation houses, here in Vallarta. Things have been going particularly well for her and it seemed she needed some help with the expansion of the company. One day she called me up to see if I would be interested.
I jumped at the chance.
I rented my house out to my wonderful cousin Wendy (who is in the MFA art program at my alma mater: CalArts), sold my car, politely informed my clients that I’d be taking a six-month “sabbatical”, turned 30 and got outta dodge as fast as humanly possible. On August 23rd 2003, I moved to Mexico with the thought that it would most likely be temporary. I would spend six months to a year living, working and surfing. and if things worked out and i decided to stay, then i would make the move more permanently.
And so here I am. a (sort of) ex-pat living a more simple life down here on the outskirts of Puerto Vallarta, helping mom and dad out with the family business. I’m staying in the casita (guest house) at my parents house and when i’m not working, i’m exploring the different surf breaks in the area.
It’s been a great few months and i’m really starting to enjoy the family biz. My spanish is coming along well, thanks to 5 years of study and a mexican girlfriend from a few years past, but I still feel like i could use an immersive program to really get going. Surfing has been great. I’ve been to several different breaks around the bay (bahia de banderas) and i think i’ve finally hit the intermediate level.
So I guess my reason for starting this blog is basically to document my recent life change and to keep in contact with my friends back in LA and across America, where ever they may be. On this blog you will mainly find my words and my photos, sometimes i can be a witty little shit and i love to take my handy little canon digi-elph everywhere with me.
So please enjoy….
// ed fladung (aka mundito)
