Well, the secret is out. Yes, I’m an expat blogger with a keanu-style surf lingo writing style. This pretty interesting article comes by way of one of Mexico’s english-based rags The Guadalajara Reporter*. I was wondering why my hits had gone up two-fold this past tuesday, thank you cutnpaste…
Forget Lonely Planet and Fodors. Because at this moment, hundreds of English-speaking expatriates are not only enjoying new lives south of the border, but recording their ups and downs, travels and home life, good eats and unusual finds through digital journaling and photography posted on web logs for the world to browse. After a bit of web sifting, I’ve caught on to a few that really shine: the chosen expatriate blogs are easy on the eye, informative, and fun to read.
www.qualitypeoples.com
Ed Fladung lives and breathes surfing in Bucerias (just North of Vallarta) where he’s been, as his web/photoblog’s heading announces, on a “perpetual Mexican surf sabbatical” for the last four years. Fladung is about as güero as they come, with a shoulder length head of sun-bleached hair and a healthy beach glow. He occasionally appears in the vibrant, Technicolored shots of candid small-town Mexican life he posts — a click on the photography link in the upper right hand corner will send you to an online Flickr gallery which is like peering into a candy shop, sun-saturated rainbow colored pictures you could sort through for hours.The photography is bright and entries light; his Keanu Reeves-esque surf lingo is endearing and readable. “OK, I’m off to go pre-book our hotels,” he writes in preparation for a surf trip to Bali. “Bummer, I was hoping to just roll up …” And of a boat captain’s suspiciously high fees, “I told dude that’s the gringo rate, that I live in Bucerias and I’d be willing to pay 300 pesos total. Dude said no.” Recent entries include movie reviews of a dozen or so films that passed through his “two horse town,” as well as an anti-Adobe Acrobat rant and several single photograph posts. Check the March 26, 2007 entry to learn how Mr. Fladung ran into members of The Whitest Boy Alive and Broken Social Scene at a local restaurant and witnessed an impromptu acoustic concert (with Leslie Feist on spoons and glasses).
Apparently, the article will fall behind a pay wall, after the issue leaves news stands**, so here’s a link to the full article, posted by Jillian and Malcolm from Dropped In, two firebrand ex-new york hipsters in overly designed eyewear (like myself) who’ve set up shop in the Yucatan.
I gotta say and the author is dead-on about the interesting phenomenon of dialed-in expats dropping out of the american fast lane, especially the twenty and thirtysomethings. There are some really killer blogs I keep noticing, Jillian and Malcom’s being one of the hippest, if for nothing else for their liberal use of dirty words.
and you know i love dem dirty words.
Edit: It turns out Meredith Veto, the article author, is a young expat herself and she has a blog. Go check her out, she has the beginnings of very cool blog and obviously well written.
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* no links in the article text?! tsk tsk
** way to go for luddite business plans!
1. 100% right - that business plan is going the way of the dodo.
2. Great post Ed.