Dame Mas Gasolina

I found myself on YouTube doing a search for the title of a song I hadn't heard in a long time, but one that is, nonetheless, seared into my brain.

If I could make a soundtrack of my last trip through Latin America, this song would have to be the first on the list, the last on the list and the underlying thump for the rest of the mix.

It was, without a doubt, the most played song piped over public airways while I was traveling through Mexico, Uruguay, Argentina and Chile in the last months of 2005 and the first months of 2006.

The song? Gasolina. The catchy chorus? Dame Mas Gasolina.

In English? Give me more gasoline.

This is the literal translation. I'd love to know if there is some hidden idiom/slag definition that I'm not picking up on

But translation issues aside, oh, I loved hearing this beat again ...

Sweet Sleeps Sky High

If you think you love someone, if you think you've found that special person you're supposed to spend out the rest of your life with, travel together.

You'll find out real quick whether or not you can stand to be around each another for the long haul.

If you're far from home, if you're out of your element, and the only other person around for miles and miles that speaks your language is the exact same person that you've been staring at for the past 72 straight hours (or the past week/month/whatever), sooner or later, no matter how in love you think you are, that person is going to become the most annoying person on the face of the planet.

Through travel, I have learned that my husband can fall asleep and stay asleep in seriously any location.

To me, this is most annoying. Especially on a plane. No matter how tired I am, no matter how much I just want to close my eyes and fall asleep, I can not. Not on an airplane.

Perhaps even more annoying than his ability to sleep anywhere, is his obsession with his travel pillow. Where's my pillow? Where's my pillow? he frets aloud while packing for any trip. He's more worried about that dang pillow than he is about his toothbrush or underwear count.

And as soon as we take off - heck, sometimes even before we take off - he's propping up his neck, covering his eyes, pulling a blanket or jacket around his face and suddenly, so suddenly, snoring away.

I used to sit awake and stare daggers into his sweetly slumbering body but I've learned that doesn't do any good. He sleeps right through my evil glares, and anyway, what sort of karma am I bringing upon myself by staring down my husband as he sleeps?

Instead, on this most recent trip, I actually supplied him with this cool contraption called Plane Comfort.

It's an uber soft, fleecy blanket, a blow up pillow and a pillow case all packaged into one tight little bundle. He loved it!

Since it was ours and not the airline's, I was able to throw it in the washer and know that it wasn't carrying any cooties.

And beyond that, I thought that perhaps, by letting go of my sleep-deprived airplane aggression and letting my hubby snooze, that perhaps I would recover some cosmic, karmic points.

Ixtapa in 36 Words ... Plus Photos

So I've been trying to come up with a single six-word string that might adequately sum up our Ixtapa trip into one succinct little bundle.

Can't be done.

Instead, I've come up a series of six, six-word strings that retell just a portion of the trip:

What fun! Anniversary adventure! Parasailing together!

Take off goes wrong. Wind dies.

Ten foot waves. Sucked under thrice.

Caught in ropes. Pulled to safety.

Onlookers. Big scene. Bruised. Battered. Nightmares.

Thankful: swimming lessons, each other, life.



Photos: My body bore the brunt of our tumble with the sea.

In Search of Soul

I am searching for soul.

Bright and early, tomorrow morning, hubby and I board a plane bound for Ixtapa, Mexico. It's a quickie of a trip, one of those all-inclusive deals, which is -- not at all -- my cup of tea.

But hubby researched it, talked up an agent and plunked down the dough all on his own in honor of our fourth anniversary.

When I learned the price he paid included everything we'd need for our time away (every meal, every drink, every transport), I got a little steamed. There was no wiggle room for discovering our very own favorite Ixtapa spot. We had no need to ever leave the grounds of the corporate-owned resort!

Surely, after all the travel he's done with me, hubby knows how I feel about these sorts of package trips. In fact, four years ago we'd come to huge blows over another trip just like this.

Good man that he is, he was trying to plan our honeymoon to a pretty beach somewhere. When I caught wind of his plan (he gave me some brochures), I flipped out, refused to go and commandeered the situation. I did. not. go. on package trips.

I took total control of our honeymoon (I gave out my credit card info before even showing him the spot), and we ended up in a small, family-owned hotel comprised completely of thatched huts on a beach in Belize.

So the fact that I'm going on this all-inclusive Ixtapa vacation (this blog posting being my only rant about the packaged-ness of it all) is impressive. For me, it is a practice in restraint. I'm considering it evidence of my emotional growth as a married woman. I have allowed my husband to plan a trip for me, even if it isn't the trip I would have planned. I have released my "travel control."

And yet, as soon as I learned we were going, I headed straight for my Mexico Guide, determined to find something "unique" to do in Ixtapa.

I was horrified -- and I do mean horrified -- to find that the book actually described the town as "soulless."

Ixtapa, it said, was never a sleepy village, never a sweet spot that real people called home. There is, therefore, nothing organic about the place. It was planned entirely by the Mexican government and a computer program during the 1970s to be the ideal tourist resort.

When I read this, I almost panicked. Then I breathed. I remembered that I was practicing the release of my "travel control."

So I am going. But I refuse to take the guidebook at face value. I will find some Ixtapan soul.


Photos from a "no-package" tour of Mexico:
Top - Morelia
Bottom - San Miguel de Allende

Is it Che or is it Anne?

And speaking of clippings...

I can always count on my dear friend Cuba Jen (thus named as we traveled in Cuba together) to clip, collect and send various Che-related images my way.

On her recent trip to South Africa, she stopped off in Amsterdam for some days, and happened across this postcard taking a new spin on a classic Anne Frank portrait.

Is it just us with our warped Che-obsession, or does this Anne Frank look a little like Che?

After all, in her own way, she was revolutionary too.

Of Clippings and Travel

I'm a clipper.

It started with my mom. She's a clipper, too. I'm forever getting envelopes in the mail filled with newspaper stories or magazine text she thinks I would find of interest.

The other week, for example, she mailed me an obituary for a dog that she spotted in her local paper.

Before that, she mailed me a slim little column about a workshop being offered in her area on "How to Communicate with your Dog." (note reoccurring dog theme)

I inherited this clipping gene. It's a trait that has only been made worse by my work as a freelance writer.

In part, my ability to make money from writing depends on my ability to narrow in on interesting little tidbits that I think I could turn into larger stories and sell.

I am forever tearing chunks of text out of every publication that comes my way. The clippings pile up and turn into mounds that irritate my hubby who finds it taxing to live amongst my "papers," which I am physically unable to contain to just one room of the house.


My travel lust has only exasperated the situation as I rip out stories on places I think I'd like to go. I have a file drawer full of articles, essays, restaurant recommendations, off-the-beaten path finds and other odds and ends about places here and places there.

Luckily, I've got a couple of good girlfriends who are also chronic clippers.

Even better, they are friends that share my wanderlust. This means that most of the clippings they send me are about far-off locals to which we've usually traveled together. I return the favor. In this way, our trips and memories of distant places stay alive.

My most recent clippings-for-friends have both involved Guatemala, a country to which I traveled years ago. These two are bound for my travel buddy Michelle.

The first is about an overcrowded Guatemalan bus (chicken bus no doubt) that went off the road, rolled down a mountain side and killed many.

The second is about four travelers kidnapped by farmers in the Rio Dulce area.

Michelle and I rode those overcrowded Guatemala chicken busses. We stared out over the edges of steep, thin roads praying praying praying the driver kept us all on the blacktop.

And we boated it through Rio Dulce, too.

I re-read these clippings now and I think, "Were we stupid? Insane? Reckless? We were just dumb lucky? How did we ever make it out of Guatemala alive?"

It's a good thing these clippings aren't headed to my mom. I'd never get out of the country again.

Photo: That would be Michelle in the back of a pick up truck with a Guatemalan chicken bus coming up behind.

Journeys and Journaling

Today’s entry is somewhat of a departure from my regular musings. Instead of keeping track of my own life, I’ll be keeping track of someone else’s: Nicole Graham.

Nicole Graham is an Aussie who has been living in Hong Kong for more than three years. She moved there with her husband (a fellow Aussie) when he received a job offer with Dragonair, a Hong Kong-based airline.

Ex-pat life agrees with Nicole and her husband and they are counting on another 20 plus years in Hong Kong. While her hubby is jetting to and fro, Nicole has forged a career in the city as a personal development coach.

Most recently, she has formed a business partnership with an artist named Tara Spicer (yet another Aussie) to create and produce writing journals and meditation CDs especially for women. Their business is called Journals for Empowerment.

In November 2007, they released their first journal, Journal for the Modern Goddess, along with three meditation CDs. Now they are on a virtual book tour, taking the story behind their journal to blogs all over the world (including this stop today).

For Nicole, travel is part of the story behind the journal as she is an avid traveler who has always enjoyed writing about her experiences while on the road.

As travel and journal keeping are two of my interests, I was eager to ask Nicole her own history of journeys and journaling.

What are some key lessons you've learned through travel?

I had talked about backpacking around Europe for years, but I kept putting it off. I was waiting for a friend to be ready to travel with me. But then I realized that if I kept waiting, the travel opportunity might pass me by. If I was going to go, I had to do it for me, not for anyone else.

So at 25, I backpacked around Europe by myself. Many of my friends were not sure if I could do it because I’m not an extrovert. I tend to be an observer. I’d rather not be the centre of attention.

But the experience of travelling by myself made me step out of my shell and make the effort to meet people. I had to, otherwise I would have had a very boring time.

I learnt that when I set my mind to do something, that I can actually achieve it and it isn’t really that hard.

Sure there may be a few hurdles or hiccups, but generally the Universe will assist you in achieving your dreams.

I also learnt that when you travel, people are more than willing to sit and talk or show you around. Many people are proud of their city or town and want to show it off to visitors who are willing to spend a little time with them.

Did your previous travel experiences help prepare you for living abroad in a new culture?

I was a little nervous about the move but it was more due to the unknown.

I think if I hadn’t backpacked around Europe by myself, I may have been more nervous. Achieving that trip really gave me the knowledge that I’d be ok. I’m not afraid to explore on my own or try something new.

Through travel, many women learn about themselves and feel empowered. Your journal is also designed to help women learn about themselves and feel empowered. How do you think keeping a journal can help further a woman’s sense of self-knowing and empowerment while she is traveling?

Journaling while travelling encourages personal growth because as you express yourself, you can integrate your life experiences, your travel experiences and your learnings, which in turn allows you to move forward in discovering who you really are.

Also, journaling while travelling can help you better know yourself because it helps you create awareness of your beliefs and opinions. It also helps you identify your values.



What is your journaling philosophy?

Don’t be afraid to just write. The journal is your journal. Take pleasure in being able to write what you want, when you want and use it as a way to express who you are.

Do you journal every day?

I like to journal but I don’t journal every day, and this was one of the motivations for developing our journal.

I find that many journals are dated. This makes me feel pressure to write daily, whereas our journal has been set up for women to journal whenever they like.

I journal based on how I’m feeling. If I find myself too much in my own head, I spend time writing to get whatever it is out of my mind. I try to open my heart to releasing it.

I also journal when I travel. I love to write about my experiences, the places I’ve been to, how I felt throughout the day and what observations I’ve made about the culture.

Photo:

Nicole loves cats big and small, so chilling with a monk-reared tiger at Thailand's Tiger Temple was a definite travel highlight. "He loved his chin being scratched and loved to suck on your fingers!" she wrote.

***

The Journals for the Modern Goddess is a hard-bound writing journal filled with unique colored art, inspirational quotes and guided questions and retails for $34.95 AUD including GST.

***

The next stop on this virtual book tour is at The Road to Infinite Bliss. Nicole will be interviewed specifically about the creation of the Journal for the Modern Goddess.

Tuesday Memoir Fun

I agreed to teach a "how to write your memoirs" class for a group of area seniors. When I said yes to the plan, I wasn't quite sure what I was getting myself into; I'd never taught a memoir-writing class before.

But the four weeks of class flew by and this morning I bid farewell to my dedicated group of writers.

I pulled readings from Michael Ondaaatje's memoir called Running in the Family, in which he travels to Sri Lanka to research his family roots. Yet I also brought in a variety of other writing prompts.

I even found a way to work the six-word memoir idea into class, plus, I agreed to instruct the class a second time later this spring.

A Word On Virtual Book Tours

In the past month, the concept of a "virtual book tour" has crossed my path three different times from three different directions.

What's a virtual book tour?

An author, instead of traveling from city to city to talk about her book, takes to the Internet and goes on tour via numerous blogs.

The author arranges a long list of bloggers who agree to write about the book. Sometimes, the blogger simply reviews the book. Other times the blogger hosts a Q & A with the author.

If the author plans her virtual tour well, her name and book title will cut a wide swath through cyber space, stopping at blogs penned from different countries with different themes and different audiences. In this way, the author can cover quite a bit of ground and garner quite a bit of buzz without ever leaving her home.

It makes sense that the traditional book tour has turned toward the cyber path. A real-live book tour is expensive -- the airfare, the hotels, the eating out.

A door-to-door book tour is also unpredictable. A book store might advertise an event, but there is never a guarantee as to how many readers will show up. Enough to warrant the plane ticket?

Besides, once a Q & A is posted online, it's there for any potential reader to google and find, whether it's that day, a day later or a full year down the line.

And anyway, bloggers have been reviewing their reads online since blogging began. Is a virtual book tour so different?

I wonder. A virtual book tour is certainly more "controlled" than the random reviewing by Joe-blogger out there.

I guess I'm going to have my chance to find out, as in a few days this space will be a stop on a virtual book tour.

Photo - illustration © Peter Sis from the book "House of Paper."

Che It Isn't So

At least there is one person in my life who understands my Che obsession.

My friend, Cuba Jen (so named because I traveled with her in Cuba) just got home from a three-week trip to South Africa.

She returned home happy to report that Che is thriving in Cape Town.

She filled a recent evening with tales of her assorted Che-sightings and just sent three emails loaded down with photo attachments as proof.

Among her Che-booty was this disturbing shot.

Who -- oh who? -- would ever think it appropriate to adorn dear Che with Mickey Mouse ears?

Minne-Apple No More

GoNomad recently posted another one of my stories:

Minne-Apple No More: Minneapolis Steps into the Spotlight.

Max had asked me long ago to pen a guide to Minneapolis. Finally, finally, I got around to doing it. What I came up with was a list of arty activities to do in the city.

Anyone thinking Minneapolis is fly-over country, should follow the link, scroll through the theater, museum and music listings and change their mind.

The Blogging Rat

This is Ratson Rat. He keeps a blog.

He's a funny little rat. A bit obnoxious. A lot sarcastic.

He blogs so that school kids here in the Minneapolis metro area can go to the computer lab, hop online and spend 30 minutes learning how to interact in an Internet way.

In his most recent post, Ratson Rat wrote about his attempt to become a vegetarian. So far, only 2 kids have posted comments about his veggie transformation, but if this post is anything like all his other posts, Ratson Rat can expect upwards of 70 comments.

He doesn't just blog for fun. His creator, Lynn Jonell, wrote a middle-grade novel called Emmy and the Incredible Shrinking Rat. Ratson Rat is the star of the book. By taking his act online, author Jonell is introducing her enthusiastic young readers to a virtual arena.

Jonell is from the Minneapolis area and thus far only a handful of nearby schools are participating in the blog. But a school in Ohio recently signed on and Jonell is hoping the rat blog will catch on in other states, too.

Want to see what a rat blog looks like? Take a peek.

Want to read more about the project? Read my article.

Photo © Lynn Jonell