Dawn Landing

The plane was nicer.  Smoother and quieter.  Embarked 01:35. Disembarked 06:00. Four and a half hours chair sleeping.  It was still dark when we landed and still was, even after baggage and customs.  Not many around the PV airport except the tourists from the one and only plane.  The sky was starkly beautiful. The stars and crescent moon were less blurry, somehow.  Mind you I had my dark blue sunglasses on at night.  I must try that at home some time.

Taxi 400 pesos. Bus 25. So I found my way across the highway and fumbled onto the local bus heading north just as the dusk was clearing. It was empty when I got on, filled up to standing room, then was clearing by the time we reached Bucerias, supposedly 18kms up.  I had google-mapped the area so had some idea where I was headed.  By 7:45 I saw the Bucerias sign and hopped off, too soon, and spent 90 minutes bumping my bags around cobbles and curbs, but it was nice to see the morning activity.  By 9:30 traffic was blaring on the thru road toward Sayulita, but one street west, toward the water, it was quaint as marketeers were setting up, leisurely-like.
I eventually had to find wifi (Americano) to locate my accommodations.  I am on that main drag, but my pad is deep in off the street and surprisingly quiet.  All tiled in cool concrete-ish stucco. Cream, mustard and orange paint and sculpted decor. Makes me hungry.. except for the cream. Just a bed and bathroom, but fine for me.
Rosalita and Karime are my hosts and I expect to want for nada for the next two weeks. $358 abnb.  Karime is having a baby on Monday... grandson for Rosalita.  After finding them, and my place, the greeting was warm and I am exhausted.
I am near the big church.  Two streets up from the water.
~~nancy Post#7 Day2/75 

Evacuation

I am perched for my second leg.  Two hiccoughs so far. Both solved.  4WayTaxi didn't show up so I left my poor wee Honda at the airport.  I scrambled and have a rescue lined up, but when left unplugged, this little sub-compact balks at the cold.  Support crew assures she'll be settled into her 75day spot soon.  Second - my carry-on was too big for the smaller aircraft  specs.  Under she goes, all the way through to PV. ThirtyBuxThirtyBuxThirtyBux.  At least I saved on the cabfare.  Boycott 4Way. Grrrr.

So YYC is known to me, but I guess I've always flown domestic from here. Busy Terminal.  I realized I needed to find Terminal D, so since it's a long layover, I meandered, following the ceiling sign gods.  On and on.  And further yet.  And drastically diminishing population.  Where was I going? I finally reached a dead end and a lonely airport worker motioned to me.
"Do you have a boarding pass?"
"What's in there?" I asked.
He elbow pointed at a sign indicating a few food stops and shops, so I committed to the unknown.  A scan of my boarding pass, a crystally mirrored tiptoe through the gauntlet called DutyFree, and I walked into a quiet, unpopulated world of upscale shops and bored retail workers.  I even got a free facial with miracle collagen creme (nobody was around to gawk).  The stuff was only $500 for a jar, and for today only, I could get it for the one-time-only miraculous price of two hundred and fifty, Canadian, and she would absorb the tax just like DutyFree.  I left with a free sliver of organic lily-of-the-valley soap and without the face creme, which, if I gave her my email address, I could get at the secret bargain price, just by contacting her directly, any time.

People in airports always seem so cool, collected and fasionable, and then, just as I pondered my misfittedness, the guy with the legbrace strapped over his trousers elbow punted his beer and his wife hollered a balsphemous expletive at him.  And life felt more normal.
Here in international departures, it is a quiet side of YYC. I still see snow upon snow through the glass and will put up my feet and wait to launch myself from minus 29 to plus 29.  Atchooo!
~~n post#6 day1/75

Baggage

One more sleep.  My goal is to travel light. This is my baggage for 75days. Yes. I will wear a coat and carry a shoulder folio.  Also my yoga mat is rolled inside the black bag.
I got notification that all battery powered items must be turned off for flights. Tablet. Phone. Speaker. Keyboard. Headlamp. Kobo. Battery Booster. MP3 player. Everything is in the red bag.  All oldschool stuff. I have cables and adapters.

I am sick of getting ready and am already gone between the ears.
Yes.  I will miss this corner of the planet but it has indeed been a cold and difficult winter.  I feel regret at missing the spring and anticipate flooding, especially if there is a sudden thaw.  So, I already know that my thoughts will be bouncing back in this direction while I am away.
All of my bookings: cars, flights, ferries, rooms, passages, every confirmation is in email, png, and hard copy.  I don't think I can botch it up.
My first stop is a sentimental throwback to the people of my long gone but still loved brother Rick.  I will surprise these folk who mark his life, and passage, annually. I wonder if they will remember me.  I imagine myself sitting in a corner and observing them for a while before stepping forward.  Or sometimes I imagine seeing them walking on the beach, completely unaware that I am in their midst.  Creepy, eh.  No.  I won't spy.
This will be my last post from home.  The next ones will be in transit or in situ, or at least somewhat settled.
One pair of shoes.
~~n post#5 Day-2/75

Road Trip

My old friend and my new friend.  Steve and Maestro.
Having a fur baby has its bonuses and also its detriments. Maestro is my Havanese roommate.  He should be named Shredder for the damage he does.  He is assertive and demanding.  He has a very high opinion of himself, hence the moniker. The boss of you and me.

But he is kind of cute.  And he is more than attentive, obsessive would be a more apt adjective.  He follows me from room to room.

Somehow though, despite being annoying, he has won my heart.  I can identify with that, human to human.  My sage of a mother would say, "He's himself."
As I launch myself across the planet I recognize that this would be too hard on him. He is small enough to fly, but shitting on city streets is not fun for anyone, and especially a proud high born, self-centred mutt like wee Maestro.
So, he is heading to The Valley.  Steve will whip him into obedience... (not a chance)... and Maestro will go nose to nose with the mysterious Ragnarok.  The large black wraith of a cat that stayed in Manitoba after Charley moved to warmer climes on THE island. He will get to rule the cabin yard and bark at the deer.
Will he remember me?  Will he curl up at my feet when I get home, or will he snub me for my abandoning him? His is a dog's life. We give them our best.  I am grateful that he will be safe and loved while I am away, but despite his aloofness, I will look forward to his shredding and barking upon my return.  Good boy.
~~n post#4 day-7/75

p.s.  I am still practicing on my wee system. 10 minutes start to finish.

Friends

I am travelling solo. As we all do. "We walk alone."
Who I am as I walk along unfamiliar roads is who I am at home.  I am one and the same.
Yet, in preparation for my travels, I visualize myself in the places I am projected to be.  Can I be a bathing beauty strolling sunny beach?  Can I be the sophisticated traveller, hailing a taxi on a crowded hubbub of ultra high rises?  Can I be the casual commuter moving toward an unknown destination? Will the green sign gods guide me on foreign highways? Can I find food without fluster?  Can I use money with flare?
Travelling solo is not new to me. I have been every version of myself that I must, and will be again.

The difference now is that I feel faceless.  Less and less I feel seen.  More and more I welcome invisiblity.  And, I thank age for that gift.
I feel happily able to find my way.  To plod along.  Step by destination.  Place by self-imposed deadline. I have bookings and plans, but if things change, there is always an option.  Stay.  Rearrange. Be flexible.
I am not one who ever gets lonely, but as I move through 75 days of new spaces and faces, it is heartening to know that I can ponder the people back in my heart's home.  The ones who know me.  It is beautiful to be in someone else's mind.  A miracle really.
I have no urgency. No sights to see, or places to be.  But I will luckily feel the world pass by me, just as if I am home in Manitoba.
I relish some seaside.
I relish some boat ride.
I will be from away.
~n post#3 day-8/75

Coming Home

O! It is a revelation to realize with love-filled Joy that I am coming home. Every day I rest and read and sip warm tea and line my soft belly with oats and rice and things. In these moments I feel so very contented.

And then my diminishing furvour to absorb our gigantic new world reawakens and I decide to launch myself away away.  I have snapped myself back to the beautiful light of a Manitoba morning and feel that chest heaving, deep breathing, lush of a heart-filled glory for my little life and my little home.  What a gift to be coming home to this world.
It's nuts.
The yo yo.  The pendulum swings.  Mais j'ai raison. It is the rhythm of my life.
Aloft. Abroad. Afloat. But not adrift. I have a most comfortable destination and feel myself bursting and smiles swiping my cheeks.  My eyes lift and my grit fastens me into my britches as I prepare to step off my comfey threshold on my way back.
I am tickled.
~~n  post#2 day-9/75
p.s. I am writing to practice my posts with this OS and Wee set of Keys. Indulgent, I know.

Tech Prep

It is N minus 10 days and counting.  Preparation for an epic walk-about is all encompassing.  Today I am testing bluetooth technology.  My intentions do not always knit with my actions.  But whose does? Well, the perfect Yogi, maybe, but I remain a novice in that.  I imagine, and dream, and presuppose, and posture, often with great strength of effort and still will find myself diverted but, seldom disappointed.  Life is good no matter.
I intend to write.  To organize a project. But, 75 days is a long haul, and my laptop is dead weight in a carry-on, so I have powered up my tiny bluetooth keyboard and am typing two-handed into a 5 year old Samsung tablet with a pitiably early version of Android --- 4.4.1. meh. Kitkat?  I forget.
I am using Android-easy software because I have no ram nor umph for buxsome aps. These will travel well.  Battery duration will be, well, we'll see.

I think I will buy a sim card for my phone.  I do not intend to roam.
Photos have become so central to the story over the past decades, but I might disappoint.  Words paint a deeper image.  I am not shallow, unforgiveably not.
So, please follow my notes.
I like this little keyboard. Testing Testing.
~~n. post#1 day-10/75