The Taco Traveler

Lists are easy writing. There's no need to connect the bullets, though it's better if they do connect, somehow, bullet-to-bullet. But mainly I just have these things bouncing around - these odd or occasionally interesting thoughts - that probably don't deserve an entire entry of their own.

- Ex Officio are the greatest warm-weather clothes in the history of human kind. A couple nights ago after returning from town I changed out of my wet, heavy, suffocating cotton t-shirt to put on one of my Ex Officio t-shirts. Expensive but worth every penny. The difference is incredible. And the boxer briefs? Even better than nothing. I should say: I am not, nor have I ever been, a paid representative of Ex Officio, Inc (though they are a Seattle-area company). Actually, check that... I just saw that they have an affiliate program, so I signed up. After they send me some links, if you buy a shirt I'll get a few bucks.

- Podcasts are essential when you're far from home and missing culture. Lately I've been catching up on Radio Lab and some NPR podcasts. Radio Lab rules. I used to be a huge fan of This American Life, and I'm still a fan, but so much good stuff is free; why pay my public radio dues and pay for TAL? To be fair, they're free the week after they're broadcast; it's just the archive you have to pay for.

- Though I only feel 30, my face, after 3 days of not shaving, is starting to betray my 40. Yes, those are gray whiskers. And here I sit on my 10th day at anchor off a little Mexican village, sometimes feeling like I'm turning into the epitome of the salty old sailor who gets to a little place and then never leaves, never sails again. I'm not so salty, though, and I'm still wearing clothes, generally.

- I cleaned the bottomside of my hull early last week - soon after I arrived from Nuevo Vallarta. It was so gnarly, with barnacles, large clumps of everything, and things living in the everything. It took me about 2 hours and a full tank of air that I'd rather use for seeing cool stuff, but it needed to be done; I really was carrying around about 100 pounds of crap, which felt like 1000 as Chemistry dragged it through the water. I scraped my knuckles bloody several times on the barnacles to the point I was concerned about sharks. I'm still healing. The scary thing, though, is the hundreds of tiny shrimp on my wetsuit after I got out of the water. After 3 or 4 good showers, I wonder how many (dead?) shrimp are still hiding out in my hair.

- Yesterday was laundry day. When it's beautiful out but very windy on a rolling boat, that's when you get the true measure of the importance of certain articles of clothing. As further proof of the importance of my Ex Officio t-shirts and underwear, I hung them so that if the clothes pins failed in the 20 knot breeze, they'd still just fall onto the deck rather than blow over the edge. All other clothes (and Anachini sheets, even!) were on the standard clothes line.

- My clothes line was crazy expensive. In San Diego I paid about $50 for 50 feet of high-tech line to use as a control line for my boom-furling main, but when I got it back to the boat it was too small. Well... I knew I'd find some use for it.

- Though probably deserving of an entry of its own, I wanted to mention the music here. It surprises me that everyone so loves mariachi. You don't often hear Shakira or other popular musicians who sometimes speak/sing in Spanish. What you hear everywhere are slightly different genres played by mariachi. Lots of tubas that reverberate for miles. And lots of loud singing and loud horns. Banda, Ranchera... from the elders to the kids, everyone loves it. Imagine teens in the U.S. listening to polka. I don't know... maybe it's more the equivalent of something more popular but still acoustic, like Jack Johnson.

TT