A bucket full of mussels to make stew..

Crossing the border of Mexico took me 3 hours. Most important reason for this was the Dutch numberplate and not the attack on America. The day before everything was closed and I had to return without success. Within 50 metres you enter a completely different world . The cities are hectic, little deals on the streets, dust, noise and a language I do not speak. After 100 km there is a military control post, and men with huge guns are ready to shoot you of your bike. But it is not as bad as it looks and after 5 minutes I can move on.
Being Dutch has its advantages, Americans are less popular and soccer is always a grateful subject to talk about. "Hollande eliminar el campeonato mundial". Yeah yeah, I know, shit football !! In the evening I put my tent up at a beautiful high place, near a little hotel with a view at the Pacific. Because of the trouble in the U.S. there are no customers and together with the 3 staff members we do odd-jobs around the house. In return my stay is free. I fix the electric, because it was Mexican style, which means a real mess. My computer passed away due to the vibrations in the back of the motor. After hours of delicate work I find a loose component. Fortunately I can solder it and my little typewriter works like new again !

Tricky job…

Every evening we walk all the way down to collect a bucket of mussels from the rocks to make stew. It is quite a tricky job because this way I nearly drowned 12 years ago in Australia when an enormous wave dragged me into the ocean. I was used to the swimming pool and the Ijsselmeer. How was I supposed to know ?



Indoor-plants…

I am particularly interested in the small paths through the mountains and the huge cacti, well-known from the old Western movies, that can reach 20 metres. That is what you can call an indoor-plant, they really hurt when you sit on it !

Near the little village of Santiago at the Baja California I cross the Tropic of Cancer for the first time. The sun stands straight above here, at our longest day and beginning of summer (21st of June) . After that it returns towards the equator and the Tropic of Capricorn. The seeming walk back and forth of our nearest star (150 million km or 8 light-minutes far) is caused by the angle of 23,5º that our axis of the earth makes. By this simple but not unimportant fact, the by us so often cursed seasons are created. But driving here like this, it doesn't surprise me that much because it is really burning hot here. Fortunately even in the most abandoned places you drive through, you find a little building of the beer brewer and national pride Corona, and nowhere they taste better…

Aerodynamic…

On the beaches I look surprised at the elegant pelicans that skim only centimetres over the water, like proficient 747's. By doing so they fly on a sort of an airpillow, an aerodynamic phenomenon that is in the aviation know as groundeffect. The pelican couldn't care less about this but it can fly many tens of metres without clapping its wings once, calmly looking for fish.
After two weeks I book a cargo boat to take me to the mainland of Mexico.
In the evening, during the loading of the trucks, we hear the first warnings about a tropic cyclone before the coast of Cabo San Lucas, at the tip of the peninsula. Waves of 6 metres high and windspeeds of 200 km/ph are measured but according to the Croatic sailor it's no problem. In the bloody hot, filthy hold of the ship, I try to fasten my bike with everything I can find. The old lashknot that I learned as a little boy on the land with Peter Raven comes in handy now. During the fastening bang, I slip on my back in the oil and truckers laugh themselves silly, but my motorbike stands like a rock ! There is a real "man-atmosphere". They punch each other, call out all sorts of rude language while their round bellies (of taco's and beer) wobble naughty over their belts. The world wide universal behaviour of men seems damn familiar to me. No women and children are allowed on this ship because in the past there have been problems with the indefinable cargo and crew. The hurricane, a few hundred miles more southern, starts to dam up the water. It is strangely wind still and bloody hot with here and there clouds like cotton-wool, like an old steamboat has just passed us. (Sinterklaas maybe ?) While we sail out, the red-glowing moon takes a dive into the Gulf of Cortes, and I hope the storm won't catch up on us !

Starry sky...

But nothing is what it seems because the seeming reality of the cosmos that surrounds us is, because of its gigantic distances, one big history book. If the closest little star, that we've called sun, goes out, it will take 8 minutes before we notice. The pile-effect we all know, but than much much bigger.