After an educational but failed attempt at living together in Tucson, my lover Kelly and I decided to go our separate ways for awhile. She would go to Maui to hang out and I would hitch around Mexico. I’d never really been there before and spoke only a little border Spanish but I figured what the heck, I would learn as I go. I hitched down to Nogalas, crossed the border and stuck out my thumb. Of course, that's not how one hitches rides in Mexico so I stood there a fairly long time until an old man in an even older station wagon who knew our strange US ways and spoke some English stopped. He told me that he was going to Hermasillo and I could ride with him that far. He also told me the way to hitch in Mexico is, you waved at cars with your palm down and any driver who gave you a ride at least expected you to offer them a few pesos for the lift.
I thanked him for the ride and the info. After that I always got rides fairly easy. This was a time in my life when I was really poor. All I had with me was one change of clothes, a towel and a ground sheet all rolled up in my sleeping bag. In my shoulder bag I carried my toiletries, a knife, the I Ching and the Tarot.
When the people of Mexico saw how little I had and that I carried a Tarot deck (they didn't know about the I Ching) they always treated me like a VIP. They refused to take any money from me for the rides, would buy me food and some would even take me home to spend the night. A few even offered me their own beds to sleep in and would hardly take no for an answer. This was my first real experience with third world people and without exception I have found their generosity to be pretty amazing all over the world. No matter how poor they are, they always give more than they can afford to, then refuse any compensation you offer. You're being their guest is enough for them. It was a truly humbling experience and I had a great time. After the first few times this happened to me, I would hide a couple pesos somewhere for them to find after I had left. Because although I was poor, these folks were poorer in money, though certainly not in spirit.
Almost everyone I met spoke little or no English so they'd teach me a few words of Spanish. I hitched from Hermasillo to Guymas, then down the coast to San Blas, next inland via Tepic to Guadalajara, then back over to the coast to Manzanillo, inland again to Morales and finally back over to the coast and down to Acapulco all in about 6 weeks. By then my money was getting pretty low so I though I’d kick back in one place for awhile until I was almost broke before heading north again. Of all the places I had been the place I liked the most was a small village on a beautiful bay just north of Manzanillo called La Barre de Navidad
It took me a week to hitch back there. When I did I stayed at the same place as I had before. If you walked up the beach about a klick north of town there was a huge fresh water lagoon that was covered in blooming water hyacinths. On the narrow strip of sand that separated the lagoon from the sea there was a fisherman's shack made entirely out of palm fronds. It was one large room with a porch overhang and a sand floor. I asked the people of the village who the owner was. They told me it was nobodies and to use it if I wanted. I’d hang out under the porch during the days, swimming in the flowered lagoon or body surfing the waves of the warm tropical sea. At night I’d sleep on the sun warmed sand under the ever changing moon with the twinkling stars spinning above me in the blackness while listening to the ocean pounding the shore.
In the evenings I would go to town for supper which was extremely cheap and exquisitely tasty because I ate only in peoples homes. Each house specialized in one dish. You would sit at the table they had placed in the street, eat, then pay them almost nothing for some of the most delicious food in the world. First I would go to the tamale girls house to eat 4 or 5 of those sumptuous little morsels. Then over to the enchilada woman’s house for half dozen of those tasty rolled up treats. Next it was on to the posole woman’s table for one of the best tasting soups on earth. Finally, if I was still hungry, I would end up at the tacos guy’s place and scarf down a few of those little goodies. All of this might cost me 2 or 3 bucks. I ate like this every night for a month and never got tired of it. In fact, my mouth is watering right now just thinking about all that delightful food. After supper, I’d go to one of the Cantina's for my Spanish lesson. There's no better way to learn a foreign language than hanging out in a bar with the natives and drinking the local poison which is always cheap, potent and a hell of a lot of fun. You get drunk, sing songs and learn a few words of the lingo, some of which you might even remember the next day.
After I’d been there a couple of weeks, I asked Miguel, a friend of mine, how my Spanish was coming along. He told me, "Well Amigo, it's not too bad." pauses then smiles, "For a 2 year old!" All the hombres and putas laughed but I took it as a compliment.
There is only one kind of man in Mexico, and he is Macho! However, there are two kinds of women; mothers, sisters and wives, and whores. Mothers, sisters and wives never go to a bar or socialize with strangers. If you want any female companionship, even just for talking and dancing or just kidding around with then it's either the whores or it’s no one. They're a lot of fun too because like most Mexicans, they know they're going to die some day so they don't take life or their jobs too seriously. The only two things that really concerns them are their family and their God. A lot of the Mexicans males asked me to stay at their homes with them for free but I loved the shack on the beach so much that I declined their generous offers. The whole time I stayed there I kept my bedroll at the shack and neither it nor I were ever bothered. After a month I was almost out of pesos so sadly I bid my Amigo’s adios then hitched north.
I hitched up to Puerto Villarta to get the ferry across the Sea of Cortez to Cabo San Lucas on the tip of the Baja. I got there an hour too late and missed it. I asked when the next one was. I was told in four days so I asked where a good place to crash was. The locals told me to just stay on the beach in front of the Holiday Inn, that way I could even use their facilities. This was a totally foreign concept to me. In the US if you sleep on the beach by a hotel or even near someone’s house, you will quite bluntly be told to leave. If you don’t and quickly, the cops will be called. When they arrive, you'll either be ticketed then told to move along or the cops will just throw your ass in jail. But this was Mexico, so...
After it got dark I spread my bag on the sand besides the hotel. As soon as I did, a security guard on horseback rode over to me and asked what I was doing. I told him about missing the ferry and being too poor to afford a room. He got off his horse, came up to me and said, "Okay Amigo, no problem. I just wanted to know what you were doing here."
I asked him if I could use the hotel’s toilets.
He told me, "Si Amigo, and use the pool and cabanas too."
I thanked him.
We shook hands and he got back on his horse then he said, "Sleep well, Amigo. I'll keep an eye on you and make sure no one molests you. Good night Amigo." then rode off.
We chatted together each night after that. This is the biggest difference in attitudes between third world countries and the US, Canada and parts of Europe. In the west everything is based on money and on law. "It's nothing personal. It's just the law and I'm only doing my job.” says Aldoph Eichman as he ushers you into the showers. Which is total bullshit! IT IS ALWAYS PERSONAL!
In the third world the attitude is, "If you don't do anything to annoy me. And I won't get hassled for it, then who cares." A much more human approach in dealing with each other. I love the US, both it’s people and the land but because of the "it's the law" mentality, if I ever get enough money together to leave it for good, I will. There are just too many beautiful places on this wonderful earth, filled with really nice human beings to put up with that bullshit way of thinking. People’s happiness is much more important than any of the abstract and mostly unjust laws.
Four days later I caught the ferry and crossed the water to Cabo San Lucas. Cabo then was nothing like it is today. They did have a harbor filled with rich people’s boats from the US and a big hotel on the spine of the mountain with a less expensive hotel on the point across the bay that had a trailer park behind it. However, the rest of the place was just your typical Mexican village except it had a small Supermercado for the gringos. Once you walked half a klick northeast there was nothing but desert, sand dunes and empty beach all the way to Cabo San Jose. A distance of 10 kilometers. Nothing, no people, no houses, no resorts, no trailer parks, nothing but nature. I was very impressed and decided to spend a few days alone on the beach before heading back to the good old USSR. At the Supermercado I bought enough supplies to last me a few days and a big plastic jug for water then headed up the beach. Even though it was high season there wasn't another single soul on the entire beach for as far as I could see.
I walked the surf line where the sand was hardest. There was nothing but high sand dunes on my left, the sparkling blue sea on my right and the white sandy beach stretching straight ahead of me.
I had walked a good half-hour when I saw a circle of seagulls up ahead standing at the surf line. When I got up to them instead of flying away like gulls always do, they parted and formed a semi circle around a large silvery object. They were quiet too, very unusual for gulls who are always cawing and fighting with each other. As I got close enough to see it, the big silver thing was a fish the size and shape of a large meat platter. I though the gulls had been eating it and I had interrupted their feast. But I was wrong. The fish was alive and untouched. It was just laying there on the sand working its gills but otherwise it was in perfect condition. I walked up to the fish as the gulls quietly watched me. When I picked the fish up it said to me, "Please throw me back into the sea or I will die."
The gulls then screamed at me, "Nooo! He’s ours!"
The fish looked at me saying again, "Please throw me back so I can live."
I told the gulls, "Sorry."
Just as I threw the fish back into the sea it said to me, "They are waiting for you just up ahead. And thank you!"
The fish hit the surface of the ocean and disappeared. The gulls screamed at me in anger then flew away.
WOW! What a tripp and I had not smoked any mota in almost a week or even had a beer in over two days. I was completely straight. And who are "they". Well, there was only one way to find out. I started walking up the beach again.
As soon as I did, I heard Spanish accented voices saying, "Here he comes."
"Won't he be surprised to see us here."
"I hope he’ll stay with us."
"I think he will like it here."
"Hey here! We are over here."
I looked around and saw nothing.
"Up here Amigo, beyond the dunes."
"Come and join us Amigo. We have been waiting for you."
"Si, join us."
I turned left and walked up the dunes. When I got to the top and looked down the other side, I saw the Cabo San Lucas Graveyard. The voices were saying, "Yes, it is us. Come join us."
"Come and stay with us."
“We have a very beautiful place here. Won't you come join us?"
"We have the Desert, the Earth, the Sky, the Sun and the Sea. It is Paradise Here!"
"You can stay with us Here In Eternity if you want to."
"Yes, come and join us. You will like it here."
"Si, join us Amigo." they all said with friendly welcoming voices.
I stood on the top of the dune and looked for a spot. There was a small cleft to my right. I walked over to it. As I did the voices asked me,
"Where are going Amigo?"
"We are this way."
"Come join us Amigo, and be at Peace."
When I got to the cleft I felt it. Yes, it was right. I turned and faced the graveyard then said, "Thank you for your most generous offer Amigo’s, and you do indeed have a beautiful place here. So I will spend a few days with you, but I am still a young man and am not ready to join you just yet. I still have my Life to Live. When it is over then I will happily join you here."
"But Amigo, you never know when Death will come. He may take you when you are far from here. Then you will not be able to get back to us. Join us now so you can be sure to stay with us."
"We welcome you Amigo."
"Si Amigo. Come and join us now." they said.
I thanked them again then drew a majick circle in the sand around me. As I closed the circle the voices stopped. I sat down on the sand and spread out my things to await my Fate.
I sat there the rest of the day and all that night. I watched and I waited. I slept a little, but when I did the dead came to me in my dreams beseeching me to abandon This Life and to join them Here In Eternity. I would thank them then wake myself up. Next morning I did yoga, meditated and consulted my advisors. They told me to be patient. I sat, I watched and I waited all day and all night never leaving the circle, but other than the beauty happening all around me, nothing else occurred. The next day I again consulted with my advisors. They said that it would soon and to prepare myself. When the sun reached it's 10 o’clock position, I decided to bring things to a head by starring into the sun. I had been practicing sun staring for years and it was always an instant high. The doctors say that it's bad for the eyes but as far as I know, it has never hurt me. I can stare at the raising or setting sun for a good 10 to 15 minutes with almost no effects other than seeing a golden halo of light around everything. However, staring into the noonday sun takes real Will Power even for a few seconds and then it will blind me for some minutes afterward. Later I'll see things as ghostly translucent objects bathed in a golden light. Then for a half an hour after that I'll be able to see but there will be a golden light surrounding anything I look at directly. And I will be very high the whole time. So let's get the show on the road. It's mighty hot sitting under the blazing tropical desert sun on this empty beach and I really do not want to spend another day here.
I glance at the sun. It is really powerful. Then I think, ‘Fuck it!’ And using my Will I stare right into that golden burning orb.
My eyes want to tear themselves away but I don't let them. They blink, they blur, they water. Tough shit. “Look!” I command.
And the sun is the sun no longer. It’s a big black hole in the sky that is sucking all the energy of the universe up into itself. Cracks form in the sky all around the sun and it becomes a big black cornea. The sky has now become an immense blue eye looking down upon me. The universe stops. There is no sound, no wind, no time. I have entered eternity and I no longer exist. There is only The Eye and I looking into one another, and I am at Peace. I stare into The Eye for maybe a second, or maybe it’s forever. I don’t know and it doesn't matter. It is just The Eye and I that exist in that instant, and we are complete.
I tore my eyes away from The Eye and was instantly blinded. I sat there contemplating what I had seen and experienced. I was high and at total peace within my self. After my vision came back I packed up and got ready to leave. As I erased the majick circle, the voices of the dead asked me if I was going to join them now that I had seen.
I told them not at this time and thanked them again.
They said, "But Amigo, it is so nice here with us. Where will you go? What will you do?"
I told them I didn't know, but that I would think of something. I bid my new friend’s adieu, walked out to the road and flagged down a ride going north.
IT’S HAPPENING RIGHT NOW!