Circle Of Life

From the day we arrive on the planet, And blinking, step into the sun.There's more to see than can ever be seen. More to do than can ever be done. There's far too much to take in here. More to find than can ever be found.But the sun rolling high.Through the sapphire sky. Keeps great and small on the endless round.

It's the Circle of Life. And it moves us all. Through despair and hope. Through faith and love. Till we find our place. On the path unwinding. In the Circle. The Circle of Life.

I can't help but to think about the Lion King as my travels come to an end. I am sitting in Cafe Cuiles in Oaxaca City where I started out, making a full circle. Pocahontas always reminds us that we are, "In a circle, a hoop that never ends". With the help of Disney characters I am trying to process what the hell has just happened over these last 8 months. Sitting in this exact same cushioned bench in this Cafe 4 months ago I sent my thesis in and graduated. I have seen a llama birth, I have jumped off a bridge, I have biked down the Worlds Most Dangerous Road, exploted dynamite, found the lost city, climbed to elevations I have never gotten to before, battled a million mosquitos and a giant jelly fish, and put a tarantula on my face. And after all of that, I find myself sitting in the same place I started. I am no Walt Whitman, but that seems pretty metaphorical.

After leaving my friend Naomi behind in Guatamala, I traveled a horridly long time to Puerto Escondido to catch a couple more waves before heading to Oaxaca city. Of all the coastlines I have seen on my journey, I still keep coming back to the pacific side of Mexico. Puerto Escondido is a larger beach town with everything you need, from overpriced cafes that serve soy lattes to delicious fresh fish to cheap beers to half naked people walking around without shirts and no shoes. It reminds me of Santa Cruz with the surfer bum attitude, but mixed with locals and more tranquilo surrounding beaches where there is nothing but white sand beaches and expansive skies.

I conviniently got into Puerto Escondido and met these two other Mexican chicks, Rym and Sarah, who I spent the next couple of days with. Both super awesome chicks. I got to listen to Sarah play her guitar and sing La Bamba probably a hundred times. Good thing she is really talented, or else I probably would have killed myself listening to that song over and over again. Rym and I have already made plans to come back to Puerto in September and dedicate ourselves to the waves. Haven't told my parents yet... Invites are open for whoever else wants to come and learn to surf!

With these two girls I found a gem of a beach: Chacahua. It is a couple hours from Puerto where the Laguna hits the ocean. We convinently met a senora on the truck heading out there and stayed two nights in her house sleeping on her hammocks. Only paid for the fabulous lunch of fresh fish and shrimp her sons caught that day. Spent the days sun burning on the beach, playing music around fire circles and learning how to hula hoop. I have decided that I would be that much cooler if I was a professional hula hooper dancer. Good thing my hips dont lie like Shakiras.

After a while in Puerto I started to freak out and realize that I was really close to the end of my trip and wanted to get myself back to Oaxaca to see my man there. Mexicans claim that they are not latinos and are part of Northern America and not latin america. However, I am pretty sure that the way Gerardo dances salsa, eats lots of spicy food, speaks only spanish, and calls me mi princesa and mi amor, he seems way more "latino" than "north american". I know no one from North America that eats that many tortillas in one sitting. Not really sure why they do not consider themselves latino. Must be political or something. Anyways, coming back to Oaxaca and seeing him after 4 months was a little bit of a strange transition. To lighten the load we headed back to Puerto together, hoping that the waves and hot sand would bring us close again. He is a really fantastic guy, someone who will be in my life forever in some way or another even with the distance separating us. I also predict he will be famous one day for winning Americans Best Dance Crew, latin version of course.

I got the worst fucking hair cut ever a couple of days ago. I went to Gerardo's gay haircutter, who looks like a really large women with oversized lips. My hair had not been cut in 6 months and was turning into one giant dread lock, so I really needed a cut. I really was loving my long hair though, and when this horrid haircutter women/man chopped off like half my hair I almost cried. I am still having a hard time getting over the tragedy. I refuse to ever again get a haircut in a foreign country when you cant explain properly what you want for lack of communication. I have the ugliest bangs now too, its like an animal growing from the top of my head, all sticky uppy. i will just have to get it all cut off and get a cute little haircut when i get home at a real salon. A new haircut for a new phase of my life i suppose.

I plan to bring reggaeton back to the states in full force when i come back. i really hope it goes over just a well at home as it does here.

The ambulance system in Oaxaca is really shitty. Gerardo and I were the sole witnesses the other night to a drunk man crashing hard on his bike/cart carrying elotes (a oaxacan street food of corn off the cob with loads of mayo...surprisingly delicious). Corn flying everywhere he came crashing down hitting his head hard. MIO for spinal. Thanks to Wilderness First Responder class I quickly ran to protect his spinal cord. While we watched the ambulance pass by us twice (apparently the police didnt communicate to the ambulance about where we were very well) a religious man came over and asked the half conscious man if he was catholic. the man rubbed some wierd shit on his forehead and told him that jesus would protect and cure him. So corn covering the street, a man mio for spinal, breath smelling heavily of alcohol, a priest protecting him with the essence of god, and the ambulance circling around trying to find the scene. I couldnt help but laugh. At least its good to know that God will always protect us if the ambulance is late to arrive.

Its mango season here in Mexico and I have eaten like a million already. I will miss the abundance of tropical fruit here.

I also finally ordered this fat piece of chocolate cake from a Cafe Brujula in Oaxaca. I have though about this piece of chocolate cake since I laid eyes on it 2 years ago when I first came to Oaxaca. I finally treated myself!

After 8 months of being away from home, I have tried to reflect on the meaning of all of this; seeing unbelievable sites, graduating, meeting amazing people on route, creating my own path. I am having a difficult time trying to come up with a conclusion for it all, but I don't think I really can because more than anything it doesn't feel like an end. It just feels like all part of my life, building memories and experiences. More than anything, I have learned that with a little confidence and a smile I can independently make my way in this crazy world. Although, without the support of the people who love me I would not have been able to financially nor mentally be able to do what I just did.

Although I did not just win the Oscars (and I probably never will), I would like to go through my thank yous. I would like to thank my dad for treating me to the most amazing cheviche in Peru, spending good quality time riding horses, hiking in canyons, and eating delicious food with his daughter, and resupplying me with soft toilet paper. I loved spending a week with you pops, it meant a lot to me that you came to visit. I would also like to thank him for being the only person that ever called me or texted me on my phone. It would always make my day. I would like to thank my mom for learning how to use skype and email so we could stay in contact. And for still treating me like her baby, making doctors appointments for me and making sure when I come home there will be a pot of hot brisket waiting for me. I would also like to thank my sister for ALWAYS studying for med school on her computer so that when i came online she was ALWAYS online. She was the most consistant skype date I had. Also I would like to thank her for enjoying a fabulous 10 days in Cuba with me, and for her medical advice when I had travelers diarrhea and weird rashes. I would also like to give a shout out to my best friend Sarah for always being really excited to hear from me. I am really proud of her for completing her EMT cert, living in Arizona on her own, and recovering fully from a bad bike accident that made her face look like an Avatar Zombie. i would also like to give a huge thanks to all those loyal readers out there that read my blogs! It meant so much to me knowing that I was either helping people procrastinate from their work or just simply letting them into a little bit of my life. It feels good to share stories knowing that people are actually listening.

As I come to the last mile of the race, I leave you with Walt Whitman's words from a poem I have reflected back to throughout my journey, "Songs of the Open Road":

My Call is the call of battle, I nourish active rebellion
He going with me must go well armed
He going with me goes often with spare diet, poverty, angry, enemies, desertions.

Allons! The road is before us!
It is safe-I have tried it-my own feet have tried it well-be not detained!

Camerado, I give you my hand!
I give you my love more precious than money,
I give you myself before preaching or low;
Will you give me yourself, will you come travel with me?
Shall we stick by each other as long as we live?

So, here I leave you...till the next adventure...