The idle beauty of boats

The kind of boat you see along the Riveria Mayan coast, often idling on beaches , is a sleek strong workhorse of a craft , but once it takes to the water, zips along muy rapido.

The impermanence of I

Walk along a beach. Look at your footprint in the sand . It is there, and so are you. And then your footprint is gone. Many have walk this earth, Don't get attached to who you think you are.

The CondoQuest of Paradise´part 1

For many road weary travellers like me, averse to the more frigid latitudes, the tropics is Paradise found.Unfortunately the more i see of 23 degrees north and south of the equator, the more it looks like Paradise lost!
Dense equitorial rain forests have been denuded at an alarming rate around the globe,more for their wood resources than any idea of surburban habitation.However a few more degrees of lat north or south and the Sun Belt becomes an attractive Real Estate proposition. Having grown up in semi tropical Oz, i know how attractive that kind of living can be,especially if you are situated by the coast.Here on the Riveria Maya it is no exception, with crystal clear aquamarine waters, talcum powdered white sands, cenoytes , and pockets of exotic rain forest scattered througth out the more coarse low lying selva.This side of Mexico might not have the surf of the Pacific coast, but it does have alot to offer the self unemployed beach bum, in between gigs. Leaving aside sleeping in a hammock suspended between two palm trees on a Tulum beach, civilisation here has exploded like the big bang ,along the Caribe Mexicano coast line.Its only & what seems to be its prime directive was proglamated about 40yrs ago in direct competition to the thriving tourism of the Pacific west coast, with popular resorts like Acapulco.
Go forth and multiply
And multiply was what has happened since, in the shape of Condos , Mega Hotels & Beach Resorts. Often with little or no eco impact planning, creative architecture, or a thoughtful urban infrastructue.Paradise lost. Well for a while ...maybe ?
When i lived here for 2 years thats pretty much all i saw, and most of it was an eye sore, devoid of anything distinctively Mexican in its venacular or inspiring in its design.The ubiquitous Condominium was so homogenus that you wouldnt know you were in Mexico, let alone in tropical latitudes. To be sure there were some exceptions but alas few and far between. Eventually i turned my eye to the world of natural beauty here for which there is no man made competition when it comes to creativity and organic design.
Where some maverick builders had sort to integrate natural harmonies in construction & materials was south of Tulum a little out of the geographical reach of the general investor, at least at that time.
6 months ago i came back to Playa del Carmen to teach, and witnessed at 1st hand how that town , now city i guess had expanded. At one time it was Latin Americas fastest growing location .When i lived just south of there in Puerto Aventuras it reminded me of an energetic frontier boon town, that sprawled in dissaray every which way.I once made the rather unkind comment that it looked no different after a hurricane had ripped through it.Re organise chaos with chaos and it is still chaos. One taste- plain ugly.
But then on my last trip i saw something new, i discovered something between the gaps in the prime directive , i experienced a vibrant Mayan community that filled the space outside of the Glitzy distractions of 5th Avenue. I also saw evidence of a return to a more inspiring design ethos in some resturants, boutique hotels , shops, ocean front appartments and in the general beach culture.

The CondoQuest of Paradise will continue all around the global tropical zone, nothing will prevent that. If you build um they will come ! maybe not so fast in these slightly surreal financial times, but they will come and alas, Paradise will go.

Part of what i am searching for on this trip around the Caribbean, is that unique creative spark, that holistic design intelligence, that x factor essence of wonderment, which is inspiring in tropical architecture & living. Where designers have created a tropical space, a place , where the heart & soul of a sensitive sentient ( not a client or the buyer or an investor)can sojourn at peace. For that at least in this ever changing mundo, will be return to Paradise.
In part 2 i will be looking for The Lotus in The Mud.

Windy one day Wiped out the next!

A comment should be made on my previous post about paradise. About how the tropics is a delicately balanced weather system, particularly between June & October. Hurricane season. Having been through 2 Cat 5 ´s here in the Yucatan, Wilma & Emily, i can say that it ain´t no fun, before, during and after they hit.Before its the impending fear and semi hysteria about what to do , board up & do airport , or board up and stick it out.Once a 3 - 5 day track is issued by the NHC and you know that its probably going to hit you , airfares go up, there is a run on petrol, and food, generators , water and everything else you need for survival.Sticking it out is pure hell, i have never felt such power in nature. Once it has ripped through you, you wake to a devastation that you can´t really get your head around. And then the fun begins , with no power , water , communications, petrol, banks for money,ect you find yourself in a very basic environment devoid of the single thing we take for granted 50 cycle hum - electicity. Candles are very precious, so is freshwater and food. I can remember one time really seeing the stars here at night as there were no street or condo lights. Fishing became a necessity and the one house that had gas to cook with in Puerto Aventuras became a nightly tribal HQ.Communities spring up everywhere made up of those residents who have stayed.With the airports closed tourists are stranded in schools. In this part of the world it takes time to get things back together, i admired very much the spirit of the local Mayans who are tireless workers and had no doubt seen big Tempstas come and go for hundreds of years. Everyone thinks that Cat 5´s make landfall only in certain areas around the Carribean, but i saw a map once charting exactly where they had appeared from 1896, hurricanes were marked in red. The entitre Caribbean was red.

Perfect one day Beautiful the next !

There is something magical about the tropics, that kind of lulls you into a trance state of relaxed wonder. Back when i was growing up in Oz ´Perfect one day Beautiful the next´(or was it the other way around ?) was at one time the Queensland´s tourist commission branding tag line. Well it also fits the Riveria Maya. I must be aligned to these lazy latitudes now as i completed swimming freestyle the full length of the local beach early this morning. Last time i was here in Nov 07 it took me about 3 weeks to train up to. Its not that far maybe half a kilometre +, but i have´t swum for 6 months living in the European north, and so i was not expecting to do it so soon in 3 days worth of swims x 2 per day.I had vowed not to leave the island untill i had done it.When i travel i always do some kind of training.You can get out of shape very quickly when you travel for various reasons being On the Road as Jack Karouac called it can be challenging to your health & fitness.
Right now i am easing into my morning travel training routine. After a meditation , BreathFlex & Pranya exercises on the pier on the playa(more later on that system of exercise)i swim. I go back for another afternoon swim before sunset cevesas.Following Fit for Life eating system, which i always find easier to do in the tropics, haven´t quite got into a Mexican version of Paleo nutrition yet , more on that later.
Swimming is an absolutely delightful sensual total fitness activity , currently i am trying to learn more about reducing drag resistance in the water, rather than power stoking through it.The system of Total Immersion Swimming has a revolutiuonary technique for this. I have to find a course to learn.

To Tao or not to Tao ?

Dear people close to me are going through some turbulant uncertainty at this time, and so i remembered a chapter of The Tao te Ching which has to do with letting things arise as they will, so they can fall , allowing change to happen of its own accord ,so that then you can act at a more auspicious time. Its difficult to do because you want to act swifly to bring about a certainty that will alleviate your anxiety.
I know from my own turbulant anxious past that there is much wisdom in the old master Lao-tzu´s words, usually you get what he is saying in hind sight....which is kind of too late !

Anyway the chapter i refere to is 36, translation by Stephen Mitchell, which is i think the best one out there.

If you want to shrink something,
you must first allow it to expand.
If you want to get rid of something,
you must first allow it to flourish.
If you want to take something,
you must first allow it to be given.
This is called the subtle perception
of the way things are.

The soft overcomes the hard.
The slow overcomes the fast.
Let your workings remain a mystery.
Just show the people the results.