Baja California

Coming back to Germany felt quite good, but also ripped me out of the weekly routine of updating this blog. Writing this final post became more of a challenge with every passing day of the last week. I just could not get myself motivated…  So I write this post from Berlin with a delay of nearly 3 weeks. Therefore, I will probably keep it simple and brief.

As it turns out the Baja California is not as small as I expected it to be. It took us nearly three days to reach the east side. Three days of driving through the vast wilderness of Mexico.

incredible huge

In generally it is quite impressive how these two sides differ from one another. The landscape got more scenic, cacti more bigger and the ocean way warmer. Especially the way warmer water part was a great improvement.

first beach we reached after the roadtrip to the east

Before we arrived at our destination we had to drive through bad weather. Some of the villages we passed looked completely shut down. We only made stops when we had to. In the end, we finally arrived at Loreto. A small town with a beautiful ocean front and plenty of flair. On our arriving day we immediately started a three day diving course. Somehow I managed to get sick every day, right before our diving sessions. I could barely sleep in the nights. My stomach didn’t accept much food which made the diving not that great for me. Yet I still think that the place as well as the instructors couldn’t have been any better. Admittedly the submerged life couldn’t compete with what I saw in Indonesia or at the Great Barrier Reef, but it was still an amazing experience. I let the pictures speak for themselves.

first diving spot

Huve the instructor

Blub

the one in the back knew we were taking pictures - # beauty

the awesome crew

storm is cummin

dive buddies

After three exciting days we finished our diving excursion with a night dive, which was quite an adventure. Diving by night makes the floating experience even more special. When I illuminated my lamp, hundreds of small fish gathered in the cone of light. A couple of times I decided to turn the light of and just float through the darkness. But the best moment of that dive was ironically the moment when I got to surface again. I was the only one up. Floating above complete darkness and looking in the starlight sky while you only hear the sound of the waves and some “Blub-sounds" of the other divers below felt amazing. I remember that I said to myself: “You will miss the hell out of this in a week…

off to the night dive

Leaving Loreto, we headed straight for La Paz, where the ferry took us to the mainland of Mexico. On the mainland we did nothing else except driving.

leaving Loreto

Mexico City suburb

After all we decided to spend at least two days in Mexico City after hearing so many great things about that city. We arrived at the second biggest city in the world just two days before my returning flight. I was actually quite surprised by it. The smog as well as the traffic wasn’t as bad as many people described it. The city center itself was definitely worth seeing. So we wandered through the streets and enjoyed the athmosphere.

spot Flo

Especially on the last two days it was quite tough for me to keep my feet still. It is a weird feeling knowing that you are about to go back to Germany. The feeling got even weirder when I realized on the day before my flight how fucked up my return flights were. I flew from Mexico City to Panama City. From Panama City to the Dominican Republic. And from the Dominican Republic back to Frankfurt. In total a 33-hour trip. Even more surprised than me was my poor mother, who I told the wrong day of my arrival. There is definitely a lesson to be learnt from that!

That brings me to the end of this short post. This also means the end of this blog for an uncertain amount of time. The trip itself entailed everything that I hoped for. I had an awesome time with Flo. Saw the scenic nature of the states. Melted away in the devastating heat of the Death Valley. Spend the craziest week of my entire life in the dessert of Nevada. Enjoyed the relaxed lifestyle on the Baja California. Dove alongside of sea lions. And all of this connected through one big road trip. Traveling with a car still is the undisputed best way of traveling in my opionen. It just gives you so many options. Even if we stayed in hostels/hotels in Mexico, we made it five weeks through the states with only staying two nights in accommodation. 

I thank all the readers that followed this blog through!

Cheers and goodbye!

Vince

last picture at the final destination

Car Trouble

The bay where we stayed

After spending one week in the dessert, we were in need of civilization, proper food, a shower, internet and so on. In the McDonalds at Fernley, the closest town to Black Rock City, we heard a girl say: “I am so happy to see ice again!”. I could relate 100 percent to that! It felt awesome to be back in the real world. We spend the first day cleansing the car. That dust was everywhere, and wasn’t that easy to remove. Water doesn’t do the trick. What it needs is a good wash with vinegar to get the playa dust of. Unfortunately, the Burning Man wasn’t such a good experience for the car as it was for ourselves. The noises got louder and weirder. We decided to let a mechanic have a look at it. And that’s what we basically did, after we spend our first days chilling literally the whole day at Starbucks. It is remarkable how good that felt after spending one week in the dessert.

At Carson City we let a mechanic take a look at our Ford Explorer. The repair of it would cost up to 2000 dollar, which basically is enough money to buy a new car. So we decided not to repair it and try our luck, heading towards Mexico. The repair is probably cheaper in Mexico anyways. The next days were all pretty much alike. During the day I had to work on an assignment for the university and by night we tried driving. The steering got worse every minute, the howling as well as the whistling did their part in the annoying noise orchestra and sometimes, if we got lucky, the car started to smell like burned rubber. Once, we had to pull off the highway after only 15 minutes. It was incredible demotivating. Even the original plan, visiting San Francisco, became victim to the spontaneous fluctuations of the car, so we decided to head straight to Mexico.

On the 12^th of September we finally arrived at the border. Entering Mexico turns out to be quite easy. So easy that we did not even got a “tourist card”. In Tijuana, we then realized that the only place where you normally get this certificate was closed. Now it gets ridiculous. To get this piece of paper, we had to go back to the states and reenter Mexico, on foot. We waited in the “USA-entering” line for several hours. Sometimes there wasn’t even an officer at the counter for foreigner line. They just ignored that fact for nearly an hour. Both country’s seemingly played a game of incompetency against each other and so far they were both winning.

After this nerve racking procedure we left the border city, heading for a backpacker hostel. Ian and his daughter Molly are running this place. With a direct view on the beach we had the entire third floor of the house for ourselves, including a huge porch.

blue house = hostel

finally in the sea after nearly a year

view from our porch

Ian referred us to a “bush” mechanic named Poncho, who has his “garage” in the village “La Misión”, a ten minute drive from the hostel. He wasn’t able to speak English, so we could only translate through Ian.

the perfect chaos

In the end he was able to get a new differential from his brother and fixed the car for 150 dollars (in the states it would have cost nearly 2000). However, we didn’t get far after we tried hitting the road again. The car ran hot and we had to stop at the side of the road. A towing truck brought us back to La Misión, where we parked the car in the backyard of the guy that owns a tire change shop.

We figured that we needed new tires, so the differential can run smoothly. A guy we met at the beach took us to a “cousin” of him to Ensenada. We ended up buying four brand new tires due to the popularity of huge tires in this country. Even though it was quite cheap compared to the prices in the states, I had a bad feeling investing that much money in the car, especially not knowing whether Poncho did a proper job. After the tires were put on the Mexican way, we made a test drive – still running hot.

tire change

Poncho took another look at and after another day of work it was finally good to go. In totally we spend one whole week at the hostel. All the problems and uncertainties with the car were quite annoying, but I had still a good time. Admittedly, there was nothing much to do but we had a few interesting encounters, especially because the hostel also offered “ibogain-treatment” to addicts. A patient stayed there for a couple of days giving quite interesting insights in his situation. We also went with Molly on the mountain, to track and watch a herd of wild horses.

Brum Brum

old pig slaughter house

It wasn’t the most exciting time, but nevertheless quite helpful as well as instructive. Often on travels you just pass through city`s or villages, not really getting any insights in the day to day live. Our involuntary long stay gave us plenty of those possibilities. Especially, the small, authentic village “La Missión” was worth the while.

store with the most random sortiment ever

the electricity pylons always made a calming sound

Our last mission before heading towards the east part of the Baja California was a trip to the “quicksand-city” Tijuana. We said our goodbyes to the hostel crew as well as my good friend Victor. At Tijuana we needed an import permit for our car, which we require when we take the ferry to the mainland of Mexico. Neither in the internet, nor at other government establishments there was any information about the permit or even the place where to get it. In the end, it took us 7 hours to get through to the office. 7 nerve wrecking hours. There are literally no words for the bureaucratic “system” of Mexico.

Right now we are in La Paz and booked a ferry for this evening, which will take us to the mainland of Mexico. We only have five days left to get to Mexico City, where my return flight to Germany depart on Tuesday.

In my next post I will describe the more beautiful parts of the Baja California.

Cheers for reading!

Vince

Burning Man

Dear readers,

At the moment Flo and I are on our way to the last Walmart right before the border to Mexico. Due to our current “car situation” we are frankly not quite sure whether we gonna make it or not. But that’s another story I will tell a different time.

In the end, Flo and I managed to survive the week at the Burning Man and therefore I am all about telling the adventures I experienced within that unique week. I have to say that it was kind of hard taking good pictures that capture the moments. Some credit goes to my special photo taking skills and the rest of it belongs to the fact that you just don’t want to take pictures all the time at a place like this. They might be great reminders of your time but also, in the act of making them, prevent you from going with the flow, which is basically the way to go.

Before I start failing to describe how it is to be at the Burning Man, I will give a quick introduction explaining, what the festival is actually about and more important, how it even works. Since 1986 this festival takes place every year at the end of august. This year around 70.000 people found their way into the playa of Nevada to create, how I would put it, an artistic city of joy and wonder.

Generally speaking, there are ten basic principles which every participant should always keep in mind. They are a reflection of the burning man culture and symbolize “moral guidelines” for that festival. I will provide the link to the official website below, where you can read about those principles, if you are interested. I will mention some in my post, but probably miss out on one or two.  

http://burningman.org/culture/philosophical-center/10-principles/

https://cdn.theatlantic.com/assets/media/img/photo/2015/09/photos-from-burning-man-2015/b02_RTX1QSLD/main_1500.jpg

First of all, I have to say that I never have expected the festival being this huge. The whole operations associated with the festival occupy a total area of 4,400 acres, which is basically the size of 2,521 football fields (talking soccer). Normal cars are prohibited from the festival area, which leaves you with the options to travel on foot, by bike or just hop on one of the fancy art cars that roam the streets of the camp areas as well as the deep playa. Back in the ice age the area was covered by the lake Lahontan, which is the reason why there is a playa (Salztonebene) nowadays. On the bird eye view photograph I provided, you can see the outlook of the Burning Man. In the center of the “three quarter circle” the Burning Man is constructed. Everything beyond the city is referred to as the deep playa, where you find a lot of the art, impressive building like the temple and much more.  

The camp areas are filled with theme camps, private camps, which even merge into villages. Music is playing everywhere, you can drive through, take a stop at different camp, join in on workshops, go for drinks or simply enjoy the atmosphere. Due to the immense variety of camps the options are unlimited.

Due to the principle of decommodification, there is no currency system in order. Money is useless, unless you buy coffee or ice at the plazas. The amazing concept of gifting is what drives the communal effort and makes the burning man experience so special. You get and give. So you can get drinks, little snacks as well as other gifts, which can be anything from a hug to a wet napkin or something self-made. That most certainly doesn’t mean that you don’t to bring your own food, water as well as other necessities to the festival, it is just a concept that brings people together and generates a communal feeling. On my first night I went to a bar without a cup. Rookie mistake, because you bring you own cups to the bars to prevent unnecessary trash. A guy who saw my adverse situation, than gifted me his cup, which severed me loyal for that week.

One of the things I enjoyed most was the absolute spontaneity that brings you from one place to another. There was no routine at all. Every day was like a new adventure and even if I felt down or overwhelmed by the vast scenery - I found a new exciting thing just around the corner. That way I made sure, that no day equaled another and I could do whatever felt was right in the moment. And the possibilities are endless.

barney couldn`t handle the burn

There is even a common feeling of being afraid to miss out due to not being able to see all the art cars, participate in the various workshops or simply see all of the camps. What makes it even harder is the fact that this place turns into one huge, marvelous party by night. Literally everything is enlightened. The cars, the camps, the bikes and even the people. Everybody takes place in one huge lightshow.

driving through the arches was awesome

blowing in the flared them up (took 4 moth to build)

The first time Flo and I drove through the playa was just overwhelming. We were completely flashed. It was too much to take in. We just followed various art cars and stopped whenever we saw a new crazy thing to do. Once we saw this huge space-rocket driving through the playa. So we followed it like two moth following a cone of light. We were nearly the only ones there, expect a couple of people and a guy named Dick, who gifted us some led-bracelets. Suddenly the space-rocket stopped and started blasting music. The situation itself was pretty awesome. Dancing in front of a led space rocket in the middle of the dessert ...

dancetronauts

Another truly amazing aspect of the Burning Man was the incredible art scene. All over the playa were incredible, detailed masterpieces. There was a huge climbable metal statue of a boar. When I was up there, standing on its neck, the head suddenly bent over, causing a gap – just big enough for a leg. So whenever someone climbed on top of the head, the head went down. At the last day I found out that a couple of people actually lost body parts on that boar. They even tried closing the access to that thing with a sign. No one really cared. As a matter of fact, on every Burning Man ticket the first passage says: “the ticket holder (“you”) voluntarily assumes all risk of property loss or damage … serious injury or death that may occur by attending the Burning Man 2016”. I guess without that one sentences the Burning Man probably couldn’t take place at all. Not only because of boars, there were a couple of other things I saw that were quite dangerous – but fun – and that counts for something.

all body parts still attached

best art car ever!

it even made whale sounds

the whale project on fire

When I tell these aspects of the festival, it seems like one huge giant party. In a way that’s true, but there is so much more to it. The most impressive building was nonetheless the temple, which was just a wooden temple at first. As the Burning Man went along, more and more people came to the temple and transformed it into a truly memorizable place. Some people just came to look at it, some rested in silence or prayed, many people brought and left mementoes of a lost ones – the list goes on. That assembly of people as well as several, personal belongings made it to one of the most atmospheric human-made places I have ever seen. Standing in a place like this, where your thoughts completely drift away, makes you almost forget where you actually are – if that giant dragon-art car wouldn’t be parking right in front of the entrance.

the temple in the deep playa

second best art car

So what makes this place so special? Of course, the art cars, the fact that it takes place in one of the most humanly dismissive landscapes and the sick party`s do their part. But also the interpersonal relations play a huge role. The warmth, tolerance and generosity of the people was truly amazing and made that one week extremely easy. I met so many nice as well as interesting people and had not one bad experience with an individual, in that entire week, which I find quite impressive. I have never experienced such a welcoming, and communal atmosphere before.

In the end, I have to say that it was definitely the right decision, going to the Burning Man. Especially considering the situation we were in – already traveling through America by car. Flying over to the states, renting a car would have been way more expensive. Even the alkali dust wasn’t as bad as I expected it. People recommend bathing your feet in a mixture of vinegar and water, before going to bed, to prevent the “playa-feet”. My routine cat bath with wet wipes did the job. Although it kind of sucked not being able to shower during that week, the dust kind of preserves the hair for you. Sounds weird but actually works. At first we weren’t sure whether to join a camp or not, but in the end I am happy we did it on our own. We also were in luck due to our awesome neighbors, who provided us with an essential shade construction opportunity. After that week, everything was covered in dust, which is really hard to get off by the way – we gave up cleaning the car after a while, the dust is now part of the car. The fine alkali dust gets literally everywhere.

sleeping in dust

On Saturday night, which was also our last day, the burn happened. It is the night everybody was looking forward to. During that night they burn the Burning Man statue itself and nearly all the wooden art on the playa. Only the temple remains, which burns on Sunday. So on Saturday day night everything went ballistics. All the art cars gathered around the Burning Man statue.

Burning Man burn from a distance

turmoil of music and light

I was completely exhausted and all the turmoil was a bit much at that point. That last days definitely claimed their toll. We stayed around for a while, watched the burn and headed back to our tent pretty early. Our usual plan was to stay for the temple burn, but on Sunday morning we decided to pack up and leave.

So what I take from this adventure is the memory of the best party I ever had, loads of funny moments – even the worst verbal error I ever had in my entire life (except <-> expect can be tricky and change the whole outcome of a sentence, when mistaken), –, a new cognition for caps and plenty of other pleasant memories. It feels kind of weird stopping here because there is so much more to tell, which I am more than happy to do in a private conversation.

the sunsets were really something

See you next time!

Kippis