The day before we left I was double checking tickets and connections.  It turns out, in my excitement over the trip I had miscalculated.  Our trip began on the 16th, not the 15th.  Yano was mildly irritated, since she had to take tests days before to fit in our early departure.  We discussed various options, including spending a day touristing in San Juan.  That didn’t go so well…

So, we changed our San Juan <-> New York ticket for a day earlier, which meant we now had a 30 hour layover in NYC.  Thanks to a quaint hostel near Central Park we were able to stay for $26pp and see Manhattan.  Stupid me decided to join Yano in an 7 mile run in Central Park and we got horrendously lost, which made us go faster and faster.  7 miles turned into 8, and 8 turned into 9, the last of which was walking.  Not one to waste a day in a foreign city, we washed up, and went for a stroll in 5th Avenue, 42nd street, Times Square, Grand Central Station, and what we thought was the Empire State, but was actually the Chrysler building.  Whoops.  We ended up with very swollen feet, which wer’e still paying for.  I don’t think the human body is meant to carry a huge backpack for hours, then run for 9 miles, and then walk for 3 hours in an effort to save on metro fare (BTW, there’s a $7 all day pass for public transport which we didn’t know about).

Onto Helsinki swollen feet and all…

You know, if I’m going to die young, let it be something worthy of a story– a heart attack in a bike race (as I cross the finish line, hands pumping in the air), a terrorist attack, or maybe a a parachute that doesn’t open.  But please, oh please… let it not be a an (avoidable) car accident.

Here we are worried about terrorist threats in Mumbai, when what we should be worried about are stupid drunk drivers.  We were running some errands a few hours ago for our trip, and I decided to avoid the highway because I thought it’d be safer.  Going about 5 miles an hour in downtown Mayaguez some drunk driver decided to turn into our lane and hit us head on.  Luckily he was also going 5 miles an hour, so it was just annoying– having to lose 2-3 hours while he got arrested and sobered off barely enough to have the situation explained to him.  The man was so drunk he could barely stand up.

At the police station we realized this was not the only drunk driving case for the night– maybe the 3rd.

Oh, and guess what the punishment for drunk driving in PR  is: driving school and a $300 fine.  What the fuck!  Drunk drivers should lose their license for 3 years, spend 30 days in jail, and pay a $3000 fine to get their license back.  Second offense?  6 months in jail and you lose your license for life.  Oh yeah, and 6 month community service at a car wash… in Santurce.

We’re all right, though we have to spend our first day back from vacation going to court.  Can’t wait…

Well, provided no more drunk drivers, we should be in the airport in about 3 hours.  Excuse the typos, it’s 3:30am.  Yawn.

Well India it is, unless something drastically changes from here until Monday…

We leave on Monday, and get there on a Thursday.  How’s that for time changes, and long layovers?  We bought 2 separate tickets– Puerto Rico -> New York City.  NYC -> Helsinki -> New Delhi.  We have a 6 hour layover in NYC, and a 12 hour layover in Helsinki.  There’s a CouchSurfer who we hope to meet for coffee/food in Helsinki, provided the Panamanian in our entourage doesn’t get stopped at immigration (which is usually the case when she pulls out a Panamanian passport, US resident card, a marriage certificate, and a slew of immigration papers).

Apparently Helsinki in December is not only colder than PR, but a whole lot darker.  If it’s too cold, I’ll fake some traveler’s diarrhea at the last minute and stay indoors.  No shame there– my plan was tropical India, not tundrid Helsinki in the winter.

• Passport, check.
• Empty backpack so I can buy cheap clothes in India, check.
• Phone numbers of unknown CouchSurfers in India/Helsinki, check.
• Email scanned copies of passports to self, check.
• SSH key on an USB stick, check.
• Email 50 pages of scanned nurse anesthesia reviews for Yanory to forget about, and never study while on vacation, check.

Lemir, my best friend from grade school, died a few weeks ago from a brain tumor.  He developed a tumor at age 15, which was removed by one of the world’s top pediatric neurosurgeons at the time (Ben Carson).  However, side-effects from the radiation caused an inoperable tumor more than a decade later.

Lemir was the best friend one could ask for: honest, trustworthy, and a great listener.  Growing up, we were like two peas in a pod.  Lemir was the perfect balance to my spastic, impulsive self: quiet, reflective, the ever present voice in the back of my mind.  To this day, it came as a surprise to many that we were friends at all.

In the past few months, we had numerous talks, which unfortunately degraded over time, because he lost his short-term memory, so we repeated the same conversation every day for the past month.  It was great to talk to him, so even if I knew the stories and the endings, it was the great Lemir, with his sense of humor, his fears, and his overly analytical mind.  One thing that struck me at the end was his desire to finish dreams left undone.  Lemir had been too cautious growing up, as only one who’s life has been on the edge can be.  And he often shook his head in disapproval to my constant need to explore, travel, and see.  In the past few months, he told me– when I get better I want to see the world with you; I want to take a cruise, strap on a backpack, ride a bike.

We all have regrets, and a hundred years are not enough to live.  There’s a great many things Lemir did, that I haven’t done yet (and may never do).  I’ve yet to learn to be as good friend as he was, to laugh with full lungs, to accept others the way they are, or impact others the way only he could.    But at the same time, Lemir’s last weeks were a wake up call.  You only get one chance; so live your life and make it count.

The last few weeks’ occurrences have Yano and I hashing and rehashing our trip– we leave in 10 days for India.  Should we skip India altogether?  Should we hop on the first flight to Nepal, Thailand, or Vietnam, once there?  Should we stick to small towns in northern India?  Or should we stay at home safe and sound?

Although the last option is highly unlikely, whatever the end result, I’m hoping we can choose to live a life with few regrets, as Thoreau once said– to live deliberately.

Life is short; make it wide.

 

In one of my travels, a backpacker once told me: “Traveling is like sex.  If you’ve never had it, you don’t miss it.  If you have, you spend all your waking hours thinking of how you’re going to do it again”.  That pretty much sums up the past 6 years– figuring how I’m going to do it again.

Since my last round-the-world excursion, traveling has gotten significantly easier.  There is WIFI everywhere, 3G phones abound, and remaining online is a cinch.  However, life has slowed down a bit, I got married, and traveling takes a tad more planning.  Be that as it may, it doesn’t mean we’re not constantly scheming ways of taking off.

Yano is finishing grad school, so traveling is limited to short vacations and the occassional Christmas excursion.  This year is different, and we’ve already booked a flight to India: for a month.  It’s not nearly enough, but enough to warm up the engines.  Plus, it’s an actual vacation, no carting a laptop looking for internet cafes.

In anticipation of the trip, we’re getting in the mood through Couch Surfing, an on-line community of travelers opening their homes to each other.  You leave references of people where you’ve stayed, and of guests you’ve hosted.  There’s a vouching system, and a system where those who are most trustworthy, and have hosted the most show up at the top of the list while searching for a destination.  I’ve yet to see negative feedbacks, but as everything in life, common sense goes a long way.

Yano has been doing clinicals for 3 consecutive days in San Juan, and the 2.5 hour drive (each way) has been killing her.  We decided to try couch surfing locally, and she stayed with a host in San Juan.  Apparently, Puerto Rico is full of couch surfers.  The experience was amazing; Amy was a fascinating host, and in her 6 months of hosting has befriended dozens of travelers.  She has enough stories to keep you entertained through numerous train rides.

Amy in turn, referred a couple from Ireland/Poland our way.  They’ve been staying with us for a couple days, and we keep convincing them every day to stay one more day.  It’s been a week.  Cathal makes the best Irish bread, and is a cook to boot.  Cathal and Roxi are on their first stop on a year and a half adventure around the world, financially made possible by couch surfing.

 

 

 

Couch Surfing makes traveling economically feasible through expensive countries like the US, Puerto Rico, and western Europe.  Plus, you get to spend time with locals, not businessmen drinking margaritas in a bar.  If you want to meet locals, absorb the culture, and do so cheaply: there are few better alternatives.

Couch Surfing: creating a better world one couch at a time!

p.s. 17 days until India