it's like I don't know how to do anything else anymore

      Hiked up the southern mesa today. All the geology here is this great deep red igneous lava rock. It's just super fun to climb on these giant rust-colored porous rocks with loads of traction and infinite handholds.
      From the top, you can really see how oasis-like the town is. Nestled between the huge mesas and separated from the main road by a couple miles of thick palm forest, it's really a gorgeous little settlement carved out of nowhere.
- 19 March 2010, San Ignacio, Mexico

      We got up early with the intention of hiking out to the bus station, but just outside town, this old geezer pulls up in an astoundingly decrepit beater and offers us a ride. He takes us out as far as the highway while I practice my crappy Spanish on him. We manage to catch an earlier bus. Go geezer!
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      Stopped in Santa Rosalia for a couple hours. With rickety old wooden buildings, paint peeling, and mariachi music wafting through the air from the open doors of tiny shops, it's an endearing little rundown western town, this breezy Saturday morning.
      Plopped down at one of the many taco stands for a couple tacos. For $1 each, they're pretty delicious.
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      Okay, screw the tacos in Santa Rosalia. Asadero Danny's in Mulegé has the best carnitas tacos, full stop. This is some serious slow-roasted deliciousness right here; it could be very dangerous if it ever fell into the wrong hands.
- 20 March 2010, Mulegé

      After dinner, a pleasant, light fatigue sets in, just a hint of a thing in the shoulders, not real tiredness, only a touch of warm weariness. That sense of an imminent good night's rest.
- 23 March 2010, La Paz

      We drop camp so it'll be ready for later. Our bright orange tent is pitched in the middle of a deserted beach. Our front door (tent flap) opens on to white sand and three different shades of blue ocean.
      Kayaking amongst the insane pink bulbous lava formations out on the absurdly blue Sea of Cortez in the afternoon's ridiculous golden light might as well be full-dose hallucinogens, compared to your average reality.
- 24 March 2010, Isla Espiritu Santo

      Strong winds make the buildings here rock, gently.
- 19 April 2010, NYC

      Chloe: It's *really* easy to make a new human. I mean, with the whole creating-a-new-life, a-new-person, an-entirely-new-existence-you're-responsible-for thing, you'd think it should be harder. All you have to do is *have sex*.
      Me: You should have to climb something.
- 21 April 2010, NYC

      Etienne: Dreams shouldn't be about wanting to *be* something. Dreams should be about wanting to *do* something.
- 8 May 2010, Boston

      It's mind-boggling the volume of people moving, always moving, though this city, on its face, under its skin, in its guts. Corpuscles drip, drip, dripping into stretched metal boxes rushing through this connective tissue just beneath the surface.
      The trains are quite beautiful; silver streaks racing through their dark tunnels.
- 11 June 2010, NYC

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I'm off to Palau. Farewell. I will miss you all.