Candela Place 6

Because of the incredibly low rent that I pay here I have been able to quickly save money.  In 2008 with my recently minted passport I set out to travel for the first time in fourteen years.  Let us for a moment Gentle Reader heed this small disclaimer: international travel is a luxury.  It is not a right, not a necessity, unless you are a political hotshot globetrotting to sign trade deals or save the world.  Nobody needs or has the right to travel by air to a foreign country and there luxuriate in an all-inclusive resort for two three or four weeks while getting too drunk and debauched to care a tinker's damn about the local culture, the lives of the people or the political reality of your host nation.  This is not to say that travel can't be useful for opening one's mind, expanding one's vision and teaching one respect and empathy for other people living in other parts of the world speaking other languages and practicing other customs.  Unless one is staying in an all-inclusive resort, too drunk and debauched to expand anything outside of one's waistline, hangovers, and lines of credit (or maybe lines of something else?)

So, in 2008 I went to Costa Rica for the second time, for a month where I spent three challenging weeks in the capital, San Jose, and eight blissful days getting wet in the cloud forest of Monteverde.  I spoke tons of Spanish though my level was still but intermediate, made new friends and changed my mind about living there.  So I am cured now and feel content to live out the remainder of my years here in Vancouver, if this city doesn't become a home exclusively for the rich, that is.

In 2009 I spent a month in Mexico City, followed by nearly six weeks in 2010 in Monteverde Costa Rica, followed by three days again in Mexico City where I returned in 2012.  I was one month in Mexico City and two weeks in Chiapas where I saw the Mayan splendour that is called Palenque.  I spent another month in 2013 in Mexico City, followed in 2014 by two weeks again in Mexico City and two weeks in Puebla where I admired baroque churches and palatial architecture.  In 2015 I went to Bogota Colombia for a month where I plan to return in 2016.

I earn a very low wage.  I don't spend a lot of money outside of the bare necessities, have no bad habits and rarely eat in restaurants.  Twice I have given workshop presentations for our mental health clients on budgeting but I have often felt like a bit of a fraud.  It isn`t simply that I lack expensive tastes.  I think that in many ways apart from my job that God provides and opens doors.  I only wish I could explain that to the people at work when they express admiration for my talents with stretching money and getting blood from stones.  But I have learned that any religious talk in the workplace that does not involve Buddhist meditation, Hindu yoga, mindfulness, or Taoist Tai-Chi simply is not going to be welcomed.