Trip Preparation

We didn't make it to the mercado yesterday - we cleaned the boat instead in preparation for our trip back to the US.  It is strange to be leaving our boat for so long, but it will be very safe here in this secure marina and we have made arrangements to have the bottom cleaned while we are gone.  The people who work here will not let anything bad happen to Magda Jean, and she will be just fine.  It is a good opportunity to defrost the freezer as well.

Of course just as we decided to leave the weather gets warmer and warmer.  We figure it will be downright hot when we get back, with a lot of humidity.  The Sea of Cortez (where we plan to spend the summer) will also be hot - real hot - but without the humidity.  This is making me nervous, because the fact is I don't do real well in heat.  I suppose there would be those who would wonder why I didn't think about this before I made these plans.  Well, I DID think about it, and decided to do it anyway.  There are a lot of things I can do to make it easier on myself, like keeping hydrated, wearing a hat, staying out of direct sunlight as much as possible, and going swimming whenver I can.  (Living on a boat should make that last part pretty easy.)  Mike says that after a while I will acclimate, and to an extent I probably will, but it still worries me a bit.  However, I do remember something from the short time I lived in Fresno, where it gets very hot.  After I moved  back to San Diego, I was standing in the blacktop parking lot at juvenile court.  It was hot, and everyone was talking about how hot it was.  I said to myself "If I were in Fresno now, we would be talking about what a beautiful day it was.  We would be walking to lunch, and wearing our black suits."  I realized that I had acclimated, because I was not nearly as uncomfortable as everyone else was.

Another option to deal with heat is ping lung, or betelnut.  When I was in Taiwan, we discovered that some of the people chewed betelnut.  I kept seeing these little husk type things in the street, and was told it was betelnut, which they call ping lung.  It is palm nuts wrapped in leaves, about the size of a large chiclet.  They chew it, and then spit it out once the effects are gone.  They sell it in kiosks everywhere.  I decided to try it.  When we went to the kiosk to buy it, the people selling it could not believe a foreigner would be interested in it, and gave it to us free.  It does not taste bad - but not real good, sort of what you would expect, like chewing leaves.  Anyway, I did not feel a buzz, but what I did notice was that I was no longer bothered by the heat. (It is VERY hot and humid in Taiwan.)  I was still hot, still pouring sweat, but it didn't bother me as much.  In fact, I was quite comfortable.  But there is a huge downside - it ruins your teeth.  All the lower classes (sorry about that term), who are the only ones who chew it, have red stained teeth.  So it is really a bad idea.  And they only have it in Asia, to my knowledge.  I guess it won't be an option for me here.

So anyway, we have quite a few things to get done before we leave, which is in two days.  So I better wind this up and get started.  Before it gets hot out.