Departure From Cozumel
After three days passed on Cozumel Island, here I am in Tulum. Although it was a relatively short distance to travel from Cozumel to Tulum, things got pretty challenging for me physically due to the circumstances. I dry-fasted all day Sunday, and on Sunday night only had coconut water. On Monday morning I was feeling fine, I went for a jog, did all my physical exercises, played the guitar for a little bit before hitting the road. As I was about to step outside of the house where I was staying in Cozumel, I felt a little bit achy. I already experienced a diarrhea episode on my second day in Cancun, and now I was starting to feel very subtle shivers on my back and shoulders. I headed out to catch the boat to Playa del Carmen. When I made it to the port, it was 1:10 PM and the next boat was leaving at 2:00 PM. In order to not waste my time waiting, I went straight to a park nearby to play some more guitar.
The ferry ride always feels nice. I like to sit under the sun and enjoy the fresh Caribbean breeze. There was a band playing, some Mexican classics, certainly a repertoire designed to appeal the average tourist, but the good performance of the band made the ride that much enjoyable. Since the bus station was located at walking distance from the port it made it convenient for me to catch an ADO bus for Tulum. The bus was half an hour late. This was actually the very first time I was experiencing a bus being late in Mexico. This is probably due to the fact that I don’t have a consequent number of bus rides in
Trying to Find My Way to the House
Once I’ve made it to Tulum my plan was to walk to the place I will be staying at. The last miles of my trips are always the most challenging ones for me. For the past two and a half years, I don’t have a cell phone plan nor I use GPS to locate my current position on a map. Therefore small simple things for other connected people can get pretty complicated for someone like me. I usually try to get organized before the departure. I study the map of the neighborhood. I ask my host for the WIFI code of the house. I try to get a picture of the street and the building I will be staying at. On this particular day, everything went smoothly until finding the actual house. Everyone I’d be asking for help would be almost mean to me. I did not feel welcome into the neighborhood at all.
I’d been transporting 30 kg of weight and it was 35 degrees Celcius hot. When you add to this the fasting and the not feeling so well factors in, the situation ended up
I think any customarily constituted human being would get very frustrated to travel with me. My thing while traveling is to take the time it takes to do things, and never get stressed out, never get frustrated. Be patient and have faith in the fact that I will always find a solution. When I transit from one place to another I usually not rush, unless there is an apparent reason to catch a boat as it was the case when I first got to Cozumel. On that trip, I purchased my ferry ticket 7 minutes before departure from the bus station located four blocks from the ferry port. I ran a sprint with 30 kg of weight. That’s when my guitar took all sorts of hits during the rushed x-ray security check.
Starting to Feel Worse
As I finally was able to meet my host and entered the room I was renting in Tulum, I was feeling achier. I wanted to break my fast, but at the same time, I was pretty sure that I had gotten an unwelcomed entity into my system, therefore I was debating with myself if I should keep on fasting or not. In Isla Mujeres and Cozumel I actually had experimented quite often drinking sea water. I believe that it is good for me in terms of mineralizing my body. Maybe an undesirable organism got inside of me during my intakes of sea water. It could also be that I had eaten something gotten bad.
I had the opportunity to break my fast with some excellent vegetable juice and a very simple salad. I played the Black Sea Storm acoustic set in a park called Parque Dos Aquas. As opposed to Cozumel, here people seemed to care more about me playing. I’ve met a guy named Alexander. He told me that he was initially from Mérida. He had an interest in my music, and he was considering to start playing the guitar. Once again as I had done it on Isla Mujeres with the 16-year-old Damian who was selling coconuts, I’ve tried to give my best convincing speech so Alexander will go on the path of becoming a musician. Who knows, maybe the real purpose of my journey is to convert non-musicians to become musicians? If we were a planet of musicians, things might be a lot different. If then the Earth will be a better or worse place, that part I have no clue about.
The next day I wasn’t feeling good at all. I decided to rest as much as I could. My eyes and my entire body were hurting me, and I definitely had intense diarrhea again. Despite all these slowing me down factors, I managed to go to the park twice on that day and played my set. As long as I don’t shit on myself while playing, pretty much nothing will stop me from performing. Again there was some interest in me playing. A young man even tipped me seven pesos. I decided to go home earlier since I wasn’t feeling so well. When I came back Ximena, the young landlord lady told me that there was no more power in the house. It did not bother me that much since I was already tired, and I thought that this would be an excellent opportunity to go to bed early. I still managed to have a metronome session in the dark with the remaining battery of my phone to fuel the actual metronome app. I went to bed super early, feeling pretty bad physically. Inside of the room, there was no A.C., but one big lateral ventilator and a ceiling ventilator. With power shortage, those weren’t functioning anymore. This is when I believe I turned the fact that I was feeling sick into an advantage. Since I was feeling weak and miserable physically, I did not have a hard time falling asleep, although the temperature was intensely hot inside
Getting Kicked out of the Tulum Ruins
Next morning I woke up feeling much better. Diarrhea seemed to be gone for the most part. I decided to go to the Tulum Ruins, and after that, head to the beach. In addition to most of the waterfronts being privatized, the second thing that I despise the most in the Mayan Riviera is that there is a tendency to turn every cool thing into an amusement park attraction. At the Tulum Ruins, there was a fee to pay to get in. It wasn’t too expensive, so I did pay to get in. The bad news was that they wouldn’t let me in with my guitar. Luckily there was a system in place to watch over unallowed belongings while the visitor was contemplating the ruins.
While my guitar was resting under the shade with all the other unwanted objects such as drones and tripods, I had plenty of time to visit this magical area. I actually loved the ruins and the view on the ocean from the cliff above. It was definitely worth the 75 pesos I had to pay. I took a bunch of photos like every other tourist. I recuperated my guitar at the entrance and headed out. The good thing was that even outside of the paying area it felt like I was still in the same natural environment as at the Tulum Ruins. It felt like being in the jungle a little bit. I found a great spot to play my set. The acoustics were in my favor, and there was still significant foot traffic. I decided to record myself playing and at the same time promote Black Sea Storm to the tourists. I put all my “Follow Black Sea Storm on Spotify, and Instagram” signs out. I was able to play three songs in total before the security stopped me from playing and kicked me out of the park. My camera was still recording so I was able to capture everything on tape, in case I would want to share something more than music on the Black Sea Storm Youtube Channel one day.
Coconuts
I played a couple of songs on the beach, to try to produce some engaging looking videos for the Black Sea Storm YouTube Channel. It is always a challenge to play under the sun, over the sand, against the wind. Visually the result was pretty satisfying, but the audio terrible. On my way out of the beach, I’ve found a seasoned coconut vendor selling fresh coconut water. I had three coconuts in total, including the meat. That was pretty much all I needed for the entire day as far as eating and drinking go. The old vendor honestly hooked me up with the first couple I had, the water of the coconut was so sweet and tasty, and the meat extremely young. Both coconuts were huge, full of refreshing and delicious water. The vendor left his stand for a brief moment, and a bunch of people started asking me how much the coconuts were thinking that I was the person actually selling the cocos. In front of my eyes, in less than 10 minutes the real vendor sold over 10 coconuts. Which was good for business, but by the time I had a chance to order my third coconut, I was left with smaller fruit. Its water wasn’t as tasty as the two previous ones. But the meat was excellent. Probably older the coconut gets the “yumminess” passes from the water to the flesh. This is not the first time I am experiencing a situation where my presence alone boosts business. I don’t exactly know why that is?
Algae on the Beach
After being kicked out of the Tulum Ruins, I decided to find the beach. It was actually very close by. This is the season when the entire beach is infested by an algae problem. It is incredibly frustrating because it makes it impossible to go out and swim. I am wondering if this problem always existed or once again, as it seems to be often the case, the human behavior is at the origin of this symptom due probably to an unbalanced situation within the ecosystem. When I saw the
The Return of Power
When I returned home, electricity was still gone. Not having power in my room wasn’t the worst. The place where the router is located was also out of power. I am all for disconnected moments in life. That said, I was supposed to start working on a new small project with my job as a freelancer, and also in order to organize the upcoming stages of the adventure, I needed WIFI. I had the fans turned on so I’d know when the power will come back. As I was getting ready to leave for a coffee shop to gain access to the internet. Both ventilators started working again. That was a hallelujah moment, but I soon realized that my joy was a bit anticipated. I could detect the house’s router with my laptop, but there was still no connection to the internet. Probably the router just needed to get a reset, but I had no access to that portion of the house, and the landlords weren’t around. Then I experienced moments where the power will come back for a minute and then go away for a minute. After a half dozen times of this back and forth teasing game. The power continuously came back. Shortly after I had access to the internet. I could do all my tasks which needed a connection to the world wide web.
The Double Agent
I was feeling way better. I was debating on eating or not eating on that day. I decided to eat something light. After dinner, I headed to the Parque Dos Aguas to play the Black Sea Storm acoustic set. I did not get much interest from the crowd on that night. Except for one man who stood by and listened to the song I was playing until the end. It was Boşalan Dünyam. The weird coincidence was that earlier on that same day when I was interrupted from playing the set by the security guards at the Tulum Ruins it was the exact same song and at the exact same moment of the song which happens to be the very end of it. The man in the park showed me his badge. He told me that he was from the municipality. He asked me if I was asking for money. I said no. I told him that I was playing to promote my music to the people. He then told me that they were trying to keep things under control in this area, but that I was fine since I wasn’t asking for money. He then told me to go to the cultural department of the municipality. They could eventually give me a 10 or 20-minute slot at a public event. He also said that they could help me. I asked him enthusiastically help me with a microphone, a mic stand, and a P.A. He responded yes of course, but also support you for real. He meant financially, I guess. This undercover municipal agent has been my best booking agent so far in Mexico. He may have solved the major problem I’ve been having since I’ve made it into the country. The solution may reside in going to each city’s cultural departments and ask if I could perform during the public events they organize. I thanked the agent, asked him if I could continue playing, just to be sure. He said yes, I gave him a Black Sea Storm sticker. He asked my name. I replied Ali, he said nice to meet you and left.
On this visit of Tulum, unfortunately for me, I had already booked my bus ticket for my next destination, but I am going tomorrow to the municipality and see how things work to get booked with them. I will undoubtedly learn a great deal on the ins and outs of public cultural services. If they really give me a slot, then I can always come back to town, since I’ll be still in the Yucatan peninsula for at least a couple of weeks. Nothing is more important than Black Sea Storm for me at this point in my life. The priority number one is to make this project move forward. Those city events are exciting because they don’t only attract a rock or a folk crowd, I’ve seen many of them, but for some reason, it never occurred to me that I could perform at one of those events.
Getting in the Zone
What amazes me when you mix traveling and your music project together, things are starting to happen. Often I experienced the same kind of situation when I was touring across the U.S. with the bands I played in. Every day you meet people who are inspiring, and every day, new opportunities present themselves to make the band move forward. I am so happy and grateful to be experiencing a similar dynamic again. For me, this is being in the zone as far as lifestyle goes. Move and do what you love, and great things will keep happening. I want to stay as much as possible in the zone.
Tropical Office Day & Booking Attempt
Next day I woke up feeling better than a precedent couple of days. I think I am about to fully recover from feeling miserable. It ended up being an office day for me today, rather than an exploration day. I had some work to do for my freelancer job opportunity. I preferred to play the guitar inside the house in the morning. I went out for the first time in the afternoon to talk to the people who are in charge of the cultural events at the municipality. It was a bunch of 20-year-old kids, which is a good sign in my opinion. They were quite welcoming. They took my information and told me that they may book me for the event coming up in two weeks. I gave them all my information as to find my music online as we were talking with one of the kids in charge another kid got on my YouTube Channel and pulled the rhythm guitar jam session I had put on there. You can only make a first impression once, and that was it. I don’t know if this work in my favor or not, but the jam video does not really represent my acoustic set. This was one of the rare times that I did not have my guitar with me. I think that in these types of situations, it’s better to just play live to make the most impactful first impression. Because a jam session that was recorded with a phone then played back from another phone, I’m not sure it puts me under the best light to book a show at an event held by a municipality.
I am experiencing a dilemma as far as what to put online. I genuinely like the fact to post daily on social media with what I can produce with my current means. At the same time, what I can create on the road is pretty lo-fi. I am not sure if it’s helping or hurting the project, but it helps me to release things regularly to grow, so I think I am going to keep doing it.
With this adventure of trying to book Black Sea Storm shows in Mexico, I feel like all the shows I played and all the albums I recorded in my entire career as a rocker don’t mean anything at this point. I have to start everything from scratch. At the moment I don’t have a band. I am all on my own trying to get any sort of opportunity to play.
A critical piece of information I have learned today is that cultural departments like the one I dealt with today in Tulum, seem to be present in most of the cities throughout entire Mexico. Once I figure out how to get on a bill and perform a set that people may enjoy, then I can try to repeat this for each city I go to.
I feel the need to fine-tune my approach to wildy touring
One other aspect of the journey I need to work on is to time my stays a bit more accordingly to have enough time during my visits to meet the right people and book shows to play. I kind of rushed the adventure through the Mayan Riviera, one because I did not know what to expect in each city if it would be ideal for me to get stage time, and also because life is expensive in this part of Mexico. This is why I did not want to stay too long to save up on some cash. Tomorrow I am going to Mérida. It’s a place that I know fairly well. I lived there for about two months last years. I have friends over in town. I am going to try to book a show in Mérida and come up with a finer tuned strategy to take this mission of turning my travel adventure into a Black Sea Storm world tour. It’s a pretty intense situation for me because everywhere I go I want to discover the actual place, I want to play music, I want to produce web content, and now I need to get the hang of this booking thing in Mexico. The crazy part is that as soon as I decided to go to Mérida and purchased my bus ticket, opportunities started to come to me in Tulum. Maybe there is a lesson to be learned here.
Keep on playing no matter what
On my last night in Tulum, I went to the Parque Dos Aquas and ran the set. My usual spot in the center of a series of statues was taken, so I went to sit on a regular park-bench to play. No one really cared about me playing on that particular night. There was some cholo looking people sitting on the bench in front of the one I was sitting on. I think they didn’t like or get what I was doing. At times they seemed to be making fun of me. To be able to go through the set in front of a potentially hostile crowd, was also a good exercise for me as a live performer. Playing the streets is once again as I mentioned it in other posts, an excellent school for me as a musician. It teaches me to play in every sort of situation. In parks, not only I need to focus on my playing, but I need to always keep an eye open to observe the surroundings, in order to not end up in a dangerous situation. When I was playing my set in the Mayan Ruins, I knew that it was too good to be true to play in such a sweet spot. So in the back of my head, I was expecting the security to show up at one point. Playing back the videos I could observe that it affected my playing and singing. I want to get to a level where noting affects me negatively while playing. On stage, this protective bubble aspect occurs more naturally, because if there is an attentive crowd, it puts me in the zone immediately, I don’t see anything around me, and will solely focus on playing. On the streets it’s different. I need to be alert and watch my surroundings at all times while playing.