day 27 - may 7, 2014

6:30 pm

somehow i got a sunburn just on my wrist today.

we drove from acapulco to puerto escondito today. the hurricane is supposed to hit acapulco in the next 24 hours, and they are expecting to feel some fallout here in about 24 hours as well, but we should be long gone by then!

we're at a beautiful little campground on the outskirts of escondito, and just had a fabulous mexican dinner and 3 beers apiece for $180 pesos ($15 CAD). i am drinking to forget my sorrow...

i found out my hero died today. if you're not canadian, you may not know who farley mowat was, but he was a testament to everything it means to me to be canadian. he was 92, would have been 93 on monday, but i honestly thought he'd live forever. he was born in 1921, and spent his youth in the canadian prairies,raising owls and snakes and dogs, and being a wild canadian child. he was a soldier. he was an explorer - he was one of the first white people to explore the north of canada, to befriend the native populations there, and to promote their cause with the canadian government. he was a writer of epic proportions - at home i have an entire book shelf dedicated to his work. he wrote children's stories, such as 'owls in the family', 'lost in the barrens' and 'the dog who wouldn't be' about his youth, and about the experiences of young people in the north. he wrote poignantly about his time overseas in the war. and, most important to me, he wrote such amazing works as 'people of the deer', 'never cry wolf', and (my favourite) 'no man's river', about his experiences living in the far north of canada with the natives there in the 1940s and 50s. i lived in northern ontario for a spell, and found that his works are no less brilliant and valid 60 years on then they were when he wrote them. i read his books as a child (i even remember him coming to my school to read to us in the library), and i feel that his strong, adventurous characters contributed significantly to my own desire for adventure. i am a reader, and as such, i feel that what you read contributes so much to the person you are. i remember reading 'the dharma bums' by jack kerouac as a 15 year old, which was a huge part of what made me want to hitchhike around british columbia as a teenager, and experience life with all it's rough edges and ragged beauty. farley mowat was like that for me - his writing made me want to get out and really see the world - meet people that nobody from my world would ever meet, see places that nobody had ever seen before. learn about cultures, and appreciate the strength they have in their differences from the culture in which i grew up.

he was also an activist - the sea shepherd conservation society has a boat named 'the farley mowat', and when the crew was arrested for interfering with whaling operations, he paid their bail in sacks full of loonies and toonies (canadian $1 and $2 coins), calling it 'pirate booty'. he wrote many books about his activist views and experiences, bringing those experiences to the armchair activists among us.

he was a truly remarkable man, and the world is a worse place for having lost him.

i lost my dog in november, he was hit by a car while chasing a rabbit - one of his favourite pasttimes - he was only 3 1/2, and it was one of the most devastating days of my life. he was my best friend, and his name was farley. if you know me, you know that i don't want children, dogs are my children. the first time i was given the solo honour of naming a dog, his name was farley, because what else would it be?

today, i am honouring and missing both of the farlies in my life. they were both such remarkable people (you do know that dogs are people, right?), and contributed so much to both my life personally, and the lives of many others.

r.i.p. farley mowat. may the world learn from your truly shining example.