Day: April 5, 2015

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Semana Santa: Sunday On the Beach

I was thrown for a loop by the time change today. So by 2:00, I’d done what I’d done by 1:00 the previous days and felt soooo far behind even though I technically wasn’t! I almost didn’t go out, then I decided that I wasn’t going to punish myself for not realising there would be a time change this weekend or the fact that the only reason I’m so swamped is that I’m doing a favour for a client who injured herself last week. It’s not like I’ve been procrastinating on work.

It’s been another quiet day on Isla, but not as much as yesterday because my neighbours, who share the office wall, are working on their roof. Much banging and house shaking ensues every few minutes, which makes it even more amazing that I’ve managed to stay on track with production today!

I headed down to the beach for a quick walk and there really weren’t that many more people there than on an average gorgeous weekend.

Great kite flying weather.

Great kite flying weather.

The beach always has lifeguards, but there were extra for this week.

The beach always has lifeguards, but there were extra for this week.

Still a good crowd.

Still a good crowd.

I picked a nieve de garrafa vendor at random and she had nut, vanilla, lime, and cheese. I asked for half lime and half cheese because I was curious about it. What an awesome combination, kind of like key lime pie! The lime was very runny, but the cheese was solid and had toothsome bits of cream cheese chunks in it. 25 pesos, though. ¡Caramba!

A very runny treat.

A very runny treat.

At the end of the beach, I cut through a restaurant parking lot to get to the road the parallels the water instead of climbing up to the main road and then circling back as I really didn’t have much time.

Coming around the dangerous curve before my street, this sign caught my attention:

Let's play what's wrong with this picture.

Let’s play what’s wrong with this picture.

Do you see why I noticed it?

And since I had my camera out, I finally got a few shots of the Hobbit house that never fails to make me smile:

The hobbit house is lovely.

The Hobbit house is lovely.

This place always makes me smile.

This place always makes me smile.

So I guess Semana Santa is over. What a lot of fuss of nothing. And by that, I mean that I was warned repeatedly that the week would bring chaos and hordes to Isla and that I’d be best to hunker down at home and never come out until the crowds leave. Oh, and I shouldn’t plan to get any work done because of excessive noise levels.

Well, there was neither hordes nor chaos this week, never mind excessive noise levels. A lot of people, yes, but not to uncomfortable levels. It was wonderful to be out and about, try various treats, talk to people, and even give directions. I really felt like I was part of the Isla community this week and I am so glad I soaked in some of wonderful the Semana Santa vibes!

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A Disturbing Trend

I’m reading a lot of border crossing stories this month on blogs and social media and I’m noticing a disturbing trend: bragging about pulling one over the border guards, sneaking in illegal things, divulging hidden spots that were not discovered, etc.

It boggles me that people think that they are writing in a vacuum.

My first significant crossing into the US was in 2011. After talking with me, the guards went into the motorhome, did a search, and found my ebook CDs (some were out in plain sight). This gave them the name I use on a daily basis and they used that information to do a Google search on me. They were open about this and showed me what they had found — my blog, my two Facebook accounts, my professional website, everything. And everything they found corroborated what I had told them and after some more chatting, they let me go on my merry way.

My people’s social activity is under their legal name (ie. the name in their passport) and therefore much more easy to find than mine. Governments use social media to corroborate things you tell them. Every provincial healthcare insurance plan admitted to me in 2011 when I was doing my research for the full-timing ebook that they use things like Facebook and blogs to see if people really were in the province when they said they were.

This doesn’t affect just you, but everyone else in line behind you. All it takes is one bored officer searching the web to realise that, hey, people are hiding stuff in their garbage/dirty laundry/plant pots , and next thing you know, searches become more invasive.

This is not paranoia. This is the government being savvy and people being naïve. Please think about what you post online.