Tulum – Douchebag mecca or victim of it’s own success?

If one were to magically procure Admin rights to Instagram and was able eliminate all post from Tulum, I’m fairly certain that’d reduce total content on the platform by at roughly 30 percent. Why is that? What makes makes Tulum the ideal backdrop for the willfully self-obsessed narcissists weirdly expending a great deal of energy […]

The Mythical Land of Oz

I was born in The Land Down Under. While it wasn’t exactly an accident of birth (heck, I was even conceived in Oz) my birthplace is not one of my more salient facts. If you met me today absolutely nothing about me screams, or even whispers, Australian. I am relatively unsullied by and downright ignorant […]

Been down so long looks like up to me

To those of you who started reading this post because you are fans of Richard Farina – my apologies. This post will not discuss his seminal novel of the same name/title (see above). For some reason when I sat down to ponder reverse culture shock this phrase/title literally popped into my head. Score one for […]

Ain’t no half reppin’

Something miraculous happened on Friday night. I got out of work late so I went to big Globo gym because, well, its nearby. Say what you will about this gym, it does have 8 power racks and plentiful benches. I’ve only had to wait for a bench once in 3 years and I’ve never had […]

Coming to America…and then leaving.

In the mid-80s I was finishing my somewhat checkered high-school career in a 3rd, no, scratch that, 4th world country somewhere in Latin America. I lived with my mother who is a highly educated, brilliant woman who, nevertheless, was not paid very much at that point in her career. Anybody familiar with 3rd world countries […]

5 hard-earned tips for alleviating culture shock

As a seasoned traveler and a person who has lived in 12 fairly different countries, I tend to embrace a bit of culture shock and see it as a positive experience. I embrace it precisely because years of experience has taught me the potential pitfalls and also the hidden joys of being immersed in a […]