TRAVELING THE WORLD AND THE SEVEN SEAS: MEXICO

I adamantly believe that travel should be a priority as much as anything else.  In order to have a fulfilling life with expanded perspective, we need to learn and grow as individuals. If we are confined to the same daily routine without respite, looking only to reliable neighborhood restaurants and the alarm clock going off at the same hour every morning, what will we learn beyond those perimeters?

I love New York City, but I find that if I don’t leave every 2 months—even for just a long weekend—then the din begins to weigh heavily upon my shoulder blades, and I lose my creative spark.

Every year, just as November turns chilly, I go to Mexico on a family vacation.

Here, it’s 80 degrees, with a view of purple flowers, exotic birds, and endless ocean.

It’s lush, and I am writing just for fun again, wrapping up remaining 2011 projects, and looking ahead to a second MINX graphic novel, slated for a 2012 release.  It doesn't have a title yet, but it will be an exciting continuation of the DREAM WAR series.

Here, there is just enough silence, when needed. 

On an interesting note, Puerto Vallarta was made famous largely thanks to the love affair between Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.

Excerpt from The Best of Vanity Fair: 
Elizabeth Taylor,  July 2010

- By Sam Kashner and Nancy Schoenberger

Contributing to their deepening bond was the enchantment of the place itself.  At the time, Puerto Vallarta was a sleepy fishing village on Banderas Bay, surrounded by steep, green mountains and long, empty beaches.  Delighted with the white-hot sun and the turquoise-green of the sea, they first rented and then bought a four-story, white stucco villa called Casa Kimberly, with access to 25 miles of beach.

On the film set, Elizabeth fussed over Richard, combing and re-combing his hair. (At one point, exasperated with her constant ministrations, Burton poured a pitcher of beer over his head.)  When she wasn’t on set or barhopping with Burton, Elizabeth lolled on the beach, clad in a bikini, a green-and-white Mexican shift, and gold-and-turquoise beaded sandals.  On another occasion, she showed up in a bikini bottom and sheer top, wearing a stunning pearl-and-ruby ring given to her by the King of Indonesia.  Burton was thoroughly delighted, taking the occasion to mischievously describe her as looking like “a French tart,” but marveling privately at how Elizabeth “bloomed in hot climates.”  Her outrageous displays of bounty—gifts of nature and of men—only made her more desirable in his eyes, more extraordinary, more lovable. No wonder he called her “Ocean,” to describe her deep, overpowering presence.