There is much more that goes on, that I would like to report to you, than I ever get the chance to. It might even be somewhat confusing to note who the characters, the players are, what the setting is like, and the subtle differences that make up what is distinctly foreign, and interesting, about the Baja.

I´ve been a real slacker, having adventures and never sharing.

Well the last three days I´ve been ill with my first bouts of stomach trouble, sleeping most days, not eating, but it´s still amazing what still came out of my body.

Today I´ve been feeling a bit better, so much in fact I ate an apple. Not just any apple, mind you. But a Washington Red Delicious!

The apple has really cured me. In my bed the last few days I´ve been feeling homesick, having strange sweaty dreams, not knowing where I am, beeing scared when waking up, and feeling out of place and lonely in my life.

I was so hungry and sick that I had dreams of eating tremendous ice cream sundaes only to be terrified in my dreams that I was going to make myself much sicker. Other dreams of food. Dreams of home.

I had a dream of meeting Patrick Stewart, my television hero from my youth. Not only that but I met him at home. He´s friends with Math teacher Brian Prante and spents part of the year living on the Pacific Ocean. When I meet him I can´t tell him what I admire about him but only about my plans for having my own boat and other such selfish nonsense. Later in my dream I regret my inability to express to my hero how much he means o me!

Well that is so much like life, the nightmare of not being able to say the right thing at the right time to the person you need to say it to the most. Like forgetting to tell your parents you love them before you leave. Or not telling the girl in the movies how much you like her - only to lose out on that moment, on that chance.

Without TV or movies I am having strange dreams in my sickbed of my dream life in the Caribean. Scuba Diving Spanish Galleon treasure ships with Nick Nolte and Jacqueline Bissett. Fishing for Sport Fish and rum running with Grandpa George C. Scott in the Islands in the Stream.

What will life hold in store for me? Will I ever make it to those water of in Habana? Will I reach the orient and indulge in those exotic excesses? Will I return to the states and work again in a hot kitchen, serving pancakes and coffee to the businessman with the newspaper?
-------------------------------

I live below a very classy family in a very nice apartment. They are the nicest of people and have taken care of me in my illness, bringing me chamomile tea or manzanilla as it´s known here, a huge bottle of purified water, and my precious fruit, two sweet bananas, and two perfect Washington Red Delicious apples.

They left today for a brief holiday to Los Angeles but before they left, the father, Miguel Angel de Porta said to me, ¨Eric, you know I´m a doctor, don´t you?¨
¨I thought you were an engineer.¨
¨My PHD is in Engineering, yes, but I´m a doctor¨

He said this with a smile.

¨I have to pick up Adrianna from music class, I´ll bring you by some fruit later.¨

He did return shortly thereafter, passing me my fruit in a plastic sack through the gate to me, giving me detailed instructions on how to eat it.

I finally did decide to try to eat today. I washed the apple thoroughly, as per instructions, and tried my best to peel the apple with my knife in a corkscrew paper pattern. Not the best corkscrew, but the Apple was from Washington, it was Red, and was certainly Delicious.