Team Isla - Mexico

Team Isla

Still feeling a bit down after my family left, I moved into Pac Na, the only youth hostel on Isla Mujeres and a social hub for backpakers. It was here that I met a friendly collection of travelers-most of whom were also flying solo-and immediately felt whole again. They were all fun, outgoing and warm; the type of people you would meet once and instantly feel like you are good friends. We seemed to form an instant bond and became a tight nit group of 10 people from all over the world.

After a week on the island, with a friendship forged with copious amounts of alcohol, this crack squad of international miscreants decided not to split up, solidifying their unity by leaving Isla together-which is no easy feat when you are staying at Pac Na, arguably the best hostel in Central America with cheap beds, a beach bar, volleyball tournaments, and hands down the best club sandwich ever (it has a Facebook Fan club). But we pulled oursleves away and spent the better part of a week traveling down the Yucatan, and becoming what will forever be know as Team Isla. Lets meet the members shall we :

First up we´ll meet Josh (pictured left but not spiddy), aka Big Smoke, a 23 year-old Californian who lives in Pachuca, Mexico and works as a teacher in a local school. Although he seems like he´d make a great teacher, he hates his job and is seriously considering quitting-to move to Isla Mujeres and work at Pac Na, where they give free club sandwiches to their staff. He´s funny as hell, his humor mainly based on candor, and he´s always coming up with jokes on the spot. Jokes like:¨If all you have in life is a VHS copy of Martin Lawrence´s Nothing to Loose, then you truly have, nothing to loose.¨

Then there is his partner in crime, Ryan (right), aka Cloud Sequence, aka Cloud Strings. Equally as funny as his buddy Big Smoke, but in a more slapstick kinda way, Ryan, a Canuck from Edmonton, also lives and teaches in Pachuca. Yet, unlike his counterpart, I can´t understand how anyone could see fit to let him within 100 yards of children let alone let alone give him authority over them. He´s basically one himslef, except on an adult scale. Think of Jim Carey as Fire Mashall Bill and you start to get an idea of what he´s like. He reminds me of a frat house, if you´re looking for a party, day or night, all you have to do is show up at his front door and you´ll find what you´re looking for.

Moving countries now, we come to Anne, aka Giggles from Germany, which is funny enough in own right since Germans are notorious for their lack of humor. But the name was forever immortalized when Ryan told the joke: ¨what are the three shortest books in the world, (beat), books on French hygiene, Italian war heroes, and German humor,¨ at which point Anne got offended saying, ¨that´s not true, that´s not true, we do have a sense of humor!¨ Ah, you can taste the irony. But she was a good sport, always staying up and partying, drinking, and playing card games with the boys.

Next up is the priceless Ivar, aka The Iron Curtain. He´s actually Dutch not Russian and just got the nickname because he collected a huge wall of chips when we all played poker one evening. But since he´s not a soviet, nor in anyway shape or form does he resemble anything about rigid, cold war communism, the name stuck like glue. He is actually one of the sweetest, honest, and amiable people I´ve ever met and he´d like nothing more in life than to sit around a beach bonfire playing his guitar and singing Counting Crows or Breakfast at Tiffany´s. We gave him the ¨Most Amazing Person in the World¨ award, which he excepted with a humble ¨yes, yes it´s true,¨ and then sang a song about it: ¨IIIIII am the most ammmmazing person innnnn the world, yes it´s trrrrrrue...¨

Now then there is Tom, aka Tommy Two Chins, an ex-surfer from the beaches in England (he swears they do exist) who is traveling with his girlfriend through Central America. A bit of a paradox Tom is, he´s very proper in the English sense of the word, saying things like, ¨I am feeling a bit peckish,¨ and ¨I think I´d quite fancy a cup of tea,¨ but doesn´t hesitate to call his girlfriend a ¨stupid bitch¨ when they fuss (joking of course, but still). Moreover, he´s well read, usually skimming through three or four books at a time, and can argue for hours about politics, but, in the same day he´ll play the Lion King´s I Just Can´t Wait to be King over and over on his IPod singing and dancing to every note. He´s the kinda guy that can get on well with anyone. Provided you´re not a drunk Canadian whore who can´t answer a straight question (sorry, inside joke).

Then there is Tom´s girlfriend and fellow Englander Hanna, aka Skanky Bitch. Yeah, I know what you´re thinking, ´pretty rough on the old girl,´ and I might be inclined to agree but, I´ll relay this small tid bit of a conversation and let you decide. Josh and Tom are talking in a bar when Hanna walks up and grabs Josh:
Josh - ¨Uh, Tom, your girlfriend is licking my neck.¨
Tom - Unphased, ¨uh yeah, she does that.¨
She is one of the funnest drunks I know, solely because when she gets drunk she says things like, ¨oh my god, I´m so drunk,¨ and proceeds to pour herself another double rum and coke and take it down like Takeru Kobayashi takes down a ballpark frank.

From Sweden we have Mikael, aka Mikael, Mikael, Motorcycle. Motorcycle is also a bit of a paradox in that he´s probably the most intimidating person you´ll ever see but the friendliest person you´ll ever meet. He is a well built skin head with a permanently affixed menacing scowl and a white supremacist/serial killer style tattoo of a snake running down his back that reminds you of Ed Norton in American History X or Ralph Fines in Red Dragon. But then he smiles at you, the warmest, most welcoming smile you´ll ever see, and you instantly realize that his just a big teddy bear. I still think he´s probably killed four or five people, but all he´d have to do is flash his pearly whites to a jury and he´d be off with community service.

Then, starting our final lap, we come to Jim, aka Jimbereeno. Also a redcoat, I´m convinced he´s either a superhero or a crack fiend because he´s always disappearing for extended periods of time without explanation. He would party with us all night, then disappear before morning, not to be seen for the better part of the day, and then return in the afternoon for lunch or dinner, then disappear again, either to burn a spoon or fly off and save some old lady in a tree or help a cat cross the street. It´s a coin flip for me, either way it´d be cool to say I hung out with a caped avenger or a smack addict.

Finally we have Joel, aka Young Blood. Even though he is only 19 and the youngest in our group, he is definitely the smartest. He´s currently studying biochemistry at Cambridge, and you can tell he´s going to be the type of guy who works with blue lasers or NASA. With a sideshow bob haircut and quiet spoken demeanor you wonder why this teenager is even allowed out of his house let alone set free to roam Central America alone. Then you have a few drinks with him, and he opens up like a tulip in April telling you his extended history with buying, taking, mixing, and, gulp, making, as many drugs as you care to list and then you realize you´re the rookie and not the other way around.

Then there is me, but, I´m not going to do a write up on my behalf because, if you´re still reading this, you must either be a good friend or my mother and there is no need. I´ll only say that my nickname was Scottie Do and Scottie Ne´Pa, both of which I can´t really give you reason for, but I´ve been called wose and it was just nice to have a nickname all the same.

And although words can never do it justice nor fully encapsulate what they truly are, that is a brief summery of our group, who they are, and what they represent. So sleep easy and know where ever there is beer, where ever club sandwiches are to be had, where ever there is a stretch of beach big enough for a fire and 8 bottles of rum, you´ll find, Team Isla.