Starting 2010 in Puerto Vallarta

We arrived in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico January 1st, 2010. The first night was hard to find a place because almost all the hotels were booked so all five of us had to stay in one room in "La Rosita" hotel, which is where the movie {en:The Night of the Iguana} was filmed. The rest of the nights we stayed at the "Los Arcos" hotel in "Viejo" Vallarta. Old Vallarta seems to be a mix of margaritaville and gayborhood, it's really cool. The crowd that hangs around this area tends to be much older (40+).

During the morning (waking up at 7am) I would go scuba diving with PV Scuba. I did a total of a little under 6 hours of bottom time with the max depth at 105ft. The temperature was warm (70s F) and I only used a 5mm wet suit. The spots that I dive where:

• Los Arcos (twice in two days) -- Named after its two arches Los Arcos is a protected National Marine Park with crystal clear water and lots of tropical fish. The wall sections are 5m (15 ft) in height and are covered with hard corals, sponges and fan corals. On the sandy areas the diver can find turtles, groupers and stingrays. The arches shelter schools of fish, moray eels and many Crustaceans.Close to these rocks, by the rock that looks like a turtle, is a submarine drop popularly known as The Devil's Canyon (Cañon del Diablo) for the deep impression of its silent abyss. I'm not sure, but one of the dive master said the abyss is a 1,5000 meter drop. That seemed like an exaggeration so I did a little bit of research and found that it is about 500 meters (1,640 feet). However, I also found that it can go as deep as 600 meters (1,968 feet) and then extend another 800 KILOMETERS (497 MILES) to the continental plate


• Majahuitas -- Majahuitas is a coved area that can only be access by boat, with a gradual slope and is populated by schools of tropical fish. The dive shop online dive site list says it's populated by schools of friendly tropical fish, but one little fish bit me after jumping in reverse from the boat so I'll take that with a grain of salt :P. The site also says the max depth is 120 ft (36.7 meters), but I went down to 105 ft (32 m) to check to see if I could see the bottom and didn't see the bottom and visibility was more than 20 ft (6m) so I think it's a little deeper than stated.On this dive site, the two lads from Montreal stated they saw a Manta Ray for a few seconds, but I didn't get to see it since my face was 3 inches from the floor looking at the small fish. The dive master didn't see it either.


• Las Marietas Islands -- A group of islands that entry to the Bay of Banderas. With a steep rocky surface, nobody would guess these islands hide precious underwater treasures – coral reefs, tropical fish, manta rays, dolphins, turtles and octopuses. I got to see very large schools of Yellow Goatfish (Mulloidichthys martinicus) and also how they use their whiskers to look for food. I have never seen them before and their whiskers caught me off guard because they don't look like a fish that would have whiskers.I also noticed that the island smelled like ammonia so I'm guessing is it due to all the bird feces on the island.On the way to the Marieta Islands we saw two {en:Humpback Whales}. On the way back from the islands, we saw a few more Humpback whales, baby humpback whales, and dolphins playing with the boat and also with the whales. I even got to see two dolphins jump about 10 to 15 feet in the air next to a whale, one on either side of the whale. It looked like some water shown out in the ocean. I managed to take a picture of it.

During the night, we would go out to the clubs and bars. Night life in Puerto Vallarta ends at 7am, but we only stayed as late as 3am because I had to wake up early the following day to go diving. The places we went to where:

• La Vaquita


• Mandala


• De Santos


• Andale

During our visit in Vallarta, we mainly met people from Guadalajara, Mexico or from Canada. There were a few Mexicans from D.F. and Americans from Wisconsin and Seattle, but the majority were either from somewhere in Canada (Toronto, Montreal, Quebec, Alberta) or from Guadalajara metro area.

Here are the pictures:

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New Years 2010

After 10 years, we celebrated New Years's Eve in Guadalajara, Mexico with Jorge Luis's relatives. It was fun, some wore yellow underwear to symbolize more money in 2010. Others wore red underwear to symbolize love in 2010. Some threw out luggage outside to represent more traveling in 2010. Other swept the dirt with a broom outside the door to symbolize good luck in 2010. For myself, I wore red underwear not because of love since I'm not superstitious, but because it was the last pair of clean underwear that I had for that night. We were not washing clothes until the next day when we got to Puerto Vallarta.

Here are the pics:

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La Chata, The Zoo, and El Mirador

Since I been here in Guadalajara, I have been trying to eat at two restaurants: La Gorda and La Chata. I have been trying to because every time I pass by there the line is ridiculously long. One afternoon around 2pm, I decided to go to La Chata so that way I was there for lunch assuming there was not a lot of people. I was wrong, it was packed as much as dinner so today I went at 11:45am to get there before lunch time and I still had to wait 15 minutes but I finally sat down. I have to say, the food is good and the prices are reasonable: Avg 60 ($4.50 USD) pesos and the most expensive item is 110 pesos ($8.40 USD). As for the Guacamole, sorry grandmother, but theirs is better. The Carne Tampiqueña was really good. However, I have had better Cafe de Olla in the state of Guerrero. The service was good, really fast, and en joyful.

Later that day I visiteted the Guadalajara Zoo and Aquarium. It was nice, but I got to see lots of animals urinate and do dirty things to each other such as stick one's trunk all the way inside the rectum of another elephant. I guess that made my trip more interesting. After the zoo, I went to the end of the {en:Guadalajara Macrobus} line 1 to sit down, have dinner, and relax overlooking the Mirador.

At the end of the day, I met up with my cousins Paola and Jorge Luis and a friend of Jorge Luis named Ricardo. We went out for a few drinks and called it a night.

Tequila Express

Today I took the Tequila Express train tour. The Tequila Express is a tourist train service that operates from Guadalajara, Jalisco, México to the Tequila Herradura distillery at the San José del Refugio Hacienda in the municipality of Amatitán. During my trip I befriend the passenger next to me, his sister, and his sister's fiance. It was with them whom I toured with, tasted with, and dined with. It was good company.

A little about San José del Refugio hacienda, it is the only tequila distillery where the entire production process, right down the bottling, is completed in one location. The Herradura tequila produced in this hacienda is one of the highest quality tequilas produced in México.

Here are the pics:

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Solo trip to Guadalajara, Mexico

My solo trip to Guadalajara, Mexico. Guadalajara is Mexico's second largest city (1,579,174). The name originated from the Arabic word: wād al-ḥaŷara (واد الحجارة o وادي الحجارة), meaning "rio que corre entre piedras" or "stony river" in literal Iberian or in English "Valley of Stones". Also where the Mexican Mariachi was born.

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Christmas in Texas

Last year I did not come home for Christmas because I spent it with the family of a friend (Pere) in Granolles, Spain (outside of Barcelona). Last Christmas trip was exciting because we visited Drogheda, Ireland; London; Barcelona; Granolles (of course); went skiing in Pyrenean Mountains (La Molina); and the blurry unforgettable New Years drink-till-you-drop- experience in Madrid.

A little note about London and Madrid, I also got to enjoy the time there with my cousin Jorge Luis, which I will be spending New Years eve with this year in Guadalajara, Mexico. The last time both of us spent New Year's in Guadalajara was back in Dec. 31, 1999 so we are celebrating a decade since that, which also falls with Mexico's 100th anniversary of its Revolution and also the 200th anniversary of its Independence.

This year I did come home to the family 9th (+- 1) annual Brownsville, Texas Shopping-Christmas-Drinking-Movie event. Here are the pictures:

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Old friends meet after 11 years

Today I met up with an old friend (Andi), actually whom would qualify as my first girlfriend. We met in South Padre Island, Texas back in the summer of 1996 when I was 15. We exchanged home address (I had email back then, but she didn't :| ) because we lived far hence we wrote letters to each other for a few years then communication ended. Thanks to Facebook we found each other again after 11 years and during my Christmas trip to Texas we decided to meet up and catch up on what has happen to each other's life after 11 years. We both where in shock, disbelief, and amazed on seeing each other. It did feel weird at times, but in a good way. Funny how much can happen in 11 years. Funny how one can remember details from 11 years ago. Even though we already talked about memories previously, we talked about them again.

Friday night we went out to a local bar and got wasted and had a good time. We where drinking the bartender's "special" drink which who knows what was in it. However, it tasted good, and after 4 within a few hours we where wasted. Saturday night was a little more chilled since we didn't want to get too wasted. I would mention the names of the places, but I already forgot the names. I was hoping that we could hang out longer, but I was on a time constraint and had to get back home to be with my family. This short visit was one of the most positive things to occur to me in 2009. Here are the pics:

Mijo's birthday weekend.

This was a fun weekend. Saturday was a peaceful solo day, I went running by the Washington Monuments and I sat on the steps of the Lincoln monument looking at the reflecting pool and also at the tourists. Whenever I visit the Lincoln monument, I try to count the number of times tourists say "Forest Gump". After my run, I went to the US Holocaust museum. I have to say, after being in the DC area for about a decade, I have never been to the Holocaust museum. It's a nice museum and I need to go back again and finish the rest of it. I had to cut the tour short since I was still in my running clothes, it was getting cold outside, and I was starving and could not pay attention any more. After I got home and had dinner, I went to Mijo's birthday party and partied until the wee hours of the morning.

New VMLab Lab Manager CakePHP Component

Just submitted an article on a component that allows a developer to interact with VMWare LabManager 4.0 within CakePHP using the VMWare LabManager 4.0 SOAP API.

This article assumes that the user is familiar with SOAP, CakePHP, and VMWare LabManager. The article is located at the CakePHP Bakery (pending approval)

The Controller

class LabManagerController extends AppController {
	var $name = 'LabManager';
	var $pageTitle = "VM Lab Manager Assistant";
	var $components = array('LabManager');
	
	function index() {
		$libs = $this->LabManager->getLibraryConfigurationsList();
		pr($libs); // print the library configuration list
	}
}

The Component

http://bakery.cakephp.org/articles/view/vmware-labmanager-cakephp-soap-api-component (pending approval)

Weekend of Fundraisers

Saturday night I attended a birthday party / fundraiser. The fundraiser was for an NGO organization that helps women get into public office positions. After that we went to a house party.

Today I went to a pediatric cancer fundraiser and following that I shaved my head to show my support:

Halloween 2009

Halloween is always a fun day!!!

Halloween 2009

New 'My Books' Page

Even though there is not much to say, I have created a new page called My Books where I mention the books I'm reading, want to read, and have recently read. Currently, I'm reading:
[ISBN:0451526341]

Three Years since my major Weight Loss

After a major long term relationship breakup September three years ago (2006; 25 years old), I was not happy of how much I weighted and how much I had gained since I was 18. With the combination of the breakup, the winter days approaching, loneliness, and low morale about my personal image I was really feeling low and had to do something about it. I had to do something that would help with all four at the same time: the breakup, my personal image, and to get distracted from the winter days since I was lonely (one tends to forgets how friends disappear when one is in a relationship). I knew a hobby would distract me from the winter days and reduce the feeling of loneliness, time will heal the breakup, and exercise would help my personal image so I decided to join the gym to get distracted and I dedicate myself 6 months (until spring starts) for losing weight and nothing else, regardless of how much time and money it cost. However, I had to do this clean, healthy, and permanent. Basically, I had to make a lifestyle change. I started the process in late September, 2006 when I was about 200 lbs (90.7 kg). For a 5'7 ft (1.7 m) male, the obesity point is 191 lbs (86.8kg); I never considered myself an obese person (denial), but I had to change my habits before it became worse.

As I started losing weight (and quite fast), I realized I had to keep track of the numbers to make sure I did not lose more than 2lbs (0.9 kg) a week or else I was losing muscle or it was false weight (e.g. water). I learned this while doing homework on my first week. Part of doing the diet clean, healthy, and permanent, I had to inform myself because I didn't really know how to lose weight.

Below is a chart that I plotted with the application I wrote to help me keep track of weight, fat, nutrition, exercise, and weight lifting. My application is called Mercurius (mercurius.drystan.com). I started recording at 196 lbs on Oct. 9, 2006 and finished at 167lbs on April 11, 2007. The longest week drop was 3lbs and that's when I realized I had to consume more food to keep losing weight in a healthy way.



Today, after three years, I have kept the weight off in a healthy way, picked up new healthy habits and activities, feel healthier and happier, have a better self esteem, and learned a lot of new and important information regarding nutrition and the body. I found it shocking how I could write software, traveled to different countries, graduated with two majors, lived away from home since 18, can cook some delicious meals, etc. and yet I had no clue on how to truly take care of my body. I also realized that a lot of other people were the same. Why do we get taught different advanced skills at school, yet we truly don't get taught about nutrition, the body, and fitness? I taken sex ed, physical education (PE) and other health courses, but my education on those topics was crap (or I just never listened).

Before the diet, I thought I knew about healthy eating and exercise with the little information I learned from my family, friends, and school, but after the diet I realized most of my knowledge was incomplete, wrong, or misguided; I was naïve. I don't consider myself a nutritionist, but at least I now know the value and different types of calories, fats, carbohydrates (fibers, sugars, alcohols, etc), proteins, minerals and vitamins and how they affect the body. I also know the difference between anaerobic and aerobic, fast twitch and slow twitch muscle fibers, the benefits of different heart rates, and the effects of the body depending on the heart rate. How the chemicals released by the body during exercise can make one feel good and temporarily suppress hunger and pain. How it takes time for the brain to register that one has consumed the required amount of food. How one can acclimate and start to like different foods after 6 weeks of consumption even if they were disliked before and different methods for measuring body fat and the advantages and disadvantages of each method.

For now I conclude this article as today's blog post, but in the future I'll see if I post some of the information (nutrition, exercise, etc.) and experiences I had during these months. For example, how once I thought that it was impossible for me to run longer than 5 minutes and how some simple words from a trainer changed my stubborn and ignorant mentality and I managed to train myself to run for 2 hours straight on pavement.

Washington Mall Run

Today Alito (my roommate) and I went for a 5-6 mile run on the Washington mall.  Today was a bit different run than others because by the capital building was a Anti-Obama Health Care rally/protest and by the Smithsonian was the National Council of Negro Women Black Family Reunion event.  There was a lot of people so at some points we had to walk instead of run because there was not enough space.  Once we passed the Washington monument going toward the Lincoln memorial then we could run again since there was not as many people.  Overall, it was a great run.

New Scuba Page

Two updates regarding my blog:

1. I finished migrating my blog between host providers and speed performance has greatly improved.  The change has dropped the average page load from 15.32 seconds to 1.77 seconds.


2. I have created my new scuba page where I'll be putting bits and pieces about my diving.