Well, yeah, Anarchapulco was completely FAN-FKNG-TASTIC. I had never been to such an event before, so didn’t know what to expect. I was expecting that being around like-minded people would be great, but I had no idea how liberating and energizing it would be. Following is simply a report of my personal experiences, in chronological order, as a first-time attendee and speaker. It’s the longest piece I’ve ever sent out, and that’s saying something. Could be printed, put next to the toilet, and last all week.
DAY 1
On Wednesday, there were only a few people there, but I had already arranged to meet up with a client who had also made the trip. He and I had talked many times, but had never met in person. Now, as we had just met, and were standing in front of the presentation room atop the Grand Hotel talking, and some guy came up from behind and threw his arms over our shoulders. Señor Client and I looked at each other hoping for an explanation from the other, which wasn’t forthcoming, and both began to wonder.
I’m reasonably confident that Sasha Daygame (as I would learn later) won’t be offended in the slightest if I describe him as, well, a bit unkempt. Not that I’m Mr. well-kempt, but I tend towards understatement at times. Therefore, my first impressions were mixed, but that would change, as his high-energy, funny-as-hell delivery, and shock value messages are laced with a great deal of wisdom and obvious intelligence along with a lot of hidden messages for thinking folk.
Also on day one was an interesting presentation about optimal decision-making strategies, and the pitfalls of top-down hierarchical systems. It seems that groups of 8, half male, half female, ruling with 100% consensus only, is the optimal model. Interesting to contemplate as we move towards a period of rapid human evolution, I’m sensing. There would be a lot of similarly interesting presentations to come, which were philosophical, and thought-provoking, like this one.
On that 1st day, we were in a very small room seating about 30-40 people. As I sat next to the previously mentioned client, another client came up and sat next to me. Client 1 had recently liquidated all assets in Tennesse, consisting of a large farm and all equipment, bank accounts, cars etc etc., and he, his wife, two grown sons, his mother, and a former colleague in the NFL have all come down to Costa Rica.
Their idea is to become substantially self-sufficient farmers, thereby relegating the thieving financial system primarily irrelevant. That is obviously the most effective antidote against NIRP’s and the slavery-promoting cashless society. Chip this. If you haven’t seen Russo’s Freedom to Fascism yet, it’s a must watch it Fascism
In fact, he threw an interesting phrase at me at one point—“I’m investing in network/relationship capital”. I hadn’t heard it expressed that way, but I am too. I’m continuously meeting new kindred spirits via this business, and trying to visit them personally around Latin America (LA). I always have the finca de café in bum fuck Colombia available, but I’m also willing and able to show up and man a post at your place should circumstances be right (or wrong as the case may be).
Client number 2 is a cattle rancher/nurse in South Dakota, and is currently scouting Central America for a new place to hang the hats of her collective family as well, including her grown daughter who was also at Anarchapulco, and her husband who tended the cattle while they played in the sun.
Lunch on Day 1 was at a table of 4 at the beach-front Grand Hotel consisting of client 1 from Georgia/Tenn now in Costa Rica, a 40ish woman from somewhere in the US now living in Cuenca, Ecuador, me from Sidney NY/N Florida now PT all over LA after years in the Middle East, Europe, and SE Asia, and Jeff Berwick from Edmonton, Canada, now in Acapulco after traveling the world as well. Dinner was with client 2, and daughter, down the beach from the hotel that first night to kick it all off right.
Therefore the diversity of the people in attendance was amazing, and my first feelings were of a bit of intimidation, and humility. After all, people like us (Libertarians/Anarchists), over the course of decades, get a bit distant and aloof, in order to avoid talking with others as they are, well, really stupid. Not only that, but those who may have some grey matter, typically aren’t aligned with our particular views of the world, and consider us kooks (closed-mindedness isn’t exactly indicative of a high IQ either). Therefore, attempts at any serious discussions can quickly get uncomfortable, or in my case, really tense.
Having lived on a total island seemingly my entire life up until I got into this business a few short years ago, I had never come close to this kind of feeling of euphoria. I noticed also that my energy level had increased dramatically. I don’t know where that came from, but I suspect it wasn’t the Acapulco water. I was no longer surrounded by idiots, and in fact, was quite humbled in knowing that in certain conversations, I was the idiot.
DAY 2
I woke up Thursday morning to this view, while catching a great breeze:
A quick indicator of the local cost of living is the rent. I was extremely comfortable in this hill top, very well-appointed apartment. Two Br, 2 Ba, about 1,000 ft sq., 60 foot balcony facing the Pacific, for 70 bucks a night. That’s cheap even comparing to South America, as I am. Granted, I don’t expect the dollar to maintain its current high exchange rate internationally, so best to get offshore, and convert to other currencies, while the getting is still good.
This was my day to give a presentation. In my usual manner, I didn’t really do much advance prep., even though it would be my first time ever speaking in public. I was expecting to be in the same room as the previous day, which seated about 40, and was expecting half as many people, since there would be 2 different groups speaking at any one time.
From the apartment balcony, as I was sipping coffee, I saw down below on the main drag, an Office Depot, and got the sudden idea to print out 20 copies of the presentation and make a booklet for each attendee. That ran me 210 bucks, which was equal to half my round trip airfare from Bogotá, and equal to 3 nights in this awesome apartment. Freakin’ Gringo chain….
I had a great lunch prior to my presentation, as my newly acquired taxi driver/guide, Esteban, had taken me to a place overlooking the beach. Here I am nearby in my guayabera a couple of hours prior to my speaking turn.
By the way, guayaberas are considered very dressy attire on the Caribbean coast of Colombia, and also here in Acapulco. Somewhat akin to a lawyer in Hawaii greeting you in a flowered shirt, a lawyer in Cartagena or Barranquilla might well be dressed like this. Doesn’t fly in Bogotá or Medellín though, where they will think you’re in from the coast. Gabriel Garcia Marquez accepted his Nobel prize dressed in his guayabera for example.
I used to think that I loved Mexican chow, but in reality, I had never eaten it until this day in Acapulco. The night before was lobster thermidor, which was ok, but here I ordered simple chicken fajitas. Man was it spectacular, along with everything else we had. You’d think that fajitas are pretty simple, and standardized, but I found out differently.
I arrived to the hotel roof garden to discover that we had switched to a much larger room, and there were 100+ people there. I laid the 20 booklets down on the front of the stage saying that I was a bit surprised by the crowd, and as I stepped up and went to the podium and turned around, I saw that a group had come up to scrap over the booklets, which was an encouraging sign. My presentation didn’t flow as I had it played out in my mind, but I was told by quite a few in attendance that they thought it went well, and a few people approached me to discuss it all down by the pool.
The entire Anarchapuclo event was video-taped, and each presentation given can be found Here Mine is Here
The price should be less than $1 in Bitcoin
DAY 3
Friday I was really relaxed, having my presentation out of the way, and was really getting in to it all, even better than before. Of course at such a diverse event, not all of the speakers are hitting topics that are of interest to everyone. For example, in my circumstances, learning how to get offshore for the first time, and set up a business, was highly relevant to a great many there, but I was more interested in hearing some of the other veterans.
When I arrived after doing some work on Friday, I caught a debate between Larken Rose and Mark Skousen on Anarchy vs. Minarchy. I had always considered myself a Libertarian who favored an extremely limited government, a la 1783, but could never quite get myself to absolute zero government. Therefore, I’m apparently a minarachist (which was a new term for me too).
I have to admit that Larken, who I did not previously know, just blew away Mr. Skousen, in my opinion, and made me question my own beliefs. Good to know that I’m still open to new ideas, and quite able to change my mind.
However, I think the only way to get to total anarchy would be for like-minded people to group together in order to avoid strife. After feeling so good with the like-minded crowd, I would love for that to happen, and I now understand, even better, the concepts of building communes for like- minded souls to live together. This may be the evolution which solves many of the present problems. Although, avoiding the sociopaths, and their incessant need to control others will be the challenge, but there are still places where you can be left alone.
Then came Barry Cooper, an ex DEA agent who realized he was working for the bad guys and flipped, then had to flee the country with his wife and 2 children to avoid either prison or assassination. They made their way through Venezuela to Brazil, where he was given political asylum. Great speaker, and great story, as he continues to help people behind the curtain avoid being tossed in a cage by corrupt criminals.
Then later Sasha had another presentation, and he filled the room as well. Now I think instead of the 100 from Thursday, we were up to 3-400+, but I’m guessing. Sasha, in another attempt to break us free from ourselves, then had the entire audience face their neighbor, and give a random judgment of that person. I had truly not noticed before who was sitting next to me, but suddenly this elegantly beautiful younger woman turned to me, with piercing green eyes, and a disarming smile, and said to me “I thought you were drunk during your presentation yesterday”.
I started to laugh, as I said “really”? Trust me, if I had been, I would have no problem admitting it. I did have 2 glasses of wine with my fajitas, but that had been 2 hours prior, and anyways, it takes more than 2 glasses of wine to get this fat-assed pro drunk. The truth is my adrenaline meter was pegged, so after some further discussion, we just determined that my current long-term, laid-back lifestyle just has me so relaxed that I appeared drunk to the more stressed of the species who are still struggling with high stress back behind the curtain.
The exercise had its intended effect, and we had a quickly revealing conversation, which taught me the value of getting to know more people at this event during the following 2 days. Of course she had a more age-appropriate Swedish guy next to her, but you can’t stop me from dreaming.
At dinner I joined a random group of 6, and sat across from a former Gringa living in Guatamala, and next to a guy who has figured out how to extract the valuable metals from junked computers. Why he’s doing it up in the arctic of northern Canada instead of down here I couldn’t understand though. The 3-piece guitar-laying, singing group at the table, and the Mexican-American woman sitting with us, who knew the words, added great ambiance.
After dinner, to the TDV cocktail party, where some people approached me to talk about the PT lifestyle I’m living at the moment. One guy from Alabama, with great accent and all, and a gorgeous blond ex-cheerleader type from the Florida panhandle, made me feel a sense of déjá vu as I had spent 25 years or so in N Florida, before leaving forever in 1997. It was nice to talk to people from back “home” after so long, and especially those from outside the redneck crowd.
In fact I talked to this one guy for a long time as he spoke about his urgent need to get the hell outta that shit hole. He said more than once that the thought of going back and stroking a check to the IRS was just completely unacceptable to him from a moral standpoint. He’s not flush with cash, but just gonna get out and make it work somehow. I admire that, and will be trying to help him connect with the right people down here if I can.
DAY 4
Although I should have had a hangover from the wine the previous night (more than 2 glasses), the newly found energy level was pulling me through it without a scratch. Also, I had already made up my mind that Saturday was going to be a sightseeing day. When I got up Wednesday morning, after arriving late the night before, I immediately started to kick myself in the ass for not having planned a longer stay. That’s how good it felt to me there in Acapulco.
The next two days afterward had just reinforced that initial impression. There are just some places that seem to accept me very well, and others that seem to want to spit me out. Acapulco, like Medellín, and some other places down in Brazil, seem to accept me with all my faults.
The population is very indigenous, unlike most of Colombia (primarily Spanish) and Brazil (German/Portuguese/Italian). The Spanish spoken in these parts is very easy to understand, unlike the harsh Colombian Spanish, and obviously I’m stuck learning a third language in Brasil. Sim, falo portugués tambem. The food is great, and although the high 80’s F (30 C) is a bit warm for me after being spoiled with perfect weather year round for so many years, it ain’t bad. Especially with the perpetual breeze coming in from the Pacific.
ACAPULCO SIGHT-SEEING
So, I decided that as Jeff was having everything video-taped, I would spend a bit of time looking around with Esteban. Here he is giving me some sort of Aztec pose, I guess, next to the Japanese tourists from the cruise ship around the harbor which had also pulled to this point some Germans and Gringos:
The Grand Hotel for the conference is right next to the Japanese guys’ head. By the way, outside the curtain, where common sense still rules, there is no political “correctness”. It’s ok to call a Japanese guy, a Japanese guy. He wouldn’t be offended by it either. Only in Amerika, again.
I don’t know if you can remember back this far, but when I was a kid in the late 60’s and early 70’s I used to love to watch Wide World of Sports. You remember, the “Thrill of victory, and the agony of defeat”? With that one poor bastard symbolizing the agony of defeat s few times per Saturday, for 15 or 20 years? Agony of defeat
They also used to regularly show Acapulco cliff diving, and as a kid I used to dream of getting to that place one day, and here I am:
Here was my view:
Again, I was a bit amazed that I sat here and had a full lunch, and a margarita, with a great view of the show, all for $15. Remember the fickle nature of exchange rates, and the precarious current position of the USD as world reserve currency going forward.
However, it seems relatively less expensive here than even in other parts of Latin America is my point, and not a bad quality of life at all as far as I can tell in 5 days. Esteban did tell me of the gang wars a while back in which he said 30-40 people were getting killed per day. Mostly “criminals” he said, but one would have to expect the bala perdida (stray bullet) here and there too. I mean that’s a lot of gunfire.
That explains the presence of so many soldiers evidently. Although the gringos at the conference were telling me it looked like what they’ve become accustomed to back up there in some places. Amazing. I had never seen anything like it in my extensive travels. Thanks, Uncle Sam, for the hypocritical War on Drugs so you can sell to both sides, while dark agencies like the DEA and CIA steal the big profits from the other criminals that your black market and resulting corruption have created.
The cliff diving was just great. Watching the guys climb all the way up from the water. Pray at the statue of Mary, stand there thinking about it for a while, and then off. It’s as far as it looks too. 130 feet. Fantastic. The final guy going off backwards in a reverse gainer, barely clearing the rocks below which jut outward from the shore. On the way back to the hotel, while buying the obligatory T-Shirt, Esteban said with all seriousness that a diver had hit his head on the rocks and died the night before. Yeah, they do this at night with torches in their hands as well.
I also went about 20 clicks south of the city to a place Barra Vieja which is down past the recent urban sprwal, with some thatched roof places on the beach to get some fresh red snapper and lay in a hammock sniffing the salty breeze. It was a little bit of a hike back to the kitchen so I set up an every 20 minute delivery schedule with the waitress for the Modelos, and she surprisingly stuck to it like a Swiss-German. Esteban had no doubt told her that I’m a good tipper.
BACK TO THE CONFERENCE
After spending such a perfect day in such a nice place, I was perfectly primed for the sunset speech from someone that everyone else knew, but that, again, I did not. O’Keefe, as I recall, and I think he was an ex soldier who also found out he was fighting for the wrong team. He was an inspired, and very sincere speaker, and when he was finished, I was ready to go out and form a militia. I think I identified most with he and the DEA agent, of all the speakers, although a Slovakian named Pavol had a great prediction for the next few years of how this war will play out.
This night I met up with a couple from Pittsburgh, another guy from Ohio, and my client up from Costa Rica. We ended up walking out to an Argentinian joint for some Churrasco and wine. I was enjoying the conversation, and kept ordering more wine as the glasses got 1/3 full, until the Mom & Pop owners said they needed to go home to bed, and said we needed to get out.
One thing I learned is that the folks from Pittsburgh, who obviously didn’t live in the poor part of town, have grown tired of hearing gunshots, and are ready to bolt. I’m continually amazed at people from up there, who are sure that it’s more dangerous down here, where I don’t hear gunfire. Some even mention Pablo Escobar, who has been dead for 25 years. I never ceased to be amazed at the power of propaganda.
FINAL DAY
This morning I went to the hotel and down stairs to the spa and steam room to draw out some toxins. Although the energy level is still dragging me forward quite well, the 10 bucks they charge for the nice steam room is worth it, and preps me for the final day.
The morning was really worth it to me for all of the Bitcoin/cryptocurrency presentations. I’m aware in general of cryptocurrencies, and hold both Bitcoin and One Coin, but not as up to speed as I should be. Yes, I know that One Coin is network marketing, like Amway. Possibly even a pyramid or Ponzi.
I also know that money can be made in such investments, like buying stock in Wells Fargo bank, for example, which will leave a lot of hapless investors with worthless paper one day. Maybe soon. It’s all about being informed of the risks, and getting in and out at the right time, isn’t it?
Anyway, I was quite encouraged to hear that the recent noise about KYC as related to Bitcoin, in the opinion of Roger Ver, aka Bitcoin Jesus, and who runs Bitcoin.com, is just more propaganda. According to Roger the people investing in Bitcoin KYC compliance are pissing their money away. I found him very credible, and transparent, like basically 99% at the conference, for that matter. So when he said that Bitcoin is run by a bunch of anarchists, and then laughed while he predicted that Bitcoin encryption will stay ahead of the bad guys, I believed him. That was great news for me.
As I was heading out for lunch, a man approached me, and humbled me yet further. First, he said that he greatly appreciated my sharing of personal matters on Thursday, and then by stating that he came down specifically to meet me. Well, shit. I had received a few compliments, and thanks for my presentation, but this guy came down from the States to meet me? Nice. Let’s go get some lunch up at Si Señor. What a great meeting, and yet another long-term relationship between like-minded people has been initiated. As is usual, I learned as much from he as he did from me. As this network expands, so does its ability to influence, and help one another.
Sunday night ended with yet another great dinner out with client 2, her daughter, her new friend from Norway, and the lady from Guatemala. Another beautiful place that entailed a long taxi ride and GPS machines, but got us to the right place eventually. I just travel around by the sun, and reading the occasional map. GPS?
LEAVING
Of course Esteban picked me up on top of the hill, and took me to the airport on Monday for the usual overcharge of a couple bucks. I gladly pay that for his colorful commentaries on the local realities, and the ease with which we communicated. One thing I love about LA is the transparency of the people, and my complete ease at being likewise transparent. I can be the small town boy that I truly am down here, and instead of that honesty screwing me up, it advances me. Esteban was slightly choked up while asking me when I’d make it back. I really love it here.
I met many other anarchists at the airport the next day, but not one that was at all happy to be leaving. After getting back to Bogotá, and spending a couple of days over in my old haunting grounds of Medellín, and then a weekend at the finca in southern Cundinimarca, I’ll be heading down to Buenos Aires on Monday.
In Bs As, I’ll meet both a new client who I’m helping to obtain Argentinian citizenship, which is 3 years start to finish, in addition to the attorneys who facilitate that for us down there. Then over to Mendoza to meet some other new friends met along the way as readers, and to see another readers’ large vineyard there too. Then up to Brasil to check on my old bike with some parts I’m taking from Bogotá. Then over to Rio to get my Brazilian residency card, and probably buy a new bike.
Gonna be a lot of runnin’ but I am not complaining. After spending the winter on a Brazilian beach, we’ll see which way the wind is blowing. Maybe back to Argentina, or maybe back to the Colombian Andes, or possibly back to Acapulco to see if I really like the place that much, or if I was just infatuated by the energy of Anarchapulco and the unbelievable experience of being around so many great people.
I worked for several years with Big 4 CPA firms in both the US and Saudi Arabia, and then spent many years as a multi-national corporate Controller and CFO in places like Florida, Riyadh, Abu Dhabi, Cairo, and Medellín. In my second, free life, I’ve found satisfaction helping others get out of Dodge after almost 2 decades as a permanent expat from the former America. I just made my way back to Colombia from a two-year+ journey through South America by motorcycle, in order to scout the best locations for those wanting to escape from the collapsing industrialized world. Book on that scheduled for late 2016-early 2017.