Let Anastasia Amor inspire your 2010

A NEW YEAR…new beginnings. Salud, amigos! An adventure or another boring year. Isn’t that up to you?
The older I get, the more I search for what I still need to do. Life should challenge and if it doesn’t I create new goals to aspire to.
I’m a traveler…literally and figuratively. For the last ten years I’ve spent a lot of time in ..Cozumel.. exploring the ancient culture of the Mayans. It was a kick climbing the highest ruin in the Yucatan Coba has 124 narrow steps to the summit. Beating the two college students coming up was fun too. I didn’t deliberately race up the steps in the burning heat of the noonday sun but I grew more excited at the 2/3 point where the steps became more uneven and I was forced to pass around all the people perched there in exhaustion.

Gingerly, like a mountain goat I trekked up. Afterall, I’m a martial artist and should be physically fit no matter what my age, right? Reaching the cool tomb-like destination where the ancient Mayan priests studied the stars and created their calendar was a personal triumph. Out of the narrow windows I could see a thick green canopy of trees rustling with the movement of monkeys. Inside I felt the spirits of dead priests.
And where else but in this part of Mexico could I experience the pollo de mole (chicken in a chocolate sauce) different in every restaurant...from a pale yellow to a dark brown and mildly or heavily spicied with chillies. After all it’s a chocoholic’s mecca. Those ancient Mayans had cocoa beans as their currency and ate the rest for breakfast, lunch or supper. Ah-hh…the pleasure principal released once more. Let me breathe in the flavours.
My trip to Havana and the surrounding area was enough to put me in the right frame of mind to write a paranormal romance based on Cuban history. Old Havana is much like Puerto Rico with its old town of San Juan or the French Quarter of N’Orlawns. One difference though, its larger and has the sense of Italy. Bright turquoise or yellow buildings mingle with peach and terra cotta apartments. Laundry hangs from the wrought-iron railings. Rippled paint, shed like snake skin, now a desolate gray surface left for the sizzling sun to ravage.
Revolutionary graffiti “Viva la revolucion! and “patria o muerte” scrawled unevenly on the walls along the Malecon an interesting mile-long walk to the historic Hotel Nacional—the hangout of Ava Gardner, Frankie and Al Capone.
And then there’s the Hemingway bars. The Bodeguito de Medio is crowded with tourists hoping to find the link between the great writer, his liking for Fidel and his love of the mojito. Fidel, himself proclaimed the best mojito had mint leaves crushed into the rum and lime juice. I tend to agree and though I didn’t consume nearly the amount Hemingway had, I would recommend the experience.
My travels have taken me to Europe. a few times, numerous Caribbean Islands, and North America from west to east coast, Canada, US, Mexico—sometimes repeating the experience. No, I haven’t seen everything. Other journeys for me have been only in the mind. Research, books and conversation---all vehicles to expand the mind.
What’s next? Who knows.
What’s a goal you’ve set for yourself?
I’d love to know your thoughts.

Luv
Anastasia
Mystery/Romance/Paranormal
AnastasiaAmor.com