Back in America – Random Thoughts

I got back really late last night and I am sick. I think I have the flu or something because I started getting symptoms on day 2 probably after my dumb ass left the AC on all night long leaving me freezing for many hours, or maybe it was on day 3 when I left the balcony door open all night long in 90+ degree heat leaving me soaking in sweat in the AM. Who knows.

My camera got jacked early Tuesday morning by some sneaky local. That really pissed me off because I had a lot of cool pics. I have to get pics from the others and post them as my own. No one will know the difference.

The Cozumel snorkeling was really irritating and scary because the instructor just told us what to do and then just told us to jump off the boat. Let’s not get started on the boat ride getting over there, goodness. No one got any live instruction. People were crying, getting sea sick, etc. You had to balance yourself with the flippers or else you’d flip over on your back and panic. The view was absolutely incredible though. The fish, coral…everything was amazing, as if you were flipping through a National Geographic.

Chitzen Itza was great, as a historical site to view for only 30 mins. Beyond 30 minutes, and you risked dehydrating in 100+ degree weather, not to mention the 5hr roundtrip on a bus. I knew I was dehydrated because I was obviously sweating profusely and after huting down a makeshift 7-11, I chugged down 2 liters of water in only a few minutes. The Mexican gov’t no longer allows people to go inside the temple. The entire site is now protected by the UN as it should be. It’s amazing how people long ago could build these structures without the technology or knowledge that we have.

I spent half a day at the Wet ‘N Wild water park. It was really nice, considering all the crap I went through at Chitzen Itza. Afterwards, I went golfing at the resort. I met an 8 ft. crocodile face to face while losing one of 8 balls on the course. It was the most difficult course I’ve ever been on. In case you want to say that I’m terrible, the group ahead of us lost all of their balls and had to quit. I don’t want to talk about this anymore.

People tried to sell me timeshares in three different instances. Do they think that I can be easily sold? People in Cancun will vigorously attempt to sell you anything and everything they possible can.If you want a souvenir, you have to bargain for it. For example, when I was at the “mall” in downtown Cancun, I bought 2 souvenirs for $2 each. The guy started off with $7 each. My general rule is that you should immediately take 50% off, if not more, from the orginal asking. I, however, always started with $1, because you never know if they will take it.

The resort itself is easily one of the very best. The place actually makes America look like a third world country. Now, if you go outside of the resort/hotel district, then America looks rich as hell. There are 2 Cancun’s: one that all the Americans talk about, and then there’s the one where all the locals live and no American wants to visit. It’s third world out there, with people living in shacks, seriously.

When I talked to the manager and several English-speaking employees, they confirmed that business has slowed down noticeably. To me, it didn’t look like the recession hit at all, but since 90% of the travelers are from the US, it’s obvious that Cancun would take a big hit. There are a lot of American companies doing business over there as well, so it seems like there’s no escape from the recession.

About the dollar and pesos. Initially, I got confused because they used the “$” for pesos too. If something cost ~$13.20 in pesos, it would be $1 USD. The price tags never said pesos or USD, so I found it absurd when a t-shirt would have costed me $66. Or how about $30 for a box of Advil?

Enough for now. I’ll post more when I get those pics.

Btw, I did go long before the vacation with FEED, TSL, JASO, SIRI, HBAN, & MI. LDK was added on 4/7. I did this primarily to see if I can just depend on technicals while I was away. It worked. Some of the picks have not broken out yet, but I expect them to do so in a few days.

Here are the results: the portfolio is up 8.7%, primarily due to the financials (MI & HBAN), and most solars (TSL & LDK). FEED current has a loss of 3.6% and JASO has a loss of 1.1%. No change in SIRI. I still hold all positions. I used a secondary, smaller portfolio that went long 90%.

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