Spot

The GPS coordinates posted to my website do not occur automatically.
The device which transmits them must be triggered manually and must be
positioned with a clear view of the sky. Once triggered, the device
quietly blinks for a half hour, and then it's done. I have no way of
knowing if it sent successfully or was perhaps blocked by trees,
cloudcover or buildings. As a result of my being very careful about
where I place it, it has worked all but a few times. It was never much
of a problem through Canada and the US. I always slept out doors and
aside from walking a few feet away, out from under the trees, I never
had to put much effort into positioning it. Since crossing into Mexico
it has not been easy.
I generally sleep in town, in cheap hotel rooms as near to the city
center as I can find. I can't trigger the device from within my room,
the concrete ceiling and floors above block the signal. I can't simply
set it outside because for some reason people pick up the GPS if they
see it. I dont know what exactly it is about it, but its compact
orange case and blinking lights attract people with a hypnotic
intensity. People walking by will stop mid sentence, freeze, stare at
it, and then as though in a trance reach out and pick it up. This has
required me to become creative in placing it, and often it requires a
fair bit of doing. I usually place it after dark, which is quite often
by necessity as it's not uncommon for me to arrive somewhere late
evening. If I have to, i'll wait until it gets dark and quiet. I don't
want to be seen, people might come and inspect what mysterious device
the foreigner just left on top of that concrete wall, or on that
rooftop. The cities are often cramped and several stories tall and I
will try to get to a rooftop in order to ensure a good signal.
Mismatched stairways and handmade ladders lead everywhere through
these mazes. After dark, moving silently and with purpose, I'll tuck
out of my room and climb an old stairway, cross a narrow landing and
ascend a rusty ladder to some obscure high point and then tuck the
device discreetly on some ledge or higher roof. The rooftops here are
mazes of unpredictable rebar spires and small concrete shelves.
Normally I move carefully enough that I don't make any noise or
mistakes, but in one hotel I caught my shoulder on a piece of rebar
protruding in the dark. It spun me sideways and quivered like a silent
door stop in the dark.
If I can't find a place where the device is hidden from view I will
conceal it in a piece of garbage, but even still people have found it
and moved it. It's actually rather remarkable to me that with all this
I have always been able to track it down, and I have never forgotten
it, blinking silently in some obscure place.