Northern Peru

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=14318&id=1650960019&l=0db8ea9d78

Baños

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=13662&id=1650960019&l=22bf3e4ce2

Peru

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=14323&id=1650960019&l=77ab793afb

South America´s Highest Bungee Jump - 122 Meters

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=14325&id=1650960019&l=d00d235909

The Road to Machu.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=14327&id=1650960019&l=ad5588487b

Machu Pichu

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=14328&id=1650960019&l=2a474d3030

Floating Uros Islands

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=14329&id=1650960019&l=3dbf8bd364

Isla del Sol

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=14333&id=1650960019&l=79e8370a3f

Where I Am Now! Actually!

Current location: Arica, Chile. This afternoon 3 Aussies, 1 Chilean local, and myself take off in a van down the Chilean coast on a week long surf trip. Sleeping bags on the beach, cooking over a bonfire, our waves. This is called desert surfing in Chile. No towns. Just untouched waves.

After my mom and Perry left, literally 1 hour later, my friend Adam´s plane came in. When he arrived we dropped his bags off at the hostel and then I took him to Zona Rosa to try and find a party. By the end of the night we found ourselves in groups of locals dragging to all the best spots. We soon found our night dimming and the morning jumping up before our eyes.
The next day we took a bus to Baños. Set in between the mountains with a huge waterfall and hot springs we immediately liked our new location despite our slight hangovers. The first day was meet and recovery and had naps, played cards, and read to have a fresh start at the next day. When the next day came we rented little dune buggies and roared through the town and then out into the countryside stopping off at every waterfall and buzzing through every little town. I think the highpoint for these dune buggies were the tunnels we had to pass through. Weaving like a snake under the mountain some tunnels were a 1/4 mile long... with no lights. Our dune buggies seemed to lack the essential known as light as well and it was always an adventure passing through these tunnels not knowing where a wall is or when a car is going to pop out. We did end up with our lives though and another fun, cheap experience.
After meeting someone at the hostel we decided to spend one more night and go white water rafting the next day. With class IV and V rapids, Adam and I were stoked. We made friends with our guide especially after talking futbol about Sau Paulo with him for half and hour which I became educated in after a month travelling with Eduardo. He set us up right in the front of the 6 man boat and many times we almost lost 1-6 people. This was great for me to raft again since I hadn´t done it since I was very young in Quebec when dad took his high school class there.
The following day we had our sights set on Peru and took a series of local buses to get to the border which has deemed the continent-wide name: ¨Worst border crossing in South America.¨ We did make it after 4 taxis and way to much time to get stamps before jumping over. We stopped in the Northern town of Mancora; a chilled out surfing town with a nice beach and a decent party scene. We checked into a Loki Hostel which is one of 4, naive to the parties this hostel would present to us. The first day Adam and I had some cocktails and then when body surfing. After we jumping into the pool that had just been built at the hostel as well. The week seemed to go like that all the way through with me surfing the lefts every day and pirate theme parties, Foosball tournaments we won, and many good happy hours passing through the week. By the end we had befriended the entire staff and were offered jobs by the two owners who begged us not to leave.
It was a good 5 days in Mancora before we headed to Trujillo where the bus broke down at 3am. Fixing a flat seems to be no problem with locals as this happens all the time to buses I´m on, but when it´s the engine, everyone tries to be the hero. Even local native women we start pulling away at shit pretending to have a clue until something bursts and the decision is made... maybe we should call a mechanic. This took 7 hours in the night before they realized to call one and called another bus instead. On the new bus and close to Trujillo I met a local girl and we went with her and stayed at her place while in the beach of Huanchaco. There we were for 3 nights and I caught waves up to 2 foot overhead. Freezing cold water however and body surfing in my board shorts was only manageable to 10 minutes before getting out and getting sun. Another fun beach town before we were to meet our friend from Niagara, John, in Lima.
We went to the second Loki hostel in Lima in the nicest part of the city, Miraflores. Decent city but major cities seem to become more alike as the more you see. For me this was number 9 of 10 countries so far and reinforced that fact. We ended up just doing a lot of our own walking tours of the city and when John came we went to Huacachina further south. This is a town of 500 people around a little lagoon surrounded by sand dunes as far as one can see, with no view of the nearby city of Ica. We spent 2 nights and during the day for only $10 U.S., we went dune buggying and sand boarding. Throughout this entire trip I just smile and laugh on excursions like this because the bottom line is, this would not fly in North America, this is not that safe. Sand boarding was a neat experience but a dune is certainly no wave. I managed to learn a couple of little tricks sand boarding but basically it is just a straight ride down the dune, no carves. In Huacachina we met a kid our age from Vancouver who had just spent 8 months in Ecuador. Jeremy hopped on the train and we headed to Cusco in sight of tackling Machu Pichu.
Cusco is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and it should be. Gorgeous city with a lot of style. We checked into the third Loki Hostel there which was a giant party as well. I met some awesome people including a wicked Irish guy who came out with us one night that is just salt of the earth. We spent about 4 nights in Cusco checking out the major market and eating and drinking at things such as the highest Irish owned pub on the earth. One of the days we went to the highest bungee jump in South America and tackled all 122 meters of it. What a rush! We didn´t really realize what we had done until the next day. A good free-falling time of 3 seconds before the bungee rope started to tug.
For Machu Pichu we took a taxi to Ollayanto where we had a couple hours to kill before our train. We decided it was time for a nice meal and I ordered an Alpaca steak which was delicious. That was a new experience for me as well as when we boarded the train and I realized I´d never taken a train in my life. We were just in the travellers or cheap cabin and there was enough room to sprawl out for a bit of shuteye. When we got to the town of Aguas Callientes at the foot of the mountain we found a hostel and set our clocks for 4am. When we woke up it was pouring out so we decided to save Machu for the next day in hope of some better weather. The next morning it was also raining but we had to choice and began what was said as a half-hour hike. We walked half an hour before we got to the stairs. Half a meter high stairs which would be climbed for the next hour. I did it without stopping trying to beat the sun to Machu but I had to leave the boys back in the pack. By the time I finally reached it, with my legs completely down and no breakfast or food in my stomach, I felt like shit. Even worse was the line of 60 people and 5:30am of rich gringos who paid an arm and a leg to take a bus up. The hotel beside Machu Pichu where a lot of them stayed the night too is $900 a night. After getting through the gate I was still the fastest one to the major lookout area but with the fog no decent pictures would turn out until the afternoon. I did get face to face with all the llamas before the rest of the crowd would scare them off. Truly gorgeous it was. One of the 8 Man-made Wonders of the World. Extraordinary!
When I got back to Aguas Calientes the boys were nowhere to be seen so I booked my train ticket back and met them the next day in Cusco. From Cusco we took a bus to Puno on Lake Titicaca. That is the jumping off point to see the floating Uros reed islands. Puno itself was a hole in the earth but the floating islands we really neat and cheap to go see. We spent about an hour and a half there and then headed to Bolivia. The entire micro bus followed the shores of Titicaca; the world´s highest major lake. When we got to Bolivia and through the border we went to Copacabana and spent the night. The following day we took a boat to Isla del Sol which is Incan mythology is the birthplace of the sun. It is a big deal for Bolivians and Peruvians and they have to make a pilgrimage one in their lifetime. The island was gorgeous and we are all a little bummed we were already charged another night in Copacabana or we would have camped the night there.
La Paz the capital of Bolivia found us next and we checked into the fourth and final Loki. Second biggest party scene next to Mancora and we stayed there for 4 nights as well. One day we visited the witches market. Another we tried to get into the famous prison tour or San Pedro which is illegal but a riot had broken out a few weeks prior and they were on high alert. The prison is unique because the inmates govern themselves, their families live with them and they make money in there. They run shops or make and sell cocaine out of their cells. The more money you have the nicer cell. There is a prison futbol league and the best players are bought and traded. This prison was made famous by the book, ¨Chasing Powder¨ by Rusty Young. I tried to buy some copies but they were $50 U.S. each. Perhaps when I get home on Amazon or EBay.
One day we left the hostel at 6am to go biking on, ¨The World´s Most Dangerous Road,¨ or ¨Death Road.¨ The road is a meter and half wide with a 600 meter drop off the side. It was a 67km ride and I was right behind the front guide the entire time with a professional downhill biker from France. We were sometimes 20 minutes ahead of the rest of the group. What a gorgeous ride with spectacular scenery the entire time.
The boys were keen on going to the Amazon and I had already down the Eco-lodge with my mom and Perry. Sure that I wouldn´t trump that experience I decided to do the Salt flats without them and left for the bus station. There I met a German and French guy and two Swiss girls. We met up with a French couple as well and the 7 of us did the salt flats. Probably the best scenery I´d every seen in my life! First we stopped at the train cemetery and then on to the salt flats. Doing all this is our own jeep with everything strapped to the roof this was a great way to cross a country. The first night we slept in a salt hotel with everything made of salt. The whole building and everything in it. We woke up at sunrise and left the salt flats and into the desert which had spectacular mountain ranges. We passed lagoons full of flamingos and llamas and thermal baths. A great 3 day 2 night voyage before they dropped me off at the Chilean border.
I crossed into Chile with some Aussie guys there and we went to San Pedro de Atatcama. A gorgeous kind of wild-west town. The problem was that it was all travel agencies offering the same trip I had just done. By square foot it was the most touristy town I´d ever been in my life. With beer at a staggering $4 Canadian I had to get out and left the next night to Arica with an Israeli girl.
Arica was set only 20 minutes from the border and I checked into a neat hostel. There were some people going out for surf lessons so I jumped in the van hoping there was an extra board I could just take out. A little big at 7¨5 but it was still nice and we found some waves 4 foot near the pier. The teacher is named Yoyo and from that day until now I´d been living at his house or the surf shack for free. We found 10 foot waves the following day but its gone down since then. Just now it´s picking up so Yoyo and I along with 3 Australian guys are taking Yoyo´s van, a huge tent, cooking gear, sleeping bags, and 14 boards down the coast south just sleeping on the beach and catching the best waves at sunrise. Supposed to be as high as 20 foot swell in some of the spots we are going. 20 foot is a little big for me but anything under I´m stoked. For gas and food this week will probably cost under $100 Canadian. What a joke!
So that is where I´m at now. After the trip I´m taking a bus to Lima and staying with the German guy who I did the Salt Flats with. After I´m flying to Panama and maybe going to Bocas del Toro; an old friend for a bit of partying and some more swell before heading home. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel... Ahhh! Peace!

The Adventure Continues...

First of all I´d like to apologize for not taking the time to keep my blog updated. I just looked back and the last time I wrote I was heading into Venezuela. Now I have just crossed into Bolivia.
So where to begin. Eduardo and my goal was to head to Venezuela to get some rafting. Our location; Merida. We hopped on a bus headed to Caracas with a stop off for us in Maracaibo. Unfortunately they forgot to let us know we were in Maracaibo and dropped us off on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere at 2 a.m. A local walked up to us and simply said, ¨what in god´s name are you doing here at this time, you should not be here!¨ We did eventually find a ride to Merida but our first experience in Venezuela was... sketchy to say the least.
When we made it to Merida it was a nice university town but noticeably being run to the shits. This can be accredited to the help from their leader and president, Hugo Chavez. Later we found out the water level was too low to raft and the largest Tran in the world found in Merida was out of service. I also got a bug of some kind and was sick off and on every day. Our time was spent on the hot springs on day and a lot of our own walking tours of the city. To make a long story short, I did not enjoy the country and found it very dangerous but it was nice to explore the unknown and now I know. The only plus was that the women were gorgeous and it is easy to see why so many Miss. Universes come from Venezuela.
After a hellish border crossing it was nice to be back in Colombia where everything is easier. We took a bus to Bogota where we ran into Mark from England whom we met earlier in Taganga and Carnival. Bogota has been my favorite major city thus far. Our hostel was set in between two universities with cobble-stoned roads and very funky pubs. The highlight in Bogota were going to a semi-pro futbol (soccer) match, taking a cable car to the top of the city, and being in a Colombian soap-opera. The soap opera was shot in the restaurant at the nicest hotel in the city. I was approached on the street and went the next morning. Full wardrobe and makeup. At the beginning of every scene the camera rolled across me to the main table with me talking to a woman in the background. I walked out with $80,000 pesos as well. $50 is not bad for 4 hours work. Another day of walking around we found ourselves in the house of Simon Bolivar. Very famous in Venezuela, Colombia, and Bolivia where the country was named after him.
After Bogota the three of us headed to Cali which is notorious in Colombia for the most beautiful women. We stayed in a neat hostel owned by a futbol addicted Englishman. A couple days of partying and then we set out for Ecuador with a quick stop off at the border. This was unlike any other border as it came with a church set in a valley over a river. What a gorgeous stop-off before our next bus ride.
Eventually when we made it to Quito we all went out for our last night before my Mom and Perry would arrive and Marc and Eduardo would depart. It was a great month and it´s great knowing I have a place in Sao Paulo, Brazil for the rest of my life, as well as a great friend.
When my mom and Perry arrived we headed to Galapagos Islands the next morning. We were staying in the main city but it was small and had a certain class to it. We checked into the Red Mangrove Inn which also came with free bicycles too fart around all day. The first day we went to a nearby beach which was more-like flour than sand. Waiting on this deserted beach were metre-long land iguanas and sea lions. We spent the day body-surfing and taking in some sun. The next day we did the same but rented some surf boards. After a rather disappointing day of surfing due to the sets ceasing to let up even once to paddle out, we found our out of surf-shape selves hiking up the beach to a lagoon to snorkel.
The following day we went diving which turned out to probably be the best day of diving in my life. Our our first drop we were greeted by a sea lion looking to play around with us. Truly an acrobat of the ocean. That dive we say families of Manta-Rays, Sting-Rays, Turtles, Black and white tip reef sharks, eels. Everything! We spent our surface interval snorkeling with sharks and turtles and then ate lunch. Our next dive included over 200 sea lions which was said to be the best dive ever from a woman having over 250 dives under her belt. We also swam into a cave full of sleeping White-Tip reef sharks. What a day!
The next day we took a taxi that brought us to a tortoise farm with hundreds looming about in the forest. For most the day was spent by the entrance where a bunch sat for attention. We went on a hike thick through the bus searching to this giants crushing their own trails. Some we found were as big as a small pool table. We also went to the Charles Darwin Research Centre on our bikes that day. With our time on Galapagos dwindling we had a night of sushi at the hotel and then flew back to Quito for the night.
With little time to rest we took a plane the next day which turned into 3 to a mud airstrip in the middle of nowhere. This nowhere was on the Ecuador/Peru border on the Pastaza river at an Eco-lodge. The first night there we went for a night-hike seeing tarantulas, snakes, and conga ants that can kill the average person with one bite. The next morning we woke for bird watching up the river and then kayaking later. Perry and I hopped out and swam half the way back only to be informed by our guide the river translates to Piranha River. Yes we were swimming in Piranha river in the middle of the Amazon. No bites however but we could definitely feel them around our feet. The next day we went for another hike and then fishing for our dinner. Dinner came up rather small but Perry caught a piranha and still has the jaw of it, including its razor-sharp teeth. Other days we went Cayman hunting in the night, learned how to fire a blow gun, and visited a village. Visiting the village was very interesting and the rituals and ways of life were as expected but still rather strange. Eventually after English-Spanish-Native translations our conversations ceased and the master of the house played a song on his guitar for us. After which he informed us that in ten minutes time we had to present something to him. This caught us a little off guard and the minutes were spent looking at the native good where I bought a spear. With one minute before our presentation we came up with the 7 of us singing, ¨for he´s a jolly good fellow.¨ Worth quite a laugh when we´ll look back on it further down the road. After a full week and a half and a very delayed plane and car ride we made it back to Quito where my mom and Perry left the next day and Adam, my friend from Niagara arrived an hour later.
I apologize for how general my descriptions are but I have done so much since and even remembering the fine details proved to be a task. I´ll write in the next couple days to get everyone up to par on where I am now. Take care!

Soutern Costa Carribean Side

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=9629&id=1650960019&l=367523bf5f

Lunas Castle & Casco Viejo

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=9676&id=1650960019&l=108fc0066c

Cartagena, Colombia

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=9677&id=1650960019&l=dbbcc8640b

Planting Flags in Tagonga

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=10592&id=1650960019&l=4cdcb06b18

Barranquilla Carnival

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=10713&id=1650960019&l=2ccd7035a1

Venezuala & Bogota

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=10719&id=1650960019&l=6a44cca8f0

Galapagos Islands

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=12625&id=1650960019&l=79c0fe7023

Dive Galapagos

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=12638&id=1650960019&l=ee0a04be2b

Kapawi Eco-Lodge

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=12629&id=1650960019&l=77308be078

Photos

Bat Caving - Guatemala



http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=9423&id=1650960019&l=46e62



Costa Rica



http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=9629&id=1650960019&l=36752




Panama City




http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=9676&id=1650960019&l=108fc




Cartagena, Colombia



http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=9677&id=1650960019&l=dbbcc

Colombia... Need I Say More?

Current city: Merida. Current country: Venezuala. After 19 hours and 3 different buses stretching through some of the shadiest areas in South America, Eduardo and I made it here in one piece. Before I get to that I´ll take off from where I left off.
Last time I wrote I was deciding on whether to travel through the San Blas Islands into Colombia or not, weather permitting. Weather did permit and forced us into a plane to bigger than 20 seats. On the plane we had were 4 other guys who I travelled with up until yesterday, one of whom I met months earlier in Antigua, Guatemala. Upon arrival we walked onto the tarmac to a small airport in Cartagena, Colombia. This airport is probably the nicest I´ve seen especially for it´s size. The amazing architecture and foliage foreshadowed good things to come in this amazing city. As soon as we made it through customs we took a taxi to the old part of town which always have the most class. We landed on a road which seemed similar to that of Koson Road in Bangkok. Every shop was cheap food, riddled with travellers and lined with cheap hostels. We did a walking tour of the city and had some beers inside the old city walls. We spent two days there relaxing and taking in one of the most architecturally beautiful and romantic cities I´ve come across yet.
Our next location was the hole in the ground known as Barranquilla. Our only business here was to locate a place for Carnival in the weeks ahead. Immediately my gut instinct about this city was bad and that was conquered by the stomach aches I would get every minute I spent in that city. Our original plan was to rent an apartment and just cram it to the nines with people but every place we talked to wanted to rent it only for minimal, a month. We instead reserved an 11 bed room in a cheap hotel charging around $7 a night or $16,000 pesos.
We had no more business there after that and headed to a town I´d heard about from many, many people. Just 20 minute chicken bus around the corner from Santa Marta was Tagonga. A small fishing village with some of the cheapest diving to be found in the world. Unfortunately I never got to dive. We rented a small apartment there for 5 nights and spent day after day relaxing on the beach and by night going to La Garaje Bar or to other local spots to watch the small pre-carnival shows. I even ended up hanging out for a couple nights with the lead carnival girl in the small town. Tagonga had a feeling to it where the time was never asked for and you let yourself loose track of it mesmerized by its tranquillity. Deep in a cove surrounded by rolling hills of cactus this town doesn´t know the word rain and light cloud coverage was a major piss-off to many of the locals our second day.
After close to a week there we set out by boat to the Nationale Parque Tyrona. Beach after beach of white sand and palm trees we couldn´t pass that up. Less than 20 minutes after leaving the beach our motor started to die. However 20 minutes later we revived it back to health. Another hour and then the engine died again. This time for good and we found ourselves in head-high swells sucking us in towards the rocks. We flagged down a dive boat just in time which began towing us back to Tagonga. With our spirits killed we were all silent until we passed a local fishing boat with the day´s catch. We convinced them to take us the rest of the way for a special price and then loaded our stuff onto that boat. With lack of room the boat captain put his family in with the broken boat and left them afloat in a cove. What these people will do for $15 a head. After 2 more hours of a soaking ride we washed onto the shore of Cabo San Juan in Tyrona. The beach itself was riddled with beauty but it was not what I had expected. We were searching for a 6 hammocks and a bonfire on the beach and nothing more but we found a restaurant and major camp ground full of people. We did find hammocks outside but for a price we weren´t thrilled about. $7 for a hammock seemed like highway robbery when we were paying $5 each for our apartment in Tagonga. The next day was just as beautiful and the sun was out all day. My frisbee and snorkel were of constant use and every the English white as goats milk started to turn a shade of tan. Everything was going just fine until 9 o´clock. In a completely different climate (rain forest) the sky opened up and half asleep in our hammocks we had torrential down pore on us. This lasted well into the next day and fed up we decided it was time to leave. After 3 hours of hiking through the jungle in knee deep mud we found a road and hailed down a ride. After no more than an hour there was a drastic change in climate; we were back in Tagonga. Another couple days to soak up the sun and chat with local girls on the beach was necessary before heading back to Barranquilla for Carnival, the supposed third biggest next to Salvador and Rio in Brazil.
Upon arriving to Barranquilla my stomach hopped right back into its funk and the cramps left me on the floor of the bathroom for a couple hours. Something just didn´t agree with me there whether it was the bacteria in the food or the air I was breathing. The first night we headed to Plaza de la Paz for a pre-carnival party and this ended up being the most fun I had. Locals handing our shots of ron and putting their arms around us just eager to party. There was a four sided stage in the middle with a revolving pit of people around it. I even ran into a girl from Niagara who was with my sister and Dan and myself one of the last nights before I left on my journey. We stayed there long into the night and then headed back to our room which had 9 people in it. The next day was the day with the main parade and we headed there around noon. Unfortunately the event was so poorly designed I am still pissed off with the ignorance of man because of it. The barricade was set up one foot over a curb so there was one row of people standing at curbs height along with boxes under their feet then everyone else left to stare at their back. After no more than 2 hours we just left and said to hell with the parade. That night we headed to Zona Rosa which had 4 clubs which resembled bunkers all facing each other with their big balcony's rolling onto the street. This was fun but all in all rather disappointing as Eduardo and I were on the prowl as we heard that Colombian women were among the prettiest in South America. Tagonga proved that but Barranquilla pulled a 180 and left many people relying on their rum to find them pretty women. The following day we tried again to the parade and decided to pay the $2 to find room in the bleachers. The parade was interesting but nothing too extravagant. We befriended some locals who later drove us across town to a local party where everyone found themselves rather pissed by, ¨ohh my god guys... it´s only 7 o´clock... ahh when in Rome eh!¨ All in all however our Carnival experience came up short and we all left midway through the final day looking to a new city or a new country. My experiences in Colombia will remain this; Cartagena: a hooker trying to sell us drugs she stored in her vagina. Barranquilla: Jenny getting stung twice by a scorpion in our room and a man putting a gun to another mans neck at our breakfast place. Santa Marta: the bus dropping us off beside a triple homicide scene not yet cleaned up. Tagonga, La Garaje. Among others those are the main things that sum up Colombia as a whole, but don´t let that lead you too the wrong impression, Colombia was a wicked country and I can´t wait to be back there in May.
After Barranquilla we parted ways with the Irish girls and Sam going to Bogota, Damien doing the lost city trek, and Karl going back to Tagonga. Eduardo and I read all about this amazing university town in Venezuela that we couldn´t let pass. We booked a bus to drop us off in Maracaibo but they forgot to tell us we were there and we found our an hour past it. The bus dropped us off at a spot notoriously known as one of the most dangerous pit stops in Venezuela and we were there at 3am. We hailed down another bus which was headed towards Merida but the problem was we planned on an ATM in Maracaibo and all we had was $20,000 Colombian Pesos and our US dollar backup funds. After a while of negotiating we hopped on the bus and then another one later and after 19 hours we found ourselves 6am at our hotel. It was hilarious though that the border crossing of leaving Colombia turned out to be the easiest to get through and the guard packing an Uzi Machine Gun by his side was having a blast joking around with us. He showed us the most wanted list, pulled out a random snake, and was joking around to see what kind of partying we were doing in Barranquilla. Tomorrow I think we will look into white water rafting and then maybe go to if we can find one a Hugo Chavez rally just for the experience. The anti-American leaded of Venezuela whose famous for lines such as Patria o Muerte (Country or Death!) Take care all. Next update I will be in Quito with my Mom heading to Galapagos Islands.

La lluvia de la lluvia se va

Currently posting up at Luna's Castle in Panama City... the new hostel from Dan, Daniel, and Dave, creators of Mondo Taitu in Bocas.
I did end up staying for longer in Antigua then I had planned, but that's just how Antigua is. Especially considering the crew and the relationship I had with everyone at Black Cat Hostel. When I booked my bus ticket down to San Jose, Costa Rica, I had two choices. For $10 less I take a Tica bus but it is overnight in San Salvador and Managua, or for $10 more take a bus that only stops in San Salvador. I found the cheapest bus for that and it was owned by Asians. Well the rumors are true, Asians know how to travel. The bus I got was a double decker luxury bus with flat screen televisions, leg rests that sprawled out, and a stuarist constantly bringing food and drinks at ones request. My short night in San Salvador turned out to be one of the best first impressions of a place I've ever had. That is solely based on the people too. I just ran into someone in Panama who volunteered and said the same thing about how surprisingly nice and helpful every single person they ran into were... and people are usually a bit worse in the main cities.
Unfortunately I had to leave at 3am however and by nightfall found myself back in Costa Rica. What a pain in the ass that was. There was some festival apparently going on just outside of the downtown so every single hostel was full. The only one with room was way overpriced at $12. Immediately the next day I headed to Puerto Viejo on the Caribbean coast and found more overcast that still loomed from as far back as when I had landed in November. Apparently this is one of the worst years that area including Bocas Del Toro has ever had.
In Puerto Viejo we checked into Rockin J's Hostel.. Complex! Puerto Viejo was a little less developed than Bocas with alot more hippies and a much more serious surfing scene. I never made it out for the surf partially because I didn't feel like getting smashed in heavy 8 footer tubes into shallow coral underneath. This kind of wave is a total do or die and is well known as that all over the world. Because of the rain Rockin J's was good to chill out at but the one day we rented bikes myself, Liran, and Paulina, a girl from Finland who I stayed with in Antigua, headed 13km to Manzillo. Full day on the beach and hiking to some serious ariel views made for a solid outing. The next day with the skies only murky Paulina and I hitchhiked to Cahutia National Park 30km up the road. Despite its reputation we found this to be a lousy National Park and never saw any of the things we wanted. We did run into a Capuchin monkey who was blocking the way. He ran right up to us and sussed us out before calling his friends down from the trees. We were surrounded by a gang of monkeys. They tried taking Paulina's bag and despite the odd smiles in the pictures I'll put up this was no fun. After a minute long tug of war the monkey bit Paulina in 3 spots resulting in a bite down to the bone in her hand and 3 stitches. A little rum fixed the pain as Rockin J's got a giant TV screen for the Superbowl.
The next day with a big crew we were off to the frontera and crossed by foot into Panama. By midday we made it to Bocas Del Toro. Not a whole ton had changed since I was last there two years ago except that the beers are more expensive and the bottles are smaller. Unfortunately only one of the owners of Mondo and Heike were in town but Dave still ran a mean 80's Power Hour.. 60 shots of beer in an hour. Every time the song changes from one 80's song to a next you drink. The biggest bummer was that it rained for 4 days straight so we never even made it snorkeling, surfing, or to a beach. We had to get out so we made the water taxi and hopped on a micro bus but the furthest it would take us was to Grand Chiriqui. A lousy 1 hour away and we still had 4 more to go before David and then to Panama City. Because of this awful rain there was a mudslide and a collapse on the road. Luckily we decided on spending the night instead of heading back to Bocas for a flight because as I speak Bocas is locked down. No boat, no buses, no planes, mucho rain. We finally got allowed to pass thanks from the good intel of a Jewish family stayed at the hole in the wall in Grand Chiriqui we were at. Being one of the only buses through I felt a bit of good karma finally coming my way again. From David we waited until ten forty five and caught the overnight bus and here I am. I think it will be a 4 to 6 day wait until the next sailboat leaves through San Blas Island into Colombia. I have a choice because the journey is 5 days. Either 3 days San Blas and 2 days open rough water to Cartagena, or 5 days San Blas, land at the border, and a day of buses to Cartagena. I think weather is the really decider here but I'll be sure to let everyone know before I leave. Take Care!

A Month in Guatemala

Well where do I begin. It has been a while since I´ve written anything and alot has been accomplished to I appolagize if I leave alot of fine details out and just summarize the last month.
Last time I wrote I was just about to climb Volcan Pacaya. Well that climb was absolutely wicked. Many of the people I travel with or meet along the way plan on climbing alot or not at all. I am one of those not at all but every once in a while you need to stay in the circet. By the time we made the summit the sun was just about to go down and most of the groups were ready to head down. Thinking in advance Jason and I brought up Smore mix and roasted them in the lava. There wasn´t alot of lava at first but as soon as 90% of the people had begun heading down all of the sudden the lava shot out on either side of me. The whole volcano face started to flow and I was caught dead in the middle of it. At first I was just standing watching the mesmerizing lava on either side of me but as soon as the ground below me started to turn red and my feet grow hotter I thought it best to high-tail it out of there. The joke for us westerners was just how unbelievably liable these guides were and how something like this would never fly in the N.A.
The next day after meeting up with Tune and A.K. (2 Norweigan girls from Utila) we headed to Lago Atitlan and over to San Pedro la Laguna. The micro bus there turned out to be one of the most beautiful 2 hours ever spent in an automobile. We seemed to have passed and gone through every known terrain and scenery available to man minus snow. It started in vineyards and corn fields through rolling hills and then to the most curvy road imaginable to man down into gorges and ravines. Past waterfalls and across rivers we went until the sights of multiple volcanoes and an immaculate lake came into view.
San Pedro la Laguna seemed to be the hippy capital of the world and every person on the street was trying to unload their ¨space cookies.¨ What even makes that point of hippy capital concrete is that the $2 a night place we were staying was full of the street hippys who make jewelery to get by and a couple who legally grows marijuana for the government in California. Also at our dirt floor hostel was a guy from Niagara Falls, the American side. We stayed at the Lake for 3 nights have a daily ritual of just finding a rock by the water and sitting with your book in hand. The lake is known as a yoga and meditation retreat because of how `tranquillo´ it is. One day we ventured over to nearby Santiago, a local village just inside a nearby cove. With a big market we were kept busy for a while but eventually made our way over to the Mayan God. His name is Maximon and by worshipping him you bring him cigarettes and alcohol. The god moves every year to one of the elders houses where it remains. As soon as we walked in passed the 42 cases of empty fire water that the locals get drunk off we found 4 people passed out face down and one man arguing with a candle. We put a cigarette in Maximon´s mouth lit it and took our leave with good karma.
The next day Jason from Niagara Falls, team Norway, and myself headed to Chicicastenago to get a bed before the Sunday market the next day. The first night we ended up in some weird situations first being in the middle of a religious parade of just monks who brought us to the ¨as lonely planet says... forbidden cemetery¨ because it is so dangerous. I can tell you one thing, Jason and I had the weirdest dreams that night. Wow!
Following morning we were woken up by fireworks at 5am to the sound of the market. We´d already sussed out some things the prior day and got prices and some things so every time we would pass something we had interest in we´d hear the price going lower and lower. Our first purchase came a couple hours into the market and I got a mask for 90Q ($12) which started at 600Q. I put this mask at being $100 in Canada. I didn´t end up buying a whole lot but got a sweater for myself and something for my sister. By days end the Norweigans parted ways to go to Xela for Spanish lessons and Jason and I stayed that night celebrating surviving the market in our new Guatemalan sweatshirts, a 40 of Gallo beer in hand, and a couple of 12 cent cigars on the rooftop of our hostel.
Jason left the next day to Guatemala city for his flight home and I was off in chicken buses to Coban. After a day of travelling and several chicken buses I found myself 2 hours shy of Coban stuck between Uspantan and San Cristobal, two towns of nothing. The bus dropped me off and I came across a road that wasn´t there. Apparently there had been a mudslide and the entire town along with the road was buried alive. I was witnessed to people sitting on the side of the road while the rest of their family was 20 feet underground. An entire town in ruins. I was set on making Coban by nightfall so I got ready for the long hike around when a local elder ran up to me and was pleading with me in Spanish not to go. A girl from the Peace Corps came over and told me that because no one has anything the likes of me getting mugged are very high. She along with many of the elders offered me their couch for the night but I talked my way into the back of a CONRED truck. They were a cleanup/anti-disaster crew and I hopped in for the ride around. It seems the walk would have been impossible as the ride took 3 hours through a mountain with no road. At some points we were literally following behind a bulldozer clearing a path with us. Here is where I truly saw the indigenous Guatemala. The houses were solely made of mud and twigs and full clothing was scarce on anyone.
Upon finally reaching San Cristobal I hopped in a micro bus which was full of Mormons. Talking with them for a short while turned out to be alright because they paid for my ride. Every once in a while they would say something like, ¨so do you know all about out message and what we do?¨ I would just answer something like, ¨ohh yeah all of my friends are Mormons and they´ve all given me thorough information,¨ and then we´d head back to a topic I could handle.
When riding into Coban I saw a McDonald's and automatically cringed. I should not be here with that monster lurking around. The monster being the American influence which I came all the way out here to try and avoid. I found a cheap hostel for the night and the next day headed to Semuc Champey. Semuc Champey is a beautiful series of small ponds and pools on a natural land bridge that crosses the Cahabon River. It is located in the Municipality of Lanquin, Alta Verapaz. In the Mayan Kekchi language, Semuc Champey means Sacred Water. The Cahabon River submerges itself at the entrance of Semuc Champey and resurfaces about 400 meters later after it passes this natural limestone bridge suspended with beautiful crystal clear ponds. Beautiful indeed. This turned out to be one of the most beautiful spots I´d ever been to. Maybe in part because I´m in somewhat of a withdrawal from not been swimming in so long yet so close to the oceans. The only bad part was all of the people I met, mainly girls as there were about 60 girls and 5 guys including myself there, were all staying in Lanquin, the closer town. Yet here I was stuck in shithole Coban and by this time I'm sure the hostel had already booked me in for another night.
Anyways I toughed out that night in Coban and caught the first chicken bus at 6am. The next destination was the island of Flores, famous as the stopping point to head to the Tikal ruins. After another 10 hours of travelling with multiple chicken buses, water taxis, and tuk-tuks, I made it. My home for the next two night would be Los Amigos. A hostel comparable to the funkiness of Mondo Taitu in Bocas Del Toro, Panama. No more than 20 minutes of being there who walks in the door; Cameron Bradley. A local of Niagara-on-the-Lake who I´ve known since I was 3 years old as he grew up with my sister. What a small world it truly is! Along with Cam came an entourage that formed in Caye Caulker, Belize with him. Formed of Vancouver natives and people from all over Europe, we had a good crew who is going to be meeting me in Antigua later today.
I woke up at 4:30am to catch the first bus to Tikal the next day to avoid all of the Gringos that show up around 10am. It certainly makes for alot nicer photos as people are scarce in all of mine. Tikal really was a hike though. Over 2 hours it took to walk around the park and see most of the ruins. Short of Machu Pichhu I don´t have alot of need to go visit many more ruins as Tikal set the bar and I´d been to Copan ruins in Honduras only 3 weeks earlier.
Catching the bus at 12:30 back to Flores I left shortly after returning with a 5 from the crew to a nearby bat cave which only cost $2. We got lost in there for a while and after going through the area marked by many wood signs, ¨danger,¨we found the breeding ground for these little monsters. After returning back back to Flores I through on my bathing suit and had to go for a swim in the lake before my time was up in Flores.
Los Amigos emptied the next day with the crew going to Semuc and myself heading to Guatemala City on a 10 hour chicken bus. Ughh! Now I find myself back in Antigua where I´m going to book my bus ticket down to San Jose to hit up 1 spot there and then 1 spot in Panama and then my week long sailboat through the untouched San Blas Island and into Colombia. Oh and almost forgot. Last night I went with a local I met last time in Antigua and two Australian girls to the local football (soccer) match. Sitting in the middle of supporters section I am now fluent in Spanish swear-words. Antigua won 3-0 and the stretcher was brought onto the field 9 times. Latin America Football! Good month in Guatemala. Definitely the most to offer for the best prices in Central America. Peacee!

Pictures:


Lago Atitlan



http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=7530&l=a39ab&id=1650960019



Chichicastenago




http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=7623&l=dc864&id=1650960019



Semuc Champey



http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=7728&l=cbe82&id=1650960019


Tikal


http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=7733&l=d9ff1&id=1650960019

2 More Photo Albums

Antigua, Guatemala


http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=7006&l=da2cb&id=1650960019



Lava Flow on Volcan Pacaya



http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=7009&l=b2fe0&id=1650960019

New Pictures

Nicaragua


http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=6270&l=e0670&id=1650960019


Utila, Honduras


http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=6508&l=f8be4&id=1650960019


http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=6510&l=25683&id=1650960019


http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=6874&l=00bb1&id=1650960019


Copan Ruins


http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=6875&l=7fdf9&id=1650960019

Utila to Antigua

Time has flown by and I am beginning to see what everyone means when they say how the first month is the only one you can go day by day. I can back this theory up by my blogging pattern and the fact I haven`t written another in almost a month.
My Current location is Antigua, Guatemala but I should let you all in on the events leading up to this. My dad came down to Utila and met me for Christmas. Due to his time situation we decided to opt out of diving but still partied with my old dive shop. Days filled with reading, relaxing, snorkelling, fresh fish for food, and Alton`s booze cruise where their bar moved onto the dive boat.
Utila has the main town and private places all around the island whereby most have to be reached by boat. For one night we stayed at another dive shop in the Utilan Cayes where the population is 98% local. There are two restaurants on the caye and no nightlife but it was a nice change of pace. We also met a pretty nice couple who had moved to the cayes from California and burned away some time hanging with them.
The pickle that we were in was that nothing runs on new years day and thats when my dad had to fly out at noon, a 1 hour ferry and 4 hour bus ride away. The conclussion was that we left Utila the day before new years and had to spend the night in San Pedro Sula; the aids capital of Latin America. We tried to find somewhere to party in the new year but the entire town was shut down and we ended up in the hotel all night instead. The following day Dad left and I was stuck for another day and night in San Pedro because nothing was running. I accomplished alot of sleep and reading that day.
The next day I caught a bus to Copan and Copan Ruinas. This town had an excellent vibe from the get-go with it`s cobblestoned streets and tuk-tuks. I found a hostel quickly and ran into a guy I met in Utila. We took a tuk-tuk to the ruins for equivalent to 20 cents Canadian. The entry fee was $15 but was worth it. We spent about 3-4 hours walking around jumping into guided groups that paid a small fortune for the guide until we were noticed. Jasen turned out to be basically a guide himself as he had studied Copan and Tikal for a course in College. We tried to sneak into the tunnels aswell but found a machete tapping us on the shoulder. That was our que to just do the basic walk-around.
The following day we caught a shuttle to Antigua, Guatemala. Another UNESCO world heritage spot, the same as Copan. Antigua had the same good vibe as Copan with it`s cobblestoned roads, tuk-tuks, horsedrawn carriges, and Volkswagon hippy vans. I spend 2 nights at Jungle Party Hostel where I still go back to every day to watch movies on the 42-inch plasma and excellent bar scene. I booked into a spanish school for 7 nights, complete with 3 meals a day, and 5 days of 1 on 1, 4 hour Spanish lessons. In truth the lessons turned out to be somewhat of a bust but only because there isn`t much you can accomplish in only 20 hours. At least now I know the base of the language which like any language is verbs, vocab, and I, you, he/she, we, they verbs. The most rewarding part was when we`d get sidetracked into conversation where I felt I learned the most.
The night scene in Antigua is insane with so many local coming down from Guatemala City. I haven`t gone nuts though because Antigua is a little pricey with Costa Rican prices. This is only because it is Guatemala`s gem. Tomorrow I am going to the hike one of the volcanoes which is active and you can go right up and roast marshmellows over the flowing lava. On Tuesday I am going to head to Lago Atitlan and stay in the town of San Pedro la Laguna, another backpacker favorite. I have also been told that the prices there are alot better and it has a Utilan feel to it. For now I`m off to a movie cafe to get some food and watch Wall-E with some people from Jungle Party. Stay Classy Canada.