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!