To the center of the Earth and beyond!

Our first taste of Colombia wasn't the greatest but it wasn't bad. Medellin was the first city to change that. We saw many amazing things, had action packed nights, and met so many interesting people that it made it hard not to fall instantly in love with the city, and the country. One of the Canadians that we had met was flying out of Bogota in a couple of days so I was going to see if I could make it to see her before she went back to the cold cold north. Convincing Dean and Bob to leave Medellin was like pulling teeth off a grizzly bear! But being me, very persuasive, got them on a bus and we were off. The bus was extremely cozy, and I was very tired, so I slept all through the ride. Arrived in Bogota, didn't get to see my dear Canadian friend, got a hold of a girl that said she would host us, her name is Sofi. Sofi is a very beautiful Colombian girl that I spent many hours in conversation with. She lived with her parents and her brother that we're amazing hosts, and took care of us like we were family! Bob, Dean, and I would spend the days wondering around town going to art galleries and learning a lot about the history of Colombia. We usually spent the nights hanging out with Sofi, and her various friends, who were quite interesting. Two major highlights of our stay were:
1) A two hour exhausting hike up to a church on top of the hill with breathtakingly beautiful views of Bogota.
2) When Sofi took us to large salt caverns that they had turned in to a giant church. It must have been over 2 miles of caves we went through.

It broke my heart to leave Bogota for many reasons, mostly because I had became very close to Sofi, and her mother was an amazing cook that was trying to make us fat. But as they say 'The show must go on'. So we caught a plane to Quito, Ecuador, where we now are residing. The first day here we were walking around trying to find a super market, with no luck we turned around, on our way back to our hostel a guy ran up, picked up bob (with dean and I standing there), reached in his pockets, grabbed as much as he could, turned around and made the other way. Bob either being really smart, or extremely homely had nothing in that pocket but a pen, scarf, and some unimportant papers.

We have planed a trip into the heart of the Amazon jungle where we plan to find ourselves ..... Or large animals that want us for dinner. I know I don't post on here too often, but if you don't see anything from me in the next month, it's probably best to assume I was kidnapped by a band of monkeys .... most likely with knives. Saving us will be futile since monkeys care of nothing, and America doesn't nagotiate with terriost who eat bananas, and throw their own poo.

Pirates of the Carribian! Sailing to Colombia.

"The Darién Gap is a large swath of undeveloped swampland and forest separating Panama and Colombia. It measures just over 160 km (100 miles) long and about 50 km (30 miles) wide. It is not possible to cross between South America and Central America by land without passing through the Darién Gap."

This left us with little options for getting to Colombia. We had:
a) Fly
b) Sail

Flying was a little cheaper, but we all agreed that the extra money was worth the expirence. So a sailing we must go! We singed up and had to wait many days for the boat to get to Panama. Before we left we found out we would be traveling with two Aussi blokes, and a Canadian guy. The boat didn´t come to Panama city, it left from a place 60 miles away. We were told the only way to get to this place was by jeep taxi. The morning we left we got in one jeep, and the other guys got in another jeep. The first 30 miles of the trip were on smoothly paved roads, I started to wonder why we had to take jeep taxi. My queries we´re soon answered when we turned onto a side road that was made out of mud and went straight up. It was then 30 miles of mud road and rain forest with signs saying "Beware of Jaguar", and "Warning: Rebal territory!" We came upon a clearing where there were many people, a river, and long wooden canoes called long boats. Quickly after our arrival the other jeep came in and we boarded a long boat. They gave us plastic table covers which I didn´t understand .... until we hit the ocean. Our long boat ride went from nice rain forest river ride, to insane wave and wind ride. Water was everywhere, and the table cover quickly became a good friend of mine. After an hour of this we came to an island where there were many boats anchored around. We were pointed out the ship we would be traveling upon, and brought to the island. Bob and one of the Aussi went with our insane first mate Maury (who had a mustache that curled on the ends which was the deciding factor on why we picked his boat), to help him load the bags on the ship. The rest of us hung out on this island, which like many we would be staying on was no bigger then a neighborhood block. We had lunch, met Captin Mike who was also an Aussi whose favorite frase was "F$%@ OFF!". We all got on the ship and Began the journey.

The next couple of days we´re sailing the morning, getting off on islands noon time, swimming, snorkling, party, setting up camp, bonfires, and beach sleep. The last day was none of this amazingness. In fact it was probably in the top 5 most misirable moments of my life. We sailed 28 hours straight with 10 foot waves rocking the boat like a KISS concert in Detroit. No one got out of their beds for much more then puke time. FINALLY! We made it to a small town in Colombia called Zap Surro. The only way to this town was by boat, or by foot. It had no imigration office, and our only option was to make an hour hike over a mountain to another small town with no access but boat. The hike was tiring but made me appriciate the intense training I´ve put myself through the last couple of years. We got our Colombia stamps, and tickets for a turbo boat to a town called ..... Turbo. Once in Turbo we met a really cool Colombian guy who helped us get bus tickets out of Turbo to the town of Medellin. 10 hours of bus later we arrived in Medellin, found a hostel and crashed for the night.

We´ve spent the last couple of days here in Medellin, which is a beautifully well cared for town that has insane amounts of culture, some of the most beautiful women I´ve ever seen, amazing night life, good shopping, delicious food, and amazing sites. I think we plan to head to the capital Bogota in a couple of days.

A Great American Holiday: The Super Bowl

We had become pretty close with a couple of Canadians at the hostel, so we thought we'd share with them the most holy of American days: The Super Bowl. We took a cab to the Marriot hotel that had a bar inside which was playing the game. We sat down and hung out for a while when a man came over and asked if we wanted to join in his betting pool. $5 a bet, so I took 4 bets. Many other people from the hostel came and we ordered these large towers of beer that held 3 liters a piece. We watched the game, by half time I missed winning $120 by seconds. I Quickly healed from the pain of losing by the sweet sweet jams of the half time show: Bruce "the boss" Springstene. Not really enjoying the game I took one of the canadians for a walk, by the time we had got back I had $120, and I promised that all money that was made would go towards all the beer we were drinking. By the end of the game we we had drank 12 towers of beer, at 3 liters a tower, we had drank 36 liters of beer. Our bill was mighty, and all that I had made had gone to the fund. We then continued to a friends apartment, hung for a while, then continued on our journey. That same day Panama had beaten Costa Rica (rivals) at real football (soccer). So our friends brought us to a road where all the locals go to celebrate when their team wins. It was about 2 miles of stationary cars with people blasting music, dancing, and going insane. Just guessing, but I would say there were around 100,000 people on the street. Went back to the hostel and went to bed. The next day we went to the canal which was rather borring. I'm not really sure what I was expecting, but when we got there I realized all it was was a canal. Suck. Back to hostel, the canadians were leaving for Cuba, so we said our goodbyes. We've become really close with the people that work at the hostel so we've been hanging around a lot until our ship come to bring us to Columbia ..... which is tomorrow. Dean and I have stocked up on pirate attire for the trip.