Welcome to the Jungle ...

Ecuador prides itself with having 3 very distinct terrins. It´s costal region that lines the Pacific, it´s mountain region that are the Andes, and it´s rain forest known only as the Amazon. Quito lands dead center in the Andes, so for us to get to the Amazon we had to take an 8 hour bus ride to a small oil town called Largo. Largo isn´t quite the Amazon, so we then took a 2 hour jeep ride to the Amazon River. Since we traveled so far we didn´t want to come all that way to sit right on the edge of the Amazon, so we took a 2 hour boat ride into the jungle. We came to an area that was cleared out, and had huts; this is where we would stay. There we met 3 extremely gorgeous Argentinian women, a very talented American musicial named Colin (Check out his music at www.colinnewcomer.com), and a man from Spain who only spoke spanish, but even with this language barrier we became very close. We had spent the next couple of days as a group doing many various activities like: Piranha Fishing, swimming, hiking, and anaconda searching. On the third day we took a 2 hour boat to a local village where we learned how to make bread out of root. After this we went an hour further down the Amazon to the local Shaman. He showed us around his hut, and about the many plants he used to make his medicines. He showed us one of his healing ceremonies, and asked us if we wanted to partake in Ayahuasca. Ayahuasca is a hallucinagine made from the Banisteriopsis vine that once taken is supposed to help you find yourself spiritually and Purge your body (Aka: Throw up). Never really knowning who or where I am I said I would give it a spin, I was also joined by Bob, Dean, and the man from Spain. We didn´t drink it there, insted we thought it a better idea to take our boat back to our huts and do it far from water. He perparred this sacred drink in 2 used coca cola bottles, blessed them, and we were on our way. We all sat in hammocks and poured out a half glass each to start. The taste was horrible, and I was almost convinced that it was just Amazon water since I didn´t feel any of the effects for almost a half hour. Since the effects were taking so long, Bob, Dean, and I took another half glass. No more then thirty seconds later it hit me like Barry Bonds, and I was far left field. Bob was immediately docile, and Dean and I sat back and spoke of the Cozmos. After about thirty mintues Bob decided he was going to go lay down in our hut, Dean and I continued our conversation. Thirty more minutes later I felt the purging coming and headed to our hut. I layed down in the bed next to Bob´s and we started talking. Only a little time went by when all of a sudden Dean ran straight from the entrance to the bathroom and began purging. This reminded me of how I needed to, I quickly got up, ran to the bathroom, Dean had taken the toilet, so I turned to the shower, and we shared a purging moment. Although the taste was just as bad coming up the after glow was amazing. I felt on top of the world, but very hungry. The night came to a close, and we went to bed. The next day we began our trip back to Quito. 2 hour by boat, 2 hours jeep, 8 hours bus, and we were back. We got to a hostel and crashed instantly.

Tomorrow we fly to Santigo, Chile. Chile is said to be the "most advanced" South American country. We´ve also heard it has no poisoness insects or animals. Hopefully both of these are true, I´m very tired of always fearing for my life.

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.

A good day for a mugging ....

I had found a hostel and checked in. I took a little nap and woke a little stir crazy from the bus ride, so I decided to go for a little walk. I walked all the way to old town which was about 3 miles away. It was getting very hot, so I grabbed some lunch and decided to head back. Full of lunch I came to the conclusion that I'd just walk it off instead of taking a taxi. I had walked around 30 minutes when I realized I was in the area of my hostel but did not know exactly where it was. I rounded a corner and saw a run down apartment complex with younger men yelling at me. I ignored them and continued walking. I made it another 30 feet when a young man stood in front of me. He grabbed me by my lower shirt with his left had, and reached into my pockets with his right. Being a warrior I had a natural reaction; I grabbed his left hand with my right, twisted his arm, and gave him a good left hook to his face. Instantly I was knocked to the ground by an unknown force. I got up as fast as I could to continue the fight when I was slammed to the wall. There were four of them and one was holding a knife to my upper pelvis area. Once the first guy who I punched started pulling money out of my pockets one of the guys holding me let go, and the guy with the knife removed it. A guy removed my passport, I grabbed it, and kicked him in the stomach. Ready to run, I noticed they had to began to run. I felt it was fear of the new fight in me, but this was not the case. Two Panamanian National Police had seen me getting mugged and were chasing them. I stood there in shock for a good 20 seconds when a gun fight broke out. I started running away from the sound of firing, when a third police man told me to run with him. "ARE YOU CRAZY!?!" I yelled, and decided to follow anyway. Before I knew it there were police everywhere. They had caught one of them and put him in the back of a police pickup truck that had a cover over it. They then started to ask him questions with answers that the police apparently didn't like because then they began to taze him. They must of tazed him 10 times for about 5 seconds each time. I don't know if you've ever been tazed before, but I give props to the kid for not passing out after the third. They had caught another and they asked me to identify him in the back of a police car, I identified positivly. They told me to get in one of the police trucks and they brought me to the station. They told me that they don't file reports for tourist and that I had to wait for the tourist police. The tourist police took me another place that didn't seem like a police station at all, and sat me down. After about 20 minutes a man walked up and told me he was my translator. He spoke english really well, buuuuuutttttt reeeeeaaaalllllyyyy slllloooooowwwww. He asked me where I was staying, I had told him that I didn't remember because I wasn't there for very long, and I had a piece of paper in my pocket, which was taken, if he could get me the internet I could find it in no time. "OUR GOVERMENT CAN'T AFFORD THE INTERNET!" He said very angerly, with his raised slow english talking voice. He soon informed me that I couldn't file the police report there, and we had to go somewhere else that had juresdiction. Yet again another police station, they brought me down stairs and sat me there. I sat for a good hour or so when they told me that one of my assalants was shot, and they were ready for my report. The report took forever because the translator talked just as slow in spanish as he did english. Once we finished he told me they had sent a tourist police to pick me up and bring me back to my hostle. "I'll just walk" I replied jokingly, which he did not find funny whatsoever. I was mugged at about 3:30pm and finished the report around 10:30pm. I was taken back to my hostel, and fell asleep instantly. I woke when a man shook me and said "Alvin, your friends are here.""Not another mugging!" I cried. It was not, in fact, it was the sweet sweet faces of Dean and Bob. Ok, maybe their faces aren't so sweet, but after all that had happen I was ready to no longer be alone. My hostel was full so we took a cab to another hostel that they had found which was much better. We are now trying to figure out how to get to Columbia. There are boats that take five days and stop at islands, or there are plane flights. The planes are a little cheaper, and to the point. The boats have meals that come with them, and seem like a really awesome experience. I guess it's down to the democracy of the group.

Dutch people, Designer socks, and Danger.

I ended up staying in a hostle that night. I was having a beer with a couple of guys I met in the Bearded Monkey. I started to talk about how there were so many casinos in San Jose and none of them had poker. Right as I said this a beautiful dutch woman came up to me and asked if I wanted to play poker. There's only one right answer to a smoking hot dutch girl asking you to play poker, so we were on our way. She was staying in San Jose being a tour guide, she loved to play poker, and had met a guy at the last game that knew of another tonight. He picked us up, and brought us to this casino 20 miles out of town. We started playing a tournament of Texas Hold'em. It must have been about 95% locals, a couple of older retired folk, and us. I've never in my life got such great hands. I must have got 5 straights in 10 hands. This was great for my winning, but then everybody started looking at me and whispering in spanish. We both made it to the final table where you start getting money. She had been knocked out in 7th place, and I was still going strong. Many people followed her, and I came out with 2nd, which paid $250. This made me fear for my well being because all these people knew I was atleast carrying $250. We soon left, and had two more guys in the car then we came with. This is where things get really scary, and even more akward. The following events take place in the car while Norah Jones plays in the background: The man in the passenger seat had a backpack, he opened it and pulled out a hand gun. I started sweeting bullets. He then contined by pulling out bags of something, I came to the conclusion he was a drug dealer, which didn't really put me at any more ease. He handed something to the driver (the man we came with), he looked it over for a while, then handed it back. This is when I saw what it was, not drugs ....... but designer socks. OF COURSE!!! The man was a designer sock dealer! He dropped the two men off, then brought the dutch girl and I back to the hostle. There are very few things in this world that can make me feel akward, but there are even less that are so akward I start to cry, and this my friends is one of those. She asked if I wanted to play the following night and I told her I was indifferent. I went to bed around 4, and woke up to loud noises at 8 where I immediatly had the urge to continue south. I took a cab to the bus station and got a ticket at noon to Panama City. The trip is a 17 hour bus ride so they play movies. Lucky for me they happened to play one of my all time favorites .... Big Mama's House ...... in Spanish! Yipee! We got Panama city at 3:30ish in the morning. This sucked because I didn't really have any plans or anywhere to stay. I found a dutch guy traveling with his canadian girlfriend, I asked them where they were going and they didn't know. So I followed them. They jumped on some random bus, and we were taken to a really sketchy part of town. We decided to find a lighted area, and hang out until the sun cam up. Once up I left them to go get some food. The man at the counter helped me order, so I started to talk with him. He was wondering why me (a gringo) was in this part of town, and said it was very dangerous for me. Natrually I replied that "Danger is my middle name", he thought this was funny and felt he had to tell everyone that my name was Danger, and that it was a challege for him to pick someone for me to fight. I quickly corrected him and started walking away .... fast. Now it's time for me to find somewhere to live for the night.

All by myself ....

We hit the parties at the bearded monkey pretty hard for 3 days. We had decided that Bob and Dean would head to the embassy, ryan would be on his way, and I would continue south for much needed alone time. Because of these reasons we said we´d only have a few beers and we´d hit the sack early, but as always this was not the case. Insted we had many beers, hit the dark roads rolling deep with 10 of our new friends, bought and shared a bottle of rum, had some more beers, and went to bed at 4 or 5 when we needed to get up around 7. Somehow we did get up at 7, Bob and Dean packed and headed for the embassy while Ryan and I had breakfast. At around 9 I left for the bus station and found a bus leaving for San Jose, Costa Rica at 11. While waiting for the bus I met a really awesome british guy, and a Czech guy who spoke spanish flulently, which would later help me in my travel. The bus was 8 hours long, and had many stops, one of which was a beautiful eatery that had the most amazing view of Costa Rican beaches. We got to San Jose around 8 and waited for a girl that was friends with the czech guy, but had got on a bus 30 min later. Since I had no plans I decided to follow them to the place where there were staying, and we shared a room. I woke this morning, and said my goodbyes. Now I´m sitting here deciding whether I want to wait for Bob and Dean at a hostal or continue to panama city. The world will never know .... until it happens.