Audaces fortuna iuvat (Fortune Favors the Bold)

A tale of two weekends....

senor-lance — Fri, 1 May 2009 04:19:00 GMT

I am a lucky man. I lucked out and the perfect ending to my LONGGG trip. I hoped that my last two weekends would be as good as my first two. I didn't know what to expect as my trip was closing down.

The first weekend i was in Antigua, Guatemala. Antigua literally means "ancient" or old. The city is a stunning small colonial town. It sits in good elevation so the climate is very mild. It is located outside guatemala city, the capital, about an hour and a half away. I arrived thursday and spent the whole day just wondering around this lovely place. There are old colonial churches, public laundry pools, cobblestone streets, and numerous delightful open-courtyard cafes all over the town.

Now onto friday night! So we all, some guys i met at the hostel and myself sat out to start the night at the party hostel in Antigua, Black Cat. There i met an amazing irish girl named Ciara that i traveled for a bit in nicaragua. We had a couple of drinks and then went out for a club. The club was absolutely packed. They played the usual music: reggaeton, electronic, slow music, all intermixed and random. Sooo after loads of drinks we were all geared up for a long and memorable night!!!

ONE PROBLEM!! Antigua clubs shut down at 2am. Now maybe in the states that is normal, but everywhere else this is absurd. No clubs ever shut down before 4am! Sooo we didn't know exactly what to do. So me and a couple guys talked to some locals and they said there are "illegal" clubs that open after 2am. Sooo we were keen on finding one. Some girls helped us, so we jumped in their ride and they were constantly on the phone calling people. I am in the front seat trying to comprehend where we are headed. Eventually we find a place and start lining up. I am almost ready to pay and enter when the cops roll up. So there goes that plan. Some of the guys i was with were done with the night now and they went home. Not me! I wasn't going to let this night go down this way. The girls too called it a night and went home. So me and my friend are standing outside this illegal club talking to locals and seeing where there is more party. Luckily for us we again met some local girls and they said there is an underground trance party in guetamala city, an hour and a half away, in an abandoned parking lot. We looked at eachother and said "why not". So we jumped into these girls cars and were off to the party.

The trance party was absolutely sick!! Good music and atmosphere, and cheap drinks as well!! We eventually left at 5 from the party and had an afterhours party at one of the girls apartment. I didnt get to bed until 7am. Incredible! I then realized i had a tour in the afternoon, to climb a live volcano outside Antigua. OK!! So we lifted rides to where the "chicken buses" take off for antigua in guetmala city and by the time we knew it we were back in Antigua.

I caught a quick bite to eat, took some aspirin for my trashed ankle, and went on the hike. I have never seen live lava before. It took about 90 mins. to climb the volcano and we got some really good lava flows. Lava was literally everywhere, underneath you in some small channels and you could get about 10 feet from the lava rivers, any closer and the heat was too intense.

Soo that was an amazing weekend in Guetamala. Now onto Mexico!!

I took a quick stop in San Christobal de Casas, another small colonial town. I have something for small colonial cities. I think i am going to retire in one. The easy-going life style along with the colonial atmposphere is very appealing to me.

Anyways off to mexico city where i stayed with an amazing couchsurfer and person, ROBERTA!!! She made my stay in mexico city absolutely amazing!! I arrived thursday and met Agnis, a rad swedish girl i met on my yacht trip from colombia to panama and an aussie Nick. The three of us would eventually would have one of the best weekends i had on my entire trip!

Friday the news of the swine flu was kindof trinkling down thru the news. Masks were getting handed out in the metro (which is the nicest i have ever seen, except Tokyo), but everyting was still open. Friday night we would go to a salsa club, where agnis was the center of attention for nearly all of the old men in the club. Then we left to a club. We got there and totally killed the place. All 3 of us were dancing on the stage, drinking loads of cheap drinks, and having a bitchin time! Once again we were standing outside of the club around 4 and got invited to an afterhours place. We were all keen on it and soo we took off. I was in the cab without nick and agnis, but with 4 girls (lucky me)! Anyways we got to this apartment in central mexico city and the apartment belonged to a young doctor. Anyways he saw that my ankle was F'd and he freaked out that i needed to take pills, and get a shot. I was drunk, pure and simple. Coherent surely but still drunk. I asked him if he was drunk. In which he replied yes also. I then asked if it was ok to recieve a shot while drunk, and he said it is not a problem. So i pulled down my jeans a little and took the shot right in the ass. Just as i was getting the shot my mates agnis, nick, and all the others in the party open the door and see me getting a shot in the ass. OMG! This all became too much for them! They were like.."what is going on here??" and ya it would b a pretty wierd sight to see ur mate gettin a shot in the ass at an afterhours party but thankfully the shot really helped my ankle. It felt loads better the next morning. Ok that night was defintely memorable. So what would saturday have in store for us?

Saturday we 3 went to the pyramids outside the city, they were amazing and then everything was closed by 6. EVEN MCDONALDS!! So when it was around 10 we looked for somewhere to dance and party. The trouble was everything was closed. All venues without open air access was forced to close. So that meant that no clubs in mexico city would be open. Sooo no nightlife on my last night of my trip??? WRONG!! AGAIN i lucked out. We bumped into a guy in the nice but overtly gay club and restaurant district of Mexico city. And he said there is loads of parties and clubs outside the city, about 30mins away by taxi. Soooo we all agreed to take the chance, by now it was 1am and we were desperate.

When we arrived at the place we instantly knew we hit the jackpot. Agnis, nick, and I agreed to wear our new 10 peso (.75 cents) sun glasses in the club. This would pay off as we were treated like lords in this place!! 16 coronas for 10 dollars, good music, and an unspoiled, ungringoed normal mexican club!! We partied like GODS in there!! Danced like fools, bought buckets and buckets and buckets of coronas, smoked cigarrettes like they were candy, i could not have asked for better travel mates or a better place to spend my last weekend partying like a lord in Mexico City!!

VIVA LA MEXICO!!!

4 countries in 1 week......

senor-lance — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 08:17:00 GMT

Ok so i told everyone that i would b flying thru central america...and unfortunately i can´t go to all the places that i wanted to but nevertheless i am still seeing amazing landscapes and have been to some amazing places along this wild, fast, and crazy ride thru central america.

So after i left panama city i went to san jose, costa rica where i stayed one night there and left early that morning, 4am for nicaragua. Me and another girl from ireland, ciara, were going together to lake ometepe in nicaragua (the 2nd largest lake in latin america, the 1st being titikaka in bolivia). anyways it was hard traveling after we got to nicaragua. a 2 hour ferry to the island. there we stopped for a quick bite to eat and a few beers. then jumped onto this school bus that was absolutely PACKED, had to stand with my packs for an hour until there was space to sit. It was sooooo busy because of semana santa, or easter weekend. The bus didnt go direct to the place we were going on the island. So we had to get off and try to thumb it, unfortunately there was no one going to our side of the island, so we eventually had to pay 10 dollars each for an hour taxi ride, which is atrocious but when u need to get somewhere u need to get somewhere...

once we got to our destination i was immedietly glad i came here with ciara. The hacienda (farm) we stayed was amazing. They grew all the food that they cooked with, at it was amazing to say the least. I stayed on the island for 3 days. The sunsets were some of the best i had ever seen. The island is made up of 2 volcanos and the sunsets over the large was fantastic.

After 3 days of soaking up son, walking around the island, swimming under volcanos, we went granada, nicaragua. About 4 hours from the lake. Granada is an old colonial town. Very pretty, very colonial and has a warm feeling to it. I stayed 2 nights there and did a jungle canopy tour, which was a blast. Flying thru on the ziplines was incredible...

After granada the next place i was headed was Honduras, Copan runas, on the border of guatemala. It would b a full days bus ride but this is the route i would be taking. So again i left very early from managua, nicaragua and transferred buses in teguicagalpa, honduras onto a different city called san pedro and got on another bus to copan runas. I did the ruins in the morning before all the tourists come out. It was my first time visiting mayan ruins and they are impressive. They got a very different feel to many other ruins i have seen but very very impressive. Then in the afternoon i would take another 6 hour bus ride to Antigua, Guatemala. The queen of colonial cities in central america. Next blog i´ll write about amazing antigua, climbing live volcanos, a wild night in which i ended up in guatemela city after an intense night of partying, and my trip into mexico...until then...

Arriving in Central America...

senor-lance — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 11:16:00 GMT

Since leaving the shores of Cartagena i was a bit sad leaving south america because of all the amazing experience i had there. Hopefully the experiences i have had since will also be good.

Soo my first time on a sailboat was very good. We left cartagena on the ship ¨Sucre¨ with the belgium captian named David. There was 5 of us, including 2 british girls, 1 dutch, and 1 swedish girl. The swedish girl agnis and J from holland quickly became my friends on the boat.

The first night we didnt have much wind so we went rather slow. 2nd day much of the same but we did get to see dolphins and a beautiful sunset. The 3rd day we arrived in san blas islands, a small island chain off the coast of panama.

This place is quite the place. Hundreds of small islands, some soo small that they only have 1 single palm tree. The first day we snorkeled most of the day. We saw massive angel rays and loads of fish and beautiful corral. That night we had a bonfire on a small uninhabited island and cooked the fish that we had caught spearfishing.

Finally arriving into panama city was refreshing. After 6 days on a boat without a shower can get quite bothersome. So having checked in me, J, and agnis walked around panama city at night which was quite tranquilo. Panama city has a very nice old town and it kindof reminds me of miami a bit. Central america has much more americans traveling here but more touristy, which i dont necessarily like. But 2 days in panama city seeing the old town, the panama canal, and now me and agnis are off to nicaragua. Welcome to hardcore and fast traveling again...

chau from cartagena.....(goodbye south america:)

senor-lance — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 08:14:00 GMT

I am saying chau to south america in cartagena. Tomorrow i will take a yacht to panama. The biggest chapter in my adventure is about over. It has been the most intense, challenging, and satisfying adventure of my life. There were leaps more high than lows. Just reflecting a bit it is quite sombering to think that it is all but over. That this adventure is over, i will never forget south america. It is a part of me. And reflecting on all the amazing experience i have had here.

Starting from buenos aires where i had to relearn how to get back on the ¨backpacking horse¨. I had to relearn how to be many things, how to be comfortable in foreign places, how to communicate in different languages, how to pick up on accents, how to push yourself to always see and experience the most you can, how to manage difficult and potentially dangerous situations of places, navigate through massive foreign cities, how to navigate to distant places and countries, how to be thrifty, how to restrain oneself, how to force yourself to be sociable(for being on the road is hard if your without travel mates), being a backpacker doesn´t come with a how-to book. All of these things you learn along the way, because you have to if you want an enjoyable experience.

It didnt take me long to get back on the backpacker horse, probably about 10 days. I was blown away by the beauty of buenos aires, then took a 3 day bus ride that really broke me into long south american bus rides. Went to the southernmost city in the world, Ushuiaua. Did stunning treks in spectacular patagonia, saw massive fast moving glaciers, and also had my first hiccup, a stolen credit card.

But nothing would stop me as i went on a 5 day ferry ride thru chilean fjords and onto the most incredible new year´s eve party of my life in Valparaiso, chile. Went to the driest place on earth, and felt a little bit what it might be like on mars. But all of these countries were a nice precursor to more difficult places to travel in south america, as argentina and chile are very western and relatively easy to travel thru. Now onto bolivia... Went on a 4 day rough, intense, and incredible jeep ride where i had immigration problems, saw one of the jeeps in our jeep caravan roll over and see a few brazillians get badly hurt, went on a alpaca (kindof llamas) drive, and saw the most amazing natural sight i have ever seen, the salt flats of uyuni!! Then onto potosi where i would hold dynamite and coca leaves at the same time, enter a primive mine, light dynamite and run away from the real blast. Then to the pleasant city of sucre where i partied on my birthday with a good travel friend martin. Then onto crazy la paz for the real live prison tour without guards, offered cocaine inside the prison, and ate lunch inside the prison chattin it up with friendly, but probably dangerous (if they were outside) prisoners. Went to see the island of the sun in lake titicaka, the world´s highest navigatable lake, severely sprained my ankle. And now it was time for peru..

Arrived in breathtaking city of cusco, healed my ankle for a bit, and then headed on a 4 day trek to macchu picchu. Upon completion of the trek and seeing the sunrise on macchu picchu is a memory i will never forget. Then to nazca where i had my bag stolen (camcorder, camera, lonely planet (travel guide)) and arriving in lima, peru without one shred of useful infromation on where to go or how to get there. Spent hours in a lima police department filling out reports all at the same time relaxing in the upscale part of lima, miraflores. But can´t relax too much as it was time to go to equador, all 36 hour bus trip to get there, and the most dangerous border crossing in all of SA.

I arrived in equador unscathed and unharmed, although the armed guard in the bus now was a bit of a shock. Fell in love with quito´s natural beauty, its old town, and with the people. Met an amazing girl mallidy, and improved my spanish by leaps and bounds. Had amazing experiences through equador. Highland travel routes where i saw volcanic crater lakes, crazy bus rides with live shop on top of my bus, men with massive pickaxes in front of my face, and all sorts of animals as passengers in various buses. Also i went to the amazonian rainforest where i saw anacondas, caimans, monkeys, tartantulas, poisonous creatures of all sorts, pink river dolphins, toucans, and all sorts of exotic birds and creatures, quite the unique place the jungle is...i had fallen in love with equador despite its raw and somewhat dangerous appearance...but i had to keep moving, and colombia was next....

A 24 hour bus ride to bogota and i was now in colombia. Bogota is very western, with clean streets, policemen everywhere, mcdonolds, starbucks, hard rock cafe, beautiful parks, incredible museums, modern transportion terminals, crazy good food, and amazing nightlife, ohh ya THANKS TO ALL THE AMAZING COUCHSURFERS. Colombia was turning into something better than i expected. I then went to manizales in the coffee region of colombia, visited a coffee hacienda, soaked in the scenery and the fresh coffee. And then i went to medellin, the city of women. The women there are really undescribeable but i will try. 9 out of 10 women are attractive, 5 or 6 out of 10 are really very attractive and 3 or 4 out of 10 are borderline models. But that´s not all that´s good about medellin. It felt like the safest big city i have visited yet. It had super modern uber nice subway system, beautiful and green parks, one hell of a nightlife scene, and ya the women didnt hurt. then to the north caribbean coast to santa marta. a 6 day trek to ciudad perdida, the lost city, would be the most intense, hot, sweaty, grueling trek i had ever done. But the challenge and the scenery of the trek made it the best trek i had ever done. Crossing river, dancing over rock trails, scaling past high rock cliffs, and then climbing over 1300 slippery and small rock steps to reach the top of the misty lost city made it the best trek i have done to date. Then to cartagena, the last stop for me in this south american adventure. And what a place, a super old spanish colonial superhold where all around you see remanants of the past. The 500 year old walls that made this city an impregnable fortress for the spanish against the pirates that wanted all the gold and treasures that the spanish aquired from south america. The modern city with lively beaches and a very unique caribbean and south american vibe all make cartagena one of the most beautiful cities in all of south america, if not the best.

So tomorrow i will go and i will no longer be making memories in south america. The places i have been and the experiences that i had in south america are only have of the story, for the people i have met along the way are equally important. We shared stories, traveled in foreign lands together, laughed, partied, got drunk, and had fun together, we had incredible amazing experiences together, overcame challenges together, and at the end said good together. It wasn´t always easy traveling thru the entire breadth of south america, but the hardest part was definitely saying goodbyes to people you know for certain would have been lifelong friends if not for the oceans seperating us. That´s the most difficult part of traveling, and yet ironically the best. Even though its difficult to say goodbye meeting people from across the globe while experiencing unbelievable adventures is soo amazing that it outweighs the difficulties of saying goodbye. So for everyone that i traveled with, partied with, sat next to a bus with...Thank you and chau..

I hope i will never forget even the smallest of details..but someday whether it´s a year from now or when i´m an old man i can look back at this adventure and when i can´t totally remember all the crazy, fun, unbelievable adventures i did in south america..yes lance `yes you did it` and to everybody who read my blog i hope you enjoyed it a mere 1% as i did living it...

So i´m finishing my blog in south america by saying chau...from cartagena....

next panama :)

I have found the lost city!!

senor-lance — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 07:11:00 GMT

Another trek..another amazing life adventure!! The tour started off with a bang. We left santa marta in our carnivale like super HUGE landcruiser without windows. It took us 2 hours to get to the dirt road, and from there we would be really off the trail. We would then off-road for another 2 hours.

We got to this little village called machete, yes like the real machete. We ate a quick lunch and from there we started our 6 day trek thru the heart of the jungle. Now the porters packed food and supplies on 2 or 3 donkeys but we had to carry our packs. Mine which was small but i still could have not packed a rain jacket. For when it was raining it was also very hot, and i hardly wore a shirt while trekking.

The first day broke us in quickly. We crossed small streams which taught us very quickly to balance ourselves and our backs as we tip-toed over the safe dry spots on the various rocks in the stream. We ascended a steep trail for about 1.5 hours, maybe 2. There were long steep zig-zag paths that made all of us very tired, very quickly.

After 2 hours of ascending we reached a little camp with hammocks. We were given the option of staying here if we were too tired to continue or to push on for another 1.5 hours. We chose the latter. Some of our group, i think 3 or 4 out of 12 had dumped their packs on the donkeys, for a charge of course, and 2 were too exhausted to continue on foot and chose the a donkey ride instead.

After the ascending part the trek was really beautiful. It had cooled off a bit, and the natuaral ¨exercise¨ high felt amazing. We were now on top of a range of mountains and we were walking thru clouds. We met a group of paramilitaries patrolling the pass, as the threat of F.A.R.C. (the notorious drug cartel) is always present. We also passed a small heard of cattle. When we arrived at our camp it was about to get dark. I was the 3rd one to arrive, as the first 2 are professional dancers and extremely extremely fit young men from colombia and kazhakistan. We all were dripping is sweat and it felt amazing to jump into the natural swimming pool.

The 2nd day was our short day. While it was shorter it was not easier. We ascended more and the path was much more steep. Ater an hour of intense ascending we would then be given no rest as we would descend for 2 hours. The path was extremely steep and after 10 mins. of descending my legs were spent. Continually i had to take care to step in the right place as my ankle is always on my mind. We arrived around noon at our 2nd camp and enjoyed the rest of the day near another swimming hole, this time by a large river we would b crossing many times the next day.

The 3rd day would be the most amazing day yet. This day we would reach the lost city. Right away were were thrown into intensely technical trekking. There was a massive rock wall that we would literally tip toe, with our chests inches from the rock, and our footing that was only inches wide, all without trying to look below where certain critical injuries would occur or even death as the fall would b at least 20 yards down to the river. That part of the trek was the most scary but it forced you to concentrate exremely hard and it was my favorite.

The rest of the day we tracked along the river, sometimes hiking the old river bed and sometimes trekking right next to the river. Climbing over massive rocks and finding anyway to keep along the river. We did this for about 4 hours and crossed the river about 8 times, sometimes the river was as high as ¨my¨ waist and traveling very fast.

We also met an indiginous family which was very interesting. The one lady was quite young, maybe in her 30s and already had 8 children and was pregnant. The village was super basic, just huts of reeds and roofs of thatched grass.

After 5 hours of trekking we finally came to the famous steps of ¨Ciudad Perdida¨, the lost city. Now we would have to ascend these small slippery steps, all 1300 or more of them, before we got to the lost city. This took about 40 minutes and then we arrived. The feeling was amazing because the trek to this place is very difficult, defintely not for everybody. Sooo much heat, insects, river crossings, sweat, slips, falls, and exhaustion all are worth it once you reach the lost city.

The city was lightly covered in fog which made for great photos. The military also had a small compound on the lost city grounds to give the tourists a feeling of safety, not that i was concerned. We stayed at a real primitive lodge on the outside of the ruins.

In the morning we would explore more and now we would have to return. We all knew the return would be more difficult. As the adrenaline of a new discovery would push our adrenaline and will to reach the lost city. Now all we had was exhaustion and a desire to return to civilizaiton. The first day of our return, our 4th day, was all done in steady rain. One must accept being wet, your shoes, your shorts, everything is wet. Trekking in the mud makes it much more difficult but that part of the trek is for me the most beautiful because we are mostly trekking thru the heart of the jungle.

The 5th day was defintely the hardest! A full day of rain made the trekking path incredibly muddy and sloppy. We would have to make our greatest ascent yet. For 5 or 6 hours it was a constant will battle to push on and keep trekking. It was difficult but satisfying also.

The 6th day we would return. Two of our colombian friends in the group decided it would be fun to have a few drink on our last night. A few turned into 9 bottles of rum, all with no coca cola. Bad idea. Although the last day would be our easist, it was not easy with a serious hangover. It was hot, muddy, and i had to trek with a hangover. This is a hangover i will never forget. I fought it for hours and eventually the quick dips into the river cleansed my system. We eventually finished our trek, got onto the jeep, got stuck, had to get towed out and eventually reached back to santa marta at 7pm.

The experience was like no other for me. Thru the jungle, with your pack, and the terrain we went thru was incredible. The difficulty of the trek made it even moreso satisfying. To think that more people visit macchu picchu in one day than visit the ¨Lost City¨in one year is quite the proof one needs to realize that the lost city is still more or less ¨Lost¨to the rest of the world. I will never forget this trip and i feel blessed to have experienced this once in a life time experience.

Nooo I don´t have drugs on ME!!!!!! (Police confrontation)

senor-lance — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 02:48:00 GMT

Ok so i decided to leave Medellin and it was probably the hardest place to leave. Sooo i had a pretty rough and intense day, to say the least. So i woke up, called my mom, checked my wells fargo account which apparently there was some sort of problem. I didn´t think it would be serious bc every now and then they question some sort of charge i have. Well this would be very different!!

I checked my credit card balance, and i hardly ever use this card, just for emergencies, because i primarily use my citibank debit mastercard. But i saw on my wellsfargo that there was a 3200 usd charge in quito for HotWheels.inc

And the charge occured while i was in colombia. Soooo i called them up and told it was bogus. I think what happened is one time i took cash out of an atm and they must have had some sort of device that copied the card, i have no idea.

But the real problem was that i only had 50,0000 pesos, or about 25usd on me at the time. AND i was transferring money into my citibank account, which only had 13 usd in. Sooo i was in medellin, ready to leave, and now i had only a little bit of money, enough to eat on, as i can eat here for 4 or 5 usd if i have to. BUT still i wanted to leave. Soooo i pleaded with the wells fargo to allow me to make one more cash advance before she shuts the card down....

anddd luckily for me she did...so i rushed to the atm and grabbed 200usd out, for i didnt know exactly how long the citibank transfer would take and then wells fargo shut the card down...

so i started with 3 cards on this trip, got one stolen in ushuiua, argentina right away and now i had this fraud problem now so at the moment i only have one, and i will hold onto this one very tight!!

Then to top the day off i was getting ready to board my bus to santa marta (on the caribbean coast) and there was a dog by my leg. As there are many stray dogs around, i lightly kicked the dog to get away from me. OOOOPS!!! It was a police dog. DAMNNN!!! Sooo all of a sudden the cops were yelling in my face, WHY DID U DO THAT?? and i say that i thought it was a stray dog. And they say WE DONT BELIEVE U!!! WE THINK YOU HAVE DRUGS!! U HAVE DRUGS DONT U!! WE KNOW U DO!! Soo at this moment i am freaking out inside but am trying to act calm, and because i didnt have drugs on me. But i kept in the back of my mind Cambodia, where i got marijuana slipped into my bag somehow at the thailand/camboadian border. Sooo i just tried to see if the cops were trying to set me up, maybe slip something in my bag and then arrest me. Soo they did a pretty thorough body search, which i REALLY didnt enjoy, and then they searched my bags, had the dogs sniffing all around my stuff, looked at all my documents, and eventually they just up and left me be.....Onwards to the coast, hope i have better luck there

Pure beauty......the women of Medellin, Colombia

senor-lance — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 11:44:00 GMT

Ok sooo I just left medellin but i had to blog about this amazing city!! Everywhere you travel you hear about the women in Medellin. The women in Argentina are also amazing, but they don´t compare to Medellin. It is almost completely undescribeable. For the first couple days i was just shocked walking around. I swear to god and say that 8 or 9 out of 10 women you see are attractive, then you put 5 or 6 are REALLY attractive and 2 or 3 out of 10 are absolutely amazing!!! There is no other place i have heard of that matches medellin, NO WHERE!!

Ok Medellin isn´t amazing just because of the women, but it definetely adds to it. The city is astetically super clean, at least in the centro parts. It has a hyper-modern metro system, great and beautiful parks, and the mountains surrounding it makes the city incredibly beautiful!! This is one place where i would LOVE to come back, study spanish for a couple months, and take in the tranquillity of the city. If you ever have the chance, come to medellin, you won´t regret it!!!

Gallery: Colombia

senor-lance — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 04:19:00 GMT

36 hours to Bogota.......

senor-lance — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 03:59:00 GMT

Ok so i left quito about 2 weeks ago and went on another epic bus trip. If there was ever a part of this trip to skip, it would have been this leg. I priced out a flight and it was around 250usd, but only 3 hours long. Compare that to 80usd and 36 hours.

The bus was supposed to leave at 6am, so i arrived at 530. Knowing that it probably wouldnt leave on time. I didnt expect that the bus would never arrive, so me and another girl were taxied to the interstate, flagged down a random bus to the border and hopped on. 5 hours later i am at the border of colombia. I was told to find this guy named juan ????? so i asked around and finally found this guy. He taxied me in his car to the border formalities and then switched some cash, which i would discover later that some of the money would be fakes, after i got my stamp i got into a different taxi with a different guy, driven through the other border town to the bus terminal and waited there for 2 hours. Then i got onto the bus and we drove to cali, colombia, stopped and ate. The ride to cali was 8 hours, and then to bogota was another 12 hours.

Finally in Bogota. Bogota felt at the time the safest big city i had been, maybe with the exception of B.A. and santiago. But i was surprised how modern, clean, and western it was. There is a massive super posh nightife area called zona rosa which we went out one night. All the rich and beautiful go there, but it was relatively expensive for colombia. Then the next day i cruised around, went to the museum of gold, which was the best museum in south america!! And went out in centro bogota, which was incredible. 10 beers for around 5 dollars at a bar, then we hit up super cheap electronic clubs which were real fun.

Sunday i went to a small city outside bogota and met a nice girl on the bus that would show me around the city the next day, but sunday i went to the salt cathedral of ziraquipa. It is a massive cathedral built into a salt mine. It´s absolutely amazing. Can´t explain it. Look at my pictures in flickr to see a bit of it.

Bogota surpised me. I loved quito but bogota is more modern and more western, which makes it easier to live, but not necessarily nicer. I will always have a special place in my heart for quito but bogota is very very nice. Next to the coffee capital of the world. Who wants a cup?????

The trip HOME..

senor-lance — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 07:03:00 GMT

So if you knew my rough iternary before you know that it has drastically changed. I had a return flight home from Buenas aires on march 10, and obviously i am in colombia so i have extened my trip. Initially i had planned to go to rio de janiero for carnivale in mid-febuary. But when i calculated the costs it would have been sooo much, around 2500 usd for around 10 days, just too much.

So i have decided to skip carnivale, for now, for i will do it one day. And i will continue traveling north until i get home. So at the moment i am in medellin, colombia (which has the most beautiful girl in the world, bar none!!! it´s absolutely ridicilous, 9 out of 10 girls around here are attractive and i would say 4 out of ten are absolutely amazing!!!! i cant find the words to explain how beautiful and how many amazing women are here!!) ok so enough with the women...

Here is the rough plan..sunday i go to santa marta, on the coast, and then i do the cuidad peridas trek (lost city trek) which takes more a less a week, then go to cartegna (CO) and then take a boat to panama, stay a day in panama city, take a bus to honduras, bypassing costa rica, and then stay a few days in honduras,and then stay maybe a few day in nicaragua, and a week in gueatamala, a week in mexico´s yucatan, and then take a bus to mexico city and then another bus to the us border, and then find a ride to austin!!! and then to OKC, and then home...

so that is the plan!!! i started in BA, went to the southern most city in the world, ushuaia, and then have traveled, all by land, no flights, all bus and 2 boat rides...north...until.........home

i did a very very rough calculation of the distance i will have traveled...its impossible to calculate...because the way i have calulated is all in straight lines, and i have mostly been driving through the mountains in every country i have been in, so the actual distance would i presume be much much more than my calculations. My calculations are around 12,000 miles. but if i had to guess i bet it would be around 20,000 miles all together. someday when i return i´ll try to figure out the actual numbers.

Don´t pee in the water.....Amazon rainforest....

senor-lance — Sun, 1 Mar 2009 03:26:00 GMT

Ok so i apologize for not blogging for a long, long time. Just been really busy and blogging takes time, along with puttin up pics.

Ok so i went into the amazon rainforest, a thing i think you must do if you go to south america. So getting into the jungle is not easy. Soo i left quito at 11pm, in a rough neighborhood. Had a bus for 9 hours, arrived in a little border-jungle city, switched buses, went for 3 more hours, and then went on a boat and went upriver for 3 more hours and then we arrived at our lodge. The lodge was basic. With no hot water, stagnant water pools, lots of insects, mosquito nets, but overall it had a good enviroment. It´s the jungle, it´s not suppose to feel like a hilton so it was quite fine.

The first day was lots of traveling. But when we arrived we went out to find an anaconda, YES! Soo we boated around in this swamped lagoon with trees that anacondas love to make nests in. And we found one, the thing was massive. We saw a part of the snake´s side. After that we went for a swim in the lagoon, about 100 yards from the snake´s nest. I was a bit hesitant to jump in the lagoon, not because of the snake, but because of the animal/organism that if you urinate it swims up your ´I think you know´ and i think its fair to say extremely painful. Soo every moment i was in the water i was focusing on not to take a piss. But the sunset was amazing there.

Then in the night we went on a night trek thru the jungle. Ok the jungle is dangerous enough in the daytime, but at night it´s crazy dangerous. Every 3 or 4 yards the guide would point out a super dangerous and poisonous creature. From snakes to frogs, insects, and spiders. We were repeatedly told to be extremely careful, and to not touch anything. Everything ended up smooth and it was an amazing experience trekking around at night in the jungle, sooo many sounds, soo many reflecting eyes, a real terrifying place if you were by yourself or trekking thru by yourself.

The next day we went visited a river jungle tribe. Which was amazing to see how these people lived. A lady made us this bread that is from a plant. It was pretty tasty. Then we went on a trek, this time during the day, and saw all sorts of animals, owls, monkeys, frogs, spiders. And then we went back to the lodge and chilled in a different lagoon that night.

That night again was another night adventure. We waited until it got totally dark and searched for amazon caimans, crocodiles. After about 30 minutes of searching one of the other guys, from canada, spotted one near the shore. We got on the shore as quick as possible and tried to lure it to us with meat. And this worked, it got within 10 feet from us. Their eyes are like mirrors when you shine a light on them. And then all of a sudden another one showed up and they kindof confronted eachother over the meat we threw into the water. After observing them for about a half hour we returned to the lodge.

The 3rd day was the best day. We would paddle, not use motor boats, into remote lagoons not accessable by motorboats. We brought fishing poles and meat and fished for piranha in the morning, and everyone was lucky enough to catch at least one. I caught a red-bellied piranha, a fairly small but the most dangerous/aggressive piranha there is. The lagoon was amazing, green reefs, and loads of white herons. It was simply unforgettable paddling through remote little waterways. The trees, the vines, the complexity of the ecosystem in the amazon is impossible to explain.

Some of the group decided to fish for piranha again in the night but i was over it and decided to try my luck at seeing another anaconda. So our guide took me and another older isreali lady over to the lagoon where there are many anaconda nests. Luckily for me we found another one and this time his head was on top of the nest looking right at us. Soo incredible, his head was bigger than a football. Only his eyes moved, and i hesitently moved my camera within a couple feet from his head to take a picture and a video. Then i chilled on an intertube watching the sunset there in the lagoon and then we saw some some rare pink river dolphins.

The last day we went out bird watching in the morning and saw soo many beautiful and exotic birds, herons, eagles, parrots, and then in the afternoon we would be traveling back to quito. Overall the trip was amazing, the jungle, especially the amazon jungle, is a place like no other in the world, and i feel extremely privedleged to have visted it and i will never forget it.

What if feels like to get pickpocketed??

senor-lance — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 07:17:00 GMT

So if you are interested in what it feels like when you get pickpocketed?? Well let me tell you, you don´t feel anything.

So i was on a bus from the Old Town historical center in quito and taking a short trolley bus ride to the new town, which is like 10mins away. And this bus was totally packed, everybody jammed in together. And when i am just walking around i keep small bills and money in my front pockets and bigger bills, ie 20usd, in my 5th coin pocket, and so i had 60 dollars in my front 5th pocket. I thought that something was happening but i put my hand in my pocket and all of my small bills were there, so i didnt think anything of it.

Once i got back to my hostel, i checked my 5th pocket, and it was gone. I think that whoever pickpocketed me has some sort of tool, device, that could sneak into my pocket and take my money.

Quito is my favorite large city that i have been in so far in south america, it´s unfortunate that things like these happen so frequently. Quito has an amazing old city center dating back to the 1500s, golden churches, enormous basillicas, huge plazas, interesting museums, rolling market streets, great nightlife, and a wonderful natural scenery as a background to quito. Everywhere you look there´s an amazing natural backdrop to the city.

Roughest traveling Yet..

senor-lance — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 06:44:00 GMT

I have traveled on soo many south american buses i couldnt even how many but the one i took a couple of days ago was epic. Ok so i was going to do the quilota loop outside quito. The quilota loop is a bus ride thru the highlands of equador and it´s tough but rewarding. So we, Me and a girl i met named malliddy, which without would have made it even harder, but we took a bus from quito to latacunga and then took a bus, if u call it that, it was more like an extended van. Mallidy and i were the first one, so i got the seat in the front with some more leg room. Unfortunately for me the bus filled up before we left and then we took off they kept picking up people from the roadside. It only took 30 mins and there the bus was sooo full that the people standing in the aisles had backed up to the front where i was sitting and now there was an old man with a giant pick-axe standing right in front of me, and this bus wasn´t driving on a smooth interstate. We were driving in andean highlands and i was a bit on edge that this massive pick-axe would come crashing down on me. Also all the people on this bus were indigenous, which means they are mountain people, really dark skin, indigenous looking, like bolivians, and they speak quechua, not spanish soo much, and mallidy and i were the only ones who were indigenous, so the stares were frequent and intense.

After that bus ride we finally got to the city where we would do a ¨little¨hike down to the beautiful crater lake. A lake formed on the top of a dead volcano. It was incredibly beautiful and when we started the hike we were approached by some kids and asked if we wanted to rent some donkeys for the hike, only 5 bucks each, we said no thinking we could handle it easily. We hiked down fairly easy, taking a couple pics at the bottom and then we looked up, wowww that is pretty high up there. And then the pain began. Climbing up this massive crater is tough enough, but it didnt help that the altitude doesn´t let you breathe. Also there have been reports of frequent robberies on this hike, and it was getting close to dark, and we had to push ourselves to the brink to get to the top before it was dark.

We made it and paid for a truck taxi to take us to the next town to get a decent hostel with hot water. We stayed there the night, i almost forgot my passport in one of the drawers there, and took another bus. We actually hopped on this bus, and so the bus was already full. GREAT!! I got the privedlge of sitting on this crappy seat right behind the driver with absolutely no legroom and no backrest. And this was for 3 hours, wow lucky me. The drive had amazing scenery though, the villages here are literally in the clouds and we were continually driving through cloud mists.

We ended up in Banos, equador which was one of the best cities i have visited yet. Surrounded by mountains, a tropic climate of around 75 degrees, and waterfalls everywhere. The town is only 10,000 people so it has a small town feel, great nightlife scene, and is absolutely breathtaking scenery. Unfortunately we only could stay there for 1 day and so we walked around, took some pics, bought some souvenirs, and then headed back to quito, on a half decent bus, thank god! Now it´s time for valentine´s day so i am looking forward to the experience!

Lying low in Lima

senor-lance — Mon, 9 Feb 2009 12:00:00 GMT

Ok i know that many people that i already got my bag stolen on the bus to lima so i won´t write about it much. This is how it happened. Got a bus from cusco to nasca, where i took a flight over the famous nasca lines, which i have no photos of. That bus ride took 12 hours. Ok then i switched buses onto the common bus to Ica, which was 4 hours, where i then transfered again to another bus to lima which took another 5 hours. On the last bus ride i was sitting in an aisle seat and a woman was sitting next to the window.

When i´m riding a bus i always check beneath the seat to see if its possible to get something stolen from behind and i remember it clearly that there was some sort of foot rest under all the seats and that it would be exetremely difficult to steal something, well not so. On these buses people are jumping off and on all the frigging time, there are no ¨bus stops¨. And this woman got up and wanted to get out so i had to get up and get in the aisle and then literally 10 secs of not putting my foot on my bag i sat down and it was gone, i yelled, i got robbed, in spanish of course, but noone said anything, no one did anything. and i knew instantly that the thief had already split.

So the way backpackers travel is they dont have reservations for hostels persay. We have our lonelyplanet, when we arrive in a new city we take a taxi to the area where there are many hostels. Well i just arrived in lima, a city of 7million people, one of the most dangerous places in south america, without a place reserved and without my bible, the only book that can help you in south america, my lonely planet. Soooo i was freakin out a bit. The bus company set me up with a free taxi ride, whoaa thanx, to the police station and i had a report written up and then they got a cab and i used their internet to get a place to stay. So that´s that. Took longer than i expected.

Ok now lima. I stayed in the nice part of town, miraflores. Which is very upscale, very western, but not soo interesting, it felt like a nice part of miami or orlando. There were pizza huts, burger kings, even had a hooter´s, where i watched the super bowl and had some killer wings. Lima has one of the nicest malls i have ever been to called larcomar which is built into a cliff by the ocean beach, very beautiful and at night its amazing. So i spent a few days tracking down another bible, lonely planet guide, and just kindof chilled and had a nice calm down from the robbery. The historical center isnt that impressive so after 4 days i was out, see ya peru, had a long bus ride, 36 hours all together, to get to my next destination, quito equador!

Happy birthday mom!!

senor-lance — Wed, 4 Feb 2009 11:24:00 GMT

Unfortunately i couldn´t be there to celebrate with you on your birthday, even though we probably would just go to ???applebees (bc of libby) but i am stuck on a 36 hour bus ADVENTURE (no bus ride is calm or boring in SA) and only a computer to communicate with you on your birthday.

I am priveldged to have traveled all that i have and i thank you and dad for the opportunities that you have given me. Traveling is not easy, far from it, as i have experienced last week with my bag getting stolen, but it does teach you valuable life lessons. I never really realized how much i care about every single person back home, from friends to family.

Traveling alone is not being alone wandering through exotic countries with no one to speak to but you are alone in a sense. The cycle of meeting new friends, experiencing amazing things, and then it ends with a solemn goodbye that will probably turn out to be your last goodbye to them. Traveling has allowed me to appreciate my family and friends more. I think the daily routine of life numbs our compassion and love for one another, and sometimes we need to step back..break a little contact..and then we can re-realize how much we do in fact care for one another.

Traveling has always thing i HAD to do, it just wasn´t me to stay in the same place forever. And sometimes i feel that i walked out on or that peole think that i think that the places that i go are more important than they are. Both of these are not true. If i could shake a magic wand i´d have taken everyone to the adventrures that i have been on. From playing with tigers in thailand, to climbing mt. fuji in japan, shooting guns in cambodia, crawling thru vietnam tunnels in ya...nam, experiencing machu picchu, and riding exetremely LONGGG bus rides (though not sure how much u would enjoy that).

These past couple of weeks i´ve witnessed again real serious poverty. The poverty that makes me question why i´ve had the privedged life i have now. And it makes me really cherish what i do have in life, an education and a stable healthy life is all that you can really ask for in this world and i have it. I´ve seen poverty that kills, from the slums of la paz to the ghettos in lima there are things in this world that nearly all americans will never experience but that is real as death itself.

I´ve seen children, no more than 4 or 5, digging through massive heaps of trash alongside dogs looking for food. Old Ladies, over 70 practically dying on the streets as the beg for spare change, and i've seen thousands of families that have nothing, maybe a 4 walls, and that is it. Their most prized possession may be a jesus statue and fat hog. The daily luxuries that we take for granted these people will never ever experience. A hot shower, a pizza from pizza hut, a 2 day vacation, simple things that we would never think about are serious luxuries for most people on this planet.

However in the face of all this pain and suffering i have seen optimism and hope that is almost incomprehendable. From a young girl smiling, singing, and skipping along with her father having the time of her life, picking plastic bottles out of trash bins with her father. Just the idea that a child could enjoy themselves with their father in that circumstance is unbeliveable how powerful family can be. I've also seen young children giving food and coin to beggers, bus drivers picking up a hitchiker in the rain, all sorts of extraodrdinary gratitutes amongst such dire living conditions. I guess this article is just to express to how thankful i am of the work you have done, the hours you put in, to allow me to be what i am today, an educated young man with a prosperous future in this world. And i hope that all who read this think about how they view our own lives, their own mothers fathers, family, and realize that we (the priveldged) are blessed through fate, most time beyond merit, and we have the responsibility to be humble in our thoughts, and actions regarding the immense world around us.

Sorry its long but a lot has been on my mind the last few weeks

ps the photo is of the girl picking bottles out of the trash with her father.

Another world wonder down...Machu Picchu!!

senor-lance — Mon, 2 Feb 2009 02:40:00 GMT

After 3 days of biking, hiking, and trekking through rainy jungle we decided to finish off the trek the proper way, by climbing machu picchu in the night.

We woke up at 330, hazily double checked everything: our packs, our food, water, and flashlights. We put on our pack covers and put our ponchos on and put them over our packs as well for double protection. We walked 20 mins on the road to the mountain and finally we would meet our challenge. You could faintly see a small light emitting from the top of the mountain. It seemed like it was incredibly high up there.

So we started the path. It was very steep and high steps at first. Of course it was pitch dark and raining, which made the experience even more memorable.

Some other climbers were following the 3 of us, because we had torches (flashlights). We wanted to do this by ourselves so we pushed ourselves to distance ourselves from these straggelers. I mean who climbs a steep mountain trail in the rain, in pitch dark without a flashlight.

The path was like a ascended the mountain in one neverending Z pattern. Crisscrossing constantly. With the ponchos i quickly became very warm. Constantly climbing and pushing myself to go faster, lead the others, not to slow down eventually couldnt distinguish sweat from rain water. There were moments were we would slow down for a second, look down on the valley and became astonished on the progress we already achieved. Then we would look up and see that we had still a LONG way to go.

I didnt go numb from exhaustion or the heat or the sweat eventually it just became normal. Always looking at the next step carefully planting my sore and weak left ankle in the right place, always keeping the light on trail ahead and all of a sudden..WE¨RE HERE!!

The entrance of machu picchu! While we couldn´t see the complex itself the entrance was here. I was the 5th person to enter machu picchu that day. Average time to climb the mountain is like 1.5 hours and we did it in under 50 mins.

When you enter machu picchu, especially from a long, vigourous trek, the feeling of completion, of accomplishment, all culminates right then and there into an absolutely beautiful feeling. The instant that you see step onto the complex grounds and see the complex, the mountains, the hazy mist that envelops around the mountains, i don´t think that anyone could ever forget that memory. Of course we still had more climbing to do, we climbed fast so that we could climb wanna picchu (aka old man), the tall mountain in the background of macchu picchu.

We had our tour of the grounds, learned alot of amazing things about machu picchu, that there is a rock that is lined up with the 4 surrounding mountains and also coincides with the magnetic directions.

Then we climbed wanna picchu, very very steep climbing, you had to use your hands most of the time, more like a slippery ladder at times. We got another amazing view of machu picchu. Descended before the rain came. And then we left around 4pm. Most tourists take the train from cusco, enter machu picchu at 10am..take a tour...and leave at 2 or 3pm.

I think you couldn´t possibly experience machu picchu properly unless you do some sort of trek or at least climb last leg up to macchu picchu. Nevertheless i urge everyone to someday experience this world wonder.

Gallery: Peru 2009

senor-lance — Sun, 1 Feb 2009 08:17:00 GMT

Unforgettable adventure!! to machu picchu

senor-lance — Sun, 1 Feb 2009 07:33:00 GMT

I am truely blessed!! I don´t deserve it, ok maybe a little bit but this was probably the single best experience in my life. So to start off i had to rest my ankle because i hurt it in isla del sol, bolivia. So thank god that i was able to rest in a city that is absolutely stunningly beautiful, cusco. It was captured by the spanish and even they said that this city could match the wonders in asia. Beautiful plazas, public squares, cathedrals, monuments, the whole bit.

I eventually because eager to do get up to machu picchu and start trekkin, even though my ankle wasnt close to 100%, but i made the decision to book a trek and now there would be no turning back.

So i was picked up at my hostel with another girl and we would be driven in a taxi to a van and we got in and drove about 2 hours and got on some bikes. We were dropped off at the top of this mountain road, paved, around 18000 feet. And we would descend for hours until we came to the village of santa teresa. Right when i got onto my bike the chain broke, ooops. Soo the tour guide switched bikes with me adn it was all good, for now. The ride was beautiful, thur mountain streams that were spilling over the road, and down magnificent mountain valleys. Then we had gravel roads. And apparently me and this swiss girl were in the wrong tour group. Not sure how that happened but we got new bikes and started on riding thru this bumpy gravel road in a downpour of rain thru the jungle. It was enjoyable for an hour or 2 then it became challenging, but we all just had to keep on going and so we did.

The next day we would beging the trekking part of our ¨trek¨. We started walking thru the Old city of santa teresa, which got washed out in the early 90s by the floods of el nino. The trek was hard but absolutely stunning scenery. Coca plantions, small mountain families, and picturesque mountain valley scenery were all around us. On this day we followed a newly discovered inka trail that was only found 5 years ago. We crossed a raging river, class 6, only possible to kayak or raft down if you are a licensed CRAZY professional. In fact 6 canadians tried to kayak down this river last year and only 2 survived. But we crossed this river with a primitive rope and cart system. 2 people and bags in the cart, it was real fun. Then we finished this hard trek with the beautiful natural hot springs. The 2nd night i slept amazing, all the hard work of trekking in the mountains with my backpack made it easy for me to sleep that night.

The 3rd day we followed a maintence road, jumped into a waterfall, even though it was raining. Saw a huge man made raging waterfall, followed traintracks, dodged trains, not really but tried to get a real close photo of the train, which i did. And then we saw the backside of machu picchu and it amazed me how actually high it was. We were down in the valley and you could hardly see it in the mountains, no wonder why the spainish never found it. We were all really tired but myself and two other guys, an amazing german guy and a candian, already made up our minds that we would climb the last bit. We would have to get up at 330am, get dressed, wear our ponchos bc it would surely be raining, and climb all the way up. It felt like we would be climibing the path that frodo from lord of the rings climbed up into mordor. All of us were anxious to start the ascent.

Almost updated!! Also www.flickr.com/lancehall/

senor-lance — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 06:05:00 GMT

Ok i am now ALMOST updated...i have one major update...Cusco and MACHU PICCHU but then i will be updated entirely!

I have uploaded loads of pics onto www.flickr.com/lancehall/ so check them out!

I hate the sun and his island!! (Injury report)

senor-lance — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 05:17:00 GMT

So after La Paz i set out to Copacabana, Bolivia. Copacabana is on the bolivian side of Lake Titikaka, the world´s highest lake, at around 12500 feet (3600M). The town is like a little beach town, very nice sunsets as well. So after treating myself with delicious local trout every meal i set out for the famous ¨Isla del Sol¨ (Island on the sun). Which is important to inka traditions, they believe the sun god was born on this island.

I took a 2 hour ferry ride to the island. And once i got there i had to find a place to spend the nite. Not going to be hard to find a place, as there many places to stay on the island, very basic though, cold showers and the whole bit. So i strarted to ascend the fairly steep path up. So while i was walking on the top of the island searching for a nice place i stepped on a rock and it hit my cut and i rolled my ankle. I had my pack on and i think this made the my ankle roll more. Instantly i knew it was at least somewhat bad. In a few seconds it was already starting to swell and i needed to find a place still. So i went to the nicest one i could find, a whole whopping 6usd a night and checked in, surveyed the situation and knew that this was not good.

I was planning on doing the strenous ¨Inka trail¨ in only a week and my ankle was toast. I could hardly walk at all. I also had to go all the way down the island and check out the times of the ferry departure back to copacabana where i had a bus to cusco, peru the next day.

So i had to hobble all the way down the island, check the times, and hobble back up, HORRIBLE! I had a bit to eat at the hostel restuarnt and elevated my foot, all that i could do for there was no ice or wraps on isla del sol.

The next day got back to copacabana, wasted some time, and took another interesting bus ride to cusco. Leaking water, raging mad passengers, long delays, confusion, ripoffs, random oncoming local passengers coming from the rainy night in rural peru hopping on the floor of a full bus just a few of the things that happened on this bus ride.