Okay folks, so a bit of change. Unfortunately, as was to be expected, I am of zero use to the peoople of Haiti at this point. They are still having trouble even getting the medical teams and search and rescue groups from what I understand. I will keep pursuing this though and will join the rebuilding effort as soon as I can. After my last post, and after I had realized that I was not going to be called to Haiti, I retreated to the jungle for some much needed centering. I sought refuge in paradise, a ecological farm project in the hills of Isla Ometepe called Zopilote. There I met a plethora of amazing people and basked in the glory of just being free. I spent five days there in total and intended to stay more but I was informed that there is currently a Rainbow Gathering being held in Panama. No not that kind of rainbow, it's a giant international peace festival, just wikipedia it. Anyhow, yesterday morning I took off from the island with one of my new friends Ryan and spent the following thirteen hours travelling to Costa Rica, at one point standing on a bus for three hours, ouch! We arrived in San Jose last night at ten and crashed not much later. I take off in the morning southbound and I am really excited, I will be meeting up with some of my friends from the island, unfortunately Ryan has to head back to the states tomorrow and I will be on my own for the six hour journey. I will be arriving to the gathering sometime on Thursday afternoon or Friday morning, depending on how late it is when I get into Panama and then I will be cut off from the world in the middle of another jungle for the next few weeks or so. After that I think I will go volunteer for a couple weeks at another farm in the middle of yet another jungle and then its back home for me, crazy thought eh? I miss my friends and family so that'll be good, but I am going to work my butt off this summer and come back next winter for an indefinate period of time, first spending a couple months in Haiti and then down to Guatemala and Nicaragua for some volunteer/teaching and such. That's the plan anyhow, but who knows... the wind is a powerful force and before you know it you are blown onto a whole another path completely.
Until next time...
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Progress!
I have found an online travel group that is organizing a volunteer group too Haiti, I have been in contact with Julie the organizer and we are waiting for the logistics to be worked out. There are already 250 people who have responded. I will still continue my research and let you know how it turns out. Until next time...
Disaster Relief
I am devastated by the events of lastnight in Haiti. The western hemisphere´s poorest country has had a blow to them beyond belief. I am frustrated that I am so close and there is nothing I can do, for the moment. I have spent the morning searching for volunteer oppurtunities, but for now they are searching for people with previous disaster relief experience and the technical skills immediately required. I am finding it hard to stomach the idea of continuing my adventure as if this hasn´t happened and will continue to pursue the possibility of heading to Haiti and helping. May all our prayers be with the Haitans and all others affected by this disaster. I will keep you posted on my progress. Until next time...
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Conquistador (Moyogalpa, Isla Ometepe)
Where to begin...
The next morning I met a couple from Norway who were renting a car and offered me a ride to the otherside of the island, great people left and right. We arrived to an amazing old farm called Finca Magdalena, a huge coffee farm set in the hills overlooking the lake and the bigger volcano Vulcan Concepcion, with the base of Vulcan Maderas sitting right behind it, making it a popular spot for people climbing the smaller of the two volcanos. I settled in and sat to admire the icredible scenery for awhile. I walked around the property and ran into three people from Indiana, one of whom lives in Nicaragua right now. We got talking about the volcano and decided to go up as a group the following morning without a guide despite recommendations to do so. We met at 7am and had breakfast and started our hike at 9. The hike was pretty strenuous and got very muddy towards the top. We finally arrived three hours into it at the lagoon that sits in the caldera at the top of the 1400m volcano. I took a swim in the frigid water and since I forgot a bathing suit I had to go desnuda. These things happen. We got down the the mountain it another two hours, making our round trip five hours and seeing as most people I talked to took eight hours, we felt pretty good about ourselves. So good in fact that we called ourselves team conquistadores and spent the night celebrating our conquest. The next couple days was spent mainly just hanging out and relaxing. On Saturday we went down to a fiesta/rodeo that we´d heard about from some locals, which turned out to be animal abuse 2010, could of done without that and I don´t really feel like getting into the details right now. We partyed afterwards and I bid fairwell to all my friends who were leaving early in the morning. I awoke the next day to an all but empty dorm and lounge area and relaxed for awhile trying to figure out my next move. I finished up my tenth book of the trip and went to bed. I awoke the next day realizing I had to come to Moyogalpa which houses the only ATM on the entire island for more cash. I arrived to find out that everyone was stranded on the island because the ferries weren´t running because the winds were to bad, ten foot swells in the middle of the lake, it was like the ocean. Good thing I don´t want to go anywhere. Anyhow, I went to this place I heard about called Yogi´s for dinner, it´s run by an expatriate named Jerry and his dog Yogi. He is quite the character, as is his dog. We walked around and all the town strays came and greeted them both, apparently he feeds all the strays which amounts to 150lbs of food a month! That´s a great way to rack up some good karma. We went back to his cafe and he finally fed me, it was worth the wait though, he knows how to cook up some good ol´ fashioned comfort food. After dinner we sat and talked for awhile and then we were joined by a couple other tourist, one was a wild-eyed guy with crazy hair who could be confused for Charles Manson and then the power went out and we sat around with some lit candles and talked until we were joined by a couple other expats, one of whom had an incredibly gorgeous Nica girlfriend. We sat in the dark for a couple hours, I listened to all there crazy travel stories and how each one came here for the weekend and stayed. I can see myself doing the same down the road. The power finally came on just in time for everyone to head to bed and I retired to my dorm room to be kept up all night by the hurricane like winds ripping through the room and tearing stuff off the walls, but I woke up in paradise once again and after this blog I am headed to the beach. It´s hard to miss home, but I miss you regardless. Hope all is well, until next time...
The next morning I met a couple from Norway who were renting a car and offered me a ride to the otherside of the island, great people left and right. We arrived to an amazing old farm called Finca Magdalena, a huge coffee farm set in the hills overlooking the lake and the bigger volcano Vulcan Concepcion, with the base of Vulcan Maderas sitting right behind it, making it a popular spot for people climbing the smaller of the two volcanos. I settled in and sat to admire the icredible scenery for awhile. I walked around the property and ran into three people from Indiana, one of whom lives in Nicaragua right now. We got talking about the volcano and decided to go up as a group the following morning without a guide despite recommendations to do so. We met at 7am and had breakfast and started our hike at 9. The hike was pretty strenuous and got very muddy towards the top. We finally arrived three hours into it at the lagoon that sits in the caldera at the top of the 1400m volcano. I took a swim in the frigid water and since I forgot a bathing suit I had to go desnuda. These things happen. We got down the the mountain it another two hours, making our round trip five hours and seeing as most people I talked to took eight hours, we felt pretty good about ourselves. So good in fact that we called ourselves team conquistadores and spent the night celebrating our conquest. The next couple days was spent mainly just hanging out and relaxing. On Saturday we went down to a fiesta/rodeo that we´d heard about from some locals, which turned out to be animal abuse 2010, could of done without that and I don´t really feel like getting into the details right now. We partyed afterwards and I bid fairwell to all my friends who were leaving early in the morning. I awoke the next day to an all but empty dorm and lounge area and relaxed for awhile trying to figure out my next move. I finished up my tenth book of the trip and went to bed. I awoke the next day realizing I had to come to Moyogalpa which houses the only ATM on the entire island for more cash. I arrived to find out that everyone was stranded on the island because the ferries weren´t running because the winds were to bad, ten foot swells in the middle of the lake, it was like the ocean. Good thing I don´t want to go anywhere. Anyhow, I went to this place I heard about called Yogi´s for dinner, it´s run by an expatriate named Jerry and his dog Yogi. He is quite the character, as is his dog. We walked around and all the town strays came and greeted them both, apparently he feeds all the strays which amounts to 150lbs of food a month! That´s a great way to rack up some good karma. We went back to his cafe and he finally fed me, it was worth the wait though, he knows how to cook up some good ol´ fashioned comfort food. After dinner we sat and talked for awhile and then we were joined by a couple other tourist, one was a wild-eyed guy with crazy hair who could be confused for Charles Manson and then the power went out and we sat around with some lit candles and talked until we were joined by a couple other expats, one of whom had an incredibly gorgeous Nica girlfriend. We sat in the dark for a couple hours, I listened to all there crazy travel stories and how each one came here for the weekend and stayed. I can see myself doing the same down the road. The power finally came on just in time for everyone to head to bed and I retired to my dorm room to be kept up all night by the hurricane like winds ripping through the room and tearing stuff off the walls, but I woke up in paradise once again and after this blog I am headed to the beach. It´s hard to miss home, but I miss you regardless. Hope all is well, until next time...
Local Music (Chaco Verde, Isla Ometepe)
Journal Entry 1/6/10 9:00am
When you are on an island you better hope that nothing goes wrong.
I can see wind turbines in the distance reminding me that I am surrounded by land, I´m in the middle of an enormous lake in Nicaragua, but it might as well be the middle of the ocean. A man would be a fool to try and swim the distance to shore. Luckily it is paradise and I have no desire to leave.
The place is Isla Ometepe and location is the middle of Lake Nicaragua, the wind is violent but the sunsets are amazing. I arrived yesterday afternoon with a French and Finnish couple whom I´d met on the bus back in Liberia, a lovely couple, Franc and Helena. We got to the Nicaraguan border at about noon and it was as chaotic as I´d imagined it to be. We waited in line for a bit to obtain our exit stamps, then we walked 1km to the Nicaraguan fron and got syphoned through checkpoints and chainlink mazes until we came to another set of lines where we stood for half an hour to get our stamps to enter Nicaragua. Helena then talked a cab driver into taking us to the ferry in San Jorge for ten bucks, quite the steal. The ride there was beautiful and we passed towering wind turbines and marvelled at their size that close up. Despite the beauty, it was quickly noticeable how much poorer this country is then Costa Rica. After all it is the second poorest country in Central America behind Haiti. A lot of the people still use horse drawn carts for transportation, whipping depressed, emaciated horses, carrying loads for to big for there size. All very sad, but nonetheless we arived to our destination and ran to the dock to catch our ferry, on the way noticing a couple howler monkeys chained to a tree, I could barely look. Our ferry wasn´t leaving for another couple hours so we opted for the tugboat like Lancha, which was not very big at all and I read that it was quite a rough ride which it was indeed. It was only an hour ride and it´s all worth it when you see the two towering volcanoes jutting out of the water silohuetted against the cloudy sky like some island in a fantasy novel, breathtaking. The minute we hopped off the boat I fell in love with the island, more carribean then pacific coast and friendly as all hell. We caught a cab to Chaco Verde and at some point Helena asked the driver if the music he was listening to was local, he said,¨No, you heard of Cypress Hill?¨HA! Guess you had to be there. We checked into neighboring hotels and had dinner that evening together, discussing politics, French/American relations, and travelling. A great couple that I wish all the best. We exchanged information and bid a fond farewell. The day ended with an icecold beer while I watched the sunset over the mountains across the lake, while the clouds danced in the red light.
When you are on an island you better hope that nothing goes wrong.
I can see wind turbines in the distance reminding me that I am surrounded by land, I´m in the middle of an enormous lake in Nicaragua, but it might as well be the middle of the ocean. A man would be a fool to try and swim the distance to shore. Luckily it is paradise and I have no desire to leave.
The place is Isla Ometepe and location is the middle of Lake Nicaragua, the wind is violent but the sunsets are amazing. I arrived yesterday afternoon with a French and Finnish couple whom I´d met on the bus back in Liberia, a lovely couple, Franc and Helena. We got to the Nicaraguan border at about noon and it was as chaotic as I´d imagined it to be. We waited in line for a bit to obtain our exit stamps, then we walked 1km to the Nicaraguan fron and got syphoned through checkpoints and chainlink mazes until we came to another set of lines where we stood for half an hour to get our stamps to enter Nicaragua. Helena then talked a cab driver into taking us to the ferry in San Jorge for ten bucks, quite the steal. The ride there was beautiful and we passed towering wind turbines and marvelled at their size that close up. Despite the beauty, it was quickly noticeable how much poorer this country is then Costa Rica. After all it is the second poorest country in Central America behind Haiti. A lot of the people still use horse drawn carts for transportation, whipping depressed, emaciated horses, carrying loads for to big for there size. All very sad, but nonetheless we arived to our destination and ran to the dock to catch our ferry, on the way noticing a couple howler monkeys chained to a tree, I could barely look. Our ferry wasn´t leaving for another couple hours so we opted for the tugboat like Lancha, which was not very big at all and I read that it was quite a rough ride which it was indeed. It was only an hour ride and it´s all worth it when you see the two towering volcanoes jutting out of the water silohuetted against the cloudy sky like some island in a fantasy novel, breathtaking. The minute we hopped off the boat I fell in love with the island, more carribean then pacific coast and friendly as all hell. We caught a cab to Chaco Verde and at some point Helena asked the driver if the music he was listening to was local, he said,¨No, you heard of Cypress Hill?¨HA! Guess you had to be there. We checked into neighboring hotels and had dinner that evening together, discussing politics, French/American relations, and travelling. A great couple that I wish all the best. We exchanged information and bid a fond farewell. The day ended with an icecold beer while I watched the sunset over the mountains across the lake, while the clouds danced in the red light.
Random Thoughts
Journal Entry 1/4/10 12:15pm
So instead of staying the night in La Cruz I am going to stay in Liberia... No, not that Liberia.
I got ripped off for a couple bucks by the cab driver that took me to the bus station, guess thatll teach me to keep smaller change. Oh well.
Met a French couple who only speak French and Spanish. Strange, I was just wondering this morning if I would ever meet someone who speaks only their native tongue and Spanish (outside of Americans) We didn´t talk much...
My bus arrived 45min early, so I will arrive with some daylight left, that'll be nice. Unfortunately there isn´t much space between my seat and the one in front of me, it´s going to be a long four and half hour ride. Cest la vie.
So instead of staying the night in La Cruz I am going to stay in Liberia... No, not that Liberia.
I got ripped off for a couple bucks by the cab driver that took me to the bus station, guess thatll teach me to keep smaller change. Oh well.
Met a French couple who only speak French and Spanish. Strange, I was just wondering this morning if I would ever meet someone who speaks only their native tongue and Spanish (outside of Americans) We didn´t talk much...
My bus arrived 45min early, so I will arrive with some daylight left, that'll be nice. Unfortunately there isn´t much space between my seat and the one in front of me, it´s going to be a long four and half hour ride. Cest la vie.
Sunday, January 3, 2010
Enroute (San Jose, Costa RIca)
Alright folks, so now begins another chapter in my adventures. Things have changed dramatically in my course of action... Let's see, I am still going up to Nicaragua to Isla Ometepe and possibly Granada after a night stop in La Cruz, Costa Rica, but I don't think I will make it up to Guatemala. I really would like to but I need to be back here in a month because I am going to go stay at a Joshua's co-op for a few weeks and if I like it I will be saving all my money this year to buy a couple shares of his land. It is an amazing piece of land and they have a lot going on up there. They have a government funded biodiesel project going on, tons of fruits and veggies growing, and a bunch of chickens for eating and there is a ton more stuff in the works. They have this beautiful are set aside for the future village where the shareholders will be able to build up their cabinas. I can't see anything wrong with being self sustainable in the middle of the jungle with scarlet macaws flying about. So we will see what happens.
New Years was a great time, we hung out, ate great food, watched some great bellydancing and firedancing, and generally made party (as my German and Dutch friends would say.) We woke up the next day and headed to another party where we played a ton of games with gringos and ticos all side by side, it was great to see and a lot of fun. We headed home all thoroughly exhausted from the previous thirty-six hours of fun. I awoke the next day and headed into to town somewhat depressed to be leaving my family I'd had for the previous seven weeks, but I will be stopping by to see them on my way to Joshua's place in a month or so. I caught the bus into San Jose and Tranquilo Backpackers, where I have been for the last couple days. I am going to be catching another bus in an hour or so up to the border town of La Cruz where I will spend a night and cross the border early in the morning up to Rivas, Nicaragua. From there over to San Jorge where I will catch a ferry to the fantasy world of Isla Ometepe. Estoy emocionado.
Anyhow, I will try and elaborate on my farm adventures a little more. You have to understand though that time was non-existant there, and it is all but a blur, so the order of events get's a little tough to recall. There was the week when I had Dengue Fever, which I will never forget. It started the day after one of the WWOOFers going away party and I was feeling pretty bad, but I figured it was just the alcohol punishing me. I went into town to pick up some groceries and things but I started feeling worse and worse, so I rushed back to the farm and informed Liz that I thought I was in for a bad cold... WRONG, I was in for something that resembles the flu except ten times worse including star inducing body aches and hallucinations. I was stuck up at the shack in the jungle for the entire week, with a hundred and four temperature, laying in my hammock tent wondering if the reaper would be unzipping the net and dragging me to the void everafter. I was plagued with terrible nightmares of killing people and animals, when I could sleep that is. I woke one morning to find my thoughts racing by uncontrollably and felt like I was in a fog. I had the idea that I couldn't move my body easily and thought I would have to spend the rest of my life relearning how to use it. After slowly walking around trying to shake this feeling to no avail I decided to lay down and try and sleep it off, luckily I awoke a couple hours later and the fear had subsided. Mike and Lizzy were rarely around. I fell into a deep, soul ripping, depression, I cried for an hour at a time. I just wanted to go home. After five days of this personal hell I came out of the jungle, I was told I was pale as a ghost and looked alot thinner. I stepped on the scale to find I had lost ten pounds that week. We all went to a shaman that Friday and did a sweatlodge, which was a great experience, but didn't do much for my state of health and it wasn't until almost a week later that I could eat normally and had energy to work again. Around that that time Mike, Lizzy, Tina, and another German, Julie, left. Liz told me I would be moving back down to the main farm to be helping out down there. I spent my last few weeks building a garden, babysitting the kids, riding horses, exploring the near by waterfalls, and counting down my remaining days. It was a really good time all in all at the farm, sometimes I was stressed to the point of exploding, but I was never bored and seven weeks raced by like an indy car. I will always consider Liz, Steven, Sam, Olivia, and the beasts to be family. Not to mention all the kind, generous, crazy ticos I met in the area. I'll be back, you can bet all your animal crap on that one.
New Years was a great time, we hung out, ate great food, watched some great bellydancing and firedancing, and generally made party (as my German and Dutch friends would say.) We woke up the next day and headed to another party where we played a ton of games with gringos and ticos all side by side, it was great to see and a lot of fun. We headed home all thoroughly exhausted from the previous thirty-six hours of fun. I awoke the next day and headed into to town somewhat depressed to be leaving my family I'd had for the previous seven weeks, but I will be stopping by to see them on my way to Joshua's place in a month or so. I caught the bus into San Jose and Tranquilo Backpackers, where I have been for the last couple days. I am going to be catching another bus in an hour or so up to the border town of La Cruz where I will spend a night and cross the border early in the morning up to Rivas, Nicaragua. From there over to San Jorge where I will catch a ferry to the fantasy world of Isla Ometepe. Estoy emocionado.
Anyhow, I will try and elaborate on my farm adventures a little more. You have to understand though that time was non-existant there, and it is all but a blur, so the order of events get's a little tough to recall. There was the week when I had Dengue Fever, which I will never forget. It started the day after one of the WWOOFers going away party and I was feeling pretty bad, but I figured it was just the alcohol punishing me. I went into town to pick up some groceries and things but I started feeling worse and worse, so I rushed back to the farm and informed Liz that I thought I was in for a bad cold... WRONG, I was in for something that resembles the flu except ten times worse including star inducing body aches and hallucinations. I was stuck up at the shack in the jungle for the entire week, with a hundred and four temperature, laying in my hammock tent wondering if the reaper would be unzipping the net and dragging me to the void everafter. I was plagued with terrible nightmares of killing people and animals, when I could sleep that is. I woke one morning to find my thoughts racing by uncontrollably and felt like I was in a fog. I had the idea that I couldn't move my body easily and thought I would have to spend the rest of my life relearning how to use it. After slowly walking around trying to shake this feeling to no avail I decided to lay down and try and sleep it off, luckily I awoke a couple hours later and the fear had subsided. Mike and Lizzy were rarely around. I fell into a deep, soul ripping, depression, I cried for an hour at a time. I just wanted to go home. After five days of this personal hell I came out of the jungle, I was told I was pale as a ghost and looked alot thinner. I stepped on the scale to find I had lost ten pounds that week. We all went to a shaman that Friday and did a sweatlodge, which was a great experience, but didn't do much for my state of health and it wasn't until almost a week later that I could eat normally and had energy to work again. Around that that time Mike, Lizzy, Tina, and another German, Julie, left. Liz told me I would be moving back down to the main farm to be helping out down there. I spent my last few weeks building a garden, babysitting the kids, riding horses, exploring the near by waterfalls, and counting down my remaining days. It was a really good time all in all at the farm, sometimes I was stressed to the point of exploding, but I was never bored and seven weeks raced by like an indy car. I will always consider Liz, Steven, Sam, Olivia, and the beasts to be family. Not to mention all the kind, generous, crazy ticos I met in the area. I'll be back, you can bet all your animal crap on that one.
Saturday, January 2, 2010
Serious Horsepower (San Rafael, Costa Rica)
From a Journal Entry 12-30-09 11:30PM
Today was a fairly eventful one, it started out rough due to my headache and naseua. I had gone out to the bar last night (don't know if I've mentioned the bar across the street from the farm that blares karoake during the weekends) and the beautiful bartender bought me a couple free shots and a tico bought me a third, so I had three more drinks then I should have, leaving me a bit worse for wear today. I did my morning chores and walked up to the house across the river to do the chores up there. I walked into the kitchen/living room (which is all outside) to find literally thousands of ants swarming the place, the walls and floor were all moving it seemed, a very strange scene to walk in on. After being bit a few times, when they climbed on and then into my boots, I decided to go out front and lay in the hammock and wait for the plague to pass. I dozed off and when I came to all but a few platoons of army ants remained, so I was able to finish my duties pain free and get out of there. I got back to the farm and was informed that we were going to make a compost pile and I was on poop patrol. I had to go around and collect the dung from the goats, horses, and chickens and bring it to the composting spot and proceeded to layer it with fresh grass trimmings and the kitchen scraps we'd been saving for this sole purpose. Afterwards I resigned to my tree house to take a nap, waking up with enough time to wipe the sleep out of my eyes before running down to begin my evening chores. I ran up to the other house first because I was supposed to collect one of the horses (Mr. Socks) and bring him down for the almost full moon ride we had planned for after dinner. I got up there having been followed by three of the dogs and did what I needed to before getting the horse ready. I heard the dogs chasing chickes and yelled for them to stop, thats when I heard the chicken crying and ran to the top of the hill to see what I'd expected, but didn't want to, see. Smokey the big dumb (but awesome) Weimereiner had a big white chicken by the throat, laying on the ground with it and he didn't seem to know what to do next. I yelled for him to come, but it wasn't until I lifted up a stick to throw at him that he actually listened. He came running up with a big smile and a dozen white feathers sticking out of his mouth. I berrated him, cleaned him up and proceeded to walk down the hill with the horse without further problems. By the time I was back it was dinner time and after eating we got the horses ready for the ride. The moon was spectacular, you could see things clear as day almost and the ride was great... well mostly. Zorba, the horse I was riding, likes to kick horses for no reason sometimes and towards the end of the ride he decided to do just that, kicking Paloma, at which point she retaliated, not being one to take any guff. She turned around and SMACK! Right into my leg, well luckily for me it was into my calf instead of ohhh, I dunno, say my ankle, knee, or shin? If any of those were the case then I would be heading back to the states in a cast tomorrow instead of continuing my adventures elsewhere. Speaking of tomorrow, it's New Years Eve, almost 2010, and I am headed over to a party with the family at a commune of sorts, owned by a guy named Joshua who is actually from Portland himself. His place is supposed to be pretty incredible, in the middle of the jungle and it's complete with a swimming pool and dancefloor. His wife is a belly dancer and is inviting her local belly dancing students, so maybe I should brush up on my Spanish skills *wink wink* On New Years day we are headed to another party which will be a big field game/pool party; lawn darts,, soccer, washers, etc. and they are awarding prizes and such. Finally I will head back here, spend my final night, head out the following morning and off to my next adventure. What's going to happen? Who knows, that's why it's called an adventure and not a vacation. Pura Vida.
Today was a fairly eventful one, it started out rough due to my headache and naseua. I had gone out to the bar last night (don't know if I've mentioned the bar across the street from the farm that blares karoake during the weekends) and the beautiful bartender bought me a couple free shots and a tico bought me a third, so I had three more drinks then I should have, leaving me a bit worse for wear today. I did my morning chores and walked up to the house across the river to do the chores up there. I walked into the kitchen/living room (which is all outside) to find literally thousands of ants swarming the place, the walls and floor were all moving it seemed, a very strange scene to walk in on. After being bit a few times, when they climbed on and then into my boots, I decided to go out front and lay in the hammock and wait for the plague to pass. I dozed off and when I came to all but a few platoons of army ants remained, so I was able to finish my duties pain free and get out of there. I got back to the farm and was informed that we were going to make a compost pile and I was on poop patrol. I had to go around and collect the dung from the goats, horses, and chickens and bring it to the composting spot and proceeded to layer it with fresh grass trimmings and the kitchen scraps we'd been saving for this sole purpose. Afterwards I resigned to my tree house to take a nap, waking up with enough time to wipe the sleep out of my eyes before running down to begin my evening chores. I ran up to the other house first because I was supposed to collect one of the horses (Mr. Socks) and bring him down for the almost full moon ride we had planned for after dinner. I got up there having been followed by three of the dogs and did what I needed to before getting the horse ready. I heard the dogs chasing chickes and yelled for them to stop, thats when I heard the chicken crying and ran to the top of the hill to see what I'd expected, but didn't want to, see. Smokey the big dumb (but awesome) Weimereiner had a big white chicken by the throat, laying on the ground with it and he didn't seem to know what to do next. I yelled for him to come, but it wasn't until I lifted up a stick to throw at him that he actually listened. He came running up with a big smile and a dozen white feathers sticking out of his mouth. I berrated him, cleaned him up and proceeded to walk down the hill with the horse without further problems. By the time I was back it was dinner time and after eating we got the horses ready for the ride. The moon was spectacular, you could see things clear as day almost and the ride was great... well mostly. Zorba, the horse I was riding, likes to kick horses for no reason sometimes and towards the end of the ride he decided to do just that, kicking Paloma, at which point she retaliated, not being one to take any guff. She turned around and SMACK! Right into my leg, well luckily for me it was into my calf instead of ohhh, I dunno, say my ankle, knee, or shin? If any of those were the case then I would be heading back to the states in a cast tomorrow instead of continuing my adventures elsewhere. Speaking of tomorrow, it's New Years Eve, almost 2010, and I am headed over to a party with the family at a commune of sorts, owned by a guy named Joshua who is actually from Portland himself. His place is supposed to be pretty incredible, in the middle of the jungle and it's complete with a swimming pool and dancefloor. His wife is a belly dancer and is inviting her local belly dancing students, so maybe I should brush up on my Spanish skills *wink wink* On New Years day we are headed to another party which will be a big field game/pool party; lawn darts,, soccer, washers, etc. and they are awarding prizes and such. Finally I will head back here, spend my final night, head out the following morning and off to my next adventure. What's going to happen? Who knows, that's why it's called an adventure and not a vacation. Pura Vida.
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