Where to begin...
...well the last few months have been quite the life changing experience for me. Beginning the day after my last post I headed to the Rainbow Gathering. We took a boat ride through the jungle and landed on an island of sorts, greeted by the smiling faces of a dozen or so hippies, shouting, "Welcome home." Little did I know that these people would impact my life dramatically and I would soon come to call our little oasis home. There were plenty of discomforts, such as the thousands of sandflies that really enjoyed the taste of our imported blood, leaving you with hundreds of itching bites that would wake you up scratching violently in a primevil bloody orgasmic kind of way... Anyhow through those annoyances we became very close and I learned a lot about adaptability and my own abilities to endure. Everyone was very loving and through them I learned a lot and was able to release most of my demons that I have held on to for too many years, but lets not turn this entry into a spiritual diatribe, eh?
Unfortunately I became lazy about journalling and looking back on it I wish I hadn´t. A lot has happened and I have been all over the place; exploring jungles, getting paid to play with fire, practicing my spanish, and doing a lot of meditation on my life and where and how I want to live it. The details of these adventures and background for the cast of characters would require more time then I have over the next two weeks, so they will have to wait to find their life in ink in my memoirs. So with this being stated, I´ve decided to save the final half of my trip until I get back to share around campfires and dining tables in the company of my family and friends and the blurry line that divides the two more often then not...
...until next time...
Saturday, April 3, 2010
Aventuras (Changuinola, Panama)
Journal Entry 1.20.10 6:00pm
I left San Jose this morning at 9:30 am, Panama bound. The busride was uneventful, yet comfortable enough, the border crossing was a bit time consuming but standard, but when I got to the bus station in Panama things got a little funny. So, the info I had on the gathering was pretty vague, I knew it was at a place called Finca 6 but that was the extent of it. I fortunately had the smarts to not just jump into a cab and head there and instead tried to explain what I was trying to get to in spanish which proved harder then I though. What I got across was along the lines of "a party for peace every year in different places all over the world." Luckily for me one of the drivers figured out what I was talking about and mentioned a guy named Orlando whom I remembered from the info. He called him up and withing ten minutes Orlando was there explaining to me that I would have to spend the night here with a friend of his and then we would leave in the morning as it requires a boat ride down a river to an isolated area next to the ocean! We jumped into a cab and headed to a random neighborhood and Orlando took off to explain the plans to some other gringos. So now I am sitting on the porch next to the neighboring police station getting eaten by mosquitos, watching small planes fly around crop dusting the numerous banana fields surrounding the house I am staying at. The fields belong to the Global Fruit Company which ships it´s bananas up to the states under the infamous Chiquita banana label. I love travelling. Well I think tomorrow should be the begin of an interesting aventura and I´ll let you know all about it...
I left San Jose this morning at 9:30 am, Panama bound. The busride was uneventful, yet comfortable enough, the border crossing was a bit time consuming but standard, but when I got to the bus station in Panama things got a little funny. So, the info I had on the gathering was pretty vague, I knew it was at a place called Finca 6 but that was the extent of it. I fortunately had the smarts to not just jump into a cab and head there and instead tried to explain what I was trying to get to in spanish which proved harder then I though. What I got across was along the lines of "a party for peace every year in different places all over the world." Luckily for me one of the drivers figured out what I was talking about and mentioned a guy named Orlando whom I remembered from the info. He called him up and withing ten minutes Orlando was there explaining to me that I would have to spend the night here with a friend of his and then we would leave in the morning as it requires a boat ride down a river to an isolated area next to the ocean! We jumped into a cab and headed to a random neighborhood and Orlando took off to explain the plans to some other gringos. So now I am sitting on the porch next to the neighboring police station getting eaten by mosquitos, watching small planes fly around crop dusting the numerous banana fields surrounding the house I am staying at. The fields belong to the Global Fruit Company which ships it´s bananas up to the states under the infamous Chiquita banana label. I love travelling. Well I think tomorrow should be the begin of an interesting aventura and I´ll let you know all about it...
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Southbound
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...
Until next time...
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.
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