Getting back in gear

Ok, so I have been putting off this update for a few reasons. First, I have a lot to catch up on and second it makes me angry to rehash some of the events. So, here we go. I left off the last update on my way to Santiago. Before I get into this I want to touch on a very troubling aspect of travelling in South America. Petty theft is huge and as a gringo you are the number one target. The majority of travellers I have met have been robbed or cheated out of money or belongings. Its disturbing and frustrating. We are marked targets becuase people think we have things they want and that its ok for them to releive us of these things becuase they are more needy. I don´t know the reasoning but for a continent that claims something like 90% catholic it is interesting that there is so much fraud and theft. Its truely sad becuase the people being robbed are usually only here to enjoy their country, spend money and learn about their culture. It leaves a very sour taste to be robbed and for people to just say, its normal. Its also very difficult to travel alone under these circumstances. For two months of my trip I had been super careful. Every bus ride I would litterally strap my things to a chair, loose sleep becuase I was clinging to my backpack in my lap and worrying about someone slipping me mescaline and then robbing me completely blind..this happens, I met a girl who had been slipped mescaline on a bus, she woke up some hours later and the people had taken everything including her jaket and shoes....all of this while riding a bus. Anyway, I am bitter. I was mid way through my 31 hour bus to Santiago, I had paid extra for the first class cabin and took its safety for granted. My small backpack was stolen from under my seat including my laptop, cell phone, credit cards, all my spanish learning materials, small items like sunglasses etc and worst off all of my pictures were on my laptop. I then had to ride out another 15 hours on the bus wondering what was being charged on my credit cards. I really wanted a few stiff drinks but my stash of Jim Beam had also been in my backpack. Luckily, once i arrived at a phone the cards were still clean and i got them cancelled. The laptop was only a $400 model and luckily I had my passport, ATM card, Iphone, camera and iPod in my pockets...I have big pockets. So its cool, but I can´t replace the pics...which as my brother responded:

Damn that sucks to loose all those pictures...at least you still have your
memory to count on, like Lewis and Clark on their expedition. I bet
Christopher Colombus would have loved a camera when he found America. You
still got all the pictures, they are just upstairs in your head.

Anyway, I am over it and it won´t ruin my trip. Now, on with the update.

First I have to write on the Jungle in Peru. I lost my notbook with all my notes so I have to get some of these thoughts recorded. The trip started with a flight to Puerto Maldonado where we jumped on a boat down the river to our Lodge. Our lodge was unexpectedly comfortable. The cabins had basic beds with full mosquito nets and private bathrooms with intermittent hot water, although I never showered there. They prepared amazingly tasty jungle dishes for every meal with freshly made jungle juices from local fruits etc. There was a Macaw (a big parrot) who lived at the lodge. It was bright blue and yellow and seemed to love people..or at least to harrass them. It was realy fun. Whenever we were in the lodge, the Mackaw wanted in, he would litteraly chew through the straw roof to get in, then swoop down scaring people and trying to poop on you from the rafters. One morning I heard a girl screaming and then running, stumbling and crawling across the field behind the lodge, next I see the makaw swooping behind her. She made it into the lodge where she was playing a game of chineese checkers when the mackaw broke in again through the roof, swooped down to the game board and started eating the pieces. This makaw was pretty damn funny and he loved the ladies.

The Jungle was amazing.....rich, dangerous, colorful and full of suprises. At night we would do night walks with flashlights to see the jungle come alive. The sounds were amazing, from the normal crickets to the howler monkeys that would keep you up at night. I really enjoyed just listening. The amazing thing about the jungle is that everything which exists in the jungle exists becuase it earned a place. Everything has defense systems..either thorns, poisons or allies which can help defend it. For example, there is a specific tree which is always inhabitated with fire ants. The ants feed off the tree and also clear the ground around the tree of all encroaching vegetation. If the trunk is touched the ants drop from the branches to attack the predator. Without the ants the tree dies and vice versa...pretty cool. Also, you don´t want to fall down in the jungle. Chances are you fall on ants, a snake, something bad...or if you try to grab a tree, you most likely get a 3 inch thorn through your hand. So, some of the things we saw and did. Tons of ants, leaf cutters, bullet ants, army ants, fire ants. A single snake. Lots of spiders, tarantulas, banana spiders and others. Lots of parrots and exotic birds. Caimen (gators). We hiked through deep mud (wearing wading boots) to an inland lake (sandoval) where we canoed around. We went monkey spotting and found a tribe of monkeys that actually got a little scary. Our guide ´´called´´ them in with a crazy whistle and once they were getting close the guide wanted us to walk back to a clearing where it was more safe..well the ´´alpha´´male monkey cut off our retreat quickly and before we knew it we were surrounded my monkeys crawling down trees and all staring at us and making noises. Our guide stayed calm, and eventually manuvered us out of harms way but then told us that if the alpha male had atacked us, all of the monkeys would have attacked and it would have not been good. During the trip I met two more nice folks from Sweeden who I really hope look me up on facebook so I can get some pics from them. The guy has an amazing picture of the crazy makaw flying straight into his camera lens. I flew out of the jungle in the midst of many indeigenous protests (you may have seen some of it on the news) and returned to Cusco where I jumped a night bus to Arica, Chile.

Arica was nice and laid back. Kind of a sleepy beach town but since it was getting into winter the beaches were deserted but I didnt really think the beaches were that nice anyway. I walked up and down the beaches for about 6 hours.

Northern Chile was amazing the coastline was extreme, dramatic and beautiful. Although I was dissapointed every night waiting for a sunset only to see the sun dissapear behind a thick layer of haze obsuring the sunset. Besides the bag theft, I arrived in Santiago with no problems. My good friend Eileen hooked me up with a fantastic host family. I have a computer in my room, they provide all my meals, hooked me up with a cell phone, showed me around town and are generally just like a real family, they call me son. Its nice and I am finally immersed in a culture. I had been trying for this entire trip to really meet locals and get into the cultre, Bolivia was close but this is fantastic. Chileans are very hard to understand, they talk about a hundred miles a minute, don´t pronounce their s´s and use so much slang its rediculous but the people are really nice, Santiago feels great and alive. The city has some of the best infrastructure I have seen anywhere. The host mom took me with her to her job on day one...she drives a small school bus and it was amazing cute to hang with all the school kids. Santiago feels a lot like being home, their shopping malls are similar, there are credit card offers everywhere, they have nice cars, people dress nice, people don´t smell, you can drink the water and I don´t feel like I stick out so much here. However, I do find it interesting that there are almost no Asians or black people here...i don´t think I have seen one black person which I find very strange. The girls are good looking, the food is rich but things are pretty much just as expensive as at home. The one creature comfort they are lacking is central heat/air. Nights get down in the 30´s here and the house has virtually no heat. They have some propane heaters but they usually are not on and don´t do a whole lot. During the day, the doors and windows are open (still cold out). Half of their kitchen is literally outside, dishwasher etc is on the porch. I wear a jacket and long underwear, all day. I am taking classes and my spanish is improving a lot. Oh yeah, i finally shaved the beard and got a haircut. The poor lady that did the job kept asking me if I was sure and there was a crowd that developed at the peluqueria to watch the removal of all the hair...its was funny. It was about a 3 month beard it was pretty thick...i had forgotten what i looked like under there but I am glad it is gone. I started to feel like it was holding me back. It was almost like at times, I was hiding behind it. So, now, I am trying to speak more and get more involved with people and I am more approachable with a clean face...plus there is so much kissing on cheeks here the beard made things a little wierd...i kept some killer side burns though.

The drinks of choice here are Pisco and wines. I tried the pisco, striaght...a lot of it, while my host sister looked on with horror in her eyes. She kept trying to get me to stop saying i was going to be in for it. I told her I had plenty of experience with these things. We went out with some of here friends, one of which insisted on talking to me all night of which I understood nearly nothing, but it was funny that he wouldn´t stop talking eventhough I would rarely be able to respond. The area we went to was called Bella Vista and it was basically all bars and clubs. It had tons of cool places. We went to a regae club that was affordable and fun. We shared the drink buying chores (hacer una vaca) and took much more pisco and cerveza´s. We stayed out till about 7 in the morning, ending the night was a 45 minute walk to get breakfast at a place that was closed when we finally called it a night...day? I never got sick off the pisco but i think it gives me really bad gas. I was lighting up the bus on the way home. So...I am out on the pisco and back to taking wine with papa at dinner and the local brews at the bars. The dinners are great becuase mama talks in slow precise phrases so I can follow but papa just rolls on with the spanish and I get some of it...but usually we just end up laughing loudly. The funniest was when he explained to me that the meat we were eating was turkey (Pavo) and he actually walked around trying to impersonate a turkey, i kept saying pollo? and he kept squaking but to me it sounded like a chicken.

Anyway, thats the update for now. I am starting to miss home and can´t wait to get home and have a big camping trip or just sit around with some of you all, tell stories and get shitty drunk.

Thats it for now, I´ll be sure to keep up with the posts better and if I can piece pics toghether from people I met along the way, I´ll post them. For now, I am going to climb back in bed becuase it is cold and raining and I want to go read my pirate book...which reminds me...I also bought pirate gloves and find out that in facebook you can change your language to English (Pirate) and all of your facebook page is then translated into Pirate...get on it.

P