2nd South American Email - 23/04/05

yip... those were the days (09.04.05 - 21.04.05)

buenos dias from banos in ecuador

well exciting times here at the mo... the tenth insight found us in an arbitary second hand bookstore somewhere in the middle of ecuador... coincidence?... i think not.

otherwise we have had riots, protests, a military coup, grounded aircraft and closed borders... and that´s just in the last few days. as some of you may know... the ecuadorian president was ousted on wednesday after escalating civil unrest and had to go into excile in brazil after the military refused to protect him any longer.

we were actually caught up in one of the first riots early last week when we were quito and witnessed rock weilding civilians take on the police - who responded with tear gas and trungeon beating (we saw one kid of about 15 getting beaten by about 3 policemen). we were out shopping for a panama hat in the local market minding our own buisness, when all hell broke loose... all of a sudden people started running for their lives... traders closed shops... iron barracades came down... and we had no clue what was happening... i´ve never seen the fearless stephen little squeal like a little girl... biggs got trapped inside the barracades and didn´t remerge for half an hour... steve never did get his panama hat.

so we went back to our dorm and took it easy for the rest of the evening... dispite our $5 rent included 12 litres of free communal rum and coke... weird... they just bring out this 12 litre bucket and everyone dips in their cups and gets hammered... unfortunately we couldn´t push ourselves to take part in the festivities. just one further fact that i should mention that may someday be used in a learning... our dorm included the 3 of us and a danish girl.

anyway the reason we couldn´t take part was due to the fact that we didn´t sleep the night before... lets flash back to ba shall we?

the birthplace of the legendary revolutionary ernesto ´che´ guevara consists of buildings and architecture, plazas, cobbled stone backstreets and squares (where model photo-shoots often take place), and hippy markets that remind you of a modern-day latin european city, but underneath this, there is a sinister culture of steak, beer, tango and glitzy night life that threaten to blow away this facade... and entice any would-be tourist over to the dark side of drugs, sex, and rock & roll.

although our intentions were good... we were soon embroiled in the shadowy side of ba... only we couldn´t find the drugs, sex and rock & roll... we therefore turned to steak, beer and sleepless nights... the rest is a bit hazy... steve´s birthday was more like steve´s birthdays... as one day rolled into another amongst a crescendo of awesome steak, cheap beer and a few bottles of vodka. steve met his maker... a 45yr old slimey italian guy with a poneytail who uses the exact same pick up line as him... steve was indeed stoked... he just can´t figure out why he hasn´t managed to pick up anything decent on this trip yet... go figure!

so after 2 nights of not sleeping we rolled out into a cab for the airport at 4.30 in the morning... not much of the flight can be remember other than whilst somewhat annoyed that we hadn´t taken off yet, i asked the air-hostess when we would be taking off, only to find out we were already in the air.

we arrived at quito (ecuadorian capital) around lunch time... and for some reason booked a flight to galapagos for the next morning. for details of quito please refer to para 3 above.

so... on to galapagos and the "greatest wildlife show on earth"... yeah right... there were no blood-sucking insects, no ferocious human-munching mammals, no 45 metre sharks that launch themselves onto your boat and consume every passanger on board, bar the dude with the wooden leg who manages to get it wedged in the sharks mouth and then beats the beast to death with a hard-cover copy of kelly slater´s pipe dreams. in truth, if you come from africa, it´s pretty tame... the snorkeling is awesome though.

this is the island where charles darwin came up with his theory of evolution... but the only question in the evolutionary cycle that needs answering is how the powers that be managed to conspire fate to bring together 8 single danish birds at the same time to the bar we were at on monday night on a previously uninhabited island in the middle of the pacific ocean... this surely was the pinicle of evolution.

i am also proud to say that a learning i made sometime last year concerning the name "dave" held true - i think the learning went like this - no matter where you are in the world, no matter in what religion, race, or community, in every social circle, there will always be a arbitary dodgy dude named "dave" hanging around somewhere - in fact, you may not even know he is there, but you def know that he is strange. anyway we were accompanied on our cruise boat with a canadian "dave" and a danish "dave". canadian "dave" was only 21 and had been picked up by the cops 4 times in his life already... and in the midst of drunken chill out session one night, managed to launch about 3 plastic chairs off the top of the boat into the coastal sea surrounding the most fanatically preserved animal sanctuary in the world. danish "dave" didn´t say much, but managed to drink himself silly almost every night and wake on the last morning of our tour in the bed of a 40yr old bald man with a ginger bokkie.

the last night on galapagos was pete´s bday... however, we were too knackered to celebrate properly and decided to dedicate the previous evening´s bash (the one with the danish girls) to him... we would never have been able to top that evening anyway... happy bday pete, hope you enjoyed it.


the flight back to quito was stopped short due to the closing of airports and therefore our journey took a new twist... decided to get off at guayaquil (ecuador´s largest city - it is quite impressive) and then bussed it to banos, which is a cool little town set below a huge volcano and in the valley of the surrounding foothills. a healthy rest period was needed... and that is what we did. the first day we did our first hike and achieved our first summit. the second day we spent cycling along the river in amongst the surrounding mountains... was awesome and reminded us what we were on this trip for.

on a individual front... i sense that both pete and steve have opened a little to the spiritual side of their being and that their personal evolutionary path has broadened as a result... as those of you who have read pete´s email will testify. even "simple guy" steve´s eyes have opened to the fact that perhaps there are no "coincidences" in life and he was genuinely astounded at how the tenth insight found us with no warning at all.

anyway hope you guys are enjoying life wherever you are and whatever you may be doing.

later
d

take these chances
place them in a box
until a quieter time
lights down
you up and died.

1st South American Email - 12.04.2005

Hola (31.03.05 - 09.04.05)

hola from buenos aires,

apologies in advance for this beast of a mail... you may need 3/4 weeks to reach the end.

south america has been kind to us so far... the sun has been shining (for the most part) and the scandanavian women have been plentiful. before i get into what we have been getting up to, let me give you a run down of the current mindset of team south america.

despite numerous warnings (from people with the calibre of target and buffy), stephen "i´m a simple guy" little has yet to get us killed, beaten up or thrown in some dodgy brazilian jail... yet. you get the feeling steve is on this holiday for only two things... to pull chicks... and to buy a panama hat.

pete biggs is as happy as punch and were it not for him the admin side of the trip would have gone pear shaped by now... we would probably still be in rio. you get the feeling that pete is on this trip for one main reason... travel adventure.

me, i have yet to contribute anything to the trip so far besides getting my feet got sooo burnt on the first day that it looked as if i had two peices of crackling attached to the end of my legs... people would pull horrified faces and ask what the hell happened... a good conversation starter therefore. why am i on this trip?... to harness the natural energy of the amazon and use it to help me find myself... of course.

so first stop was rio and i walked in upon a tanned swedish supermodel in a towel, cooling herself in front of the fan... ahhh camilla. we struck up a bit of conversation, the normal pleasantries, and before long she was moisturising... it was to get better...

sweet like candy
to my soul
sweet you rock
and sweet you roll

not much happened that night but when i woke up in the morning, it was a sight to behold. the first learning of my holiday... when sharing a room with hot swedish chicks who sleep naked, make sure you wake up early... however, a warning... you must, at all costs, avert your gaze from the dodgy americano with a moustache and armpit hair sleeping in the bunk under you... it´s just something about a chick with more chest hair than you that makes you feel less masculine.

so that day we headed off for christ the redeemer... for those of you who don´t know, thats the dude with his arms outstretched on top of the tallest hill in rio. white beaches stretched as far as the eye could see, only punctuated the great outcrops of green hills and unfortunately civilisation - the energy was therefore somewhat diluted.

it was friday so we decided to go out and drink. so we bought a bottle of bacardi and a 2 litre coke for around 4 quid, smashed it with the swedish girls (it seemed the right thing to do) and headed off to lapa - which is the local street party come night club area where all the indigenous people gather. we managed to dance the night away and before long the sun had risen and myself and pete were sitting out in the road waiting for steve to finish with the thing he had met. just an observation... you could be a inter-galactical space explorer having discovered 73 new forms of extra-terrestrial life and still not have come across anything quite as dodgy as what steve picked up that night in lapa.

the next day was the favalla - a kind of township come shanty town... but i won´t tell you too much about the days as they are boring.. and the nights are more interesting. so that night we decided to drink... because it was saturday. we got drunk as per the night before only minus the swedish chicks. we headed off to a more sophisticated club... we´ll call it club 6 (because that was it´s name) and found some more swedish chicks... and one german (with whom steve redeemed himself). unfortunately none of the swedish chicks were accomodating... my second learning... if you want to pull hot scandanavian women no ques asked, become a barman in a hostel in brazil... they will be throwing themselves at you quicker than hobnob throws name on a friday evening.

sunday - soccer in the maracana. 80/90 thousand people going mental... fights errupting everywhere (even with your own suppporters). i was glad to get out of there with my life...

then camilla left... then monday came and it was time to go. as per steve, "rio is the best city in the world... ever".

so we headed off the beautiful tropical island of ilha grande for couple of days of chilled relaxation on the beach... what were the odds?

we arrived and decided to have a relaxing beer... 27 beers later and a few dodgy card games with some norwegian birds and it was time to go to bed. we woke up late and had a planning meeting. as per normal we decided nothing and like typical accountants deferred the decision until we really had to make it. so we went to the beach with the norwegian girls, a finish girl and a usa girl. a 2 hr walk thorugh the jungle brought us out to one of the most beautiful deserted beaches you have ever seen. the energy was indeed strong there. we went for a swim and headed for the backline for some body surfing - that is until the local tsunami persuaded us that it wasn´t such a good idea. we headed back to shore... it was good for training camp* though.

* training camp - steve decided we need to be fit in order to scale the heights of the andes later in our trip. programme was 3000 press-ups, 6000 sit-ups, followed by a 40km run with our backpacks each day. needless to say the training is going well... if only we could cut out the beer.

that night got home and decided to have a quiet beer - everyone was polite and pleasant and we talked about our day. went to town for supper (loads of prawns and stuff) with team norway. got back to the hostel and it was like something out of a stephen king book - the twighlight zone - everyone was drunk and debaucherous. we had a secret ballad and decided to join them. we got boozed, danced on the bar/tables/chairs to jack johnson tunes, the barmen pulled the norwegian bird (see learning pt 2), and took part in all sorts of further tom-foolery.

woke up in the morning to discover from a roommate that there were 125 drinks unaccounted for and that the barmen were packing up and leaving. soon the memories of steve behind the bar handing out free drinks to anyone and everyone flooded back... the barmen had got drunk and left the bar unattended and paid with their jobs. steve wandered in and produced a scrumpled peice of paper that turned out to be our tab at the bar for the previous 2 nights. it only included one nights drinks and steve had torn it out of the book in order to... well i'm not too sure to be honest. we were told to expect some questions. a poll was taken and it was decided to head to the border asap. we made the ferry with a minute to spare... as per steve "that was the best island in the world... ever!".


now for the dash to the border...

we arrived at the port and headed off on a 7 hr bus ride to sao paulo... prob the 3rd biggest city in the world it is huge. were knackered so found a hostel, had supper and went to bed. woke up for an admin day and found cheapish flights from buenos airies to ecuador (we thought it wasn't best to fly from brazil for security reasons)... we did it. all it required now was a bus to the border (iguazu falls) and we were free. and so we left sao paulo... as per steve "this is the biggest city in the world... ever!".

arrived at iguazu falls in the morning and dashed off to the paraguan border hoping to fool the authorities who probably thought we were heading to argentina. got to the bridge and did the border run on foot over the bridge and into paraguay. we were free!!! until we caught our breath and looked around... paraguay is like umtata/soweto only 1 million time dodgier. we picked up the local newspaper and it was full of pictures of dead bodies and murders and suicides etc... as well as naked ladies... which we didn't mind. we decided we would be better off in a brazilian jail than in paraguay... so we headed back over the border.

bused to iguazu falls... which is probably the biggest falls in south america. it was one of the most naturally beautiful things i have ever seen... just beaten into 2nd place by camilla (the swedish girl). the natural energy is indeed strong there and i was just topping up when 2 more swedish birds walked past. steve decided this was no time to top up on natural energy... so we dashed after them and... well not much... we had a bus to catch to buenos airies so we couldn't talk long.


i've skipped out a night in between the brazil and argentina sides of the iguazu falls where we had the famous argentinian steak for the first time (it was good... and cheap) and had a night out in the local club la reserva where we boozed... because it was friday. anyway steve thought this was "the best town in the world... ever... it's almost as kiff as durban".

so we hopped on the bus to BA and here we are.

sorry this mail was soooo long... congrats if you got to the bottom of it without falling asleep.

hope all of you are well.

later
d

when you stop to consider
the days spent dreaming of a future
and say then, that was my life