Photos from our wedding on July 7th, 2007 can be found here: http://erik.granstrom.org/gallery/eawedding
Peace.
posted at: 21:44 | path: | permanent link to this entry
Ignition
Man, time has just flown by this year and I have not written anything for a long time. But life is good and great and I can’t complain. Earlier in the spring Amanda, myself and my brother Lars decided to buy some goats for pets. We bought a bunch and then decided we had too many so we sold a few off and now we have ten goats that live with our two llamas at the farm in Troutdale. Goats are actually really cool pets. Before we always would have a few sheep around in with the llamas for company but they were always so flighty and scared all the time. The goats are great, more like a pet dog in a way. They are always interested in what is going on and coming right up to us and climbing all over and trying to eat everything and escape from their pen sometimes. We have a few different kinds and right now they are just hanging out as pets. Maybe next year if some of them have babies we will try to milk them, but for now they are just goating around.
Over the summer of 2008 Amanda and I traveled around a fair bit and had lots of fun being Tie Dye Vendors. We sold at the Gresham Farmers Market which continues to be our overall best place to sell tie dyes on a regular basis. It is close to our house, easy to set up and draws lots of customers. We also headed to a couple festivals this summer. One was a bluegrass festival in Bend called the Four Peaks Music Festival. The music was fun and great but the ambiance was a little lacking. It was kind of like back in the day at the 10,000 Lakes Festival in Minnesota, where we were sitting there having dust kicked all over us and just kind of camped out guarding our booth. Mixed reviews…
But the Northwest World Reggae Festival, now there was a fun event! Amanda and I camped out from Thursday through Monday and set up our best vending booth to date! We set up our 10 x 20 foot canopy and had it loaded with all of our different tie dyes, it looked great! The music was a blast too and we could hear everything and more from our booth as the music rocked late into the night. We will definitely be heading back to the reggae festival next year.
So for this fall Amanda and I have been working away at the Christmas wreath shop, managing and organizing things. The yearly harvest….
And then comes the ignition of the torch! We finally have our lampworking studio (glass blowing) set up at our house. It has all come together for this fall right when we are at our busiest making wreaths, but oh well, there will be plenty of time for I&I to learn our new skills lampworking this winter.
Be sure to check out my other website,
www.madebyhippies.com, to see all the new tie dyes we have been making and selling.
Peace and Love to all of Jah Creation Vibration!
posted at: 19:12 | path: | permanent link to this entry
Time Flys When I&I am Having Fun!
Well I have not written anything since February and that is a while considering it's now June already. Amanda and I have done a ton of things since then...
In February we were working on all the tie dye beach towels for the Bears and that ended up turning into a huge process of rearranging our whole house around and setting up our art studio in what was before our living room and the end result is we have a bigger nicer bedroom that we freshly painted and an awesome tie dye workshop. It's the most professionally we have been set up ever for tie dying. We finished working on all the towels in March and ended up making 225 all together.
After we finished the towel project we moved right into our plan to tie dye 1,000 t-shirts and we have this big master plan to have some of each cool pattern in a variety of sizes and colors. So we were working on that and tackled the smiley face shirts and the peace sign shirts first. They all turned out great and we have come a long way in our tie dye design evolution. That is the best part of making things for me, is to know that I am becoming better at tie dyeing all the time.
So March and April rolled along and we were working at our house tie dying and trying to relax some. I ground out the big tree stump in my backyard that was left over from the evil Black Locust tree I had cut down last year. Lars helped me grind it out with a stump grinder we rented.
Well then it was May, man this year did go by fast, and we started selling at the Gresham Farmers Market on Mother's Day weekend. We even started our own market too, called the Hawthorne Artisans Market. We set up on Sundays where my family used to have the christmas tree lot and my fireworks stand back in the day. It has been a little slow to get going at first, mainly just pulling in some passerbyers to check things out. But I have to admit that it makes me happy because I have still been doing ok selling tie dyes and some of the other vendors that are newer to the vending scene have not sold anything. But we have been letting people set up there for free so they can have thier own personal chance at the american dream. Or the american hippy dream I guess, haha!
But we have been doing great at the Gresham Farmers Market and it continues to be our best retail venue yet considering vendor fees, ease of set up and location. We love going to the music festivals but those moms and teenage daughters in Gresham are great customers!!!
So yeah, selling at the markets and making tie dyes! Amanda and I took a trip up to Seattle in May to visit my sister Sarah and then we went to the Washington & Oregon coasts for a couple nights for our long delayed Christmas Vacation to the beach. We had lots of fun then Amanda went back to Buffalo, NY for the first part of the Summer. She was selling her Shibori Scarves at the 100 Craftsman show in NY and had lots of fun and set up a whole new layout for her booth that we thought up before she went home, where she had scarves hanging on display necks along the walls of the booth. Now she is with her family on vacation in Key Largo, Florida. I am headed to NY at the end of June for a vacation with Amanda then we are both coming home in July and back to more market selling.
We have some cool summer plans. On July 26th weekend we are headed to Bend, Oregon to be vendors at the Four Peaks Music Festival. Then the next weekend after that we are driving to Salt Lake City, Utah for Amanda's friend's wedding. Then the week after that is the NW World Reggae Festival near Eugene, Oregon on August 8 - 10th, 2008. We were vendors there last year and had a great time listing to all the cool reggae music. Then the week after that we are going with a group of 11 people to the Tom Petty concert at the Gorge in Washinton. Then the week after that is both Amanada and I's birthdays then we get into September and we will be starting up the christmas wreath shop and be working like crazy until December.
Man, that's like the whole year right there. Sounds good to me.
Oh, I forgot the best part. I made a new friend at the Hawthorne Artisans Market who is a professional glassblower and he is going to give me a few lessons and help me set up my own glass blowing studio at my house. So stay tuned for the next level of goodness from Made By Hippies.
Double Oh, check out the website, I have been working on it lots lately. http://www.madebyhippies.com
Peace!
-Erik
posted at: 21:04 | path: | permanent link to this entry
Almost through the Winter Time...
I have been trucking along post wreath shop. Amanda went home to Buffalo for a while but she is back now and we are having lots of fun living together. We got our first big wholesale tie dye order from our website, www.madebyhippies.com for 170 beach towels for a groups annual convention. So we are right in the middle of dying all the towels this week. We have been rearranging our house to set up our best tie dye studio yet and it is lots of fun now that we have the finished products being produced. I have about 150 t-shirts tie dyed out of a master plan for making 1,000 shirts so we will be working on that through the spring.
We have a spring road trip in the beginnings of the planning stages. We are going to head out in the van through a bit of California and Nevada to the North side of the Grand Canyon and then up through Utah to view some sites and then to Colorado to visit my dear friend Pete and then back home through Wyoming and Idaho back to Portland. We are thinking of going for like two or three weeks in the middle of April.
So those are the plans for now.
Upfull heights.
I & I am loving life!
posted at: 20:28 | path: | permanent link to this entry
Another Day, Another Wreath
Man, we have been working so hard and it has all paid off now. We have just a handful of wreath orders left to go out the door and the whole season went really good. One of the best wreath shop seasons ever! Amanda has been the best secretary ever and together we were super organized all season long. Whew… Now on to some massive tie dying. My goal is to make 1,000 shirts in December and January. We shall see what happens… I have been working on my tie dye website too and have that all tuned up and looking suave, check it out at http://www.madebyhippies.com.
posted at: 16:49 | path: /Trabajo | permanent link to this entry
Working All The Time Makes Me Feel Fine!
Yeah I am here in Oregon working away organizing the Christmas wreath shop for another season. I have been working hard, waking up early ever day and being happy working hard. It feels good to be productive and get work accomplished. This is the best wreath shop season so far. Everything is going grand and Amanda is working with me in the office helping me be organized. We are having lots of fun working together as husband and wife and as partners forever.
Skål
posted at: 18:15 | path: /Trabajo | permanent link to this entry
Wedding Photos Online
Photos from our wedding on July 7th, 2007 can be found here: http://erik.granstrom.org/gallery/eawedding
Peace.
posted at: 21:44 | path: | permanent link to this entry
Ranger Resurrection
So September is spinning by already. August was a blast that didn’t last. We went to the NorthWest World Reggae Festival in Marcola, Oregon like a month ago. It was a good time, lot’s of great music but not too many attendees (like 1,000 people or so). So what can you do? But when we went to the Dave Matthews Band three day concert at the Gorge Amphitheater in George, Washington we saw lot’s of great music too. There were lots of people there (like 20,000 people!) but most of them were drunkereds that made lots of noise all night long. I and I enjoy the live music though, there is something about it, something like when the music hits you, you feel no Pain!
Amanda is living in Portland now. She misses her home where the Buffalo roam, but what can you do? I and I must keep moving forward. Being married pays off in the end because my best friend is always right here with me instead of far, far away. I love Love.
So a couple of years ago when I bought my van I parked my green Ford Ranger in the back of the farm and left it to sit. I pulled it out of the blackberries a couple weeks ago and put in a new battery and it fired right up! I had my neighbor Airhead detail it for me and clean out all the mice nests. I used to be so sentimental about the Ranger but after driving the van around it just seems not too great getting behind the wheel of the Ranger, what with the seat all leaning back and all. So I had and opportunity and decided to take it, to upgrade Rangers by buying my brothers Ranger he wanted to sell. So now I’m cruising in a newer version of my old Ranger, but with accessories that actually work and some air conditioning and four wheel drive.
Solid as a ROCK!
I and I still praise JAH!
posted at: 08:18 | path: | permanent link to this entry
I and I are wed.
On July Seventh of the year two thousand and seven I married my best friend and partner for life Amanda in North Collins, New York. We met in September of 2005 after being introduced by my sister Sarah and spent two years flying back and forth between Oregon and New York to visit each other and meeting each other on vacations in Nevada, Europe and Mexico. Our first airplane ride together was on our way home to Oregon after the wedding! We were home in Portland for the weekend then went to Alaska for our honeymoon. We drove our little rental car 1,600 miles and toured through all kinds of huge mountain ranges and saw bears, caribou and mouse. We enjoyed visiting Denali and learning about it, even though we never saw the peak of North America’s most high mountain. We have almost been married a month and it has gone by fast so far. We are headed to the North West World Reggae Festival next week to try to sell some tie dyes, so we will see how that goes. Peace & Love.
posted at: 23:37 | path: | permanent link to this entry
Not too long to go…
And I will be a married man. Married to my best friend and tie dye teacher, Amanda. Our wedding is July 7th, 2007 in New York, I can’t wait!
Let’s see, last time I wrote I was in Buffalo visiting Amanda. We had a great vacation together in the sun. Two days after I got home Amanda came to visit me in Portland! We had lots of fun selling our crafts at the Gresham Farmers Market and on a mini road trip to Yachats on the Oregon Coast. So between our two visits to each other we had a great time together for about three weeks. Amanda left at the end of May and I have been working around my house some, making tie dyes, planting a vegetable & catnip garden in my backyard and having fun living life. I leave for Buffalo again in a week and a half to get ready for the wedding. Some of my friends have asked me if I am scared of getting married, but I and I have hot feet mon, not cold. I'm ready.
One Love.
-Erik
posted at: 20:23 | path: | permanent link to this entry
Greater Grand Forks… is that like a spork?
Yeah mon, life has been good lately. In the beginning of April I visited Amanda for a while. We went on a road trip around New York visiting several waterfalls and seeing lots of cows eating grass. I bet most people don’t think of farmland and cows when they think of New York, but they do have lots of them. We got lots of wedding planning done too. Then I flew back to Oregon and was there for a couple weeks, working at my house and also helping my dad paint one of the apartments he has.
Then I flew to Minneapolis to reunite with my two best friends from my University of North Dakota days, Pete & Jack. On Friday, April 20th, we drove to Grand Forks, turning what is supposedly a four hour drive into a six hour one. We finally made it around 3:30pm, just in time to meet up with Jake and Jeff and kick our feet up for a while. It was such nice weather in GF that weekend too! We hit up University Park and played a round of bocce ball (think of Australian Lawn Bowling but with less rules). Then we had the obligatory drive around Grand Forks while deciding what to do next. No one could decide so I drove us to Lincoln Park and we hung out there and threw the Frisbee around and had a couple of PBR’s while we waiting for our friends to gather and call us. Finally they did saying they were at a bar downtown, so we went down there and met up for some cool refreshments. A couple hours later and a bit drunker out, we stopped by the pub next door then make the trek back to 407 Cambridge Street, the home of Pi Kappa Phi Fraternity. As we were walking up to the door all the youngings were inside and cheered us as we came inside. Greeting us warmly until Jack brought out his bottle of Snake Wine. This was a bottle that had two snakes inside of it (one eating the other one, why not?) and then filled with vodka and let sit for a month to get the snake juices flowing freely throughout. This scared the kids and the first round was drunk by Jack, Pete, Jeff Deutsch (the chapter president now and last of the kids Pete and I recruited back in the day) and myself. I wandered through the house to view all the improvements that had been made since my three years living there. A lot had been done, the basement is finally now near completion and has a real kitchen! There are new floor tiles and carpet throughout the house and new windows had been installed to make all the former party rooms turn into sleeping rooms so more guys can live in the house. Fantastic Stuff. After my tour I saw that the fear of the snake wine had diminished and the bottle was being freely passed around. After it was all empty the snakes looked strange, like they might pop out at any moment and start slithering across the floor… Someone refilled the bottle with some alcohol and there it was sitting on the table when someone knocked it and it went flying off and broke all over the floor. Jack got a little upset and riled up over that. Finally we all made it back to Matt’s house to pass out and I found myself on the couch on the porch, pretty nice actually.
Saturday got off to a slow start. After laying around for a few hours Pete and I went for a drive around town then later collected the crew to head to the Pi Kappa Phi Roseball (dance/party). It was kind of a surreal experience sitting back and seeing this whole room of fraternity men dressed up and going through the acts that I had once taken so seriously. It was a pretty relaxed night and I snuck off to wander the golf course and make a call to Amanda. The ride home on the bus was a classic, with wild singing starting before we even made it out of the driveway of the golf course clubhouse. The party back at the fraternity house was pretty good, I was feeling irie and had a fun time watching all the action unfold. Someone had frozen the snakes into popsicle form and was running around making everyone take a lick, Pete was trying to get the youngings to drink more and Matt was trying to get people to go out and eat at the 2-29 all night diner. A taxi cab showed up and a few of us hijacked it back to Matt’s house, leaving Matt and a few other believers waiting for another taxi to take them to eat that never really came. It was five am after all.
After another relaxing night on the porch I awoke and gathered with our friends at the 2-29 for a farewell to Grand Forks truckers special (eggs, sausage, cheese, veggies and more cheese over a bed of hashbrowns). Then we were on the road back to the cities. Jack was in the back seat and every once in a while we heard a little, click, hissss coming from the back seat as a new PBR was opened. By the time we got close to Edina Jack was so tuned up that he could only tell us to get off on 50th street. So we took one exit that was for 50th street, but it was not the right one and we looped around for a while before finally making it to his house. Then a quick cruise across town to Pete’s home for some rest. Monday morning I gave Pete a ride to work and made it to the airport for my cruise back to Portland. Of all my post living in Grand Forks returns, this was by far my favorite. I am very happy to see my beloved fraternity, Pi Kappa Phi doing well and in good hands.
But now it’s May. I have been painting some more and trying to clean and organize my house for Amanda’s moving to Portland. My house is kind of small and already full of things, so we are going to have to be very organized to not trip over our stuff all the time. Shelving is key! I just arrived in Buffalo again yesterday for a little visit. It has been a month since I left Amanda last time and I was missing her so. Amanda graduates with a Masters Degree in Anthropology this weekend and we are going to do a little more wedding planning. Only two months to go now until the wedding, I can’t wait!
Peace, Love and Happiness!!
-Erik
posted at: 16:23 | path: /Travels2007 | permanent link to this entry
Spring Breaks
I have been hanging out at my home in Portland making some tie dyes and working around my house. I am going to Buffalo in two weeks to visit Amanda again. Then in April I am flying to Minneapolis to visit Dr. Read. We are going to drive to Grand Forks on 4/20 and attend the Pi Kappa Phi Roseball. The whole weekend will be my bachelor party too. Less then four months to go until the wedding, I can’t wait!
Peace.
posted at: 01:14 | path: | permanent link to this entry
Snow Flashbacks
I am in Buffalo, New York visiting Amanda for a week. We have been having lots of fun together! Amanda taught me how to make candles, so we have been producing candles and I have been going to school with Amanda a few times. We visited Niagara Falls, Canada for Valentines Day and had a great time there, despite the slush and snow we had to drive through. It is pretty cold in Buffalo now, but I have my North Dakota training to prepare me. Amanda and I have been working hard trying to work out some of the details for our wedding. Which will be on Saturday July 7th, 2007.
Erik Loves Amanda!
posted at: 15:34 | path: /Travels2007 | permanent link to this entry
Oregon is Home
Amanda and I survived Mexico. Three weeks was a long time to be there and we were both definitely happy to make it home back to American soil. Even though we had to split up and both go our separate ways home. So I am in Oregon now trying to stay warm and working on deep cleaning and reorganizing my house and making lots of hemp jewelry. Amanda is back in Buffalo for her last semester of University. I am going to visit her on February 8th!
posted at: 16:26 | path: /Travels2007 | permanent link to this entry
Life Moves Fast, if you don´t stop to look around you might miss it.
So the Christmas Wreaths are all wrapped up now. Another successful season! Damn we worked hard!!!
Right now it is January and Amanda and I are travelling around in Mexico for three weeks.
We ushered in the New Year of 2007 on the beach in Tulum. We had the beach pretty much to ourselves and we were just hanging out partying it up enjoying ourselves. There was a bar nearby that had a live latino reggae band playing through the night, providing the perfect backdrop for our own personal party.
We visited the ruinas of Palenque a few days ago. Which are the most interesting and coolest ruins I have seen anywhere in the world. Amazingly huge pyramids and buildings all surrounded by miles more of ruins covered in think jungle. Amanda had been studying the ruins while working on her Masters Degree in Anthropology so she gave me the fully guided tour and translated the hieroglyphs for me.
Right now we are in the middle of travelling from Chiapas back to the Yucatan. We have been having lots of fun, though it is really hot and steamy and there are lots of mosquitoes. Some winter weather!
Yeah, so far I feel like Mexico is a great place to visit, but lots of things are sure screwed up here.
posted at: 12:39 | path: /Travels2007 | permanent link to this entry
Life Is Grand
Every little thing is alright in my life now.
I have been working hard everyday organizing the Christmas wreath shop for my parents. Waking up early and working until late. But it is fun and challenging and it feels good to get lots of stuff done in a day.
Amanda is going to visit next week for six days. This will be her first taste of the wreath shop. We have been figuring out plans for our wedding. We have decided to be married on August 25th, 2007 near Buffalo, New York.
Oh, and I just want to say. Damn I am glad I never got a Pi Kappa Phi tattoo back in the day.
Peace.
posted at: 08:05 | path: | permanent link to this entry
Fuck You Wal-Mart.
Your store employees the most retarded of the dumb people. I have never seen a more apathetic group of employees then your “Wal-Mart Team.”
I was shopping for some cheap plastic crap from China last night at your store. I had been there about twenty minutes wandering around putting things in my cart. I wanted to buy a alarm clock that plays cds. But in front of the display was a woman with her two screaming and crying children who were waiting for some employee to show up so they could buy a video game that was locked to the wall display. So I left my card near the main isle and tried to navigate through the sea of immigrants towards the alarm clocks. There were three to choose from so I took a few minutes to analyze and choose which glob of plastic crap I would like to own for a few months before it breaks. I choose the one that looked the nicest and was somehow also the cheapest at $20. I grab it and walk back to my cart. But to my avail, no cart in sight!!! What in the hell? Where is my shopping cart?
Seriously, given the assortment of haze inspired items I had collected to purchase I do not see how anyone would steal my cart to buy the stuff. Some rock-brained employee must of somehow taken some initiative and thought someone had abandoned the cart…. Absurd considering every other time I have ever asked a Wal-Mart employee for help in their store they are completely unhelpfull, usually responding that they “work in another department.” I quickly walked up and down the nearby isles looking for someone with my cart. I don’t know what I would have done. Maybe ran at them from behind then swung my clock radio into their head and push them aside then hop onto the back of my cart and go scooting off out of the store………
But my cart was no where. Oh well. Maybe it was a sign that I didn’t really need all the crap I had picked out. So I walked back to the front of the store, got another cart, pulled out my trusty list of things I actually needed and did a quick trip to pick up the essentials that my trip required.
So I could live with that. Once I was shopping again I was happy I hadn’t gotten suckered into buying more then I really needed or wanted to. But this is the part that really gets my goat. I told two different Wal-Mart employees that someone took my cart when I was half way through with shopping when I had left it for only a few minutes. They both replied in a very defensive manor that someone had probably taken it to the backroom to sort it out as an abandoned cart. No sorry sir, can I help you in any way. No remorse, just defensiveness at their coworkers ridiculous and offensive behavior. So that is why I say,
FUCK YOU WAL-MART!!!
posted at: 11:23 | path: | permanent link to this entry
Fall Back
Life is strange. All I can do is do what I can and not worry about the rest.
Over Labor Day weekend I headed up to the Gorge Amphitheater in George, Washington to attend the Dave Matthews Band three day concert. My brothers friend Bryce went with me. There were a lot of people camped out in this big grass cow field. Probably like 14,000 people. All camped next to their shiny new cars. But I guess the thing about fake-hippies is they have money to burn……. “We are here to rock the lot scene!” said Dr. D and his minion, selling burritos across from our camp spot. But rock the lot is what Bryce and I did. And with a vengeance. A vengeance to all those people who laugh. All those people who don’t get it. To all those people who would rather sit at home and watch television then live a real life. The first tie dye shirt I sold was to a sheriff riding on a horse through the camp ground. But selling from one spot is no way to rock the lot. So I gathered my bracelets and tie dye on my Bolivian and Mexican bags and set my feet to walkin. I kicked ass. Rockin it to the crowds. I sold lots and lots of bracelets. In only and hour on Friday I sold more than a good day at a farmers market. I was way happy. Saturday and Sunday Bryce wanted in on the fun so he hit the streets of the campground as well. We both had fun walking through the crowds of drunks trying to believe in a better way and taking their green dollars from them. I only wish it had been silver and gold. I guess the lesson is that in the end everyone creates their own reality and can do whatever they want. No one is stopping us from doing anything we want to do and life can be anything or anyway at all.
On the flip side……
Amanda visited me in Portland in September so we could celebrate our one year anniversary together. There are strange things in the air. We figured out that the day I proposed to Amanda was exactly a year after the day she first emailed me from Mexico where she was studying with my sister. Our first year together has gone by so quickly. She is gone back to Buffalo now and I miss her. But the love particles will keep on floating through the air.
Christmas Wreaths are here. I am trying to do everything my mom and I used to do together. I know I can do it. I just have been getting too stressed out and I don’t know how to fix it………
“Ever thus to deadbeats, Lebowski.”
posted at: 13:17 | path: | permanent link to this entry
Once again… The Summer’s Almost Gone…
Amanda and I survived the three weeks on the road. We had lots of fun too. We visited the fraternity brothers in Grand Forks, North Dakota then toured around Northern Minnesota before circling back to Detroit Lakes, Minnesota for the 10,000 Lakes Music Festival. It was about what we excepted, maybe not what we had hoped but definitely fun by any standard. It was fun visiting with Dr. Peter Read and all my other friends. There was some pretty good music and we met lots of unique people.
After the festival we drove across the plains of South Dakota. Stopping in Murdo, South Dakota where I was impressed by the claim that it had the original General Lee car from the Dukes of Hazard show. That is until I mentioned this to my brother and he pointed out that they probably used hundreds of cars in the making of the shows, so getting a used one was probably not all that hard. That made it a little less impressive but the fond memories of Murdo shall live on! We stopped in Wall, South Dakota to visit Wall Drug where we drank the free ice water and marvel at how many people can be attracted by the signs along every Midwest highway. We drove to Mt Rushmore and drove past Crazy Horse and went into Jewel Cave before making it to Devil’s Tower just before dark. Then we took the long way to Yellowstone going south through Thermopolis and along Hwy 26. Lars and Kristen met us and we drove around and checked out all the neat geysers and natural wonders of Yellowstone. We saw lots of Buffalos too!
After camping at Yellowstone for two nights we drove to Billings, Montana where Lars raced his motorcycles in the Billings Hillclimb. He made it over once on the bike he built from scratch using a street bike engine in a modified dirt bike frame. But on his last run his bike tumbled down the hill a ways and got a little dinged up. But not unfixable. Then we hightailed it back to Portland returning home on August first.
Now it’s the end of August. Amanda has returned home to Buffalo, New York where she just started her last year of University. I have been working at the wreath shop office some and selling tie dye some at the Gresham Farmers Market. I am headed this weekend up to the Gorge in Washington to see the Dave Matthews Band and try to sell the rest of my inventory and cash in. Or at the least to have a really good time.
“I don’t need to fight to prove I’m right. I don’t need to be forgiven! Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, Yea!” -The Who
posted at: 19:04 | path: /Travels2006 | permanent link to this entry
The Summer of Love is here...
Last week Amanda and I drove to the Oregon Coast and stayed in Yachats, Oregon. Sitting on the beach that night I asked Amanda to marry me. She said Yes! So now we are embarking on our engagement honeymoon. In about an hour we will leave on a three week roadtrip. The van is all packed and ready to go and we are washing out our last batch of tie dye right now. We are excited and happy as can be.
posted at: 01:59 | path: | permanent link to this entry
The Summer of Love is almost here…
Next week my wonderful girlfriend Amanda will arrive in Oregon to visit me for the summer. The week of July 10th we are going to take off on a road trip in my van. We are planning to heading to Glacier National Park in Montana, then cruise along Highway 2 until we arrive in Grand Forks, North Dakota. Pete will be there along with lots of my other friends for the “Pi Kappa Phi Fix the House Weekend.” After a weekend of partying and a bit of painting or something we are going to head to Detroit Lakes, Minnesota for the 10,000 Lakes Music Festival where Amanda and I are going to have a Tie Dye booth in the campground. After four days of selling and trying to become thousandaires we are planning on heading to Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming of course seeing Mt Rushmore and the Devils Tower along the way. While visiting Yellowstone my brother Lars and his girlfriend Kristen are going to join us midweek for some camping then we are all going to head to Billings, Montana for the motorcycle hill climb that Lars is going to compete in. After that we are going to convoy back home with Lars, ending three weeks on the road.
But those are just the plans. And plans can always change……
posted at: 16:32 | path: /Travels2006 | permanent link to this entry
In Oregon at last...
Well Amanda came to Europe and joined my travels. We stayed in Amsterdam a few days then headed to Brussels, Belgium for a night then spent the week in Paris, France. After that we went to Koln, Germany then to Krefield, Germany where my ancestors on my mom's side of the family came from back in 1680. Then back to Amsterdam for a day of relaxing before we had to part ways and each head home.
Yeah, this is not too descriptive, I know. But I kind of got sick of Europe towards the end of my trip. I guess I was thinking "Is this it?" Sure it was great being there and I had fun, but it makes me realize that Northern Europe is not a magical land of fun. It's just like anywhere. Fun can be had wherever I am because I am me. But really it's just like America. A bunch of big smelly dirty cities with a bunch of scumbags and immigrants all over.
I'll take a cabin in the Oregon woods anyday.
Viva la Revolution!
posted at: 16:25 | path: /Travels2006 | permanent link to this entry
In Europe at last…
On Wednesday, April 26th I headed off to Europe. I flew into Amsterdam and arrived the next afternoon. I stayed at a popular party hostel downtown and had a pretty good time for a few days, but soon was ready to start traveling towards Sweden. So I caught the train to Copenhagen, Denmark and stayed there for a day. I visited the hippy neighborhood of Christiana and was there just in time to take part in a Peace Parade for May Day.
On Tuesday, May 2nd I took the train to Stockholm, Sweden. I visited my friend Anders (who I traveled with in Australia) for a few hours then took the night train north to visit Peteä, Sweden. Petiä is the town where my great-grandparents lived 100 years ago. So after a train ride and a bus trip I was there. It looked kind of like Oregon, lots of nice trees and hills and nice scenery.
There are some Swedish relatives who visited Portland when I was 12 years old who live in Petiä. So I gave them a call and they gave me the grand tour and fed me lots of Swedish food until I was full. I got to eat pault, reindeer and moose. They showed me all of the old buildings of Petiä and a house that my great grandmother Ida grew up.
I was there for a day and then took the night train back to Stockholm. I arrived on Friday afternoon and spent the day sightseeing from the water, on a boat tour. Then I met up with Anders again and we have been partying it up this weekend and having lots of fun.
Tonight I am leaving for about 20 hours of train riding to take me back to Amsterdam so that I can pick up Amanda when she arrives on Thursday.
posted at: 10:45 | path: /Travels2006 | permanent link to this entry
Cross Town Traffic...
So Friday night I was driving my van up to the liquor store a few blocks from my home to get some supplies for my brother Lars’ 21st birthday. I have my headlights on. I have my seatbelt on. I’m cruising along Washington Street heading east. It’s a one way road with four lanes. Traffic heading west is separated by a block of restaurants and businesses in between. I had a green light so I was ticking along at 35 MPH. So I’m there driving, I just passed 100th, going to turn left onto 102nd.
CAR!!!! HEAD ON!!!!! There was this small green car right in front of me. It turned out of the Hooters parking lot and turned right when it should have turned left. Even if it had turned left it would have been bad. But it turned right. Directly into me.
I don’t know what the car looked like. Who the people were. I didn’t have time to step on the brakes. To look in my mirrors. I didn’t think. My brain was not involved in my actions. I cranked the steering well hard right and swung around the car, missing it by mere centimeters. I was fully into the next lane of traffic, maybe even the one next to that too. Luckily there were no vehicles next to me.
There was no contact. I dodged the car. What the hell just happened??? I pulled over my van into a parking lot that was right there. I jumped out and ran to the street. I saw the car speed past me. It had corrected it’s course but was not going to pull over. So I ran back to my van while screaming a few choice words and giving the car the bird. I tore out of the parking lot and down the street after the car that had almost cost me my life. They were going fast and turned down a side street. I made the turn but they were a few cars ahead of me. There was a light up ahead and by the time I got there the light was red and there were cars in front of me. I saw the small green car drive around the bend ahead of me. And that was the last I saw of it.
I don’t know what I would have done if I had caught up to them. Maybe it’s better they got away. What do you think they thought though? They were low to the ground in their little tiny car. They make the turn out of the parking lot and there is a huge white van racing towards them with Che Guevara staring them down from the hood. Viva la Revolution!
posted at: 15:16 | path: | permanent link to this entry
Dam Amsters
Well I finally bought an airline ticket to Europe. I leave Oregon on April 26th and fly into Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Amanda is going to join me after she is done with school in May and we will both leave on May 23rd. So stay tuned for tales of excitement and adventure in Europe!
posted at: 14:26 | path: /Travels2006 | permanent link to this entry
The Las Vegas Experience
I visited Las Vegas last week. I had mixed ideas going in what to expect. I have heard some family members and friends tell of how much fun they had there and how nice it was and others who thought it was dreadful. I must say I expected it to be pretty dreadful, but not only was it that, it was boring as well. And not just boring, a kind of special stale fake boring that was really just trying to dig its claws into peoples wallets and push them out the door while reminding them what a great experience they had.
So after one night Amanda and I headed south across Hoover Dam and to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. I had just been there in February with my brother but this time it was a little different. We stayed in the lodge there for two wonderful nights. It was a very nice time to visit because there was fresh snow along the upper walls of the canyons. It was just as cool as it was a month ago. Definitly one of the best places I have ever visited!
I have been making lots of tie dye recently, getting ready to sell-sell-sell this summer and hopefully become a thousandaire.
Peace.
posted at: 19:39 | path: | permanent link to this entry
So here I am...
It's March. I have just been hanging out mostly. Making some tie dye and hemp jewelry. Helping my dad fix up an apartment a little bit. Just being a lazy hippy pretty much. But it is nice. I guess this is what I worked so hard for last fall, right? Yes.
I went to the Grand Canyon a couple weeks ago. I went with my brother in his short bus. It was a great trip. Loads of driving, eating hamburgers and partying in the desert. We went to Nevada for a motorcycle hillclimb that my brother competed in and we figured we were going to be so close to the G.C. in Arizona that we should check it out. It is the coolest thing I have ever seen I think. Awesome views all over the place. I can see for miles and miles and miles and miles........
I am headed to Las Vegas later this month with beautiful Amanda to attend her friend’s wedding. We are already planning a Grand Canyon trip so we can spend as much time away from Las Vegas as possible during our Las Vegas Vacation.
Peace, Love & Happiness…
posted at: 17:12 | path: | permanent link to this entry
Another Very, Very Happy New Year!
It's 2006! I'm done with wreath shop until next year. I just returned from a two week vacation visiting my girlfriend Amanda in Buffalo, New York. She taught my how to tie dye. So I am going to start tie dying and sell that along with my hemp jewelry this year. I am thinking of maybe going to Northern Europe later this spring. But who knows? Surely not me.
So things are very well for me now. I'm just relaxing in my home and making cool things.
Peace.
posted at: 17:09 | path: | permanent link to this entry
Fall Ahead...
So it's December first. I'm a working away organizing the office for my parents Christmas Wreath Shop for another season. I've learned that the Christmas wreath business is ever changing...
My home remodeling went very well and the kitchen is all done and the bathroom is done minus some painting. It of course took much longer than I anticipated to finish the bathroom and I ended up working on it on and off until the beginning of October.
The scumbags who organized the Shakedown Music Festival and accepted my $500 Vending Fee have decided to wallow in their scumbagness and the two parties involved blame each other for the failure of the festival and refuse to return any of the vending fees to anyone.
I've got a few more weeks of work and then who knows???
posted at: 20:26 | path: /Trabajo | permanent link to this entry
The Summer's Almost Gone... (Again!)
I moved into my house about a month ago and living there is very nice. I have been working on my bathroom remodel recently. I tore everything out and am building a walk in tile shower. I think it will look pretty sharp when I am all done, which will hopefully be within two weeks.
Last weekend I headed up to Washington for the Dave Matthews Band at the Gorge Amphitheater and the Seattle Hempfest. This upcoming weekend I am headed back to the Gorge again to watch Pearl Jam and Tom Petty.
Vending has been going ok at best. At the Seattle Hempfest I only broke even on buying my vending pass when I sold the pass to a guy as I was leaving. I was supposed to be at the Shakedown Music Festival this weekend but I found out it was canceled as I showed up to it. Supposedly I am going to get a refund of my quite sizable vending fee, so I am keeping my fingers crossed for now. But I did well at the Gresham Farmers Market yesterday and my brother helped me built a great huge display rack for all my jewelry.
I turned twenty six years old a few days ago, Yee-Ha!
posted at: 00:29 | path: | permanent link to this entry
July Updates...
Work at my house is going well and I am almost ready to move in. I have put in a new slate floor in the kitchen along with new tile counters and a new sink and a dishwasher, which required some cabinet re-modification. It looks pretty sharp now. I will be done with the kitchen tomorrow probably and then put a new coat of finish on the hardwood floors, wait a few days for that to dry and move in!
Besides working at my house whenever I get a chance I have been making it to a few farmers market days to try to sell some hemp jewelry and to a few other fun events like the Widespread Panic concert at the Gorge Amphitheater, the Oregon Country Fair and the amazingly cool Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals concert last week.
posted at: 04:08 | path: | permanent link to this entry
Swede the homeowner.
I bought a small brick house in South East Portland yesterday. I am doing a few projects with the kitchen and bathroom and painting everything before I get completely moved in.
Thank You to my brother Lars for helping me work and to my dad Frank for selling me the house and for his advice.
posted at: 02:32 | path: | permanent link to this entry
First roadtrip down, many more to come...
I left on Thursday morning, April 21st, to head over to Grand Forks, North Dakota in my van to visit my friends and to attend the Pi Kappa Phi Roseball Formal. After two days of uneventful driving I pulled into Grand Forks and rendezvoused with Pete and my other friends at the Down UNDer pub to partake in some $1.50 pitchers of beer.
The weekend went by pretty fast and I had plenty of fun, but it seems like not much ever changes in ol' GF, ND.
Tuesday afternoon I drove down to the Minneapolis suburb of Edina to visit my friend Jack. After getting my entire dose of television in for the whole year I departed Edina on Thursday morning to begin strangely enough the funniest part of my trip, touring South Dakota & Wyoming. I visited
Mt. Rushmore,
Crazy Horse,
Jewel Cave &
Devil's Tower before heading off across Wyoming towards Yellowstone National Park. However when I arrived in Cody, Wyoming I found out that the road to Yellowstone was
closed for another week. So I trucked it up through Montana and then followed the scenic Highway 12 through Idaho, following Meriwether Lewis & William Clark's original route and brought me back home on Sunday evening of May 2nd.
While driving through Clarkston, Washington at about 45 MPH I heard a loud thunk and looked in my mirror quickly to see a small white object bouncing down the road behind my van. At first thinking some critical part of my van fell off I then realized that I had somehow been just lucky enough to have been hit with a golf ball from the nearby course. What are the chances?
posted at: 17:27 | path: /Travels2005/USA | permanent link to this entry
Spring Update
Two Thousand and Five has been a pretty relaxed year so far. I have been working on my family's tree nursery part time and having good times with my brother Lars the rest of the days.
I bought a Ford E-150 Van to replace my long time faithful friend the Green Ford Ranger. Old Ford Ranger is still around and has lots of good miles left on him, but was getting kind of worn out and uncomfortable to drive around in. The van just has the two seats up front, with the back containing a bed and plenty of room for camping gear.
So far the only definite trip I have planned is to drive to GF, ND towards the end of April. I am still thinking of a Northern Europe trip this summer, but nothing planned yet.
posted at: 17:03 | path: | permanent link to this entry
A Very, Very Happy New Year!
Well it's 2005 and the Christmas wreaths and trees are all behind me now. I have just been taking it easy and trying to sort out my plans and hopes for the upcoming year. My only real plans so far are to travel to Northern Europe this Spring or Summer, check the 2005 Journey page for updated plans.
Until then I am working a little bit now finishing up some paperwork from the Wreath Shop and am working on my next venture, which is making Macramé (Hemp Jewelry). My plan is to support myself as a traveling artisan this summer. We shall see…
posted at: 14:33 | path: | permanent link to this entry
And I thought my ears had a lot of wax in them!
Last night I went to sleep with my candles still lit on the windowsill next to my bed. I was sound asleep at 5:30am having some fantastic dream when I suddenly felt like my hair was on fire! I leapt out of bad frantically patting my head and turned on my lamp. What I saw before me was a huge oozing stream of hot green wax all over my windowsill and pillow and in my hair! One of my candles had burned a hole through the side allowing for a nice steady stream of wax to come pouring out of. Luckily there was no permanent damage to my mop of hair and after picking and combing the wax out of my hair and then cleaning a lukewarm lake of wax off of my windowsill I was able to catch a few more ZZZ’s.
posted at: 12:19 | path: | permanent link to this entry
The search for Pompeys Pillar
I first learned of Pompeys Pillar in August of 2000. I was driving to Grand Forks, North Dakota to return to University after spending the summer at home. It was my first time driving a long distance by myself and I wanted to check out the sites along the way. I was in Montana just East of Billings when I saw the brown historic monument sign that read "Pompeys Pillar." I knew it was a historic site along the Lewis & Clark trail, but had no clue as to what it actually was. I decided to check it out so I took the exit and drove along a gravel road for a few minutes to reach an empty parking lot facing a hill. A small sign told me that Pompeys Pillar was on the other side of the hill, to be reached by a footpath. As I usually do along the long drive between Oregon and North Dakota I had a strong desire to get back to Grand Forks and decided to be lazy and not to walk over the hill so I turned around and left.
Pompeys Pillar did not cross my mind again until July of 2004 when I was driving home from a weeklong visit to the Grand Cities. After a day of cruising through the badlands I once again found myself looking at the sign for the Pompeys Pillar exit. It was late at night and I was planning on stopping soon so I figured I would pull into the parking lot, spend the night and check out the site in the morning before I resumed my journey home. I took the exit and in the dark did not see the sign pointing to travel down the gravel road. So I missed the turn but by the time I figured out I was on the wrong road I just decided to keep on driving as I was almost to Billings.
Six weeks later I found myself once more on the road home after spending another week visiting friends in Grand Forks and attending a fraternity brothers wedding. I decided to finally see Pompeys Pillar once and for all. Nothing would stop me this time! I arrived in the evening with plenty of daylight left and confidently took the Pompeys Pillar exit. I took the right road and drove down it a couple miles until I reached another sign that read Pompeys Pillar and pointed to a road that went south under the highway. I made the turn and immediately found myself in the very small town of Pompeys Pillar. I knew that was not what I wanted so I turned around and continued up the gravel road for a bit but never saw anything mentioning the historic site of Pompeys Pillar. So I once again turned around and got back on the highway heading west. Pompeys Pillar had eluded me once again.
http://www.mt.blm.gov/pillarmon/
posted at: 14:27 | path: /Travels2004/USA | permanent link to this entry
The Summer's Almost Gone...
The end of my summer as passed by quickly. After returning from my July Grand Forks trip I did some roofing for my dad for a few days and worked getting the wreath shop office set up and then headed out to Charleston, South Carolina for Pi Kappa Phi's 100th Anniversery.
Over Labor Day Weekend I drove to the Gorge Ampitheater in Washington for three days of Dave Matthews Band shows. It was a spetacular time and I made my debut selling some hemp bracelets that I made.
From the Gorge I headed back to Grand Forks once more to attened the wedding of my friend and fraternity brother Sean Thomas. Quite a few more of my friends were back in town for the wedding and I got to see Pete and Jack, which was great. After a relaxing week in GF, ND I made my final drive home to Oregon and since then I have been working selling Christmas wreaths and pondering where I want to travel next year.
Summer's almost gone
We had some good times
But they're gone
The winter's comin' on
Summer's almost gone
posted at: 13:46 | path: | permanent link to this entry
Back to GF, ND
Last week I made the relaxing drive across 1,600 miles to visit Grand Forks, North Dakota. The drive went well. My dad let me borrow his Honda Accord so I had a/c and cruise control, which made the trip a breeze. My excuse for going back was a "fix the house" weekend for my fraternity, Pi Kappa Phi. But I really just wanted to see all my old friends that I had not seen since last August or before.
I was in town for six nights of partying and helped work on the fraternity house for three days. I painted, getting the little storage shed we have knocked out and getting the main room in the basement painted, except for the ceiling.
Grand Forks looked great. The town is having a beautiful summer with lots of sun, a nice breeze and a steady temperature in the 80's F. It was definitely nice to visit but I am kind of glad I left when I did. Most of my good friends have all moved on so there are only a few left that are still holding down the fort. But the trip was definitely worth it and I look forward to returning again in September for another visit.
posted at: 14:18 | path: /Travels2004/USA | permanent link to this entry
Goose Soup
This last weekend I went to Eastern Oregon to pick up pinecones with my dad, brother and a crew of five workers. We found an abandoned golf course where there were loads of huge pine trees and subsequently loads of pinecones. We spent two days working, which was basically the same five second action repeated for seven hours each day. Walk a few steps, find a nice pinecone, bend over and pick it up, but it in the bucket and repeat.
We camped out on the golf course and while I was resting my tired legs some of the workers found a few geese on a nearby pond. One of the workers ended up chasing a baby goose until it made the fatal mistake of running into some bushes instead of returning to the lake. It was at this point "Nacho" pounced on it and captured it. He brought it back to our makeshift camp to show off his prize and right as he was about to let it go one of the other workers, the "Burro," grabbed out his knife and cut the goose's head right off. Goose blood started squirting out and the birds beak kept opening and closing even though the head was severed from the rest of the birds body! At this same time a local resident was walking by with his dog so Nacho quickly shoved the moving bird body into a plastic bag and hid it under my brothers truck. The dog walker came by and chatted for a minute and then carried on. The workers then started to de-feather and clean the goose and butchered it to make soup with. But they didn't want to eat it because they didn't have any salt. So they spent like two hours working on this soup and didn't eat it. They said they would save it for the morning when my dad (who was driving the first load of pinecones back to the farm and then coming back) could bring them some salt. So my dad showed up that morning with some salt but by then the workers were not too excited about eating the soup. So they put the pot into the back of my brothers truck with our other camping gear and it rode around with us all day as we worked. We came back to Troutdale and none of them wanted anything to do with the soup. So it just sat there in my brothers truck.
Yesterday we ended up feeding part of it to our dog and some of his dog friends who seemed to quite enjoy it. So it didn't go to waste after all.
posted at: 02:24 | path: /Trabajo | permanent link to this entry
I feel home
Last Monday, July 5th, I left my hostel in La Paz at 4am to start my journey home. I had a full day of flights taking me from La Paz, Bolivia to Santa Cruz, Bolivia then onward to Miami, Florida, USA where I had to wait forever to collect my baggage in order to finish clearing customs. After finally making it out into the airport I only had forty minutes before my connecting flight was to leave so I had to run the whole length of the semi-circle airport to board my flight to Portland, Oregon via Houston, Texas. I finally got to Portland just before 11pm and then took the light rail train to Gresham and walked an hour to get home.
The only person I had told about coming home was my friend in Australia, Pete, as I was planning on surprising everyone else. I got to my parents house about 12:45 am, exactly 24 hours after waking up in La Paz to head out. All the doors to the house were locked so I knocked on the door leading outside from their bedroom and gave them a real shock. They were very happy to have me home. The following day I continued the surprise by visiting all my grandparents.
Well I've been away but now I'm back today, and there aint a place I'd rather go.
posted at: 22:44 | path: /Travels2004/USA | permanent link to this entry
El Salar de Uyuni
Last Friday June 25th I left Potosi headed for Uyuni to find a tour to the Salar de Uyuni (the desert and salt flats). I took a taxi to the bus station only to find out that buses to Uyuni left from a different office about five blocks uphill from the station. So I wandered over there and bought a ticket for the 11:30am bus. About 12:30pm the bus finally showed up and we started the journey. Everything went fine for the first few hours. We blew a tire later in the afternoon but it was easily fixed and we were on our way again. About 5:40pm we encountered a roadblock on the road. We waited a few minutes and then the bus turned around to find an alternative route around the roadblock. It was about 6pm by then and the driver told everyone what they were planning on doing. All of the locals on board started getting really upset then because they thought that the other road we would take was too dangerous to travel on and they wanted to wait for the road blockers to go home. Which for some reason they thought would be at 7pm. So after a bit of arguing the driver decided to wait it out. So we sat on the bus until about 6:45pm. The road blockers had left and all the men from the bus went outside to clear the rocks off of the road. Some of the people who were cold started lighting up the small bushes that lined the desert to stay warm. There were not very many rocks on the road and we had about a dozen of us moving them. I was thinking "This is too easy!" when we discovered the huge pile of sand blockading the road. The sand was about four feet high, a bit wider then the road and forty feet long with rocks buried on the inside. The bus tried to drive over it but was not even close to making it so it backed up and two shovels were produced and we started digging. It took about an hour to dig out a path for the bus to drive through. We finally made it to Uyuni about 9pm and were greeted by a throng of tour operators. I already knew what company I wanted to go with and headed over to the Colque Tours office with three English folk I met on the bus ride (Roger, Fiona & Libby). They had spots for the next morning so we signed up for the same four day tour.
We left around 10:30am on Saturday June 26th. There were only the four of us plus our driver & guide Raul so there was plenty of room in our Land Cruiser. Our first stop was the train graveyard just outside of town then we visited a tiny village where salt was processed and bagged. Then it was on to the amazing Salar de Uyuni which is a huge salt flat. Workers scrap the salt into piles and then load it into trucks to take to the little village. All the work is done by hand and each huge pile of salt sold for only one boliviano each (about 15 cents).
The salt flat was amazing and we spent our first night in a hotel on the edge of it. We drank them out of beer after only three bottles so we had to switch to $2 boxes of red wine. But then magically towards the end of the night more beer showed up. At 10pm we were sitting there drinking and hanging out and they shut off the power generator without telling anyone so all the sudden there were half a dozen drunk people stranded in the dark. But we managed to make it to bed and the next morning our group (everyone else was drinking tea) was the last to get up and head out.
The second day of our tour we left the salt flats behind and headed across the desert. We visited several lakes and the Arbol de Piedra which is a rock sticking up in the air that looks like a tree. The whole area around there had just amazing rock formations. We arrived that night to the "cold" hotel where it supposedly got to below zero temperatures at night. There was nothing to do and no beer to drink so we all went to be before 9pm and tried to stay warm.
Day three we got up nice and early and headed out at 7am to go and see the geysers. About 15 mins away from the hotel our car quit working. Raul tried to fix it for a bit then walked back to the hotel to get help. So I waited in the freezing car for an hour while the English recreated lawn bowling with rocks. Raul finally came back with some help and the guy in the other car unhooked his radiator hose and sat there holding it while all the steam poured out. While he was doing that Raul jacked up the back of the Land Rover. Then he started to tighten up the fan belt. I asked them what was wrong and they said there was ice in the motor. Not sure what all the other stuff was doing to get the car working but after a while they gave up and towed it back to the hotel. The Land Rover that had come to rescue us had a group of gringos waiting for it back at the hotel so they went off on their tour and Raul went with them to try to find us a new car. So we were left with the little Bolivian family that ran the hotel who kept laughing at us. So we pulled a table our into the sun and drank coffee and played cards until Raul came back with a new car and driver at 11:30am. So we pilled in and continued our tour to the geysers, a hot springs and some more lakes. Around 4pm we met up with another car from our same tour company which had Ned the 19 year old Welshman and Yuval the Israeli. Everyone else from the four Colque tour cars had continued on to San Pedro de Atacama, Chile so the six of us were the only ones left to finish off the fourth day and head back to Uyuni. So we said goodbye to Raul who went back to take care of his car and headed off for a three hour drive to our lodging for that night. At our hotel we were fed and they had an amble supply of beer. So we ate and drank and then a musical group from the villages school came to entertain us for a bit with Bolivian folk songs. Monday night was my sixth month anniversary of leaving home and well spent I think. We had loads of fun that night.
Our fourth and final day, Tuesday, was mostly spent driving back to Uyuni. We stopped at a few different villages along the way and got back to town around 2pm. We hung out during the day at a restaurant with a very smoky fire pit and then I caught the train to Oruro at midnight with Roger, Fiona and Libby. They headed off to La Paz on the bus and I went off to find a Hostel. I slept for a bit and then hung out around Oruro. It is a very cold place and not too exciting.
Today I am going to head off to La Paz in a bit and chill out there for a few days.
posted at: 12:27 | path: /Travels2004/Bolivia | permanent link to this entry
Bolivian Mining
Thursday June 24th I was in Potosi and went on a tour to the mines there. It was a gringo tour so I once again figured it would be an easy enough venture, but was once again wrong. The tour group met at the tour office in the morning and we headed off to get ready for our tour. The tour company gave everyone a pair of waterproof pants and a coat and a hardhat with a lamp. Then we went to the Miners Market where we bought some presents for the miners we would see on our tour. I bought a stick of dynamite with a detonator and five minute fuse and a bag of some chemicals (ammonium nitrate?) that magnify the explosion for 16 Bolivianos (US$2) and a liter of 96% Alcohol for my presents. Others bought some coca leaves and sodas and waters for presents. After our shopping venture we drove up to the mountain where the mine is that looms over the town of Potosi. The mine was first started by the Spanish in the 16th century and then silver was the main mineral, however nowadays it is mostly zinc they mine because all of the high grade silver is gone or still hidden deep in the mountain.
So we arrived at the mine and started our tour inside. During the first bit I only had to duck a little but the shaft was very narrow. It was ok and there were no worries yet. We visited the museum which was near the entrance and saw a effigy of the devil (El Tio or The Uncle) as the miners call him. The miners offer the statues of the devil coca leaves and cigarettes so that they will have good luck and find silver during their workday. So we finished up in the museum and started the real bit of the tour. The mine we were in (there are loads of different ones) had six levels to it. We entered through the top level and after walking for a bit we came out to a bit of a open area in the shaft. We stopped there and divided up into two groups, my group had six gringos the other five. Our guide Pedro told us about the mine and we rested up before heading down to the second level. To get to the second level I had to crawl on my stomach to fit through this little passageway and then crawl on my hands and knees downwards before sliding down the rest of the way. It was about this time I realized that there I was way in the middle of this huge mountain in a little tiny passage with no easy way out. So I tried to block that out of my mind. We walked through the second level for a while, it is here that it started to get warm and I could really notice how dusty and sticky the air was. We were soon at the passageway to the third level which was much easy to negotiate then the first to second floor passage.
Upon arriving on the third level we met a group of miners working hard. Basically one group of guys would work together in one section of the mine that was theirs and would share all the profits made by the group between them. Some of the miners whacked the walls with picks to break off the minerals and then would dump the minerals into a big wagon which was on railroad tracks. Once the wagon was full, two men would push it and two would pull it with ropes as hard as they could and it would barley move because it was so heavy. They would then have to take it to the end of the mine shaft and then come back for more.
We gave the miners some of the presents we had brought and then moved down the shaft to see the miners in action. After watching them work for a bit we reached the passageway to the fourth floor. I started down but after getting a good look at the passageway backed out. It was a narrow hole that one had to kind of slide through and then grab onto a ladder and then cross over to another ladder below. I thought there was no way I wanted to be down there. I was terrified enough in the "roomy" shafts we had been through already and had no desire to battle my fears. So I hung out at the top of the passage and waited until the group came back up ten minutes later fully covered with sweat and relived to feel the "clean & fresh" air of the third level. I was very glad I did not go down.
We had been in the mines for about two hours at that point and then started back up. I was not looking forward to the small passages I would have to go through but did not have much of a choice. We took a different way back up to the second floor which kind of turned into the passage up to the top. First there was a wooden ladder with shaky wobbly steps which got us up to the second floor then the same passage back up to the top. It sucked so bad. I had to crawl up this incline not knowing what was in front of me because I had to look where I was crawling and kept hitting my back and head into the rocks above me. Towards the top I started getting really out of breath but had no place to stop and had to keep crawling upwards. Finally it started to even out a bit and up ahead the rest of my group had stopped to rest. When I got there I plunked down next to Pedro to try to catch my breath. He started to blow on me to cool me down and after a few minutes I was good to go. We started off again but luckily while scrambling up to the top floor I had navigated all the worst parts in a frenzy and during the rest of the way did not have to crawl again. Just a lot of ducking. Most of the mine looked the same to me so I had no clue how much further it was until I saw the light at the end of the tunnel. It was at that point when I could see the sunlight pouring in and feel the fresh cold air from outside that I realized what that phrase really means.
I stumbled outside covered in mud, dust and sweat and very happy. After resting up for a couple minutes it was time for our dynamite demonstration. Our guides showed us how to prepare it and then lit the fuses. After lighting the fuses they passed around the bags of dynamite to hold and then went and tossed them in a nearby field. After a couple minutes of waiting they blew up. I was prepared for a loud bang but even so the explosion made me jump. Really, really loud. Then they drove us back to town and that was that. I will be happy if I never go in another mine ever again.
posted at: 17:55 | path: /Travels2004/Bolivia | permanent link to this entry
Sucre Update
I have been in Sucre for the last few days. It is pretty nice here. All the buildings are painted white. I have just been talking it easy getting ready for the next spurt of travel west to the desert and to finish off my Bolivian tour.
posted at: 17:59 | path: /Travels2004/Bolivia | permanent link to this entry
Amigos De El Che
This week I had one of the best experiences of my entire journey so far. I visited the village of La Higuera where Ernesto "Che" Guevara and his fellow troops were hunted down, captured and murdered by the Bolivian Army and the CIA in October of 1967. I guess I should start my tale from the beginning.
I started my journey in Santa Cruz de la Sierra which is a huge city in Eastern Bolivia. My guidebook did not have much to say about my upcoming journey to La Higuera. It said to take a bus to Vallegrande where there are Several pleasant, basic places to stay on or around the plaza. It gave a few details about taking a bus from Vallegrande to the village of Pucara from where there is transport to La Higuera. It also mentioned some Che tours and said if considering a tour, book locally, not from La Paz. Fair enough I thought. So while I was in Santa Cruz I walked around and looked for a tour operator but did not see anything of the like. Oh, well I figured. Once I get to Vallegrande there will be all kinds of people trying to get me to go on their Che tour.
My journey started on Tuesday (June 15th) and the only one bus I could find that went from Santa Cruz to Vallegrande left at 6:30pm and arrived at 1am they said. I was not wild about arriving in a new city that I knew nothing about at 1am but I figured how bad could it be. So I got on the bus and it started out with only myself and one other passenger on it. Interesting considering how full the other buses I had been on so far in Bolivia had been. Kids laying in the aisle and people standing for hours and hours because there were no seats. But the bus plodded along for a while and soon we stopped to pick up some more passengers. But only a few people got on board. So 1 am came and went and I could only see blackness out of my bus window. Finally about 1:30 am we rolled into town. I asked the bus usher kid where there was a hotel and he pointed and said towards the plaza. So I walked up to the plaza which was only a block away and looked around. No hotels or anything. So I picked a street to walk up and didn´t see anything that direction either. I went back to the plaza and picked a different road and started heading up it. The whole time I didn´t see a soul around. All of the people who were on the bus with me had promptly hopped into taxis and disappeared. As I was walking along a couple blocks I spied another plaza and figured this must be the plaza the kid and my guidebook were talking about. There was a residencia right on the corner so I rang their bell a few times and waited but no signs of life. Moving on I found a couple more residencias but no one was home at those either. Shit I thought. What am I to do now. So I picked another street and walked up it. I came to a residencia with some lights on and could hear some people talking and a tv going. I rang their bell and knocked and waited and waited but no one came to the door. So I went back to the plaza. There was a place that I thought might be a hotel but had a weird word on their sign. I knocked and the door creaked open. I poked my head in and shouted "Hola." But didn´t hear anyone. So I crept in slowly and looked around. I found myself in a courtyard with possible bedrooms all along the upper level of the courtyard. So I walked up the stairs hoping I would find an empty room I could crash in and figure things out in the morning. But all the rooms where under construction and there were no beds anywhere. So I quickly made my way back out to the plaza and closed the door. I was considering sleeping on one of the many park benches, but was not wild about the idea. I decided to go give one more knock at some of the places I had already tried. I was walking across the plaza when I saw a taxi creeping along the street. I hailed him and asked him if he knew of a hotel that was open. He said sure so I hopped in and off we went. Two blocks down the street and he pulled up to a building that was still being built. He said it was a new hotel. It was 2 am and I did not really care too much as long as I was not on the park bench. So he knocked at the door for a bit then I heard a woman say she was coming. Whew! She opened up and was super friendly and took me up to a room. I drifted off into a deep slumber and was awoken at 10:30 the next morning by someone knocking on my door. I answered and there was a different lady who started spouting all this stuff off and the only words I could pick out were man, work, key and room. I told here I didn´t understand and then she just walked away. Not quite sure what to make of it I decided it was probably time to get up and try to track down a Che tour. So I got up and hit the streets of Vallegrande. Things looked much better when it was not the middle of the night and I walked up along the main street and over to the first plaza that I had seen but did not see any tour places. So I decided to eat and then deal with it. I popped into a place and had their lunch which was soup followed by chicken and rice. I admit that I don´t really like to try new weird foods but I was really hungry so I was going to eat whatever they brought me. The soup had some very odd mystery meat in it. At first I thought the small round meat tubes were ham but after trying some of them I am still stumped as to what they were. Anyways, I ate most of the food and then set out of figure out how to get to La Higuera. I stopped to talk to a taxi driver and he reconfirmed my guidebook´s bus story. But I wanted to go then, I did not want to have to wait until the next morning and try to hassle with all kinds of crazy buses. The feeling that I was in the middle of nowhere was starting to sink in. So I took the kid up on his taxi offer of 150 BS (US$20) to drive me to La Higuera. First we headed over to my hotel to grab my pack. He dropped me off and went to go get some gas. So I go to walk into the door to find a big fat lock on the door. Great I thought. I tried fiddling with it and tried my room key even though I knew it would not work. I stood there calling out "¡Hola!" hoping someone was inside even though I knew no one was. So I stood back and surveyed the situation. I knew I didn´t want to stand here all day waiting for the owners to come home. There were no windows yet and on the part of the hotel that was going to be the foyer they had two large windows that were covered up by a big piece of metal. I pushed the metal and it gave way, it was just held up by a board from the inside of the hotel. So I removed the metal and was about to try to climb in through the window when I heard some lady shouting behind me. The lady who had woken me up this morning. She disappeared for a second and then came back waving a key. Then our conversation from this morning made sense to me. The owners were going to work and left the key with her. So I apologized for the window and put the piece of metal back. She let me in and I paid her then ran up to my room to grab my stuff. My taxi driver, Jamie, showed back up and we were off I thought. But apparently Jamie was worried about driving so far away (60km) and he kept asking me how long I was going to stay in La Higuera. One hour? Two? I told him I was going to stay a couple days and he didn´t seem to like that idea so he tried to find another taxi driver to take me. But apparently no one was up for the trip. So we went off to go and get gas which he had apparently not done before. Then stop by his house so he could grab a quick lunch and then we were off. It took a good two and a half hours to get to Pucara and along the way Jamie and I talked about a bunch of different stuff. He asked me why I was going to La Higuera and I told him to visit Che. He said "oh, is he still there?" I said well no they took his body to Cuba in 1997. Then Jamie asked "oh, is he living in Cuba then?" So I had to give Jamie a brief history lesson about Che. Jamie was more concerned about what kind of food we had and how big people were in the USA though. In Pucara Jamie had to ask directions on how to get to La Higuera. I asked him "Haven´t you been there before?" "Once, but it was night and I wasn´t driving." Alright then. So we got some directions and kept driving along for the last bit of the drive. We finally made it to La Higuera. Jamie pulled the taxi up next to the big bust statue of Che and tossed my bad out and got out of there in a flash.
So I am standing in this remote Bolivian village next to the Che statue with my backpack and no clue what to do next. There were some buildings around mostly houses but two little stores. The statue of che and a little plaza with another statue of Che. And that is La Higuera. A lady peeked her head out from the store and beckoned me over so I headed over and said hi and asked if there was anyplace to stay here. She said yeah, just wait a minute. Apparently the gringo alarm had gone off the second my taxi pulled up and the call went out because shortly after an older guy with hardly any teeth strolled up to me and asked if I needed a place to stay. Yep I said so he told me to follow him and we went down the street to the old school house where Che was held prisoner before he was murdered. After that he took me to the new school house where they have a dormitory with four bunk beds. So I tossed down my pack in the empty room and went to see the next item on the agenda, the schools library. My new buddy, Manuel started asking where I was from and he was amazed when I told him I was American. He said that Americans did not come to La Higuera very often. He told me he had some dollars that he wanted me to look at. So I went back to his house with him and while he was searching for his dollars inside a little old lady, Manuel´s 110 year old grandmother, came hobbling over the wood and rock fence from the corn field. She could barely walk and had a constant shake going. Manuel came back with a $100 bill and said that someone had given it to him in 1998. In La Higuera it is hard enough to get change for a 100 BS (About US$13) much less a $100. Manuel asked me to change it for him so I did, giving him the four twenties I had and then the rest in Bolivianos. After that Manuel hopped up to grab his Che book that he had. But Manuel dosen´t read so he flipped through the whole book showing me all the photos in it and telling me about the Cubanos. He said he would come and get me in the morning to take me to the El Churo valley where Che was captured. So I left Manuel´s house and headed back towards the school, stopping to buy some snacks at the shop. There were a couple little kids following me around so I invited them to play cards with me. So we played war for a while and then their mom called them home. So I just relaxed and went to bed early that night.
Thursday morning Manuel comes in to collect me a bit before 8am. I had just woken up and was still laying in bed so he said something about having a coffee then we will go to El Churo. So I got ready and headed out front to street but did not seen Manuel anywhere. The lady from the "other" store beckoned me over and fixed me a coffee. The town drunk was already hard at work finishing a beer at 8:30am in the store. I finished my coffee and headed off to find Manuel. I went to his house but he was not there so I went back to the plaza and hung out there for a while. He showed up just before 9 am with a small machete and asked if I was ready to go. We started off walking on the road for a bit and then set out onto a dirt path going uphill. Manuel was wildly swinging around his machete clearing the path for us as we went. There were some pretty steep parts so I got to breathing pretty hard and that led Manuel to enquire about my weight. I told him that I was 140 Kilos and that just blew him away. He said that I needed to live with him and eat what he eats for a month and then I would be 100 Kilos, which was as he figured it as much as anyone ever needed to weigh. I agreed with him. So we kept walking along with Manuel turning around every now and then to say "140 Kilos, keep walking." We made it to the top of the ravine and then started going down a very steep incline. That part was easy enough but I knew that I would be dying on the trek back up. All along the way Manuel would point out where the Army soldiers had been positioned, which was pretty much all over the place as they had 1,800 soldiers in the area to capture Che´s small group of twenty or so revolutionaries. Che had been trekking along the river near there and after a few encounters with the Army had become trapped in the valley. As Manuel and I walked down to the valley floor Manuel pointed out where Che and his troops had been chased and finally we reached the spot where Che had been captured. He had been shot several times in the leg and his rifle had been shot and he was taking cover behind a large rock with one of his soldiers when the Army troops surrounded him. Che told the Army troops "Do not shoot! I am Che Guevara and worth more to you alive than dead." So they captured him and took him back to the school house in La Higuera. Manuel and I stayed there for a bit while I took in the area around me. It was pretty erie being there and I could imagine the gun shots being fired and the soldiers running around through the bushes and trees. After a few photos Manuel and I started the long trek back to La Higuera. It had taken just under two hours to reach the end of our hike and took a tad bit longer to get back to town. Along the steep climb back up I had to stop and rest quite a few times and as we sat and rested Manuel would tell me about Che and his troops. How they had visited nearby villages and talked to the villagers and when they collected food from the villagers they always paid for everything that they took. Manuel told me that the day after Che was captured the troops there received the order to kill him. So two soldiers went walking down the street with a beer in both hands and arguing over who would shot Che. The soldier entered the school house drunk with is gun ready to shoot Che who was bound and laying on the floor. As the solder hesitated before he shot Che told him "Shoot, coward, you are only going to kill a man!" And then gun shoots echoed throughout the village as the villagers were hiding away in their houses. After a bit more sweating and grunting I made it back to the top of the valley and to the road. We were pleasantly strolling back to town on the road when Manuel suddenly jumped back as a meter long snake slithered in front of us. Manual swiftly chopped it right in half with his machete and then pried open the snakes mouth with a stick to show me the fangs. After that excitement we made it back to town and had some lunch and a few beers. Then I went off to take a nap and rest up.
About 7 pm Manuel came into the bunkhouse to get me and we went next door to the store for some beers. We had a couple beers then I went down to the other store to have dinner. There were a couple of guys just totally drunk there and the Señora made me some dinner which was unfortunately the same thing I had for lunch. Rice, carrots and potatoes which was good when it was warm at lunchtime. But the second time around it was cold and not quite as tasty. But I munched down as much as I could stomach and headed back to the first store to have a few more beers with Manuel. There was another lively villager in the store and the younger Señora who owned the store. I kept buying the beers and the four of us were drinking and having a good time. While I was gone at dinner two boom boxes were produced and the music was flowing. The folks there took a keen interest in me and kept asking me about the USA and how far away it was. When I told them that I had been to Chile, Argentina and Peru first they didn´t know what to make of that. Santa Cruz de la Sierra was as far as most of them had ever been. They all wanted me to come back and buy a house in La Higuera. They said for a $1,000 I could buy a real nice house with two rooms. I think around midnight or so we learned that there was no more beer. So the Señora mixed up some sort of concoction that we drank for a bit. Then I said my goodnights and stumbled back to my bed. I was just about to crawl into bed when Manuel came in and we ended up staying up for an hour or so having a drunken conversation. Then he took off and I went to sleep.
I was sleeping away when I heard the door open and Manuel came in and sat down on my bed. It was 9am. He said that there was a car in town that was going to leave later that afternoon and would take me back to Vallegrande. Good I thought. So I went back to sleep for a bit. Manuel came back a while later and told me that the car had left already. Manuel asked the driver to wait but apparently they didn´t want to. But Manuel assured me that on Fridays there was lots of traffic through the town so it shouldn´t be a problem. So I started to get up and get ready. I had just come back from brushing my teeth in the very deluxe bathroom (seriously!) and Manuel came in with the two little kids in tow to tell me there was another car in town and the driver was waiting for me. So I packed up really quit and headed out. But when I got outside the car had left! So I set up camp on the side of the road to ensure that I did not miss another opportunity. I only had to wait about half and hour before a taxi came driving into town in the direction of Vallegrande. So I ran down to the taxi and the guy asked where I wanted to go, I said Vallegrande and he said get on in. I was set. So I grabbed my pack and hopped in the back seat. We drove down the road a bit and the guy in the passenger seat got out to go have a jaw flap with one of the locals. There was a little old guy all dressed up with his slacks, sweater and top hat in the back seat with me and the young taxi driver. I shortly figured out that the guy in the passenger seat had hired the taxi and was driving around visiting his friends and looking for cows to buy. So after a bit he was ready to go and I said goodbye to Manuel who had sauntered over to the taxi. He said "Bye, I shall see you when you return." and we drove off. After a bit we arrived in Pucara and stopped there while the guy went around for about two hours to talk to people. It was nice day out and they have a nice plaza there so I hung out and there was a group of locals who were taking a mid day siesta and invited me to share some beer with them. Eventually the guy came walking down the street with this huge bull and as he stopped to talk to his buddies who were hanging out in the plaza the bull started to ram a small van that was parked on the street. So the guy ran the cow down the street and told the taxi to follow him. So I climbed in and we were off. The guy put the cow in a fenced in pasture on the edge of the village and we started the drive towards Vallegrande. We got to town and it looked a lot nicer then my first trip there. Maybe because I knew I could find a hotel because it was still daylight! So I headed back down to the plaza and and went to the Hotel Copacabana. I rested up for a bit and had a shower to cleanse off the dust and headed off to try to figure out the bus scene and find some dinner. I went to the bus office which had a sign saying they had buses to Sucre, which is where I wanted to go, and asked what time they left. The lady started in on this confusing deal saying that I would have to switch buses in a town called Mataral but that the bus left at one pm. So I said ok and I paid for a ticket. Then I reconfirmed that the bus was leaving from the office at one tomorrow. She said, no you have to go to Mataral on another bus down the street and then wait for your bus in Mataral which will come at 7pm. Ok, I thought. Easy enough. I went and found a place to eat and had a great hamburger and a ice cold Coca-Cola for 5 BS (70 cents) and went back to my hotel room.
Saturday morning and I was going to try to escape from Vallegrande. I got all packed and walked around to get some photos. I figured out where my bus left from and had a great lunch at the same little restaurant. As I was walking over to the bus I noticed the strap on my red daypack was about to come unsown. It had come undone a month or two ago but I had sewn it up then. But this time it looked a lot worse. I passed a shoe repair shop so I popped in to see if they could fix it up for me. The kid at the sewing machine said he could certainly fix it and while he was working on it a really drunk guy came into the shop and started talking to me. I was talking to him and asked him, "Are you fixing your shoes here?" The kid fixing my backpack and his buddy both looked and me and rolled their eyes and told me he was the owner of the store. Herman was a very friendly guy and invited me to sleep in his store if I wanted. But I politely refused and told him I had to catch the bus in a bit. After the kid was done repairing my daypack I had some time to kill so I bought a couple beers for us to drink and then headed out to get on the bus. On the bus ride I discovered that my CD Player and only source of entertainment had gone tits up. The radio still works but for some reason it won´t spin the disc around or after starting it and stopping it a bunch will but makes a horrible sound and will only play about half a song before stopping. I also discovered that I had lost my sunglasses at some point in the recent past. We reached Mataral after only and hour and I got off the bus, almost forgetting all my cds, but a lady handed them to me out the window. I asked the bus helper guy where to wait for the bus and he pointed across the street. He asked if I was going to Sucre and I replied that I was. He said "Oh, your gonna have to wait a long time. The bus does not pass until 8 or 9 at night." Not much I could do I thought and I started my waiting by the side of the road. Mataral is basically a few little shops and restaurants and a fork in the road where truckers stop to have a snack and check their tires ( quite a past time for Bolivian drivers! ) It was 2 pm. Around 4 I went across the street to have a Fanta and kill some more time. But after nursing my Fanta for two hours I went back to my waiting spot. I had no music, no book to read other then my guidebook and nothing to do. So I sat there. Seven o´clock came and went and no sign of any bus. Eight o´clock came and went and still no bus. An old guy who was waiting for a different bus asked me where I was going and when I told him Sucre said "Oh, that bus does not pass until late. Until 10 or 10:30." Well there was not much I could do but wait. After it got dark it was hard to tell which of the approaching vehicles were trucks or buses so at every approaching headlight I ran out to the side to the side of the road to hope that it would be my bus. There were some smaller buses that passed and stopped but they were all going to local towns near there. Nine came and went and then a few buses started to come. I was pretty sure that the bus company that I had a ticket for was named Bolivar. But I didn´t care and was ready to hop on any bus going to Sucre even if I had to buy another 40 BS ($5) ticket. Four big buses blew right past me without even thinking about stopping and I was hoping that my bus would be kind enough to stop. I figured that they knew they were supposed to pick me up because the lady at the Vallegrande office had called the Santa Cruz office to book my ticket for me. But I didn´t put too much faith in that. So I waited a bit more. Finally I saw my Bolivar bus approaching and the glowing "Sucre" sign in the window beckoning to me. So I started waving my arms like a madman and it stopped for me. I tossed my backpack below and hoped on board. My receipt that I had said seat number eleven. But I knew that there was little chance of my seat being empty, but I did not care. I would have sat on the floor. I hoped and and went back to try to find a seat. The driver turned the inside light on and there were kids lining the aisle and everyone in the totally packed bus was soundly asleep. The bus helper kid asked for my ticket and I gave him the receipt deal I had been given. He said "No, where's your ticket?" and I told him that I had already paid for it and this was all I was given. So he tells me to wait a second and goes back up front. Then all the lights go out and I am standing in the isle with a bunch of kids behind me and unsure of where any empty seats were. So I waited a few minutes for the kid to come back but he never did. Luckily a friendly passenger told me there was an empty seat towards the front so I hobbled my way up there and sat down relaxed and damn happy to be on the bus. We drove all through the night and finally made it to Sucre about 7:30 am.
Eating pizza for lunch today while listening to The Beatles and watching a steady stream of gringos walk past the restaurant I was a bit sad that I had left the peacefulness and beauty of La Higuera. But I sure will not miss trying to get there or away again!
posted at: 18:59 | path: /Travels2004/Bolivia | permanent link to this entry
Bolivian Boredom
After La Paz I took the bus to Cochabamba. Stayed there a few days and then took the bus Saturday to Santa Cruz de la Sierra. It was long twelve hour bus ride through the jungle. I have been hanging out in Santa Cruz the last couple days and going to leave tomorrow night for Vallegrande. Not much exciting to report as there is not much exciting going on.
posted at: 19:50 | path: /Travels2004/Bolivia | permanent link to this entry
In La Paz.
Yesterday morning (Sunday June 6th) I took a bus from Puno, Peru to La Paz, Bolivia. At the border we all had to unload and walk across. However it was a big fiesta weekend and when we arrived at the Bolivian side of the border everyone was at the church marching around and signing the national anthem and other songs. So all the gringos from the several buses were all lined up outside of the closed immigration office waiting for the parade to get over. It finally did and we loaded back onto the bus and were on our way.
But here is my favorite part...
We drove 8 KMs down the road to the town of Copacabana, Bolivia where we had an our to get lunch and afterwards change buses. When we first arrived into town a guy hoped on board to collect the city tax for entering Copacabana. It was a one Boliviano tax so about 14 cents American. And all of the sudden all these tourist start freaking out and bitching to the poor tax collector guy. "We were not told about this." "Were going to La Paz, we just won´t get out of the bus!" "We refuse to pay!" And they did. At least two girls flat our refused to pay. Other people were bitching about it and eventually paid. But it just pissed me off that these fucking tourists have no respect for the places they visit and can be such ignorant cheap assholes. I really hate other tourists a lot of the time. Oh yeah, and of course these people did not even attempt to speak spanish but blather about in english like everyone should understand them.
But that ugly part out of the way. Copacabana is a really cool town, even though I only saw a little bit of it. It is right on the Bolivian side of Lake Titicaca. I am definitely going to stop back there a couple days on my way back west.
The bus rolled into La Paz around 5pm and parked at a hotel and hostel somewhat near the center of town. I had a hostel picked out of my book near the center of town and figured that it was only about five blocks away or so from where I was. Right away a taxi driver asked me where I wanted to go and I told him and he quoted me two Bolivianos (about 25 cents), but I figured it was not very far and wanted to stretch my legs after being in the bus all day so I told him no thanks. I asked him which direction it was towards the Plaza San Francisco which was near where I wanted to go. He pointed me in the right direction and off I went. I was having a hard time figuring out where exactly I was on my map so I kept walking and asked a few more people where the Plaza de San Francisco was. They kept on pointing me all the same general directions. While I was walking I got to witness the end of the fiesta, Which meant lots of drunk people passed out on the sidewalks and even more drunk people all dressed up in nice clothes staggering around. It reminded me of one end of the night at one of the fraternity parties we used to have. But I kept walking and walking and tried to find myself on my map but when I did it never made sense because it looked like I was walking in the wrong direction. But I figured the local people must know where one of their own central plazas is, right? But apparently not. Eventually I ended up at the Plaza Sucre which I was able to easily locate on my map and figured out that instead of heading the four blocks north that I needed to go originally I had walked about 1 K east. So I had my bearings down at least and started the trek back towards the center of town. It was at about this point I had wished I had taken the taxi guy´s offer, but at this point I figured I set out on foot and I was sure as hell not going to give in a take a taxi now. I made it with little difficulty after that and made it to the hostel fine.
After resting up a bit I set out to wander the streets some more. It was pretty weird because I saw some people that were on the bus from Salta, Argentina to San Pedro, Chile with me walking around as well as some people that ate in the same restaurant as me the night before in Puno. They have lots of cool stuff for sale here though. Like basically any American CD you could want, all for only 10 Bolivianos (about $1.25) as well as any number of DVDs including movies that are still in the theaters now.
There are lots of hills here, the whole city is in one big canyon. It is hard work to just walk around too because La Paz is 4,000 meters high (13,123 feet). I am going to stay here a couple more days and then head east.
posted at: 14:05 | path: /Travels2004/Bolivia | permanent link to this entry
The Colca Canyon and More...
Wednesday morning (June 2nd) Thomas and I crammed ourselves into a van and headed out on our two day Colca Canyon tour. We left Arequipa about 9am and started driving north towards the village of Chivay. We finally arrived around 2pm after making a few stops at random barren locations where women had set up souvenir stands. Once in Chivay we had our lunch then got carted off to our hotel. A bit later that afternoon I went with the rest of the group to a hot springs near town for an hour long soak. It was very relaxing and had some super hot water in the pool. At night we went with the group for our dinner and were treated to a traditional folk show, which included some guys playing traditional instruments (guitar, flute thingies and drums) and a couple dancing all over the place.
Thursday morning we got up nice and early at 5:30am to drive two hours to see the canyon and watch condors (really big birds). We got picked up last so I had to sit in the jump seat that folded down in the isle way. A couple minutes after getting in the van I leaned back to reach into my back pocket for a tissue and (SNAP) the seat broke. I put too much pressure on the seat back and it broke the little bolt holding it up. We were going to spend all day in the van as we were headed back to Arequipa that night and the seat was bad enough in working condition and without the seat back it just totally sucked. So at the first stop I talked to my buddy the driver and he monkied around for a bit and ended up taking a bolt out of a different seat to fix it. Whew!
We got to the Colca Canyon around 8am and hung out for about an hour watching the condors fly around. It was absolutely amazing scenery and a very big canyon. I think it was 3,300 meters (10,800 feet) from the top of the mountains to the river flowing through the bottom of the canyon. After our hour was up we went on a little walk to another viewpoint a bit away and were treated to some more great views. Afterwards we loaded back into the van and started back towards Chivay. Along the way we stopped at a lookout where the canyon turned into a big valley full of farms and terraces. Amazing stuff! Once back in Chivay we were treated to another substandard lunch and eventually made it back to Arequipa around 5pm.
Thursday night Thomas and I had our final supper at La Italia and Friday morning Thomas left to make his way towards Santiago, Chile for his flight home on Monday night.
Friday I also departed Arequipa and made my way towards Puno. I got on the noon bus and was cruising along until we reached a town about an hour north of Puno. There all but eleven passengers got off the bus so the bus company sent us the rest of the way in a colectivo van. Most of the ladies on the bus with me got really mad about this but I just went with the flow. We got in the van and started going with no problems. About half way there though there was a pick up spot on the highway and we pulled over and a few more people got in. We ended up with nineteen people in a regular sized van. It was a little crowded and the ladies from the bus with me got all riled up. But we only had like 20 mins to go so it was no big deal. Once in Puno I hoped out at a point I figured was somewhat close to the center of town and the hostel I was planning on going to. The ladies in the van with me were overflowing me with information on how to get to the center of town and where it was so I ended up not really sure where I was. But a friendly bike taxi guy made the fatal mistake of approaching me and asking me if I wanted a ride. So I told him the hostel I wanted to go to he said "Cicno Soles." (About US$1.40). So I hopped on board and we headed towards the center of town with the poor guy pushing me most of the way. He really earned his dinero on that trip so I gave him a bit of a tip which he seamed very happy about.
Today I am going to visit some Inca ruins near here and then in the morning head off for La Paz, Bolivia.
posted at: 14:20 | path: /Travels2004/Peru | permanent link to this entry
¡Arequipa, Arequipa!
Thomas and I arrived in Arequipa, Peru on Saturday (May 29th) night. We left Arica in the early afternoon to head to the bus station only to find out that to get across the Chile - Peru border ment transport in a Colectivo. So we wandered over to the colectivo area and hired one of the many people with huge old shitty cars to drive us across the border for C$2,000 (US$3.30) each. We ended up having to wait almost an hour for our driver to secure three other passengers and we finally set out for the hour drive to Arica´s sister city of Tacna. Once we got to Tacna we found bus tickets for Arequipa with no problem but had a couple hours to kill. So we sat down at a little lunch counter in the bus station and I tried to order a Inca Kola but got a chicken sandwich instead. Which wasn´t bad as soon as I got my Inca Kola to wash it down with. On the bus to Arequipa we watched one of the strangest movies I have ever seen. It was an American gang/robber movie that was so poorly made and acted that Thomas and I just could not figure out how it possibly made it´s way to a bus in Peru. But at least it was in English.
We made it into Arequipa about 9pm and hired a taxi to take us to our hostel. The taxi driver told us that the hostel we wanted to go to was closed but he knew of a much better one. So I told him to take us there anyways and of course it was open and welcoming. Poor Thomas contracted my illness of last week on Saturday and came down with it way worse then I had it. So the last few days Thomas has been recuperating himself and today is doing much better. Luckally the hostel had a wide range of movies for us to watch (including Star Wars!) but when I asked if we could watch them the hostel worker said "The VCR is in my flat." And that was that. No movies.
So we have been hanging out in the "White City" of Arequipa the last few days just resting up and playing lots of Yatzee and War. We have dined at the Italian restaurant of legend (from our previous visit to Arequipa two years ago) a couple times and last night listened to the blind accordian player who played for us two years ago! It is very interesting making a second visit here. It seems like there are way more gringos here then before though. Which is kind of a shock after being in Chile and Argentina where there was a significantly less amount of gringos.
Tomorrow we are going to head to the Colca Canyon for a couple days and then Friday Thomas starts his journey back to Santiago, Chile to head home on Tuesday and I am going to go to Puno and then to La Paz, Bolivia.
posted at: 17:27 | path: /Travels2004/Peru | permanent link to this entry
Onward and Upwards...
Our time in Salta was pleasantly spent. On Sunday (May 23rd) we took the bus to San Pedro de Atacama, Chile. The road takes a pass over the Andes mountains which was 5,200 meters (17,100 feet). Being at such high altitude caused my stomach to rumble and tumble and I felt like I had a bayonet twirling around in there. Add to that a headache and difficulty breathing and it all adds up to a very miserable twelve hour bus ride. Thomas and his iron constitution did not have any trouble and pleasantly read his book during the bus ride.
After arriving at San Pedro we had to walk a bit into town from the customs station on the edge of town and got settled in to the Hostel International. San Pedro is a very cool little town with adobe buildings and dusty streets. The town and desert landscape is straight from the planet Tattoine (Star Wars). On Monday we did a tour to the Valley of the Moon, Tuesday a early morning (4AM) tour to the Geysers and Wednesday we did an all day tour to the Salama salt flats, some lakes & mountains and a caynon. After getting back to San Pedro at 6pm we hopped onto a bus and headed for Calama which is about an hour and a half away.
In Calama we checked out our bus options and found that there was a bus leaving at 9:30pm heading overnight to Arica, which is where we wanted to wind up. So we bought tickets from a little too friendly ticket agent and headed down the street to the local pub to kill the time before the bus. The bus ride went well and we got to Arica at 6am. After a quick taxi to the hotel we slept off the travel weariness and had a look around town. The plan from here is to head to Arequipa, Peru.
posted at: 09:23 | path: /Travels2004/Chile | permanent link to this entry
The Salta Update
Our foray into Paraguay on Tuesday was interesting. We took the bus from Puerto Iquazu for about an hour (only that long due to the traffic) through Brazil and over the Friendship bridge into Paraguay. The part of Cuiduad de el Este that we visited was basically a big market and really not that nice. However, Paraguay is blessed with a wide variety of Fanta flavors and the only thing I bought during my short stay in Paraguay was a strawberry flavored Fanta. Delicious! So we trodded around and got harrased by people for a few hours and then caught the bus back to Puerto Iquazu. And that was that.
Our long bus ride went pretty well and flew by except for the last couple hours when we knew we would be arriving soon and started getting antsy. Today we have been touring the town of Salta and took a cable car to the top of a hill overlooking the town. The plan from here is to leave Sunday morning for the Chilean town of San Pedro de Atacama.
posted at: 18:58 | path: /Travels2004/Argentina | permanent link to this entry
Oh Iquazu Falls
From Rosario we took an overnight bus north to Posada. Upon arriving in Posada we waited around a couple hours at the bus terminal and got on the next bus to Puerto Iquazu, which is a town very close to Iquazu Falls. The bus was of the local variety and we spent the next six hours picking up and dropping off a variety of people about every 10 minutes and visiting each little town and side road along the route to Puerto Iquazu. But we made it finally and got settled in fine.
Today (May 17th) Thomas and I visited the mighty Iquazu Falls. Simple put, it is an area where the river has 275 waterfalls all contained in a fairly small area. There were two main areas to see, one with lots of walking paths and the other with a grand view from above the falls. There is a little train that drops people off at each spot. Along the walking trails there were a variety of different views of the waterfalls and we could get very close at a few spots. We took a little boat across the channel at one spot to get a closer view of the smaller of the two main clusters of waterfalls. Then after getting back up to the train we visited the Garganta del Diablo (the Devil´s mouth). The view from there was amazing as we were basically right on top of a huge cluster of waterfalls with many more all around us. But that spot was easier to walk to so there were loads of people all over and was a bit crowded. After heading back towards the train we discovered a raft that offered to take us down the river back to the train station so we decided to go on that. It was very cool and we got to see some turtles, alligators and some different birds. At one point the boat paddler slash guide motioned for me to come close and then flicked something off my shoulder. It was giant ant that had landed on me I guess. I am just glad it was not a spider! After disembarking the boat we had a short walk back to the entrance and caught the next bus back to town.
Tomorrow we are going to attempt a foray into Paraguay and then come back to Puerto Iguazu to leave tomorrow night at 9:45pm to head to the town of Salta. It is going to be an endurance test as we will not arrive into Salta until 11pm on the following night. So about 25 hours on the bus which is unfortunately not the Cama (the best kind) class that has three seats across but just a Semi-Cama which has four seats.
posted at: 18:20 | path: /Travels2004/Argentina | permanent link to this entry
Heading away from B.A.
We stayed in Buenos Aires from Monday until today (Friday). Thomas and I had a great time exploring the huge city and checking out it´s many sights. We took a city tour one day, visited the Recoleta neighborhood, did a shit load of walking and ate at a bunch of different restaurants, saw the movie Troy, and of course had our obligatory dining experience at the Golden Arches.
Today we headed four hours north to Rosario on a very stuffy and hot bus and the plan is to head further north towards Iguazu falls tomorrow on the overnight bus.
posted at: 18:00 | path: /Travels2004/Argentina | permanent link to this entry
In B.A.
Well, when we were planning on going on the overnight bus we showed up at the station in Viedma only to find there were no buses going that night. So we chilled another night in Viedma and bought a ticket for the overnight bus on Sunday. In Viedma little kids seem to be very intrigued by me. At one restaurant we went to there was a kid who was staring at me the whole meal then when he went to leave he came