My Trip through Latin America

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2008-04-27T09:03:00.000-07:00

Hi folks,

If you have any comments, feel free to add them here. Just click on the Comment link below.

Thanks
Ryan

Personal Reflections & What's Next

2008-04-26T14:45:00.000-07:00

A number of friends have asked me some great questions since I came back from my trip. "Based on your experiences, are you now more optimistic about the world or less? Were the people really that different than here? Did the amount of poverty you saw effect you in any way? Has anything about your trip changed your perspective of yourself or the world around you? And, if so, how will that impact what you do next?"

I thought I’d take a few moments to answer some of their questions and add some personal observations along the way.

As most people know, I quit my job at Yahoo! last year in order to take some time to travel through Latin America. I’ve been calling it a sabbatical since my objective was not to escape reality, but to go through a deeper process of self discovery. I felt that spending time away from my daily routine, and, in particular, putting myself in a completely different environment, would reveal interests, dreams, and even fears that were a little more difficult to recognize in the regular course of my life. It’s that “space” away that I felt would help me see the thought patterns preventing me from trying new things and maybe even experiencing a greater sense of fulfillment.

That said, I purposefully created a set of experiences on my trip that pushed me beyond my comfort zones. You can read about some of them on my travel blog starting with my trip to Guatemala. Some experiences left a deep impression immediately. Others were more of a slow burn. And others would happen in the quiet moments when I least expected. Below are some personal reflections about my trip and a few thoughts on how they’re impacting what I do next.

Confronting my pre-conceptions

I heard that phrase constantly before I left. I knew I had them, but how strong, or even how deeply seeded were they? How would they impact the way I related to people who were completely different than myself? Would I fear being in certain neighborhoods or being around certain people? And was that fear justified (because I really was threatened in some way) or was it created by my own pre-conceptions and really just preventing me from having a good time?

My first experience dealing with these questions occurred in Guatemala, the first stop of my six month trip. I had heard so many things about Guatemala before I left -- there were massive hurricanes during the time of my visit, the crime rate was sky-rocketing, and the Presidential elections (which occurred in the Fall of ’07) were creating significant enough tensions that many people in both parties were being assassinated. What limited news coverage I read about the country had already created a perception in my mind that it would be like “landing in Bosnia under sniper fire."

So, I checked out the online travel forums to get some perspectives from the people who were actually traveling or living there. And, of course, their perspectives were much different than those on the news. No surprise there. Most people on the forums said that, in large part, Guatemala was very peaceful, and they simply recommended areas of the cities to avoid or particular precautions to take. Basically, act and be like any smart traveler. All very encouraging words. Of course, the closer I got to my departure date, the more influenced I was by all of the noise in the news. And my fears were only intensified. Why in the heck did I choose it in the first place? I must be out of my mind! But that little voice in me (not the one that creates the endless cycles of worry. The opposite of that one.) said I’d regret it if I didn’t go. Luckily my calmer self prevailed.

When I arrived in Guatemala I took a taxi to Antigua, a city about an hour away from the capital, and I was dropped off at my host family’s house. I had asked the Spanish language school I was in to place me with a family and knew that the conditions would be very basic relative to my place back home. All this I knew intellectually. But still it was interesting for me to step back and watch my initial reactions when I arrived, and I saw where I would be staying. For me the living conditions didn’t bother me. In fact, I liked those experiences and sometimes would even seek them out when traveling abroad. What I noticed instead were my thoughts about safety. All of those images and stories in the news made me feel that Guatemala at every turn would be unsafe. And I immediately connected the image of a relatively basic looking house in a poor to middle class neighborhood, to be unsafe. I had traveled quite a bit previously but still maintained these fears, even if I wasn’t always conscious of how they manifested themselves. Would I ever get over them?

It took me a week to really settle in and feel more comfortable. And ever so slowly my perspective changed, in large part, due to the people and the families I had met during that first week. The people who would give me a simple nod hello as I’d walk to school, or the store clerk who would be patient enough to have a conversation with me in my limited Spanish, or even just talking to my host family about their lives. In fact, the more deeply I got to know the people there (and really listen deeply), the more I was able to see beyond the physical facades of the neighborhood and recognize the same basic fears and hopes that all people have.

By no means did I perfect this, but as I continued to “stand outside of myself” and observe my own pre-conceptions, the more ridiculous they seemed and the more my fears subsided. Now, all this certainly didn’t mean letting my guard down and walking down questionable streets alone or with a camera around my neck. That’s the last thing I’d want to do when traveling. I was still very much aware of my surroundings. But the pre-judging of an entire neighborhood, or street, or household was slowly lifted. And because of that, I allowed myself to develop much deeper friendships with the people there (and in other countries later) than I would have otherwise. And quite frankly, it just allowed me to have a good time and not concern myself with false worries.

Guatemala made it possible for me to see and experience my surroundings in future countries with a slightly different lens. And it’s my belief that because I was so much more open after my experience in Guatemala, I ended up meeting some extraordinary people along the rest of my trip. And, in the end, it was really the people who made my trip worth it. The check-list of places to see, although still important to me, became secondary. It was the deeper interactions with others that helped me to see more deeply into myself. These are just a few of the many great people I met along my travels. For more you can check out my flickr photos or my overall travel summary.

I certainly had a ton of opportunities along the way to observe different cultures. Another such opportunity occurred in the Amazon Jungle in Peru, my final stop before I would head back to the U.S. My friends Jason, Joanna and I spent four days in a jungle lodge along the Amazon River, and every day we went out with a guide to explore the wildlife in the surrounding rivers and lakes. We’d often come across local villages along the way and observe the relatively modest conditions of the people. Everywhere I went I’d always wonder how people felt about their lives, their living conditions, etc… Even though I’d see things that were so different than my experiences back home -- houses with no walls, school houses that looked pretty flimsy (could the kids study under those conditions?), and a few other stories that are best not shared in case you’re eating right now – how did people feel about this?

On our last day trip along the river, our guide was talking about life in one of the villages. A village very close to where he grew up. He told us a few stories as we were passing by and then there was silence. He stared out at the village with a smile and said, “They don’t have a lot, but believe me, they’re really happy people.” It was such a simple statement that I could have easily dismissed it. I had heard people say that before. But when I looked at his smile and the smiles and laughter of the kids in the village, the significance of the words really hit me. I had observed those same expressions my entire trip from young and old alike. But particularly from the kids. There were so many kids that always had such great expressions, regardless of the conditions they were in. Their smiles would always be my inspiration.

Here are just a few of the smiles I captured along the way.

There’s no place like the present

Like many people, I often spend a lot of energy thinking about the past or the future. I heard a statistic the other day that most people, in fact, spend over 90% of their time worrying about the past or the future. I don’t know how they came up with that number, but I can say from personal experience it certainly feels true at times. For me these “mindless exercises” can be exaggerated when traveling given that every day is so new and unpredictable. What if all the good hostels are booked up when I get to the lake in Argentina? What if I get robbed on the bus in Bolivia? What if I don’t maximize every last minute of this trip and it’s a total waste of time? And in the meantime the most beautiful scenery in the world could be passing me by. And, in the end, there’s nothing at that moment I could do about the questions anyways. And those are a just few scenarios. I can probably write a book of internal conversations I had with myself while traveling.

There were a couple experiences, though, that continue to remind me of the importance of being in the present and quieting my mind.

The first was in Costa Rica. After I volunteered in Puerto Viejo, I decided to head down to Panama. Instead of taking a taxi or a bus to the border, I thought it would be more interesting to work my way down along the coast. The first night I decided to stay at a place called, Punta Mona, a 100 acre organic farm and educational retreat that was half way between Puerto Viejo and the border. To get there you had to take a boat in, and to get out you had to hike along the beach. You can read a bit more about my experience at Punta Mona if you click here.

After I spent the night there, I had breakfast and started on my way towards the border. The folks at Punta Mona told me I’d have to hike along a deserted beach and eventually would get to a small town where I could find a taxi to the border. I began my journey and felt like I was in the middle of nowhere. Of course, what usually accompanies being in the middle of nowhere for me are loads of nonsensical questions -- What if there really is no town down the beach where I can grab a taxi to the border? What if it’s there and I just don’t find it because…well…just because? What if there’s a Tsunami while I’m walking? What if the Lockness monster jumps out of the ocean and drags me out to sea. It’s always those last few outrageous questions that pull me out of my downward spiral. Once I recognized the absurdity of my thinking, my fears subsided, and I became aware of what was around me. No people, no houses, no sense of time. Just the sound of the ocean and the wind blowing through the jungle. And me. There was literally no one else around for miles. And it was in that stillness that I really started to notice just how beautiful it was there. How many times in my life back home had I asked for something like this? I just need to get away from everyone and everything for an hour or two – no phone calls, no blackberries, no deadlines. And now that moment had arrived. Literally. How was I going to spend it? In fear or in awe. I had a choice and I took it, if only because I probably wouldn’t have an experience like this again. Within minutes my “hike of terror” turned into one of the most peaceful hikes on my trip. And with that I lost sense of time, and before I knew it I made it to the next town along the beach.

At times like those, being in the present allowed me to appreciate my surroundings. At other times it allowed me to find answers to questions that I could have easily dismissed if I hadn’t been watching the clues around me. I found this to be true in so many places throughout my trip, but one in particular was in the desert region of Argentina.

I was on another 20 hour bus ride (fun), and the only thing I wanted to do was figure out a way to fall asleep. Of course trying to fall asleep never works for me, so I laid there thinking about what I’d do once I arrived. I had heard that renting a car was really the best way to see the desert. However, drum roll….I forgot my driver’s license back in the states. Brilliant, Ryan. So much for that option.

As I was sitting on the bus, a guy walked up and sat down next to me. I could tell right away he wanted to strike up a conversation. We exchanged a few pleasantries, and I worked my way back into a slumber position. That lasted for all but three seconds, only to be jarred awake again by a girl who then sat down to my left. Somehow I found myself in the ambassador position conversing with both of them at different times. Where are you from? To my left. Why are you traveling? To my right. And from there we all fell into the same conversation. Great. That’s the end of my opportunity for sleep. I resisted for a bit but eventually realized how futile it was and, I just surrendered. I’ll get sleep some other time, I decided to fully engage in the conversation.

We talked about one topic after the other until after an hour the guy to my right, Avishay said…”You know…I’ve been thinking of renting a car when I get to the desert but would love to have some folks to travel with. You all interested?” Bingo! And so it was. Once we arrived, we rented a car, and I ended up seeing some of the most beautiful landscapes in Argentina with two really fun and interesting people. If I had fallen asleep on the bus instead of just watching the clues around me, I probably would have had a very different experience. Surrendering and being fully present created the opportunity I was looking for. Here are a few places in the desert I ended up going because of that opportunity to travel with them. You can read more about my travels through the desert of Argentina by clicking here.

The power of giving and gratitude

I had decided a few months prior to leaving on my trip through Latin America, that I’d spend two weeks in Bolivia and Peru with a bunch of friends from San Francisco. Our friend, Naomi, had recently taken a six month sabbatical from work, raised over $111k and was using that to build sixteen houses in Bolivia with the support of Habitat for Humanity (if interested you can check out her project at http://www.buildchangewithnaomi.com/). Those houses would end up supporting 100 new homeowners who were among lower income families.

We spent our first week helping her build one of the houses in a town called Cochabamba. There were a few basic things that we were able to help out with. The first, and most critical for the family, was filling in the foundation of the home. This is often a task that the family has to do on their own without the help from the hired workers who spend the time building and constructing the house. It can take weeks, or even months, of back-breaking work to completely fill in the foundation. Our task was to help them dig up dirt and rocks near the construction site and wheel them into the two bedrooms, the bathroom, and the kitchen in order to eventually lay over the concrete flooring. It took over eight of us (along with the family) about four full days to do this, and then we spent the rest of the time mixing the cement that would be used as mortar to pour in between the bricks.

By the last day, The Director of Habitat for Humanity in Bolivia flew out from the city of Santa Cruz and performed a blessing for the house and for the family. Naomi also spoke and everyone thanked her for what an incredible job she had done organizing and believing in this project. It was the family’s turn to speak and the mother began to say a few words. She immediately started tearing up, and there was a moment of silence as she built up the courage again to speak. She thanked us for giving our time and our energy to helping them with a dream. She thanked us for using our vacation time to help people we didn’t even know and who lived so far from them. “Because of you,” she said, “We now have a home for my children to live in.” It was the most powerful moment of the day. I looked around at the faces of my friends and of the fellow Habitat members. At that moment who we were, where we were from, what languages we spoke...none of it mattered. It was the power of giving and the power of gratitude that transcended any differences we had. I know for many of us it was the most grateful moment of our trip to have been a part of.

Asking a slightly different question about my future

So, as many of you know already, I had quit my job and moved out of my apartment in San Francisco before I left on my trip. I loved the apartment, but it wasn’t possible to keep paying for it while I was gone. I was also no longer Sr. Director of Marketing at Yahoo!, and it was the first time in a very long time that I didn't have an official work title. That begged the question. How do I describe who I am or what I do? Without getting too existential here, it’s actually an interesting exercise once you start removing the layers of your life and as ask who you really are.

To my surprise (or not so much) the conversation about my profession didn’t come up a whole lot when I met other travelers. Or if it did we didn’t talk too much about each other’s professional lives. I must admit, it was a little jarring at first but a welcomed changed. So, that part of the narrative of my life, “I’m a marketer at so and so company” was no longer part of the conversation. And with that came a sense of freedom to think about what my real dreams and interests were. Would they be different or the same?

Along the way, I met a woman named Lesley who owned a hostel in Cusco, Peru. I had heard about her hostel from the guidebook and also found myself peeking in one day. We got to talking and I eventually found out about her story. Almost 20 years prior she came to Peru, from South Africa, to visit Cusco and Machu Picchu. The people had such a profound impact on her, that she came back a number of times over the next few years until finally she realized it was meant for her to just live there. She picked up her life and brought her two sons out there to start a new life. They now own a hostel, a travel agency and a very popular music venue and bar in town. That's a picture of her beautiful place up in the hills of Cusco. How did she come to do all this? She told me that she eventually realized and accepted that it was her path. And she said it to me in such a way that it chose her vs. the other way around. I was deeply impacted by what she said. She had completely changed her whole way of life to move out to Peru and follow something that was a bit unknown and unproven.

At the time I was also reading a great book called the Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. It was my third time reading it, and this time I was working my way through it in Spanish with my friend, Mr. Dictionary. In the book there’s a phrase that would always stick with me. “When you follow your personal legend, the whole universe conspires to help you achieve it.” That phrase really got me thinking. Is what my ego telling me to do matching up with what something much deeper is calling me to do? And how do I distinguish between them in the first place? I spent a good deal of time reflecting on that and imagining the things that just made me happy, fulfilled and gave me a feeling of peace. I accompanied that with a question, “If there was no way I could be unsuccessful with what I pursued, what would I do?”

It didn’t come to me immediately but I sat with that for a couple months afterwards. I’d write in my journal from time to time and reflect on how I felt about each passing thought. I remember talking to one of my friends one day about an issue he was having at work and in his personal life. And then it clicked. I had always known this to be true but had pushed it aside so many times. I loved connecting with people but not just to hear their story, but to really help them in some way. While at my past companies, I always enjoyed helping the people on my team find and develop their unique talents, helping them become better leaders, and simply helping them find ways to reduce the pain, or stress, of their daily lives. In fact, I enjoyed that as much as I did the marketing. For whatever reason, I wanted to see people follow their paths and be more successful and more fulfilled.

After a few more weeks thinking about what types of professions would fit well with that insight about myself, I landed on a profession that I had thought about before but had always dismissed. This time, without all the constraints of what I thought I should or shouldn't do, it became so clear. It was executive coaching – helping folks become better managers and leaders within an organization and also just helping them to be happier and more fulfilled in their daily lives. I decided I had to explore the coaching profession more when I got back to the States.

So, where does that leave me? Since I've been back I've decided to do two things.

First, continue with my marketing profession, simply because I love it, I know I can still add value there, and I always have fun doing it. Second, I’ve decided to apply for an executive coaching program and do it part time over the next year. Whether I become a full time executive coach, I do it on the side, or it just helps me to become a better manager, time will tell. For now, the little voice is speaking again. The good one that is.

So, what am I doing in the immediate term? I’ve decided to do freelance marketing (specifically brand strategy and product marketing) on a project basis unless the right full-time opportunity comes along that gives me the flexibility to go back to school part time. I’m excited and have already been talking to a number of companies about the possibilities. If you want to know more about what I’m thinking, or have interesting projects that you think would be a good match, just let me know.

And with that I’d like to thank you for reading about my personal reflections of the trip. I appreciate your interest and the time you took to read it. I hope you enjoyed it. These are, of course, just a few of my thoughts on the trip and on where I’m headed. I have many more that I will save for 1 on 1 conversations and maybe future blog posts.

Take care and peace to everyone,
Ryan

Complete Photo Gallery

2008-04-21T21:58:00.000-07:00

Hi,

I've stored all of my photos on a site called Flickr. If you'd like to see them in "Slideshow" mode just click on that link in the upper right once you get to each page. Enjoy!

If you want a condensed version go here --> The Quick Story
OR
To see all photos by country click below:

1. Guatemala (Antigua, Tikal, Volcanoes, and Lake Atitlan)

2. Costa Rica (The Caribbean coast)

3. Panama (Islands of Bocas del Tora)

4. Bolivia (La Paz, Cochabamba)

5. Peru (Cusco, Machu Picchu, Sacred Valley, Lake Titicaca, Lima)

6. Patagonia
a. Argentinian side
b. Chilean side

7. Argentina
a. Buenos Aires (Capital city of Argentina)
b. Bariloche (The Lake District)
c. Mt. Aconcagua (Highest mountain in the Western hemisphere)
d. Salta (And the surrounding desert regions in the north)
e. Iguazu Falls (Massive Waterfalls in Argentina and Brazil)

8. Iquitos, Peru (Amazon Rainforest)

8. Peru (Trip 2) - (3/10/08 - 3/24/08)

2008-04-19T21:40:00.000-07:00

Cusco
See all photos of Iquitos, Peru --> Iquitos Photos

I decided that I wanted Peru to be my last stop before heading back to the U.S., so I changed my return ticket. I decided to visit Cusco again for a little over a week and met up with some friends that I had made from the last visit there. The people were incredibly welcoming, and we spent a lot of time talking about our travels. I also played in the band again while I was there. My fans were awaiting anxiously, of course, for my return. All three of them. :)

This time, instead of the bongos, I played the Cajón, which is a kind of box drum played by slapping the front face with your hands. I had no idea what I was doing, but I pretended I did so that seemed to carry me through. That drum ended up being a ton of fun to play.

The cajón is a really common percussion instrument in Peru which has its origins from the slaves that came to the Americas from West and Central Africa. There's a couple theories as to it's existence. One says that Peruvian slaves in port cities used Spanish shipping crates at their disposal. Another theory posits that the slaves used them since they were easily disguised as seats or stools. Whatever the truth, if played right, it sounds pretty cool and can make many of the sounds of a full drum set.

Iquitos

After Cusco I flew to Iquitos which is in the northeastern part of Peru and located on the Amazon River. Iquitos is the world's largest city that can only be reached by boat or plane. Travelers usually come here as a jumping off point to do an excursion into the jungle or a trip down the Amazon River. I met up with my friends Jason and Joanna in Lima, and we opted for the plane option and decided we'd stay in an amazon lodge on the river.

We got into Iquitos, checked into a hostel and hung out in the town that night. As lonely planet puts it, "Iquitos has a unique personality: friendly, noisy, sassy and slightly manic," which is pretty much right on in its description. Part of that has to do with the thousands of Tuk Tuk taxis racing around the streets trying to get your businesss.

The next day we took a speed boat to a jungle lodge called Muyuna (h tt p://www.muyuna.com/), which was located on the amazon river, 140 km’s (80 miles) upstream of the river from the city of Iquitos. Along the way I was actually surprised at how many local people lived along the river banks.

Once we got to the lodge, which was located in a beautiful and very peaceful part of the river, we had lunch and then took an afternoon hike through the jungle to say hello to the local flora and fauna. Mostly what said hello to me were the millions of mosquitos that were eating their way through my two layers of shirts. Don’t try this at home – enter large amazon jungle right after afternoon rains with large mosquitos the size of a small hummingbird.

Our guide grew up in the amazon and literally knew the names of all the species in our area. He was a huge wealth of knowledge. He's the guy below with the massive machete.

The following three days we took numerous boat trips out along the lakes and rivers to search for birds, snakes, taranchalas, monkeys, dolphins (believe it or not), and a list of about 2000 other species in the area. It was a truly amazing ecosystem of plants and animals.

This was one of the boats we'd take out every day to tour around the Amazon. We'd often find ourselves moving through huge areas of floating plants which would often get stuck in the engine. This was us getting stuck for a while. Jason decided that a nap in the jungle was the best remedy.

The last day we visited a local tribe and met some of the elders in the village. Our lodge was owned by a local who has a partnership with the local village. Many of the villagers were actually employed by the lodge. Additionally, the lodge supported the local community by paying for medical services for the villagers. The little cubicle in the photo on the bottom left is their jail. They said they can fit about 3 people in there at a time. I looked inside. It's not a place you want to hang out for too long. The building on their right is the local school.

Lima

The final stop for me in Peru was Lima. I spent a couple days here just relaxing and touring around the city.

See all photos of Iquitos, Peru --> Iquitos Photos

Read about my reflections of the trip --> Personal Reflections

See complete photo gallery --> Latin America Photo Gallery

Add your comments

7. Argentina (12/28/07 - 3/10/08)

2008-04-19T21:37:00.000-07:00

Next Country --> 8. Peru (Trip #2)

Buenos Aires

See all photos of Buenos Aires --> Buenos Aires Photos

It wasn’t until Buenos Aires that I was able to take a bit of a break and enjoy living in a city for a while. I even rented an apartment (through a great agent, Andrea) and stayed in a part of town called Palermo Hollywood. Hard to believe but that’s actually the real name. I spent almost five weeks in Buenos Aires, immersing myself in the culture and trying to speak as much Spanish as possible. I took Spanish lessons every day, read the local newspaper, and met up with people at cafes and restaurants. Aside from trying to communicate with the locals, this was certainly the part of the trip where I was able to avoid the normal difficulties of traveling.

Buenos Aires was massive and there was a ton to do – visit museums, theaters, tango shows (the Tango dancer to the right pulled me onto the stage with her), historic centers, cemeteries with famous dead people. I visited the old immigrant neighborhoods of La Boca and San Telmo that have weekend antique markets and where street artists perform. I also spent a ton of time in parks spread throughout the city. If there’s any city that has an overabundance of parks it’s Buenos Aires. Also not to be missed was the heart of the city called, Plaza de Mayo and the Casa Rosada (Government Palace), where politicians preached to the masses, including Eva Peron. Madonna also filmed here when she stared in the movie, Evita.

One last note about Buenos Aires. If you like steak with a good wine, this is the place to get it.

Bariloche

See all photos of Bariloche --> Bariloche Photos

By end of January I found myself getting a little antsy and decided to travel by bus through Argentina and wing the rest of my trip. With that I took off to a Lake district called Bariloche, which I had heard was the most beautiful network of lakes in Argentina. After seeing it I’d say it may be one of the most beautiful I’ve seen in the world.

I arrived on January 28th with no real plan, found a hostel downtown and began meeting fellow travelers. I soon learned that almost every outdoor activity known to mankind existed in Bariloche – rafting (that's my friend Devin and I on the right), kayaking, hiking, laying on the beach (ok not a sport), mountain biking, climbing, the list goes on. I ended up staying in this utopian city for ten days.

Most of the people I spent time with in Bariloche were from Spanish speaking countries – Argentina, Chile, Colombia -- and a good portion from Buenos Aires. In fact, I probably met more people from Buenos Aires traveling around Argentina (and in particular Bariloche) than I did while I was staying in Buenos Aires. Of course, most of the conversations were in Spanish, so it was a great opportunity to practice every day. Fortunately, everyone was incredibly patient with me. I usually spent my time listening, nodding, and pretending to know what everyone was talking about. I figured there were only so many times I could say…”can you say that one more time?” That said it was a great experience and one of the most relaxing times I had on my whole trip. Many of us still keep up with each other over email. In the top picture from left to right, meet Nicolas, Lula, and Devin, and in the picture to the right meet Pia, Claudia and Nicolas. And also the addition of our Colombian friend, Mauricio, in the bottom, right picture.

Mendoza and Mt. Aconcagua
See all Photos of Mt. Aconcagua --> Mt. Aconcagua Photos

After the land of Utopia, I took an eighteen hour bus ride (you get used to them after a while) to the city of Mendoza, the wine capital of Argentina and also home to the largest mountain in the Western Hemisphere, Mt. Aconcagua. Although I checked out some wineries there, my main purpose was to get a glimpse of the mountain. There was no way in the world I was ready to climb the whole thing but a few days of hiking around it was a must.

Once I got to Mendoza, I immediately signed up for a three day hike that would work its way up to about 14.2k ft. Aconcagua stands at 6,962 meters (22,841 ft), so there was a whole lot more to go to get to the top. After my trip to Kilimanjaro a year before, I had pretty much vowed never to go past 19.5k ft again.

The week before, Aconcagua apparently experienced the worst weather of the summer -- huge snow storms covered the entire mountain. Fortunately, when we arrived, there were clear skies, and I was able to get some great photos of the mountain up close. Well…from 9k ft below the peak but…who’s counting.

The three day hike around the mountain was just what I needed, and with that I was ready to head to the next city.

Salta

See all Photos of Salta --> Salta Photos

My next stop was Salta, home to the Argentinian desert and many of the remaining indigenous populations. Salta was a relatively new city in Argentina and was founded in 1852 with the intention of being an outpost between Lima and Buenos Aires. It’s also now a huge tourist destination and a jumping off point to check out the surrounding desert regions. Getting to Salta was my next twenty hour bus ride.

Fortunately, when you’re on a twenty hour bus ride, there are often people to talk to. On the bus from Mendoza to Salta, I ended up meeting a guy from Israel, Avishay, who was touring around South America for a few months and a girl from the U.S., Ricki, who was working as a mountain guide in Chile. After endless hours of talking, we decided that we’d rent a car once we were in Salta and take a four day trip to the surrounding desert regions.

The next day we did just that and took off on the road to Cafayate which is to the south of Salta. The landscapes were incredibly diverse – lush forests, mountains that were thousands of meters high, deserts with huge cacti (and huge cactuses), incredibly unique rock formations along the way, and lots of dust. I was almost glad we were driving on a dirt road so we could just take our time and observe the landscape. Of course, after hours and hours....and then a few more hours of driving this is what generally happens:

We eventually arrived in Cafayate, pitched our tent and worked our way to the local fiesta in town. The people in town were really nice. At first, as they smiled towards my general direction, I thought they were potentially looking at a friends of theirs in the distance. But as it turns out they were saying hello to us and were just extremely welcoming. We paid a bit to get into their festival and danced the night away. Or really danced an hour or two away and then went to bed.

The next day we drove further south to the town of Quilmes. The Quilmes tribe, as we learned, survived contact with the Incas from AD 1480 onwards but didn't last the siege of the Spaniards who, in 1667, deported the last 2000 inhabitants to Buenos Aires. Unfortunately, it was another tragic story about the fate of the native populations and one that was important for us to keep learning about.

Ironically, the name of the national beer in Argentina is called Quilmes.

We spent the day checking out the ruins of Quilmes and learning a little more history of the area, and then we worked our way back to Salta to drop off Ricki and say our goodbyes. At the hostel we picked up two new travelers, Jose and Maria, and the four of us continued on our journey to the north of Salta to see some unforgettable landscapes.

The first stop was at the town of Purmamarca, home of the Cerro de los Siete Colores, or Hill of Seven Colors. And there were literally seven distinct colors in that mountain, which, fortunately, I have proof of in the picture to the right. We spent a good two hours there just touring around and taking pictures of the mountains. I didn’t know mountains could be that colorful.

Afterwards we continued driving and worked our way to Salinas Grandes, the salt flats of Argentina. The cool thing about salt flats, other than the geography, is that you can create some pretty interesting effects with your camera. Along with the photo of myself to the left, I also have a bunch more in my photo gallery of Argentina.

After being completely enamored by the area, we decided it was time to find a place to stay. The sun was setting, and we needed to find some shelter from the impending storm that was coming our way. We were originally going to camp right out in the middle of the salt flats but the lightening storm in the distance was too dangerous, so we decided to head towards the nearest town.

Fortunately, for us we found a hostel right smack in the middle of the salt flats and decided to stay there for the night instead of driving 30 to 40 more miles into the storm. The rooms were $3/night. "Ok...twist my arm. We'll take it."

We unpacked, got settled into our rooms and worked our way back outside to check out the storm. After a few minutes I saw the most incredible sunset of my life. One part of the sky looked like the horizon had just exploded and there was a massive yellow and orange glow in between the clouds above and the salt flats below. The other side of the sky was pitch black, due to the oncoming storm, and we could see bolts of lightning about every ten seconds. If there was ever an apocalypse, I think this is what it would look like. It was unreal.

We sat there for an hour in silence watching the sky change colors and the lightening show grow by the minute. Fortunately, it never got close enough that we had to get inside, but it certainly came close.

The next day we visited a few more sites along the way back to Salta and spent the night in Salta eating (the usual) and endulging ourselves in a massive Argentinian BBQ.

The deserts around Salta ended up being some of the most incredible landscapes of my trip.

Iguazu Falls

See all Photos of Iguazu --> Iguazu Falls Photos

I headed back to Buenos Aires and took an hour flight directly to Iguazu Falls. It was quite literally the most impressive waterfalls I had ever seen in my life. And it’s not just one waterfall but a huge network of them spread out over the national park.

Probably the most impressive of all of them was the one called Garganta del Diablo, or Devil’s Throat. It’s a U-shaped 150-meter-wide and 700-meter-long (490ft by 2300 feet) cliff of water which marks the border between Argentina and Brazil. The sheer power of it will blow you away. Here's a quick video:

I spent the rest of the day hiking around and watching the remaining network of waterfalls that were spread throughout the park. It was just incredible. I also took a boat that took us right under one of the waterfalls.

I spent a day and a half in Iquazu, which was plenty of time to take it all in, and then took a quick flight back to Buenos Aires.

Buenos Aires (Visit #3)

Upon returning from Iguazu, I ended up staying in a couple of different hostels in Buenos Aires over about two and a half weeks. Again I visited friends I had made in Buenos Aires in January as well as ones I had met during my travels throughout Argentina. They were such a great group of people – my great friend, Pia, who's smiling at everyone in the picture to the left, Lula, Devin, Nicolas, Lorena and my friend Ignacio. They really made Buenos Aires a fun and very special time during my travels.

My third time in Buenos Aires, I didn't have a huge agenda other than to speak as much Spanish as possible, visit friends and see a few last remaining sites in the area, and survive the incredible summer heat. For a few days the weather actually changed dramatically, and there were huge terrential rains. One day, in fact, it rained so much that there was actually a massive flood in Buenos Aires, with cars starting to float down the street. It was the first time in Buenos Aires had that much rain in such a short amount of time, and the drainage system was unable to handle the onslought. Here's a picture of what it looked like as the waters started to rise and overtake the cars on the street. We actually weren't able to leave our hostel for a few hours. Eventually, everything turned back to normal. Just a little final drama to round out my trip.

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When it was all said and done, I had spent about two and a half months in Argentina. It was the most geographically diverse country I had visited along the way with stunning scenery everywhere I went. If you like the outdoors, there's not many other countries in the world that can provide the diversity of landscape like in Argentina. If you're interested, go for it!

Click here to see next country-> 8. Peru (Trip #2)

Click here to see all photos of regions in Argentina

--> Buenos Aires Photos

--> Bariloche Photos

--> Mt. Aconcagua Photos

--> Salta Photos

--> Iguazu Falls Photos

6. Patagonia (12/15/07 - 12/28/07)

2008-04-19T21:35:00.000-07:00

Next Place --> 7. Argentina

Patagonia

See all photos of Patagonia (Argentina) --> Argentinian Patagonia

See all photos of Patagonia (Chile) --> Chilean Patagonia

After Peru, I flew directly to Buenos Aires, Argentina to catch an organized, two week tour through Patagonia. Patagonia is a region located in the southern part of Argentina and Chile that is home to endless beauty -- immense glaciers, snow-capped mountains, and beautiful rivers and lakes. If you see a postcard of Patagonia, it actually looks like that in real life.

It was my first organized tour of the trip, and I was glad to have someone do all of the work for me. For fourteen days we worked our way back and forth between the Argentinian and Chilean regions of Patagonia. There were twelve of us, all from English speaking countries: Australia, U.S., England, and Canada. As usual the Australian, Craig, was the life of the party -- smiling, drinking, laughing, drinking.

Out of the fourteen days, we spent about eight of those days on six or seven hour hikes. It was draining but worth the pain. There were glaciers, lakes, and rivers everywhere. The water was so pure, in fact, that we were able to drink right from the streams since it originated directly from the glaciers. The glacier water actually tasted better than the bottled water, so I stopped buying bottled water after a while.

To start off, we flew into El Calafate which was a town in the northern part of Patagonia. El Calafate looks like a ski resort in Lake Tahoe, California – nice cabins, cool shops and restaurants, people in their fleeces. We spent the day and night there eating our way to sleep.

Glacier National Park and the Morena Glacier

The next morning we took a bus to Glacier National Park which is home to the massive Perito Moreno Glacier, a 197 ft wall of ice that chokes off a narrow canal called Canal de los Tempanos (Channel of Ice Bergs). The southern continental ice field, the second largest on the planet (after Greenland's) is the source of all the area's glaciers, including Moreno, Onelli, Viedma and Upsala. Moreno Glacier moves down from a massive river of frozen water, and huge chunks of ice constantly crash into the lake waters below. Apparently, Moreno is one of the very few advancing glaciers left in the world. And it’s ENORMOUS -- 1 km (half a mile) wide and 60m (196 ft) high.

We all spent about an hour standing at various angles and locations along the glacier, waiting for a huge pieces of ice to break off and fall into the lake below. Unfortunately, I was always either turned around or walking uphill when something fell. But the sound of it was enough to make an impression. We also took an hour boat tour that allowed us to get up close to the massive wall of ice. The glacier was a great first impression of Patagonia.

El Chaltén and the Fitz Roy Mountains

In the afternoon we took a five hour bus ride up to the small town of El Chaltén, which is at the base of Glacier National Park. Hikers and climbers from around the world go here so they can trek around the park or try to climb the 3441m high Fitz Roy mountain. The Fitzroy peaks are an incredible site and spiral up into the sky from the third largest ice field on earth. We took two full-day hikes into the park, first to Laguna de Los Tres to really see Fitzroy up close and then the next day to Laguna Torre for a different perspective of the lakes, glaciers, and surrounding mountains.

Each night we stayed in the little town of El Chaltén, which is at the base of the mountains. Interestingly enough, the town was only created about twenty three years ago and is Argentina’s youngest town. The reason Argentina encouraged a settlement there was to claim the land before Chile. Only a few hundred people live there in the winter since it’s so cold and relatively cut off from other cities. However, it grows to thousands by the time summer comes around, and adventure travelers come from all over the world to hike up into the mountains.

Puerto Natales, Chile

After a few days in El Chaltén, we continued south along an unpaved road to the border of Chile and spent the night in Puerto Natales. Puerto Natales lies on the Seno de Ultima Esperanza (Last Hope Sound), named by a group of desperate early explorers. It used to have a big meat processing plant but now relies on tourism as its main source of income. The surrounding countryside of foothills and mountains are essentially the jumping-off point for a trek into Paine National Park.

As usual, instead of going to bed early we went out on the town. First to a pizza restaurant which was fairly mellow. Then to a karaoke bar which was not so mellow. Aside from the couple sitting at the bar, the six of us tourists were the only ones there. But if you had entered at any point, it would have felt packed. The night continued on with more singing than I’d wish to do in any one sitting. At about 1:30am we worked our way back to the hostel and left the next morning at 7:30am for our first trek through the park. Sleep deprivation continued.

Paine National Park

We spent the next two nights camping in the park (I actually wouldn’t call it real camping with all the luxuries we had) and used the camp as our base for a three-day hike along what’s called 'The W'. The 'W' is a part of a larger network of trails in the area around mountains, lakes and glaciers and is formed in…you guessed it…the shape of a 'W.' Each day we hiked one leg of the 'W' working our way from right to left. The hikes lasted about eight hours each day and was grueling at times but completely worth the pain. The scenery was gorgeous. Here's a quick video of a lookout point we hiked to on the last day, and the fierce winds we experienced there. They were so strong that they were blowing us backwards.

After about three days of hiking in the park and experiencing weather patterns that represented the four seasons, we were ready for a break. We spent the next couple of days working our way down to Ushuaia, which is, as the Argentinians say, the southern-most city in the world. (The Chileans disagree and say it's actually Port Williams). Personally, I stayed out of the debate. To get to the disputed "southern-most city" would take a whole lot of bus time. Our first stop was Punta Arenas (say that five times with a straight face) in Chile and was situated near the Straits of Magellan. Punta Arenas is actually a fairly large city for the Patagonia region with a population around 100,000. This is where we spent Christmas day and were lucky to eat at one of only a few open restaurants in town.

Otway Sound Penguin Colony

The next day we took an hour drive from Punta Arenas to Otway Sound penguin colony. The colony was the result of a successful protection program that had brought the penguins back to healthy numbers from a once endangered population. The penguins are usually there from October to April, with chicks hatching in early December. So, we definitely caught it during a good time of the year.

I've included a video of a little penguin waddling towards the ocean.

Ushuaia (The southern-most city in the world)

The next day we made our way to the province, or island, of Tierra del Fuego and eventually the city of Ushuaia, which is located on the shores of the Beagle Channel. Ushuaia actually means “the bay facing westward” in the language of the original Yamaná inhabitants. It used to be a penal colony for political prisoners as well as hardened criminals, but they got rid of it in the 1940s. Ushuaia is now a major tourist destination as well and the jumping off point for a cruise down to Antarctica. If you want to go down to Antarctica, this is the place you go.

We spent a couple of days in Ushuaia just recuperating, basically eating and sleeping. And we threw in a little hiking for good luck. One hike we went on was located at the border of Argentina and Chile. At one point we realized we had accidently slipped into the Chilean side. That's us to the left totally confused as to whether we were in Argentina or Chile at the time. At one point we figured we were in Chile and started heading back just to be safe. And it was true! We were, in fact, in Chile for a while. There was no border control (or dudes with large guns), so it was pretty easy to slip across the border and go back and forth at our leisure. The hike that day, as always, was spectacular. I knew I was going to really miss Patagonia.

Here's a quick video of me at the border of Argentina and Chile during the hike

And with that we wrapped up our two week tour of Patagonia and flew back to Buenos Aires for a last night on the town.

See next --> 7. Other Areas of Argentina
OR
See all photos of Patagonia (Argentina) --> Argentinian Patagonia
See all photos of Patagonia (Chile) --> Chilean Patagonia

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5. Peru (11/26/07 - 12/14/07)

2008-04-19T21:22:00.000-07:00

Next Region --> 6. Patagonia

Lake Titicaca
See all photos of Peru --> Peru photos

After crossing the border into Peru we drove along Lake Titicaca (the world’s highest navigable lake at 12,421 ft) until we reached the city of Puno. According to our buddy, Wikipedia:

“Puno is a city in southeastern Peru, located on the shore of Lake Titicaca. It is also the capital and largest city of the Puno Region. The city was established in 1668 by viceroy, Pedro Antonio Fernández de Castro. The city boasts several churches dating back from the colonial period where they were built to service the Spanish population and evangelize the natives. Today, Puno is an important agricultural and livestock region; particularly of South American camelids (llamas and alpacas) which graze on its immense plateaus and plains. Many homes in Puno, much like surrounding cities, are half-finished. This is done so that the inhabitants do not have to pay taxes. Much of the city economy relies on the black market, fueled by cheap goods smuggled in from Bolivia. Puno has been designated to become a Special Economic Zone or "Zona Económica" by Peru's president, Alan Garcia. "

We rested in Puno for the night, too tired to tour around. Although we didn’t spend much time there, the drive there was fascinating. We got up early the next morning and left on a nine hour bus ride to Cusco, visiting a number of Incan ruins and colonial sites along the way. Although the guide was “English” speaking we determined that it was actually easier to understand his Spanish than his English. So much for the fluent English speaking tour guide promoted in the ad. Nonetheless, the tour was interesting and it was a good introduction to the area.

Machu Picchu

We got to Cusco in the early evening, had an early dinner and woke up really early the next morning to start our condensed three day trek along the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu. Usually, it takes four days so we were really booking. Fortunately, though, our week in Bolivia helped us to acclimatize and also just get into shape for the long hike ahead of us.

I had heard so many things about Machu Picchu but never much about the trails to get there. The Inca Trail (one of many among a larger network of trails in the Incan empire that spanned from modern day Colombia all the way down to Chile and Argentina) was spectacular. Although difficult at times, the sheer beauty of the trail was worth any painful experiences along the way. But more than that was the mystical quality of the mountains. It’s hard to put this one into words. If you were really silent with your thoughts, you could feel an energy in the area, almost like the mountains were alive and speaking to you. I’d have this feeling for the rest of my three week tour Machu Picchu, Cusco and the Sacred Valley.

By the time we got to Machu Picchu, I had already fallen in love by the area, and the mere site of “The Lost City” was breathtaking. As we approached it, many of us were in complete silence. The site spoke to me like no other site I had seen. Of all the places I visited on my six month trip (both before and after this day), Machu Picchu was the most awe inspiring.

It‘s been said that there are certain places on the earth (vortexes) that are considered special or sacred because of their location. In fact the combination of various elements in nature such as the relationship between earth, air and water are those considered to have special powers. Machu Picchu is said to be one of those sacred places because of its location within concentric circles of mountains, the river circling the base of the mountain, the huge quantities of quartz crystal found there and the fact that it was constructed in complete harmony with the physical and cyclical aspects of nature. When you see it and observe how it's constructed into the mountains, you’ll recognize something otherworldly about it.

Fortunately for us, we planned our tour so that we’d be able to visit Machu Picchu over two days. The second day most of us got up at the crack of dawn, had breakfast and worked our way to the buses in Agua Caliente which departed every 20 minutes to head up the mountain to Machu Picchu. I ended up spending two hours of quiet time in the outer edges of Machu Picchu overlooking the majestic landscape.

For those history buffs, here’s a little bit more about Machu Picchu from our neighbor, Wikipedia:

"Machu Picchu was constructed around 1450, at the height of the Inca Empire. It was abandoned less than 100 years later. It is likely that most of its inhabitants were wiped out by smallpox before the Spanish conquistadores arrived. Hiram Bingham, the credited discoverer of the site, along with several others, originally hypothesized that the citadel was the traditional birthplace of the Inca people or the spiritual center of the "Virgins of the Suns".
Another theory maintains that Machu Picchu was an Inca "llacta": a settlement built to control the economy of the conquered regions. It may also have been built as a prison for a select few who had commited heinous crimes against Inca society. Research conducted by scholars, such as John Rowe and Richard Burger, has convinced most archaeologists that rather than a defensive retreat, Machu Picchu was an estate of the Inca emperor, Pachacuti. In addition, Johan Reinhard presented evidence that the site was selected based on its position relative to sacred landscape features. One such example is its mountains, which are purported to be in alignment with key astronomical events.

Although the citadel is located only about 80 kilometers (50 miles) from Cusco, the Inca capital, it was never found and consequently not plundered and destroyed by the Spanish, as was the case with many other Inca sites. Over the centuries, the surrounding jungle grew over the site, and few knew of its existence. On July 24, 1911, Machu Picchu was brought to the attention of scholars by Hiram Bingham, an American historian then employed as a lecturer at Yale University. He was led there by locals who frequented the site. Bingham undertook archaeological studies and completed a survey of the area. Bingham coined the name "The Lost City of the Incas", which was the title of his first book. He never gave any credit to those who led him to Machu Picchu, mentioning only "local rumor" as his guide.

Machu Picchu was designated as a World Heritage Site in 1983 when it was described as "an absolute masterpiece of architecture and a unique testimony to the Inca civilization". On July 7, 2007, Machu Picchu was voted as one of New Open World Corporation's New Seven Wonders of the World.

Most of the construction in Machu Picchu uses the classic Inca architectural style of polished dry-stone walls of regular shape. The Incas were masters of this technique, called ashlar, in which blocks of stone are cut to fit together tightly without mortar. The Incas were among the best stone masons the world has seen, and many junctions in the central city are so perfect that not even a knife fits between the stones."

Other Inca buildings have been built using mortar, but by Inca standards that was quick, shoddy construction. Peru is a highly seismic land, and mortar-free construction was more earthquake-resistant than using mortar. Inca walls show numerous subtle design details that would prevent them from collapsing in an earthquake. Doors and windows are trapezoidal and tilt inward from bottom to top, corners are usually rounded, inside corners often incline slightly into the rooms, and "L" shaped blocks are often used to tie outside corners together. Walls do not rise straight from top to bottom but are offset slightly from row to row. As a result, Machu Picchu is a city that has stood up well to earthquakes over the years.

Late that day I ended up climbing to the top of Wayna Picchu, which is the small mountain located behind Machu Picchu. It’s in all the famous pictures you see of Machu Picchu. Although it looks unbelievably steep, the climb is really not that technical (most of the way) until arriving to the final section of steep stairs. Towards the top, it's of those places where people end up using their butt to climbe down the stairs. Although steep at the top, it was completely worth it since there was a beautiful view of the valley and of Machu Picchu.

Cusco

Once we got back to Cusco, everyone in the group returned back home to the states. Instead of visiting more places in Peru, I decided to stay in the city of Cusco for a couple more weeks. I ended up meeting a number of people (both locals and travelers) and kept busy teaching English at a local non-profit with my friend Abel, practicing my Spanish with a couple friends I had made at a hostel called Casa de La Gringa, and started playing in a couple bands at a local club.

So how did I get myself into a band? Or two? Well…one night I was watching a guitarist and bassist play at a local club, and they had a set of bongos sitting next to them. I asked them if they had a percussionist coming, and they told me that he was out sick for the night. I told them I could sit in if they’d like, they invited me up to play with them, and I played in their band for the next two weeks. A day later another band allowed me to sit in on their gigs as well until I was playing about four nights a week. Crazy stuff. I usually played at a little dive bar called Kilometer 0, which is the picture to the right. The enthusiastic class I taught is in the picture above.

Aside from teaching and playing music I did manage to visit some of the ancient sites around Cusco. One interesting site, in particular, is called Saqsaywaman, which is pretty much pronounced 'sexy woman.' The name in Quechua, the native language of the Incas, means 'Satisfied Falcon.' Saqsaywaman is made up of a series of walls that were formed in a zigzagged shape. One of the original emperors of the Incan civilization envisioned Cusco in the shape of a Puma with Saqsaywaman being the head, and the walls specifically serving as the teeth of the Puma. The structure is built in such a way that a single piece of paper will not fit between many of the stones. Pretty amazing stuff. This precision as well as their strategic placement on top of each other is thought to have helped the ruins survive massive earthquakes in Cusco over the centuries.

After marveling at the ruins for a couple hours, I headed back to the main square in Cusco. On my way down, I walked by a dog that was starting to growl at me. Not paying much attention I walked past it. After walking twenty more feet down the hill, I started to hear a number of dogs behind me and I turned around. There were five dogs standing together with the original dog (let's call him Sparky), and they were all growling and barking. I thought that this couldn't be a good situation, and I started backing up slowly. In that moment Sparky started to run towards me, and the other dogs followed. Every part of my body screamed...."RUN!!" However, I knew that I'd be overtaken and attacked if I turned my back. Instead I grabbed my water bottle tightly and what seemed like total insanity at the time, I started rushing towards the dogs and yelling at them. Fortunately for me, the other dogs were more afraid than I was, and they ran away. Sparky, though, must have had a pretty bad at the office since he stayed there for another 15 minutes barking, growling, salivating. It was a nice little showdown between the two of us. Finally, Sparky worked his way back to his home, and I wobbled back down the hill. Lesson from this story? Always carry a big stick, or a bad-ass looking water bottle when you're walking around the outskirts of Cusco. And don't take any crap from any dogs. :) From that day on I carried a water bottle everwhere.

And aside from the Sparky showdown I really did fall in love with Cusco. I ended up spending a total of three weeks in the Andes, met a ton of great people, and promised myself that I would go back there before heading home again. Here's some photos of a few more great people I met along the way. My friends Carly on the left and Abel and his brother on the right.

Click here to see the next region --> 6. Patagonia
OR
See all photos of Peru first --> Peru photos

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4. Bolivia (11/17/07 - (11/25/07)

2008-04-19T21:15:00.000-07:00

Next Country --> 5. Peru

La Paz

See all photos of Bolivia --> Bolivia Photos

I had decided a few months prior to leaving on my trip through Latin America, that I’d spend two weeks in Bolivia and Peru with a bunch of friends from San Francisco. Our friend, Naomi, had recently taken a six month sabbatical from work, raised over $111k and was using that to build sixteen houses in Bolivia with the support of Habitat for Humanity (if interested you can check out her project at http://www.buildchangewithnaomi.com/). Those houses would end up supporting 100 new homeowners who were among lower income families. We spent our first week helping her build one of the houses in a town called Cochabamba. The experience would end up being one of the highlights of my trip.

We all flew into La Paz, the capital city of Bolivia and were completely out of breath. The airport in La Paz sits at 13.3k ft, so it’s a big transition from the coast. Fortunately, Cochabamba, where we’d be working, was only at around 7.4k ft and would give us time to acclimatize before heading back to La Paz and traveling throughout the highlands of Peru. But for now we had some time before our flight to Cochabamba, so we took a taxi into the center of La Paz. We grabbed breakfast, bought a few souvineers, and ended up walking around town. All of us were out of breath just looking at the hills.

La Paz is a fascinating city in many ways, least of which is how it’s built. According to our friend Wikipedia:

“La Paz’s geography, in particular the altitude, reflects society: the lower you go, the more affluent. While many middle-class people live in high-rise condos near the center, the really rich houses are located in the lower neighborhoods. The reason for this division is that the lower you go in the city, the more oxygen is in the air and the milder the weather is. And looking up from the center, the surrounding hills are plastered with makeshift brick houses of those struggling in the hope of one day reaching the bottom.”

Pretty wild, eh? When you look at this city from afar, you can’t help but think how these makeshift houses on the hills are able to stay in place through the heavy rains. Or even how people would get to them during landslides and mudslides. But as was proven to me over and over again throughout this trip, people are very resilient.

Cochabamba (Volunteering for Habitat for Humanity)

After a quick stay in La Paz, admiring the geography and the way of life, we took a flight to Cochabamba, and the headaches and breathless moments disappeared. In Cochabamba we stayed at an incredible hostel where Habitat volunteers would usually stay during their projects. I can see why they put them up here. Great food, comfortable rooms, friendly staff. I almost felt guilty at first. Of course, the hard work which was to follow made that guilt disappear pretty quickly.

We all showed up at the construction site the next morning and met the Siles family – father, mother, son, and daughter, as well as the Habitat crew. After the friendly introductions, Naomi gave us the lay of the land, told us what had to be done and we got started. No messin around.

There were a few basic things that we were able to help out with. The first, and most critical for the family, was filling in the foundation of the home. This is often a task that the family has to do on their own without the help from the hired workers who spend the time building and constructing the house. It can take weeks, or even months, of back-breaking work to completely fill in the foundation. Our task was to dig up dirt and rocks near the construction site and wheel them into the two bedrooms, the bathroom, and the kitchen in order to eventually lay over the concrete flooring. The majority of us worked on this for about three to four days. Another task was to mix the cement that would be used as mortar to pour in between the bricks. If we weren’t wheeling dirt and rocks around, then we were mixing cement and handing it up to the builders to construct the walls. The third task was to prepare for the construction of the roofs by helping to create a foundation for the roof to sit on. Without going into gory detail (and partly just because I forgot all the details) this step was using a lot of rebar and twisting a lot of wire.

By the fifth day we finished filling in the foundation, completed the walls, and prepared the foundation of the roof. The Director of Habitat for Humanity in Bolivia flew out from the city of Santa Cruz and performed a blessing for the house and for the family. Naomi also spoke and everyone thanked her for what an incredible job she had done organizing this project. The family we built the house for was so appreciative and everyone pretty much showed a tear or ten. Although it only lasted five days, the project left a lasting impression on all of us. We were able to experience firsthand the spirit of the people in the community and the desire of the families to make a better life for themselves. This experience in many ways was so much more meaningful than touring around visiting different historical sites and chalking them up as yet another place I saw on my travels.

That said, our next destination was Peru to visit the historical sites of Lake Titicaca, Cusco and Machu Picchu. :) If there’s any one place to see, though, before you die, go there.

Bus Ride to Peru

We flew back to La Paz and stayed there over night. This time we were more accustomed to the high altitude and experienced fewer severe headaches. The next day we took a bus from La Paz to the border of Peru. The drive to the border may be one of the most poverty stricken regions I´d ever seen. The conditions are incredibly tough for the people who live there -- barren lands, extremely high altitudes, hot temperature in the day and freezing at night, half finished buildings if that, and dirt and dust everywhere. The people seemed rugged and weathered but with a strong and gentle spirit.

We eventually arrived at the Bolivian side of Lake Titicaca, took a fairy across a small inlet, and continued on until the city of Copacabana. From there we hopped on another bus that would eventually take us to the border of Peru and Bolivia.

It was an incredible experience. One week in Bolivia would leave an impression for a lifetime.

See next country --> 5. Peru
OR

See all photos of Bolivia first --> Bolivia Photos

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3. Panama (11/5/07 - 11/14/07)

2008-04-19T21:10:00.001-07:00

Next Country --> 4. Bolivia

Bocas del Tora

See all photos of Panama --> Panama Photos

I had heard that it could take some time to get across the border due to the large buses full of tourists occasionally passing through. Border crossings in Latin America aren’t always a model of efficiency. I must have gotten there before the big tour bus since it was just me and a couple other people crossing into Panama. I began to wonder if that was even Panama on the other side. The sign reassured me that it was in fact Panama. I continued on, got a stamp, and walked onto the bridge.

Let’s talk about this bridge for a second. The bridge seemed fairly normal on the approach. Ok…a bit old and maybe a tad narrow but nothing too out of the ordinary. As I got closer, my perspective on this changed. I realized that simply walking across and mindlessly watching the scenery would be a pretty bad idea. Perhaps a fatal mistake if I weren’t careful. There were actually holes in the walkway with a very large drop down to the river. And interestingly enough massive buses and trucks would pass through here constantly. I forced any bad thoughts out of my head and thought of mainly nice things as I crossed. Concentrating on my every step, of course, so I wouldn’t fall through the bridge.

Once across the border (which was essentially the bridge), I caught an hour taxi to the coast of Panama. Well, almost to the coast. The taxi driver dropped me off a bit inland, first at a swampy area that served as a gateway to the ocean. I got their just in time to fill up the last seat on a speed boat and took a two hour boat ride to an island off of the coast of Panama called Bocas del Tora. I had heard that if there was one place to go in Panama, to go there.

We eventually arrived, and I was immediately swamped by the local island “guides” trying to get me to stay at their hostels or hotels. Not knowing a whole lot about this town, I followed a huge group of tourists who had also just arrived as well, and we walked about a mile down the road to check out a few hostels. This was the part of the trip where I really needed to follow my instincts since I had no travel books, recommendations on where to stay, or knew which island to go to.

We entered our first hostel. It was dirty, overcrowded, and everyone was about eighteen years old and right out of high school. Next! I checked out a few more places which were pretty much the same, and finally decided to head to one of the smaller islands. At this point it was getting late in the day, so it was either stay at the next stop or sleep on a fishing boat somewhere.

When I got off the boat again, I immediately felt at ease. Something about this island felt much better. After checking out three or four places, I settled on a big yellow hostel that looked like something out of Pippy Long stocking. It was clean and had an incredible view of the ocean. This was it. I wasn't sure why but it felt right. I ended up staying at this place the entire week.

I immediately met loads of people there from multiple countries. The usual suspects, of course, with the majority being from Europe (Germany, France and Holland), and others from Israel, Australia, Canada, the U.S. I always have so much respect for Europeans. They really know how to take it easy and find cool spots all over the world.

I learned later that I was on the island that most people come to in order to relax. Perfect. I was going to lay on the beach for the week. The rain gods didn't quite see it that way, though. It was the most rain the locals had ever seen in that area for quite some time. "Strange weather we’re having, eh?" That’s a phrase I’d keep hearing throughout the trip. On the positive side, all the people at the hostel got to know each other really well since we really couldn’t leave the hostel. Food, card games, darts, food. It’s amazing how quickly the day can go.

After the third day, the weather gods looked upon us favorably, and we finally started exploring the beaches around the island. To get to the sandy part of the beach, we'd have to walk up a few hills, into the forest, through to grandmother's house, and then eventually to the other side of the island. It was a lot of work to get to a beach but worth it in the end. I wish there was more to talk about at this point, but literally laying out on the beach all day for a few days doesn't lend itself to many interesting stories. It was very relaxing, though. And so it went for the next three days. Get up, walk through the forest, lie on beach. Not the best physical preparation for my upcoming trip to Bolivia and the mountains of Peru but...eh! Waddaya gonna do?

After Panama I took a bus back to Puerto Viejo and then another one back to San Jose. I stayed in San Jose, Costa Rica for about two to three more days to visit a friend of mine, Adriana, who was a fellow volunteer with Tropical Adventures. She graciously invited me to stay with her and her mother while I was in San Jose. It was a beautiful place and nice to spend some time with the locals of a big city. It was also nice to have hot water for a few days.

See next country --> 4. Bolivia
or
See all photos of Panama first --> Panama Photos

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2. Costa Rica (10/22/0 - 11/14/07)

2008-04-19T21:08:00.001-07:00

Next Country --> 3. Panama

Puerto Viejo

See all photos of Costa Rica -- Costa Rica Photos

My next stop was Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica, a little coastal town on the east side of the country, south of Puerto Limon. I had been to Costa Rica before but never to the Caribbean coast. The culture there was much different than anywhere else in the country – the people, the food, the accent. It had a true afro-Caribbean culture and climate -- laid back, friendly, beautiful beaches, and warm weather. The eastern coast of Costa Rica has also suffered from a lack of attention by the federal government – poverty levels are higher and the standard of living is lower than the rest of the country. However, although the infrastructure is less developed, the warmth of the people and the beauty and ecological diversity of the area are worth the visit. There are also far fewer tourists… at least for now. That seems to be changing rapidly as more and more people have been discovering the quiet towns around Puerto Viejo.

About 20 minutes north of Puerto Viejo is, Cahuita National Park, created in 1970 to protect the 240 hectares of offshore coral reef. There’s tons of animal life behind the beach where you may be able to see tamanduas, pacas, coatis, raccoons, tree-dwelling sloths, agoutis, armadillos, iguanas, and howler and capuchin monkeys that come down to the shore. I also spent a little time there as well.

Another little fact about the area. On his fourth and final voyage to the Americas, Christopher Columbus, had to drop anchor in Puerto Limon (about an hour and a half north of Puerto Viejo by car) due to a hurricane that had damaged his ship. As he waited for repairs he ventured along the coast and exchanged gifts with many of the natives. He was reported to have seen “more gold in two days than in four years in Spain.” Hence the name, Costa Rica (rich coast). However, to the disappointment of many of the future conquistadors from Spain, they didn’t find the region to be abundant with gold.

Ok, so what did I actually do in Costa Rica? Believe it or not, I didn’t spend a whole lot of time relaxing on the beach sipping Mai Tais. I ended up working with a volunteer organization called Tropical Adventures (http://www.tropicaladventures.com/ in case you’re interested) that set people up with volunteer opportunities all throughout the country. They’re a great organization, well respected by the communities they support, and they offer interesting projects for various lengths of time. Scott and Isaac, the co-founders of the organization, placed me with a host family that owned an organic farm and vegetarian restaurant. The family would donate a portion of the crops from their farm to a few less fortunate people in the area which qualified them to be a part of the volunteer network. My job was to clear the land and help them grow a new set of crops for the next season.

A little bit about the family I stayed with. Delroy, the father, had lived in Puerto Viejo his entire life. His grandfather was one of the first five settlers along this part of the coast, who had come there a little over a 100 years ago. Many of the settlers came from neighboring islands like Jamaica and Haiti and some from Europe. His grandfather was originally from England. Delroy’s wife, Veronica, also a native of the area (she's in the picture to the right), was a beautiful and caring woman who ran the vegetarian restaurant out of their home. Their kids, Hershel, Shantala, Delmarck, and Sherwing all took turns throughout the week helping out with the restaurant. Hershel runs a surfing and kayaking company in the area, Shantala works in the travel business, Delmarck is going to college in Limon, and Sherwing is still in high school. All great kids and they were all really welcoming to me.

So..here’s how my day would work. I worked on their farm during the mornings and continued to take one on one Spanish lessons in the afternoons with my teacher, Anna. My days were fairly compact. I´d get up around 6:30am and head to the farm around 7:30am. I’d use a machete to clear the land (along with another volunteer, Ron) and, afterwards, we dug ditches and created mounds of dirt to begin the planting. That's me in the picture to the left with machete in hand. It was actually a pretty nice change to do some physical labor. Tiring, but it felt good to be outside. We´d have to finish up by noon since it was just too hot and humid by mid-day. I’d get back to the house around 12:30pm, have lunch at the vegetarian restaurant, which was essentially run out of the family’s house (the food was incredible btw), and then head off at 2pm for a two to three hour Spanish lesson with my teacher Anna. Anna was another spectacular teacher, and I learned a ton from her in just two short weeks. By the end of the day I was usually so exhausted that I’d just chill out for a bit, speak with the family and their friends in Spanish and English, and then head to bed.

I quickly grew attached to the family I stayed with and the customs of the town. More than any other place in my six month trip, I actually felt part of a family, which when traveling for an extended period of time, can be a welcomed change. Although, I only stayed with them for two weeks, the closeness to the family made it seem longer. I felt sad to say goodbye but hopeful that I'd see them again someday.

Punta Mona (Close to the border of Panama)

I decided after five weeks of studying and doing physical labor, I needed a break -- this time without a set agenda. I took off for seven days to visit a few islands off of the coast of Panama. On my way there, I spent the first night at the southern tip of Costa Rica at a place called Punta Mona, a 100 acre organic farm and educational retreat. Punta Mona offers retreats to individuals and groups (often university groups) so that they can learn the latest techniques in Permaculture and sustainability. The ideas of conservation of energy and reduction of waste are permeated throughout their daily lives. The houses there are built from local, fallen trees; solar panels provide electricity; they compost their leftover food and make their own dirt; and they grow over 100 tropical fruits, vegetables, herbs and medicinal plants. For washing and drinking water, they use rainwater in a water-catchment system. Let’s just say if they were somehow cut off from the rest of society, they’d be able to continue living there just fine.

I only spent one night there but the people were very friendly and extremely welcoming. They put me up in a room that was usually occupied by one of the employees. Even though it was very basic, I loved the experience of it. My room had no windows or front door and was totally out in the open. Let´s just say my mosquito net was really important that night. And the torrential rains for eight hours straight added to the effect of being really cut off from the rest of society.

Fortunately, the next day, the rains subsided as I took off for the Panamanian border. To get to the border I would have to hike along a deserted beach for about an hour or two until I got to a small town where I could find a taxi and get a ride to the border. I began my journey and felt like I was in the middle of nowhere. Of course, what usually accompanies being in the middle of nowhere are loads of nonsensical questions that pop up into the mind -- What if there really is no town down the beach where I can grab a taxi to the border? What if it’s there and I just don’t find it because…well…just because? What if there’s a Tsunami while I’m walking? What if the lockness monster jumps out of the ocean and drags me out to sea. It’s always those last few outrageous questions that usually snap me out of this downward spiral. Once I recognized the absurdity of my thinking, the fears went away, and I focused on the beauty of the area. No people, no houses, no sense of time. Just the sound of the ocean and the wind blowing through the jungle. This is what it must be like to live in the present moment. No thinking of the past, no worrying of the future. Wow…what a concept. Here's a quick video of me starting my journey.

I made it to a small town called Gandoca, located right on the ocean. There were no taxis waiting by the ocean (actually there were no people at all anywhere except for one local elderly man who looked at me like I just had landed there from mars), so I started walking inland along a dirt road to search for someone to talk to about getting to the border. After about twenty minutes, I passed by a restaurant with a couple of people. Something told me the city center either didn’t exist in this town, or I was a long ways off. I stopped and asked the owner of the restaurant if she could call me a taxi. It just so happens that her husband was a taxi driver. An hour later I was at the border of Panama.

See next Country --> 3. Panama

See all photos of Costa Rica first -- Costa Rica Photos

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1. Guatemala (10/1/07 - 10/21/07)

2008-04-18T16:50:00.000-07:00

Next Country --> 2. Costa Rica

Antigua

See all photos of Guatemala --> Guatemala Photos

I spent the first three weeks of my trip in the city of Antigua, Guatemala. I was really interested in learning the fundamentals of Spanish and heard Guatemala had inexpensive, high quality Spanish language schools. It also just sounded like an interesting place. Antigua was founded in 1543 and was one of the oldest colonial cities in the Americas. At one time it was actually the capital of Guatemala and had kept much of it's charm with its cobblestone streets and colonial architecture. It was also uniquely situated in the middle of three volcanoes -- Agua, Fuego, and Acatenango, one of which was active in 2002 (Fuego). Not a very comforting fact but it looked pretty from a distance.

My plane flight to Guatemala City was shorter than I had expected -- only five hours. When I arrived I immediately had that “I feel completely lost" sensation. To my excitement, someone from the Spanish school was waiting for me. As I got closer I noticed that my greeter (Oscar) was about fourteen years old. I remember thinking, I hope this kid isn’t my Spanish teacher. He took me to the school van outside, asked for a tip, and off we went to Antigua.

About an hour later I was dropped off in front of my host family’s house. Veronica, the host mother, answered the door and gave me a nice welcome in Spanish. I fumbled my way through something in Spanish, said goodbye to the driver and entered what would be my home for the next three weeks. Veronica showed me around a bit ("here’s the bathroom, here’s your room, here’s bla bla bla and bla bla bla," etc… and so forth). She probably told me something very important like don’t touch the red button on the sink otherwise this house will blow up and the town of Antigua will disintegrate. I didn’t care. I was so tired and couldn’t keep my head straight. I motioned that I was going to sleep for a while in my room. It was only 9am in the morning. Not the best way to acclimate to the new time zone, but it was something I could figure out later.

I woke up around 2pm and took a stroll through the town. It was still Sunday and classes didn’t start until the next day. I walked about 10 minutes towards the main center of Antigua where there was a ton of activity -- street musicians, cafes, chicken buses. I found a few tourists walking along and somehow convinced them to let me tag along for dinner. My first meal on my trip was pepperoni pizza. Not what I expected but sometimes you do what you gotta do.

The next morning I met my Spanish teacher, Jaun. Jaun is only in his early 20’s but wise beyond his years and an expert teacher. His method of teaching was very effective. We’d spend the first hour discussing major stories in the newspaper (politics, crime, education, American Idol, etc...) and with the remaining time, we worked on grammar and reviewed homework from the previous night. I felt that those one to two hour conversations to start off the day were the most critical. Guatemala was having their presidential elections when I was there, so that made the discussions even more interesting, particularly since the country was so politically charged.

There were also three other students from the school living with my host family, so we all ate breakfast, lunch and dinner together. The first week I had NO IDEA what people were talking about. I was just hoping that people wouldn’t ask me questions so I could listen to their conversations in Spanish. I caught the gist of what they were saying by the 2nd week, and by the 3rd, I could finally contribute a bit to the conversation and say things in the past tense. Instead of questions like, “Can I please have another piece of bread?” I was able to say things like, “I ate a lot of chocolate for desert back home. Do you have any here?”

I also met a bunch of people through the school and traveled with three of them each weekend to a few places around the country. Anne and Manon were from Holland (both on the far left pondering life, spanish architecture and the massive volcano in the background) and Tone, pronounced like Tuna, was from Norway (on the right checking out here camera). We went to a few key places over a three week period -- a beautiful lake, called Lake Atitlan; the Mayan ruins in the northern part of the country to a city called Tikal, and an active volcano, where we stood literally two feet away from flowing lava. It was a “don’t try this at home” kind of moment. Here’s a slightly more in-depth description of what we did at each of the destinations.

Lake Atitlan

Lake Atitlan was our first weekend destination and was a three hour bus ride from Antigua. Like Antigua, the lake was surrounded by huge volcanoes with steep hillsides and villages with traditional Mayan culture. The lake was HUGE – 8km across from north to south, 18km from east to west, and 300m deep. We ended up staying in a hostel that was up on the cliffs of the lake and located outside the main lake-side villages. It was a great place to use as a base and then explore different villages each day.

One of our favorite villages was Santiago Atitlan, located between the volcanoes of Toliman and San Pedro. Many of the locals here had kept their traditional Tz’utujil Mayan lifestyle, where the women made and wore clothes embroidered with bright colors, and the town’s religious brotherhoods maintained their ceremonies with a mix of Mayan and Catholic traditions.

One tradition, in particular, is the reverence for a deity called, Maximon, who is a combination of Mayan gods, Pedro de Alvarado (the Spanish conquistador of Guatemala), and the biblical Judas. I’m not sure how Pedro (or even Judas) made it into the mix but it was interesting nonetheless. Maximon is essentially a wooden figure draped in colorful silk scarves who smokes a fat cigar in his mouth. (See picture to the right for proof of said description.) Every Easter, the statue of Maximon is paraded through the streets of Santiago and afterwards resides for an entire year at the home of a different local family that receives the honor of caretaker. Throughout the year, locals (and tourists) visit Maximon, ask for blessings (cure for a disease, crops to grow, finally getting that promotion at work, you get the point…) and make offerings of candles, cigars, food, beer and rum. When you enter the room where Maximon resides, you’ll also see a large statue of Jesus on a cross as well as a Jesus in a life-size coffin. Interesting eh?

Before we headed home, we took a quick stop to a huge outdoor market called Chichicastenago. Professional shoppers beware. If you're not careful you'll end up buying up the place -- T-shirts, electronics, clothing, pieces of chicken. I held off on the street food but if that's your thing it's paradise. After a few hours we were back in Antigua again Sunday night and ready to tackle our Spanish classes the next day.

Tikal

Our 2nd weekend we flew to the city of Tikal in the northeastern part of Guatemala, near the border of Belize. Tikal was the center of one of the largest ancient Mayan cities dating back to before Christ. The Mayans settled in the area in 700 B.C. and then eventually built up a complex system of pyramids by 200 B.C. By 250 A.D., Tikal had become an important religious, cultural and commercial city for the Mayan empire.

We took a short one hour flight from Guatemala City to the city of Flores which was right outside of Tikal. We got into Flores at about 7:30am, and it seemed like we were the only living souls around. Shops and restaurants gradually opened as the morning wore on, and we started to look for a hostel. We stopped at one hostel that was recommended to us and asked the owner to show us around. She took us to one of the rooms, opened the door, and we watched a cockroach the size of small mouse run across the room. One of the six guys who was sleeping in the room looked up at us and said, “Hey dude, what’s up?” I could feel the bed bugs waiting anxiously to settle in at this place. We asked the owner to politely close the door, and we left the hostel.

Not impressed with our first hostel attempt we decided to just eat, which is generally the most common way to pass the time while traveling. While at the restaurant we got a recommendation from the owner to check out a relatively inexpensive hostel down the road. He also said the owners had a lot of security and didn’t try to rob you either. We thought that would be a nice feature and decided to check it out once we inhaled our omlettes. Food, as always, was more important than finding accommodations. We eventually headed out, found the hostel and settled there for two nights. It was clean and safe like the restaurant owner said. And our stuff was still there by the end of our stay.

That day we bought tickets to do a sunrise tour of Tikal and then spent the rest of the day just touring around Flores. We decided to take a Tuk Tuk (a little motorcycle carriage type thingamajiggy) to the nearby Actun-can caves. When we got there we hired a guide to take us through a huge network of caves. It was definitely a good idea to get a guide otherwise we would have easily gotten lost in the maze. He showed us a number of limestone formations that were in the shapes of birds, horses, snakes, people. You name it, and we was saw a shape of it inside the walls of the cave.

He eventually told us that we needed to leave within the next thirty minutes since the bats in the cave would all migrate outside for the night. That sounded like a good idea to me. Within a minute of him telling us this, I looked up with my headlamp, and we saw hundreds of bats flying chaotically overhead. More and more bats appeared by the minute, and eventually we told the guide that we’d had enough of the little Kamikazi bats, and we were fine leaving. One of the girls later asked him what would have happened if we were still in the caves when the bats were migrating outside. He said, he wasn’t sure, but it wasn’t a good idea to be there. We thought that was prudent.

We went out in the town that night for dinner, had a few drinks and eventually got back to the hostel at around 1am, which was just in time to get a two hour night sleep and leave for the 3:30am, sunrise tour to Tikal. Whoever convinced us to do this early morning tour was a total $@#!. Oh wait…that was me. Nice going, Ryan.

However, I must say that it was all worth it in the end. We got to Tikal at around 4:30am, hiked for about 45 minutes and climbed up a massive pyramid in pitch black. There were about thirty of us up there, and we were completely silent. The next hour was spectacular – hundreds of howler monkeys roaring in the distance (although small, each one sounds like a lion when they roar), the sounds of hundreds of birds, and the fog peeling away only to unveil massive pyramids in the distance. If there’s any place to sit and meditate that place would be it.

For the rest of the day, we went on a tour of the city center (about 16 sq km) where there’s over 4000 Mayan structures. The national park itself is 550 sq km with many more Mayan ruins spread throughout. We spent the day inspired by the huge pyramids and imagined what life was like here 2000 years ago. I ended up taking four million pictures here but was able to widdle them down to about twenty or so.

Volcano Pacaya

The final weekend in Guatemala, a group of us from the school visited Volcano Pacaya, another active volcano about an hour and a half by car southeast of Antigua. The hike up there was only about an hour and a half and was relatively easy. Once we arrived, our guide told us that we could actually work our way up to the flowing lava, put a wooden stick in it, and watch it create a ball of fire. Let’s just say it’s not a tour you’d find in the U.S. We spent an hour or so wandering and taking pictures of the lava. It was…how does one say….REALLY HOT!! Push the play button below to see a video of the lava.

Guatemala ended up being a great introduction to Latin America for me. The scenery, the people, the colors, the lava. And the Spanish I learned along the way would also serve as a great foundation for the rest of my trip. The landscapes and the people left a lasting impression.

See next country --> 2. Costa Rica
or
See all photos of Guatemala first --> Guatemala Photos

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Welcome everyone!

2008-04-18T16:41:00.000-07:00

After six months of traveling through Central and South America (8 countries, 24 plane flights, 20+ bus rides, and hundreds of miles of hiking), I'm back in the U.S. and excited to be back in the Bay Area. I've put together a blog that includes stories, reflections, photos, and videos of the places I visited and people I met along the way.

There's a few different ways to learn about my trip. Choose the best one for you. Or you can try them all. It's meant to be read over time.

1. The Quick Photo Album Summary -- A condensed version of my trip in a slideshow (Make sure to view with captions)

2. Personal Reflections -- I've also included a personal reflections page about my trip as well as information on some new things I'm doing next.

3. The Full Photo Album -- A slideshow of photos by country. Also with captions.

4. The Real Deal -- A full trip diary with videos and links to photos by country. It starts with Guatemala and goes chronologically through each country. (You can also explore each country I went to by using the navigation bar on the right-hand side of the page.)

If you'd like to leave comments, you're welcome to leave them on a comments page I set up.

If anyone gets inspired by any of the places along my route and has any questions about them, don’t hesitate to contact me.

Take care and I wish everyone the best!
Ryan

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