Browntown

The trip continues to circle back on itself. My time at the ranch back in January was full of anxiety and fear about the trip to come. This time it was a place full of family and friends, a time to reflect on times past and loved ones lost. The scenery was as mesmerizing as ever. Early Monday morning I waved goodbye to family and headed down US highway 84 south from Pagosa Springs to Santa Fe, oldest of state capitols. I am back again at Pino and Becky's, drinking, chilling, making crazy hot wings, and bullshitting. Today we head up to climb a mountain, then its off to that west coast where the women all are beautiful and karaoke flows like wine... ... read more

As promised this prolific blogger is not quite done with his travels. I am awaiting departure in my new, but old Subaru, toward the fabled Twin Cities of Minnesota. I plan on catching a few Sox twins games, riding the rollercoaster inside of mall of America and well, I think thats really all there is to do there. For all you backpacker americans who have spent more time travelling abroad than actaully seeing our own very beautiful land of the free... well this blog is now for you because in the next 2 months I will be driving hairbrained back and forth across this great nation. Upcoming highlights include, the HHH dome (8th wonder of the world), the Badlands, the Black Hills, and the Rockie Mountains... keep checking in for our biweekly fix of the next ... read more

With the trip winding down for this mad road warrior this will be the second too last entry for this blog. Waving goodbye to our Canadian tree planter friends, Durach and Luke me and Barton crossed the border into Costa Rica. It is a strange experience travelling through the poor but culturally rich countries of Belize, Honduras, and Nicaragua and ending up in COsta Rica. It almost looks like you are back in the states, or worse, in Orange COunty California. I was beginning to think there were too many backpackers in those other countries, I hadnt seen nothing yet. We met Cary and Johnny in Tamaryndo, obnoxious tourist own that looks liek Cabo or something. Early the next morning we caught bus, boat, and bus to Montezuma, hippie beach paradise. It was no Zipolite but ... read more

It would be fair to intepret the relative lack of entries to a general slackening of adventure and pace on the trip. This is not entirely fair. Yes the high speed chase, blackmarket car deal portion of the trip appears to be behind us. I will catch you up on our progress. After Granada and her majestic cockfights we hopped a bus, and a boat to Isla de Ometepe, a huge island in the shark filled waters of Lake Nicaragua. The island is dominated by two huge volcanoes and looks like it belongs in a fantasy novel. On a great tip we stayed at an ecological farm called Zopolate. It was cheap, had that good hippie vibe and they baked fresh bread and pzza all day. We climbed the lesser of the two volcanoes but it ... read more

Here it was, a peaceful, hot as hell sunday morning in Granada. We had spent the last few days wandering around the city, checking out the lake, and watching in horror as the Bruins continue to stake their claim as the Buffalo Bills of College Hoops. We had just walked over to the oldest fort in town (nice but kind of boring). Barton, realizing it was sunday, asked a man about cockfights. Next thing you we are let into a shady hotel entrance and led in back where there is ring and everything. The fights didnt start for a few more hours so we walked back to the hostel and took a quick swim. When we returned the once empty backyard was full of cocks, trainers, and fans. There were fruit vendors, fried chicken basket ladies, ... read more

First off, it is hot as balls in this country. We stumbled into Leon early Monday morning after the episode at the border. After checking into a great hostel I agonized through 9 innings of White SOx baseball resulting in opening day depression (i have another blog dedicated to my absurd obssession with the White SOx so Ill asve that). Leon is an extremely interesting city, with cheap beer, a Nicaraguam KFC (called the tips or something like that), and a boatload of good street food. We spent Tuesday at the beach. Barton and our canadian tree planter friends for a reason that eludes me decided to walk the 20km to the beach down a desolate road in the 93 degree heat in teh midst of a terrible hangover. I took the bus... the beach, Penoya ... read more

Nearly three months into a journey filled with high speed chases, poser travel mates, rough roads, pretty girls, and 75 cent rum shots, nothing has been as intense and as strange as swimming 60 feet under water for 40 minutes. I fihished my basic open water scuba certification yesterday and this morning me and BArton did two dives off the northern coast of the island. Crazy stuff is all I can say. As a side note I just finished reading the Boys from Brazil... great book and I recommend it to anyone but realize you may have some fukkedd up dreams... more to follow when we reach NIcaragua by opening day.... go bruins... ... read more