Hola amigos y familia, Well I am in Loja about to leave on a nine hour bus ride to Piura, PERU!! Finally a new country! Arriving early tomorrow morning the plan is to continue along to the coast for a much...well NEEDED isn´t the word.... nor is deserved, maybe....-wanted- dip in the ocean. For the last two days I have been in Vilcabamba post carnivale to experience why exactly it is known as the most desirable retirement town in south america. And experience that I did. The town seems to settle into a very slow but productive pace. Slow enough to [View Full Entry]

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This is part of an email I sent to my mom today: I went out with Joe last night (and Angie, Joe´s boyfriend who is here for six weeks) and I am pretty sure that I am glad to have them here. Still having a great time, doing lots of reading and partying. Carnivale is an absolute riot. You get soaked everytime you step out your door, both with water and with silly string. Vilcabamba (pronounced Bilcabamba,´V´s in spanish are pronounced ´b´.) is the hotspot for the surrounding areas and there must have been 5000 people on the streets, many drunk [View Full Entry]

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Hola, Well it has been a very exciting week or so with lots to report although I don't really have enough time to type it all. After spending a night in Loja, a charming university city towards the south of Ecuador. Enjoying it but not loving it, I left the next day for Vilcabamba, where I am now, possibly the most gorgeous place I have ever been. After spending a night drinking rum with a nice, but quirky, British lady I stumbled back to my amazing hostel about a ten minute walk out of the small town. The next day, the [View Full Entry]

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Hola, Wow what a fantastic....while. I think the last time I wrote was in Cuenca, so I will pick it up from there. From Cuenca Tessa and I booted it to Guyaquil, Ecuador's largest and most "feo" (ugly) city. A port city, Guyaquil really didn't have much to look at except concrete and black-smoke, not to mention the polluted brownish-green water. However, always one to try to make the best of any situation, Tessa and I took a nice walk along the reconstructed waterfront, which did have some fun things to take a look at. Stopping for dinner, it started to [View Full Entry]

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Hola all. I wanted to start by putting down a thought I have had recently about travelling, although it takes a little background information to make sense. In cognition there is a division between bottom-up and top-down "information flow" in the brain. Basically this is the difference between information, like sound waves hitting your ear drum or light rays hitting your retina, going towards your mind (phenomenological field, or ongoing conscious experience) and memories and cognition finding a place for this bottom-up information. In cognition, until very recently, the mind has been s [View Full Entry]

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Hola, Hello again everyone. Today I am in Cuenca in southern Ecuador enjoying a sunny day on the cobblestone streets of this small colonial city. Two days ago, in Baños, Tessa and I ended up doing a one-day horseback riding trip (because our 2 day was cancelled due to weather) and having an amazing time. Meeting our extreme-sports enthusiast of a guide, Jose, at about 12:00 noon we geared up and mounted our horses (mine's name was Pinto, don't remember the rest) at Jose's ranch just on the outskirts of town. The first thing we did was ride through the streets [View Full Entry]

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First two bits of exciting news. The first is that Joe, my long awaited travel partner, is in fact coming to Ecuador on February 22nd for a long time (perhaps permanently). I am very excited that he is coming and that I will finally be able to do some real, hardcore camping. Rock on. We are talking about volunteering at a surf school in northern Peru, but as I have seen these things are destined to change. The second bit of news is that Lev-Co, my former employer, has given me a large-ish contract that I am going to be able [View Full Entry]

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Hello all, Well first of all I would like to say goodbye to a wonderful friend of mine, Cindy Arrens, who recently passed from a long but well fought battle with cancer. She will be missed by everyone who was fortunate enought to have met her, myself being, in no way, an exception to that. Goodbye Cindy, we will all miss you very much. As for me I have finally left Quito for good after a sad goodbye with the friends from my hostel. It sure was a great month but it is good to be on the road again. I [View Full Entry]

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Hello all, Let me first say that I really appreciate the nice things people have said about this blog: I am really blown away by how many people are actually reading it! Well I am getting closer to finding a plan for myself for the next while. What I know for sure is that I am leaving Quito on Saturday morning with my friend Tessa, bound for Riobamba. From there I think I will make my way to the coast for some much needed sun (it is usually overcast in Quito, except for some notable exceptions; notable because I get sunburnt [View Full Entry]

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Wow, what a... week? Haven't really been keeping track, but whatever it has been it has been great. First of all, there are some pics online from my jungle trip. You can find them here. If anyone can figure out how to get the pics off of there please let me know! The first thing to report is a second (less dangerous) biking trip to Cotopaxi, the world's highest active valcano. After some amazing views of the glaciated valcano we finished our two hour drive at the Refugio (a shack marking the basecamp of all mountains down here) at an astonishing [View Full Entry]

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