"It's time 4 new direction It's time 4 jazz 2 die 4th day of November We need a purple high." Prince, All The Critics Love U In New York This is a delayed post from early September. And any chance I have to throw in a Prince lyric, I'm gonna do it. So my second day back in Bogotá and I'm hanging out with this guy Nick from Portland, Oregon. We are walking by Simon Bolivar Plaza and see everything blocked off with a stage set up in the middle and someone giving a speech with a small crowd watching. Simon Bolivar Plaza also houses the Colombian Presidential Palace at one end and the Congress building at another end so there is always a National Police presence in the area but it was heaver that day ... read more

Sorry for the delay in blog posts, but maybe one day I will catch up with all of my old half written posts just waiting to be blogged. maybe. I am now back in Colombia, I'll have to give details on my Venezuela trip later. But first I stopped back home in Las Vegas. I didn't even get a chance to see anyone, I just went to my 3 favorite places in Vegas, won some money and decided to come back to South America. Here are some photos from home. ... read more

I am backed up on blog entries, but I have a few in the pipeline. So here I sit in Pamplona, Colombia. It is a small town (45,000 people) near the border of Venezuela, about 2 hours from the actual border town of Cúcuta which is described in guidebooks as "a hot, muggy, filthy, crime-ridden city; its most well known attraction is the notoriously dodgy bus station. A town better known for contraband than its sights, though you may need to stop here if you're crossing the border." This means that I finally decided to cross over to Chávezland after going back and forth with the idea. Many people have bad things to say about Venezuela so 2 things compelled me to go for it. Guide books don't often have good things to say about it ... read more

I am actually writing another blog entry on my time volunteering but I had to post this first. Well it finally happened and just 2 weeks after reading it on another blog. So on Monday afternoons I help teach English to a group of police cadets ages 10-18 years. I just assist the girl who teaches the class who is another volunteer here at Manos Amigas. She is actually very good at teaching and very good with kids. She has just one minor flaw. She is from England and she doesn't know how to spell and uses funny made up words. Lorrie driver?? Color spelled with the letter "u"?? The letter "z" pronounced as zed?? WTF? Actually I could do a whole post on those Brits and Aussies and maybe I will. Although the Aussies ... read more

Those who know me know that I hate having my picture taken. I am a photographer and I am used to being on the other side of the camera. So sometimes when I am showing my photos of places I have been people ask why am I not in any of the photos. So now I would like to introduce you to my alter ego. For the past few years I have been traveling with my Lamont Morris my alter ego. He stands in for me for any photos I take. We have a lot in common. We are both former military, he was in the Marines and I was in the Navy. We both like to travel, cook and read. And in in fact we could even pass for twins. There is a small height ... read more