So I guess I'll pick up where I left off. After getting sick in Rantepao and traveling for two days on hot buses and staying in filthy rooms, I got on the ferry to the Togean Islands. I was with a Spanish girl named Laia whose bus broke down and so she was on my bus. We shared a room in Poso and Ampana before finally making it to the islands. I should say that those towns were fine, lots of friendly people and everything, but I was sick and just not in the state of mind to look at the [View Full Entry]

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The last five days or so have been an exercise in going with the flow, which was my goal from the beginning of this trip. I flew onto the island of Sulawesi at night, landing near the metropolis of Makassar. My initial plan was to go into the city and try to find a cheap motorbike to buy on which to tour the island. But as I was getting my luggage, I met a Canadian girl named Rachel who was getting a night bus up towards the center of the island to Tana Toraja. And so I went on a 12 [View Full Entry]

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Well, my impressively horrible luck with plane rides continues. On my fifteen hour flight from LAX to Taiwan, I was seated next to a (and there just isn't any way to be politically correct about this) 50 year old retarded man who constantly had his hands down his pants and was telling me about his 23 yr old girl friend he was giong to visit in China and he was sneezing all over my food, and I'm not proud to say it, but I almost yelled at a retarded man. But overall, the trip went smoothly. I landed in Bali and [View Full Entry]

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I actually flew into Costa Rica yesterday and I´m in the capital at the moment waiting for my bus to depart for the beach, but this blog will be about Ecuador. First off I should mention that tragedy struck yesterday. I left my favorite shirt in a hotel room, and I left my f$%&%!$ digital camera in the taxi that dropped me off at the airport, so no more new pictures after this blog. After several days in ecuador, we headed up to the mountain town of Banos. After arriving, we all instantly regretted that we would only have two nights [View Full Entry]

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Let´s see if I can remember what I´ve been up to for the past week or two... After the trek, we bussed it to Bogota and stayed there for two days. The colonial section of the town was really enchanting. It´s just a maze of thin cobblestone streets lined with colorful buildings that all seem to be on the edge of melting due to the sagging of walls and roofs. The central plaza is the most impressive one I´ve seen, it even had huge flocks of pigeons to stroll through. The weather was actually pretty glum while we were there, which [View Full Entry]

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As James (one of the guys in the trek) put it, ´this must be one of the greatest adventures of all time, lads!´ No one is really sure how far we walked during our six days in the jungle, but a conservative guess would be 45 miles, most of it being on a steep incline. The trail afforded great views of mountainous jungle vistas with steam radiating up from the greenery, turquoise rivers, tunnels of pure vegitation... it was like hiking through Jurrasic Park, sans the reptiles. There were probably about 25 river crossings, and mud bogs 100 meters long. We [View Full Entry]

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Cartegena goes down as the best city I´ve ever visited. Best as in... the amazingly well-preserved achritechure and atmosphere of the old city is stunning, live music pours out of every other bar, friendly-beautiful people, armed guards for most businesses, the best fruit shakes on Earth, the list goes on. Yes, a group of us were almost robbed (some local guy saw it coming and started yelling to scare the would be robbers off), but overall, it´s just great. Inside the walls of the old city, loud taxis and buses are replaced by horse drawn carriages. In the more dilapidated parts [View Full Entry]

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We all made it to Cartagena last night, and it´s safe to say that this is my favorite city I´ve ever been to. But about the journey here... Linsey and I took a 4 hour taxi ride in a Land Cruiser on one of the roughest mountain roads imaginable across the isthmus of Panama to get to the San Blas islands. It was an interesting drive through thick jungle and huge mud holes. We defenitely were banged around a bit. We stayed for two nights on a Kuna island in a bamboo hut with nothing in it but hammocks. The 10 [View Full Entry]

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I've been in Panama City for 3 nights now, seeing sights and trying to arrange my departure (which I finally accomplished). I've been staying in the Voyager Hostel, meeting many many people. I'd actually reccommend the Mamallena Hostel over this place, but it's been fun here. Just last night I got to know people from Argentina, England, Ireland, Norway, Germany, Paraguay, Canada, and the US. I saw the Panama Canal, which looks way too small to afford the huge ships that pass through it. I thought I saw huge ships in Alaska, but it turns out they were nothing compared to [View Full Entry]

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After an 8 hour bus ride, I arrived in Panama City early this evening. First impressions are fairly good. I ended up only staying on the Boca islands for two days. I always listen when that sudden urge to move on arises. Strangely enough, despite spending a couple days on the Carribbean coast, and then a couple days on a Carribbean island, I haven´t been in the water at all. I´m discovering that after living on a boat in the ocean for 3.5 months, my desire to be around the ocean has basically evaporated. I certainly don´t mind the ocean, we´re [View Full Entry]

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