Travel E-mails
An archive of e-mails from my Centeral/South America trip.5/10/2006
The long journey north begins
Greetings and Salutations friends and family!
I have made it back to Panama City, flew in on the 17th from Lima Peru, after a 30 hour bus ride from La Paz (one of the three busses being a 16 hour trip, with no bathroom, which has been titled "the stinkiest bus on earth" - mmmmmm). Flying out of Lima market my journey North. After three months of making my way south, traveling through so many countries and so many cities; innumerable experiences of innumerable kinds. Now it is coming towards a close. I figure I have about 2 months left, getting back to canada late april. Still a long time ahead of me indeed, but it seems like a lot of it will be travel -- I don't even want to think about how many kilometers I have to cover! and all on ground! Good times all in all. Busses are easy now, such a common thing for me (though I am getting sick of them at the same time, namley transfering) Reading, sleeping, listening to music, watching the scenery roll by, or simply thinking to myself on this or that.
My trip to South America was great -- full of good times and spectacular sites. The mystic nature of the Inca Trail and Machu Picchu, the questions posed of the Nazca Lines, the festivals throughout Bolivia and Peru, and the trip to Rurrenabaque (Amazon Basin).
That last trip -- the Pampas Tour -- Great adventure. We set off from Lima, flying into town. I hadn't a clue that nearly the entire flight was going to be the group I would be spending my next few days with (though admittedly the plane was quite small). I had met an Irish fellow by the name of Mick at my hostel, and knew that he was on the tour aswell, but the rest of the crew remained unknown to me. We landed in a field (Bolivia's Airports- 16 paved runways, 1049 unpaved runways - from CIA World Factbook). The first night we spend in the town, chilling out in hammocks and drinking beer. The next morning we were of into the the wild -- a 3 hour ATV ride on some of the worst roads I've seen, then lunch and a 3 hour trip to camp in a simple, long, wooden boat with no roof to keep the rain off, and no padding on the seats. The next 2 days were spend touring the flooded river (wet season floods the area up towards the tree tops). We say monkies of all sorts, Tucans, Macaws, Parrots, and a huge variety of other birds. We saw Aligators (one of which was a resident of the camp site, he usually sat outside the kitchen and every meal you passed within a foot or two of him, luckuly we were on an elevated platform over the water). One of the most remarkable things on this trip was the Dolphin population. Dolphins in the middle of the mainland! Who would have guessed! and best of all -- we SWAM with them! I was swimming in murky waters that allowed no light further than a couple inches down -- knowing that aligators populate these waters. Dolphins surfaced within a few feew of us, splashing at us with their tails and popping up all over the place! Incredible experience.
So, after the Tour finished, and the second 3 hour boat and ATV trips were finished (and after huge down pours that had soaked us along that trip) we got back to town to discover that appearently dirt runways don't work to well for landing on when they're wet (maybe paving more than 1.7% of the freaking runways would help!). We were delayed that night.. the next day it rained in La Paz and no planes were landing there either... finally on the next day at 3:00 PM we got out. The next morning marked the beginning of the 30 hour bus ride to Lima, where I relaxed for a night (and smoked some Nakhla -- mmmmm Nakhla! Tobacco at it's finest). Then the next afternoon I flew here, Panama City.
So, here I have been -- sending a package of unneeded goods back north, getting laundry done (oh god how I needed that) and meeting up with my pal Jared and his family (resulting in a bad hangover and little sleep... Sal-Sal-Sa... Sal-Sal-Sa.)
So, that's the update. Next I head to the East coast of Panama, and cross over to Costa Rica, then up through Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, Belize, and Mexico (seeing all the ruins I skipped on the way) and finally, up through the states to "home" (whatever that is)
Hope this finds all of you either thawing or catching some sun.
Just think of me when that damned old toaster burns your morning toast because the pop-up thingy is broken. And if you have a new toaster... shame on you!
Zac
I have made it back to Panama City, flew in on the 17th from Lima Peru, after a 30 hour bus ride from La Paz (one of the three busses being a 16 hour trip, with no bathroom, which has been titled "the stinkiest bus on earth" - mmmmmm). Flying out of Lima market my journey North. After three months of making my way south, traveling through so many countries and so many cities; innumerable experiences of innumerable kinds. Now it is coming towards a close. I figure I have about 2 months left, getting back to canada late april. Still a long time ahead of me indeed, but it seems like a lot of it will be travel -- I don't even want to think about how many kilometers I have to cover! and all on ground! Good times all in all. Busses are easy now, such a common thing for me (though I am getting sick of them at the same time, namley transfering) Reading, sleeping, listening to music, watching the scenery roll by, or simply thinking to myself on this or that.
My trip to South America was great -- full of good times and spectacular sites. The mystic nature of the Inca Trail and Machu Picchu, the questions posed of the Nazca Lines, the festivals throughout Bolivia and Peru, and the trip to Rurrenabaque (Amazon Basin).
That last trip -- the Pampas Tour -- Great adventure. We set off from Lima, flying into town. I hadn't a clue that nearly the entire flight was going to be the group I would be spending my next few days with (though admittedly the plane was quite small). I had met an Irish fellow by the name of Mick at my hostel, and knew that he was on the tour aswell, but the rest of the crew remained unknown to me. We landed in a field (Bolivia's Airports- 16 paved runways, 1049 unpaved runways - from CIA World Factbook). The first night we spend in the town, chilling out in hammocks and drinking beer. The next morning we were of into the the wild -- a 3 hour ATV ride on some of the worst roads I've seen, then lunch and a 3 hour trip to camp in a simple, long, wooden boat with no roof to keep the rain off, and no padding on the seats. The next 2 days were spend touring the flooded river (wet season floods the area up towards the tree tops). We say monkies of all sorts, Tucans, Macaws, Parrots, and a huge variety of other birds. We saw Aligators (one of which was a resident of the camp site, he usually sat outside the kitchen and every meal you passed within a foot or two of him, luckuly we were on an elevated platform over the water). One of the most remarkable things on this trip was the Dolphin population. Dolphins in the middle of the mainland! Who would have guessed! and best of all -- we SWAM with them! I was swimming in murky waters that allowed no light further than a couple inches down -- knowing that aligators populate these waters. Dolphins surfaced within a few feew of us, splashing at us with their tails and popping up all over the place! Incredible experience.
So, after the Tour finished, and the second 3 hour boat and ATV trips were finished (and after huge down pours that had soaked us along that trip) we got back to town to discover that appearently dirt runways don't work to well for landing on when they're wet (maybe paving more than 1.7% of the freaking runways would help!). We were delayed that night.. the next day it rained in La Paz and no planes were landing there either... finally on the next day at 3:00 PM we got out. The next morning marked the beginning of the 30 hour bus ride to Lima, where I relaxed for a night (and smoked some Nakhla -- mmmmm Nakhla! Tobacco at it's finest). Then the next afternoon I flew here, Panama City.
So, here I have been -- sending a package of unneeded goods back north, getting laundry done (oh god how I needed that) and meeting up with my pal Jared and his family (resulting in a bad hangover and little sleep... Sal-Sal-Sa... Sal-Sal-Sa.)
So, that's the update. Next I head to the East coast of Panama, and cross over to Costa Rica, then up through Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, Belize, and Mexico (seeing all the ruins I skipped on the way) and finally, up through the states to "home" (whatever that is)
Hope this finds all of you either thawing or catching some sun.
Just think of me when that damned old toaster burns your morning toast because the pop-up thingy is broken. And if you have a new toaster... shame on you!
Zac
# 12:58 PM 
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