Culture Shocked!!!

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One day I found myself in a small town in northern Ecuador eating lunch for one dollar in a dirty, little local restaurant, trying to decipher what type of meat I was eating.  A couple days later I found myself eating shrimp cocktails and drinking champagne in a morning suit at a wedding in Great Britain.  After spending nearly the last year of my life living on only the most basic necessities of life, living and traveling in Central and South America, I jumped at the chance to attend two family weddings in both Wales and England.  I’ve done a lot of traveling in my life in third and first world countries, but I have never experienced such an outrageous contrast in culture before.  Let me give you some examples….

Clothing

After living out of a backpack for a long period of time things like wrinkles, funny smells and holes in my clothes were an everyday occurrence.  Doing laundry isn’t always easy or possible so what I like to call the ‘Smell Test’ becomes a regular activity.  This is when you simply smell articles of clothing in your backpack to determine their cleanliness.  When everything is dirty you have to determine what appropriate level of smelly is okay for certain activities.  For example, if I am simply going on a hike with my friend I will wear my smelliest shirt because I am bound to sweat and make it bad anyway.  On the other hand if it’s possible I’m going to meet some chicks at a beach or bar I obviously try and pick the least smelly shirt. My parents brought a suitcase full ‘England Appropriate’ attire with nice, ironed dress shirts and adequate underwear for every single day of the week. With enough clothes and a washing machine in the next door room it wouldn’t even make sense for me to wear the same shirt two days in a row. So  you can imagine my embarrassment when without thinking I found myself smelling the armpits of a dress shirt I wore to a party the night before thinking ‘this isn’t so bad, I could wear this again….’

Food

When you order chicken in London you are given a nice clean breast or thigh.  Ordering chicken in a small mountain town in Colombia you might find yourself with a soup containing a clear broth, a heap load of internal organs and some chicken feet.  How you are supposed to eat the talons of a chicken continues to bewilder me, but this is not the point.  The food in general is much more raw in Latin America, it’s not rare to see dead (or alive) animals just lying on a table outside a restaurant, ready to be cut up or slaughtered for your order!  For this reason and the fact that cheese in Latin America tastes like milk flavored rubber, you can imagine my excitement for some good European food.  Eating brie and bacon sandwiches on a regular basis, never have I felt such an appreciation for rich food before!

Money

When I’m looking to go out drinking for a night in Ecuador, I usually just bring $10 with me.  This should usually be MORE than enough for drinks, food and perhaps a late night snack of some sort.  Going out to in London I found myself spending at least $60 per night on drinks and entry fees alone.  It’s difficult to get used to a couple nights out costing more than an entire week of living expenses in your home country. This made me realize even more why so many people from poorer nations will never, ever have the chance to travel, because it’s just such an outrageous gap in prices!

Luxury

When you are used to sleeping in a hostel room with 9 other strangers, taking cold showers and using a bar of soap as shampoo a normal hotel room seems like a castle.  My first night in a hotel I felt like a king.  After embarrassing myself asking my parents if it was safe to drink the tap water, I found myself just standing under the hot water using all the little soap, shampoo and conditioner bottles I could get my hands on.  Everything just felt so clean and my bed with multiple pillows and zero chance of bed bugs gave me the best night sleep I’d had in quite some time.

What did I learn?

Living the lavish life after so much time with just the basic necessities was a very valuable experience.  I realized how much more I appreciated the simple things after having lived without them.  Before my time in the third world, being excited for hot water or being able to drink out of the tap was completely non-existent.  I took so many things that many people would consider luxuries for granted.  When I’m back home in the US I often find myself wishing I had more things.  Like driving my older car wishing I had something newer, it’s easy to desire the plethora of luxuries our country has to offer.  What’s cool about living without them for a while is that now I truly appreciate how awesome it really is to have a car. I’ve spent more hours than any human being ever should on bumpy buses and just any car would be such an amazing improvement.  Appreciate the things you have, no matter what they are!

Ecuadorian Goat Milk – Hangover Cure!?

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Ibarra, Ecuador is the first midsize town we came across after our nerve-racking border crossing from Colombia.  We only planned on staying a night to break up the trip to Quito, but the good, cheap food and laid-back vibes caused us to stay until the weekend.  Friday night rolled about and having seen a number of interesting watering holes for consuming drinks we decided to give Ecuadorian night-life a try.  Beginning with a bottle of Colombian Rum and some College drinking games we found ourselves out on the street asking young locals for good spots to go drinking, dancing and hopefully chatting with some pretty Ecuadorian chicas.  After clearing up some brief confusion with a local student who was trying to point us in the direction of a brothel rather than a local bar we found ourselves in a nice little club called Tsunamis. With our stomachs filled to the brim with liquid courage we approached the first two pretty Ecuadorian chicks by the bar and had a fun night of dancing and trying to chat them up in Spanish.

Bleary-eyed with a dry feeling in my brain I awoke the next morning to the realization that checkout time was soon, I still needed to pack my stuff up and I was soon about to sit in a bumpy bus to one of the largest markets in South America.  With a bad hangover, heavy backpack and sweating profusely I made my way to the bus station in search of anything that would cure my terrible hangover.  I stumbled upon some goats near a railroad who I thought might be able to help me.  Could my stomach handle the goats gift – watch this video and find out.

The Most Difficult Hike of My Life – Volcano Purace

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I normally consider myself a ‘Man of the Mountains’ having grown up literally at the foothills of the beautiful flatiron peaks in Boulder, Colorado. Unfortunately after climbing the tallest volcano in the Coconu range of Southern Colombia I feel like I may have lost a little bit of that manliness.  Volcano Purace resides at a massive 15,256 feet and took us over 5 hours to summit.  Walking at a snails pace through the alien looking landscape of strange volcanic rocks and craters we did manage to reach the top of the beast, but were breathing harder the finals of a Fat Camp jumping jack competition when we arrived.  As we began our descent exclaiming to each other that this was literally the most difficult physical challenge we have ever undertaken, a massive hail and rainstorm commenced.  To our disgruntled bewilderment the already mud path we made our way up had quite literally turned into a river.  Ill-equipped for cold weather and without even a waterproof jacket I waded through the freezing rain river for a teeth chattering 3 hour descent all the while knowing that if one of us slipped and twisted an ankle it could turn into an extremely dangerous situation.  We managed to survive the adventure, but will be more hesitant with the next massive volcano that challenges us!  Below is a video interview at the summit of the volcano with an exhausted Alexplorer…

The Most Northern Point in South America

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ImageAnything containing the words “the most” in it is usually something that I’m interested in.  For example if you were to tell me of a place with “the most beautiful girls” or “the most delicious beer” I would most certainly take your advice seriously.  For this reason when a friendly Colombian girl told me about the Guajira Peninsula, a.k.a. the most northern point in South America I knew that it was a place that I must find.  Not only did the simple idea of being at the absolute northern point of a continent intrigue me, but the way in which I was given the advice on how to get there was equally as interesting.  We were given a series of small towns to travel to en route to this enchanting peninsula known for dry, red deserts that stretch out to a contrastingly blue sea.   We were told we needed to take varied forms of transport from buses, taxis and even sitting in the back of trucks with goats and the local Wayuu indigenous people.  With no real expectations we set off on an adventure of the purest nature.  My travel partner and I had a German girl (quite possibly the girl from the movie Run Lola Run) join us and we woke up early to catch the first bus.

ImageBright and early we set off from Santa Marta on what turned out to be a 10 hour journey.  After a taxi, bus and what seemed to be some random guy’s car we found ourselves on a straight dusty road alongside an old railroad track and a line of trees that looked like they had been decorated for Christmas they had so much trash clinging to their branches.  As we raced up behind a truck crammed full of locals and food, Anna (German Girl aka Lola) jokingly said that truck would probably be our next form of transportation.  Funny enough we actually pulled alongside the vehicle, stopped them, and our driver told us to squeeze into the truck bed, as this was the normal transport to get us to the peninsula.  We stopped in a local market to cram even more supplies and people into this small truck, while trying to enjoy a lunch of the local delicacy; fried goat meat.  After a few more bumpy, dusty and uncomfortable hours we made our way to Cabo de la Vela, a small town and strange landscape of desert shrubs and cacti leading right up to the ocean.

ImageJust before the sun dipped below the horizon we managed to rent a tiny wooden shack to hang up our hammocks for the night.  We managed to find a local Wayuu woman’s restaurant nearby who was serving some shrimp and rice to a group of Colombian University students and teachers who had come to study the stars.  The food was not the greatest I’ve ever put in my body, but the astronomy teacher was jazzed to point out all the constellations with a crazy high powered laser for us after the meal.  Being in a desert with virtually no lights and so near to the equator that we could see constellations from both hemispheres made for quite an amazing place to gaze upon some stars.

ImageThe next morning we set out to trek across the desert to a small mountain and beach where we could hang out on the true end of the continent.  A hot, sweaty but amazing journey through a desert full of lizards, vultures, goats and some of the tiniest communities of people living on literally the most basic necessities of life I’ve ever come across.  Tiny shacks with nothing more than a couple wood logs to hang hammocks and a sheet to provide some shade from the abusive sun, these indigenous folks were some serious roughnecks living in the most unlivable landscape imaginable.  All the women had their faces painted black and did not want to be photographed.  After hours of trudging through sand amongst the goats we came across Pilon de Azucal, an incredible little mountain at the end of the world.  We quickly made our way up the mountain for one of the most unique views I’ve ever laid eyes on. Red sand cliffs slowly eroding into an aqua-marine sea that stretched on as far as the eye can see in both directions, the landscape was definitely worth the long and difficult journey.

ImageAfter quite some time enjoying life at the end of a continent we made our way to an amazing little secluded beach where it felt like we were the only people in the world.  As midday turned to afternoon we decided to trek back to our shack, but not before we bought some Venezuelan beers from some local Wayuu’s.  Sunburned skin, tired legs, but an amazing feeling of achievement for having experienced such an amazing place, I took a refreshing siesta in a hammock and awoke just in time for a nice sunset.  We bought some disgusting local homemade liquor (that we later found out is often used for cleaning supplies) from a child and her mom then had some dinner.  Fairly exhausted we headed back to our shack to lie in hammocks, wincing as we sipped the gross alcohol and talked about the differences between German and American dating culture.

The next morning a truck came to take us back to civilization at a bleary-eyed 5am.  Along with a couple other German backpackers and locals there was a man who when approaching our vehicle seemed to let out a blood curdling scream.  I was confused for a moment until I saw that he was lifting a live goat into our truck bed and that sound of a child being tortured was just the animal not the man.  As I tried to get comfortable smashed into a little corner of a truck with a goat at my feet speeding through an open desert I had a brief realization of how wild and awesome this adventure truly was….

Crazy Colombian Carnival

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While most people think of Brazil when the word Carnival comes to mind, I’ve recently discovered first hand another legendary location for this wild holiday.  Where foreign visitors are few and far between Baranquilla, Colombia provides the stomping ground for a 4-day booze soaked rager with parades, wild outfits and girls so pretty it hurts your eyes.  Just a stone’s throw from Colombia’s Caribbean Coast, Barranquilla isn’t really on any tourist’s list of places to visit, but when Carnival comes around it is most certainly the best place you can go to “shake it with the locals.”  Fate thankfully placed Carnival in my plans during my time in Colombia, here’s the tale….

Ready to Paartttyyy

Equipped with a “Sweet Sound Makes Good Party” t-shirt, a plastic bag full of money and a copy of my passport I found myself on a bus from Cartagena to Baranquilla around midday on the first day of Carnival.  I’d heard that the area can be quite dangerous for foreigners, especially during Carnival, so I packed quite literally expecting to be robbed by splitting up my money into four separate pockets with no ATM card or anything else of value.  My crew was amped for a fiesta and made up of myself, my legendary travel partner, a funny Swiss guy and a blond German girl.  We got dropped off at a supermarket on the outskirts of the city, bought a bag full of Aguilas (local beers) and took a cab to the party zone.  A dense mob of people crowded as far as the eye can see around a road with a parade, we opened our throats and downed beers while sweating our way through the locals for a good place to hang.  No matter how hard I try my blond hair and blue eyes just can’t pass me off as a Colombian, so everyone wanted to take pictures with us.

Funny Foaming Faces

Little foam cannons are available for purchase to soak your friends and anyone within earshot in a soapy layer of eye-burning foam.  This is a fun beer fueled activity until you take it too far in spraying some local kids and they quite literally almost kill your Swiss friend by filling every orifice of his body with foam to the point where he can’t see or breathe for an unhealthy period of time.  Dancing around, drinking beers, wiping foam out of your eyes, posing for photos and watching a parade of beautiful women in crazy costumes, the party was nothing short of amazing.

Small Urinal - What are you looking at?

Constantly changing locations after repeated trips to the smallest urinal I’ve ever seen that’s supposed to be for two people, something bad happened that filled me with a brief sense of panic.  Everyone started running and screaming like a riot was happening and the locals advised us to get away from where we were hanging out before because there had just been a knife fight.  Surprisingly only fazed for a brief instance at the significant danger that was near us, some crazy local guy in a wolfman costume took us to a street corner where everyone drinks and dances.  Trying my best to shake it with some older Colombian ladies, the beer flowed like water and we quickly got back in the Carnival spirit.  As the sun began to set we ran into a friendly group of Colombians with a girl who loved to give high-fives more than any human I’ve ever come across. They were party organizers for the fiesta and when they ran into us they expressed extreme concern for our safety and told us we needed to get out of that area quickly before it got dark as it would be too dangerous for us.  Surprised because everyone was so nice, but not about to ignore local advice they invited us to dinner then to come party at their house which we obliged.

The Colombians that saved us from unknown dangers!

Drinking a cheap bottle of horrible rum on a local bus with my hand throbbing from sitting near “High-five girl” it was an extremely fun little local experience.  They took us to a restaurant that seemed to specialize in hot-dogs and while we drank cheap liquor and stuffed our faces, the locals kindly took care of the bill.  Next we headed to one of the Colombians houses where everyone seemed to unwind for a while so we all eventually fell asleep on some random guys couch.  Now I should have probably mentioned earlier that there was absolutely no fairly priced accommodation in Baranquilla for the Carnival so we had planned on just partying all night then taking an early morning bus back to Cartagena.  This plan was sort of ruined when we were told it wasn’t safe on the streets at night, so when the locals woke us up and told us they were going somewhere else, but could drop us off at a local nightclub we didn’t really have any other choice.  When we arrived at the club we realized we weren’t really suited for the expensive, high-class spot considering we were in dirty clothes, sandals and smelled like beer foam, so we opted to drink at a little late night food stand across the street.  After a few hours talking about how awesome the day was the night turned to early morning and the food stand closed.  We saw that the nightclub was letting out so we went to stand outside to see what was happening and think of a new plan on what to do with the next few hours of 4am-7am time in the land of knife fights.

The aftermath

As we watched the finely dressed Colombians leaving the club we were absolutely mesmerized by the hotness of the local woman.  As these stacked women stumbled their way out of the club, we wiped the drool from our chins and were so overwhelmed by their beauty it was like watching the sunset over the Grand Canyon.  The club closed and to our dismay none of the goddesses came up and asked if we would like to go home with them for a few hours, so we made our way over to a fast food restaurant.  We weren’t hungry, but we found a back room that was unlocked with a trampoline so we all snuck in and fell asleep on it until we were kicked out.  Fortunately enough time had passed and we made our way to the bus in a delirious state and returned to Caratagena.

Crossing Continents in a Speed Boat

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Although North and South America are connected by land there is currently no road that spans between the two.  The border of Colombia and Panama is known as the Darien Gap and it contains one of the densest jungles in the world.  Not only does this natural mountainous jungle create an extremely difficult land crossing, but the region is prevalent with cocaine production and the groups partaking in the creation of partygoer’s nasal powder are known to eliminate anyone who stumbles upon their illegal activities.  So aside from the few crazy souls willing to subject themselves to considerable danger by hiking the notoriously treacherous Darien Gap, a boat or a plane is the only option to cross the continents.

Now in my opinion, flying in an airplane is one of the coolest things our species has ever invented.  To be able to get in a metal tube with wings, drink a few beers, watch a movie then land in a completely different country halfway across the world is an absolutely miraculous phenomenon.  That being said, I also sincerely appreciate overland or overwater travel and to be honest I think it is a more enriching experience.  When you simply take off from your capital city and land in another you miss everything in between.  These aren’t places you probably would choose to see or make an effort to get to once you are in a country, so the only way to experience them is to cross the border on land.

For this reason I decided to cross the Darien Gap in a boat.  Now most boats take about 3-4 days and the options are to either sail or take a speedboat.  Having already spent 3 weeks on a sailboat before I decided to try something new and spend four days island-hopping my way to South America.  The boat was appropriately named the Darien Gapster and we spent three nights and four days cruising through the surreal San Blas Islands going from Panama to Colombia.  These islands are nothing short of spectacular with white sand, crystal blue waters and some of them being so small you can literally walk the entire circumference of the island in 5 minutes.  They are owned by the Kuna Indians and the only buildings you will see if any will be bamboo huts with sand floors and hammocks.   The Kunas are a simple bunch who spend most of their time fishing and climbing palm trees for coconuts, which they have used as currency since they inhabited the islands.  Armed with hammocks, rum, snorkels and the mentality to chill we spent our nights on deserted islands or mingling amongst the Kuna.  Our time on the islands was fantastic, chilling with a small extremely diverse group of travelers sharing stories, rum and just being overwhelmed by the beauty of the area.  Combining rum with coconut water is one of the greater drinks around, but deceptively easy to drink and lead to the only serious negative aspect of the journey.

Playing “Never Have I Ever” until the wee hours of the morning and waking up reeking of rum and with a rotten stomach of a hangover DOES NOT go well with extended, bumpy speed boat travel.  One of the roughest parts of the Caribbean is between Panama and Colombia with surprisingly large swells almost all the time.On a small over-loaded speed boat, the rollercoaster size bumps for hours on end made me have to seriously concentrate so I wouldn’t paint the Swiss guy sitting next to me with a rum and coconut upchuck mixture.  Finally the trip ended in La Miel, Panama where we quite literally just walked up a mountain and across the border to Colombia.  Surprisingly it was THE most relaxed border crossing I’ve ever experienced in my life, as some of the group didn’t have shoes, shirts or even pants when crossing over to South America.

Why Did the Duck Cross the Road?

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In case you missed it…  I was lucky enough to film a crazy duck that repeatedly kept trying to walk across a highway in Panama (yes it could fly it just chose not too).  If you haven’t watched this video yet prepare yourself for the worst (or the best??) to see if this crazy duck survives Panamanian Traffic!

Climbed a Volcano then Experienced an Earthquake – Natural Disaster Day…

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My Guatemalan Host Family

Missed my alarm…  However it was 6:05am so I still had a chance.  I was supposed to meet some local Guatemalan dude 5 minutes in the past to guide me up a volcano that morning.  As I threw some chips and water in a little backpack I raced down the stairs of Guatemalan host family’s house in hopes to catch him.  The moment I opened the door and exited my house a fairly poor looking local guy with a sparkling gold tooth walked up to me, pointed to the volcano looming over my town and asked me to pay him immediately.  Now I knew this was supposed to be a 6 hour trek so I was a little hesitant at first to fork over the 100 Quetzales (Guatemalan currency) thinking, “Why I do I need to pay him now?  Is he just some random dude who walks around at 6am and looks for gringos waiting for guides, collects the money and disappears?”  He sure didn’t look like a guide, but I went with it anyway and before I knew it we were chatting in Spanish making our way to the base of the big volcano.

I was up there! - San Pedro Volcano

The air was crisp and after telling the local that I grew up in the great Rocky Mountains of Colorado and was used to high altitude he set a vigorous pace for our ascent.  After a couple hours of chit chat, practicing my Spanish and walking through the dense forest I began to realize this was going to be more difficult than I had initially expected.  Although I fancy myself a fairly fit young lad, the trail was a very sharp incline and virtually the same steepness as climbing large stairs for hours on end.  Slightly regretting building myself up to be an “hombre de las montanas” (man of the mountains) as there was no way I could ask for a water break and keep my integrity, we kept the pace and began to climb higher and higher.  My guide ran into a local coffee farmer who was making his way up the volcano and they began to converse in the local language of the area.  What most people don’t realize about Guatemala is that Spanish is actually the second language in most areas of the country.  In the town of San Pedro La Laguna where I’ve been studying Spanish for the last 2 weeks, the first language of the people is called Tz’utujil.  This is one of the twenty some different dialects of Mayan language, and one of the most different sounding languages I’ve ever been exposed to.  Consisting of strange, exotic sounds in combination with these noises I can best describe as ‘clucks’ coming from deep within the throat, the language truly makes you feel like you are in another world.

My Current Home - San Pedro La Laguna

Listening to the bizarre clucks of the Mayan language, with my heart pounding in my chest and legs feeling like burning rubber, minutes turned to hours as we trekked up the 6,060 ft volcano.  Rather than trying to take my mind away from the pain in my body I just embraced the moment, felt my muscles straining, heart working overtime and brain being overwhelmed by all my senses from the sights and sounds of a forest like none I’d ever seen.  Our first real break was only 20 minutes from the summit where the guide showed me a flat area where some people come up and camp.  As I sat down on an enormous log and tried to replenish the large amount of water that I had sweated out, I had a nice little moment of peace.  Unable to see anything but thick, lush forest, I felt like I was in a scene from the movie Avatar watching birds play in the huge moss covered trees and immensely green fauna all around me.  Eventually we made our way up the last steep bit to the summit of the volcano, and the moment the forest opened up to the view below I remembered why I liked to climb things.

               With quite literally a bird’s eye view of a large, spectacularly blue lake surrounded by perfectly shaped volcanoes protruding violently from the earth, the landscape was overwhelmingly beautiful.  High above the clouds, I rested on a rock and let my eyes smile for a while.  As I tried to snap many photos of the ridiculous view, I was affected by what is known as the ‘Alaska Effect.’  This phenomenon is when you attempt to photograph something that is so huge and beautiful it is virtually impossible to accurately portray in a simple photo.  Eventually my desire to see something beautiful had been fulfilled and we began our descent conversing about international soccer, food and poverty.  What’s interesting about many people from other countries is that they have absolutely no idea that the US has poor people in it.  They often assume that everyone in the US is rich because the only Americans they meet are tourists with enough money to travel, and as MTV is hugely popular abroad shows like ‘Jersey Shore’ or ‘My Super Sweet 16’ brainwash them into thinking this is what normal life is like in America.  This creates somewhat of a problem as many people in other countries idolize the United States and center their whole lives on trying to get there for a better life.  It could be said that this contributes to our immigration problem and what’s sad is that many of these poor folks risk everything to go north only to end up in our country in just as bad poverty as they had back home.

Hombre de Los Volcanes

My guide was very cool, open and told me all about his life.  Among other things he brought tourists up the volcano 4 times a week (at age 45 that’s a lot of strenuous work) for just a few dollars each time.  He came from a huge family in a small town in the south and had come to San Pedro in hopes to make enough money to feed his large family with the help of tourist dollars.  Two of his younger brothers had been murdered in Guatemala City and although he was very kind and nice I could tell that this man was struggling.  He kept talking to me about drinking beer and thinking we were getting along pretty well I offered to treat him to a beer to celebrate climbing the volcano.  He obliged, but instead of taking me to a bar we went to a little convenience store in the center of town.  I took two cans of Gallo (my least favorite of the local beers) out of the refrigerator and before I even had time to pay for them he had chugged his entire beer.  Quickly afterwards he thanked me and took off, leaving me to awkwardly drink my beer as quickly as possibly alone in the store while people shopped and looked at this strange gringo who was choking down beer and covered in sweat just before noon.

Where I Read Books - From the Roof of my House

Eventually I returned to my house and sprawled out exhaustedly on my bed.  My leg muscles were slightly shaking from the over exertion of summiting the volcano, but I was tired enough that I closed my eyes and almost instantly feel asleep.  I awoke to a feeling like I’ve never experience in my life.  My bed began trembling and over the course of about a minute continued until it was shaky fairly hard.  As I gripped the sheets, terrified watching the furniture in my room jump up and down for a while I had absolutely no idea what was going on.  Wondering to myself if I was experiencing an earthquake or perhaps ironically the volcano that I had climbed earlier was erupting, I just sat there too tired and confused to move.  Eventually the shaking stopped, but I was too tired to do anything and all the walls in my room seemed to be in tact so I fell back asleep.  An hour or so later I awoke and thought to myself, “What the hell happened a little while ago?”  Not quite sure if I had experienced a natural disaster or just a dream I went to ask one of my housemates if he noticed the same thing.  Luckily I hadn’t gone crazy and he had experienced the same frightening experience.  We checked the internet and discovered there had been a pretty sizable earthquake near the border of Mexico and Guatemala.  We had only felt a tremor of it, but I can tell you that having the ground beneath you shake is quite an unnatural and unnerving experience! Having climbed my first volcano and experienced my first earthquake in the same day, I will forever remember January 21st as Natural Disaster Day. 

Am I Doing What a 26 Year Old Should Be Doing?

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Buenos Noches

Today marks the day of my 26th birthday in this beautiful, strange and awesome world.  As I write these words I am watching the sun set behind a volcano over the surreal Lake Atitlan in Guatemala.  If someone told me as a kid that this is where I would be spending the 26th anniversary of my birth, I would have been very confused and wondered how and why this was going to happen.  Funny enough, I am still pondering those same questions, how did I end up here?  What factors in my life influenced me to become infatuated with traveling to strange lands, meeting new people and exposing myself to different things on a daily basis?  Am I doing what I should be for a typical 26 year old American male?

What are some of the things that people consider to be important for someone my age?

  1. Career – Well simply put I don’t have one of these.  In fact I’m currently unemployed besides doing a little travel writing on the web for small amounts of cash.
  2. Relationship – I find it hard to stay in the same city for more than 6 months without craving new adventures, try explaining that to a significant other….
  3. Possessions- Everything I currently own is probably worth less than the computer you are reading this on and if I can’t fit it into my backpack I don’t really need it.
  4. Education- I have a bachelor’s degree in Business, but my last job was teaching foreign kids English in Panama.  However, I can honestly tell you that I’ve learned more from traveling than I did in my 4 years of University.
  5. Experiences- Well I’ve traveled to 43 countries, have friends all over the world and should probably write a book I have so many stories.

So Alex let me get this straight, you’ve got no job, no girlfriend, a backpack full of cheap crap and smelly clothes, you aren’t using your expensive college degree and you justify this because you’ve traveled a bit…  Is it really worth it?

This is WHY I Travel!

I remember an activity I did in elementary school with my class where we had to create a timeline of what we thought our life was going to be like in the future.  My timeline and the majority of my classmates consisted of your typical, college – job – marriage – house – kids – retire.  No one mentioned things such as visit a new continent or learn a new language or climb a mountain.  Why is that?  What would the teacher have done if my timeline had looked something more like this:

College – Boring Office Job – Teach English in Thailand – Travel SE Asia – Bartend in a Brewery – Travel Eastern Europe – Start a Hangover Helping Business – Teach English in Panama – Go to Spanish School in Guatemala – Travel South America – ?????

Mornin' Lake Atitlan

In all honesty the teacher would have probably handed back the assignment and told the student to be a little more realistic.  This is what frustrates me about the expectations placed on young people in the USA these days.  There’s this unnecessary pressure to jump into a career as quickly as possible before we even really know who we are or what we want to do.  Deciding what we want to do for THE REST OF OUR LIVES is an extremely important decision and not to be taken lightly.  Why not try a variety of things, travel around a bit, see different ways of life and experience the world before taking a decision on what to dedicate life to?

To answer the question of whether this lifestyle is worth it, my simple response is HELL YES it’s worth it.  The single most important reason why is because for this brief period in my life I am truly experiencing ultimate freedom.  While FREEDOM is a frequently used term in our great “Land of the Free, Home of the Brave” take a step back and analyze your life to see how free you actually are.  Ask yourself this question.  If your best friend offered you a one-way ticket to a country half way round the world tomorrow to go live for an indeterminate amount of time with them, could you accept their invitation?  The answer is probably no.  There are a number of factors that would inhibit your ability to just leave this world tomorrow for an adventure.  The most obvious reason is your job.  Even if you have money in the bank, you can’t risk losing your job in an economy like this one.  You probably have an apartment or a house that you need to sell or sublet.  That house is probably full of furniture, a TV, and lots of other things that you don’t really need.  You may have car payments, credit card debt, student loans that need to be paid off.  A spouse or girlfriend wouldn’t be too happy if you just took off one day… Maybe you have a dog, cat or even children that need to be taken care of.  Beyond material things what about expectation from your parents, peers or even yourself?

Steamin' in a Volcano

Now in no way am I saying that having these things is a negative thing and to be honest, besides the debt, I intend to have all of these things eventually.  Just not right now…  In the brief window where you are old enough to take care of yourself, but young enough not to have a lot of the things mentioned above this is a time when you can experience this ultimate freedom.  Not until you journey across the ocean and cut yourself loose to truly experience what the world has to offer doing absolutely WHATEVER you want free from expectations, judgments and responsibilities can you really get to know who you are as a person.  Slowly the closet full of clothes, TV, car and shoe collection become unimportant and your realize you only need a few bare essentials to survive.  This is a humbling lesson in our materialistic world and one that you will never learn in a book, lecture or movie.  As I reflect on my mere 26 years of life I am astounded where my journey has taken me.  Never in my wildest dreams would I have foreseen the wild adventures, awesome friends and strong lessons I have learned in this crazy life.  Thanks world for a hell of a ride, I’m stoked to be 26, what will this next year bring???

Please Don’t Rob Me!! – A Scary Day in Guatemala City

Posted on by verenico
1

After spending my first NYE on an epic beach in Santa Catalina, Panama one of the cooler surf towns I’ve come across, I found myself on a plane headed to Guatemala for a month.  The reason I’m going to Guatemala is simply because I went to the Copa Airlines website and looked for the cheapest special they had running for the New Year.  Round trip to Guatemala for $189, sold….

Antigua: The Destination

All I really knew about Guatemala was that they got some sweet Mayan temples, big volcanoes, cheap Spanish schools and a fairly dangerous capital city where a number of backpackers had told me they’d been robbed.  As it was just me and my trusty backpack traveling to Guatemala I decided I better not spend too much time in the capital alone and just head straight to a touristy town called Antigua.  Unfortunately I have a handy knife that I like to travel with so I had to check my backpack on the short flight across Central America.  Planning to hop a bus directly to Antigua from the airport the only thing that could force my hand into spending time in Guatemala City would be if they lost my best friend (my backpack).

Standing in disbelief as the last of the bags from my flight emptied onto the baggage claim, I realized my backpack was still in Panama.  Approaching the baggage counter with my fingers crossed another flight would be here soon I was told to return to the airport in 7 hours to claim my backpack.  To make matters worse the only things I had in my daypack were the expensive things I didn’t want to break or get lost in my luggage, including a Laptop, Camera, Ipod, Kindle and Cell Phone.  Not willing to waste 7 hours in the airport and thinking 10am probably isn’t the most common time to get robbed I tightened my jaw, asked a cab driver if he thought I would survive a walk around the city center and set off.

Guatemala City

Feeling cold air for the first time in 6 months I was dropped off at a fairly run down town square with some older, but fairly interesting looking buildings.  Putting on my hardest “Don’t fuck with this Gringo” face I started wandering around the city.  I quickly realized my blond hair and blue eyes were a beacon for attention and feelings of discomfort began to arise immediately as it seemed every single person within a 3 block radius was staring at me.  Although there was a large presence of police force equipped with menacing looking AK-47s, they seemed to give me the same unwelcoming look as all the others.  Not enjoying my time I decided I needed some information on things to do for the day that didn’t involve the feeling of cold gun metal to my head and all my possessions being taken away from me.  I found an internet café and whilst searching for info on the city a seemingly nice Guatemalan man told me where the tourist center was.  He offered to walk me there as he said it’s a bit dangerous to wander around alone and even paid for my internet bill as I still didn’t have any of the local currency.

An older man who was quite a lot smaller than me and not threatening in any way, he insisted on talking me on a little walk to see some churches.  As we began to enter some neighborhoods that did not look like the type of place for a gringo I kept repeatedly asking him if it was safe for me to be there.  He kept pointing to devious looking, homeless people saying at this time I won’t get robbed, but after 4pm that’s the type of guy that would rob me.  Not sure if that was supposed to make me feel comfortable or not I just went with it and got to see a good deal of the city.  I couldn’t decide if this guy was trying to get something from me with his kindness or was just genuinely being a nice guy.  After telling me to only eat chicken in this area of the city as it is widely known that vendors sell dog meat disguised as beef, he took me to a decent looking restaurant.

Not The Nicest Area

After telling me he was an out of work school teacher and watching this guy’s teeth literally keep falling out of his mouth he told me that he didn’t have enough money to eat at this nicer place.  As meals were only a few bucks, I offered to buy him lunch and a beer to thank him for his nice tour that didn’t end with me getting robbed.  Instead of lunch he asked if I could pay for some chicken for him to bring to his family that weekend so they wouldn’t think he was as bad off as he was.  He told me the chicken would be about $8 at a local market near the restaurant.  Feeling a little deceived, but realizing this dude could really use the money more than me I bought him a beer anyway and told him I would buy some chicken for him as a new year’s present.  I ate my meal to the clicking sound of his broken teeth secretly praying that my backpack would make it this time.

Just Textin with my Shotty...

After paying for my meal I realized it was time to return to the airport and I offered to just give him the money so he could buy the chicken himself.  All I had was a 100 Quetzal (Guatemalan currency) note which is about 15$ and the restaurant wouldn’t make change so he walked me to a bank where we could get some change.  As we entered a sketchy little strip mall he told me just to give him the money and he would run in and do it quickly.  As I absent mindedly gave him the money he promised he would be back and took off into the mall.  Still not totally trusting this man I followed him into the mall.  Passing a hair saloon the entire staff of middle aged woman ran out trying to grope me, cat calling and telling me how beautiful I was.  Trying to escape I ventured further into the mall where an angry looking man dressed in civilian clothing with a huge shotgun was walking right towards me quickly.  My heart began to race and I truly felt scared so I scampered out of the mall as quickly as possible.  Hiding in a little corner I realized that this was probably the most uncomfortable I had ever felt in my entire life.  Not even caring about the money anymore I started to walk away to find a taxi.  Just when I began to walk away the man returned with my change, thanked me profusely for helping him out and flagged a taxi for me.

Fortunately my backpack was at the airport, but the last bus to Antigua had left so they told me I would need to return to the city center and catch a chicken bus later that evening, but it was very dangerous so to be careful.  Not wanting to set foot back in the place especially after the 4pm time where I would get robbed I haggled a taxi guy to $20 to take me to Antigua directly….