| We are now in Mexico City and what a scene. This place is definitely the coolest city I�ve ever been in (which actually isn�t saying much...) and at 25 million people, is one of the biggest cities in the world. We�re staying in the historical area, which is pretty cool as far as architecture goes and there are neat little markets peppered all over the city. Definitely a place that would make anyone pregnant with excitement over its endless possibilities. Maybe you have to go far to see something you think will tickle your fancy? hop on the metro....its only TWENTY CENTS. You could probably repay at each stop and it still wouldn�t burn that much of a hole in your breast pocket....but if it did, I�d recommend �Solarcaine�, for fast acting relief - that�s �Solarcaine...for when it smarts most� I must say, we are a little disappointed about the lack of a complete chaotic revolution within the downtown, however. Friday was the first day in office for Mexico�s new president, Felipe Calderon, who won the election by less than a percentage point in July. Because of this, the Democratic Revolution party felt that its candidate, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, should have won and he has said that although Calderon was to be and has been sworn in, that he is Mexico�s true president and has put in place a parallel government in an attempt to undermine Felipe Calderon. Because of all of this drama, everyone expected that Friday morning, when Calderon was to be sworn in, leftist lawmakers who followed Obrador would do whatever it took to keep Calderon from going into office with any success and all of Mexico would be absolute chaos. But instead, Calderon was sworn in Thursday night and nothing more than a few flags and painted faces transpired on Friday. This to us, regardless of the potential for extreme danger, was disappointing because our hostel has a rooftop view of the square where all of the shit would have been hitting the fan, leaving us free of any shit coverage in the end. But you know, you win some and you lose some and in this case, we just ate out complementary hotel breakfast of dry white toast and somewhere-in-between-conflakes-and-frostedflakes-cereal and kept to ourselves. Apparently Schwartzenegger made it into town for the whole thing....haven�t seen�im yet though, but when I do, I�ll say hi on behalf of everyone. Well i need to eat, so let�s tie this thing off, shall we?! We hit up wrestling, or lucha libre the other night and it was nothing short of spectacular. The best part by far is the fact that a slap to the chest or the back seems to be the most pain inflicting move possible, rendering 250lbs+ wrestlers to crying babies in mere seconds. Second in intriguing is the use of english names that must seem absolutely hardcore to those who are spanish-speaking, but in reality suck...like �bacteria� and �1000% handsome�. On the other hand, I have used this philosophy to my advantage, by doing the vice versa and naming myself �LA BASURAAAAA�, which on the surface seems 1000% badass to anyone who is english like myself, but when all the eggs have finally hatched, it just means �the garbage�. The only other lucky man to have donned a wrestling name for himself thus far is pauls, who is �MCNIFICOOOOO�, which is spanish for �mcxtra�, the mcdonald�s sandwich. oh and wait, i can�t remember what denby�s is in spanish, but it means �the women�s toilet�....basically, we�re racking up some pure bangers for names and there are only more to come. For an amazing picture of us wearing our masks on top of the pyramid of the sun, go to pauls� blog |
| Well the cross-canada tour is just about to come to an end....I'll get over it though. These things happen you know? Just like how the comma button won't work on this computer. So I could be making a breakfast menu right now and say that your two eggs come with a choice of sausage bacon and ham. And you might think that I missed a comma between sausage and bacon....but maybe there never was a comma between bacon and ham - meaning that you'd get both with this breakfast and leading you to conclude "what an amazing breakfast!!". But then I'd tell you my comma button was busted and you were wrong...and you'd just have to get over it. So now we've really just reached a full-circle moment in which both you and I got over something. Wow...that was the first paragraph of the page and seeing as it was a complete winner, anyone who reads this page over the next two months is destined to be amazed. Did you see that? comma button works now,,,,,, So it went something like this: Halifax NS - Sussex/Moncton NB - Montreal QC - Kinstong/Belleville/Oakville/Toronto ON - Calgary AB - Kelowna/Vancouver/Victoria BC My first time going west of Ontario, so that was pretty cool. Now we're in Victoria and getting ready to leave probably Monday, October 9 2006. |
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| So that's the beaut (i would rather spell it "bute", but you know, you can't count your eggs til they hatch - BUT 6 of one, half a dozen of the other is also what some might say...) of a van right there folks!! FEAST YOUR EYES, EH?! congrats to mike for buying it...wait, i mean "thanks" to mike for buying it. without him and it, the trip would be somewhat less mobile. So this is on the morning of our fist night of the 3 of us all sleeping in the van together, in close quarters, at night, after a bunch of beers, when it was dark, after being on the road for a few weeks. but everyone woke up wearing what they slept in, equalling 100% success... but in all seriousness, it was pretty awesome. We scoped this lovely little lot out from the highway one day and just pulled the van right up into'er (first step out of the van, i landed in a pile of human stool that someone was at least nice enough to cover over with one ply of bounty...unfortunately for me, bounty doesn't quite "quicker picker upper" human shit). But all in all, it was a great night and we just took out the back seat, had some beers and peanut butter foldovers (which denby is making right now)ion that while we watched the stars, then settled in for the night. ps. maybe let me know just how annoying that awesome rhino is...cause i kind of think its amazing - but it may not have mass appeal. also, realize right now that i'm very long winded with everything i write - the longer it is, the more horrble jokes you can possibly squeak in>> |
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| doug stevenson |
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| Tuesday, October 17 2006 |
| So we're in Mexico!! In a town just south of Tijuana, called Ensenadas. I actually can't believe we really made it.......... We just had our first night and I'd show you a pic of where we stayed, but faithfully I've left my usb cable and cd full of pics at the site of our first night in Mexico?...it was a great Mexican sleep!! We're gonna head further south today and end up who knows where. We just finished an amazing breakfast at some place where we couldn't understand the waiter and he couldn't understand us - its gonna get interesting in the mainland....but we sat around for about a half hour afterwards and watched an episode of Thundercats in Spanish with everyone working there, so at least we seem to excel at silent bonding. The border crossing was easy as old hell and quite frankly, its nice to be out of the states, cause i kept thinking I was rich the whole time since my wallet was full....then you realize you just have about 17 one dollar bills in there. But seriously, our trip through the states was awesome and I'm really glad we did it. We took the Pacific Coast Highway...Washington went by in a flash and going through Oregon and feeling like you're going to die at every corner never gets old - especially when you're sitting in the back after you just ate a huge meal... Then we toured through California a bit, stopping along the way in san fran and venice beach to visit phil and aanan - thanks alot for the stay boys!! We also went ahead and solved that whole "tree-falling-in-the-woods" mystery....cause we hit up the California Red Woods Park and as soon as we walked up a bit a tree fell and man was it loud...and that tree definitely didn't know we were coming and if it did, it couldn't have been able to see through all that old man's beard it was sporting... Also, for anyone who was worried about members of our party dying of sketchy causes south of the border, you can feel comfort in the fact that chances are I won't end up going that way. I took one of those blood pressure tests in a drug store the other day and blew the boys out of the water...it seems I have level one hypertension - so I don't even think I could handle the stress of a high speed chase with banditos anyway and would probably just rip a heart attack before anything bad could actually happen. I can feel how comforted you all are from that...especially my mom and my girlfriend. So yeah, I'm sorry there aren't any pics from this entry...hopefully I can upload a bunch soon. basically, they're pictures of amazing scenery from the coastal highway, our awesome campsites that we would come across on the side of the road...which i guess are more like "van sites", seeing as we've been sleeping in the van mostly every night, and our fancy dinners consisting of mr. noodles, for the first course, then some type of ravioli somethingerother for the main course and maybe finished off with a glass of water for dessert - tasty. Also, last night we met a guy at our campsite named Roger, not sure which and he was from Switzerland and he was showing our trip up by about 9000 percentile points. He flew fom Switzerland with his motorcycle to Calgary, then drove to Alaska and is now in the middle of a drive to the tip of South America. He started in May and went all the way down BC and the midwestern states and is now here. Did I mention that he's doing this all on a motorcylcle....alone?! amazing. and last night, we just had a fire with him and basically for about 3 hours he told us the wickedest stories about all his adventures so far. www.panamericana.ch if you want to check out his travels...but he said it isn't exactly updated right now. Good luck Roger - nice running into you man!! I hope everyone is doing well and just know that we're doing awesome!! |
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| WEDNESDAY, OCT. 24...2006 |
| This is going to be a REALLY BIG update...so put the kettle on for some ovaltine (mom and sham), grab a few arrowroots,get a stool to put your feet up, or maybe you�ll wanna just have a really good lean...whatever floats your boat (that�s what we say in Mexico for �different strokes for different folks�...i know, i know - its wacky> |
| So let�s just get a few preliminary things outta the way here...as a human an being capable of mistakes, it turns out that i spelled signed wrong in the guestbook....but if you do want a slightly burned, or �singe� copy of my book, then all the power to ya. ps. book release date �tba� (which is �to be announce� here in Mexico - i know, i know....out there. pps. thanks to my mom for mouthing me for spelling signed wrong...just wait to see what you get in your stocking this year...although my guess is you�ll probably smell it before you can even get into the room! Also, I apologize for the somewhat brief availability of writing space in the guestbook - i�ll see what I can do, so that you can all dazzle us with exciting and COMPLETE entries... So its been ONE WEEK in Mexico so far!! We�re actually storm-staye in La Paz right now from hurricane Paul �grinzzzzvals�, which is a bit of a bummer, cause we�ve run into several pretty awesome middle-aged hippies from the states that have said that further south in the Baja is amazing and that we shoul �totally� check it out. One of the best things about RV parks around here is that its always us and a bunch of middle-aged hippie couples...maybe because that�s the type of person to want to drive down through Mexico at that age? I don�t know....but its also great, because they all want to look out for the youngens!! At our park right now, its actually really neat, cause everyone�s storm-stayed and one guy, Ken, who looks just like David Letterman, so i love that....has a good radio an he�s over to our tents every half hour on the hour giving us weather updates. Then there�s Doug an his wife from Colorado, who tell us all the spots to hit after this and finally Allan an Jen, from California who basically have a duplex on wheels, complete with a washer/dryer, satellite dish, wifi setup, stemchiomagrapher, heargomuter (always a must when camping), fluutacter, etc....like way better than any of your houses, so keep dreaming and start listening to the Greatful Dead already and maybe the money will come to you in some sort of grass-induce vision.. Last night was a little tricky because of the TORRENTIAL downpour all night...we rigged up our tarp though (only ones without an RV here...) and it went a little something like this: But mostly, we�ve had amazing weather - in the 30s and in the mi 20�s even at night....which has been having an effect on my level 1 hypertension by allowing me to lose weight the easiest way possible - just by sittin� around doing nothing and letting it all sweat off. In fact, I must have done 9 sets of 50 sweat reps yesterday alone...especially with the increased humidity from our buddy Paul! Very impressive, I know. Now for a few tidbits about Mexico - let�s even call them facts, shall we (that�s what they call them here in Mexico...)? Yes? It�s done then, here are some facts: * Tecate is a type of beer in Mexico, just like Labatt Blue is a type of beer in Canada - very simple. Although Tecate has a somewhat wood-like aftertaste at times. But any time you see a Tecate sign, (or is it sing? oooooh...that was a RRRRRip on myself! Such wit!) like this one: it actually means general store (which are cutely calle �mini supers� everywhere...like Mini Super Roberto Estuguo) and it isn�t uncommon for there to be like 6 Tecates on the same corner. But it makes it pretty hilarious, cause you�ll drive through a town and there�ll just be like 16 Tecate stores on the strip. Also, beer is actually more expensive here than it is in the states....just under dollar beers at the stores...but still WAAAAAY cheaper than Canada. post script...sorry if the tecate sign loads in the middle of the text above - its not working for some reason....but you�re not really missing anything important anyhow. * Most toilets that you run into when you�re on the road are horrifically similar to the one that Ewen MacGregor climbs out of in trainspotting and I remind myself daily that I am lucky for the fact that I can pee easily standing up. *This doesn�t really have anything to do with Mexico at all, except for the fact that a few days ago, while I was in Mexico, I had a dream that I was holding my own dead body and was even trying to pinch it and stuff, but couldn�t feel it and it was unerstood that the body was dead...but I was still alive in another body. I took psychology and can�t even crack that one...mostly the only conclusion I�ve come to is that that was the most wacked out dream I�ve ever had ever in my life and I�m getting up there...and we haven�t even one peyote yet, so who knows what�s left to come! Mike however has propose the idea that I am now the new Doug and the old Doug has been left behind... ps. note to my mom - don�t worry, we aren�t going to do peyote....but man, what a way to spice the trip up! * The main highway all the way down the Baja is the skinniest road you�ve ever been on...an the shoulder is....wait - there is no shoulder, so don�t go takin� your eyes off the road. And if you do happen to go off, the road is built up like a foot, so its no picnic getting back up. Also, most of the time, the speed limit is either 60 or 80 km/hr on the highway....but anyone from around here goes about 130. It�s actually quite amusing really, because sometimes you�ll look in your rearview and see absolutely nothing, then 2 seconds later, you�ll look back and there�ll be like a 7 car convoy or something riding you like a foot away....great for newcomers who are already nervous! And alot of the time, something very comforting about these tailgaiting speeders is the fact that they don�t have any license plates at all - very official. There are also a few good Mexican road etiquettes, like if you want someone to pass you, you put your left blinker on....something that i feel is efficient up to the point where the person is actually turning left....then I feel as though a few problems may arise - but hey....that�s just me. Another thing to get used to is the fact that there are speed bumbs all over the place, especially in small towns. Are we to believe that if these didn�t exist, then all Mexican roads would be absolute chaos? This mystery may remain unsolved................for now. One thing I do know is a good little trick on the boys when they�re sleeping is to not slow down at a speed bump....quite enjoyable really. This driving section actually covers alot of bases an I�m glad you�re still following along. Another part of travel through Mexico that could be interesting is the fact that every few kilometers, ther�s a �vado� sign, which means waves. And in the rainy season, water is often all over the road, a few feet deep in these points....and good luck figuring out what the hell is underneath the water when you drive over it....luckily we haven�t had to deal yet. * Every couple of hours or so, there are military checkpoints, where you shit your pants each and everytime you pull up to them, just hoping nothing will happen. The federales at these checkpoints are holding guns like the ones you see in movies, in effect making them very scary. Luckily, we�ve never had any trouble with the boys yet...but just in case, on a tip from a rad owner of a surf shop in California, we picke up a few nudie mags to bribe them with, cause apparently that helps......the boys spend alot of time in those bunkers, you know............. * In other news, we got pulled over for the first time the other day, cause I went the wrong way down a one-way street....I didn�t see the sign though, so its not a real crime...But after a good 20 minutes of us trying to figure out what the hell the policia guy was saying and him trying to do the same for us, it was concluded that if i pretended to sign the ticket that he pretended to write up, while really slipping him $30, then I would get my license back successfully. Well anyhow, faster than you can say �uno, os, tres� I got my license back and he went off to buy himself a tasty fish taco, I bet. Here�s one for all you spanish speakers out there (uncle Pete and Corinne), I was so flustered by the whole affair that I told the guy �buenas nueves� as he was leaving, instead of buenas tardes.....so basically I told the guy �good nines�.....he had a hearty chuckle at me when he walked away from that one. * Pretty much everywhere, but especially in La Paz, people love to stare at 3 idiot-looking gringos like us....especially since we�re always wearing these stupid tie-dyed shirts we bought from some lady on the side of the road in California....They also love to laugh at us when we look confused as hell whenever we�re trying to figure out a sign, or what something says at the grocery store...i mean, i know I�m good for a laugh every now and again in Canada, but that takes alot of effort on my part - Here I can just not get something and 10-12 people around me are laughing...its gold! I might end up stayin� here just for the sole sake of getting so many laughs! But yeah, mostly Mexico has been really nice to us so far and we haven�t gotten alot of trouble. Been on the road alot, basically driving everyday, so its actually kind of nice to just hang out in La Paz for a few days doing nothing. We just went for a good snorkeling session in the pool at our RV camp....diving for pesos we call it! Good times...good times. We�re thinking about going and picking up a 5L jug of mystery booze for $6 at the grocery store, but it depends just how ambitious we are tonight. So far Santa Rosalia has been my favorite town - a little quirky town with all sorts of neatly colored buildings an taco stands everywhere. And the beaches around Ciudad Constitucion, which are on the east side of the Baja, just South of Loreto (which by the way is the next spot to invest 100�s of thousands of dollars if you�ve got it, because its blowing up with rich gringo condos everywhere)...they are AMAZING. white sand, turquoise water, cheap as old hell...you just sleep under a palapas an call it a night. And a few times a day, rad locals come an try to sell you stuff out of their truck, like Mexican blankets and hats and all sorts of weird jewellery....we all bought blankets for some cushion under our sleeping bags, and I, of course, bought a big Mexican hat...fancy. So that�s about it...i realize its kinda boring - more the things you see when you�re travelling through. But I�m sure once we finally settle somewhere for a few days, I�ll have a couple of good stories to throw up there. Plus, grimey, Kitzy and Pauls are all suppose to meet up with us in 3-4 weeks, so then it�ll be 6 sweaty guys in one van and I�m sure that�ll up the stakes at least a few notches. anyhow, as I would say: Buenos Nueves.......have a good one and thanks for all the positive comments on the video - I�m stoked people like it. Here�s some more pics.... FOR ANYONE WONDERING WHERE THE HELL THE PICTURES ARE, ASK THE COMPUTER I�M ON RIGHT NOW.....hypertension is setting in and I need to get off this thing, cause pics just aren�t loading and I think it�d be more wise for me to try again in the morning. Also, the �d� has stopped working, unless i pound on it, which I take as a bad sign, seeing as my name starts with that letter.....ps. what�s with me and keyboards in Mexico?? Just doesn�t seem to be a good mix....we�re no fries an gravy anyway. night. -dug |
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| the van...aka: Vanna White |
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| the next morning brings calm and tender doug back to the computer with the hopes of more pictures: |
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| This is where we stayed our first night....throw in a teaspoon of decrepitness, a pinch of pure sketchiness and a whole lotta free for the night and you�ve got us possibly coming out with more tics than a stray dog...deliscious! |
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| here are some amazing views |
| and the desert....apparently some cacti grow to be up to 20meters high. We didn�t see any quite that big, but definitely 30ft or so. Its neat, cause most of the time, its kind of a cactus forest surrouning the highway. Unfortuntatel, we have yet to buy a machete (aka trouble blade), or else we woulda slice one of these suckers open by now and tested out the waters! |
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| This is some random school bus full of kids that was actually doing a stop, flashing red lights an all when we passed it in the middle of the desert - like ABSOLUTELY nothing around...had to feel at least a tiny bit of sympathy for whatever kid was getting off at that stop...we didn�t pick him up though - we got shit to do!!! ps. this pic sucks, but I was just so perplexed by the whole situation, that I felt sharing it with you, the reader would bring you at least some of the intrigue that it brought me that particular afternoon... pps. we�re kind of on the run right now after passing that bus illegally while it was making a drop...shhhhh. |
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| This was the site of the windiest day in the history of Mexico, which we were lucky enough to catch! Luckily I pegged my tent down, seeing as all but one of the pegs were ripped out by the morning and I was basically engulfe in some sort of nylon/wind burrito...throw that one in the deep fryer - CALIENTE!!! We even set up the tarp that we bought from the Canadian Tire guy from the commercials, thinking it would serve as some sort of wind blocker....then the wind shifted an we got worked - but hey, I�m on vacation... |
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| this is the sign to the restaurant at the campsite...love us some fud! |
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| this is the gas guy�s rig on the side of the road, who just has a barrel full of gas and siphons it into your tank - doesn�t even use a mint (the equivalent to a tequila shot without the lemon or salt by the way, just in case you�re trying to scale it...). When I took this picture, he looked about impresse enough to turn the hose on me and add a match - needless to say, formal goodbyes were not exchanged... |
| here�s one for all you artsy types out there...me trying to get all experimental and just plain �neat� with my camera, using my binoculars as a zoom....thanks for the binocs dad! thanks for the camera with a shitty zoom hp! This cape was pretty rad though. Down what appeared at first glance as a road that had been destroyed my land mines in the early 70�s, but turned out to be just another dirt road in Mexico...something the ol� van has tackled on the daily with complete prowess, all the while continuing to purrrrr with an inanimate femininity. (ps. i always wanted to use that phrase...). The beach at the end of the road was also the site of our first run in with sting rays....buck naked, running right into the water and seeing several rays emerge from the sand and scurry away = getting the hell out of the water fast and probably never swimming naked again. I also picked up my first crab of the trip on this beach...a real heartpounder of an afternoon - tough on an old level 1 hypertensioner such as myself! |
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| here�s the horrible, horrible view from one of the beaches we stayed on.....we left immediately as soon as we realized how bad it was |
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| denby and mike like to call me the city slicker, but i think mike has a tougher time with the whole camping thing than i do....also, at this site, there was some weird sort of trail that we figured for a snake trail, but hoped to hell that it was like a crab or something, cause it was about 3-4 inches wide and there were huge holes everywhere for the suckers to slither in and out of. Then in the morning, we woke up and saw a nice little track in between mine and denby�s tent....the excitement never stops up here Mexico way>> |
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| we�ve made lots of friends along the way, just like this one...great for spooning in your sleeping back...and scurry - man, can they scurry. |
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| we hadn�t skated until the other day in La Paz when we skated this park....not too bad, but not the best. Turns out it gets a little sweaty skating in humid, 30 degree weather after a while, which might be why we haven�t really skated at all in Mexico....that or all the dirt roads, i can�t decide. Actually, there were some pretty cool spots in Santa Rosalia, but we�re not quite sure how the policia take skateboaring yet, so we�re kind of easing our way in so far...cool that there was a park though. |
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| and last, but not least...doug plus the sun equals sunburns on a whole other scale. I�m working on my rouge right now an hoping it�ll turn into a brun....but not a burnt. Dunno if you can quite tell the red from the first pic, but in the second, you can see how nice and white my skin gets from just the slightest of pressure.... |
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| Well that�s all for now. We�re still storm-staye in La Paz for another night...although the weather right now is absolutely beautiful...gonna go snorkeling in the pool later - diving for pesos!! But apparently, everywhere south of here, which is where we want to go, is still quite rainy.....so with hope, we�ll be off again tomorrow! Then its a few days doing a tour of the southern tip....apparently, there are hollywood �types� in Cabo (dillon, that�s you), so we might even see the likes of Sting, or Ray Romano (I know, I know...could you even imagine seeing Ray?!?! MAN...is this guy crossing his fingers, or is this guy crossing his fingers!!!) HA - as they say around here: only in Mexico!!! Thanks alot for all the people that have visited the site so far and hit the guestbook and stuff! Definitely didn�t think this many people would check it out. Keep coming back every once in a while, cause I�d like to make weekly updates a regular thing, if not more....although its definitely a hell of alot more work to do this than i thought...I�m diggin� it though - I�m a web guy......right?! guys?? adios... -dug ps. as per that whole guestbook fiasco...it seems as though there�s no way of moifying the entry length, so if you really feel like giving us a reader, then just get your hands into 2-3 entries, cause I think that�s about all this site is capable of ps. here�e one of those hollywood �types� I was talking about.... |
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| Jueves, 16 de Noviembre de 2006 |
| WOW! Haven�t we all just gotten older waiting for this update?! I�d say its pretty much worth is just for this shit brindle yellow background though, am I wrong??? am I WRONG?! Mrs. Leland would be proud.... So we are now on the Central Pacific Coast, just a little inland actually in a place called Colima. |
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| eric grimes |
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| It seems the vehicle in which we are travelling throughout the duration of this venture has incurred some sort of mechanical problem and therefore needed to be at home with the rest of its little Ford buddies...the nearest Ford home being Colima. I can�t help but feel that this whole ordeal (poet, don�t knowet) is out of some sort of vehicular spite, because of the fact that we waited so long to give the ol� gal an oil change. Will the spark plugs be next, or will it be the johnson rod? only time will tell. On to bigger and better things: Grimey�s here!!! |
| Just when we thought the little guy wasn�t gonna make it, he pulled through. 4 is getting a little crowded in the van, which is why it�ll be pretty interesting in a few days when Kitzy shows up....and then in a few more once we pick up Paul. Games of Hawaii 5-0 will be just that much more intense.... So a few more tales and facts from Mexico maybe? Yes...i think we shall. Firstly, upon taking the 20 hour boat from La Paz to Mazatlan, we were abruptly introduced to the notion of throwing your toiler paper out into the garbage can, due to poor plumbing. This really isn�t that bad....except for when you�re on a 20 hour boat ride and they don�t empty the garbage cans and you have to go....alot. Although i�m not a turtle neck kind of guy, I could have used one here. Another instance is when you�re staying on a beach campground full of guys and the people who run the place are never there to clean the bathroom. Luckily, we�ve discovered a little invention called the girls bathroom, which works quite nicely when said girls are looking the other way> Also, as an avid second hand smoker, trying to second hand smoke at least a pack a day, I can reassure you that I reach my goal with ease in Mexico! Eating? Shopping? Maybe travelling in a crowded bus? These are all prime locations to obtain second hand smoke with a smile. So get that plane ticket and come on down and enjoy the fun!!! In Mexico, there is no such thing as a dog being �man�s best friend�...because this is simply not possible. There are SO MANY random dogs in this country, that it has actually been dubbed �man�s best friendS� with an s, because it is not possible to only have one. We would be on the beach and then all of a sudden, like 3 mangy dogs would just run up and play around us and then when you leave the beach to go to town, they just follow along in tow. I like to think that maybe the dogs in Mexico are just so magnanimously intelligent that they are trying to actually become human and therefore attempt to mimic all angles of human behaviour. Or at least that�s what I thought until i noticed they were still all going around sniffing each other�s butts. oh ps. I hope that you all were able to become stunned by the stikingly buffed individual at the end of the last update....Dillon Casey, our buddy, our pal....who should be on this trip...but you probably all know him as one of the stars in CBC�s upcoming series MVP. also, apparently I felt like i needed to be 16 and zitty again and bleached my hair. A bit of an experience to see if blondes have more fun....and they do!! When you have 6 or 11drinks, you can get talked into virtually anything - its a Mexico thing...you wouldn�t understand. Unless of course you�ve been to Mexico...then i guess you would. Check the progressive photos on the top of the page....facial hair is getting longer, tans are getting better....or is that dirt? Another Mexican anomaly is the Mexican handshake. Throughout our trip, we�ve realized that this handshake is somehow known by all Mexican men across the entire country. It consists of a regular five and then a pounds. Simple, yet genius. And literally everywhere you go in this country, you can give a guy a five and he�ll go for the pounds right after. and man are they ever psyched when a group of white guys are somehow in the know! But even more interesting than the Mexican handshake is the gringo age appraisal. Somehow, wherever we go, people think we�re in our late 30�s and we�ve even gotten 40 before. For example, the other night, we were in Puerta Vallarta and we went out to a bar and we were dancing in a circle with all these Mexicans who were for sure our age....then somehow it got around to how old we were and they thought I was 33, Grimey was 36, Mike was 38 and denby was over 40!!! Mostly I was psyched that somehow I looked the youngest and denby looked the oldest..... Another story that�s pretty cool is that way back in the early days of the trip, we went through a place called Jenner, California...some of you may know this place as the next place to blow up in Cali....others might know it as the place where some old hippie lady, who left her husband 11 years ago to find herself by selling tie-dye t-shirts on the side of the road, sells her t�shirts on the side of the road. That�s how we know it. Anywho, when we were buying our t-shirts (with free tie-dye socks thrown in...yeah!), we ran into a guy Harry, and he lives in Mazatlan for most of the year. And Harry said to look him up and he would show us around town and let us in on the mainland Mexico skinny....and that we could find him by going to his wife�s sewing store, which is at the end of a road, by a movie rental place and a burger joint in Mazatlan. Great...not so bad right, can�t be that many combos like that at the end of Mazatlan streets? This is before we realized that Mazatlan has over 300,000 people in it...........................Anywho, we get off the boat, get into an RV park in �Fiestaland� and who the hell walks right over like its everyday deal but Harry!!!! He really didn�t end up doing much for us, but shit, what a coincidence. And now for some photos...hopefully these won�t be too bad - not quite up to the standards of tymbo�s trip, but we�re not quite up to the standards of tymbo either are we? ps. tymbo...AWESOME pics and your trip looks unmazing>>>> |
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| These are from this awesome place just outside of Los Ceritos, where we went surfing for the better part of a week...the place is called �Beer and Art� and is owned by this super laid back Mexican couple who make all the art that decorates the walls. These drinks were just called �Clamato� and came with real clams and mussels and scallops and were about one litre....then we got a free beer on the house and got to talk to the old guy (which the best beachball belly....gimme about 9 years) about �being on fiesta�, or vacation as we like to call it and how it can be dangerous if you go on fiesta for too long......watch out kids! |
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| This is the sunset on the beach at Los Ceritos and our campsite for the week...unmazing. Los Ceritos is just outside Todos Santos, which is supposedly the site of Hotel California. Below is a rad stick bug that was glavanting around our surfboards... |
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| From Los Ceritos, we went further South around the point. Through all the touristy areas, like Cabo Saint Lucas and San Jose del Cabo,...where all the golf courses that i could never afford are...stopping at a little place called �Buzzards� for a little Michael McDonald and then we were through to Cabo Pulmo. This place has a huge reef that is unfortunately mostly all dead. But still cool for a guy like me who hasn�t done much snorkelling in his life. A wack of fish that were amazing colors and shapes and sizes that I couldn�t even dream of being able to name...whereas the two biologists on the trip probly even knew their genus and species. We were also told by the local beachcomers that the turtles were supposed to show up to spawn....we never saw them. Though they made us rake up our tire tracks on the beach nonetheless...thanks for nothing beachcomer guys. Once we were done there, it was back to La Paz to catch the ferry. What we apparently overlooked was that the ferry only caters to cargo on Friday�s.....another day in La Paz. When we finally caught the ferry the next day, it was 20 hrs of pure hell....but also kind of worth it. Sunset from the ferry: |
| Oh yeah...somewhere along the line, we turned it over! |
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| Here�s a Mexican-style mansions you see along the coast. All cement and all painted really neat colors. Kind of like a house fruit basket.......made of cement... |
| Thse are the strikingly safe taxis that are all over the cities in the mainland...you just make sure to grab onto the guy next to you...and if there�s no guy next to you...you just kind of pray the whole time. |
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| This guy had to be about 97 years old ...and under normal circumstances, I understand that that�s not that big of a deal. Except that he was the maintenance guy for the RV Park we stayed at in Mazatlan. We almost felt like freeing the poor bastard by grabbing him and throwing him in the van as we sped out of the park. Then we realized we�d probably break all of his major joints and give him a massive coronary. This would then put him in the hospital for god knows how long, and making him unable to take 2 years doing projects that would take any teenager about 6 hours, making him unable to get paid. Notice the haggard looking crowch and use of the concrete slab to get down into working position....poor Julio |
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| The boys, pre grime....twas the end of a Baja era. |
| Grime is here> The boys sans me |
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| Surfboard lineup |
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| Once we picked up Grime at the Puerta Vallarta airport, we were off to the town of Sayulita. This place is absolutely beautiful except for one thing. Shit River. Shit River divides the beach in two and is literally the sewage from the town dumping into the ocean. Unfortunately, we had to walk through it everyday, cause we stayed down the beach. This was somewhat worrysome when you would cut your feet on the rocks whilst surfing and then have to walk through shit river with open wounds...or the time when i tried to jump it and the sand gave way and i fell right in it. Luckily, all escaped unscathed. This is also where we had trouble with the brutal bathroom......and ticks were rumoured to be everywhere, although they didn�t seem to like us due to our foul stench. So basically, although Sayulita is beautiful....it depends where you stay. But here�s the rad site we had - neat little palapas mazes kind of.... |
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| Oh yeah...and termites eventually took over the whole campsite, in one day constructing an intricate series of pathways all across the ground, up and down the palapas...everywhere. It was neat to destroy parts of the path and see how quickly they could build it back. Pretty amazing to see really and unbelievable that they can just put that kind of thing together in no time at all....maybe their queen deserves to be on the back of a coin... |
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| This was our Day of the Dead...we went as Kiss....minus everything by the makeup, which even then was just from a good ol� sharpie. One for the books. The best part was that the marker stayed on our faces for like 2-3 days afterwards and everyone thought we were just complete idiots. |
| The next night, we couldn�t find beer or ice, but we needed to celebrate. Hence tequila night. Polishing a bottle off better than your old man polishes his shoes. First, a feeling of anticipation stretches across the crowd! |
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| Then the tables begin to turn about midway through.... |
| Next thing you know, you forgot where the night went. |
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| This actually seems to be a recurring theme on many a night.... |
| The new game, sweeping across the nation! Basically hackey sack with this ball and whoever ruins the hack has to get kicked with it at full speed with their shirt off. In this case, they both screwed up and were left to suffer my demise...hold onto your goods! |
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| donkeys... |
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| the man himself: avocado pants doin� what he does best....dancin� it up>>>> |
| WOW...this update has taken me close to 4 hours...and my neck feels like its been cranked in some sort of midevil torture device. Needless to say, I think that means I�m done! Especially cause i can�t really think of whether or not i�m forgetting anything...i actually can�t really think at all. Kind of like when you work on a paper for like 6 hours straight and then you pretty much couldn�t even make a peanut butter sandwich even if you tried. So I apologize for how long this update took and I hope people had faith enough to come back and check! We�re off to a place called La Ticla in a few days once the van is better and then Mexico city from there! Hopefully another update in the works in a week and a half to two weeks....its a long time, i realize, but you get one hell of an update...am i wrong?! AM I WRONG???? If you�ve noticed, I got rid of the rhino....i know, i know - I have a soft spot for Nancy though and she wanted it gone...so there it be - another rhino slain. Also, as for the guestbook, which mysteriously disappeared....yahoo emailed me cause it was full (thanks everyone who signed it!) but i�m going to attempt to create a link to it at the top of the page....so you can go back and see what you wrote and go �wow, was that ever a clever remark that i wrote to the boys...i sure am good at what i do!� or something along those lines...and KEEP SIGNGING!! we love checking every couple of days when we can access email and see who is joshing us!! Thanks and I hope you enjoyed this one! I love everyone....truly, madly, deeply (savage garden) -dug ps. this just in: we�re going to the Mexico semi-finals soccer match this Saturday in Guadalajara...taking the bus there...should be an HUUUUUUUUUUUGE.....GO CHIVAS!!!!! (we bought Chivas shirts, which is the Guadalajara team and everyone loves us...) |
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| Friday, DECEMBER 1 / twothousandsix |
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| OK, so I don�t know if you guys are ready for this, but if you haven�t noticed I got a little spicy with this entry...I�ve made a blue background on top of my ALREADY yellow background and THEN (as if that wasn�t loco enough!) I changed the font color to white...I know, I know - I�m crazy!!! Is the heat getting to me, or is the heat getting to me.... But in all seriousness folks, I must admit that although I�m consistently taking years from my post-retirement comfort by suffering through the crink-neck that accompanies these 4 hour updates, I sincerely enjoy sitting in front of this electronic box of limitless capabilities in order to throw down a few diddies about the trip and keep the 3 or 8 people who actually read this website entertained (or so has become apparent to me from the absolute LACK of singage during the past fortnight in the guestbook ((besides my good buddy D.Enay of course...wine or no wine!)) you give countless hours to the people and what do you get in return......nothing!). Like a tree, who gains a ring for each year of its existence, signifying the battles it has weathered through the elements time after time, I too gain a symbolic type of ring from the struggles I endure from each update...power shortages (true), random unpluggings (true), faulty saving (true), usb/camera docking problems (true), umpteen unforseen screen cleans (well, that one�s untrue, but its one hell of an example of assonance...which incidentally is a word i�ve not used in at least 7-8 years. Double incidentally, a word that I did just recently use that I hadn�t used in even longer is �gibraltar�...man, what a cool word....just say it out loud - gibraltar...) PS. FOR ANYONE READING THIS RIGHT NOW, I�M GOING TO MEXICAN WRESTLING - IE. �LUCHO LIBRE!� AND WILL CONTINUE THE UPDATE MANANA....LATER!! |
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| So when I last left off, i think we were in Colima, waiting for the van to work out its problems....while there, we just so happened to receive a surprise blessing in the arrival of our old pal and sincere confidante (yes, we are women at heart...) Alex Kitz!! Basically we got an email from Kitzy saying that if we were around, he was just hanging out in the park whistling dixy and waiting. So what did we do? naturally, we went to the park across the street and started shouting his name in spanish: �keeeeeetz!! keeeeeeeetzzz!!!� and low and behold, the little guy was sitting right through the trees! Mostly, Colima consisted of hanging out and watching B movies, such as �Kickboxer 4�, starring cousing Cody from Step by Step. But among other things, we hit up some ruins from 900BC... |
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| this was a pretty gnarly tomb that we weren�t allowed into (former inhabitants of the ruins only...). But those are real bones and that dog statue was meant to guard whatever remains were in there. |
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| Not the biggest ruins in the world, but impressive nonetheless seeing as they�ve outlasted a few thousand years of gettin� busy livin�. One thing that was pretty cool was that they�ve actually only unearthed like 1% of them or something like that and there were quite a few people working around the grounds while we were there |
| And spent basically every night at this bar, La Puerta. This guy in the pic, the owner, just came to expect us after a while and knew what beer to give to each person after like 2 days....many a foosball game came inches from severing what could be lifelong friendships...................... |
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| Alex Kitz |
| One thing that was also pretty epic was going to the Guadalajara-Veracruz soccer game in Guadalajara. Naturally, we were born Chivas fans (Guadalajara) and when they won 4-0, it pleased us very much, like getting a solid feedbag on Hallowe�en. Whenever the Chivas would score, people would go absolutely effing crazy for like 2 minutes straight...kind of like this: CRAAAAYZEEEEENESS. And here�s a pic of the boys themselves at the game itself: |
| After leaving Colima, when Ford finally gave us back the van (which, incidentally still had everything that was wrong with it when we brought it in and still cost us $300), we hit up a little beach town called La Ticla, where we were again surprised by a fellow colleague of ours....this time it was Latvian Legend Pauls Martins Grinvalds (Pauls� blog of his trip that continues onto South America, where he meets up with our other buddy Tym and then onto more escapades can be found HERE. Check it out for a whole other variety of pictures, tales and Latvian flare. This poor guy took about 2 days to finally meet up with us. He had to get an overnight bus and get dropped off at the end of the road and just find his way to where we were camping and ended up showing up at like 7am while we were still sleeping - a nice wakeup surprise>> La Ticla ended up being a just a wee bit big as far as waves went and we had a hard enough time paddling out past the break, let alone actually surfing. It was still a pretty money place to stay and it even had a mini-ramp that me and denby barely skated. We also had the coolest old guy ever running our pad, who would come over every couple of hours and make fun of us for not being able to surf and try and have a conversation with us until we both couldn�t understand each other....which was normally after about a minute and a half....here�s the site, minus the old guy: |
| Moving on, please direct your attention to this sentence, where I will further endow you with tales of brilliance.... After La Ticla, we dried our tears and headed further south to a place called Maruata, which at first glance was more of a paradise than living in a little-known zip code I like to call 90210...turquoise water, amazing surf, beach, cliffs and caves Here�s a few pics to let you in on all the flying and the magic: |
| The next morning, we realized it wasn�t exactly the sugar-high good time it was cracked up to be when we were plagued by packs of stray dogs and found out that we had been robbed during the night....3 snorkels, 2 pairs of board shorts, 2 surfind rash guards, a sweater, a chivas shirt, 2 pairs of kitzy�s shoes...and i think that�s it, but i mean that�s just off the top of my head and i�m not even using any references, so who am i to say that�s 100% complete?! The bottom line is that it sucked and Maruata quickly became jaded amongst all of us... One thing that was pretty cool were the waves. They were a nice treat after the collossus that was La Ticla. Also, Maruata is the most popular breeding ground in all of Mexico for sea turtles...so one night we scoured tbe beach in an attempt to locate some of the great, shelled beasts, but twas to no avail. Or at least we thought. Until about 2am when our old pal Grimey woke up to what he thought was a very strong dog pulling his tent in circles. Turns out, he bagged�imself a real live toirtoise!!! Luckily, technology was there to get it all on tape: |
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| Pauls Grinvalds |
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| it turns out Grimey really liked spending time with animals on this trip... |
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| Maruata further amazed us one night when we went to one of the restaurants in the village for dinner. After about 10 minutes of asking the guy if he had this and that and this for a foodstuffs possibility, it was finally concluded that all he had were cheese quesadillas (a very elaborate menu...). So, after we ordered, we noticed the guy left for a little bit and returned with a bag full�a�somethin�. While he was gone, Kitzy went to the store to get something kitz-like and when he got back, said he saw the dude buying the cheese and tortillas he needed to actually make our dinner. So basically, after all that, he didn�t even have cheese quesadillas. Maruata 2, Canadian gringos 0. Another interesting event was when we ventured over to the other side of the river to see if we could succeed at finding any better restaurants the next night. Odds were in our favor after what transpired the night before....or so we thought. 3 restaurants, all 3 looked open, all 3 stared at us when we sat down and did absolutely nothing....these are what i like to call restaurants in theory. One helpful fellow did offer us some �Hoffman acid�, as well as �Iowa acid�, which he said was obviously free. I haven�t the slightest idea what the hell the difference between either of them would be...or why they�d be different from shitty old run of the mill acid....but whatever the case, to our mother�s dismay, we all declined and ended up settling for the fish: |
| SLEEPING BEAUTIES...how did we ever get robbed? |
| the site...minus a few things |
| By the end of Maruata, we had gotten packing up the materials of 6 men down to a science. But here�s a little joke for you nonetheless: How many dirty Canadians does it take to pack up 6 guys� stuff into a van? the answer? FIVE, with grimey�s lazy ass.... RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRIPPPPP!!!!!!!!!!!!! ooooh, that was good... love you grime. But yes, then we were off for a brief stop in a place called Lazaro Cardenas, which wouldn�t have been that memorable if it weren�t for grimey all of a sudden piping up from the back of the van saying �I think i�m in trouble boys...� and then puking his face off out the side window and all over the rear controls of the van....this would be an interesting turning point in the trip. For, you see, later that day we arrived at another beach called Saliditas, wherein we proceeded (minus the resting grimes) to drink mucho alchoholicos at the local bar. What would follow was a 24hr spell that would hinder our group like none other thus far on the trip. I ended up throwing up every half hour from about 12am to 4am to the point where I was only throwing up stomach bile and i could barely move my shoulders from pain that resulted from all of my convulsions...definitely the sickest I�ve ever been in my life, bar none. Denby ended up throwing it up a bunch of times too, Kitzy woke up to a soaking wet sleeping bag and an empty bladder and Grimey ended up puking again inside his tent. Only the great grins and mikaal sackavilleee escaped the night unscathed. After a day or so of recouping by everyone, we found out the waves were pretty awesome and were hitting them a few times daily. Saliditas is a really neat little community, because basically the story is that one lady popped out 12 kids, all of whom became either fishermen, or stuck around to run the one restaurant in the area and have their own kids who live there as well. So the whole beach is just run by this one family, making it pretty unique and pretty cool as long as you�re in good with the fam...needless to say, I wouldn�t want to make any enemies there, because you basically could never go back. it�d be like galavanting around downtown edmonton with a �down with gretzky� poster in the mid 80�s and expecting to be recognized by anything other than your dental records by the time you got to the city limits.... Another unfortunate event from Saliditas is that for some reason or another, we just couldn�t seem to get the van key to work in the ignition....to the point where we got the whole 20 or so odd family members and anyone having a hand who happened to come into the town to try it...and with no success. So we pretty much left the van there and are hoping for the best when we get back....cause now we�re in Mexico city. How did we get to Mexico city, you ask? well, how else? All 6 of us rode in the back of a truck going 110 down the sketchy Mexican highways with all our stuff to the nearest town, where we caught the bus. What is that like? Check it out for yourself.... |
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| Doug�s 7 tips to travelling in the back of a truck on the highway: -there is a 9.2 chance out of 10 that you will die and we should have died and must somehow be under the extreme graces of a god -wear a thicker chapstick than you would normally wear. if you�re a lip smackers person, upgrade to burt�s bees just to be safe -wear sunglasses, because bugs in the eye tend to hurt. even worse is a bee in the eye, because once the stinger is lodged in so far, you�re losing that eye -scratching any type of itch that might render you off balance is not recommended and should be performed only at speed bumps, when the car is slowed down -thick leather garments are the best to wear in case of any accidental spills...however, if you do not have such garmets, shorts and a t-shirt will do nicely. -hold the **** on -scream very loudly the entire time to ensure the driver that you are still alive |
| THE CURSED NIGHT IN SALIDITAS... |
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| Here are some other pics from the pyramids we hit up just outside of the city, including the pyramid of the moon and that of the sun, which is the 3rd largest in the world. Fatigue set in after the 19th set of stairs.... |
| This is a shout out to the rhino that used to rotate around the page....he was one heck of a little guy! i think there�s a bit of a resemblance. anyone? anyone? |
| Apparently I wasn�t supposed to be climbing these puppies at all, with my condition... |
| This is Saddam with some of the local wrestlers... |
| And finally, I�m sad to say that here�s a happy to be leaving Grime, after he puked up blood on his second last night...We�ll miss you Beef Barley!!! |
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| here�s the little guy completely spent, after a long day of exploring the pyramids under the hot sun...unable to make it to the top, with only a few steps remaining. no wonder he wanted to go home... |
| Well folks, that�s it for me! Tomorrow we�re headed to a bullfight and a soccer game - the semi-final, between our team THE CHIVAS and Mexico City�s team. The stadium holds 120,000 people, so it should be even better than our first game....I�m hoping for no riots in this case though, cause we don�t have access to a cozy little rooftop overlooking the stadium. Then we�re headed back to Saliditas Sunday night on the bus, in hopes of regulating all of our van woes...wish us luck! Then we�re kind of running out of time and the group will continue to disband, with Pauls leaving for South America and Kitzy flying to the States. So I don�t know if there�ll be another update until I�m back in Canada...but you never know, so keep checking just in case. Anywho, I�m looking forward to seeing anyone I might see when I get back...and I think that�s the case for the rest of these crazy bastards I�m travelling with too, so get your handshakes and hugs ready!! adios. -dug |