Dec 25
Today is kind of a blah day because everything is closed for Christmas and I have to wait until Monday to leave Port Montt. On Monday I take a three night ocean voyage on a cargo ship that will take me to Peunta Natales, the home of Torres Del Pain and Los Glaciers, Argentina. I have been so freaking tired all day. I have also been lonely for the first time. There aren’t mean gringos down here. I have met some Swiss and Dutch but they are all couples and older, also, the Swiss kind of suck. I did meet one Swiss lady that has traveled all over the world, and she is blind. Talking about inspiration in regards to overcoming obstacles. Play the cards you’re dealt and win the game…The people down here also love the 80´s – 90´s music. It is everywhere. They have this thing called the ¨Classic Project¨. It is 50+ songs all mixed together. Each song only plays for 15-30 seconds. I here it and see it everywhere. It’s also in a DVD format and mixes the videos as well. I have seen the DVD in hostels and on the bus trips. Tomorrow, the boat. Wish me luck.

MERRY CHRISTMAS from the South: PTO Montt, Chile

Dec 24
Christmas EvePort Montt is not a really touristy town. It is on the water which is nice, and it has two easily seen Volcanoes and some black sand beaches on the island nearby. After I found a hostel I walked around the city, and made my way to the mall, very United States. I’m at the mall for awhile, bored. Then I met Connie, a 15 year old, that insisted I meet her sister who speaks English and who works in the mall. I do. Connie then calls her mother to ask permission, and invites me to Christmas at her house. In South America, the people traditionally have a very late dinner Christmas Eve night and then open up gifts at midnight. That’s how they do Christmas, different. It was a great time. I met Connie’s mother and her other sister, she has two. I met the neighbors because we actually had Christmas at their neighbor’s house. They were very nice to me and even gave me a gift. People are so nice all over the world, it is a shame we rarely here about the good things people do. It was tons of fun but I fell asleep on the sofa around 1:30am ad they called me a cab to take me to the hotel. The were so, so nice, good people.

Dec 23
Villarica is gorgeous. It has a gorgeous lake that has this perfect Volcano that sits right at the foot of the lake. The volcano periodically shoots out puffs of smoke. How cool! Well I rented a bike and rode way too far and got way too tired. I came back to town an actually fell asleep on the black sand beach of the lake. I then met this extremely pretty German girl, way too young 20, and her two local guy friends. We end up having several beers and a bottle of wine there on the beach at the foot of a Volcano. The local guys invited me to their house party later that night at 11Pm. I try to go, but I got lost and ended up missing it, oh well. I had to get up early the next morning anyway to catch my bus to Port Montt, 6 hour bus ride

Dec 21
I arrived in Santiago around 6 am: early-(surprise, surprise). I admittedly caught the metro to the main plaza, and called my friend Easley Edmunds to arrange for a place to stay. I was originally planning to stay with my friend´s, Rufus, family but my time is cut so short because of my problems in Bolivia. Well I coordinate with Easley and then tour downtown: a couple of museums and churches, Blah, blah. I did meet three old ladies that took a liking to me and took me to lunch, their treat. One of the Chilean ladies spoke good English and actually lives in Maryland for half of the year. That was fun, then I met up with Easley around 7:00 pm. We talked for quite a while sipping on Pisco and flat sprite. Pisco is some good stuff, it is an indigenous liquor of Chile. Well we go out on the town in Santiago. Good stuff lots of fun. We meet some characters that were celebrating there birthdays. I met some of Easley´s co-workers. Then the funniest part of the night, Easley warned me about this, but every night there is this group of whores that hang out in front of Church which is in front of Easley´s apartment. The messed up thing is that from a distance these whores look so hot. I mean, its crazy. When you get close to them though you relive that there not girls at all but there guys, Wow. And, they are aggressive. They grab everything. You have to literally run away. We get home around 3:30 am, like a said a good night. The next day Easley goes to work, and I head to some wine vineyard in the wine country, with the help of a psychologist I met, Jakimn. I can’t remember what the vineyard is called. The Santiago wine country is very much like Napa Valley wine country… Well, I missed the first English tour so I had to wait until the 3:00 pm tour. Oh well just three hours. Well I am hungry and walk into the On the Run next door, yes that´s right ¨On the Run¨, and I spotted foot long hotdogs. Dude, I am all about footlong hotdogs. I had three and a huge coke. I don´t think this helped my hang over. Well I am eating my third hotdog and Juan fransico walks in with his three young daughters. JF knows English so we chatt eating hot dogs, and then he calls his mother-n-law who leaves near by, and invites me over for coffee after my tour. OK. Well after a great tour, and some wine, I call Sonia (71 years old) and she comes buy to pick me up in a 1980 hatchback, awesome. Her home is awesome. It’s a small cottage and it´s perfect. The landscape is beautiful, the inside is charming and there are snow capped mountains on both sides in the distance. I wish I could post a picture, fucking camera. Sonia even has Starbucks. This lady rocks, because I haven’t seen a Starbucks anywhere in South America. Sonia gives me I ride to the metro, and I get back to Easley´s to pack my bag and catch my 10:45 pm train for Villarica. I am not sure what Villiarica is but it sounds nice. So long Santiago. By the way the women are gorgeous in Santiago, its crazy. But, I keep hearing that the women in Buenos Aires are better. I will have to see it to believe, and this has to happen soon.

Dec 19
Wow an extremely long bus ride. The bus trip from Ouros, Bolivia to Iqueque Chile was 12 hours and 8 of those hours were on a extremely rough dirty road. I got to Iqueque around 10:30pm. The bus driver initially stopped in the middle of the small oceanfront city an everybody got off, but I insisted on being taken to the bus terminal since I need to get a immediate connection south. The bus driver was not happy about this but took me anyway. So I am now at the bus terminal trying to get a bus connection and it’s not going anywhere because once again there is a small language barrier, god I wish I knew Spanish. But then steps in my main man Donnie. Donnie speaks excellent English and Spanish and was headed to Satiago but something happened. Any way he arranges for me to catch a half hour long bus ride to some other bus station and then catch a immediate bus to anafogasta. OK, so I went. A half hour bus ride then a 10 hour bus ride to Anfogasta. I then had two hours to walk around Anafogasta then I caught a bus to Santiago that was supposed to arrive a 7:50 PM, sweet just 8 more hours to Santiago. Well 8:00 pm came and went then I realized our arrival time was 7:50 AM, a 20 hour bus ride.

Dec 18
So Ouros, Bolivia was definitely interesting. The two guys I met were really cool. One was named Alvro and the other Marbinm, after Marvin Haggler the boxer, interesting. They spoke great English so it was nice to talk to some local people in a fluid conversation. I went with them to vote on election day. The election was between Avo and Tuto. This is the first presidential election Bolivia has ever had so it was a tense political moment. George Bush even flew down troops to Uruguay in case there was some civil unrest. Anyway Avo won and nothing bad happened.

Dec 17
The search for money goes on. I go to 5 banks, and none can give me money. One can give me $500 but I need $1200. It took me three hours to find a bank. Three hours to pay my debts off around the city, and I took the only bus heading out of town to place calles Uros. Don´t ask me? But its been fun because I have met some friends and have hung out at there house all day. I corrected this guys Thesis, 60pages, on ¨language ¨witten in English. What a strange vacation I am having tomorrow. Well tomorrow chile.
Chao.

Dec 16 Once again I wake up excited because my cards should arrive. Yeah!!! Tommy and I once again grab lunch , after words I hang around the hotel markets waiting for my cards. They are suppose to come at 3, and guess what they don´t come. So once again I walk back down to phone, did I mention it’s a bitch of a walk to the phone because its straight downhill and that back uphill. I call and complain. That said that the cards will be there today. Well finally DHL came, thank god. I open the package and the assholes only sent me a credit card. No ATM card. Are you fucking serious. Again fuck bank of America because I verified that they were sending me two cards three times. Its there fucking fault in the first place because they cancelled my credit card. Well I call the bank to bitch and ask for a temporary Pin number for my temporary credit card so that I can with draw money at the ATM machine. They refuse and tell me to go to any bank, and they can do it. I explained to them again that I am in fucking Bolivia on the eve of a fucking election and things don’t work that way here in Bolivia. I ended up tell them to go to hell and I slammed the phone. Well I can do anything after 5 because all the banks are closed. Tommy and I grab some pizza and beers to forget my worries but then find out that nobody is allowed to serve beer tow days before the election. What a fucking day. On the way out of the pizzeria we run into the girls that say in their hotel they sell beer at the bar and have Kareoke. Great lets go! On the way to the hotel I realize we are on the same street as the whore house we were at the night before. So the car stops in front of this normal looking house and inside there is full bar. Huge! We order beers, just relaxing. And then oh shit! Some lady runs in the var shouting “POLICIA, POLICIA: POLICIA-PASSE, PASSE, PASSE¨ Everybody, 15 people including us, grab our shit and run up satirs were they lock us in this room for 30 min. What the fuck! The last think I need to do is go to a fucking Bolivian jail over a god damm beer. We here shouting downstairs. Finally the coast is clear and we go back down stairs, grab our beers and go to the attic of this huge house were we find 20 couches, mirrors on the ceilings, full bar, three huge screen TVs, and a world class Karoke machine. We have a couple a beers with the girls but if course because we are cheap basters the leave, good riddance. Bolivian whores!!! So we go home.

Dec 15
Ok it’s Thursday, and again I am excited about getting my cards, paying my debt and hitting the road. A little hung over, but once again the day is full of errands in preparations for leaving. Tommy and I grab lunch around three at the same place where I got the snake shot. Good food. We wait around for my cards to show up, and they don’t. I call and they are still in customs. So once again I walk the streets, and now it has gotten to the point that where ever I go I shake hands and kiss babies. F-ing crazy. That night I eat local market food, you don’t want to know what it was believe me, but it only cost a $1.10 and that includes a coke. I think I am down to $10 dollars by now and I must admit that I am slightly nervous. I call the bank for another emergency cash withdrawal, and they deny it. Was again fuck bank of America. Leave me starving in the streets of a third world country on brink of civil unrest. Keeping me on a fucking pay phone for hours and hours. Anyway once again Tommy and I go out and have a good time. We went to some Beatles bar, strange, and then we caught a cab and Tommy told the cab to go to this certain bar. Well, the cab pulls down this dark street to the front of this house. We get out and knock on the door, and some guy invites us in, and directs us to a room. Shortly a precession of ladies walk in. Yeah that’s right some how ended up at a Bolivian whore house. Wow! Tommy says ¨go with flow,¨ but this time I thought it best for me to go a different direction. So I left. Trust me I left! By the way the price was $12 per hour for everything. I met some friends at the hotel and so I hung out there the rest of the night.

Dec 14
Well I thought tis was goin to be my last day in La Paz because my new checkcard and visa card are planned to arrived on Wed, Dec 14. Very excited to move on, especially since the Bolivian presidential election is on Sunday and there is apossiblitity of civil unrest. What ever that means. So, today I saw my tailor, and bought some other things because it´s just so F-ing. As everyday, since I have no money, I walk the streets and meet the locals. I made quite a few friends, and yes it helps when you have been interviewed on TV twice and been in the La Paz paper. According to the paper the interviewed me, but I don´t remember being interviewed. Weird! I decided to take a last tour of the city for 6 us dollars and it was well worth it. It was the only tour I could afford. On the tour I met this Finland guy named Tommy, he looks like a viking. Viking Blood, he says. His favorite phrases are, "go with the flow," and "click click." Click Click is my favorite which means you hit it off with a girl. The phrases resonate through out our friendship.

Dec 14
The second half of the city tour was in the morning. So Tommy and I rode through La Paz once again on a double decker bus. Good tour. They showed use the rich part of town. Pretty nice. The lower the elevation of the neighborhood the more expensive it is. So if you are poor you freeze your nuts off and if your rich its warm all year around. Really an amazing society. After the tour Tommy anbd I planned to meet up in the evening for dinner. Since I could not leave town until the day after my cards arrived. I have to pay a lot of debts. Well guess what my cards did not arrive, and I called the bank, visa and dhl and they told me they were stuck in customs. It took me three hours to find that out. Oh well one more day right. So Tommy and I go to the local football game, fun times, hung out with some very young girls. The only local girls you see are 15-19 after that they marry and stay at home to tend the family. The game is fun after words Tommy and I look for a local bar. An we find one, a very local bar. Of course they recognize me and its free everything. Great times, great culture. We think one guy was hitting on Tommy, and the scary thing is that we think that local bar, could have been the local gay bar. WOW! Tommy insisted we needed to see some girls to get his mind straight after the posible gay incident. He claims that one guy said he had a pretty faced and invited him back home with him. So we found girls and we got our minds right.

Dec 13
I met up with the local girls Elizabeth, Suzanna and Jillaria yeaterday around 9 am to get a tour and go to the museums. I can not believe that the Mom is only 36 years old. Her oldest daughter is 21. Thats crazy. Well I found out they all live in London and are actually just here visiting family and then plan to return mid January. Very nice people, great experience. We went to the subpurds of La Paz, its looks very much like California desert suberbs. I tried to visit Yungas, a forest area similar to the California sierras, but I missed the last bus. I then had lunch at there house, blah, blah, blah.
Im sorry but I am not in the mood to write right now. My camera is now broken for no reason and I have been on the phone with Canon, Circuit City and the advantage care program, yes it is seperate from circuit city. I got the F-ing run around. 5 hours+ on the phone. I finally got it resolved by calling the store directly in Virginia. They agreed to give a full refund when I return back home. But now, where can I buy a new camera? The only people that sell cameras around here are shady vendors, and its not cheap. The camers are priced higher than in the US.
Lets get back to my time on the phone. I was making long phone calls at a call center. Everything is going well then when I finally get to the person I want to talk to they can´t hear me. Hello, hello!!! The line goes dead for no reson. I went throough this three times and the same thng happened. I even switched phones...So I didn´t pay the 70BS (8.50 US) and I walked out. Little did I know that this morning they cornered me at the hotel and we had to get the police involved. The made me pay more that half, 50BS. Fucking bullshit. The place is now driving me crazy. Not because of the city, but because all of the bullshit problems I have had to deal with. This all happened after I bought a small inca cross necklace on lake titicacca. F that damm necklace. That thing just draws badluck like flys on shit. Do you know what I am going to do? I am going to go back to the call center that ripped me off and as a faux jesture of making ammends I am going to give them, with a smile, that death charm from hell.
Oh well I bought a custom suit, and I have to get the final fitting today. It cost $300 US, not bad. Ok by, by.

Dec 12
Real fast. I met this family today that is going to take me all over La Paz tomorrow. The bought me ice cream, coffee and food today.

I tore off my big toe nail 3 days ago because i was pissed. It did not feel good but I felt it was the only way to insure it would not get infected like the other toe. My other toe infection has cleard up nicely.

Chao

Dec 12
First of all I am a big fan of La Paz. I have not done one touristy thing, and I still love it. The city is like a big US city but everyone speaks spanish and like I said before it is super cheap. The weather is like California, super dry and cool. Of course we are at 11,000ft plus. The snowcapped mountains are also awesome. Oh yeah and by the way I once again made the news. The TV news appraoched me yesterday and did a story about me and what I am doing in La Paz. Again, I am a celebrity, and I am already given out tons af hand shakes and hellos. The people here are super friendly. People always tell me ¨Welcome to Bolivia¨ There is a lot of national pride, but I have learned that the more ambitious people go to the US or UK. There is a huge talent drain. It is refreshing to see a bustling town, like La Paz, in South America, because everywhere else I have been the people are poor and they depend on tourism as the main source of revenue. They see americans as money and not as people.
Since I have had no money in the past days I have been doing a lot of lounging; super long lunches with friends and long walks. My friend from spain, Maria, is still in La Paz so we hang out quite a bit but her engilish is not the best and of course my spanish sucks. She thinks I am a narrowed minded American. We actually got into a pretty big argument last night at a pizzeria because I call my self an American and not a United statesian, which makes no sense to me at all. She say that it is not The United States of America, but The United States of North America. What ever!!! She drove me crazy and I think I drove her crazier-I am a typical yankee becasue I call myself an American? I think she just has a utopic ideal that is impossible. I also have some German friends as well, Xena and Shultzer. They are friends from a German university in Germay, of course, and are travelling South America for 6 months. Did you konw that if you are unemployesd in Germany you receive 70% of your former salary from the goverment for 3 years, and if you have kids you get even more? Germans have no motivation to find work quickly because they get paid for doing nothing. When most Germans get fired, or what ever, they vaction for years because they have income. Crazy. According to my friends the system is failing and changes to there social services are coming. I met the germans at gringo bar here in La Paz. It was a great scene. There was a live mambo band and everybody was dancing. The bar was very small and intimate. I´ll try to post a picture.
At one of my 3 hour lunches they gave us a gift of a shot of some liquer, but in the jar, yes jar, there was a 4-5 foot dead snake. A fucking real snake. I wish Ryan could have been there , it was awesome.
Ok, besides my long walks, long lunches and avoiding to pay my hotel bill I have been on the phone with Visa and Bank Of America trying to get emergency cash. It seems that when every you lose your card you have 2 options, either have new cards sent or have emergency cash sent. So since I had new cards sent BofA was not going to give me emergency cash. They hell with that. I be dammed if my bank is going to let me starve and sleep on the street in F-ing Bolivia. It was there fought in the first place. They should not have cancelled my credit card. How did I fix this problem? I found BofA collect call number and Visa´s toll free Bolivia number, since I have no money for phone call. Then, I was on a pay phone in the center of La Paz, picture time square minus the skyscrapers and signs, for 6 hours plus. I findly had to talk to some hire ups to override their policy. This mess was finally setteled at 2:00AM. Picture 2:00AM time square and me on a pay phone. Fucking crazy. This morning I picked up my wire transfer from Western Union. I have money. It was getting close, real close. I am very happy now.

Dec 10
After a nice rest on the bus I arrived at Puno, Peru on the shore of lake Titicaca, the highest navigable lake in the world and the bigest in South America. I bought a little tour package at the bus station-one night at the hotel, 2 breakfasts, a tour of the Uros floating islands and taguila island and a bus ticket to La Paz for a combined $27 Us. The uros islands were cool but it was like a floating tourist trap. All the ladies want to do is sell you stuff, and they all sell the same shit. The islands are made of reeds and they squish when you walk around them. The other island is an actual island with about 400 inhabitants but the people have no electricity, no water, but they do have Coke and they smoke coca leaves and some other stuff. Basicly they just stay high, and drink coke. Anyway the trip was a lot of fun and I met a girl from spain, Maria, that I had saw earlier in Cusco. Maria, David and Frank(2 french guys), and myself grabded some dinner and wine that night. Thats when I discovered some awful news. I LOST MY ATM CARD. So the ordeal begins-I have $65 us dollars and a credit card at least. When I arrived at La Paz, great city by the way, I called the bank and cancelled my check card and arranged for a replacment to be sent to the hotel I am staying-cheap((50BS =$7.50) private bath nice room). Any way I have to cut this short because I am going to grab lunch we some friends, but about 5 mins ago I found out that the bank not only cancelled my check card but also my credit card. I have $35 Us dollars and that is it until Wed. I have to figure out how I can get some money fast. But don´t worry it will be alright.
Chao

Dec 8
Just a recovery day. I had to buy my ticket to Macchu Picchu. I had plans to go Wed, but I could not go until Thursday becasue it seems there has been a protest, a bunch of local cusconians layed on the tracks for two days to block all trains. The locals are upset because the gov´t awarded a 20 year contract to a new busing system to Macchu Picchu and the busing company is partly owned by the Mayor of Cusco. Currently the train is the only way to Macchu Picchu. It´s expensive too. $65 for the train, $12 bus and $23 to bet in the park. It was very impressive, but very crowded and touristy, almost disney like, but worth seeing. But I must admitt that the ¨City of Gold¨, regardless how hard the hike was, was much nicer because we were the only ones their, and it was better manacured. It felt like yo were actully dicovering it as aposed to being shown it.
On the way back from MP the train was going back and forth on the tracks in a super slow sea saw motion. It was horibly slow. Around 8:30, still on the train that was due to arrive at 7:30 pm, I had to make a crucial decision because the train was going no where fast and I had a bus to catch for Puno at 9:30. So i found an ulocked side door and I jumped off the train and ran down some dirty street through soom cusco ghetto, and grabbed a cab back to the house to the ghetto house where I was staying to collect my things and headed for the bus station. I got there on time but of course the original bus had broken down and my new bus wasn´t to leave until 10:00pm which ended up being 10:25pm. Frieking cusco. So I met this extremly butch lady on the bus that is trasvelling for a year in South America. She was strange. She sat down beside me, it was not her seat, and started bitching about her mentsrual cycle, wow too much information. Besides that The bus trip was fine but the bus would stop at these random places in the middle of the night, and let on all kinds of people on that smelled sour. Yuck!!!

Dec 3-7
What in the hell was I thinking. Let me preface this by saying that my longest hike hike, prior to peru, was no more thatn 6 miles in one day, and I have never climed more than 1500 ft in elevation. This f-ing hike to the ¨City of Gold¨ was 43.4 miles long. I desended 8000 ft and the asended 8000 ft on the other side. I thought I was going to die-literally. The trail was so steep that you can´t walk down it. You have to kind of slide down. Are you shitting me? Oh yeah, we did this hike in 3 1/2 days. My feet are ruined. I have some serious work to do on them to get them back into shape.
Enough of the bad stuff. The hike was incredible. There were snow capped mountains in the background, we had local people prepare us rice and eggs. The city itself was beautiful. They say it will be bigger than macchu picchu, and more popular. It was the last refuge for the incas from the spanish. The craftsmanship is amazing, and some of the rocks they used have a lot of mica in them so they shine like gold from a distance. I can´t wait to post pictures. Rider, his grlfriend, his girlfriend´s sister, a horse boy and my self went on this crazy trip. We also went swimming in the ¨Talkative River.¨I would love to right more but I have to go and prepare for tomorrow, Macchu Picchu and leave for Puno-Lake Titticaca. I am going to try to stay on one of the one of the floating islañds. By the way I had to start a cycle of antibiotics because my foot is infected.

Dec 2
I can not figure out how to post f-ing pictures. Damn it. Anyway, I stay at Riders house for free, so that´s nice, but its far from other traveling gringos. It does give a true taste of the peruvian lifstyle, very simple day to day exsistence. I kind of miss my strabucks. Is that bad. Spoiled gringo. Again easy day- I went down to the market to visit Riders mother in law even though he is not married. We hang out at the market and I eat and drink things that I probaly should not. Very fortunate not to get sick. Rider say I have a very strong stomach-whatever. So we eat the huge ¨mountain lunch¨prepared by his mother in law-chicken, soups, fried bananas, rice, corn-awesome. We decided to hike to a place called Chicoquera?(City of Gold) When begin to make preperations.

I´m so sorry that it has taken me so long to post. I did arrive safley in Cusco Peru, but of course my bag did not. My bag showed up the next day-no big deal.I am the tallest guy that Cuscoians have ever seem and just by chance there was some little man named Juan, or something similar, at the airport when I arrived and he did a interview with me that aired later that night on the Cusco news. They asked me what I was doing in Cusco and I told them, ¨I am here to meet with the president and I refuse to leave Peru until my demands are met.¨ To the say the least I am now famous in Cusco, and sign autographs where ever I go. After the airport secene, my friend Rider, from the hospitality club, met me in the main square we had coca leave tea and talked for quite awhile his english is incredible. Together we toured some inca ruins and had some traditional meals, very relaxing.

Ok, Last test before I leave. This is a picture of me and my friend Mary.