Equador...pretty much overrated.

I am actually sure it is a very nice place but in the course of the first 24 hours we were in town these things happened:

1. Man with bat in coat recruited a friend and followed us for a number of blocks in the middle of the night.
2. Man sleeping in doorway is covered in blood from a wound that apprears to have been sustained in the neck.
3. Man comes up behind me, wraps giant arm around me, lifts me in air, robs me.
4. Whisky shots are $7.00.

All of this, minus the whisky, also occured within 200 yards of the hostel. Actually I'm pretty sure it's just Quito that's not real great. We left after the first day to take a trip into the Amazon and it was amazing. Piranha fishing, canoing, swimming, hiking, bird watching, visiting indingenous villages, hallucinogenic drug taking, etc. It was a great four days. We saw more spiders as big as my hand than I would ever care to see again. Also more giant, climbing, scurrying, flying, glowing, flashing, buzzing bugs than I would ever care to see again. In addition to the extensive insect population we saw river dolphins, caiman (alligators), an anaconda, 6 species of monkeys, more different types of colorful birds than I can remember, of course piranha, and other fish, and a cat that got fleas all over me. During the piranha fishing I caught a small fish, 3 inches maybe, and since it was already bloody putting it back meant a death sentance so I figured I would use it as bait. I hooked the fish right through the middle of the spine to secure it and dropped it in the water. 3 seconds later I had a bite so I pulled the hook out to see what I caught. I caught nothing. However the back half on the fish was gone as was most of its head. After a small shudder of fear I put the fist back in the water; 3 seconds later another bite. Pulled the hook up again; fish gone. After a while I put some more bait on my hook and had a real nice bite, thinking it was finally time for me to catch a piranha instead of a guppy I pull real fast on the pole and pull up something that I'm pretty sure my schooling told me went extinct a few million years ago. It was close to a foot long with a row of razor sharp teeth, but still not a piranha...I'm trying to get the hook out of it's mouth, obviously quite close to the razor teeth, while it's flopping around in Dean's grasp. Slightly fearful for the future of my fingers I am totally concentrated on removing this hook when out of nowhere.....SMACK! Sweet piranha on face action. Aj had caught a nice sized piranha and in his haste to get it out of the water and into the boat the best way was apparently to take it along a straight trajectory to the side of my face. So with the mouth of on carniverous fish dangerously close to my fingers and one more than dangerously close to my face I can't help but think that maybe Quito isn't that bad. Well, all's well that ends well, and I didn't get bit. We went hiking the next day with our guide, George, and he let us swing on a vine through the trees. It was lots of fun but AJ and I both became very intimately more aware of the meaning behind the lyrics for the George of the Jungle song. You really do need to look out for that tree. (And don't worry, there is video footage.) Those are just a few of the many highlights of the last few days, more later. Roberto!

Sweet Freedom!

We (I) made it out of Nicaragua. Dean and I are currently in San Jose, CR. We are not sure where AJ is at. Ryan is gone. The fellowship is broken. One more night here and then onto Panama City. We are going to try to find a boat we can work on for free passage to....anywhere. It has been great so far. Insanity. I will write more later, I swear.

Nicaragua is very nice; Honduras.....not so much

We made it through El Salvador with no trouble, and Honduras with no belongings or money. I´m sure there is a lot of detail on the guys blog so I won´t repeat it. We made in into Nicaragua and soon after had no van. A nice guy in a pickup (delivering dough across the countryside) picked us up and drove us quite a ways into Leon. Dean sat in the cab and the driver told him it was important that he put his seatbelt on. Judging by the way everyone drives here he is correct. However there was no seatbelt for the three of us in the bed...or for any of the dough either. The girl that sleeps in the bunk beneath me in my room is from Ashland, OR. She was pretty happy to find a fellow Oregonion. We did was has appeared to become a pattern when we stop at a new city. We drank. It was as always a wild night of running around town with a mix of locals and tourists. We met some Israeli girls, A german girl, etc. etc. Ryan and I went up to a policeman at one point looking for food and asked if we could borrow his bike. He took all his possessions off it and gave it to us, we rode around semiaimlessly, then found our way back and returned it to him with. We never found food. The next morning I had a fruit smoothie at the hostel across the street and was sick about 30 minutes later. I spent all day in the bathroom and went to bed early. I woke up this morning at 4 to hear the rest of the guys come stumbling home. They are still asleep. Hope everyone at home is still doing good. I have to go for now, must try to wake up hung over amigos in time for check out.

Leaving G.C.

We're leaving G.C. today. We went to Antigua yesterday on the Chickenbus. It was packed but the cheapest bus I've ever been on. Partying at night in G.C. with people we don't know in the sketchy zone 1 probably broke every How To Stay Alive As A Gringo rule that ever lived but damn it was fun. Every 20th person in G.C. carries a shotgun. It was shocking at first but after a few days you get used to it. Very strange. They are mostly just hired security guards. It's amazing to see a guy with an uzi guarding you while you eat your $4 breakfast at the local cafe but it's a nice place. We're hoping to get to Costa Rica today. We've picked up a hitchhiker from Austin, Texas named Ryan so now we are four. That means we can drive always. Internet is about to cut out and we have to leave. Bye for now.

Ocho Dies?!??!?!?!

The border agent at Nogales thought we were crazy when we said we would make it though the country in eight days. Everyone else thought that too, however we made it in four. Ha! The trip has been interesting. The sketchy mountain roads were interesting. There is no guardrail, no shoulder, cars pass on blind curves and there are grave markers every kilometer and half. We actually passed a roadside store that sold nothing but grave markers. But with all that we only saw one accident. There was a gasoline tanker tipped over. It had clearly just happened so we just drove away as quickly as we could. We met some nice Czech travelers who ran out of gas and we spent the night drinking beer with them. They are on a sponsored trip from the Czech republic through Russia, Asia and now the west coast of the New World. We are hoping to meet back up with them in Panama as we both think that getting out of Colon will take some time. Hope all is well back home. E-mail me addresses (or facebook) if you want a postcard. I did not get many before I left....oops. Bye for now. Bobby.

Don't worry; it's front wheel drive.

There's too much to post for the few minutes of battery life we have left but we're in Mazatlan and it's the most confusing beach town ever. It took nearly an hour to find our way to the beach. We finally did and dropped the back end of the van into about a foot of loose sand. Short story shorter we finally got some real friendly garbage men to pull us out with some rope they had. We said gracias and gave them $30 for cervezas. We went swimming/bathing in the ocean after that with a bottle of wine and upon return to the vehicle the policia came and kicked us out. We slept on a side street and now we're here in the most authentic of Mexican eating establishments, Burger King! That's all for now. Bobby.