Ever since we arrived in Phnom Penh, I started to notice a trend. Khmer women (young and old) wearing two-piece matching pyjamas at all times of the day and night.

It is an unusual trend. They aren't particularly attractive garments. And with a plethora of great threads to buy in the market it's always amazed me how popular these matchies actually are. So, it's been my goal, for almost as long as we've been in Phnom Penh, to at least them and see what the rage is all about.

So, my friend Bethany and I, having recently procured a pair of Matchies each, took the opportunity last Saturday to experience Cambodian Pyjamas for ourselves.

We had a blast. We ran errands, wen to the market, fed an elephant and ate lunch at a tea room. We answered questions bewildered foreigners asked us and we shared knowing smiles with many Cambodians. Ultimately we came to a few conclusions: Matchies are actually quite ugly, they are not built for the ample white bottom (we were paranoid of splitting our pants open all day), and they are really, really hot - a lot hotter than one would expect.

So while the day was fun, we'll be sticking to Western clothes from now on!

-Amie

We've been talking about this for a few weeks now since the completion of Phnom Penh's first sky scraper but today Dan and I finally put our plan into action. We wanted to try and get to the top of the (Canadia) tower despite the front doors only recently opening to the public street.

To evade security, we decided to dress up business style and walk directly into the tower like we belonged there. This is exactly what we did and although it took a while to find the elevator, we eventually got in and selected the top floor (29). The doors opened at the top and we were startled to discover that the floor was completely under construction. Later we had to take the stairs down because buttons weren't installed yet to call back the elevator for the return journey.

It took little effort from here to climb a couple more flights to the top floor (33rd) and also the find the future public viewing area. We took in the views, indulged in a victory cigar and congratulated ourselves for likely being the first of the public to make the ascension.

This gave us the confidence we needed to next try our charm at Phnom Penh's premier casino, Naga World. This was less successful as our attire didn't generate the same level of respect. We ended up eating street noodles in front of the establishment where we concluded that it was more our style anyway.

-steve-

There is no better way for Canadians who are missing snow than to celebrate the Christmas season by careening headfirst down sand dunes on thin sheets of linoleum.

It was almost like tobogganing - minus the cold feet, plus having to shower off a bazillion sand particles afterward. The sand was even white taking us one step closer to having a white Christmas.

We had a brilliant time doing this and playing other sandy games with Amie's parents and friends, Ryan and Becky, in Mui Ne, Vietnam.

Mom and Dad put us all up at a gorgeous beach resort and we spent a few days catching some rays, adventuring to old temples and villages, exploring red canyons, and of course, frolicking in the sand.

This will definitely go down in history as one of the best Christmas seasons yet.

-Amie

If you can't be surrounded by family on Christmas, you better be surrounded by amazing friends. Thankfully, that's exactly how it worked for us this year. Friends, Ryan and Becky joined us from Thailand and we and our friends here in Phnom Penh all piled into Dan and Amanda's house after a Christmas Eve service. We stuffed ourselves with Christmas delicacies, exchanged gifts, and completed a perfect Christmas by camping out on the balcony.

On Christmas Day, in fierce pursuit of our love for Ultimate Frisbee, we jumped on a bus and drove and ferried across international borders in time to play in the Saigon Hat on Dec. 26 and 27th. We are that dedicated. The trek was worth it - Ryan and Becky and Steve and I got more than our fill of disc over the weekend. And Amie's parents even got a sneak peak of the insanity, stopping in on Sunday morning to watch their very first Frisbee game.

Speaking of Amie's parents...though we weren't with family for Christmas, it was amazing to have family visit during the holidays! Mom and Dad met us in Saigon and we headed to Mui Ne for a few days. Chantelle met us all in Phnom Penh for New Years. We loved showing the family our favourite spots, including Kep on Cambodia's coast and adventuring on bicycles in search of Khmer Rouge relics (both fascinating and creepy all at the same time). We loved the company and felt deeply loved. It was an amazing Christmas and New Years indeed.

-Amie

So, my research so far isn't really looking at which water companies have the best quality. Although I did notice that only 1/3 actually have any water quality certification. This project stemmed more from the sheer amazement at how many companies there actually are. You can seriously buy a different kind every day!

Note that these waters are ones that are available locally. Yes, there are 4 or 5 pictured that are imported but I've still counted them because they are in the mix of competition. Be assured, 85% of these are manufactured around Phnom Penh and another 10% in other provinces.

So here are my theories so far which I will continue to investigate:

1) Manufacturing bottled water in Cambodia is pretty much the best business around.

Logic: There is hardly any regulation (especially that's enforced) regarding water quality. So you just have to make sure that the water you're obtaining looks clear, then get some bottles made just like everyone else, and make up a company name, a stupid slogan, fake some purification standards on the back and you're in business!!

2) Companies switch names often (maybe every production sequence!)

Logic: One month a certain type of water, say, "Steve" Water will be in everyone's hand. Then a month later (like now) you can't buy it anywhere. New companies are coming in every day.. I just saw cases of Elvis Water hitting the shelves everywhere around Central Market the other day! This is the best way to avoid anyone coming after you.

Nearly all the bottles have poor English but here are some of the funnier:

Steve Water: The Quality Drops!

Elvis Water: Drinking reverse osmosis is water is the high standard well above the laid by any country in the world and perfect mixer for all concentrate syrup and fruit. Drinking water that is safe and refreshing bottled under managerment and inspection of the food expert.

Hi-Zone: Produced from fresh water source, treated by RO system and Ozone, sterilized by UV on full automatic of the USA technology.

Borey Spring: Our water has been carefully made through technology, that's why the Borey Spring water has become the best tasting and healthy water for you.

Omexs: Improve Energy of the Body

-steve-

This might be the case with all developing countries, but in Cambodia the mobile phone situation is ridiculous. The market is flooded with too many companies and the crazy thing is that everyone has a different favorite (there must be at least 10 - mobitel, beeline, starcell, smart, m-fone, hello, metfone, qb, Excell - ok, 9).

Anyway, to make it even worse, the most popular phones let you roam 2 or 3 networks at once (that's right, 3 sim cards, 3 call buttons). I was determined not to get into this by just picking the best one off the start... how wrong I was...

When we first got here, a few people recommended Starcell because it had a good 'family' plan where it was dirt cheap to talk with 10 friends. So we got Starcell. That worked for a while until we found that hardly everyone else used Starcell full time. The problem with calling across different networks is that the price is a lot more expensive than calling between the same network.

Finally we got Beeline because you can call all networks for a cheap rate. Then we got Mobitel because it is the most used. Then we got internet which required us to have a Metphone SIM. Somewhere in there we had to buy 2-SIM enabled phones. Then I started new work and guess what... everyone's using m-fone!!! Now I have a 2-SIM phone in my left pocket and a 1-SIM phone in my right and there's nothing I can do about it!!

-steve-

bangkok may be my favourite city in the whole world. it is electric. there is an addictive energy to it that keeps me coming back for more. maybe it's the fluid connections between old and new, east and west. maybe it's the street food and delectable curries all at a ridiculously low price. or, maybe i love it so much because it was such a coming of age city for me. it was my first port of call in asia. and i travelled there all by my lonesome for a journalism internship 5 years ago. it was in Bangkok that i knew in my gut that i would never work for the mainstream press. it's where i knew that i wanted to be a voice for the voiceless and to pursue justice with writing and pictures and stories.

so of course i'm ecstatic that my sister has chosen to live there for another few months! this time around, we tried to see how much blonde mischief we could disturb and what we could do for free in this steller city!

amie

There are a few things synonymous with Cambodia. Temple ruins. Motorbikes. And Corruption. With a five day long weekend stretching before us, and new-found knowledge that we can take our motorbike as cargo under the bus, we got our fill of all three last week when we hit the road for Siem Reap in search of remote, untouched Angkorian temples. It was a stellar vacation – the unforeseen challenges and (3 hour) detours along the way (like bamboo bridges and sandy cattle tracks) just added to our Indiana Jones experience.

-Amie

As for the corruption part, we definitely helped to play our part in the grand scheme. Sometimes it's the only way to get things done! The main temple at Koh Ker for example has been unclimbable for some time since the collapse of a main access ladder. But you can't just visit an ancient pyramid and not climb to the top! With a little flash of cash, an unofficial young guide materializes to escort you up the ruins while security officials turn a temporary blind eye.

-steve-

There are hundreds of ways to end the sentence 'Only in Cambodia.....'. So how about this one? Only in Cambodia can you get approval from an active construction site to temporarily set up a climbing wall.

There were three activities after completion of the site. The first was to climb up the wall similar to an indoor climbing gym except you're outside and climbing up 30 meters (so not really the same at all). The second was to weave through the construction crew (actively working) and take a view from the roof of the tower. The third was to rappel down the side of the building without catching your knee on a rusty nail.

-steve-

One of the best things about living in Asia is the no-frills budget airlines (and we mean BUDGET, like you pay for everything but your seat - extra baggage, drinks, etc. We're surprised they don't charge you to use the bathroom), like Air Asia.

We had a few days off over Pchum Benh, so we flew for $30 each to Bangkok, then jumped on a night train to Chiang Mai, Thailand to visit great friends Ryan & Becky Koop over the holiday.

It was a blast. It always changes one's traveling experience when you know people in a place - it is just a million times better.

After a couple of days in the city, trolling the night market, playing ultimate with the Chiang Mai crew, and eating copious amounts of amazing Thai food, we took to the hills. This is the summary of our very fun (and wonderfully chilled) time on Thailand's highest peak, Doi Inthanon.

Some travelers have heard about the Cambodian bamboo train but few have experienced it. The Cambodian railroad is due for serious repair. The service has degraded to a once per day freight service chugging along at 20-30km per hour. Entrepreneurial Khmer families have opened their own (illegal) services on sections of the track and built contraptions out of old rail cars and wood to shuttle local people back and forth between certain points on the track.

As Amie and I were moto-exploring one afternoon, we stumbled across one such service and decided to bring some friends back and make an adventure of it. We got up early one Saturday morning and rode out to the start of the bamboo train, negotiated our passage to Phnom Baset, strapped our motos onto the platform and off we went. This particular bamboo train was powered by an old engine, set in motion by a rubber belt stretching from the engine to the wheel axle. The conductor's tools included a grooved stick for controlling the tension of the belt as well as a battle club shaped braking device.

As we zoomed along at 20km/h, the nature of our unscheduled journey resulted in others not respecting our control of the tracks. For example, a cow slept peacefully in between the tracks at a certain point in our journey. The conductor's assistant was quick to leap off the train, shoo the animal, and rejoin the group while the train was still in motion (don't want to stall the engine). Intersecting dirt roads caused some tension. The train had to come to a crawl while traffic paused to let it through. Trucks parked near the tracks or temporary markets across the tracks are other obstacles to overcome on the bamboo train.

After reaching an intersection with a road towards Phnom Baset, we reclaimed our motorbikes and explored the various temples in the area. One in particular had an amateur film crew making a television program set to air later in the month. Let me emphasis the 'amateur' part. The crew and actors consisted of 4 people - a charismatic director, a hand-held camera man, some other helper, and an actor dressed in pink with a power amulet around his neck. This character had somehow transported to the future (our present) and basically the film involves him having a set of shocking futuristic experiences. As we sat to have a snack and watch, the director asked if he could use our motorbikes as props. At this point the script must have been re-written to include these futuristic devices, sure to scare the time-traveler.

Near a different temple, a makeshift carnival style balloon dart toss was set up to entertain temple guests. Prizes consisted of various Chinese made plastic housewares - much more practical than stuffed animals. The ride home through the small dirt paths was scenic and peaceful. The recent rains presented some challenges but we were lucky to avoid getting our motorbikes stuck. On our way into the city, we found a new suburb construction project. It was abandoned so we did some drag racing down the main streets of the future complex.

-steve-

Steve and Daniel happen to have been born just two weeks apart. In honor of both turning the big 2-8, we hosted a joint birthday party exactly halfway between both of their real birthdays.

The ticket to get in? A Bad-English T-shirt (these are a dime a dozen in Phnom Penh, available at every market and on street corners.)

We spent the evening celebrating Steve and Daniel and the great shirts we'd all managed to snag for the occasion. No birthday celebrated in Asia is complete without homemade toaster oven cake and an "Intellectual Birthday Candle". It lives up to its name as candles burst out of the centre of a lotus flower (breaking every fire code regulation) while singing "Happy Birthday".

Fitting that Angelina's Orphans, our Cambodian utlimate team, got hammered in a city infamous for "caning".

Nope. We didn't do so hot in the Singapore Open. But we still had a blast, got to know some fabulous people, ran around and got exercize and managed to find some relatively inexpensive things to do in one of the most expensive cities in the world!

We rented bikes and cycled around an island off the coast, ate copious amounts of Indian food in Little India, giggled at Singapore's hilarious "Don't you dare" signs, basked in the frigid AC of several malls along Orchard road, and raced down waterslides at the cleanest swimming facility we've seen this side of the Pacific.

It was surprisingly refreshing to spend 5 days in the spic-n-span city with its 7/11's stocked with familiar treats, McDonald's McFlurries, public transit and drinkable tap water.

But also good to come back to Phnom Penh. And we're already scheming the next utlimate tournament we can get to!

We had ridden all over Phnom Penh and it was time to take the plunge: an 80km cycling trip to the coast.

One of Amie's colleagues from work, Tim Rann, is huge into cycling and not only did he orchestrate the whole adventure, he also came along for the ride. 12 of us left work a wee bit early on Friday and hopped in a minivan to Chhuk, a town about 100km south of Phnom Penh.

We gorged on Cambodian BBQ and slept soundly in Chhuk's one and only guesthouse.

Bright and early Saturday morning - just as the the sky was beginning to lighten, we fitted our bikes and started the journey to Kep.

A M A Z I N G

We pushed biked down small country lanes and beside paddy fields. We lost count of how many people stood up from their work in the rice fields to wave and holler hello.

With supremely sore bums, we pulled into Kep and topped off the day with a dive into the ocean (in our sweaty cycling gear), fresh crab and pepper, Angkor beer, and a sound sleep at a beautiful guesthouse.

Now we're scheming where we can cycle to next.

We love chasing plastic in Phnom Penh. We've been dreaming about playing in an international tournament for a few years and finally got our chance.

A group of 20 disc players from Ho Chi Minh came out for a mini hat tournament last weekend.

We ran. We dove. We snagged discs. Quite frankly, it was awesome.

So six of us took the better part of an afternoon and headed to Kien Svay, a popular Khmer picnic spot near Phnom Penh.

When you've lived in Cambodia for a few months, you start to forget how much bigger Barangs (foreigners) are than Cambodians.

Oops.

We heard the sickening snap and within a few seconds Daniel was sitting in the water, Amie's flip flops were floating downstream, and everyone was panicking to pick up the food, the cameras and other personal belongings while all the Cambodians around us roared with laughter.

Luckily a few other huts were open and our Cambodian hosts shuffled us off to another one that was "stronger" and made for fat barangs.

We'll certainly never forget that trip!

Koh Dach is a small island in the middle of the Mekong about 14km away from Phnom Penh. We took off with a few friends on Saturday for whatever adventures we could find. And there were a few! After a ferry ride to the island it is a treat to not have any traffic as compared to the busy highway up to the ferry from Phnom Penh.

It has been ages since we've last updated our site - shamefull, it's true. Since getting back to Phnom Penh after our trip to Canada, we've been going full on. Big meetings, lots of work, busy weekends. And with a bunch of stuff piling up over the summer months, it doesn't look like it's going to slow down. Here are a few of the things that we've been preoccupied with!

1) Dentist Appointment: It was that time. It was approaching a year since we last had a good dentist's clean and so we ventured to Roomchang Dental clinic on a few recommendations.

We slipped off our sandals and stepped into tan colored imitation crocks (for that extra dose of hygiene). Waited in reception for close to 1/2 an hour and were finally led into the same dental examination room at the same time. I (Amie) had another meeting to get to so I got to go first. The dentist, along with his three dental hygienists (so now we have 6 people in the room) cleaned and scraped and buffed my teeth keeping the water on the whole time. The bib they put on you at the beginning was soaked by the end. Then they discovered a small cavity. Not to fear, Roomchang told me, five minutes. He drilled my tooth and put the filling in, while Steve hovered above my face to get a closer look. (I guess the imitation crocks we made up for this lack of hygiene). They sure don't allow you to do that in Canada! I was out of there within 1/2 an hour. Total cost for cleaning: $15 per person.

2) Aerobics: It is not easy to get exercise in Phnom Penh. Short days, long work hours, the heat. But, when I do get out to public aerobics, it's a huge treat. Watch the video and you'll see why.

3) Frisbee: We love ultimate. And now, every Saturday from 9-11am we run around and toss the disc around with other ultimate lovers in Phnom Penh. The best part is one of our team mates has a pool in his backyard and he has no reservations with us jumping in - fully clothed - after a sweaty two hours of frisbee. It has become a huge highlight of our week. Now we're prepping for our first ever International Ultimate Frisbee Tournament in Singapore in August. (stay tuned for pics and video from our upcoming adventure!).

4) Learning Khmer. Every Monday or Tuesday we get together with our Khmer tutor, Mano. He comes to our house and we drink coffee and eat cookies and learn Khmer. We've been going through one book that was actually designed for Cambodians to learn English. I'm actually really glad that we're learning Khmer from it instead of English. See why?

5) Housekeeping For the longest time we sat on the solid wood furniture in our living room. It came time however, for a set of cushions. A trip to the market for fabric and a stop at a mattress shop were the tasks we needed to do to go from sore-cushioned bums. We did it all one weekend. And learned how much white people can carry on motorbikes.

-amie

We finally had some time for adventure last weekend. We jumped on a motorbike and went off into the countryside with no planning. We picked a couple places on the map and went there - relaxed at a riverside restaurant, climbed a large hill with a temple on it, found a really amazing Angkorian ruin, and walked around a small town where we found a guesthouse.

-steve

We had 10 days off over Cambodia's New Year so made use of them to adventure in Vietnam with friends Dan and Amanda. What a great experience - and what a truly remarkable country. Vietnam has really gone from worshipping Uncle Ho to worshipping the Dough - and has opened itself to a capitalist economy.

It is true.

The communist country has welcomed Luis Vuitton, Gucci and Burberry London. Our jaws dropped. Not just at the stores and movie theatres and incredible food, but the infrastructure too. After 8 months of long, dusty, daytime bus rides in Cambodia, we were thrilled to discover that Vietnam has night buses - with berths to sleep in! And in the 10 days we were across the border, we experienced zero power outages - a friendly surprise.

We had a great time exploring Saigon, the highlands around Dalat (wearing long sleeves comfortably again), and beach city Nha Trang.

Here are some of the things we did and saw.

He's a short man, gray hair, definitely Cambodian - old and grizzled as he should be for his late 60's. The only thing between him and I was some thick (likely bulletproof) glass. I guess this is the typical setup at all genocide tribunals. Today I caught a glimpse of history in the making as the (never-ending) trials resumed for Duch (Kaing Guek Eav) - former leader of the infamous S21 Toul Sleng torture school in the Khmer Rouge war.

Until this point we have only been keeping watch over his old school from our balcony. It's still a busy place, but with mostly tourists coming by choice now to view the school in its current state as a museum. I’ve been wanting to pay the old headmaster a visit for a while now. He’s up first for trial followed by the even more sinister Khmer Rouge leaders (all who haven’t died yet awaiting trial).

This international tribunal sure drags on and now I know why. Duch huddles behind a desk in the back after already confessing his guilt and resentment while a bunch of purple robe clad lawyers drag on and on with repetitive language and article this or that. This morning's talk centered around the fact that Duch has been held without trial for 10 years now and his defense lawyers petition for his release for the duration of the trials. First comes a passionate speech by one of the Cambodian defense, followed by a long-winded statement by a French defense attorney who referenced on and on about how precedent clearly lays out the obvious next direction to take (citing previous trial outcomes with Rwanda and Yugoslavia).

Anyway, I don't think this is a question of guilty or not guilty – that answer is obvious. It comes down to how many of the numerous crimes are going to laid forth to pay justice to the endless victims. And then there is the question of the current powerholders - how deep can the trials go before unveiling their role in the atrocities? In the end, how are these old men going to be dealt with? Will taking a few more lives ease the pain and horror of the past, or is it time for some reconciliation and moving forward into the already bright looking future that the new generation sees?

Here is an recent and interesting article that may be of interest: Notorious Khmer Rouge killer Comrade Duch confesses his crimes

-steve-

On Thursday morning, I bolted straight up in bed at 5:30am as loudspeakers that felt like they were directly outside my window started blaring music. Seriously? A sound check at 5:30am?

truly, I tell you. The following is my firsthand account of surviving my first Cambodian wedding outside of my house.

Later that morning, I rode my bike through the tent as the bride and groom and attendants were setting up. I kind of hoped that everything would be finished up by the time I got home that night - 13 hours later.

But no. The street was completely alive when I got home. The tent was vibrating with music and the energy of hundreds of people dancing and singing and honoring the bride and groom. Problem: our house was smack dab in the middle of the tent. with only a foot of space to spare between the tent and our gate, there was nothing else to do - I had to walk through the wedding wearing my fire engine red helmet and walking my cherry red bike, with at least 17 layers of sweat on my face. The process went pretty smoothly at first. the neighborhood kids who had gathered outside the tent slowly parted so i could get by. i stopped to let a beer girl or two pass by. Tables packed with guests were on my right. Bodies and house gates directly on my left. Only a few inches to spare.

Then it happened. A huge pot of bougainvilleas and a pile of garbage right next to a large table of guests completely blocked my path. I stopped short. I had no clue what to do. Two young Cambodian guys, seeing my apparent confusion, came to my rescue. They picked up my bicycle and proceeded to lift it OVER the plant and the people's heads - all this during a lovely toast to the bride. I kind of did a hurdle to get over the bougainvilleas to the other side as a whole pack of middle aged men watched my every move.

Mortification. Hilarity. I experienced every emotion in what was easily the biggest gong show of my life. But I'm so glad it happened. :)

-Amie

This week, work has led me to the most remote province of Cambodia: Rattanakiri. My guide was Anne, a Laos+Khmer-fluent American lady who has lived in the region for over 10 years. She is a legend around these parts as you will soon see.

Out here there is little access to solar equipment and I was here to go the extra mile and see just what solar power was needed for. Anne volunteers with a couple NGOs who have set up literacy classes for remote minority people groups first in their language, and then in Khmer. The sunlight hours have the people completely consumed with manual labour - rice fields, pounding grain, weaving, and gathering nuts and fruits to name a few activities. The only opportunity for education is at night where there isn't much to do under the light of the stars.

Getting to the villages was quite the ordeal and adventure. Throw bicycles into a pickup, drive 40km north of Ban Lung (capital city of R'kiri) to the end of the road, take a ferry, get on the bicycles and ride 8km, stop at a wedding for rice wine and gong music, continue to the end of the road, ditch the bikes, wade across a river, climb up some hills and then you're there! Villagers don't have any extra food so we eat what we bring, string up a hammock in the guest hut and fall instantly to sleep from over-exhaustion. Except for Anne that is, who yaks with the villagers and apparently is not phased by the ride to the village that nearly killed me. Anne is at home in the village. They are her family and her heart's desire is to help them in anyway and does just this, living a frugal lifestyle similar to many locals.

At night in the village, everyone gathers around a makeshift blackboard illuminated by a solar powered bulb. 3 hours per night is all you get and it's the best social activity in the community - no one misses out. All teachers are volunteers (previous graduates), and everyone is enthusiastic because of previous relatives and friends who have benefited so greatly because of literacy.

-steve

We just finished moving to a new rental flat in Phnom Penh. We usually don't get it right the first time when we move to a city so this wasn't surprising. Some of the things we were moving away from include noisy construction, unending dust, no parking (bike even), non-central location, annoying landlords, and poor airflow. Our new house is everything our other place wasn’t and more (fully furnished, breezy, lovely).

Yes, 40,000 people were tortured or killed in the school next door, but those times are past, and people have filled the neighborhood in the last 10 years overcoming their superstitions and fears of the area. We believe everything can be redeemed, and this school has been - there have been millions of tourists through its current state as a genocide museum.

Of course, since we are in Cambodia, we would never want to live in a place that is too Western. Thank goodness, our new house has enough Chinese artifacts in it to remind us of what hemisphere we're in.

We love our new house. A gentle Cambodian family lives on the ground floor, and two sisters who have a stalls at Russian market live above us.

We've accumulated a few things since arriving in Cambodia but we still only had 2 tuktuk's full.

Being the day before Valentine's day, I felt it was high time to do some beautifying. Thank goodness that in Phnom Penh this is a fairly inexpensive effort. (A good thing too since the amount I sweat in this country requires increased measures to become more beautified).

So I went to the hair salon - New World Beauty Salon - upon the recommendation of several friends.

I am so glad I went.

I walked into New World Hair salon and explained briefly what I wanted - a hair wash and cut.

So the kind Cambodian woman walked me to the back of the building and got me to stretch out on a big bedlike thing with a sink at the top. As I relaxed back, with my head in the sink for the wash, the bed started massaging my back. A massaging chair! Then she thouroughly massaged/washed my hair for 20 minutes. Absolute heaven - or at least a piece of it.

Then the kind Cambodian woman walked me out to the main hair salon, sat me down in the chair and massaged my shoulders - of course an important requirement for a hair cut!

At New World salon, the women wash/massage and the men do the cutting. So after briefly explaining what I was looking for, a Vietnamese guy chopped and cut for 1/2 an hour. Styling was the icing on the cake.

And all that for $9. I may need to go and do that more often!

-amie

While Wayne and Steve spent some quality father-son time on Cambodia's coast, I spent some quality sister time in Chiang Mai!

The trip to Thailand started with a 12 hour bus ride to Bangkok, complete with goats packed in with the cargo below the bus! After the ride to Bangkok, I hopped on another overnight bus to get to Chiang Mai for early Saturday morning. After 24 hours of travel, I made it safe and sound and joined Chantelle and Andrea on a series of adventures during the weekend!

1. Thai cooking class. This is always a well spent $20. shopping at the local market, a free recipe book, and one-on-one attention from the chef all afternoon! We also ate 5 meals in 4 hours - and when that involves Thai food that's always a VERY GOOD THING!

2. Around Chiang Mai. My eyes almost burst out of my head when I saw a Starbucks. The store shone with a lovely western glow after six months of Cafe Sentiment in Phnom Penh. Don't get me wrong, I love Cafe Sentiment, but Starbucks was such a treat!

3. Flight of the Gibbon. This was awesome! 10 ziplines, a couple of drops, and swinging bridges, all 50 feet above the jungle floor. We screeched and screamed and loved every moment of it.

4. The Chiang Mai Flower Festival. This was wild - floats made entirely of flower! It was lovely to be there!

A very fun weekend with fabulous company!

-amie

It's sad that it has taken so long for us to get invited over to a local house for dinner. We find that people are usually too embarrassed to invite because of their living conditions. This all changed when I convinced a workmate that our standards are pretty low.

It turned out to be great! My work friend's place is half an hour out of town and the menu for the day included lawnmower duck and fresh on tong (eel). Lawnmower duck means hacking up with no intention to separate meat from skin from bone (also must include head, feet and tail - the best parts!). Fresh eel means the eel wiggles around in a pail and occasionally escapes until it is ready to join the rest of its dish. Eels aren't as agile as their reptile cousins in the dirt as we observed. Eels on the loose also cause a great disturbance and confusion to dogs, ducks and other land loving creatures.

Eating outdoors also has its disadvantages as dogs and wild chickens are always starving for your food. The entertainment value makes it all worth it though. At one point in our meal, my buddy grabbed one of the crazy chickens and fed it a little Johnny Walker (whiskey). This apparently had no effect on the chicken at it continued to stealth jump onto the table to cannibalize its fallen mallard cousin.

-steve-

We’ve been in Phnom Penh for about four months and it seems that as we settle into life, the things that were once unbelievable, exhilarating, comical or completely farcical, have lost their novelty. I suppose that happens to everyone at every stage in life – as we get comfortable we see things through the lens of the mundane.

But there are things that we see everyday that I know are not your standard fare in Canada. Like naked kids running around everywhere, or a whole family on a motorcycle, or the inane ability of Cambodians to maximize space...you will see what I mean if you scroll down to the pictures below.

I went around Phnom Penh this morning on my bicycle, armed only with my camera, in search of some of the sights that are quintessential Phnom Penh. The following pictures are what I found.

And so, my ode to Cambodia – a refreshing reminder (for me at least!) of what it is that I love about this country.

-Amie

It was a whirlwind trip, but fantastic to have Amie's family with us in Phnom Penh for Christmas. We spent time in the capital before heading to Siem Reap to explore the Angkor Temples, and then on to Koh Chang Thailand for some fun in the sun.

-amie

I’ve been doing some part time writing/photography/video production/research for Samaritan’s Purse Australia while we’ve been in Cambodia and it’s been a blast.

Over the past few months, it’s been an honor to get out into the provinces – often once a week, to meet people who’ve been impacted by SP projects in Cambodia, and the remarkable people who are working for SP all over the country. 80 percent of Cambodians live in rural areas…so I’ve gotten a sense of how the majority of the country lives.

I’ve experienced a bit of everything and have witnessed regular people’s lives changed by water filters, wells, schools, churches, and agricultural training.

The first week of December everything came to a climax as two videographers from Australia came to collect footage for a promotional video. I’d done all the research for the video, and now it was time to kick into full gear.

We visited five provinces in 7 days, interviewed countless villagers, saw incredible sights and saw the impact of SP projects in many, many communities. Steve even came along one day to help out with all the camera gear and acted as the boom mike operator! It was a busy week, but well worth the effort.

The New Year is looking good too! I’ll be continuing this part time work with SP covering a variety of stories throughout the country.

-Amie

The day we headed back to Phnom Penh from our adventure in Koh Chang, I had a brutal headache and my neck and shoulders felt like they were being torn apart by a vice. I thought that I’d probably slept funny – and I’ve gone for physio in the past for my shoulder so I didn’t really think too much about it.

But then the fever came. I felt so hot all the time – hotter than I normally feel in Cambodia. I rested and tried not to think too much about it. Then one evening, I took my temperature to confirm that I did indeed have a fever and sure enough – 39 degrees celcius. So we went to bed and somewhere in the middle of the night I woke up in chills and burning up all at the same time.

We went to the hospital the next morning.

Now this isn’t your ordinary hospital. The Royal Rattanak Hospital is a Thai thing – and it’s more like walking into a hotel than walking into a hospital. You know that hospital smell we all hate? Well instead of that, we got elevator music, drink dispensers scattered around the waiting area, leather furniture, no less than seven attendants waiting on us hand and foot, and no bad smell. It was a dream come true.

They did your typical exams then I spoke with the doctor who promptly ordered a blood test. Two hours later I got the results: Dengue Fever and Typhoid. No fun to say the least, but sometimes any news is better than not knowing at all.

It’s been over a week since that hospital visit and after an incredibly powerful round of antibiotics, tylenol and lots of sleep, I’m more or less back to normal.

A big thanks to everyone who thought about me while all of this was happening.

-Amie

As Phnom Penh swelled to twice its regular size for the annual water festival (that means close to 4 million people roaming around a city that's used to 2 million), we took off to Koh Chang - the nearest Thai island to Cambodia. It was worth it! We avoided the mass of humanity, and got to spend some quality time with white sand beaches, good food, fabulous sunsets and plenty of adventures!

-amie

We had another long weekend and took the opportunity to hit up part of Cambodia's coastline. A dirtbike, the highway, and us. Here are some pictures of what we experienced in Kampot and Kep - some of the most scenic areas in Cambodia!

The amazing thing about Cambodia is the lack of rules and regulations. To drive a motorbike in north america of course, you need to get a special motorcycle license. Not so in cambodia. You just show your passport as collateral, slap down four buckaroos and off you go. It's actually quite refreshing - adventurous experiences right at your fingertips! We couldn't resist the thought of a $4 motorbiking adventure, so we set off with a few friends for rural Cambodia. Our ultimate destination was Phnom Udong - a small hill north of Phnom Penh that has been considered a holy site for centuries - several kings have even been coronated here.

But of course the best part of the day was the motorbiking itself. Just us, the wind and the wide open highway - well, kind of the wide open highway. We did have to share it with a few random cows, big trucks, and motorbikes carting all sorts of things from one small town to the next. En route to Phnom Udong, we passed through quintessential rural Cambodia - stilted homes over flooded paddy; cows munching on enormous hay stacks; naked kids running around by the road; roadside snack stalls and gas stations (old pop bottles filled with gasoline and diesel sold at a roadside stand).

We climbed over 100 steps to get to the top, dodging begging children and adults. This is a good place to beg, as Cambodians on a pilgrimage to the stupas will be generous hoping for good favour in life. We prefer not giving money to encourage begging as job but we did change our minds when we saw the one legged man with the one legged monkey. The monkey was also taught to beg and although he just threw money away upon reception, it was worth the entertainment value.

After enjoying the constant breeze at the top of the hill, and the great views from the ridge, we stopped for lunch at a town that's infamous for its lounging picnic area. Imagine a bed frame with no mattress and you're getting close to what families have set up in this area. They've added weaved mats and throw pillows and hammocks for a truly relaxing dining experience.

We tried to order a rice dish with chicken in our very limited Khmer and ended up getting a whole roasted bird with a side of veggies, pig blood chunks, and liver. Ok something got lost in translation. When we thought we had carved all the meat off the roasted chicken, we were going to throw it away when some kids took it and showed us that we had actually only eaten about half the meat.

-amie

It’s pretty easy to spook Cambodians. Of course that’s no wonder after all they’ve been through in the past 3 decades…but it does make for some interesting stories to tell.

My first work trip involved going to the border town of Poipet to gather some stories from schools around the area. After being in Poipet for no more than 24 hours, fighting broke out between Thai and Cambodian troops over a disputed piece of land further north of us. (See the linked stories to get a fuller understanding of the situation).

Even though the fighting was hundreds of kilometres away, Poipet being Poipet (a rather wild and dusty frontier town, full of trafficking and gambling, sex tourism, and constant tension between Cambodia and Thailand because the two countries have been mad at each other for centuries), exploded into full scale pandemonium.

That’s when we decided to evacuate – cause you just never know. There were a lot of rumours – one being that Thailand had canons poised to bomb National Highway 5 and that Cambodia was aiming it’s own artillery at the Thai casinos near the border.

It was all rather dramatic. Every second person was on their cell phone (Cambodians are extremely well connected – there’s no point even reading the news because it’s at least an hour behind what Cambodians have learned from some friend somewhere around the country). And as the rumours started to fly, complete chaos ensued. The dusty town was one swirling dust storm as families started to load onto motorbikes – mom and kids clutching suitcases and holding on for dear life. Long lines at gas stations and complete chaos in the streets as vehicles packed to their roofs weaved their way out of the city on National Highway 5 – yes, the one rumored to get bombed.

It felt comical in some ways – the pandemonium, the chaos, the cars, the people, and the rumors – especially the rumors. Yes, it is easy to spook Cambodians. Chances are, we didn’t need to leave Poipet, and would have been completely safe the whole time – but it’s always better to be safe than sorry.

We might be living in Cambodia for the time, but we’re still Canadian citizens – and as good citizens, we cast our votes in this year’s federal elections from halfway around the world.

It wasn’t an easy process…so for all you Canadians on home soil – GO VOTE, and don’t take for granted the ease of walking down the street, showing ID and marking the ballot. Here’s what we had to do:

1. Find the Canadian embassy in Phnom Penh. Ok, not hard so far. Get registration form.

2. Fax registration form to Canada for special ballot registration. For this we needed photo ID with address on it (ie. Driver’s licence). To make a long story short, we didn’t have this ID up to date. Steve used an old photocopy of a cancelled licence and Amie used a valid one but with an old address. So we ended up getting registered in districts that we haven’t lived in for a while. Who knows if our votes will actually get counted in the end. The fax we found (likely from the 80s) was so slow that it cost us $8US, which is half a month’s rent for a local.

3. Get our special voting kits – we can’t believed it actually worked out that the embassy actually received our special voting kits cause the whole process of faxing everything was just too sketchy. So…another trip to the embassy – this time a ½ hour bike ride away on the other side of the city. The special ballots just had a blank line where we were supposed to write our chosen candidate’s name. They just happened to not have the candidate list available that day. Great! We decided to check the internet but it was apparently down at the embassy for the day. We were sent next door to the Australian embassy. Just our luck, the guest computer was broken and the embassy rep could barely speak english. So we had to spend another ½ hour looking for an internet café.

4. We marked our ballots, and each stuffed it into the inner envelope, then into the outer envelope, then into the mailing envelope. Easy! Ready to send!

Really though, all the envelopes and all, we’re thankful that the country we call home is democratic and that our votes were guaranteed to be anonymous…not something that happens in Cambodia which is one of the most corrupt in the world. Insane experience. But important too. By casting our ballots for the Canadian elections, we felt we were somehow making a small difference in the world – and not taking democracy for granted.

We have moved in. It certainly didn't happen as we expected, that's for sure. But eventually it did happen. We signed an agreement with our landlord on September 22 stating that we would pay the deposit then, but rental payments wouldn't actually start taking place until September 29. All seemed well.

That is until we got back into the city on the 29th, and couldn't get a hold of our landlady for the life of us. True, it was a national holiday - but a deal's a deal right! Apparently not. By the time 6pm rolled around and we still hadn't heard from Dat, our landlady, we finally booked ourselves into a hotel room and felt absolutely and completely sorry for ourselves.

We slept the night near the riverside just thankful that we weren't lugging our backpacks around with us anymore. Then we slept.

When we woke up the next morning, our hundreds of calls the day before paid off. Our landlady was on holidays, but her dad was able to swing by to let us in. Steve pulled our bags into the house the Cambodian way - hoist everything up over the balcony - and try not to hit any powerlines.

The place was a mess, and the landlady still had half of their earthly possessions in our spare bedroom. But...at least we could move in to our room and the rest of the house.

So we went shopping for cleaning supplies and a broom, and got busy. Three hours later, the years of fingerprints, spiderwebs and cooking grease were virtually gone and we were much happier to be in Cambodia. We cheered our efforts by buying bicycles and Gin and Tonics and a mars bar. Alas there are some comforts in Cambodia!

It was early morning in Northern Cambodia. We had just finished a quick breakfast consisting of a malaria pill washed down with sweet ice coffee and it was time to negotiate transportation. A lift was needed because there was no public transport available to Prasat Preah Vihear temple - our destination goal. We insisted to the surrounding circle of moto drivers that we wanted a pickup truck because it was cheaper. They all assured us that there were no pickup trucks and motorcycle was the only means. We finally succumbed to their lies and this left the choice of who to take and how much. After several minutes of standing around, we chose our drivers, agreed to a inflated price and were instantly flung onto the backs of motorcycles and be whisked away down the laterite road.

The 2 and a half hour journey found us travelling down endless bumpy roads with cleared and uncleared landmine fields to the left and right at all times. This area was the final Khmer Rouge standoff and was heavily mined by both sides. Amie was lucky enough to get a motorcycle leg burn. You know the one from the exhaust pipe? It seems inevitable sooner or later. People just look at the bandage location and either laugh or say “ahh.. I hate it when that happens.”

Read elsewhere about the actual visit to Prasat Preah Vihear temple. This is all about back country travel, which is usually as memorable as the destination. For the return journey, we decided to cut costs after hearing from a German traveller that as we thought, the moto drivers were all lying and there were in fact public pick-ups running to and from. So we sat in the small town of Sa Em (near the temple), waiting for such a ride. Unfortunately, after 4 hours of sitting at the town’s only intersection, there was to our luck, no pick-ups. Presently, what did come by was a military truck bound for Siam Reap picking up anyone who dared to ride. Since there were only 30 people squished in the back, we decided that 2 more wouldn’t hurt. But, it did hurt.

For the next tense 4 hours we squatted in the back of this military truck and felt every bump through the metal. There was some comfort in the fact that everyone groaned in unison after the nasty ones. Surprisingly, no one was flung out of the back despite getting up to a foot of air on the more notable bumps. One crazy military guy actually slept for ¾ of the trip. A couple of times I thought he had died when he didn’t react to his head slamming down on the metal after a huge bump. But at the end of the trip he hopped up without concussion and without noticing people had sat on him for most of the trip. We finally made it to Siam Reap via Anlong Veng and after massaging our wounded stiff limbs, we noted that Asians do not show red dirt very well. They were quick to point out how filthy we barangs (foreigners) looked though.

-steve-

We’d heard about Prasat Preah Vihear long before getting to Cambodia. In July, the 1000 year old temple complex, perched on top of a string of mountains that stradles the Thai-Cambodian border, was awarded UNESCO World Heritage Site status which means that Cambodia will generate more money from it. In Cambodia, temples = tourist cash and that's a very good thing.

The temple site has been disputed for years. Because of its location, both Thailand and Cambodia think its theirs (even though the UN determined it was Cambodia’s way back in 1962). Thailand – not to get the short end of the stick - has bulldozed a huge highway right up to the temple steps making it incredibly easy to saturate the site with Thai tourists. The Cambodian side isn’t so lucky. Dirt roads (as Steve has explained elsewhere) are the only way to get up the mountain and it’s a freaking long journey from anywhere remotely close to civilization!

After the UNESCO announcement, Thailand got a bit jealous and protesters and the military set up shop near the entrance. Cambodia got a little annoyed back and sent in their own troops to guard the national pride. They also closed the gate to Thailand and won’t let anyone in from the Thai side. If that weren’t enough, the army has strung at least ½ a kilometre of barbed wire around the entrance and around the edges to make sure no rogue or sneaky Thai gets in.

Usually, tourists from the Cambodian side (who’ve gone through something resembling a living hell to get to the temple) have to share the experience with tourists from the Thai side who’ve driven up to the steps in air conditioned express busses.

For us, there were no Thai tourists – one of the reasons we went at this time in the first place - but there were hundreds of army men. We got to share our experience with army medics, cooks, and soldiers, and tried to take pictures of the temples without getting a soldier bathing, army tents and other equipment in the shots.

We spent a few days in fabulous Bangkok mainly to visit my sister, Chantelle, who is working there for 8 months. Not only was the company incredible, but the food was to die for. We ate so much spicy food that I suffered from several bouts of diarrhea. It was difficult to fill time in before eating again. It was worth it though. Tom Yum soup, Panang curry, Massaman curry - I'd much rather get diarrhea than not eat them.

We took a day trip out to Bangkok’s sliver of coast. It’s not the white sand beaches of the south, but it was still cool none the less. We ordered Tom Yom soup – usually a pretty safe bet in Thailand, and got all sorts of sea creatures in soup. We were brave that day.

-amie

When we stepped off the hydrofoil in Macau after the hour-long ride from Hong Kong, I wasn't sure if we were in a parallel Vegas universe, if we were in Mainland China, or if we'd somehow stepped off somewhere in Portugal.

We were in Portugal because of the architecture and street signs and in Vegas because of the craziest looking casinos including the under construction vegas-style everlasting huge exploding volcano. We were in China because our ordered dinners translated from the chinese menu were "noodles with shrimp's dumping" and "cheese and egg sandwich with managed".

Here, the excess of Vegas meets Asian kitsch. It’s truly a bizarre experience. The ingenuity and capacity of the Chinese seriously astounds me. And most of this incredible development and growth has happened between 2002 and now. I wish the City of Calgary could operate the same way with contstruction of the LRT and the Ring Road.

And it all culminates in The Grand Lisboa. It’s an architectural wonder. I can't believe someone had the vision for it in the first place, and then actually pulled it off. The building looks like a, well a whale spurt, if you can imagine it. Fans of metal and glass reach up towards the heavens. A bulb of flashing lights and mirrors and glass billowing out of the bottom of the hotel is the casino.

As for the two of us? We stayed in the old quarter, surrounded by bakeries, sweets shops, and Portuguese-styled buildings, in a colonial era hostel.

Hong Kong has been at the top of my must see list for years. Finally I've gotten to experience the city of lights and skyscrapers in real life!

What a place.

-amie-

This summer Amie and I have really enjoyed several day hikes and overnight trips. Great scenery, good exercise, wonderful friendships, food, and stories!

The most notable trips were hiking in Waterton Lakes National Park and hiking into Mt. Assiniboine Provincial Park, BC.

Mt. Assiniboine Provincial Park is only accessable on foot and helocopter. We opted for the former and had to work hard to fit the trip into 4 days. We ended up hiking around 80km in 4 days (a record 28.5km on day 1) over mountain ranges and through beautiful meadows. Besides great times and conversation with Matt + Jocelyn, it was great to eat and socialize with other hikers at the campsites. Everyone has something in common after hiking into the park. The conversations usually revolved around the weather or the current visibility and view of Mt. Assiniboine. 80km definitely took a toll on our bodies but nevertheless, we still played a full week of ultimate starting the day after we got back.

In Waterton we hiked with Cody + Nicole and camped at Goat Lake. We had the campsite to ourselves - right next to a pristine alpine lake. Again, an inspiring experience with inspiring company. The hike to Avion Ridge among the red rock mountains is like nothing else in the Rockies!

-steve-

Since we decided to move to Cambodia in September, the summer has been packed full of doing all of those 'final' things. Thank goodness I got every 2nd Friday off throughout the summer months - it made all of these very fun things possible.

Soaking up time with friends and family. Enjoying the Rockies (read more about some of our very fun hiking adventures in Summer 2008). Spending time on the prairies. Packing our stuff up and moving the first load out to Wakaw, SK. Sitting in Calgary parks with friends bbq-ing and playing scrabble. Going to weddings. And, enjoying the sights and sounds of Calgary.

It's been a good summer - with every weekend booked up. As we prepare to leave for Southeast Asia, I don't think we'd want it any other way.

-Amie

We haven't been doing anything that interesting this spring. The weather has been unpredictable at best and it has made it difficult to plan ahead for outdoor excursions. We have been enjoying localizing our activities such as bike riding to places and hanging out with people in our area.

In between my Phenom Phen meetings, I took a weekend trip to Bokor Hill Station near and stayed a couple nights in Kampot. After a grueling 4x4 up into the mountains, there are some sites to explore. First I went to a cool waterfall where one can sit behind and relax. Then I explored the ruins of Bokor Hill Station which was abandoned and destroyed (like everything else in the country) in the years leading up to the Khemer Rouge wars. A casino was built in 1922 by the French and the frame was solid enough to survive the war. Many rooms and passageways can be explored. The whole experience is made all the more creepy by the mist slowely flowing through the area. This is especially true for the nearby abandoned church.

-steve-

I have been in Phenom Phen for about 3 days now and I am here for a week in total. Things have changed quite a bit in the last few years since I have been here. The city is definitely booming. The food is great, the people are very nice and there is lots of development and optimism. I met with a potential employer today and if I am interested, there is a position available for me to help start up a company to provide renewable energy solutions to rural areas. I have lots to think about with regard to this opportunity and the thought of living life in Cambodia longer term.

-steve-

I can say I've never celebrated a birthday like this before! An energetic rendition of Happy Birthday first thing in the morning from my fellow travel mates, followed by a work distribution in a tiny village in northern Senegal. There I got to dance with African women. What an amazing experience! Pots and pans turned into drums and the women started dancing, I got to join them in the middle of the circle.

Then a sidetrip to the Mauritania border (did anyone else have no idea Mauritania even existed?) followed by a great dinner and mango cake. A great way to turn 26.

The last days in Senegal were a blurr. Highlights: Goree Island - the point of no return for close to 3 million Africans during the Atlantic slave trade. A somber experience to say the least, but remarkable to share in the suffering and grieve the horrors committed in our collective human history.

Now once again it's time for real life. Back to work on Wednesday. Back to Canada. Back to the grind.

Before I talk about my hilarious bathroom adventure, I should mention the Cambodian counterpart to Thai New Year. Apparently it is still called Songkran but it here it is of course the Khemer New Year. The most noticeable event is no doubt the flinging of water activities on the street. However, I would have to say that Khemer New Year is kind of a hic version of that in Thailand. I'll give a couple examples. Instead of packing pickup trucks full of kids and water guns, I noticed several people sitting in the open trunks of cars, squirting water at pedestrians. Also, take the simple design of a water balloon. Something as simple as this is not considered as part of the festivities. Rather, small bags closed with long rubber bands (need 10 or so wraps) are preferred. I don't get it.

This evening when I was routinely washing the day's clothes in the sink I must have been a little rough because the sink collapsed and shattered on the ground. Looking back I actually have no idea how it didn't collapse on my bare feet. The sink and attached pipes were replaced by a stream of water that shot out so powerful it knocked me off my feet. I tried my best to shove a cloth in the hole but it was just too strong. I got my finger in there but it was pretty painful because of the pressure. I forgot to mention that I was also naked because I was of course, washing the clothes I had on for the day. This made it very difficult to call to the guy I was rooming with since he was already really suspicious that something wild was going on in the bathroom. I didn't want him to take off since we were saving good money sharing a room.

It took me forever to get my board shorts on with one arm. That drawstring and velcro is cumbersome enough with two free hands. I did eventually get them on though and opened the bathroom door. My room mate definitely knew something was going on since plenty of water had already leaked under the bathroom door. Eventually the guesthouse staff got the water off and plugged the hole properly. Well, kind of properly - they just shoved in the cloth I was trying to work in before. Then came the argument of how much I had to pay for the sink. The staff said it was $30 US. But of course everything is bargainable so I drove it hard down to $10 and we were all square and smiles again.

-steve-

Senegal, or the 60 mile radius of Senegal that I have seen is one giant and continuous dust storm. Sand blows everywhere in gusts, coating arms, legs, and getting stuck in teeth. It's certainly made interviewing people a challenge! The other day I was in the middle of a great dialogue with a Senegalese guy about the work he's doing in a small village called Ngolla when two clumps of sand flew into my right eye - I could feel one grain on each side of my eyeball. Eyes draining wildly, and trying to blink out the dust particles, I tried to finish the interview. Challenging to say the least.

But in this land of dust and dryness, there are blasts of color. The women wear the most gorgeous colors. Head scarves frame the beautiful faces of men and women. Mango and other fruit trees burst green out of the dry, parched ground. What a beautiful country.

It doesn't take long to get dry in this 40 degree weather but I keep getting wet as fast as I dry off. No surprise though, Thai New Year (Songkran) involves the biggest water fight ever. The fight is happening outside as I speak but I ducked into this Internet cafe to catch my breath. For a seemingly poor country, all of a sudden hundreds of pickup trucks materialize out of nowhere packed full of kids and a barrel of water. It is them versus street mobs huddled around their own hose-filling barrel. Passer bys like me are pretty much fare game cause we're too cheap to buy water guns or water bowls. My retaliation strategy has been to dodge my way to the barrel source and grab a scoop from the barrel to fight my way from the inside. The thought that anyone would own anything valuable (like electronics) is irrelevant. I see many angry farangs who have been unwillingly soaked while taking pictures. I have everything ziplocked though so I am good to go.

I have been in Krabi area for a couple days now. I am really not supposed to be having this much fun and relaxation but the cheap flight that I got made me fly 3 days earlier than I had planned. I wasn't going to just sit in Bangkok before going to Cambodia was I? In my defense I headed to somewhere familiar. That way I wouldn't be tempted to run around sight seeing. Good thing too - I am just relaxing and walking around between fruit shakes and panang curry stops. I really should eat something different but I can't.

On my way to Krabi they wouldn't stop playing stupid movies on our foreigner bus. I tried to sleep but kept getting woken up. One time I woke up while they were playing jackass 2 which is really a waste of time movie. But there was this one part where they are boxing in convenience stores and one guy has to get stitches for a head gash because he got bonked too hard. Stupidest thing ever. I went back to sleep. Ironically, not even 2 hours after I was off the bus, I was reading a map and walking down the sidewalk when I ran right into a low hanging tree branch. I almost fell over and died from the shock! And when I came to, I had the exact same stupid jackass 2 gash in my head! But I am in no place to get stitches. I just spent all morning dabbing blood away hoping it'd heal by itself.

-steve-

So I've been in Paris for the past 10 hours on a nice, long layover enroute to Dakar, Senegal for a work trip. (That explains the random guy in the Notre Dame de Paris picture - he's my colleague, Gil from work).

Paris is definitely a city to be visited and explored with a loved one, but going solo, I've made the most of it with my other colleagues and volunteers on this trip, checking out the Eiffel Tower, Le Champs Elysees and L'Arc de Triomphe, and the Notre Dame Cathedral. Gorgeous city and a beautiful day! Couldn't ask for a better way to spend a 10 hour layover.

-Amie

Planes and layovers for 26 hours. Arrive at 1AM. Ripped off by a taxi. Rats patrolling garbage heaps. Drunk backpackers lazing about. Puddles of puke and urine. Finally find cheap hostel. Attractive young lady stumbles sleepily to check me in. On second thought, it's definitely a man. Why did I pain myself in coming here again? The first day is always the worst. Why do I always forget the cuture shocks?

The next morning is a lot better. It always takes a good sleep before realizing that it's not unbearably foreign here. Everything from last night had changed too. Someone cleaned the streets of garbage, the rats went into hiding, and there was a real woman at reception. Also, I was reminded that I am not a wandering traveller this time. I have a mission. I am job hunting in South East Asia. And off to one of the poorest and devestating of them all: Cambodia. Not much has changed in Bangkok since I was here 6 years ago. If the same is true in Cambodia, I'll question why I was even considering working there.

But that's all for next week. I have a couple days to chill out in Thailand first. I may as well head for the southern paradise!

-steve-

Our trip to Kauai with the Koops was fantastic. We rented a little condo not too far from the ocean with good access to the island's sites.

We spent a lot of time at the beach boogy-boarding and snorkeling. Our goal with boogy-boarding was to find waves that had tremendous power to hurl you forward but not quite enough to kill you if you caught it wrong - we tried out both types. The goal for snorkeling was to see a turtle and it just so happens that the day we split up from the Koops to do separate activities was the day that Ryan was holding the back of a sea turtle. Nevertheless, we ended up having a great adventure on that day searching for lost irrigation mountain tunnels deep in the jungle.

Supposedly several years ago someone had the great idea of irrigating a drier portion of the island by using water from a wetter area. The only problem was the mountain range in the middle. No problem - just blast a mile long tunnel under the mountain to connect the two! Apparently this solution worked for some time but was eventually abandoned. The majority of this endeavor involves finding the tunnel entrance. It takes about two hours of jungle-trail hiking to find them and several other attempters have provided detours off the main hunting trail. Some brainiac even decided to leave green flagging on the correct trail as well as other branches to throw people off. Fortunately after several detours, we located the tunnel entrance and prepared to walk through. It ended up taking us the best part of an hour to walk through all the tunnels. This was partly due to the length but also due to the fact that the tunnels (being irrigation ducts) were filled with a foot of water. This was quite a lot since the tunnels were 6 feet high and wide at the best spots. A magical destination awaits at the tunnels exit - waterfalls, lush ranges and cliffs, and peaceful untouched nature.

Another of my favorite activities was swimming in waterfall pools. We weren't necessarly trying to swim in that many but there were several times where we were hiking and hot and there they were! The Hanakapiai and Wailua waterfalls were excellent (despite the frigid waters) but I think our favorite spot was Kipu falls. Picture 20ft cliffs surrounding a small waterfall and pool with no rocks at the base. This allowed for jumping off the waterfall as well as using a rope swing that the local kids hung up in a tree. We thought we were getting good at the rope swing (20 ft drop) until a local kid climbed the tree another 10ft and jumped off the tree into the water. A novice landing at that height could keep you in pain for a while. Although Ryan performed the same feat by landing on his sunburnt back after performing a beautiful 1 and 1/2 flip off the rope swing.

We also had the pleasure of attending a Hawaiian Luau (local dancing/feast) where Ryan and I stole the show with our Hawaiian dancing on stage. On second thought, we were second to a young Japanese fellow who was forced to dance (red-faced) with a Hawaiian girl. This spectacle was hilarious but it was even funnier that he recorded the rest of the show with a video camera in each hand.

We spent some time the island of Oahu before and after staying on Kauai, engaging in a range of activities which included driving around the whole island, visiting Pearl Harbour, driving into a crater, joining an anti-war march through Honolulu, and visiting the Dole plantation for fresh pineapple ice cream.

-steve-

I had wanted to cross country ski into the Egypt Lake cabin since last year and finally the weekend came to do so. I set out with Rob (my brother) and headed to the trail head. I had done some research and found that the Healy Pass trail could be followed for 12km to reach Egypt Lake shelter. Soon into the trip we noticed that the trail had a lot more elevation gain then we had anticipated. I had concluded that the trail would be possible with cross country skis. We had little difficulty with the first 8km. It was mostly uphill and difficult on cross country skis but we managed. It was at about 8km that the trail we had been following vanished. It was at this time that Rob first mentioned that his toes were getting pretty cold. Quite a bit more elevation lay ahead as Healy Pass opened before us. We contemplated turning back but we were almost over the pass and we could then go downhill towards the shelter.

It was a grueling task to make it up to the top of the pass with cross country skis. We found later that the trail was more suited to alpine touring equipment. It was dark by the time we made it to the top of the pass but the moon was full and the temperature hadn't dropped too low yet. Rob continued to complain about his toes but he eventually forgot about them. The trail was now long gone and we were following the GPS to our destination. Downhill proved to be a lot easier until we hit a forest. By this time our bodies were totally taxed and we were mentally and physically exhausted. We still had just over 1km to go and it was very difficult to navigate through the forest. We constantly tripped over branches in our skis but there was no way we could continue on foot either - the snow was 4 feet deep! Rob broke a ski pole trying to brace himself from a fall. That was an unfortunate setback. Using sheer willpower, we made it to within half a kilometer of the shelter (or at least where the GPS said it would be). By this time we were nearly in tears from physical and emotional draining. We couldn't climb the last hill to the cabin so we set off crawling through the snow. We had contemplated whether or not we were going to freeze to death on the mountain side several times until finally Rob let out a scream - he had seen the cabin!

But this was only the start of the craziness. We got into the cabin and made a fire as quickly as possible. Then a chilling event that I will not soon forget occurred. Rob took his feet out of his ski boots and they were rock hard frozen. His toes were stuck together with ice. I didn't know at the time what warming method was the best for a time like this. I ended up putting his toes against my thighs to slowly warm them up. In hindsight, the best thing to do with frozen body parts is to put them in room temperature water and warm them up as quick as possible. Within and hour Rob's feet were warm but the feeling had not returned. It was after midnight so we went to bed. I had trouble sleeping. I was constantly wondering what state Rob's feet would be in the morning - would they be black? would they have feeling? Rob didn't sleep much because agonizing pain started to come from his feet within a couple hours of warming.

The next morning Rob's toes and heels were purple. He still didn't have much feeling and one thing was for sure - we weren't going to be able to ski out. We only had 3 poles between the two of us and there was no way Rob was going to fit his bloated purple feet into ski boots. It was painful even to stand. Worse that all this, we were uncertain of the severity concerning the frostbite which was now very evident.

I noticed that there was a topographic map on the wall. Not too far from the shelter there was a Warden's cabin. I set off after making some breakfast on the wood stove. As I predicted, the cabin was boarded up and vacant. But I was desperate for help so I looked for a way to break in. I got a rock and started to bang on the front door lock which secured a bar across the door. To my surprise, the bolt that held the lock in place wasn't installed very good and I eventually loosened the bolt that held the lock mechanism in place. The bar across the door swung free and I could open the door and enter the Warden's cabin.

It was dark inside but I did notice some old radio equipment in the corner of the cabin. It wasn't functional because there was no power to the cabin. I had noticed earlier that there were solar panels outside the cabin so there had to be some battery power somewhere. I found a panel near the door and flipped a switch. Success! The radio had power! The equipment looked old and dusty though. Nevertheless, I fiddled with the knobs and tried to send distress messages over all the channels that I could. I didn't know then but they barely even use the single side band VHF equipment that I was meddling with. A lady in some far off office heard a little blurp coming from a system that she usually didn't pay much attention to. Miraculously, she turned it up and heard my cries for help. I was soon talking back and forth with some park wardens. I explained the situation to them and to my surprised, they were quick to dispatch a rescue helicopter. At first I was scared that I had gone too far. I hoped that the situation was severe enough to justify braking and entering as well as helicopter dispatch. Soon I knew the choice was right. The rescuers said Rob had second degree frostbite which meant we were flying straight to the Banff hospital.

That's pretty much the end of the story. We were swept away off the mountain. Eventually we got Rob back to Regina for one of his university final exams. But I am writing this 2 days after the rescue so only time will tell which tissue is alive and which will not recover. The doctor was positive and suggested he will recover without the loss of any toes.

-steve-

Just past Medicine Hat on our way to Calgary, we looked up and saw smoke billowing from farmer's fields. At about the same time, local radio was calling for all hands on deck - anyone who could lend a hand to snuff the out of control fire was welcome to try and help. Not having any particular schedule we headed towards the blaze just north of Redcliff.

When we got to the scene, there was actually several different fields on fire as the blaze had spread over several kilometers. There were water trucks with hozes on the scene but they were taxed and spread thin. Therefore the locals were running around batting at small fires with shovels and laying wet tarps over the advancing flames.

Being an expert in firefighting, I started a new tactic - instead of bashing the flames with a shovel I started dug dirt from the field and threw it on the flames. This proved to be quite useful and several locals started incorporating the technique into their fire squelching routines

Eventually we were black from soot and covered in sweat. But there was rejoicing because we had put out one of the sections of fire. Leaving the bigger fires to the professionals, we went for a little swim in the Bow River.

-steve-

Phoenix got contracted to put up a couple meteorological test towers on Banks Island and Porcher Island, off the coast of Prince Rupert between the mainland and the Queen Charlotte Islands. The only reason they got the contract was because they offered to engage in some major cost cutting. One cost saving technique was camping on the island sites without the need of daily helocopter service. So this is what we did. Our 10 day island adventure started with a shopping spree in Prince Rupert to buy camping supplies and food. My Safeway bill was about 6ft long totally $1700. Food is expensive!

Camping on the uninhabited islands was no holiday. The bugs were fierce and the temperature was hot and humid. There is always rain in those parts and the islands were more like swamps than rock. Nevertheless, camping in the wilderness was an adventure and we had many good times. I also got 5 or 6 helocopter rides as they were esential in getting us out to the islands along with our gear and equipment.

-steve-

It's hard to believe the summer has flown by so quickly, but looking back, we have kept ourselves really busy! We took the July long weekend to visit the Columbia Icefields - a truly remarkable experience when you think about the mass of snow and ice that ends up feeding three oceans, and most of Canada's population with water. Somehow Steve convinced me that hiking the lateral morraine of the Athabasca glacier was a good idea. We realized later that we were still in glacial territory and we were lucky that we didn't fall through a hidden crevace. We've done some other hikes as well - trying to get outside and enjoy our amazing summer weather.

After a weekend of playing ultimate frisbee in Ho-Down, the Calgary invitational tournament, both of us could hardly walk. But the picture of Steve laying out ballerina-like was completely worth it. We played 5 games throughout the weekend, and then Steve and I rushed off to play in a flag football tournament later...good exercize to say the least.

And of course, there's always Snap. She's managed to worm her way into our hearts, and it's difficult when she's so cute, to get mad at her for killing my flowers when she sleeps in their pots. Ah. We love her.

-amie-

I guess it's safe to say, since we are coming home on the weekend, that we almost died yesterday. More on this later.

The bus ride out to Dehra Dun was really winding, unlike anything I've ever experienced before. Twisting and turning, our little bus clinging to the pavement which was clinging to the sides of cliffs. Sometimes I'd look out the window and there was nothing beside us, just a sheer drop hundreds of feet to the river below. I was a little stressed out, especially after bus incident earlier in the day (more later) and finally when we came to the bus' first stop, we both felt pretty unsettled and queasy.

No problem. We ordered ice cream and waited for the bus to take off again. By this point in time we were out of the mountains and on fairly straight roads. The only bad thing was I had the worst stomach pains I've had in ages. At about 1am, just over halfway into the trip, I knew something bad was going to happen. Sure enough, my stomach started crunching uncontrollably and I stuck my head out the window and promptly threw up...three times. Things calmed a bit, but then got going again about an hour later when I had to hang my head out the window once again...this time I threw up like 7 times. Thank goodness I was by the window, or we would have had some serious problems.

This morning when we got off the bus, I saw the extent of the damage I'd done!

A huge stream of vomit, definitely showing colors from yesterday's lunch and snacks, sprayed from the window and fanned down in an arch to reach the wheels of the bus. If the bus had been any other color, everything would have just fit in with the scenery. But...the bus had to be white.

-amie-

Ok back to almost dying (before Amie's bus story) - we were planning to take an overnight bus from Dharamsala to Dehra Dun and were on our way to the Dharamsala bus station on a local rickety bus. The local bus trip was only 15 minutes but had to go down several mountain switchbacks. Not that difficult with power steering. Our bus didn't and was on it's last legs. Luckily for this experience we were in the front row. The bus, going only about 10km/h, turns a sharp corner. Then it keeps turning. Then it keeps going, pointed off the road. The bus driver reefs on the emergency brake and we start to slow down. We eventually come to a complete stop but not before a tree branch breaks through some front windows and people unleash blood curdling screams. Amie is smarter than me. She promptly jumps out the window, not sure whether the bus teeter-totter is going to stop or keep going off the cliff. I am pretty stupid and sit there stunned as everyone climbs over me to get out the windows. Regaining composure, I am last to get off the bus. I guess I hadn't planned an escape plan for that one. Still pretty shook up, we hail an autorickshaw and head to the bus station. I asked him politely if he would pay special attention to staying on the road.

-steve-

Everyone has been telling us since we arrived that the only place in India that we should go at this time of year is the far north where the elevation brings more manageable temperatures. We spent a couple weeks in the desert and South India confirming that and then decided to take the advise. We jumped on an overnight bus from Delhi and headed up to the North - not quite to the confluence of Kasmir, Pakistan, Nepal, and Tibet but real close (50km)

Our first stop, Dharamsala is best known as Tibet in Exile. We showed up at a good time. Guess who's in town? You betcha, Dalai Lama himself along with at least a thousand Tibetan monks attending his teachings. We had two choices - shave our heads, purchase a maroon robe and prayer beads to sneak into a session. Or the lesser, settle for watching a "grand entrance" by the Dali Lama to his teachings. We opted for the second and exchanged waves with him. The buzz on the street is "Have you seen him?" "Free tibet!" and "Save chinese enslaved Tibetan leaders!".

Amie and I are signed up today for a Tibetan bread baking class. That should be interesting.

-steve-

We did some recalculating and tried to figure out what we wanted to do with our last week. We had planned on heading to Chennai to visit Steve Hepting (on a work term). We figured it would take about 3 days of busses and trains to get there, with not much interesting in between. We didn't really want to spend the rest of our trip on transportation so in a moment of great spontaneity, we jumped on a SpiceJet flight to Delhi (a good experience) planning to head into the mountainous north. This would put us closer to Delhi where we need to be for our flight at the end of the week. Unfortunately we are stuck in Delhi for a day so we decided to point out some observations about daily life in India.

holy cows - everywhere. They sniff and snort through the garbage like street dogs and find a comfortable place to crash for the night in one big, bovine group.

Women in India are generally invisible. I'm virtually non-existent unless by myself. People will also rush up to us to say hello to Steve and ignore me. Gotta love male dominant societies.

Indians love to get their pictures taken with foreigners and then tell everyone they know about their "friends" from abroad.

Elbow fungus. Amie has developed it from resting her elbows on tables while eating.

Who knew you could get a chest / sinus cold in such a hot country.

Garbage. People will even throw garbage around their own homes and restaurants and wonder why their neighborhood is filthy.

Perceptions of westerners. Indians care about their appearance and don't understand why all travellers dress sloppy, wear dreadlockes, look like hippies.

Chai. Milk tea + cardamom + black pepper + ginger. Everyone drinks it all the time out of small plastic cups.

Middle class India thinks they are going to overtake the West as a superpower. They obviously haven't spent enough time in the West - we aren't doing too bad for progression either.

Questions we have been asked a million times in order of importance. "hello, what country?" "What your name?" "first time India?" "How old?" Any answer you give is satisfactory - they just want to know you have understood. After the complete annoyance of saying my name to hundreds of passerbyers, I often say I am John, a 35 year old from Africa. They still nod and smile.

Networking. People in the tourism business have a nasty network of autorickshaw drivers, hotel owners, and restaurant operators - a good deal from one will probably lead to a screwing over from a relative working in a different but connected business.

Newspaper classifieds. Brahmin (caste), Hindu 31/157cms, living in Mumbai, M.Sc in Micro biology, for complete details view profile R587984 on MarathiMatrimony.com

Well, that's about all that comes to mind. This scorching day is going to go a lot smoother with a freshly squeezed glass of pomegranate juice.

We arrived in Mumbai early in the morning, welcomed by the sight of dozens of naked bottoms squatting on the tracks defecating. Though that was the initial impression we got of Mumbai - some of the worst squalor in Asia, the city was also a dream come true for me (as anything remotely dramatic usually catches my attention). The city didn't disappoint!

We stayed in an AC room to maintain some degree of sanity in the heat, admired the remnant of Britain's colonial past - beautiful stone buildings that are still used as Bombay University, Municipal offices, etc. Since were in beating heart of Bollywood, we HAD to catch flick! And since we were only 2 blocks from a theatre, there really was no excuse not to go!

We watched Metro...Imagine every single romantic story line you can possibly pull out of your wildest dreams and roll all of them into a neat, emotional and highly dramatic 2 hour saga (including a 15 minute intermission!). Steve hated it (though he did like air conditioning for two hours). I loved the whole experience!

We only stayed one night - not enough time to get scouted to be extras in a Bollywood flick as I had originally hoped! Oh well, next time!

After a 15 hour bus ride sitting wedged at the back of the bus where the annoying guy in front of me kept on refusing to put his seat up an inch, pinning my whole body down to my seat, I'm so glad to be in Goa.

We've managed to cover a lot of ground over the past couple of days and have paid for it in fitful nights, little sleep, getting sick, the whole works. Yesterday we spent the whole day in transit, trying desperately to get out of the Mumbai area. We bought unreserved train tickets (such a BAD idea) to get to Goa last night which would take us 12 hours and have us arrive at midnight. I took one look at the sardine can of a train coach, bursting at the seam with men, and promptly burst into tears.

Steve tried to be stern, but the thought of standing at the front of the car, an object of curiosity and intrigue for the 70 Indian men crammed into the car for 12 hours was just too much for me. We jumped off, canceled our tickets and felt lost in a random place called Thane for a very long time.

Then we found McDonalds. Now, I don't usually eat McDonalds at all in Canada, but for some reason, the building, in all it's air conditioned glory, stood on that street corner and beckoned us to come in. Above the counter, a plack announced that the restaurant served no beef or beef products. We opted for the Maharaja Mac - the vegetarian version of the Big Mac but a lot worse, and ice cream. Then we hopped on the bus.

And now we're here, surrounded by palm trees. Just ate shark filets and kabaabs for supper and are hoping to find someplace with a fan that will be showing a movie later tonight.

So our India adventure continues! Sometimes I have to laugh at ourselves...we get so infuriated and frustrated with the bureaucracy, with the constant scamming, the sheer irritation of smelling crap and urine all the time. But for some reason we keep doing this thing called backpacking to ourselves. Deep down, I must love it. :)

-amie-

We had a great day near Mumbai in a hill station called Matheran - great rock formations looming in all directions. It was nice and cool for a change and there were lots of hiking trails and lookout points. It is one of the only places in India where motor vehicles are banned. The whole place is serviced by hand rickshaws and horseback. One of the highlights was a 'toy train' which transported people up and down the mountain.

-steve-

The past week has been chock full of heavenly highs and frustrating lows. Steve met a really nice family on the train to Jaipur and we promised that we'd visit them and see their Uncle's unique talent: building wooden, handcrafted fans (woodenfan.com). After 5 minutes of viewing the fans, the uncle showed us his real passion - saving the environment from garbage. Who knew that someone so talented in a worldclass trade could be capable of such horrible artwork made mostly of garbage. Of course there are artists out there who've created great things out of junk, but this was a class entirely on it's own.

"All Natural" and "Suspense" were the words he used to described the ramshackle garbage art. He scours the streets for refuse, paper, plastics, twist ties, bottle caps, tin, etc., and paints horrendous figures of people and animals on them, all with natural dyes and paints. That's the all-natural part. The suspense part we never quite figured out. Maybe it was the dogs attacking people, or the blobs of paint meant to resemble people that was supposed to be suspenseful, whatever it was, we wanted to leave so badly, and kept on dying inside after an hour of him picking random pieces of junk and passionately describing it as natural and suspense.

I'm running of out words to describe the scene, so trust the pictures. Just trust me on this one, the guy was part mad hatter, part brilliant artist...i wish he'd just stick to the fans.

....After Jaipur we headed out to Pushkar, one of the most holy of Rajasthani towns, with all the buildings framing a lake. Unfortunately Steve and I both got a case of the trots and spent most of the day out of commission lounging in various rooftop restaurants, downing soda water and sprite trying to feel better! We managed to keep everything for our night bus to Bikaner where we hoped to catch of glimpse of something utterly bizarre - Karni Matta - perhaps the only place in the world where you'll find holy rats.

The most disgusting part of the temple is that you had to take off your shoes...thank goodness I was wearing socks and shoes...Steve wasn't so lucky, so in he went with bare feet. We're still not sure what kind of diseases were lurking around in the rat infested temple. It truly was a sight to behold...rats everywhere, bickering and tumbling over one another, jumping into rat holes, and drinking water and milk the temple priests has set out for them in big bowls on the ground. Oh, and people were laying around on the same floor the rats run on, praying to various gods, and lighting incense sticks. We took our pictures and then left.

Now we're in Ahmedabad where it only too 10 minutes for me to be offered hashish by a local rickshaw owner. But we're doing well. I found chocolate cookies and have devoured about 15 so far this morning...so thankful Gujuratis love their sweets! On to Mumbai tonight. This drama queen is craving some Bollywood!

-amie-

We were deciding whether we were even going to go to Jaisalmer. We had wanted to originally but after being sick for a couple of days and tired of being in the desert, we wanted to head south to find some milder climate (below 40 degrees). It is a good thing we didn't though because we had one of our best days yet. Jaisalmer, like most Ragistan cities is built around a magestic sandstone fort. This one in particular rose high above the city. The city had a more peaceful feel with rickshaws banned from the inner walls, camels pulling carts around, and a nice blend of Sikhs, Muslims, Rajputs, and Indians.

The day started out with the prospect of a new confluence point to discover (confluence.org). We rented a motorbike in Jaisalmer and set off into the desert. It was freaky being in Indian traffic and also riding a manual motor bike. I was told only girls ride automatics. Confluence hunting was cut quite short since most of Jaisalmer is surrounded my military facilities. It seems every area I want to go for an adventure is smack dab in the middle of some military complex!

We turned around and headed for the hills. This direction was chosen because I saw some wind turbines up there. This turned out to be an interesting experience as I compared some of the technology and practices to those for my work at home. I e-mailed some pictures to my workmates who will find the safety standards quite laughable.

Later in the day we forced ourselves onto the tourist trail and took a camel ride into the desert. Companies offered any length of camel ride - some up to 30 days and nights. We opted for a half day, mostly because it was too hot this time of year and who can really stay on a camel for more than a day? We had a great Muslim guide drive us in his jeep out into the desert scrub. Later this 13 year old boy rode with us on camels through sand dunes for a while before returning us to the desert jeep. I asked him how much he gets payed and he said 300 rupees per month ($6 US) - poor kid! I thought I would really rock his world and give him 50 as a tip when we were done. After we were back at the jeep, I quietly slipped him the money. The kid turned to me in anger and said "this is not tip! you give me 100 for 2 camels.." The little punk - we didn't have to give him anything. I was so shocked I just stood there for a while looking at his open palm. I eventually mumbled that he should be happy with my "gift" and we were off to town. This has been typical of our dealings with anyone on the streets providing any service in India - infuriating!

-steve-

It's hard to say whether or not one can actually love India - maybe even like. There are some highs - some great sights, some nice people, and great food. But most of the time words that come to mind are garbage, scams, spit, excrement, obnoxious, scortching hot, and filth. Of course we have only been in the North Central thus far. We have found that there are some genuinely nice people but you don't really see any of them. Any places that are easily accessable to us are filled with people who are out to make a profit.

Even for the most experienced travellers, it is nearly impossible not to get scammed. They are excellent at getting money out of your pockets and getting you into questionable situations. One guy was really facinated that Amie knew french. Before long, Amie was translating a short French paragraph. Following this, we were pressured heavily into a tour package. Sometimes it is nice to get a picture together - some people want money in return if you hand them your camera. Another rickshaw driver took us to an overpriced hotel with the same name as a guest house (the one where he got commission at). There are also scams where it is cheap to get some place but expensive to get back.

Aside from the travel hassles, we have had some great experiences. The Taj Mahal was amazing! So have some of the other experiences exploring ancient forts. We have had great experiences in restauants eating real Indian food that is much better than we have ever had before. Unfortunately, Amie and I both woke up with some Delhi belly this morning. We had to opt for some western type backpacker restaurants in order to hold it down.

-steve-

So we're in Rajasthan after spending our 2nd anniversary at the greatest love monument in the world, the Taj Mahal.

I'm still unsure what I really think about India. It certainly is difficult to get a straight answer from anyone...being white certainly doesn't help as we are walking dollar signs flashing in peoples' eyes. But I can't compare it to anything else I've seen.>

Stinking, dirty, dry and dusty Rajasthan with its princely heritage and fantastic monuments. Rickshaw drivers and commission touts who will rip anyone off to make a buck. Gorgeous saris fluttering in the wind, taking our minds off the polution and the overwhelming sent of urine in the streets. It's unlike anything I've ever experienced. And it is hard to determine whether I love it or hate it since I swing back and forth on the pendulum ever 2 minutes.

Transportation is otherworldly in the great Indian Universe. Steve and I spent an hour trying to find the right ticket counter at the Jaipur train station last night. When we finally got into the right line piles of people were squishing in and budging to the front from the sides. Finally we got to the front and bought our tickets, ran to the platform only to find that the train already left.

Stayed in a hotel last night, got sick this morning, took off on a bus for Pushkar where are now...a small, holy town with a welcoming backpacker's atmosphere.

It's all part of the experience, I suppose. The scams, the commission hounds, the rickshaws waiting like sharks to devour poor travellers. But it's something you've got to do...because India is changing us...I'm just not sure how yet.

-amie-

What an experience so far. We thought our Canada to London trip was annoying. That was nothing compared to last night. Now I know how we got our London-Delhi tickets for 200 pounds round trip - the plane went from London to Bahrain to Abu Dabi to Muscat and then to Delhi. We had a layover of at least an hour at each location! I still like plane food but we have eaten a little too much. Each leg fed us at least a meal an hour.

What an experience arriving in Old Delhi. After a wild taxi ride from the aiport (42 degrees outside), we were left in Old Delhi to fend for ourselves. The number of people on the streets, the smells, the random cows - everything is overwhelming. As we were standing in a guest house we wandered into, a snake dropped from who knows where. It was about 3 feet long. At first I thought this was just an everyday occurance. But as I pointed it out to someone, it started a little ruckus and everyone gathered around. The snake eventually slipped into a sewer hole - I hope they don't fall from our guest room cause we accidentally payed right before the unexpected falling visitor.

-steve-

So Steve and I finally arrived in Delhi this evening...about 5am Calgary time. We've been in transit for over 40 hours so it feels good to have our feet planted firmly on solid ground, no matter how much urine, Holy Cow dung, human bodies, garbage and other refuse litter the streets.

After dodging people, rickshaws, motorbikes and taxis through the really narrow streets of the Main Bazaar, we are content to just sit and write and connect to home for a bit.

We still haven't found an ATM that will take our bank cards, but we're still optimistic! And to be honest, the staring isn't as intense as in Egypt, so I'm feeling rather good about myself!

What a strange mix of smells! Incense, diesel, human waste, sewage, food. It bombards our senses with a different smell ever step. Truly a fabulous experience.

We have no clue what our plans are beyond tonight...possibly the Taj mahal tomorrow, possibly not! But we shall keep you posted.

Now, how about some Chai!

-amie-

It turned out to be a struggle between two things I enjoy doing - eating plane food and sleeping in the night. The flight from Canada to London is just too short. It is only 5 hours - they crammed in 2 meals and a couple movies and only had the lights off for 1 hour. So the only way to get any sleep was to skip all the meals and ignore everythign. We opted for the meals. So Amie and I ended up getting about 1 hour of sleep which left us crabby most of the first day we had to explore london. Aside from that we have had a good time seeing the sites and being tourists.

Of course the first thing we noticed was the prices - definitely one of the most expensive places on earth. I find it difficult to eat because I am always gasping as I do the conversions to Canadian dollars. Anyway, with a day pass on the Tube you can pretty much get everywhere and see all the interesting architecture from the outside. Some of the highlights so far were running into Prince Charles, meeting up with friends we worked with in Suriname (Egbert and Sieneke), and visiting Amie's friends from Egypt. Tonight we are off to India!.

-steve-

When I go out with the Phoenix Engineering road crew, we always have a great time. This trip led me to my first Maritimes experience. While it was probably the worst time of the year to visit, we still had a memorable experiences. One advantage about having bad weather was experiencing the landscape and culture during the downtimes.

After the third day of putting together the tower, we were ready to lift it. Unfortunately, on the day of the lift, the winds were too strong to do any work. At first this was disappointing but that soon turned around when we decided to drive from Antigonish (near tower location) down to Halifax. One of my work mates had a sister near Halifax so we showed up with 6 huge lobsters, ready for a feast.

My first real lobster meal was great - I got a whole lobster tail to myself and debunked myths during the cooking process. Of course it is commonly said that lobsters will scream as they are put into boiling water. I learned that this is not the case for 2 reasons - firstly, it is just the steam rushing through their shells that makes the noise. Secondly, let's face it, we are dealing with a crustation here - they barely have enough nerves to fold into a brain.

-steve-

I went with the road crew this week to put up a wind monitoring tower near Whistler, BC. What we weren't ready for was the 15ft of snow on the ground. There is a BC bid for wind development next fall and wind developers are scrambling to get winter wind data so they can make the bid. This results in last minute efforts that cost 10 times as much and involve more digging than tower installation.

The first day started ok. We had a nice chopper ride up the mountain to the site where the tower would be installed. It didn't get much better from there. We spent most of the day digging. Since the tower must lay flat before tilting up, it needs to lay on the ground first. The ground doesn't really exist because there are so many dead trees. Therefore there was a lot of chain sawing in addition to digging. The end of the day came and we were ready to call the chopper to pick us up. That's when the adventure started.

We could hear the chopper not too far away but since the fog had just rolled in, the chopper was down the mountain a few hundred meters. As the fog thickened, the chopper had to pull back and left us on the mountain. No big problem. Our client who lives in the area came up to the site many times in the summer when it could be accessed by quads. There was a cleared path not too far away where he said we could walk to a nearby town and catch a taxi. A nice stroll would normally be a good thing but since it was 1/2 hour until sunset and we were soaking wet from our gloves to our underwear, a hasty, short walk would be the prefered. So off we went (see first pic - it was a lot deeper than it looks because the first 4 people of 8 had snow shoes to break trail). Some steps were not bad when staying in single file but every once in a while, a step off course could leave you up to your waist. Occasionally there were tree wells (snow falling on tree branches forces snow outwards and leaves chasms near the tree trunk) to avoid.

The 1/2 till sunset came and went. So did another hour and another hour. We were obviously not that close to the 'path' if the path existed at all. But onward we pressed, blindly following our leader. After a couple hours it started to get mighty cold on that mountain. I rolled my fingers tight in my wet gloves to try and conserve heat. I hadn't felt my toes for a while now which was alarming but there wasn't anything I could do at this point. Luckily we had a cell phone and GPS. We called for help and gave our coordinates. Rescue teams set out to find us. We stayed in the same spot for the best part of an hour. No one came! We decided to keep walking because we could see lights every once in the distance. It was better that then stay in one spot and freeze to death. During the walk a couple of the guys with us fell down and we weren't sure if they would get up. Muscles were already sore after a long day of work. No one needed hours of walking across a mountain in the dark. At one point one of our 300lb companions fell down a tree well. Getting him out was an adventure in itself.

2 hours later after walking towards the lights, we met up with rescue snowmobilers. We were saved! There were losses though. 3 of the 8 guys didn't show up for work the next day (they had been hired for shoveling) - no more adventures for them. It is two weeks later now and I still don't have feeling on the tips of my toes. I hope that heals.

After working the next day and successfully getting choppered off the mountain, the snow came in full force. We were forced to postpone the project for a few days. I went to Vancouver and met up with Amie there for the weekend. We toured around and stayed with friends and cousins. We happened to be in Stanley park after the destruction from winter storms left huge trees laying across roads and walkways.

-steve-

We are really enjoying life in Calgary. I have a good job which I enjoy going to every day. The work in the office is challenging and I get opportunities to do field work every once in a while. At the beginning of December, I went with the road crew to New York state to install 2 meteorological towers for wind data collection. There are always lots of short trips for maintenance items on these met towers which gets me around the area. I am going to take Amie with me on Jan 1 to Montana for a 3 day maintenance trip.

Amie is learning some good skills at work. However she is looking forward to the end of her contract in March so that she can pursue other areas relating more to journalism and writing.

Back in November sometime, my mom came to visit and when she left, we noticed half our dishes were missing. After several days of pondering, I finally had the idea to open the dishwasher (which we had never opened because the landlord said it didn't work). But there they were, all in the dishwasher. About the same time, Amie discovered a website called freecycle.com which advertises free things that are somewhere between too junky to sell and not quite good enough to put an add in the paper. So before long, we found ourselves driving to a trailer park on the edge of town to pick up a dishwasher. The next phase in the adventure was getting it installed. This wasn't the easiest procedure since in involves plumbing and electrical work which are areas for professionals. That would probably cost money, so after several hours of internet how-to's and some "engineering", I got the dishwasher installed without ever turning off the water or disconnecting the power (The switches are downstairs and because the people who live under us are gone all the time, it would be a shame to wait for them to be home)

We have been getting out of the city whenever possible. At least every second weekend we get to the mountains or on some road trip. We are having to dig deeper for more adventuring ideas in Alberta. We went for Christmas to Regina to visit my parents and then Strathmore to visit Amie's parents who recently moved out of Calgary. One unique event in Regina was Christie practicing her nursing techniques on Robbie and I, or more specifically, setting up IV's on us. With good veins, it is not that difficult to get the needle into the vein. Robbie and I have very small veins on our hands which involved a lot of maneuvering under the skin with the needle tip - that was great. -steve-

We did all the right things. We had 2 big bowls of candy. Enough for over a hundred kids. We live in a decent area of town. We nurtured a pumpkin in our garden and carved it all up beautifully. What a great way to meet some of the neighbors we though. But no...we ended up getting 2 kids all night. They were 2 boys from next door who likely came out of pity for us. They weren't dressed even dressed up.

What are we going to do with hundreds of cheap candy? I should have bought some tasty stuff... -steve

It seems like we fit in a lot of road trips so far this fall. We went to a couple weddings in Alberta and Winnipeg. Amie's good friends Ashley and Jahna got married to Luke and Matt respectively. On Labor Day weekend Amie and I took a trip through BC, Idaho and Washington. We took in some good hot springs, a theme park, and some good US shopping.

Last weekend we went with some friends to the corn maze at Lacombe, AB. It was definitely a unique experience. The maze took at least 3 hours to get through but the best part was how thick the corn was - you could hide 2 ft. off the path and give passerbyers a good scare. The next day we went to a controversial zoo in the middle of the prairies - Gazoo. While they have the reputation of dirty pens and missing phalanges, the added adventure made it a worthwhile stop. That's right, they used to have a zedonk (zebra-donkey cross) that was prone to biting. One visit, a kid was trying to feed him and the zedonk bit off his whole middle finger. Anyway, it was worth the casualties, because the old farmer who set up the zoo lets you play with baby lions and tigers - an experience the calgary zoo probably wouldn't offer. -steve

We also made the long awaited trip to the WORLD FAMOUS GOPHER MUSEUM in Torrington, AB. We'd heard about it from friends who'd lived in the area, but it took us awhile to make the 1-hour trek north. Gauging from all the pins on the world map hanging on the museum wall marking where visitors to the museum have come from, they aren't joking when they say world famous. Torrington (pop. 177) itself is fairly inconspicuous, but it is completely devoted to the minuscule rodent who reeks havoks on ranch and farmland across the province. We were welcomed by a gigantic gopher monument as we entered the community and noticed that every fire hydrant was painted with a gopher motif.

Call it risk?, call it a hilarious way of luring travellers to the otherwise lazy community, the gopher museum is a sight to see. Approximately the size of a medium sized RV (not to worry, admission is only $2 for adults and 50 cents for kids), the museum boasts a couple dozen scenes in which stuffed and dressed gophers are the key players. Dianne, the lady running the operation said they add one more display each year representing another scene from Torrington. The group that puts the displays together uses barbie accessories and craft items to make the miniature scenes. It was an absolute riot and a testimony to Alberta's rural roots.

At first PETA loudly distained the museum but in the end all of the press attention - from the smallest weeklies to the Globe and Mail and Macleans - provided free advertising for the museum. And no one who goes to the museum seems to have a problem with the treatment of gophers...perhaps since we hit more of them on the QE2 or any other Canadian highway every year, that argument doesn't really seem to hold up anyway. -amie

I am finally switching jobs but it is definitely bittersweet. While this new job with Phoenix Engineering (www.phoenixengg.com) is what I've been wanting to get into for a long time, I am leaving behind a job that I do really enjoy most of the time.

I have had some excellent job experience with Comtech and went on many memorable road trips all over the place. Some of my most memorable trips included work on the Suffield military base, up north near the North West Territories, and working at oil + gas sites near the Rocky Mountains.

Over the last 6 months I have learned a lot about wireless communication and how it is vital for the oil industry to transfer valuable data from oil wells and other sites back to their main control rooms. These areas are often remote with no infrastructure to support things like Internet and phone. They rely heavily on companies like Comtech to install communications via, high speed wireless links or satellite.

I have met many great friends as well as worked for a great boss. It is tough to leave behind good things but I look forward to this new position being able to do engineering work in a field that I really believe in (renewable energy).

We have had a good month hanging out in Cochrane, Alberta area with family and friends. We have been volunteering with Fourworlds (fourworlds.ca) for the last 4 weeks. They are involved in consulting and community development here and abroad. Amie has been working on a literature review and I (Steve) have been revamping the four worlds website.

We have also had the pleasure of staying with Leon and Cindy Hansen in Ghost Lake. It has been a quiet and refreshing refruge from that of Suriname to say the least. In our spare time when we are not with Amie's family or other Cochrane friends, we have taken advantage of the warm weather to do some mountain hiking, snowboarding, and walking in the beautiful surroundings.

As of March 1, 2006 we are officially homeless, jobless, and poor. It's job hunting time!

We should be somewhere between Toronto and Regina right now. But we're not! We are in Trinidad. We missed our connecting flight from Trinidad to Toronto because of things beyond our control. The agent booked our flights too close together. To top it off, because Suriname Airways said it was an 'illegal booking' we were on our own for hotel and food in Trinidad until Air Canada can get us on a stand-by flight (at least they are going to do that). Missed flight. Lots of sad faces. Pizza. There was a pizza place in the Trinidad telephone book. It was the only thing on our minds after several months of deprivation.

-steve

I'm sitting in our guest house in Arima, Trinidad pondering the events of the last five months of our lives. Even now, only 24 hours after our Suriname adventure came to an official close as we flew out of the Adolf Johan Pengel airport in Zanderij, Suriname, I have the benefit of 20/20 hindsight.

Suriname...I smile and shake my head at the same time at the sound of the name. Our experience in the South American Caribbean nation was defined by many great moments littered with many more frustrations. Isn't it true though, that moments of true epiphany come at our lowest? Already we are looking back on those moments of sheer irritation and annoyance and throwing our heads back to laugh.

I'll laugh at how walking down the street was a virtual nightmare for any white, blonde, female. A very vocal percentage of Surinamese men find their social outlet hanging out in public places in the country, and these men of all shapes and sizes would make loud, dramatic kissing noises in my direction (or any Western woman walking by!) - all in an attempt to make the white girl look their way. Even when Steve was by my side, the machismo of those specific Surinamese men reared it's ugly head!

I think we'll also laugh at the often frustrating experiences we had living with a host family for four months. We'll leave this one vague and let our stories once we're home fill in the gaps. But let's just say we learned a lot about intercultural communication, the importance of hospitality, and how critical it is that married couples have a place of their own. We are looking forward to our independance once again!

The most striking experience in Suriname was the working atmosphere. You'd expect a crawling pace in any non-western culture, but somehow Suriname was the epitome. There, everything is about relationships - and relationships (and everything else in life) come before work, plain and simple. This lead me to my understanding of international development and our placement at local AIDS NGO. International development is a buzz word I've thrown around for awhile...I know I waltzed into Suriname hoping to somehow impact and change the country in some way. I've come out of the country knowing that international development is long, and tedious work. And...when it comes right down to it, the most effective international developpers are the people within the country themselves, who hold within them the power to change their nation and their future. Too much Western 'help' only hinders the process.

Suriname has a hefty history of oppression that it is coming to terms with over time - slavery, indentured labour, economic colonization, and now, the continued exploitation of their natural resources at their expense - continue to impact the country. It seems the entire international community has a piece of the Suriname pie. America and South Africa control its bauxite, Canada its gold, Holland its politics, etc., etc., etc. Foreign multinationals have a huge impact on the country - they are all-powerful and are a negative force in Suriname truly becoming independant. And so I wonder what international development is really about - helping the developing country, or lining the pockets of the developed world.

In the past five months, our understanding of the world has expanded and our understanding of the relationship between the developing and developed world has been opened. Aside from these thoughts of intensity, we have some fabulous memories from our experience as well!

Work presented some moments of sheer joy when the people we were training began to find the confidence they need to do things on their own and put into practice some of the skills we taugh them.

And of course, we met some fabulous friends whom we really connected with and hope to keep in contact with well into the future. It was with these people that we made pizza with gouda, biked to the coast, explored Brownsberg, watched videos, played Kohandle, discussed life and faith and everything in between, and really came to rely on during our stay. We thank them all for their encouragement and laughter, and great friendship.

-amie

Walking home from the house of some friends, the visibility was 20 meters or so. It looked a lot like fog but we knew too well that it was thick gunpowder smoke enveloping the whole city. 13 shipping containers were imported from China this year and that is a lot of explodable material. It started on the 22nd of December. Fireworks every night and sometimes all night, firecrackers blasting everywhere, and red paper remnants littering the streets. The climax of course, happened on the 31st. Surprisingly, yes, people still had fireworks left - and lots of them.

During the day of New Years Eve we went downtown where they had several city blocks sectioned off and closed. Thousands of people gathered for music, drinking and celebration. That is until someone started to light the city block long strands of fireworks. People scattered out of the way and plugged their ears watching for 10 minutes at times until the explosions reached the end of the line and blew up the payload. It is really hard to describe. You had to be there. It was so loud and grand that maybe the pictures will say more. Anyway, when the smoke cleared after 2 constant hours of explosion, people were ankle deep in red post-explosion paper. That mixed with the normal post-party refuse left quite the clean up job for the next day.

In the evening it was payback time for the sleepless nights and annoying neighborhood kids - we had purchased a sizeable amount of fireworks ourselves. It took a couple hours to light them off and despite our valiant efforts, we were again, horrendously outdone by the rest of the city. We were a drop in the bucket - our explosions were barely seen or heard over the constant detonation and smoke. Eventually the new year came and the champagne, cigars, and snacks were passed around. No breaks in the action though - the fireworks continued until the early morning. They are still continuing now and will every evening for the next week until everyone uses their stock.

-steve-

The eastern-most border city of Albina, Suriname is about the last place you would want to spend the day. Many locals are drunk, lounging around whistling at girls, or trying to forcefully sell you some transportation up-river. After a day in Albina, it was time to cross the Maroni river into France. I am serious when I say French Guiana is France. It is an official department of France, governed by the French government. People are French citizens, they vote in French Elections, use the Euro and send graduated kids to further education in Europe. It is so expensive in French Guiana because of the import costs. Many people have told us that prices are 40% more expensive than France itself. I would now agree with that after paroozing in some of the stores and checking transportation costs.

Not the most low budget place to spend the day but Amie and I brought our lunch from Suriname so it was all good. We didn't realize until reaching the border that we actually needed a VISA to get into French Guiana. It is part of the Europian union but I guess there are so many problems with people crossing the border that they want some paperwork done first. We talked about this with the owner of our Albina guesthouse telling her that we didn't have a VISA but she told us that it is ok if you are white and only stay the day. All you do is take a small boat across and without going through customs. So that's what we did!

We left the hole of the Surinamese coast looking back over our shoulder at the hundreds of people shoving for buisiness prospects and headed across the river. Soon after reaching the French side, we started to notice many differences. We shouted them out one afte another to eachother in disbelief - no street dogs!, upkept buildings!, French signs everywhere!, no people hounding you for money! and no garbage everywhere! wow. I nearly even got sideswiped by a car driving on the opposite side of the road from that of Suriname.

-steve

Mostly what we did yesterday was walk around St. Laurent-du-Moroni and gasp at the prices of things. What would normally be 7SRD (roughly 3.50 CDN) was priced at 7 Euros (roughly 14 CDN). We'd heard from other travellers that French Guiana is a replica of the Metropolis right down to baguettes, espresso and French wine. The rumors proved to be true and we feasted on fresh brewed coffee and a baguette sandwich at a French bakery mid-day! The similarities with France were abundant (from what I remember from five years ago anyway)! French signage everywhere, drivers of Peugeots and Renaults keeping to the right side of the road, people speaking French in coffee shops and on sidewalks, and of course wine and baguettes.

French Guiana began as a penal colony when all other attempts at colonizing the country failed. So France's worst prisoners were brought to the Guianas on a doubled sentence. They served their sentence in jail or working, and then during their doubled sentence took up residence in French Guyana and started colonizing it. So...French Guiana is officially made up of the riff-raff of France. French Guiana as a penal colony officially ended in the early 1940s after human rights organizations started commenting on the poor treatment of prisoners.

We checked out the former prison in St. Laurent - a gloomy place with huge high walls and communal living quarters. The compound at St. Laurent held the most prisoners, but it along with its counterpart Devil's Island on the north coast of French Guiana and a leper colony further up the Maroni river, housed over 70,000 prisoners in its 100 years of operation. Even the infamous Papillon lived in the St. Laurent prison and eventually Devil's Island and the movie was filmed on location in French Guyana years ago.

-amie

*Disclaimer* for this to make sense read confluence.org or my confluence page. Suriname confluences are no easy conquer. All of them are either just off the coast in the ocean or deep in the Amazon jungle. Nevertheless, I (steve) have had my eye on this point since Amie and I started working in Suriname 3 months ago. From the GPS map and the maps available in the capital city (Paramaribo), it looked as though the confluence would be less than a kilometer off the main road near the town of Afobaka.

Finally the free weekend came and we set out for the excursion. First of all, Just getting anywhere in Suriname is a pain in itself - everything is way overpriced and the efficiency of the transportation system is the worst I have ever seen. We caught a local bus to the place where long distance busses gather. We left the house an hour later than usual because we know how long some of the busses can take to fill up.

Still tough luck. It is hit and miss usually - either you are too late and the bus is already filled up and gone or you are too early and you wait for several hours for the bus to fill up. Our situation this time was the latter. So after our 2 hour wait we took off south towards Afobaka. Several kilometers later the pavement turned into laterite gravel road which is usually the case anywhere off the coast. From then on, passing trucks throw forth a mighty dust cloud that sticks to your skin and makes you wish you never left home. Anyway, we finally got to the town of Afobaka. Of course, the map data was all wrong and the confluence was 4 1/2 kilometers from the town. This was a huge problem because anything too far off ends up in impassible, dangerous jungle.

We set off anyway, heading west out of the town beside the looming man-made lake. We stopped for lunch on the Afobaka dam - probably the only reason for any road and town anyway. The dam was built in 1964 to generate hydroelectric power for the country. Unfortunately it resulted in the relocation of 5000 people and a river expanded into a 1560 square meter resevoir. Across the dam there was a little road up to the top of a hill. After the grueling climb we realized this was the end of the trip. The radio tower at the top of the hill was still a kilometer and a half from the confluence and between us and the goal was thick downhill jungle - impassible with our energy level and lack of machetes and snake repellant.

So we ended in failure but not all was lost. We hitch-hiked up the road to the town of Brokopondo and enjoyed the beach and the cheap accomodation. Good luck for anyone else interested in Suriname confluencing!

-steve-

Happy Birthday SURINAME!!! We celebrated Suriname's thirtieth anniversary of its independence from the Dutch this weekend alongside about 10,000 other people. Most of the day went as any normal birthday party for a country would go - parades (the military, police, military band, etc. etc. all marched by at least three times during the afternoon), music, singing of the national anthem, booths selling food and drinks, flags everywhere, national paraphernelia, and people milling around in gorgeous traditional costumes...

There were a few surprises too! Like the delegation from the French army there helping to celebrate the occasion, a contingent of Dutch marines, and a whole host of Venezuelan parachooters who dropped from the sky mid-afternoon on November 25.

What a party! Many Surinamese have more patriotism in their pinky fingers than the average Canadian. Then again there are Surinamese like our Dutch teacher, Sandra, who doesn't think Suriname is free (overrun by Holland, America and other nations) and refused to celebrate the occasion, opting instead to stay home all day.

Sandra did ask us if we (meaning us CCI volunteers) wanted to go to the presidential palace for an open air party in the afternoon. Of course we said yes! So Sandra took our passport numbers, got our names and gave us tickets a week later. Today, we dressed up, and headed with our CCI counterparts to the presidential palace. We are also very proud that we smuggled in Shane, Lindsey and Peter on our tickets (actually they weren't really caring who came in anyway). So we enjoyed an afternoon of food and drinks on Suriname's equivalent of the White House!

These Surinamese know how to throw a party! Food and drinks everywhere. Music. Dancing. People milling around 100% proud of their nation. You see, over half of Suriname's original population now lives in the Netherlands - they were given the option of Dutch nationality at Indenpendence and half the country picked up and left. But people are starting to return - now that the revolution is over and the country has had a peaceful life for the past 10 years or so. There were a lot of shirts today that said, "I may live in the Netherlands but I'm 100% Surinamese."

The party isn't done yet though, in fact it's just beginning. We're going out again tonight to witness Surinamese fireworks and how they celebrate at night.

-amie

I just had to add a quick note because Amie doesn't get nearly as excited about free food as I do. When we were approaching the celebration grounds, we were handed a can of energy drink. That pumped us up for the day. Later at the presidential palace, the reception consisted of a bunch of tables set up in a coartyard giving out cake, drinks, and Indonesian hors d'oeuvres. The best part was that all 8 or so tables were giving out the same things and you could get your food and then just line up at the next table. I think we lined up about 7 or 8 times.

-steve

Since I arrived in Suriname I have been interested in seeing the ocean. Unfortunately, no one talks about it and no one has ever said "let's got to the beach" or anything like that. Furthermore, the capital (Paramaribo) is not even built on the coast like a normal port city but a few kilometers inland. Last weekend was answer time because Amie and I went to go see the coast for ourselves. We took a bus route that we knew went to the north end of the city and then we started to walk. I checked on the GPS and it looked like only 3km or so. The paved road soon turned to dirt, then to grass and finally down to a footpath. It was around then that someone warned us not to go further because there was a high risk of snakes and maybe bandits. We were in our sandals and had no machetes or anything to defend ourselves (poor planning) so we decided to forget the ocean for the day. We started to head back when a weird vehicle that was used to transport concrete passed by. The man offered us a ride and informed us that his vehicle was commonly called a 'roughrider'. I'll tell you, sitting on the front was just that. The first picture below is Amie in the roughrider.

So that way was a complete failure as a passage to the ocean. So fast forward to this weekend and we got ready to make another attempt. This weekend we planned better. We got a map and looked for a road that actually went to the coast, we got our Dutch friends Egbert and Sieneke to come with us (who could actually ask for directions), and we rented bikes. This proved to be a success and we reached the coast in an hour or so from home. One look at the ocean answered all the questions and was an eyesore of a beach. Actually there was no beach. The Suriname river reaches the ocean and deposits all the Amazon silt, making a muddy delta only suitable for mudskippers and crabs.

We keep on getting questions about what we're actually doing here. So here it goes!

Everything in this country starts at the relational level; it's all about who you know and who you're related to. Before we can get to any real 'work', our coworkers have to know us, trust us, and understand what we're all about. That means we spend a lot of our time hanging out with people at work which is a completely legitimate way to pass a day at the office. It brings the pace of life, especially office life, to a crawl. It has certainly forced the two of us - brought up and schooled with the Western values of goals, deadlines, efficiency, productivity, time=money, to alter some of our attitudes and understanding about the workplace.

I have been spending time teaching people to use Microsoft Publisher, (note the picture of my Publisher training session) helping out with loose ends at Stichting Mamio Namen Projekt and other Aids Organizations (sometimes just holding babies at some of the orphanages), going through old video tapes at SMNP, trying to figure whether the ancient videocamera actually works or not, and random typing, translating, and grammar stuff that needs to be done. I've also been setting up training sessions with other aids organizations and hoping to get involved with some video production with a youth organization in Parbo.

This city has its share of donated technology, but no one seems to know how to problem solve, troubleshoot or fix even the most basic of problems. Needless to say, Steve has been a busy guy and spends most of his time at Stichting Mamio Namen Projekt fixing computers, hardrives and printers and everything remotely technological. He also spends a lot of time with employees and volunteers showing them how to do things at the computer on their own no matter how young they are. Through the grapevine, Steve's name gets out and he usually spends a bit of time each week fixing so and so's friend's computer too.

Weekly salsa classes (note the pictures) continue to be the greatest way to relieve stress and get into local Surinamese culture. The classes are entirely in Dutch, led by our instructor Brain (no folks, that is not a spelling mistake) and we are definitely among the youngest dancers in the group. We get into partners (usually old Surinamese mean and women), learn a new sequence, then start rotating partners. At some point during the evening I usually end up dancing with "Communist". He's a little Asian man with a knack for barking out orders and overreacting at minor mistakes when he really isn't that great of a dancer himself. It's great exercise and after the hour-long sessions we're all grabbing for our sweat rags to mop our foreheads. It's a lot of fun.

-amie-

To date, the most comical and culturally annoying quality of Suriname is its transportation system. For starters, it's not public. Each Paramaribo bus driver owns their own bus, and decorates it according to their style. We've seen it all - black lighting to tickle passenger fancy when they are riding home at night, faux cow print upholstery, and outrageous paintings inside and out.

Topping it all off, we?re pretty sure all of Parbo's buses were bought in one big business deal with the Chinese. They all have Chinese lettering and the doors have scatterings of Engrish. Taking the bus everyday is an adventure. You see, buses operate on their own timetables. Waiting for the bus every morning is a guessing game on whether or not you'll get to work on time.

Parbo's buses wedge an amazing amount of people into one vehicle. For some reason, no buses have handrails on the roof. Nope, everyone's gotta have a seat. Getting in and out of the bus is an acrobatic obstacle course. There are three fixed columns of seating and one aisle. To top it all off, a row of seats attached to one of the columns, folds into the aisle, effectively blocking the entrance and exit of passengers.

Here's a typical morning: People pile onto the bus onto every double and single seat firmly attached to the bus. Once those are full, people proceed to pull down one of the foldable side chairs and sit in the middle aisle. Then, passengers start ringing for their stops. Usually it's someone in the very back row of the bus who needs to get off first. So everyone in the middle aisle, gets up and squishes themselves into the other rows of people already there, or jumps off the bus altogether, so the (usually wide) man or woman at the back of the bus, with all their bags and personal affects, can get off the bus and pay the driver. This takes at least a couple of minutes, including the time it takes for the remaining passengers to rearrange themselves back into the seats, and let a whole bunch of other people pile onto the bus.

The bus starts off again. A few meters later, the bell rings and the bus has to stop again. For reasons unbeknownst to us, the second person to ring the bell could not possibly have gotten off the bus at the same time as passenger number one and walked a few more steps (thereby saving the whole aforementioned middle-aisle process from happening twice in two minutes). Repeat this process at least10 times. By the end of the bus ride, if you're unfortunate enough to sit in the middle row, you've gotten your daily exercise by getting up and down anywhere from 5-15 times to let all the people on the back of the bus out.

Now that?s just the middle of the route. If you're unfortunate enough to have to catch your bus at the very start of the route, you'll wait approximately 15-20 minutes for the bus to fill before it takes off. Now if you've gotta catch the bus someone at the beginning of the route, it's impossible to get a seat because they filled up downtown.

-amie-

Last week several people came up to us and said they saw Amie and I on national television. We had been at a cultural fair and we noticed the cameras going around. We thought if we just posed nicely and didn't look straight into the camera we may have a shot. IT WORKED!!!

But today was the ultimate thrill. We mentioned in our previous post that we had gone on an Interior trip with a prominent journalist. We we never knew sharing our pictures with her meant that she was going to get it published on the front page of the most prestigious national newspaper. Amie and I were doing a little jungle exploration when the famous picture was taken and in fact I think it was Amie who actually took the picture but hey, she always gets the newspaper glory so I'm taking this one cause somehow my name got put on it. Then to top it off, Erna the journalist said that I should go to the newspaper office and collect my payment of $25US for the pic!

Oh, by the way, the article is about gold miners who are taking advantage of the relaxed restrictions with their river operations. In the process of extracting gold from the rivers, they are dumping loads of chemicals into the water. Aha! That's why I was so itchy after my river swim!

-steve-

We saw a lot this weekend on our first trip to Suriname's interior. What a wild mix of cultures! We spent two days in a Maroon village on the Surinamese side of the river that separates Suriname from French Guyana. We were hosted by a friend who happens to be a Maroon journalist. Along with her and an American from the Peace Corp, we along with the other 4 Canadians drove two hours east, then two hours south on bumpy, laterite roads, and took a 10 minute boat ride to Langatabiki - a super long island in the middle of nowhere. We swam in the river (polluted by gold mining in the area), bushwacked through thick jungle on the island, got lost, but thanks to Steve's GPS, and a motorboat that went by at precisely the right moment, we found our way back, ate food all weekend, and tried not to get malaria.

Had an eventful ride back, going about 200km/hour on bumpy, potholed roads, busted a tire, fixed it, were dirty with laterite dirt, and the whole works. Got home to Regilio's and of all things, the water reservoir was empty. Awesome. No showers for our stinky selves. We went next door to our bosses house and got rid of the filth in her shower.

-amie

On one of our walks around the island we ran into a film crew from the Netherlands. All we saw was a couple whities screaming and holding flares while the local people watched with great interest. Later we found out the TV series being filmed was called Zipzoo and plays in the Netherlands. The crew had a small plane at their disposal and it took off and landed several times until the perfect shot was had. As the plane took off, a bunch of naked kids enjoyed playing in the engine exhaust that blew up grass from the makeshift island runway.

The top right picture is a few of us who were very excited because we thought we were across the river into French Guiana. Unfortunately, I had misjudged the direction and in fact, we had swam to another island, not the other country. However, all was not lost. We had a good bath, and later in the day we found out French Guiana wasn't that far, just a different direction so we got in a paddle boat and headed there for the evening. Amie had a good time talking in French to the kids in a small village on the other side. Ya, ok, we were there illegally but the locals are doing it so what's the big deal?

-steve

We're adjusting (at local pace) to Suriname. Getting into Dutch lessons with our teacher Sandra who was the first Surinamese person we've met to arrive at anything on time. We're getting used to the neighbourhood dogs on the constant prowl for something to bark at, bats swooping towards insects at night when we walk, the local transit system (inefficient and slow as it is) and the heat.

On the weekend, we took a day trip out to Cola Kreek. Its name completely describes the area. A coke coloured creek you can swim in. The tourism board has developed the area a bit, so there are flush toilets and change rooms and an abundance of Parbo, the fave local beer. They also have the white sand creek bottom all cleaned out and devoid of rocks and reeds and stuff. A nice place to relax for a day. We went with Grace Baptist Church, the little church we talked about and were fed incredibly with Roti, ice water and soda, and my personal favourite - chocolate cake.

The country's been growing on me. Chinese supermarkets on every street that sell everything from penny candies and groceries, to stationary and women's clothing. Unsalted peanut butter. Cooked vegetables all the time. (Our Dutch teacher looked at us like we were crazy when we pulled out sandwhiches with raw spinach. Seriously people never eat raw veggies). Dutch signs that kind of make sense but just kind of don't most of the time. Homes with bamboo polls sporting multicolored flags, showing a Hindu family lives there. Garbage everywhere. Lots of it! People have no shame chucking bottles and plastic bags on to the street, into rivers and the ocean. Most people deal with garbage by incinerating it in their backyards, or street corners, or in public parks.

Suriname's a country of imports. It sells its bauxite, gold, diamonds and tourism, and in return, buys everything from the West. Or from China. It's expensive here. And with oil prices rising, the cost of living keeps inflating, like this huge balloon that makes the basics more and more out of peoples' reach. Still though, Suriname's a country that calls itself poor, and there are indeed people who are, but most people have cellphones and cars. SUVs aren't uncommon either. Most people in Suriname have made at least one trip to Holland.

-amie

They say they're third world. And although there are patches, especially in the interior, I think their benchmark is a little high - too much Western presence. Just because it is not like the US doesn't mean third world.

Work in this "developing" nation isn't the easiest. This society is based heavily on handouts. It is hard to train when locals are more interested in a steady stream of volunteers to do the work (and the accompanying funds for projects). Development here may be like pulling teeth. I'm not sure where it comes from - maybe the years of slavery and colonialism. Anyway, we'll do our best.

-steve-

We are settling in fine into Paramaribo. It ended up that our host family was a bachelor named Regillio. He is pretty laid back and treats us well. We got to his house (top left picture) a couple days ago to be greeted by his 14 dogs - makes for segmented sleeping. The other 4 of the canadian crew got in on the weekend and it is good to have some sense of community so far. We had a Suriname style orientation (top right picture) which was brief and confusing at times but there was fresh passion fruit juice so it was all good.

-steve-

Early morning coffee. Cold water showers. A big, fenced in front verandah that's perfect for reading. Yep, we've found a refuge from the heat at Regillio's house.

We're a fifteen minute bus ride from downtown, a few blocks from an internet cafe, and in the middle of a nice neighbourhood. Couldn't be better! Now we're just trying to wrap our minds around how to cook in Suriname that will come with time I'm sure!

Our first attempt in finding a church proved to be the greatest thing we stumbled upon. Sometime last week we wandered by a tiny Southern Baptist Church with English signs. We hoped against hope, took the 15 minute bus ride, and walked into the church on Sunday fully expecting a Dutch or Taki Taki service.

What a blessing! It is an English speaking church in the middle of Paramaribo's downtown! It may be Southern Baptist, but there's certainly no southern drawl there! Everyone's from Guyana or Trinidad, or Suriname, we were clearly the only whities there.

-amie

The last few days have been kind of hectic but quite the adventure. We were about fed up with Georgetown and Guyana altogether and were planning on leaving. There are hardly any attractions, and the ones that are available are a fortune because they involve flying into the interior. We went to all the travel places and adventure tours places and found nothing that was even close to reasonable. The one thing that would have been nice are these waterfalls called Kaieteur falls. They are said to be more impressive than Angel falls (cause they are wider) in Venezuela and Iguacu falls (cause they are taller) in Argentina. Cheapest flight we found was $150US each for a morning fly in. Kind of pricey for overseas huh? Well the thing they don't tell you is that there are other ways. Except everyone has a piece of information but not the whole story.

So just as we had given up after two days of looking around, we ran into this miner from the interior that told us there was a city near the falls called Madhia. From there he said we could talk to a guy who could take us. So we went for it and jumped on an 8 hour grueling bus ride - the typical overseas one of course: fold out chair that leaves your butt in agony, poor ventilation that makes you nauseous, loudest dance music ever, dusty sweat sticking to your overheated body, and of course the unpaved road through the jungle. But we finally got to Madhia. Of course the contact guy was away in Georgetown.

No problem, everyone else had their own tidbit. So we talk to a friend of a friend of a friend and we are off to catch a boat that doesn't exist and talk to another person that is unavailable and then go to a small aircraft coordiator who doesn't have any useful information. To make a long story short, we were half a dozen planes and ferries away from where we needed to start work and we decided to pack it in and head to Paramaribo. So that's where we're off. The lonely planet said 3 things about Guyana: it is expensive, there are few sites worth visiting and don't undertake any trip without trippling the estimated time. I thought the book was outdated. It wasn't...

-steve

Since we touched down in South America we have been doing a little sightseeing. We don't start work for another 2 weeks and it has been nice to get used to the place first. We aren't actually doing much sight seeing because the weather is extremely hot and humid. Most of our time has been spent near the snow cone vendor guy or the fans of our hostel.

We spent a few days in the Suriname capital Parimaribo and then headed west into Guyana. The ride took all day to go a few hundred kilometers (2 ferries and several busses). I am not sure if it was worth it or not. Georgetown is definitely one of the ugliest capitals I've ever seen. This may be due to the amount of garbage everywhere or maybe the dangerous atmosphere. Or maybe cause I scratched my back with a jack knife last night and cut things up.

Besides all that, we've come to realize there isn't a whole lot to do here in northern South America. Prices are about the same as Canada which makes them the highest in South America (disappointing) - maybe due to their colonial history (the English left Guyana in a fine mess). Everything interesting takes a plane ride into the interior. So we are finding enjoyment taking pictures of funny signs and wandering through markets.

Did meet a guy last night who tried to join the Jonestown people several years ago. The people said the boss (Jim Jones) was away in Georgetown and they needed to ask him. The man we talked to decided to leave - good judgement I presume.

So I'm not sure what we are going to do. We'll probably make our way back to Suriname and see if there is anything interesting along the way. We are looking forward to settling down, getting to work and meeting our host family. There are 4 others from Canada coming next thursday which should make things more lively.

-steve

Well the adventure deepens in Britsh Guyana. It seems everything the colonial powers laid hands on is scathed and scorched and left in a shambles. We thought the trip to Georgetown, Guyana's capital on the atlantic coast would be a short little voyage...two days later we arrived after bumpy bus rides and ferries. It's kind of a hell hole of a city, a lot more poverty than in Suriname, an awful lot less developed. But it's been fun, everything from finding a place to stay where the mattress is intact, (and where beer bottles aren't scattered all over the floor) to finding food in one of the most multicultural destinations in the world; avoiding tripping into the open sewers and trying to look confident and self-assured so we don't get robbed.

We've seen more of Canada in the past 24 hours than we have in the past few weeks. Scotia bank has a new branch in Georgetown (of all place in the world:) and Canadian mining company Cambior shook hands with the Guyanese government a few years ago, mined all of the "El Dorado" gold, and left only 20 per cent of the royalties to the Guyanese. One Creole man we talked to last night shook his head and said the government thought that was a small price to pay for development. Too bad they didn't help cover the sewers and get some of the thousands of homeless off the streets.

Really though, it's not a bad city, though the beauty, we're told, lies in the interior. And they speak English here! Don't ask me how Suriname got stuck with Dutch and Guyana with English when the rest of South America is Spanish. A little random., but we'll take it! We're trying to find a way to get to Jonestown - the place of the infamous Jonestown Massacre - led by psychopath Jim Jones, but the chances are slim with no roads leading to it. Other than that, we're taking it easy. Eating snowcones, avoiding traffic, and sightseeing.

Take care everyone! Let the adventures continue in Canada or out.

-amie

We are off on another adventure! To our surprise, we had our tickets booked through Trinidad and Tobago with a whole day layover. So of course we had to make the most out of this opportunity. So after arriving at 6 AM local time (4 AM sask time) we figured that the only way to actually see anything on the island in the 12 hours we had was to rent a car. That went well and I found myself again driving on the left side of the road. Luckily I was all trained and ready to go after driving in New Zealand.

The first place we drove to was a natural lake of asphalt. Tours were 35 US because the lake is dangerous to walk on. Especially in the hot sun when the lake turns into quicksand. Luckily for us we were there in the morning when the lake was still hard like a highway but just starting to change into glue. And double lucky for us that an "unofficial" guide sought us out. We bargained him down to a more managable fare and we were off! Where the lake was heating up, you could pull up the gooey asphalt which seemed like a good idea at the time but afterwards became a nusaince when we realized only gasoline could take it off. My camera and murse are permenantly stained!

Since we were on an island paradise, we decided to hit the beach for a few hours...But first we had to get there, and that meant Steve had to manoever the car through psychotic traffic that follows a few rules, but mostly abides by one principle. "Whoever gets their big nose in the lane first has the right of way."

But we got there and feasted on shark bake sandwiches (an incredible meal of battered shark on a pastry bun with tons of fixings. Then we body boarded and say a sting ray and got way too much sun.

The best part of Trinidad is the people. It's like a million different cultures all had kids with each other and the result is really beautiful. Black, and not so black, super-curly hair and straight, and a whole lot of men with their pouffy hair put up in a big turban. There are East Indians, Chinese, Africans and everything in between in Trinidad. And we have a feeling Suriname will be similar!

Our camping trip started out like it usually does - with some sort of issue or adventure. This time, just outside of Humboldt, our exhaust system split into two pieces, thus releasing the muffler from doing anything useful. I used my newly acquired degree in Engineering to fix it up. Nearby there was a farmer's fence and breaking off a section of barbed wire resulted in a nice piece of material to tie the exhaust system away from scraping on the ground.

Camping for me is different than most would define it - I don't like going to campsites where people are loud right next door and kids are playing and screaming everywhere. This of course is shared by most of my male friends. So taking our wives on a different sort of camping experience was a little hard at first. Especially when we reached the shore of a deserted island in the middle of the lake to set up camp. Luckily the girls were ready for new experiences and that is what we all got!

-steve-

Gone Fishin' Six people. Two canoes. A whackload of gear. Beautiful sunny weather. A ton of food. It all makes for one fantastic August long-weekend. The only thing lacking was a little more bugspray...those mosquitoes were FEROCIOUS!!! Steve and I took off for the August long with two other couples...the guys all went to university together. Apparently us three girls have married into the bushwacking, boonie-stomping, back-to-nature variety of camper. Man we're lucky! I definitely assumed that camping a-la-boy would be an introduction to how things were in cave man land. Boy was I wrong!

The weekend involved a lot of feasting, fishing, relaxing, canoeing and simply enjoying each others' company. God is one creative genius. Weyakwin Lake, an hour and a bit north of Prince Albert National Park, is gorgeous. We were blessed with amazing weather all four days we were gone. The lake itself was abuzz with long weekend activity, but the boys with their outdoor prowess suggested we got to one of the lake's three islands. Perfect idea. Quiet. Peaceful. And far from the noise of long-weekend beerfesting partyers. Steve and Doug had been to the island a few years earlier...we're pretty sure they were the last ones there too the way the bush has grown up....and the way the mosquitoes attacked us. Clearly they hadn't seen human flesh in a long, long time. The guys went wild in the brush clearing a space for the tents and a campfire and by the end of the first day we had a great little site for the six of us, including a hammock.

Some of the weekend's highlights:

*Catching a fish in Saskatchewan! (The last time I went fishing was in grade four, so this was quite the experience). A half hour later, Steve caught one too...we filleted them and ate them with lemon and pineapple for supper one night. Scrumptious! *Canoeing on the glassy lake at sunset Sunday night. I'm still a firm believer in the splendour of Saskatchewan sunsets unparalleled anywhere else I've been. (All you Albertans reading this are going to have to come for a visit so you can experience first-hand what I mean!).

*Walking out to what we coined as "Bird Island" one afternoon before supper. A natural jetty had formed between the big island we stayed on and a smaller island (now home to hundreds of birds), so we walked out as far as possible and the boys tried to bring home a pelican kill. No such luck.

*Talking about the goodness of God over bushpies and s'mores and banana boats. Saskatchewan Camping Terminology you won't find in the dictionary: Bushpie: involves a bushpie maker (two pieces of metal that clamp together and have handles)...and you take a piece of bread, butter it on both sides, top the bread with cheese and egg and veggies, or whatever else, and top that with another piece of buttered bread. Sandwhich them in the bushpie maker and stick it on the open fire. Wait a few minutes. And Voila! An egg mcmuffin camping-style. For a sweeter treat, try pineapple or cherry pie filling and you've got bushpie dessert. Banana Boat: take a banana, slice a flap out of the skin on top, eat out some of the banana. Layer marshmallows and chocolate chips onto the remaining banana inside the skin. Cover with the banana peel flap. Stick it in the fire. Wait until the banana is slightly soft and the chocolate is melted. Tasty, tasty snack.

-amie-

The Humboldt Polkafest. A sea of RVs, piloted by a majority of Western Canada's retirees, descended on Humboldt this weekend for the annual polkafest. There was no way Steve and I were going to miss the opportunity to join the polka-circuit. It was the opportunity of a lifetime.

So what is a polkafest?

Well in short, it's where a bunch of seniors get together and polka the weekend away. And eat German sausage for a bit. And drink beer. And then dance some more. At any given time there's a couple hundred people in their dancing shoes polka-ing. Not wanting to be outdone by people three times our age, Steve and I got out there as soon as possible and grooved to the accordian too.

Apparently we blew them away. Not by our phenomenal moves. But by our age. We kept on getting comments and dance tips from the best of the oldie goldies.

Highlight: The Circle Shawtisse - I'll give you a little description. About 100 old people (in great shape mind you) get into a big circle and do a whole community group dance. We had the elders roaring, let me tell you. German sausage. Sauerkraut.

-amie-

After nearly a month in the Boldt, we've discovered it's the epitome of all things rural: Canola. Cows. Grain elevators. And...Beer.

Somehow fermented barley manifests itself on any occasion...Rodeos, Golf Tournaments, Mud Bogs, History Book Launches, and the visit of the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture. Yes, reps from Beijing came all the way to Humboldt to investigate different types of farms - everything from turkey to bison to meat packing to berries - as part of their three-month intensive English program in Saskatoon. Interesting to say the least. Especially when a local 3rd generation German berry farmer, clad in Liederhosen, seranaded us with the accordian. Finding a church is another adventure! We're not sure what it is about Humboldt, but churches have a hard time making a go of it in this little town. One church had, oh, around 30 people there. But halfway through the service, the music leader asked the congregation to welcome his five brothers and their families who were all visiting for a family reunion. Church total minus visiting families? Approx. 5.

-amie-

We have been in Humboldt for about a week now and the place really has a "local" feel. People are very friendly and strike up conversations all the time. Amie has been running around with her camera, snapping pictures of various events for the Humboldt Journal. Steve is working with Earthcare - The manager, Duane Guina, has many innovative sustainable agriculture projects on the go for the summer.

Last weekend was the Humboldt Sizzler, which coincided with Canada day celebrations as well as Saskatchewan Centennial celebrations. We went to various events including a parade, rodeo, and live music.

-steve-

I think one of the greatest highlights came towards the end of our trip. I just remember looking for a prime parking spot on an unlight road outside of Christchurch (kind of near the race track). We found one almost immediately.

I heard Steve say..."Cool!!! A dead possum!!!" as he kind of lurched the van forward. The next thing we knew, we were stuck 8 inches deep in mud and grass and two of the wheels were almost entirely consumed by wet road. We spent the next two hours trying to dig ourselves out.

We used everything we could thing of...towels and sheets from the van shoved under the wheels, jacking up each wheel and putting rocks, sticks, dirt and grass to build it up further, we even used our cutting board under the jack so it would sink in the mud too. About 10 minutes later though we heard a rumbling crack and saw that the cutting board had split in two. Sorry EZY rentals.

We were getting pretty tired, really hungry and a little depressed from our situation when a jeep drove down the road a man proceeded to let his dogs out for a walk. STeve talked to the guy and the friendly kiwi was more than ready to tow us out of our rut. Two minutes later we were picking up broken pieces of cutting board, various pieces of carjack, and bits of towel that had gotten stuck under the wheels, and on our way to a more solid camping spot.

Only the next morning did we take pictures.

-Amie

It was late in the evening and getting pretty cool so we decided that we would pull into the next electrical camp site so we could plug in the camper van. We saw the sign (see pic 1) and it looked like any other site so we pulled in and pulled into a site. I went to try and find the reception place but the grounds were empty. There was one other camper van so I decided to stay anyway. I plugged in and for some reason the grounds still had power.

We stayed the night after using the bathrooms (water was turned off in the toilets - oops). The next morning things started to look suspicious. In the kitchen unit there were two advertisements - one was for a person who does nude caricatures and the other said "would your family like this?" and it showed some nude families on a beach. Shrugging and continuing to search for somewhere to pay I found nothing and we drove away thankful for our free stay and use of the facilities. One the way out we gasped at the entrance sign (pic 2) that we had missed on the way in because it was dark the previous night.

-Steve

We're still in New Zealand, though a little colder now than we were a few weeks ago. It got to minuse 2/3 of a degree last night, according to the weatherman on the radio this morning. The water froze in the pipes of the campervan. We'll see how that thaws out. Luckily we were warm in a hotel last night with plenty of hot water, a TV and lots of coffee and tea.

After 2 1/2 weeks we still can't understand anything about these Kiwis. They are a wild, untamed people. We're in Queenstown right now, about 2/3 down the south island. This is the adventure sport capital of NZ, possibly the world. I'll get into the source of they need for adrenaline later.

We've been travelling down the West Coast of the South Island - but that was after wetsuiting up on the east coast and jumping into the sea with wild dolphins. If you sing, they will swim right under and beside you. An incredible experience.

The West coast is a whole different story. Rugged coastlines. Beautiful. And no gasoline for kilometres upon kilometres. And lots of Hillbillies. One night, completely on empty we rolled into the town of Hari Hari on fumes only to find that the gas station wasn't open and wouldn't be until the next day. So we camped out in the largest Hillbillie centre we've ever seen. The Bow-Man's club was having it's annual meeting, and there were several mullets wandering around the campground. I woke up the next morning and wandered to the bathroom and on my way saw a truck with it's back completely full of bows and arrows. Frightening.

The following day was even better. A stop at the Bushmen Centre forever changed our perception of Kiwis. You see, over the past couple of centuries since colonization, tons and tons of animals have been introduced to NZ. All of them have decimated the natural landscape in some way, overpopulated the place, and started killing native plants and animals. Apparently the cute little possum is one of the greatest threats to NZ forests. So the Bushmen Centre's personal calling is to reduce the number of possums in NZ....It's solution? Possum pies. Not joking. Yummy.

One thing we do understand better is why Kiwis love their adventure sports. You know how Australia was founded by British convicts? Well Kiwis are the wild and crazy riff raff of the British Isles. When the Kiwis were trying to domesticate deer, they had to get wild bucks and deer from the rocky mountains to fenced in farms. How did they do it? Not joking...They jumped out of helicopters onto the running dear and hog tied them...then transported them to their new destination. Gong show. And only 80 heli-jumpers died. Pretty good odds! Eventually they invented a net gun. Get this though...when the US needed help moving buffalo, they called on New Zealanders to netgun the wild beasts. Maybe the initial deer hunters inspired some of the current adventures sport. We really don't know.

This country makes us laugh. Everything from roadsigns to crosswalks to the government's policy on putting up signs against wild/drowsy/dangerous driving instead of guard rails.

Really though it's a country of unprecendented beauty. We've moved from lush green in the north to wild and rocky mountains in the South. It's a blessing to be here.

Now we're going to find some kebabs.

-Amie

Hey all,

We're sitting a few blocks from Hell right now. We're both pretty excited to try this restaurant's (with a rather risqu� name) pizzas.

It's been a wild few days here since we got into NZ...

We rented a campervan in Auckland and drove it up to the end of the world...or what the kiwis call the end of the world...the northernmost tip of New Zealand. That was after learning to drive on the left side of the road, figuring out what in the world to do on roundabouts and deciphering road signs. Thank goodness the clutch is in the right spot or we'd have gone off a cliff by now!

Before we got up to the point and the lighthouse, we saw gloworms in a huge limestone cave, saw NZ's first capital and the "hell hole of the pacific" - a town that used to be rowdy with prostitutes and whalers and didn't quiet down until the Maori and the Brits had a huge war there.

It's beautiful here. Windy, curvy roads unlike anything we've ever seen. And lots of sheep. An awful lot of sheep. And the craziest accents ever! Fush and Chups is our favorite variation of the English language.

We've definitely covered a lot of territory with that van! And we're getting pretty good at creating gourmet meals on the tiny cookstove.

We started off today at a giant Kiwi.

They're really proud of all three kiwis here: the person, the bird and the fruit. And anything that has to do with any of three is drastically overpriced. The giant kiwi...at least a picture in front of it was free. Words cannot explain. It was just a huge, fake, half of a kiwi fruti. It was fun.

Zorbing. It's hard to explain this one...but definitely explains the kiwi (the person this time) and their love for all things random and wild. Zorbing is basically the following: put on clothes you don't mind getting wet. Do a nose dive into a huge, airfilled, rubber ball (that's the zorb) then get warm water poored all over you, then roll down a hill for about 2 minutes. We didn't zorb ourselves (another one of those pricey kiwi things), but we certainly watched it. And got a video.

We drove this afternoon through thermal NZ...wild, wild, wild! This part of the country is over a huge faultline and the area proves it! There's steam coming from everywhere...every single valley, random spots in fields and from the sewers too. We wandered around a thermal field and saw craters, bubbling mud pools and an amazing crater lake with the most unbelievable colors in it.

We've smelt nothing but sulfur since we got here.

Highlight: swimming in a natural hot spring this afternoon - warm water was pouring down a waterfall and we swam at the bottom of it. Digging our feet down into the sand burned them the ground underneath was so hot.

It's not surprising NZ uses geothermal power and we saw a huge power station for it...but I can't forget...on our way there, our van was stopped by...a huge cattle crossing. There were so many cows on the bridge a car couldn't get by. There were hundreds of them. Very random and very funny.

But getting back to geothermal power...we've driven over geothermal pipes and seen hundreds of streams of steam. Maybe it's the steam around this place that made the owners of Hell name their restaurant that way.

Who knows. But looking forward to that pizza!

-Amie

Rarotonga is the capital Island of the Cook Islands, a little string of islands in the South Pacific. To get here, we had to fly through Tahiti...not a bad deal! The island is so small (32km around) that when you climb up it's highest peak at 556m or so, you get a panoramic 360 degree view. Stunning.

We've never been in such a laid-back atmosphere before. For being such a beautiful place with a lot of visitors every year, the islanders sure don't go out of their way to help tourists. I think that's what's so appealing about the island. It hasn't fallen prey to near as many tourist traps as other island paradises. Stores close at 6pm, restaurants and coffee shops are closed by 9pm (or "until late") and nothing's open on weekends. It's a very family-oriented island.

There were a few things we noticed about the island right away namely, no traffic lights. Not a single one. Just two roundabouts that threw us for a few loops that's for sure! There were also goats tied up everywhere in people's back yards, onto street signs and advertisements, and tethered to just about anything imaginable. You name it a goat was probably tied there.

Before we rented our motorbike, we had to hitch rides a lot...it was a method of winning against a very expensive transportation system...$3 per ride on the local bus - which really adds up after a few days of needing to go to town!

Raro has many gods. Namely the phallic demi-god Tongaroa. Apparently he's the god of fertility on the island. Check out the picture of him and you won't wonder why any longer. We just couldn't get away from him...he was everywhere and such an integral part of the island that we had to go out and buy our own little statue of him for our house.

We spent a lot of time on the beach...trying to become bronzed stallions. We snorkeled, swam and sunned ourselves. We even buried Steve up to his neck in the sand...probably not the safest thing to do, but it certainly was an afternoon island adventure that's for sure! Until...a group of horseback riders came galloping down the beach. There was no way Steve was getting out of there on time, so I had to sit by his head to protect him. It shouldn't have been a problem, except that one guy couldn't get his horse under control and was running straight to us. All of a sudden we heard one of the ladies yell out "Watch the lady!" (In a British accent) and then a squawk when she finally saw the live head that was smiling under my arm. Somehow the wild rider managed to swerve out of the way in time. And Steve and I are still married and didn't fall prey to a nasty Honeymoon catastrophe.

Our second last night on the island we checked out Polynesian dancing...can those people dance! Picture coconut bikini tops and grass hula skirts on the girls and bare-chested men wearing hula/loin cloths and feathered headdresses. The music was amazing and the whole evening was definitely worth the small price we paid to go!

-Amie-

Can't say we've done anything too productive in our first 10 days of marriage. We have been hanging out at the beach most of the time. We are hoping to go on a day hike today across the island if it ever clears up. We have lots of stories already and too much to share on this expensive internet time. We had good times hopping through small town sask and alberta on our way to Calgary before we took off. We went to cypress hills and dinosaur national park and stayed in random small hik towns along the way. In between all that Amie and I were both going through interviews for jobs in Suriname.

It started the day before the wedding when I had a first round interview. I didn't think too much of it because there were other things on my mind. For some reason I made it to the second round of interviews which consisted of an hour long interview. So from a hotel in Medicine Hat I did that and it went pretty well. They asked to see Amie's resume and then this random other job in Suriname magically popped up in and so the hour before we flew out of calgary, Amie had an hour interview for that position. Both jobs are pretty awesome and perfect for each of us. I think the interview person likes us and she is going to get back to us sometime this week. The positions are only for 4-6 months so we will see what happens.

Anyway back to the honeymoon. We went to rent bikes the second day we were here after finding that hitch hiking was just taking too long (we refused to take the expensive tourist busses). When we were at the rental place we randomly decided to get a motorbike instead. Only problem with that is you need to get a licence and do a drivers test at the police station in town. So I decided I would do it - some people at our hostel had done it and it seemed to be pretty straightforward. I showed up at the police station and somehow it was busy or something and I got pushed into a wrong line. My picture was taken and I was handed my licence without even doing my test. So I now have cook islands motorbike licence.

that's all for now!

-steve-

Some time ago I was searching on the internet for some things to do in Saskatchewan when I came across THIS site, which had some pictures of places I had never heard of. A couple of those places were the Great Sand Hills which Amie and I visited last fall (CLICK HERE) and the the killdeer badlands which Doug and I visited last month (CLICK HERE). Even more striking, was this picture of these mysterious Diefenbaker Sandcastles. Our first stop was at Gardiner Dam when I thought I saw a whale in the lake but it was actually just massive ice buckling into huge piles due to the morning thaw (very similar to a previous adventure last year that we thought was an island stampede - CLICK HERE). From there we went to Beechy Saskatchewan to find there were no signs to the attraction. Our only piece of information was that they were south west of the city.

We started driving west and then cut south randomly on some grid roads. We just kept picking random south or west roads (some leading to dead ends or farms) until we very surprisingly found some old signs pointing to the sandcastle area. Finally we made to the end of the road with a no trespassing sign and parked the car. We decided we could probably never trace our steps again and it was pure luck that we stumbled upon the right road.

We whipped out the Coleman stove and cooked a nice breakfast of scrambled eggs and strawberry pancakes before embarking on foot to find if these sandcastles were really as glamorous as in the internet photograph. We walked around for over an hour before finding a sign, not for the sandcastles, but for this other attraction called Sunken Hill. We thought that it must have been the sandcastle area too and thought we saw something that looked like sandcastles in the distance, so we decided to head back pretty soon. Amie sat down for a bit while I took a final look around the area.

After walking along the cliffs a bit, I spotted another sign in the distance and that was it! When we finally found the sandcastle formation it was pretty exciting because they really did look amazing. There is a total contrast between them and the surrounding hills. The view was extraordinary with the dropoff cliffs and the Diefenbaker lake in the background. Very recommended hiking adventure!

And just when you thought no more could be done in a day, we drove to Outlook and Saskatoon to pick up wedding suits from the Koops and the Vincents, then dropped off some stuff for Amie's friend Crystal in Saskatoon, then hung out all evening with Katie and Paul Korchinski before driving back to Regina in the night!

-steve-

Big smiles all around after a very successful 4th year project demonstration to the faculty of engineering professors.

Doug and I decided we needed to take these two international students (Feng and Shawn) with us on an adventure this fine spring day. It turned out to be a really fun adventure with enough culture clash to keep it exciting. We got into the car early in the morning and Shawn asks "So how many people are in our tour group?" (Questions like this are very typical of Chinese tourists). We shocked him by telling him that there was no tour group, nor any tour bus. He then asked where we went to meet our guide. Again, he was shocked to know we were going on an unguided adventure. I guess venturing out somewhere unknown was something these two guys from China were not used to.

We got to the Killdeer badlands and hiked for about 5 hours. There were some great views (as seen on the pictures). The most notable thing that happened was during the middle of our journey when we were furthest from the car. Feng decided to slide down a hill and sprain his ankle. We thought he was done and we would have to leave him there but he surprised us by limping two hours back to the car. Each of the guys were delighted to find deer antlers as souveneirs. We also drove the guys to the US border so they could jump across the line to say they had "been there."

The best part for me happened at the end. We gathered a bunch of broken trees and put them in the trunk. We then drove to more familiar badlands (big muddies) to do some caving, climbing and most importantly, make a fire. Unfortunately we soon got really hungry. Then I realized that we had some sliced meat in the car that I was returning to doug. We preceded to roast the meat on sticks. We had so much doing this, that we didn't even realize it was snowing pretty hard. We drove away into the blowing snow having rid ourselves of adventure for a couple days.

Amie and I are finally engaged! Since she is going out to Egypt at Christmas (only time this year) to visit her parents, it was highly probable that this was going to happen sometime in December (but most people didn't see it coming). Let me answer the big three questions that everyone asks us: when is the big day?, who helped Steve (apparently incapable) with that ring?, how did it happen?.

Ok the big day is going to be this coming summer. I think next weekend sounds good but I'll let Amie take over those kinds of arrangements. No one helped me at all with any engagement arrangements including ring shopping because I am highly educated (now) in those areas :)

I am only going to give the extremely short version of the engagement story because you have to ask me yourself to get the details. Here's the gist of it: I took Amie out of the city a fair distance where I was sure there would be no one around. We went for a nice walk in the hills and then Amie noticed the big letters on the side of the hill that I had carved out of the snow beforehand. Nearby there was a path of flowers and candles. After some bribing with chocolate and tea she agreed to marry me!

On the way back from a trip to Calgary, I decided to take Amie on a little detour. She of course thought we were going to more ghost towns. I had a different idea in mind.

I had saw on the map that there were these "great sand hills" in Saskatchewan, whatever that means. Unless you actually go looking for them, it is kind of hard to believe that there could possibly be sand dunes in Saskatchewan.

There are probably many access points but south of Scepter by the town of Leader is the place where we chose to go. I think a 4WD would have been the best option as we kept bottoming out the car. Anyway, the terrain started to change and before we realized, there were patches of sand dunes (some of them were quite large!). Who would have thought!!

-steve-

Amie and I went out to visit some friends in Calgary. We had a day off so we went hiking with Chantelle to Cascade mountain in the Rockies. The hike to the amphitheater starts at the Norquay ski hill and takes a good 2 hours to wind up the mountain. The hike is pretty cool cause you are hiking through these trees for like an hour and a half getting all depressed and then you come out into this beautiful, peaceful bowl. From there, the trail leads up to the the summit.

-steve-

We are back in Ecuador and feeling pretty adventured out. We are lazing around at our friend Paul's house just north of Quito. He helps out at a mountaineering, adventure, hiking sort of camp ministry (El Refugio) here in Cala Cali. Right now there is kind of a hangout house because a bunch of people just showed up at the same time. There is a group from California building a house and a bunch of other Americans chilling out and visiting. We did a little hiking but we have spent a lot more time making pasta and fruit shakes. It is hard to keep Kevin and Ryan off the guitars too. I think we are going to park it here for a couple days until our flight.

I will finish off our Colombia story. We couldn't wait to get out of Colombia. I think we went to a bad city at a bad time and met bad people. Everyone hassled us. The men either tried to sell us drugs or told us we were going to get hurt for being there. The women whistled or gave us looks like we were idiots for being in the country. It is really too bad because Colombia is one of the most beautiful countries in South America. The time is just not right for visiting I guess.

That's it. Time to come home. I think we are ready for a rest but of course we are all thinking up new future adventures.

-steve

We thought we were cool going to Colombia. We heard it was dangerous so we left all of our stuff in Ecuador. We packed a small plastic bag with stuff we needed for a week before we returned for our stuff (so like our toothbrushes). Our first day in Colombia, our little daypack goes missing. I still claim that it dematerialized but I think the majority vote went towards it being swiped (maybe a little welcome to our country present). Anyway, now for our last week of traveling we seriously are just walking around with the clothes on our back (and camera). We just walked into a McDonalds and walked right into the bathroom. Ryan was washing his chest when I left and a McDonald's employee walked in on him with his foot in the sink. McDonalds is always a great international place to take a bath!

We have never had so many stares in all of our travels. Tourists obviously don't ever come to Colombia anymore. The for sure don't come to this city, Cali, anymore. We just picked a random city in the middle of Colombia, since we lost our travel guide about a month ago. Little did we know that it is the new drug capital.

We are being careful. In the daylight it is ok to enter parks, so we are told. We walked into one and started following this BonIce person (people all over Ecuador and Colombia selling freezies). They are about 10 cents and they have great flavors. When we get bored, sometimes we just follow them around. Tonight we are going to head back to Ecuador (hopefully) cause we are really running out of time now!

-steve

Ecuador is amazing - yesterday we were playing disc on the beach in the scorching sun and today we are hiking mountains in the cold wind. Yesterday we were in the "banana capital" and we definitely agree with the locals that the name does justice to Machala. I have never seen so many banana trees in my life. The nearby beaches had the samba music pumping and were all around great. But we are running out of time so we headed north to Banos.

Here in Banos, the first thing that sparked our attention was the active volcano next door that is continually spewing ash and (sometimes) lava. We definitely had to set out and climb it. They advise not to go past the refuge which takes 6 hours to get to. We are in pretty good shape and hiked up to it in 3 hours. Unfortunately by that time the wind was so strong and it was so cold that we decided to turn back.

What we really wanted to feel were the apparent tremors that exist when that far up the volcano. I am pretty sure I heard them but it could have been the wind. It was pretty cloudy out so it wasn't apparent that we were climbing anything other than a mountain. I think the best part was finding this gutted cow carcass. It was basically just skin and a head. After the initial shock of finding such a thing laying on the path, we spent about half an hour poking and prodding (to expand our biological knowledge of course).

Tomorrow we are signed up for some river rafting (class 3 & 4). As long as we don't suffer the same fate as Christie and Amie, we should be fine. However, we are hoping to get hurt enough to make a good story of it. Ryan says he wants to wet himself with fear. I want to be there to see it all!

-steve

We spent last weekend in Piura in Northern Peru staying with a family that Ryan is distantly related to. Staying with the Falks was refreshing and they made us feel at home. Some of the memorable events were eating yuka and plantain dishes along with seafood cooked (supposedly) in lemon juice. We also drank purple corn juice which was amazing and made various fruit shakes out of the passion fruit tree behind the house. One day after lunch we went walking looking for wild iguanas. When we had found enough we entertained ourselves by making scorpions attack each other.

That's it for Peru though! On our way out we made sure to stock up on the essentials - Coca tea and Inca Cola. It is difficult to leave these essentials but we have a good stock that should last for a while as long as we can survive carrying our heavy new burlap sacks full of stuff.

We arrived to Ecuador this morning and to the town of Vilcabamba. Supposedly many people live here to well over 100 so we are going to scope out the city to find the reason and/or the fountain of eternal youth. We have been quite successful in trying all the typical local dishes in each country. How delighted we were to read that the Ecuadorian food of choice is bull penis. We are definitely going to have to look into this!

-steve

Nope Dad, we haven't been attacked by Shining Path yet and we weren't on that bus wreak containing all the Canadians. But we have been on many buses recently. We are heading northward to Ecuador quickly cause we are running out of time. We just finished a couple days in South Peru in the Colca Canyon near Arequipa. The canyon is the deepest in the world and a great place to catch a glimpse of some condors.

We have been getting a little sick of traveling lately and have been making excuses to find luxuries whenever we can. For example, instead of 3 meals a day we go to a good restaurant and eat enough for the whole day. A couple days ago we walked into a buffet (cost 17 Soles). We planned to eat for the whole day and the owners noticed. We got the bill and it said we owed 25 Soles each! We were furious cause it was supposed to be all you can eat. They said we ate too much. Some of the people in the restaurant started trying to help us out too by this time. Then they switched their minds and said we ate too many deserts. Now, I did have 8 or 10 desert plates but still, it was all you can eat right? After some extended persuasion, we got out paying no extra.

Another luxury - we decided to try a more expensive bus for once. This one had full reclining seats, served supper, and had movies! The funniest part was after the first movie, the conductor handed around bingo cards. We were laughing our heads off but played along as he read the numbers over the bus intercom system. Ryan almost won. I think it is good that we only have a couple weeks left cause we are finding it difficult to be the cheapest ever. However, as for hygiene, Kevin still insists on being The Bum.

-steve

Well, we just finished our longest trek yet this trip. It started high in the snowy mountains up to 5000 meters and continued down into the tropical jungles at 1500 meters. By night 2 we had pestered our guide enough - it was clear we wanted to eat guinea pig. Our cook (the genius) found this no challenge at all.

We were staying near a local house that night and absolutely everyone around this area has guinea pigs running around their floors for special occasions. At the time, I didn't know we were actually going to get to eat them so I was catching them and petting them etc... Then a lady walked up to me and I thought she wanted a turn petting the cute little thing but she grabbed it and broke it's neck right in front of me!

At that moment for some reason, Kevin wanted to get a picture of it. It some sort of attempt at revenge, or maybe Kevin's special touch, the guinea pig started emptying its bladder with forceful projection. Kevin spun around and everyone was screaming and jumping out of the way. The locals were hysterical.

At this point I was not quite sure if it was actually dead yet and I wanted it back to revive it or something. But the killer lady grabbed it back and then while it was still warm and twitching (me still shocked and jaw dropped), she proceeded to skin and gut it. After getting over that shock (and getting most of it on video, hehe) we had a great Peruvian classic dinner (guinea pig is the national specialty).

I mentioned our cook was a genius. Seriously, Julio cooked up the most amazing things that you wouldn't expect on the side of a mountain. Everything from gourmet soups to great pastas and deserts. Everything had garnishes and 10/10 for presentation.

I almost lost it when he brought out this cake one morning that he somehow made in a pan. The next couple days were kind of a downer because I got sick (again). This time it was for a just cause though - over exerting myself over mountains (in addition to the normal path) and drinking too much non-purified river water.

For the last part of the trek we were walking along train tracks. I got further ahead then the group and didn't realize they took an alternate route along the road. The tracks started to go through many narrow tunnels.

I knew there wasn't supposed to be any trains coming but I would still enter the tunnels with caution, creep half way and then take off running out of fear just in case a train would come.

At the 4th or 5th tunnel I was over that fear and was just casually walking through the tunnel. Half way through I was shocked to hear the sound of a train. I took off running and good thing because a train did enter the tunnel.

I made it out of the tunnel with ample time but I definitely needed the run. Later I checked and there was lots of room to pin myself against the wall of the tunnel (that would have been the more thrilling option if I had another chance :)

Alright, day 5, the pinnacle of our trek and our reason for coming to the continent: Manchu Picchu. I think I can only describe the ruins it in one way. Manchu Picchu is the probably the most stunning sight on earth but you have to share the experience with 500 people you don't like.

I guess that is not totally true.. we did try to befriend a couple American tourists at one point - but not because we wanted to respond to all their questions - we wanted the remains of the sandwiches they were going to throw out. We chatted for 10 minutes and finally we got offered the remains.

Then it was back to explore the ruins some more. Don't get me wrong, we had the most amazing day and it was well worth it. We got up at 4:30 AM and hiked to the ruins, making it there before everyone.

We sat up on a hill for the next 2 hours and watched as the morning mist slowly revealed the ruins. It was absolutely fantastic. The rest of the day was hot and sunny and we got the best pictures.

-steve

Today we hung out in Cusco all day after another fantastic overnight bus. Cusco is surrounded by a bunch of ruins which can be hiked to from the city. The most famous other than Manchu Picchu is Sacsayhuaman. It is probably just as fun saying the name as it is actually visiting the ruins (roughly pronounced "sexy woman"). After that we definitely went a little overboard with shopping for clothes. As I speak, I am completely decked out in the greatest Peruvian garb. I won't describe anything because it will all too apparent from the way we will be dressing in the next 2 years.

Another funny thing that happened resulted from the numerous times we were offered drugs today. Marijuana and cocaine were the most frequent offers. Anyway, one of the times I muttered something under my breath like "stop bugging me" or "get lost". The guy switched from his Spanish into perfect English saying "hey man, someone's got to sell it", in a funny voice. All of us cracked up loudly including the guy. The rest of the day as we were hassled to buy random (many hilarious) trinkets, the new phrase kept us optimistic and cheery.

Other than that, we are getting very close to the reason we came to the continent: hiking the Inca Trail to Manchu Picchu (most famous ruins on the continent). Seriously do a search and check out the pics if you have never seen it. Ok gone for 5 days!

-steve

Well friends, we just finished our two day tour of island hopping on Lake Titicaca and it was quite impressive. For example, we took a boat ride to the 'floating islands' where the Uros people, a small tribe, live(or so they say, we think it's just for tourism). The whole island is made up of interwoven totora reeds and they use these reeds to make everything from the islands themselves to little model boats to sell to tourists. The islands are pretty small consisting of maybe 5 or 6 reed houses with everyone selling stuff. We asked the tour guide where the people use the washroom and he mentioned that they use one side of the island to pee and crap and the other side for fresh water. But what the people don't know is that these are floating islands and so they move around depending on the direction of the wind. I would be careful of the drinking water if I were you.

Well friends, our next island was Isla Amantani where we stayed with a local family. You can tell that this island was made for tourism because they have special toilets for the gringos (real ones and not the stinky holes that the locals use) and a total separate sleeping quarter with clean blankets. That afternoon we played football with the locals and we got creamed of course. Us gringos were huffing and puffing because of the altitude and all the locals were laughing and us. What I don't get is that all the locals were playing in their dress shoes'.maybe that's the secret. Later on in the night we had a traditional fiesta where everyone got dressed up and looked pretty. They gave us some snazzy Peruvian toques and ponchos to wear for this festive occasion. We were 3 hot guys looking for some action! That night we showed the Peruvian girls what it meant to get funky. Actually it was weird because the girls were leading the guys but we finally caught on. And so we danced the night away. Quechua dance was a bit odd and quite plain actually. We had to add a bit of a Russian dance just to spice things up which everyone loved.

Well friends, the next day we hopped to Isla Taquile where we hiked to the other side of the island where the Uros people where doing their traditional dance in the plaza. They said it was a 40 min hike to the other side but us gringos did it in 20. All acclimatized - we are all ready for Macchu Picchu! The people were wearing their flamboyant traditional clothes and seemed to being playing the same songs but it was nice seeing them dance around in their costumes anyways. We took a 3 hr ferry ride back to Puno (sunbathing on the deck and getting a good tan) and will be taking an overnight bus to Cusco ' yeah baby!!

-kevin

When we made it to the island where we were going to spend the night, we were informed that there was a soccer game going on and we were to get a gringo team together to play the locals. This happens pretty much all the time and we always get beat. This was especially embarrassing this time though because we clearly didn't have the advantage. These locals play every day and at 4000 meters I can make one strike and then I have to sit down.

After the soccer game we were told there was a fiesta going on that night. This was a little suspicious. I tried to find out whether or not they do this for the foreigners every night but I couldn't get a straight answer. It was clear that the local island folks liked having us there so I planned to have a riot. Our host family dressed us up in traditional clothing (textile ponchos and tuques) and we were off. The locals were ready to get dancing right away and before I knew it, this 60 year old lady was working me to the max. This lady wouldn't let go and she was hurting my arms. I tried to take the advantage by incorporating some high school jive moves. Later in some sort of line dance everyone had some good laughs when Kevin, Ryan and I started incorporating Irish jumping heel clicks and random Russian yelling.

-steve

So about our jail experience... well to make a long, agonizing story short, we actually never got in San Pedro jail. We heard of lots of people who did and the great stories that went along with it. We did find a bio on our potential inmate guide though. It is amazingly interesting and I highly recommend you Google it and read some stories

After our disappointing last day in La Paz, we headed over to Lake Titicaca where we found you could hike along the shore for a few hours and then get a boat to this island Isla De Sol (Island of the Sun). We got up early for the hike after a very light breakfast. I decided I wanted to go up into the mountains more so I left Ryan and Kevin and ventured off.

Now, hiking on a nearly empty stomach for 5 hours is hard enough but when at altitudes higher than 4000 meters like everywhere around these Bolivian highlands it is insane! So I hiked until I was almost falling over but I wasn't at the end of the peninsula yet where I was planning on meeting the other two and heading to the island. I stumbled down into a small little village in the mountains and started banging on doors to see if anyone had any food.

Finally I got to one door that looked like a little shop. Some local guy opened the door and I think I scared him partly from my lack of sustenance and partly from my lack of hygiene. I looked around the shop half falling over from hunger. Good, they had water... but all they had to eat was baking chocolate. So I grabbed a few blocks of chocolate and a 2 liter water and left the shop. I collapsed outside and downed the whole 2 liters in one sitting and started gnawing on the baking chocolate.

By this time I think the shopkeeper was really freaked out. He ran to his nearby house and got his wife to cook some quick food. I am not sure if this was advantageous because he brought me a plate full of potatoes dipped in grease (charred on the outside and raw on the inside). I ate everything super fast cause I was starving (even though it was disgusting). After this the shopkeeper had this great big proud smile like he revived me to life or something. He quickly snapped out of it and said "5 bolivianos please", holding out his hand. I handed him the money despite the food (which made me sick later that night by the way). Just to make sure he didn't win completely, I went back to the shop and bought some more chunks of baker's chocolate, saying that I was still starving.

So finally I met up with Ryan and Kevin and we payed a guy to row us to the island. After a few strokes, he pointed to the paddles and told us to start rowing (then he slacked off). Now, Isla De Sol is supposed to be the creation site of the sun and the first Inca people. It definitely was sunny, that's for sure. It may have been pure coincidence or maybe just ironic, but by the end of the day both Koop and I were severly burnt on our arms and face. We hiked all over the island and stayed in a cheap little place with little sheep running everywhere. Kevin had lots of fun trying to mount the various island animals.

Anyway, we just arrived in Peru and the city of Puno. Puno is nothing special and is on the Peru side of Lake Titicaca. Fortunately when we arrived in the city, there was a huge fiesta going on. They wouldn't, of course, block off the street so as we were coming into the city, we were weaving through dancers in a parade.

Just outside of Puno there is a city with a fertility temple. Before it got dark we went to the temple and posed with the 82 oddly shaped phallic rocks (I won't go into details). Kids outside the temple tried to sell us little rock miniatures. We thought they wouldn't go over so well on a shelf at home. Later tonight we booked a tour back out into Lake Titicaca where we will visit some islands and stay with some local families!

-steve

We have spent 2 days so far in the capital of Bolivia, La Paz. This city is absolutely beautiful. The whole city is in a bowl shaped valley with snow capped mountains in the background. You can't get lost in the city cause you just walk downhill to the center but it is easy to get winded at an altitude of 4000 meters (highest capital in the world). Anyway, we have become quite lazy after being on too many buses. We found a place where you can get a huge bowl of 10 kinds of chopped fruit topped with yogurt and granola for 30 cents US. We have made good friends with the lady at the shop and we even have a running tab with her cause we have been there so many times. La Paz has some unique things which can't be missed. There are guys everywhere on the street wearing ski masks (terrorist style) and instead of carrying guns like you'd think, they are carrying shoe polish equipment. We thought they were wearing their army garb and masks cause of the cold but it got really hot today and now we realize it is just fashion. It is great for the 95% of people who are wearing black shoes. For us and our constant sandal wearing, they give us an odd and then disappointed look. The other really noticeable (annoying) thing about La Paz is every 2 seconds a minivan will drive by with someone hassling you to get in. You see, they use them as buses in the city cause buses couldn't handle the tight corners and the steep roads.

Our hostel is in the middle of the Witches Market. Here, all the witchy items you ever wanted like llama fetuses, idols, and various herbs. They said they would cast a spell on us if we took pictures of their llama fetuses. Kevin somehow managed to get one and avoid the curse (he is really agile).

We finally broke down from our "lightest ever" mentality and went shopping crazy. Every Peruvian item of clothing that you want is available and cheap. With our hats and alpaca jackets, we can sneak around in the culture unnoticed. This is quite useful because people here have a violent objection to gringos wanting to take pictures of them.

-steve

We made it to Uyuni 3 am and thought we had to wait the next morning to book our 3-4 day tour of the salt flats but people were hounding us the minute we got off the bus. I love it. We bargained till we got the best deal and got a free nights stay and breakfast the next morning. Sweet action! They tour guys said that we would be leaving by 10:00 am but it ended that we left at 11:30 am...stupid Bolivian time. We first headed to the Salt Flats, the largest and highest in the world. There we took some sweet N-man pics and other creative ones as well...so fun!

We had two English guys in our group to help us out - Simon and Hugo who participated in the fiasco. The whole ride we were listening to Cachaka music, Bryan Adams(Please forgive me) like 20 times, and some good oldies. Our tour guide Epi (I called him Epi-center) was cool. He has been a tour guide for 8 yrs but hardly spoke a word of English. We taught him "How are you" and "good" but by the end he got them pretty mumbled. Throughout the whole trip he didn't remember anybody's name but mine. "Kevin, Kevin, Kevin". He probably thought all the white people look the same and was interested in a little Japanese guy from Canada. They all call me "Japon" over here. Everyone. They all look at me weird here.

The Salt Flats and the surrounding areas were just breath-taking. The only thing bad is that it gets super cold at night. The 3 of us were in the "cheap" room(while all the other Gringos paid $5 US to stay in a Hotel made of salt) and we had to take all the other blankets from the other beds just to keep warm. We had like 7-8 blankets on us. The bums score again. The Salt Flat tour was good, lots of hours riding in a jeep through the bumpy desert, lots of Bryan Adams - but we managed to get good eats and excellent pics.

-kevin

We spent the day in the mining town of Potasi. A proper experience in Potosi involves a tour of the mines which are in use all the time. First of all, it is custom to go to the miners market and buy presents for the miners. So we bought all the essentials - Coca leaves, cigarettes, and dynamite! I have a million things to say about Coca leaves now but I'll save it for later. Basically it is tradition for these miners not to eat all day and only suck on coca leaves which supposedly replaces the need for food, rest and a bunch of other things. It is eventually disastrous to their health (even if not refined into Cocaine) but the average lifespan of a miner here is 35 years anyway so they don't care.

We got all suited up in our mining garb including bright yellow clothes and helmet with light. The miners used every primitive method in the book - pickaxes, shovels, wheelbarrows etc... They mine tin, silver, and zinc ore to name a few. We crawled through tunnels for a few hours talking with miners (they really only wanted the coca leaves though to add to their cheek wad). We had a good talk with our guide after noticing a huge Satan statue in one corridor of the mine. 95% of the miners live an interesting life. When above ground they are Catholic (nominally) and when they are down underground (devil's domain) they worship Satan and offer him coca and alcohol in exchange for good finds in the mine (they occasionally participate in llama or child sacrifice too). There are many examples of syncratism around these countries, stemming from colonial times. Probably the highlight of our visit was exploding some dynamite. We piled rocks on top of this and ran far enough away to see the explosion. It was way bigger than we expected and I got hit in the chest with a huge rock fragment projectile!

-steve

Well after we went to the mine we head off to the hot spring we heard were near by. We caught a bus about 10 km outside of Potosi and asked the driver to drop us off at the Hot Springs. He then proceeded to drop us off at the side of the road and pointed up this mountain and told us to hike the rest of the way. Excited that we would get to work for this reward of a hot bath we headed up to the top. When we reached the top we saw this big pool of water that had all sorts of floaties in it and it was lukewarm at best. After agreeing that it wouldn't be worth the enjoyment we continued on. We found some smaller pools but they were not deep at all but no floaties just bubbles coming up from the mud. We were about to dig ourselves each a hole and get in when a guy told us that the real Hot Springs were up the hill more. Wow! I am glad we met him because it would have been sad to miss out. At the top was a small lake with the most amazing scenery around it. It was really warm so we bargained down the prices to get in and then grabbed the complimentary tire tubes and jumped in.

After 45 minutes of the amazing experience we were off to catch a bus back to Potosi. We were in a rush because we knew there were only one or two more buses that would leave to Potosi that night and we had a bus to catch in Potosi that would take us to Uyuni. After waiting for about 1hr hour on the road trying to catch a bus and then it being full we thought all hope of us making it to catch our bus was lost. The big guy came through though, just in time too. We caught a bus packed it right full and made it into Potosi. Our bus left at 7.30 pm and we got to the city at that time. We made a mad dash running as fast as we could in this oxygen poor altitude.

Somewhere along the way we lost Kevin and I lost my underwear that I was trying to dry from the Hot Springs. I took of in the lead and found the place our bags were stored and our tickets were purchased and grabbed our bags and head to the bus that was very anxious to leave. Steve followed and then we realized that Kevin was gone so I took off back tracking to find Kevin. In the process I took a short cut through a grass area and was tripped by a strategically place barb wire fence that for some reason they put around there grass areas. After checking the wounds on my leg, making sure they weren't that bad I continued in pursuit of Kevin with my sandals in hand. I found him and we raced back to the bus just in time because the bus was going to leave without us but Steve was pleading with them to wait. We got to the bus and Kevin just dropped to the floor in the bus and the locals started laughing. We sat down and caught our breath and then Steve pulled out supper which he some how managed to buy on the way.

-koop

We are really enjoying Bolivia! It is by far the cheapest and poorest country we have come across this summer but it has lots to see and learn about. We just finished staying with a missionary family in Santa Cruz. They have been here for 28 years doing church planting and now radio ministy. The later peaked my curiosity and I asked questions about that and Bolivia life and culture until our heads were spinning.

The Fehr's fed us well and when you see corn flakes or cinnamon buns for the first time all summer, it is something to talk about! Other memorable events in Santa Cruz were bus hopping and sitting around drinking fruit shakes. Ok so not that eventful but we did play a game one day where we split up to see who could get the best pictures of the local people. A police man got mad at Kevin for trying to pay people to take their photos. It was pretty funny.

Today we were in the nice city of Sucre. The altitude is getting pretty high and most of the day we were gasping for air. The cities around this area of the country are 3000-4000 meters above sea level. We stumbled upon some new fruit shake flavors like avocado and plantain. What a find!

-steve

Last time I updated we were in Corumba on the border of Brazil and Bolivia. Upon arriving to the city we were quickly informed that there were no trains or busses or anything into Bolivia. Supposedly there was a referendum or election or something and all transportation was shut down (as well as all shops and everything). This was really disappointing because this meant we were stuck in Corumba over the weekend. But we weren't going to let this not prevent us from trying. We got to our hostel and were told the same information.

The next morning we went to an office to get our Brazil exit stamps in our passports. Kevin and I got through fine but when Ryan's turn came, he didn't have an important paper needed for the stamp. They told him to come back Monday (in 2 days) and pay for a new paper - another hit. Before walking away, I told Ryan to go again and beg and pay or do whatever it takes. The second time there was a different person at the window and after a little confusion, we were on our way with the required stamps.

We were feeling an extra dose of faith that Saturday morning so we took a bus to the border. We met some people coming back from the bus and train stations - no trains, no buses. We kept going anyway - took a taxi to the bus station. When we got there, a bus was waiting and was heading to Bolivia. We tried to buy a ticket but the all the seats were filled. We asked to go into the aisles but again, no possible way. We were almost defeated but decided to wait until the bus left - to secure our failure. Just before the bus was going to leave, we just walked on and sat in the aisles. No one really cared and so we were off!

So that was the miraculous part of the story. I'm not sure the miracle was worth the bus ride - we had no seats, the aisles were narrow, the distance was 18 hours (supposedly), there were 10 more people in the aisles, the bus smelt like barf, and the roads were dirt. We stood up and took turns crouching in the aisle for the rest of the day. When night came, a few people on the aisle found somewhere to lean. Then the bus broke down at 1 am. Something was wrong with the steering column but after an hour or so, they gummed or tied something in place and we were off. Kevin and Ryan found some way to sleep in the aisle but I didn't even have room to put both feet flat on the ground.

This is the hardest thing I have ever done in my life. I balanced standing up on one foot and a half from 2am to 5am. I was a basket case and I just felt like screaming cause there was no room. Remember I said the bus smelled like barf? Well it was near the end of these 3 agonizing hours that it really started to get to me. Finally I had to hurl. I had a Ziploc bag in my pocket with some candy in it. While everyone was sleeping, I emptied it out and quietly puked it full trying not to splash the people at my feet too much. I think only one kid noticed me and gave me the worst look ever. I had nowhere to throw the bag so I just put it in the pouch of my hoodie. So I kept standing there feeling like crap with a bag of barf in my hoodie pouch. Finally after 3 hours I got a chance to sit down after some people reshuffled (they eventually noticed that I was a mess). I crouched down and slept for a while, not realizing that my barf bag was seeping out into my clothes. I woke up just before it soiled them too much and chucked it out the open door. Stuff like this went on for a total of 28 hours !!! ! (not 18). But we are finally in Bolivia 2 days earlier then everyone said was possible. A miracle bus or a cursed bus... I am not sure?

-steve

The last three days we have been on an amazing, relaxing adventure in the Pantanel in western Brazil. So much has happen and I will tell about some of the highlights. Early on in the trip, this English guy and I started to count noticeably different animals. Excluding birds, fish, and insects, we made it to 30! Some of these included snakes, alligators, monkeys, armadillos, parrots, toucans, deer, and capybaras (ginormous rodents). Our camp was situated in the middle of this swampland and there were animals passing through all the time. We all slept in hammocks which was an experience in itself and ate fresh fruit and local food the whole time. We had our first ultimate game of the trip and of course some good soccer too.

The most frequent words that came out of our mouths were "puedo comer?" or "can I eat this?". We really wanted to eat some wild and/or endangered animals, especially the alligators. They were everywhere! The closest we got was the second morning. Our guide loured an alligator to shore with a fake fish and then roped it. He got on it's back and then grabbed its jaws. Then he said "hey steve, take this". I was like "what the!". But we all ended up passing this alligator along by the jaws. I could hardly lift the thing it was so heavy! Our guide asked us if he should kill it and cook it up. Despite our begging, one of the girls with us said no so he didn't. Later he told us he has never had to do it cause someone in the group always buckles.

One morning we woke up to the most horrible sound imaginable. It sounded like a motorcycle combined with groaning and screaming all at once. We jumped out of our hammocks and ran towards the noise - it turned out to be some monkeys. Seriously, it was the loudest thing on earth and it woke everyone in a 1 km radius up perfectly for breakfast at 6am. Other notable experiences were pirhana fishing and horse riding which Ryan is going to talk about.

-steve

On day two we had another early day starting a 6 am but it was amazing. First of all a little background information. I have gone fishing quite a few times with friends and I have never caught a fish. Not only have I never caught a fish usually everyone else who I go with does. I was bound and determined to catch a fish in the Pantanal of Brazil. My determination paid it self off in huge amounts. Success, finally! We went piranha fishing in the morning and it was an interesting experience. First of all before going into the piranha infested waters you want to make sure that you aren't the bait. What I mean is if you are bleeding then the piranhas see you as mighty tasty and they would work in a team fashion to strip you to the bone. This is a bit of info that is good to know before going in.

After checking for open wounds you head into the water up to you waist or chest with the piranhas swimming around you. The fishing rods were a long piece of bamboo with fishing line and a hook attached we used chunks of cow heart as the bait. When we were entering the water we had our rod in one hand and a handful of cow heart in the other. I reminded everyone just before we entered all the way in that it wouldn't be wise to put the cow heart in our pocket for many good reason. Kevin quickly agreed and quietly removed the meat from his pocket.

Once fishing you cast three times and then leave your line in the water and the second and I mean second you feel a nibble you need to yank your line out of the water or else you will find that your bait has been eaten. After losing my meat quite a few times and getting frustrated at the fish I caught the hang of it and in the end caught 5 piranhas. I was a thrilling experience! To top it off there were four alligators swimming around where we were fishing and they would just hang out on the shore and we would taunt them with fish and grab there tails.

In the afternoon we got to go for a horseback ride. This ride wasn't your typical horse ride you have at camp, it was the Pantanal version. Let loose, go wild! Forget the stay in a straight line, no galloping, follow the leader type style. There was a guide, but he was all over from the front to the back and sometime I didn't know where he was. So my horse and I we decided to be the leaders of the group. It was slow at the start and then I realized that I needed a thick piece of grass or a little stick and then things got moving.

It is also great fun to smack each other's horses to get them going. We did everything from walk to trot to gallop and it was at our leisure. Steve switched horses twice trying to find the perfect horse that would match his crazy style however his first horse was a little loco and wouldn't follow Steve's lead and the finally the second took a lot of whipping to get it moving. Kevin was almost a little too wild as Rusty and him would just take off in one direction in a jolt with Kevin bouncing all over. There was one moment where I felt like a true South American cowboy when one girl was racing me with her horse. She took off before me so I quickly got my horse to go by yelling yaaah yah, eeeeee, and other various south American cowboy things. Then as my horse was galloping I leaned over to the side and grabbed some tall grass and then repeatedly smacked my horses backside as I took the lead and then I finished by putting the grass between my teeth. Yeee haaaa! The ride lasted over 3hr and was just perfect but I am feeling the side affect today throughout my entire body.

-koop

Our last day in Rio, we climbed to the famous Jesus statue that overlooks the city. Everyone is supposed to take taxis or private buses up the mountain but being the cheapest ever, we chose to do the 2 hour walk on foot. Everyone laughed at us and at the top lots of people commented that they saw us and felt sorry (not sorry enough to pick us up though).

The view from the top was pretty amazing. Rio is probably one of the most beautiful cities in the world. The beaches are amazing and there are narrow mountains everywhere with city surrounding them. The official language in Brazil is Portuguese but at the Jesus statue I am pretty sure it is English. If we were the only ones there it would have been a pretty good experience but pushing through all the tourists damped the experience quite a bit. After that it was back to the beach. The waves were huge and people were surfing. We had more fun doing the cheaper alternatives like letting the waves swirl us around and contort our bodies.

After Rio we headed towards the famous Iguazu falls. These falls (supposedly) have the most water in the world crashing over them - I think they are probably right. 250 rivers (Koop says so) combine and crash over the falls at the confluence of 3 countries (Argentina, Paraguay, Brazil). We went to the Argentinian side and had another great experience despite the flocks of tourists. Once we ventured off the path and tried to hike closer to the falls then allowed. One of the security guards got angry at us but to us it was actually more humorous than anything - there are some very convenient times to know nothing about the language.

So after 3 night buses we find ourselves in Campo Grande. The bus we just got off of was the most interesting. Last night Kevin located a bed at the back of the bus where the driver was supposed to sleep before switching off. Kevin slept there for a bit until the driver came back and got really angry at him "you think this is your house?". Later on in the trip a Portuguese person told us the reason for the outburst. Kevin had stumbled upon some drug smuggling. Throughout the night there were people opening compartments and making odd stops along the road. After that, we decided to keep our mouths shut and mind our own business. As much as we didn't want to look interested, it was impossible not to keep one eye open and see everything that was going on. We made it though! We just signed up for a 3 day trek in a region of Brazil called the Pantanel. It is kind of a wetlands area where the best animal viewing in Brazil is possible. Later!

-steve

We started off another day in Rio with a mission. We wanted to get into a favela at all cost. Favelas are shanty towns that are run by drug lords. They can be extremely violent and the police are there every day. Gangs within the favelas fight for power and the thousands of people that live within keep quiet in exchange for favors from the people in power. We heard a rumor that there was this guy who did tours through these favelas so we called him up and for a pretty penny we jumped on some motorbikes and went into this thing. It was totally safe with this guy ok? If there was any trouble he said he would take us down a different path or stay with one of his many friends along the way. So for a few hours we walked around this garbage dump where people somehow survive. Bullet holes line the walls of graffiti depicting the stuggles within their community. Fortunately some of the money we gave him goes to support some relief work like schools and health clincis. What an experience!

Later that day in poured hard so we decided to stay another day in hopes of getting some more sunshine. We decided to go see a movie. We wanted to see Spiderman 2 but it was sold out so we bought tickets for Shrek 2. After a little wit and lack of Portuguese skills we found ourselves sitting in the Spiderman theater anyway. All in a days work! Ok, Brazilians are passionate about life. Imagine the passion you'd expect at a Brazilian soccer game and transfer that into a theater. There is cheering, clapping and they get so into the movies that it is more like a big friendly party. I have never seen people go crazy and cheer at the get the girl parts or laugh their heads off at the cheesiest jokes ever. Luckily for the 3 English speakers in the crowds, everyone had to read the subtitles over the English movie. yay!

-steve

Ok, we had the best meal ever. We keep saying this but this time its true. The place was called Buffalo Grill and it was all you can eat meat and the biggest salad bar you can imagine. The best thing about it is that these garcons come to your table and bring you any kind of meat on these skewers. You can refuse if you want but we took it all in. Words cannot describe just how incredible this meal was. We were da bums eating in this posh restaurant with everything imaginable. It was so posh that they even had dental floss in the washroom! The funniest thing was that one time there was a garcon who was about to take my drink can away when there was still juice in there and I quickly grabbed his hand saying "No! I'm still drinking that!" Little did I know that he was about to refill my other drink glass. I couldn't done it myself but I was too much da bum.

That night we hooked up with my friend Juliana and she took us to our first ever football match! It was so sweet action. It wasn't one of those big league matches but we ended up watching two professional Brazilian teams. The funniest thing heading to the stadium was that there was a huge line of police checking for any guns people might have. Of course we bought the cheapest tickets but edged our way down to the front. We had good seats but we didn't sit the whole game because we found out that in Brazil everyone stands and everyone is supposed to cheer or else they may look at you funny. The crowd cheered the whole game(and even after) and it was funny hearing them yell, scream, shout, swear, sing and taunt. In the end our home team Palmeiras won 4-1 against Juventude.

-kevin

We arrived early this morning in Rio de Janeiro after a chilly overnight bus ride that only took 5 hours. Upon arriving we found an interesting Hostel to stay in that was strategically packed and stacked with rooms. Anxious to get to the beach we headed off to the well known Copacabana. After hours of swimming, fighting off the waves, realizing modesty isn't Rio's strong area we were bound and determined to climb a mountain with out having to pay an outrageous price that tourist would pay.

After trying two mountains and realizing that the military had control of these we decided to go to this mountain called Sugar Loaf where you take two gondolas up to the very top. Not having lost all hope we asked around and found a path that we hoped would lead us the back way. After unexpectedly see small squirrel like monkey and trying to catch them the path ended. We bushwhacked our way up to the part which separate men from boys. The three of us scaled the steep rock face and then when it got too steep and there were no foot holds we almost were defeated, but then we met some local boys that had the same idea to climb up the back of this mountain. Luckily they were more prepared and we used their rope to aid us in our adventure. A gorgeous view is always more beautiful when you have earned it, and have saved 30 R. After enjoying the spectacular view of the city before and after sun set we headed down using the gondola for free. After stuffing ourselves with fruit shakes and food we went and cleaned up to get ready for tomorrows adventures.

-koop

We finally made it to Sao Paulo after a 28 hour bus ride. The highlight of the bus ride was having no Brazilian currency when the bus stopped for supper. Kevin and I slumped at a table and eventually people just started buying stuff for us. A sandwich then some cokes etc.. We got to Sao Paulo just in time to rush to the airport and pick up Koop. This is it, the three of us are together and ready for the next leg of our journey!

We have been quite impressed with the craziness and the vast amounts of people everywhere. got a great hostel here in the city which was $4 with all you can eat breakfast. Other than that everything is pretty routine - first shower in a week, finding ticks all the time random places which I won't specify, stuff like that. Kevin has been sick for a couple days without being able to hold much food in. His remedy for his illness is to eat as much as possible faster than his body can liquefy the food... Seems to be working.

-steve

The last few days in Paraguay have been more than interesting. Actually most of the time I have been walking around in a daze. I have come to the conclusion that this has been for one of two reasons - either I have malaria or the malaria pills I have started to take are giving me the side effects (we have now entered the jungle type areas of South America). I'm hoping for the later. Anyway, these side effects have been quite instructive and now I can fully describe what it probably feels like to have malaria. First of all, I can eat as much as I want but get no energy at all. Blurred vision, weak muscles, stomach and head ache. All this has really heightened the Paraguay experience. First of all everyone here keeps telling us how dangerous it is for us to be here so I keep hallucinating about people with guns everywhere (most of that is true). I keep seeing poisonous snakes on the road everywhere (Kevin says there hasn't been though).

Yesterday we conquered the first Paraguay confluence ever! It was mostly just walking through a bit of jungle and farmers fields but being doped up on these drugs made it much more of an adventure. I could have fallen asleep along the way in a pile of mud or where ever. Today we are going to check out the old ruins in Southern Paraguay called "Jesus". Supposedly it is an old Jesuit established town. I think people just go there to get their picture with the sign though.

Other than that, our time in Paraguay is up! We got some bus tickets to Sao Paulo, Brazil, for tomorrow morning. When our bus arrives we are going to the airport to pick up Ryan. Then the three of us will continue on working our way to Ecuador. Woohoo!

-steve

I am not exactly sure what happened along the way to this confluence but I will tell the story as best I can. You see, the day before the confluence I decided to start my anti-Malaria medicine and that in combination with lack of food and sleep was making everything really interesting. No energy, random distorted vision bursts, occasional hallucinations - It probably made the journey to the confluence that much more interesting.

Anyway, the confluence is located near the town of Ybycui near a national park. Since we were going to the national park anyway, the confluence venture seemed reasonable. Of course, taking Paraguay local buses to get to little cities isn't the most pleasant experience. Every bus goes about 30 km and then loops around again. So after 6 or 7 buses and all day, we reached the town of Ybycui.

Now of course with most confluence attempts, there is always a really easy way to get to the confluence which you only find on the way back. Of course the way there takes much longer because you go down the wrong paths in a roundabout direction. That was the case here. We walked down a road kind of in the direction of the confluence but of course it curved around. We finally bushwhacked through some farmer's fields and across a couple rivers (this part was a lot more interesting because of the meds) and voila! we made it to the confluence and noticed a road right beside it (the way back took a quarter of the time).

And there you have it! the first conquered confluence in Paraguay!!!

-steve

It has been a victory in Jesus today, hanging out with the people of Jesus. I think most people are attracted to the town called Jesus cause of the old Jesuit ruins. I'll admit the ruins are pretty cool. We got a lot of really good pictures.

As we were leaving the town, we heard people singing about Jesus. On closer inspection it was not a town theme song but a church service so we wandered in. It was highly noticeable that people were not able to concentrate at all so they finally stopped for a sec and got us up to the front. They made me speak in whatever broken Spanish possible who we were and where we were from etc... quite embarrassing. After the service everyone wanted to say hi and some old lady was passing around cake - we felt right at home. Kevin got a chance to pick up a guitar for the first time this trip.

We have only been in Paraguay for a short time but this place has so much culture that we have already compiled the "you know you are in Paraguay when..." list. Forgive me if most of these are you had to be there jokes.

You know you are in Paraguay when...

...the cashier at the supermarkado can't make change so she throws a couple candies in your bag.
...you get on a bus that requires you to squeeze through bars to get to the back.
...you date on Monday, Wednesday, on Friday and the other days are open for others.
...the fruit lady waves down a bus to make change.
...all you can find for breakfast is greasy empanadas and deserts.
...95% of the sound coming out of any audible device is "cachaka" music.
...you are trying to decipher the church hymnbook and mouth some words when it is your turn for the mate cup.

-steve

So the day is finally over - but it was well worth it even though I said I would never do it again. But the price was so good ($10 CAD!!!) - so there I found my self looking down over the bridge with the bungy cord attached to my legs. I could hear Kevin counting down from 5 and it was time to fly. The instructor guy had just told me if I jumped head first in a flying motion it would hurt less and I wouldn't hit the water so hard. I don't remember a whole lot after that but it was quite the rush and I recommend it to everyone.

So after our good times in Argentina, today we finally waved goodbye with teary eyes. We weren't even going to go to Argentina for more than a week and we ended up being there over 3 weeks! So what can I say about Paraguay - the place that none of the backpackers ever come, the place where no one has really heard anything about. My first observations are that is definitely in the top 3 for dirtiest SA country.

The country also has a very militant feel. There is an officer of some type with a machine gun on most corners. Lots of people supposedly carry hand guns around too. Paraguay contains the most corrupt city in South America and it is a good place to buy stolen electronics. With all this reputation who wouldn't come here. Look on the bright side - I just bought a bag of 10 or 15 mandarin oranges for less than 50 cents Canadian.

-steve

Tonight we decided to remedy the aparent weight loss we have been observing in eachother. So for supper we went to the cheap street food. So far tonight Kevin and I have each had 2 fruit shakes, 2 cups of fries, 3 ice cream cones, and some pastries - but the night is young.

Earlier in the day we made the like the gauchos (Northwest Argentinian cowboys). We got a guy to take us to his ranch and spent the day riding through the hills on horseback. We got an extensive history and cultural lesson. Of course we had the biggest steaks for lunch that you have ever seen (common here in Beef country).

If the gauchos aren't eating beef, they are drinking wine and sucking on coca leaves. I still don't totally understand the later but diving into that area of the culture hasn't had hazardous effects on my health as of yet. Supposedly coca leaves and tea and whatever else you do with them has nothing to do with drugs. However, you can't bring them across borders for some reason, and everyone discreetly carries these little bags of the leaves around. The quest for answers continues.

In other news, we just signed up for the freakiest thing I could imagine doing tomorrow. I think I swore I would never do it again... so we'll see if tomorrow pans out like I think it might. As long as I sleep tonight I guess I'll get over it. to be continued...

-steve

We took the endless bus ride through the Andes again back to Argentina. It took 12 hours for a distance of 350km as the crow flies. It is good to be back in Argentina cause it is much cheaper. Today we were overwhelmed by the amount of street food in this city, Salta. Most of the day was spent walking around eating. We scored the greatest hostel this time. It has an internet cafe in it and a kitchen. The first thing I notice when I looked in the kitchen was the old blender - of course my first thought was fruit shakes!

So for a couple hours tonight, Kevin and I ran all over the place looking for the best ingredients. Aside from the load of fruit, I think the winner was the bags of cheap yogurt. We whipped up a whole load of fruit shake and started to serve it randomly to the people in the internet cafe. They had no idea what was going on and tried to refuse. After a little persuasion we had the whole place holding a glass though. After that, it was back to street food. They had these candy apple things for 8 cents and big plate of fries and toppings for 30 cents... wow.

-steve

Kevin and I are still in San Pedro De Atacama. This is the best place we have been so far. Yesterday we visited these wonderful geysers at 4am and froze our buts off. They were pretty cool though. I pretty much sat on this one big geyser most of the time to stay warm. After this, we went to this little village. Much to our satisfaction there was this little llama walking around. The first thing we thought was, we have got to mount this thing! And we did just that after catching it and avoiding the friendly spitting. They also had llama skewers roasting on this grill so we ate some llama. I tried to feed the llama a banana but I got in trouble because it supposedly kills them.

Today we rode for 4 hours to these salt flats south of the city. The best part was this random little pond in the middle of nowhere that was freezing cold. It was almost hypothermic in temperature but we got in anyway. I have never seen anything like it. The temperature outside was way over 30 degrees. Nearby there were a couple crazy pink flamingos. They were gorgeous. When they took off their wings were fluorescent pink. We wanted to catch them and cook them for supper but they were just too observant of our tactics. Ok, tomorrow we head back to Argentina and eventually over to Brazil to meet Koop! Looking forward to it!

-steve

We set of from Calama to attempt this confluence and first took a bus to Sierra Gorda. From here there is a road going straight towards the confluence and we hitchhiked along it. Down this paved road we went and finally we got to this barricade where the guy told us to get out of the car and talk to the guards. In our broken Spanish we couldn't convince the guards to let us hike towards the confluence (the city was el tesoro and it some mining city). We hitchhiked South back half way down the paved road towards Sierra Gorda. Here there was a road to the west that led to Caracoles. We got out and tried to hitchhike down this road for an hour or so but no one picked us up.

This point is tough man! It is in the middle of a scorching desert and may well be impossible without your own vehicle. good luck!!

-steve

Kevin and I are chillin' in this backpacker hangout of Chile, San Pedro de Atacama. I can see why everyone hangs around here. The place is a little oasis in the middle of the dryest desert in the world. It has never rained here which makes the skies crystal clear every night and the mountain views spectacular. Around the city there are geysers and salt flats and a mountain biker's dreamland. Today we spent the whole day mountain biking - I have never seen anything like the area here. There are these beautiful canyons that you can bike through - amazing views and great trails. There are ruins and fortresses and other things to visit. It is just incredible.

Kevin and I have never stayed in one place more than 2 nights. This might just break our tradition. We are staying 3 maybe 4 nights so far. Tomorrow we are getting up at 4am to take a little tour of some geysers that can only be seen in their glory at sunrise. We also found the cheapest cabins to stay in. They have hot showers and comfortable beds - even a little kitchen. We have been running around the town finding ingredients to whip together the most amazing creations yet. This place is definitely the highlight so far. After this we are going back through Argentina towards Paraguay. We were not able to get Paraguay visas before cause we didn't have all the paperwork. We are going to try just going to the border and begging or something. We'll see what happens.

-steve

Still trying to be the cheapest yet. The next day we decided to hike Fray Jorge Park all the way to the Pacific Ocean. It was a grueling 25 Km hike round trip so by the end we were dead tired. The views were gorgeous, we had our best Buddha pic yet. We had hiked early in the morning so we didn't have to pay a stupid entrance fee but when we were hiking back to our camping site we had to bypass the guards so we didn't have to pay, something like $3 US. We made a sharp turn away from the ticket booth but they somehow saw us because we weren't too far away enough. This is where we were playing Commando in the bushes and trying to take cover. After playing Rambo for a few minutes we thought we lost them. It was the funnest thing ever trying not to get caught. Just then, out of no where, an old man from up the hill saw us and was yelling "Malo, Malo", which is "Bad, Bad" and started radioing his fellow goons. We quickly played dumb and pretended that we were looking for zorros(foxes) and rats. We went back to the information booth and thought we were done for and had to fork out $3 US. When we got there, all the park guards were looking at us and giving us the evil eye but we still pretended to play dumb. There was a small museum there and we pretended we were interested in all the animals. We ended up signing our names and where we were from, and that was it! We didn't even pay a cent! Yahoo! We lucked out by taking the last truck out of the park and hitch hiked all the way to La Serena.

-steve

Our next big adventure was in a small city called Chanaral. We were contemplating whether to go to Pan de Azucar to see the penguins or to Antofagasta to go to a confluence point near there. It was funny because we had no idea where we wanted to go. After waiting and waiting and realizing that no cars had come by the past hour, we decided not to hitchhike and bought an overnight ticket to Calama. We had decided earlier that it was time to cook up our biggest meal yet over the fire. After conquering a huge hike near the city we quickly set up our fire pit. Earlier in the day we had bought a pan and all the necessary foods for our big meal. This was not like any other meal. We were in the desert and had to scrounge up every possible twig, branch, cardboard, and juice box there was near the city. We found a spot near the mountain away from the city and this is where our 3 course meal began. All we had to work with was an half-inch long knife. We had ate a total of 12 eggs, 5 fish fillets, 4 tomatoes, 2 onions, 2 peppers, 2 lemons, some bread, 2 bananas, and 2 mandarin oranges. It was the best ever - stuffed to the bone.

-kevin

Yesterday was our cheapest day yet! $0 we left the city we were in and wanted to go to a national park, so of course we hitchhiked. The people that picked us up seemed to like us a lot for some reason and ended up driving us to random beaches and sites to keep us as long as possible. They bought food for us all day and just kept driving around so we went with the flow. Once in the morning their car broke down and the driver flooded the engine. This guy stopped to help us and did some weird siphening out of this tube to suck the excess gas (important later, keep reading). Sometime in the afternoon, Kevin and I realised that we were starting to get sick. Our stomachs were both upset and we were trying to figure out what we ate. Anyway, in the evening I was really hurting. The people were driving us to the national park that we wanted to go to finally.

I had to throw up so bad but I forced it back until we got to the park gate. I ran out and barfed my guts out on the road. It was so discrete though, that I turned around and no one had noticed (it was dark). They were too concerned with the fact that the car was not starting again. And guess what? It was my turn to siphen the gas. I thought this was a fantastic way to get over my sickness. I was feeling better by now but after we got the car started and my face was burning from gasoline, I started to feel sick again. I ended up throwing up more during the night.

Kevin was sick too. I won't tell you how his body treated the sickness. All I will say is that we are going to do a wash tomorrow. Having said all that, we are feeling much better today (except the normal sleep deprivation). We did a solid 10 hour hike to work off the sickness.

-steve

I can't believe it cause we weren't planning on coming here at all. But here we are in Chile!! Let me go back a few days first though.

We have been spending lots of time on buses. A couple days ago I discovered that the bus had a free coffee dispenser. Now, I have only had about 2 cups of coffee in my life and both of those I drank to be polite (but hated it). This stuff is different in South America - I can't get enough of SA coffee now and I am drinking it everywhere. So anyway, we are on this overnight bus and I discover this dispenser and start drinking cup after cup of coffee. Over the course of the bus ride I drank 15 cups (they were kind of puny, probably the equivalent of 1/2 a normal mug each). Anyway, I didn't end up sleeping that well for some reason - I guess I stumbled upon the side effects. It's all good though. Kevin and I have a little traveling rule - if something is free, stock up! The other thing that we do on the buses, which turns heads, is dry our clothes that we previously washed in a river or shower etc.. I think we have lost most of our shame now. I don't even notice when people get mad at me for draping wet underwear and socks over the back of their seat.

Last Tuesday we got to the west side of Argentina and entered the Andes mountain range. Wow! They are absolutely breathtaking! We got off in this remote little village and wanted to do some hiking. This was kind of a weird place - there was snow on the mountains but desert type area at the base. While hiking up to the snow we hacked open a cactus and ate the insides with a spoon (quite refreshing). We climbed to a notable height and foolishly watched the sun start to set. So now for the second time in the last weeks we were scrambling down a mountain side while there was still some light. This time we were time constrained and needed to catch a bus in a couple hours. We should have made it with lots of time to spare but Kevin and I got split up and both got lost. For a good hour we were crawling around farmer's fields by the light of our camera lcd screens, jumping over creeks and pushing through brush. I had the GPS so I eventually made it back 10 minutes before the bus was to leave. I thought for sure that I would beat Kevin but he was already waiting for me (with mud up to his knees and a big grin!)

After that we went higher up into the mountains. We arrived at the base of the largest mountain (supposedly) in the Western Hemisphere, Aconcagua. Unfortunately there was a foot of snow at the base. We decided to fork out the money for a hostel just this once. The next morning we made an attempt at the mountain but wimped out cause it was too cold and wet. That's about the time when we discovered that the town had a natural hot spring. This thing was amazing. A long time ago they built this building with multiple bathing rooms under this hot spring waterfall. Eventually over time the building became coated with various deposits and it now looks like it is part of the mountain. So you can go inside this building and slosh around in the various baths and tunnels filled with sulfur smelling water. It was fantastic and I made sure to wash my clothes in it.

I guess it was 2 days ago that we went down the other side of the Andes into Chile. We arrived in the capital (Santiago) and wanted to leave pretty fast - another wildly loud and crazy city. There were a few things that struck me while I was their though. First of all there are hundreds of Chinese food restaurants. They are very noticeable too because they all went shopping for their neon lights at the same outlet - every single shop (and there's at least on on every block) is covered in green and orange neon lights and they all have different, funny names that Kevin and I enjoyed decoding. The other thing about Santiago which wasn't the first experience but definitely the most occuring, was the amount of bus vendors and buskers. Seriously, at every stop someone jumps on the bus and starts selling stuff in a monotone, auction type voice. Sometimes people just jump on the bus and play instruments and then ask for money from everyone. It is always an adventure.

The best thing about Chile, by far, is the hitchhiking. Chile is notably the best on the continent and people (especially on the Panamerican highway) can't wait to get you in their car. We took advantage of that and hitchhiked 4 times all the way to this remote mountain village south of Santiago. We were going there mainly because we wanted more hot springs, but also because of the great hiking. The last leg of the road was dirt and only big mining trucks drove on it. We got picked up by this happy guy who entertained us the whole way with all the new Spanish vocabulary we didn't need to know. He was doing us a big favour so I didn't attempt to hang my wet underwear to dry on his review mirror. We got to this little village and naively realized that it was winter and all villages like these kind of close up. So we ended up getting stuck there all day with no food. We finally hitchhiked and got back to Santiago in the evening and started digging into the street food. Today we are making our way northward through Chile. This country has lots to offer. Beaches on the left, mountains on the right, ice to the south and desert to the north. We have been far to long in cold, snowy weather so we opted for the deserts.

-steve

I mentioned before that we were staying here in Tancacha with a local family. What an adventure that has turned out to be. We ended up meeting most of the town these last couple days. Everyone wants to have us over for supper and/or put us up for the night. So we keep doing just that. Tonight we got into a little trouble. We double booked ourselves for supper. We had supper at the place of some people we met at a church today then the other family called us just when we were finishing and were super mad that we forgot about them. We played dumb and pretended we didn't eat. So we went back to the other family's place and pretended to be super hungry when we were stuffed already. I still have no idea how Kevin and I downed two more platefuls of food (wait, now I'm feeling it). A couple guys drove us away from the city this morning and we went on a great hike and then went to the meat shop and got some stuff for a barbecue (pretty routine around here). I must have mentioned before that South America is filled with far too many stray dogs. It was funny - when everyone but Kevin was filled with meat, I got this picture of Kevin eating at a picnic table surrounded by hungry dogs.

Lets see, what else, oh I got into an intense game of scrabble with a 9 year old yesterday and he beat me pretty bad. Granted, everything was in Spanish but it still hurts you know. I mentioned that we met some people at church. Turns out that the family we stayed with goes to a Spanish church. It was really fun and really interesting to see the culture. There was one thing that was kind of unusual. A couple guys in the church found it very comfortable to stand 1 inch away from my face and talk to me. I could feel every word and if I stepped back, they just smiled and stepped right towards me again.

-steve

We had the greatest day today. Kev and I finally hooked up with a friend, Mariana in Cordoba province. We are getting our culture, language, and everything lesson constantly. We are staying with her family and she is the most hospitable ever. Staying with a local family is quite the eye opener. Yep, things are a little different here! Tonight is going to be the first shower and bed in 5 days. We are having the biggest barbecue party too. We went all over town today tasting different foods and asking a millions about everything. We are getting treated pretty well so we might just stay put for a few days. Those Andes mountains are beckoning though.. we'll see what happens.

-steve

Kevin and I finally buckled under the pressure today... That is right we finally decked ourselves out with the complete mate equipment (pronounced ma-tay). Actually we got everything (filter straw, cup, thermos) excluding the leather carrying sack. Seriously, even a week in this culture is enough. It is not just tea, it is not just a drink... it is a lifestyle! Google 'yerba mate' or 'bombillia' for some info and pictures about people drinking mate. Basically it is like strong tea and you just keep adding hot water... so you need to walk around with a thermos. Finally, no more stares.. we fit right into the South American culture. It is great! Other than that we haven't been doing a lot. We traveled along the north side of Uruguay and we are now in a border town with Argentina.

Next it looks like we are going to go to Cordoba where a friend, Mariana, lives. Hopefully she'll hook us up with some good adventures and maybe a place to stay. Alright, back to mate and fresh pasta!

-steve

Well, there we were, standing beside the open pampas (prairies) of Uruguay. It was bitter sweet though.. I thought leaving Saskatchewan, Canada and flying across the world I could find somewhere other than prairies but conquering a new confluence was worth it. The adventure started in Treinty y Tres, a small town near the confluence. Kevin and I were were waiting for our meal to come with only 15 minutes until we had to catch the bus past the confluence. The food came with 10 mins left and we ate the 4 plates of food in 3 minutes. We made it on the bus and were on our way.

The next thing that happened was absolutely hilarious. We asked to jump off in the middle of nowhere. The locals thought it was hilarious, but they finally agreed to let us off by the open fields. They shook their heads, laughed and the the bus drove away.

As it turns out, these fields weren't that easy to cross. We had to trek over many varieties of prickly grass and plants in our sandals. And then there were the random lakes everywhere to go around. There were also vast fields of strange mounds. The inhabitants seemed to be ants or termites or something. Anyway, these guys build these mounds up to 3 feet high and make fields of them. See the picture on the right.

Finally we made it to the confluence and to our delight it was in the middle of a sheep field. For the victory celebration, we spent a substantial amount of time chasing and trying to ride sheep. We really wanted to mount some of these ostrich type birds but they were just too fast.

-steve

I don't even know where to start. It has been way too long since I have found an internet cafe that I can't remember all we have done these last few days. We left Montevideo a few days ago after renting bikes and scouting out the city in between eating fresh pasta. Actually that's about all we have been doing in the last 5 days. Doing things in between eating fresh pasta. We keep finding places and that's all we order. Except yesterday we found a barbecue place called Jesus so we had to eat there. So after Montevideo we continued to work our way along the coast of Uruguay. The place is mostly dead right now cause it is winter. Supposedly the population bloats in the summer as Argentinians come over to enjoy the beaches. The beaches are really fantastic by the way. No swimming though... we just camp on them. Actually we have camped more nights than stayed in hostel. It is so much more cost effective. We usually just find a patch of trees in some park or the outskirts of town and set up camp (discreetly). And mom if you are reading this I will spell check it later.. just lay off ok.

I think our best day yet was a couple days ago where we almost killed ourselves hiking. This one place called Piriapolis didn't have much going on but it did have 3 sizable mountains. We started about noon and hiked up the first 2 no problem. The third took forever to get to because we had to go through death bushes to get to it. There were so many kinds of thorns and my legs and arms were got all bloody. That was after walking through an area that had caught on fire. So we were pretty black and red and we started up this last mountain. It had the biggest cross ever on it so we had to get up and take some pics. The stupid thing was that we started at dusk and had to run up this thing as fast as we could. We got up to the top and it was great but really dark. So the real adventure started after dark, doing the crab-walk down these slopes. It was probably pretty funny and it took forever. After that we were quite tired and really hungry. Of course we still had to walk the 5k back to town. Lots of fresh pasta waiting for us though.

I feel pretty ashamed to write this next part but I'll lay it out anyway ok. On that long walk back we realized that we had left our travel guide on the top of the mountain by the cross. By the way this cross was so big you could climb up a spiral staircase inside 10 floors or so and then sit on benches in the horizontal parts of the cross. Great view!! Anyway, we started to make excuses. Ahh we didn't need that stupid lonely planet anyway. We were experienced travelers and we could find our own adventures. And it was way too late and we had to push on to the next city. So we took a bus back to a city we were tenting at. The next day we took a bus all the way back and wasted most of the day climbing all the way back up to get the stupid book. ahh!!! Then we were like.. my precious... sorry about those things we said about you last night...

Yesterday we were in a Brazil-Uruguay border town called Chuy. That's where the Parrillada Jesus was. Man they had good barbecue chicken (and fresh pasta of course). The locals had blocked off the street and were having motor bike races so we watched that most of the day.

Oh by the way, I meant today was the best day ever. Kevin and I went confluence hunting!!! (www.confluence.org). We conquered 33S 54W and no one had ever been there. Unfortunately it was located in the prairies - we had to supplement the adventure by trying to ride sheep and wild ostrich type things. Yikes.. got to run and get some fresh pasta before our overnight bus!

-steve

Yesterday was probably our cheapest day ever. Kevin and I were in the delta above Buenos Aires all day and it was pretty quiet and peaceful. There were no roads up there - just small creeks where boats would go up and down. All the shops, restaurants, etc.. just have docks out into the water and everyone just scoots around. This would be a good time for a pic but I don't think that is going to be possible. We wised up and realized that we have been paying $5 a night for either a campsite or a hostel so we asked someone if we could camp on his grass. The guy didn't mind at all so I think we may have stumbled upon the cheapest accommodation yet!

Kevin and I spent most of the day on random boats and buses but when the sun finally went down we found ourselves in the Uruguayan capital (Montevideo). At first glance Uruguay is pretty much the same as Argentina. Their flag is even the same with the sun in the corner instead of the middle, see? As we are walking around more, we are seeing differences now. Everyone is walking around with this little pot and a filter straw thing. Finally we asked someone what the deal was and they said it was "mate" or something. We tried it and it was kind of like strong tea... could have easily been drugs though. Either way.. I need to find my own mate pot and straw. Anyway, we found a cheap hostel and there is this place close by that has tango dancing at 11:30. I'll shoot for it but Kevin works on about the same time table as me... as soon as 10:00 hits, the brain stops working and its sleep time.

-steve

Kevin and I just finished our little trip into Argentina to wait for our Brazil visas to be processed. It was a little tense cause the whole time we were unsure whether or not we would be accepted for Brazil visas. They wanted extensive information and documentation which we weren't prepared for. Anyway, we had a good couple of days waiting. We just took a train ride back from a small town called Sierra de la Ventanna. We did a little bit of hiking and took an overnight bus to get there and an overnight train ride to get back to Buenos Aires. The train ride was especially interesting. Of course we opted for the cheapest tickets ever which meant 12 hours of sit up bench seats. Fortunately we used our charm to befriend the ticket guy at the train station. He was a coin collector without Canadian coins. Instant friendship. As we got on the train he worked it so that we could sit up front in first class, so instead of getting the hard seats we paid for, we just took those.

Everything was going great. We got to sleep and it was the most comfortable and needed rest yet. 3 or 4 hours into our sleep everything changed. People filled the train and someone happened to have tickets for our seat. So we were kicked out and were left with no seat at all. The train was packed - there were people sleeping everywhere - under seats, on the floor, in the bathroom, on the sinks, etc... Thus started the greatest 6 hours of our lives playing a game we now refer to as "dabum". Basically it involves adapting to any dirty environment to try to get some sleep. We would sleep anywhere until we got kicked out. We finally found a train car with the lights burnt out. While people were sleeping we crawled up into the luggage compartments in the roof and slept intertwined around baggage. It was awesome! We were the happiest, dirtiest street bums ever! Completely filthy but well rested. So we got back to Buneos Aires completely tired this morning.

Luckily for our sanity, everything went awesome today. We got our Brazil visas! We found out we don't need a visa for Uruguay! We found a step down converter and battery charger after I blew up mine by sticking it into the wall. We just indulged in a meal fit for kings and we decided to get a bed tonight rather than camping in some restricted area. But, tomorrow it's back to cheapest ever traveling.

-steve

Kevin and I are still having the best time ever. We are in a city south of Buenos Aires on the atlantic coast called Mar del Plata. Yesterday we sauntered into the pescadoria (fish store) and bought a sizable fish. The store owners gave us the craziest looks cause they had never seen any backpackers walk in and get a fish before - especially without wanting it cut up or gutted (I nievely thought I could cook it somewhere cause we wanted to camp that night).

After three hours of walking out of the city, taking random busses, and turning down expensive camping facilities, we found a place to put up our tent. A sign outside the fence we jumped over said something along the lines of "private property, no camping, fires prohibited". Unfortunately it had to do cause we were tired. We set the tent up under a canopy of trees and then went to make a fire somewhere else (really scared of being caught). We had to because we payed almost two dollars for the dumb fish. Without walking too far we found a hole in the ground with a grill beside it! How good is that?! So one of us grilled while the other was on the lookout just in case we needed to bolt and hide. We squeezed a couple lemons over the fish (best meal yet!!).

Today Kevin and I taunted sea lions we found on the beach most of the morning. Then we tossed the disc around and explored the city. The rest of the day we sat and ate cause the food is unique, inexpensive, and amazing. We are learning more spanish everyday and making a lot of local friends. This one guy, Jorje, fed us for three meals cause we kept coming back and he wouldn't stop telling us about these chicas that he wanted to hook us up with.

Tonight we are off to some mountains on an over-night bus. They are about 8 hours west!

-steve

Well, it's finally here!! (it took me forever to find the ' on this Spanish keyboard!!). Kevin and I met up in Dallas and had a three hour layover which was great - we had a million things to talk about! And a few hours later, we are finally here in Buenos Aires (Argentina Capital). We are having the greatest time. The culture is great here. It is like nothing I have ever seen. If I had to describe it in a sentence, I would say that it is a bunch of white people who look like they should be speaking English but don't speak a word, thrown in a big city with "Asian" rules and European architecture. We are loving it here cause there is psycho driving, street food, and lots of potential for adventure. The only downside is that things are kind of expensive so we may end up camping a lot. The weather is not too bad. It gets down to about 5 degrees at night but it will only get warmer from here on as we head north. Today we explored the city for 14 hours straight, applied for Brazil visas (major hastling), and spent way too much on all this great food we had to try. We are going to head out for a camping / hiking trip somewhere for the weekend while we get our visa's processed for Brazil. That's about it all! Oh, I also had a huge rush tonight and razored all the hair above my neck.

-steve

Steve G and I heard from a great source that Mt. Indefatigable would be a challenging hike so we headed off to conquer it. We started the steep hike up the mountain and the view was amazing when we broke out of the trees to see the surrounding mountains. After taking a lunch break and posing for a buddha shot we continued on to see where the path would lead us. We came across a mountain chicken or turkey of sorts and chased it for a while trying to see if it would fly off, but I guess mountain chickens don't fly. After hiking further we came across a little snow and then the path just stopped because it was entirely covered in snow.Our curiosity got the best of us and we decided to follow some foot prints through the deep snow, meanwhile we are in our shorts and each step though the some what crusty snow was a challenge. After three hours of hiking through the snow we reached the summit of the mountain.

This was my first time ever hiking to the very top of a mountain. When we reached the top, the wind was wildly blowing and so we got our quick pictures and started our decent.At first it appeared that the way down was going to be a lot slower and more dangerous and me in my frustration did a little bum drop into the snow planning on just sliding down to the next bunch of rocks. I slid for about five seconds and then dug my heels into the snow before sitting on a nearby rock. A whole snow shelf was dislodged from my heel jab and continued moving downward. AVALANCHE!! We heard this load stampeding noise and looked down to the bottom of the bowl and there was a huge area where the snow moved to after going over cliffs and clearing out areas. After a close call with what could have been dangerous, we moved to the bottom of the mountain, out of the snow and back to safety. Our trip back to Calgary was exciting. We saw a female grizzly bear and two cubs, a couple herds of mountains sheep and lots of deer. It was another best ever day that will take an upcoming trip to South America to top.

-koop

Robbie and I planned to go hiking in the badlands this weekend. We have gone here for years and this time we wanted to go somewhere a little different. After searching on the internet it was apparent that there was badlands stretching all the way to the US border.

We decided to go hiking and spelunking (finding caves) near the US border where we could hike into Montana and not have to cross the border officially (this is probably illegal!). Again, this always happens - every place we go is not to far from a confluence point. We hiked towards 49N 105W and found the point was close to where we were.

The weather turned rainy and overcast and luckily there were some old caves that we later found out the old outlaw Sam Kelly used to hide in. The cave he used for his horses was a gift that keeps on giving (we put up our tent inside to further shelter from the rain).

-steve-

We actually weren't planning on confluencing at all this weekend. We were out on a camping trip and since everything was frozen north of Prince Albert, we randomly decided to camp at Lake Iroquois which happened to be really close to a confluence point.

When we arrived at the lake from up north, we were happy that there was no ice and snow but disappointed to find that we were no longer in the privacy of the forests and brush of the north. It looked pretty much like the plains we are used to. We did notice one forest so we decided to head there for camp. 6 of us guys paddled out and upon arriving at the new destination, we noticed the only sizable forest to hide and camp in had a big 'no trespassing' sign right beside it. Pretending that we didn't notice the warning we set up camp. The next problem that faced us was a lack of things to do. We were going to spend our time fishing in our canoes but this lake didn't look to promising.

We did, however, notice a couple small islands in the middle of the lake with nesting sea gulls. We decided that may be our only shot at getting some meat. We manned the two canoes and headed for sea gull island. After docking the canoes on the island the birds started to squawk and fly off. Doug was the first to run like a maniac with his paddle. He ran out onto the island and whacked a bird that was a little startled from the island assault. What followed for the next two hours was a strategic game of man vs. bird. We tried many techniques like crouching until all the birds landed around us and then running for the attack. The best technique turned out to be rushing a shoreline and jumping out of the canoe towards the brush area where birds were nesting. They would try to fly in a panic and run into the bushes, giving us enough time to whack em' good. After all the strategizing and whacking was done, we got 5 birds! We sailed back and cleaned them on the beach.

There wasn't a whole lot of meat on the birds but they made for a tasty morsel. I think the general recommendation is to season them well, top with teriyaki sauce, and serve over campfire noodles.

The next day we set out for the CP which wasn't too much of an adventure at all. We rounded a bend in the road 10km from where we were camping to find that the confluence was probably going to be in the middle of a small lake. We figured the best we could do was get within 100 meters of it on the shore so we drove to that location. I guess this CP would be best visited in the winter.

If I am put in charge of a bachelor party, there is no way we are going out for steak and pool. It's all about male bonding and hangout time with the boys of course. What better way then to do some survival camping. That's exactly what we planned anyway. To our surprise there were many curve-balls we weren't expecting on this trip.

We started out by choosing a random lake north of Prince Albert where we could find a place in the middle of nowhere to set up camp and live in the bush for a few days. We chose an innocent, unpopulated looking lake called White Swan Lake (north of Candle Lake). We left Friday afternoon and everything was good. It was 25 degrees out and it looked like a hot weekend predicted. Even up until PA everything looked great. An hour or so north of PA is where things started to get interesting.

Koop noticed something funny in the bushes and told me to look. I thought he saw an animal or something but I soon saw that he was talking about the patches of white stuff. A few minutes later we pulled up at the destination lake... totally covered with ice. No canoeing for sure. After looking around with open jaws for a while we decided to head south to Candle lake. It wasn't much better.

Candle lake was half frozen but since there was a rim of water around the edge we decided to canoe out to a point and set up camp because we didn't want to sleep in the car. Everything was fine except for the cold. We decided we better only stay one night and find a warmer destination so we could actually fish. We got to sleep and had a pretty cold night. Lots of tossing and turning. That all ended when the most horrendous sound imaginable startled us awake and out of our tent. Much to our surprise, there was no stampeding elephants. After reaching the shore, we witnessed something I had never dreamed. A huge ice flow had come loose and was crashing into the shore. The ice was a foot thick and yet continued to push into the shore with such force that the ice buckled over into piles of ice. We were trapped! We couldn't canoe out!

Putting out our fire that morning was quite humorous. A couple of the guys grabbed huge ice chunks and set them on the fire. Things could then just work themselves out. After disassembling camp we pulled a tactic so ingenious, yet so foolish that I'll never speak of it again. Ice-canoeing!! If anyone saw us at this point it would have been something to really laugh out loud at. Knowing full well that anyone who fell into the frigid water would surely die, we hovered over the canoes and forced our way over the ice... making sure that if it cracked, we could jump in quick. We finally made it to an open patch of water that led back to shore. That was it though! Definitely no fishing here!

The next part of the adventure was definitely a highlight. We chose a new lake west of Prince Albert called Iroquois lake. When we arrived, we were disappointed to find that we were no longer in the privacy of the forests and brush of the north. It looked pretty much like the plains we are used to. We did notice one forest so we decided to head there for camp. The 6 of us (Steve, Doug, Steve, Koop, Derek, Am) paddled out and upon arriving at the new destination, we noticed the only sizable forest to hide and camp in had a big 'no trespassing' sign right beside it. Pretending that we didn't notice the warning we set up camp. The next problem that faced us was a lack of things to do. We were going to spend our time fishing but this lake didn't look to promising.

We did, however, notice a couple small islands in the middle of the lake with nesting sea gulls. We decided that may be our only shot at getting some meat. We manned the two canoes and headed for sea gull island. After docking the canoes on the island the birds started to cry out and take off. Doug was the first to run like a maniac with his paddle. He ran out onto the island and whacked a bird that was a little startled from the island assault. What followed for the next two hours was a strategic game of man vs. animal. We tried many techniques like crouching until all the birds landed around us and then running for the attack. The best technique turned out to be rushing a shoreline and jumping out of the canoe towards the brush area where birds were nesting. They would try to fly in a panic and run into the bushes, giving us enough time to whack em' good. After all the strategizing and whacking was done, we got 5 birds! We sailed back and cleaned them on the beach.

There wasn't a whole lot of meat on the birds but they made for a tasty morsel. I think the general recommendation is to season them well, top with teriyaki sauce, and serve over campfire noodles.

I leave the house for 2 hours to watch one of my friends do a music performance and I get back to our street and there is Chaos!!! - 6 fire trucks on the street.. There were tons of people standing around and I'm wondering what's going on. Someone said there was a fire in one of the houses. I thought that was pretty exciting and probed for more info. I like when crazy stuff happens. I asked someone on the street "what side of the street was the fire on?" They said "right&. gulp. Parked the car. ran in to the crescent. gong show. it was so our house!!!! After all the commotion I got into the house to look around. I overheard someone say "this place looks like hell". I'd have to agree with him. I guess the firemen had to cut a hole in the roof cause it got into the attic. There was a lot of damage but I think half was due to burning and half smoke damage. Everything downstairs is fine.

Christie told me the good story after. I guess it was started by a candle. I really feel sorry that I had to miss all the action.

I heard the figure of $90,000 damage thrown around (not including possessions). That is pretty crazy since the fire only burned for a couple minutes. Luckily we had good insurance - they are throwing money at us and when it's all said and done they are going to do some much needed renovations for us!

Confluence hunting wasn't the primary objective on this beautiful spring day. Today Amie and I (steve) were devoted to exploring abandoned farms and towns. Amie got some crazy leads about some abandoned real estate around this CP and I wasn't going to tell until later that I also had confluence on my mind. Be assured, pillaging and vandalizing abandoned farms is definitely high on my list as well. There are definitely more popping up every day in rural Saskatchewan. Did I say pillaging? I mean photographing, ya...

Anyway, the best ghostfarm that we found was west of Outlook. It looked like it had been abandoned for 10-20 years at least. On the farm there was a little two story house and a bunch of sheds and barns. Everything was deteriorated and someone had already scampered off with most of the booty. There was still one very significant item that was preserved to our delight. On the deck of the house there laid a freeze-dried cat!! It had been there for some time and was complete with skin and tail. See the picture on the left.... Oh right, this is supposed to be about confluence. Sorry for the tangent but confluencing and ghostfarming need to be linked together in Saskatchewan. After realizing that 90% of the accessible points lie in the middle of flat fields there needs something a little spicy to complement every CP adventure.

As you can see in the photo, this confluence does in fact lie in the middle of a farmer's field (surprise). No one really cared today that we were tromping through the fields, so there wasn't too much excitement (a little exercise though!). After some pictures and stubble gymnastics, the point was conquered. Much to our dismay, the point had previously been visited by our Sask. arch rivals (Fox's/Max/MacDuff). Maybe this summer I'll be able to venture an uncharted point and actually further the confluence project. Until then, stay tuned for more adventures and scattered drivel!

Difficulty: 1 (open field, easy access) Enjoyment: 8 (nice day, good company, near ghostfarms).

This is another really easy CP to visit. It is located in a Minneapolis-St. Paul suburb. There is really not much to comment about since you can drive right to the point. The only difficult part was trying to take pictures in the unbearable cold and wind. Just to beef up the story a bit, after visiting the point we went walking around one of the many Minneapolis lakes. We were hoping for some sort of adventure but nothing looked that interesting. That's about the time when Jadon fell through the ice up to his chest in water. It was pretty funny because Koop had to give up his pants to save Jadon from freezing.

Difficulty: 1 (accessible by car)

Enjoyment: 2

A few of us happened to be in Chicago for the day after a conference in Urbana, Illinois. We noticed while driving into the city, that a confluence point lied somewhere in a Chicago suburb. The point most likely had previous visitors but we decided to go there anyway. The point was easily found on some residential street in front of a house. We started taking pictures of the point just as the owners of the house came out to leave. They were obviously a bit disturbed at our presence because they wouldn't leave while we were still there. They just sat in their car and gave us weird looks. We decided to pretend to walk back to our car. It worked! As soon as we started walking away, they left. They turned a corner and we ran back and finished taking pictures.

Difficulty: 1 (you can drive there)

Enjoyment: 2 (weird neighbors, far away from home, most people we have been to a CP with)

Robbie and I pulled into the north rim of the Grand Canyon after dark and slept in the car in the parking lot. The next morning we checked out the signs for the various hikes. One particular poster caught my eye. It read "Never try to hike from the rim to the river and back in one day. Many who tried suffered serious illness or death." This of course referred to the 45 km hike down the canyon to the little Colorado river and back (climbing down an altitude of about 5000 feet and then back up). This sounded like a good challenge. We set off knowing that we probably couldn't do it but would go until time allowed for getting back to the car before dark.

We set out at a rapid pace into the canyon and made it to the river at about noon (so 4 hours of hiking down). The good thing about making it to the end was the fact that we had no choice but to walk all the way back. The hard part was that the way back was uphill and under the scorching sun.

We set out at a pretty good pace and got within a couple miles of the top - absolutely destroyed. By this point it was a mind battle. It was starting to hit dusk already (the hike back took more than double the first time). Every part of me wanted to fall down and die. That is when the hallucinations started. Probably triggered by lack of water and food (and 12 hours of constant hiking). I never waivered far enough to fall off the cliff but there was a couple times where I could have. The process sounds easy enough - take 20 steps, sit down and take a breather, then get up and do it again - but after 2 hours of this it turned into 5 steps, lay down and gasp for air then push up with all your might to continue (against the wishes of every muscle in the body).

Nearly crawling, we made it to the top just before night. I had planned to break into chearing and several choruses of "we are the champions". It just didn't matter though - I just wanted to die. We wobbled over to a restaurant and downed a huge greasy pizza. That hit the spot and it was time to sleep in the car and see what could be conquered the next day.

Lets get one thing clear. I had never up to this day hit anything with a car. I am usually very alert with quick reactions. This day was a little different. Just before the border into North Dakota from Saskatchewan a group of grouse run by and BOOM. Of course the inhumane thing to do would be leave them all over the road and let them suffer and die. I quickly stopped the car and we got up and collected a half decent sized grouse and put it in the trunk (to save for later??).

Anyway, we get to the border and everything is fine until "open the trunk please...click....um, what is with the bird in your trunk?" They ended up giving us no trouble except the border guard said no meat accross the border without a hunting permit. They took the bird. So we are on our way. Five minutes later, BOOM. Another grouse. This one was bigger and juicy and it wasn't getting confiscated. I pulled over the car and whipped out the coleman stove. The grouse relinquished a fair sized portion of meat and with potatoes and spices it made for the perfect lunch. So we are on our way.

Eventually it got dark. Now, I have never seen so many animals on the road before. I was swerving for racoons, rabbits, skunk, and foxes all trip. This particular night there was deer everywhere. They would pretend to jump out in front of the car but then just stand in the ditch. This happened for a couple hours until BOOM. Left side of the car sideswipes a bambi. Seriously, picture the cutest little baby dear. It was destroyed instantly by the hit. It was quick though - I drove back to get some pictures of the kill and it was already out cold. Then the worst hit of all.

Several hours later a something comes out of nowhere and connects with the tire. I turned the car around to see what it was - a bunny. Problem was that I only ran over half of it - It could only pull itself along by it's front paws. Everything else was broken as it looked up at the car with his big teary eyes. I did the only humane thing possible. I backed up a couple hundred yards and floored it. A quick hit put the bunny out of its suffering. Now the rest of the trip was ok and emotionally stable. I didn't ever mean to kill anything but it was just one of those days, ok!!

So Christie and I make it to XuZhou, China and are greeted by "Coops" (Christie's new employer). He is paranoid about SARS as much as the rest of them and quickly gives us masks. I had enough but I wore the stupid thing just to be polite (well until we got to the taxi). He mentioned that no one in XuZhou had been SARS infected yet so they were all taking percautions. Here's when the fun started. We pulled up to a pretty nice hotel and Christie and I are eyeing eachother jokingly ("I can't believe we are going to stay in this fancy joint!" "Shut up and act formal!").

After a bunch of chinese argument between Coops and the receptionist, I finally caught enough to know that we were not allowed to stay there and we had to leave immediately. I guess when they looked at our passports and saw we just came from GuangZhou and Hong Kong that they wouldn't let us stay the night. So we tried somewhere else, and then somewhere else. Around midnight we had checked almost everywhere in XuZhou and no one would take us. Coops was having a heart attack and was so sorry for putting us through all of this. Finally he told us that we were sleeping in the back of the taxi for the night and that he would sort everything out by morning.

Chrisite was freaking out because she had been in China for less than a week and didn't realize that nothing is easy in China. I was as calm as could be. I just knew everything would work out and I knew that every day in China was an adventure. Next morning things get worse - Coops tells us that the first case of SARS was found the day before and that the government was in an uproar. He told us that the government has asked us to leave the province as well as any chinese on our plane. All the borders were shut and all the incoming travellers were told to return too.

Basically, they didn't want to have to deal with any problems if a foreigner broght SARS to their province. This was true for all the chinese coming into XuZhou and especially important for us, being foreigners to XuZhou and to China. So we find ourselves on a bus to NanJing to catch the first flight out (XuZhou had none for a couple days). We end up flying to GuangZhou.

Christie's hopes are crushed because now she had no job. In the end, I found christie a modelling job and a place to stay with Sherry. Phew.. So the trip is saved - Christie gets a job and a place to stay in China and I get a really cool adventure.

-steve-

This meeting was a little tense because it was the middle of the SARS breakout and we were near the epicenter. Everyone in Hong Kong was wearing masks and I just couldn't. I was just busting my buttons with pride. All of them were just way too paranoid and I couldn't sink to their level. Christie meets me with a stupid mask on her and I said that she could wear one but I wasn't. Little did she know she would be living in SARS central for 4 months. Well, the mask phase quickly wore off.

-steve-

I thought it would be really cool to sleep in the old Japanese communications building on Tinian (island in the Northern Mariana Islands) but I was so wrong. It happened to be the most humid night ever and the rats and bugs were out for a night on the town. I brought my trusty sleeping bag and I needed to stay in it to avoid bugs and bites. But I needed to stay out of it so I could stop sweating a storm. This conflict resulted in a never-ending battle that kept me up all night.

I woke up all dirty and grubby and wandered into a church. Wow, they really gave me the looks that service! Whatever, I figure they were glad for the growth to their minuscule numbers.

-steve-

I can hardly believe that it took over 2 months for me to finally hike down to Forbidden Island after coming to Saipan (Island in the Northern Mariana Islands). It probably had something to do with all the warnings I had heard. Someone at the station was killed there a few years back and several other have also died when trying to cross to the island. Timing is essential because if the tide is high, there is a good chance you can be washed out to sea. There are also large sharks in the open waters on the east side of Saipan where there is no protection from the reef. Anyway, I had waited long enough for someone to go with me. I had no idea how to get down and across to this island but I guess that would be the adventure for the day.

I drove out to the overlook and then started my decent. I new there was a path somewhere but I couldn't find it so I just bushwacked it down to the shore. Unfortunately when I got down I had no idea which direction to walk along the shore. Well actually there wasn't a shore, only dangerous shelf rock. I used my best judgement and headed off in a direction across the shelf rock, making sure to run to the next safe point before a wave swept over the shelf rock.

I finally saw Forbidden Island in the distance. I had obviously not planned my desent very smart because I ended up quite a ways down the shore from the island. It was about this time that a mid-sized eel washed up on the shore just infront of me. After the initial shock of my first eel encounter, I quickly regained composure and changed focus. I needed some video footage of this guy! I whipped out my camera and just before I got everything set up, I hadn't noticed a rather large wave coming towards the coast.

Before I had time to jump behind a rocky splash guard, I was drenched and my camera suffered substancial splashing. At the time the biggest disappointment was the fact that the eel was swept away. That feeling quickly past when I found my camera wouldn't turn on anymore. I finally did make it to the island and had a good afternoon despite the fact that my camera probably needed repairs.

-steve-

The island of Saipan has many attractions and the residents find many great activities like snorkeling, diving, hiking, caving and many others. A select crowd of residents are into another very important activity: treasure hunting. When I first got to Saipan, I couldn't believe the way people talked about various trinkets and antiques that washed up on the shores. By the end of my stay I also started to dream about finding a light blue Saki bottle or a Japanese blown glass fishing float. There are two strains of treasure on the island. The first is a result of the intense World War II fighting on the island. The Americans and Japanese had a great standoff before the Japanese were finally backed up towards suicide cliff and beyond.

Many Japanese hid in caves and grottoes for months after the fighting. As a result the whole island is littered with a variety of goodies. There are old tools, clothing, grenades, batteries, weapons, armor, bombs, shrapnel, human bones and many other great finds. Treasure continues to wash up old artifacts through an ongoing process of ocean currents washing up treasure on the Saipan beaches. Some diehard booney stompers will even do Saturday morning beach visits to find the week's latest. It was one of these routine Saturday morning visits that led us to a rocky oceanside hidden beach called Lobster Lagoon. Actually calling it a beach is a definite overstatement. Lobster Lagoon consists solely of a rock arrangement perfect for catching ocean garbage. Why anyone would want to go to such a place is a good question. Definitely a vacationing Saipan tourist would have no such desire or means.

Anyway, Dean, David and I trekked through the jungle and over the volcanic rock down to the narrow beach between the rock walls. No one had been there for a while so excitement resonated through the trench. We started reefing through buoys and ropes looking for anything that caught our attention. Of course the foremost treasure was any Japanese glass fishing float. There were also different classes of floats. Ones blown in a single motion (with no seams) were the best. Also, any markings which signified the artist were desired - and of course, bigger is better.

After several minutes of searching through the refuse, I held it up. It was a glass float of the 'rolling pin' variety. David Creel let out a yelp. No short termer was ever supposed to find something so rare and valuable. In all his 12 years on Saipan he had barely set his eyes on such a float. He maintained his composure and we continued to search well into the afternoon.

Another weekend, I was out with Dean Brubaker on yet another beach survey. This time when we pulled up to Tanke beach I was in mid conversation with the 60 year old Dean when his eyes lit up like a 12 year old. He took off running down the beach and I hadn't even closed the door of the truck. He ran to the opposite end of the beach and I took off after him. Before I caught up to him he was holding above his head the largest glass ball I had ever seen. It was as big as a human head and later it was the centerpiece of his dinner table for as long as I remained on Saipan. It was also the talk of the town for several days.

So I get to the Korean airport for a quick transfer to Saipan. I walk up to the ticket counter and give the appropriate information. That is when I am told that I cannot go to Saipan today. I just stood there and with a blank look said "well I have to get there today; there are people waiting to pick me up in a few hours". The lady explained in broken English that Asiana airlines can't perform inner country flights from the USA to the USA because they don't want to get in trouble. They were actually surprised that I got the tickets booked in such a way - usually ticket issuers can't do that.

Anyway, it was totally my fault and they weren't going to fly me to Saipan. So I played the innocent idiot and finally they said they would put me up for the night. WOOHOO. This couldn't be better. I am used to staying in the cheapest places ever. Asiana puts me up in Seoul for a night with 3 gourmet five course meals and rides to the airport. Not to mention a luxurious room with internet access. So I got to walk around Seoul for a couple days compliments of Asiana Airlines (When it was actually my fault for having booked the tickets in such a way).

-steve-

Doug and I decided in the new year holidays we would do a little snowshoeing expedition in the British Colombia Rockies. We had gone to Yoho National Park in the summer before but never in the winter. This would be a whole new experience. Our style always includes arriving at a place late in the night, sleeping in the car and setting off the next morning. It just so happened that we got all our gear and made it out to the mountain base around Lake O'Hara area in time to hike in (if we were fast).

So we set out trudging through the amazingly deep snow. We hiked for 10 kilometers which took us a couple of hours and made it to this shack just as it got dark. We had nothing but sleeping bags so we decided to camp out in the food shed. Otherwise there was just a big open eating area with just a roof over it. Inside the food shed there were shelves which weren't comfortable but it was the best we could do.

The next morning we set out and snowshoed up hills and mountain sides, found frozen waterfalls and enjoyed the amazing scenery around Lake O'Hara. By the evening we were itching for some hot food. This is where 2 engineering minds needed to be combined for maximum output.

We had a couple packages of oriental noodles and there were fire stoves back in that eating hut I mentioned. Here is what we eventually found to cook our dinner: We found some elbow pipe near some abandon shacks (probably abandoned for the winter hehe). After cleaning it out we melted snow in the elbow pipes and then boiled the water. We poured the water into our Nalgene bottles and then put the noodles in. This kind of innovation went on all night as we fried peanuts from our trail mix on the hot stove and had some good man to man talk.

-steve-

After staying in Beijing, it was time to go to Shanghai. I needed a quick stopover because it was just too far in one shot. So I decided to take the train to Shanghai and stop halfway at Taishan for a day to break up the trip and climb a mountain. Supposedly it was famous so I said why not. The train pulls into the city at 10pm and I again have no where to stay and it is late and I am tired. I started to walk around the city to look for a hotel but I couldn't find anything reasonable. Something was strange though. There were so many chinese tourists walking somewhere. I eventually followed them to see what all the excitement was about. As it turns out, they are all climbing the mountain to reach it by sunrise. What a crazy idea.

I later found out it is the thing to do. So having no luck with hotels, I decided I had better join them. And maybe because of the dark I could avoid any stupid entry fees. Of course the first obstacle was to find if the mountain had a wall around it. Of course it did. And the second.. yep, it has a paved path and road all the way up so high heel Chinese tourists could get up. Arrrrgg. Somethings never change. Anyway, I scampered up the mountain and made it to the top by about 4:30 am. I relaxed a little and watched the sunrise. Nothing special. It sure drew a crowd though. Everyone was cheering so I guess it was worth it. -steve

I of course had to see the great wall before leaving China and this was my chance (staying with my buddy in Beijing). I was advised to go to some re-made part of the wall bla bla bla. I read on the internet there was a place called the Wild Wall where you could get into for free and hike on the old wall (not rebuilt). So I went there instead. This part of the wall was awesome. It was dangerous in many parts but the best thing of all were these chinese men who set up camp in the towers and try to charge you a toll to cross. Haha like they built the wall or something.

I come to this one tower and another group is having a rough time with this one toll booth guy because he is throwing rocks at them for not paying. He had a good setup. If he didn't pay, he wouldn't let people use his ladder to get past a certain part. I just took off and ran through the people, lunging for the place where you need a ladder. I hoisted myself up and our little asian toll booth guy was all peeved because I got up without his ladder. I scurried away as he threw a couple rocks my direction. Another time I pretended to get out my wallet and then just took off down the path. This time it was a lady trying to make some money. She ran after me screaming for a bit but I finally got far enough away and she turned back. I met up with this guy from England about that time. He was walking back so he could get home before dark. I told him I had a tent and if he was interested, he could stay in it with me. He thought that was a great idea so we kept walking until sunset.

When it got dark, we set up the tent and watched the sunset over the great wall. It would have been better with a girl but what can you do? That night the temperature dropped drastically. We didn't get any sleep because we were too busy making fires. I dosed off once or twice but woke up when I couldn't feel my limbs anymore. After that night I was done with camping. I packed up the tent and left it on the wall (Go use it if you want). We kept walking along the wall until we ran out of food and water. A couple of days later, I came back and continued walking by myself until I came to a rebuilt section. I checked that out for a bit and then walked out through the entrance toll booth!! Woohoo. I guess they can't keep you off the whole wall. Although I wouldn't put it past them to build a 15000 kilometer wall around the great wall and then charge admission.

Kevin and I had enough of Xiahe. Been there done that.. Way too many tourists. The first thing to ruin our day was that there was a stupid Gansu foreigner insurance fee that we were supposed to pay. Of course that was too silly. I mean, like the drivers in China are going to drive anymore safely when there is a stupid insurance fee. And besides it was 40 RMB and we were trying to get out of Gansu. So we did what we always did in transportation conflicts - start walkin'. And 5 minutes later along the main path one of the drivers picked us up. He asked for our Gansu travel insurance and we played dumb and got around it. We paid him money to take us all the way to Lanzhou and off we went. Now the real fun all started in a town called LinXia. The bus pulls into a bus station and everyone gets off.

We just sit there and finally the bus driver realizes we need help. He takes us over to another bus and tells us (or so I deciphered) that we were transferring to another bus. We jumped on the bus and everything is cool. We are on our way again. 5 minutes later the new bus money collector comes back and asks us for money. NOOOOO!! we tried to explain in our broken chinese that we gave money to the last bus driver and he told us to transfer. The new guy obviously didn't care and told us we were on his bus and we had to pay again or get off. We argued for about 20 minutes and he went right next to my face and yelled at me. Then he backed off for 10 minutes before coming at us with another round of shouting and pointing to his wallet. More arguing. Then he asks us for our Gansu travel insurance. More playing dumb. Then he left us alone. Then he came back demanding money. As this went on Kevin and I winked at each other ("Hey, lets drag this on for as long as possible"). The best part was that the bus was driving the whole time!! Anyway, it wasn't too long before the bus broke down. It was probably good timing too because the bus money collector guy was about to start a fist fight. I guess we could have given him the piddly money but looking back, I regret nothing!

Anyway, while the bus driver was repairing his bus, we felt it was an opportune time to leave. We grabbed our stuff and started walking. The money collector shouted at us a bit more but finally gave up and left in a huff. We laughed and waved down another bus. Luckily we were more than half the way to Lanzhou - we slipped the driver some cash and we were on our way. Then the newest bus driver asked us for our Gansu travel insurance... AAHAHHHH! Give us a break man. More playing dumb.. And finally we arrive in the dirtiest city imaginable (wow even worse than Guangzhou!)

-steve

We walked into Langmusi and were instantly hit with delight as Kevin and I experienced our first little Tibetan style village. This was probably the closest we were going to get to Tibet so we planned on enjoying it. We were also here for a sky burial. Basically whenever someone dies in the Tibetan culture, they are chopped up and offered to vultures. The best part about it - in Langmusi they supposedly let foreigners come to their funeral sessions. This could definitely not be passed up. As soon as we started talking to people it was apparent that we had just recently missed a sky burial. No worries, we just had to wait around for someone else to die. Rumor had it that someone died every 3 days or so.

To pass the time Kev and I did some sweet hiking around the town. We got some good pictures and had some great times of relaxation. All the while we kept one eye open for vultures. Every morning we would get up early to survey the sky burial site. The monks kept saying that people had just died and any morning now they would be offered up. This went on for a couple days and we finally couldn't stay any longer. We thought there may be a chance to catch one later so we hit the road. It was too bad that we missed the ritual but we did check out the nasty death site to poke through the old bones and possessions.

-steve

Langmusi has one more thing to offer other than sky burials. Although the sky burials are a rare event that not many witness, anyone can go to Lesha's cafe and have a Big Mac Yak Attack Burger. This thing is gargantuan. If you can eat it in 5 minutes you get 100 bucks. If you eat it in 10 minutes you get the meal for free plus a desert. Of course we had to take on the challenge. We started the timers and started off.

This was no ordinary burger. First of all, the bun was Tibetan style which means it was more like two huge slabs of condensed bagel. Inside the plate sized burger, they stuffed potatoes and onions which were very filling. Not to mention the tough yak meet which is like eating chewy poorly-cooked stake strips. 5 minutes rolled by, then 10 minutes, then 30 minutes. Around 45 minutes of straight eating, we finally finished the burgers. I think that finishing it was an accomplishment in itself. You couldn't have paid me to eat a desert after that. We did get to sign the burger-finisher guestbook. Kevin threw up his burger on the street outside after but he won't tell you that. I kept mine down but I wished I would have left it on the street. Anyway after that it was off to investigate sky burials!

-steve

Well, Kevin and I pull in to Zoige and we see nothing special... It was time to move on to Langmusi. As usual when we get this itch, the bus tickets are all sold out for the day. This of course was the case on this particular day. So we decided to do what we always do. Walk and pray. Just get on that main route and pray that someone will pick us up. This time we didn't have to wait for 20 mins before a tourist bus stops and asks if we are lost. We begged them to take us to blabla.. Of course this was a private bus (you know, everyone with the same little Asian tourist hats). I don't know if it was our charm or are choppy facial hair but they let us on (FOR FREE!!!) and took us all the way to Langmusi. Of course the bus broke down for three hours along the way. It wasn't too much of a surprise. We had been traveling and living in China long enough to know that rarely anything goes according to plan.

-steve

Good bye Chengdu and the best looking girls in China!... Ok so after focusing back on traveling - we are headed to Songpan from Chengdu. Now this bus ride is no short trip. 8 hours long and this guy is not stopping for nothing. Here's the bad part. We are 1 hour into the trip and I am starting to feel birth pains. That's right, a number two. I have got to go now. But I can't - I will hold it. So I am sitting in pain and Kevin is wondering if I am going to live. I just kept pressing into the seat hoping that it would pass. And it would for about 5 minutes but then I would get the insane birth pains. Seriously they just kept getting worse. I had to go... now. After some quick observation, I noticed that the back 2 rows were completely empty. I headed to the very back row and sat down. After a few minutes I stopped getting the weird looks and just pretended I was enjoying the back seat. That's when it happened. I quickly contorted my body to hover over the front of the seat while making it look like I was enjoying the view outside. And after whipping the plastic bag out of my pocket, the deed was done. After laying the massive dragon I quickly whipped it out of the window. The funniest part was that no one even noticed!!! I just sat there and laughed. Oh except Kevin. While it was going on, he was giggling like a schoolgirl. Probably good timing too because he was drawing attention away from me. I guess there is some lesson to be learned here...

-steve

Ah.. Phenom Phen. Dusty, sweaty, and every Cambodian has marijuana growing in their front yard. Basically we were told to stay on the main roads and don't get any adventurous ideas or we would be blown to pieces by the hundreds of active landmines from the revolution. Kevin and I decided to take our chances and rent motor bikes. Driving motor bikes around asian cities is probably the biggest thrill ride ever. We actually did venture out of the city to see a couple things.. Yep, still got both legs - but sometimes I held my breath when and thought, Hmmm... I wonder if anyone has been down this path in the last few years.

-steve

This is probably the sweetest arrangement yet. I get offered a modeling job in China's Hawaii. Airfare payed. 2 nights in a great hotel. 2 days of shooting with gourmet meals provided. 2000 RMB for filming the commercial. It ended up that I was hardly in any of the shots so I just hung out on the beach the whole time. Then when it was over I arranged for them to give me cash for my return flight. So I took my 2400 RMB and a full stomach, met Kevin on the beach in Sanya, slept in a tent on the beach, and then left to conquer Vietnam the next day!

-steve

The English teaching contracting company I worked for in Guangzhou was acting quite unreasonable. After a dreadful, evil week of teaching in the middle of July, Kevin walks into my room and... Now you have to realize that Kevin has extreme amounts of patience and self control. Anyway, he walks into my room and calmly tells me he has had it. I was like "what!, you of all people can make it till the end of august!". Nope, he had lost it. He told me that he was leaving the next weekend. Just leaving.

The next morning (after a lot of tossing and turning all night) I walked into his room and asked him what he was planning to do. He told me he wanted to do a little traveling. I asked him if he wanted a traveling partner. Then together we said "time to conquer Asia baby!!!". So the next day we applied for Vietnam visas and then went bungee jumping. I tell you, the rest of that teaching week was a breeze. After it was all over I found out that we weren't missed a whole lot. No one really is with this company. As the wise manager always told us "Change to a company brings new ideas". Well fine then - you have your little changing company and I am going to do what I came here for.... Someone hand me my backpack.

-steve

Kevin and I got off the plane to Bangkok from Guangzhou and we wanted to head up north right away. We managed to take the local bus to the train station (crazy bus paying system). Of course when we made it to the train station it was late and there were no tickets available. We kept pestering them and finally they let us go third class (I guess no foreigners take this so they don't even offer it). The best part was that Bangkok to Chiang Mai in a bus is about 500 baht, but third class was only 150 baht (6 Canadian dollars) for 700 kilometers. When we got on the train, we realized why no foreigners took it. This overnight train just had benches and there were people everywhere on them. We squished into a bench and tried to sleep all night sitting up. That proved to be very ineffective. There is always a trade-off when going traveling for cheap - money vs. sleep.

-steve

Getting to the gorge was hard enough. Bus stations in Lijiang were hard to deal with and there was just no easy way to do it. Finally we jumped in a taxi with two other girls after bargaining for a cheap price. The taxi guy let us off at a bridge just outside the gorge and took off. We left and realized we had no idea which side of the river to walk on. We started down the side we were on and got to a ticket booth. It looked ok but there was something strange about it. One thing was for sure.. we don't dish out money very easily (especially 30 RMB (3 USD) yes I am cheap).

Good thing it was so early in the morning and the ticket booth guy was asleep. We snuck past him and walked quite a distance before he popped up and saw us. He ran up to us and then we played dumb - pretending we didn't know you had to pay for it. He stood there and blocked our path so we took a right into a small restaurant to have breakfast. He let us go in but we could see him waiting outside for us. We ate and just as we were finishing, we noticed that some people were at his booth wanting to pay. As he went back to deal with them, we took off down the path without him noticing (hearts racing). We walked for about half an hour and started to notice that we were on some stupid tourist pathway because old ladies were whizzing by us on man-powered carriages. Also the path was all pavement.

Just then our friend from the ticket booth caught up with us on a bike and... here we go again. After playing dumb for half an hour we finally coughed up the 30 RMB each (we were wasting time). We continued on our way and then it happened. We reached the end of the path only to realize we were walking on the wrong side of the stupid gorge. AHHHHH!! We finally walked back a little bit and payed some farmer to take us across the river on his raft. Fortunately when we got to the other side we were on the right side of the river and past the ticket booth of the real entrance to the gorge. From then it was all about conquering.

-steve

So I get to Hong Kong for the first time by my self and I have a few ideas of what to see but the big problem is that it is night and I have nowhere to stay. So after checking out Victoria Peak, I start walking down the hill (by this time it is like 10pm). I am starting to get worried because it is getting late and the hotels I have seen are just too expensive. I just didn't have any time to go looking around. That is when I spotted the nicest thicket on the side of the mountain. So I just jumped in and curled up. It was actually not bad being one with the animal sounds and tree roots in the back. Not too bad until 2am when there was a torrential downpour. I grabbed my stuff and hiked it down that mountain top speed and took refuge in a bus stop. I curled up on the bench and got hardly any sleep for the whole night. Hmm... I think I will splurge a little bit tomorrow.

-steve

Kevin and I are done hiking the gorge and since we only have a week in Yunnan we are eager to get to Dali tonight. Otherwise there is no way we are going to be able to visit Dali. We get to the bus station and everything is sold out for the whole evening. We kind of sat around and pouted (prayed lots). Then just as we were about to give up, some guy took pity on us and told us to walk down the street and turn the corner. We did it because we had no other options. 10 minutes later, he brought his private van around the corner and we jumped in with his family. Then we were off to Dali! We spent the whole trip teaching his kids english and I guess that pretty much paid for the trip because he let us off in Dali and that was that!

-steve

Kevin and I arrive to Dali after our miraculous trip from Lijiang. Still caught up in the faith thing, we start looking for a place to stay just after dark. All the places we go to are just way too out of our range (more than 4 Canadian dollars). Basically if it was more than that we slept in a park. After scouring the whole area for a hotel (and finding no good parks) we decided there was no finding a place. We decided to lean up against a building and sleep on the street (and praying lots). Some guy saw us as he was putting away his fruit stand. We told him we couldn't find a cheap place to stay. He laughed at me the frugal little white boy. Actually I was probably more frugal than him. Anyway, he took us through some pretty disgusting, dark alleys and brought us to this pretty rundown place. We told him we weren't really "into" these types of set-ups but he assured us that everything was ok. We walked in and it was actually pretty nice. And the best part of all - clean beds at $2 CAD a night!! SCORE!!!!!!!!!!! (and showers). So Kevin and Steve avoid the streets for another night.

-steve

Lindsay and I thought it would be a great day to climb Baiyun Shan (White Cloud Mountain) one day after work. So we took the bus to the north end of Guangzhou and set out. This was a typical china hike. Firstly there was a big wall surrounding the mountain so you have to walk through a toll booth. Secondly, there is a paved path or road up the mountain so you can get up in your high heels or tour bus. One of my first philosophies is that you can't keep me off a mountain. There has to be some back way around the wall! After about a half and hour of searching, we concluded that this particular mountain had a high wall all around it. So we reluctantly paid our 5 RMB (1$ Canadian) each and entered.

So we walked to the top and bla bla bla, looked at the city with a bunch of Chinese tourists. On the way down we noticed that there were so many little paths heading off the main paved stairway path so we decided to take on of them. I had been here before and I knew the dirt paths were much better than the normal paths. We ended up getting a little lost and it was starting to get dark so we decided to just bushwhack our way down to an entrance. When we finally did emerge from the jungle, things looked a little strange. We walked around a bit and saw a gate. But as we were walking out, a guy in a military uniform and a machine grabbed us and started yelling. Because of all the commotion, a few more came and crowded around us. We were led to a small room and told to wait. Over the next 5 hours, we were interviewed by about five or ten military officials (one who was flown in just to talk to us).

They were convinced that we were spies on their base!!! I have to admit this was probably the most scariest experience yet. We just kept shuddering and talking about jail and torture and things like that. Eventually we got in contact with our friend (who happened to be the son of a military official himself) and he explained who we were etc.. They still weren't very convinced and made us sign a bunch of documents, take photos etc... Then they drove us out of the compound in a jeep and dumped us on the street. Man, those Guangzhou streets never looked any better. Our buddy then told us that if it wasn't for him we would either a) be in jail, or b) be shipped out of the country. He advised us to put back on the high heels and take the stairs up the mountain.

-steve

The Survivor 1 TV series had just finished airing on TV and we were all pumped up about the show. Doug and I decided we would do our own little survivor weekend thing on a Saskatchewan lake. We packed up the canoe and set off for the weekend. After reaching Diefenbaker Lake, we set out with a canoe, two fishing rods, a pot, some matches, a bag of rice, two oars, a hatchet, and the clothes on us. Basically, if there was no fish, it was rice for the whole weekend. By the way this was Friday morning. So we fish all friday and don't catch a single thing. That evening we made a fire and cooked our rice with lake water. It turned out disgusting and gooey... but satisfying.

It was about that time that we spotted a porcupine on the beach. We grabbed a big rock and the hatchet and went after it like wild bushmen. But as we got closer we realized that we weren't that hungry and needed to make a shelter before night. We built a nice shelter out of the trees and it was beautiful. We laid down for a good night's rest under the stars. That's when the bugs came out. They were horrible. The mosquitoes weren't bad - it was the stupid biting flies. They were unbearable. We tried canoeing out into the water but they followed us. We tried sleeping on the beach but they followed us. We tried burring ourselves in the sand but we got way too hot. Finally we turned over the canoe and put sand up against the edges. Under the canoe we slept (half buried) for a couple of hours of the night.

The next morning our hair was matted with sand and we stunk like fishy water. It was time to catch some serious fish this morning. 10 hours later... nothing!! We met up with other boats occasionally and although using the same bait, we caught nothing. The other people couldn't reel them in fast enough. They were catching one after another. To make things worse, this was supposed to be the best fishing weekend ever because a trout stocking farm broke it's walls and released some 100000 fish into the lake. Still nothing. By this time we were so so hungry and out of rice. If that porcupine would have walked by again... i tell you.. That is when we decided that the trip was over. We paddled back to the car and drove straight to a buffet dinner.

The week prior to Easter '01 was a boring one. Eric Poppleton and I sat in our cushy Nortel cubicles and longed to get away. Then it hit us - easter weekend has a day off. With friday off there was definitely time for a quick road trip. Now you must realize that we were very bored. So for the rest of the week we tried to plan something. By the time thursday after work came, the plan was settled. Since there was snow on the ground and a cool breeze, it was time to hit the beach.

So Eric, Brian and I jumped in the car and started driving south. We drove all the way into the night. We stopped only for gas then it was driving, driving, and more driving. Friday noon rolls around and we pull into Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. It is above 30 degrees and it is smokin' hot baby!!! So we hit the beach for the rest of the day. We treated ourselves to beachware shopping and seafood buffet. Then we slept in the car on friday night.

Saturday is another sweet day at the beach. Saturday night, however, was not so fun. It was time to start driving back. We hiked it all through the night with a quick stop in Washington DC to see the White House (5 AM) and finally made it back to Ottawa mid afternoon on Sunday. The next morning, the boys at the office could not understand why Eric and I were red as lobsters. They thought we'd gone mad when we told them why.

I still don't know how you get 2 early 20's guys into a concert full of teeny bopper girls. But let me explain... there was a progression to get to this point. CHRI radio in Ottawa was pretty much all we listened to in the car. It didn't take long before we knew all the new songs. It is especially difficult not to get hooked on some tastes of music that may not be as cool - ie. contemporary light music or hip hop. Anyway, they overplayed this promo for the V*Enna concert so much that the girls' music was in our heads all the time. We just couldn't pass up this concert.

So we went there and it was Eric and I with a bunch of girls. We waited in line for a couple hours and just as we got to the front of the line, they closed the doors because they were sold out. Everyone started to go home but we persisted. We just sat down and wouldn't budge, even when they got more stern and told us to go home. After several sessions of puppy dog looks and weeping, this one lady had compassion on us. She motioned for us to sneak around back. She let us into the backdoor and told us to shut up. We went along with it and bingo! We handed her some cash (for the price of the tickets - this was a christian concert) and we were in just as V*Enna went on to the stage.

That is about the time that we realized we were some of the few guys there and definitely the only ones our age. Nevertheless, we sucked up our pride and got in there and had quite a good time.

Road trips to Fernie (in British Columbia) have kind of become the road trip of choice for the Christmas holidays. Things started off well on this one fine day in December of 99. I hit the road with Christie and a few friends. All five of us were packed in my '87 Volkswagon fox. It was a little cool outside so the heat was cranked up.

The car was riding low because of the excessive weight on the roof but everything was cool - the tunes were cranked full blast inside. About 2 hours into the journey the fun started. A little bit of smoke started to rise from the dash - no worries we just kept going. Then the dash really started to billow out smoke and we started to cough from the electrical fumes. This sounded like a good time to pull over (and just in time because smoke filled the car). That is pretty much the time when the steering column and dash started to go up in flames. We tried to throw snow on the fire but it kept going.

Several minutes later someone stopped to help us and we used his fire extinguisher to stop the flame. That put it out but it was a little too late. I just sat there in tears looking at my car. My friends just stood there, laughing their heads off. Christie was running all over the highway grabbing her homework which was blowing around. We got towed to Morse, Saskatchewan where the car was pronounced dead. That was the end of the trip. No snowboarding this year :(

Funny tidbits and wisdom gained through failure