2 Dudes 1 Trip: 2011

Saturday, April 30, 2011

Yet to Come

San Juan Del Sur
Scuba Diving in Honduras
Copan
Tikal
My Birthday
Belize
We are now currently in Mexico and this wave of SPRING BREAK has just washed over me so I´ll update stuff soon. Check Facebook for pics

Take care all, and thanks for reading the blog

Nicaragua

I left on April 7th for Nicaragua. Dave had left a few days prior. We finally split ways. I got into Nicaragua and got ripped off $50 by the money changer guy which made me feel really dumb, but I said ¨oh well, best forget it and have fun¨so instead of going to Managua as I had planned, I got off early to go to Ometepe. Which is an island in the middle of a giant lake with 2 volcanoes. You have to take a ferry over there and the water is quite choppy. I´m sitting there for about 20 minutes and then I wonder whether or not Dave has come to this island. I look to my right and that K-State lovin´som´bitch is right there talking with some girls and a cool guy named Kaj. So I join their group and we spent the next 2 days playing asshole and having a blast.

The following day one of the girls, Jessica, and I rented a Motorcycle and cruised the island. I was pretty nervous as I had never ridden one before, and I did not fancy killing this girl I had just met. She had faith in me so we went with it. I stalled a few times, but all in all I think I did pretty well, and it was AWESOME!!!! Cruising towards a volcano, watching the sunset on a bike with a girl behind is not too shabby.

Word to the wise. If you are going to drive off into the sunset, make sure that the front headlight is powerful enough to get you home once the sun actually sets and there is no longer any natural light to help you get home. I did not do this first and therefore had to return home at about 5mph since there were 0 streetlights, and many cows in the road.

Back to Costa Rica

March 27th, after nearly 5 years I was finally back in my favorite country ever, Costa Rica. A lesser man may have cried from the emotions that arouse, but as you all know, I don´t do that.
Anyways, if any of you have ever heard me talk about it (Dave) I fucking LOVE Costa Rica. First stop Parque Corcovado, ¨The Most Bio-diverse place in the world,¨ - National Geographic. It was intense. Straight hiking through the real deal rain-forest. They gave us pamphlets as to what to do in case we came across an Pumas. We bought Machetes so we felt prepared...enough. Got to the base camp late one afternoon and camped out. Woke up at 4am and set out on the journey.

So we hiked for about 4 hours on the beach which was REALLY tough, then we found that there was an actual path just 5 m inside the jungle to our right...woops. It was still a grueling HOT 8 hour hike, I brought 5 liters of water with me which was barely enough, but it really was awesome. Towards the end we came to a river crossing that was about 20 m across and we had been told that bull sharks go in there at high tide. We thought we were screwed, but thankfully we found a smaller area to cross and survived. We arrived to our base camp around 2pm and then went to a river where supposedly you can see sharks and Crocs fighting over food. We did not see this. At this moment though we met some guys, Chris and Tim who seemed cool. Little did we know that they would become our Ninja Turtle Macaws. This is just some inside joke stuff, if I explain it any further you´ll all just say we´re weird. You probably already will, but I don´t care. It ended up raining balls that afternoon so about 8 of us ran out on the field and played soccer in this torrential downpour which was the most fun I had had in a long time. We than saw a Tapir, which is apparently a big deal. The next morning we hiked back with our new friends and then proceeded to eat pizza at least once a week for the next 7-10 days that we were with each other. I have kept this ratio up during the rest of the trip.

Tim and I went to Tortuguero in search of Leather Back sea turtles hatching, but saw none :( Tim then left and I hung out with the hostel receptionist. Tim had fun in Nicaragua (see Tim for more details).

Gettng the f out of Bocas

So we got out of there and went to Kelly Cronin´s mom´s Eco Lodge, Rancho de Caldera, which is an amazingly nice place way off the beaten track with ridiculous views and I promise you the food is TOO good. Gina let Dave and I in for 2 nights which was such a nice gesture and it came at the perfect to to just sit around and recoup after almost a month of traveling. The area is great, but the rooms were SOOOO nice we just sat around and watched March Madness and ate the food.

Thanks Gina!!!!!! Seriously, it is well worth the money if you want luxury away from the tourist trap areas. Plus the people there are awesome.

Panama

So we get to Panama City on March 20th, and all the cool hostels are all taken so we had to go to a shitty one, but oh well. Panama City is BEAUTIFUL. The guide book said it´s like Miami, but with more English Spoken. There´s a really nice running path right by the water where hot chicks congregate. We went out big that night because it was Amanda´s birthday, had a good time, stepped on some glass that pierced my foot, partied with some Colombian guys who wanted me to drive their van to their house 30 minutes away...almost did, but instead we went to a cool hostel and I cooked everyone pancakes and then had to leave before the manager came back.
Then we walked home down that same nice running path at 8am, and got many approving looks from the locals and police officers. We then went to the Peace Corps office so that someone could finally get their check card that they had lost on day one of the trip and then off to the Panama Canal. IT´S BIG.
Then we barely made to our bus in time for Bocas Del Toro, but we did and as usual the AC was cranking and cold.
We arrived to Bocas early and hopped on a boat over to Aqua Lodge (highly recommended) the weather was bad that day and the one beach we were gonna go to was apparently a great spot to get robbed. The cops assured us though that nobody had gotten robbed the day before. We didn´t go.
Went back to the hostel and played beer pong all afternoon (I actually played pretty well for once) Dave was on point as usual. Then sleep happened.

Next day we were convinced by the staff to stay because there was a big party, so we biked around to a cool beach, my chain broke so I had to push it the 10 km back which was sweet, but the party was awesome. I met some Panamanian dude who played football for Carolina in the 90´s (Chad?). Woke up too late to leave so we stayed one more night....That was a mistake. Had a good time watching March Madness and all that, and then the night got later and later, and around 3am I was leaving a bar with Chad when all of a sudden some dude shoved me as hard as he could into a drainage ditch. I was VERY confused because as you know I´m not a confrontational person and had not ever even seen this guy before. I think he mistook me for someone else. I won´t get into alllllll of the details, but if you want to have a look at my fighter profile, here it is.

Name:Mark Gregory

Nickname: The Mark

Height: 5´10¨

Weight: 170

Reach: Not Much

Fights: 1

Wins: 1

Losses: 0

TKO's : 1

There´s more, just ask me about it later

Blogs are tough while travelling

I´ve heard some complaints that I haven´t been updating the blog enough. I apologize, but it´s hard to sit behind a computer when right outside the door is paradise. Here´s some updates....

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Boat trip from Colombia to the San Blas Islands

3/15
The single greatest part of this entire trip. Absolutely phenomenal. Dave and I found a boat with Captains Connie (22 Austria) and Kai (24 Sweden) on a 43 foot sailboat. There were bigger and flashier boats, but we didn't trust the captains the way we immediately trusted Connie and Kai. We then met Jeppe, from Sweden, and he seemed cool enough so we decided to go with them. Then we arrived at the dock to meet our 4 other boat-mates. Carolyn and Tess from Sweden, Amanda from Norway, and Scott from the States.
We left that night. I immediately took a Dramamine. I was also only one of 2 people who didn't puke. Dave led a puking rally once we got going and the waves got rough. It was TOUGH to sleep. We had to put our beds on the floor because otherwise we would have fallen off since it was rocking so much. It was hard not to puke
The next day was spent learning how to sail and just being at peace with nothing around us, but beautiful blue water. Same thing that night...but when we woke up it was like Christmas morning. Dave and I both looked at each other and knew that there was a surprise waiting for us outside. We went out and saw land for the first time in 36 hours. Then over the next 2 hours we arrived upon the most beautiful picturesque islands any of us had ever seen. There was only one thing to do. POSE!

We did some great snorkeling, and then visited a Kuna village, ate tons of sea food and then it ended. When it did though, our captains asked if we would go with them to salvage the motor from a wrecked ship about 5 hours away for 4 days. If we did we wouldn't have to pay for the trip. It sounded enticing, but since we didn't know Panamanian laws, we decided Panamanian jail would be bad.

Recap Mo-fos

Alright, so we haven't been keeping up with the blog quite as well as planned (one of us worse than the other...Schmave) So now it's time to recap from where I left off with 25 eggs getting stolen in Medellín.

We might some dudes, Ish and Abz, from England during our Pablo Escobar tour which was sweet. We went and saw some of his old buildings, where he was killed, and his grave yard. Then we went out for a night on the town....

3/10/2011
Got into Cartagena, (the Caribbean coast), finally! But ya, it wasn't as sweet as we thought. Cool place, and there were plenty of awesome attractions to go to nearby, but the city itself showed what tourism can do to a culture at it's worst. Nice people, but we were getting offered blow like every block, and even in the morning. Thanks, but that's a little early. The main goal was to find a boat over to Panamá. Unfortunately, we arrived the day that most boats were leaving, so we had to wait about 5 more days. It was fun though. We met a lot of cool people. Went to a live broadcast of the Shakira concert one night and gave an interview on our thoughts of Shakira. The common response was "wooooooh!" We were then in the newspaper

A few days later we went to Playa Blanca, and I fulfilled my dream of drinking a Piña Colada out of a coconut on a perfect Caribbean beach.

Then we went to a mud volcano. A really deep pit of mud. That was cool. Then some lady bathed me in the river while I drank a beer.

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

It´s all fun and games until 25 eggs get stolen

We´re currently in Medellin, Colombia (made famous by Pablo Escobar) and are staying at a kick-ass hostel, but now I must rant. At backpacker hostels many people buy food and prepare it in the communal kitchen so that they can save money. Dave and I decided to up the ante and buy LOTS of food, namely a carton of 30 eggs. Day 1 we ate 5 eggs. Day 2 the carton was gone! I mean shit! Who steals 25 som´bitchin eggs!? If they had taken anywhere from 5-10 we would still have plenty to go around. But whoever it didn't even have the decency to leave us 1??!! Dave is currently debating whether he should rage and eat all of the food in the kitchen. I´ll keep you updated.

So just a quick recap. We did go to Taco Bell in Ecuador, which was extremely gratifying to finally check that off the ol´itinerary. One interesting thing about Ecuador was the means people used for begging. We boarded the city metro with all of our stuff (we were those guys) in order to save money and immediately a blind dude boarded and asked for some donation. He looked like he needed it so I gave him some change (I normally don´t) Then about 5 stops later another blind dude got on, but this guy had a little boom box around his neck and sang us some music. Very impressive that they can walk around a fast moving bus with out holding on to the railing. Anyways he finished and prepared to get off and I kid you not, as he got off another blind guy with a little boom box got on. I mean they literally crossed paths.

We've met some interesting people. 2 che´s (Argentinians), a rapper from Britannica, some English guys, and last night a French magician. Good times. Take care

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Quito, Ecuador

Well, the joy of the bus ride was short lived as I woke up in the middle of the night with a searing pain in my chest. Right about where my heart would be. It was awful. So I called our doctor Suni Su who informed me that I was not in fact having a heart attack and that I should instead go to sleep.

On Friday, Feb 18. Dave, Jason Briggs, and I finished our Peace Corps Service. The staff had cake for us and sang us a goodbye song which was really nice. Then we went to some sweet ass bar in Pueblo Viejo that´s connected to a Quierolo distributor where they just give you a bottle of Pisco, limes, and pop (aka soda). It was pretty sweet to finally go to a bar like that. On Sunday we said goodbye to our original host families from Lima which was really nice.

Dave then went to Cusco (see Dave for more details) and I had my despedida in Pacasmayo which was a good time, but really melancholy as well.

On Saturday the 27th we said goodbye to Chiclayo in an appropriate manner (see Mike for more details). Oh ya and Scott Bradford just happened to be in the neighborhood so he came by with a guy he´s backpacking with, James, who are both expert fruit ninjas.

Then on Sunday we finally started THE TRIP. Dave lost his wallet almost immediately, but that´s the way she goes.

We got to Guayaquil early Monday morning and stayed the night. Then Tuesday we went on a mother truckin´pirate ship called Henry Morgan. Thumbs up all the way around.

We are now in Quito and are going to see ¨La Mitad del Mundo¨monument and then tomorrow off to Cali, Columbia. World capital of plastic surgery

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Finishing Peace Corps Service

OK, so this is a pretty dorky post, but Dave and I are currently on the bus to Lima to Close our Peace Corps Service. This is my first time on the top of the line bus (see pic below) but it is AWESOME. The seat basically turns into a bed and there is Wireless f'ing internet! I'm stoked. ha! The stewardess just came by to ask if we wanted some wine before bed. We said yes. I was happy.