Macau - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macau

Population: 1 million

Known For: gambling

Comment: its a very small place, once occupied by the Portugese.  most of the people here are Cantonese speaking, although more and more speak Mandarin as their first language.  I noticed that in Hong Kong and especially Guangzhou as well, which are largely Cantonese speaking places. lots of Mandarin speaking people.  a lot of the new immigrants coming to Canada are also Mandarin speaking.  they are taking over!!  Macau is a lot like Las Vegas.  lots of huge fancy casinos.  Wynn, Venetian, Sands and MGM are all over there.  the Sands is the biggest casino in the world.  everything is grandiose and epic, much like Vegas.  lots of beautiful showgirls and ummm “escorts” over there as well.  just like Vegas!  so really, if you want to see Macau just go to Vegas, its a shorter flight. my aunt is a manager at one of the restaurants in the Starwood casino. i had a really yummy apple juice there and she introduced me to all the beautiful hostesses.  most of the conversations went something like this

her “i speak a english. but just a so so”

me “oh thats not bad. i understood every word you just said”

her “oh fank you. hehehehehe”

me “….”

Traditional Chinese girls crack me up. they are so shy, can’t even look you in the eyes. but then the men are the same way.  thats why i swear you get a westerner over there with just a little bit of charm and he can do some serious damage.  so yeah, Macau. it rocks! check it out if you are ever in Hong Kong, its only about an hour boat ride away.

as for me, i’m still a little jetlagged.  i’ve never experienced jetlag before but now i can appreciate how difficult it really is.  i’m exhausted.  i was fine the first day back, but the next 3 were brutal. i took a sick day to try and get back into it but that didn’t help me.  i was told the trick is not to eat breakfast to trick the body that its sleepy time, but so far that hasn’t helped too much.  last night i was pretty much exhausted at 11 pm, falling asleep watching the ufc fights.  good thing i chose not to go to oktoberfest because i would have been a buzz kill that’s for sure. though i miss you guys, and i really wanted to go.  i’ll catch up with you all soon enough.

hey yall.  it turns out i have to switch hosting companies by next week, or this site goes down.  right now i’m debating if i’ll make the switch, or if i’ll let it go.  there are a few reasons why i am considering letting the blog go.

1) lack of time.  i’ve set my priorities for the next little while and this blog is pretty low on that totem pole.  i haven’t committed any time to it.

2) lack of value.  i don’t have much to offer you guys at this moment.  it would be a lie for me to tell you 10 tips to a happy life, or 5 ways to find the woman of your dreams, or some crazy story of how i wrestled an alligator blindfolded in the middle of the desert.  i’m just struggling with the everyday right now, so nothing out of the ordinary from everybody else.

3) something new.  i have been thinking about starting a different blog.  one that i actually put out there for the entire internets and try and actually gain readership.  it has just been a passing thought, but something i wouldn’t mind doing sometime in the future. this blog has been great for me to keep the 5 of you that actually read it in the know of where i’m at and what i’m doing, but honestly something like facebook can do the same thing (even though i hardly use it, i may sometime in the future)

next Thursday will be my 2 year anniversary with my current company.  wow, 2 years! it just flew on by.  i got a very surprising raise this past Tuesday, which was a pleasant surprise as well. i’m really fortunate to be in the position i’m in, but i have seen a fatal flaw in the way i’m currently living.  i’m going round and round.  2 years become 5, 5 become 10, 10 become 20.  going on this course will lead to more money, but in the end unfullfilling.  i’m a little nervous right now, a little confused, a little frustrated.  i saw my naturopath yesterday. the first thing she said to me was i look drained and ungrounded at this moment.  and i am.  after our meeting, i found myself sitting on the subway. as strange as it sounds, i really just wanted a hug from a complete stranger.  currently, i live for those few moments i find joy in.  on the rock climbing wall when everything fades to black, watching those crappy movies and stuffing my face with popcorn, playing my psp and turning off my brain, spending those few precious moments with the people i love.  but these moments are becoming less and less.  things change, people change, everything changes and yet i find no joy in it.  but i’m confident i will.  it probably won’t happen in the next 3 months, but it may in the next 6.  either way, i can appreciate these growing pains i am growing through but i don’t necessarily wish to blog about it.  truth is, my life is pretty good.  i’m not too worried about myself, but i worry tremendously about my loved ones.  it keeps me awake at night, staring at the ceiling.  i’ll get it right, sooner rather than later.  keep in touch, my friends.  thanks for caring enough to come visit here.  much love.

Nanjing - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanjing
Population: 7.5 million
Known For: their crystals, jade, and artistry
Comment: they have a huge bridge here, its a fortified city, and a terribly depressing museum in memory of the Nanking massacre (the Japanese killed over 300,000 chinese and raped, stole, and did all sorts of other bad things here during the second world war).  the food isn’t outstanding, but not bad and tends on the spicy side.  the bathrooms are horrendous and the city is rather poor.  i probably would not go back.  there are a lot of asians here.

Wuxi - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wuxi
Population: 4.5 million
Known For: pearls
Comment: this is a nice city.  its got a lot of old/ancient historic sites like beautiful royal gardens, but also lots of brand new skyscrapers all over the place. there is also a hugeeeee (biggest in china/world?) statue of a standing buddha, in this huge buddhist temple.  wuxi people eat little meat, and their style of food is sweet.  i probably would go back but would not go out of my way to do so. there are a lot of asians here.

Suzhou - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suzhou
Population: 6.1 million
Known For: silk
Comment: stayed at a nice five start hotel here. i went on a very awesome boat cruise here.  it was an old style boat that went through a very narrow passage through backyards of peoples homes.  it was a great way to see how the people of Suzhou live.  lots of people were washing their clothes in the water.  others were fishing. lots of willow trees lined the water, making it look very nice.  finally saw some beautiful Chinese girls (I knew they existed!!) with great style.  the food here is good, lots of tasty fish.  saw a fashion show here, as well as went to a silk factory and saw how silk was made.  the old man in my tour group grabbed a bunch of dead silkworms and started eating them.  i looked at him with a big wtf expression on my face.  he and his wife also bought dried dog meat jerky (not even kidding).  apparently, they are building a very superfast railway system that connects Beijing to Shanghai.  it will be the longest express railway in the world. it will go through Suzhou and will only take 15 minutes to get to Shanghai, so I probably would come here again through Shanghai.  there are a lot of asians here.

Hangzhou - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hangzhou
Population: 6.5 million
Known For: tea, especially green
Comment: very beautiful natural scenery here.  they let you rent bikes here so you can ride along these natural routes.  lots of english here. it seems very catered to westerners.  also went on a boatcruise here along the bay or something. it was nice but they packed you on the boat like sardines.  i felt like an illegal immigrant.  saw a really really amazing show here, showing acrobats and kung fu and all sorts of other cool stuff, based on an old famous chinese folklore. the women in the show were very stunningly beautiful. yes, Chinese people aren’t all ugly!! i possibly would go back, but I think i’ve seen all that i need to see in Hangzhou, so it would be a very low priority place.  food here is outstanding.  i liked it here better than in Shanghai, and even better then Hong Kong.  their dumplings were out of this world. there are a lot of asians here.

Shanghai - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghai
Population: 20 million!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! think about that for a second. they threw most of Canada into one city.
Known For: with that many people they are probably known for everything.  many call it Paris of the East and Queen of the Orient.
Comment: Shanghai’s got style.  very awesome style here, both men and women.  the women are very beautiful.  tall, which is something you don’t see in Chinese girls which totally caught me off guard.  but very slender.  they all look like runway models, and dress like them to boot.  its a very modern city, and a very rich city with super high skyscrapers.  i think they have the tallest one in the world, or right up there.  its really really tall.  i went on a big boat cruise at night and it was beautiful.  there is a certain charm about Shanghai that I enjoy very much but can’t quite put my finger on it.  Nonetheless, i would love to come back to Shanghai someday and play some more. there are a lot of asians here.

Guangzhou - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guangzhou
Population: 12.6 million
Known For: i don’t know. this is where my parents are from.  i would say they are known for the delicious yummmy food.
Comment: its a completely rebuilt city.  my mom and aunt don’t even recognize it.  it is new, and has a really really good subway system.  well, comparing it to Toronto’s, which is probably the worst in the world.  it was very nice to see my grandparents grave, which is absolutely massive, much bigger then all the other ones.  the cemetery is also one of the nicest ones i’ve ever seen (except the one in Buenos Aires, which wins hands down).  i went to some very nice places here, but also my mom made sure i got to see the ghetto places too.  we actually stayed at a very ghetto place (the kitchen was also the bathroom and the toilet was also the shower. not kidding) even though we could have stayed at a mansion.  i went to this mansion of my mom’s friend on the very last day and asked my mom why we didn’t stay there.  she said so i could live humbly and appreciate what i have.  i can respect that, but damn the mansion was nice! i probably would not go back unless with my family.  i would not come back on my own.  there are a lot of asians here.

Closing thoughts and comments:
I wish i could give you a more detailed writeup, because i had a really amazing time with lots of fun stuff, but unfortunately i am short on time.  i’m about to do some hot pot over here so i just did this up as quick as i could.  i wish i had more time on this trip.  i have a whole new appreciation for China.  its beautiful  very majestic. China is also a much much MUCH richer place then I remember.  there is serious money over here.  for example, i had a dim sum where each person had an assistant, our own private chef in our own beautiful private room with bathroom. you just tell the chef what you want and they would make it.  i had scorpion here, as well as snake and frog and all sorts of exotic stuff that was absolutely delicious. i went to a huge 5000 square foot condo of a family friends.  i can’t explain it.  it was seriously like lifestyles of the rich and famous. i was like damnnnn g.  labour workers retiring at 50 have these huge ass homes.  sometimes 3 or 4.  also, hong kong isn’t as ugly as i originally stated, as i have seen some stunners the past few days.  but honestly they are few and far between.  nonetheless, hong kong is awesome.  i never thought about it before, but after this trip i actually see myself living in china.  i like the lifestyle here, its very different.  still, it has its drawbacks.  huge crowds everywhere. there is no sunshine, anywhere. its so foggy and hazy that the skies are always grey. bathrooms for the most part are still ridiculously filthy, especially high traffic public ones.  the air quality is sheisse.  you can’t drink the tap water.  food recalls out the wazoo (there were 3 that i saw on the news since being over here).  and i’m not too keen on chinese people (you will note i don’t have very many chinese friends).  i just don’t vibe with many of them.  i find they have dirty manners, and talk loads amounts of verbal diarhea.  tons of pride. too much.  they hold grudges till they die. obviously i’m generalizing to the max.  i prefer good ol canadians.  the people here stare at my awesome eating prowess. they tell me what my secret is.  i tell them i trained with the best back home.  anyways, i’d type more but i really gotta go! tootles!!

been a good year i’d say.  not nice or perfect or easy, but good.  lots of people have helped me this year. thought i’d give a shoutout to say thank you to them all

my doctor Dr. Singh for hearing me out and fixing me up when necessary
my naturopath Annie, who practically reads my mind everytime I see her and for being the most compassionate person i know and for genuinely caring about me
my voice coach Elizabeth for showing me how ugly my voice really is
my hot as hell chiropractor Marnie for fixing my back even though there’s nothing wrong with it (i just like to visit her, hehe)
my physiotherapist Sabrina for fixing me up everytime i come in broken
my massage therapists Joanne and Jonny for having hands of glory and for having those awesome life lectures
my dentist Dr. Cheng for having a better smile than me and for being the happiest asian man i have ever met in my life.
my Yoga instructor Kirsten for showing me the ropes, for having such a calming voice and for being so darn flexible
my BJJ coach Elliot for making BJJ easy to learn and fun!
my training partners at OpenMat for the great training
my friends, of course! especially the ones i’ve spent a lot of time with this year including
the 613, for being huge super nerds trying to be cool in this crazy world
dirty d for being the best climbing partner a guy can ask for
special k for being special
pooky for feeling me when i needed to be felt (that sounds so weird. meh)
pras for letting me know even great ones like you slip from time to time
mike for being my movie buddy and citychase partner
megan for all the hanging out and about around TO
lindsay for all the crazy food places you keep taking me to
annie before you got a boyfriend you were actually fun and cool (never forget who hooked you up!)
ahmedf for being ahmedf
the indians! the UN! those crazy cats in NF
squirt for believing in me even when i don’t believe in myself.
of course my family! mom, dad, bro, all my aunts/uncles/cousins/grandparents for all their awesomeness and love and warmth.

ok, this sounds like a yearbook now.  i’m out. grateful for all that i am. for all that i have. for all of you. love!

messed up my knee pretty bad.  i was sitting at the very back of the bus in the middle where there is no seat in front of me (picture the back having fives seats, i was sitting in the third seat, and all rows in front have four seats with two on each side).  our driver slammed on his breaks while i was playing my psp.  i skyrocketed to the front of the bus (its a 30 seater).  what stopped me from hitting the window?  my knee into one of the arm rests near the front of the bus.  how hard did i hit the arm rest?  well i cracked it open pretty good, and my knee is black and blue.  i was literally a human projectile.  the people on the bus were terrified. my mom was yelling at me (cause it was my fault for flying through the air). they wanted to rush me to the hospital.  at that moment i asked myself… “what would the indians do?” and the answer was clear as day.  they would complain until people stopped caring.  i figured i’d do the opposite.  so i insisted i was fine so we could continue enjoying the day.  i tried to walk as careful as i could throughout the day so people wouldn’t ask how i was every 5 minutes (it didn’t stop them anyway) but hot diggity damn my knee is killing me.  i’m just chilling in my ginourmous room right now and taking it easy. hopefully tomorrow it will be ready to rumble.  all kidding aside, i feel very blessed that i’m alright.  it could have been much worse.
i’ll have more updates later.  right now i’m just going to lie down and take it easy.

imagine you take 7 million people, and throw them into one city, like a can of sardines.  enter, hong kong.  its massive.  all you have are high rises and cars.  i’ve overdosed on asian.  although i have been surprised by the number of forgeigners here.  the food is delicious.  and the people are…well, chinese.  i actually had a very delicious vegetarian meal three days in a row.  one was prepared by my aunt’s maid/cook Dee, who is from Indonesia or something.  it was so yummy.  another was at a vegetarian restaurant near the big buddha.  honestly, its so much better having a local take you around when you are on vacation.  the place i went to was a total dump.  you couldn’t even tell it was a restaurant.  this narrow walkway surrounded by weeds and old kids toys littered about led into the compound.  the compound itself was guarded by barking dogs, who were locked in their cages just waiting to be unleashed on some misbehaving punks.  even upon entering the place, you’d swear you just entered a homeless shelter.  but man, the food was amazing!  never judge a book by its cover.

contrary to my last statement, let me make a judgement on hong kongers.  they are ugly.  let me be curt for a moment.  i am the most handsome man in hong kong, hands down.  everybody else looks like they graduated phd ugly school with honours.  i’m also probably the prettiest woman here too.  you’d figure with 7 million people, you’d have some cute girls.  if you consider the chinese olympic team cute, then come to hong kong and you’ll be in heaven.  the girls here are too skinny, too young looking, and wayyyy too fob.  they aren’t even feminine, they are just straight up little kids.  of all the women i’ve seen here, i’d say i may have seen 1 cute one (i say may have because i still haven’t decided if she was a ladyboy or not).  i was having a dicussion with somebody before i left who said hong kong girls had great fashion sense. barffff. i’m barfing. right now. because of that barfworthy statement.  all i have to say about the fashion here in hong kong is… TRY HARD.  my cousin is an emo.  i hadn’t seen him since he was 6, when he came to visit 9 years ago.  he was so cute back then.  i was excited to finally meet him now at the tender age of 15.  when i saw this emo kid emerge i cried silently on the inside.  he takes about 2 hours to get ready to go out. and he checks his hair every moment he can.  like, literally. every moment.  i counted. he looked for a reflection to fix his hair and his scarf (yes, he wears a scarf in 35 celsius heat) 4 times in 2 minutes.  i got bored after 2 minutes and stopped counting.  but, to his credit, he is one of the less try hard kids here.  you have people here who look straight up ridiculous. women in their 50s trying to be 20 again.  boys trying to look like flava flav. try hard, try hard, try hard.  want to be original in hong kong?  wear a plain grey tshirt with a pair of jeans on.  thats what i wear.  and have officially become the city’s ambassador to prettiness.  you can call me hong kong wong from now on.  the stores and little shops are filled with imitation clothing.  why the hell would you want to imitate being cool?  just BE COOL (no fake clothing necessary).

this city is the perfect example of what needs to be changed if we are going to stop global warming.  it is a power guzzling machine.  the lights are ridiculous at night.  air conditioning is jacked to the max.  35 degrees celcius outside, 15 inside.  bring a parka on the subway, its that cold.  think of blade runner when you see hong kong, that’s what it reminds me of.  its a crazy place.  but its also a much newer place, much cleaner place then i remember.  the subway system is one of the best i’ve been on.  clean, fast, a great ticketing system (RFID, the technology of the future and what i used in my fourth year design project).  the people are friendlier then i remember.  they are still rushed (like any big city) but they greet you when you enter, have appropriate manners, etc.  all is not lost!  the place is more elegant and sophisticated.  gone are the days of pokemon and dragonball z.  my mom was seriously thinking of buying a white jade buddha (about $50,000 CAD).  as nice as it looked, i had to persuade her otherwise.  i saw paintings for over $100,000 in some stores.  my mom is very surprised at the fact that i haven’t looked at anything and wanted nothing.  she keeps asking me if i want to buy anything.  she’s almost egging me to buy something.  she seems dissappointed that i haven’t bit.  she’s so used to accusing me of using my money poorly that she’s got nothing to nag me about!  its awesome.  in comparison to my cousin, who is your typical spoiled hong kong kid, i’m a saint! she knows it, my aunts know it, they can’t say anyyyyttthinggg.  as early as a year ago, i’d be scorching this city with my credit card.  an unexpected side effect of my spiritual journey, i suppose.  i’m not sure when my desire of things went away, it just seems to have slowly faded.

the best thing about this trip so far though is definitely watching my mom interacting with my aunts.  i wish i could tape it and translate it for you.  its effing hilarious.  they yell at each other at the tops of their lungs screaming their opinions/facts(?) about everything thats right, thats wrong, thats different and thats changed about anything (classic chinese. its like dim sum 24/7).  its way too much.  my stomach hurts from the laughing. they proceed to scold me, which leads to further laughter on my part.  tomorrow, i’m off to nanking.  i won’t be back to hong kong for another week,  but i love this city  (minus the power consumption, and you can’t really blame people for being ugly.  well, i can’t.).  its really carving a vibe of its own over here.  its very east meets west.  they probably have more english speaking signs here then in toronto.  you can even read the subways and bus systems easily without knowing any chinese.  if it wasn’t for me reading the english signs, we would have been lost many times over if i relied on my mom and aunts chinese (face the facts, boys are just better with directions).  alrighty, dinner is almost ready. my mom and aunts were out all day at the markets picking stuff up to eat. they get more enjoyment out of that and cooking then they do going out to eat.  so weird.  oh well, they’ve been really accommadating of my dietary needs (to my huge surprise) so i don’t mind.  bye for now!

alrighty folks.  i’m off to china bright and early tomorrow. just thought i’d send a quick note.  i don’t know how much blogging i’ll do over there, but i do plan on taking lots of pictures and eating lots of food.  those are my criteria when i travel. eat well and see well which equals experience well.  every thing else such as a nice bed, nice people, cheap prices is just gravy on top.  i’m packing a little more this time.  going to bring my laptop cause i still have work to do. i know, you aren’t supposed to work on vacation but i am running low on time so i have to.  i’ll be content with doing only a couple hours a day, probably during transportation and that sort of thing.

ok, gotta run.  see you all later!

been slammed lately with work, love, life, projects. my goodness.

my receptionist gave me a brand new htc touch for free.  what a sweetheart.  she’s great.  her and i are born on the same day, she’s a year younger, and a total party girl.  she’s a lot of fun, always keeps work interesting.  i still can’t believe she just gave it to me, what a kind gesture.  i’ve since hacked the phone, and now it works great.  i like it because i get clear as day reception in my apartment, something that was non existent with my old phone (my samsung, which i love to death and will miss dearly)  things are getting crazy around the office. like straight up loco.  i have my reservations about talking about it.  i just feel my time is almost up at work, and its time for me to move on and find something else i can sync my teeth into.  i don’t plan on being there for another year.  my coworkers are great, the products i work on are interesting, the atmosphere is chill and my manager and director are amazing.  but i just feel i need to follow my own path and my manager absolutely encourages me.  yes, i already told him i was thinking about leaving.  people i’ve told have said i’m crazy, but if you knew my manager you would understand.  he’s a really cool person.  he invited me to go to a James concert at the Phoenix next Tuesday.  unfortunately i have plans that night, but i will meet up with him for dinner at Magic Oven.  what i like about my manager is he is very open to what i say, not just work related but other.  he has lost a lot of weight because of my diet suggestions.  he cut out sugar and is largely vegetarian and has lost over 100 lbs.  he looks fantastic.  he’s really into the ufc because of me, and does yoga with me as well.  he says i’m an inspiration (i get that a lot at the office, actually) and i’m glad to hear that. when we talk about life, and how we talk about the world, he absolutely encourages me to follow my heart, and that is really awesome.

i’m also going to china next week.  i got my visas this week.  that was a pain, the lineups were huge and the counter people were rude.  also, when i was submitting the visa forms, some of the forms weren’t filled in correctly. so i had to correct them and wait in line again. oy. anyway, its going to be a very BUSY trip.   i’ll be going to Nanking, Shanghai, Suzhou, Hangzhou, Wuxi, Macau, Hong Kong, and Guongzhou.  I know, i haven’t heard of most of them either.  the funny thing is all or most of these places are more populous then toronto, lol.  most of them by a lot.  i’m going to see some family, some of which i haven’t seen in 15 years.  my cousin has a kid now and is married.  that should be cool.  i’m going to visit my grandparents’ grave, something my mom says is very important that i do.  they died shortly after my visit to them 15 years ago, and i am very glad that i got to meet them.

i’ve got a couple projects on the go as well.  firstly, i want to write my gmat and apply to a good mba school for september of next year.  i won’t bother applying if i do poorly on the gmat.  i only wish to get into a top tier school and nothing less.  i should be able to kill it, as long as i FOCUS.  but that is the biggest challenge for me right now.  i feel a little overloaded.  i have to constantly remind myself to come back to the present, otherwise my mind will go into overdrive about all the things i have on my plate.  my health has taken a toll.  i’ve been eating poorly and haven’t been working out.  my bjj coach is going to kick my ass when i get back in there. i’m fearing it already.  my stomach has been acting up on me lately, something that hasn’t happened since i went vegan.  not only that, but i’ve been sick this week, something that has rarely happened since switching diets.  not only have i been sick, but this is the slowest recovery i have had since going vegan.  i’m not impressed with this, because i know this is completely under my control and yet i am letting it slide.  i plan on gorging on all sorts of delicious chinese food when i’m there, but once i return i have to get back at it.  mental clarity is so important, and that is best when i’m eating healthy and exercising.  i’ve been journaling a lot lately and getting back into my good productivity habits, which is great.  you will notice that the photo gallery is broken.  i believe its because i have run out of disk space on my host.  i will be switching hosts as i just purchased a pro hosting account for one of my projects that is in its initial planning stages (that i am super excited about).  if the photo gallery is still broken after the switch, i likely won’t have time to troubleshoot the issue for a while.  i’ve also got a bunch of other projects on the go, one of which i had to unfortunately postpone with one of my partners for 6 months until i have a chance to revisit it.  there is one project i want to share with you, as its launch is imminent.  keep your eyes out for http://www.webhostingpages.com, a webhosting directory that will kick all others in the butt!  its a joint venture between ahmed and i that should soft launch in the next couple of days.

i think that’s all that i want to share with you for now.  but there’s more, oh there’s more.  keep it real, kids. namaste.

“Believe in yourself. Believe in your own potential for greatness. Believe that you can change the world. It is something that is within each of us.” – Evan Michael Tanner 1971-2008

At the young age of 37, one of my heroes, Evan Tanner, has passed on.  Evan was a former UFC champion, but to me he was so much more.  What I loved about Tanner was that he was such an incredible warrior, never backing down from a challenge, despite what life threw at him.  I read his blog on occassion, and he was in some very dark places, but he pushed through and survived, journaling his journey.
“When you’re on your death bed, it’s those stories, those little adventures that are going to be the things that you remember. It’s not so much getting there, but how you got there.”

An avid outdoorsman and wandering spirit, he wanted to escape civilization for a while.

“I plan on going so deep into the desert, that any failure of my equipment, could cost me my life.”  Sadly, he never made it back, but his spirit lives on.  That warrior spirit.  That spirit that many UFC fighters have.  I have found that you can learn alot from fighters.  Here are some off the top of my head.

1. Losing is inevitable.  I think it was Mark Bocek that I overheard saying, “The only people that don’t lose are the ones who don’t compete.”  Everybody loses.  The ones that haven’t, will.  Its how you bounce back and what you learn from that that will determine if you will get back on the winning track or not.
2. Persistence. Persistence. Persistence.  There is nothing more important than sticking through the good, the bad, the ugly.  The resolve and determination to follow your dreams is no more obvious than as a professional fighter, where the work is hard and the money is little.
3. They don’t care what other people think.  They believe they can win, despite what others tell them.  The fighters don’t step into the cage expecting to lose.  Even if they are huge underdogs.  In the fight game, beyond any other sport, the underdogs are the ones that prove everybody wrong again and again.  Just look at Rashad Evans in his latest victory for the perfect example.  And he won defeating Chuck at his own game.
4. They have a great support system.  Coaches, trainers, training partners that help them to become better.  To help them reach places they couldn’t reach on their own.  We could learn from fighters to have a great support system in our own lives, from our friends, to our lovers, to our family and coworkers.  Do you allow your support system to help you be the best you can be?
5. Self discipline.  To wake up everyday and work their butts off in the gym, day after day, rinse and repeat, for nothing but to better themselves, that is something we can all respect and look up to in a fighter.
6. Hard work.  Nothing is more gruelling then the fight game.  But how satisfying is that feeling that you have put in as much work as you could to prepare for your fight, then the rest should take care of itself.  I know when I was in school, it was an amazing feeling to know i put in all the time i could, and trusted that the work would take care of itself.
7. Passion.  Face it, beating people up for a living isn’t everybodies career of choice.  It takes a special person to take this journey, a person filled with infinite passion for what they are doing.  We could all use a little more passion in our lives.
8. They don’t compare themselves with others.  Fighters know that they can’t compare themselves to other fighters, that’s how they lose.  They must go in there with the belief that they are the best that they can be and let nature takes its course.
9. Contantly improving.  They are constantly working on their weaknesses, constantly covering up the holes and constantly growing.  Something we should all strive to do on a daily basis.
10. Fun!!  Life wouldn’t be so great without a little fun.  You know they are loving their jobs, bunch of freaks.  but hey, its fun for them and its certainly fun for the fans.  Don’t forget to not take life so damn seriously, and just have fun with it

I had heard so much about this book for a long time but never got around to reading it. Then one day late last month, I was rummaging through a sidewalk book sale after a lovely brunch with a friend. I saw it there for 4 bucks and decided to pick it up. That was the best 4 dollars I have ever spent.
This book couldn’t have come at a better time in my life. Just when I began to question why I got into this self growth thing four years ago, it put everything into perspective for me and so much more. I started the book Thursday night and read it cover to cover, finishing Saturday afternoon. It is a light and quick read, and if you are anything like me you’ll have a tough time putting it down. To say I can relate to Dan Millman is an understatement. There were times I felt I WAS Dan Millman. By the end of the book I was sobbing uncontrallably, and then I took a nice long nap. I felt so peaceful, and still do. If you were to ask me my core values as little as 1 year ago, I would tell you they were something like Courage, Success, Health, but if you were to ask me today, I’d give you a new list. Joy, Growth, Peace. I imagine in a year, my values will shift again. That is the beauty of life, it is ever changing.
Personal growth is HARD. anybody who tells you otherwise is straight up off their rocker. it takes a very brave person to look themselves in the mirror, and try to push way past what makes them comfortable, to confront that which they think is impossible, and to trust that what they are doing is what they are supposed to be doing. Not everybody is as fortunate as Dan Millman, to have a great teacher that he had. And it took him close to 10 years to finally become a peaceful warrior. I’ve only been working this for 4, and there are times when i feel really effin low, but there are other times when there is an overwhelming surety that this is exactly what i should be doing in this moment in time. the juice is DEFINITELY worth the squeeze. i know mistakes will be made. i know pain will come. how i choose to handle that is completely up to me. This year alone, I have learned more about myself then I had in all my previous years combined. Some things I was so sure of turned out to be nothing more than illusions. Others, sure to be illusions, turn out to have some merit of truth to them. How unpredictable this life is. Let us not strive for comfort, let’s strive for growth and start living! life will always be a challenge, there are no ordinary moments. Just try your best.

i needed that. a good kick in the pants.  it would be silly to say i am ok now.  i’m still pretty irritated with myself, but i’ve accepted what already is.  i’ve decided to remove my previous post not because it didn’t happen and it wasn’t real, because it definitely was. but rather because i’d rather stick with positive vibrations rather then having lingering negative ones front page and center.

friends, to say i’m struggling right now would be an understatement.  last night was about as low as it gets, but i am going to be stronger for it.  the only thing i can say right now is what can i learn from this.  and what i’ve come up with is i’m not invincible.  i’m only human, and i need to not be so damn bloody hard on myself.

one moment of anger can destroy years of patience.  i’ll be sure to remember that in the future.  right now i’m still in the process of forgiving myself.  its hard, when you know better.  but it happened and its in the past.  right now i need to focus on right now.  i have this core, masculine fire in my belly right now.  i need to hold myself accountable for the things that i say and do.  overcoming adversity, persistence and determination, its what i do.  i best not forget that.  thank you, friends.  step number 1. take a step.

4 years down the toilet.  its amazing how you can lose it all in a blink of an eye.  i realized something tonight.  i’m really an ugly person on the inside.  it disgusts me, i feel sick to my stomach.  4 years of self improvement and personal growth down the tube.  what a waste.

words can’t describe how disappointed i am in myself right now.  i feel so goddamn hollow right now. 4 years. what a bunch of bullshit.  my true colours came out tonight.  they were disgusting.  they were sick.  i cannot believe how much i hate myself right now.

I am SO sorry to everybody involved.  i failed everybody, especially me.  i know i have to pick myself up and move on, what’s done is done.  that doesn’t change the fact that deep down i am a bad person.  this is so surreal. i feel possessed. i can’t even believe that i am capable of such self-hate, grief, irrationality.
i am going to china at the end of the month.  at least i’ll get my vacation.  but when i return i’ll still be ugly.

i really hope you enjoyed my argentina posts. that was certainly a trip of a lifetime. i have very amazing memories that will last a very long time. i went to a desert. i went through the largest mountain range in south america. i went to a sub tropical rainforest where i saw the most phenomenal waterfall i have ever seen. i went to the southernmost city in the world in the patagonia wilderness and rode with sled dogs. i saw glaciers up close and personal. and i even had time to enjoy a huge metropolis city. and i did it with nothing but a backpack strapped to my shoulders. people would call that roughing it out, but in actuality i lived quite comfortably. i prefer to call it, living simply. the one thing i did have to buy was a pair of long underwear while i was there, as it was too cold down in ushauaia and el calafate. everything i packed i used exactly when i needed it (except my travellers diarhea and malaria pills, which i threw out). so it can definitely be done. not only can it be done, but its now my preferred method of travelling. i spent a lot of money buying travel stuff, but now i have it all for future trips. well, except 1 pair of pants, which burned over a radiator on my last day there. sigh, it was mega self ownage deluxe.

a good friend recently asked me if i found myself on this trip. it was an interesting question and caught me by surprise. to be honest i don’t think i found anything, except reinforcements of stuff i already knew. it reinforced the idea that travelling is some of the most eye opening, wisdom fetching, experience feeling, enlightening, liberating things you can do. i will be a traveller for the rest of my life, no doubt about it. it showed that you don’t have to know the mother tongue of the native speakers to be able to communicate and to express emotion and laughter. it showed me that nowhere is as dangerous as people overexagerate it out to be. it showed that all people are hospitable if you bring your smile. it showed that the world is a very very different place from ontario (i bet argentines who visit canada are absolutely baffled at tim horton’s, and the notion of carrying your coffee to go…something that would be considered WEIRD if we didn’t do it this way). it showed me that i can be alone without being lonely, free from judgement by others and free from worry of everyday life. but most importantly, it showed me that FRIENDSHIPS can last a lifetime if you’re willing to put in a little time and effort. i thank ahmed, who i had seen maybe twice in the past 3 years, and brianna for all the glorious times together. ahmed is one of those people who i’d say is a little off. i’d even go so far as to call him irresponsible. he has screwed me over on more then one occassion, but never purposely. but he’s also one of those rare people you come across in your life where you just know that he is part of your path for one reason or another. you may not know why now, you may not know why ever, but you accept the fact that this is one friend you will likely be visiting again and again throughout your life. you admire him for who he is, and accept the fact that god created him exactly as he should be.

so, what next for me? frankly, i am not sure. this year has been VERY frustrating for me. it feels like i have taken (necessarily) two steps backwords in order to re-evaluate where i am going with my life. all my life i was raised and bred to believe the american (canadian?) dream. study hard, work hard, make a good living, find a wife, have kids, have grandkids, possibly a minivan and a dog, then die. this past year (it started in november of 2007 to be exact) i have been questioning it all. i’m really confused right now. not to get all woo woo or even morbid on you, but to put it bluntly its all rather meaningless. so why not just die, right? if it doesn’t mean anything, why not just end it. yuck. don’t worry, i won’t be going down that alley anytime ever. the question shouldn’t be what is the meaning of life… the question should be what is the meaning of YOUR life. unfortunately, most people in our society are BRAINWASHED into believing what the meaning of their life is. myself included. and when you start to wake up from this dream, things get very cloudy… that’s where i am right now… that’s where i’ve been stuck for the past 10 months or so. its like that story where there was this great king that all the people cherished. they would give him gifts of praise and celebrate his throne for many years. then one day the people got sick from a poisonous well and all became crazy. the king had his own natural spring and wasn’t affected. soon people stopped giving the king gifts, or celebrating the throne. people even started to call the king crazy. saddenned by this, the king drank the water from the poisonous well and the people celebrated him once again…..

it was all about making money and then getting married and living happily ever after.. but now i don’t believe it. i think its ok to want to make money and get married. but you have to ask yourself why. life is a play…so go ahead and play. if it involves money and marriage then great, but if not that’s great too. unfortunately not many people share my thoughts, and it saddens me.. do i drink from the poisonous well, or do i forge my own destiny. how can i balance spiritual conciousness with the almighty dollar? i don’t believe they need to be mutually exclusive, but right now i’m stuck. what about with love? spiritual conciousness and real love are one in the same. steve jobs said in a speech he gave to stanford that you should ask yourself in the morning if this was the day you die, would you want to be doing what you were doing today and if the answer was no for too many days in a row, then it is time to do something about it. right now its time for me to do something about it. i have a couple of options at my disposal, so i am very blessed like that. there is the easy way, there is the conventional way, there is the business savvy way, there is the risky way, and then there is the unconventional way. i have multiple outs, so i just wish to plan my route carefully. but right now i don’t wish to stay. i’m done with being stuck. thats just the financial aspect. then there’s love… i’ve been struggling with this one hardcore. i’ve concluded one thing, i don’t love myself enough. too much external stimuli, too hard on myself, too externally centered. joy and peace and light reside in me, and that is all i need. but it doesn’t FEEL that its all i need. that’s how i know i still haven’t connected with him fully and consciously. such a slow and painful process. i need a vacation…

13 million people in 1 city.  its craziness.  buenos aires is so massive i probably could have spent 3 weeks here and not have seen everything there is to see in this city.  so i didn’t bother.  i did a lot of loungin around.  i was very lazy here.  ate a lot of steak. had a lot of wine.  stopped at cafes and ate ice cream.  it was awesome.  it has a very new york city vibe to it.  take manhattan, take rome, mash them together and you get buenos aires.  the drivers are crazy.  imagine 3 lanes with 6 cars battling for position going full speed.  but its a controlled chaos.  i never saw any accidents, and ahmed and bri have been there for 5 months and never saw any.  in toronto i see an accident like once a day.  north american drivers are probably the worst in the world.  i can’t explain why and have no proof to back it up, its just my observation.
i got sick my first day.  it was the airplane food with air canada.  i stood in the immigration line for about 30 minutes and was half way through, then i had to run to the bathroom.  i tried to puke but nothing came up.  i got back in line, and waited for another 30 minutes and got to the front.  i felt like i was going to puke again but i was too close to the front to leave the line now.  puke be damned, i’m gettin through this immigration officer.  after getting past that line i had to get into another customs line, which took another 15 minutes. then finally i left the airport, which is about an hour away from the city centre where i had to go.  i felt like death the entire way, and ended up puking all over ahmeds bathroom.  that was awesome.  i just met brianna’s mom and aunt too.  must have been a good first impression.  buenos aires itself is like a city state, kinda like washington dc.  i think it consists of 48 neighbourhoods, each with its own vibe and culture.  Tango was invented here, they have really cool theatres and museums, yadda yadda.  the architecture is wicked and the people are laid back, stylish and beautiful, but fast paced compared to either parts of argentina.  restaurants don’t usually fill until 9-10 pm.  nightlife usually picks up at 1-2 am and go all night.  that’s probably why they say its some of the craziest nightlife in the world.  its your typical mega metropolitan city.  i’ve started to notice that big metropolitan cities have a lot in common.  i still love them and buenos aires is a place i could see myself coming back to over and over, but in terms of explaining and writing about it i’m not that interested.  would i recommend you go? heck ya! would i go back given the opportunity? absolutely.
onwards, to the pics!!
me and ahmed at some wicked tubular cemetery.  this is the same cemetery eva peron was buried.

cafe tortoni. an old and awesome cafe. opened since 1858!!! its beautiful inside. i had a submarino (an argentinian drink consisting of hot milk and a bar of chocolate that you drop into the milk and stir)

one of the nicer steakhouses we ate at.  this is ahmed being a savage.  look at that monster piece of meat in his hand. the thing was ginourmous, it didn’t even fit on his plate.

this picture was taken in La Boca, a very bright and colourful neighbourhood.  these beautiful earrings were made in moron.  bri bought a pair.

you want more?  you want more?!! there’s more…i’ve uploaded all of my pictures to the photo gallery.  i have yet to upload ahmed’s, but i imagine i’ll get to them eventually.  there are around 900 pictures there now, so you won’t be short on viewings anytime soon

i hope you’ve been enjoying the Argentina trip writeups. i know i have. big props to ahmed for doing them. as i add my own comments and pictures i start to relive the time i was there and it really makes me smile… but i thought i’d take a bit of an intermission before i finish the last of them to talk a little bit about the olympics and an amazing event that i did today with mike, the mitsubishi city chase.

first, the olympics. i love them. nothing gets me in front of the tv more then the summer olympics. i’ve had my tv set on more this past week then i’ve had on in the past 2 years combined since i moved here. i just leave it on and watch whatever i can while i do other tasks. i just love the sportsmanship, athleticism, respect. the olympics bring nations together. no war, no politics, just competition. the stories this year have been great. phelps tearing it up in swimming (i really don’t care for swimming, but when you have a beast in any sport i can sit and watch it), the chinese owning the golds, the usa basketball team wrecking shiz, roger federer getting his butt kicked, bolt tearing up the 100 m record like lightning, it all adds up to glory times. plus that opening ceremony, my god that was off the hook! today, i had a really long and grueling day. i just got back from tropic thunder with mike and decided to turn on the tv. as luck would have it, they were showing the end of the women’s 42 km marathon. the leader, a romanian woman, was wayyyy ahead of the competition. she couldn’t be caught even if she slowed to a crawl. the gold was hers. but she did not slow down, she sped up. the look of pain on her face was obvious. she was grimacing, she was hurting, but she kept on pushing. harder then ever. she wasn’t racing against the competition. she was racing with herself. her only motivation? to be the best she could be. to leave it all out there. i LOVE that. i couldn’t help but find myself screaming at the tv, cheering her on. that’s why i have so much respect for olympians, they just leave it out there and give it their all. which brings me into a nice segway point… the mitsubishi citychase.

i’m a big believer in leaving it out there. today i really had to put that to the test. the mitsubishi citychase is like the amazing race. they have it in cities throughout canada, and then a canadian finals, and then a world finals. today i did the citychase toronto w/ mike. it was hard. our goal was to finish the race. my goal was to leave it out there. mike was not going to get a free ride. i was going to push him. hard.

i told him way in advance to start getting into shape. this was not going to be any walk in the park. it tests you physically, mentally and emotionally. takes you to your limits. this race was not for the faint at heart. i was pretty worried about my own physical abilities. i felt sluggish from all the crap i was eating in argentina. plus i hadn’t worked out in over a month. due to personal reasons, i was also rather erratic with my workouts previous to that. basically i had a week to prepare. i ate super clean this week and started to feel good again. plus i was working out hard. my goodness, amazing the speed, strength and agility you lose with a month layoff. at my peak i was doing 20lbs on each side of the bar of couture’s circuit workout (not bad, considering he does 25lbs, and he’s a heavyweight champ!) this week, 12.5 lbs was making me huff and puff. at my best i can do bas rutten’s mma workout going full tilt. this week i could only go 75% and was still vomit inducing. normally i can do well over 100 pushups. my first try this week i could only do 50. yesterday, the day before the race, i hit 76 before i tapped out. so let’s say i was running at 75% capacity for this thing, not as high as i would have liked but not bad. i was more worried about mike.

i called him the day before to tell him to stay the night, as we had to be there to register before 9 am and that it was going to be a long day. he told me he couldn’t cause he was going out to a bar and wouldn’t be home until 3 am. i immediately questioned his commitment to this thing. it turns out his bar thing fell through, so he was able to get a good amount of sleep.
citychase rules. chasepoints throughout the city. you must complete 10 of them, and then cross the finish line. you have 6 hours to do so. some are mandatory, some close early and some open late, so we had to plan our routes carefully. all we were given was a cluesheet and a ttc day pass (you could only travel by ttc or by foot. there were also mitsubishi cars that would take you up to 1 km of your choosing, but we never saw those).

as the race started, we had to run to union station to get the clue sheet. going up against runners, and having an asthmatic partner, sure enough we were one of the last to get the clue sheet. i wasn’t worried though. i felt confident that my clue figuring out skills, knowledge of the city, and carefully planned route would more then make up for lost time. as soon as i got the clue sheet, mike and i were hacking away at the clues. he was putting in addresses into his gps, i was deciphering clues. soon i had a great plan mapped out and off we went to the first event. we were the first people there. we pretty much have no idea what is at the event till we get there (and this really hurt us in some events, as you’ll see later).
event 1 - one member had to do a blood test and depending on that, the other person would get a special friend to play with. as this was our first event ever and first citychase, we didn’t know wtf to do. so we did the only fair thing possible. rock, scissor, paper, best 2 of 3. i won, so mike had to get his blood tested. mike is a big sissy, so he was terrified. turns out he has blood type O. basically, the one that saves everybody’s lives. i gave him a little pep talk, and told him to donate his blood regularly. i hope he follows through on that. next they bust out this huge hissing, slithering snake. they put it around my neck for 20 seconds. i pet it as it wraps its body around my neck. not slimy at all. bah, snake! i laugh at you! and we’re off running to the next event!

event 2 - we get lost trying to find our next destination. mike’s gps is absolutely useless. he would frequently slow down to look at it. it was constantly giving us bad and incorrect directions. and it was slowing down an already slower partner. i was ready to smash it, but luckily he turned it off. running like we were chickens with our heads cut off, i start calling people. their directions sucked. so i started asking people. finally somebody helps us out and we make it. Jenga, playing against another team. if it falls over, we start over. each block has a number on it representing points. get 30 points and your done. we work with the other team and get through this with relative ease. because we lost time, i tell mike we have to hustle. i can tell he’s already starting to get tired. i make a detour to our route because we are close to my hood. i know this area inside out, so we are off to the bell world store for some blackberry action!
event 3 - mike grabs the blackberry as technology is his strength. our objective is to finish 5 of 6 required tasks using the blackberry as proof. we got really lucky on this one. like REALLY lucky. every body and thing we needed just so happened to show up the moment we needed it.
task 1 - picture of a 6 person pyramid, only 1 participant allowed in the pyramid. we team up with the other teams to get this done

task 2 - picture of 2 people kissing me on the cheek. we exit the store and just as we are running out i see two beautiful african ladies. identical twins, too! i tell them i need them to kiss me on the cheeks. without evening finishing my sentence explaining why i need that they are on me like white on rice. damn, i feel like a pimp. i tell them to slow down. we need it on camera and its for a race. they giggle uncontrollably and do it again.

task 3 - picture of me shaking hands with a person in uniform. they are doing construction at the corner and have police officers watching. score!

task 4 - 15 second video of me riding a bike. there just so happens to be a man with a bike getting ready to take off. score again!!

task 5 - 15 second video of me eating a food item with a stranger. hot dog stand nearby and no line up! willing stranger asian girl munches on it with me for the video and we are done!!

the next place we have to go is an arena not far from my place, so we decide to head back. i have to unload my backpack because its too heavy and slowing me down. also, one of the chasepoints is nearby the arena, and it requires a donation of a pair of pants, shoes, and shirt. i have a bag full of stuff i was going to give to goodwill, so this is perfect. we head home, i use google maps to map out the rest of our destinations, bathroom break, eat light, and off we go to our next task, which would also prove to be our most difficult. pool hockey!!

event 4 - pool hockey. mike and i are terrible swimmers. you could pretty much call us floaters. and now they wanted us to not only swim, but push a puck underwater and try and score on the other team. i’m proud of mike on this one. instead of leaving the event and trying another, he insisted we do it. that’s the attitude i like. so off our clothes go, and we’re in the pool with nothing but our underwear, fins, snorkel and goggles, and a hockey stick. first team to 1 wins, or if you really suck and lose 3 in a row you are also free to go. we got our asses whooped and lose 3 in a row. i was content with just swimming semi proficiently and not drowning. that took a long time though, so we had to book it to the next place, which thankfully was an easy one.

event 5 - just had to dropoff the shoes, pants, and shirt that i had picked up from home, and off we were running the next event. unfortunately, mike was really starting to get tired. and truthfully, so was i. but i wasn’t about to tell him that. up until this point we had barely used any ttc transportation, except a 20 second streetcar ride to get to my place. the rest of the time we were running, with him always way behind me. after 5 events it was only 12 pm, we were making excellent time. however, i knew as the day got older he was going to get more tired, the chasepoints would get busier, and our travel times were going to get longer.
event 6 - this was our longest event. we had to walk on stilts, pass 5 checkpoints. if you fall, you start over from the last checkpoint. it was really freaking hard. next to swimming, balance is my next weakest ability. but i’m also a quick learner at these things. so i tell the girl to demo. soon, i get the technique down. lower your center of gravity, stay tight, baby steps, and pull your feet up with your hands using the stilts. boom, i’m done. mike, on the other hand, struggled hardcore on this. we watched 1 team go by, then 2, then 3, then 4. mike was still at the first checkpoint. the people working are starting to feel bad for us. mike is getting reallyyyy frustrated. i’m glad that earlier in the day, i taught him some breathing techniques. i tell him to breathe, relax, and just enjoy it. soon he is refocused and re-energized. and he slowly but surely worked through the checkpoints and we are done. it took well over 30 minutes. he’s tired. but we have to book it to the next event. but he’s really tired, and is walking slower then he normally does. at this point i had to make a decision. our goal was to finish. and at this rate of him walking we aren’t going to make it. leave it all out there. that’s my decision. so i start getting into mike’s head, and he starts running again. to the next event we go.

event 7 - our goal is to get 8 strangers to purchase a drink from one of the chase sponsors, nestea. not using our own money. only one participant in this one. and so i tell mike to handle this one, as i had done the majority of the labour for the other events. to my amazement, and i didn’t think this was possible. he actually unconvinced a person who was looking to buy a nestea drink on his own. the dude was ready to buy a drink and mike convinced him otherwise!! “you sit down. you are not allowed to try and sell anything to anybody…ever!” is what i tell him. so off to work i go. i blitz it and within 10 minutes we are done. the girl working it said that was one of the fastest times she’s seen so far. i was happy with that. now we had to trek to the other end of the city to do a mandatory event, my bread and butter.. rockclimbing!! the time is 1:30 pm, deadline to finish at 4 pm.
event 8 - this took us a hella long time to get here. over 30 minutes. going back would be another 30 minutes, so i had to change our chasepoints in order to maximize time. also, we had one more mandatory chasepoint to do, and it was also quite far, so i had to plan for that. the climbing part itself was pretty easy, although in my haste i almost fell and had to recover. mike also climbed well. we were in and out in 10 minutes. mike was really hurtin at this point. he’s complaining about everything. no excuses, i say. i was at the point of screaming. we are going to finish, i keep drilling into him. leave it all out there. but waiting for the streetcar really hurt us and we lost precious time. i quickly ran into a cafe and bought us some bananas and a cookie each.

event 9 - next event we make it to and i can’t find the place. my brother gave me wrong directions! grrr. finally we find it and its a bunch of trivia about the olympics. i call up my brother and mike calls up pulver. i was surprised at how crappy my bro’s googling skills were as pulver laid the smack down and got most of our questions. unfortunately, it took a really long freaking time. 20 minutes, and the time now is 3:15 pm. in retrospect i should have worked with the other teams to help get the answers. we had 1 more event to go. a mandatory event. we were two subway stops from it and then another bit of a run. the event closes at 3:30 pm

event 10 - luckily we get a subway that arrives just as we do. and off we go. the park is a bit of a run away. and at this point i know mike is absolutely exhausted. he is so sore he can barely move his feet. i am in his face and yelling in his ears. we are FINISHING this race. its 3:25 pm and i see the chasepoint, but mike is wayyyy behind. i am losing it on him. he’s getting pissed, exactly what i need from him at this point. we make it to the chasepoint just in time. we have to build a tent! ah crap. struggles galore, it turns out the pegs we were using were broken. so we run to another tent and try again. this time success and we have to take it down. in my haste and rage, as mike is pretty much working at 0.5% capacity, i tear apart the tent and destroy two pegs. oops, don’t know my own strength sometimes.

i’m ready to blaze it back to the subway, but mike is practically crawling. JIHAD, i keep telling him. this is it, LEAVE IT ALL OUT THERE. but he is really sore. i tell him that he can complain all he wants about how sore he is AFTER the race, but for the next 20 minutes he’s got to give it his all. we get to the subway stop and JUST miss it. there’s a fire lit under my ass, and i’m trying to light one under his and failing miserably. 3:40 pm, and we have a ttc subway ride to go as well as a run to the finish. 20 minutes left. we finally get on the ttc and i finally find the lighter fluid and the lighter for him. an old lady, sitting there by herself as mike plops by near her. i’m too hyperfocused on the goal to sit down. but i see the lady smile at me. she must have been in her 90s. right away i’m in conversation with her. i tell her we are doing the citychase and that we have less then 20 minutes to get to the finish line, but that my partner is really sore and tired. she tells him that he has to finish the race, because if he doesn’t he will be very upset with himself that he let me down and himself, especially after being so close to finish. she then tells us she is an avid hiker, and recently finished a 24 km hike through the canadian rockies, and that she is going through the mountain ranges in Hungary soon for another hiking trip. off she goes on her stop, and wishes us luck. i look at mike and he knows what he needs to do. its 3:50 pm and we reach our destination. now we run for the finish. i keep telling mike all he has to do is move his feet and i slowly jog beside him, trying to motivate him. he looks like he is going to die. i was ready, if necessary, to carry him the rest of the way should he collapse. but soon we see the finish line and the finished teams are rooting us on. we are going to finish! with about 10 meters to go mike gives it his all, like the romanian marthon runner, and i can’t help but slow down and let him bask in his victory. we finish with 5 minutes left in the race!! team mmm hmm finishes 270th out of close to 500 teams!

after that, we go to the after party for a beer, talk to fellow competitors and then for a bite to eat, followed by tropic thunder. the comradery for this event was amazing. all the teams were cheering and rooting for and helping the other teams. total strangers were also willing to give helping hands as well. this was no joke. a lot of teams did not finish the 10 events, or did not finish by the 4 pm deadline. and many of these people were runners and athletes and who competed in this event many times before. one guy we talked to competed in his 3rd citychase, and this was the first time he finished. which is why i am so freaking proud of mike. here’s a fat, asthmatic, unathletic guy with a ton of insecurities. and he pushed through all of them. he took and did everything that was given in front of him without asking questions. he was beatdown, sore, and limping, and had me in his face and screaming at him for the majority of it all. he never ONCE told me to stop. incredible. that’s as good as any olympian, as far as i’m concerned.

as for myself, that was exhausting. i didn’t find the physical nearly as tough as the mental. as tough as the physical was, and as sore as i am now, the mental strength of pushing somebody else while you have to lead, plan routes, decipher clues, and handle your own fatigue was not easy by any stretch of the imagination. would i do it again? heck yeah! i’d do it tomorrow if i could…actually, maybe not tomorrow i’d be curious to see how i would do with a teammate who could keep up or even blow past me in a future event. top 50? top 10? first?! i think i could do it. actually, might need to practice my pool hockey a bit!

[mw] In Ushuaia, the aerolineas airline had a big mixup.  apparently they cancelled our flight, and put us on the flight the very next day out to el calafate.  that would require us to stay in ushuaia for one more night, and miss a night stay in el calafate as well as the entire day. and since ahmed was planning on staying only 1 night in calafate, we were in trouble.  scrambles galore, we tried to find alternate means of getting to calafate.  no other airlines were travelling to calafate, and bus would take 26 hours.  we were screwed.  so we called aerolineas one more time to see what they could do for us.  turns out they decided not to cancel the flight, and all was well. gah, these south american airlines are crazy.

More Info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Calafate
My last trip, this one I shortened to one day as I was just tired out from all the travel. [mw] ahmed flew out a day early, while i stuck around. Our flight was delayed from 7 pm to 10 pm, and so we got in late.
The main attraction here is the P. Moreno Glacier. There are also a few other glaciers. And that is it (especially during the winter).
The day was pretty simple, but I liked it. We drop through the mountains until we made a turn and lo and behold - giant glacier! A glacier is the one thing you have to see for yourself to REALLY get the magnitude of it - pictures just do not do justice.

We winded down the mountains and took a boat ride that took us a few hundred meters away from the glacier. It averages roughly 40-50 meters tall, peaking at 80 meters. The glacier was saw stays roughly static in size, but it ‘moves’ (new ice vs ice falling off) at roughly 1-1.5 meters a day.
The boat ride was roughly 1 hour, where Martin and I entertained ourselves by taking stupid pictures (eg me ‘chopping’ the glacier, him ‘head-butting’ the glacier, and so forth). This would of course continue on.
We then reached where the trails were, and I had one of the nastiest lunches I can remember.
The trail was very long, and basically was one very large loop that would split off in areas to let you see clearly from there.
Imagine mountains forming a c, with the front of the c (the ‘open’ space) the largest lake in Argentina. That is how the glacier was - trying to ‘get out’ of the c area but breaking apart and growing constantly. The boat only went on one side, but the trail let you see all three sides to the glacier.

[mw] marty vs. glacier

pic 1 - marty gives glacier people’s elbow

pic 2 - marty  gives E. Honda super headbutt to glacier

pic 3 - marty karate kicks glacier

We also saw condors on our way there. The tour guide noted that while they almost always stay in the mountains, there must be some dead meat nearby for them to be all around there.
Really about all there is to say - really something you have to see in person. The tour guide noted that in doing this for 15 years she saw pumas twice. There are also night tours when the moon is full. Most interesting was that in the summer you can actually trek on top of the glacier - the left side of the glacier is more smooth and ‘easier’ and the right side is far more jagged and thus the challenging one.

My flight home was of course delayed 3 hours, and I finally got home at 1:30 am.

[mw] Honestly, ahmed summed this up nicely.  all there is here in el calafate (named after the calafate plant, which they use to make jams) are the glaciers.  there are a bunch of glaciers here.  i thought p. moreno was the one to see. it is SPECTACULAR.  you cannot see a glacier on tv to truly appreciate its beauty.  these things are jaw dropping.

the following day i had to wake up for an early 7 am pickup.  i was to take a cruise to see the other glaciers (spezzani and upsala), and stop off at onelli bay. upsala is the big one.  its huge.  but it is receding fast thanks to global warming.  spezzani is the tallest glacier, peaks greater then 80 metres high.  the ride was very scenic. it was cold outside because of the speed of the boat and the winds were really picking up.  the plan was to go up to upsala, stop off at onelli bay, then circle back to spezzani.  unfortunately i only got to see spezzani.  upsala left some monster icebergs in our path. literally, the entire lake was cut off from the other side because of these icebergs that fell off from upsala.  they floated so far south that we couldn’t even get to onelli bay. 

the captain tried to find an opening to get through but there were just too many icebergs.  the icebergs were super awesome looking.  we then went through to spezzani.  personally, i didn’t think it was as impressive looking as moreno, but it was TALL.  we hung around there for a little while and then the captain made his way back to see if the icebergs floated far along enough that an opening would present itself, but unfortunately there was none.  so instead, we basically boated back and forth along the icebergs and people took lots of pictures.  i was content on this.  the glaciers and icebergs are just so incredible. i don’t think i can emphasize that enough.  IN-CR-ED-IB-LE.  i would definitely come back just to walk on the glaciers.  funny thing, the old lady i talked about in my citychase post told me she walked on moreno and it was unbelievable.. so jealous!

so there i am, snapping a picture of the mountains in the back when i hear a girl saying something in spanish behind me.  i didn’t think she was speaking to me until she said hello in english.  i turn around and these girls are filming me on camera.  they start giggling and tell me to say hello and wave, so i comply. we chat for a bit and then off they go and tell me to have a nice day. as i turn back around to face the mountains i see him, looking at me amidst a crowd of people… MACHETE!!! i am pretty sure i pooped myself ever so slightly.  i never in my life wanted ahmed to be with me as much as i did in that moment.  i yelped a little and proceeded to run inside.  i quickly found a seat and hid… later on in the cruise, as i was outside at the front of the ship observing the glaciers, i turned around and saw machete staring at me from the inside through the windows.  again…i ran and hid.  the cruise was over and i was happy that i didn’t see machete again.  as i was walking to get in line to exit the ship, the line stopped right at a bunch of seats…i looked to my left at one of the seats and there he was, staring straight ahead with those icy cold eyes of his.  i was terrified, and quickly looked straight ahead.  i musta waited there for about 30 seconds before the line moved, but it honestly felt like eternity.  that was the last i saw of machete…hopefully forever…to be continued?!?!

More Info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ushuaia

[mw] the time is 10 am on a sunny morning in Buenos Aires.  Flight time at 1 pm to Ushuaia.  We are due at the airport at 12 pm, an hour before takeoff. ahmed tells me he and brianna have to go “somewhere” and that they would be back at 11:30 am.  there is only 1 key to the front of the building, so essentially i’m locked in.  11:30 rolls on by and no ahmed in site.  stomach growling, i find a bag of walnuts and scarf it down.  11:50 am and i start to wonder where he is.  he hasn’t packed yet and we are due at the airport in 10 minutes.  i have no idea what he wants packed except for his computer, so i put that away.  the time is 12:10 pm. classic farooq.  i decide i’m going to go to the airport without him.  problem is, i’m locked in.  i close the apartment door and press the elevator button.  i hear the buzzer go off.  i wonder who is buzzing his apartment.  i head down to the lobby and see ahmed standing outside.  i walk to the door and look at him with a big wtf. he left the key with brianna, and she is still gone.  the time is 12:15 pm and we are staring at each other.  i knock on the doors on the first floor, hoping someone will let him in.  i have no idea what i’m going to say, considering i don’t speak spanish.  ahmed tries to buzz his neighbours on his floor.  “ola” the other end answers. he has no idea what to say, either.  he tries with broken spanish.  *click*. they hang up. we’re screwed.  Finally a young man comes up behind him and opens the door from the outside.  sweet.  i stay and hold the door open, farooq books it upstairs to pack.  12:20 pm and he’s back down.  we flag a cab down.  of all the crazy cabbies in buenos aires, we end up with the guy from driving miss daisy. slow as he was, we make decent time.  12:35 pm.  we make it to the check in line and are greeted with an absolute argentine babe.  we’re late, she tells us.  run.  wtf, late on a south american flight?  this is unheard of!  i’m starving. we get through security and board the plane at 12:50.  farooq had snickers and i scarf it down.  snickers never tasted so good.  plane leaves on time. Ushuaia here we come, yippee!
Ushuaia is billed as the ’southernmost city in the world’. For this trip (and the next one) only Martin and I went as Brianna wanted to focus on her Spanish studies.

The first day we took a tour into the National Park, which included the ‘Railroad at the End of the World’. Overall it was boring. The mountains were beautiful, the sun rose late (9:30 am), we saw hairy wild horses, but overall it was rather dull. [mw] i would tend to agree..very scenic but a little too slow for young stallions like farooq and i. plus the train was cold as people would open the windows to take pictures.  i had a lady close the window on my hand as i was taking a picture of horses.  i almost lost my camera in the process.  i have no idea what she said to me but i think she was apologizing.  this is also where i first spotted HIM…i told ahmed that the guy looked just like Danny Trejo, better known as Machete from Planet Terror.  we called him Machete for the rest of the trip.  he had the demeanor of Machete, too.  just a badass looking dude who we never saw smile or talk to anybody, save a few words.  he was by himself, and by the end of the trip i was convinced he was following us.  Machete was sitting right behind farooq, in the same rail car as us.  his piercing eyes haunt me in my dreams to this day.

[mw] we also reached the southernmost road in the world.  There is a road (i think thats what they called it. perhaps more like a continental highway) that goes north-south throughout the americas.  it extends all the way from Fairbanks, Alaska to Ushuaia, Argentina.  Nomads take up to 7 years traveling it.  Others spend a couple years driving or biking through it.  That sounds very fun, perhaps one day….

We then took a boat to the Isla de Los Lobos (Island of the Sea Lions). This was way better. We saw at least a hundred sea lions, perched on a few islands. Again - natural habitat. We saw them fighting, moving around, swimming, and so forth.

After the sea lions we continued to the ‘Lighthouse at the End of the World’ - with all the ‘end of the world’ stuff it is notable that Ushuaia is as south latitude-wise as Dublin is north latitude-wise (and thus why the temperature was not too cold).

The next day was a lot more fun. We drove for a while and then hooked on snow shoes.[mw] it was so fun putting on the snow shoes, i felt like a little kid again.  as i looked up with a huge grin on my face, my body filled with terror.  there he was, staring at me with those ice cold eyes of his… Machete was back…and he looked pissedddd!

With it snowing, we then trekked for 60-90 minutes through an expanse of snow, through the woods, and up a mountain. It was very tiring but a LOT of fun. At the top you could see way down, with snow falling all over you while you trudge through snow that while normally about 10-20 cm deep at times got as deep as your knees! [mw] i didn’t find it tiring.  it was wicked fun, though.  it was snowing, which was perfect cause you had fresh snow to crunch through.  lots of people fell, including ahmed on multiple occassions, which was hilarious.  we were crossing a bridge and his foot actually got stuck in it at one point.  it was too funny.  i thought our guides actually were walking poorly with the snow shoes.  Cecilia, our main guide, was constantly clanking the back of her feet together.  The other guy, whose name i didn’t get, even fell a couple of times.  he had to grab onto me once to prevent himself from falling.  the group we went with was rather slow.  we had to constantly stop and wait for some of them.  there was this cute little kid, Luca, who kept us entertained.  he had rosy cheeks and these big thick glasses, kinda reminded me of Jonathan Lipnicki (the little kid) from Jerry Maguire and was constantly falling and throwing snowballs at people.  when we made it to the top the guides let us keep going.

[mw] Here is Ahmed falling and getting stuck

We then went back down, stopped in this little wooden hut where we had hot chocolate and cake, before trudging out of the forest to … the dogs! [mw] the ‘hut’ was an old lumberjack lodge, where lumberjacks used to warm up after cutting the wood and bring it back to the city.  the area is now a national park so no cutting is allowed.  another fun fact is that there is a HUGE beaver problem in Ushuaia, thanks to good ol Canada.  back in 1945 some Canadian traders released around 40 beavers into the wild (for reasons I forget.  it had something to do with their inability to trade or something because their fur was no good).  The Beavers had found paradise. lots of food, lots of trees and water and no natural predators, so they wreaked havoc on the natural habitat there.  The Argentine government has now made it legal to hunt beavers and actually encourage hunters to do so. there are also beaver watching tours available, but we never did that.

Yay! Three people per dog sled then got to enjoy dog sledding for 2 km. [mw] there were four sleds for a total of 12 people.  since it was just ahmed and i we got paired with…you got it… MACHETE!! i was terrified he would throw us off the sled as the dogs were running. I should note that what you see in the movies is not that it is like real life. The dogs stop a lot. They pee and poop a lot. But it still is very cool experience overall. [mw] i recorded the entire dog sled ride, which is around 19 minutes in length but probably won’t post it on youtube.  there are some hilarious moments in it, like when the dog in front of me took a leak and then started kicking snow at me.  here’s a video of the dogs howling to get themselves revved up.

We also got to eat some VERY delicious King Crab for dinner, and also very good shrimps and calamari. [mw] very very delicious. mmm i could use some right now.

Overall Ushuaia was a good time. I have to re-visit with Brianna in the summer so we can enjoy some things not available during their winter. [mw] there are two things i would come back to ushuaia for.  getting to antartica and walking with penguins.  if there are other means to do either of those, which i’ll research at a time when i feel like seeing them, i would not go back.  otherwise, if ushuaia is my only option, i’d give it another go around.  not because ushuaia was crappy, on the contrary.  ushuaia is quite a marvelous place, there is just too many places to see in this world that it would be hard for me to justify giving this another visit over somewhere else. we were waiting in the airport for our flight to El Calafate, and ahmed spots him… not far from where we were sitting..Machete! lingering in the background, just waiting to strike.  there’s NO WAY he’s going to El Calafate, we tell each other.  they say something over the speakers that we can’t make out, but we see a massive pile of people head towards a gate.  we are one of the last to enter as we confirm its the flight to El Calafate.  Machete is nowhere to be seen.  phew, that’s the last of Machete…or is it?!? stay tuned…

Again, written by Ahmed. My comments are italicized.
Quick Overview: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mendoza,_Argentina

Bri’s mother and aunt were leaving, so this one was just Martin, Brianna, and I. Again we took the bus - about 13 hours to get there.

[mw] these buses are awesome. the chairs are nice and wide, super comfy, they go completely horizontal so you can sleep on them. there are flatscreen TVs for movie watching, and there is a stewardess who serves you food and drinks, including wine.

I had found a bed and breakfast online with great reviews, and booked with them. It was a really nice place with six rooms and each with their own bathroom. [mw] this was one of the best places i stayed on my trip. the bed was super comfy and the old man running the place was so cute. the day we had to leave he was calculating our invoice trying to figure out how much we owed. ahmed and i already did the math in our heads and were ready to tell him, but watching him try to figure it out on his own was pretty fun.

We talked to the owner on the first day, and laid out a simple plan: First afternoon/evening we would do a city tour, next day up to the mountains (Andes), and then last day wine-tour with his son. [mw] when we booked the place ahmed showed us a picture of him, and i mentioned how he reminded me of Javier Bardem. Sure enough his name was javier. That proceeded to be the joke for the rest of the trip. Brianna and I were gushing over this man while ahmed raged with jealousy.

The city tour was interesting. Mendoza is basically a desert, and so the founders set up a very complicated irrigation method from the nearby river, using three ‘levels’ of irrigation to get water everywhere. That system is still in use today, and you cannot cross a street without seeing water flowing in a ditch along the road.

The city tour showed us all the major sights. It started off in the original founding square. Then there was a major earthquake like 100+ years ago, and the rich moved south. There they made a big square, and at each corner one block away build four smaller parks.

They also had this very large park, and on the mountain next to it was the most amazing monument I have ever seen. [mw] the park itself was man made, since it is a desert.  the trees are from all over the world.  its a pretty amazing park.

Basically this General San Martin led the Argentinean revolution, and this monument represents what happened. The top is very interesting
Basically it shows the soldiers moving forward fighting for their freedom, which is represented by the angel breaking her chains. Under them on the side is the Condor, the highest flying bird in Argentina which can go as high as 3000 to 5000 meters. Thus this represented that freedom is above all other things. There were also things on the side, but the top was the most impressive part.

The last leg of the city tour was this very large church that was very boring. The only notable part was that Martin mixed up when he had to come back, and I had to go run and find him while everyone waited in the bus. [mw] incorrect. the church was very interesting. it came from a very wealthy family, and the mother and her two daughters would come and pray there. the youngest daughter wanted to share the area with everybody and so they created this church. something like that, my memory is blurry on this one. however, i wasn’t late. the people were just really early getting on the bus because they were cold. bunch of sissies.

The next day we went into the mountains with a large tour bus. We had NO idea what we were in for, and I think that made it so much more fun.

Originally as we drove we saw a cliff roughly 80 meters tall - the effects of a glacier receding years past. As we drove by we even saw a few Inca buildings, and we then stopped to rent equipment. Even though the only snow we saw was way up at the mountain peaks, they told us we would hit snow. So we rented some stuff, and off we went.

Basically the water is hot (20-30 C) while it was roughly 0 C outside. Over the years the river kept digging through the limestone and created a natural ‘bridge’ over the river water. This area was a hotel even where people could use the hot water as a sauna, but an avalanche one day killed most of the hotel staff (none of the visitors) and it was shutdown after that.

We then stopped at a ski-area. We didn’t have enough time, but we could go up the ski lift.

So we ate, and went up the ski lift. Wow. It was way different than I imagined. Kind of scary. At the top the air was really thin - at this point we were thousands of meters in the air. [mw] i think he means above sea level, which we were 3000+ metre i believe. Trying to run was a bad idea - it resulted in instant exhaustion. After going down we did some tobogganing which was a lot of fun.[mw] here is a video of me and my awesome tobogganing skills.

With 5 minutes to go before we were due back at the bus we were able to guzzle down some hot chocolate to fight the frigid cold.

We got back at roughly 7 pm - we got stuck for about 90 minutes in traffic due to an accident - two trucks running into each other. Not a pretty sight.

The last day was our wine country tour.

While I didn’t drink any of the wine, it was very interesting learning how they make wine and all the energy and effort that goes into it. [mw] i, on the other hand, thoroughly guzzled down my wine. Too much hard work. It was also quite amazing how much history was in it - plants over 100 years old still making grapes. The one notable part is that the grapes used in wine are NOT like the grapes we eat. We eat: large, little skin, fleshy, no seeds. Wine grapes: small, lots of skin, little juice, large seeds. Our tour guide’s name was Javier and actually looked quite a bit like Javier Bardem. Lunch was a five course meal which was great. [mw] oh dreamy, javier! the food and wine pairings at this lunch were phenomenal. probably the best lunch i’ve ever had with wine. they were also quite accommodating to our dietary needs. Here is a picture of all of us, including javier.

Overall lots of fun again. City was very interesting, the mountains were fun, and actually learning about how wine worked was very interesting.[mw] i wish i had a few more days in mendoza, there was still lots i would have liked to have done in the area, such as skiing, horseback riding, rafting, etc. the tallest mountain in south america is also located here, the mighty Aconcagua. They say it takes approximately 12-15 days to get to the top, with 6 camps located throughout the mountain (the camps are only available in summer. go at own risk in the winter). it is one of the most challenging mountains to climb in the world. my respect for the wine making process shot up 100% after this trip. these guys take their wine seriously. it is literally their entire lives. more art than science, it truly is an amazing process. by the way, if you ever go on a wine tour, don’t ask the guide if they’ve ever seen the movie Sideways. apparently they get that a lot.

Ahmed has sent me a nice writeup of our adventures. I’ve split up the trip into separate posts, and will be adding some things here and there. You’ll know when I’ve made changes, it will be italicized.
Quick Overview: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iguazu_falls
Iguazu Falls is arguably the most amazing waterfall in the world, vying with the infamous Victoria Falls as the best one in this world.
I was originally reluctant about going - I had already seen Niagara Falls, and it was hardly that impressive.
Anyway - this one we flew too - Martin had arranged a full package through a tour group. [mw] I had no idea how or what we were getting, it was quite difficult working with the agency.

So we flew, and had someone pick us up at the airport - ‘Wong’. They took us to our hotel, and let us know that the main tour would be tomorrow, and that we could do a little Jungle/Canoping thing today.
A quick little description. Imagine the arrow keys on the computer. The up arrow is where the Iguazu Falls are. They are a protected area - in Argentina, you must pay to enter any protected area. The only hotel in the protected area was Sheraton. The right arrow was the airport, the down arrow was where our hotel was, and the left arrow was the city (where all the other hotels were).
The hotel itself was crappy, but what could we say. [mw] The place itself was nice, but our room was hot, smelled like hardcore disinfectant, and had tons of bugs in it.
So with only an afternoon/evening, we opted for the quick Jungle Experience. And with some strange luck, it ended up being only Martin, me, and the cousin of one of the operators (Brianna was too tired as she had not been able to eat all day).
To sum up what it was like: You put on a harness and hard hat. You then climb a tree that is about 50 meters high using a rope ladder (not as easy as it sounds - I scraped my shin).

You then get buckled and get to canopy from one tree to another (basically - there is a wire from one tree to another. You get harnessed to a roller on the wire and then go flying from the tree to the other one). Three stops, a total of 400 meters. At the last stop, you get attached to another rope, and they literally ‘drop’ you to the bottom. Since no one else was here, you get to do it twice.

You then go up these stairs, get attached to a rope above an artificial rock-climbing wall (about 20 meters high), and you rappel down (like SWAT teams do in movies). You then rock climb up. Again we did this twice since no one else was here.

Last you just cross this rickety ‘bridge’ that is like movie bridges between.
All the while you are in the MIDDLE of thick Jungle and the guide is explaining stuff to you. A few things:
- Bamboo that you can use to cover a cut because it coagulates on its own
- Real poison ivy vs ‘fake’ poison ivy (it just has really long thorns
- Why we instinctively suck on our finger when we cut them (our saliva has special enzymes that can kill bacteria that can infect your cut)
- Trees you can literally ‘eat’
- More!

It was really cool. Really hot, but the canopying part was really fun, rappelling was really cool, and the facts were interesting. Our guide was from Buenos Aires and originally came to Iguazu as he worked for Bayer and they wanted to research medicinal properties of the jungle. [mw] His name is Diego. He loved the place so much he ended up staying.
Now - at this time Brianna had gone with her mother and Aunt, who were staying in the Sheraton. She told us how the park has its own trails and there was no reason to do the tour group.
So the next day, with awful rain hitting us, Martin and I decided to just go there on our own. We both also decided to get ourselves a room each as it made no sense to leave and pay transportation costs and entrance fees when the Sheraton was literally ON the waterfalls. [mw] I was very hesitant about getting the room, but after I did I had no regrets. It was amazing. I remember waking up at 4 am and just staring out my balcony into the silence of the jungle as the animals and bugs slept. Awesome, awesome. Funny story, I asked reception how much the rooms were and he said the cheapest room was 375 USD, so I went to the hotel lobby computers, got on Priceline, made a reservation for 199 USD and printed the reservation and brought it back to the same guy. You should have seen the look on his face, priceless.  I had to go back to the original hotel the next morning to pick up my stuff.  Upon my arrival I noticed that our room door was wide open.  The cleaning lady apparently felt locking or even closing the door was unnecessary after she finished her duties.  My heart skipped a beat, luckily my stuff was all there and in tact.  I suspect it is because not even a homeless man would want what I brought.

So - the waterfalls. Wow. Absolutely amazing. Martin lived in Niagara Falls his entire life, and he had to say that Niagara was NOTHING compared to Iguazu. [mw] Absolutely true. It has to be experienced to truly appreciate the awesomeness of Iguazu.
The main things to do there:
- Inferior Trail. Led you down near the waterfall
- Superior Trail. Let you near the top of the waterfall
- Diablo Trail - on the other side, let you right INTO the waterfall
- Misc walking trails
- Macuco trail - way on the side, a little waterfall, and ability to see Birds, and monkeys in their natural habitat.
- Eco-boat where you slowly guide through the water and see one of the feeding rivers naturally
- Boat in inferior trail where you literally go INTO the waterfall.

So the first was the Superior Trail. It was awesome. What you have to note about Iguazu Falls is that it is not one or two big waterfalls like Niagara - it is like 20 different waterfalls all coming together. [mw] Actually I believe its 275 falls, according to Wikipedia. Absolutely amazing.
We did that, and then walked to the central area where there is a train that connects this area to the restaurant/Macuco trail and to the Diablo trail. Here Brianna’s mom and aunt left, and we decided to head to the Diablo trail.
Also very scenic, the Diablo is so named as you literally walk RIGHT in front of the waterfall as the water falls over. You literally get DRENCHED in water as it comes screaming towards you. Amazing, lots of fun.

Right next to it was the eco-boat tour. It was okay, kind of boring. What we did see was a baby alligator in the water at the edge of the river - all you could see where its eyes popping out. Kinda scary.
After this and having lunch, we were thinking of doing the Macuco Trail, but because of the rain, it was VERY muddy. So instead we went back and did the Inferior Trail. Also very cool, this time instead of being right at the head, you are about in the middle. Again you literally get DRENCHED with the water as it falls over your head.
We also did the walking tours, which cut through jungle. The day before Brianna had seen monkeys, but we did not get so lucky.
The other notable thing was the Coatis. Little creatures, they crawl around trying to scavenge for any food they can get their grubby hands on. Cute to see.

So the next day checkout was normally at 10 am, but I called and asked if we could do it at 11 am. We talked to Brianna’s mom and aunt, and they said the boat ride into the waterfall was amazing, because you go right UP to the waterfall (we did not know this). So we looked at each other, and decided to make a run for it. We would run, do the boat, and be back in time for checkout. In retrospect this was kind of idiotic, but we went for it. So we left our rooms and literally ran down the Inferior trail to the board ride. We got there at 9:45 am just as the boat was leaving. The boat ride is about 20 minutes, and with the boats leaving every 30 minutes, we were okay.
Except that we didn’t get on the boat and leave until roughly 10:45 am. But the ride itself was great - you literally do go right into the waterfall, getting plummeted with the water. [mw] I promised that I wouldn’t show this video to anybody as it depicts me, and to a lesser extent Ahmed, as the biggest sissy’s ever. Nonetheless, it is too funny not to share it. Brianna’s mom and aunt had a good time making fun of us.

On the way back we also ran. The thing about the Inferior Trail is that it is a circular path - and that the boat is 70% of the way through. We had forgotten this. As I was buying the DVD of the trip, and Martin had left first, we all got separated. Later we found out that Brianna and I both took the short way around, walking most of the way (all uphill). Martin ran the entire way back, his legs and arms absolutely burning. The hilarious part of course was we still checked out first as he went all the way around - for no reason. And of course even though we checked out at 11:30 am there was no problem - sigh! [mw] I do not think Ahmed emphasized the significance of my ownage. Here is an artists rendering of the path options. The red path is what I took, the blue path is what they took.

After checking out we then hung out a bit in the bar/balcony. It overlooks the waterfalls (by a bit) and was absolutely gorgeous. I had a delicious yummy sandwich - one of the bests!
After that we headed to the Macuco Trail - the ‘hard’ one. While all the other trails were polished with steel paths etc, this one was just a bare trail, and the rain from the previous day had left it muddy. It was also a long walk - regarded as ‘hard’ with a 3 hour time. But while we were walking we kept stopping to see if we could see birds or monkeys (only Bri had seen the monkeys).
And then we finally saw the monkeys … yay! Not just one, but around half a dozen. They were jumping from branch to branch, eating and so forth. Those fatties! They also crossed above the path - it was quite cool!

The walk to the end was long, and there was a nice little waterfall there with a pool at the bottom. You could see the top, and then walk down (rough) to the base. Martin and I even went around near the waterfall, and I even got behind it. It was slippery though and I almost fell.

We had a problem now. Our flight was at 7pm, they were going to pick us up at the airport at 5:30, and the time right now was 4pm. Basically - we did not have a lot of time. At all. So we walked fast the entire way. It was exhausting. At the end we even ran to make sure we got back in time - and we got back to the hotel at about 5:28 pm. Of course being Argentinean they were late to pick us up, and we finally got to the airport at 6:30 pm. And of course being Argentinean, the flight was delayed about 45 minutes.
Overall Iguazu was great. The waterfalls were absolutely amazing, the boat ride was great, and the “off the beaten track” Macuco Trail was great. Way better than Niagara Falls.

tomorrow i’m off to the south to see some glaciers and the like. i’m definitely looking forward to seeing them before they all melt away.

yesterday i went to the zoo and took some videos.

enjoy!