30 days and 30 nights

since the lost city it´s been 30 days of meditation, drinking, and photo taking. fun as it was, it´s a dangerous lifestyle. i met freaks and greeks, super-tall frenchmen, hippies, sex tourists, drug tourists, escape artists, locals, cogi´s and mountain men.

30 days in columbia. let´s break it down. week by week, day by day...

within my first 5 minutes in columbia i could feel the difference in vibe. people on the bus were dancing around, actin´ a fool, and having a good ole´time. this was until a police car rolled up and checked us out. everyone ran back to their seats and behaved like calm bus-folk. cops were fooled and keep on driving, then the party-bus started up again!

columbians are quite friendly. the country has changed in the past 5 years and it´s much safer for the people and the gringos. there´s still conflict between the farc and military, but it´s pushed up into the mountains, away from the cities. all the crazy notions i had of columbia have proved farce. there is no man with a white panama hat smoking a fat cigar lurking in the bushes, waiting to kidnap you and take you for ransom. then your brother would come down to south america to fight the rebels with his rambo style bow and arrow.)....

anyhoo, i find myself in Bogota for a week or so. days are spent drinking coffee, eating cookies, art, museums, and drinking. i bumped into some friendly norwegian gals i met back at the border. let me tell you something about norwegian girls.... they can party harder than any new york hipster going on a all night bender celebrating their first rock/art show! i think their record for continuous drinking is at 36 hours. and they only stopped because they had to catch a flight to Carnival. yes, they were cool girls.

so me, Torunn, and Kristin all took a trip to San Augustin, a one horse town that is closest to the infamous... i mean famous national archeology park. there were some crazy statues that were made as an ommage to their fallen brothers, kings, and homeys. on the jeep ride back, we stopped at some sort of sugar making factory. these big dudes play with hot-magma sugar goo all day. they gave us a dried piece to eat and it tasted like super powered brown sugar!

After San agustin, we traveled acroos the border into Ecuador and set up camp at Hostel Mundo in Quito. word has traveled many a mile about the free Rum and Coke nights at this hostel. every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday night the place is flooded with folks from all over, drinking and having a grand time. My first rum n´ coke night, i managed to lose my passport. i think it was stolen on the bus at one point...´(the button on my pant´s pocket is missing where the passport once laid.) however, the night was a blur and i could of set fire to it in the street. who knows? my new passport is on it´s way with a fresh new hair-do.

anyhoo, the story goes on, but i´m out of time. i will talk to you hosers later,

take care,

-patrick