The Basso's Travels

Summer of Fun

2008-09-18T11:34:00.022+01:00

Ladies trip on the Raundel (myself and Christy) - photo by Silje

Mark and I had an incredible summer in Voss. The paddling was epic... one amazing run followed by the next. So many beautiful sunny days. Nothing like I remember from last year... that was all rain, rain and more rain. Voss has so much to offer in terms of paddling (check out Mark's trip on the Teigdal), hiking, climbing and any other outdoor activity so we kept busy. Voss Extreme Week occurred in late June, it was a blast with good kayaking and even better parties. I can't wait till next year.

Good Friends (Michelle & Melissa) - photo by Silje

I think I'll pass - Photo by Silje

Church Drop on Raundal

Slide on the Upper Myrdal - photo by Silje

Scott flew out to visit us at the end of July and so we did a short road trip with Silje, Benji, Eirik and Dag. We had some sunny weather and amazing paddling. Who could ask for more?

Benji hiking out of the Lower Rauma

Trollstigen

Eirik and Mark on the Upper Valdall

Silje on the Upper Valdall

mmm... Strawberry Cake

What a view!

Mark on the Bygdelva

Breakfast - Photo by Benji

Silje & Michelle on the Longedalselva - photo by Benji

Now summer is slowly drawing to a close. Friends have started leaving, with the promise that we'll see them next year. I have now moved to Bergen and have started my new job with OTG Consulting. So far so good... Mark is in Canada for a few weeks. He's gone to visit friends and family, do some paddling in northern BC and to pick up some of our gear (mainly skis and winter clothes). We are both looking forward to spending a winter in Norway. Lots of skiing I hope and I can't wait to paddle some of the local kayak runs in Bergen... let it rain!

Good times.

Home Sweet Home

2008-06-07T05:34:00.000+01:00

It took us two days to drive from Switzerland to Norway. We went straight to the Telemark region to get in some paddling. The rivers were just beginning to drop down to manageable levels, though there was still a lot of snow pack high in the mountains.

One of the highlights of the region is Goyst river. As of this summer half of the run (including some of the best slides) will no longer be kayakable. They are in the process of building a diversion dam. One of Norway's gems lost to development.

One of many fun slides on the Goyst

After a week in Telemark we made our way to Voss, which is to be our new home for the next few months. We fell in love with this area last year and decided to return for at least the summer. It has numerous world class rivers within half and hours drive, beautiful surroundings and great people.

Mark is raft guiding for the summer and I am slowly beginning the search for an engineering job out of Bergen (80 km away from Voss). We have rented a small place and are enjoying the fact we have a shower and a kitchen. Living a year on the road was fun but it is nice to be out of the van and into a room.

Mark on one of our home runs, the Brandseth

The view from our doorstep

Hiking close to Voss

Back to Europe

2008-05-19T08:55:00.016+01:00

After Kenya Mark and I flew back to Canada for a quick trip home. We visited with friends and family, did some skiing and ate lots of sushi. The month passed by quickly and before we knew it we were back on an airplane heading to the UK.

Sweet day skiing at Revy

Hanging out with my bro at Whistler

Quick stopover in New York

We bought another van for the next leg of our adventure. Meet Daisy, the badass Mitsubishi Delica. Pretty much our dream van from the past and low and behold there she was in a Manchester UK driveway for less than some people are buying TV's.

We got off the island of blighty as quickly as possible and made it to mainland Europe. After a brief stopover in Uster to visit family and to pick-up our kayaking gear we headed to Val Sesia (Northern Italy) and Tessin (Southern Switzerland). We met up with some old friends and came across some new ones and spent the last couple weeks enjoying the kayaking and beauty of the area.

Crazy looking Swiss Cow

Mark running the first drop on the Egua

Small village in Tessin Alps

Beautiful day on the Egua

Daisy handling the mountain switchbacks

Michelle on the Middle Sermenza

We participated in a couple kayak competitions (Teva Extreme Outdoor Games and Straight Down Striit) and paddled down some classic rivers (http://www.liquidbeta.blogspot.com/). Now we are cleaning up Daisy and preparing for our long drive (by European standards) up to Norway.

Michelle competing in the Teva Extreme Outdoor Games

Mark racing in the boater cross in Straight Down Striit

Sailing and Sea Kayaking

2008-03-20T14:05:00.001Z

After a quick stop at Tiwi beach Mark and I headed to Kilifi, where we met up with Mark and Markus Savage, Camilo, Kris and Bender (the dog). Mark Savage, owner of Savage Wilderness Safaris, has a beautiful 42 foot sailboat which we were going to sail up the Kenyan coast to Lamu.

Loading up the sailboat

Once the boat was loaded we were ready to go. Mark S. had devised a rack that would enable us to tow seven sea kayaks behind the boat. Unfortunately about six hours into the journey the rack broke and we had to haul all the sea kayaks onto the boat. At about this point in the journey I started to feel sea sick and I would not feel better until the next day when we dropped anchor just off of Lamu Island.

Once we reached Lamu we spent four days sea kayaking before heading back to Kilifi. We were joined in Lamu by James and Liam.

James and Bender

Camping on a sandy beach

Dinner in Shela

Camilo sailing back to Kilifi

After returning to Kilifi, we got back into our car and headed to Nairobi. Within four days we managed to sell our car, change our plane tickets and convince BA to take our kayaks home. So on March 14 we were on our way to Zurich. After a brief stopover in Switzerland we flew back to Canada. We will spend about a month here visiting friends and family before continuing on with our adventures.

Marathon to Kenya

2008-03-02T09:00:00.010Z

So the end of February was in sight and Mark and I were still in South Africa. But after a call from James in Kenya asking us to join him and a few friends on a sailing and sea kayaking trip we decided to pack up the car and head North. We had less then a week to make it up to the coast of Kenya, so the driving marathon began… 4000 km to go.

Elephant in Botswana

The drive through northern South Africa was uneventful. We hit Botswana in the evening and continued driving into the night. A flat tire at four in the morning slowed us down a bit but we reached Zambia later that afternoon. Another flat tire close to Livingstone forced us to stop and get a couple used tires so we could make it back to Kenya. The drive through Zambia was beautiful, although we arrived the border just as it was closing. We made it out of Zambia but did not get into Tanzania. So we had to spend the night in a hotel before continuing on the next morning.Tanzania was stunning. Lots of animals, friendly people and gorgeous scenery.

Flipped truck - a common sight

Catching a ride

Baboon - evident in every country we visited in Africa

Selling baskets on the side of the road

We crossed over into Kenya with a day to spare. Five days for us to travel from South Africa to Kenya. We were a little worn out from the driving so the best way to recuperate was to spend some time on a beach. Tiwi beach was just the place. A cute little cabin with an ocean view, warm sun, snorkeling, and an awesome fish dinner… paradise.

The view from our cottage

Thrombi X-Fest

2008-02-19T14:18:00.006Z

This past weekend close to Underberg on the Umzimkulu river Thrombi X-Fest occurred. It was the 7^th annual X-fest and it consists mainly of downhill mountain biking and kayaking.

Mark and I participated in the head to head down river race. Water levels had been great all week and held throughout the weekend. Saturday was the qualification runs… this consisted of groups of four competitors racing down the river. The fastest eight would go to the finals the next day. Unfortunately none of the South African lady paddlers made it out to compete so I was the only female. I did have a great time, the down river course was fantastic, and I came in first (by default). Mark had a good day on Saturday, posting the 6^th fastest time and making it to the finals on Sunday. All of the top eight paddlers raced down the course at the same time. This caused some carnage on a couple of the rapids but made for great spectating. Mark was one of the unlucky racers to be run over, and finished in eighth place.

Ross O'Donahue in the lead during the finals

Mark running Thrombi Falls

The festival was a great success… scorching hot weather, a great party on Saturday night and some good racing.

Garden Castle Near Underberg

Drakensberg Area and Lesotho

2008-02-13T09:15:00.017Z

After the Umthamvuna Mark and I went back to Adi and Ange’s homestead where we met up with another crew of boaters. The water was low but we did manage to hit a few rivers (the Tsitsa, the Pot and the Inxu) before we made our way to Underberg, close to the Drakensberg mountains.

Seceond waterfall on the Inxu River

We stayed in Underberg a couple days, paddling the Thrombosis gorge, before making our way to Winterton, in the Central Drakensberg. Chris and Jackie, whom we had met in Uganda live there, and there is some great paddling nearby. In the next week we managed to paddle a couple rivers (including an overnight trip), take in a falconry show, experience some crazy thunderstorms (the Central Drakensberg has one of the highest lightening strike rates in the world) and check out the beautiful area.

Michelle on the Injisuthi River

Portaging on the Tugela

Camp Spot

I'd love to have a Meerkat as a pet!

The drive from Winterton the Clarens was beautiful, especially Golden Gate National Park. We stayed in Clarens for a couple days to run the Ash river, before heading to Lesotho.

Once in Lesotho Mark and I headed for the famous Sani Pass. We drove up into the mountains, through passes over 3000m and lush green mountains. But nothing prepared us for the Sani pass. It was as if the road dropped of the side of the mountain. Crazy steep switchbacks, the like we have never seen before, taken at a snails pace. Finally with a breath of relief we made it to the bottom. I can see why only strong 4x4’s are allowed on this road.

All of a sudden the road drops off a cliff!

Lots of driving… Namibia through to South Africa

2008-01-21T08:15:00.000Z

After driving through the Caprivi Strip in Nambia we headed to Etoshi National Park. This was definitely one of the highlight of the trip so far. Animals walking just feet from our car, a crazy dust storm that left our tent a little worse for wear, waterholes galore and incredible star viewing at night.

Dust Storm

Our tent a little worse for wear

Watering hole at night

We then started our trek down south to Cape Town. We drove dirt roads most of the way through Namibia and experienced some of the desert beauty that it has to offer.

Sesreim Canyon

Once we got to Cape Town we stopped off at Border Beach to check out the Penguin colony there (I just love penguins!). From there we slowly made our way east along the coast.

We stopped at Tsitsa Falls just north of Maclear for a week. We enjoyed some breathtaking scenery, some good kayaking and a bit of relaxation.

Billy the Goat

Mark doing the zipline across Tsitsa Falls

Then we went to discover the beauty of South Africa’s Wild Coast.

Now we are staying by the Umtamvuna valley. Yesterday we went down 44 km in kayaks. The only problem was water, there was barely enough to scrape down so it was a very long day. Next time we run it there will be at least another meter of water.

Zambezi and Beyond

2008-01-01T08:54:00.000Z

I have wanted to visit the Zambezi river ever since I was in Chile at the Futalefu about three years ago. Just before Christmas Mark and I rolled in to Livingstone and managed to spend about a week and a half paddling the Zambezi. It lived up to all my expectations… fun, big water paddling with a few rapids putting butterflies in my stomach. We spent Christmas day on the river with a couple friends and a few days later we started driving south.

Boiling Pot - Put in for the Zambezi

Victoria Falls

Our first stop was Chobe National Park in Botswana, where we saw plenty of wildlife including elephants, for which Chobe is famous for.

Now we are in Namibia, having celebrated the New Year and can only hope that the upcoming year will be as good as the previous one was.

Both Mark and I send out holidays greetings to all our friends and family and we are wishing everyone fantastic adventures in the new year!

Tanzania

2007-12-26T08:11:00.000Z

After Rwanda Mark and I decided that we would take the quick way through Tanzania (distance wise) so that we could get to the Zambezi as quickly as possible. The “quick” way was via the western outback of Tanzania along the Lake Tanganyika and definitely off the beaten path.

From the Rwandan border we drove about 100 km on pavement before we turned west towards Burundi and Lake Tanganyika. We continued on a nice dirt road until just south of Kibondo, where we decided to try our hand at bush camping. We made a pitiful fire (the wood was wet) and made a gourmet meal that consisted of ramen and baked beans. We were a little nervous about sleeping in our tent but no people or wild animals bothered us.

We woke up in the morning refreshed and made our way to Kasulu, where our true off-roading adventure began. The road from Kasulu to Uvinza was slow but very manageable dirt. The land was lush after the rains from a couple days before and a few puddles still remained on the road. Once we crossed the bridge outside Uvinza the road went to shit. It began with a crazy uphill rock climb over boulders which we managed. But once we reached a plateau we had to go through about 20 large puddles, some of very deep. We easily managed to cover Marvin (our car) in mud. The next couple hours on the road were stressful… slow driving but stunning scenery. Our sturdy Marvin Toyota was holding his own in 4x4 mode. We climbed up and over a small mountain range and on the way down the road took a turn for the worse. It was muddy sand, they were repairing one side of the road and it was mainly large semi-trucks deriving on the road. This led to Marvin grounding out on the big bumps… a little worried about our front differential not having enough clearance.

Mother Nature then decided to play her wild card and sent a crazy storm our way… as if we didn’t have enough to worry about. As with most storms here in Africa when it rains, it rains hard… the road had two rivers running down it. Mark kept the Hilux in 4x4 and we were cruising……nice driving Mark! Then it really started to rain… so hard we couldn’t see a thing even with the wipers on full speed. By this point I was already gripping the handle above the door, fully scared of sliding into the ditch. We found a flat section that was not under water and pulled over to wait out the storm. While we were stopped, Mark decided that he would strip and take a shower in the rain… shampoo and all! Finally we were able to get going again and we reached Mpanda just as it was getting dark. It took us 8 hours to drive from Kasulu to Mpanda, a distance of 267 km.

After a good nights rest and some food, we were off for the next stage in the journey. The first section of road took us through Katavi National Park. Right at the entrance we crossed a river that was chock full of hippos… so many that at first Mark thought they were rocks! Driving through the park we saw some vervet monkeys, impalas, enochs and some baboons but the main highlight was the giraffes. Super cute, just flipping their ears at the flies and checking us out.

Just when we thought we were through the worst of it Mark stopped for a pit stop, looked under the car and found oil was slowly leaking. It is amazing how quickly a perfect day can go to crap… the Tanzanian days were full of ups and downs. The next couple hours were very stressful, we drove through a couple small villages but none of them had any oil to sell. We decided to push on to Sumbawanga, a city about 65 km away…….we made it!

The next morning we had the crank shaft oil seal replaced in 4 hours and for $30, a job that would have took a few days and heaps of cash back at home. It’s amazing what 10 hands in an engine can do.

So back on the road by lunch time… this time we were heading to the Zambian border. Only 120 km to go and we would be on paved road, no problem we thought. But about 5 km from the Zambian border we come around a bend and find the road blocked by 4 semi trucks slipping in the mud. One of them had slid into the ditch and the others were helping to pull him out. It was very muddy and the road was slick and it didn’t help that it was raining. We had to wait a while and then we had to do some crazy off road driving to make it around them.

So finally we made it through the Tanzanian border and arrived on the Zambian side. It turns out the border officials do not work on the weekends at that particular border. Mark and I were not going to camp by the border until the next morning so we took the advice of a local and drove on to Muplungo and go to the immigration office there. Now we are in Zambia, ready for our next African adventure…….don’t ever take pavement for granted! We plan to hang on the tarmac for a good stretch.

Rwanda

2007-12-24T14:07:00.000Z

So we drove from Kampala, Uganda to Kigali, Rwanda in one day. We were worried we might have problems at the border due to the Ebola outbreak in Uganda… luckily there were no issues. The drive was super beautiful and the road was surprisingly good. Early the next morning we took off to do a loop around SW Rwanda. First stop was the drive to Kibuye on Lake Kivu. The drive was beautiful, paved and going up and down terraced Rwandan hillsides. There were people everywhere… nowhere except the national park did we get away from a huge population. I read somewhere that Rwanda has one of the highest population densities in Africa… it definitely felt like it. Lake Kivu was stunning… and looking across you could see the mountains of The Democratic Republic of Congo.

After asking directions about 5 times (and getting the wrong answer 3 times) we started south down the dirt road along the lake. This road was super beautiful but the going was really slow for part of it… an off road practice ground for what was yet to come in Tanzania.

Next we headed to Nyungwe National Park to check out the Angolan Colobus monkeys. I also wanted to see the chimpanzees but they were currently not in the area.

On the way back to Kigali we stopped in Gikongoro to check out a genocide memorial. It was at a technical college where 50,000 people were killed in 1994. The memorial was a couple of mass graves and then a third mass grave was dug up and the bodies were preserved in lime. The rooms in the collage became their tombs. It was horrific. An amazing and poignant reminder of what had happened les than 15 years ago. One can only hope the people of Rwanda can overcome their hatred so this doesn’t happen again.

Nile Freestyle Festival

2007-12-09T09:54:00.000Z

The past couple weeks Mark and I have been chilling on the White Nile River in Uganda, dividing our time between campsites at NRE Bujagali falls and the Hairy Lemon about 40kms downstream. We came to the White Nile looking for big water kayaking and amazing play waves, and that is exactly what we found. Our days have been filled with paddling trips down the river, playboating sessions on world class play waves, sitting in the shade, chatting to friends and enjoying the Nile party atmosphere.

Sunset on the Nile

Mark on the Nile Special

Waking up to monkeys outside the tent.

The Nile River Festival began on November 30 with the Big Air Competition. The water was up and the Nile Special wave where the competition was to be held was prime. 44 men were competing and 14 ladies. Mark paddled fantastic but the competition was fierce and he did not advance into the semi finals. I managed to scrape into the finals by the skin of my teeth and then put together a couple of solid rides… to my surprise I came out on top.

Not sure where this boy picked up his costume

Nile Special – Big Air Competition

Watching the Ladies Semi Final

Saturday was a grueling day… 45 kilometers of big water rapids, mixed in with long flat water sections, all run in a playboat. We divided into teams of two and paddled hard for just under four hours (fastest time was circa three hours) to try and come up with the down river race title. Mark and his partner Lochie battled against 14 other teams and came out in fourth position. My partner Robyn and I ended up in 3^rd out of 6.

Sunday’s race consisted of paddling the first four major rapids of the Nile river, running up a hill with your boat, getting on a bodaboda (50 cc motorbike) with your boat and paddle, racing back to camp, running through an obstacle course of rafts with your bodaboda driver and on reaching the finish line, you and bodaboda driver had to funnel a beer. What fun! Paddling through the rapids was hard enough, the run up the hill was backbreaking and then I had to hold on for dear life while my bodaboda driver flew back to camp site. Next was the crazy obstacle course of rafts that was slippery due to the soapy water on them… my bodaboda driver helped pull my exhausted body through the obstacle course and the next thing I knew I was down on my knees gagging down a funnel of beer to come in 4th place. One of the best races I have been in. Of course the party afterward was epic, going late into the night.

Michelle about to run Bujagali Falls

Ladies Down River Race

Michelle with her beer prize

Last Few Kenyan Days

2007-11-19T08:48:00.000Z

Our last few days in Kenya we have spent doing a few short road trips in our new car, Marvin. We went to Hell's Gate National Park and then to Sagana to spend a couple days on the river. On the way back we found a small leak in our radiator and so we delayed our departure to Uganda by one day to tomorrow.

A New Car and a Big Waterfall

2007-11-12T17:25:00.001Z

After looking into all sorts of options on how to travel around Africa Mark and I decided that to get the most out of our African adventure we would buy a car. So a couple weeks ago we started searching for a vehicle. A couple of scorching days in Nairobi, a trip to the local post it board, myself surviving a mild case of food poisoning and somehow we ended up the proud owners of a 1991 Toyota Hilux Surf. But finding the vehicle was only half the battle… we had to endure a four hour wait in a line up to get a PIN number (you need a PIN number to own a vehicle), got all the paperwork completed for the transfer of ownership, stood in line to submit the transfer of ownership and now we are waiting to receive the vehicle registration. Hopefully we will have it by the end of the week. In the meantime we had a custom roof rack built, so that we can carry our kayaks, along with a spare tire and a couple jerry cans on the roof.

While we were waiting for the registration to go through, Mark and I headed back to Sagana with James and Simon Coward to do some kayaking. The first river on our agenda was the Maragua, which we hit on Friday. Unfortunately I had a run in with a rock and came out with a sore shoulder and a broken paddle so I was unable to finish the run. But the boys came back with grins on there faces. After the run they went to scout a section of the Maragua that had never been run below the dam. It was too late in the day for them to have a go at it so it’s sitting there for another time.

On Saturday Mark, Simon and I went to scout the Upper Ragati. Thrashing through the bush along side of the river for a couple hours resulted in thorn scratched legs, scaring the local children (who had not seen many white people) and a desire to return to the river as quickly as possible to run this hidden gem. Back to the camp to pick up James and the boys went off to paddle slide after runnable slide. A portion of this river had been run once before by Simon, though the majority of it was a first descent. The locals watched in amazement from the bank, unable to fathom what the crazy muzungus (white people) were doing. Most of the local people cannot swim and thus are scared of water.

Sunday we woke up super early and drove out to the Rubangazi river for another first descent. Five hours after they put in, Mark, Simon and James found me at the take-out. The river contained a couple portages, deep canyon gorges, a sweet waterfall and beautiful lush jungle. The day wasn’t finished yet… on the way home Mark decided to fire off a 50 foot waterfall on the Nyamindi. He named it Shoosty Booty.

Shoosty Booty

Climbing out of the canyon

Mt. Kenya

Kenya Impressions

2007-11-01T10:22:00.000Z

We arrived into Nairobi airport on Monday morning and by Monday afternoon we were on the rafting section of the Tana River.

James Savage running "Mission" on the Tana River

The White Water Adventure camp, near Sagana, is a little piece of paradise. Located right next to the Tana River, it is the ideal place to recover from a bit of jet lag.

Camp

Though we did not get much of a chance for rest as James Savage, local Kenyan kayaker, was keen to show us some of the local rivers. So Tuesday we paddled the Mathioya and the Lower Tana. Both really sweet runs and a good introduction to boating in Kenya... warm and red water.

Mathioya River

Then early Friday morning Mark and I headed back to Nairobi to get on a 3-day safari to the Masaai Mara National Park. It took a few hours of a very bumpy road to get to the National Park, but it was all worth it. The amount of animals that were roaming through the park was incredible. I thought Banff and Jasper had loads of animals but it was nothing compared to what we found here. Below are some (of the many) photos that we took while we were on safari.

Wildebeast migration

For the past week and a half we have been out at the White Water Adventure Camp. It's been hot with the odd bout of rain, awesome paddling on red colored rivers ....lots of waving screaming kids, snails pace internet, muddy feet, the best coffee and the worst roads.

Sunny days and high water levels

2007-10-09T12:18:00.000+01:00

The remaining days we spent at the Soca were beautiful. Blue skies, blue river, white rocks and the mountainsides beginning to change color from green to yellow. The water level dropped each day and so both of us were able to paddle the Siphon canyon of the Soca. Mark’s birthday was fantastic… a day out on the river followed by an evening in a bar with friends.

The source of the Soca

An incredible piece of luck occurred while we were at the Soca. Mark started talking to an English fellow who had worked at a hotel in Soca that just closed for the season. He was looking to buy an English van so that he could travel around Europe for a month before he headed back to England. He wanted to buy Norman right away… of course we could not do that (we needed the van for a couple more weeks). So we compromised… we would meet him in Zurich in a week and sell him our van. So we no longer have to drive back to England… we can fly to Africa from Zurich.

From the Soca we drove into Italy, through Udine and Cortina d’Ampezzo, before heading to the Oetztal Valley.

Udine

Near Cortina

The adidas Sickline Extreme Kayak World Championships were going to be held on the Wellerbrucke section of the Oetz River the following week. Mark and I arrived there to train for a couple days on the qualification section (on the Middle Oetz). It was snowing on the Wednesday we arrived; Thursday was a little better so Mark and I did a run on the Middle Oetz before concentrating on the 400m qualification section.

We drove to Uster for Saturday, Sunday and Monday to spend some time with Anuschka, Renzo and Ivo before heading back to the Oetz on Tuesday. We did a beautiful little hike close to Matt.

Cows coming down from the highlands

Mark, Michelle, Ivo, Anuschka and Renzo

Michelle and Anuschka

Ivo

Back at the Oetz kayakers were starting to arrive for the race. We spent a few more days training before the race was supposed to start on Friday. Mark and I woke up bright and early on Friday only to learn that water levels were too high and the race was postponed… it turned out that the race had to be cancelled. Unseasonably warm temperatures caused the water to rise and the race could not be run. We still managed to have a good time with all the kayakers that had gathered together for the event. Met some new friends and caught up with some old ones. Paddled, relaxed in the sun and partied it up. There are always good times when you are by the river.

Karl Engen on the Middle Oetz

Mark and Karl on the Middle Oetz

Now we are back in Uster, getting ready for the next leg of our journey. We are flying to Nairobi, Kenya on Sunday.

The last of Norway, Family Visits and the Soca

2007-09-21T16:15:00.000+01:00

Sorry I haven't updated in a while... things have been busy and sitting down next to a computer has not been a top priority. When I last wrote we had just arrived in Voss, Norway... what an incredible place! We spent about a week there and made some good friends and paddled some amazing rivers. I can't say enough about the rivers in Voss... but if you kayak you should definitely stop in for a visit. I found myself paddling rivers that I would have never imagined I ever would but such beautiful slides and gorgeous drops were calling out my name.

Mark on the Myrkdalselva

Mark on the Raundalselva

Michelle on the Raundalselva

Mark on the Urdlandselva

By the time we left Voss it was staring to get cold. Although we did have some rainy days, we finally found some sun. But it was starting to get cold... we woke up one morning to see snow only a few hundred feet up. So it was time to head south. On our way to Oslo our wheel bearing siezed (it had been squeaking for the last couple months) and we were stuck in Fagernes for a day before we managed to get it fixed. We stopped in Oslo for an evening to hook up with Mark's school mate Pari and her husband.

The following day we began our mission to get to the Czech Republic. A day and half later we were in Ceska Lipa at my Aunt's place. Thus began our week and half of visiting my family in Czech. I hadn't been there in about 5 years so I had a lot of people to visit... the worst part was that most of them could not speak English. So Mark was left sitting on the couch (usually drinking or eating something), just smiling and nodding occasionally. I throughly enjoyed myself, eating such things as utopenec and bramboraky which we cannot get in Canada. And of course had to partake in drinking beer and wine and various other drinks. But by the end of our time there I too was itching to get back into the kayak...

So Monday afternoon we managed to pull away from Brno and start to make our way to Slovenia, where the river Soca was waiting for us. Mark had asked me where I wanted to spend my 30th birthday and that was my choice. We arrived at the Soca early Tuesday afternoon... but the weather was less than ideal... lots of rain with a few dry patches in between. We managed to hook up with some paddlers (Sean, Laurent and Simon) so we could do an evening run on the Classic section of the Soca. The river had been on the rise all day... it had started at about 10 cms in the morning and by the time we ran it, it was somewhere between 160 to 180 cms. The level of the river was not the only issue, by the time we got on the river it was starting to get dark, the rain was coming down hard and it was blowing so hard that it was very difficult to see. We got down the river without any mishaps but let's just say that my birthday run will not be one I will ever forget. We got out of the river and the power went out so we went to the bar by the take out and celebrated. It was a good day.

The next day we woke up to blue sky and amazing mountains surrounding us... and it has been beautiful ever since. The river has dropped, just about as quickly as it has come up, so now we just have big smiles on our faces as we come down. What could be better than spending a day surrounded by amazing scenery, good friends, going down a river and finishing it all off with a wine in the bar?

Norway Daze

2007-08-29T08:47:00.000+01:00

So after a couple more days in Sjoa, enjoying the company and doing a couple classic rivers, we decided to head to Hemsedal to visit our friend Jim and do some paddling in his area.

Michelle on the Ula.

Mark styling the last waterfall on the Ula.

The drive over to Hemsedal was incredible.

Paddling the Hemsila, just outside of Hemsedal, was definitely a highlight of the trip so far for Mark. We also did a couple hikes in the area checking out the beautiful landscape.

Mark taking the plunge.

Sheep....where are you?

After Hemsedal we headed to the town Sogndal, right on the fjord, to paddle the Sogndalselva. It was a sweet little creek that provided continuous rapids and slides for our enjoyment.
From Sogndal we made our way to the kayaker's paradise of Voss. Since we got here we have paddled a world class river or creek everyday and there are still many left to run. Here we have good company and amazing rivers, what more could we ask for (besides a little bit warmer temperatures)?

Mark on the entry drop of the Myrkdalselva.

Hedge Hog - a common night visitor.

Norway's waterways

2007-08-16T21:50:00.000+01:00

We hooked up with Jordie and Jen on August 2^nd and we did a driving mission to Norway. Once we got to Norway we had to get in as many rivers as possible before Jen and Jordie took off.

We started out in Sjoa and then did a big circle tour for a couple weeks. So far in Norway we have had some high rivers (sometimes too much water), a lot of rain, a couple days of sunshine, checked out a few trolls, some amazing rivers and waterfalls, driven some very scenic roads (some crazy steep as well) and visited the fjords.

mmm... these boats sure taste good.
Michelle on the Ullva

Trolls are common place in Norway.

... so is the fog.

Now we are back at Sjoa and Jordie and Jen are taking off back to Canada tonight. Mark and I are planning to spend some more time exploring Norway before continuing on our journey.

Sight seeing in the cities

2007-08-16T09:08:00.004+01:00

Mark and I spent a day in Berlin checking out the sights:

We also spent a morning in Copenhagen checking out the city on our drive up to Norway:

Glacier Melt in Austria

2007-07-30T13:33:00.000+01:00

We spent the last week running rivers in the Oetz valley and the Engadine valley kayaking, hanging out and enjoying the Alps.

Jordie and Jen have taken off for a few days of site seeing and we will join up with them in a few days time.

Mark and Jordie on the Upper Oetz

Upper Oetz

Why does nobody stop for us?

Mark on the Middle Oetz

Car Troubles and Switzerland

2007-07-23T13:26:00.000+01:00

Sunday morning we picked up Jen & Jordie from the airport and we hit the road. Took the ferry to France and drove towards Switzerland to get to some rivers. On Monday we just about made it to Colmar and the radiator blew a leak. BOO! We coaxed the van down the hill and got it to a radiator mechanic. No paddling for us as it would take a couple days to get fixed L. So until Wednesday afternoon we wandered around Colmar checking out the sites.

Colmar

So Wednesday we got the radiator back into the car and we made our way to Uster (near Zurich), Switzerland to visit my Aunt and Uncle. They hooked us up with a place to stay, loads of food and good company. The next morning we took off making our way to Thun and the rivers close by. All of us were itching to get paddling but unfortunately the rivers we checked out were low. The boys did end up running the Engstlige, but said that it was a boulder bash most of the way down.

Visiting family.

Friday we managed to hook up with a local boater, Simon, and he took the boys on the Wiesse Luetschine. They came off the river with smiles on their faces so it must have been a good run. Saturday Jen and I finally managed to get on a river, the Schwarse Luetschine. A sweet little run that had a train shuttle right back to our van.

Jordie on Wiesse Luetschine.

Saturday afternoon we took the tram up to Gimmelwald and then wandered around up there trying to catch a view of the Eiger… unfortunately the clouds were not cooperating so all we got was a partial glimpse.

View from Gimmelwald.

It rained all night so when we woke up most of the rivers were high. We decided that we would start heading towards Austria as the rivers in the area we were in were either to high or too low. We managed to get a run in on the Sanna before we set up camp for the night.

Today we pulled a few wood ticks off of each other and headed to the Oetz river. We ran the lower Oetz and now we are about to go swimming and have a shower to clean our the grim off of our bodies as showers have been in short supply.

New van, boats and a broken windscreen

2007-07-13T14:11:00.000+01:00

So Mark showed up in London on July 3rd and first thing on our agenda was to go van hunting. I had already scoped out a couple possible prospects. In a couple days we were the proud owners of a van. It's a Nissan Urvan... very similar to the van we had while traveling through South America. It was a panel van used for work by a carpeter and then a drywaller. So he was filthy when we got him. We spent a few days cleaning him up and outfitting him and now he's set for a road trip across Europe. He's been named Norman II, in honor of our South American van.

Norman and Michelle

The sweet bed we built in the back (check out the mattress).

Saturday we went to Hyde Park to participate in the festivities of the Tour de France. We watched part of the Prologue, which was taking place in London this year.

Then we headed to Aylesbury to catch up with Mark's friend Jay, as well as borrow some boats so that we could spend a couple of days playing at Hurley. A sweet little playspot that was only running because of all the rain England has been getting over the past couple weeks.

Jay, Mark and Chrissy

Yesterday we made a trip to Bristol to pick up some kayaks (thanks Dagger!), as we didn't want to haul our boats on the planes. Everything was going great until we were on the M4 motorway and Mark hit the brakes for a traffic jam only to have his new kayak slide from the back of the van and take out our windsheild!! So we are another £120 down on the Visa watching this stupidy be repaired. At least we weren't decapitated! In Mark's words"There are too many people here....be thankfull for the open spaces in Canada - driving in London is CRAZY and makes Calgary feel like a one-street town!"

Looking out of Norman after the kayak tried to take out the windshield.

Ouch.

We had to stop off at Hurley to work out our frustrations on the river (and try out the new boats) before we headed back to Aylesbury. Today we have hung around waiting for the windscreen replacement guy to show up... then it's off to London for a couple days before we pick up Jen and Jordie and begin the trek to the alps.

Hurley

Mark with fixed Norman

Irish weddings and London living

2007-06-28T21:19:00.000+01:00

So it's been a couple weeks since I arrived in London. I managed to carry my ridiculously heavy bags all the way across London to my friend Jackie's flat, where I have been staying while I have been in London. I spent my first few days in London, doing some sight seeing, checking out the pubs (thanks to Jackie and his flat mates) and looking for a van.

Last Tuesday I flew to Ireland to visit Lorraine, who I had lived while I was in Melbourne, Australia. Lorraine and Ciaran got married this past weekend and I came out to catch the festivities. They were nice enough to put me up in their house even though they were both running around doing last minute errands before the wedding. I spent quite a bit of time leading up to the wedding driving around the country side keeping either Lorraine or Kelly (her sister) company while they were running the errands... at the same time I saw quite a bit of Ireland. I spent an afternoon wandering around Belfast, a day in Dublin, a morning in Newry and Dundalk and I even made it out to Port Beach.

Port Beach - Nicole, Kelly and Cian

Dublin - St. Patrick's Cathedral

The crazy part was that every evening friends and family came by the house to drop of cards and gifts and, more importantly, have a drink or two. Visitors even came by on Friday night before the wedding! A strange Irish custom that promotes lots of drinking (and tires out the bride). Saturday morning I helped getting the bride, bride maids, and two children out the door and to the church... barely even had time to get myself dressed.

Lorraine looked stunning and the ceremony in the church was beautiful, accentuated by the Dublin Gospel Choir, who had everyone swaying in their seats. After the church everyone made their way to the hotel, where the party began. I managed to have a couple glasses of the punch and a some fruit dipped into the chocolate fountain inbetween the thousands of pictures that had been taken that day. The dinner was fabulous, which was followed by a band and a DJ that went on to the wee hours of the morning. I don't think my feet could have handled another dance when the music finally shut off.

But in true Irish fashion the wedding was still not over... the next morning (or was it afternoon) we got ourselves out of bed and slowly made our way over to the local pub. Lorraine's dad had organized a band and food so that the party could contiue into Sunday and even early Monday morning. I have to say that this was the biggest wedding that I have attended... 280 people (and I think 278 were Irish), lots of drink and great music adds up to a very memorable wedding.

Michelle, Michelle, Lorraine and Kelly

Yesterday I arrived back in London... I think I need a couple days to recover from the effects of Ireland. Now I am concentrating on finding a van and I am looking forward to Mark joining me sometime next week.

Montreal

2007-06-11T13:50:00.000+01:00

So I have left Mark behind in Calgary and made my way over to Montreal to visit my good friend Nicole Kolar. Thus far it has been a crazy fun time. Visiting Montreal during the Grand Prix weekend is definitely the way to go. There are soo many people here and everything is buzzing. On Saturday I went to the Grand Prix to watch the F1 Race. It wasn't the finals - we just got to watch the qualifying, along with the Ferrari Challenge and F1600. The F1 was the best ... it was crazy loud. You had to wear ear plugs. We were standing on a corner where they downshifted from 6th to 1st and then they went all the way back up to 6th. All that was between us and the cars was a concrete barrier and a chain link fence. You could feel in your chest the cars as they passed. It was soo amazing to see... way better than on TV. One of the Ferrari Challenge cars spun out right in front of us so we watched a bit of spinout action. Lewis Hamilton had the fastest qualifying time (he won the race on Sunday as well).

Anne, Nicole and I with Ferrari Challenge going on in the background

Going out in Montreal during this time is a blast... people in the streets all hours of the day and night (actually morning is the most quiet time). Saturday night we went out to Newtown (Villenueve's bar/restaurant) and then out to some club. Sunday we took it easy and climbed up the "mountain" (I'm not actually sure why they call it a mountain as it is more like a hill...).

Nicole, myself and Mimi on Mont Royal

Almost on the road again...

2007-06-02T03:53:00.000+01:00

Ah .... I can't wait. The last three weeks have been super busy, ever since I finished work on May 4th. First was a quick visit to my parent's new place in Comox. They had barely moved into their house (I think it was the third time they slept in it the night I arrived) so it wasn't entirely a relaxing visit. I spent much of my time unloading boxes, putting on door handles, putting handles on kitchen cabinets.... but it wasn't all work. I did manage to paddle a couple times on the local rivers - the Brown and the Puntledge, and I spent a few gorgeous mornings/evenings on the spit in from of the house.

The last couple of weeks have been a flurry of activity trying to get ready for the trip and to take advantage of the flowing rivers. But I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Our house have been converted from a cozy living area to rooms with blank walls filled with boxes. Tomorrow we will deliver all our accumulated stuff to its new residence for the next few months.

So I am almost all packed... next stop Montreal to spend a few days with my good friend Nicole. Let the adventure begin!

May 2004

2004-05-02T05:10:00.000+01:00

May 07, 2004 - 11:14 a.m.

So after a nice relaxing visiting at Uncle Wayne's we headed to Northern California, where we hooked up with the Kavu van (the Norwegian’s Mariann and Morton). After pushing their van up the remaining feet of a summit and cruising down (ran out of gas) to the pump we got into Oregon to check out Hood River. Mark paddled the White Salmon and the Little White with them and then we headed up to Canyon Creek, to train for the extreme race. On the way from Portland, over the Columbia River, Mark's Kingpin came off the car into five lanes of traffic. An 18 wheeler that was following us barely even noticed it before it was flattened. Poor boat. It was picked up off the freeway by Scott, Mariann and Morton, who risked their lives running across traffic to snatch it and throw it into their van.

So the next day Mark and I ran Canyon Creek twice to get ready for the extreme race that would be held there the next day. Both of us won our respective divisions. Go Bassos!

Michelle on Canyon Creek

Since then we have been boating in Oregon and Washington. A couple days ago Dr. Mark took his Kingpin to the operating table and it is back in paddling condition (though the outfitting still has a little to be desired). He's tested it out on the Wenatchee and the Skykomish... even throwing some sweet blunts on the wave.

Mark on the Tye

May 20, 2004 - 4:05 p.m.

Hooray! after more than 14 months on the road less traveled, Michelle and I did our last US interstate, smiled nicely at the border, sat in traffic for an hour and then heaved up 60 bucks for a tank of gas........Hoooray we are back home! O Canada!

Vancouver has 3 important things to Michelle and I......relatives, sushi and skookumchuck. Visiting my sisters has been great, larger families and bigger nephews since I was last here. Sushi......well so far we have yet to get enough of that too, sometimes you can find all you can eat here for around 10 bucks!! no lie....there IS something cheap to eat in this city!

And of course my most favorite wave in the universe, Skookumchuck (aka. Sechelt Narrows) is home to a big glassy green wave that makes flying in a kayak feel like heaven. This time we did things fancy, paddled the canoe out to the island across from the wave and had the best 3 nights camping ever! Well it has been an exciting run, but next week is the gran finale, heading east out of Vancouver we'll be back in normal land.....but the parents await and we are excited for the big reunion.

Skookumchuk

June 02, 2004 - 12:55 p.m.

So after Vancouver Mark and I made our way through BC, stopping in Penticton to check out Mark's old houses. We got into the Calgary area on Tuesday and spent a week paddling around there. The weekend was spent at the Kananaskis Whitewater Festival catching up with old friends and having lots of fun. Now we are back in Edmonton visiting the parents and getting ready for a wedding reception, for all of those who missed our wedding in Chile.

We are going to find a place in Calgary soon and find some jobs. Then we are going to start planning our next big road trip.

April 2004

2004-04-02T05:51:00.000+01:00

April 09, 2004 - 3:29 p.m.

So the past couple of weeks have been fairly busy. We stayed until last Tuesday in Asheville. Mark ended up running the Green 8 times (and 4 of those were at 200%). Other than that we went and surfed Jaws at Nolichucky, paddled the Tallulah Gorge and checked out Hell hole on the Ocoee. Lots of fun and we met tonnes of good people.

Mark on the Green

Michelle on the Tallulah

Last Tuesday we split Asheville and headed straight to Rock Island, Tennessee. We spent a beautiful three days playing in the hole, though now both of us need a little break to let our muscles recover. So we have decided to make the drive west over to California and we should be in Kernville in a few days.

Mark at Rock Island

April 17, 2004 - 3:25 p.m.

We arrived in California on Sunday and we went straight to Sequoia National Park to meet up with Scott, Jason and Andrew. Mark ran the Kaweah River on Monday with them while I went to check out the massive Sequoia trees. Tuesday Mark, Jason and Scott decided to run the South Fork of the Merced river (a two day trip) so they left me to check out Yosemite National Park. I found a sweet little play hole just downstream of their takeout so I had something to do while waiting for them. The spot was soo good that we ended up heading back there on Thursday so that the boys could have a turn in the hole.

Mark on the Kaweah

Jason, Scott and Mark

Now Mark and I are in Kernville...We picked up my boat (Lil' Joe) and some gear here and also checked out the local festival. Then everyone went and ran the local creek, Brush Creek at super low water - it was like going down a big water slide with a couple drops thrown in for fun.

Michelle on Brush Creek

We are slowly going to make our way North now, hopefully stopping in to see a few friends and family.

April 28, 2004 - 11:50 a.m.

Tulomne CA

So we spent the past couple weeks paddling in California (with a visit to the whitewater park in Reno). Paddled some great rivers/creeks and even found a couple sweet playspots as well. This past weekend we had a great visit with Mark's Uncle Wayne and his family. They have a beautiful place just outside of Redding and it was nice to relax for the weekend, as well as indulge in some fantastic home cooked food.

Scott at the Reno play park

Yesterday night we drove across the California border into Oregon, where we plan to spend the next week or so before continuing our journey north.

March 2004

2004-03-02T01:33:00.000Z

March 04, 2004 - 9:48 p.m.

So we have been enjoying the beach on the coast of Chile with Tom, Dave and Scott. We arrived on Monday after a day of driving through a crazy rain storm and since then we have had beautiful days and lots of sun. We have been both surfing and kayaking on the wicked point breaks that they have here (supposed to be some of the best waves in Chile). We only have two kayaks (as Mark and I have sold all but one kayak in Pucon) so we are taking turns catching sweet rides as well as taking some good poundings. Dave and Tom have rented some surf boards and are slowly figuring that out. The tourist season is over in Chile so all the people have returned to Santiago and the beaches are sparsely populated and no one is fighting over waves. A good way to spend our last few days in Chile.

Pichilemu

Scott, Dave, Tom, Michelle and Mark with Norman

March 11, 2004 - 4:50 p.m.

So Mark and I have had a crazy week. We dropped Dave, Scott and Tom off in Santiago on Saturday afternoon after a few days of surfing at Pichilemu. Then we started to head north...we pretty much drove straight to the Peruvian border, stopping to sleep and eat, as well as check out a few tourist sites. We arrived into Peru on Tuesday (2000+ kms away from Santiago) and got into Tacna. We were told that this town would be a good place to sell the car...later that afternoon we were a little bit richer but Normanless. That night we got on the bus to Lima and arrived there the next day in the afternoon. Spent a couple hours in Lima and took off to Houston at 1 in the morning. This morning we arrived in Tampa and we are going to visit Mark's mom and get ready to begin phase 2 of the journey.

Chilean Coast

The plan for phase 2 is to get a car, get some kayaks and make our way over to California to do some paddling and visit some family as well. From there we will make our way up the coast to Vancouver (paddling and visiting) and finally back over to Alberta.... so we should be home in May/June.

For us it's a little crazy that we are out of South America, that we sold our van (and we are already missing him terribly...how we would have liked to take him home). It's going to take a little time to adjust....caught myself this morning speaking in Spanish to the lady at the cash register. This past year has definitely been one of the best in my life...so full of memories. South America, and especially Chile, holds a special place in both Mark's and my heart and we are going back one day.

March 21, 2004 - 8:54 a.m.

We have been in Florida for over a week now and of course the shock of it all is wearing off......back in a concrete jungle!! So OK there aren't any potholes or 1 lane roads filled up with three lanes of traffic, instead it’s 6 lane megahighways crammed full of fancy suv's!! In order for us to find a new car we had to drive all over the place, and being stuck on the interstate because there is just too many people was beginning to wear our nerves thin.

Still Florida isn't all that bad (thanks to my mom spoiling us), however what we did manage to find is a beautiful Nissan pickup truck without the signs of any harsh winters or rust whatsoever.......we are cleaning it up today and adding some accessories. By Wednesday Michelle and I hope to be on our way up to South Carolina.

March 27, 2004 - 4:34 p.m.

So Mark and I have made our way to North Carolina. We stopped in St. Augustine to check out the beach and then we drove straight to Greenville to pick up his new boats from Dagger. We had to go try them out so we drove up to Asheville and hooked up with some friends. So yesterday Mark did one run down the Green in his new Nomad and then we stopped off at Liquid Logic so that I could pick up my new play boat. This morning Mark and I did the Upper Green and then he went off to do the narrows again. We plan on staying here for a few more days, doing a bit of paddling and catching up with friends before heading west.

St. Augustine

Wedding

2004-02-22T01:15:00.000Z

Wedding Pictures

February 21, 2004

February 2004

2004-02-02T01:02:00.000Z

February 02, 2004 - 1:34 p.m.

So we have made it out of the Futaleufu and are now back in Bariloche. The Futaleufu valley was incredible... it offered us some of the best boating we have done on our trip with a beautiful setting. We had it all ... beautiful weather, lots of rain to make the river go up, some good paddlers to joins us on the river, a few play spots (a couple with eddies) and even a couple swimmers to save. It was definitely one of the highlights on the trip ... and a place that we want to head back to one day.

Mark on Rio Gol Gol

Now we are going to make our way back to Pucon to arrange some things for the wedding and to do some more kayaking.

February 08, 2004 - 12:28 p.m.

Well we made it back to Pucon after spending a quick two days in the searing 36 degree heat in Temuco getting some clothes and supplies. Since we left at Christmas Pucon, aka. Pluton has underwent a complete demographic transformation. At being a city once of 10,000, it now has become a mass of over 100,000 partying Santiagoans and other strange mixtures.

Cars creep the streets all day and become a massive traffic mess by evening, fortunately almost everyone parties all night long so if you do the norm the town is actually sleepy and bearable in the AM. All this summer madness ends about as abruptly as it starts over the next 2 weeks so we will survive. Michelle and I are beginning to count down our final days in South America too.......Excited about our upcoming wedding ceremony at one of our favorite places with some special friends, and sad about leaving a country that we have so much become attached. A few friends and family will arrive soon to be here with us during this time so we look forward to a memorable February in Chile.

Kayak Pucon

February 23, 2004 - 10:17 a.m.

So Mark and I are now married, as of the afternoon of February 21, 2004. What an amazing experience! I don't even know how to begin to describe it. Mark's sister Michelle did a really good job, here are her words from an email:

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How does one describe such an amazing place...so cut off from the world we all know so well...this place is nothing like our own society...it’s magical...I now know why Mark and Michelle chose to marry here...phenomenal is merely a pebble word among the many that lie on the beach to describe....

The wedding took place late afternoon...with the best of their Chilean friends...kayak buddies from home (Edmonton-Calgary), Mom and I...with the Volcano in the background, sky so blue, sunshine that went well above 30 degrees, a river play spot on our side ready for us all to dive into after the ceremony...kayaks lined up along an old fence as the pulpit...simply superb...my eyes are misty just reminiscing with you now...God it was beautiful...through the tears in my eyes...I took a lot of pictures...the music played, Turn your lights down low with Bob Marley and Lauryn Hill in the background as the Bride and Groom walked hand in hand down the middle of the gathering of friends and family...tears were falling down everyone’s faces...it was simply...just so...right.

Mark all decked out in a dark, navy shirt and pants...Michelle wearing an amazingly simple, exquisite white Chilean dress with subtle embroidery to highlight...her hair pulled up with a braid that showed the little pink beads we laced inside and babies breath trailing down the curls that now lay upon her back...her hair has grown so much! They are an amazing couple and their bronzed faces and skin glowed beyond compare...they are happy together...and they got married Chilean style...a wedding I will never forget. 30 of us traveled the rapids in Kayaks with Bride and Groom right after...I shared one with Mom and it was truly an experience I will never forget...it’s hard to even put words together to describe what the river was like...in some places my mind could only focus on the rapid I was going through...some parts were frighteningly rough but, exciting enough to give me a craving for more...to see us all connected in such positive energy riding this river was...well...I’ll let you just feel it...I can’t put it into words...you can only imagine...and yes...it was that good!!!!

I wished I could beam you here...to share this amazing time away...I write in hopes that I may bring you here in spirit for a moment as you read...for I will never forget this time...Pucon, Chile is a place that without a doubt will never be forgotten...always to be remembered and most definitely will be revisited again...IT´S A MUST!!!

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I want to thank everyone who sent their Congratulations.... it's great to know that we are being thought about even though we are far away. I wish all of you could have been here to share this day. It was more special than I ever hoped it could be!!!

See "Wedding" post for pictures.

February 29, 2004 - 1:19 p.m.

So this past week we spent relaxing in Pucon and going to the rivers to paddle. We are slowly selling all of our paddling gear and getting ready to head north. Tom, Scott and Dave are going to join us for the first part of the journey (until Santiago). We plan to hit the beach and do a little bit of surfing, and then we are on our way north to Peru.

It’s going t be hard to leave Pucon, which has become a second home to us. We have lots of good friends and amazing memories and both of us are looking forward to the day we can return here.

Liucura Playspot

January 2004

2004-01-02T05:28:00.000Z

January 04, 2004 - 12:30 p.m.

Hello and Happy New Year to all back in the land of chilly weather and snowflakes.....Michelle and I have ventured far south driving our van relentlessly to the tip of South America....our next stop is Torres del Paine and the spectacular scenery and hiking it has to offer......

Meanwhile back in Bariloche I became an accredited Hard CORE (idioso) kayaker as I just brought the new year in with a hellonearth 15 hour portage through super dense bamboo and a night shivering to death in my paddling gear as myself and two other paddle geezers highly underestimated the Middle Manso flows paddling it at unHEARD of 5.5 on the gauge! The canyon boxed up on us and we decided that it was better to portage the WHOLE thing than risk blind class V rapids....a good decision now that it is over, but man was I begging for good ol’ fur trees and grizzly bears after a jungle setting like that..... But we are ALIVE and Michelle waited her stressed out self patiently for us at the Lake and now I am taking a break form that crazy backcountry paddling misery for awhile......next kayak stop hopefully is the 50,000 + cfs Rio Baker with a good crew on Jan 18.......

We will be in down in the deep south for the next few weeks enjoying the long days and super friendly people as well....and I forgot to mention the fuel prices are a lot cheaper thanks to tax cuts to the people who live this far south.......wish that was the same in Canada.

Punto Tombo

January 10, 2004 - 10:50 a.m.

So Mark and I are back in Argentina after spending a few days at Torres del Paine (a National Park in Chile). What an amazing park!!! Towers of rock in crazy geological formations line the skyline with glaciers hanging off every mountain. The icefield there is one of the largest in the world. Mark and I even managed to go kayaking...this time on a river that is normally done in sea kayaks. 38 km of floating down a glacier fed river in total wilderness. Paddling by hanging glaciers that drop right into the sea. Plus the wildlife was incredible; seals, geese, condors, guanacos, armadillos, ñandus, skunks, parakeets, foxes and lots of other birds. Mark even got to pet a relatively tame skunk! and on the sea kayaking trip he chased a goose until he could pick it up and put it on the cockpit of his boat. If you ever get a chance definitely go visit this place...very beautiful and magical.

Torres del Paine

Now we are in Rio Gallegos waiting for a visa to come in the mail (ours was lost with our wallet) before we head on to the Carreterra Austral (Rio Baker and Futaleufu).

January 16, 2004 - 11:54 a.m.

So Mark and I have been exploring the southern part of the Carretera Austral. It's super beautiful and very remote. We spent a couple days hanging out by the Rio Baker. Mark surfed a wave and I ran a short section of just out of the lake. I have never paddled a river it's size (around 50 000 cfs), and it sure moves. The past two day we have spent driving on a crazy dirt road and now Norman, Mark and myself are totally covered in dust (Norman is definitely NOT a dust proof vehicle). Yesterday we checked out some rock paintings that are about 10 000 years old and drove through some amazing valleys and over some incredible passes. We made it to Coyhaique this morning... the only sizable town on the Carretera.

Michelle on Rio Baker

January 23, 2004 - 12:53 p.m.

So Mark and I are now at the Futaleufu and it has lived up to all it’s expectations and more... huge waves and some sweet play too. We plan to stay here for another week or so before making our way north again... we'll update again when we get out (the email here is expensive and slow).

Rio Futaleufu

December 2003

2003-12-01T20:20:00.000Z

December 05, 2003 - 4:49 p.m.

So we are still in Pucon...It’s paddling paradise here. We have been running lots of rivers. Mark's favorite has got to be the Rio Puesco as he has run it four times this week. I like the Rio Maichin... a totally sweet class IV that keeps me nervous with all its drops. We have found an amazing play wave too but it's a bit father from Pucon (2.5 hours) on the San Pedro. Other than that a lot of other gringos are showing up so we have lots more paddling partners. Hopefully soon some chicks will show up because other than Mariann I haven't paddled with another chick in 9 months (and as much as I like guys it would be nice to paddle with another female).

Hanging out in Pucon

December 13, 2003 - 4:46 p.m.

Well Michelle and I turned some rainy Pucon days in for a short road trip back north towards Santiago. About 6 hours away we met up with Nate, Matt and friends in the Rio Nuble valley and proceeded to have 2 days of outstanding whitewater fun. After a rainy first day that also included our very first Puma sighting, the skies cleared and I paddled a class V gorge with the boys and then took Michelle down the class III+ section from the previous day. Michelle is starting to stomp down almost everything that gets in her way......and the shuttle driving is making her a pro at the manual transmission as well......

Yesterday the crew rejoined at the Rio Laja....a river that Michelle and I had visited way back in April. This time with a strong paddling crew, I finally puckered up and scared myself down 5kms of screaming blind class V! whoooohoooo.....well it was so bouncy and sweet Alan and I ran it twice!! The more we stay paddling in Chile, the more we are at awe with this place......it is becoming a second home for us both and it will be hard for us to leave. And Christmas is just a round the corner.... that is the weirdest part for sure! Happy Holidays to all our friends back home.

December 21, 2003 - 4:46 p.m.

Hope everyone is enjoying the holiday season... Mark and I sure are... went on another little road trip, down south this time, to check out the Rio Llancahue and Rio Fui. The Llancahue was at a perfect level and it even had a 20 foot waterfall that was clean enough for me to run (though I had to run it twice to get it right). The Upper Rio Fui looked really big and so we just put in on the lower and had a 20 minute huge wave train ride down to the take out. Lots of fun and super fast.

Michelle on Rio Llancahue

Mark and I are going to spend Christmas in Pucon (probably going paddling somewhere) and then start heading south into Argentina. So we will be on the move again soon.

Also we have decided that we will get married in Pucon in February so if you are in the area let us know and we would love to have you show up.

Merry Christmas to everyone back at home!!!

December 28, 2003 - 11:09 a.m.

So Mark and I celebrated Christmas a little differently this year. On Christmas Eve we drove down to the San Pedro river with a crew of people (mostly boaters from California but an Aussie and Pom to top it off) and camped over night by the side of the river. We put up a Christmas tree by standing one kayak up in the middle with 4 kayaks surrounding it, decorated it with beaners, helmets and glowsticks and placed a few presents under it. For Christmas dinner we cooked a parilla (or Chilean BBQ) and partied deep into the night. The next morning we had a gift exchange and then loaded up all the boats to head down the river. Overall an excellent way to spend Christmas...good company and good paddling!

Rio San Pedro

Our Chilean Christmas tree

Now Mark and I have left Pucon and made our way to Bariloche, Argentina. Here we plan to paddle maybe a couple days before we start our journey into the deep south! Hopefully we'll find a cool little town to bring the New Year in style.

November 2003

2003-11-02T02:28:00.000Z

November 04, 2003 - 11:16 a.m.

Michelle and I have been hanging out on the Rio Manso for the past week as the days grow longer and steadily warmer. The Manso has numerous sections and levels of difficulty, but the real show was the 4th annual Bariloche rodeo held last weekend on a super sweet wave! My new kayak flew me into 2nd place and so to celebrate I made a serious ass of myself drinking FERNET and other numbing concoctions....

AND after this I found myself getting back in the paddling gear at 1 am with some other yoohoos to hit the wave once more in the DARK! well.....nuff said. Apologies to my sweet girl who had to clean up the midnight snacking leftovers from under the pillow. So despite the surreal beauty of the Manso drainage (no I didn't drop the 65 ft waterfall either) Pucon Chile is our next stop.

November 08, 2003 - 6:01 p.m.

So Mark and I arrived in Pucon on Wednesday afternoon without too many incidents. We got a flat tire driving from Bariloche and decided to buy 2 new tires in San Martin de los Andes. So Norman now has extra traction in the rear - useful for the muddy roads we have been experiencing.

Volcan Lanin

The past few days we have spent paddling the rivers close to Pucon, and checking out how much they have changed since we have been here last. It's been rainy most of the time so we used today to go warm ourselves up in the hot springs with some good Chilean wine. We plan to spend the next few weeks here, hanging out with good friends and paddling lots.

November 23, 2003 - 2:48 p.m.

So the past couple of weeks we have spent in Pucon paddling some sweet rivers and finding some crazy playspots. Mark's run a couple creeks (one of them stole his paddle and hasn't given it back...yet) and even hucked himself off of a 35 foot waterfall. It's been raining lots so all the rivers are high and lots of fun, though we are looking forward to some sunny days in the near future.

Mark on Rio Puesco

October 2003

2003-10-02T01:47:00.000+01:00

October 01, 2003 - 3:45 p.m.

Well after a smoky ride due to the high altitude, we have made our way down to Arequipa and the searing desierto heat. Fortunately we have a fun little creek here that costs us a 2 dollar cab ride.

Areqiupa is a nice change from Cusco and we are happy to be staying with our friends from when we were here back in March.....Best of all the plan is now set for driving Gian Marcos Mitsubishi Montero into the deepest canyon in the world....Cotahuasi. We hope to paddle some of its headwaters before we head on what should be one more exciting paddling adventure in South America!

So Michelle and I are still happy traveling together as we head back into summer for Chile.....it will be an easy drive down an already familiar road.......road trippin at its finest! South America is a place you come to enjoy a lot as we live in the places we have been to.....we look forward to the weeks ahead.

October 12, 2003 - 3:06 p.m.

So I have returned to Arequipa sin Mark. I left him paddling on the Rio Cotahuasi. We stayed in Arequipa for a week waiting for people to arrive so that we could go check out "el canyon mas profundu de mundo". During that week we paddled the Rio Chili a number of times and hung out with the Velluntino family.

Finally last Tuesday we took off to go paddling with Gian Marco and Russ, Damon and Matt (Americans). It took us until Wednesday to reach the canyon but the drive was very beautiful and the area is super remote. The next day the boys decided to do a first descent on the Upper Upper Cotahuasi while I did the shuttle. After a long couple days (and me biting my nails) they turned up - completely worn out but still smiling.

Cotahuasi

Gian Marco and I left them in the canyon while we drove back to Arequipa. They are going to do a 4 day descent to (almost) the ocean on the Rio Cotahuasi. I am going to hang out in Arequipa until Wednesday, when I will go pick Mark up and we will be on our way to further adventures.

Take Out

October 20, 2003 - 10:15 a.m.

So I picked Mark up and we decided that we would blaze to Chile. We made it from Arequipa to La Serena in three days (2500 km). We got to La Serena late Saturday night and on Sunday we found a local surfing spot to break up the monotony of driving.

So we have finally exited the desert of Southern Peru and Northern Chile and now we are in Los Andes just north of Santiago. From here we plan to make our way to Mendoza, Argentina and then further south to the good rivers.

October 25, 2003 - 6:17 p.m.

Hey all

Well after easy drive over the Andes which included a stop at one of Chile’s fine ski resorts (missed last day by 2 weeks....darn!) we have followed the snowmelt downstream and have been hanging out with Martin and all of his friends at Argentina Rafting, located near Mendoza and the heart of Argentinean vineyards..... The river is super easy but as it rises the playspots are beginning to become spectacular! Now that our bodies are resting we are heading south to run El Rio Diamante y el Rio Grande.

Later next week we should be back in Bariloche looking for the crooks with our stuff from the ugly last time we were there......Bariloche is a having a whitewater festival Nov. 2nd so we should be able to meet up with many friends and start the summer season down in Patagonia in style......Argentina is really becoming a special place for us the second time around!

a steak and fine wine awaits!

Rodrigo, Mark and Sergio

September 2003

2003-09-02T01:38:00.000+01:00

September 10, 2003 - 1:30 pm

Well I just got back from 10 days in the jungle and I wish I was still there. I four hours by boat from Puerto Maldonado in the Tambopata-Candamo reserve. I volunteered at this swank lodge there located right by the river. I had to do four hours of work a day and then the rest of the time I could go with the guides on tours, wander around in the jungle or just chill in a hammock.

I saw loads of animals including caimans, capybaras, monkeys, macaws, parrots, toucans, a tarantula and many other cool things. One of the highlights was going to the collpa or macaw clay lick and seeing hundreds fly around.

Collpa (if you look close you can see Macaws)

Probably the best part was not the actual jungle but the people I got to spend time with. They were wonderful and for a little while I was a part of their small family. I miss them a lot already.

Now I am back in Cusco and waiting for Mark and his mom to show up so we can do some more sight-seeing.

September 14, 2003 - 6:21 p.m.

So I am still in Cusco and still waiting for Mark and his mom to show up. Mark's mom should be arriving here on the 17th and Mark sometime after that (hopefully by my birthday).

I have been fully enjoying the Cusco nightlife as I have seen most of the sights here. Watching the sunrise after a night on the town is always beautiful, though the rest of the day is generally spent in bed. Good times and good friends.

September 19, 2003 - 10:46 a.m.

So yesterday was my birthday and we partied it up Cusco style, and had a blast. Mark and his mom arrived on the plane (I wasn't expecting to see Mark until the 18th) on the 17th. It was great to see both of them. We spent that day fairly relaxed as both of them were a bit tired from the trip.

Yesterday we did the typical tourist thing around Cusco before Mark and I headed out on the town last night. Lots of friends showed up and I had a blast. Today we are going to check out a few ruins around town before checking out Machu Picchu this weekend. Should be a good time.

Thanks for everyone who sent birthday greetings. It's nice to know that I am not forgotten about back home.

September 25, 2003 - 10:22 a.m.

So yesterday Mark's mom left to go back home to Florida after celebrating Mark's birthday with him. It was a really great visit and we were both very happy that she could make it down.

We did the typical tourist things while she was here. Checked out the town and as many ruins as we could fit in. The highlight was Machu Picchu which we visited on equinox so the whole place was filled with shaman and new-age folk. It added to the whole experience.

Machu Picchu

Another crazy adventure was getting stuck in a protest (our bus wasn't allowed through) on our way to Machu Picchu. Our bus had a couple windows broken with stones and eventually we had to walk through the barricades to get to another bus. We just caught our train in time to make it to Machu Picchu.

Machu Picchu from Huaynu Picchu

Mark and I planned to go on the Apurimac one more time before we left but I don't think it is to be. Yesterday the roads were closed due to a car rally and we wanted to try again today but our truck driver came home drunk and put and end to that plan. BOO!

Well we are soon to be on the road again with lots of stories...

August 2003

2003-08-02T01:30:00.000+01:00

August 2, 2003 - 11:15 am

The Apurimac was a blast. A beautiful canyon, with no one else around. Crazy rapids that definitely made us work to get down. There was even a nice play hole right by one of the campsites that Mark got to play in for a couple of hours.

Rafting the Apurimac

Yesterday Mark and I floated down the Urambamba in our kayaks. It had pretty scenery (with Inka ruins along the side of the river). But once was enough - as it was mostly a float.

We plan to stay in Cusco for a little while. Mark has an opportunity to safety kayak down the Apurimac a few more times and I plan to hike around the area. We plan to save Macchu Pichu until the tourist season dies down a bit.

August 13, 2003 - 10:24 a.m.

Nothing much has happened since I last wrote - we are still in Cusco. Mark is now working as a safety kayaker for Southern Rivers on the Rio Apurimac. Last trip he went on I went along as well, just to enjoy the canyon and to get out of the city for a bit.

We will probably continue to do this for another week or so and then move to somewhere new.

Tipon

August 16, 2003 - 10:33 a.m.

Wednesday night a couple friends (Juanito, Leo and Piero), myself and Mark decided to make a trip down the Apurimac, kayaks only, in two days. So after some frantic arrangements on Wednesday night we left at 2 in the morning to make it to the river at 9. It was fantastic going down just kayaks - we blazed through the rapids and stopped at various play spots along the way. I had a blast going down in a kayak - much better than rafting, though I decided to skip the two class V rapids on the way down. We camped beside a sweet hole and got some awesome video footage. We slept outside on the sand with the stars overhead, with the sand flies only bothering us a bit. A sweet trip down the river, great rapids and beautiful scenery. SWEET!

Rio Apurimac

August 23, 2003 - 9:44 a.m.

Still in Cusco.... Mark is still working on the Apurimac... I found a job to pass the time helping sell raft tours. Nothing much new to report though I promise the next update will be more interesting...

August 29, 2003 - 9:01 a.m.

So on Monday afternoon Mark made his way to Lima from where he should have caught a flight on Tuesday evening and made his way to Canada for a short 2-3 week visit. Unfortunately flying stand-by he did not make it out. As of yesterday night he was still stuck in Lima but hopefully as of this morning he made it out and is on his way to Canada.

So that leaves me with about 3 weeks on my own....

So last Sunday I left to go on a trek with Frank (a German raft guide/kayaker). We decided to go on a 5 day/4 night around the mountain Ausangate (6372 m), the highest mountain in South-eastern Peru. We went with a local guide, Vincent, who could speak Quechua and a bit of Spanish. Originally we were also supposed to go with 2 Swiss but they did not turn up and it was just the two of us.

The first day was easy. We took the day to get to Tinki (a small village close to Ausangate). The only problem was we rode in the back of a truck with a bunch of Peruvians. Not the warmest way to travel but definitely interesting. The next 3 days involved trekking around the mountain, hiking over 5 passes - the highest being 5200 m. Within that 3 days we did about 60 km so each night both of us were exhausted and rested in the tent while Vincent cooked us dinner (besides it was freezing cold when the sun went down). Luckily we had a horse to carry our gear or I don't think we would have made it. We learned that normally the trek is done in 7 days/6 nights or if you ride horses (which we did not) it's done in 5 days/4 nights. So it was definitely a crazy, hard-core adventure. It was sunny most of the time (luckily) but we did have periods of snow and cold. To ease our aching muscles at the end of the forth day we arrived at some natural hot springs and soaked for a few hours.

The final day involved a 10 km walk back to Tinki and then we caught a truck half full of empty beer bottles back to Cusco. The views were fantastic and both Frank and I feel good about ourselves for finishing such a crazy hike.

Going up...

Nevado Ausangate

July 2003

2003-07-02T01:21:00.000+01:00

July 4, 2003 - 9:02 a.m.

The Pantanal was fantastic - we drove through a state park on dirt roads and saw tonnes of animals including alligators, capybaras, emus, an anteater, wild pigs, deer, king fishers, macaws, toucans and lots and lots of other birds. We went kayaking on a completely flat (lake-like) river just to get even closer to the alligators. It is a super beautiful area but hot too - it got up to about 35 C so we were roasting.

Then yesterday we met up with some locals in Bonito and went kayaking with them on the river here. The water is crystal clear so you can see the fish swimming under you but the river is flat except for 6 small drops. It was worth going though just for the scenery (and the fact that it costs $50 per person if you want to raft it). As a bonus we saw an anaconda sunning itself on a branch right by the river and a couple monkeys in the trees above.

Michelle on Rio Bonito

Now we are drying our gear and then we plan to take off to check out the Foz du Igacu.

July 08, 2003 - 8:41 p.m.

Just a quick note to say that we are back in Argentina after seeing the Igacu Falls (both Brasilian and Argentinian sides). They were beautiful but VERY full of tourists. So we are glad to be on the road again and making our way to Salta through the Chaco.

Just now we were stopped by a traffic control officer who wanted to give us a ticket for turning left on a green light and where there was no sign indicating left turns were not allowed. Luckily we got out of that (I think Mark being a foot taller, much bigger and mad helped a bit). Crazy Argentinian road rules...

July 14, 2003 - 12:48 p.m.

Well Salta Argentia has been our home now for almost a week....Sunken in the gradual hills which begin the Andes, this place is really beautiful... and of course we have managed to once again find some kayaking friends with a sweet class III warm water run! The temperature at night is chilly but the water is still warm and keeping us happy. Two nights ago we even descended the river under a full moon which was a first for both of us! The guides here are all from different parts of the country and one is even from Peru so our days are filled with lots of Spanish practice as well. Today we are back in the main center to unite once again with Michelle’s crazy bro and sidekick malice...... hopefully we can get their frisbee tossing arms sore with some more days spent rafting with our new friends...... Maybe Michelle will get to see her brother trashed in a wave this time!

July 17, 2003 - 6:23 p.m.

So on Monday afternoon Mark and I met up with Steve and my brother in Salta and spent the night there comparing travel stories over wine before heading out the next morning to Salta Rafting. Steve and Mark (my bro) descended the river in a raft (though a lot of time was spent out of the raft and in the water) while the other Mark and I kayaked down. Super fun was had by all.

Yesterday morning Mark took Mark and Steve down a flat portion of the river in kayaks. They all survived - one swim by my bro in an eddy though. That afternoon we bid a sad goodbye to Salta Rafting (really great people there) and headed with Mark and Steve to San Salvador de Jujuy. We dropped them off at the bus station after a sweet steak meal.

Mark K, Steve and Mark B

This morning we entered Bolivia again. Definitely a shock after Argentina and Brasil (even though we had already been there). At lunch they tried to rip us off because we were gringos, the police here (at the toll stations) need larger bribes because we are gringos... definitely not the way to make us like this country. Hopefully we'll see a better side of it soon. Though so far the road has been good (250 km) but now we hit the dirt stretch so we'll see how that turns out.

PS Norman just hit 100 000 kms!!! (we have driven just under 25000 kms)

July 21, 2003 - 10:55 am

So Bolivia has been an experience for both of us. The dirt road was not too bad (though it took us 6 hours to go 300 km) and now we are in La Paz. On the way to La Paz we had some difficulties with corrupt military police. We discovered if I drove and talked to the police we were less likely to need to bribe them but it did not work for all...

So overall our impression of Bolivia has not been great and we would like to get out of this country. We think it would be better to take the bus and not have to deal with a lot of the hassles we've encountered.

That said it is very beautiful here and the roads we drove to get to La Paz were phenomenal - the mountains and jungle were fantastic. On our way here we stopped at Inti Warra Yassi, an animal refuge, and got to play with monkeys (they even used a comb to brush Mark's hair).

Looking for food

Yesterday, in La Paz, we met up with my brother and Steve again and Steve's brother Dave. Also out in front of the hostal we ran into an old family friend, Martin, who we did not even know was in SA. Small world, crazy times. So we had a bit of an Edmonton reunion.

July 25, 2003 - 3:33 p.m.

Well we made it out of Bolivia now including the rest of the Edmonton crew (Mark, Steve and Dave) in relatively easy fashion. All it took was for me to get the worst case of food poisoning in my life off of baaaad mayo. While I spent the evening in hurl mode, the others went off in a party fashion into the wee hours of the morning celebrating Steve-o’s b-day.

Now we are all in a recovery mood, and over the next day or two we’ll all be driving Norman up to Cuzco into gringo land. Crossing the border back into Peru was stressing Michelle and I out a bit, however it turned out easier than when we left. Copacabana gave us once again an opportunity to do some cheap shopping as well as roaming the spectacular Isla del Sol. So the next week or two will include some good friends and perhaps a united effort tackling one of the wildest rivers of the world.

Isla del Sol

Cusco here we come!

July 27, 2003 - 8:45 pm

From Puno the crew of us (Mark, Mark, Steve, Dave and myself) made our way to Cuzco only to find ourselves amidst Peruvian Independence Day celebrations (actual day is July 28). Crazy parties that we partook in last night.

The gringo to local population is about one to one here in Cuzco and so we hear more English now then Spanish. But we had a great time today wandering around the ruins in Pisac.

Tomorrow the lot of us is going on a 3 day rafting/kayaking trip down the Apurimac. Mark is safety kayaking and the rest of us are in the raft. Should be some crazy times ahead.

June 2003

2003-06-02T01:11:00.000+01:00

June 02, 2003 - 11:22 a.m.

Hey all....

It’s been a while since we last wrote so I will catch you up. Our new passports came quickly in Buenos Aires, so despite it being quite a sightseeing city we headed out and up to Uruguay which fortunately doesn’t require visas anymore. Uruguay was a small area of rolling grasslands and REALLY nice people.

Uruguayan Coast

We cut south along the coast and were finally treated to some warm beach breezes and cool bird watching. Here we were able to cross into Brazil at the city of Chui...a place that straddles both frontiers and people from Uruguay and Brazil mingle nicely.... However this was the LAST place where our Spanish could be spoken and understood!! Wow now we are REALLY in a place where nobody speaks English. Once in Brazil stuff was pretty much going great until a drunk cyclist decided to bounce off the side of our van while we were leaving a highway toll station! So we thanked our lucky stars that he at least was alive when they put him in the Ambulance... then we headed to two different police stations to begin about 5 hours of paperwork.....welcome to Brazil!!

At least now we are in the beautiful small mountain town of Tres Coroas.... this place has rivers with awesome playspots and some waterfalls nearby .... needless to say we are gonna be here for a while and begin learning how to live and kayak Brazilian style......

June 09, 2003 - 1:06 p.m.

So after a week of paddling in Tres Coroas we have left the little town and made out way north to the city of Florianopolis. The last week was sweet - we spent most days on Rio Parahana at a play spot there (I can now spin my Sonic in a hole). We also did the Rio Cai which has a couple good rapids and takes you through some amazing jungle scenery.

Mark on Rio Cai

Right now we are waiting for our laundry to dry before exploring the island of Santa Catarina. It’s supposed to have some really good surf beaches but unless it stops raining I don’t know if we will try out the surf (wait until we go further north and the weather is better).

We are slowly on the move north again - but we are going to stop at a few rivers which are supposed to have some good paddling.

June 19, 2003 - 8:48 p.m.

Driving in Brasil is very interesting - they place speed bumps in every place possible and in the least visible places. We have become very good at spotting them. We have even found them on a two-lane divided highway. And they are not the small kind that you can go over with speed - these you have to slow down to less than 20 km/h or otherwise the van bottoms out.

Well that was enough of a rant – it’s been a long time since we have updated - we have been spending our time in small Brasilian towns where no e-mail is to be found.

From Florianopolis Mark and I journeyed inland to Ibirama where the Rio Itajai was in flood. Thinking the river will be sweet we jumped at the opportunity to go down it with a local paddler. Mark says the river was a lot of fun - I didn’t finish it as at the end of the first rapid was a gargantuan hole in which I received a good trashing (the only person to make it through the hole was Mark) and decided to hike out.

From there we made our way to Tibagi, which is where the Brasilian slalom team calls home. We met the B team (as the A team was off to compete in Europe) and stayed at their pad for a few days paddling the rapids by town and checking out the local tourist sites. Mark went and did the Rio Iapo with a couple of the team – I’m glad I didn’t go as it was about 25 km of flat water for 5 km of good rapids.

The last couple days we have spent at Brotas, an ecotourism destination just northeast of Sao Paulo. We met some crazy paddlers there and ran the local river - the water was low and we were scraping rocks in a few places but it still had a couple good drops. While we were there we picked up a kayak, a Samba made by a Brasilian company Brudden. The price was too good to pass up and it should be a good play boat for me (Mark can fit in it too). Also the hot weather got to Mark and he decided to go for the VERY short hair look (I like to call it an eight ball).

While we were in Brotas we spent a day fixing the van because we hit a rock and punctured our transmission oil pan. Had to get the pan welded because our van does not exist in Brasil and so replacement parts are hard to find. But Norman seems to be running well now (we just drove about 500 km) so hopefully we won’t have anymore incidents for a while.

Today we left Brotas and drove to Ubatuba. We are supposed to meet up with my brother here on Saturday, and it also is supposed to have some sweet waves for kayak surfing and well as a good beach for soaking up the sun.

Steve, Mark B, Michelle and Mark K in Ubatuba

June 24, 2003 - 2:11 p.m.

So we are now in Rio (arrived this morning) and are going spend a couple days sight seeing. Yesterday we left my brother (Mark) and Steve at the bus station in Ubatuba after a sweet couple days on the surf beaches. The kayak surfing was epic - I got a couple good beatings and tonnes of amazing rides. We even had Mark (my bro) and Steve out on the baby waves in the kayaks. They were looking good until they flipped over and had to bail. Between that and wearing speedos on the beach they made quite a scene.

Rio de Janeiro

June 30, 2003 - 1:02 p.m.

Hey all....

Driving here never loses its adventure. If you choose the backroads, you have to prepare yourself for roads worse than in Peru..... if you choose the highways you have to pay the tolls every 50 km or so. The biggest boo for us is because our van mysteriously has dual rear wheels, we end up paying DOUBLE! But road tripping with your girl still beats any bus.

Currently we are driving back from Rio de Janeiro and west way across 2,000 miles to the Pantanal, Brasil’s most famous everglades style area with the world’s most exotic wildlife. We should be there by tomorrow (July 1st). Rio was absolutely fabulous...... although the big cities in South America are not tempting to drive in, we managed to find a safe place to park our van and went all over to see the sights..... including Brasil’s scantily clad beaches. So yes know that we have been in Brasil for over a month, things are going really smooth and we really like it here...... I hope to come back soon. We are hoping to be in SALTA, Argentina in two weeks to meet back up with Michelle’s Brother and Steve again..... after that we are heading back to Peru via Bolivia..... wish our van lots of luck please!!

Pantanal

May 2003

2003-05-02T01:04:00.000+01:00

May 06, 2003 - 11:42 a.m.

Had a SWEET day yesterday - we climbed to the top of Volcan Villarrica (about 3000 m high). We had to fit crampons on our hiking books and carry an ice pick in case we fell (and to slow us down while we were sliding our way back down). The top was amazing - a huge crater and you could hear the lava in the volcano. It was smoking so you had to wear a gas mask - you could feel the acid gas in the air, on your eyes and in your lungs. And them came the fun part of sliding back on your ass the entire way you just climbed up - we got some pretty good air off a couple of bumps.

Volcan Villarrica

We are still in Pucon but we plan to move on and head south in a couple days. Today we are heading to the local playspot to surf the wave. Till next time...

May 15, 2003 - 6:38 p.m.

Hey all.....

So we are back on the road and living outta the van once again, but still loving every bit of it though. Last week we said goodbye to our new found kayak friends in Pucon and drove south to the Rio Petrohue.... another great Chilean river created by the movement of lava during volcanic activity nearby. This one we did with a good ol’ jog and run shuttle at the beginning which got my wet clothes on the dry side.....and then back to wet again. Yes, slowly but surely the traffic has dwindled to us just seeing the odd vehicle rarely enough. Also, the more south we are heading the more the ¨who are you¨ stares seem to be returning.

After reaching Puerto Montt a decision came (over heaps of seafood) whether or not to pay the big bucks and bear rough seas and take a boat over to the Futa valley.... OR we could head over to Argentina and continue on the pavement a while longer. We have chosen the Argentinian route to keep our van happier and after three days of roaming the hospitable Chilean Island of Chiloe (in which Michelle concluded ¨these guys have terrible tastes in colors... kinda like the newfies¨), we have crossed the Andes and are in the land of Italian resemblances and cheap CHEAP gourmet food.... Bariloche Argentina (aka MMMM fat kids paradise.) Hopefully tonight we’ll be eating steak dinners for a buck...... be sure to investigate the history of this country for the reason of this cheapness cause it sure doesn’t make any sense to me!

May 17, 2003 - 12:24 p.m.

How life sometimes can be shit.... last night after such a sweet day of communicating with some of our families and telling everybody how great our travels have been so far, we (I guess should say FINALLY) experienced the BOOOOO side of traveling by having our van broken into and some very important things ganked ......

Just when you think you are in a place which feels safe like home you get worked over on the main street with people everywhere. So today we regroup and think of wot do..... People have been so helpful so far but you just want your stuff back! We’ll keep y’all posted.....

Stuff B’gone:

2 sleeping bags

CD player

Cd’s

2 cameras

ALL our documents/passports

about 50 bizzucks

and

MY Gawdamn CHACOS!!!!!!!!

Michelle: Plus - my travel diary of the entire trip and about 30 sweet ass pictures. For me those two things can NEVER be replaced. BOOO!

May 20, 2003 - 1:22 p.m.

So not much has changed since the last entry. We are still in San Carlos de Bariloche and we are still hoping that some of our stuff will turn up. Actually some of it has. Mark found his Chaco’s, that he thought were stolen, locked away in a hiding spot in the car. So there was a small celebration at that find. Other than that we have been interviewed (in Spanish) on the radio about the robbery, it’s been announced on TV and radio, we put up signs and I have been to all the camera stores in the area. So far nothing. But I don’t think we will get anything back - all the unimportant stuff like maps, contact info, passports, my travel diary are sure to be in a garbage somewhere while the rest is being sold.

At the moment our van is being repaired (too much off roading) but it should hopefully be all fixed by tonight. We plan to stay in Bariloche for a couple days and then probably head for Buenos Aries. Our plans have completely changed. We cannot get out of Argentina without passports (and we were planning to go back into Chile when we headed south). It’s really cold at night and our sleeping bags are gone (the replacement one we are going to get is not going to keep us warn in -10C). So we decided that we are going to come back here in December and check out southern Chile and Patagonia then (besides we are certain to find people to paddle the Futaleufu with while now there is no one there). So we are going north to warmer temperatures (I must admit I am looking forward to the beach).

May 26, 2003 - 1:14 p.m.

Just a quick note to say that we are in Buenos Aries getting new passports made. We should be done tomorrow so we will be spending less time here than we thought. It's a HUGE city (12 million, I think). We got a sense of it driving around last night trying to find a place to stay that is cheap and has parking (not that easy). On top of all that Norman decided to blow a hole in the power steering hose so we dropped a lot of fluid on the parking lot ground (not to worry, a relatively easy repair). We are going to get on our way as soon as we can - across Uruguay and into Brazil.

May 27, 2003 - 5:10 p.m.

So this morning Mark and I went to the Canadian Embassy to pick up our new passports only to give them away to the Brazilian embassy so we can get a visa. Essentially what that means is that we are able to leave Buenos Aries tomorrow and continue on with our adventures.

Next stop Uruguay...

April 2003

2003-04-02T01:51:00.000+01:00

April 01, 2003 - 7:05 p.m.

Well, we have been in Bolivia for less than a week and already we have had some doors close in our faces. What the "·ª@!! that means, is that the roads here SUCK! ¨Gawd man why didn’t we fork out for the 4X4....¨ I am now writing this in a town where EVERY vehicle is a Toyota Landcruiser..... but let’s just say that we MADE it. OUR Journey began on the shores of Lake Titicaca. After a night representing the Peruvian Kayak team and getting some Bolivian hospitality at a fancy beachside resort, we put the van into gear for a nice 100km jaunt to Sorata, looming in a lush valley. Well 95.5 km, twitching retinas, a mudstuffed undercarriage and a girlfriend constantly bouncing on the rear axle-later we said.... Arrrgh!!! once again we turned back with the rains looming. As I write this a whole town nearby was swept away from the mud. We regrouped and made a break for the South and the Salar de Uyuni..... Ahhh the love of pavement..... wait a second what is this? It’s turning to dirt again!! And we still have 200km to go!!! Wa !! Omygosh is that SAND!!! Why doesn’t this river have a bridge?!?! Wot do you MEAN we are only halfway after 5 hours of driving this nightmare...... should we turn back? Yes!!! ....wait... no we can do it... the tires are still attached... the dust is only 1cm deep inside the cab!!!.... Yes we can do this......

April 05, 2003 - 2:37 p.m.

Just finished a four day tour of south eastern Bolivia. We decided that we would not put Norman through another 4x4 road and took a tour through the Salar de Uyuni and the surrounding area. We had a fabulous time (we went in a group of 3 other Canadians, an Israeli and a Swiss) and saw some amazing sights. The Salar was a big expanse of white, and when it was wet it reflected the sky. After that we proceeded to the mountains in the Southeast. It felt as if we were in another world. There were hot springs we bathed in, checked out flamingos in lagunas af various colours (red, green, brown), and walked around geysers of boiling mud and H2S.

Tomorrow (or maybe the day after) we are hoping to make it 200 km to Chile. We checked out the road and it should not be too bad but keep your fingers crossed for us (anything can happen here).

Salar de Uyuni

Laguna close to the Salar

April 09, 2003 - 5:41 p.m.

We made it to Chile!!! What a relief - Bolivia is a fantastic and beautiful place but both of us are very happy to be in Chile. First of all it has paved roads (!!!) and then the people do not feel it is there right to check out what is inside our van (even though it is very hard to see in with the polarized windows but there were many hand and face prints left on them).

Right now we are in La Serana, a very nice beach town. We plan on fixing up the van a bit (minor repairs) and relaxing for a day or two before we make our way south to escape the continuous coastal desert (which has been present since Lima without too much variation). Hopefully we'll be paddling in a week.

But until that time we plan to take our fill of the cheap (but very good) red wine (Santa Rita is between 3-4 Can$ a bottle).

April 13, 2003 - 10:47 a.m.

So after a couple relaxing days in La Serena we hooked up with a couple friends (Matt and Rod). While we were parked outside their hostal somebody decided they would break into our van. Luckily Mark walked out while he was searching through our stuff and scared the shit out of him before he had a chance to take anything.

All of us then proceeded to make our way to Santiago where we caught Sasha playing at this convention center Friday night. It was an amazing show (one of the best we've seen) - the music was awesome. Though the whole atmosphere was a little different then we expected but all good. So yesterday we spent recovering and relaxing and today after a look around Santiago we are off to the Valle del Maipo to check out the kayak scene.

April 19, 2003 - 10:10 p.m.

Ahhhh spring.... streets are dirty and the Oilers back to golf...... In Chile however, the nights are chilly and we are back to wearing pants on a daily basis....We have also pleasantly settled into the standards of Chilean living.... eating dinner at 10pm and getting the day under way at noon! This has partly been enforced by our new friends Alexis and crew who own the rafting company on the Rio Maipo, an EXTREMELY freezing yet beautiful river that has 4 different sections to keep your spirits up.....Otherwise head inland 40km and you’ll find yourself very close to Argentina and the beginning of two more steep creeks. Other things we are also loving a lot is the cheap steaks and the even cheaper vino!!! Tomorrow we’re going to do some hiking before we get back under way and on down South. Our van has mended from the ails of Bolivian roads thanks to some crafty work by mechanics in Santiago too.....

Mark on Rio Yeso

April 29, 2003 - 5:11 p.m.

It’s been a long time since we updated so I’ll try and give a quick run over of what we have done in the time we left San Jose de Maipo. We decided to do some hiking a little further east at Banos Morales (sweet glacier with beautiful view) and then we spent the night at the nearby hot springs, Termas de Colina (have about six natural pools with mountains and a creek right beside).

Banos Morales

Then last Tuesday we headed out of the Maipo valley and started heading south. Our first stop was Reserva Nacional de Seiete Tazas, where I got my first taste of waterfalls. They were fairly high (all 3 of them into beautiful pools), about 4 to 5 m so they scared me good but I came out with no permanent damage. The river was super clear in a gorgeous canyon. I am definitely enjoying the scenery here. We are finally out of the desert and seeing lots of trees and grass (and even a form of Devil’s Club).

After Siete Tazas Mark and I checked out Reserva Nacional Leguna de Laja. That was an amazing park because a volcano dammed a river and created a huge lake. The river continues under the lava and then all of a sudden burst out of the rock into a waterfall - super cool. Unfortunately Mark could not run the river as it was Class V and it was just the two of us (there was no way I was going down).

Siete Tasas

From there we made our way to Parque Nacional Conguillo, which has one of the most active volcanoes in South America in it, Vocan Lliama. It felt as if we entered another world. This park was amazing, on one side it was all lava flow and the other was lakes, trees and hills.

Now we are in Pucon. This town is very touristy (especially in Jan/Feb) but now is the low season so it’s fairly quiet. But it’s still beautiful and there are still lots of rivers to paddle. We met up with a local paddler Rodrigo, who is showing us the rivers before he heads off to the worlds. Haven’t done too many rivers yet but the next couple weeks should be packed full. Yesterday Mark and Rodrigo ran Rio Palguin and today Mark and I did the Liucura. A bonus is that Rodrigo has a couple of spare play boats (a Spin and a Ultrafuge) so we have spent a couple days at the local park and play spot.

March 2003

2003-03-01T16:36:00.000Z

March 01, 2003 - 9:00 p.m.

Things are looking up. The baggage that was sent to Quito (aka kayaks) showed up today in the Lima airport. So now Mark and I have sun screen to cover our already burned faces (it is sunny everyday and very warm and nicely humid).

Today we went to check out if there were any vans that would be within our price range - luckily yesterday we met a very nice Peruvian and he helped us today with the translating. We have a couple of leads and now we have to determine what documentation we need.

Lima is generally a very nice city - after hearing all the horror stories I was pleasantly surprised. Sure there are the slums but they are avoidable and the tourist parts are very clean and nice.

Lunch Stop - Lima Beach

March 05, 2003 - 11:38 a.m.

Yesterday Mark and I bought a van, a diesel 97 Nissan Vanette - looks like it is going to be a sweet car. We dumped the guy who was showing us around and trying to help us find one for a fee (we did not quite trust him) but things seem to go better when you do it alone. The seller seems really honest and helped us go to the Notaria to complete the legal documents. Our only boooo is we must remain in Lima and wait for the next week to get the title transferred (3days) and then the license plate (2 more days after that) by next Monday we should be rollin!!!

Anyways the seller seems nice and today he is helping Mark us do an oil change, brake check, indicator light on dash fix, window tint, and maybe even find a mattress for the back (as I was feeling a bit shitty this morning and opted out - but I am feeling much better now). Our new hotel seems to be making him laugh a bit.

Seems like everything is going well and soon we will be writing from the road!!!

March 09, 2003 - 7:02 p.m.

Hey all...

Michelle and I are still in the depths of Lima. We moved from our Hostal Espana (bed bugs) to a super plush 4 star hotel in the middle of town for the same price of a bout 9 bucks a night.... sweet. Mostly we have been spending time with the Family of Cesar, the person who sold us the van. In fact one could say we’re good friends now.... he has been a huge help and it has been interesting merging into the life of a Peruano..... still the road beckons!! Should be outta here by Tuesday....

Cesar's Family at the Market

March 12, 2003 - 10:20 a.m.

Still in Lima unfortunately. There was a little trouble with our paper work and thus we don’t get our registration until Thursday at the earliest. It’s all due to people at this lawyer’s office not knowing what they are doing - I guess lawyers and their processes are the same everywhere.

Other than that our van is all ready to go. It has a sweet bed in the back and a rack on the roof for the boats. All we need is a license plate.

So we are going to do the tourist thing here in Lima for a few more days. Good thing it’s hot and we can work on our tans.

March 13, 2003 - 10:00 a.m.

SO what do you do when you’re stuck in Lima... Well at least it builds up your tolerance to things that I think we’ll be subjected to often down here in South America. The long gringo stares, the sketchy street food, hours of waiting to get the easiest thing asked for done and so forth. I think I have adjusted... I am not afraid to stare back and when you really lose it, it’s nice to know you can fly off the handle and say the dirtiest words in English and still get blank dumbfaced stares.... So here’s some facts just in case you actually did think Peru was just like home.... not. The average person down here works 6 days a week and just receives 410.00 soles = 120.00$ US a month.... so you can understand why nobody REALLY works at all. Yesterday I saw an ad on T.V. which rewards a person 500.00$ for the capturing of hooliganism on video tape..... if a person is caught and convicted, you are sent to prison (at any age) for 4 - 6 years... wow!! Just for some good ol Whyte Ave. fun back home. Anyways yesterday I caved and decided pollution or not, I would go surf my kayak down on the beach.... found a place that had no local surfers and then hit some big bounces.... kayaking at least, but I would recommend getting south or north of here anyday.....

Hanging out at the Beach

March 14, 2003 - 8:53 p.m.

So tomorrow morning at about 6 am Mark and I should be on our way out of the city and onto Lunahuana, which we should reach later that morning (4 hour drive). The papers have all been sorted out and just this afternoon we picked up our license plates. Lunahuana is supposed to have some good kayaking and it is supposed to be a very pretty town. We are just happy to be on the road after being in a big city for two weeks. On to the adventures...

March 20, 2003 - 11:53 p.m.

We've been here three weeks and have seen nothing but sun everyday... not a drop of rain.

Since I last updated Mark and I were about to leave Lima. We left early Saturday morning and got to Lunahuana in a few hours without any difficulties. Lunahuana is a very laid back town with wineries, Pisco (a Peruvian drink) and whitewater rafting. So Mark and I spent three days kayaking the river Canete, which is a very continuous class II+ to IV river (depending on what section you do). It was a blast and a great river to start out on (especially 'cuz my skills were rusty). It was high and so there were not many eddies and lots of big bouncy waves. We met lots of river guides and kayakers and got the scoop on where and when to paddle in Peru (plus a few contacts if Mark or I want to safety kayak for river rafts).

From our relaxing days at Lunahuana we moved on to the National reserve of Paracas, on the coast south of Lima. It was a really crazy place. Total desert right next to the ocean. Half of what we were driving on was pure salt that was deposited there from the moist ocean air. It was very sterile but the cliffs were full of cormorants, boobies, pelicans, condors, and all sorts of other birds. We saw seals and dolphins. A truly amazing place. Not what either of us expected a coastal park to be like though.

At the moment we are in Ica - catching up with emails, cleaning the salt from Norman (our van), and just doing various things before we get out on the road again. So far the van has been great - we sleep in it every night. Next we are going to head to Nazca and then probably to Arequipa.

Our van Norman in Lunahuana

Paracas

March 22, 2003 - 12:55 p.m.

Well, after a long haul down the Panamericana and a spectacular coastline, we have pulled up to a pleasant altitude in Arequipa, Peru’s second largest city (which is about the same size as Edmonton). The city is less hectic than Lima for sure, which means I should be able to drive the van without worry. Arequipa also has the Rio Chili and 2 of the most experienced Peruvian Boaters (brothers) so Michelle and I should be back on the water tomorrow... looks like we’ll be here before we head to the Colca Canyon.

March 28, 2003 - 7:49 a.m.

Today looks to be the last day for us in Peru for a while, we’re on Lake Titicaca and are heading to the Bolivian side of the lake this afternoon and sittin pretty at 3800m (that’s about 12,500 ft) Anyways getting here was pretty epic with some valuable lessons learned concerning diesel engines. As we left Arequipa and climbed up to the Colca valley we finally experienced the definition of a gutless stinky diesel engine. Topping out at 50 km/h we climbed the Pasa de Pompa at 15,500 ft (4800 m) and we set our new records in highest altitudes obtained for the both of us. The Colca Valley is an amazing place, with 20,000 ft (6000 m) peaks looming around, the Rio Colca drops into one of the craziest gorges I have ever seen... of course now that it is still the rainy season the river is just horrific looking too...... I’ll be back in August or so to paddle this one at safer levels. So after some bumpy roads, Alpaca steaks, Andean Condor sightings and one flat tire, what do some wintry Canucks decide to do? Why return to an altitude of 15,500 ft to spend the night of course! Ah yes... by far the stooopidist idea so far. Shivering away in our sleeping bags, huddled inside our combi van with pounding headaches, the last thing on our minds was the effects of this climate on our VAN! Ah but as the sun crept up to reveal stunning views, our crudest lesson was about to reveal itself.... DO NOT FREEZE THE OIL IN A DIESEL ENGINE!!! So here we are at the highest altitude of our lives drinking coca tea with a van that won’t start and one truck going by every 2 hours or so...... yup. Well writing you means that we pulled through as we will in all of our South American adventures.... next stop Bolivia and some similar altitudes.... anyone know where I can find a block heater?

Ferry ride across Lake Titicaca

February 2003

2003-02-01T16:21:00.000Z

February 10, 2003 - 2:51 p.m.

So Mark and I are slowly putting things together for our trip. We are planning to spend 6 months to a year touring South America.

The plan is to leave Canada on Feb 26th and fly down to Lima (thanks to Mark's mom for the buddy passes). There we will hopefully buy some type of van that we can sleep in the back of and pile the kayaks on the roof. From there we plan to make our way through South America kayaking, hiking and having lots of adventures.

We are going to update this page as much as possible - we thought that this would be a better idea than having a group email (that no one wants to read anyway).

February 24, 2003 - 3:57 p.m.

So we have packed up our apartment and put everything into storage.

Our bags are pretty much packed. We are leaving on Wednesday morning from Calgary and getting into Lima late that night. It doesn't feel real yet but I am looking forward to the warm humid weather.

February 25, 2003 - 4:36 p.m.

Hey all....

Well we have spent the last few days packing up our apartment, selecting our trip necessities and getting fattened up by the families. Sweet! It's almost time to go and we're looking forward to a big upcoming adventure.... next stop Lima, Peru!

Things we're bringing:

2 kayaks, 3 paddles & other paddling gear, 1 tent, 2 sleeping bags/mats, stove/pots, water filter, 1 frisbee, many clothes and some short lasting books...... among other small things.

February 28, 2003 - 12:19 p.m.

Hey all who cares..... we made it to Lima only a day late which is surprisingly better considering the mess we seemed to be in for a while in Houston.

It all started out with some meanies telling us we couldn’t take our kayaks on the plane cuz they were oversize... which is prohibited.... so we sank the Lima plans and decided to head to Quito... me knowing that at least our precious cargo would be allowed to go.... Well of course when attempting to get lucky on the standby list.... we got denied, ended up sleeping in the Houston airport only to find out our checked baggage¨... aka kayaks actually DID go to Quito.....

SO here we are in Lima.... barely seen anything yet and the order of the day before looking for vans will be to get our baggage down from Quito for a lovely reunion.... I wish I could share and compare travel stories with your luggage, especially when it goes to a far off place without you.

Mark in Lima