From the Amazon to Bogota

Well it has been an interesting past week or so..... hmmm what has happened since my last post?

Um went into the Amazon Jungle, which was way cool got to spend a night in a local village and then the second night actually in the middle of the Jungle in a hammock. The sounds of the jungle are magic, literally music, much better than that ‘new age’ sounds of nature crap all the yuppies listen to in their 14th floor apartments..... But the jungle itself spoke to me and it said this: “F”#$ Off!!!” so i was glad to leave. The place is lovely, magic and I am so glad that I have seen it in the flesh but Lucas Klausen does not belong in a tropical rainforest, give me the temperate forests of Oz anyday!!!! Like 30 C plus humidity plus 1000 (literally!!!) mossies.... no thankyou God crafted me for other places. Did get to catch pirranas and put my finger in ones mouth.... they are crazy fish.... Also got to play with a sloth, mini tiger, boa, monkey.... really cool fun.. They have monkeys as pets here and people kept trying to sell me monkeys for like $AU20.... but what do you do with a monkey once you have one????

Got back into Iquitos and just bummed around a bit nothing too serious just a night out on town and also played a poker machine (just for you Crouch!!!) and it was queen of the Nile and I turned 10 Soles into 20 soles which was cool fun..... From Iquitos it was back on a boat and heading onto the real Amazon and down to the tri boarder area (Colombia, Peru and Brazil). This boat was so dodgy, half the price of the first one and really I have never been in a worse toilet (actually there was one in Nepal which was worse....) and the place was packed with locals and the noise of the engine..... Well as I say if it ain’t hard it can’t possibly be real fun! We hit Iquitos last Friday (27/5) and played the game of how do you get out of a town which has no rivers north nor any roads in that direction... after asking soldiers and cargo workers we managed to get onto a jet carrying frozen fish to Bogota and by nightfall we were in the Capital of Colombia!!!!

Once in Bogota all went crazy... Nick lost his passport.....we got ripped of by a taxi driver.....once finally into the hostel we planned to get to (a day late thanks to the that bloody taxi driver...sending us to a mates hostel cause he wouldnt drive us to where we wanted to go) Nick and i proceeded to get drunk for his B’day (well actually on Sat we went to a lovely art gallery, which was great and now I am mad keen to see all Europe has to offer in the art department...nothing like walking around in nice clothes with your hands behind your back with an intelligent knowing/understanding the deeper meaning of art look on your face!!!) and well besides not remembering anything of the night I beat the crap out of Nick outside our hostel....about God knows what.... All I know is that Nick was screaming at me and kicking doors and the only way I figured to shut him up was hit him in the head... great mate i am hey.... well we managed to avoid getting arrested even though Nick was in handcuffs at one stage..... And I appoligised to Nick and all is sorted.... check his web site for his version of events.....

And now we are in Bogota trying to get Nick’s passport sorted, I have been trying to send my surfboard home, but will cost a billion dollars as they only ship via air from these parts.... and also we’re getting frisked by the army as they hold their machine guns and there are roit police everywhere plus a million homeless crazy people crapping in the streets and screaming out all kinds of stuff.... So we say bugger this crazy town and we are off to the North Coast of Colombia tomorrow...Cartagena.... meant to be lovely and from there we plan to go straight to Cuba.... well that’s the plan for now and Mr. Tabla de Surf stays with me to London.... another great purchase of Mr Klausen... ;-)

But on a more important note we are both heathly...well Nick has a few cuts and bruises about the face, but we are safe (from others anyways;-) and are happy and are mad keen to see Cuba hopefully we will be there in a week, fingers crossed....

Also please do write comments of whatever kind on this site as I havent been getting any and feel like no one loves me :-( booo whooo.....

Music from South America

Just added some songs to the web site.... The top five section on the right hand side of the web page has direct links to song files in mp3 format, just right click and select save as... also www.lucas.intercate.net/music has all music files saved on the site, you can down load and listen through your favourite media player. Just thought I would give you a taste of the music we listen to over here and with my IRiver being on it's way to Australia for repair this really is all the music I have to listen to ;-)

FYI

Advice from www.smarttraveller.gov.au.......
We advise against non-essential travel to these countries:
Algeria
Angola
Central African Republic
Colombia
Haiti
Indonesia, (including Bali)
Kyrgyzstan
Nepal
Pakistan
Saudi Arabia
Sudan
Yemen

Off to Columbia

We leave Iquitos this afternoon for Columbia, which means another few days on a boat sleeping on a hammock.... hmmmm tough life I know!!!!

Well there are heaps more photos in the gallery to have a look at so have a look see.... we as usual have been up to many different things!!!!

The next time I write I will be in Columbia as we aim to get into Bogota (capital of Columbia) by the weekend for Nick's 25th Birthday, so partying shall be had a plenty!

Oh and go the Blues!!!! As I believe the State of Origin is on this Wednesday and thanks to technology I will watch it on a reply on the net when I hit Bogota, so don't any of you tell me the score!!

Take care all and will post with more details soon.....

Cusco to Lima and beyond....

Haven't written a decent post in a while so here goes it....

After partying a little too hard in Cusco (mmm the sweat white.....meat?) we finally escaped the lure of nights with cheap drinks and women and made our way to Lima (basically cusco besides the Inca trail thing is a place where heaps of gringo touristas party til 6am or till they die!!!!); Getting to Lima involved a bus trip that unlike I originally thought, which was straight to Lima, actually took us halfway to the bottom of the country... I worked the actual route of the bus when I hung a leak at 5am, looked around and said "Fugger" I am in Nasca, the place I was too tight to go too.... and now here I am (¿Soy muy estupido, no?). The 20hr was so cold (like 5C) and I didn't really dress to the occasion so I froze and hence couldnt sleep and then at three in the morning I saw how the bus drivers here REALLY drive.... argh argh argh.... nuts, I mean N-U-T-S, like 120km/h round corners whilst overtaking a truck....mmmmm... nice one.... anyone want a life insurance policy on me ... (just jokes mum, smile please....). The hammock from my guitar case was my only blanket, so I sat there scared, cold and waiting for sun rise.....

Into Lima and straight down to Barranco, a lovely suburb in the south of the city, real fancy and all, think it's where all the rich people and ughmmm drug dealers live... Stayed at a gringos only place where I remember why I hate gringos so much. All the people at this hostel did was drink and get home at 7am in the morning and be all noisy and agressive (Aussies and Poms, need I say more??). Mind you I did join them on one night or two..... Can't call me Lucas if I am not a hypocrite from time to time ;-) I did however get to catch up with Mia and Emma (our Swedish friends from the Salt Flats), which was great as I got to spend a Sunday afternoon at the movies with Mia (saw Kingdom of Heaven - **** - Orlando Bloom), which meant the company of a lovely lady plus popcorn and coke yah!!!!!

Lima also involved going to massive markets, chilling out in a local pub (so much like Kembla Pub I had to have a few extra beers and smokes to celebrate ;-), and buying s SURFBOARD (tabla de surf), like I don't have enough to carry anyways... but like everything on this trip it's a new test as if it was easy it wouldnt be fun.,... right...RIGHt??? Oh and yeah we got our replacement credit cards and BOOM we were gone.... off to the beach... mancora in the far north of Peru and yes another long bus trip (17hrs).....

Now I have never been to a town that has no weekend, and I don't mean this in the old Japanese , "what you have days off work" mentality thing, rather quite the opposite, these people have no week days.... they just surf, build a few buildings from time to time, sell drugs and smoke drugs and drink.....yeah, that's about it.... that's why people get trapped there.... but not me...no....a week of that life was enough for me (for now that is ;-). We did get to hang with our Aussie and Polish friends George and Aska... and thanks to them (you know you love it girls!!!) we partied way too much and slept away oto much of the mornings.... luck the day i did sleep in the surf went off and had four surfs.... nice one!!!! Also managed to smash my knee on the coral reef and hence get my first 'real' surfing injury (I don't think slamming your thum in the volvo car door when strapping the boards to the roof at the beach counts.....). And then off once again and another long bus trip... 26hrs this one and into the Amazon we go.

We rock up to this town, Tarapoto, which we were told you could catch a boat from to Iquitos, but guess what there is no big river there, rather the correct town, Yurimaguas is 5hrs drive away, so we share a car with another local and our two guitars (as we later found out that we paid the price of a person for the travel.... bastardos!). And then it's down to the river and onto the Eduardo, our home for the next three days..... The boat was just chilling time, reading and watching old American Vietnam movies with Chuck Norris and Van Dam..... (mostly dubbed into Spanish...) and I managed to get an ear infection, which would be the 10 millionth for me life!! Thanks mum for teaching me the ear bud thing.... I think I will quit from now, much worse than smoking I reckon and way more addictive.....

Now am in Iquitos and will be heading to the Jungle tomorrow morning for three days.... And the most important question I now have is should we go out tonight????

Take care all and will write again soon.

I am an Uncle!!!! Say hello to Bethany Morrison....

Lima

Big city...... really big!!!!

Still alive and still having fun....

Looking to buy a surfboard and other surfing supplies for the trip up north... cant wait!!!!!!

Mescaline

An alkaloid drug, C11H17NO3, obtained from mescal buttons, which produces hallucinations. Also called peyote.

And highly recommended by me and much more importantly it is legal!!!!

Quick run down is as follows:

9:30pm: Mix powdered cactus (San Pedro) with water (MIX IT WELL!!!)
9:31pm: Start the painful process of drinking the thing....
9:45pm: Introduce pepsi to the mix as the taste is too bad
10:05pm: Finally it's finished!!!!!
10:30pm: Hmmmmm that feels odd......
11:00pm: Ohhh yeah that's cool!!!!
11:05pm: Start playing guitar and making up cool songs (well I thought they were cool...)
11:45pm: Head out (feeling great although stomach is still coming to terms with its contents...)
12:00am: Yeap this is the best....
12:00 - 3:00am: Chat, socialise, Dance and do a classic air guitar solo to the Gunners 'Sweet Child 'o Mine'....
3:30am: Home and guitar for another hour, really great songs now!!!
4:30am: Quite time, visions, dreams etc... really trippy....
7:20am: Wake up (was I actually sleeping???)
7:30am: Showered and on the streets to observe the locals...
8:30am: Done some internet and time (finally!!!) for bed...

Great stuff.... Really worthwhile experience.... but hard work too.... that drink was really bad!!! Anyone see John Saphran???

Half Way.....

Well here I am at the half way point of my time in South America and at first thought I feel like saying “Gee that went fast….”, but then I think back and realise that it has not gone fast at all.... I feel like I have been here forever.... Thinking back over all the things I have experienced since I left Australia I can hardly believe I could fit them all into a three month period, truely amazing I think.

As I hit this mid point of my journey I feel I need to reclarify what I want from this and where I want to go from. Kinda reminds me of back at home when I would write this list (a very optimistic hopeful one I must say) of all the things I want to achieve over the coming months/years etc... Ha! I really am an odd person I have to say. Things on those lists would be like: Stop smoking. Get fit. Be a nicer person. Save money etc etc. Why do I feel like I need to write down on a list of what I am eventually going to fail to achieve? Hmmm guess I just like to make myself feel guilty hey. Okay well I am atleast wise enough now to write myself a much more simple list at the top of which is a strong desire to learn as much spanish as possible before I leave this world.....

But besides writing lists I also need to think about my life as a whole and where it may or may not be headed. And the funny thing is that I really don’t know and I guess I don’t need to know. All I know is that I am doing exactly what I need to be doing and that I should keep doing it. I have no idea what career I want or where I want to be in a year or five....

It’s funny you know. I walk down the streets here and have all these thoughts and emotions that I want to express, write down or something and everytime I come to write in this journal I come to a blank. I am not sure if it is my subconcious telling me that by writing it down the experiencies are somewhat cheapened or maybe I just can’t put into words what I am feeling.... Well I am happy I can say that. Happy to be here and happy to me myself here. I think that’s what happens when you’re no longer around your family and peers, you really find out who you really are without the influence of others. I have learnt alot about who I am: I am an adult (hard to believe) but totally and utterly a man, I know it sounds wanky but it is true so many things I have had to react to and the way I did react have taught me that. I have very strong will power when I let go and let my desire to achieve something take over (mainly linked to physical endurance, but also mental). I still don’t really know what I want to do but I know what I want. I don’t need to be with someone to know that I am loved, being single (properly) for the first time in 8 years has taught me this, although I sometimes miss the reasurance of a loved one I no longer need it and when I realised this I realised that I am totally free.... I could go on but this really is turning into a wankfest so I will stop here.

So what about may physical reality as opposed to what’s going on inside this insane mind of mine.......

Well just went to Maccupichu and I have to say it was amazing but in a way I did not anticipate... As I sat up there sunning myself on a massive granite rock listening to the various tour guides show the million tourists around I thought about what people are capable of... I was impressed with the efforts of the Incas but not for one second did I think them any more amazing than any other past civilisation. I think we like to place certain past civilations on pedistals and worship them for their amazing ability.... but I reckon we’re all the same and just cause they built this city on top of a hill doesn’t make them anymore important than civilisation that came and went 2000 years ago and left no traces..... We always want something to worship don’t we, like the Jews and their desire for a King, guess we’re never happy being as good as each other, someone always has to be the best and get all the chicks..... Hmmm what am I talking about????

Anyways, did the Inca Trek thing on a bike the first day and walked the following three days. The bike was cool fun 80km down hill.. except my front axle broke about 20km down and a stick had to come into play for the next 10km then good old liquid nails solved the problems for good.... except then my brakes died, but as I have learnt if it goes smoothly then it’s boring! We spent the night in a field with dogs and turkeys and I made the same mistake for a second time.... I barked back at dogs, something to take to heart is this: DON’T BARK AT DOGS IN SOUTH AMERICA!!!!!! They chase you and will attack....... The second day was a walk day finishing in hot springs with the locals... And the funniest thing was: A mum grabbed her child (who was pissing on the ground) and dragged him to the hot springs and made him piss in there... loved it! These were the springs we were swimming in..... so funny! Third day was a short walk and train trip to Aguas Callientes (just below Maccupichu), that night I had my first proper Spanish conversation... about politics, chicks and the economy... nice one. Can’t wait to get good at this language. The day four was the trip up to Maccupichu... now Nick and I not satisfied with simply walking up decided walk/run was the best option and reached the top in record time (25min), but if this wasn’t enough we wanted to be first to the top of Yuana Pichu as well so we basically ran up this thing (mountain at the back of the photo) in 20min, passing tourists on the way up.... but alas upon reaching the top there was one tourist up there.... ARGH!!!!! We had to settle for 2nd and 3rd place (note here that that tourist caught a bus to the top where as we walked all the way). After getting back down and having a nap in the sun we decided to race the bus down the hill... 10-15min down and the bus beat us by 10m.....

Anyways back here in Cusco and heading off to Lima tomorrow. Have decided to give the Nazca lines a miss, not sure why guess the $US35 flight plus buses means it will be a $US70 side trip and I want to use money to buy a surf board. We wait in Lima for our new credit cards and then to Mancora and to me an Eden of surf, sun and sand (and maybe a few otra cosas ;-)

Well that’s my babble for the moment. Have a million other things to write but hey somethings are much better said than written....

Oh and the coolest thing is the next time I post onto this I will be an Uncle.... hey does this mean I have to be responsible? Hmmm.... have to think abit more about that one....