Friday, February 22, 2008

Blackberry service not working in Amazon...I think...

Test at 4:17pm on fri feb 22
Sent by Jeffrey via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

Thursday, February 21, 2008

Leaving the island of the monkeys...

Just a quick note as we leave island of the monkeys....we were attacked by monkeys (literally), eaten alive by 2 inch mosquitos, crossed the canopy on metal lines, traced the route of crocodiles in the swamps and so much more...this is jeffrey writing from Paula's blackberry as we take the boat back over the Amazon river to our tiny room back in the town...
Guys, we promise to upload video of the "lost city" and of today's trip with the monkeys....
There has been so much going on that it's nearly impossible to find time to edit video and get to an internet place...later
Sent by Paula via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Se encuentra muchos personajes en el camino

Hoy llegamos a Leticia, una pequena ciudad con 33.000 habitantes junto al rio Amazonas, es la parte de Colombia donde se encuentran tres ciudades de tres paises diferentes,
Leticia Colombia, Tabitanga Brasil y Santa Rosa Peru.

Hoy llegamos a recorer un poco la ciudad, despues del recorrido fuimos a un restaurante y nos encontramos con un senor ya mayor, el mesero, muy simpatico y nos empezo a contar la historia de su vida.

Lo q pudimos ver era q no le gustaba mucho Leticia para el era muy pueblo, en fin, ya despues de una hora de conversacion y aprovechando q no habia clientela nos dijo q el habia modelado. Modelado?? Pregunto Jeff y dijo q si en la carcel modelo de bogota. Una de las carceles de mayor seguridad en el pais.

Al senor lo habian cogido con 120 pepas de cocaina, cada pepa tiene un tamano de una pulgada y las estaba llevando para Espana eso fue hace como 8 a#os y creo q el senor tiene unos 68 ahora. Al final pago 4 a#os de su vida en la carcel.

En fin fue muy interesante como la gente le cuenta a uno sin conocerlo una historia como esta, paso a paso, como prepara su estomago, como es el momento en q lo cogen, como lo envian a la carcel X 4 a#os, como es la vida en las carceles donde lo q manda es el dinero.

Si tienes dinero en la carcel puedes tener droga, mujeres, armas, fiestas en fin todo esto no lo conto el senor.

De las partes mas interesante de nuestro paseo es conocer las vidas de las personas q habitan estas tierras, que no son personas ni buenas ni malas son personas q viven experiencias, que viven sus vidas de acuerdo a situaciones de caracter cultural, modificados por diferentes factores como la pobreza, la falta de educacion, la carencia de apoyo de un sistema o de un gobierno.

Sent by Paula via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

Did Fidel really turn over power?

We just heard some news that Castro left office...is it true?
We'll be in the Amazon jungle in about 4 hours. There is a hostel with an internet connection when we get to this jungle town...we'll upload pics and vids from there and try to do a live broadcast..,will also upload all the blogs that we wrote by hand back on the 6 day hike we took...talk soon
Sent by Jeffrey via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

Monday, February 18, 2008

Por fin encontramos la ciudad perdida

Ya estamos de nuevo en la jungla, pero de cemento. despues de 6 dias de viaje llenos de experiencias, aventuras, retos y un sin fin de situaciones q gracias a Dios salimos bien librados y sin un rasguno.

Salimos el primer dia con un grupo de 11 personas, con nosotros 13, parecia un club de solos y solas, porq a excepcion de nosotros y una pareja de hermanos, todos viajaban solos.

Nuestro grupo estaba compuesto por australianos, amaricanos, suisos, israelitas, irlandeses los unicos latinos, colombianos eramos nosotros.

Conocimos personas en el grupo muy interesantes, algunos estaban viajando por mas de 6 meses por suramerica, otra como una muchacha americana, se habia bajado en una moto grande desde Colorado hasta Panama en 16 dias, no pudo continuar porq en Panama no hay carretera para cruzar a Colombia por eso tomo un avion. En fin uno cree q lo que esta haciendo es interesante, pero mentiras hay personas q hacen cosas mucho mas cool q nosotros.

Las jornadas eran largas caminatas de 6, 7 y hasta 8 horas diarias en caminos de piedra, barro, cruzando rios, un dia cruzamos mas de 8 veces el rio, algunas veces era un poco peligroso.

Dormiamos en sitios espectaculares, todo muy indigena, los dos primeros dias en hamacas con toldillos, los otros 3 dias en especies de camas.

La ciudad perdida un lugar muy magico, tranquilo, lleno de mucha energia. Constituido por 270 terrazas, era donde los indigenas tenian sus casas. Ahora no vive nadie hay solo es para el turismo y los indigenas q quieran pasar unos dias para hacer plegarias a la madre naturaleza. Pero a su alrederores viven culturas como los Cogis, Aruacos y Arsarios.

Lo q mas me gusto del viaje fue TODO, los paisajes, los animales q encontramos, la cultura indigena su historia, los rios, las travesias, en definitiva TODO, este es un paseo q vale la pena hacer y lo repetiria muchas veces mas.
Sent by Paula via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

We are alive...

I think a blog was just posted from my cell phone as soon as I was back in a cell coverage area...
We had to jump on a bus immediately after getting back to town because we have to catch a flight to the amazon....will write more from the airport ...sorry for the lack of updates...we have been deep in a jungle until about 3 this monday afternoon when we reemerged...the trip to the Lost City in Colombia was unbelievable!
Sent by Jeffrey via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

We are out of the jungle a day late

Its monday feb 18 at 4:08pm and we are finally in cell coverage...we're alive....this was the most amazing experience in the lost city . The dirt road we are now deriving back on has more holes than the fu---in moon...
Will upload all the blogs we wrote in the. Past couple days from my laptop and not this blackberry.....
Here's a pic of the group:
Sent by Jeffrey via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

I could spend the rest of my days here..paradise

It is now 6:03 AM and we have made it through the night...the mosquito netting had a few holes and this morning we are feeling the many many meals these little insects really had. Although the snakes and jaguars never made it into the hut my imagination last night could not help but create a paranoia that forced me to sleep with an open knife and two bottles of mase...just in case...there would have been a bloody and blind jaguar running around the jungle today had they tried anything on us last night!!

The sun is now eating away at the dense fog that covered this entire mountain side last night. It is incredible how the rolling mountains overcome with huge trees and vegetation of all kinds is now visible...little by little and wherever the sun's beam penetrates, the jungle mountain is cleared of the fog to leave only a path of mountain side open for all to see in awe...

It is nearly impossible to put into words how sureal this time is...doing it justice with pictures and video is only a small portion since so much more is only felt with the sense of smell and the unedited version of nature's sounds along with the feeling of the damp morning fog running across these tremendous mountain sides... YOU all must come to see this relatively unspoiled place.

Most people have heard of Machu Picchu but the difference here lies in the simple fact that it is so unkown to the rest of the world and you can be here and have the place to yourself...seriously compare 2000-3000 daily visitors in Machu Picchu TO only 20 or 30 daily visitors at the Ciudad Perdida.

Paula and I have now done both...Ciudad Perdida is the ultimate experience..



Today we hike another 6 hours but is steeper than any of the past 5-6 days...the battery on this blackberry is dying so I think the next writing will occur on paper and I will transfer it to our blog once we get back to modern civilization...to be honest I prefer this type of civilization...maybe one day we buy a place up here and spend our days and night in utter paradise.

Sent by Jeffrey via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

Sunday, February 17, 2008

Hope the nightmares are not too bad...hmmm wonder why I'm paranoid ;-)_

I am sitting (trying to avoid all the 0.5 inch , biting red ants) at the ledge of the rocks that lines the border of the Pre-Columbian era style huts that littered the entire Sierra Nevada Mountain ranges just off the Southern Caribbean coasts. See after the 6.5 hour hike today to get here we arrived at a panorama that rivaled the "Ciudad Perdida" experience last night. All we can say is that you can be sleeping under mosquito covered beds that are speckeled across the wooden but modern style open terraces, as you overlook at an 800 year old civilization eventually over-powered by the self centered Spanish conquistadors in the 1500's.

So in order to truly appreciate this experience you all must first know that we hiked some glorious jungle mountain side for the past 5 days and after many slips, scraped hands and legs, countless mosquito bites, and unforgetable vistas, we are relaxing in an authentic indigineous straw hut...

Nightime here is scary because all we hear about are the snakes that venture out and occassionally make there way into the huts or the random jaguar that hasn't had enough to eat and hopes to find food in this human settlement (hopefully not from us but from the left over food!!)

Let the dreams begin...talk in the morning.





Sent by Jeffrey via BlackBerry from T-Mobile