Mas o Menus

Well in the last month a lot has happened. I have been able to break away in my free time and do a little kayaking, which has been fabulous. I really am not sure what experience to recall over another but they certainly have all been good. Something interesting to note is, about two days ago I got see my first dead person up close and personal. I was riding in a taxi and saw a guy laying aon the sidewalk with a couple people gathered around, I was able to see his eyes very well, and this made it clear that he had moved on. I asked the taxi driver to confirm, ¨Que Piensas de persona, el es muerte¨. The taxt driver calmly replied inbetween conversation with his friend who was riding in the back, ¨si¨. I guess that´s that but it was pretty crazy. The last week I had 8 days of vacation which was fantastic but once I cam back to Cuzco I realized how much I really like it here.
My vacation of course entailed of kayaking. There are some folks I know from Colorado that are down here right now doing a month and a half boating trip so I have been able to hang out with them and paddle with them. It has been very good because they have traveled extensively in SOuth America before so they a few of the local bad-ass peruvian kayakers. The kayaking was awesome, I got to do the rio cotahuasi, which just happens to be the deepest canyon in the world. Getting this done was no small task, the white water was certainly not extremely hard, but what is hard about the rivers in Peru are the ridiculous logistics and the fact that you are totally isolated if anything was to happen.
The trip ran something like this.
Step 1=Take a 12 hour over-night bus ride to Arequipa and meet my friends at a very kayaker friendly hostel.
Step 2= Do all the logistics, get the food, the beta, the shuttle, etc. worked out
Step 3=Get to the river
Step 4=Do the river with fun and safety
Step 5=Come back to Arequipa decompress for 24 hours
step 6=go back to cusco
All went without a hitch. Getting to the river from Arequipa is quite the adventure in itself. 1st we took a 12 hour bus to the town of cotahuasi where we then waited a couple hours till morning and got the local town bus to take us 30 minutes to the river. Once at the river we met our burros and put all our kayaks and gear on them so that we didn´t have to carry 80 lbs. of shit for a five hour walk. It is neccessary to do this walk because you must portage around what they said to be a 100 meter waterfall. It was a beutiful hot walk. One of the greatest parts about this trip is we had a local bad-ass peruvian kayaker with us, so he showed us all the cool sites in the canyon and also allowed to move swiftly down the river. The first day of whitewater was fantastic mostly class 3 and 4 with one rapid that we scouted. That night we camped above a stomping little half mile long class 4 gorge. There was incan terraces constructed all along side of this canyon so we were able to easily walk and check everything out. That night while I awoke and vomited up my meal which would be the begginning of the worse case of dirreaha I have ever experienced. Luckily I was able to have some energy for the next day because this was the day with all the good whitewater. Me and my friend chris peeled out of camp befoe everone else and blasted the canyon real fast got to the bottom walked back up and shot video and made pictures of our buddies coming down the canyon. That day we paddled alot of good whitewater, man it was fun. A couple real nice long rapids with moves to make along the way and then some little puchy rapis with stompy holes. All in all it was beautiful kayaking with ridiculous scenery. Peru is extreme in every way, the landscape is as rough as anything around and being able to be in the heart of some serious history as far as the development of this canyon goes was pretty sweet. That night we finished all the white water came out of the canyon and paddled a couple miles of boogie to get to a nice sandy beach. We camped gorged out and relaxed, happy with what we had done. Right when I was about to fall asleep my buddy milo suddenly appears abut 10 feet from my sleeping bag and starts vomiting, this was probably a sign of what was to come for me except I would be using the other big hole of my body. The next morning I awoke feeling a little poopy and began my shitting spree, painting the earth everywhere I went. I was able to easily make the last hour paddle out where we stopped and waited for our shuttle. After about 2 hours our ride came with cold beers, coke, and sprite. The drive back to Araquipa was 8 hours, 4-5 on the worst road ever where our speed never peeked 20 miles an hour and then 3 hours on a good highway. This was the worst ride of my life. ¨If we don´t stop soon I am gonna shit all over this car¨. It worked out ok in the end it just required a little pacience from my friends while I sat on the side of the road blowing my brains out. A day of rest did me well, it wasn´t long before I was eating again. I came back to Cusco and managed not to shit all over that return bus with the help of a diarrea pill. Well that basically does some justice to how fantastic the trip was, it was awesome.
Now I am here for only about a month more my plans are coming togethor for the months after december, because I will be staying down here until March and kayaking. Various different friends from the states are gonna come down and meet me as well so its looking to be pretty good. I don´t know about the money side of it but I will figure out, maybe I will sale cocaine (just kidding KSC). Well I guess I am satisfied for now. Everyone have fun, keep on keeping on, and ety some pecan pie for me.
chou

wet sponge

Well I haven´t written anything in almost a month, but I have done, experienced and seen the most in this last month. Needless to say I have been having a good time. I will make some big entres soon, but for now I only wanted to leave a couple thoughts. I will also put some photos up soon.
To be able to be here is the best.
To have this experience and to remember this experience.
I said this is what I wanted, I got it, perfect.

But for me what counts most is to allow this experience to have me I am in the grasps of something else here, allowing myself not to judge what I do in the moment but solely reflect on it later, that is to say I am reevaluating my morals and ideas and seeing what I see with clear eyes and nothing else.

Today I laughed more than I have in awhile with total strangers, it felt great, it was honest, it was the best type of communication. Settled with what I have and seeing more.