travel

Raw Fish World Tour 2004

New and exciting raw fish dishes are available here in Peru. Ceviche. It's raw fish soaked in lemon juice, served with yam and onion. The lemon juice sort of cooks it, but it is still pretty raw. Tastes fabulous, but both brother Benjamin and I got sick. When we told a Peruvian we were ill, she said we should avoid eating the ceviche, since we can't handle the bacteria in it like the locals can. When I told her we had eaten it every night, she laughed. I laughed to, then ran for the nearest toilet. I was very happy when I could eat again, because the food is absolutely delicious here.

We are currently stuck in a town called Aguas Caliente, which is the tourist town at the bottom of Machu Pichu. The scenery and ruins around here are really amazing. The only way in is to hike the Inca trail, or by train. We got here on a one-way ticket for an extra train they seem to have added. They don't appear to add extra trains going back. With the additional 500 people a day arriving from the Inca trail, there are loads of tourists stuck here. Stuck in the most expensive place I've been in Peru yet, which is still pretty reasonable. This place gives a whole new meaning to the word tourist trap. Oh yeah, and the trains are most likely going on strike. In any case, there are worse places to be trapped.

Maui

Maui has been pretty great. I don't really want to leave. Cathy and I were considering refusing to leave. We are going to get a farm in a little mountain town here called Haiku. So if you don't hear from me ever again, that's where you can find me.

Worker mends his back
Computer desk to plow shares
Hobby farm Haiku

Dave and I got lost hiking in the lava fields. Which is kind of like getting lost trying to make your way out of Hades. It's blisteringly hot, the rocks are razor sharp and the footing is very precarious. Dave slipped and got a gash that would have been deeper if the bone of his leg didn't stop it. There is a 20 min trail that takes you to this brilliant snorkling spot called The Fishbowl. I thought I was on the right trail, but wasn't. It was kind of novel hiking through the raw lava stone for maybe 10 min of the 4 hours we were lost in there... Most of the time was spent zig-zagging around after I would say "I can see the trail over there!" We eventually made it to the shore and had a bit of a swim there.
We met someone who said we were still way off, but there was an easy trail back to a road ( but in the opposite direction of our car ). Our original plan was to hike along the coast until we got to The Fishbowl trail. Nature gave us a hint that maybe that was a bad idea. There was this strong surge of the surf against the rocks, which rained lots of water down over a shelf of rock and into a tidal pool. It was fun sitting on the rocks and letting this surf try to knock us into the pool. It was a great opportunity for a photo, so I waited for a big surge to pour over Dave. Waited a long time, but it just wasn't happening, so I gave up. After getting his boots back on, and since the ocean seemed calm, Dave wanted a photo of these strange ocean creatures that were on the rock he was just sitting on... the one with the massive surge that drenched it periodically. So he took his camera over there, and got hit by the biggest wave we had seen yet. Drenched him in all his clothes and shorted out his camera ( it came back to life after drying out). I wish I got a picture of that! We figured that was a sign that we should end the adventure there and take the safe route back to the car. A good adventure.

Aloha from the immortals

I'm currently in Maui. I get up at 6 am every morning to go surfing. This is very unlike me, I usually struggle to get out of bed by noon. I do go to bed by 9 though... Waves are small but fun and they are across the road from the condo. The other surfers out there are cool and friendly.

I have officially become immortalized. Don't worry, I wont forget all you little people. Michael Ewert on the IMDB

There is this local dish called poke, that is raw fish marinated in seaweed and seawater, I think. They add wasabi and other spices to some of them. The real stuff tastes pretty much exactly like a scoop of thick seawater. To enjoy it, I have to unlearn the association I have between that taste and drowning.

I'll try to get a camera soon so I can post some photos.

Lag

I've made it back to Canada and am very jet lagged. Feels like everything including the air around me is made of silly putty. Resists motion, but is never solid. Drinking pitchers of spanish cocktails, the kind with jumbo floaters in them, all night; then getting on a trans-atlantic flight without any sleep is not something I will do again anytime soon.

On the flight over, the in-flight entertainment system for my seat was broken. So I had no sound for the movies. They were subtitled in Dutch, which is close enough to German for me to almost follow along, since I can speak German. Considering the quality of the flicks, this probably made them much more interesting to watch. Then they ran the same episode of Scooby Doo back-to-back for a couple of hours. If you fly KLM, don't rely on them to keep you entertained.

K L M no sound
Ben Stillers mouth moves, "Grootya"
W T F he say?

Travel

Welcome to my travel log. I'll be posting photos and blurbs of text containing; for the most part, stories of me missing trains, eating things I should have avoided, and a variety of wildly innacurate observations made during my travels. If that doesn't pique your interest, then I'll sprinkle a Haiku or two in for good measure.

I'm currently in Dublin, Ireland, where I've been living for the past few years. I've been working for Havok, programming physics simulation code for computer games. It's pretty cool stuff and I work with a cool bunch. But now it's time to do some traveling.

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