Back in the US of A!

Well I made it back home and it feels great to see friends and family again. It was a bit of a marathon getting back, but I made it.

I am experiencing reverse culture shock having come from the third world where I have been for so long to California in the middle of the Christmas shopping frenzy. It is such a dramatically different set of circumstances that the average person lives in here, and I hope everyone appreicates how amazingly good they have it! Plus, its cold! Holy smokes, I went from incredible heat and humidity to dry, cold December weather. It played havock on my sinuses, but that is a minor price to pay.

I am returning to Brazil on Februrary 11th, after my birthday (turning 28, when did I start getting so close to thrity?!?!) and will be there through Carnival with my buddy, then I am heading south through Argentina to do some trekking in Patagonia, which is something I have always wanted to do.

As for my sailing down the Amazon trip, I am postponing it for now. Why, you ask? Because I bumped into a friend in Colombia, a guy I had met earlier in my travels who also enjoys adventure and risk taking, that had attempted what I was planning on doing, but with a group of locals as guides. Well, long story short, they beat him to a pulp and robbed him. On top of this, this guy was no wimp either, he was a big solid dude, with a shaved head, biker beard and tattoos all over the place. He was not the kind of person you would expect to get victimized. He and I talked for a while and I decided this is still something I want to do, but with at least one other person. It is just too great of a risk to go it alone. I think I am getting older to make that kind of deiscion, as a few years ago that would have just made the trip more appealing. I would have simply brushed up on my Ju Jitsu, got a weapon of some sort and gone for it. These days though, I prefer to take calculated risks wherein the reward is worth the potential loss, which is the same reason I did not hike the Darrien Gap.

At any rate, I hope everyone is well. All my love, I hope Christmas was wonderful and that the New Year is as well. I am going to let the blog go silent for a few weeks here, so I highly recomend that if anyone wishes to continue to follow along in Februrary that you have the automated blog updates sent to your email. To do this there is a box on the left hand side of the web page where you fill in your email address and each new blog update will be sent to you. You wont get any spam mail, so no worries about that.

So for now, I will be resting up and spending quality time with loved ones, and then it is back to South America for some more adventure!