Is that Kevin Barnes?

I had a rendezvous with the infamous before he headed home.  What stardom will come of thee?  We were lucky enough to see some really fantastic people, many of which are also headed westward to the final frontier.

Ohhh Jamie...

wait till later

I headed up to the best place on earth for some good ol’ fam time.  Recently hooked on the hip new fad and finally being able to put all those Smirnoff Ice’s to good use, I tried out my newly acquired devil’s run on my cousins.

EAT IT

ye olde big backyard

Sporting my MADE of H. Shirt, courtesy of Mamma H.  And speaking of those fiancees….I tagged along with them to Providence for a spell.  Just long enough for them to move to the Cape Codish area.  Matt, Christine and I had a great time at the Newport Folk Festival where i fell in love with the What Cheer? Brigade.  I highly suggest you attend any of their sitings.

Babe Status

More babes…

sisters!

And so, I have landed in New York City.  My dearest Portland, you are my home, I’m just gonna try to be gangsta for awhile in the BK and make it happen.  Portland will always be a great place, but really what I miss most are those incredible people that make it so.  Luckily, I also have fantastic friends here helping me bring hospitality back to the States (to ref A.hole).  I’ve been afforded a job at the Strand, which I hear is an oh-so-coveted-position.  I’m checkin’ it out, I’m checkin’ it out….

Today I ate an amazing sandwich from City Subs, went to Coney Island and hung out at Prospect Park.  Other things I’ve been enjoying since returning are fresh chocolate milk, biscuits, Stumptown Coffee, hipsters, free laundry, whiskey and dogs that have owners.

it's just like mexico!

the babes just don't stop around here

now you're a man!

people eat here

More to come!  Next time: places to live! bikes! and hopefully more jobs and extracurricular activities!!!

Much has happened in short times.

We waved goodbye to our little house on the prarie, said goodbye to our latin lovers and after some struggle took flight to Central America.  One could ask why in such cases, but we are young and we can still do what we want.

Truth be told, Chile was a bit rough on the pocket for so late in the game and the cooling temperatures sent us to the airport instead of hibernation.

So we landed in Guatemala.  And now we´re hot.  real hot.  We´re in the jungle, so you´ll have to cope with the small pictures, there is limited and slow internet connection….

i own you mariposa!

We actually went over to Honduras for a hot sec to check out some ruins.  Love them rocks.   And also stumbled upon a butterfly botanical garden…which mom would have loved.

heaven must be missin an angel

Then to the great Mayan Ruins of Copán.  YES!

duh. duh ....DUHHH

legends of the hidden temple.

lord king of sun quetzal macaw lord man jaguar soul

I´ll have to call it quits for now.  I´m being molested by mosquitoes.

We´re here to take on the rest of Guatemala, now in the jungle, a break from the “winter” rains, then to the highlands and then to MEXICO.  In Mexico we´ll be for a few weeks and then, in case you didn´t know, I´ve got a ticket to ride back home.

So Megsathon and I landed at the Granja Orgánica just outside of Santiago, Chile.

Check out what we do.

nothing but

el incidente de las manzanas

So we have a pretty scheduled life. We rise early take care of farm chores, break for lunch and then its back to work. We live in a small cabin with two dudes, León and Clément. Life is nice. Pictured here below is Meghan being a badass working on a nightstand for our room.

makin it happen

a la familia!

Above we have Carola, Clément, me, León, and Meghan.  We get to cuddle on the weekends when we have time…

rabanos

all you need is love

Here we have the tedious job of cleaning and separating black beans.  Warding off the affectionate cats is an equally difficult job.  And below we have little fireball, Manuela.  This spunky six year old is crazy for azúcar!

mi manuelita

And finally we have a snazzy shot of Clément the night that we made homemade gnocchi.  Yum!  Mr. France makes fabulous crépes ….go figure and can handle the dance floor.

mr. toulouse

That´s all for now, stay tuned for more fun farm adventures.

Meghan and I stepped into Chile, booked it down to Santiago to meet Keith and Collin and have been on the go since then.  We hit the road in a hot ride named Henrietta and headed south for Pucón.  It was pretty much like traveling with four cartoon characters.  It was like Captain Planet came to town and brought huge bags of kettle corn and hot chocolate  for everyone.

The Power is YOURS!

We got camped out in Southern Chile while indulging in thermal baths, starry skies, farm landscapes, Xtreme moutain biking, distant green lagoons, snow capped volcanoes, and the best steaks over the campfire.  Of course it´s the off-season so the weather was only on our side half the time, but we still made the best of it. 

From there we struck up to middle Chile´s coast, Valparaíso.  One of Pablo Neruda´s favorite spots.  We checked out his house, read some poetry and walked the artsy-fartsy uber-decorated walls of the hilly coastal town.  Some nice inspiration.

From there we bused to Mendoza, Argentina for one more crazy camp with a dog named Jake.  Had some crepes and steaks.  Fresh Mendoza wine and got a little cray-cray and went paragliding (parapenting) off some Mendoza mountains.

Then we returned to Santiago to send the boys off.  The trip was a rejuvenation of characters and quite inspirational.  I can´t wait to see what happens next.

developed countries have metro.

Meghan´s solo-album cover

lonely hunter

Ok Michelle, these are some boring pictures of Santiago, where are all your pretty Andes shots?  Well, well, well. What such luck.  I have accidently deleted all of my pictures from the last run-of-things.  The memory disk has been sent to the doctor.  vamos a  ver.  And, yes, I went to college…

sad panda

 …So,  I´m pretty bummed out, but at least I got my buddy´s pics on the way and we had a super great time.  …One day you´ll see it!  For the time being, Meghan and I have temporarily shacked up in Santiago and are on a job hunt (vacations will do that to you).  It turns out, Chile is not so hard up for earthquake relief help (they just want money) and being such a developed country they seem to have things under control,  so we´ve set our sights elsewhere.  More to come…

what do you call a gay dinosaur?

We, never apt to take the easy way, got a little off the beaten path.  Meghan got a sunburn and I got a scraped knee.

and then there was an island

Meghan and I were most amazed at how tranquil the Bolivian side of Lake Titikaka was.   Not like the lakes we know and love….where are the jet skis? where are the pontoon boats?  the water-skiiers and afternoon boat picnics?   Nope, when they mean the island where the sun was born, they are serious.  A very meditative field of greens.

Then we packed up and split for the southwest corner of Bolivia, Uyuni.

me and meghan, unreal in territory

Meghan and I have a bad history of these kinds of photos, let´s see if we can keep it under control, eh?

So, we´re at the Salar de Unuyi: the world´s largest salt flats…and probably at the highest altitude too..some 4,000 meters.

how bizarre. (r.i.p. omc)

Imagine being completely surrounded by salt.  white skin burning reflective energies.   And…I saw an EMU, Dad!  Meghan got a good picture…check out her new blog  www.meghoulihan.wordpress.com.

meghan and our salt hole

the big stuff level

In the middle of this huge salt flat there was an island  (all of this used to be under water world).  On the dried rock and coral island there were these HUGE cactii.  We felt like we were in the Super Mario Bros. level where everything´s massive!

i ain´t no holler back girl!

And many lagoons of various minerals and three types of flamingos…

This morning, at the crack of day, we left the middle of nowhere to see some geysers by moonlight.  Then we made it to this natural thermal bath for the sunrise….. please to notice the steam rising.

legends from the hidden temple

From here, we crossed into Chile.    We have a few days until we meet up with Collin and Keith for the Reunion of the Century.

Gód´s curry

 A city buit in a valley, flooded with farmers, university youth, and exhaust fumes rich enough to send anyone to an oxygen tank….especially at nearly 4,000 meters above sea level.  Many markets and people always trying to sell you crap…so, yeah, it´s just like Wall Street!

just passin´through

I recently visited part of Bolivia´s vast jungle.  A portion called Las Pampas, aka, the low lands of the jungle, known for its variety of wildlife and various species of birds.

"Death Road" ....kind of angelic....

mono

 This hear be a very playful squirrel monkey.  The Pampas are quite serene, great for bird watching, a quick dip to cool off from the hot sun, it was really quite rewarding just touring by boat weaving in and out of shrubbery.

just like the lake....

…except for a few things…

roy-al with cheese

What?  She doesn´t look that real….and she´s happy.

Pirhanas attack! Gotcha buddy

Aside from fishing for pirhanas, swimming with pink dolphins, gazing at river turtles, varieties of storks and herons, playing community volleyball, scouring the swamp for anacondas (no luck, it´s the winter season) it was just an all in all good time.

I´ll leave you now with a pretty little pampas sunrise….

ooooo you´re making me live now, honey!

Questions? Comments?

Get ready for antics….Enter: Meghan.

You had great avocados, great figs, fantastic mangos, the widest range landscape I´ve seen (desert, beach, jungle, mountains…all extreme), really great sunsets, and unfortunately, a garbage problem.  But hey, nobody´s perfect….let´s not forget, nearly the most important: the best coconut ice cream probably in the world.

I´ve arrived in Bolivia.  Yep, a slight change of plans.  I pick Meghan up on Tuesday in La Paz, as she was unable to fly into Santiago due to the earthquake.  We have about ten days until we meet up with Collin and Keith for the Reunion of the Century. 

Michelle, who are these people?

                    Oh!  I´m glad you ask.  Meghan, Keith and Collin are my buds from my study abroad days in Spain.  Together we took on much of Spain and Morocco.  It´s been a little too long since we´ve seen each other…let´s see how we do with Chile.

______________________

I´m in the jungle now, sweating out Meghan´s arrival.  Expect photos in a few days…..