full circle

aloha friends!!

to save some time for those of you who are just tuning in (which i believe is most of you), i am currently on a little journey to explore all 21 countries in latin america. this blog will be an attempt to chronicle some of my most memorable (or merely noteworthy) experiences. having never done this before - backpacked thru latin america or had a blog - i have no idea what will happen, so keep your expectations high. bridget gets credit for the spinz with stinz™ idea...

also, i will take liberties with grammar (run-on sentences and fragments are fun), punctuation (minimal use of apostrophes), capitalization (caps are really just for emphasis), use ellipses with spaces. . . and without... and liberally sprinkle my writings with aposiopesis. . . 

this new chapter in the continuing saga began on january 3rd when i left camp erdman, waialua, and oahu. among other things, it was so surreal sitting on the plane watching diamondhead fade away; a scene id witnessed so many times on interisland and mainland trips, but now would not be seeing for (possibly) a long time. after a brief stopover in maui, i flew to san diego on january 5th. the "plan" was to kick it here for a coupla weeks, then cross the border into mexico and take it from there. 

plans changed.

in fact, most of the following was never planned, or was tentatively planned. 

instead of going from hawaii-san diego-tijuana and beyond, i did a little zig-zagging (that one's for you jacob). it looks more like:

hawaii-san diego-san francisco-oakland-south lake tahoe-brooklyn-northampton-amherst-brooklyn-portland-welches-portland-san francisco-mountain view-south lake tahoe-san francisco-guerneville-san francisco-hermosa beach-del mar-solana beach-ocean beach-solana beach-tijuana-mexicali-juarez-chihuahua-yepachic. . .

long story, but the not-so-condensed version goes like this: 

i made it to san diego and got to spend time with kara, sarah, sean, green, and meganne; i accepted an invitation to visit my friend maggie and do some snowboarding up in tahoe; separated my shoulder up at heavenly; stuck around tahoe for two additional weeks; hung out with maggie, ruby, dewey, barber, marcus, joe john, starr, raquel, vanessa, danielle, christian, liz and eric, diyar and tanja, heather, vj, and jacob; went to san francisco to bring jacob to the airport and got to spend time with emily rose, diyar, and katina and theo; flew to nyc for three weeks to work for my homeys jacob and sean at vinnies pizzeria; got to spend time with sean, jacob and kitty, henrik, varghese, vivek, allie, andrea and ashley, rebekah and paula, nils, heather, sana, liala, alexis, amy, laura, caleb, sara and heather and moose and buckwheat, steve and jes, beth, jorim, rachel, stahl, walter, nery, balmore, and johnny; flew back to the west coast and spent some time in portland and mount hood; got to spend time with melissa, ryan, kat, sterling and jayson and kai, and dave and gudrun; took the overnight train (never again) from portland to san francisco and got to spend time with diyar, heather, and the lalaind sisters; drove up to tahoe again (no snowboarding) and spent some time with maggie, marcus, starr and molly, raquel, liz and eric, and the dogs - ruby, dewey, bella, and abigail; drove back to the bay area and spent some time with lindsay, and karissa and danielle in the city and in guerneville; got a bus back to the city from guerneville and spent some time with emily rose before continuing on down to los angeles and hermosa beach where i got to have a little antonios reunion with carrie, esthergen, and sean (thanks to cubby); rode with cubby and sean down to del mar where cubby generously hosted me in his mothers mansion on the coast for a few days; spent some time with him, sean, brett, and newman the dog; came up the road to solana beach and spent some time with kara and hatch, sara, lauren, and katie; went back down to ocean beach and spent some time with sean, krista, krystal, rob, and green; came back up to solana beach and spent some time with kara and hatch, sarah, mike, katie, tony, and cory; now its back down to ocean beach to kick it with sean, then tijuana, mexicali, juarez, chihuahua, and yepachic... im sure theres some peeps i forgot to mention in there, others i intentionally declined to mention (because im mildly ashamed of you marc and joshua). regardless, i love you all.

falling on a snowboard on an icy mountain and getting an acromio-clavicular separation without health insurance is a shitty thing to do. i dont recommend it to anyone. however, it appears to be a blessing in disguise because it enabled (or forced) me to spend time with a lot of people that i otherwise might not have seen for. . . awhile.

so here i am, back where i started three months ago. . . 

slightly poorer financially but much richer. . . friendancially?

heading to life and work on an organic farm in the serene beauty of yepachi, mexico... 

-- i seem to have been only as a boy playing on the sea-shore, and diverting 

   myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than

   ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.

   isaac newton