Perito Moreno Glacier

So I'm headed to the Perito Moreno Glacier tomorrow.  This link has some information about it

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perito_Moreno_Glacier

Its one of the few advancing glaciers left in the world.

After a few hours there I'll be headed to El Chaltén for a few more days of treking.

Torres del Paine

Did it...

Ushuasia

more to come here...

Buenos Aires

After leaving Montevideo I spent some time in Colonia de Santiago, Uruguay before crossing the river to Buenos Aires.  You can find some of the pictures in my photo albulm.  I was lucky enough to be on the same bus as some of the people who I had met at my hostel the night before.  We all ended up hanging out that day in Colonia and becoming good friends.  Colonia is a rather historic city on the banks of the river separating Argentina and Uruguay.  Think cobblestone streets and rustic spanish architecture.  After about 5 hours or so I parted ways with my new friends and took the ferry over to Buenos Aires.

Upon ariving in Buenos Aires (BA) I was in a rather difficult situation...I had no Argentinan pesos, no did I have a hostel reserved.  I managed to split a taxi with a guy to the Microcenter where there were lots of hostels, giving him a few USD for the ride.  After getting dropped off in an area several blocks away from where I wanted to be, I managed to find a hostel and a place to stash my stuff for the night.

My intentions for the night were to go out salsa dancing...and this is exactly what I did.  Now, getting to the club which was quite an adventure...opting to take the BA bus.  I ended up getting to the club at 2:30 am...perfect timing for BA...rather late for me..oh well.  Long storey short...fun night, danced quite a bit, made it back to the hostel around 6am, left for the airport at 7, took off for Ushusia around 9.  So much for sleep.

I'll have to save the sightseeing for another time...maybe in a few weeks.

Pictures

So if anyone out there is reading this blog...here is the link to my photo albulm so far..

http://picasaweb.google.com/todd.owen/SouthAmerica#

Enjoy,

Todd

Montevideo, Uruguay

After nearly 24 hours of travel I made it to my first destination: Montevideo, Uruguay.  Most people have never heard of Uruguay as its a rather small country.  In fact, everyone I've talked to about it didn't know it even exisited, nor its relative location in South America.  I guess those geography lessons in grade school went in one ear and out the other.

Things went fairly smoothly upon my arrival.  After picking up my bags I caught a bus to my hostel, and magically was able to get off at the right stop.  Thats pretty amazing since I only had a cross street and no map of the surounding area to go by.  I would talk to the bus driver but I can't understand a lick of what they are saying.  The spanish here is a bit different.  ll = ch and y = jo.  Not to mention a bunch of other things they do like vos.  So long storey short I found my hostel (Pocitios Hostel) and checked in.

The hostel was located in the district of Pocitios and a few kilometers away from the city center.  This gave the place a nice peaceful setting.  The place was beautiful.  The dorm was clean, the place had free internet, and there was a big backyard for socializing.  Not to mention the cool staff and friendly travelers there.  I recomend it.

After arriving around noon I checked in, grabed my small backpack and went for a very long walk around town.  I spent the rest of the day wondering around the city, taking in all that it had to offer me.  Unfortunetely it was easter weekend and most shops were closed and people were not to be found.  A positive side of this was this beautiful city was now rather empty, giving its beautiful buildings, cobble stone streets a majestic ambience that can't be found on a normal day.

After returning to the hostel around sundown I kicked back and relaxed with my fellow travelers.  It was pretty fun to hang out that night.  Everyone was talking in spanish so talking was a bit difficult for me, but I manged.  In the end I made a bunch of new friends that night who I would have a fun adventure with the next day.

The start of my sabbatical adventure

I've been on many vacations before, but this one seems different to me.  While its hard to belive, this is my 7th major international trip and my 3rd that will last for over two months.  My plan is fairly simple, to fly myself to the southern most point possible and work my way north, eventually ending up in Quito, Ecuador.  From there I'll fly home and return to the USA.  My route will cover many types of terrain, climate, and geographical locations.  I'll go from subtropical beaches to vast mountain ranges, to glaciers advancing into the ocean.  This is truely going to be an adventure of a lifetime.

Salsa Dance with Todd Owen

Todd Owen is one of the leading male dancers and performers in the Pacific Northwest. Over the past few years he has helped put Portland on the salsa map. Todd is a local performer and instructor and has an extensive amount of training in Salsa, Mambo, International Latin, Lyrical Jazz, and Afro-Cuban dances. In 2007, Todd represented Portland in the World Salsa Championships as a semi-finalist. Additionally, Todd has traveled around the USA performing and training. Todd has studied under internationally renowned Salsa masters including Eddie Torres, Frankie Martinez, Thomas Guerrero, Osmar Perrones, Juan Matos, and Francisco Vasquez to name just a few. With additional training in ballroom and jazz, Todd’s dancing can best be described as a mix of many flavors, yet always emphasizing timing, technique, musicality, and style.

Group Class Information

Mondays, starting 01/26, 7:30-8:30 pm Camie Curtis Performing Arts Center

1932 W Burnside St
Portland, OR 97209

Class Costs
5 Week Series: $50
Drop In: $12
Students pay instructor directly. Cash only please.

Private Lessons

Can't make it to a group class? Do you prefer to learn at your own pace? Try a private lesson. They are individually taylored, afordable, and can be taught in your own home. Contact Todd for rates.

Contact Information

Phone: (503) 913-8234
Email: todd.owen@gmail.com

La Ceiba

Today I woke up early to go diving. The first was a really awesome wreck that was completely intact. The visibility was really good during the dive as we could see for 30+ meters as we descended towards the wreck. Once at the bottom, we saw a variety of sea life including parrot fishes, sponges, an a huge grouper. I wish I had a camera because the view as we descended was amazing....speechless.

Our second dive was at moonhole. The dive had some interesting coral formations and a lot of life was still present on the reef. There was also a fishing boat wreck at the end of the dive. Not as fun as the first dive, but still quite good.

After diving I hoped aboard the ferry back for La Ceiba. I´m staying at the Rotterdam Hotel, about 1 block from the beach. The place is really chill...and so close to the beach. Tonight I´ll be meeting up with the other 3 travelers that are going to La Moskitia. I hope they are pretty cool. We have to get up for the 6am bus tomorrow, so its going to be a short night tonight.

Diving in Utilia

Yesterday I did some diving here on Utilia. I'm diving with Parrot Divers. Parrot Divers caters to the backpacking crowd and runs and alright operation. The dive masters are pretty cool and things are really laid back. After getting our gear ready we climbed onto their tiny little diving boat and headed out to sea.

My first dive was a tune up dive. Its probably a good thing I did a tune up dive because this dive was rough from the start. After jumping in my lovely fin decided to come off and sink to the bottom. After rescuing it it came off once again. After finally securing it we decended and coved some of the basic skills one must do in their Open Water Training. After fumbling around, trying to do all sorts of these underwater skills, we ended the dive with a 20 minute swim looking at some coral and fish.

After resting about 40 minutes we returned and dove the light house reef. A few comments about the state of things here on this side of the island. Its pretty aparent to me that the coral is dieing off. Most of the coral has turned brown and seems rather lifeless. You still see some fish, but nearly as many as in Thailand. I asked the dive instructors about this later that night and they believe the destruction is being caused by global warming and too much diving. The other side of the island (the north side) is said to be a lot better and still really good. On my dive I saw a lot of parrot fish and a bunch of other pretty fish I don't know the name of. The dive master saw a baby baracuda and a spotted owl fish(?).

After the dive there was a big party at the owners house. For 10 bucks you could eat and drink all you like. The food was pretty good (lasagana), and the beer was well...free. I had a lot of fun at the party and meet a lot of interesting people from Canada, the US, and England. Heck I even met someone from Portland....go figure.

Today I went snorkeling with my friend Ben. We went to a different spot this time, and it was a lot better than the previous location. The only drawback was it was pretty far from shore and we almost got run over by a boat. I saw a few parrot fishes and a bunch of other things that were on my dive the day before.

Later today I'll go for a hike around the island.

Arriving in Honduras

With my bags packed and passport in hand I headed out to the airport for my adventure into Honduras. This was to be the begining of 2 1/2 weeks into the unknown, a land full of mountains, beaches, coal reefs, and untouched rain forests. After a connection in Houstin we decended for the city of San Pedro Sula.

The first thing I noticed comming into San Pedro Sula was how undeveloped this country is. San Pedro has one runway, a terminal about as big as Hillsboro, and feels like a step back in time. It was quite refreshing from the Nazi's we get to put up with in our so called free nation of America. However, I must say that I was expecting a bit more from the nation's 2nd largest city and most modern airport.

After landing I attempted to get a flight out to the island of Rotan. However all the flights were full for the day so I caught a cab to the bus station. Why would I want to leave San Pedro so quickly? Well you see San Pedro is full of gang violence and is considered to be very dangerous. Once I got to the bus station I bought a ticket to La Ceiba. Now this is where the game of hurry up and wait begins.

See, the people of Honduras recently got hit fully with the real price of gas. The government decided they were no longer going to subsidize the price of gas and thus the people like to make roadblocks and not let the cars through. My bus to La Ceiba got hit by several roadblocks along the way. My 3pm bus was delayed to a 5pm departure. Once under way the 3 hr journey became a 5hr one due to more roadblocks along the way. The last two hours were extremely miserable due to the lack of a bathroom.

After finally arriving in La Ceiba at 10 pm I met a few other travelers who were headed into the city. We caught a cab to the city center and to lower costs I split a room with this guy Ben from Quebec. Ben came from Copan that day and was telling me even more stories of the road blocks. The night was rather uneventful as both of us were super tired and went to bed early.

The next morning both of us caught a ferry to the island of Utilia. The ferry ride was pretty wild. Imagine a small boat holding about 100 people speeding along the ocean at 35 knots. The large waves made things interesting so to speak. Most people felt really sea sick by the end. The poor girl next to me looked like she was about to need the bathroom. Thank goodness I fly airplanes and am used to all that turblence.

Upon arrival in Utilia I found a place to stay, signed up for a dive refresher course, and did some snorkling. Things are pretty nice here in Utilia. It reminds me a lot of the islands of Thailand with a heavier emphasis on diving. Most people come here to learn how to dive. The island seems nothing like the mainland of Honduras and is its own little traveler oasis here in the Caribean.

Tomorrow will be diving and lying out on the beach.....oh I can't wait.

Almost Time!

Well its been about 2 1/2 years since I last did a serious backpacker trip. My last trip was to Mexico for three weeks of heart warming people, crazy cities, ancient ruins, death defying roads, and beautiful beaches. This time I'm returning to central America, but heading a bit further south. I'm going to spend a little over two weeks in the wonderful country of Honduras. I've thought about a trip to Honduras for a quite a while. I'm craving some good SCUBA diving, and Honduras has some of the best and cheapest diving this side of the world.

In just over 24 hours I'll be boarding my flight for Houston and then San Pedro Sula, Honduras. After arriving and clearing customs (man, I wonder how much bribes are going to be?), my goal is to catch a flight to the island of Rotan. Rotan is known for great diving and a laid back lifestyle. I hope it doesn't disappoint. After Rotan I'm heading to La Ceiba for a 7 day adventure into the jungles of Moskitia, the second largest rainforest on Earth. I'm not sure what I'll do after I come back, but I may go back for some diving on either Rotan or Utilia. We'll see. Time to wrap up work and get this adventure underway!