biggy SMALLS

sup yall,

well in buenos aires, argentina and diggin it bigtime. stayin at a cool hostal, good vibes and tons of friendly people,...and 4 brazilian chicks. this is gonna be a long story short blog cause i´m about to be picked up by my grandfathers second cousin...little city tour action.

hmm, i went to chile after bolivia and for whatever reason i just knew i had to push on. 2 flights in 3 days in and out of chile....good way to blow a g-note. Cabin crew on airplane were the same both times, and they kinda laughed and wondered how i had travelled the country so quick. well,.... oh no big thing,...i just felt the need to push on...

arrived in buenos aires and despite fact that one night had police shake down, this place is brilliant. ytd, i was in shopping mall with the air con going,...and when i walked outside afterwards the gentle warmth of argentina just soothed my bones. okay, one of the brazilian chicks just woke up and walked outta of her room. insane.

last night big bbq at hostal for 20 pesos...divide by 3 for dollar conversion. 20 of us at table, wine the whole program,...really good times...then off to a bar. And then there´s Pancho´s...24 hour hamburger and hotdog joint...beers etc. 2 pesos per burger. great times...

ayeite, laters...

bigggy smalls just cause they were rockin puff and biggy while i was shopping ytd.

hope you chatches r doin well at home.

Xbox

Ah haaaaaa, Well, actually apologies for the false advert,...but i did get my vids on today in Cochabamba Bolivia. The Xbox dream is on hold until I get to say,...Chile or Argentina where I figure economic circumstances may permit the people to have. So today there was a crazy little video game joint in town that had one old school game...1942. Remember that one? It worked out to about 7cents per game which was just fantastic. Unfortunately little Bolivians now know a few new terms under the umbrella of ¨colby nerd spaz.¨ Well, yesterday I did infact go check out Bolivia´s top resort in the countryside. Imagine Shaughnessy Golf and Country Club just a tad,...with the luxury of a drug lord´s palace. This was what I arrived to and I thought wow this is really cool. Well my tune changed after about 30mins to an hour when i realized that i was the only person there with just one staff member. one staff member and that´s it! I spend my whole life lookin for a no agro environment. I find it,...birds chirpin,...no bohunks,...and i freak out. Seriously, this silver haired older lady that sat around playing solitaire. I say picture shaughnessy golf club cause it reminded me of going out there early in the morning and seeing nobody. Dinner was like sitting in a massive dining room all alone. The silver haired lady brought me lasagna and then disappeared. The place had ping pong in the most luxurious garden, along with foos ball tables. There is a clay tennis court, basketball, a soccer pitch, an excellent swimming pool,...and nature all around. It was kinda like heaven but with the sketch factor it kinda felt like the twilight zone. When it came time to pay I was at the front desk trying to get my pitch ready...cause in my travel book it said rooms could go as high as say 2or3hundred a night. I put 70 dollars on the counter as i fiddled with wads of confusing cash. She grabbed the 70 and was like,...¨total.¨ I said total,...and she just looked back at me and said,...¨total.¨ So i figured score,...love the negociation process. Grab it fast and say total. I´m gonna try this at the bar tonight with a few hunnies. - ¨hola senorita,...me yamo Bbbbrrry-yan...i stay at this gorgeous run down hostal down the street.... grab her hand,... total.¨ haha, i´m such a dork. Actually the peru girl i met has nicknamed me dork in the emails she sends. Movin up in S.America,...hoo-rahhh!! Ok, gonna go for dins now,...then tomorrow on to chile, i think... we´ll see about flights. ryan

congrats jon bell and valleau bros.

hola peoples,

so two nights ago i arrived late at night in Cochabamba Bolivia. Rmac rule of thumb when travelling,...if arriving late at night and dodge factor seems high, ...then lonely planet search a nice hotel to hide in until the sun shines. So i taxi´d to Portales Hotel. Nice joint,...but the point is i had a tv for the first time in a long time,...and, i watched the Golden Globe Awards. Kate Beckinsale is handsdown the best looking girl ever. Hopefully these were live and not like one month old or something. Anyhoo, did yall notice that Infinity Media, where the above mentioned hoodlums work, was mentioned with Philp Seymour Hoffman winning an award. Bill Vince their fearless leader was also named.

so yes i´m in cochabamba bolivia and so far have been kinda chillin,...touristy stuff perhaps today and then perhaps out to the countryside where there is apparently a wonderful resort spa. i´m gonna go rmac test their steam and jacuzzi jets and maybe get a massage. i´m waiting on sophie (london girl) and a vancouverite named normandy to arrive from la paz and then i´ll do more tourist stuff and check into a hostal. So get this,...sophie met normandy in cusco. normandy is james daniels sister,...as in james that went to same highschool. small world.

ok, updates are as follows. la paz...did a private city tour with this english speaking local named freddy. very ambitious bolivian. we taxid around some of the local sights and a seed was planted about an area of la paz called zone sul...like zone-eh sool. Went there the next day and this was quite an interested culture observation....this area is where the upper middle class to rich bolivians live. reminded me of pacific palisades california slash miami. people wearing modern clothes, girls with upscale handbags, and fancy coffee shops that look better than starbucks. i spent a couple hours walking through the neighborhoods that had some homes as big as you´d see in shaughnessy or beverly hills. Actually this was kinda relaxing as they have these wonderful eucalyptus trees and it was raining,...and just seems relaxing. next,... met a really cool new yorker named rebecca who had the coolest blonde dreads. we hung out quite a bit and as well with her local friend named max. Together we watched max play in his championship soccer game and this was really fun and a great way to immerse into some bolivian culture. the spectators rock some serious loud tunes, while chillin almost NFL tailgate styles,...while lighting mucho firecrackers. while in the stands, there was mucho beers as well a lunch provided by a lady who must have had a son playing who was from the countryside or somthing. she was wearing all the traditional clothing. very cool. Max scored a goal and his team won the championship. as i had a digi camera that everyone was really intrigued by, ...i became the documentary guy,...or in their words, international paparazzi. After the game we all marched...they sang,...to a building where we all drank tons of beers,...they chanted etc,...and i took the photos.

next day i made a cdrom of the photos and gave to max so his team could have for prints etc.

went to a bar in la paz called mongols. long story short,...some good beer drinking,...lots of hot argentina girls and i met a lovely girl named monica. cool name hey.


back to the tour,...take care all.

death road photos...

thought i had posted them,...i´ll try again...

And The Award Goes To...

All of you for rocking out 24 straight days of rain in Vancouver. If it helps at all, I´m in La Paz Bolivia where it´s usually quite chilly and it is there rainy season. Today was a mix of sun and rain.

Ok, that aside,...there is a winner,...and the award does go to Colby Fulton. Just recently Colby took control of his life and joined the Fairmont Waterfront Hotel Spa. He went 5 days in a row of some serious steam and hot tub action to keep his weary Vancouver bones from becoming brittle. Nice work Colbs,...and welcome to the team. Wait, my memberships up. Sweet, i´m sneakin in with you.

Ok, Rmac shares have rebounded nicely. Last week I was getting beat up pretty good. The last couple days have been in Bolivia and things are much better. A historian or cultural Shakespear have some answers as to why Bolivians are quite happy and chill. I just know that its been a godsend.

Yesterday I road Bolivia´s famous ¨death road.¨ I´ll enclose some photos as pics are worth thousand words type deal. Super gnarl. Crazy,...and I mean crazy drops to an abyss of I don´t know cause you can´t see that far. Imagine a road cut out of the side of mountains with semi´s, busses and then downhill mountain bikers to throw in a mix. In the last 5 years this road has claimed the lives of 8 cyclists. So ytd we started off with a 60km road ride to the desent. 11,000 ft, thin air, and a dialed out Rocky Mountain bike made for some serious gasping. Once the desent began, ¨squirrel¨ McCleery came alive and I pushed and pushed to gain speed,...its a good thing we had a primo guide cause every time he signaled for me to slow down,...in my head i was thinking with my ego, ¨this guys a pussy, and BC riders are the shizzle.¨ Then of course i´d come flying around a corner and he had saved my life again,...and again. Finally I cooled my jets and hammered the course when he did, and went slow when he signaled...and voila i´m typing here today. Wait till you see the pic of the red van. All the way down on my brand new Rocky Mtn bike I was thinkin to myself, geez i´m so much happier on this bike than inside a van that has inches at times when an oncoming bus or semi approaches. It was only at the end of our day, that i realized i had to be inside that bus and drive back up the ¨death road¨to get home. Seriously, these busses and semis get within inches of the edge when reversing to make room for others.

Ok, enough making myself seem cool. At end of road we rode some singletrack down to the neatest lodge (i just used the word neatest, wow),..positioned perfectly along a river. The vibe was very amazonian if that helps. Cats, dogs, chickens, llamas, monkeys just cruisin around...actually reminded me of the hurd household...haha We had hot showers (currently my hostal in la paz has cold water showers...that´s like skiing all day at whistler and going home to freezing water and pert plus. Not much foamage and everything is well cold and not out bragging or anything like that.) which was a treat and some great food, and beer! Oh yeah, almost forgot, super muddy and grunge,...i stripped down to my board shorts and jumped in the river. Yes, i do wonder if in about 6 months i´ll have some kind of viral story from a buh-luck-ah-luck river bug of some sort. No kidding. the thought did enter and then i go-go gadget got my travel confidence wings. I did then worry about leeches but none were on me.

funny, cause when i signed up at this company that does these rides they gave me one of those cheesy t shirts, ¨i survived the death rode blah blah. Well today i wear it not with crazy pride or anything, but i suppose a little more respect. And, ssshhhhit, my left knee is adios. When i open leg it goes crack.

Today, chillin. Checkin stocks. Mopin around La Paz. Doin a tour tomorrow which i know will stress me out when the chatch starts showing me statues etc. Sometimes i do wonder why i came to travel if so many of the touristy things turn me off. Hmm, maybe i just wanted to meet Mrs. McCleery. Suppose i could have checked into the Ramada in Everett WA and signed onto lava life brazil. Kiddding,...it´s the people. I´m diggin meeting the people. Speaking of that Perhaps meeting up with a girl i met in Peru...she´s from london and travelling. We did have grand plans to travel together to bolivia and then i sent her a note when i was getting buggy in peru that i had to bust and perhaps we would link later. She was moving slower and doing the lonely planet mission i think. Everyone´s got their vibe which is cool...

ake care, and stay warm. Call Colby for a steam, he loves when i do this.

ps. still have yet to find xbox down here...you´ll know when i do. the monkeys in the amazon will start to flip out,...that´s your sign colby, scott, craig, and peno to start practicing.

late

couple photos

sup yall,...

ok, i´ve got a couple shots here,...the ones i took after learning how to make camera take in email format.

talked with piller today,...he was sitting in back seat of car as sally and emma were driving him around london. i suspect they put up one of those limo window dividers while driving.

so here´s the scoop. i´m audi 5thou peru. had my fill,...and then basically am ready to push off to bolivia. apparently there is some unrest there now because of the most recent vote. nick monahan if you´re out there,...gimme the lowdown.

ok photo 1 is of a street in cusco, peru. very tiny streets here with cobble stones etc. The other photo is of a dude named Rob who is an ex triathalon athlete living in san diego cali. he´s lookin rather chipper which is pretty great considering he´s the guy who was robbed at gunpoint. we had some great drinks in this hotel lobby lounge before heading out to a couple clubs in lima.

hope everyone´s doing ok in van.

late

rmac shares plummet

recommendation: strong buy

despite a ceviche disastor bomb in my stomach over the last couple days i suspect that a new corner and light will emerge. for the contrarian buyer the time is now. the last 3 days however scared most investors into a bearish sentiment as my mood grew weak and bitter. oh man, a diesel fumed bus ride, with suspension as good as the go-carts in richmond, my head was bouncing around all the time i hoped and wondered if my guts would hold in the ceviche. for the halo players out there,...lets just say bathroom time was like the needler gun.

i arrived in a town called piura to discover that my flight to cusco...where macchu piccu is....had to go through lima. for those who are new to lima, lets just say that prior to my trip i was warned by 4 separate groups to take a pass. whilst on my travels i have then heard from 2 other groups about the mine fields in lima. case numero uno: a young little chatch walked up to a tourist who was sitting down at a cafe and pitched him to buy some of the sticky icky. before the tourist could even say no he just threw the bag onto his lap and then signaled a police officer. long story short,...they took this guy to jail, scared the living ....out of him, and thennnnn took a walk to an atm machine. case numero dos: i hung out with this dude from san diego all day ytd and also last night partying. he was walking the streets of lima in broad daylight and 5 dudes grabbed him and threw into an alley. out came a .44 and his temple had never felt so warm. stripped him, then used his clothes to tie him up...took the cash,...and then demanded the pins on his cards stating that if they were wrong that poncho who stood bye with the .44 would get itchy. super gnarl. lima´s a town where there´s cabs and so called secure cabs...go figure. basically at the bar last night we befriended each bouncer so that as the cabs rolled up he´d look in the window and let us know if we should get in or not. oh, almost forgot,...mancora beach,...the place where we rocked out new years. 6 dudes with machine guns climbed a hostal and through the windows,...kidnapped the mgr and held up the yanks and took everything,...cash, ginch and all...

back to lima...ok, long story short, i decided that if i must be in lima for a day that i´d go in style and go for some cover. it worked! google search miraflores park hotel. i showed up unshaven, beer in hand and walked up to the front desk and even grinded a deal for an ocean view suite. place was like trump tower and after living in unicef for the longest time i just began to half laugh, with perhaps a whisper of a cry...gosh sounding like a feistly little blonde i know with this banter. hehe. seriously though, the rooom was ssssoooo player. huge tub, massive granite shower with one of those rain shower heads...and molten brown everything for soaps, shampoos etc. i threw on a robe dialed room service and just paced the room ... ok ok,...all this aside,...when my food arrived...with those silver dome cover things...cool.. i did think to myself,...dude, there´s people all over this country with just a little bit of food, whilst people with an edge can dial a club sani from egyptian cotten robes. kinda nuts.

my shares did plummet hard because especially with a sick stomach i was bitter as hell about the nature of human beings. i suppose that somewhere deep inside i wondered if travelling down south would have revealed a utopia of ¨content¨people, sharing people... well i guess the answer is yes there are nice people around, but i´ll tell ya,...the game down here is inning 1 of capitalism. they may have some leaders preaching this that or the other, but watching how people dip and dodge and literally give you a story on absolutely everything to hustle a buck...it grows tiring. sharing,...maybe...during church or something. but when you´re on the cobblestones, the gloves are off.

sharon has reminded me about being flexible and so i´m goin with it. i have a strong feeling that when the needler gun subsides i´ll be able to see the sun again. tomorrow i begin a 3 day cusco walk about that includes macchu picchu etc etc.

quite a needless rant so sorry for your eyes. i promise that as soon as i find someone to help me resize my photos that i´ll post them. hope you´re all doin well.

and yes, take all this with a grain of salt,...my guts are still be used as an arena for bull fighting contests.

cheers,
ryan

wow

the title of this email was going to be Heading Up Coast,...however being that i´m in a surf town yall can imagine that something really wonderful and tanned just walked in,...and,...well my first thought was WOW. hmmm, trying to decide if this was just gobbly gook i just wrote but whatev...

so yes, i´m gonna head up coast so that you guys can get some sunshine vicariously through rmac. as some of you know, ive been living in the city of gods for the last week...super gnarl and now i just cant take it anymore,...random dogs barking, dust, dirt, garbage... The people are sweet and wonderful its just that the time has come for rniz to stretch out my shizzle on a mac daddy lounge,...little room service if you know what i´m sayin and some super untouched beach with pounding surf. Gonna read some of my Ekhardt Tolle book, grab my personal mirror and find myself on the sands of peru.

i hope all your livers have recovered. i´m sure we´re all rockin out a similar scene of constant partying as of late. last night, me, this dude, and 3 chicas hit the beach and crashed as some cabanas that are under construction. lit a fire, littl booze, under the stars. hoo rah.,

chat to you dudes in a bit...next on to cusco, maybe lima...then who knows

laters,
ryan

vancouver boozin

so i hear all you hoodlums got drunk like crazy on new years....well surprize surprize...haha i was also lucky enough to hear from many of you when rebecca hurd...the always lovely and charged emotionally dear friend of mine....haha,...had to be cheeky, called my cell phone. the first call to get through!! watty, alana, becs, suzanna, wally, sarahcb, tom were all on the phone. i think i will frame my cell phone bill on my wall when i move home. or better yet, i´m sure fido will have me on their wall as customer of the month. 26 min phone call that i´m sure will cost my flight home. and i love it,...its worth it to chat to your peeps no matter the cost. so thanks you guys for dialin me.

well, i´m rockin out in a small surf town in peru. totally awesome and insane at times. in ecuador, we knew (this english bloke named chris who i met in quito) that Mancora has been booked solid for like the last month. we said screw it and came anyways. yes, the universe does work with the whole law of attraction program. on the bus ride in we met this old lady who hooked us up with a husband and wife where we rent a couple rooms. ok, now this is the balls part! no kidding here...this is the most dodge area i´ve ever seen in my life. think tiajuana mexico times 10. i´ve nick named where i live the unicef neighborhood as it looks just like those ads. The english dude i´m with was totally sketched and he calls it the city of god neighborhood from that brazilian movie. the great thing is that (and s.janzen and a.cunningham will be proud) is that everything is just fine,...these people are totally content and happy.

once into town, about 5mins walk, you´re in the coolest old school surf town. piller, you and me (oops, and tdo as well,...cant miss him or he´ll cry) will have to rock this place out ...soon! you´ll love it. it s like maui or california towns 50 or 100 years ago,...and for the surfters out there, this shizzzle peels left to right like glass. i mean minting waves

new years was great and i met some great people. i met a great gal from peru who also has japanese heritage. long story short without all the deets,...two peruvians guys threatened me on new years night for dancing with her. i guess they get jealous when the rmac attack goes hoo rah! when the clock hit midnight a bunch of us ran into the ocean, gave a few high fives, and basically got wet, cause, like...ya know! its the ocean man. sorry sunstoke.

ytd, by fluke...or the fact that my spanish is gashola,...i had the tuc tuc driver take me way outta town. i said i needed to do some laundry and he drove me to chilliwack essentially. it was great though and i ended up spending one of the most wonderful first days of a new year ever. explored the area where there are some mint houses along the water, as well as some super wicked cabanas on the water...and i mean old school action. very little devt.,...untouche beach with pounding waves and views of blue water forever. i blackberried many phone numbers of little cabanas, hotels etc for future stealth missions of chillin in peru.

on my way back into town i had what piller and ct would know as a moab moment. yes, i saw on my right some terrain that looked like grand canyon and sahara dessert. so i ventured in and just said fcuk it,...i´m goin for it. i trekked in for about an hour and twice came to points where there was absolutely no noise at all. i ran down some sand dunes...and basically just was stoked. and then yes, the moab moment came when i thought, shizzle i better get my butt back towards the road. well all my sand tracks had disappeared as the wind had covered them with new sand. sun was coming down and i was like,...here we go again. whatevs, i made it back into town just as the sun was coming down and i was stoked,...and had a grin and kick in my stride that made the chicks go ape. haha.

maybe another 3 weeks mopin peru, then bolivia where i´ll study,...yes actually study spanish for say month while also travelling a bit, and then on to chile, argentina, brazil and then who knows what. i´ve met many dudes down here tellin me how cool panama and colombia are, so i may rock these out on way north.

enjoy all,
ryan