New Home For An Old Blog

Blogger just told me that they wouldn't be supporting FTP any more, so I decided to move this blog here. I'm not updating anymore, but it is a nice look at one of the best journeys of my life. Sooner or later I plan to compile this blog into something else and then get rid of the blog, but until then, if anyone is reading, please enjoy my trek through Latin America.

Last Day

Today is the last day of my 8 weeks in Latin America. Tomorrow I will be on a plane heading back to New York City.

Thanks for being a part of my journey. Writing about it, taking pictures of it and making music for it have been an integral part of being here for me. And sharing it with you all was like my way of whispering secrets into the trees and having the wind sweep them up and blow them to you.

Now here are a couple final pictures that I managed to snag before Jean Grey bit the dust again.






So again thanks for reading. I have a feeling this blog isn't over, so don't delete it from your bookmarks just yet...

With Love,
Daniel

Are You Sleeping?

Can you hear me? Do you know if I am by your side?

Ok some of you may remember my last post where I mentioned sickness and general unhappiness. Let me give you a 10 point numerical list of what I did yesterday, my first full day in Cancun, Mexico.

1. Woke up late
2. Ate awesome breakfast
3. Got in the Caribbean
5. Took a Scuba Diving lesson
6. Ate tacos
7. Went to the Cancun Aquarium
8. Saw a Dolphin show
9. Ate more tacos
10. Wore my bathrobe before bed.

Ooohkay. Best day ever? Sounds like it, but guess remember when I Scuba Diving Lesson? Well, I'm headin' now to go see some friggin' coral reef.

Hasta luego mi amigos!

Bogota -> San Jose

Part one: Party On Bogota

I'll be honest with you, I didn't write at all in Columbia because 4 of the 7 nights I was in Columbia I went out on the town. Let me tell you what- if you ever want to party like a rock-star and dance the night away, Bogota is the place to do it.We met some amazing people and had a ton of fun.

It's crazy that it has such a bad reputation. I even expected a 3rd world type scenario, but it's a modern and expansive city. There are dangers, but I never felt unsafe even late at night. It's probably my most recommended city that I've been to so far.

Jean Grey (new name for my camera) started working again so I snagged a couple cool shots of the city.






Part two: Sick in San Jose

Immediately juxtaposed with the biggest positive surprise of Bogota was the biggest letdown of San Jose, Costa Rica. Let me be clear- Costa Rica is beautiful. There is rainforests, volcanoes, monkeys, sloths and all kinds of cool things. However the capital city San Jose where I have been stuck in the equivalent to a Motel 6 sucks really hard. In fact it's the first place that has disappointed me.

And on top of everything else I got a wicked cold two days ago and have been laid up in this gross, muggy, prostitute riddled place. Did I mention there is a casino in the lobby of our hotel? Sounds cool right? No, it's scummy and terrible. I was excited to gamble for the first time in my life, but as soon as I walked in there I realized that this was not the place to lose my gambling virginity. I picture gambling in a James Bond tuxedo, plopping down $100,000 chips in a fight to the death duel of no limit Texas Hold 'Em. This is ugly Americans with ugly hookers and ugly carpet.

I hate to be so negative, because I like to be positive about everything. In fact the first day here when everyone else was complaining I kept saying "Hey guys, it's not so bad! It's like hotels we stayed in while the band was on tour. And you don't have to share it with 4 dudes!"

But I'll tell you what, tour hotel generally don't have as many prostitutes. And you generally only have to stay in them one night and then move on to a city where hopefully you have some friends who'll let you crash on their couch. And usually your friends aren't prostitutes. And also on tour you get to place music at night and hang out in the city during the day, not work during the day, then stay inside at night for fear of being assaulted by fat prostitutes.

Did I mention prostitutes yet?

Anyway, enough of my bitchin. Here's what I've been doing in my free time.

Click To Play

PPS> I did get to go to a volcano in Costa Rica that was wicked awesome. I have some shots which I will hopefully post on Flickr soon, but they are on a drive that got sent to the editors room. So you're just stuck with the whining for now.

Cusco Got Her Groove Back

Cusco (or Cuzco) Peru is the first place that feels like we're in the heart of South America. It's a place unlike anything I've seen on this trip. The people are kind and full of their ancient culture. Every road is cobblestone and the architecture is beautiful in it's Spanish and native design.

Interesting things about Cusco:

1) It's the city that the movie "The Emperor's New Groove" was set in. Haven't seen it personally, so I can't really add anything to.

2) Here in Cusco it's ok to pee where ever you want. This is a great policy for anyone with a weak bladder. The only downside is that the streets smell like piss and genitalia is waved around with wild abandon.

3) Women carry their babies around on their backs. It looks like they have psychedelic, backwards baby björns. Also, men are never carrying children. So my assumption is that Peruvian ladies are just stronger.

In other news, while I haven't been posting songs on here, I have still been purchasing instruments in every place I visit. In Peru I met a wonderful street musician who sold me a Charango which he handcrafted himself.

Now spending time in Peru, you see a lot of Charangos. They have mariachi bands that play in 75% of the restaurants, and there's always someone playing one. So I've seen a Charango or two and most of them have the personality of Short Round from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom- short, spunky and loud. Mine however reminds me more of Natalie Portman in The Professional- short, calm and cute, so I named her Mathilda.



I'm still going through my Cusco pictures and I'll post some of them soon.

Machu. Picchu.

Sit, my friends and listen to my pearls of wisdom: With every action there is an equal and opposing reaction. Also, when life hands you lemons you must make lemonade, or lemon creme cookies, mmmm mmmm MMMM!

To wit, as soon as I finally got Photoshop installed on my computer, my wonderful companion and friend Nikon D50 (second closest companion next to Taurus, my 80 gig video ipod) has caught some sort of virus and is now coughing forth photo phlegm. In layman's terms, my camera is busted.

Awww, poor me. If everyone has caught their breath and finished crying over Nikon we can move on to the pictures I did manage to get.




Holy ancient ruins Batman! Machu Picchu is the shiz.biz! It's the bees knees! And of course, I had to ruin (get it?! hahaa..) some perfectly good scenery.



The whole experience is one I won't forget. The train ride, to the bus ride up the switchbacks, to our tiny tour guide Gladys, to just sitting there and watching birds fly around these gargantuan mountains.



Incans were pretty dang amazing in their ingenuity and probably their work ethic. I think if it'd been me, I'd have said "screw these stones, let's just build a couple bungalows." Thankfully, I wasn't a part of the Machu Picchu architectural committee.



The mystery behind these ruins is unparalleled. When it was discovered in 1911 there were mass graves found and by all calculations, something happened to drive the Incans to make a mass exodus from Machu Picchu. You can tell in certain areas that there are structures which weren't completed. It's an amazing place to theorize and imagine what could have happened.

Personally, I think it was either ninjas or dinosaurs that invaded, but that's just me.



My ultimate goal on this trip was also realized. I wanted to make sure I got a chance to be in some amazing place and play my melodica. I brought the dang thing specifically for that purpose and then subsequently got on my mission of purchasing an instrument in each city I visited (more on that later...). In fact the edit team has taken to calling me the Pied Piper. It was actually the best place to play, because the sound echoed throughout the ruins. So if you were at Machu Picchu the other day and you heard the piano notes for "Squalor Victoria" on a melodica- that was me.




It's just an incredible place. There's not much more I can say about it. I've dreamed of going there for years and years. I even want to come back some day and do the whole 4 day Inca Trail hike and soak in the entire experience of what it must have been like to live in that magical, mysterious world.

Here's a final shot of me overseeing the haps in the 'Picchu.



For more pictures check out my Flickr account. Link to the left, ya'll...

Bad Daniel, no cookie

I have slacked tremendously on blogging, I know. The worst part is that I'm in Peru and I've having to retro-blog on Santiago, when all I want to tell you about it where I'm at and what I've been doing. All in good time my friends...

So Santiago was one of the kindest cities I've been in yet. People there are just awesome. The weather was the real bummer. It rained all but 2 days that we were there and the nicest of those days I was stuck inside working all day long.

Oh well, I guess you can't win them all. I did go out to some bars with members of the cast and crew which was a lot of fun. And my hotel room was tres elegant. Which brings me to the brunt of this blog post:

An ongoing list of my new friends (and subsequently my new enemies)

1) My new friend, Roomservice. He's great when you're feeling down. Or bored. Or hungry. I suppose it's a lot like getting delivery, but it's in a hotel and you don't have to clean anything up.

2) My new friend, The Gym. So I'll confess, I haven't really worked out in years. I'll rock a yoga class every now and then, but weights? Treadmills? Ellipsis machines? Give me a break, I didn't even know what an ellipsis machine was. Well, the rub of the Sheraton is that you have to pay $5 to use the gym and the swimming pool is a part of the gym, so I figured I better get my money's worth. And actually I really enjoyed it and have wild notions of making exercise a more prominent part of my life. The downside is...

3) My new enemy, Sore Arms. Wow, don't bite off more than you can chew when you start going to the gym for the first time in years. I felt like my shoulders cans of silly string, shooting forth pink a green streams of pliable chemicals, which are good for nothing except annoying your friends with.

Well, I didn't take any pictures that I was crazy about, but I posted 60 from Santiago on my Flickr page, in an effort to start getting that guy back up to date.
Check them out here.

Oh and the title of this entry is completely untrue- I've been eating tons of cookies.