WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE (RIVER LODGE!)

After 6 days it was time to Ramble on and we headed to the mainland. 8000 foot peaks rising from the sea. The largest untamed rainforest in central America loomed off the bow of the speed ferry that flew across the water. Flying fish zipping across the water. I prepared for pickpockets at the terminal. And for all the people that would hassle us…

And instead was met by nice folks. Friendly smiles.
Hmmm…

So Hannah and Fabian have a dog, Fluffy (who isn’t actually fluffy at all, lol), whom they adopted from a rescue place in Mexico. The guards said they had to pay some tax for the dog. So Fabian went to the office, said he didn’t have any money, and the lady ended up letting him leave and he just waved at the guards and walked out. It’s common, or so it’s said, for cops to do this kind of hustle to tourists in countries down here. But honestly, this was the only time I saw it happen. Not saying it doesn’t, it’s just not as common as I was expecting.

Sweet Ride!

Which one might Fluffy be?

We hop in their VW, it’s rad! And stop at a techno dancing grocery store, and head up the Rio Cangrejal valley to find the Jungle River Lodge.
The sun set.
We were on a dirt road.
I was jokingly saying “This is how horror movies start.” and going through a whole scenario as we drove.





Well horror movie it was not, instead it was absolutely AMAZING.
A hand made lodge with a deck over looking natural pools. A clear river flowing around HUGE house size boulders that you could cliff jump off of. The sounds of the river outside the treehouse like rooms. Huge jungle covered mountains towering up both sides of the river. Hand carved wood tables and furniture to play games on (Guillotine made it to yet another country! It’s been to almost as many as me. And of course FARKLE!  (Thank you Uncle Kev and Jordan for that one!).  We loved that. 
And the cost: $10 per person per night.

The next day and half were what travel is all about.

It began with a jungle hike in the Parc de Bonito national park. (Beautiful National Park).
The hike was just up from the lodge, and involved crossing a bad ass, Indiana Jones suspension bridge across the boulder strewn river.

Then up into the thick jungle and steep trails all on the way to a big waterfall.

 It was hundreds of feet high, thin and free. The climb down to the bottom was crazy steep, and eventually was just over big slippery boulders… so we stopped on the top of them rather than try to figure out how to get to the bottom. It was awesome to just stand under the falls and let them crash down on me. There’s something magical about waterfalls in the jungle. Not sure what it is, but I can’t get enough.

The hike out ended with a really friendly man and his daughter selling hand made souvenirs, and I got a little canoe keychain that I’ll turn into a magnet. It says Rio Congrejal!


CANYON RIVER RAFTING ADVENTURE!

So Hannah and I went for an afternoon rafting trip. It was $25. And worth every penny.
Our guide, Juan Carlos, who’s been rafting the river for 24 years, picked us up at the lodge. He put the raft on his head and carried it up to this old school Toyota 4x4, which just happened to have a 222 on the license plate. (For those who know the 222, or have heard me talk about it. There were so many 222’s on this trip it was almost comical. Phone numbers. Receipts. Gas prices. License plates. On and on and on. That’s good sign… it means I’m on the right path.  And for today that was Definitely true!)

Ride up the river, and Juan Carlos carried the raft solo down the slope. And with our life jackets on, we left the raft behind and did some Canyoning. Which consisted of going up river, swimming in the current, jumping off rocks, sliding down other rocks. Drinking water trickling out of the rocks: 2000 meters of limestone purifying the rainwater in this one spot. Yummy. There was a HUGE spider (okay, the side of hand) that he picked up by it’s legs and then set it on the water (they can hop). Well, it hopped onto his neck and crawled up onto his face! So he ducked under water, and then it comically hopped away on 6 legs, with it’s front ones way up in the air.

There were these red flowers that you could crush up and make soap with! Juan Carlos said that his mom is a healer and there are all sorts of roots and flowers and plants they use to treat illness in the jungle. He’s originally from the Moskito Coast (Eastern Honduras… and a movie starring Harrison Ford (to keep the Indiana Jones thing going). Anyway, they have lots of medicine hidden in the jungle waiting to be discovered (or already known by the locals. ). I’m fascinated by what’s out there.

Back to the river. Locals were fishing off the top of a house size boulder for fish that were swimming up stream like salmon. They were leaping up this small waterfall… most of them failing spectacularly. Bouncing off rocks. Sucked down stream. But every once in awhile some made it. When we watched for 5 minutes, hundreds of fish went for it. It was crazy.

JC and I jumped off that rock to cross the stream to the 11 meter (34 foot) jump. We had to overhand climb out of the river for the first 2 meters. I won’t lie. It was out of my strength zone. So he attached his rafting safety rope to me and LIFTED ME OUT OF THE RIVER. Man! For a thin guy this guy is strong!
We climb up to about 7 meters (21 feet) and I think this is good. He says “nah! we go to 11!”
So we did.
He jumped right off… I might’ve hesitated a little.
Truth is I felt like I was taking forever, but on the video Hannah shot it was only like 20 seconds. lol.
YEEEHAW!
That was fun!

Then we float, swim down the river to our raft and begin one of the wildest, most technical rafting trips I’ve ever been on (and I’ve been on a fair number.) The boulders are the size of cars, buses, houses, and the water snakes through them barely wider than the 3 person raft.

And sure enough, 3rd rapid… I fall right out.
Under the water.
Raft over my head.
Head hits a boulder (go helmet!)
And push out from under the raft.
JC grabs my paddle and Hannah does the river rescue and pulls me in…

… and then my paddle falls out and we have to chase it down the river!
We got it and hit more rapids.
Some, a good 10-15 foot drop around a rock.
It was wild and fun and exhilarating.
I thought “They’d never raft a river like this in the USA!”

Apparently 7 days ago, after a lot of rain, the water was 25 feet higher.
Yep.
25 FEET HIGHER (That’s 8 meters for everyone not in the USA!)
So most of the boulders we were going around would be under water.
That’s crazy.
(They don’t raft when it’s like that).






Finally we came to the amazing boulders and cliffs by the jungle river lodge, where Fabian, Franzi and Stefi were hanging by the natural pools up above. And Fabian jumped off the cliff right behind us!

What a ride! So fun! Amazing!

The 5 of us sat on the rocks as the sun set, cracking a beer. (not the “Healthy Life” brand, but the almost as good, but much cheaper one! lol). That my friends… was a great day.

Of course there was one more jump off the cliff!

Then tasty dinner, and Farkle to the sounds of the jungle river.

ONE MORE WATERFALL…

The next morning we woke early, and Fabian and I went to the cliffs and started our day with some cliff jumping! We even brought snorkels into the water for some snorkeling and peering around. It’s spooky down there. All the overhangs and in some places you can’t see the bottom.
We floated around this island boulder, jumped off others, and eventually Hannah joined us.
Not a bad way to start the day!

After breakfast, Fabian, Fluffy and I went for a walk down to a river crossing, where a path leads up into the jungle. We hiked up in search of one more waterfall… one more pool… one more paradise before we Rambled on…

And we found it!

An amazing 30 foot. It was so lovely. Perfect temperature to swim in and stand under the bottom of the falls. Sunlight piercing the canopy of shady trees. And just… AWESOME.

Fun fact:
Rio Cangrejal, to the astute reader (or spanish speaker) means
CRAB RIVER.
Apparently it used to be FILLED with thousands of crabs. But the spiders (what?!?!) and some other animal eventually ate most of them so there are very few.
So that means, Hannah and Fabian and I have had yet ANOTHER great crab adventure!




So Many 222s!
 

River Rafting... and a few observations on Costa Rica

Woa,

I realized I didn´t tell you about the awesome white water rafting on the Rio Pacuare. Even though it cost 99 bucks and the rafting part was only 3 1-2 hours it was still totally worth it. The canyon is amazing! Jungle lined slopes and cliffs towering above. Waterfalls pouring down the sides. One that even fell right into the river and you float right next to it. I´ve got a great video of it that I´ll try to post.

The rapids are 3´s and 4´s, and I think everyone of them is fun. The water was big, so big in fact that 2 days before they had to cancel the trip. But fun big. It was wild, but not to rocky. One of our guys fell out on this crazy big wave rapid, and I had to reach over the edge to pull him in as we were crashing through this huge standing wave. It was awesome. He actually rode the wave outside the boat, and I just hung on. Then reached over and pulled him in.

Apparently, this is the river they used when filming that cinematic masterpiece CONGO. Since that is a regular renter for everyone on this list, be sure to watch the white water rafting part and check out the scenery.

Actually, I´m out of time at the internet cafe here, so the observations will wait till another email...

... but I´ll give you a hint. It has to do with Americans.

Rock on
Craigo

WATER WATER EVERYWHERE…

and plenty to drink, and swim, and raft and boat and have a blast.

So for the driest continent, Australia has been all about water so far. We swim, we scuba, and now we RAFT!

A full day of whitewater on the Tully! Class 4 rapids and fun.

It was 1 1/2 hours from Cairns (for those of you still wondering how the heck you pronounce this city, it's essentially "Can" or "Cans".)

We took a bus south to a land where they get 30 METERS of rain a year.

But it didn't rain on us. It was hot, sticky and perfect for getting soaked on a river coming down from mountains.

This was the first time Tom had ever rafted,and he got a good one. Our guide was Chris, a dirty mouthed, wild and fun Aussie (who seemed like a bit of a romantic as well, though he probably wouldn't admit it). He also guides in the US on the American River (Brad Riley, you reading this? It turns out that Chris the Aussie knows good old Brad Riley (of Former Feet First DJ company fame (where I work for those of you who don't know)).

Small world indeed.

But enough philosiphizing, let's hit the RIVER!

Chris had a blast with the 3 of us and a girl from Germany. (unorignal, but we all called her "germany"). He flipped us a couple of times on purpose. Which was a bit wild.

But he never did it when there was any real danger (though it sure felt like it when it happened). We paddled, hit some crazy rapids with names like "double D cup", "2 inch" and such. There are stories behind them all, and I'll let you guess what they are for now.

Olga got tossed from the raft when we were "surfing" a rapid, going around and around in the splashing foam. I did the river rescue thing and pulled her up into the boat... and we all took a breath... and she got sucked BACK into the churning waters...and went under the boat. When she popped up on the other side, I grabbed the shoulders of her life jacket, and Tom got one and we yanked her back in the boat again. She says I'll be the Godparent of her kids someday for saving her life. (you're welcome Olga, but don't start having kids to soon).

We had a tasty lunch.

But it was the afternoon that things got really interesting.

Because we flipped completely over in a rapid (first time I've ever been on a raft that flipped like that. It's always been someting intentional, but this one was legitamate!) Boat went over, i went way under and poppled up and we all were able to swim to shore. it was a hell of a lot of fun! :)

There were waterfalls, and other swims, riding class 2 rapids outside the raft. And at the end we went over a waterfall with us all at one end of the boat. it was about 6 feet tall, and Chris FLIPPED the boat end over end. We all went deep and had a good swim.

fun fun...

And the next day we rented a car. Drove on the wrong (right?) side of the road. Which is a very strange experience for anyone who's never done it. And then we went to a cool waterfall. (starts with a "J", but I'm blanking on the name). Where there was a really wide natural rock slide! So we slid down this 25 foot long slide of fun into a nice cool pool surrounded by jungle. Awesome.

and in the afternoon (after finally drying off, been 6 days of swimsuits in a row!), we are off to SYDNEY!

Where it's cooler temperatures. Less humidity. And...

More WATER!

Our first day here we met up with Catherine and her husband Troy. SOme of you might say "Craig, who the heck is Catherine?". Well, she is someone I met on the INCA TRAIL IN 2004!!!! Yep, we kept in email touch for 4 1/2 years and here we are meeting up to go out on their boat into the waterways south of Sydney! CraZy!

At this point Essylt and David have joined us, so there are 5 people in Team Nails Australia!

Catherine and Troy are so cool, they take us to the very nice boat (okay it's her parents boat, but they get to use it!), and we head out into the channels. ride some waves, jump off the top deck into the water, eat some great food, drink some strange drinks, eat some VEGEMITE! (yep, an Australia delicacy made of Yeast extract or something like that). It's bitter and salty. We shoot some video for my next Trespassing On the Lot film, and swim, and dance and sing to DOWN UNDER by Men At Work.

And yes... we were in our swimsuits again.

Water, water everywhere... every day so far!

Gotta go, running out of time on the internet.

Rock on

Craigo

PS: I'm Sorry for the non BCC's on the last email. I hope it doesn't cause you guys any problems with Spammers.

I'M IN FRICKIN AFRICA!!! or MZUNGU MEANS WHAT????

Hey Team!

Still alive and kicking here in the fabulous country of Uganda. I recommend for anyone to come here. The people are friendly in the vein of Laos and Thailand. It's easy to communicate. They love to talk to travelers. It pretty much rules.

Since I last wrote I've rafted the SOURCE OF THE NILE and ridden a bike around villages. I've sat on a bus that runs on Africa time (meaning it left 1 hour later than the 2 hours later that they said it would leave!). And now I’m at a "resort" on the shores of Lake Bunyonyi in southwest Uganda. I'm spending a whopping $20 a nite for a private room with a balcony and a view of the lake. It rules.

So... a few things you should know about Africa. Some rumors debugged. Some unknown points of interest:

1. Rafting the Nile is awesome. It's much class 5 white water with floats in between. So you can chat, enjoy the fact that you are on the mother f-ing NILE, and then hit some wild waterfalls and waves. We even did one with our eyes closed until the guide told us to open them at the last minute and Wammo! Huge wave in our face. Somehow our raft was the only of 5 not to flip, and my record of never being thrown from a whitewater raft continues (though honestly I wanted to be since the rapids are deep and you can swim them. I guess my survival instinct is to strong!)

2. Go raft the Nile NOW. Because as "progress" is coming. A damn is being built across it and will basically eliminate some of the best white water on earth. You have a year, maybe two. So get your ass to Uganda!

3. When you are on an open rafting truck after rafting driving on dirt roads through villages, every single child age 2 to 12 will run out and wave and say "hello! Mzungu! Hello!" They will wave or give a thumbs up. In fact if you ride your bike they will do the same thing. They will be happy as all get out."Mzungu!" So you might ask what that means..... well....

Mzungu means "White Person!" Welcome to Africa! No lies, I was one of 2 white folks I saw all day long today traveling... and that was alright by me. We stand out a little bit, but are wonderfully welcome. Racism doesn't exist in this part of Africa as far as I can tell.

4. Mzungu might also mean "money", because on the way back from town on my bike ride I had many of the same kids run out and say "Mzungu. Money. Give me money". Which was to bad. Makes me wonder if it was always about money. But I don't think so. Still, when the average Ugandan makes about 50 USD a month... it's understandable. Still... it's not wise to give them anything or it becomes worse (rumor has it Kenya is pretty fierce with the money asking).

5. It rained so hard after my bike ride that the returning rafters from that day got stuck in the mud. And they were 2 hours late making our bus back to Kampala late. But really, who cares when you have a deck overlooking the mother f-ing NILE in a rain storm! The restraunt at the camp was awesome and it was hard to leave. And at that point the phrase "This Is Africa" or TIA came to mind. Since then I've heard it half dozen times. You might remember it from "Blood Diamond" and it really is true. Bus is late : This is Africa. Road is muddy: This is Africa. Go all the way back to Kampala to do a tour with some new travel friends the next day and it's full so you find yourself back in Kampala and having to figure out your next couple days: This is Africa.

Love it.

6. Boda Bodas are crazy. Ride on the back of a motorbike with your backpack on as they careen through gridlock traffic and people changing lanes, buses and trucks honking horns. I can't believe we haven't crashed yet. Still.... you gotta do it. After all, TIA.

7. When I got to the bus station this morning I was surrounded by guys trying to get me on their buses. They were all smiles and fun. One guy tried to guess where I was from. "Germany?" "nope". Let me try again: USA" "Yeah!" Then another guy said

"I have one question: Will you be voting for Obama or McCain?"

"Obama all the way" I replied.

The place erupted with CHEERS, people patting me on the back, hugging me, it was hilarious!

8. Fear not Dad and Uncle David, at the resort tonight, the waiter was saying he likes bush for all bush has done for Africa and aid program and education to stop Aids. So they go both ways here as well. :)

9. AIDS rate in Uganda is only 6%. So no, everyone over here isn't sick with it. In fact they have billboards and education all over Uganda to keep the rate down. (the same apparently is not true for other countries here though).

10. I keep waking up at 6am or earlier. What they heck? Oh, and this morning I was woken by a MOTHER F-ING ROOSTER!!!! I HATE ROOSTERS!!!!! :)

Hope all of you are well. I have a Gorilla permit for Friday, which oddly enough will be my first animal/safari type activity. You know, that thing that most people come to Africa for (myself included too.:)

That's all I've got for now. The boda boda ride up here to the lake was on this twisty dirt road going WAY to fast with backpacks. I thought we were going to bite it on the curve, but somehow didn't.

anyway, hope you are all well. I've got a day of canoeing, hiking, biking and swimming tomorrow (no fear... one of the few lakes in Africa with no crocs or hippos or snakes or strange bacteria!)

Keep rocking

Craigo

PS: Brian, the bag weighed 37 pounds. :)