Well.... I Can´t Really Complain

Life is not THAT bad.

I´ve now hit my path from last year. The black line is my trail.

(I´m in Bahia. There´s New Fotos from the Guianas and Brazil. Boo Yah.)

Pipa!

Back in Pipa. I was here last year, actually the same week, and it´s

familiar and HOT and fun and swimming with dolphins and dancing

to reggae music and forro and being tan and old friends from

Sao Paulo and new friends from aroud the world and peixe and

camarão and açai and it´s been a beautiful week.

Where am I?

For this is surely not South America.
It took forever and 3 days to get here, busses, jeeps, hitchhiking, angry bitch-ass Guyanese imigration officials, a bunch of boats, and a few beers. Passed through Guyana for 5 days, think Africa-India in the Carribean, but speaking Creolese, which is close enough to English, and incredible Indian Food everywhere! My Guyanese surrogate family cooked me the best curry dinner I've had in ages.
Now, I've made it to Paramaribo, Suriname. Think Guyana, but heavily Indonesian and Javanese, just as expensive ($$$$), better food perhaps, speaks dutch, and everyone drives mercedes' and nice cars. And now, there are some white people, because of the influx of Dutch tourists who want to go to "South America" while still speaking dutch. Go figure. I hadn't met anybody else who had ever been to Suriname. This has been a personal goal of mine for a while. And now I'm here and well... I wouldn't say under-enthused... but where is my marching band?
So I'm feeling better, it rains every hour on the hour, but only for 10 minutes. Crazy place. But nice. But expensive. So I'm a thinking about going on a little adventure. More on that another time. ha. Oh, and although these computers are muito slow, I've uploaded some more pics into the Colombia (a ton), Venezuela (New Years) and Guyana/Suriname folders.

Outtie

Well, an interesting and dare-I-say fun New Years on Isla Margarita, Venezuela. My second New Years in a row on an island, and my third New Years in a row in South America. Looks like I have a streak to uphold... Chilled with Taal and Carlos and random internationals from all over... but... I`m sick. Estoy muy gripado. I`ve been in bed for a few days, and figured if I was going to sleep all day, might as well do it on buses. So I just left Isla Margarita, and have 3 solid days of travel, vertically crossing Venezuela, thru the North tip of Brazil, and then a 14 hour jeep ride from the bottom of Guyana to the top, through the jungle.  Should be an interesting trip. Ha. My New Year`s Resolution, by the way, because I always get overly philosphical around New Years, is to be more careful with my own heart and other people`s hearts. Happy New Year.