Grampa Fight

I'm in Peru right now in Lima.

Last night at the hostel I met a 58 year old grandpa from Pittsburg named Barry. He is on his pention and spends less money than he makes as he travels. He was a talkative fellow in the dorm room and very friendly.

There were three of us solo travellers that decided to go for a beer.. being Friday night and all. So Grandpa Barry, a 25 year old South Korean virgin named Tommy and I (with my new mohawk) hit the square. Lima didn't see it coming.

The first drinks were in a bar that had cheesy girls that came and talked you that worked there.. then they wanted you to buy them drinks.

Next we went to the bar on the roof of our hostel. As we sat on the open window Barry started squinting and complaining... I looked over and I noticed a red light on his face. He spotted a grey haired man 150 yards away in his 60's by a fountain with a red light laser pointer. He instantly threw up two fingers to him out the window and stared at the man as the man walked away. He was pissed and had no problem telling us all about.

We finished our beer and left the bar. Immediately Barry started speed walking and got ahead of us; he was tracking his prey. We decided we should follow him incase he got into some kind of trouble. He cut across traffic and we briefly lost him down a busy strip of restaurants. When we finally caught up he had actually found the man with the laser and began to call him out of the patio for a fight.

The man confessed to having a laser pointer and then said 'so what?' Barry lost it.. snapped.. cold cocked the guy in the middle of the patio on a busy area. While Tommy and I were saying 'WTF'.. Grandpa Barry was threating this man's life and trying to chased him swinging at him as the other man was threatening to press charges..

'You assulted my with a laser you son of a bitch! That's illegal!'. Being the guy that knew him the longest I had to grab him and try to calm him down. He would pretend to calm down then all-of-a-sudden dive towards him swearing. Security had arrived tell him the cops were coming when he finally decided to leave.

When we talked with Barry afterwards he was laughing and proud that he had scared the other man. Tommy and I kinda looked awkwardly at each thinking he was nuts. Tommy and I went for a beer and Barry wanted to stay put standing at the wall and waiting for the man... we didnt wanna encourage him any further and wait.

When I got back to the hostel... there sat Barry with a completely different outfit on. He had shaved his beard and had his bags packed. Apparently he went back to try to fight the guy again. 'I'm sick of being the fucking nice guy!' Barry calmly explained. When he went back the other man, the other man had video tapped Barry barking at him and had called the cops.

Barry, who was going to stay in Lima to teach English to the children for a few months, had left the very next day.

We saw the other man on the way home from our beer.

He was okay.

Just a night out in Lima.

I'll update more soon.. just wanted to share that story..

The Meaning: Don't Barry, be happy.

North to South

In case you´re wondering where the heck I am now... Colombia still has me. At least for a little longer. I´ve been heading down South from the North beach to check out some new cities here. Medellin was the next stop on route which was a very refreshing place to be. It made me realize how touristy Cartagena was. Walking down the streets there was a gauntlet of people looking for your money there.. I was a walking wallet. But Medellin brought a way more comfortable atmosphere for me.. both tempurature and people. I was there on a weekend and took advantage of the wicked nightlife there. I even found some good air guitar moments and a good mix of locals and tourists. It also has a great transportation system and Sharman and I did a bit of exploring on the metro during the day. Lots of good sites and art there... One thing though... it´s an expensive place to be for a backpacker. With that being said I wasnt there for too long. I took a bus to Cali on the Sunday to start making my way back to Peru.

Cali was a similar feel to Medellin... nice and expensive. When I went to my dorm room there was only one other guy in there. We started chatting and it turns out his name is Matthew and we both grew up in St. Albert. I graduated with his sister Megan Myers and we were both heading to South Colombia. Before leacing we checked out the zoo here which has a rep for being the best in Colombia. Then his friend there that took us to a cool lookout point above where I met Jesus, them to the mall to go babe hunting.

At the zoo

A 9 hour night bus ride with broken seats brings us here to Pasto for a much different type of experience. There are some political uses here with how the government wants to put an American military base here. There is alot of graffity here protesting it. We seem to be the only ¨gringos¨ here and it definately has more of a local feel. There are a few weird looks at us, however, Matt (goes by Ryan) has some friends here too so we´ve been hanging with some locals. They took us for a tour around the city, had some good cheap food, and ended up trying the local pasto at the University and watched some football (Soccer). Then went we drank cheap liquor out of the bag on a porch and ended up playing guitar in someone´s apartment till 5am. Today I had a nice big lunch for $1.50 CAN... that´s more my price range... Not sure how much longer I will stay here.. I know the locals want to go camping by a river here in a couple days.. I´ll go if I´m still around.. could be a good experience.. different... if not I´ll be heading down to a beach in Ecuador or Peru.

Gremlin lookin´ Monkey

Habitat

Reminder

From November 23rd to December 4th I will sharpening my house building techniques in Paraguay. I have to pay for this right away and if you would like to help me fund this with a donation please visit my Habitat for Humanity Giving Page at: (PS - please write my name in the subject line so they know it's for me)

http://www.canadahelps.org/GivingPages/GivingPage.aspx?gpID=4628

And here is what I'll be doing:

http://habitat.ca/tripschedulec235.php?PJID=139

Thanks!

Cartagena

This place used to have some problems with pirates.. I feel like I was one of them and now they´re taking everything back.. I may have gotten robbed again.


Check mate... you win.. you always do.



Neat


The night I got robbed again. Apparently 6 locals expect you to pay for a 2am drunk jam session on the street... and I thought it was about the love of music.


The old city.. muy bien

Dr. Juice is in juice heaven here..

babe.

Part of the old wall they built to try to keep us pirates out.

Spanish torture museum... also how I may have died as head pirate

Option 2

Sending Lena off back to Canada with class... FIRE!

Vamos ala playa

Alright.. time for some R & R...

but first a quick haircut..... quick piss.....


... a quick portrat....


... and beach time... Tyrona.

... Next stop... Cartagena...

The Sweaty Days

Magic MaJo


The CP Team


Watching soccer and teaching English

On guard

Suprising enough, you get used to guys running around with automatic weapons

St. Albert representin'

Just part of the trail

Lena bustin out some yoga up at CP. She probably has her zen sweat mustache on.


2 ways to get here... walk or chopper.


This place rocks.


weee! weeeee! ... piggies gone wild


Banana break.


pssstt... stop shitting on the path that we walk on.


Alfredo.. our trusty guide.

There´s the heli-pad... that would have been alot easier.

From the military look out point.

Lena and Sharman are happy to have practiced running stairs in the river valley.

Congo man. Carried the girls across the river.. and creeped them out.

Nicole busting out some stares.

Happy Birthday Grandma.

A video for you!