the motherland will have to wait

in this crazy economy, who in their right mind would ever voluntary choose a three month leave of absence? that would be me. especially when someone(like me) works for a company like virgin america who lets their employees keep full flight benefits.

so what does a person do with a blank boarding pass? he gets scared, lands a job at a restaurant and forfeits the gypsy lifestyle.
ok, not quite entirely. did i mention i'm in panama?

panama city, panama is a trip! pun unintended. separated by six hours of flight time, panama originally was merely going serve as our launch pad to the long awaited return to the motherland aka cuba. long story short: it didn't quite happen like that due to the complicated mess of the us embargo. but thanks to the helpful tips of jesus -the friendly copa ticket agent- i will definitely be giving it another go in the near future.
but in the meantime, with no plans, no reservations, and with quite an empty working knowledge of panama, what does one do? he smiles a hails a cab.

save the headache and do yourself a favor, grab a taxi. the cab scene didn't seem like it was dominated by bureaucratic bullshit like in bigger airports. these panamanian cabs come in different size and colors. you'll prob get hit up for a ride as soon as you walk past the terminal so poker faces on people and let the haggling begin.

the cab driver charged us $18 for both my buddy phillip and i. it took us about 40-60 minutes to get to the city from PTY airport. traffic was miserable. with all of the pretty shiny skyscrapers, you would think that panama city would buy into the concept of infrastructure; nope.

having an unlocked smartphone comes to be super handy in times like these. while in traffic, i looked up hostels and hotels nearby. we found some but all were booked so the cab driver brought us to hotel terra nova, which in panama translates into prostitute central.
we paid the cab, grabbed our room key, and just like that we were in the heart of it.

the night scene is pretty lively, nothing crazy. just your typical clubs on one side of the street, gentlemen's club on the other, a schwerma shack in the middle, and a pub at the end of it. i hit that schwerma shack hard. then went to that pub called the londoner and had some of the local brew. after, we tried walking into this locals looking club/bar called "ashe" but the tall black panamanian demanded money. he did let us chill in their patio and have a few more brews. in the midst of it all, a parade of scantily cladded women walked in and out of the classy establishment, with customers hand in hand. kinda sad to watch but it is the oldest profession in the world. business was good

in between then and now, we ditched the hotel for a hostel a few blocks away. and now perched up on top of my bunkbed i lay awake with my faithfull ipad while phillip snores his hangover away. what can i say about panama city? i can't say much honestly. from the little i've seen i feel like this place has alot to say. there are so many different shades of skin, slant of eyes, width of hips, that really has me wondering how they all came to be here. but with all those variances, the panamanian people are warm, welcoming, and friendly, which is why i'll be coming back again.

belgian bonanza

it's 2:37am and i cant go to sleep. didnt know what time it was 2 hours ago, i prob wont 2 hours from now also. delirious

roadtrip finale

i'm on the I-40 driving westbound wrapping up a month long road trip across the country. i left the writing off in st. louis, which has now become the new benchmark on which everything that is shitty will now be compared to. i never EVER would like to visit st. louis again(except if it were solely on the basis of going to pappy's bb-q).

during the last night, while we started our breakdown, a freak electrical storm crept up. the sky lit up, thunder clapped directly on top of us. it was a great sight to see and all except that we had to take down big metal trusses.

from there we headed to dallas, texas which went smooth, then drove to virginia beach, virginia. from there we drove to the artscape event in baltimore, maryland. yesterday the team and i began our drive through virginia; i was left speechless.
the countryside gradually became more wooded as we approached the smoky mountains. plooms of smoke eerily hovered across the treetops as the sun descended below the mountains. the sun's rays struggled, but they made it through some of the thin strips of haze. i swerved off the road for a second but i couldn't stop staring at the rugged beauty of it all.

something about that that glow though...it's special. a few moments later, the sky morphed from a pale blue, into a blood pink...again, speechless. we stayed in asheville, north carolina for the night. today we woke up and took a much needed morning white water adventure down the pigeon river. we're staying in memphis tonight, always a chill place.

sweaty balls

the sun was down yet it was still 101 degree. what is wrong with this city!
not exactly home plate but good enough.

go dodgers!

4 days 5 states and 27 years of age

i had a good time in flagstaff. spent most of the night talking to brian, a 60-year old retired computer engineer and hopeful novel writer.

the next day i turned 27 years; snap. i keep hearing that a person's best work comes at 27...we'll see about that. i had breakfast with the gang and was given a birthday bowl of watermelon with a banner on top saying "happy bday customer dude" a huge smile followed.


we continued driving through the arizona and new mexican desert till we finally we got to las vegas!
new mexico...
unlike it's brighter sibling, this new mexican town has shops filled with antiques and vacant stores. it's inhabitants are a strange mix; a cross between locals and nomads. a place for people who do not want to be found.


i had my birthday outing at a community charity event being held at the las vegas town hall. a "los lonely boys" type band was playing corrido jams along with some tex-mex.
two ladies starting throwing fists at each others' face because a charity event wouldn't be complete without a good fight. well, that was our cue to leave, but not until the fight was over. 

walked to the local bar with the filter crew and partook in some birthday libations. the place was filled some sketchy ass humans. mac-10, westside connection, and random 80's songs blared from above. to my right, a man who had just been released from prison was throwing his pitch to my friend mikey to push drugs across the country. and to my left, i don't know what was said but two mid 40 year old women wanted to jump me. after 45 tense minutes, we called it a night.

the rest of the drive was a blur, we stopped in florence, co for a night. stayed at really cool bed and breakfast...haunted.

we white river rafted down the the arkansas river flowing right below the royal gorge bridge; it was intense. i jumped off a 25ft. cliff and lost my oakley sunglasses in the murkyness. the raft that i was in got flipped over once over some rocks. struck my shin on something, thought i broke something; luckily i didn't.

the next day we kept driving, stayed in whichita, ks for the night...nothing much to say about that place. don't go

st. louis welcomed us with sweltering triple digit heat and rainforest humidity. the next day we all had to set-up and in the course of 10 hours, i must have drank at least a dozen bottles of water. as the sun dragged it's fiery fat ass down the sky, i expected a slight cool down or maybe a kiss from a nice breeze. negative

at the end of the day, i became 3 shades darker and was completely mummified with salt. the cold shower made my nagging body happy. 4th of july was the big day. the toyota event went well, and the fireworks show was incredible. now it's the 5th of july, and it is our day off. the filter owners got us all home plate tickets for the cardianls vs. rockies game, which is nice. but what i am really excited about is checking out the anheuser-busch brewery. i heard it's intense; well it should be a chill day. 

2012 filter cross country tour: day 1

just drove through the arizona state line. 

and nothing has given me more bliss than seeing california through my side-view mirror. all the stress that accumulated this past month took a toll; simply, it feels great to drive away and know that the only thing i have to worry about is the road and what track to play next. so first stop: flagstaff, az. 

we're staying at the montevista hotel, one of the many haunted hotels that our tour manager managed to book us in...again

should be fun!

westerners

five days ago, in the city of old riga, i stood alone inside a crowded bus station holding a one-way bus ticket to vilnius that was no longer valid. standing there, below a dark cloud, i laughed. to the latvians around me, i must've looked mad, maybe i was. there i knew there was absolutely nothing i could do to change my situation. so i kept laughing all the way back to my hostel

but now, a few thousand feet above the english channel, i'm inside an aer lingus flight with two of my closest friends headed to dublin after spending the best week ever in western europe.

we spent the first night in paris in this sheik hotel called the 'le mondrien'. it was nice but we didnt spend much time inside. we walked around the city, played typical tourists while taking countless pictures of the same sites you see on your friends facebook page. we made our way back to the hotel, showered and quickly headed to the eiffel tower for some lambrusco time. as soon as it got dark, the eiffel tower went paparazzi. hundreds of sparkling lights lit up the massive A as we zipped our sweet wine.

the dazzling light show went on on every top of the hour. the next morning we walked to the train station where we caught our train to brussels.

from what i gathered over the years, brussels was not a happening place to be. but o contrare, we was wrong! the city has a unique vibe, one which i cant quite fully describe. normally a city looks similar to others but i cant think of a city to compare belgium with.

the belgian people were extremely friendly, but this might have been due to the fresh rudeness the french had given us the day before.

we stayed in a neat hostel next to the 'godiva' chocolate factory. we also knew coming into to belgium about their famous beers along with the renown monasteries that produced them. as the night progressed, we stumbled into the delirium cafe/bar, which was a three-level cave. it was there where i discovered 'delirium's' nocturnum. if you haven't tried it, do so. it has such an interesting flavor, one that i can only describe as sweet, dark, and refreshing. i usually go for the bitter side of brew, but the nocturnum won me over.
we pretty much did the same the next day.

from brussels we rode the train up to amsterdam where i had amazing time as well. at first, walking outside the train station was a bit overwhelming. all you see is people on their bikes and one false move can have you laying in a hospital. we walked for about thirty minutes looking for the 'flying pig' hostel. we finally found it, and off we were. we bought some of the native brew 'amstel' , some bread, cheese, turkey, then headed to vondolf park. everyone was out, the day was sunny and breezy; the day: perfect.

as the sun's rays began to get weaker  the park began to change the color of the trees. the whole park had a neat amber glow.

the next day we rented bikes and pretty much did the same as before. as we rode our bikes through small streets over the canals we rode right into the outskirts of the red light district, which was not what i thought it was going to be. i found it to be a very organized operation. people walked towards the ladies behind the glass, prices were whispered to each other, and many transactions were done.

a few hours later and we arrived in the emerald island.

once again the sky was open with blue skies and warm weather. we tossed our bags in our hostel and once again we took to the streets. andy and i had already been to ireland the year before, but we primarily stayed on the south side of the river leffey. on this trip we stayed on the north side, which isn't as touristee as the south. we went on a quest to find a store called 'penney's' in order to buy towel. our hostel was charging 6 euro but the kind lad at reception told us that we could buy cheaper ones, which we did. along the ways, i couldn't resist to stop at a kebab shop. later that night, we walked on over to temple bar where we had some guinness and listened to some traditional irish folk.

we ended the night with 'papa johns' pizza.
the next day was pretty uneventful. we did the 'john jameson' tour, which was very informative and fun.

it began to rain so we spent some time inside the hostel. you could tell in our gazes that we were tired. we found a place to eat and from there we stopped by for some souvenirs. sleep came next.

now, like many time before, i'm overlooking the atlantic thinking to myself what comes next.