back to buenos

my time in cali has come to an end and today i find myself in one of my favorite cites: buenos aires. it wasn’t easy getting here, i almost didn’t make my bogota flight due to weather and the flight to buenos aires was completely full. i was given a seat in the last moment and my blood pressure finally took a break. this will be my 4th time in buenos aires. there are so many reasons why i love this city. i mostly associate it with the memories ive shared with friends in the past…(mostly spent over steak, wine and empanadas) but now its time to make new ones with some new friends. my friend aaron from LA is out here, we landed around the same time and spent most of the day cruising in scooters avoiding potholes and manic taxi drivers. we checked out ricoleta cemetery, roamed around the mini mansions/mosuleam and finally found evita’s grave. we cooled off with a tasty beer from nearby brewery patagonia hailing from the southern city of bariloche. we ditched the scooters and hopped on an uber back to our hostel and quickly made friends with an aussie - also named aaron - a brit, american, serbian, and a dutch. im not exactly sure who started it but we began to talk about our favorite films fro the next 2 hours and it was beautiful to see really, how all of us from different countries can love film so much along with hearing how different our opinions were about the film we loved. many beers and a very crappy shawarma later both aaron’s and i found ourselves at a dash berlin trance concert. had never been to a trance concert before but very glad i went. the place was packed and when the headliner came on everyone erupted with cheers and hands in the air. the next 4 hours the man kept spinning and twisting dials, morning light greeted us directly behind us as the night sky slowly lifted its veil. didn’t get back to the hostel until 9am, slept till 1pm. today is saturday and i am in buenos aires  

cali to cali

where do i start. lets start with these random heat/walking/mystery rashes ive been getting; how about i don’t. i’m currently in cali, not california. i came to cali, colombia on a whim and ive been whimming ever since. i really can’t tell you why im here, i vaguely remember a friend i met in a medellin hostel mentioning “cali is ok” and well, to be honest yeah, its ok. 

the city is known for its salsa but apparently salsa isn’t even native here. salsa actually hails from the big apple, new york city USA. i learned that tidbit from yesterday’s walking tour, which was…ok. fernando, our walking tour guide was a chill dude, i and some germans and an american girl named jess from chicago exchanged info with him and a few hours later we took advantage of a 2x1 valentines special cali deportivo soccer match. it was a lot of fun but instantly as i walked into the stadium i sadly remembered that they don’t sell beer at soccer events in colombia; tragic really, by the second half i caved and ordered an “aguila cero” and with that went my first non-alcoholic beer cherry. the match ended, the home team won, i said goodbye to the germans and came back to my hostel a different man.

i began writing this a few hours ago in a BBC brewery when my new friend jenn showed up. the writing stopped, a few more beers were consumed. a nap was taken and then i met jenn again in a salsa club which was fun and wacky. fun because of the locals who seriously are on a different level of salsa and wacky because of the insane amount of white tourists that flood the dance floor after 11pm. so much so that you can’t even see the locals. 

cali, ive only been inside of you for less than 2 days and yet i feel like ive traversed more broken slabs of concrete and dog shit than the ordinary tourist does in a month. thanks 

the year is 2020, off with IG’s head

the year is 2020 and with that another valiant effort to produce something with meaning. 2/3 of january is already in the past and yet my prose has nothing to show. the truth is that my writing hasn’t existed for for a while but my instagram feed however does have a few cool posts and there lies the problem. 

31, for what its worth

31
it was a hell of a ride
but i would also like to say sorry.
for a minute it seemed like i would never sleep on my own bed and i'll admit that it began to wear.
some beds were comfortable but others were slabs of cold porcelain. 
im not complaining.
i chose the life and i've given up alot to be missing the simple vanity of a comfy bed;
although its nice. 

the last breath i remember taking was back in february
when i hopped on a flight to kona, 
then galapagos, 
san blas islands came next and so on. 
i met some amazing people along the way, some that i'll probably catch up with later in life.

thats kind of how it works. i meet amazing people in crazy circumstances, bond over drink and travel and we say our "catch you on the next one"
at that the moment i find myself inside drinking tea in my beautiful los angeles and it feels strange.
i haven't been home for my birthday in years. 
the feeling is strange but feel good knowing that im going to see my family tonight. 
31
for what its worth, you made me into a stronger man. ive grown the courage and ability to say no to the wrong jobs, bad relationships and youve affirmed that i can do whatever i put my mind to. 
im going to miss you, for some reason 32 definitely feels so much serious. 
i guess we will have to see 

inside the heart of the angkors

the AM hours were still shrouded in darkness.
im not sure who's alarm went off first but the journey into the mystic angkors of siem reap was finally here and although the sun remained chained,
we knew that in just a few hours its fiery wake would have no mercy.

i can still remember the unseen heat of dawn invading my every pore, hiding in every obscure corner.
our tour guide spoke softly as our van speared through the morning's muggy dew. bun made us aware of the beauty and many hazards of these ancient angkors

but my senses slowly began to drift into the nothing that stares from the other side of the glass.
time drags its fingers across the unseen jungle reminding me of its presence.

darkness finally loosens its grip and faint shadows reveal an exhausted jungle. the pulse of these ancient cities are projected through the cicada,
which at this very moment warn the jungle of intruders.
the van finally stops and i have a strong feeling that i dont belong here.

nevertheless we press on and make our approach through the less popular eastern gate.
massive trees along with broad canopies stand side by side making it difficult for dawn's light to pierce through.

sunrise is moments away and already i can feel the heat rising like the impending blast of hiroshima.


i arrive at the point where east meets the western gate crowd.
i marvel and hang on the outer edges of angkor watt; the moat perfectly catching the reflection of its towers along with the delicate pink hue from above. this moment is holy
and will forever remain so
the thick jungle in the backdrop hides the horizon but i know the chains have fallen.
i am inside the heart of the angkors. 

Cambodia, it's about time

I don't know where I left off. It's been a while since I've worked up the courage to write again. For no apparent reason really, I guess I hate the feeling of writing again and then stopping halfway through like I normally do. I'll try and not do that again. 

Cambodia is on the horizon; quite literally, my flight is on initial descent and I can see it from my window seat. Michelle and I are less than an hour from landing and both of us have no clue what to expect. I've never been to Cambodia and the forecast calls for thunderstorms, high humidity and 90 degree weather, which means that Michelle is going to have a blast. I personally don't know what expect but I'm excited to again be in a situation that calls for growth and understanding.

just passing through guayaquil

*** 2/26/17

it's 8:30pm and i'm currently in the city of guayaquil inside a cuban piano bar on the outer rim of las peñas district. i just finished a 2-hour trek surveying the countless steps and dim lit alleyways of las peñas, which let me just say are countless. it's easy dismiss these alleyways as only just such; these are the front door porches of the people who live in these favela like mounds of cinderblock and rebar, which at that moment i was intruding. kids and young lovers conducted their business as i interjected my dark and sweaty mass of flesh through their world, but thankfully my parents taught me my native tongue and even though the years have chipped away at it, it still manages to get the job done.

i'm glad i made it to the top of las peñas because this club negra would've tasted a little less satisfying. why am i in guayaquil? funny story, i'm already supposed to be in galapagos but being the smart that i am, i booked myself on a flight with a 20 minute connection. did i mention that i was a smart man? deep down i knew that i probably wasn't going to going make it but thought why not give it a shot. that's been kind of my mantra most of my life and it doesn't seem like i'll be letting it go anytime soon. 

well, it seems like the mediocre piano player is getting warmed up now and with that i hold up my glass.