water

Well, I have one night left till I get on a plane to Vancouver in the morning, from Bogota.  Funny part is this is an entirely different trip.  I guess it's a month or two ahead in time since the last post, so that means I've been home (which was good) and now I've returned and am in the final moments of my third trip to Colombia this year.  Almost needless to say, I like the place.

While I am excited to head back to Vancouver and get in a routine thats good for my body and mind, I can't help but be a little bummed that I am leaving, this time not quite knowing when I will return.  I arrived at the gate in Texas for my transfer to Bogota and it hit me that I was going back.  There was this old man speaking with a tongue that I love, and from beginning to end of the 5 hour flight he would come and walk back and talk to his family, not really caring that I was completely invading their conversations, maybe or maybe not aware that I really had no clue what they were talking about.  Obviously, I am nowhere near fluent but this time when I got to the skateboarders I was actually able to converse and participate, even if my grammar was horribly wrong or I was just an observer for a long period of time.  I actually spoke this time not afraid of making errors and proved that all the writing and reading I have been doing is really, really good.  I don't think I could stop even if I wanted to; I am fascinated with the thought of being able to converse bilingually, and I know it's something that I can do, or rather, will do.

 On Thursday night we did the girls clinic and it was a lot of fun, and even though there was a lot going on because it was the starting slide jam, we managed to group together and share thoughts, tips and pointers.  Friday was a birthday party full of delicious mexican food, and Saturday was the start of the 3 day long weekend event.  Going into this race I knew I would only be skating the women's division, so after skating on Saturday, I woke up on sunday not entirely in the mood and made a plan to go elsewhere, calling up my friend Nicolas who is a really good photographer from here in Bogota.  When it comes to skating, mainly it's just street that he shoots but after this week he sounds excited to have a go with some good, quality downhill.  We met up and headed downtown early, entertained all the way into the night by great skateboarding, photos around the city and new friends through conversation so basic and reliant on energy you know they are of the purist. Sunday was epic and I am so glad that I skipped qualifying to head out with these boys.  These photos are two shots that were put up on his Ocho Shortys page, and one of me on my longboard from the festival, shot by Luchin Rivera.

 

dinner time soon. chao.

Less than 10 days left in Colombia

Well, it's almost time to wrap up my trip here.  Currently camped out at the Cannalivio house in Medellin as I have been for almost a month now, waiting on Jenny to arrive for a day or two tomorrow and then packing my bags after the weekend and jumping on a plane to Bogota to catch up with the Longboard Colombia guys one last time before starting my decent home.  I'm stoked I got this extra month because I finally feel satisfied with the amount of time I've had away from home, it's been enough time to feel like I actually lived somewhere, and lived I have, but its also been enough time to really start looking forward to returning to a few of the comforts at home I've taken serious advantage of.  Nothing too crazy, of course; I've had hot showers the whole time I've been here, good friends and never a shortage of food...but I've hit a point where I'm ready to be back with the good old familiar.

I just strolled past this digging through the internet and couldn't help myself.  Last year I was at the top of Bonnet in France and saw a sky like this overtop of me as I tried to get myself to sleep in the tent.  I remember being so scared, a different kind of scared than I've ever been in my life because I realized right then and there just how small we are in the greater scheme of things and how easy it could be to be permanently separated in the blink of an eye from my family.  The hill is surrounded by old WW11 hideouts, chambers, hospitals and storage facilities, and where we were camping, a lake, just like this one.  What an amazing sight to see.

Final Month

I woke up the other morning thinking 'Oh my god!  Todays the day I am supposed to be going home!', inside thanking anything that would listen that I was not.  The last month has been a really good one of travelling alot of different places and finally ending up in Medellin again.  Medellin is the best city here;  the air smells good, the mountains are beautiful the lightning in the sky at night is amazing and the people here are generally just looking to have a good time... its the wild city here, so wild in fact, that it comes as no suprise that the rest of the country thinks everyone here is batshit crazy.
I live at the cannalivio house, an ancient stone house that is open for business during the day as they make and create all the cannibis cored muscle balms, oil and sprays I can rub on to myself, and at night its all mine as everyone makes their way home.  There is a good, varying cast of characters here and I am getting a lot of practise speaking in spanish as at this point, everyone knows what I'm here for and they are doing a great job of pretending not to hear me if I make a request in english.  It's working.
I am back at the gym on my daily routine as well, I did the full month in Bogota then stopped for about a month as I packed my bags and hit Prado-Periera and everything in between until now and as luck would have it, the medellin branch of my trainers is directly across the street from my house, like 45 second walk status.  Today I was tied by the waist by 6 resistance bands and told to run like hell towards my trainer in boxing gloves and punch him left, right before the elastics whipped me backwards in nothing short of a violent motion.  Scary.

The only weekend I was on board almost month back was the only weekend I have been on board, I've just assumed the role of normal citizen since.

I have a fucking pet rooster at this house.  he is terrifying.

Well looking back and seeing that Prado was the last post, it's been a while and a lot has happened!  First and foremost, I'm skateboarding again!  Pretty much every day I find myself at one of the amazing hills that this country has to offer.   The weekend after I went to Prado I jumped on a plane to Pereira and have been here at Jenny's house ever since (just over 2 weeks).  In the 2 weeks I've toured a great part of the Cafetero district of colombia which is, as you guessed it, home to all the Colombian coffee you always hear about.  It's gorgeous in this area, the landscape at least.

Last weekend I entered a race for the first time in 8 months and despite my legs fighting me for the strength of a full days skateboard racing, all went well and I took the win in womens' followed by a 6th in the opens class, something I'm stoked on, but a little bummed as well as the semi finals saw a crash right in front of me on the start line and sacrificed my chance of positioning myself in the final...todo bien though.  I caught up with all my friends from the other cities in the country,  and eventually as the weekend came to an end I watched all of them make their way home.

Im not too sure whats coming up next, a couple weeks ago thinking about it being time to go home at the end of July I kind of panicked a little about not wanting to leave yet and had my ticket extended an extra month.  The training I was doing in the gym each day for my knee was coming at a price that was a little hard to turn away from, and every day I am getting a bit more comfortable with my spanish, trying more and more and more, especially here in Periera with Jenny.    All I know now is that my ticket home is in August instead of July and every day till then will exist some sort of combination of training, motorcycles and skateboarding.  I think a solo trip up to Santa Marta might happen as well.  I'm trying not to put too much thought into it as I have been this entire trip...it's really been a good time of doing what I want, when I want and getting the fuck out before it's dragged on, fine with me.

Everyone here always asks me if I miss home and up until now my answer has been 'not really, I'll be ready to go back when it's time though...' and I know that's going to be true.  Still, today is the first day that I've noticed something missing; as proof, it's 1am here and im looking through a photo album of shit my dads made while making a point of staring at his hands because I miss them.  I know this quote that goes something like 'missing someone isn't about measuring the distance between you, its about being somewhere and at that exact moment, wishing the other was there to experience it with you'.  I'm starting to have moments where I know certain friends and family that would have a killlllller time alongside me in some of these adventures, I'm finally noticing their absence at the  hands of either not seeing or talking for over two months, or some of them, even more.  It ain't nothing I can't get through though, so for those of you at home who I love and miss, I love and miss you and for all you others out there...I'm having a blast!!!

I'm drinking lots of good coffee for you <3

Prado

This weekend was another holiday long weekend in Colombia (they have the most holidays in the world..) so I jumped in a car and drove 5 hours south to the city of Prado, a small area in the middle of nowhere that is home to a 17km lake...and my buddy Diego's vacation home.   I couldn't believe my eyes the whole time I was there.  I wasn't wanting to learn how to waterski or wakeboard, so instead, I learned how to drive the boat and ripped everyone around the water.  Check these pics yo~!

Neiva

So I got on a bus this weekend packed with Colombian street skaters and headed towards a city called Neiva, home to a hella hot climate and a lot of very good times.   I spent the weekend at a house that was owned by the event organizer with all the Mostros/Medellin boys, ended up getting wasted and jumped in a dirty ass swimming pool at 4am in a campground party, took a bunch of refreshing cold showers and sat around being a Cheerleader all weekend at the skatepark.   This is Marra's final round, he ended up 4th overall after getting these 4 tricks then spending the rest of the time trying for a fucking killllllllller F/S blunt shovet out.  Didn't exactly work out for him in the time frame...  none the less, still a boss.  Neiva is beauuutiful, my face is tanned and I want to go back.

My Birthday party was pretty sweet

So I turned 25 on Tuesday.  No biggie.  Carolina cooked a crazy Salmon dinner for a total of 15 people and we hung around the apartment all night eating and drinking, it was a good night for sure.  Buddy Mateo passed me this walk around of the crowd, its rather quiet but everyone is a certain level of tired or drunk.  I fall in the drunk category.