Matiss' Life

Ahhhh, to be away from the heat. Again, a night bus in Colombia. They say most kidnappings and police searches (where they plant drugs on you and demand a bribe) happen on night buses, but Colombia's safe now. At least it was for me. Mostly... Well, San Gil was nice, and we met lots of nice people, and did lots of nice things. yeah. nice. We get there, looking for a specific hostel, and a nice dude invites us in english to stay at his and his brother's new hostel. Good enough. The first day we didn't do much: Steve passed out and I went and go fried chicken that you eat with plastic mitts so your fingers don't get greasy. I also tried un-ripe mango with sugar. And later I tried giant fried ants. They tasted pretty much as you would expect. That night we played rock band with some Israelis. They didn't know the words, but just (very effectively) "Wooo-ooo-ooooed" the words into the mic to Guns 'n' Roses and Boston. Also a whole bunch of people ar

So I now find myself in Taganga, a very touristy, hot and picturesque place on the carribean coast, right by Santa Marta. We left Solento and took the 20 hour night bus here. The bus right was comfy, like last time, and lightning was bursting all through the night. Like ALL night, ALL over Colombia. Taganga is very nice, and Hades hot, but its breezy, so its OK. Kinda reminds me of a small town in Africa (even though Ive never been there...), all desert shrub and slummy suburbs. We ended up staying at a hostel thats meant to look like a pirate ship, and we´re sleeping in hammocks in the crows nest, above the village. Very cosy, and cheap, $7 a night, with a fantastic breakfast. And the view is unbeatable. But the domesticated birds! There's chickens and roosters who dont know when the sun comes up, and a parrot at the hostel which certainly does. Thats ok, on my last day I accidentally whacked it with a towel. Like I said, the town itself is very touristy, and we´ve met many. On t

The Colombian era began in 1492 when Christo Colombo came to South America and generally started to fuck shit up. I dont usually swear, but in Colombia, in Spanish, there are just so many more elaborate and rude ways to do it the F-word is right tame now. That doesnt mean Ill use it. ANYWAY, I came to Colombia. The plan was to meet up with Steve in South America sometime this winter. Hes been travelling around South America for the last four months with friends, including Mel, Sara (fromPeterborough) and me. We didnt know where to meet up, and I work with a couple Colombians and it turns out that Colombia was pretty damn convenient. Not to mentions amazing! So living in the twisted capitalistic society we do, the cheapest flight here was actually 4 flights: Calgary to Denver to Orlando to Miami to Bogata, all over 26 hours. It was all pretty painless actually. I slept in a little chapel in Orlando airport until I was kicked out by a security guard at 4:30am who said it was wrong for

OK, so I´ll try to recap everything Ive done in CANADA for the last four months. October was cold, so I just worked and didnt ride my bike much November was waaaarm so I rode my bike a lot. Sooo much so that I ended up breaking my shoulder. To see the escapades check out "Matiss breaks his shoulder" and "Biking in Alberta 2(009)" on Youtube. December my shoulder was broken, but I kept working. Went home for the holidays and proceeded to party for about 12 days straight, mostly with my family and family friends, it turns out. Highlights - biking to Ozolins Christmas party, Smit/enzelin side fam party, Valdman side fam party and breakdown afterwards, wicked awesome newyears with geoff, matt, tanis and alex and hangin with zack. January started to ski. Went to Lake Louise and lucier hot springs in the winter with Tracy. February was real good. Went to Vancouver for the olympics for a day and ended up partying at a punk rock show with cool random friendly Vancouver