The Good Old Days

My friend Kaisha put together a music video with all sorts of shots of where we live. Check it out on you tube at www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZLV3B1dz1U

Paparazzi

Mi casa es su casa!

So this is my place....ok, ok, I only live on the bottom floor.

Sunset view from the back patio.

View from the side of the house looking south.

The godfather gets it done!

I now have a bank account! After twelve tries and many, many hours with attorneys and bank people, I can now accept money in this country! I met with a new attorney in San Jose that supposedly had friends in high places at the bank. He looked like some sort of mafia big shot. We walked in to the bank and everyone immediately recognized him, he talked to some guy for a minute, walked back to me and in a Godfather-esque tone said (english with a thick spanish accent), "They are going to give you an account today, everything is going to be fine." Now I just need my insurance, and I am in business. I applied 3 weeks ago, and it should've only taken a few days, but the government insurance agency is backed up...and so it goes.

Broken Ribs...One Guide Down

Last week was training week for the new guides. Marcus, Zach, and I loaded up the cruiser and headed out with our new driver Alfredo. It was great to get out on the river and remember why I decided to do all this stuff in the first place. Water conditions were really high that day, but we weren't worried with 3 experienced guides and no paying customers to worry about. Things were going really well, we ran Come Gringo (Gringo Eater, pic on left) a class IV rapid right through the sketchiest part and came out with no problems. Then we got to Upper Rio Blanco another class IV rapid. The first wave we hit stopped us in our tracks and we barely got through it, but the next one was even bigger and we just didn't have the momentum to get through it, our raft dump trucked us. A dump truck is when a raft flips up and throws everyone out but the raft doesn't flip over. By the time I got back to the raft and located the other two guys, I could hear Zach groaning pretty loud. He had hit a rock on his side pretty hard in the middle of the rapid. He took it easy for a day, went surfing, said he felt ok, so we hit the river again on Friday. Once he started paddling he started the groaning again, it was obvious to us all that it wasn't just some bruise, he had cracked a rib or two, he couldn't even paddle, let alone breathe without serious pain. He flew out today. We decided to change the name of the Upper Rio Blanco rapid to Bodi Safa. You guys remember the movie Point Break with Patrick Swayze, it's terrible but it's a must see. We had nicknamed Zach Bodi, so we thought it would be a good tribute to him. We had to take this pic from a rock cause there was nobody there to take it, so it's not that great, but we had to document the Pure Life Expeditions virgin run, I hope the rest go much smoother! Marcus on the left, Bodi in the back, and me on the right.

0-11

O-11, I changed my passport this year and I guess I need to register that with the country, you think my attorney would've mentioned that 2 months ago when we were going over all this stuff.....

0-10

Seriously, 0 for 10 on attempts to open a bank account. Tomorrow is my day, I can feel it!