Route Snaps:
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About Ian and the Trip
There's a moment when you decide: go or don't go.
In 2005, I decided to go. Like many other dreams, it's mix of
luck and perserverance. Owing to both, I boarded in
Albuquerque, New Mexico with a one-way ticket to
Rio and not much else.
I tell myself two years or so for the big wide
world, but you can't see it all, and certainly not well.
Roughly, I'm traveling through South America,
SE Asia and New Zealand or Africa or Eastern Europe.
Contact me
Month by Month:
(or, what happens to you when you travel)
February 2006
Departure from the US, arrival in Brazil: Recent haircut, nascent tan.
I am eager, optimistic and have no idea I will still be in South America
next February. |
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March 2006
Argentina: I cross on March 12, one week after my birthday. I am enchanted
by the country, and fall in love with Iguazu Falls,
despite being a tourist
trap. Note that I can still pass in civilized society. |
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April 2006
Patagonia: between Argentina and Chile. Visting Tierra del Fuego
and the wonders of this strange land, I resolve to grow my beard out.
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May 2006
Argentina: Bariloche and Buenos Aires. Sick of being cold, and wet,
I return to civilization, which
means free chocolate, great wine and tender steaks with
my buddy Baker in Bariloche.
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June 2006
Argentina: Salta and the month of the Bike. For a brief time,
I am a cyclist. There are many photos of the bike
here. Beard creativity: high.
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July 2006
Big Bad Bolivia: I enter the country described as "colder than
Russia in winter". This snap is on the 4th of July. I had food
poisoning, or else I would have run across the salar
in red and blue bodypaint. (White obviously not necessary)
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August 2006
Bolivia continues: I am very happy on this morning, August 1st, as I
am at the top of my first 6000m+ mountain (approx 20000ft). I also
want to die from exhaustion.
Note the cool prescription shades I would
later lose in Venezuela.
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September 2006
Peru: After booking it, I arrive in the Cordillera Huayhuash, with 9 Israelis
Not showering for several days can help you look "frumpy". Interestingly
somehow, with all the 5000m (16500ft) passes and sun, I picked up a weird lip infection.
During another hike, I almost died of food
poisoning at a similar altitude.
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October 2006
Peru: Crossing from the coast of
Peru over the Andes with my friends Rebecca and Pedro and
down into the Amazon,
I burn myself, require stitches, and tend my injuries on jungle riverboats.
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November 2006
Bolivia and the USA: I return to La Paz, where I manage to look photogenic for about 0.3 seconds. Pilu,
my photographic muse (and a better portraitist) snaps this of my now long hair.
Surprising my parents for Thanksgiving, I also
brave a blizzard to reach Texas,
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December 2006
Goofing off in Ecuador: On a Christmas Day hike with my bud Jacek
where there were no paths and no rangers. Much more rain
than Christmas Eve.
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January 2007
Ecuador & the Galapagos: I think I've generally reached the stage of
"unkempt", no? The tortoises
don't seem to mind.
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February 2007
Colombia: Better not to be reconognizable by dowsing oneself in mud. I will
spare you the photo where I sport mud on my teeth.
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March 2007
Venezuela and adventures on the top of Roraima:
See how little someone values their life after they've been traveling for over a year?
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