November 19, 2009
People think that living in Goa India is all beaches, sand and sun…. but there’s a lot more to this place then you would think.
Once you step a few feet off the beach you enter a whole new world. A place filled with pigs running around eating trash, cows eating trash, water buffalo doing whatever they do (which I’m still not sure what that is?) monkeys jumping from tree to tree and breaking into peoples houses to steal stuff, kids playing and local man just sitting around waiting for something to happen, and for someone to do their work for them!
I kind of feel like Ace Venture the pet detective. There are all sorts of animals wondering around my house. Last night when I came home I found a white cow in my yard eating leaves off a small tree and some stray dogs sleeping on my doorstep. Today some monkeys broke into my house and trashed my kitchen and threw my brand new masala cooking spices all over the floor, not that I ever would have actually got around to using them since I don’t know how to cook. Also as I was taking a shower a water buffalo with their normal stupid face expression stared at me through the window as I took a shower. This place is starting to grow on me in a good way. Nothing here is what we would call “normal” and I love that!
In the first week of being here I have got myself a 2-bedroom house with a kitchen, Internet, cell phone, car and one nice tan! Not bad for one week!
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November 6, 2009
I wrote this blog 4 days before I left Africa… so here goes.
10/29/09 Mali, Central Africa
A week and half later we are finally in real Africa… or at least what you would think Africa would look like. We have left the deserts of northern Africa and its Muslim brothers behind and now are officially in sub Sahara Africa!
West Africa is whizzing by at an alarming pace as the kilometers tick away. The smiles are getting bigger and brighter the further we push south. After spending the last 5 years traveling as an American under the Bust administration… I must say I need to send a personal shout out to Obama…. “Thank you!”
Obamamania is in full effect here in Africa. Never before has it been such a cool thing to be traveling as an American… but before I go too far, this is still only Africa… the rest of the world is still on the fence!
Tensions are running high… the group is now splitting up. Nico and Kim are going their separate way, leaving Sam, John and myself in 1 car to continue on this ever growing pointless mission.
UPDATE 11/6/09 Barcelona, Spain
After coming to grips with where this trip was headed, I finally made the decision to cut the West Africa trip short and save it for another day when the time and friends are right. It’s now time for India and some much needed good food and friendly faces! But before India I had to make a stop off in Barcelona to meet with my designer and sort out a few things before I leave for mother India.
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October 30, 2009
The sight of dead dogs and cats on the side of the road is nothing new, but a dead camel… that’s a first!
Old tires litter the side of the road. I think about those tires and the stories they must hold about how they came to rest here in the middle of nowhere. As far as the eye can see there’s nothing but sand. Every now and again I see a silhouette of a camel on the horizon. The desert heat today was intense, it felt like someone was putting a hair dryer in my face. Driving through the Sahara desert with out A/C was definitely a bad idea. I feel like god must be listening to my thoughts, as a big grey cloud has just moved in and is now giving us some relief from the suns rays.
Crossing the border from Morocco to Mauritanian proved to be an interesting 5 hour adventure. Morocco and Mauritania have all but recently been at war, so the border is filled with landmines. If driving across the 2km stretch of rocky dirt road wasn’t bad enough, the thought of landmines loomed in the back of my head. Fortunately the only major problem we had was getting stuck in the sugar sand and having to push our cars out and also beating the shit out of our cars. The actual border process was much easier on our nerves, it just ate away at our time. It took us 5 hours to get our lovely Mauritanian visas. I wont go into detail as I have no real explanation why it takes so long… but lets just say things in Africa take forever. As Leonardo Dicaprio says in the move Blood Diamond…. “TIA”….. This is Africa!
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October 28, 2009
I feel like im stuck in the movie Ground Hog Day, where everyday is the same. The Sahara desert seems to go on forever!
These sand duns, camel signs and dead patches of desert grass all look the same, the smell of stinky dried fish and even the police check points (which are every 50km) seem the same. The policemen’s faces look the same… maybe it’s the malaria pills or maybe I’m just losing my mind.
The only major thing that has happened today that made it different from yesterday, was blowing 3 tires and getting stuck in the middle of nowhere and forced to camp without food. At least we were able to light a fire. It’s amazing how burning things can lift your spirits. I spent most of the night burning every dry bush I could uproot. I guess I am a little bit of a pyro.
The road ahead keeps unfolding like a never-ending book with a billion pages. I guess the same goes for my life… I’m just following the road in front of me, hoping it never ends… like the sun that just set off to my right.
My best investment in the past few months has been this 50-cent note pad so I can write in the back of the car. The group has been pretty quite, not a lot of talking going on. I guess after spending a week driving together for 12 hours a day… what’s really left to talk about? I am loving the free time to let my mind wonder, it brings me back to when I was a boy and had no real problems or responsibilities and I would just sit and daydream about far off distant lands. For some reason I was always fascinated about time, and how if it was 8pm in Florida and it was getting dark that somewhere else in the world some kid was just waking up for school. But with all that daydreaming I still never ever dreamed that I would make it to all those places.
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October 24, 2009
It’s been over 4 years since I last set foot on the African continent. Last time I was here I did the east coast route from Cape Town to Egypt, this time around it’s down the west coast from Morocco to Cape Town… or I should say, as far as these cars will take us.
I now find myself at a place I never would have guessed I would be, at the edge of the Sahara desert. It’s going to take us 4 to 6 days to drive through the Sahara. No guesthouses or hotels, so we will be camping in the sand.
Driving in Morocco is very similar to India, people, goats, cows, camels, motorcycles, trucks, cars, dogs, cats and pretty much anything else that you can think of, jump out in front of you every other second. At this point I’m glad I haven’t hit anyone, although the site of dead dogs on the side of the road is getting old fast… I have always hated the sight of dead animals.
The cars seem to be holding up, other then a few things that have fallen off, but it was nothing important. It is taking us a lot longer then planned, the roads are packed with slow trucks and sheep crossing the roads that have cut our time in half. The Malaria pills have been messing with my stomach or maybe it’s all the street food we have been eating.
Well I need to go get my hair cut…. here are some photos of Morocco!
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