A Dreamer Around the World

Hey!

I´m now in BRASIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIILLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!! Once again, a lot has happened since the last time I wrote to you guys, but as always, the pictures have kept you updated on my every move!!! So as you saw, after spending some time in the north of Argentina, I went back to Chile, more precisely to Viña del Mar, Valparaiso and Santiago, and a few other cities where I didn´t stay too long... Valparaiso, as I thought it would be, ended up being the best Chile had to offer me, with its colorful houses perched on hills diving into the Pacific ocean and its hundreds of magnificent graffitis which I spent a whole afternoon chasing!!! Another place to add on you To-Go List!! In Santiago, I have to say that I didn´t get to see much since I met a bunch of very cool punks with whom I spent most of my time... drinking!!!

 

Then back in Argentina, I got to the very beautiful city of Bariloche, which makes you think that you are in Switzerland or Germany with the Alpine architecture of its buildings, its mountains and lakes! As you saw, useless to say that Cerro Campanario offered me one of the best landscapes that I´ve been given to see in my whole life!! Then came a series of long, VEEEEEEEEEEERY LOOOOOOONG busrides... first to El Calafate, which I wanted to reach by taking the famous Road 40, which was unfortunately closed since April (winter coming!). So I had to do it on the other side of the country, first going to Comodoro Rivadavia, then to Rio Gallegos and finally to Calafate after a total of 33 hours on 2 different buses!!! Fortunately, the company of 2 French guys and an old Hungarian who has travelled all around the world (and is still doing it backpacker´s way at 66 years old! ... and who survived the tsunami in India a few years ago while he was swimming in the ocean!!!!!) made the trip seem a bit shorter! Then in Calafate, we all went to the very impressive Perito Moreno glacier, a 14km-long block of ice in constant movement!!! Then, the night after getting there, I decided to hit the road once again to Ushuaia, the southernmost city of the American continent (if not the world´s southernmost...). Another long busride... Then in Ushuaia, I went on a short cruise on the Beagle Canal where I got to see some sea lions, but no pinguins... Even though Ushuaia has nothing special to offer, the place was a very special one to me considering that after 7 months of travelling South from Canada, I now had to make my way back North again!! The first step would be a huge one: Ushuaia-Buenos Aires, leaving the first one at 6am, getting to the other one around 11am two days later... if you count fast, that´s 53 hours (let´s make it 45 considering all the stops we made...) sitting on a bus!!!! And I unfortunately went for the cheapest, thus least comfortable one!!! In Buenos Aires, I was going to meet Andreanne, who, with her roomate Christelle (both exchange students from Quebec city), had hosted me in Cordoba for a week. So she made me visit the nice spots of Buenos Aires, which I really fell in love with! Unlike most of the big cities, this one has its own soul!! It feels alive with all its different neighborhoods and its Tango (which is everywhere)!!!

 

Then from Buenos Aires, I took a ferry to Uruguay where I visited Cabo Polonio, a very small fishermen village where I got to do some camping during 2 cold nights before going back to Punta del Este... where I got the awefully sad news that Andreanne & Christelle had been found dead in their hotel room in Uyuni, Bolivia after a malfunction of the heating system intoxicated them with carbon monoxyde while they were sleeping. So as you guess, this accident took away a great deal of my motivation to continue visiting... so I decided to go back to Argentina the next day and do nothing for a few days. Went back to Cordoba to say goodbye to them, before going to Rosario and the Iguazu waterfalls. I don´t know if I wrote in one of my previous entries that I consider Nature to be the perfect form of Art (if not, here it is), but Iguazu is a masterpiece!!!! You might say that the pictures are really good, but trust me, NOTHING LIKE BEING THERE!!! It´s so impressive and big that I had to go 2 days in a row!!! Trust me, this definitely has to go on your TO-GO LIST!!!

 

Then from Iguazu, I was supposed to go to Sao Paulo, but decided to go straight to Rio instead, which was probably the best thing to do!!! I spent a few days on Ipanema and Copacabana beaches, trying to get the tan back on my white body!!! Then, I went to visit Rocinha, the biggest favela in South America, with 200 000 inhabitants!!! A shock! A HUGE SHOCK!!! This is so far from anything that´s known to the North American life!! First of all, before getting there, our guide told us that there was no problem carrying our cameras in our hands and take pictures, but that we shouldn´t take pictures of people carrying weapons or dealing drugs... Good start! So we each climbed on the back of a motorcycle, zigzaging between cars, trucks and people towards the top of the favela. First thing we saw: the electric post with hundreds of illegal wires connected to it!!! If you can do it yourself, you get electricity for free!!! Then we started receiving information about life in the favela: only 3 health clinics for 200 000 people mostly treating children, water is available for those who are willing to pay (only a few), if you don´t want, you can also get it for free from the pipes coming from the mountain that some people installed. Garbage collecting only happens on the main avenue, the only one where cars can circulate... the rest are all small alleys, some only big enough for 2 people to pass side by side, so anything you need to carry to your house, you carry on your back (TV, fridge, stove, bed, etc.). There are some people who collect the garbage from the alleys and bring it to the main avenue, but they don´t pass everywhere, so in some places, there´s accumulation... The sewers are also mostly open everywhere in the favela. Now that it can´t expand sideways (being blocked by mountains and forest), the houses just pile up, people adding floors to the existing ones!! And now let´s get to the danger part... Rocinha is relatively safe for tourists to visit (with a guide) since crime is not allowed by the heads of the gang in charge... Hmmm?!?! What?!?! Not because the police will arrest them?? NO!!! The police doesn´t go inside the favela!!! And the gang wants to keep it this way, the reason why they don´t allow crime to happen. But if you saw the movie City of God (Cidade de Deus), you will see that when they go there, it´s not to have coffee and a chat with the people... it´s for war! And trust me that War is the right word!!! The gangs (3 main ones in Rio, never more than one in the same favela) are in charge of drug trafficking and when the police decide to do a raid, you can be sure that it´s gonna be violent, bloody, and deadly... on both sides!!! The gangs are as heavily armed as the police, using the money they make with drug (US$1,5 million/month in Rocinha) to buy weapons, more drugs and corrupt the police... forget about social projects!!! But not only the police can attack a favela, other gangs too, and they usually do it at the same time the police does... making the confrontations even bloodier!!! So no need to tell you that the experience was a life-changing one!!

 

Then leaving Rio, I went to Belo Horizonte and Salvador where I am now, taking advantage of the Sun on the nice beaches (not today though... raining!). So I´ll continue my way up to the North of the country, where I´ll go on a 5-day cruise on the Amazon between Belem and Manaus, before going to Mr Chavez´ country, Venezuela, and the how dangerous Colombia! We´ll see about that! So I´ll probably only write to you again when I´m back... which date will be kept secret to do a little surprise to the folks back home!!!

 

So take care everyone!

Peace!

Dreamer

Hola todos!!!

I´m now in Tucuman, in the north of Argentina, now alone since a few hours, my compañero Luciano having gone a bit faster than me since he has to be back home in less than a month... so after having teamed up for almost a month, we had to go separate ways, hoping to meet again someday, somewhere on this small planet!

 

So last time I wrote, I was in La Paz, Bolivia, where the rain, a broken piece of my camera (which has been fixed with scotched tape), a very long blog entry, and general procrastination kept us from knowing more than about 20 streets of the city... but we have to say that we took a whole day to go on a biking expedition on El Camino de la Muerte (the Death Road) where a surprisingly high number of people have died over the years... Then, from an impossibility to go to Cochabamba (no more bus tickets available... Easter weekend!), we decided to go to Potosi where we visited the 2nd biggest silver mine in the world. The experience, although very unique and interesting, was a disturbing one. First of all, the conditions inside the mine were physically hard for a body which is not used to them (thin, dry & dusty air, temperature changes from cold to warm then cold again...); but not only that, to see that the working conditions there are basically the same since the time of the colony: most minors working about 12 hours a day or more, often 7 days a week, eating before and after their shift only, chewing coca leaves to give them the necessary energy and cut off their hunger, drinking 96% alcohol like water and pulling, pushing and lifting heavy bags or wagons filled with rocks to be sold for the extraction of the precious metals they contain. Our guide, an ex-minor who learned to speak English in the army and then decided to use this skill to become a guide, told us in a very emotional speech about the life of the minors, their traditions, the history of Bolivia, its exploitation by most of the first-world countries (buying their resources and selling them back the transformed products at higher prices), and the reasons for it (lack of proper education and industries) and the hopes of his People for the future, now slowly getting better since the election of the socialist  President, the Indian, Evo Morales. After coming out of the mine, Luciano and i asked him if he could repeat the whole thing (or a summary) that we could film, which he agreed. I think that I will translante it and put it on this site (not the video though) so you can have a better idea of the issues discussed.

 

Then, still in Potosi, we went to see a soccer match between the Real Potosi and the Bolivar, the best team in the country, and the local team won 6-2 in a crazy game filled with a lot of action and a lot of energy from both the players and the crowd! We then left to Uyuni, in the south of the country, in the desert where there was a train cemetary in which we spent 2 hours taking pictures (the selection will be hard!!). The next day, we went on a 3-day excursion in the Salar de Uyuni (a salt desert) where we saw some of the most beautiful and impressive landscapes that we´ve seen on this trip! First of all, the part where it´s actually all salt, it looks like an infinite field of snow and ice with some mountains popping out in some places. Then to the cactus island, where cactuses and dry coral reefs share this hill contrasting the whiteness of the sight. The salar used to be a huge salted lake that dryed over time, which explain the coral presence. We spent the first night in a salt hotel (really made of salt, the taste was unbetrayable!!! I still shiver thinking about it!), close to which my compañero and I went for a walk in the desert to see the amazing sunset! The next day, they brought us to a few lagoons where we saw flamingoes and to a natural rock formation which looked like a tree (why it´s called the rock tree), but where we spent more time taking silly pics with a mountain looking like a giant boob (boys will be boys...). The next morning, we woke up a 4:30 to go see the sunrise in the cold desert (0 Celcius, if not colder) near some geisers!!! No need to say that this was another very unique experience! What came after was more than appreciated: hot springs!!! But how hard it was to get undressed (and dressed up again after coming out) to go in!!! I took a pic of my bare feet next to a frozen piece of ground (which will probably not appear on this site considering the number of pics I want to put and the fact that other than feet and ice next to each other, it has nothing special...).

 

Then finally, our tour ended in San Pedro de Atacama, in the north of Chile, where we spent a few days, visiting the desert there (not as cold as the Bolivian one!) and the small touristic city that it is. Then we tried to leave to Jujuy, Argentina... someone told us that the cheapest way to do it was to to to the customs office near the highway and wait for a truck to pick us up... Result: we waited 9 hours, from 11am to 8pm to meet only 4 truckers going our way, but refusing to take us along... so the next day, we decided to go there early since the customs people told us it was easier at that time... so 7:30 we were there and ready to go, as were about 20 truckers... who all refused to take us along once again (even though about 6-7 Brazilians had been able to get their ride). So we waited until 11am, when a bus passed by and we decided to say f*!k it, and pay our passage to Argentina!!! So we got to Jujuy where we met 2 very friendly girls with whom we spent a very long time talking about our trips, what we had seen in terms of political cultural, and social issues. We then went to explore Humahuaca and Tilcara, 2 small villages in the north, the next day, and walk around the city of Jujuy the following one. We finally left this morning, Luciano to Cordoba, me for Tucuman, after having travelled for nearly a month together, which was certainly for both of us one of the most interesting we had during our trips!!!

 

 

So I´m on my own again for new adventures! In the next few days I´ll meet some friends I met in Panama for some good times, I´m sure! Then South again to Ushuaia, the most southern city of the American continent before going up again on the Atlantic coast of this wonderful place that amazes me more everyday, that is South America!

 

Be patient for the pictures, they´re coming, I´ve just been really unlucky with computers lately (like no USB plugs...)! Don´t worry, they´re gonna be worth it, I swear!

Ciao amigos!

Mateo

Okay, so today´s the day for me to tell you all about what happened since the last time I wrote in Quito... in January... DAMN! it´s been a long time!!! I´ll try not to write a novel... I´ll leave that for once I´m back home and be able to publish the whole thing... (I´ll keep you posted...)

 

So in Ecuador, I spent about a week and a half in Quito (about 3 times what I had planned) where I started Couchsurfing, which is the ONE THING EVERY TRAVELLER SHOULD KNOW ABOUT!!! Basically, it´s people from all around the world who are willing to lend you a bed or a couch for a few days or even weeks sometimes... and all this absolutely free!!!!! It´s also the best way to know people from where you´re travelling and to know the place you´re travelling too! Just click on the word Couchsurfing to know more about it! So that´s basically the reason why I stayed longer in Quito (and in other places as well)! Since I have a lot to talk to you about, I won´t go too much in the details concerning the places I visited, since you can pretty much figure it out from the pictures... So I spent a couple days visiting the city, mostly the historical center and also the obligatory Mitad del Mundo (Half of the World) where the Ecuatorian line separates the Northern and Southern Hemispheres of the Planet; and then I left for Otavalo which is famous across the country for its Saturday market (you might remember the pics I took from all the stuff you could find there). Then I came back to Quito for a few days where I visited the Guayasamin Museum (if you don´t know this painter, do some research, he´s worth it!!!) and went up the telepherical complex for the best view of the city (a bit cold though). Then I left Quito once more to go to Mindo where I hiked across amazing landscapes before going to the city of Baños for a few days with a friend from ´t Quito. I was then supposed to visit Riobamba but as soon as I got there, I didn´t like the mood of the city and headed right away to Cuenca. Couchsurfed once more in Cuenca with 2 awesome guys, one of which, Danny, was opening his restaurant Panchoz, where I got to help him for a few days, taking a break to work (sounds odd) making burritos! This (and the city itself, which is a must in that country!) made me stay longer there too! Since James, his roomate, was doing Capoeira, this allowed me once more to meet a lot of people who I had the chance to meet again in Guayaquil, the noisiest city ever with all the cars honking all the time! But don´t worry... the girls in this city make you forget about all that... ;) Then it was Carnival Time in Montañita by the beach where (for some reason) I got to hang out with a bunch of really cool Scandinavians from Norway, Denmark and Sweden. The village was packed with people and everything was super expensive but we managed to have a really awesome time! I finally headed to Vilcabamba, close to the Peruvian border where I got to relax for a few days! There, a lot of people live over 100 years due to a water source from the mountains which is said to extend their lives.

 

So it is then that I cross to the Land of the Children of the Sun: Peru! The Northern part of the country didn´t really charm me even though at first, this very large desertic area really impressed me! But after a few days, all the dry air and the dust flying into my eyes made me want to leave fast (especially in Chiclayo!). In Trujillo, I spent some days doing nothing at all but reading in the Plaza de Armas since I was really tired of travelling (especially on night buses, which always keep me awake all night). And from there, I rode to Huaraz in the mountains where I met my old friend from Montreal, Georgio, who since January has been working there as an engineer for a mining company. So good times we spent together, especially on the hike to the Laguna Churup with one of his friends from work. He then talked to me about a project that we could do in the next few weeks: going to Iquitos in the Amazonia to spend a few days there and in a lodge in the jungle... wicked idea, dude! Let´s do it!!! So that implied modifying my trajectory a bit... so leaving Huaraz, I went directly (well, passing by Lima) to Nazca, where I got at 6am after having left Huaraz at 9am the previous day!!! So after a quick nap in the first hotel I could find, I went on a flight in a Cessna over the famous Nazca lines, which original purpose (no, it wasn´t meant to be a touristic attraction in the 21st Century) is still unknown to this day, although many theories exist. Some more time to relax in Nazca before reaching Arequipa. Even though everyone I talked to loved the place, it didn´t really get to me until I visited the Yanahuara district with all its white houses and it really nice viewpoint! And although a lot of people talked to me about visiting the Colca Canyon, I didn´t do it... still too tired! I then went back to Lima, where I got the amazing and unique chance (it´s all about timing) chance to see no other than Roger Waters from Pink Floyd in concert!!!! A chance I could´t miss!! He gave an awesome show with a lot of special effects and projections accompanying the band´s greatest songs in the first part... and their best album (which I consider to be THE best album ever), Dark Side of the Moon, from beginning to end, in the second part of the show!! Next morning, I met Gio and we flew to Iquitos in the afternoon. When we got there, we were just like 2 kids, singing all the time WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE!!! (Guns & Roses for the ignorant ones, no offence...) The place is known all over the country to be the home of very beautiful women, and the claim is founded, believe me!!! The next day, we sailed on the Amazon river to our lodge, which was 140km South of Iquitos, a 3-hour trip! Once there, we went with our guide and a local guy named Raul for a hike in the jungle (once again... Welcome to the Jungle!!!) where we saw a tarentula, monkeys, birds and A F!"$#&G LOT OF MOSQUITOES!!!! VIVA EL REPELENTE!!! At night, we went on an excursion to see caimans and I didn´t bother bringing my camera because it was too dark... I was just not expecting one of the guides to catch one with his bare hands and bring it inside our boat!!! Too bad... The next day, we went to the small village of San Juan where we met Jorge, who was to be our ayahuasca shaman for the coming night... a ceremony that proved to be very relaxing and unique!!! In the afternoon, we went sailing on the Amazon where we saw giant water lillies and dolphins, close to which we swam (yes! in the Amazon river!!!). The following day, we came back to Iquitos tranquilos to be able to visit more the next day, which we did with Belem, the Peruvian Venice (although much poorer). At night, we went clubbing to Noa, the most famous club, before grabbing our bags at the hotel at 2am and then flying back to Lima where we got, dead tired, at 6am. Since nothing was yet open, we went to 2 different parks where we slept until noon!!! Good was to celebrate my 24th birthday! We then met with another of Gio´s friend and walked around the city for a while before going to the movies. I left Lima for Cusco the next day... a trip... sorry... A VERY LONG TRIP, that I will always remember! What was supposed to last 22 hours lasted 26 because of a landslide across the road, just a few hours before reaching destination!!! Needless to say that the first thing I did when I got to my host´s house is sleeping!!! I really loved Cusco!!! It´s probably (along with Cuenca) one of the most charming cities I have seen in my life! Seeing the city from above with all its orange roofs is truly unique and elegant (this might be different from your definition of elegance). The only problem (which I was unfortunately part of) is that tourists are everywhere!!! For this reason, I spent a lot of time in the San Blas district (less touristic) with some friends I met while walking around the neighbourhood. All of the were artesans, and I have to admit (not because they were my friends, and not because I told them I would give them publicity on this site, but because I really believe it) that the bracelets, necklaces, jewels, braids, stones, rings & earrings they sell are the nicest ones I have been given to see on this trip and that anyone who visit Cusco should make the effort to climb up San Blas street and go behind the church there to, at least, take a look at the incredible talent of these really friendly youngsters, who like to call themselves Los Dioses de San Blas (San Blas´ Gods), and who live from their work (meaning if they don´t sell, they don´t eat!!! and please don´t insult them by trying to bargain for 50% of the price!!!), and maybe encourage them by buying a piece of their incredible and certainly unique work!!! And if unfortunately you go there and don´t find them, it´s either that it´s been a bit too rainy, or that the police kicked them out because they had nothing better to do (keep our kids from being delinquents!), so do them the favour to go back the next day!!! By the way, some of them can also serve you as guides throughout the city and around for very cheap!!! Then I left Cusco for the legendary Machu Picchu! It might look as the only ways to go there are by train or through the Inca Trail, which is now impossible to do without a guide (which are both really expensive), but I found a way (which I recommend you) that is a lot cheaper and that you will certainly equally enjoy! Go to the Santiago terminal in Cusco and take a bus to Santa Maria. From there, you´ll be able to take a minibus (colectivo or combi) to Santa Teresa, which can also bring you to the hydro-electrical station, 10km away from Aguas Calientes at the foot of Machu Picchu. If you prefer walking, you can ask your way from Sta Maria or Sta Teresa to hike the whole thing too. Then from the hydro, follow the railroad track to Aguas Calientes, you should be there within a few hours. In the combi, I met a lot of interesting people (7 Argentinians, 1 Brazilian and 1 Uruguayan), 4 of which teamed up with me (or vice-versa, who cares?) to go to Machu Picchu the next day. We got up at 4:30am and left at 5:30 to start our way up. At 7, we finally got to the mystical city which was almost empty at the time. We then climbed the Wayna Picchu, the mountain at the back of the ruins) and went all around it to the Templo de la Luna (Moon temple, which you can avoid, the hike is hard and what you get is nothing compared to the ruins on the other side of the mountain!). So we went back to the ruins (now filled with hundreds of tourists, and surprisingly, a lot of elders!!) to visit them a bit more before going down to Aguas Calientes again where we relaxed in the thermal baths. The next day killed us all!!! 30km of walk on a railroad track (not the most comfortable ground to walk on) to km82, the starting point of the Inca Trail, where combis can take you to Ollantaytambo where you can bus your way back to Cusco (where we stayed a few more days to relax, more or less in facts...). So all this resulted in giving me a sore knee, which now makes me limp due to all the good care I´ve been giving it (the trip to Machu, the hike back with my heavy backpack, going up and down Cusco, and also what´s coming).

 

During the hike, Luciano, the Uruguayan, and I decided to team up to cross Bolivia. So from Cusco, we went to Puno and the lake Titicaca where we visited some floating islands of the Uros people and Taquile Island (up and down again), before crossing to Bolivia and Copacabana, again close to the lake, where we visited the Island of the Sun (which really killed my knee!!!) with its awesome landscapes and where Luciano decided to go for a quick swim (CRAZY GUY!!!) in the world´s highest sailable (can you say that?) lake. So here, don´t think that it´s all sunny beaches, far from it... it´s more like Canada in the fall!!! So finally, yesterday, we got to La Paz, the highest (in altitude) city of importance in the world, which we haven´t really got the chance to explore yet (writing this might be one of the causes) and we´ll stay about one more week in Bolivia before crossing to Argentina to visit the Northern part of the country and then cross to Chile for a while and come back to Argentina all the way down to Ushuaya, the most Southern city of the American continent!!!

 

So I think that´s pretty much it! I´ll try to keep this site up to date a bit more frequently from now on (at least you got the pics, an image is worth a thousand words, so you have a few novels in there...). As I posted earlier this week, you can look for videos on YouTube, I´ll try to put as many as I can (some in French for the folks back home). So until next time... Dream on!!!

Hasta luego!

Mateo el Soñador... or if you prefer... Matt the Dreamer

Hey guys!

First of all, sorry for not giving news more often on this website, but you still have the pics, so that should forgive me!!! Sorry also since I won´t give you news just right now either because I don´t have time... (okay, it´s kinda relative...).

So the reason why I´m writing you is to tell you that I´m gonna start putting some videos on YouTube.com which will also allow me to put some of them directly on this website (the blog I mean)! So if you go on the site and search for words like: dreameraroundtheworld, dreamerinamerica (my username by the way), dreamer, matt, the name of the places I visit (like countries and cities... well I´ll have to give you updates more frequently for that... sorry again...), south america, well that should do it...

So just to give you a tiny update, I´m in Cusco, Peru, right now, and I got back from Machu Picchu yesterday after a 30km hike with my backpack on the railroad track from Cusco to Aguas Calientes. So as you´ll guess, I´m kinda dead right now... but the experience was incredible!!! For those interested in visiting the site "the cheap way", contact me and I´ll give you all the details, since now you can´t hike the Inca Trail without an expensive guide anymore... the other way can cost you less than 5% of the price if you want, so that can help your budget (as it helped mine!).

In a few days, I´ll be heading to Bolivia (Titicaca Lake in 2 days) with a buddy from Uruguay I met on my way to the Machu Picchu. I´ll post pics as soon as I can, but you know that!

So right now it´s pretty late and I´m pretty sleepy too, so I´ll leave you to that! Please post comments, I love ´em! But if you do, post them on the blog part, not the picture since it´s hard for me to find the ones with the pics and I might actually never find them!

So I promise I´ll do my best to give you an update soon!

Until then...

Dream on!!!

 

Hola todos!

I just got down from the plane about an hour and a half ago, and what better way to kill time than giving you a little update! The last 2 weeks were probably the most luxurious that I'll have had during my trip! I met my parents who were on vacation at a big hotel in the village of Farallon, on the Pacific coast of Panama. There, I met a lot of very interesting people, mostly from Argentina and Colombia, ALL of the latters telling me that I have to go visit their country, because what we hear in the media doesn't reflect the situation there! So considering the fact that I would be able to stay with people in almost all (if not all) the big cities, there's a good chance that I'll go there after visiting Venezuela and el Senor Chavez!

But to continue with Panama, we stayed for a week and a half at the first hotel, where I've been able to eat some POUTINE at a restaurant on the beach!!! I don't know what this can mean to the people who are not from Quebec, but UN QUEBECOIS SANS POUTINE... C'EST DUR!!! And it was so good that I had to eat 2 in a row!!! That should have filled me up for a few weeks... even though I might not find any for months!!! There we also visited the Anton Valley where we went to a refuge for sick animals, a waterfall and a local market. Then after many nights of debauchery at the hotel club, we went to a second hotel in Panama City.

The city is really big and in constant expansion, skyscrappers are everywhere and are being built everywhere too! The city has 3 major touristic parts: downtown with the giant buildings, the old city with its ruins of the first city which was destroyed by the pirate Henry Morgan, and the colonial city with its Spanish architecture. The rest of the city consists of poor apartments where most tourists won't go and a lot of them seem to not even see when they pass by! But although tourism is now the #1 industry in the country (Panama Canal being #2), tourists are not always the best thing that can happen to Panameans... a lot of tourist (mostly the North-American ones) go there thinking that they are kings and that they are better than everyone else, treating hotel employees like sh*t and being noisy drunks as soon as they had a few drinks. And sadly enough, most of them are from Quebec... Nothing to make me want to come back...

But who says Panama says Panama Canal! We had the chance to go transit on the canal where we saw a lot of huge boats transporting cars and crates. We went through two of the three locks, namely Pedro Miguel and Miraflores, which are closer to the Pacific side and Panama City. About 35 to 40 ships transit through the canal every day, each of them paying approximately $200,000US for their passage. Considering that, it's surprising to see that the Americans who owned the canal until 2000 gave it back (or more probably sold it) to Panama.

So finally, yesterday, in the afternoon I went to the airport with my parents who had their flight back home at 6pm. As for me, I had to stay the whole night there waiting for mine which was at 5:45am this morning. From there, we flew to San Jose, Costa Rica where I had to wait again 5½ hours for the next flight to Quito where I am now. So with very little sleep in the last 36 hours, I think that tonight I will sleep like a log!

So I'm planning to stay about 3-4 days here in the capital before exploring the country for the next 2-3 weeks.

So until next time, I wish you all the best!

Pictures should come as soon as I can put them!

Hasta luego!

Matt

Okay guys,

so according to what happened in the last few weeks, I guess it´s about time I give you an update of my situation (and not OUR, as you might have noticed)...

I won´t reveal the punch just now, so I´ll start where I left last time:

If I remember well (after reading the previous post, I guess I haven´t, anyway nothing major between the 2 dates), we were just about to leave Guatemala, on our way to Costa Rica... so the next morning we woke up early since we had a lot of road to do. We got to the Guatemala-El Salvador border, which was more like a big market with tons of people everywhere in the street and probably close to a hundred stands on the sides. I learned later that we had just chosen the wrong day since the place only looks like that on Fridays. So after a few hours of going back and forth to get papers here and there, moving the car because we were blocking some stands, and writing down everything we had with us on a piece of paper for the customs, we finally left... just after having to go backwards in the middle of this mess because a van was coming the other way!!!

So we hit the road again to cross El Salvador, where we got stopped by the police who thought that we belonged to some street gang after noticing that Sylvie had something that looked like a tattoo on her hand (which was in facts a list of Spanish words that she was learning). So if I can give you a little advice, avoid El Salvador if you have tattoos on your hands... it might get you into trouble...

Then around 3 pm, we got to the next border: Honduras, where we were planning to spend the night... but that didn´t happen since we were told that they hadn´t got their shipment of official papers, which had for consequence that we could only remain for 6 hours in the country... thus, driving at night, which we were avoiding since we entered Mexico. So we had to get another paper which we had to pay $25 US for a guy to type on his writing machine in what looked like a dirty old shack... and then pay another $25 to the guy who took the paper and changed it for another one... Yes, you can say we got screwed!!! Fortunately, we came across 4 Argentinians who were coming from California on their way to their homeland for the Holidays, so we teamed up with them to cross Honduras. So we left around 5:30.

Crossing the country took about 3 hours and everything went just fine until we got to the next border: Nicaragua. There, since it was late, we were pretty much the only ones, so no line-ups!!! The guys working there also looked like they would have liked to be anywhere else (just like all of us), so even though they didn´t bother going fast, the whole thing lasted about 20-30 minutes. But then, as we were leaving, the last guys, from the customs, decided that we had to give them $20 to make a quicker search (i.e. no search at all) of what we were carrying... so although we had nothing to hide, I gave him the last $15 that I had since after that crazy day, I wasn´t really in a mood to start arguing with him, and we didn´t want to stay longer than we could!

We then stopped at the first city that we came across to spend the night. At the hotel where the Argentinians stayed, we met a couple, Ricardo and Yvette, who were driving down from Manitoba (in Canada) with their 3 kids to move to Costa Rica, where Ricardo was from. They told us that they had gone through the same thing as we had that day, the only difference being that Richi knew how to argue better that us, thus paying $5 in Honduras for the whole thing, and only $1 to the customs guy in Nicaragua! So the next morning, since the 4 guys from the previous day had decided to spend some time in Nicaragua, we teamed up with the family to cross that last country. So everything was just fine and we safely got to Costa Rica!

So we first stopped in Liberia, where we spent a few days during which we got our clothes cleaned up (which we had not done since Palenque in Mexico... yeah, you can say "Gross!!!"). I hung up with a bunch of locals on 2 different nights, the second one being the one of the breakdancing pics. We then went to Playa Grande, a surfers´ beach where the waves were just amazing!!! Haven´t got the chance to try them though... Then we went here and there to Puntarenas, Poas volcano, which was truly something!!! By the way, on our way there, we got another taste of corruption... a police officer stopped us for a random check-up while Val was driving. After giving him the papers, he comes back to us telling us that Val´s name was not on the paper authorizing us to drive. So he turns the paper around and shows us that anyone caught driving a vehicle without the proper authorization will automatically have his vehicle seized by the police and will have to pay $2000 to get it back. So after arguing a bit with him since the mistake had been done by the people at the border, he suggested us to pay him $100 instead so he would take care of everything (he had already called the towing) for us. So we didn´t hesitate a long time!!! After that, we spent some days killing time in San Jose, the capital, waiting for a friend of the girls´ who was coming by plane to spend 3 weeks with us.

And then we hit Jaco and Los Esterillos by the Pacific ocean where we had rented a villa... and where everything ended... and where everything started over again!!!

Since, I would say, Semuc Champey in Guatemala, Sylvie really started to become annoyed by everything (mainly the roads... but everything followed), then Val and her got sick and they started being together all the time, deciding of everything we would do and then talking to me about it. At that time, Sylvie also stopped talking to me, except to tell me what they had decided to do. Knowing her, I though that she was just tired and decided to wait so she could relax in Costa Rica and see her family.

Well she didn´t wait to see them to tell me that she couldn´t stand me being around anymore and that we´d better split up so we could all enjoy our trip more (which I agreed! only the news seemed a bit radical since they didn´t really leave any room for negociations). So I went on the net the next day to try to figure out what I´ll be doing after leaving the villa, hoping that they would have the decency to take me to Panama in January where I´d meet my parents and be able to send the extra-stuff back home with them. So after that, we really stopped talking to each other, I would do my things alone, they would do theirs with their friend and everything was fine this way (so I thought). But 2 days after we had talked, at some point I went to the kitchen to wash a glass while she was there (saying nothing, not even looking at her), and then as I went out, she came after me telling me that it was enough, that I had to pick up my stuff and then she would drop me in Jaco. We then got into a fight which I will spare you the details... but I ended up packing all my stuff, which consisted of my big backpack, another smaller backpack, a third bag and a big plastic box filled with books I had brought and other random stuff, all of which, you will agree to say, is too much for anyone to carry for more than 2 minutes on foot!!! Well believe it or not, she still left me in Jaco, at the Best Western at the city limits, where I had to pay $100 for the night (it was kind of hard to go elsewhere...). So I spent the night there and decided to call Yvette and Richi (the couple from Manitoba) who told me to come to San Isidro where they would pick me up and allow me to stay with them for a few days! And here I am finally!

So before I finish this message, I would first of all like to thank the 2 of them who have got me out of some deep s**t, my parents and brother who have always helped me, and also all the people who have supported me by email, your comments have relieved me and made me smile and I´ll always be grateful for that!!! So right now, I have a few options in front of me, and I´ll look at each of them before continuing my path!

So I wish you all some great holidays!

I´ll give you more details as soon as I can!!!

Matt the Dreamer

 

Hey!

We are now in Solola, Guatemala, near lake Atitlan. Once again, the landscapes are amazing here! The only problem is that we barely have time to look at it while driving since most of the roads are REALLY BAD!!! La Casa (our car) is starting to suffer from it and we´re thinking about jacking it up as soon as possible!

So last time I wrote to you guys, we were in Playa del Carmen in Mexico. So after spending about 5 days on the beach, we left for Tulum where we saw a small ruin site by the sea. I must admit that the Mayas who lived there really had the best spot! Right by the beach! We stayed 2 nights there, one of which we spent at a bar called Balche, where we had quite a number of drinks, ending the night with Submarines, an upside-down shot glass of tequila in a glass of beer. Just the right stuff to knock you down for a good night of sleep!

Then we went down to Mahahual, a really small town along the beach near the Belice border. There I spent 2 nights sleeping in my hammock on the beach! Awesome spot! Many cruise ships stop there for a day, just when we were there, we saw 3 the same day. After that, we decided to go to Chetumal, the last Mexican city before Belice to be able to cross the border as early as possible... maybe too early for the people working there, who were almost asleep and confused as to how to process. About 3 hours later, we arrived at the Belice-Guatemala border where once again, we were thrown from one side to the other!

Right after, we got our first taste of the Guatemalan dirt roads!!! I´m never gonna complain about the roads in Quebec again (neither will any of us 3)!!! Imagine the worst road you´ve ever been driving on, and multiply it by at leat 10!!! At the end of the day, we finally reached our destination of Tikal! It´s the biggest ruin site that we have visited so far, about 16 km2 of ruins and jungle!!! And this site really is in the jungle, Palenque was nothing compared to that! About every hour, we would hear the gorillas scream in the distance for at least 10 minutes, pretty impressive! Exotic birds sing constantly and a family of monkeys passed right over our heads as we were visiting! If you ever go there, I really suggest that you spend the night there since they have a camping site and many hotels! The thousands of stars in the sky offer a great spectacle! If you only spend a few minutes staring at them, you are sure to see a few shooting stars!

Then we hit the road again, spending one night in El Cruce by the Peten Itza lake, reaching Flores island the next day. It´s a really cute city with tons of little craft shops selling stuff for cheap!

Then the HORROR!!! After spending one night in Coban, we went to the caves of Lanquin. The caves are not the horror, it´s the road to get there!!! Really the worst road ever! The caves however, are simply amazing! They are huge and filled with tons of stallagtites and stallagmites! We must have spent at least an hour and a half there, exploring as much as we could and taking tons of pictures! The same day, we reached Semuc Champey by the same aweful road. We camped there for a night before going on a hike the next morning! The site is in fact a river with a few waterfalls and rapids which, seen from the top of the mountain, is a natural masterpiece!!! I won´t post any pics today, but just wait till you see them!

Then the horror again, on the same road to go back to Coban! 3 hours to do 25km!!!! Then from Coban, we drove the whole day of yesterday to get here to Solola. This afternoon, we should get closer to the lake and then spend the next few days visiting volacanoes.

After that, our destinations will be Antigua Guatemala, the former capital of the country, and then a little change in plans due to the car condition, we´ll hit the PanAm highway through Salvador to reach Honduras by the end of the day. We will then try to reach Costa Rica as soon as possible to relax a bit! You might say, what? these guys do nothing but traveling and they want to relax! But waking up early everyday, sleeping 3 people in the back of a car and driving whole days at the time in dirt roads are all pretty tiring!

I know a lot of you guys are at the end of their semester and I wish you all the best for the upcoming exam period! The holidays are approching and you´ll have time to relax too!

Hasta luego!

Matt

Hola todos!!!

As you have probably seen from the pics I posted along the way, we saw a great deal since the last time in wrote in Monterrey! We are now in Playa del Carmen, just south of Cancun, where we spent the last few days getting darker under the Sun! Here, the sand is white, the sea is light green and the women are beautiful! Even though we are now in mid-November, there is a lot of tourists from all around the world! The place is exclusively touristic, which is kind of different from what we´ve been used to.

So since Monterrey, we visited a bunch of very nice places! The road from Monterrey to Mexico City is of the most enjoyable drive I have done in my life! The sinuous mountain roads will keep any experienced driver thrilled! Although the landscapes are probably the most amazing we have seen so far, `you keep your eyes on the road, your hands upon the wheel´ (to quote someone we all know... a certain Mr. Morrison for those who don´t)!

Just before going to Mexico City, we stopped by Teotihuacan to see the Pyramids of the Sun and the Moon. The Pyramid of the Sun is the third highest in the World after two in Egypt, so no need in telling you you have to be in shape to climb it!!!

In Mexico City, we visited some cool spots downtown including the Zocalo, the Catedral Metropolitana, the Alameda, el Museo de las Bellas Artes where we saw an amazing exhibit of Diego Rivera´s paintings, and a market which extends upon many kilometers square (I don´t think you can even conceive how big it is unless you really see it!!!).

Then we went back to Puebla where we had left our car at a friend´s place and hit the road again towards Veracruz where we spent our first days on the beaches, which are nothing compared to the ones here! Then down to Chiapas and Palenque where we saw the ruins in the middle of the jungle! There we met 3 French guys with whom we partyed pretty hard for the 2 following days!!! The city is used to tourist but the people there are very cool and laid back, and won´t try to charge you exhorbitant prices for the things they sell. So we got some hammocks for about 18USD for a single one, and 28USD for a double one! Good deal!

Then we left for Campeche, a city by the sea in Yucatan, which was the target of pirats for over 2 centuries! We stayed there only one night after we admired the really nice colonial buildings of the central area. Then hit the road again to see the ruins of Uxmal where we saw our first exotic animals (iguanas, tons of bats and a snake). Then we spent the night in Merida, a pretty quiet city, where I almost stepped on a scorpion that was walking on the sidewalk right beside me (just look at the pic)!!!

Then the world famous Chichen Itza, where about 35 000 people gather each year at the spring equinox to see the Sun over the ruins. At night, we stayed at the site to see a light show projected on the ruins and learn about the history of the site and of the Mayas. Then headed to Cancun, which proved to be a big deception since all the beaches belong to hotels there, so we decided to go to Isla Mujeres instead and spend a couple of days there. We slept on the beach, but I could barely get any sleep since the mosquitoes were constantly bugging me!

Finally we came here 3 days ago and we´ll probably leave tomorrow to go to Xel-Ha, then Tulum and leave Mexico, passing by Belice to enter Guatemala and go to Tikal to visit the ruins there.

So these were the news! I hope you enjoy looking at our pics, which I must say are nothing compared to the beauty of what we see here!

I hope you´re all doing fine, and guys from Quebec (and Ontario, even though I don´t know for you), I heard snow is now falling on your heads, so I hope that these news will bring you some warmth from the South!!!

Hasta luego!

Matt

Hola everyone!

We are now in Monterrey, Mexico after a "quick" 2000km detour by El Paso! We were supposed to leave Houston and go to Nuevo Laredo to cross the border, but in Houston, we saw on the news that there was an armed conflict between drug dealers and the police there, so we decided that it was wiser to pass by El Paso instead!

So last time I wrote, we were in New Orleans after our night out on Bourbon St. The next day, we visited a bayou where we saw a few alligators! We then went to see a neighbourhood that hasn't been restored since Hurricane Katrina. It looks like a ghost city, it's really sad to see that downtown N-O is really nice (although very dirty) and the poorer areas are totally destroyed! Really, the US Government should really reconsider its priorities...

We then went to Houston, where one car out of two is a pick-up... not my kind of place! There's also a strong smell of gas all over the city so we didn't spend too much time there. Nevertheless, we still took some time to visit the NASA installations where we really felt like kids!!! We saw a real space shuttle, and the training facilities for the astronauts! When we left, we drove across Texas and stopped in a small town called Junction where we went to a really cool local bar where there were only five people, including the barmaid. The landscapes of Texas were really cool, all plains with bushes and hills just like the ones in western movies!

Then, in El Paso, we desperately searched for the wedding chapel in Kill Bill by asking locals and visiting a few chapels, but unfortunately, the people we talked to all thought that it had been shot in New Mexico... so if anyone could tell me where they filmed it (even though we are now far away from there), I would gladly appreciate it!

After El Paso, we drove across the border where no one asked us questions and no one even stopped us... in fact, we didn't see anyone there! But it got a bit more complicated 30 km outside of Ciudad Juarez where we had to get our car permit... communication problems... then after that, we got searched by the army, but they just did a quick check, touching our bags and taking a quick look around the car. And we drove on to Chihuahua.

In Chihuahua, I got just what I was expecting of that city: CHIHUAHUA STATUES!!!!!!!! So we took a few really cool pics there (unfortunately, the internet is not cooperating right now, so they'll come later... by the way, the El Paso, Junction and Texas pics might be all mixed up right now, I'll try to fix that ASAP!). Then we left Chihuahua yesterday morning and drove all day to get to Monterrey. On our way, we drove across Saltillo, a city in the mountains at about 1500m above sea level. We literally drove in the clouds!!! It was so cool!

Now in Monterrey, we spent the night with some people from Quebec city that my mom had told me about. They have been really nice to us, offering us a place to stay for the night, shower, washer/dryer, food and... DRINKS!!! Viva Tequila!!! A lots of thanks to them (and to all the people with whom with stayed, I think I hadn't thanked them yet, sorry guys!). So after this great time here, we'll hit the road again to go further south. Next destinations: Pachuca, Puebla and Mexico City! So I'll try to keep you posted and figure out a way to post more pics!

Send some news, it's always fun to read!

Talk to you soon!

Matt

Hey everyone!

We are now in New Orleans, Louisiana, and this is probably one of the greatest places to party on this Earth!!! We got here last night around 10pm and about 10 minutes later we were partying pretty hard on Bourbon Street! There are people from all around the world just getting drunk throwing bead necklaces at each other in exchange of a sight of some body parts... The city is awesome, but if you go in the French Quarter during the day, you'll see and smell the party from the preceding night! We're planning on staying here at least for 2 days before going to Baton Rouge and Lafayette.

Last time I wrote we were in Madison, Wisconsin, and it was getting pretty cold... it even snowed there!!! So after leaving Madison, we went to Chicago where we stayed for about 2 hours because it was too damn cold and we wanted to get warmer! Chicago is a very nice city where the skyscrapers are everywhere! I'm not a fan of tall buildings but they are so nice there that it gives the city a very special atmosphere. So we decided to drive all night to go to Memphis, Tennessee.

We got to Memphis around 6am and we decided to have a little nap in the car before exploring the city. I think that so far, it's the best place we've been to! The people there are so friendly, they say hello to everyone they meet on the street and many of them will stop to have a little chat with you! We got lucky there because on Friday night there was a huge party on Beale Street, which is famous for being a place where a lot of jazz, blues and rock 'n' roll legends played: B.B. King, Jerry Lee Lewis, Nat King Cole, Johnny Cash, and many others including the King himself, Elvis Presley who is all over the city!!! We went to Graceland, which was a deception to us since you have to pay for everything, so we didn't get to visit his mansion. But we have still been able to see Heartbreak Hotel and the Lisa Marie, the King's personal plane. We also wrote a small note on the wall in front of his mansion to leave a trace of our passage there. Then we hung out by the Mississippi River for a while before going to the pub crawl at night where we got to listen to some crazy jazz and blues bands!

So I'll try to send you more news as soon as I can!

See ya!

Dreamer

After 1,048 km, we are now in Waterloo, Ontario, where we have spent the last night and day at my friend Sid's place, and where we are spending one last night before leaving Canada for the States tomorrow morning. So far, as you can see from the pictures, we have been to Ottawa, Toronto, Oakville, Burlington and Waterloo, and believe me, Ontario has surprised us more than once... positively, no need to worry about that!

The only problem that we have encountered so far took place on the 3rd of October, the day we were supposed to leave Montreal. Just when we were about to leave, the car wouldn't start! A major problem that delayed us of one day, and which finally ended up to be a minor car key problem that was quickly fixed the next day.

So we left Montreal on a foggy day to go to Ottawa where my brother now lives. We stayed 2 days there and visited most of downtown by foot: the University of Ottawa campus, the Rideau Canal, the Canadian Parliament and its surroundings. The city is very clean and very nice, but there is not a lot of action since its main purpose is governmental.

We then left Ottawa to go to Toronto on the 6th. There we stayed at my friend Lindsay's place also for 2 nights and 2 extremely sunny days. Although I had already been there once, I really discovered a city that I would love to know more. The artistic scene there is very important with the city architecture, the art galleries, the urban art, and the general artistic aura that surrounds its people. We definitely had to stop and see a few exhibits: first by walking along Rush Lane where tons of graffitis occupy the walls of the long alley. Apparently, every year, street artists gather during one weekend and repaint the walls with their art. The event is not a competition in itself, but they all do their best to catch the eye of the people who will walk there during the next year. The next place we stopped was at the BCE Building on Bay St. in which the World Press Photo Exhibition was taking place. I had missed it in Montreal and we just randomly ran into it. As I am just starting to take pictures myself, these photographs proved to be a great inspiration for my trip. Portraits, landscapes, current events, each of them was conveying so much strong emotions that we remained speechless for quite some time after leaving. Then Lindsay and I had planned to go see the Andy Warhol: Stars, Deaths & Disasters exhibit at the Art Gallery of Ontario and that is just what we went to see. Although I already knew Warhol as a major figure of the Pop Art movement of the 1960s, I discovered another side of him that I didn't knew: his obsession with fame and death. One quite similar to the one Jim Morrison had. Most of his most famous pieces (like the can of Campbell soup or the Marilyn Monroe portraits) were not even there, but many of them (like the Elvis portraits, the couch and Empire State Building videos) had answered the call. We also saw 2 other exhibits on the day we left in the Distillery District: one of them, a painting, the other, a sculpture exhibit. We also walked around the city a lot, Kensington Market, Queen St., Union Station and the CN Tower area. I really enjoyed taking pictures in Toronto since the city has so much to offer, so many different spots that, even though don't really fit together, make this city an unforgetable and amazing one.

Then we got invited by Lindsay's parents to share a Thanksgiving dinner in Burlington. So we headed out of Toronto and drove along Ontario Lake. We stopped in Oakville where there was a small harbour with some docks where we stayed for a while before hitting the road again. After dinner, we drove back to Toronto to pick up my ex-roomate Sid who now lives in Waterloo. We got there late at night and went to bed late... to wake up late this morning (or should I say early this afternoon)! From here, we drove to the countryside (St. Jacobs, Elmira, Elora, and the surroundings) where there is an Amish community. We stopped at a farm to buy some fruits that we had to pick ourselves for the price of $0.50 for a basket. Next to the trees where we picked them up were 3 horses that we fed so this fruit shopping ended up to be pretty fun after all! We then left for Elora Gorge, a wooden park where a river runs. There, we walked around in the woods and sat by the river where we relaxed by listening to the music that nature was playing for us: the river running, the wind in the trees, the birds singing... it felt pretty good!

Then we drove back home where we cooked dinner and had a few shots of Absinth since we couldn't buy beer at the Beer Store. Sorry Ontarians, but you guys don't have it when it comes to alcohol: not sold in grocery stores, neither in convenience stores... and the Beer Stores definitely close too early (around 7pm or something like that)!!! But you can still be proud since that was the only negative comment I had about you guys!!! Not bad for a Quebecois, eh!

So United States here I come! We hope we won't be delayed for too long at the border, but let's face it: 2 girls and 1 guy in their early twenties, one of them with dreadlocks, driving a minivan packed with clothes, leftist books, camping stuff, tools, maps of south american countries, planning to be out of the country for one year, with tons of medications to prove it... come on! Let's be serious! They're probably gonna make us empty the whole car!!! At least we don't have anything to hide. Well I should tell you about how it went pretty soon!

Until then, you can write to me, post comments, look at our pics... it's a dream we're living right now... just dream with us!

Only 10 days left before I leave home and start migrating South...

After 2 years of thinking, planning and preparing, I'm finally leaving for what is without any doubts going to be the craziest and most wonderful adventure that I have lived so far in 23 years on this Earth. With 2 other friends, a minivan, a few novels, a journal, a blank book for a future novel, a shitload of medications, a few clothes, a camera and a few other trifles, I'm going to drive from Quebec City all the way down to Tierra del Fuego (a birdflight distance of about 11,000km), the most southern point of the Americas in Chile and Argentina (about 800km from Antarctica). For a whole year (probably longer), we're going to drive through and visit Canada, the States, Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Equador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina, Brazil and Venezuela.

Having experienced North American comfort for too long, it's time for me to fly away, to migrate and explore the lands and cultures of our small planet before it's too late... Not only do I want, but I NEED to discover the landscapes, the people, the treasures that our Creator, Mother Nature, has laid before us. While North American society has become stagnant and decadent, enslaved by money and hypnotized by television, constantly fighting wars and preparing for new ones, I need to go away from it...

I have searched for my place here and haven't found it... now is the time to search elsewhere. I don't know if I'll find what I'm looking for there, but at least, I won't spend my life wondering, but rather wandering...

I'll try updating this blog as often as I can with thoughts, pictures and art just as I used to, but I can't guarantee that I'll do it every week or every month, so you might have to be patient by moments. I know that this trip will not be the safest one, but we'll be as careful as possible. Unless proven wrong, we only have one life to live, and I believe that risks sometimes have to be taken to enjoy it to the maximum.

Before I leave, I would like to thank my family and all my friends who have always been there for me. It is not without sadness that I leave you and be sure that I will miss you a lot! And finally, a special thank to the people who have visited this space, read my thoughts and admired my art even though they were often controversial! Thank you for posting comments and for coming back week after week, even when nothing was happening for months! Come and have a look once in a while and don't stop posting comments, I always enjoy reading them all!

So till next time...

Never stop dreaming... one day your dreams might come true...

Peace.

Matt aka Dreamer

 

     - Marilyn Manson

 

 

 

     - Chateaubriand

 

     - Jimi Hendrix

 

     - Jimi Hendrix

 

 

    - Siddhartha (Hermann Hesse, Siddhartha)

 

     - Emmanuel Goldstein (George Orwell, 1984)

 

     - Winston Smith (George Orwell, 1984)

 

 

     - Marilyn Manson

 

 

 

 

     - Marilyn Manson

 

     - Les Colocs

 

     - Les Colocs

 

     - Marilyn Manson

 

 

 

 

 

     - Haile Selassie I