Meson Del Alferez Jalapa

Moved into an Ashram today - only 60 pesos a night including chanting, tai chi, meditation & yoga - first lesson 5.20am! - thought I might hang out a few days if I can stand the heat - no fans! - but more importantly no beer and no coffee!!!! It's only 15 mins walk to the town of Coatepec, the coffee capital of Veracruz, so I can get my daily fix! Day one & already met the guru & done 1 hour of yoga with him. Reduced program of ...

I heard about couch surfing dot com so I decided to try it out. It's a bunch of people that are willing to let random people sleep on their couches. It's a pretty cool idea but it's a little sketchy at times and you never really know what you are going to get. Fortunately I ended up with some really cool people the first time so ...

... sehr freundlich. Wir kommen an kleinen Haeus**n vorbei, die hell **leuchtet und offen sind, in denen wir Gruppen zusammen beten und singen sehen. Vor d** Kathedrale hat sich eine riesige Schlange gebildet, und imm** mehr Leute scheinen sich dazuzugesellen. Nach einem vorsichtigen Blick hinein **inn**n wir uns, dass heute ja Asch**mittwoch ist, und die Leute stehen an, um vom Priest** ein Kreuz aus Asche auf ihre Stirn zu bekommen. Frueh am naechsten Morgen brechen wir mit Yasmin ...

Written from Jalcomulco, Mexico: A phone call was just received directly from Jordan at 19:35 our time. Joel is awake and recognizes his brother as well as other friends and family. He has little memory of the incident but is making jokes and talking about kayaking. One lung continues to labour but the doctors plan to take him out of the ICU tomorrow. The family will be sending us further updates as they come along.

... sedated he has fine motor skills which indicate brain function.... but it is too early to tell exactly where that stands until he is free of sedation. This morning Joel was taken off the respirator and was breathing on his own with a non-rebreather mask. He was briefly taken off the sedation where he proved his ability to move and how strong he currently is. He was then sedated again for transport from Xalapa to the airport in Veracruz where he was met by a ...

... first day on the Barranca Grande went well. We made good time down the technical, high consequence top section and arrived at the camp in good time even after trying to remove a strainer from the river. The evening went well and we left in good time the next morning.



The next day we scouted and ran Class A Cinco, the first of the "Four Fours", double guiding each raft and also providing good ...

... by allowing us to climb up his legs on acouple of occasions where there were no hand-holds. We went through a cave full of bats and climbed some rock walls and finally hiked up a hill planted with coffee before getting to the laddres. The ladders are placed in steep areas to facilitate a climb up the canyon, and are made of bamboo and wood lashed together with wire. I guess you could say they were not exactly made to code... We hiked across the flat top amongst the ...

... we would be ready for anything. Here is Pavlo getting ready: . Well I got to say Pablo and I sure got our 6$ worth of bull fighting. We saw about 5 bulls, and although they all eventually lost, the first few heard me chearing for them and took down the fist couple matedors, the one in these pictures more than once, he eventually had to limp off, with a giant hole in his pants after one of the bulls got a ...

... intersection and both stopped to wait for the others, as I turned around I saw the funniet site of the trip, about 15 people screaming on the top of their lungs like little girls riding for their life and franticly flailing their arms. Pablo was the first to reach the stopped Raul and I and as he approached all I could hear was a long line of obsenities as well as him screaming for me to get the F out of his way ...

... cold, clear water. Other than their great company, they also offered up some yummy treats from back home like tootsie roll pops and sweet tarts. When they left on a Friday morning they donated a huge sack of granola bars, some candy, the parmesan cheese in a green tube, and, my favorite of donations, NEW shoes!!!! I befriended a woman named Ann and she had bought a new pair of tennis shoes specifically for this trip and knew she wouldn't wear them back home... ahhh it's so ...