Valpo

Im becoming a sleep ninja. When I first got here all i could thing about was getting a comfortable sleep and not being woken up by infants crying or an uncomfortable bed. I can now sleep in almost any situation. Last nite i passed out for pretty much the whole night on a cramped bus then got a couple more hours of shut eye in a hostel while small children were running around screaming. Unfortunatley Jim has not aquired the same sleep skills and i dont think has slept more than 5 minutes in the last 30 hours. Today also marks the first day of the entire trip that we havent had immaculate sunny skies. The skies over Valporaiso are a dim gray but that has done nothing to diminish my excitement for the town. This place is beauitufl and consists of steep cobbled streets with all sorts of multi colered archetechture. Another great part about the city is that it is absolutley bustling. The downtown area feels like the center of some metropolitan and wordly city yet the population of Valpo is only 260,000. The downside to this is that things are pricey. My sandwich cost 7 dollars at lunch today. I cant complain to much though becuase i did see a tabloid newspaper where the front page is about a women with four breasts and around the corner was a bronze cowboy. I kept waiting for him to do something cool but he was playing with a digital camera or something.

After a week of hanging out with my friend Barret Jim and I are moving on. We are heading up the coast to valporaiso which is an hour northwest of Santiago on the coast. Our tenitive plan is to make our way up the coast of chile until we hit Peru. Once in Peru we will explore some 6000 meter peaks and whatnot and then probably fly home from Lima. The last week has been relaxing and a ton of fun. We have been keeping ourselves busy by playing games like "Helan Keller" and "hide one of Jim´s shoes." Posted below is some media of the trip so far.

This is a video of the game "Helen Keller." The game consists of closing your eyes and covering your ears and pretending your Helen Keller. No offens is meant to Helen Keller R.I.P.

This is a peek into the world of South American stray dogs. They number in the thousands and spend there days chasing cars, eating scraps, and rough housing.
This is Jim in Buenas Aires after a day in 115 degree heat and no ozone layer. Best farmers tan ever. He was pealing for weeks.

Your not a Big Timer unless you chew Big Time gum.
All you need is one. Everyone down south rallies on a single speed.

Update from Passion HQ

As Missoula's epic winter rolls on, new faces have been seen at the passion as well as on the ski trails. Jessica B is now the umteenth new member of club passion and a very fresh face. For a while things were pretty bleak around the palace with Hugh in the wilderness and heather out flippin her car. Speaking of Hugh and the wilderness, he and Ed returned successful from their trapping adventure. They even had enough surplus fox to outfit me with an amazing hide. I have officially cured my SAD (Seasonal Affected Disorder, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seasonal_affective_disorder) with my new winter obsession, Nordic Skiing. Although, like biking, I think I have just stumbled into yet another money pit. Unemployment has other perks besides skiing every day, I have been getting pumped up on youtube highlight reel (http://youtube.com/watch?v=pVAuBJX0nAA) and doing hundreds of reps on the Ab Roller. In the tradition of many Passion four fathers, Jessica moved in and instantly tried to move her way up the totem pole by challenging me to a 10k running race. Confident yet foolish kids are these days. The contest is set for May 11th at the Scary Forest 10k trail run in Missoula. Apparently she didn't get the memo from Horan that the Ol' Pippo can run like the wind blows. Her and hugh have been getting rides to and from school in the Passion Van (complete with new plates, thanks Joel). Thats about it from the center of the universe, we all look forward to all the passionites remembering that the rest of the world sucks more and more D the farther one gets from Missoula, Montana.

Pippo out!

TCOB at parellel 12!

I only have like 10 days left here in my new home, codenamed: Pedro Snachez. I had quite a lot of work to get done with various projects that I had started in my 100 days here. Crunch time. I pulled a little trick from Doug and hired a local guy to help me out. He doesn't charge much, but man, is he bossy. Plus, I am pretty sure that he came to work drunk yesterday. He kept loosing his balance and falling into the hole, and this one time, when we were carring a huge sack of goat doody across this little stream, he slipped in the mud and left me to carry all of the load by myself.
My buddy Josh came and visited a while back and I took him on a burly hike through the jungle to some crazy waterfalls. It was so thick that we had to machete our way through for hours. When we got there, my dominican friend tried to get me to jump into what I would clasify as a "whirlpool on steroids." I thought that he was kidding me and then he went in-jeans and all. it ended up being awsome and I wan't sucked down another waterfall.

On the way back, where we had to hack our way again, I got bit by a tarantula. When they get on you, they just don't let go. I had to pull it off with my other hand. I swelled up douggie-style, but a benedryl and a good nap set me straight (one has little choice after taking that much benedryl.)

I talked to some of the locals, specifically the doctor (Hot girl about a year younger than me, dresses like a slizzle). They told me to rub some menthyl on it. Seriously, that is the cure for everything....except when one needs stiches, then the cure is "try and hitch-hike to the capital to go to the hospital. and pick up some needle and thread on your way, they won't have that there." I find all of this amazing, since I see little kids playing with machetes and big knives everywhere that I go.

laters,

jeffro

Hola Barret

On the bus ride from Pucon to Concepcion Jim and I were both bubbling with excitement. However this was more due to the fact that were going to suprise Barret than it was to actually see him. We had told Barret that we wanted to come visit him but had not told him any of our plans for the trip. He had no idea that we were coming to see him let alone that we were even in south america. Getting off the bus in Concepcion we found a map in the bus terminal. We found what we thought was Barrets street and started walking to it. Jim and I had imagined barret living in a fairly nice neighborhood but as we walked to what we thought was his street we moved deep into a neighborhood that can only be described as less than friendly. Eventually a chilean on a bike stopped us and asked if we were chileanos and when we said no promtly told us we should probably leave this part of the city. Considering the sun was about to down we took his advice and took a bus to the downtown area. We stopped and asked a few folks if they knew where the Barret´s address was located but no one knew. We thought that he probably lived near the University where he works. Once we got in the U district a young lady pointed us in the right dirrection and we found Barret´s apartment. Unfortunatley he was not there. We decided to go around the corner and get some food and wait for him to come back. It would be even more comical to surprise him on the street. As were discussing the finer points of suprising him Barret turned the tables on us found us first. He had spotted us from accross the street in the university where he had been doing a crossword puzzle. Concepcion has been nice and we have been spending our time just hanging out and realaxing with Barret.

DAME cinco Peso (Give me five...pesos)

Yes that's right folks, that is a rosary. The most holy Catholic tool of prayer...with a Spongebob ornament.

I have been holed up down here in the Dominican republic for near three months now. I was afraid that it might make me hate America, all of the poverty and whatnot. But -I tell you what- I've only had one hot shower in three months and my grunion is not any the better for it. I miss home.

I have had the oppertunity to travel from my hometown of Pedro Sanchez and visit some surrounding areas. This past weekend, I rolled north to this park called Los haitsis. I think that the translation is "dead indians and crazy people." There are a lot of legends about beautiful women walking around the islands and through caves...with their feet on backward, and probably looking for people to eat. It's all Columbus' fault. Here, everyone is looking to eat you, Especially haitians.

We saw a good amount of Pre-Columbian cave drawings. The guide (the first Dominican that I have met that is aware of the concept of rules), wouldn't let me take pictures, so I reproduced some on paintbrush. enjoy. I am not sure why they have a rain god, since this

is the freakin`JUNGLE. It rains every day. In fact, it rained on us while we were on this tour.

Also photographed is the bow of this serious old wooden boat that we took way out to some islands. the motor died several times on the way back. We tried to paddle for a while with a broken kayak paddle, but considering that we were in the ocean, and the boat weighed about 2 tons, we did not make much headway. I think the Dominican didn't buy enough gas. Ass.



Also photographed are some figurines that are thinking about joel. My "bus" that I took through Jurrasic Park. -Note the door does not shut, even while careening down steep mountain passes. And an ancient Taino warrior. Apparently the indegenous people looked like muppets...and enjoyed chewing their nails.

I don't really have a job here. I do the dishes and wash clothes. I also help this guy install water filters for 1 peso a pop. I suppose that I also built a garden. Considering our yard has an inch of standing water, that's not so weak of an achievement.

I have also been slightly influenced by the culture. I now have not one but two pairs of tight pants. think pippo-pants, but not tight on the ankles. and sexy.

laters,

jeffro

Pucon 70.3

Located in foothills of the Chilean Andes Pucon is a small tourist town with almost perfect climate. The pucon 70.3 half ironman took over the town on sunday. It seemed like everyone came out on the streets to watch the race and cheer people on. Chris Corbin and I took a little jog through town on race morning at about 6am and were cheered on by drunks coming out of the discotechs chanting "ironman, ironman." It wasnt just the drunks though who cheered people on. Many locals came out to the streets and even tour buses pulled over so people could get out to cheer. Although the race comes in the middle of most Americans off season Ben and Linsey seemed pumped up for the race and confident in a good result even though they were not in peak form. The race did not disapoint. There were many fast south americans as well as some foreigners, most notably Chris Mccormack. Personaly i was super pumped up to unleash my inner super fan south of the border sytle. Ben and linsey both got out of the water a few minutes back of the leaders but started making up time fast on the bike. One intersting note was that Chris Mccormack was looking a little chubby. Apparntly he hadnt started training until Jan 1. At about mile 30 we saw him coasting on the bike and i guess a few minutes later he dropped out. Both ben and linsey hammered the bike and ben came off in 5th only about 6 minutes back of the leader while linsey came off second 3 minutes back. tbe run was a brutal course that consisted of three 4k trips to the the "peninsula" that was extremely hilly. Linsey looked strong but definatley taxed on the run. She quickly gobbled up the first place girl, teresa macel, but in the end got caught by a hard charging heather gollnick and took home second place. Ben seemed to pay for his big effort on the bike. It looked like he muscled through the run but still seemed to be holding it together and staying solid. he came through in 8th place in a pretty stacked field. After the race we all sat around the fire pit and and grilled up some big peices of meat and drank beer montana style.

Dale gets ghetto

I finally found a place to live. It's a hotel in Minturn connected to the round table resaurant about nine miles from Avon. A mexican lady owns the place and there are a couple of toothless kids running about.....i'm not sure where they came from. The room is 650 a month, cheap for around here, and is about the size of a jail cell. I don't even have room for my bike. Maid's clean my linens every day and there are always fresh towls. The other morning I was awakened by a domestic dispute down the hall, this place is wack. It would be something you would find in the slums of east missoula. I'm trying to ride my bike to work everyday but yesterday morning it was 22 below zero. I'll send some pics when I get my camera up and running.

D

Thumbs up

Our stay in Bariloche ended up being very fun and relaxing. My stomach problems cleared up for the most part and after 5 days we were ready to hit the road again. Pucon was our next destination which was only about 6 hours away. To see more of the amazing landscape we decided to take the senic Seven lakes route to San martin de los andes and then take a bus the next morning through the andes and into Pucon, Chile. The seven lakes route was truly awesome including the famous sideways volcano. We winded our way on dirt roades through some of Argentinas most beuatiful landscapes. When we got to San Martin we ate a nice lunch and then went back to the bus station to get our ticket to Pucon for the next morning. To our surprise the next available bus to Pucon was for tuesday (Six days away and two days after the Pucon Triathlon that we were trying to see). Before this point getting a bus ticket had never been a problem. We panicked and ran around the station trying to find other buses to other citys in chile. Unfortunately we couldnt find any bus to chile leaving before saturday. The only thing left to do was stick out our thumbs and hitch a ride. We started the journey by hoping a local bust to the next town up the road. This got us 40 km closer to pucon but it was getting dark so we set up camp for the night and decided to start hitch hiking the next morning. I woke up the next morning pretty confident that we would be able to get a ride but still a little nervous. We started walking in the direction of pucon and with each passing car became less and less confident that we were going to get a ride. Alot of people were pointing up the road using hand singnals we didnt understand. After walking about 5k out of town we realized people were pointing at the check point up the road. No one wanted to pick us up before this military check point. After we crossed the check point we hit a split in the road between the main highway and the road to Pucon. If the cars not picking us up before was making me nervous the sheer lack of cars on the side road was definatley doing it for me. However after walking about 30 minutes up the road and 3 cars passing us one pulled over. Praticia and Rodolpha were a nice couple from Rosario going to do some hiking near the border. We had a nice ride to the border and even nicer conversation that consisted of thier bad english and our even worse spanish.

We proceeded to cross the border on foot which was less trouble than we thought it would be. Niether the Argentine or Chilean border police thought anything of us crossing the remote mountain pass border crossing on foot. After crossing through Chilean customs we turned the first corner and put our thumbs up again. The first car to come by stopped and picked us up. They were a nice Argentine family that seemed to pick us up for the sole reason of thier daughter to practice english. They were headed to pucon for the weekend and astoundingly were staying the hotel right across the street from where Ben and Lindsay were put up for the Race. Seeing some familure faces was nice and the two are looking lean and mean for the race this sunday.

Tummy ache

Arriving in Bariloche was a nice change of pace. The mountain enviroment was a welcome change from the fast moving citys we found on the east coast. Bariloche sits on the very edge of the Argentinian andes and is located in a beautiful national park. The town is very touristy and reminds me of Boulder in that it is the epitome of comerical outdoorsy-ness in Argentina. We quickly got oursleves set up on a awesome looking 4 day 3 night backpacking trip. The trip would go up into the Andes and each night we would sleep in a different mountian "refugio" which is a high mountain hut that has a kitchen and bathrooms and whatnot. These refugios made me feel better about our somewhat ghetto backpacking setup (no stove, hiking in gym shoes, etc). However the next morning when we set off for the trailhead i fealt that i was getting sick. I figured that after the first day of hiking i would probably start to feel better. The hike was laborsome to say the least. I started to feel worse and worse as the day went on. When we got to the refugio, which was truly an awesome sight, all i could do was crawl into the tent. The Andes truly shoot up out of nowhere. The refugio and our campsight were located on a high glacial lake surrounded by an impressive Cirque of towers. I would post pictures but i was to sick to take any. However i did take a picture of a painting of where we were. That night at dinner i realized that i was really in bad shape. I could barely eat and had my first case of explosive diahhrea. The next morning we decided it was a good idea to head back down. I peed out of my butt all the way down the mountain and made it back into town where we soon found a nice little spot near the town center. Ive spent the past two days more or less just relaxing trying to get better and walking around the town center while staying within running distance of my hotel bathroom. The plus side of this is that i got to see alot of cool stuff in town like the Chuck Berry puppet cover band which i took a video of for everyone elses enjoyment.

The Easy Life

e

Life at TCH has been great. Days consist of long rides, runs, swims, good food and surfing the net. I arrived to 75 degree weather and immediately started to get golden. The house is enormous, i think it has 6 bedrooms and 3 or 4 bathrooms but I could be missing a few. The entire house has marble floor and is very loud. We soon will be releasing our own version of cribs on youtube. We hatve only had a couple of clients thus far so it is super relaxed. The staff consists of myself, Owen, and the Scultz brothers. Needless to say we have some strong riders. Tucson is full of riders and the likes of Ben Kneller, Zychek, and others can be seen on a daily basis. We have not penetrated the ladies of Tucson yet but I'm attempting to plug us into the social pipeline. Thats all for now, I need to go hit the road and meet up with the University of Montana triathlon team on Mt. Lemmon. I miss the passion and the lifestyle. As soon as we are all back in town we will have a huge party passion style. Phil don't go crazy and yes the house is haunted. Passiooon!!!

Bahia Blanca

When we got to Bahia Blanca yesterday it was still 115 degrees like it had been in Buenos Aires. There is not really alot do here. The town has about 300,000 people in it and is more or less an average middle class city. Jim and I were pretty bored and mostly just sat around, checked email, and attempted to play cards. This morning started off well with the hotel lady calling us at 9:30 and yelling at us in spanish. We took this as a sign that we should probably check out. The morning was a fun treasure hunt for pancakes. Jim kept calling them pancaques which i thought was a word he invented. I found out that really was the word for pancakes when were served some in a cafe. I think there was something wierd about ordering them becuase everyone kept laughing at us. We spent the morning just wandering around town which is way nicer than it usually is becuase its about 30 degrees cooler today. The highlight of the morning was finding this monster dog in a park. The owner was nice enough to let me take a photo with it.
The photo does not do it justice. We thought it was some kind of wild boar from across the street. I think this dog might have been ¨beast¨from the movie sandlot. Im not sure though becuase my spanish wasnt good enought to ask the owner. We are hoping a 14 hour bus tonight which is alot more exciting than i thought it would be. The buses are super nice and you get to watch movies the whole time. We are heading out to bariloche which is a mountain town on the Argentinian side of the Andes. Hopefully we will be able to do some camping there and see some cool stuff.

Pimpin' product and working for the man

Greetings from the high mountians of Colorado. I'm still at work finishing event reports. The new job is quite a change from playing in the dirt. Weekdays consists of driving the F350 diesel to denver over terrible roads, sending event reports to corporate(ass bags), and trying to learn how to work a computer (not looking promising). Weekends are at differnet resorts all over the country. We promote many different products and it looks like I will get to see many new places. The Perks: Free pass to vail, get to ski all over the country, pay is not too bad. The Dumps: Working for the man, office work, price of rent. I'm still couch surfing at weasel's place; i think his roommates are getting sick of me. I clogged the toilet today and left it...... no plunger. Going to look at a place this evening, 11 migrant mexicans live there, rent is cheap but I'm not sure about being in a house where I'm the only leagal citizen. I already miss the sluts, booze, rawness and debauchery the passion dishes in spades, everyone is so politically correct in the high country. Girls don't like me here but if I ever talk to one i'll let everyone know. I hope hugh and ed are still alive. Long live the Passion

Doug Dale









Doug Dale

First pictures

Jim is a litttle skeptical of the airline food. He will be in for a shock when we are eating llama off a dirt floor.

This is a bad photo from a cemetary where all rich families are burried in BA. Eva Peron was burried here and then her body was stolen but apparantly its back now.

This little guy we met in the BA zoo. At first i thought he was the smallest deer i have ever seen. But now i suspect he was some sort of cross between a deer, a rabbit, and a rat. Regardless these little things were just running around the zoo like squierrels.

This is me standing in the middle of the widest streat in the world. It is something like 18 lanes wide. Also in the background you can see the Obelisk which looks exactyl like the washington monument. Two seconds after Jim took this picture of me we were heckled by a car full of teenagers
This is an alter to some guy named Saint Jesus. This whole church was covered in solid gold.

The toilets are backwards here.

After a eleven hour plane ride we finaly landed in Buenos Aires. Niether Jim or I really slept on the plane becuase one, we were pretty uncomfortable, and two I think both of us were realizing what lay ahead of us. Upon landing we navigated the bus systems and made it to a hostel that fortunatley Jim´s girlfriend made us reserve in advance. We basicly just slept and went on a little walk that first day. The hostel was a little mangy but more or less quiet and safe. We really didnt know how good we had it. The next day it really hit us that we had nothing planned and knew how to do nothing down there. This last fact was exacerbated by the fact that we both knew very little spanish. Our hostel didnt have any room for us the next day so we made reservations at another hostel we found online that looked like it had room and was super cheap. When we got there it was a zoo. No one spoke good english and there were no locks on anything except the front door where all you had to do was ring a bell to get in. Upon returning at night the zoo had turned into a full on rave. Every variety of eurotrash was present. We attempted to hit the sack at around 1 am but encountered little success. There was music going non stop and people randomly coming into our room screeming in different languages and turning off and on the lights. After that experience we wisened up and started to realize how to do things a little better. Instead of booking online hostels which most hostels dont even have a way of checking we just walked around going into hotels and hostels comparing prices. In an hour we had a hotel room with two beds a bathroom and a tv for 12 dollars per person a night which is only a few dollars more than a hostel. Most of our time in Buenos Aires has been spent figuring out how things work. When we are not looking for accomodations we spent most of the time checking out the sights like old churches and eva peron statues. Most importantly though the past few days have been great for getting our feet wet and preparing for further adventure. Tommorow we are heading down the coast to Bahia Blanca which we picked becuase it sounds cool but were told that it is actually not very interesting. I guess we will see when we get there.

Joel's Will

Hopefully this blog can become the hub for all that is club passion related. If you were/are CP member please send me an email and i will get you set up so you can post on this blog. I want to be kept up to date on things like the custom license plate that i ordered phil before i left town. My email is Jsb_101@yahoo.com .

I sent out my will via email a week ago but would like to make it officail by posting it on the club passion blog:

If i die while i am insouth america i want doug to have my scooter so hewill always remember how bad he ripped me off bygetting me to buy it. hopefully this will savethousands of people from being douged in the future. I leave my zipps to ben horan becuase he needs themthe most. i leave my sram rival groupset to jeffbecause he likes cool things like sram compententry. I leave the my major jake frame and extras to brendanbecuase im sure he could turn it into some wicked dealfor him on ebay. I know i have made this requestbefore but i will make it again. I want BTO's takingcare of buisness played at my funeral. If i dosurvive i will hopefully have spent some time in abrazilian prison where i plan on pumping alot of ironand practicing jiu-jitsu to make me into the most badass bar fighter in missoula.

I am also attaching a photo of my trip route so you guys can get an idea of where im going. The pictures is from my travel partner Jim.