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