Randomadventure

New Years in Baja California

noreply@blogger.com (Christoph Heinzer) — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 17:08:00 +0000

After Christmas, I drove a car out to Los Angeles to my friend Susan's mom. It was a nice drive, and I was able to stop in San Diego and see my friends Matt and Andy from college. We had fun in San Diego, watching football, ultimate fighting, and walking to the local bars. The following morning I headed up to Los Angeles and called Susan's mom Margret to let her know I was on the way. She was kind enough to stay on the phone with me until I arrived at her door, and took me out for dinner as well, before boarding the train. The station below was great, but the train I bought my ticket for was canceled without warning, and the next one was late. This made for a late trip to Tijuana.
After arriving in Tijuana, I had another bite to eat, and caught a van to Rosarito, where I spent the night. The next day I walked around the town, had tacos, and caught a bus south. It was New Years Eve, and I could have stayed for the party scene, but I asked the gentleman at the bus station to recommend a relaxing little town which wouldn't be as crowded and focused on partying. He suggested Camalu. The bus for which I purchased a ticket was full, and the next bus required a stop in Ensenada. This would have been a nice place, as it had a nice little walking area. I kept on, however, and ended up in Cavalu later that night. It was extremely little. I mean, the only paved road was the road passing through the town, and the one pool hall I found didn't have anyone playing. It was pretty much dead, and my hitchhiking efforts led me nowhere. Luckily, a friend I met on the bus (below left of me) was getting gas and offered to take me to the next town south. He took me in his old Cadillac, and made great time. I don't know how fast he drove, but I know the Cadillac was pegged with the speedometer only going to 85mph. We stopped at an old schoolmate of his Miguel, and they caught up (below right of me)

We all had yoghurt, tamales, and grapes. It was very interesting, and my ride ended up having to leave because he received a call that his brother was in some sort of car accident. I was going to continue on south, because this town was even smaller than the last, but not far from a slightly larger place a bit further south. I was coaxed by the mom, Estela, to stay with the family there, and we had a great time chatting about all sorts of things.

For instance, Miguel plays soccer for his university, and could juggle a ball with all sorts of stalls, between his legs in the air, and quite acrobatically. The father told me of when he was in Arizona, and how he walked from Mexico all the way to Phoenix, for 3 straight days, and ended up staying a few months, and how it cost $2000 for the trip. Now he has a really nice little grocery store in town, where the mom made us all a wonderful breakfast in the morning. That night, however, we all had fun with fireworks, blowing up buckets, lighting off bottle rockets, etc... We celebrated midnight with a toast of orange fanta, and went to bed.

The following morning, the boys took me out to "the old mill", which is on the water. We saw some seals, and had a fun drive out. The "nopale" farm above was very interesting, as it seemed to be prickly pear cactus which are partially harvested for food, and is also featured on the Mexican flag as the bit where the eagle lands.

When I caught my bus, I headed south to Guerrero negro. I walked around, missed a bus further south because of a time change that occurs when you cross into south baja, and had some good conversations on the merits of Mexico vs. the USA in a bar. I also heard of a town called San Ignacio from some others, and how it was a good place to see whales and quaint.

I ended up heading there the next morning, and found that to get to see the whales, required a 60km ride on a dirt road, and that the van trip ($40US) was full for that afternoon. I decided to start walking until I could try and hitch there with a supply truck or something. I didn't have any luck for hours, and watched the eagles hunting prairie dogs and read a magazine. I started walking back to town, and got lucky catching a ride with a couple from Oregon who were going to camp out on the beach. The picture above shows the sand peninsula where the cabanas were at sunset. I was able to find a place to sleep, and had a small dinner. Since the whole place was solar powered, it was dark early, which meant an early nights sleep. I did manage to get up for the sunrise though, which was amazing.

I was able to get on a whale watching boat, which is just a small boat piloted by a local fisherman. The whales don't come in any large numbers until February and March, but we did manage to see a lot of birds.
We also saw dolphins, and had them playing directly next to the boat, and jumping in and out just by us.

I really enjoyed the dolphins, but we did also manage to see some whales.

A teacher from just south of Los Mochis saw what he thought was a dolphin, but was the young whale below. He was in very shallow water, and interesting to watch.We later saw an adult, and followed it for a while. Apparently, in the high season, they become used to the boats, and are also very playful. Our boat captain/minister/fisherman/mechanic told us many stories, about being lifted out of the water on the belly of a whale, by being splashed, having celebrities like Pierce Brosnan and Cameron Diaz, etc...
I was able to catch a ride with the teacher, Martin Cuevas, and his uncle, and we went and saw an oyster farm, and caught the same bus. I received a little bit of misinformation regarding the Ferry from Santa Rosalia to Guaymas, and luckily asked at the ferry station as the bus made a quick stop. It turned out that the ferry left early in the morning on Friday and Sunday, though I had been told evening. I decided to continue on to Mulege, a town about an hour south, anyway because I had already bought the ticket and had it in my head from speaking to some bikers, that it was a relaxed town. I arrived around 10pm, and it was also quite dead. I walked around, and decided to take a bus back north and catch the ferry in the morning back to Guaymas. of course, on the walk back I found a pool hall, and got into a few good games which helped me miss my bus. It was decided for me to stick around a couple of days.

The next morning I went to inquire at a dive shop about scuba diving. It was very expensive, but they also had a kayak, and I could use the gear for the day, so I agreed. I met James from San Francisco at the dive shop, and he drove me and the kayak to the beach after breakfast, and was also going diving the following day. I kayaked across the bay, and then did some snorkeling around the point. It was a great day, which ended with us eating a self caught lobster, scallops, and fish at a restaurant near the beach. The family that ran it was very friendly, and we ended up coming back later. We met a couple of photographers from Chicago, and tried to hit up the disco, but there wasn't much going on a Friday. Apparently Saturday was the night to be out.

The following day we went to "Burro Beach" to dive a wooden sailboat wreck. The wetsuits were hard to get on, and water wasn't clear. My vest kept inflating which meant I kept floating up, and releasing air and sinking, and it made the whole thing a pain. Our second dive was similar to my snorkeling the day before, but not as good. It was an ok experience. Maybe I have been spoiled by great diving the past year, and lunch included, boats to reefs, etc.... We did have a fun group though, which ended up with a night on the town, Poi ( a sort of fire on a rope thing) and a return trip to the restaurant on the beach, about 2 miles from town. We were even lucky enough to get a ride back to town with a nice guy in a pickup. When he dropped us off, he then gave us a 6 pack of beer because he didn't want to get yelled at by his daughter (his wife was with him in the car) Funny night. The disco was quite busy, and I slept for an hour and ran to catch the 4:30am bus to get the ferry.

The ferry was about 11 hours, and when I arrived in Guaymas I was able to meet my old friend Victor Calleja out for a couple of tacos, before catching my bus north. I arrived in Tucson around 5:30 am, and decided to walk home. I was so used to walking a few miles here and there, that it seemed like no big deal. Now, since getting back, I haven't walked anywhere. It is funny how things changed.

Well, Happy New Year. Take care.

Christmas - ish

noreply@blogger.com (Christoph Heinzer) — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 17:08:00 +0000

Christmas eve and Christmas were spent with my roommate Andy, not doing a whole lot worth writing about, unless shuffleboard and pool in a bar is considered a festive Christmas. But after school and before Christmas, there were some fun little parties that let me be a real college student again. The pic below is of my beer pong (we won quite a lot) partner Patricia, who goes to school with me.
I also attended another party at my old work, which was a bit more formal. This is me and Emebet, who just moved to Atlanta and may have officially been my date for the party. It was nice to see everyone again, but I also felt a bit odd and out of place. I think if I actually still worked there, I may not have felt that way....

My friend Veronica invited me to another semi-formal Christmas / Holiday party, and it was very fun. I met a lot of people I didn't know, and there wasn't a dull moment. As you can see, they were prepared. I learned how to play a game called "flippy cup" which I had never played before. I guess as one grows up, you are always learning more.

Here is one of the hosts, Veronica, helping herself to some jello.

My friend Jim Kolbe, was gracious enough to let me use his cabin to relax at for a few days, down in Patagonia. The picture below is his patio, where I spent the evening grilling chicken, drinking beer, and smoking a cigar.

The property has a stream, and some incredible Cottonwood trees. The picture below features a huge hawk, which was evident even from far away.

I fell in love with this tree and took several pictures of it.
After my time at the cabin and in Tucson, I decided to take a short little adventure to California and Baja Mexico.

Crazy November, and Thanksgiving

noreply@blogger.com (Christoph Heinzer) — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 16:58:00 +0000

The month of November was unusual. I had the opportunity to attend a NetImpact conference in Nashville, as well as go directly to the Greenbuild Expo in Chicago. Then, after a week of school, I headed to Denver to meet up with "family" for Thanksgiving.

This is my friend Courtney. She invited me to the NetImpact conference, which was very interesting. She also helped out with getting the funding approved, and we had some great nights out in Nashville, so we are pretty good buddies now. Before going to Chicago, I rented a car for a quick visit to Adam's place in Knoxville. It was good to see him, and casually mentioning Thanksgiving in Colorado had him booking a flight and joining us. We both used to play trumpet, but he can actually still play.
After Tennessee, I flew to Chicago. I was able to volunteer for the conference to get free admission. It was very interesting, and I met a lot of people and learned a lot. I also got to catch up with friends and family. Sommer (below right) let me stay at her place, and then my sister came to Chicago for some training, and we all went out one night.

At the conference, at an awards ceremony, I saw my old friend Emilie Hagen get an award for some up and coming green builder competition something or other. We were best buds when we studied in Germany, and it was great to see her. She had some friends visiting in Chicago, and we all met up for drinks. Of course, I couldn't just post a posed picture.

After getting back from Chicago, I had a crazy catch up week, and it was off to Colorado for a week of relaxing and hanging out with friends. Mike Adragna and Adam Doiron flew in, and we all (Heidi, Jeannie, Matt, Meghann, George) went to a condo in Winterpark. Just a relaxing weekend of cooking and all that is inolved with that, some board games, movies, and a night in town.

Above is Mike's only visit to the kitchen. I don't think he contributed much more than helping to empty that bottle. Probably better that way, as I doubt his food would have been eaten anyway.

This is the best picture I had of us all at the table. The food was excellent.
Immediately after dinner, and for much of the rest of the weekend, the area looked a lot more like this:
We did make it town. The below picture is significant, because it illustrates the door that was just behind me, blowing cold air on me everytime anyone wanted to go outside. As the evening went on, I became quite friendly with the passersby. There was even an accident which I may have instigated, but no need to go into details.

The evening became goofy, but no need to illustrate how. I will just show you how Adam and Meghann may have reacted to a buddy reunion.

Imagine, this man, if you can call him that, is a doctor.

Heading back to Tucson

noreply@blogger.com (Christoph Heinzer) — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 00:59:00 +0000

After getting back to the US, I still had the trip from Denver to Tucson. I hung out with my friend Heidi(on bike) in Colorado, and checked on the renters in Ft. Collins.

After that, I found a roadtrip buddy in Meghann McCormick. She just decided to come along and fly back from Phoenix, and was excellent company. First we headed to Telluride, a place I had never been, and was beautiful (below).

That evening, she tricked me into a game of foosball, and killed me, as she was captain of her college foosball team (they have those on the east coast). She is quite competitive I learned, and I promptly beat her at everything from pool to paper rock scissor. She promised to beat me as soon as a ping pong table was available.
We went for a drive up to a waterfall, which was full of fancy 4-wheelers. I thought the road was fine, until I got the car stuck, and we had to walk on.

Meghann was also a great contributor because of her exotic sandwiches. Ostrich, buffalo, etc... we had a cooler full from her work. Here she is, offering me up a tasty gourmet sandwich, voted Boulders best.

There were many views of Americana. There wasn't a dull moment.

Coming back into Arizona, there were the beautiful sunsets I had been missing. We ended up crashing at my friend Todd's house in Flagstaff, where I showed her how to play Ping Pong, in a crowded bar.

I ended up getting her to the Phoenix airport barely in time, and was soon back in Tucson.

My last few days in Switzerland

noreply@blogger.com (Christoph Heinzer) — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 19:35:00 +0000

I can't do a blog of my adventures and not show pictures of the Alp, where my Grandpa has his cabin (below)

I was back for August 1st, which is Swiss Independence day. There were fireworks everywhere.

Switzerland is also a great place to catch up with family. My cousins (below) and I hitched to a lake party and got there quickly with 2 out of 3 total cars giving us a ride. The ride home took considerably longer, but did give us a ride to their door. It was great hanging out with them.

I was also able to go on an adventure with my old friend Hanspeter. We used to hang out when I visited Summers, and now he is a daddy. Below is a picture of a cliff, with the circled portion indicating where we came out of a cave, for a tremendous view.In order to get into the cave, you have to crawl through this crack, and then abseil into the pitch black hole. It was real adventure. Especially since only a handful of people have ever been inside. Not even my Grandpa knew about it. It was discovered a long time ago by a shepherd, who eventually went into the hole, and discovered a full bear skeleton, which is not in a museum.

Here we are, Hanspeter, me, and his dad. We all managed to squeeze our way to the hole. Then we enjoyed some cheese, salami, and bread. I think we also managed to finish off a bottle of wine.

Getting out of the cave was much tougher, because it inolved pulling yourself up the rope. That, among other things, showed me I am really not in very good shape.

The little red circle should be on this picture, though you may need to click to zoom. one is the entrance, the other the opening in the cliff.

I love the Swiss Mountains. If anyone has a job for me over there, please let me know.

Here is Hanspeter on another short adventure of ours, a different trip, which involved us on a little boat, swimming in the rain, on the lake near his house. We went to a small restaurant and had some fish. It was fun.

Slovakia with Sami

noreply@blogger.com (Christoph Heinzer) — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 19:35:00 +0000

Sami and I went to Slovakia, since he had vacation, and nothing much to do. We had a good time, as usual, with no plans at all before leaving. It was great to run into some old, very motivational friends.
For instance, Ivo Novak, an accomplished Physicist who runs a Pension and is a jack of all trades (above) let us try his home made schnapps. He also rented us some bikes and gave us a good deal on a room. He even took us to Bratislava where we stayed at his place there, had a few drinks, and a good night out.

We just headed off on the bikes, and many roads led to fields, where we made our lunch. It was a great day, but we got pretty dirty.

In the end, since I had sandals and shorts, I was elected to wash the bikes in the river, just outside town.

Ivo took us to his land, which had his fruit trees, his workshop, and his homemade house which conveniently is exactly the volume you can build without a permit. It is an excellent design, with very efficient use of space.

Here we are back in Bratislava, out at a bar where they played AC/DC and other classic hard rock, Sami's kind of music. We watched one guy make the slightest defiant gesture to the a-hole bouncer and get thrown out of there in no elegant fashion. We also had a rough time finding our little apartment, as it was in a big building that all looked the same.

Amsterdam, then Sailing in Sweden

noreply@blogger.com (Christoph Heinzer) — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 23:13:00 +0000

My good friend Thomas Janelid from Sweden invited me to go sailing with him in the Archipelago off the east coast of Sweden. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity. In order to get there, I had to train it to Amsterdam and catch and early morning flight. That meant hanging out at the bar below until it was very late.

Amsterdam is a beautiful city, with the canals, and art museums (yes, I did go to them for a change)

Upon arriving in Sweden, Thomas and his dad and I went directly to the boat, where Thomas swiftly insisted we needed more beer. I noticed a little tension between him and his father. It turned out to be a typical situation of a father not realizing when his son is grown, and continuing to impart his wisdom, and son doing things a little differently.

The father had recently purchased this beautiful sailboat, and Thomas wanted to use it with some friends. I didn't realize that as a condition of using the boat on his own, Thomas had to sail with his dad for a week.

This was probably the first time they had sailed together since Thomas was a boy, and Thomas later confessed part of my invitation was to act as barrier between him and his father, so that they wouldn't kill each other. He didn't quite phrase it like that, but Thomas and I are good friends and think very similar, and I knew what he meant.

We were able to get away and row to a little island to relax. The trip as great, as I learned a lot about sailing, and got to experience one of the most unique places to sail in the world. The archipelago is not very tidal, despite being on the ocean, and it has thousands of islands you can just sail up to and anchor at, thanks to the great Swedish land use laws.

For instance, our little boat adventure to an island led to wonderful contact with nature.

And an encounter with a rare poisonous snake.

We headed back to the boat in the evening, for some whisky. I learned to sort of appreciate sipping a good whisky while on board the boat after an excellent meal. Every meal, on the boat was great. I think it was the combination of the sea, and the outdoors style cooking that just made it a great experience. In the end, I became a sort of son of Thomas's dad as well. I made me think, for my dad to be a part of this trip would have been great, as the fathers had a lot in common.

Here I am piloting out little craft out to a multi million dollar sailboat. Thomas wanted to see the inside of it, and since we had helped them off the rocks the day before, we figured we had the right to stop by unannounced. We were sailing by and noticed they were crooked and still. The guy came to pick me up, and I helped him while his wife panicked. We tried to tow the boat of the rocks using the anchor, then the rescue boats came, and a camera crew to record for a show similar to COPS, but for ocean rescue. It turns out Thomas's dad called them in.

We did quite a bit of fast sailing as well, when the wind was up. As you can see below, the boat is tilted quite a lot as evidenced by my dangling feet.

That sort of sailing also caused us to rip a sail, which meant Thomas had to get hoisted up to get it down, and I spent a good deal of time sewing it up. That wasn't quite as much fun.

It was a great trip. I have been truly blessed by the great experiences I have had.

Glastonbury Music Festival and Couleur Cafe

noreply@blogger.com (Christoph Heinzer) — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 22:50:00 +0000

After the Camino, I met Jana in London and we went to the Glastonbury Music Festival. It was incredible the exhibits and things being shown before the music even started. Unfortunately, as you can see by the pictures, we only had very few hours of dry weather.
The first day was without music, but also the nicest weather. It was great walking around the grounds, looking at the random tents and art. there were people teaching crafts, and I even sort of learned how to play the didgeridoo.

It soon changed to almost nonstop rain, but there was also really good big bottles of cider to drink.

This festival also had great food everywhere, but getting around was quite a project, as it was on a huge farm.

The consistency of the mud was impressive. It could hardly be described. I was robbed during one of the concerts, finding my backpack open and jacket gone. See, if only it had been raining the WHOLE time, i would have been wearing it.

The atmosphere was amazing, with some amazing bands. The Killers, Modest Mouse, and many other British bands, too many to name. It was hard to decide what to see.

The festival really did a great job of providing an experience, not just music.

I was pretty much the only person without boots. to get into Glastonbury requires and act of God, and I was very lucky that my girlfriend Jana was able to get tickets. It was a shame we fought quite a lot during the weekend, which may be why we are no longer together. We did not, however, fight like the people below.
This was the Kaiser Chiefs show.

Couleur Cafe - June 29 and July 1.

Once back in Belgium, my cousin Markus came to visit for another music festival, with some interesting bands, Couleur Cafe.

At this show we saw live from Buena vista, Kelis (my milkshake brings all the boys to the yard), and Gotan Project, which is a fun tango group which was impressive.

In the picture below, the following day, is when Markus came to visit, I was interviewed for some dutch tv program. I won't explain the poem I recited, as it would probably embarrass my mom.

My cousin and Markus helped out a couple of kids see the show. That night we saw Johnny Clegg, the Roots, and Sean Paul. It was a lot of fun.

Another advantage of the festival was the food was from all over the world, with tents and spontaneous shows of drummers or dancers in the circus like atmosphere.

The festival was in an old revived warehouse area. Even the old warehouses had great architecture.

On the Camino de Santiago

noreply@blogger.com (Christoph Heinzer) — Sun, 27 May 2007 11:22:00 +0000

The Camino de Santiago is an old Pilgrims route to Santiago de Compostela, which starts from all over Europe. The 800km that are in Spain, are well developed in terms of signs and reasonable accommodation. I spent almost a month of my trip walking the Camino, and below is a short account. I highly recommend the walk, and am happy to help anyone interested in doing it.

May 22 2007
I started my journey with a long overnight train ride Brussels that landed me in Bayonne, France. I had a couple of hours to look around, and took the picture of the courtyard inside a church(below). The town was very nice, and despite having plenty of time, things started to get a bit tight as I stepped in a fresh dog poo, and then got lost on my way back to the train station. I made the train, which connected to St. Jean Pied de Port, where the Camino starts.

I started the Camino with a wiley old Italian guy, who is impossible to keep up with. I followed him off the train, which had many walkers on it, most of which were going to spend the night and start in the morning. He had a tiny backpack, so I knew he knew what he was up to. His name was Lino, and I followed him for the next 4 days, averaging 40km per day. He was truly inspirational, and full of energy. You meet a lot of people like that, though none as fast. The picture below is outside the place you get your credentials as a pilgrim, which allows you to eat and sleep cheap, all along the way.

We hit it off quickly, and when he asked me which route I preferred to take to Roncesvalles, where we would sleep, I said the higher route vs. the flat one. He wanted the flat one since he had done it all before and it was getting late, but complied. We were very lucky as it was rainy and foggy, but we ended up above it all, with a view down on the clouds where it was raining and stormy. It was a nice walk, with sheep and horses grazing lazily.

I ended up losing him when I stopped to take a picture while he headed on. There was a fork in the trail, one through a forest,the other a gravel road. The road was better, not muddy. I chose the forest, and when I realized I lost him, I started doing the Camino my way, which meant I stopped, pulled out a book, and fell asleep. Not the smartest as it was getting late, but some other hikers woke me. I arrived in Roncesvalles, met up with Lino and friends for a dinner, and then we had a group mass in several languages. We all slept in an old converted church housed with bunks.

The following morning we got up extremely early to the sound of bells and classical music being played in the old church. It was a rough night because the guy next to me kept rummaging through his bag all night, and did apologize in the morning. It was the beginning of a long journey, starting with 37km of the 790 total as illustrated.

The scenery the first full day was excellent. It was a nice day, there were cows and bulls in the fields, and I had my first sandwich (bocadillo). Later that day I walked by the building below. It has a beautiful view, isn't too far from Pamplona, and I think would make a great hostel.

The view of the mountains is just below the proposed hostel. Of course, I have many different ideas, so I have often heard I am a bit crazy. This is one of many of my ideas, and I don't know which one I will do. I encourage comments from those who read this, as to what I should do.

That second evening, we arrived at a 12th century hostel which is a church/monastery, with a lovely garden, right on the river. We once again had wine and a meal, and I met another bunch of great people. The following morning was meant to be a 50km day, the longest of the whole trip. Capper, my new friend who teaches at the University of Minnesota, and Lino had been walking together for a while, and we walked right through Pamplona without even slowing. Capper and I decided that the pace and discipline Lino had, was not the experience we wanted, so we went a bit slower, and had a nice conversation about Jack Kerouac and books. We did end up making it, and met up with Lino for a few glasses of beer and a dinner.

We ended up walking together a couple more days, though I had blistered feet.

After several days with Lino, which meant leaving at 6:30 and walking nonstop with time for a glass of milk and sandwich, until arrival at the pre-determined destination by 2 or 3pm, I headed to Brussels. I had made up a lot of time, had crazy blisters, and my girlfriend Jana had Monday off of work, so the nice long weekend sounded nice.

Returning, and my own Camino

After I returned, I was on my own and settled into my own rhythmn. It consists of leaving relatively early, walking, relaxing, reading, talking, and then walking until 9 or 10 at night. This way, I rest all day, and can walk late and avoid the noon sun. This is not how most do it. They get up very early and rush to get a bed, as they are in short supply and often gone by 2 or 3pm. For this reason, my strategy is much less stressful, since I sort of count on something working out and feel lucky if I find a place to sleep. So far,I have had to pay for one room at a hostel-cheap hotel, but the rest have all been at Albergue´s, which charge around 5Euro a night vs the 20 I paid for the hostel. One day I had to walk an extra 15km late at night arriving near 10pm when most doors shut, and was lucky that the guy running the place threw a mattress on the kitchen floor, which was also the quietest place in the building.

That same day I had the fortune of getting to walk into town with a shepherd and his dogs and donkey, from the hills. He had a 21 year old dog, who was blind and deaf, but still followed the other dogs out to the field every day. It was fun, drinking wine and talking about how his life is, and the fondness with which he spoke of his old friend (the dog) and how all the young ones weren't as disciplined workers as the old one. Incidentally, he said he never started drinking before 11a.m. (see above and below)

I also had luck the following day, where I happened upon an Italian run old church Albergue, where they blessed our feet, cooked pasta, had wine, a salad, and desert, and then had a breakfast and hot chocolate ready for us in the morning.

The following day, I arrived near 10, and had to get a hostel. Today I also stopped early at a hostel with free internet, and because I didn´t want to get into Leon too late, meaning I would miss all the sites.

In this church I met an Austrian Guidebook writer. Seemed like a pretty good deal. Walk the trail, take notes, and pictures.

The place below is inside a church, where someone volunteers and cooks meals. there is a small attic space where a bunch of mattresses are, and if there isn't room, they also put them in the actual church. I only came to look, but it was very cozy.

This is a picture of me and an Austrian guy who was in the military. Him and his friend do all sorts of adventures together, and we also kept crossing paths. I saw them several times, and on they often sang Austrian marching songs. It was a lot of fun. Ir0nically, I think I drank from this fountain, which obviously says don't drink, and that is the reason why a couple of days later I had to puke.

Here we have 3 Brazilians who managed to get a large amount of girls initiated into Brazilian culture by teaching them the girl from Ipanema in Portuguese. They had a pretty big party here, and all were friendly and Merry.

On 5/31 I met Jose Luis. He had an even smaller backpack than Lino, which always intrigues me. There were even a couple of people who had nothing, though I suspect they were just going for walks. Anyway, this intrigued me, and he also had quite a pace, so I caught up with him and we chatted. That is one of the nice things of the Camino. You can casually talk to people, and then casually move on. Anyway, we spoke, and he immediately started to tell me I was scatter brained, and that I needed to focus more on the present. That I was full of nervous energy, and that he felt like he was looking into a mirror of a younger version of himself. We had a great conversation for a few hours, and he later explained that this was the first of his trips he had to organize because he had a bad back. He had his things sent from hotel to hotel, and only carried a jacket and some water with him. He said he would have loved to carry on as I did, but because he started so early, he had to get to the place his stuff was early enough to make sure he had room, and organize the next day. A completely different way to do it. We ran into each other several times over the course of the next several days. He retired at 47, so hopefully we are quite similar after all.

This procession occured at the same place that the Brazilians are in the photo above. There was a once a year celebration due to some saint. I had kept on, but ended up coming back to the spot for the celebrations. It was good to get some local food, and music, and as I walked backwards, I ran into many friends I had passed on the way.

The picture below illustrates the morning I woke up sweating, had almost taken off everything I was wearing, and then had to vomit. I later met a German gentleman who was stuck in bed for several days because he drank some water he wasn't supposed to. That is when it became clear I probably did the same. Luckily, I only had one rough night, and it did allow me to walk completely alone at dawn.

It also turns out that my little delay, helped time a perfect entrance into Burgos, where I was able to see a procession for some other holiday. I had a great little table at a cafe with a Swiss guy, and we talked about him recently quitting his job to go to Africa and build wind turbines, despite having little to no knowledge. All very interesting.

The town below I think was Castrojeriz. It has been a while since I did the camino, and I really should have kept up on this blogging along the way. I do remember there was a great little restaurant at the beginning, with old wood screws used for pressing grapes. THere were huge fields of flowers.

After walking, and not having anywhere to be, it has been quite hard to come back to normal life. I look at the field below, and remember how several days felt so much longer, and now that I am back I am blinking though weeks without a single memory. It is really a shame. What is the happy medium?

The picture below is from when I took a fork in the road that according to some Irish ladies, was not the original trail which snakes next to the highway, but an alternate route which goes through the country. It was more scenic, and didn´t offer many towns to drink or get food at. It did offer this nice oasis near the train tracks. I went for a swim with the frogs, and continued on. That afternoon I couldn´t hike as late as I liked, because the small town I passed around 7pm had a small grocery store, where I got the usual cheese, real ham cut form the leg of a cured pig, yogurt, beer, chocolate milk, pastries, and bread. I was going to head on when the owner mentioned the next place wasn´t for another 24km. THat is quite a stretch at that time of night. I ended up chatting with some masons, running bricks up the scaffolding as they were old, and really quite lazy. I had a few drinks, and went to sleep.

In this little swimming hole there were frogs everywhere. Every time I moved, I could here them all jumping in the water.

I had my lunch in this large pipe, and fell asleep for a while. Somebody woke me, or I would have likely slept there for the night.

Below is Leon, another big city I didn't stay in. I got in early enough, and left quite late in the day, after having a beer with a German from several days before. I was sitting there relaxing and he bought me a beer, surprised I had caught up with him. I was just watching the old people at the market, thinking how there were no young people, and he was rambling on about the competition he had turned the camino into. He was upset about a fit American couple who were putting together some serious kilometers, and he thought he would show them and keep up. Turns out he had just organized a German guidebook recommended massage and was done with his personal race and was going to stay in this town for a while. Turns out while trying to keep up, he got sore, and ended up taking a taxi to pass the American couple who were unknowingly in the race, due to their comment earlier in the trip of how surprised they were to see him again. He sure showed them, being at the next stop first, despite leaving later (and the use of a taxi) Goofy the little competitions we create. I just listened.

This cathedral, not far from the market, warranted another little sit down and an icecream. People watching is great.

The consequences and rewards of walking late.

I have taken many pictures of the sky, and the clouds. Things you really don't notice in the day to day. The evening I walked real late, I purchased a cigar, again trying to figure out what my dad likes so much about them. Apparently, when you walk, and smoke a cigar, you can get quite a buzz. I must have looked crazy whistling in the dark and smoking a cigar at a brisk pace. That night, I rolled into a small town that was having some other sort of band that night. THe hospitallero left the door open for me, so I could leave and come back late at night. It was fun, with crazy dancing and a live band with trumpets. The following morning, I had a late breakfast, and met Petra, a girl from Switzerland. We walked and talked together.

This view comes from a mountain pass, probably one of the highest points of the camino. I scrambled up to the peak, despite the trail being far below. I actually had an Austrian follow me because he thought I must know something. I just sat there and noticed the light green patches in the mountain looked like a man with a bird about to land on his arm. My imagination is creative when I am daydreaming in the car, so if I am doing it all day, it gets pretty out there(you probably have to click on the picture to zoom in and see what I am talking about)

I spent a few days walking with this group, on and off. Petra and Christi, the two ladies next to me were fun company. We hung out for a while, always crossing paths. Petra and I ended up walking for several days, speaking Swiss german. We had all sorts of adventures, even though we didn't walk together too much, we seemed to end up in the same places a lot. This was a crazy lot of people, with one having a baby push cart as his backpack, another with great Camino tatoos from prior trips, and another pushing a bicycle the whole way. A real fun group of mostly Spaniards. I love it when people don't take themselves too seriously.

Petra and I sat down and made snacks, much like a table at a marathon for those that walked by. It was fun handing out apple slices, and cheese, and whatever we had in our bag. That is actually how we ended up with the group at the end of the day. We ended up having our own personal rest stop, though later that day I would get lost off on my own, and my leg would start to hurt me for the first time. I believe it was shin splints.

This stop is the home of an eccentric guy who claims to be the last soldier or protector of the pilgrim trail. Story has it that those templars who used to fight for the church, and went to the crusades and such, also protected pilgrims back when the road was dangerous. Now, he has this little stop with no running water, and offers food and shelter. He has several swords and pets, and had some french gypsies camping out behind his place who played a lot of guitar. The whole town was abandoned long ago.

This picture was taken of "Camino", a Spanish girl who was actually named Camino, walking the camino. the town had an exposition on the camino de santiago, with pics from the whole trip.

Galicia is the last region of Spain, and the home of the city Santiago de Compostela.

Vineyards like this, with large trees which soon became the norm along the countryside were wonderful to walk through.

It was almost sad to be coming towards the end of the trip.

I liked this picture, an old citroen french car and an old John Deere tractor, parked next to each other

The trail could take you into some small towns, though the equivalent of alleys.

This tree was called, "el Milenario" for supposedly being a thousand years old. Castellano, which is a way to say the language of Spanish in Spanish, is also the type of tree, but don't quote me.

Getting tight on time, I was stretching my kilometers, really pushing myself to make my flight. Now I was feeling the consequences of walking backwards one day. I tried creams, and once warmed up would not stop walking all day because if it cooled down, I could hardly walk again. For instance, I would walk into a restaurant, order a sandwich or tortilla to go, and then walk in circles around the place until they were done, so i would not stop.

Though I was never rained on until the end of the trip, I had one instance where I could have avoided the rain by simply sitting in and having my food during a shower. I decided to keep walking because of my shin, so I walked in the pouring rain. At one point, I saw a guy who had just stopped, frozen, with this horrible scowl on his face as it poured down. I couldn't help myself, as I was in a great mood, moving along to stay warm. I had to just start laughing out loud. Likely another moment people thought I was crazy.

one hundred kilometers to go. Piece of cake. These markers were few and far between early in the trail, and now they were quite common, since so many people only walk the last bit, since they can still qualify for the certificate. I found them annoying, because I liked not knowing, and now the concept of time and distance was coming back. I would check my watch and watch my pace. All foreign concepts just a week ago.

This picture illustrates my lost socks. Petra threw them out the window because I farted on her in a hostel. What she didn't know was that "out the window" meant into a neighbors yard, where there was a vicous dog. I lost the socks, one of only 3 pairs. Oh well.

This lovely old lady talked to me for hours, about her town, kids, late husband, tradition, the city, etc.... It was really nice, we hugged, and I moved on. She showed me her garden, her trees, and her tiny town. Sometimes a simple, "is the trail this way?" turns into a few hours of doing nothing and talking.

In this bar, maybe 20km from Santiago, I stopped in for a sandwich in the morning, and stayed all day and a good part of the next day. they played music, drew all over my shirt. I gave the bearded guy my shirt, and he ripped it to his liking and drew all over it. It was fun helping out with the bartending and serving the passing pilgrims. We ended up going out in town, giving some pilgrims a ride to Santiago, and I slept in a tent outside in the rain. The guy with the beard was quite a character, walking every year, with his dog, making jewelry to sell, and having no agenda at all.

The end, the goal. the church. That night, I found this amazing cuban guy and his daughters playing music. It was the perfect ending. Sitting, listening to cuban music. What a trip. Highly recommended.

In Europe

noreply@blogger.com (Christoph Heinzer) — Sun, 27 May 2007 11:21:00 +0000

When I arrived in Europe, my girlfriend Jana met me at the airport. We had a few days in London, where we got to do a bit of city exploring, found her dream car if she were to ever own one, and I met several of her friends. This is how my European adventures began.

After a few day there, we headed back to Brussels, where if I have time I can add some more pictures and stories, but at the moment I am on the Camino.

USA Roatrip

noreply@blogger.com (Christoph Heinzer) — Sun, 27 May 2007 11:21:00 +0000

After my long time away, I had to get back to the states, to get my taxes and school in order. I stopped at my Great Uncle Walter's house, and we ended up having an easter egg hunt at my 2nd cousin Heidi's house.

Anthony, another 2nd cousin, took me to the A's game with him. It was a great game, where the A's won in the last inning, with a grand slam home run.

When I got back to Arizona, adventures began almost immediately, as I was persuaded to go on a fishing trip up to northern Arizona, Showlow area, and since it was getting late we got a motel and I showed Andy how to play a bit of pool.

We did a bit of fishing the following day, and it was quite windy. I ended up going for a bike ride, apparently during the only time the fish were biting.

Andy ended up showing me how to fish, it seems, as I caught none. We had a good time, fishing late at night, having a few drinks, cooking all our meals on the fire, etc...

The mountain biking was great. I ended up seeing what I think was a wolf, and I also got lost. I ended up making it back ok in the end, as always.

Once back in Arizona, Andy, Mike Adragna, Travis, and some others went to a comedy club. After midnight, it was my birthday, so we stayed out quite late and acted like young people do on a birthday night. In the end, Mike and I got off to a late start the next day.

Mike has actually been invited to do the text on this portion of our roadtrip, as a guest writer. Enjoy!

On the way up to Ft. Collins, I stopped with Alison, to do some horse riding.

After Chicago, I was able to see my mom at a party, and then headed out to Madison where I met my old friend Ethan at Mickeys for some lunch and good conversation.

Heidi joined me in Minneapolis, and she is going to do a bit more writing here as well. Enjoy!

Yangshuo, one last Chinese Adventure

noreply@blogger.com (Christoph Heinzer) — Sun, 27 May 2007 10:46:00 +0000

In Yangshuo I had a wonderful time. I am even thinking of hosting a trip there for climbers (anyone interested?) I am serious, and think it could be a lot of fun to get some friends to come.

The first picture is Guilin, which is a nice city, but a city. The limestone is nice, but as you spend more time in the area, you realize it can get much better. I heard of a boat down the river, and tried to get to the river via motorcycle taxi because I figured I could get a ride on any old boat, rather than the expensive tourist boat, which has a monopoly due to "safety".

My driver spoke no english, but tried to help me when I was proven wrong, and could not get a ride on the river. I was determined to get to Yangshuo somehow. We tried the boat below, and I took several pictures of the ride, as can be seen from the next few fotos.

I eventually had to catch a bus we flagged down on the street. I ended up in Yangshuo, found a cheap place, and wandered about. In the morning, I rented a bike, though it was sort of raining and I got quite muddy.

It was very fun biking about, with many nice views.

For instance, everywhere was like below, with rice patties and such. Note, it isn't very easy riding between rice patties, and quite scary really.

I ended up going climbing with some locals. It was a lot of fun, though my hands were out of shape and gear was bad. I took them out for some szechuan food, and we played this fun feather sack kicking game.

This is the cliff we climbed.

In Yangshuo itself, there is a market, and if you pass behind it, by several houses, there is a trail to the tv tower. I took this trail just before leaving, and had splendid views and complete solitude, within the town itself.

This last image, was taken in a market in my last day there, beside it was a cage full of live dogs as well.

Random Adventure back on track

noreply@blogger.com (Christoph Heinzer) — Sun, 01 Apr 2007 13:14:00 +0000

I am sitting in a cafe, with a beer and some Spring Rolls happy to report the Random Adventure is back on track. This morning, I went to the airport with my moms friends to see if I could get to Guilin. I have been helping out at home while my mom had friends visiting, and am happy to report that my dad is doing great after the knee opration. As my time in China is now limited to one week, I decided I wanted to go see Yangshuo, featured in Outside magazine this year. Anyway, I went to the airport with a backpack, bought a ticket at a counter, and soon found myself on a public bus, eating noodles and having a drink with a random, walking up a mountain for a view, and on a motorcycle tax on the way to try and hitch a ride on a boat by the river. I failed at that, as the government has regulated tourism so heavily here that it is virtually impossible to do that. I ended up skipping the boat, got back on the motorcycle, and had a great back roads journey through rice patties, wood drying places, and all sorts of beautiful scenery on my way to the enxt nearest major road, where the driver helped me flag down a bus and off I was.

I arrived in Yangshuo and looked into my bus home. Then I had some begetable dumplings, wandered about and realized this is where I need to be. Loads of biking, the climbing capital of China, and caving, kayaking, etc.. I found a room with a soft bed (very rare in china) for about $6, and started wandering again. Now I find myself in a cafe, having a drink waiting on a Spring Roll. W will soon get offline, read a bit of my latest book, and watch people wander by as I daydream.

Stay posted. In the next month I wil be in California, playing Softball in Mexico, giong to Colorado on my way to a wedding in Chicago, heading back to Chicago, and off to Europe. I am happy to report I am back. Sorry for the long delay. I will update and add pics soon.

Therapy in China

noreply@blogger.com (Christoph Heinzer) — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 08:10:00 +0000

My goal for my random adventure may seem like it was completely random, but it also involved helping out at home while my dad had knee surgery. My dad and I are quite similar in that personal needs can go ignored when there is a job to do. Once my father was finally pushed into getting his knee surgery, he immediately felt that he would be ready to go back to work. His progress is excellent, but one doesn't recover from something like that immediately, and here I am 2 weeks after the surgery at his work while he is in a meeting. My job, is to make sure that he does all of his physical therapy, and that he actually ices his knee and rests. It is quite fun staying at home again. I know what it is like to recover from surgery, and therapy is usually always skipped, reduced, put off, etc... Since there aren't therapists in this part of China, that is why I am here, and why I haven't been to consistent with the blog. As soon as things are better, I may take another trip within China. In any case, I will try and update the past articles a bit better, maybe improve the site, and add some more pictures.

Motorbikes, like a game

noreply@blogger.com (Christoph Heinzer) — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 15:29:00 +0000

Riding around on a motorbike in Vietnam was truly fun. I started renting a bike one afternoon in Hoi An and had solitary rides through rice patties and became accustomed to riding in the town with many pedestrians and other motorbikes. The unwritten rule, I quickly understood, was just don't hit anything in front of you, and don't worry about anything hitting you. In this way, you don't stop at intersections, and you don't go so fast that you can't stop. Whatever you do, never stop. This causes chaos as everyone is watching you and where you are going, and if you stop and go, it is impossible to tell, and intersections get clogged.

When I got back to Hanoi, I once again rented a motorbike and realized there were sevral levels to this game. Level one, country side. Level 2, small town. Level 3, big city with cars. Level 4, trying to navigate using a map and reading road signs. Level 5, same as level 4 but with rain. Level 6, in darkness. I only made it to level 6, the later levels include more and more passengers, higher speeds, etc....

It was challenging and always an adventure. The system actually works quite well. I did see a guy in front of me get run over by a car. he was thrown, but realized he did cut the car off, so he picked up his motorbike, his passenger checked all his limbs, and they got out of the street. I guess there is really only one kind of game over.

Vietnam for Chinese New Year

noreply@blogger.com (Christoph Heinzer) — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 06:48:00 +0000

I have been in Vietnam for over a week now and love it. The food is excellent, the scenery beautiful, and the people are very friendly. I came here with my parents for Chinese New Year,and my dad left yesterday to go back to work.
So far, we had a beautiful boat trip in Halong Bay, which included beautiful limestone caves and kayaking. The guide was very friendly and celebrated Lunar New Year when the guests went to sleep with the staff and myself which included rice wine and excellent food.

Our last night on the boat, the guide and I and one of the staff took a small boat to a floating Karaoke bar/fish market/home (see picture)
After a couple of days of that, we had a day in Hanoi which we used to do see a waterpuppet show. We also flew to Hue, which once once the capital for a short time and had a tour of the city, which had an excellent palace. After that, we spent a few days in Hoi An, which was a nice town with old architecture and I ended up getting a suit made. I also had the chance to rent a motorbike which was excellent fun as I could explore the countryside while listening to music.
On my trip, I met some old ladies making pottery for sale in town who invited me to also make a pot. It was good fun, and they helped me and then wanted me to sign it. I also met a lady smoking a homemade cigar.

Since my dad also likes cigars and hadn't found any in Vietnam, I asked her, and eventually started to roll a makeshift cigar from a bag of tobacco leaves.

After my dad left, my mom and I took an overnight train to Sapa, where we did some hiking around minority villages. It has been a lot of fun and we got to see how different people live and dress. The scenery is gorgeous with the rice patties shaping the mountain landscapes.