After hearing about the story of a man who single-handedly biked from Sweden to Nepal and then climbed Mount Everest without oxygen, and finally biked back to Sweden, I have been inspired to travel to Japan without the use of any form of artificially generated kinetic energy. For the past few months, I have planned my perilous adventure. I made a kayak and planned to island hop across the Pacific. For the first week, the weather and wind were to my favor. However, the situation began to worsen, as I soon realized that I had gone off course. I missed my first island stop by tens of miles, and I began to run out of water. Just when I was contemplating drinking some of the seawater, I saw an island in the distance. Luckily, the natives were nice, and gave me shelter just as a large storm passed by. After resting on that small island and gathering supplies, I left and headed on a north-western course. I crossed a treacherous section of the ocean south of main Japanese island of Honshu known by fisherman as the "Devil's Sea". My boat overturned in a storm, and I hung for my life against the crashing waves. I believe I lost consciousness, since the next thing I remembered was washing up on a warm balmy beach with a few remnants of my decimated boat. I thought I was irreparably lost this time, but I was relieved when a native Okinawan came up and greeted me in Japanese. I have survived this journey almost halfway across the world, and am now resting and pondering what adventures await me in Japan.
After my Nazca line incursion, I headed to Mexico to explore another mystery of Latin America: the cenote. The ancient Mayans of the Yucatan Peninsula here were mesmerized by the almost mystical look of the cenotes. They believed that these underground pools of water were portals to the underworld. To investigate this mystery, I went to the cenote shown above. I got out my scuba gear and began diving into the cold, dark waters of the cenote. The cenote was at least a hundred feet deep. After a few minutes, I had reached the bottom of the cenote. From the bottom of the cenote, I saw a cave that glowed a bright yellow color. I dived in and reached the underworld. I remember seeing flashing lights and the color of dark red. I saw the spirits of ancient Mayans who had been unlucky enough to be chosen to be sacrificed to the gods. The Mayan underworld was not orderely, and was filled with spirits that wandered off in every direction. I don't remember anything clearly after that point, but I recall that the water that surrounded me before was gone, and there was no gravity in the underworld. Then, I saw a bright light and everything around me began spinning until I was no longer conscious. When I regained consciousness, I was surrounded by what appeared to be a Mayan emperor and hundreds of Mayan noble people. He asked me who I was and why I was here. Then, he said that the people who were with me were the Mayans who had left the cities. He would not explain the mystery of the Mayan disappearance further, and asked me to leave the underworld and never speak of what I saw to anyone. I woke up at the bank of the cenote, and strangely this particular cenote was gone the next day when I came to check.
Bloom's Taxonomy I think that blogging is helping me synthesize and evaluate as described on Bloom's Taxonomy. Taking the information that I have learned and creating something with pictures and media has helped my synthesize and evaluate what I am learning.
As I was traveling in Peru and Macchu Picchu, I came across the Nazca Lines. Somehow, I woke up reincarnated as Santa Maria, the women who studied the mystery of the Nazca Lines. As I studied the lines, I came up with a solution to the ancient mystery of the lines. The ancient Nazca people that created the lines used them for a mixture of astronomical, and religious reasons. Before I explain the use of the lines, I must categorize them into two categories. The first category includes the earliest lines that were built. These include curved lines and drawings of animals that dot the arid Peruvian Desert. The next category of lines includes the "ray centers" and rays that are interconnected to each other. The first lines that were built were used for spiritual reasons to appease the gods in the heavens with drawings of what was going on on Earth, as well as requests for good weather and good crops. In a way, these drawings were messages that were meant to be received by the gods. This explains why the Nazcas built the lines to be seen from the sky. The next category of lines that include ray centers are used for a type of astronomical rite performed by the Nazcas.
A few days ago, I took a plane to Lima Peru. Then, I took a train to somewhere near the ancient Incan city of Cuzco, Peru, where I hiked for several days on the Inca Trail. The path was steep and difficult to walk on because it traverses the Andes mountains on its way to my destination: the Lost Incan city of Machu Picchu. The air got thinner, and it was hard to breathe after the third day on the trail, so I stopped to take some pictures of the mountains and the trail. When I began to get used to the thin, mountain air, I stopped by a llama herder, and camped out on the mountains. The next day, I got up early to complete my hike to Machu Picchu. I got there before noon, and I took a bus up to the ruins.
I arrived in Angel Falls (Salto del Angel en Espanol) yesterday. The first things that amazed me was the shear enormity of the falls and the height at which the water drops. On the top of the falls in a very unique ecosystem that lies above some of the clouds.
From my helicopter, I could see every part of Angel Falls, including some daring base jumpers who found thrills in defying death by jumping off the water fall. Here is one picture that I took of a base jumper. As my helicopter got close to the falls, spray and mist occluded the pilot's windshield. Then, a bird flew in through the open door and knocked out my pilot. The helicopter went into a steep dive, so I pulled out my parachute and jumped out the helicopter just as it exploded onto the side of the falls, creating a shower of rocks and ember that fell to the bottom of the falls as I glided downward with the unconcious pilot. Unfortunately, we almost drowned because of the thousands of pounds of water of the Orinoco that fell down the falls. submerged in several feet of bubbling, cold water, I couldn't see anything besides the parachute that I was entangled in. Then I saw a bright light. A rescue boat came and two people got me out of the parachute and awakened my unconcious pilot with some coca leaves. My pilot then got very high, but when he was normal again, I found out that I had to pay $80,000 for the helicopter and the damage to the falls.
Yesterday, I arrived in Cancun, Mexico. Cancun is one of Mexico's most popular beaches. It is located off of the Yucatan Penninsula. From Cancun, you can see the clear blue waters of the Carribean. The airport was very crowded, and most of the beaches there are filled with tourists. The city is fairly modern, and was founded in 1980 as a tourist attraction. Each day, there are over 130 flights arriving at the airport. There are 140 hotels there with 24,000 rooms and 380 resteraunts. The city is purely a tourist city; all the hotels there lie on a long strip with each one facing the ocean.
Since there is not much to talk about relating to Cancun's history or what I did there, I will describe, in detail, what kind of food I ate. The food in Cancun varies with all the different selections and resteraunts, but I ate mostly Mexican. That means I ate a lot of burritos and tacos with really spicy beans. For most of the time, I just sat on the beach and enjoyed the nice weather and the absence of major pollution.
Yesterday, my plane landed in Nicaragua. It was really hot and humid when I got out of the airport in Managua. I stayed at a hotel in the city for the night. The next day, I got up very early to take a tour bus to Granada (not to be confused with the island of Grenada), Nicaragua, a beautiful city (and one of Nicaragua's most popular tourist attractions) that started as a Spanish colony founded by Francisco Hernandez on December 8, 1524. The tour guide showed us around the city, which was filled with Spanish style architecture. During its colonial period, Granada was a pirate stronghold, and had many ports. For a long period of time, commerce flourished in Granada because it was situated near the San Juan river.
The next day, I went to see Lake Nicaragua, only a walking distance away from my hotel in Granada. The lake was huge, and I learned that the Nicaraguan freshwater shark swam in its waters. I also went to the volcano on the lake, Volcan Mombacho. Several hundred years ago, the volcano blew off its top: forming the islands in Lake Nicaragua.
The following day, I enjoyed the view from my Villa Suite in the Norome Hotel.
I lay on my hammock and watched the scenic Lake Apoyo. The weather is nice, the expensive suite I'm living in has satellite, a fridge, and internet, the view is great, and there is little pollution. I feel like I want to live my whole life here, resting on my hammock, sipping my lemonade on Lake Apoyo, Nicaragua. Unfortunately, the phone rings. The hotel attendant reminds me that I have to wake up early tomorrow to catch the plane to Cancun. I sigh. There are still at least six more places on my travel list. It may feel like things are slowing down when really my schedule is just getting more busy. Before I return to my hammock, I take out my notebook. As I recall the things that I have learned today, I jot down a few notes. As part of my month trip to Latin America, I must actually LEARN about the places that I travel to. With that done, I grab my ice cold glass of lemonade and return to my hammock. As I begin to doze off, my mind wonders on what I will do tomorrow...
Just recently, I've obtained a large sum of money, and I am planning to take a month-long trip to Latin America. For the first week, I will travel the Yucatan Penninsula in Mexico, and parts of Central America including El Salvador and Nicaragua. Then, I will take a plane to Angel falls in Venezuala, then spend four days in the Amazon Rainforest. For the last week of my trip, I will go hiking in the Andes Mountains in Peru and visit the ancient cities of the Aztec civilization. If I have time, I will spend the last two days of my trip on an island of the greater Antilles.
Throughout the trip, I will be keeping my blog updated to what I do each day and week. I will also post pictures and other multimedia on my blog.
For the past three days, I've started a poll on what I should do with all the money that I've obtained. Although I'm not going to tell you now how and why I obtained all that money yet, I did request you to help me decide on how to spend all that cash! Based on the poll, I've decided to donate 75% of my money to charity I'm going to use the rest of it to buy my own island!!!
