2000 Light Years Away

I'll try to keep this short..

May 30th
Rob takes off for the terminal. I spend 2 hours straitening all the paperwork with the airport (taxes, flight plan, fueling, etc.). Finally I'm off! I take off and it's a very long 5-hour flight. I start talking to myself. I'm a pretty fun guy to talk to, I must say.. :-/

I get to Campo Grande, Brazil to refuel. All's good, but again, it takes a little over an hour to get everything done. I takeoff an hour before sunset and this leaves me with 2 hours of flying left over unknown territory. The sunset? Gorgeous. The moonlight reflecting off the Paraguay River? Ravishing. Landing in Asuncion, Paraguay and completing the job? Uber satisfying!

I meet with the clients briefly and I'm dropped off at the hotel. Wow! What a sweet hotel. So green with a pool that has a waterfall. Now I have to figure out how I'm gonna get back. I call TACA airlines and they don't have a seat for the following day, so this leaves me with an extra day in Paraguay.

May 31st
I sleep in... it felt gooooooooooood!!! I get up and take a stroll around the city. I get some cash and buy a converter/adapter for my electronics (they use a funky looking outlet out there). I then go to a fluff and fold and get all my clothes washed.. I swear, I was getting pretty stinky.  I chat it up with a cab driver and he tells me where to go at night. I spend the rest of the afternoon strolling the streets.. I see that there's a lot of guitar and harp shops around, so I hope in one and purchase a 1 hour lesson with a guitar teacher.. I learn a new strumming pattern... good times!

I head out around 9pm to a local night club. I buy a couple beers and meet this super hot girl named.. uh, let's just call her Shirley (names are funny-sounding down there). After a couple beers, I'm already buzzing it and I'm tired. I head back to the hotel and knock out fairly early.

June 1st
Wake up at 5am. Grrrr.

I head to the airport to catch a flight. While I'm waiting for the flight, I meet this 19 year old kid who had just spent the last 9 months living in Paraguay. He went there to visit his grandmother whom is in the peace corps, and decided to stay there with some random German family. The dude worked and live there... and learned Spanish quite well! It was inspirational to hear his story.

I get to Lima, Peru and wait 4 hours for my next flight to Costa Rica.. It was a long wait, but what are you gonna do? That's part of it. I finally get to Costa Rica a little past 5pm.

I grab a cab and head to the house where I had set up my stay. I met these people through airbnb.com. Basically, it's people who rent out rooms in their house. The owner of this particular house is from SoCal. We chatted it up for a bit and then I headed out to take a stroll around town. Found a Peruvian restaurant and had some amazing food. It just sucks I was alone...

And so here I lay in bed, in this really cool house. The crickets are chirping outside. I can hear them all, the window is open. Water is flowing. I hear light rain striking all the greenery. The fresh air feels real good. Tomorrow I head to a Volcano to do some zip lines and possible see some monkeys. As I lay here, on the brink of completing this trip, I can't help to wonder how much more awesome it would've been to have shared this experience with all my friends. I wouldn't be anything without them. I love the world and I love what it offers, but what good is it if I have no one to share it with?

Much love to all my friends.