Required to love a place with such a range
Of fickle emotion, spurs, scraped up knees
A deep voice, falling water unrequited

The dead giveaway is not that you can hear their activity but the fact that you can’t hear anything. When there’s no vehicles in sight and there is no sound coming from the jungle. No birds whatsoever. They like to hunt and eat everything here, or sell it to China.

my body could not regulate its own body temperature anymore and my nose and throat were completely dry, swollen and hurt.

Markus was shouting at me to paddle harder. But, I was already paddling as hard as I could.

He’s doing this because he needs to make a fortune in the rubber business to fulfill his dream of building an opera in the jungle

suddenly a herd of about 7 water buffaloes was running towards us.

instantly my wheels slid from under me and I found myself sliding across the pavement with my bike. Eventually my clothing and skin stopped my slide.

Rather than simply provide a handout, we provide a hand-up for those who choose to better their circumstances and themselves.

The markers in the passage were not always very clear and at one point we ran aground. With a little bit of rocking back and forth we managed to slide free of the muddy bottom and into deeper water. Shortly after that the marine patrol lost their patience and came alongside us with ropes in hand, insisting they would tow us the rest of the way. I was getting ready to jump in the water with the kayak.

I was more nervous about being with my sister on the ocean in a confined space.

She took the helm without issue and survived a twelve hour violent roller coaster ride.

We spent the night bobbing around offshore in the dark, a bit concerned about pirates and rocks.

was bouncing around like crazy and ready to rip apart the dock at any moment.

I asked the universe what I should do but I couldn’t hear the answer over the rattling lines and waves smashing off the hull.

as soon as I got on deck the wind jumped from 15 to 30 knots with sideways hail to top it off! It’s moments like these that you wish you could share with a buddy.

Little did I know that the little scrape on my knee would end up being the biggest issue of the journey to date.

solar panel covered in shit! Spotting a large unidentified marine mammal, a few flying fish, and a flying squid brightened up the crappy start to the day. 

Soon after I was shocked out of my slump when I got the surprising news