Jason Kester

International Border Dispute

Jason Kester — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Fun fact: Thanks to some silly embargo dating from the Bush administration, Bolivia now charges Americans $135 to visit their country.

Fun fact #2: That´s not written in the Lonely Planet.

So here´s how you do it if you´re ever in the neighborhood. First, you argue with the border guard for a while. Then you go back to the Peruvian side and complain how the Bolivians are a bunch of idiots who want to extort 135 USD from me, and screw that, please stamp me back into your fine country.

Then you tiptoe your way back over to the Bolivian side, slip the guy a crisp new $20 bill and casually make your way to the nearest collectivo taxi headed into Copacabana.

Coming back, you casually peruse the fruit stands while your non-US compatriots make their way through immigrations, all the while being scrutinized ever more carefully by an angry looking guy in a uniform. Then you --HEY LOOK AT THE SIZE OF THAT BIRD!!!-- and you cheeze it across the border at full tilt and hope nobody starts shooting at you.

I didn´t like Bolivia all that much. It made me nervous.

The Great Laptop Heist

Jason Kester — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMT

It will go down as one of the greatest crimes of the century.

Somehow, in the downstairs compartment of a luxury night bus, in a locked room with only 9 seats, while my bag was between my legs and I don´t remember ever being asleep, somebody managed to rummage in and swipe my laptop. And my blingin´Moroccan sunglasses.

Lame.

Speaking of Lame, Puno is kinda lame. I mean it´s fine and all, but Paul showed up without his bag and we´re stuck here waiting for the airline to get its act together and forward the bag along, and frankly there´s a lot of places I´d rather be than right here.

At least there´s an internet cafe here, which will come in handy since now I need to eBay myself a new machine and figure out how to get it built into a dev box and sent down here.

Schoolin´

Jason Kester — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Spent a week in Arequipa taking Spanish lessons and wandering around the town. Arequipa is cool, with a colonial vibe, cobbled streets, and Stone buildings.

We stuck it out for almost 10 days in the end, and since we weren´t doing tours and stuff every day it actually ended up being the cheapest bit of the trip so far. Well worth it.

Please stop circling the monkey!

Jason Kester — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMT

We finally escaped the Vortex yesterday and found a bitchin' 1974 Dodge Coronet collectivo taxi headed to Nazca with a load of cargo and a local couple. After 2 hours of bleak desert nothing, we came across a stretch of bleak desert nothing with a bunch of parked tour buses and a bunch of people clamboring up a set of spiral stairs to nowhere.

This was the place!

Nazca is the single least impressive archaelogical site in the world to visit on the ground. There's simply nothing there. It's not in the least bit surprising that then never found it (and even went so far as to build a highway through it) before 1939. It only works from the air.

Steep enough for ya?

So to the air we went. $50 will get you a seat on a Cessna 172 for half an hour flying over the lines, which I have to say are pretty freakin' sweet. The pilots they have are awesome, and they spend most of their time in a 45 degree banked turn circling a few hundred feet above one pictograph or another.

After about 10 minutes of this treatment, you're pretty much Nazca'd out. OK, I get it. It looks like a bird. You've circled it seven times now and I'm about to vomit. No, please, I beg you, there's no need to circle it in the other direction... ow... look at the horizon... breathe... It'll be over soon.

So yeah, it's good value. Now we're back at the hostal, dipping in the queen-sized pool and waiting for the quease to subside before the big Night Bus to Arequipa.

Big Day with penguins and deserts & stuff

Jason Kester — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Our hotel in Paracas came with a nice rooster to wake us up in time for a boat trip out to the Islas Ballestas, which is probably as close as we'll come to the Galapagos on this trip. It was actually pretty cool for ten bucks, and we got within poking distance of seals, penguins, pelicans, and several zillion cormorants.

Is that close enough for you?

The beach was cool and all, but when we got back to the hotel we caught wind of a collectivo heading straight to Huacachina that was leaving immediately. A quick flurry of packing, a couple hours of discomfort, and suddenly we're at a desert oasis surrounded by sand dunes. Cool!

Much chilling ensued, along with some thoroughly perilous dune buggying out to do some sandboarding. Huacachina is one of those backpacker vortices that are just so comfortable that you find yourself in a permanent state of "we'll probably move on tomorrow", but really they shouldn't even bother offering bus service out of the place. You're not leaving.

Llama de Arabia

Ceviche

Jason Kester — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMT

So our last day in Lima was pretty cool. The old Spanish colonial center is groovy, though they had it on double-secret security alert while we were there. There were dudes with guns milling around everywhere you looked, and accumulating in bunches in alleyways. One guy was walking around with an extra clip of ammunition for his AK-47, presumably because he expected to use the first one up that day and didn't want to feel silly for not having more.

Llama de la ciudad

Heading home, we found ourselves locked out of the Hostel for most of the evening, since the guy who answers the buzzer was asleep. Good thing too, since the place we went to find a beer & kill time turned out to be a really cool hostel, differentiating itself from ours by having windows, not being a dank hovel with mice, and having a bunch of fun people to talk to up on the roof. It's http://www.hostelkokopelli.com/ if you're ever in Lima. We'll head back there next time we're in town.

Anyway, on to the Ceviche. We headed down to Paracas, about 4 hours south by bus. They drop you at a crossroads on the main highway, about 20k short of the town, in front of a booth labeled "Tourist Information" filled with people telling you that all the hotels in Paracas are full because it's a Sunday, but there's one place they can hook you up with that has a room for $40/night. And there aren't any buses but we can get you a special rate on a taxi.

Thanks, dude. We'll try our luck anyway, and hey! Isn't that a local bus going past with a "Paracas" sign on it? Let's see it they're closed on sundays too...

Paracas is a small place, but still they manage to segregate out the "Restaurant Turistico" district from the local places. We grabbed a giant plate of Ceviche from a place with plastic chairs and a bunch of locals. Mmmm.... raw fish in the 3rd world... that's good eatin'!

Llegamos a Lima

Jason Kester — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Continent #6 is officially checked off the list. All that remains is Antarctica, and since it's not going anywhere, it can wait until I've made the big bucks and can afford to do it in style. For now, it's time to get down to business. Specifically, it's time to figure out exactly what there is to do in Peru, since we really didn't spend much time researching anything...

Nacimiento de llama

I know they've got some form of Inca Trail here, and that it goes to Machu Picchu (and that I shelled out a pile of money to secure us a slot on it). That's 22 days from now, and 21 hours away by bus. I suspect there's a lot of cool stuff between here and there.

I'll let you know when I find some of it. Thus far, I've found some tasty Zendas, an adaptador for my laptop charger, and a pretty cool little 3rd world capital. Our room has the bonus feature of sharing a wall with the local bar street. It certainly sounds like it's more fun over there. I think I shall investigate...

San Fermin 2008!!!

Jason Kester — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 00:00:00 GMT

San Fermin kicked off at noon today and the place is going nuts. We made it down to city hall, where it all starts, a couple hours early. Helen and Martin-on-the-couch sought out the high ground and found their way atop a bottle bin. I opted to remain amongst the people, and got thoroughly monched as a reward.

For a full two hours, champagne corks popped and wine flew through the air, along with various colorful liquids, flour, mustard, and anything else that people thought to bring along so as to make matters worse. People kept cramming in, packing the crowd tight enough that it was nigh impossible to swill Kalimotxo anymore. Crowds surged. The faint of heart were passed back overhead to safety. Finally, the mayor and her entourage stepped out on the balcony and launched the rocket that officially started the festivities. Somehow it ramped up a notch. I wouldn't have thought there were any notches left.

That was four hours ago. The place is a mess. My previously white clothes are mostly yellow, with a bit of purple thrown in. We're halfway through the week's supply of wine. I need a shower.

Gora San Fermin!

Bouldering in the paint

Jason Kester — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 00:00:00 GMT

...

this is a placeholder for an entry in Morocco about Tafraout.

National Everything Closed Day

Jason Kester — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 00:00:00 GMT

So we stashed the car in Almeria and hopped the night ferry to Nador, waking up Bright eyed and ready to make our way down to Fes. Stepped out of the ferry port, ready to face the wave of hustlers, false guides, and "freelance" taxi drivers that had plagued my every step the last time I was in this country. "Elbows up. Make for the taxi ranks and don't make eye contact or respond to anybody no matter what! Ready... Go!!!"

Uh... Stepped a couple more steps... (insert sound of crickets chirping)... watched a tumbleweed roll past...

December 22, 2007 happened to coincide with the Muslim calendar's high holiday of sacrifice, whereby the head of every household must find a tasty looking sheep and slaughter it for his family. This takes precedence over everything else, including taxi driving, hotel operating and restauranteering. Nador ferry port is 15 dusty kilometers from Nador town. Both are deserted, as is the road connecting them. We're screwed.

Somehow, we found a lift from a passing motorist who dropped us off on the dusty, empty streets of Nador, where we ascertained that the bus station was closed, no grand taxis were operating, and we were every bit as stuck as we feared. The only unlocked door in the whole town belonged to the 4 star hotel on the sea, which at least kept us from starving to death that afternoon.

Finding a couple other travelers in the same predicament, we arranged a grand taxi all the way to Fes the next morning, banged on the door of the cheap hotel across the street until they let us in, and waited out the day as sheep blood flowed in the streets and the smell of roast meat wafted from closed doorways.

Big Weasel!

Jason Kester — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Big Weasel!

Hey! I have absolutely nothing new to report, except for the fact that I've now been to one of the three silliest named places on the planet. Biguezal is only a half hour from our place, so it was an easy one. I've already done Heol y Cyw in Wales, and I'm not really sure what the third place is, but I bet somebody will suggest it to me.

The folks are in town, and we've been showing them around the countryside. They've fired up a blog of their own, so if you honestly care what my parents are up to, you can go read that.

Spain still rules.

Pobre Mi

Jason Kester — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 00:00:00 GMT

San Fermines just kept going, and after 6 days of wassailry we'd had enough. Time to pack up the car and head south to Rodellar for a few days of climbing.

Got back last night to clean streets and quiet sleep. Nice...

San Fermin catches it's breath

Jason Kester — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Taken out by the Vaca

Pamplona has finally settled into its groove, and San Fermin continues apace, but somehow not as franticly as it was the first couple days. Everybody knows they're in for the long haul, and they're pacing themselves a bit better now. Don't get me wrong, it's still basically insane, but at least people have stopped peeing on our front door.

Caught the encierro from inside the bull ring on Day 3. It's standing room only at 8am, as the fighting bulls are put away and they start releasing younger bulls into the ring to play with the crowd. These young bulls have their horns nominally padded to keep them from poking through anybody, but they are still capable of tossing anybody that strays too close (or doesn't run fast enough).

It's a pretty simple game, really:

1. See how close you can get to the Rampaging Bull

2. Attract the attention of the Rampaging Bull to impress your friends.

3. Land.

4. Try to get up and escape before the Rampaging Bull tosses you again.

5. See how far you can remain from the Rampaging Bull.

The nice thing about Sanfermines mid-week is that you can walk around in the daylight and not be immediately doused with gallons of Kalimotxo. You may get smacked in the head by some guy in a big mask, but for them most part it's a pretty family friendly time. After the fireworks are finished at night, the place transforms back into party mode and you'd best just roll with it. We had 3 separate marching bands colliding under our window at 3:00 this morning. It's probably best if you don't plan to sleep much this week...

San Fermin Day Two - Family Style...

Jason Kester — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Aqua! Aqua!

Day One of San Fermines was Huge. Thousands of wassailing wastrels in red and white packing the back alleys of the old town. Elbow to elbow carnage of spilled drinks and shouted enthusiasm. I need new clothes!

The Blogabond She-Squad in Full Pout!

After a late night, we were all up bright and early for the Running of the Bulls. Carnage ensued, and eventually we made it back to the place in search of siesta.

Pamplona actually cleans up pretty well, and 40,000 gallons of water later the streets were safe for parades and marching bands. This is the part that makes it into the tourist brochures. It's actually pretty cool!

The sun is setting now, and spirits are starting to kick up again. There appears to be a crowd of lads in the square cheering enthusiastically for the Blogabond She-Squad on the balcony. I think I'll have to go investigate...

!San Fermines!

Jason Kester — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 00:00:00 GMT

San Fermines just kicked off here in Pamplona, and the town is going nuts! It's just after noon, and already we're down 3 liters of Calimotxo from where we started. Just spent 10 minutes dumping buckets of water off of our balcony and onto the crowds in Plaza Del Castillo.

If you're not yet in Pamplona, get here. Now. I'll buy you a drink (or at least dump one over your head).

Moving the HQ

Jason Kester — Sun, 03 Jun 2007 00:00:00 GMT

View of Plaza Del Castillo from our terrace!

So it's official. I'm livin' in Spain! Signed a year lease on an apartment in Pamplona, and am now sipping my Cafe Solo' on the terrace overlooking Plaza del Castillo. It is all good here.

The calle out our back window

There is tons of great climbing within an hour's drive of this city. We've been sampling a bit of it, but mostly we've been trying to sort out little details for the apartment. Helen has gone into Nesting Mode, and is busy finding kitchen towels and throw pillows and all sorts of stuff it would have never occured to me to buy. I've been trying to get phone lines and DSL set up in broken Spanish.

San Fermines is about a month away, and I'm starting to think about gathering a pile of Blogabonders here for the festivities. See how many of us can get gored Running with the Bulls! If this sounds like a good idea to any of you, let me know and I'll find a way to make it happen.

¡Pantalones Pantalones!

Jason Kester — Sun, 20 May 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Poking the Henge!

These last few weeks have gone by fast. Flew to England, bought a new car, packed Helen's entire world into said car, booked a ferry ticket and drove to Portsmouth, visiting everybody we knew in England along the way.

Here's the plan in a nutshell: I needed some time off work, and Helen needed to get out of America. Frankly, I needed to get out of America too, since I seem to work so much better from a little terrace overlooking a square. I like my walls made of stone.

We've been looking at places to live in Europe, but haven't settled on anything for certain. So now we're just going to roadtrip around for a while until we find a place worth stopping. I guess the requirements are a cool town with a good vibe, plenty of climbing nearby, and of course, a fast internet connection so that I can work. Once we find all that, we're gonna stop for a while.

Breakfast at Apellaniz

Now we're in the little town of Onate, having done the whirlwind tour of Basque crags around Vitoria-Gastiez. This is a really cool town, and the climbing up the hill in Araotz looks pretty good. If the rest of the climbing around here is as good as what we've seen, we might not make it out of Spain!

Votes, Photos, and Discussion

Jason Kester — Sun, 22 Apr 2007 00:00:00 GMT

This weekend, I've been blowing off a bunch of paying work so that I can put some new features into Blogabond. This is stuff that's been bugging me for a while and I think it will make the site just that little bit more usable.

First, it always bugged me that when you clicked on "Photos", you didn't get to see any Photos. Just a bunch of links. That was lame. So yeah, we need to put some pictures up there, but which ones? I dunno. Guess we can't do that until we do...

Voting. Yeah, check out the bottom of this post. See the little "This Rocks!" link? Click on that, and you'll give this post a little karma bonus. If enough people click it, maybe it will boost my profile up onto the homepage. Democracy in action!

So yeah, every post and every photo on the site now has one of those little vote buttons. You can vote photos onto the "Cool Photos" list, and vote people onto the "Featured Traveler" list.

And finally, I've messed with the discussion forums a bit so that people can actually figure out what they do. Try it out. Click the "Talk" link up top and ask your fellow Blogabonders a question. I bet you'll get a few replies.

Anyway, let me know if you like any of this new stuff. And hey, I'm off to Europe in a few days. If you're touring around France, Switzerland or Italy, let me know!

BMail and stuff for the People!

Jason Kester — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 00:00:00 GMT

First off, I want to quickly thank all you lot for helping Blogabond take off so quickly. Our user base doubled over the holidays, and then Doubled AGAIN in February! Somebody must have been spreading the word. You guys rock!

I've been quietly putting new features live for the last few months, and leaving them out there for you all to discover. So you may have noticed that your blog entries are autosaving themselves behind the scenes, that you can hide your draft entries until you're ready for the world to see them, and that you can add new places to the world map.

But this week, I finally got around to putting up a few major features that have been in the hopper for a long time. Blogabond was always intended to be a place for Independent Travelers to hang out and share stories, but until recently it's been sorta tough to get a conversation going with anybody on the site. Sure, you could leave comments on one of their posts, but unless they happened to check it they might never see it. And if they replied to you, how would you know?

So now, everybody gets a little Mail link next to their name. You can send private messages to anybody on the site. If you've got an account, you can check out your Inbox under the My Stuff tab, and if you've given us your Email address we'll even forward along any direct communication that you receive. So if you read my entry about Monkey Bay, Malawi and want to know if it's worth going, you can shoot me off a private message and ask me about it.

We've also got Buddies now. You've seen this idea before, so I don't need to go into detail, but yeah, you can now start collecting friends on the site and keeping tabs on what they're up to. Less digging around trying to find stuff. Thus, more better.

There's another feature teetering at the brink of being pushed live that will let you compliment users on their cool blog entries and photos. Once we get a bunch of votes for stuff, I'll probably scrap the idea of "Featured Whatever" and just let you guys decide what belongs on the Home page by voting on it. So if you want to displace The Hulk from his seat of glory, you can organize all your friends to come onto the site and vote on all your stuff. (Or I guess you could also just let the system work itself out so that things floated to the top on their own merit. But that might not be as much fun.)

Anyway, thanks again for helping to make Blogabond a reality. Keep up the suggestions!

Jason

Astroturfing Robot Spiders!

Jason Kester — Wed, 15 Nov 2006 00:00:00 GMT

Woke up to 30 variations on this in my inbox today:

"As though I wanted will meet personally the author of clauses articles on your site, and personally to it him will get acquainted. But unfortunately I live in other country and I have no an opportunity to go on the world. Success to you the dear expensive friend. "

It looks like the SpamBots have finally found the comment links on Blog entries.

This one was especially fun, as it started out by simply commenting on a dozen different blogs, praising the author's "clauses" and offering ESL advice on how to better the world.

Then it started including helpful links to Porn.

I've put up a simple spam filter that should stop this sort of thing from clogging up the comments in the future. There's an off-chance that some of you may have trouble posting comments if you don't have Javascript enabled on your browser. Keep me posted if you notice anything strange.

Anyway, I've gone ahead and left a few of the more harmless comments to a few people's blogs. So if you're lucky, you might get an inspirational message like this in your comments:

"How many I was in a network the Internet, but your site my loved liked,favourite! Thanks."

Consider it a gift from the (hopefully) short-lived Astroturfing SpamBot!