To the End of the World

Ahhhh, the day is here! I am currently in Charlotte getting ready to board my flight to Miami where I will then board another flight to Buenos Aires. It's been five long years since I've thought of taking a trip to the end of the world, and now all of a sudden it's crept up on me! I managed to pack a carry on bag of items that should suffice...lets hope. I'm sure as I make my way down to Ushuaia (southern most city of the world), a lot of the gear that I packed should keep me warm, but lets not forget that it's also summer down there!

My quarter life goals are winding down, after Antarctica I will have traveled to all seven continents before the age of 25. While that feeling of accomplishment is beyond amazing, I am also worried about what the next part of my life will be. What goals are next, will I finish them all like these? I know not a lot of people my age have these types of goals but now that I'm about to finish off this last continent, I'm already trying to plan for my dirty 30!

Before I get too far ahead, I'm focusing on getting through this adventure as it maybe my most daring yet! Colder, drier, and windier than anywhere else on the planet, Antarctica is so extreme and remote that it barely feels like it’s part of Earth at all. But it’s that very otherworldliness that appeals to the adventurer in me. Painted in shades of white and blue, the landscape is as beautiful as it is forbidding; monstrous glaciers, saw-toothed mountains, colossal icebergs, and fields of ice that stretch on forever. But as barren as it looks, life – specifically penguins, whales, and seabirds found a way to thrive there. The journey to Antarctica will be long, but the memories earned, eternal.

A storm equivalent to a category two hurricane

As with Semester at Sea, I also have some crazy anxieties about reaching the white continent! One in particular is crossing the Drake Passage, the roughest waters on Earth! I didn't get sea sick on SAS like a lot of people but then again we also tried to avoid a major part of the storms. Crossing the Drake is dangerous, not to be underestimated as it has taken the lives of many that have tried to cross through in the past. Me being curious, I looked at the weather forecast for the Drake on the day I leave and it did not look pretty. This is all the better as I would love to have a great story to tell. Following in the footsteps of some the greatest explorers in the world like Sir Ernest Shackleton and Roald Amundsen, I wouldn't want it any other way

A storm of 970 mb is expected, thats the equivalent of a category 2 hurricane. With the storm current going through such a narrow passage, I've been told to expect nothing short of 30 ft waves. NO.BIG.DEAL! After going through two hurricanes, the Drake Passage and Antarctica can't stop me! No, but for real - this looks like it's going to be crazy!

Pre-Trip Anxieties:

• Was this a good idea? (Of course it was)

• Should I bypass Dramamine?

• What will I do for 13 days?

• Did I pack good enough? (I don't think so)

• How crazy will this storm really be?

• What's next once I get back?

I plan on dropping off the face of the earth Dec 16th at around noon, no communication what so ever!

Look out for the post Antarctica blog as a lot of these questions I have will be answered!

Camino De La Muerte

Amazing 20+ hour bus ride to La Paz

This story starts in Cusco Peru...Brandon, Kyle and I have just finished hiking up Machu Picchu by taking the Salkantay trail and now it's time for another adrenaline pumping adventure; Death Road! Kyle is leaving us to go back to school at this point, it's me and Brandon for just a couple more days. I had managed to convince my Asian counterpart to risk life and limb to bike down the infamous death road with me. It didn't take much persuasion, next thing you know, we're both on a 14 hour bus ride to Bolivia!

By now, I've learned Brandon sleeps every chance he gets, we're on this fantastic bus after sleeping all night and this guy falls asleep within 30 minutes of leaving. I don't get it, we had such great views of the Peruvian and Bolivian peaks around us and Brandon is peacefully slumbering away. We had an 8 hour trip on the first day and around 6-7 hours the day after. We stopped at Lago Titicaca, the highest lake in the world. We were only spending the night so we decided to stay at a hotel to rest up before possibly dying while biking the most dangerous road in the world. The hotel was fantastic, the best part was the sunrise we saw while we were eating breakfast in the morning before entering into Bolivia.

Eating breakfast while watching the sun rise on the highest lake in the world - Hotel Libertador Lago Titicaca

We leave the hotel and get back onto another bus, at this point we have downgraded from what was a great bus to a third world clunker, it was all apart of the South American experience! On our bus ride into Bolivia, Brandon and I met a couple that was traveling around the world for a year, and they just so happened to be from Chicago! They sold all of their stuff shortly after getting married, quit their jobs and began their travels. Can't wait to hear all about their adventures once they return to Chi-town early next year.

Our bus pulled up to the Bolivian border, they told us all to get off with our passports and make our way across the border into Bolivia, this was just as bad, if not worse than what we did to get into Cambodia. All we have is our pocket wads of cash to get our visa and a passport. We did however forget to print extra passport photos for our visa so we ended up getting ripped off by a little boy with a printer and a camera, talk about an excellent business model! So we casually walk across the border, no big deal, we had officially entered Bolivia! It was now time to hop back onto the bus and make our way to the capital city of La Paz, little did we know the entire country only has around 300 miles of paved road so it was quite a bumpy ride.

a sip of pisco to calm the nerves and a few drops to please the gods

After around 7 hours of driving, we were finally in La Paz! At an altitude of 12,000 ft, just walking around required a lot of energy and oxygen, thanks to our hike to Machu Picchu, we were doing better than others. We checked into our Airbnb and it was fantastic! It was in a luxury high rise on the 19th floor, we had views for days! After settling in, it was time to mentally prepare as the next day we were about to descend a mountain that could likely kill us.

It's 6am and Brandon and I are awake and ready to go! We find out where our group is leaving from and head that way to eat some breakfast, this could have been our last meal so we ate pretty good! Yungas road was calling our names and taunting us, as we approached the starting point, it started to snow. We were at 15,000 ft above sea level, the weather was unpredictable here. As we start getting dressed with water proof jackets and pants the snow starts to thicken, Brandon and I just start staring at each other and instantly high five, no words were necessary to express our excitement! We strapped on our GoPro's and got into formation, before taking off our guide gave us some Pisco (alcohol) to make a prayer to patchumama (mother earth) to protect us as we go down this treacherous mountain. We first had to say something in Spanish, pour pisco on our tires, pour it into the earth followed by a big swig to take the edge off! Nothing says "dangerous" better than getting drunk at altitude before biking down a mountain nick named death road.

High up in the Bolivian Andes

And so it began, the first few miles down were on a paved road, we picked up a lot of speed here. Snow in my face, wind in my hair...my blood was pumping for sure! What were were seeing coming down this mountain looked like it was straight out of a movie, overcast skies, blizzard conditions, wet roads and a bunch of adrenaline junkies zooming past cars, it couldn't have started any better! As we approach the starting point, the road goes from paved and first world level to muddy gravel third world level almost instantly. At this point, we still have a mix of snow/sleet/rain, and it's coming down! The only thing that stands between us and the finish line is 41 miles of winding cliff-sides, a 15,000 ft descent, raging waterfalls and DEATH! No big deal, right?

Strikin the pose

We started out slow at first, we needed to get a feel for how the mud and gravel would shift under our tires. It also didn't help that the Europeans ahead of us were playing it super safe, we were trying to test death road - we wanted speed! We stayed back a bit until we saw a girl completely wipe out in front of us. As we were going down a steep hill, she accidentally hit her front brakes and flipped forward with the rear tire coming around to only hit her in the back of the head. She ate shit for sure! Nothing better than curb stomping yourself with a bike. Brandon and I jumped off our bikes and went to go help her up, her boyfriend just kept rolling downhill until he realized she was no longer behind him...what a guy! After a while, when our backup bus showed up, we loaded her bike and sat her down...she was done! Brandon and I got back on our bikes, looked at each other and said, "can you keep up?!" It was a race, what we had just seen didn't sway us at all, we were still desperate to race down the mountain, we started hauling ass! Within 2-3 minutes of taking off, Brandon almost hits a pickup truck that's coming up the mountain as we're going down and almost takes a tumble off the cliff. Good thing he was on the inside of the road, otherwise I would have seen him fly like superman to his demise.

Death Road Squad

The rain went from a slight drizzle to full on monsoon, I start to loose my sight as my sunglasses are covered in water and the dirt kicked up from the tires started to seep into my eyes. At any moment I could have gone off a cliff, instead I took off my sunglasses and decided to wing it. I couldn't think of what I wanted to do with all of this in my face, I wanted to hit the brakes on my bike but I was just trying to not steer off the side of the mountain, so I let the gravity speed me up. I was blinking like a mad man to get the water and dirt out of my eyes, it got really bad, no wonder there are so many deaths on this road. The conditions were horrible, and it wasn't just the rain and the mud, we also had to cross through waterfalls falling right onto our bikes which could have just washed us away off the mountain.

There were times where I began questioning myself..."why did I do this?" "This is terrible!!" But for some reason all the excitement was still there, and I was just thinking how amazing these gopro video's would be. After hours of going down this mountain and trying to stay alive, we made it! Death road definitely left it's mark on me mentally, I'll never forget how awesome and crazy it was to bike down. The downhill part was hard physically, going back up riding on the bus was worse mentally. After we showered and ate lunch, our bus had to go back up the mountain, this is where a majority of the deaths occur as the bus looses traction or gets washed away with loose mud or the numerous waterfalls we had passed. Fortunately for us, we made it back in one peace but not without a nail biting ride all the way back!

Brandon was going back home the next day, once we got back we ate dinner and tried to rage but we were so tired it didn't happen. The next morning he left and I was in La Paz all by myself, I had no idea what I was going to do for the few days I had left so I booked a flight last minute to Salar De Uyuni, the famous salt flats of Bolivia! I spent a night in Uyuni and did a day trip out to the flats, it was just an endless desert of Salt, it paled in comparison to biking death road!

Officially reached elevation higher than Everest Base Camp

After I came back the next day, I signed up for a 14 hour summit attempt of Mt. Chacaltaya, I've always wanted to climb above 5000 meters in preparation for a Himalayan peak so I thought I'd give it a shot. Since the ozone has depleted much more over South America than in other parts of the world, there was barely any snow, I climbed up this mountain wearing a hoodie and jeans since that's all I had packed. Chacaltaya used to once be the highest ski resort in the world at 18,000 ft. But now it's an abandoned mountain were people like me try to summit. The climb was terrible, I was not prepared in anyway other than the acclimating I had done in Peru and La Paz. It took around 15 hours for me to reach the peak of Chacaltaya, my head felt like it was going to explode. I couldn't breathe, there was no oxygen getting to my head so I only stayed at the summit for ten minutes before deciding to turn around and head back down. The views were phenomenal, I had just climbed a peak higher than Everest base camp! I now know that when I go to Nepal, I'll have to push my self to go higher, the goal now is Island Peak at around 22,000 ft, for that though, I'll need to train!

We've reached the end of my trip, sudamerica part uno is done, part dos starts in December where Brandon and I will continue our shenanigans before I set sail to the end of the world!

Stay tuned, Pre-Antarctic post is coming soon!

Step, Step...Breathe!

After 3 years of failing to blog my past adventures, I've come to a conclusion that once I'm old and senile, I would like to take a walk down memory lane and read about said adventures, knowing that the photo's I've taken will only make me want to remember more!

It's 2016 - I am currently living in Chicago (or out of a bag) and "working" for IBB Consulting as a "Consultant" in Philadelphia! Oh yeah, you've already worked at IBM, and left after 18 months cause things weren't jiving. Congrats, you've made it this far...now on to the travel stories!

It's been ten long months since I started planning Machu Picchu, I got two of my good buddies (Brandon & Kyle) to come with me up the Salkantay Trail! It was March 25th, the day to leave for Lima, my 40 lb bag is packed and MRE's are ready to go! I have my knives, flint, first aid kit, and all my other survival gear in check. I arrived at the airport, and with almost 24 hours of flying time ahead of me, I started drinking some screwdrivers to kick off vacation the right way. First hiccup of many - I land in Jacksonville Florida and my eyes start feeling dry so I hit up my cousin Beena (optometrist) to ask what was going on with my eyeballs. She didn't respond quick enough so I thought huh, let me wash them out with some solution (quick-fix). Little did I know (selective hearing) she told me the new solution she gave me was a hydrogen peroxide solution and that it required 6 hours to clean and be usable. I go into the men's restroom, wash the contact in my hand, pour a few drops in my right contact, pop it in and then boom! Seconds later, my eyeball is on fire. I'm screaming like a child in the airport, crying, trying to keep my eye open and take the contact out. Nothing seemed to be working. I took a ton of water and tried to wash it out, somewhere along the way, the contact wasn't in my eye anymore. My eye was blood red, not a white spot visible anywhere.

After wiping my tears and walking out of the restroom, people began to stare at my eye as if I was turning into a zombie from the walking dead. I don't blame them, that shit looked whack. A few hours later, Beena finally texts me back and says "OMG...WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT? I TOLD YOU THAT THE RED CAP IS BAD". Clearly I didn't hear her, so according to her diagnosis of me taking a picture of my eyeball with my phone, I may have very well burned my cornea. My adventure seemed it was over before it even began. Not only did I burn my eye, but I missed my flight to Lima so then I had to fly to another airport to catch my connecting flight to Peru. What a day!

It only made sense to continue drinking, what else could have possibly gone wrong? I was half blind anyways...thankfully nothing else did go wrong and I finally made it to Lima at 6 am the next morning, over 24 hours of continuous traveling to just go a little south of the border. Kyle and I arrive at our hotel with Brandon passed out on the bed with one eye open and the other closed. After solo raging at a night club in Lima on his own (since my contact incident made me miss my flight), he was out cold while still creepily staring at us.

A few hours later is when the adventure began, we got on a flight to Cuzco, going from sea level to about 12,000 ft. I knew altitude was a big issue when it came to these kind of hikes but I never thought too much of it until I had to start walking up there. We were constantly out of breath and it felt like my jugular was going to explode. Fortunately, there was a quick and easy fix to altitude symptoms and that was Coca tea. (Cocaine leaves)

Obviously we tried to rage, the clubs in Cuzco were hit or miss. They'd play good music till mid night and then all of a sudden you'd get some weird ass Peruvian high school band playing the bongo drums lip syncing to N'SYNC or something worse. Not only was the club scene quite horrible, you also have an absurd amount of drug dealers offering you anything and everything so you can still "have a good time". It was quite hilarious just walking around, mainly for all the weird stuff people started to offer us.

Cuzco was fun and Monday rolled around quick! Time for our hike to begin, it was 4 am, Brandon, Kyle and I are all packed, we head out of our hostel and we're waiting outside for a bus to come pick us up and take us to Mollepatta (trail head).

As we're standing there for nearly an hour waiting for the bus, we see two drunk/high Peruvian guys having their own little UFC street fight. One kept screaming like a girl and the other kept throwing punches. Both guys were bloody head down, skin missing and probably some concussions. Only thing we could do was stand and watch. I didn't want to end up on Nat-Geo's locked up abroad! A few minutes later, the police show up and the first thing they do is they jump out of their pickup, take their nightsticks out and start beating both guys heavily. There was no peaceful way of ending this, not for the cops or even the two goons trying to claim a UFC featherweight belt. Both got beat to a pulp and then hauled off to jail or even worse - prison!

What a way to start hiking huh? We're on the bus, approximately two hours in we see a towering snow capped mountain, Salkantay was staring back, just teasing. Once we arrived to the base of town, we hopped off the bus where we assumed would be the start of the trail, and obviously...we were not even close. What happens next? Brandon, Kyle and I all decide to hop into the back of a delivery truck with a bunch of locals sitting on bags of rice or other supplies for shop owners in the remote parts of Peru. It was about an 30-45 minute ride which ended up being one of the best/craziest idea's that we had, we were standing in the back hanging on to a wooden beam as we navigated along the mountainside and treacherous cliffs. We finally arrive to the trail head, and none of us can stop starting at Salkantay, and we're just a few miles away from the base of one of the highest mountains in Peru. Mentally we were ready, physically not so much.

The plan was simple, follow everyone, but with out a guide...and survive Everyone we saw had a guide that setup horses to carry their heavier bags, we decided that the only way to hike up Machu Picchu was to hike with all of our supplies on our backs. Not only was the altitude already kicking our ass, we had 40lbs of clothes, food and other supplies strapped to our backs. I wasn't really enjoying it, Brandon was walking at a Manhattan pace and the altitude didn't seem to bother him and Kyle didn't say much but I knew he was suffering with me. He also had tons of fruit flies all over him so I have to say I was doing a little better than he was.

After around 8-9 hours of continuous hiking on make shift trails and very narrow natural bridges, we get to camp. Now since we didn't have a guide, we weren't setup to stay under a camping area with a roof but a guide named Willy saw us suffering all day, so he held a spot open for us to pitch our tent. We were among the last to get to camp, the guide and his crew had already setup camp for their group of travelers which left the three of us to do everything for ourselves. We also did not have any sleeping pads which meant it was just us, our sleeping bags, a very thin layer of the tent and a frozen mud floor.

Camp was setup for night one, it was now on to hike some more. It was supposed to be a mild hike up to the base of Mt. Salkantay, but my body wasn't ready for it. I couldn't breathe, my heart was racing and I had the craziest headache and no cocaine leaves, it was game over for me! I got about half way up, never made it to the lake (probably the highlight of day 1, but what do I know? I never made it up). I had better things to do like make oxygen choices since we didn't spend enough time in Cuzco to acclimate. Brandon however was the first one up there, he was making all sorts of friends while Kyle and I were getting passed up and soon I told Kyle to go on and leave me behind. I waited for all the stories once they got back, till then I had to focus on not passing out due to the lack of air.

Spitz and I had a moment

Day Two!

I decided to get a horse to carry all our shit, I even got a horse for myself! No shame to my game. The second day was the hardest day, we went up about 4,000 ft in altitude in a matter of hours which made the previous days conditions a whole lot worse, but the views on day two were some to literally die for! My horse managed to kick me off twice, once almost over a cliff and the other over some huge boulders and both hurt just as equally! There was going to be a third, but I decided to jump off because we were also on much higher, more narrow cliff. He was in a racing mood, anytime another horse came up and tried to lead, mine would take off like it was racing the Kentucky Derby.

At about mid-day we reach the true base of Salkantay, we're approximately 15,000 ft high up at the base of a snow capped giant! Here we make a prayer to Patchumama (mother earth) to keep us alive through the next part of a very down hill journey! We stacked rocks, took some phenomenal photos and began our decent down. My knees were absolute killing me, after two ACL reconstructions I knew that one day doing things like this will be completely out of the question, might as well do all the crazy shit now!

After seeing the mountain, the rest of the downhill trek wasn't as glamorous, we went from 20 degree weather to lush rain forests and 70-80 degrees in a matter of hours! Brandon was almost an hour ahead of us, pretty typical by this point! He's already at the camp and here Kyle and I are trying to dodge mules and donkey's carrying bags along some more very steep and dangerous cliffs. When we get to camp that night, everyone is eating a nice hot, cooked meal and the the three of us americans had our MRE's and nothing else, pretty much shit in a bag that self cooked. Everyone was so mind blown, but little did they know there was nothing good about eating an MRE!

Day 3

The easiest day throughout the entire trip! It was completely flat, all jungle and 8-10 hours long and we ended the day Yeah, that's about it! Oh yeah, we turned up at the some hot springs for most of the day and then had a phenomenal party at our camp site. Inka tequila shots for only a quarter! Someone also had a great idea to put some strobe lights and loud speakers at this camp site so not only do we have a bonfire, but we also have a raging outdoor nightclub! Lets just say, we got turrrrnnntt! I'm sure there was a hangover the next day, but did that really matter when we were hiking one of top 25 trails in the world?

Day 4

Finally, it was the day we reached Aguas Calientes (translates to hot water). It was the base of Machu Picchu and it's definitely known for it's hot springs. Today was the final push to base camp! We grabbed our bags, the horses were gone, and now it us just us, and a three hour hike uphill next to a train track. After crossing plenty of bridges, raging rivers and walking in a torrential downpour, we made it to Aguas! I have to say I couldn't have been happier to see civilization. A shower was much needed so I made an executive decision to skip the hostel we planned on staying at and instead called Chase concierge to book me the closest 5 star hotel. Honestly, 5 stars in Peru is really a 3 in the United States. It was a lot better than what a hostel would have been, but lets be real...the hostel would have been much more fun! After showering and decompressing we toured the town ate some really good food that wasn't a military ration and settled in quick to ascend Machu Picchu in the morning.

Day 5

Ahhhh, today was the day, it was 5 AM and the sun was about to rise in Machu Picchu - we were ready! There was an option to take a bus up to MP which was a 15 minute ascent approximately 5,000 ft up or a two hour hike. Kyle and I took the bus, we were over hiking. Brandon on the other hand was a SAVAGE, he was up at 3AM ready to hike, by the time Kyle and I woke up, Brandon was long gone! After arriving to the gates of Machu Picchu, Kyle and I frantically start searching for Brandon since I was the only one with an international cell phone (thanks to IBM), we couldn't just call or send a text with our location. It took us a minute to realize that we had beat him up mountain, he showed up about 10-15 minute later and I'm pretty sure he was drenched in sweat and STANK!

The park opened it's gates and everyone started to rush in! At this point it was still dusk, plenty of clouds and not a ray of sunshine in sight. As we began walking in, you start to have this feeling of walking back in time when the Inca's were at the height of their power. All these stones predate a lot of history, to date no one know's how these rocks were perfectly carved and carried up such a high mountain. One would think that all of this was fake, it looked too good to be true! All conspiracy theories aside, it was a great feeling to be walking through this ancient city. Incan history says that King Patchucutec (he who shakes the earth) waved his staff and made stones fly up to Machu Picchu to create the city, now we all know that's not true but you really couldn't make this shit up like the Incans. As the sun began to peek out of the clouds, the city started to glow, the colors of the stones changed from a monotone gray to an almost gold color. It's the typical "HOLY SHIT" moment people have when they see something dope!

The rest of the day we spent hiking the city, Brandon once again disappeared on a crazy hike up to the Sun gate, on the other hand, Kyle and I were trying to take some amazing pictures but were constantly photobombed by the Asian posse that rolled up in their tourist buses with their selfie sticks. I kid you not, these fools were wearing heels and all sorts of jewelry, lets also not forget their hello kitty back packs. We shortly peaced out after getting our photos and then hiked to the Sun gate to meet with Brandon, this is where Machu Picchu was originally discovered by Hiram Bingham in 1911. He didn't have google to help him find it, let alone know what he was looking at so props to him.

It's been a long five days, it was now time to leave Machu Picchu and put it in the rear view, Brandon and I had plans to head towards Bolivia to bike death road and Kyle was headed back home to finish school. Can't say that I was entirely happy throughout the entire trip but loved experiencing every minute of it with my boys.

Stay tuned for Bolivia!!