I put my shorts on backward this morning, I hope this isn’t how the rest of the day will go. It’s 4:30am I don’t know what day it is I think Thursday. We are going to get on a small boat of some sort to a larger sailboat today. There has been talk in the hostel all last night and yesterday, this hostel Mamallena has been buzzing with sailboat talk. We can read all the blogs we want to and review, get ourselves all worked up in high and lows. But really we will not know what’s going to happen on this sailing trip until we are there, it’s happening and there will be no swimming back to shore or changing plans only making the most of our experience. It’s our choice in how we feel, we will get what we get. Yes this is all based on our choices but the outcome is based on what we make of it. My belly is full of pancakes and eggs, the hostel provides an all day pancake station. I was up cooking eggs for Mateo early. I was awake at 4:07 my alarm was set for 4:15am. This is what I felt like the morning I flew to Alaska. Yet this is only a four or five day trip. Not three months in the freezing cold winter in Dutch Harbor. Reflecting on it my life has been full of this feeling. Te feeling of excitement, adventure, thill, and the unknown. If I can help it this is not the last time I will feel this way. I talked with Boss-Man Tim and he got me all stoked about the World Cup, I have been fearful of the giant crowds, drunkenness, and the civil tension about Manaus hosting the games (they just built this new stadium for 4 games, and they don’t even have a club team). He said have fun be safe this is a once in a lifetime chance. So I’ll be safe and smart, I’ll be with Mateo.  

I love to sail, I have never had a true fear of a boat sinking, I have always had an emergency plan in my mind. Ok once in Alaska I was sure the boat was going to sink, thirty foot waves should scare anyone, no matter how thick the steel is. This is the first seat belt I have worn I’m three months, a 4×4 picked us up at the hostel at 5:30am this morning. Now we ride in an air conditioned pathfinder like 4×4 out to a dock then see what happens. When I see people who fall asleep immediately instantly I want to be there under my own eyelids not caring if my head wobbles back and forth and my double chin is the only thing supporting my head, time passes when you’re not awake pleasantly you no longer feel the heat and discomfort of the ride. We enter onto a road that feels like a slow moving roller coaster this makes me feel a bit sick. Back and forth, up and down nonstop. There is a military check point, they checked every persons passport that was in every car. Our driver told us it was because of the two Dutch girls who went missing in Feb. They were out hiking in NorthWast Panama and never showed back up, they were doing humanitarian work and all of their stuff was just left at their hostesses house. They suspected foul play at first, now more so a kidnapping. Oh reality you are hard and we are reminded that life is fragile, here traveling and at home as well. We get to the end of the road. Then onto a small boat that fits 12 of us in it. Then the rain starts, it pours and pours. There is a cover on the boat, but it’s a river boat not made for comfort, we get wet.

Our stuff gets a tarp and stays mostly dry. We get delivered to the bigger boat, the MS Independence. This is not what I think when I think sail boat. This is a vessel. After everyone arrives to the boat we get underway and then get out talk from Michael the salt dog that runs the boat. He speaks of his boat like any captain would, strongest, safest vessel around made to travel the world. I don’t doubt it, and at the same time we have all seen titanic. Mateo and I went into this sail trip expecting nothing. The food good has been great so far and everyone on the boat is entertaining. It it hot at night and we have slept on the upper deck for the cool wind. The cabins are hot and there are a lot of people, 25 and 3 crew members. It’s awesome to hear the stories of adventure and of people’s lives back home. Majo is the captain’s right hand, she basically controls the people, gets them in line. We went and snorkeled a bit, I like to snorkeling, it scares me a bit to see all the fish or what really scares me is what I don’t see like the sharks if there even is sharks around most likely not.

Tonight there will be a bonfire and we are able to camp on the island. Last night we went out to an island and BBQ’d fish and had a really tasty meal. I have learned to like beets. Or I realy just like this interesting beet salad we have had many times, it is similar to potato salad. Mateo even ate the fish, tilapia is a fish that anti-fish people can eat, white and mild fishiness when it is seasoned correctly.