CURRENT MISSION

To learn how to live ... before I die.

ABOUT ME

Aspiring travel photographer. 2011 is the year I start getting paid for it.... Set off from Toronto in Sept 2007 heading south, and I'm still going. Gained and lost a couple of girlfriends on the way so I still have three seats free down to Patagonia.... come with me!

PHILOSOPHY

You're a long time dead....

It's not about the miles, it's about the smiles :)

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

After traveling south from Canada and surfing when I could I settled in San Cristobal for a few months and was hosting a *lot* of people. I have to say that I think we had the best place to stay in the City and everyone leaves a good friend.

If you are fun and interesting I want to meet you!

Crashed the Toronto brunch and had a blast
Surfed: Judy, Toronto
Surfed: Mark, Toronto
Surfed: Marie, Toronto
Surfed: Andres, Montreal
Organized a CS camping trip with 3 others
Surfed: Mounia, Montreal
Surfed: Daniella, Montreal
Participated in the Boston -> Montreal invasion
Surfed: Eli, Boston
Surfed: Helen/Frank, Boston
Was interviewed for a TV report on CS
Went to the NYC weekly CS meeting
Surfed: George, NYC
Surfed: Marie, NYC
Went to the Miami CS meeting
Surfed: Miriam, Miami
Went to the St. Petersburg CS meeting
Surfed: Rob, St. Petersburg
Surfed: Joshua, Austin
Surfed: Michael, Santa Fe
Surfed: Lashel, Tuscon
Surfed: Bonnie, LA
Surfed: Joan, San Diego
Surfed: Rob, Baja Mexico
Surfed: Mike, Baja Mexico
Surfed: Roberto, Mexico
Hosted: Emmy & Sam, Sweden/NZ
Hosted: Linz, Oz
Hosted: Vanessa, US
Organized a party of about 60 surfers
Hosted: Jennifer & Mary, UK
Hosted: Fiona & Sabrina, Germany
Hosted: Kal, Korea
CS party for 40 people in March
Hosted: Kali, Greece
Hosted: Jen, USA
Hosted: Josphine, USA
Hosted: Jade, Canada
Hosted: Mattias, Germany
Hosted: Analiz & Ilona, Mexico & Austria
Hosted: Lulu, Argentina
Hosted: Claire, Ireland
...
and have desperately tried to get people to come traveling and join CS at every opportunity!

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

Started this current trip and have so far tried to continue my connections through to the next destination, ie got ride shares with hosts and went to all the gatherings I could to meet more people. Kinda screwed that by going 1200 miles in 36 hours to watch the space shuttle launch but it was worth it :)
Have stayed with about 30 hosts so far, hosted (and co-hosted) about 100 people in Mexico and been to 10 gatherings so have met many more.
I talk to every interesting person I meet about it...

Interests

Travel, music, photography, reading, dancing, Salsa!, drinking, talking, singing, playing my guitar, paragliding, skiing, sleeping, diving, surfing, classic videogames, cool movies...

• singing
• photography
• dancing
• running
• partying
• drinking
• remote control
• movies
• chess
• reading
• tv
• traveling
• juggling
• music
• guitar
• camping
• hunting
• surfing
• scuba diving
• skiing
• rock climbing
• volleyball
• paragliding
• swimming
• carpooling
• beaches

Music, Movies, and Books

Fight Club, ESB, The Pianst, Lord of the Rings, Donnie Darko, Momento, Taxi Driver, Le Fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain, Aliens, Saving Private Ryan, Sin City, Hotel Rwanda, Amadeus, Fargo Oldboy, The Big Lebowski, The Thing, Little Miss Sunshine, Lola Rennt, Shaun of the Dead and a million more....
I have watched EVERY movie in the Internet Movie Database top 250 to watch. How many have you seen???
http://www.imdb.com/chart/top
Talk to me about movies and I will be happy...

Artics, Kaisers, Darcy Clay, Cardiacs, Ozrics, Killers, Divine Comedy, Nordman, Split Enz, Nick Drake, James Brown, Doves, Chilis, Love, Jet, Beasties, Abba, KT Tunstall, Dylan, Air, Manu Chao, White Stripes, My Bloody Valentine, Radiohead, Gorillaz, Royksopp, Salmonella Dub, Air, Supergroove, The The, Zero 7, Travis, Pixies, Mike Oldfield, 70s disco to boogie to.... plus anything with soul that moves me, and occasionally something souless that moves me. Go figure.

Thomas Covenant and the Gap Series by Stephen R Donaldson, Tolkien, Neil Gaiman, Umberto Eco, Chuck Palahniuk, Paulo Coehlo, William Gibson, Neal Stephenson, i read a lot but I always forget what I just finished :p

TV? I try to avoid it, but I can't help but love Seinfeld, South Park, House, documentaries, BBC news and British comedy.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

One.....?
Holding dinosaur eggs in Mongolia, sleeping through the three gorges, twice getting thrown off the same horse in China, swimming into a pitch black cave in Laos, doing 80mph in an Egyptian taxi older than me, learning beach volleyball (and getting thrashed by the locals ) in Fiji, being evacuated by helicopter in New Zealand, falling in love and being crushed by it, jumping 40m into the Buller river NZ, paragliding solo in India, climbing up 'mount doom', finding a human skull, waiting for the sunrise alone in Tha Phrom, Komodo Island, getting my freak on in a crazy Ghanian nightclub, nailing every Beatles song and wowing the girls at a great Indian hostel, shooting stars in Hawaii, grinning like a loon just because I'm in New York, crying like a baby in some Bangkok bar remembering the death of John Lennon, checking out of a Californian hostel and not leaving, being roared at from 3 meters by a wild Silverback, drinking vodka getting thrashed at chess on the trans-siberian, pulling a disco all nighter in Hong Kong and then all going to the beach at 5am, seeing a full rainbow, 2 total solar eclipses, driving 1200 miles to watch a Shuttle Launch, crossing a river in a working coracle, swimming on my horse in Queensland, climbing Uluru and regretting it, nearly drowning by moonlight in Miami, getting a blue tongue in Sweden, going down a double black diamond run with only 3 weeks skiing experience, galloping around the pyramids, shooting an M-60, making a remote control ghost to scare my friends when I was a kid, clearing a road block at night and having rocks thrown at the taxi...

Yes, this really *IS* the route I took across the USA, and its not over yet....
See the full size Google Map of my trip so far....

Teach, Learn, Share

You *can* play the guitar, your fingers will burn and you will sound terrible at first but time and belief is all you need. I can share my limited knowledge with you....
I can teach you how to salsa, if I can just remember myself....
And I can't juggle but I taught my good friend Madhavendra how to and he's now really good. Can someone teach me how to walk on my hands?

Countries I’ve Visited

Belize, Bolivia, Cambodia, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Cook Islands, Costa Rica, Czech Republic, Denmark, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Fiji, Finland, France, Germany, Ghana, Guatemala, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Mexico, Mongolia, Netherlands, Nicaragua, Norway, Panama, Peru, Russian Federation, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand, Uganda, United States, Viet Nam

Countries I’ve Lived In

Australia, Costa Rica, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Sweden, United Kingdom

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