Paintball San Salvador, El Salvador

After two years and living in two countries that do not allow paintball, I was pretty excited to learn that El Salvador had a field. The field leaves a lot to be desired, but thats ok. It is a place to get out and shoot at my friends. It also gives me the opertunity to put the many dollars woth of gear I have collected to use. Paintball Navarro is just outside the city. I have spent a good number of Sundays out there shooting at people. Sadly the field is pretty unorganized. Unless you bring your own group, it is pretty hard to hook up with any local groups. There are some refs, but they mostly only go out to the field if there are little kids around. Dispite all these short comming it is still a blast. It is the perfect way to end the week. Below is a little video that I took on the speed ball field using my JOLE Autococker. The field was pretty bad this day. Most of the air bunkers were flat or not full. There was also a good amount of cow droppings on the field, not exactly what you want to slide into. Coordinates are +13° 40' 27.51", -89° 12' 27.95"

Ice and Fire

Since before I ever got to Hawaii it was a goal of mine to go from snow to beach in the same day. I really wanted to snowboard and surf in the same day, but that didn't quite happen.

In one day I managed to go visit the top of Mauna Kea and play in the snow, and then drive down to Volcanos National Park and see flowing lava in the afternoon, an stopped at the beach inbetween. While both of these things are relitively close, it still took most of the day.Because I started in Kona, Hawaii, the day involved about 10 hours of driving.

I don't have too much to say on this adventure, so I will let the video and pictures speak for themselves.

Lava

Hot lava

Hawaiian Snow

View from the top of the world

Luxembourg Mountain Biking "The End"

It was almost two years ago now. Near the end of my time in Luxembourg, I was tipped off to some better Mountain bike trails, by a video on youtube. The youtuber was kind enough to give me directions on how to get to this not so hidden national mountain bike park, down in the iron rich, red hills of south east Luxembourg. Unfortunately the wet winter wasn't quite over with when I first started going. This bike park had a few miles of single and double track and some serious dirt jump and ladder dropps. I didn't take advantage of any of the DJ, but I did spend a few days riding around the single and double track. I don't think I ever saw another rider, outside of the DJ area.

DJ still wet in April

Nice and dry in May

Some of the locals put on a show for me.

Coordinates are +49° 29' 21.69", +6° 0' 26.94"

Flaine, France Skiing

Flaine, France is a tiny little ski town in the shadow of Mont Blanc. I went down there with three friends for some fun in the snow. We got a little ski in ski out condo and spent the week doing nothing but spending time on the mountain or drinking. That is the beauty of small towns like Flaine.

Mont Blanc

Our timing couldn't have been much better. There was already a good amount of snow in the mountain when we got there. Our first day was spent warming up and learning the mountain on the groomers, which was nice since all of us had not rode for at least a year.

Shopping for supplies with the smallest shopping cart ever

Just as we were heading in for the night, the snow started coming down. It continued almost all night. In the morning we got up early to find about 9 inches of fresh powder. We spent the whole day on the side-country floating over all the fresh powder.

Day three I took the day off from snowboarding to ski and get my board tuned. There was still a little powder to play on, but most of the day was spent on the back side of the mountain, which wasn't very steep.

Day four it was back to the board and sticking to the steeps. I tried to seek out some cliff jumps, and found a few small ones.

July Snowboarding in Oregon

I am sitting here is the tropics for another winter, again missing the snows. It is making me think back to my summer snowboarding adventure.

Last year after spending 14 months in the summer of Saudi Arabia, I was really needing some snow. I was already out in Portland, OR for some beer festival. The white top of Mount Hood was calling me. On the last day of my trip I decided to head up to the Palmer Glacier at Timberline on Mount Hood.

The price was pretty steap for only being able to use half of the very top lift, but how often will I get to snowboard in July. Also the guy in the rental shop hooked me up with a millitary discount of 100%, which was awesome. The weather was nice and warm, so I was able to board in just hiking pants and a hoodie.

I spent about two hours just doing laps of the one run and just enjoying myself, and I took this video.

Mountain Bike San Salvador

First post of the new year. I finally got my bike out on the trails. It only took being in San Salvador for six months. To be fair to myself, my gear took four and a half months of that six to arrive. I found out about a ecopark, Ecoparque El Espino, that is on the edge of the city. I found this park on google after seeing it talked about in a local Bike association's video. I have tried to get somebody to head over there with me to check it out. After two months I was still not able to convince one of the guys to go with me. Once I got somebody to try and find it with me, but we had limited time and my information was a little off. Sunday finally I talked a local to try to find it with me. She had never been there either. We were successful. The place seemed safer than I expected, despite its location. We took a short walk and the park seemed pretty nice. Monday, as soon as I got off work I decided to take my bike over there. As could be expected, I couldn't get anyone to head over there with me. Since I had already done the recon, I felt I would be ok with doing it alone. I got dropped off at the top of the hill and just went for it. The trails seemed a little sketchy but I managed to only fall once(5:16 on the video). This one run got my adrenalin going. Also I got some good GPS reading on one of the trails and the shaky video below. Too bad I found these trials right before heading out of the country for two weeks. When I get back I will step it up with the mountain biking and hopefully climbing also.

Coordinates are +13.700946,-89.277391

Suchitoto, El Salvador Lele Kawa

While diving last week I overheard the Emer, the dive master, mention she was planing to do a waterfall jumping tour on Friday. I immediately said I'm going.

Friday morning I meet up with Emer and two other people, whom I had not meet before then. The person that knew where we were going had to cancel, so we were left to find the restaurant where the tour operated from on our own. This proved to be pretty easy, as it was in a town center, and the street signs were effective.

La Lupila del portal, where the tour is operated from in Suchitoto town center

We meet up with our guide and then jumped into his truck to drive to the trail head. A short walk down the road took us to the first and largest waterfall of the tour. This waterfall was about 25 meters tall. After a quick stop at the top for photos, we made our way to the pool at the bottom. The cool water of the pool was refreshing. With a little work you were able to wedge your body under the falls for a hydro-massage.

The first falls. Hydro-massage is on the left

After our quick dip, we made our way down stream along the river to the next falls. This falls was about 12 meters. The guide pointed out where to jump from and the rocks you need to clear at the bottom. Then wasting no time, I took the plunge, and repeated it three times. Rather than take the trail the long way back up, I climbed up the rocks to the side of the falls. The first time I was climbing up, near the top I slipped and almost fell. Luckily I escaped with only a few scratches on my side. Emer chickened out.

View from the bottom of the second falls

A short way down the river lead us to the third and smallest of the falls on the tour. It is about 7 meters tall, and it had a rope swing at the top. Again I was the first to jump, or rather swing. It took me longer to do this than the first jump. Rope swings are harder to judge than just jumping. The guide insisted it was safe, so I trusted him. All went well. Emer tried to follow me, but didn't let go of the rope. They pulled her onto the ledge on her back swing. After that she decided it was easier to just jump and Andrew followed her. While they were jumping, I explored the little pool at the top of the falls. It was about 10 feet across and five feet deep where there weren't rocks. I decided to jump off the six-foot ledge into this little pool. Emily joined me.

Rope swing at the third falls

Before we headed back to the truck, I wanted to jump from a different ledge at the third falls. The guide said the spot was ok. I made the jump, only to check the landing afterwards and find that there as a shallow shelf about three feet deep that extended out about ten feet out from the wall. Luckily I cleared this shelf but I told Emer not to follow me.

Thank you Rene from http://suchitotooutfitters.com/

Coordinates +13.893286,-89.045327