CURRENT MISSION

To be crazy without going crazy

ABOUT ME

Still working to find my path... love to learn from all I meet, every person is both a world unto him/herself and also just what makes the world what it is for everyone else.

PHILOSOPHY

To wake up every day with a positive attitude. I know that's cliche, but I guess I don't have a distinct personal philosophy. I know I am a bit of a dreamer. My wife is definitely more down to earth, which is good, I need that.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

Am fairly new to couchsurfing, but have travelled quite a bit with Servas before which is similar but a bit more old-school.

Interests

Baking bread, reading newspapers and listening to good radio, movies and films, walking down the street and looking at people, trying to imagine what each life is like, talking about ideas with whomever I meet, listening to good music of all types, fretting about the world but not doing much of anything about it yet (should be, though), travelling of course... trying to figure out what the world is made of...

• baking
• walking
• boating
• movies
• reading
• traveling
• music
• fishing

Music, Movies, and Books

Music: all kinds, there is not a lot of music I don't like. From blues to classical to folk to 'world' to rock to jazz and back again. I'm no expert at all, but I do know what I like when I hear it.... my favourite radio programmes are the ones that play an eclectic mix, like some of the evening/late night CBC programmes, and Late Junction on BBC Radio 3, and Andy Kershaw on BBC before he went crazy (and John Peel back in the day). Movies: off the top of my head, Haneke, Paradnov, Ken Loach before he got soppy are some of the directors I like.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Vowed to travel from Kingston, Canada, to Iquitos Peru (a town that is not connected by road to anywhere) without taking a plane... foot, bicycle, bus, train, and boat only. Got a ride on back of a pickup through Costa Rice all the way to Panama from Nicaraguan cousin of Ortega.. was almost killed twice (at least it felt like it), once on fishing/cargo boat from Panama to Columbia when we went through a lightning storm (why was I the only one concerned?) and then upon arriving in Columbia in a tiny jungle town and no-one would take me in... thought I was going to get dumped in the river. Later rode on truck roof through the Andes with a fighting cock and his 11 year-old caretaker, stayed with a guy in the jungle who didn't have hardly any possessions to his name (but still managed to be cheerful and support his wife and children and have energy left over for playing music and taking people like me into his life), spent 4 days on a riverboat down the amazon, and (later still) was mugged at 6am in Arequipa at knife-point and, stupidly, fought back (they didn't get anything, though!). Decided to go to Mexico for a year and took plane back from Peru via Cuba (in old Soviet style jet) without realising you need money in Cuba as foreigner, unlike in rest of Latin America, and almost got arrested there for sleeping rough... made some great friends, though. A brilliant, adventurous year, full of self-learning and learning about other people and the world.

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