Word / phobia of the day:

Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia

Make Sense of the Financial Meltdown Apocalypse

Head of International Monetary Fund: "I give about this much of a f***."

Ooo... It's all a bit scary isn't it. Financial institutions collapsing. Icelanders viewed as terrorists. Bankers sobbing into the steering wheels of their Ferraris.

See this here site to help make sense of it all: themoneymeltdown

Muxtape

This site is a bit good for listening to some random music and brings a tear to the eye for the lost golden age of the mixtape

www.muxtape.com

Big Fat Hairy Liar

It's all true. Over 6ft tall, too much cerveza and ham and cheese sandwiches while i was away, a big beard and no blog posts for some time.

Ok. So i've been back for a while and modern london life has meant that it does nearly feel like i never went away. the first few weeks back were great. seeing friends, family and broken social scene with muxloe were all great. Going into work was interesting - it felt like i was on an excursion into a western office. Now its all starting to be the routine again.

Not that being back is rubbish. I've been on a stag do for my good friend Jon Barnes and, as best man, i'm preparing a speech for his wedding. Also Beeches are back up and running which is great fun, tho 6 months without singing/shouting much means my voice is back to sounding like pat butcher.

This is surely very very wrong

When the Wildlife Conservation Society discovered a new species of titi monkey in 2004, it decided to forfeit its right to name the animal. Instead, the society auctioned off the naming rights to raise funds for the Bolivian national park where the monkey lives. To a mixture of chuckles and horror, the rights were bought by internet casino company Goldenpalace.com, who festooned the poor animal with their own name.

More details here...or look at the monkey's official website!

la vuelta

Here I am in Sao Paulo a few hours before I fly back. There feels like a bit of symmetry to the start of my trip as i spent my first few days wandering alone through the streets of a big city and i find myself doing the same at the end - but with a much more positive mindset (I was, i´ll admit, pretty anxious at the start of this journey). I also consumed alot of steak in my first weekend and the same can be said now. The whole churrascaria thing they have going on here in brazil is something special - better than any ¨help yourself to the salad bar¨ jibber you get in a Harvester.

So yes - what a trip. Nearly 6 months on the road and river (well, ok, i took three internal flights too) in this fine land. Time has past in a very calm and mellow fashion and not in one of those fast paced living in london 6 months where you blink and the seasons have done a full cycle. For that I am very grateful for it does feel like a large chunk of time has elapased (about a 60th of my life to date).

I´ve been lucky enough to have seen some beautiful and wonderful sights, done some mindblowing stuff, read some good books and chatted to a whole lot of fun and interesting people along the way. Hard to really digest it all really.

That said, i do feel ready to come home. I miss my friends, family and Marmite... and playing football (which i have done but once in Bs As i taught some portenos how to tackle). I understand the team I play for on Sunday has had one of its best seasons of late so I fear for my place in the side. All the moreso that i have put on a little bit of weight...this clip from Alan Partridge might give you an idea.

Big thanks to those of you who have read this blog and a 10 gun salute to all those of you who have left comments and e-mailed me on my adventures - all very much appreciated. Obrigado.

Well- i know i´ve been a bit slack on keeping this updated, but i have a few more tales to tell, so i´ll keep updating this when inspiration strikes. I still haven´t told you about the one eyed guide in the amazon rainforest, how i spent my christmas and how Andy and I got on Peru TV with a local Beauty Queen.

When my esteemed friend Simon Hunt goes away on his travels his correspondence is always peppered with apt and befitting song lyrics that sum things up very nicely. I shall attempt the same here, but the on song I would like to use (I Love You by Lou Reed) i used on my old blog at the end of my last trip. bugger. Instead then, I shall leave three links to songs that i think in all or in part (perhaps out of context with the M.Ward song) sum things up.

Flaming Lips - Do You Realize




M.Ward - To Go Home
¨God its great to be alive,
takes the skin right of my hide,
to know i´ll have to give it all up some day¨


Theme - Littlest Hobo (Gotta love the bit with the rifle in his chops!)

¨The division of labor among nations is that some specialize in winning and others in losing. Latin America, has specialized in losing¨

The quote above is from a fine book (obvioulsy not on the topic of football) Ive been reading the past week or so: The Open Veins of Latin America - Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent

It was written in the 1970s, so obvioulsy things have progressed since then, but its put a lot of what Ive seen, heard and thought into context and perspective. It highlights how these lands have been exploited by first the europeans and then america. Always serving the interests and fuelling the wealth of others and never allowed to look after itself and the people who live there. From the many aboriginal communities who were decimated and destroyed by the blind greed of the spanish and other europeans until the book ends in the midst of many, US backed, cruel dictatorships - the continentents natural resources and peoples have suffered for others.

Basically, your man Eduardo Galeano documents (with a nice line in humour) meticulously the statistics of exploitation and murder - the facts, the numbers, and most importantly the emotions and situations behind the well documented data.

It would have been a boon to have the tome at the start of my trip as it would have informed me of what i was seeing (e.g. abject poverty, political corruption the continent over, etc) and informed me of where to go. For example, i would most certainly have headed to Potosi in Bolivia - once the most important city in the world, but that was before the silver dried up...

Anway, if you´re coming out this way and interested in why things are the way they are, then i highly recommend it.