Cast and Characters: Part 1

Disclaimer: I started this blog about two months ago, and had intended to get all the interesting people I'd met into this one blog. But, it's been tough since coming home to get this finished. Who knows, the muse doesn't like the Phoenix heat I guess. This is just part one. More to come. PS. It's pretty long.

I have a buddy that often says "art immitates life". Jeff is a big fan of the movies, as most aspiring film writers probably tend to be. Sometimes, when hanging out with him, you get the feeling that Jeff`s life is really just Jeff`s Movie...always in production, never edited, and rarely censored. Life immitating art. Talking with Jeff usually feels a little more like dialogue than normal conversation, and sometimes you`re just there for his monologue. Don`t get me wrong, he`s not acting. The script never lacks sincerity, depth, breadth, drama, banter and comic relief. In Jeff`s movie, there`s never any doubt who the lead man is, and he`s a commanding presence. Miss you Jefe, miss you every day.

Lately, with so many people mentioning "all the interesting people" I must be meeting during the course of my travels, I`ve come to think of my trip as a scene in Joey`s Movie. The fact that I`m traveling alone (not counting my One True Travel Buddy till The End) doesn`t really lend itself to a thick plot or very rich character development. This scene is more like a long string of interesting and sundry cameos. The end of the production is still unknown, and only time will tell what twists the plot will take...but I thought the public might like to get to know some of the more outstanding characters thus far.

In Order of Appearance:

Joey. The Traveler, played by me of course. Laid back Arizonan who espeaka da espaneesh. Typical mid 20`s traveler, avoiding the responsibilities that his age and society are pushing onto him back home. Not trying to "find himself", just trying to figure some things out and have some adventures. I realize that in everyone elses movie, I`m a cameo known as The Mormon. "Wow, can`t say I`ve ever met one of those before". The guy that went out, but didn`t drink any booze. Asked for herbal tea instead of coffee, and didn`t try to sleep with anyone. I know that some other travelers wonder what the hell I`m traveling for, if I pass on local grass. I`m sure I must be one of the most enigmatic, or at least wierd, cameos in everyone else`s movie. I don`t think my religion is the only thing that defines me, and I don't usually bring it up when talking with people...but it comes up, inevitably. People rarely take the time, or have the interest in knowing why I act the way I do. Meanwhile, I`m just glad to stray from the stereotypical american backpacker: ignorant, obnoxious, drunken, horney college boy.

The Cast of the Ecuadorian OC. In the "hit" TV show (I swear, I`ve only seen a couple episodes) there`s a poor part of town; Chino I think. In this South American version, there's a rich part of town. The whole country is caught in a grinding cycle of poverty while the party boys and girls from Guayaquil`s gated communities lounge at the yacht club, pay $20 cover fees and weekend at their daddies beach houses. They have group names, and webpages to post the fotos of their parties. How I infiltrated this upper strata of society is still a myster to me...but I`m not complaining. For once, the misconceptions about americans having money worked in my favor.

The Patient English Volunteer/Travel Writer. I met Donna Tipping on my adventure into the Amazon Jungle. A lanky, yet elegant bird with a lovely accent, Donna made what could have been Apocolypse Now boat rides seem like fuzzy scenes from Out of Africa, Howards End, or some other boring British film with good scenery and actors like Rupert Murdoch or Emma Thompson. We spent two of the most interesting and enjoyable weeks together. She taught me the Queens English and a great game called Red or Beer. We discussed at great length the difference between buscuits, crackers and cookies. She`s the kind of person who avoids coca-cola products because of their environmental and social irresponsibility...but not really. She`s quick to laugh, and dance silly dances with little Peruvian girls that had adopted her as fun-big-sister donna. I miss Donna. Read her version of part of our trip. She`s a great writer.

Pepe Lopez and Juan "El Tigre" Debardales. Pepe was a big part of my Amazon experience. He took Donna and I safely down the Napo River, and in the course of the trip, we became friends. He invited us to stay in his home, with his wife and 5 daughters tending to our every need....why not? He`s a habitually happy guy with a nervous kind of energy that only seemed to focus or calm down when he sat at the helm of a boat to direct it through floating logs and sand bars. Pepe was born in an indigenous village on the Amazon, and at age 11, identified by traveling priests as an astute student, he was taken to Iquitos to study. Proud of his heritage, his life is an amazing story, and Pepe is an impressive story teller. 25 years of guiding adventure tourists in the Amazon have given him an impressive collection of antecdotes to draw from.
Pepe sold Donna and I on a 4 day "survival" excursion in the jungle...which is where we met Juan "The Tiger" Debardales. When I met Juan, he was working on finishing a canoe he had fashioned by hand from the trunk of a large jungle tree. Pepe introduced him as a tiger because Juan´s hunting prowess was second to none. I started calling him Tiger after I found out that he had 9 children. He said making babies was the principle passtime in his house...no electricity, no TV, nada. Over the next few days I would learn that Juan was probably the manliest man I´ve ever met (and I was a logger). You can´t be soft and survive in the jungle. He had a wealth of knowledge about every poisonous or useful plant and animal in the jungle, and when it came time to sleep, we all hopped into hammocks while Juan just cut some palm leaves, laid them on the ground and called it a bed. He taught us to drink fresh water from jungle vines, make salad from the heart of a palm tree, and fish for piranhas. Was there anything he couldn´t do with a machete?? Good natured and sometimes almost silly, Juan had the most sincere, high pitched, effortless laugh. If he wasn´t a damn leopard hunter, I´d say it was a giggle. But Juan, like Chuck Norriss is far too manly to ever giggle. If you think otherwise, Juan will roundhouse kick your throat. Me, Pepe and Juan spent 3 days making jokes and laughing heartily while swatting away mosquitos. The dynamic duo, with about 2/3 of a mouthful of teeth between them both, made the jungle excursion very memorable.

The River Cook: This guy's name was Gulliver, and it seemed fitting. He was the jolly, portly cook and part owner of the first hammock boat I rode on en route to Iquitos. Gulliver took a liking to Donna and I immediately because he wanted to "practice his English". He would tip us off early when dinner was ready, and cooked us some incredibly tasty impromptu river ceviche. This guy was crazy, but in a good way. He's one of those people that other people always say "that so-and-so, he's quite a character". From what I could tell, Gulliver didn't think it was worth saying words or forming sentences unless they evoked laughter. He has everyone around him in stitches at all times, and laughs at his own punchlines until it looks as if he might need an O-2 mask to recover. Gulliver invited us to his restaurant in Iquitos, and after a few rounds of beers I came to the conclusion that Gulliver acts like he does because he's in a constant state of half drunkeness--he likes his beer.

From the Henry II:
The Colombian Artisan: It's a whole subculture; the grungy, dred locked "al-natural" makers of all things involving hemp and beeds. Hippies without a cause, they're too mellowed out on weed to protest any type of social injustice aside from a hard bargain by a cheap tourist. They can live for months and months on notoriously small budgets. I met Katalina on my Hank Deux ride out of Iquitos, and she being the only other foreigner on the boat, we became good friends, kept each other sane and watched each other's back. She was a college graduate with a marijuana leaf tatood to the back of her neck and a 150 dollar budget to get to Iguacu falls Argentina. She was on her way to meet her boyfriend who had been traveling, selling his wares for 4 years already. (No wonder artisans are always wiry and skinny...150.00 is VERY little money for such a long trip)

The Ex-Terrorist: Francisco was a tranquil, fragile looking guy with peaceful eyes and a soft voice. You'd never have pegged him for an ex-terrorist, especially when you learned that his current occupation was primary-school teacher. He occupied the same 3 feet of wooden bench during the 4.5 day trip; on the 3rd day he asked to borrow my cards and we began conversing. at the tender age of 14, he left his home in the mountains to look for work in the amazon region...which in Peru or Bolivia means that he heard you got paid well for working in coca fields. Soon he found himself embroiled in the hostile workings of Peru's leftist guerrilla movement, The Shining Path. For several months he endured their grueling "training' in the jungle; food deprivation, near-death jungle marches, military tactics--all designed to turn a 15 year old kid into a tough, indoctrinated, ruthless guerrilla. (Flash to Joey, eyes wide...jaw down in his hammock..."you?!, Really?? Wow!") He openly admitted to having participated in multiple "acts of violence". Bombings, and whatnot. But the life he found himself living wasn't what he'd bargained for, and it didn't suit him, so when he was put on guard with another young guy, he convinced him to flee together. Leaving a militant leftist guerrilla movement is no easy task according to Francisco. He and his co-AWOL-buddy had a weeks-long near death trek through the jungle to get away. Then he had to join the opposition (Peruvian Army) "for protection" from the people who's secrets he knew. Terrorist to Military Man to School Teacher....nothing unnatural about that progression I guess. He musn't have been a very good teacher though because he'd traveled 6 days back to the place of his nightmarish experience for a job interview...just to be denied the position. At least leaving there this time he wasn't running for his life.