Friday, January 30, 2009
one month down... eleven to go!!
well kids, january is nearly over already... and 2009 has started with excitement! The world watched pres. obama take office with hopeful anticipation, and i'm thinking it's time for some change in my life too! so as soon as this next book comes out, well, time for change!!
here are the final pictures from my trip to chile, south america. enjoy
at the entrance to the santiago zoo. let me tell you about the little school girls that followed me around lol!
the santiago zoo is literally up the side of the mountain. this is the view from halfway up. if you're in a wheelchair, only about half of the zoo is accessible...
in the bird sanctuary...
ok, so this mama kept following me around and finally stopped me and asked me in spanish if i was from hollywood. i told her no and that i was from texas and she said "no lo creo" (i don't believe it) over and over and finally told me, "i know you're famous," and proceeded to make me take pictures with all of her kids and then her with like five different cameras. by now there's a group of people surrounding us and she suddenly took my hand and placed it on her boob. see? i gotta move to this country!!! lol!
i took tons of pictures of animals, but i'm not going to post them all and bore you with animals that you've seen a hundred times. but i did, however, fall in love with this camel and wanted to share the picture with you : )
this is one of santiago's cell phone companies... see how the building is shaped like a cell phone??
santiago museum of fine art.
a stroll down the park lane... there are parks like this all over the city. it's gorgeous.
this is the river that runs through the center of town. yes, it was spring time there and rivers tend to run brown, but this one is brown all of the time. many villages to the north and smaller towns don't have proper sewage treatment and it ends up in the river collectively from town to town. we called it the rio mierda, or "shit river." the government and people know it's a problem and are starting a million+ project to clean it up. there were billboards about the problem everywhere.
this is me being talked into trying raw chilean salmon. it didn't go over very well.
next we jumped a subway and went to the national cemetery... it's miles and miles of bodies and ashes and monuments etc etc.
but this is what i came to see. this is the wall of all of the names of people that disappeared under the dictatorship of pinochet. people would disappear in the middle of the night, never to be seen again. anyone even remotely thought to oppose government in anyway was taken. most of the thousands upon thousands of people were never found. it is well known that they were hog-tied alive and dumped into the atlantic ocean from a military airplane.
there are wonderful monuments all around for the dead and missing.
many people come to reflect, pay respect, or just sit and think.
what most people around the world don't know is that this happened very recently. this isn't a world war two relic. this happened from the 1974 to 1990. and the bastard didn't die until a few years ago. so many families still have hope that missing are still alive.
a very small section of the wall.
a wonderful little moment breaks the sadness...
to the right and left of the monument are the bodies of political prisoners killed by pinochet's regime.
the rest of cemetery is fascinating. it goes on for miles and miles and it's just stacked ashes and bodies. it's irreverently wonderful...
peace : )
my chilean tour guide michael and i share a picture in the cemetery : )
see michael back there in the background??
baby section. it was absolutely huge. unbelievable.
everything was in bloom... a lovely, gloomy, spring day at the cemetery.
and after a long day at the cemetery, we headed to a cafe downtown to chat and chill before a crazy night out at the clubs... but the one picture i wanna show you soooo badly will have to wait. there's plenty of time for that.
happy new year. see y'all in february.
xo
toddicus
- Friday, January 30, 2009
Monday, January 12, 2009
well well... here we are in 2009. interesting, huh? so... do we only have three years left on the planet? were the mayans and the ancient chinese correct? i have my doubts, but i'm not wasting any time on my life! i'm living it to the fullest! my best friend brandon is about to give me some art for the new book, so that's exciting... looks like it'll be out in no time... but didn't i say that two years ago??
here's some more pictures from my trip to chile. enjoy xoxo
just walking to the bus stop under the andes mountains... no big deal.
this isn't like some extraordinary picture, but to the right is the big cristal beer tower that i loved so much and the andes in the background in the late afternoon.
my boys in black and white, downtown santiago.
like i said in the november and december posts, the dogs are everywhere. this guy was like, give me some food boys! come on now!
so the guys and i decided to hit up blondie bar, a sort of rock-n-roll dive in downtown santiago.
you must know that i was in the mood to paaaaaarty but no clubs are open on tuesday nights, only bars.
so the music was hoppin', but the people were quiet and subdued. not good enough for toddicus. i decided to stand up and start dancing by myself.
these girls were like, "look at the crazy american guy!" in spanish, of course. i didn't care.
so i tried to get the guys to join me... rodrigo, on the left, was all like, "tito, you're crazy!" and poor american jason... well, i was representing his country!! lol!!
well, surprise surprise! i started a trend!
the next thing i know is that everyone in the bar, who, mind you, didn't know each other, started pushing all the tables together to make room for dancing. everyone was introducing themselves and thanking the "loco americano."
i guess you're not embarrassed anymore, huh jason????????
this girl was smokin'! loved her!
another dog on the (drunken) walk home...
first thing i saw in the morning the next day...
a little hungover, but very happy.
one of michael's mascotes. (pets)
more of the pets... the dogs were caged that morning cause they had caused a little mischief early in the morning...
the street next to michael's... how appropriate.
at the neighbor's... didn't think that would be a factor way down here south of the tropic of capricorn.
michael and his younger brother decided we should go to the neighborhood playground with drinks in hand. needless to say, mine got spilled in my face about ten minutes into the adventure when michael's brother kicked his futbol right at my face on accident. and no, you don't get to see those pictures.
let's play...
there was a really cute inside joke going on here between the brothers... very funny stuff. can't tell ya though. if you're intuitive, you might figure it out. ; )
met a cool cow on the way to the bus in the morning.
a beautiful spring day (even though it was early october... the bottom of the planet, remember? everything is opposite.)
another dog in downtown santiago...
the chileans are mad about their fresh juice. this whole glass of kiwi juice (freshly made right there) was about two united states dollars. unbelievable.
and after tea and coffee and breakfast, i had some fresh strawberry juice. who can resist when it's only about two bucks?
ok! i'm off to do some writing... so happy new year. and the next post will be pictures of the santiago zoo and the national cemetery...
xoxo
toddicus
- Monday, January 12, 2009