The Return of Erique Grimez: El Toro Loco

Yeah i know, i've been half assing the blog all week, not that anyone's reading it but the story isn't done, plus i've put up one lame ass post about us potentially being killed on vacation. Brutal i know. But oh yeah, i really don't give a fuck, cause the work week's finishing up, so all i gotta do is pack and maybe buy a pair of 5 dollar sunglasses and some SPF 4000 sunscreen so i don't char in the sun, and then it's on.

Erique "El Toro Loco" Grimez, and Micante "Jalapeno" Denbasquez, as well as their 6 other equally homoerotic pals will be leaving tomorrow at 8:25 a.m. and flying to El Salvador aboard an airline that no one has really heard of before and i'm still questioning whether it actually exists. Put it this way, when we booked the flights, you had the option of sitting in smoking or non-smoking.....hasn't smoking been illegal on airplanes since the internet was invented? I digress. Then we hop on another plane and it's a quick jump over to Managua, the capital of Nicaragua. From there.....well your guess is as good as mine, we got a couple trucks waiting for us, maybe we'll find them. Maybe we'll make it to the house. Maybe we'll surf. Either way it's going to rule. Unlike this blog post which sucks, but i've checked out so i really don't care. For the next week, if you talk to me, call me by my real name....my latin name....Erique Grimez.....El Toro Loco.

Peace out.

Nicaraguan Nightmare?

Taken from The Government of Canada's Travel Advisory Page:

Canadian visitors should exercise a high degree of caution due to a gradual increase in the use of armed violence.

Municipal elections took place across the country on November 9, 2008. As a result of contested results, some violent demonstrations have taken place in various municipalities in Nicaragua, and more are possible in the coming days. Deaths have been reported in Managua as a result of demonstrations. Canadians are advised to avoid all crowds and demonstrations and to stay away from areas where they could occur, as they might turn violent without warning.

Hmmmm......interesting indeed. Before I organized and eventually booked this trip, i did a small amount of research on the safety and stability in the country of Nicaragua. Repeatedly the same quote came up over and over. "If you google "safest country in Central America" you will soon learn that Nicaragua boasts the lowest crime rate of any Central American country!" I did google....and i did get the results that the quote boasts of. I suppose that was pre election however. The Travel Advisory goes on to warn of driving at night due to the possibility of robbery, and also recommends travelling in a convoy of at least two vehicles. So that is a positive sign seeing as how our two travel days will both be during daylight hours, and we are 8 strapping young men in 2 badass pickup trucks.

Either way with approximately 69 hours until take off (69!), i'd say there is really not much we can do about it now besides cancelling the whole trip, which is obviously not an option, my soul is feeling depleted, and needs to be fed. Am i worried? To be honest not really. Because it seems like there is always some sort of travel advisory for any given country. I mean when the boys and I did our little trip through Mexico a few years back, there were warnings up the ying yang. And what sort of menaces did we encounter? Well besides some stolen articles of clothing one night, a few pointing and laughing at the pasty gringo moments, and a couple sketchy sicknesses....not a damn thing!

We are going to be staying in a gated community with security guards, which is located right next to a small peaceful fishing village on the beach. We are all nice, peaceful, friendly Canadian boys with an urge to do one thing and one thing only. Gnar with old Big Blue in the freshy and hopefully catch a glimpse of the green room even if it's for one fleeting second. Truly if there is such a thing as karma, then we're going to be just fine. Although if anything bad happens, i think i speak for everyone when i say....let's hope it happens to Mumford.

I think it's in our nature to be afraid of the unknown, however i know that myself aswell as all the boys have had our fair share of sketchy moments within our short time thus far on the planet. More often than not, the result is a positive experience and reinstills a faith in mankind. I've hitchhiked up the Australian coast with several different characters, including one with a gun in his trunk who warned us of the dangers of hitchhiking especially if it looks like you're driving down an ominous road....while we were driving down one at the time. He took us all the way into town and even gave us beers along the way. I've spent 8 hours on a fishing boat with 2 Thai's, a father and son, who spoke about 10 words of English between them. They took pictures of me with the fish i caught. I've camped on a beach in Mexico along the Pacific ocean with my friends in an unknown town behind an unknown house. The owner of the house turned on his outside lights to help us see a little bit better after the sun went down.

So what i'm trying to say is that as much bad shit as there is in this world, people can be overwhelmingly good and usually are. This is why i refuse to allow myself to freak out over a travel advisory, because i know that we will be just fine. For those who haven't seen the house we rented and want to take a gander, here is the website, i think it will make you see why those 69 hours (69!) couldn't go by fast enough.

http://www.beachsideparadise.com/

What Would You Do? Part III

I’d say it all started when I was 15. Or maybe not, but at least that’s when I took notice of it. Who really knows though, cause when you’re a teenager you’re pretty much wrapped up in your own existence and sometimes fail to notice the goings on around you. Hell maybe if I’d stayed prepubescent my whole life everything would be fine and dandy. It could be that I release a pheromone that attracts death to human beings, I really don’t have a fuckin’ clue, excuse my language. I didn’t know at the time what it meant, but that was the first incident I can remember. Anyways a few of my friends and I had taken the bus to the mall to hang out after school. I got off, and started heading in the direction of the mall daydreaming about naked girls and sports heroics, when I was snapped to attention by the unmistakeable screech and crunch of metal on metal.

Whipping my head around I took in the gruesome scene. Although I didn’t see it, it appeared that the bus had somehow veered into oncoming traffic for whatever reason. Witness accounts later chalked it up to a seizure by the bus driver, who for the record was not a noted epileptic. No one riding the bus that day was injured, although I’m sure there were several post traumatic stress disorders and a few Valium prescriptions handed out. The bus had collided with an oncoming car containing two passengers. Both had been wearing their seatbelts, and it was tough to see their condition from my vantage point due to the distance I had been from the crash, as well as the smashed up windshield. However from the degree that the front end of their car (type unknown, I’ve never really been one for details) had crumpled inwards it would be a stretch to imagine either would survive. I would learn the next day that neither had.

Ok so what….so I saw a car accident….big deal. I’m sure most people within their life spans will witness an accident, perhaps not something fatal, but an accident nonetheless. Well as I mentioned earlier, when you see more accidents than you can remember, then it starts to become an issue. I’ve seen an accomplished surfer struggle in what was supposed to be a weak rip tide, and drown. I’ve seen two people simultaneously hit by cars because traffic lights in all directions were green, while the pedestrian walk signs were also lit up. Still not convinced? Maybe I could tell you about the party where the banister collapsed sending three people falling to the floor below. Although that one was a blessing since one managed to survive. Ever seen the damage a boat propeller can do? I’ll spare you the details.