Siddhartha is a normal boy.  He grows up in a normal house and is a very normal teenager.  One of his favorite things to do is play the guitar.  He goes to school and does everything he is supposed to do.

Siddhartha listens to people and does what he is told.  He has straight A’s in school.  He does all his homework at night and is a very organized student.  Besides guitar, he loved to read poetry and did this for an hour every night, religiously, before he went to bed.

After Siddhartha graduated with honors from a top of the line boarding school, he left his house in the country and decided he was going to live in the city for awhile.  He wanted to live in the city because he had never had many possessions besides books.  His boarding school did not allow them because the school felt that material possessions did not make people happy.

Siddhartha goes to the city and did what most people in a big city do.  He partied really hard, shopped, met girls and many other things.  It wasn’t until after 5 months of  living in the city that he started to become an alcoholic and a drug addict.  He got into hard drugs and drank until he passed out every day.

After about 4 months of being a drunk and drug addict, his dad found out about what he was doing.  His dad did not want him to do this to himself for two reasons: one was because he loved his son and it was the only son he had.  The second reason was because he did not want to put a stain on his good family name.

His dad was determined to get his son out of the terrible life he knew his son was living.  He made his son come with him, against his will, and go to the other side of the river.  Siddhartha did not want to do this but then again, what drug addict wants to do anything anyone says. His dad took him to the river where he was going to be made to fix his life up.  His dad threw him on the boat and off he went.

The ferryman’s name was Vasudeva.  She wanted to help Siddhartha and she was determined to do so.  She yelled at him and set him straight, until he finally agreed that what he was doing was bad.  He planned on going to college and doing all of his work.

Vasudeva’s way worked for Siddhartha.  He found himself and decided he was going to go to college.  He did very well in college and did not party or join fraternities.  He was very focused on his work and got straight A’s.  He did everything he was supposed to do and truly found himself.

Yesterday we ran the Rio Palguin which is my favorite run in Pucon.  It has about 5 main rapids.  There is the first rapid which is a double drop.  It has a 5 foot drop at the beginning and then right after that there is  an 8 footer.  This is my favorite of the rapids.  The others range from 5 foot waterfalls to 20 feet. All the parents who are down here not only got to see this amazing river but also got to see us paddle;  I bet it was a lot of fun for them.

The rivers have been awesome!  It is awesome paddling in South America because it has so many different rivers to chose from.  School has been going very well too.  Spanish class is probably my favorite class, Tino being the teacher.  Going out and having scavenger hunts and talking with the locals and immersing yourself in the language has been extremely helpful to me.

We are staying at Dave’s base that lies right outside of Pucon.  He has built this massive outdoor Quincho.  It has a massive fireplace and is truly a work of art.  I love hanging out in there and building massive fires and talking with people.  That is about it from here.  See everyone in about 2 weeks!

When I entered the house I was stunned.  There is a 4 sided fireplace with a giant hood over it that acts as the chimney.  I have never seen a fireplace like that and now I want one in my house.  Everything in the house is hand built by a gifted craftsman.

The river, the Rio Achibueno is truly amazing.  This class 4 river could possibly be the best class 5 whitewater training in the world.  There are tons of lines to choose and you can make it as hard as you want too.  The upper section is awesome.  We got the owner of where we are staying, Christian, to drive our boats upstream about 5 kilometers and paddled down to our camp.  On this section we got the experience of seeing Chilean farmers herd there goats and sheep to the other side of the river on a tiny little bridge.  Every once in awhile a goat or sheep would fall off the bridge into the water and we would try to save them, in our kayaks, before the went all the way downstream. If we could save them a herdsman was quick with the lasso.  It was truly an awesome experience.

The food is the best I have ever had.  We have people to cook our food for us which is extremely nice.  We have all sorts of meat and soups and rice.  I learned a new way of cooking rice which is extremely cool.  Instead of just steaming the rice like the back of the container says to do, fry the rice for 5 minutes in vegetable oil and then pour already boiled water over it.  Put the top on the pot and it is ready in about ten minutes.  I cannot wait to try it at home.  The Achibueno has been a great experience.  Next stop, Pucon.

The color of the Maipo is like clay.

My brain on the river is like a cows mind before slaughter.

The foam on the river is like foam on a coke at high altitude.

My eyes on the river are like a worm, moving around to see everything possible.

The rocks on the river are elephants.

The Maipo river is a cobra waiting to strike.

My line through the rapid is a monkey swinging through the trees.

The waves on the maipo are mountaineers, climbing to the summit of everest.

My brain on the Maipo is a cow before slaughter.

If I have two clips of video and I want to blend the two clips together I:

1.  Select the spot between the two clips on the timeline that I want to add the transition to

2.  Click command T

3.  If that doesn’t work click effects on the tool bar at the top of  the screen and select “default cross dissolve”

4.  There will be a gray line in between the two clips that you wanted to insert a transition.  The two video clips have now been faded together and are now considered one clip.

5.  You have successfully inserted a transition.

I walked back up the trail to the house where I showed it to Andy.  He immediately got up and got out the hydrogen peroxide which I, very reluctantly, let him pour over my finger.  Nobody could decide if I needed to get stitches so they decided it wouldn’t be a bad idea to just go ahead and take me to the emergency room.  We drove to Pembroke where Matt Smink and I waited for 2 hours to be seen.  Finally they took me back where the doctor plopped a needle right in the center of the cut to numb it.  They stitched it up in about 5 minutes and out I walked with 3 stitches.  Thanks Matt, Dave, and Andy for cleaning, waiting, and driving!

From the banks of the Ottawa River

- Clay