BigAlsHouse.com Version 2.0

So my vacation is almost over. I'm writing this post in the airport of San Salvador, El Salvador as I wait for my flight to SFO. Over the last few days I've come across a few things that I gave me a smile. So in line with my mission of "finding humor in everyday things", I thought I should share a few of them with you.

So my Peruvian adventure is coming to an end. I'm leaving Cuzco on Friday for Lima and then heading back home on Saturday. However, a trip to Cuzco wouldn't be complete without the 11 hour tour of the Sacred Valley.

The day started out with Jo and I waking up about 5 minutes before our bus is supposed to pick us up. The hotel forgot to give us a wake up call. We then proceeded on the unexpected all day tour. We thought we were going to be on the bus 5-6 hours max, but we got f'd over.

The tour was pretty cool. We saw a bunch of rocks, ruins, got yelled at for walking all over the sacred sites, got stuck in a mini hail storm and did a bunch of hiking. The tour is a definite must when you visit here. I'll see if I can update before I leave. Until then.. ciao!

With the success of the Golden State Warriors victory over the Dallas Mavs the other day, I thought I should theme today's post with Warriors that I have met over the last few days.

I can finally cross off a few things off of my list:
1. Visit the continent of South America
2. Visit Macchu Picchu
3. Eat Guinea Pig


After a 4 hour train journey from Cuzco, Jo and I hiked up to the Macchu Picchu area and took in all its glory. Macchu Picchu is an Incan town that was situated high atop a mountain in order to avoid erosion, avoid landslides and protect it from would-be conquerors. An American by the name of Hiram Bingham discovered this place while looking for another lost city that the Spanish conquered.


After spending several hours checking out the site and taking numerous pictures, Jo and I spent the evening in Aguas Caliente. The people are so nice there. It looks like crime isn't an issue as most children are running around the town in the middle of the night without parental supervision. We also sampled a Peruvian dish - Cuy. Cuy is guinea pig. It was pretty tasty, but the lack of meat doesn't sit too well on Big Al's favorite dishes.

You can check out up to date pictures here. That's it for now! Ciao!

Greetings from Cuzco! Jo joined me for this last week of my journey. We flew in from Peru into Cuzco early on Sunday morning. We'll be going to Macchu Picchu on Monday and Tuesday. Ciao!

It looks like blackouts are a pretty common thing here in Costa Rica. Over the last 6 days, I have gone through 2 nationwide blackouts of 5+ hours. It wouldn't be too bad, but I'm a pretty air conditioning needy person. So if you're ever planning to travel this way, always carry a flashlight.

I spent Friday night at the BambooJam. I was thinking it was going to be a pretty cool club with folks celebrating 420, but it was the complete opposite. Mostly old folks trying to relive their 20's. Money can't buy you youth sucka's!
I took a 20 minute flight from Quepos to San Jose (CR) airport for my trip to Peru. They have a pretty small airport in Quepos. One that doesn't have any metal detectors or people guarding the runway. I boarded this really small prop plane where I sat right behind the pilots. It wasn't as scary as flying in a Cessna, but it was cool nonetheless.

I'm waiting in the airport right now for my Peru flight. My Slingbox isn't working as well as I would hope it would because my connection is a little dodgy. I'll update you once I get to Peru!

Dear Fans of BigAlsHouse.com,

We are experiencing many problems in updating the website. Because we are in the remote town of Manuel Antonio there is very slow Internet access. We are forced to go into the city of Quepos to make any updates - which is very difficult given that we have to take a bus into the town.

We had a major update ready to load for the day, but because of severe blackouts they were erased.

The last couple of days have been interesting. In addition to 2 nationwide blackouts, we blew chunks off the side of the boat during a SCUBA dive (b/c of seasickness) and we got the mother of all sunburns which is quite rare given that Big Al's natural SPF of 100 usually allows him to avoid those problems.

We'll post pictures soon, but we did manage to update the Picasa Web Album. See the below post or right-hand side of the homepage for the actual link. Ciao!

Greetings from Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica!

The last few days have been pretty exciting. I have been fortunate to lay on the beach, swim in the Pacific in the middle of the night, go canopy tree cabling riding in the rainforest, hike Manuel Antonio National Park, more beach stuff and see monkeys, iguanas, sloths, parrots and other cool bugs.

My week started out at the evil Hotel Costa Linda. This is the same place where I lost my shorts, got locked out of my room (which I later broke into) and almost suffered heat stroke after the power and my electric fan went out. I happily moved to the Vela Bar Hotel next door. However, my friends weren't so lucky. They were robbed in the middle of the night of their cameras and cash.

The best thing so far was that I was able to find 4nyay's soul mate - Mama Playa of San Jose. She's the transexual mother of 4 dogs which she carries around in her carriage. I tried to get her number for Frenchy, but I couldn't understand her language.

I'm going Scuba diving on Thursday, more beach stuff on Friday and traveling to Peru on Saturday. Ciao!

For more pictures: click here

I'll get pictures posted soon, but here are some highlights:
1. Arrived in San Jose, Costa Rica. Slept the whole flight.
2. I swim in the Pacific Ocean in the middle of the night in a little town called Manuel Antonio.
3. I met some cool people from Canada, Romania & USA.
4. I lost my swim trunks. I hung them out to dry and when I woke up in the morning they were gone.
5. I rented a $9/night room. It was about 7 feet by 7 feet. No A/C. The bed was crap.
6. The hotel keeps the keys when I leave, but the reception leaves at 10pm so I didn't have access to my keys at night. So after a few minutes of trying to get some help I just broke down my door.
7. My camera is broken right now.

More to come!

Wedding season 2007 has begun. I attended my first wedding of the year with Jo this weekend. We celebrated Rey & Karen's long awaited marriage in Santa Clara with the reception in Redwood City.
Rey & Karen - I wish you all the best. Many more years of happiness! (Remember "Big Al" is a great name for your first child).

So I'm following up on last week's mystery postcard from Thomas when I received a follow-up card. Check it out:

So when you put them together:
Damning evidence? Ouch! I wondering what he's talking about. Thanks for the mail. Keep it coming!

I hope everybody had a Happy Easter! I had an eventful weekend with some golf on Friday, a visit to the Winchester Mystery House on Saturday and egg coloring on Sunday.

I was pretty proud of my SF Giant's egg. We then watched the game on TV together and a Dodger fan came out of nowhere to hurt him.

From time-to-time the staff at BigAlsHouse.com gets a little mail whether it be in the form of electronic or paper mail. This week we received a postcard from Thomas "The Wolf". I believe it is a thank you card, but I'm not too sure. Take a look at it:
For those that can't see it clearly, it reads:
ALL
THANK
FOR YOUR
AND EVEN TH
EVIDE
WISHING YO
ALL TH
-The Wolf

So I've tried holding it up to a mirror, scratching it and holding it up to the light to decipher the message. I can't figure out if he intentionally tried to encrypt it or if he was just drunk when he wrote it. I guess that's The Wolf for you. Keep the mail coming in!

It started out Friday with a delayed flight by United Airlines out of SFO. Damn you United Airlines - 2 hours less party time! We checked into the Rio and then jetted over to some club - I can't remember the name - Peppermint Hippo? Anyways, great club! Too bad I can't recall anything, but I do know that everybody had a "feel good" time.






Saturday night brought the group back together for dinner and more cantalope-slappin' fun at some club. I can't remember that name either - Points? Anyways, not as good as the Peppermint Hippo, but Ko hooked it up with the limo and VIP treatment. We made sure that Q was never left unattended.


So Q has about 1.5 months to enjoy bachelor life. Maybe Bachelor Party #2 in mid-May? There's a few hours gap between the ceremony and the reception. Maybe we should actually go to a strip club for once. It's a bachelor party for goodness sake!