Welcome to The Deep End: Colombia!

Sunday
Apr152012

Are You Ready for Colombia?!

The Adventure Begins May 9th!

Once again, I will be tearing away from the familiar and immersing myself in a country and culture I know very little about, Colombia. The only plan is to enter the country and follow intuition for 6 weeks of exploration and adventure. A photobook and fine art prints will be produced during this trip, as well as "from the road" travel blogging.

Sign Up for awards and access during trip HERE

We all allow ourselves to slowly become lulled into willing automatons to the point that we no longer notice the details of what's going on around us. I have discovered that while traveling, I'm paying much closer attention to all the little details you normally tend to filter out when at home in familiar surroundings. That heightened state of awareness tends to inspire new vision and tends fuel and facilitate intense creative thought. You can get to this state of mind anywhere, even at home, but while traveling the potential to see the world from a completely new perspective is much greater.

The first version of this project "Off The Deep End ~ A Visual Swan Dive into the Unknown" produced a Magcloud Photo Book and was travel blogged HERE 

The idea for this one is similar, only the majority of the content from the road will be available to backers only, no promotion for the project will take place from the road, and now the title is now simply "The Deep End: Colombia" 

This time it will be all about the shared experiences and images captured with updates for supporters and project exclusive ePublications. This will also be more about including the audience in a private, artistic journal. Not so much a travelog or documentary of the place, but more focussed on how the place inspires. There'll be interesting images from the street, found objects, sketches, textures, sounds, etc. And any artwork all of those elements may inspire as well as first person point of view writing about anything the experience dictates. 

In other words, this isn't going to be a travel documentary about Colombia, but more of a moleskine-style collection of what resonates with me while I'm there. 

After May 12th, the door will close and this blog will be only for the eyes of those who've backed this project and have a "virtual ticket". Backers at all levels will be given login info view this section of the site. 

In addition to exclusive access to this The Deep End: Colombia blog, there are great additional awards at each level! Get the details on how to reserve your virtual slot in my backpack HERE


Update

I've added a private Colombia Discuss forum area for us to start specific topics, single-thread Colombia Tag forum for continuous posts, and Colombia Talk audio widget on the left sidebar for quick audio blurbs, and a Colombia Sound page for longer recordings, ambient sound, creative mixes, etc., I've also set up an easy way to add short video clips via iPhone. Also turned off that annoying CAPTCHA stuff for the trip so it'll be easier to post. If all goes well, it should feel almost as good as being there! :)

To be honest, I'll be so glad for the campaigning part to be over and on my way toward adventure! I really don't like self-promotion stuff, but ya gotta do whatcha gotta do I suppose. If you ain't got the scratch right now, don't worry... there will be a few public dispatches, and a book/prints and such available some time after the trip is over. I just wanted to try a private backer-supported approach to this one to see how it goes. The awards I've set up are actually a very good deal compared to my usual pricing, but I too understand being a little light in the wallet. So if you can't support me this time, no worries at all. Just save your money and start dreaming and planning your own adventure!

Join me on this journey and thank you very much for your support!

Please spread the word to anyone and everyone you think might dig my project by all the sharing tools like facebook liketweetGoogle+1Pin, etc. to help me get the word out. Any help I can get sharing this will be paramount to the project's success and most appreciated!

Wednesday
May092012

The Adventure Begins!

Made it to Bogota & have cheap room, but I´m told area is very dangerous, ie. thieves with knives. Didn`t want to walk around at night looking for a decent hostal, so took first room I could find. I´m told it´s reasonably safe during the day, so I think I´ll grab an empanada or 3 and call it a night. Didn´t sleep much last night, nor on any of the 4 flights and I´m spent I think.

This internet cafe is very basic with dinosaurs computers that keep know recognizing my logins. Making me a little nervous about the security and although I really want to walk around a bit, it´s looking very dicey in my surroundings. Might be better tomorrow in the daylight when I can find a hostal with wifi.

Most the flights went ok, but Olando was bogged down with tons of people getting hauled off the plane in wheelchairs and little kids with sophisticated giant strollers. Oh yeah, old people and Disney tourists... go figure. Trouble is, evidently American Airlines doesn´t account for it and so my flight was late.

Got into Miami and because there was lightning all around, they closed the ramp. Long story short, I had to sprint for my Bogota flight and ran over some woman´s foot with my rolling backpack. I think she was Cuban by the way she squealed Ay! Papi!

Flight was already full with Colombians and all their shopping bags, ie. no room for my backpack onboard so after all that I STILL had to check it.

Tomorrows another day and I need sleep!

Buenas suenos amigos!

Thursday
May102012

Las Flores Colombiana

Flowers on the mountain overlooking Bogota, Colombia (c) 2012 Skip Hunt

Thursday
May102012

Simpatico

"Simpatico" ~ Bogota, Colombia (c) 2012 Skip Hunt

Thursday
May102012

King Midas

"King Midas" ~ Museo de Oro, Bogota (c) 2012

Thursday
May102012

Buena Vista Bogota

"Buena Vista Bogota" ~ Overlooking Bogota (c) 2012 Skip Hunt

Friday
May112012

Easing In & Getting Travel Legs

Starting to let down my guard a bit and feeling more relaxed. Here's a video of some snippets so far!

Friday
May112012

Working out a loose plan

In Bogota now & working out what direction to go. Think I'm going South toward San Augustin & Mocoa for possible ayahuasca ceremony then head up toward Cali, Buga area then Medellin & continue up toward Cartegena, Santa Marta, Tayrona, etc. then head back South via Pamplona & Sierra Nevada del Cocoy and return to Bogota for my departure flight with possible extra excursion within a few hours from Bogota if I have time left.

By the map I'm not sure if I can easily get from San Augustin to Mocoa by bus? Anyone know?

Also, same question for Pamplona area to the Sierra Nevada del Cocoy. My guidebook only shows buses from Bogota. Can I get a bus from Pamplona to SN del Cocoy area?

This is still very loose but this route seems to cover pretty much most of the country. However, I'm not opposed to recalibrating and shortening route if I find places that beg for more time. :)

Friday
May112012

She Devil

"She Devil" ~ Bogota, Colombia (c) 2012 Skip Hunt

Friday
May112012

Chubby Checker

"Chubby Checker" ~ Bogota, Colombia (c) 2012 Skip Hunt

Friday
May112012

Bogota Time

"Bogota Time" ~ Bogota, Colombia (c) 2012 Skip Hunt

Friday
May112012

Tumba

"Tumba" ~ Bogota, Colombia (c) 2012 Skip Hunt

Friday
May112012

Video Game

"Video Game" ~ Bogota, Colombia (c) 2012 Skip Hunt

Friday
May112012

Del Rodeo

"Del Rodeo" ~ Bogota, Colombia (c) 2012 Skip Hunt

Friday
May112012

L.50

"L.50" ~ Bogota, Colombia (c) 2012 Skip Hunt

Sunday
May132012

Green Door

"Green Door" ~ Bogota, Colombia (c) 2012 Skip Hunt

Sunday
May132012

Plaza

"Plaza" ~ Bogota, Colombia (c) 2012 Skip Hunt

Sunday
May132012

Dulce Iglesia

"Dulce Iglesia" ~ Bogota, Colombia (c) 2012 Skip Hunt

Sunday
May132012

Sierra

"Sierra" ~ Bogota, Colombia (c) 2012 Skip Hunt

Sunday
May132012

La Flor

"La Flor" ~ Bogota, Colombia (c) 2012 Skip Hunt