RECAP : Rio de Janeiro part 1

Saturday morning ice session with children 

Ge' with the Steiger Cup 

Oh Brazil how i miss you so much .... when we first decided to go to Brazil i was a bit skeptical over the security issues i hear so much about through the news . Honestly don't believe the hype ! This is, was and forever will be one of the best places i have ever visited . It would not have been so amazing without the help of one of the best people i have ever met ...Ge' Cardoso ! Buddy you are amazing and without you we would not have had so much fun . From the moment you picked us up at the airport i knew we were in good hands :) 

Ge' runs a hockey team called the Mad Parrots and is a huge part of hockey in Brazil , i am not saying he is the only one but on this trip he was the one that mattered and made everything very accessible for us .... from hotels to tours to ice times this guy made it all so easy for us ! Ge' also runs a hockey school for children which we were happy to see and help run for him on this weekend . This all happens at Barra on Ice which just so happened to be the area we stayed in also thanks to Ge' :) Barra was a nice area , not very touristy which is always best as we had the best time mingling with locals at the many bars in the area . The kids we taught were all eager to get better and there was a good number of them on both days we went ! The event was all advertised that The Travelling Goalie was coming so i am hoping it helped . It was a great couple days sweating alcohol while trying to teach children to skate ... i wonder if the kids smelled it on me HAHAHA ! they probably did .

Brazilian Zamboni ?

The first weekend of our adventure ( me , Timo and Andi ) was really amazing filled with hockey , drinks and lots of amazing food which we called the meat massacres ! There was a lot of joking around and funny pictures , during the upcoming week we did more touristy stuff i will talk about in my next blog . Did i mention that this rink was in a supermarket ? look at the pic below for proof :) 

i have a lot of pics to share , and i figure the best way to share them is with a recap ... as you all know i can't post pics on my blog while writing on my ipod touch :( hope you all enjoy ! 

Home Sweet Home ...

On this day there were no pictures , as i mentioned the flight home was pretty good . Timo was moved into an emergency row where he sat alone because his screen was not working and i ended up with my own row since he left which always makes things a bit more comfortable . As you all know we have had some shitty flights dealing with children and all the bullshit that comes with them . I had 2 teenagers in front and 2 behind me so this was enough to cause me to have a nightmare ... yes i had a crazy dream that i ended up full on brawling with these girls behind me , with them pulling my hair and attacking me for putting my chair back . LOL ...

When the flight took off the girl behind me put her foot on my chair and let me let you all know that this is rude ! So i put my chair back when she did this as it messes up her comfort then and when i passed out the nightmare started ... when i woke up i was happy to realize it was just a bad dream :) i watched Skyfall which was pretty good ! and ate the garbage they call food on this United flight .... i can complain about the airline but they are all equally as bad as the next when it comes to service and food . Things are not the same as they used to be ... things always change and usually not for the better .

Arrived in Newark and switched planes after being hassled by security ... the question on the paper we had to fill out asked which countries have i visited before arriving in USA ... pretty vague question so i just put the obvious down , Argentina . Well the knob working customs saw my stamps and asked if i visited there too , i said yes and i have visited a lot of other countries before visiting here too ! Should i list them all ? He said no just the ones on this trip ... it doesn't say that on the customs form ? And for this i was sent to have my backpack searched ! Thanks you douche ! This is payback for all those kids that beat you up when you were a little nerd right ??? LOL ! Timo was sent there too :) we loved it as they asked us the same questions we have heard so many times on this trip . More and more airports are becoming more paranoid and rightfully so since they need a reason to make travelling more expensive . ahh well i figure getting home will be nice enough .

The flight from Newark had a minor problem ... the toilet was not working :P so we were told prior to boarding to use the bathroom in the airport . I am not joking ... and we boarded and the flight was quiet , we filled out our customs forms and arrived in Toronto in no time (1.5 hours ) when i arrived i got to customs and it was empty and there were these kiosks i had never seen ... i was confused and said whats this ? this is stupid , and this Philippino woman approached me and said "don't say that " , i said what ? she said don't say this is stupid , i said what do you mean ... i can say this is stupid if i think it is stupid and she said she was calling security ??? i said ok call security , i have a right to say i think this is stupid don't i . She said no you don't ... i wanted to choke this bitch for being so rude to me ! But instead i figured out the new system on my own without her help , she is there to help but refused to . I was not too happy but i got through customs and still wanted to choke this bitch . We picked up our bags and the airport was so quiet i can't believe i got out so quickly . Kathleen picked us up and took us to my place .

We didn't waste any time ! we dropped bags and went hockey shopping for Timo at Toronto Hockey Repair , which is by far the best shop in Toronto ! Timo was treated like a king by my friends there getting great deals , they even sent someone out to get drinks for us as we waited for gear to keep showing up for Timo to try on . After getting Timo all geared up we went next door to King Slice for a monster slice of pizza and then went off to get some beers at the LCBO ( liquor store ) then we finally got back to my place for beers .... Phil from my Ghetto squad showed up and we had a few drinks and ate a bountiful meal before i passed out , i was a bit drunk and a lot tired ! Tomorrow Timo leaves so we started his laundry and passed out ... tomorrow i will take Timo to the largest hockey shop in Toronto and quite possibly Canada or North America , you can all argue over which is the biggest but i still say the best is Toronto Hockey Repair :P

Over the next few days i will finish off my South America blogs with a recap with pictures :) hopefully it will help explain a lot of the stuff you have read over the last month ! I have a playoff game here today so i should take it easy now .... cheers !

Day 27 South America : Hop on Hop off Tour :)

Something with photos .... i am home now , but i have a few days of blogs yet to come ! mostly with pictures covering the last few weeks :) When i travel i don't carry a laptop around so it is not possible for me to write and add pictures from my Ipod Touch , if i can i don't know how to LOL ! So this starts off at our beautiful hotel in Buenos Aires , the BA Sohotel was awesome and the staff were excellent . On our only morning there we woke up and went downstairs for some breakfast and were greeted by the hotel greeter , he was really cool ... i wish i remembered his name , he was an MMA fighter and was a really nice guy , he stood at our table the whole time asking us about our trip and we exchanged stories about sports etc... then we decided to go catch the hop on hop off tour bus to see the city in our last few hours . We were told the trip would be about 2 hours max :)

We
walked up to the bus stop which is about a 20 min walk , we got there around 11 am and we had to checkout at 2 pm so we figured we had time . We were told it would be 130 ARG pesos BUT we were told wrong as we had to pay 160 Pesos !!! we paid it and grabbed our head phones and headed to the open top part of the bus and it was pretty empty . The pass was for 24 hours but all we needed was 2 hours of strictly seeing the city from the top of the bus . At every main stop more people got on and jumped off so it was pretty full after a few stops .... i guess some tourists wake up earlier then we do ! Or they got off at their closest stops and were continuing the day after . If you wondered about all the psychotic drivers in the world they probably come from here LOL .... South America is not very keen on driving rules as you can run lights, drive with 2 cars in 1 lane and motorcycles are everywhere !

We drove by all the main monuments and by all the protests you could imagine , even hearing some either loud firecrackers or bombs going off . It wasn't as loud as the mega explosion we heard in Rio but it was super loud regardless as i heard it loud and clear even with my headphones on ! There was a lot of beautiful street art that i got photos of and some interesting advertisements but the highlight of the tour was seeing the Bomboniere Stadium that Boca Jr's play at ... damn i wish i had the time to hop off to see this stadium and buy some gifts ! That is something Timo and i discussed that we wished we had 2 or 3 more days in Buenos Aires as it is full of culture and amazing things to do . Might have to go back next year :) Yes i am planning to go back to South America next year for the World Cup ! and to defend out title in Punta Arenas :)

After we stopped at the Bomboniere we stopped for a washroom break ??? This is a hop on hop off tour so you would think that you would hop off for a pee break right ? this wasn't even scheduled and we were just realizing that this tour was much longer then 2 hours and in fact we were not going to make the whole tour and would have to hop off at the planetarium and take a taxi back to our hotel :( the big thing i wanted to see on the remainder of the tour was the stadium where River Plate plays .... it is on other side of city and we were not going to see it unfortunately . Before we got off the bus we figured we were kinda ripped off as we were charged 40 pesos for these passes for museums etc... i asked the tour operator and told them we don't need them and in fact never asked for them and were told to complain to the company to try getting money back . Now 40 pesos isn't much but we realized the best way to exact our revenge was to give our tickets away for free LOL .

When our bus pulled over we found the first couple we saw and gave them our tickets with all the passes for free ! They were surprised , the passes were still closed and there was no name or ticket number on anything so i am sure it worked out for them :) We grabbed a taxi and got stuck in traffic making it to the hotel around 2:20 pm , the hotel staff were happy to let us go up shower pack and come down even storing our bags to eat 1 last lomo steak ... the food at the hotel was magnificent ! The last meal was amazing and reality started to kick in that we were at the end of our trip ....

We caught our taxi went to the airport and checked in after a lot of confusion , somehow i got my 35 kilos of gear into my hockey bag and tricked the scale LOL . I am lucky to say i did not have to pay any extra fees for any of the 9 flights i had over the last month . Its a good thing my bag is so huge and i figured out how to manipulate the scale and airport agents with my toothy smile . The flight home was really a breeze as Timo was moved to an escape row and he was alone and i had 2 seats to myself . Nobody kicking my chair and no children to annoy the shit out of me ... it was easy sailing , aside from all the security checks we went through it was easy ! Yeah the security stuff gets annoying after all these flights but its their job to keep us all safe LOL .... it is more and more evident that we pay so much for our flights but in fact we are paying for security more then anything else but this is the world we have created for each other and well what can you do right ? just kick back enjoy a movie and eat the crap they feed you , the least that United could have done was give us some attractive flight attendants to look at ? unfortunately these ones were not going to make any posters or calendars LOL ... it was like the geriatric version of what you would want to see ....

i will continue the trip as i still have Timo over in Toronto for another day :) more blogs to come ... 

Day 26 South America : The Escape

Being the big city boy that I am and being in a small town doesn't equate to much for me being in Ushuaia . I was bored stiff there , yes it's beautiful but I can only look at the mountains so much before thinking of ways to kill myself :) I actually would probably kill myself if I had to live there ... No offense as I said its beautiful but there is nothing to do aside from sleeping , eating and drinking ... I have never slept so much on one of my trips . So you can all guess that I was excited for this day to come as I was leaving and heading to Burnos Aires !

Anita picked us up in the morning and drove us to the airport. ... Javier slept in :) and the escape was on ! We gov our bags checked and found out that we had to pay an airport tax before leaving ? I am used to having airport taxes included in fair for my flight but in a country that seems so ass backwards this was fitting and so was the rest of our day.... Have I mentioned how much I hate children on planes ? Yeah I had a little fuck sit behind me ! I was raised to fear my parents but these days parents fear their children ! And this little shit head behind me kicked , kneed pulled on my chair while I was trying to sleep and his father did nothing to stop him !!! Even though I was cursing giving the evil eye , etc ... It was 3.5 hours of hell.  But being the evil fuck that I can be I swore to get my revenge and I did ;) for some reason people have the urge to crowd the baggage turnstile and show little to no respect for each other . And when I saw Timos bag I went to grab it and of course the little turd fuck came behind me ... Well I knew this and when I pulled the bag of I tossed it at him LOL ( I don't care what you all think , he deserved it !) he was not happy and neither was his father ! I smiled and walked away ... I am sure his father bought something for him to make him feel better LOL . Back in the day our parents would slap us to show us that we were doing wrong and these days they just buy them things , I fear our future !

Anyways that felt good and we were off to our nice hotel which is probably a real 3 star and makes. Hotel Cap Polonia look like a homeless shelter ! We are at the Sohotel in Buenos Aires and our room rocks , has a balcony too . After arrival we decide to go on a hop on tour bus , but they won't let us on and the other tourists were left complaining . We decided to go to the zoo ;) we had an hour for walking around there and it was nice but we saw a bunch of sad looking animals :( I didn't feel right being there and I don't think the animals did either . We saw monkeys with odd looking diseases on their bodies , hippos trying to get into their enclosures and the saddest thing of all ... An elephant rocking as though it was going insane , this almost brought me to tears ! I can't stand what we as humans are doing to the animals we share this planet with , there is no need to cage these mighty beasts and have children throw stones and yell at them . This is not educational at all , it is torture and I wish I had not paid to witness this shit . Just remember this the next time you go to a city zoo and watch what people are doing there !

We left when it closed and both Timo and myself were quite depressed from this vile bullshit . We wandered a bit then headed back to our hotel . We washed up and waited for friends to contact us to go out for beers ... That never happened so we went out on our own and had a great dinner and a few drinks , well Timo drank I didn't . After that we called it a night and crashed out . Not the most exciting last night for my trip but it was probably for the best .

I know someone reading this must be appalled by my actions but before you judge me remember to control your fucking children ! It's not my job to deal with this piece of shit you created ;) LOL ... And lighten up too .

Day 25 South America : True Friends

Another day of hockey but due to circumstances I was not playing .... I was there to cheer on and help my team mates  . It was the 5th place game vs. the green team . We beat them earlier on this week but today Andi left for Germany and was suspended anyways , Timo is injured from multiple dirty players and I was suspended because the federation just didn't want to let me play even though I hear a few friends went to bat for me to no avail :( this federation seems more like a dictatorship with a bunch of puppets then a democracy as a few people said they argued to let me play . Rules are rules and this federation has a bunch of stupid rules LOL !

Another early game ... I don't ever remember playing 3 games at 9 am in a row . Does this sound like fun ? Nope . Yeah I know I have or seem to sound like I am bitching but really all I am doing is pointing out the obvious :) we thought our friends from Chile would lose bad but I am guessing our chat with Nicholas and Rodolfo worked as the guys played more defensive and stopped moving forward as Caleb was telling them to do . We love you Caleb but you can't force an offensive system on a team that have been playing for 4 months . The guys all played their ass' off this morning and really surprised me keeping the score really close . Even though they didn't only play the green team but it seemed like they were playing against the refs too..., Coco I am not sure why you were calling all penalties against us but it didn't seem right that we had 6 penalties and the team from your city had 1 ... Another fixed game if you ask me ;)

The highlight for me at the rink was seeing Vicki from the orange team who won the championship . She thanked me for showing her how to find her creas and cut her angles down ... So glad to help and twice as glad to hear it helped ! Another highlight was watching Nicolas score !!!! The game was close as I said , the guys gave their all and what I saw was a much better team then I saw 2 weeks ago ... So proud of all of you Nordicos . Unfortunately we lost a tight yet clean game 2-1 and ended up in 6th place . Much better then last guys , you all are amazing guys and saying bye to you all after the last 2 weeks was hard :( I will miss you guys and hope you all keep working on making each other better hockey players .... Please stay in touch mi amigos !

Timo and myself got back to the hotel ate lunch and took a nap .... We met up with Anita and Javier around 4 pm to take some pics around the city and they showed us some local spots to buy gifts . The main strip is so pricey so it was nice to go off the beat and path to buy some quality chocolate mmmmm . We saw our buddy Ashby and Marcelo dropped by to give us a disk with pics which was very nice of him . During the tourney there was so much stress in the air so it was nice to see friends after it was all done . I was really happy that the tournament was over :) no more bullshit and politics ! We did discuss refs and everyone agrees they need a reffing clinic here of they need to send someone out to a clinic to bring back some knowledge .... When they come to Toronto hopefully I can find or organize something for them as I still want to see the get I love get better here !

Another highlight of the day was getting to see the Laguna del Diablo which is where hockey planted its first roots here . It's too bad that we couldn't skate on it because it bus nog frozen over but it was awesome just being there :) guys I hope you all get better ! Marcelo I hope you enjoy my goalie stick ! Nordicos I hope the driver turned on the heat for you and I hope the vinegar stinking jersey I left in the van doesn't kill you ... Still wondering what disease this puerto ricsan loser has to be sweating vinegar ... Oh and I am really happy to say I haven't seen this douche in a few days , he never got to play and overall wasted his time coming here . LOL ! I have to get some sleep as I fly back to Buenos Aires tomorrow morning . Thanks to all my friends in Ushuaia I wish you all well and hope to see you in Toronto this winter ! Adios boludos ;)

If you are in Buenos Aires and wanna meet up send me a Facebook message ! Good night or buenos noches . 

Day 24 South America : No Respect

These 9 am games are killing the spirit of the tournament and it is becoming more and more boring here without the social aspect we are used to experiencing when on tour . This day our van actually showed up and we took our sticks to assure we had them . We were playing Huracan for the right to play for 5th place ! The last thing we want is to end up last .

The sun was still coming up at 9 am as we got onto the ice and it was beautiful ... Unfortunately the game were about to play was not so pretty and the refereeing was awful . We jumped out to a lead and the stick work began with hooks and slashes coming down on Timo every time he touched the puck but we kept our cool until the refs started to make calls against us with no reason at all . It started getting messy when Andi had an octopus all over him in the opposing corner, he fought his way out of his grasp only to receive a penalty ??? Hold your breath now... Andi yelled out that he is fucking holding me ! This is a game ejection ? LOL ! Please tell me I am seeing this or is this game fixed ? I personally felt as though it was fixed from game 1 :(

The hacking , slashing , hooking and tripping went on unnoticed by this person that claims to be a ref ... The song "I'm blind , I'm deaf , I wanna be a ref " was actually a fact here as this guy plain and simply ignored any rules and made a travesty of this game . He should be ashamed to say he is a ref and I hope the other team lined his pockets with enough pesos . The third period started and we were up 4-2 and I went to freeze a puck ... Delayed whistle ? If the whistle gets blown this next bit never happens BUT in the spirit of the game here the whistle stays and doesn't sound off and some disrespectful idiot skates up from behind me and tomahawk chops my forearm . Obviously this is ok so me punching this guy into the net is ok too ? Yeah I punched this fucker so hard with my blocker and he flew into my net !

The other team goes nuts , other goalie comes into our zone . Guys throwing cheap shots yet fearing a true fight with me as I would be tossing these guys around ... Most of them would go down fast as they can hardly skate LOL . After all this shot I expected to get 2 min at the most ... Well in this tournament if is 2& 10 ... Hold on it is also game ejection . First for everything in this tourney ... What am embarrassment to the sport ! So they boot me and nobody else gets kicked out , during this a ref grabs Timo from behind and lets an opposing player butt end him in ribs ??? Clearly there is a problem here as the main objection was to kick us out or injure us . These players here have no respect for the game or each other . This is a non contact tournament unless you are hitting one of us !

I was not happy and actually shocked to get tossed out . And not one of their players faced any problems or ejections ... Like I said this tournament was fixed from the moment we arrived we knew this as they didn't want us to have Caleb on our squad because this joke for a federation said he has not registered so he can not play BUT he can play for another team ??? I will get into their joke rules later to provide you all with more hysteria :) it's a shame this federation has taken this beautiful setting to claim to provide a tournament ... Which I can honestly say is the worst tournament I have ever played in , yes even the tourney in Iceland was much better then this . I don't have anything good to say about this federation or it's stupid rules as all I have endured is bullshit since the moment Noelia told me to go back to Canada , she represents the federation in a very poor manner and I feel sorry for them to have a face like this doing such a poor job at making things better . You can say what u want but u know u were rude to someone that writes a blog so what else would you expect ?

Later this evening Nicolas and Rodolfo visited us at our hotel as we were guzzling wine , we called a taxi to go watch finals but it never showed !!!  Service industry here is almost as bad as the rules for this tourney . We waited half an hour and then got another bottle ;) Timo couldn't walk as his legs have been chopped at like tree trunks all week . We truly had giant targets on our bodies all week , so back to the hotel bit .... When the guys showed up they told me I was suspended for the day after ??? I guess the best way to fix a game is to get rid of the better players as Andi was suspended too but was not going to be here anyways . Timo is hurt so tomorrow it's up to our Chilean buddies to get the HUGE win . We are playing against a team from Buenos Aires so lets see what other tricks are used to help us lose tomorrow !

As I have said many times I have so many friends here and I hope this is not offending you . You all know i am a writer and I only speak the truth from my perspective , whether you like it or not you all knew that I would write about this , lets just hope for some positive changes for the future as a friend I do hope your federation makes changes and your referees learn about the rules of hockey , it is the best sport in the world but you guys still have much to learn ! Congratulations to my friends that made the finals and I hope you guys had a good party last night .

Day 23 South America : why ?

Barely slept this room is like a sauna it is so hot , I know most of you in northern hemisphere would die for some snow now . I just want to control the heat in my room LOL ... Had a nightmare again and sleeping was very spotty to say the least . I was totally focused on winning our 2 games today but that was all going to be thrown in the trash !

My team mates were out drinking and I was not too pleased because I knew they would be in rough shape and I knew that I had invested a lot of cash to come play for them ... When I went down stairs to meet my driver he did not show ! Instead Rodolfo showed up , but all our sticks were locked in the van . Remember I knew drinking was not going to help and apparently it didn't as they forgot to tell the driver when to pick us up ??? And for the first time in my whole life I walked into a rink without a stick , seriously this has NEVER happened . No matter who blames who all I know is my stick is locked in this fucking van and my  only option is to use a shitty stick ! Well you can all figure out that focusing on the game was gone , out the window and when the game was about to start my stick finally showed up .

It was too late though and I can blame everyone that didn't play their positions or do what we asked or paid for but the bottom line is that I played shit and my groin injury was nagging me ... The third goal I gave up left me motionless and I pulled myself as we lost a game to a team we should have beaten . The second game I didn't dress for as we played the tourney favorites and they whooped our ass' we really had no chance but at least we scored a few goals on them as their goalies had not faced a shot in the first 2 games ... I think they made 5 saves on 8 shots or something like that . If I was healthy we could have beaten them , or at least we believe so !

After the games we hung around and I gave out my remaining Canadian lapel pins as it was friends day in Argentina . Some holiday that they have here . I should look it up when I have a chance :) My good friend Javier bought me a hot chocolate and a t-shirt . Gracias amigo ! Everyone was in good moods and after the rink Timo and myself headed to our rooms for a shower and a bite to eat . As I said this city is a ski town with almost nothing being cheap , we spent the equivalent of $100 on lunch ... Ouch my pocket hurts . Good thing Timo is so amazing and is helping me out so much . At least one of the people I brought with me is being gracious enough to me for all I have done preparing this big trip . The others don't seem to understand that I have done something for them and for that I can truly say I am sorry I wasted so much time on you . This is not a job for me , even buying me a beer or saying thank you would be nice . I will probably have offended someone by saying this but the truth is the truth and sometimes the truth hurts and truly it hurts that I have brought people that have not thanked me in any way possible , you are welcome ! Timo will be a friend forever this I know from the bottom of my heart ;)

Anyway there is this awesome guy named Nacho here , we bumped into him wandering the streets and of course we wandered around as he helped us find Timo a memory stick . Nacho u are amazing buddy ! I hope u come to Toronto with the rest of the Argentines next year ! Of course we have a favourable schedule and have to play at 9 am AGAIN tomorrow so drinking/partying was not an option so Timo and myself opted to go take nice pictures and watch a couple games which ended being quite entertaining . Had a few hot chocolates and made some more friends , after all the best part about these trips are the people I meet , and in Ushuaia I have made many new friends . I just wish the people with me could understand and do the same as Timo and myself . At the end of this trip I will at least know that I have gained some respect from the people I meet ;) now I must ice my groin ... Maybe massage it too LOL ! 

Day 22 South America : Zzzz

Yesterday I woke up in a foul mood :( I wasn't really feeling great and to be honest I think this trip has gone a bit too long . Don't feel as though I should be here now . This should have been beginning of trip but oh well I will deal with it ! I  supposed to have 2 games today so I head to the rink for noon , it's snowing and the Brazilians are winning their game but you can't see the lines on the rink and the puck movement is pretty much impossible with all the snow drag ....

It was nice seeing a bunch of buddies and my mood left its grim state for the time being , I am on this emotional roller coaster and I am riding along with Timo who is feeling probably more home dick then I am . He was in Toronto first so his trip has been longer . Things got up then went down quick as our game was postponed ... We were asked to wait and wait we did .... All day long we waited and waited and wasted our day away waiting . It was a really boring day in which our high light was eating ! I am not drinking any more as I am just sick of alcohol of 3 weeks of abuse . Timo is not feeling great and we slept most of the day away .... We tried to find something to do like go to a movie but we couldn't find anything to do and we didn't get any suggestions . Remember we are waiting on our games to be played :(

Well my sleep wasn't great his night either as I had dreams my room was being broken into ! The heat in my room is unbearable , they are trying to create tropical conditions here for some reason ... Well I am up awake and ready for my game but it's still snowing ... Hopefully we can get these games  done with ! We were supposed to play 2 games yesterday with one in between but now they scheduled us to play 2 in a row ... Seems convenient for some teams doesn't it ??? Well hopefully that cockroach I killed this morning is an omen . I feel good and I am ready to whoop some ass , hopefully the weather gets better bug I highly doubt the ice will be good as it has taken a pounding over the last day . Pray for me everyone , I am gonna need it ! 

Day 21 South America : Really ?

Yesterday I got up at a decent hour ...the sun does not come up until around 9 or so, went downstairs for breakfast only to find out that it was garbage sandwich crap ! The rest of the world really doesn't know what they are missing eating this absolute shite instead of having eggs or pancakes or you know a proper breakfast ;) oh well I will eat it anyway as I can't afford anything else here in this overpriced ski town at the end of the world .

Our van came to pick us up around 11 and we headed off for our first game against the green team . Yes another original team name LOL ! Our game was at noon and we got into the building next to rink and were told we could be on the other side of building ...ok . Getting dressed is a chore here as it seems everyone and their mother walked over or through me while I was trying to change , it is annoying . They should consider keeping people that are not playing out of this area !!! Back home we don't have this problem as there are separate change rooms as most of you know , boy do I miss home .

So we let my back up start the game and he was shaky to say the least but did not give up any goals ;)  guys on bench started yelling for me to go out there and I stepped on the ice and earned my Argentine  flag , the 20th country I have played in ! The first shot on me was a break way which I stopped low with my blocker and we at that time had a 1-0 lead that I was brought in to protect . Soon after we made it 3-0 and I felt more comfortable , unfortunately so did my defence and there was yet another breakaway which I blew and let in their only goal ... The fans went crazy , remember we are playing for Chile and their is some animosity from the people here . Some of the fans even booed me when I got on ice , oh well ;) it doesn't matter if they cheer or boo the bottom line is we are playing for Chile .

Late in the game the green team LOL had a plan to push me out of my crease ??? Yeah talk about retarded ! I am standing there and some guy is in my crease trying to push me out ??? I have never seen this tactic, I can't be too surprised as the lack of knowledge of rules is evident here with offsides being called for no reason and icing being called while goalies are playing pucks . It's a good thing fellow goaltender Marcelo was reffing and saw the whole thing go down , they scored and he waved it off ! They went crazy as they obviously don't understand the rules . This was possibly the dumbest plan I have ever encountered on all my travels . Thanks to Marcelo for being the only one to know this rule ;) unfortunately he should have been assessed a minor penalty before they scored for goaltender interference and they would have never had the chance to put the puck in the net !

The game ended with Andi missing an open net and we went on to win 3-1 surprisingly I did not even break a sweat . I am sure our nex games will be more challenging as this game was very sloppy for both teams. As I said before we have a lot of work to do if we want to win and the first thing is getting our Chilean guys to skate to the puck . Standing around waiting is just not going to help the cause , also getting the puck out of our end would help too instead of keeping it in ??

After the game we went to eat with the team and Rudolfos father who has already rammed his car into our van and claims he didn't when we all witnessed it ,  reaches over and spills a full glass of beer all over me ... Thanks ! That is all I needed, this trip to Ushuaia is not turning out to what I thought it would be so I just go back to my room to sleep as it is my cheapest option . I am not drinking as I just want to win now . Being sober and getting my rest is my best options here  . Hopefully today there are no more rules enforced or crazy tactics in play or I might snap ;) it should be another interesting day at the end of the world .

Day 20 South America : Opening Ceremonies

Woke up at some point in the afternoon totally drunk still and not feeling good at all :) it's normal though only thing missing is Rainer and Jaegermeister LOL ! We went for lunch at this joint down the road and it was pretty pricey as everything is in this ski town , don't get me wrong it's beautiful here but it is way overpriced and the food is sub par ... I had a burger which was kinda garbage but I ate it regardless and found out about the ceremonies which were in 4 hours . At the time I wasn't interested in going to the ceremonies as I only wanted to sleep .

Got back to my room took a nap and woke up in time for ceremonies , van picked us up and we went to rink without skates and were told we are not allowed on ice without skates hahaha ... We went on anyways as there were lots of people without skates ! The Puerto Rican blowjob machine was there and he was lucky to be a spectator as we heard he was not playing and was not reffing :( too bad at least he has more time to freeload off of my contacts ... It was too bad he was not part of this picture we had been part of .... Hopefully the people here catch on to his games soon and tell him to beat it as he is only here to promote the hockey ??? in his country , which he is not even from ... He is a dumbass ... And he did not have the nerve to talk to me , hope you are reading this you pussy ! LOL .

Anyway the ceremony was basically nice with people here from Chile, Brazil and of course Canada ,Germany and a couple cool Americans ! So it has some international flavour . It was amazing looking at the mountains from the rink and looks just as I thought it would . We hung around to watch the tournament favourites from Buenos Aires play ... Team Orange , kinda wish they would make team names rather then colours but that is the way it is here and I accept it as I don't want to offend anyone that would read this and then tell me to go back to my country or anything super rude like that ;) maybe someone said this to me ? Yeah maybe .... Kind welcome isn't it ! Anyways ...

This orange team is stacked and was whooping ass and we decided to head back to our nice quaint hotel Cap Polonia . It is a 3 star hotel but is kinda rustic , with the best food we have had here thus far ! I am sues there are other good restaurants but this is nice because it is in our hotel . Only problem is the service ... We waited an hour to get served :( but we were in no rush so we accepted it and waited to have some lomo steaks ... YUM !!! It was worth the wait ! After our meals we turned in for am early night as we have our work cut out playing with our friends from Chile , this tournament won't be a walk over for us to win but we will all try our hardest ! Adios boludos ;) 

Day 19 South America: Driving to Ushuaia

What a long drive this was ... We met the bus(?) which ended up being a van at 6am which actually turned out to be around 6:30 am so we stood around in lobby as all the people leaving from casino were looking at us strangely . Well in fact the strange part is that you people are leaving a casino at this time ... Really who had the urge to gamble at this time of  day LOL !

Before I left I found a creepy crawler on my bed . Yes it was what you think it is .... a bed bug :( in a 5 star hotel in the bed I was in for 7 nights ... I have to clear my bags out when I get home ! Kathleen would kill me if I brought her home such a lovely gift . Never had any bites as I did in Malta in 2005 or I probably would have known that I was not alone . When I alerted the hotel staff they did not seem surprised ? Guess it is as much an epidemic as the news reports to us ... Yuck ! Well I feel sorry for the next chump that stays there as I highly doubt that bed was removed . I can't knock the hotel as I loved my stay there and I still appreciate the fact that I got to stay there for free . We calculated that our rooms were over $3000 each during our stay . That is something I could never afford . It was one of the best places I have ever stayed in even though I had some unwanted room mates LOL !

So this van comes with a driver who has the personality of a card board box and didn't turn on the heat for us unless we reached over to turn it on , which he would reach over to turn it off within minutes . That was possibly the fastest thing we saw him do . The ride was supposed to be roughly 10 hours ... First stop we had was to cross the channel and let me tell you I have never seen water moving so fast !!! And we were greeted by a ram , yes a ram ... We thought it was a sheep but found out otherwise soon after as Tyler's wife and kids went out to see it as we waited for the ferry . One of the kids had his back turned to the ram and the ram showed him who's boss and fully trampled the poor little guy , it was funny watching Tyler putting the boot to this beast as it continued to ram the child on the ground . The kid is fine he has hockey blood in him and came out unscathed thank god !

Most of the ride I slept as there was really nothing to look at , it is a barren waste land with just wandering animals to look at so zzzzz!!! With a bit of snoring ;) our next stop was the Chilean border and that was a breeze , there is a short drive between borders and then we reached Argentine border which seemed to be more uptight and we had to get in private car for some reason , we were supposed to jump back in van after 1or 2 km but the van driver again refused to do what was asked of him , he really should consider a new profession !

We stopped for food at a gas station , no clue why but we piled into the van and said no to eating as we were about 300 km's away from Ushuaia . You would expect this to be 3 hours max ??? But our driver had other plans and drove slow enough to let the others stop have dinner catch up and pass us even though we told him to drive faster ;) he truly is a stubborn old fuck . So I went to sleep and woke up in Ushuaia and they were getting hammered with snow . Most of the guys are staying in hostel across from rink but Timo and myself decided to get a hotel room at Hotel Cap Polonia ... The driver did not want to drive  us there but we forced him to anyway ... That 10 hour drive ended up being close to 15 !!

We got to our rooms dropped our bags and went for dinner downstairs and then our buddy Nacho showed up with a bag full of beer ;) the welcome wagon rolled a crazy night .., in full force when he showed up and we had a great pre party in my room then  we headed out to  the Irish pub where our treat mates showed up , it was packed with most of my argentine buddies ! We partied our ass'off then went back to my room for more beers! We partied in my room until 6:30 am .., what  a party night !!! 

Day 18 South America : R & R

Couple days behind on my blogging ... On Monday I woke up to find out I had a radio/TV interview and had to let Caleb know about this as I needed a translator . Really did not do much this day . Brought the trophy down to the sauna and took some pics then hopped into the pool . We met Tyler and his family at the pool and we all had a nice relaxing day .

We planned to go eat then head to the interview but got side tracked when we went to change Caleb's flight so he could join us in Ushuaia . We are hoping the federation will allow him to play but apparently they are strict with their rules :( but yet they seem to be able to let the scum bag from Puerto Rico refereee ??? We will try to change that as it is not fair if someone who does not know rules is all of a sudden allowed to ref ! I mean their rules say that everyone should be registered before a certain date and I am sure that date passed and he is and was not registered as a referee , so if he is allowed to ref then Caleb should be allowed to play for us ! Does this make sense ? I think so ...

So we didn't make it out to eat before my interview and went back to hotel ... It was really windy !!! Alejandro met us in lobby and we walked over . The host called Caleb a stripper for some reason LOL and only asked me one question ... It was enough for me . The restaurant was just across the street . I had a craving for pasta , the guys met us there and seriously it was a mistake . The food was garbage !!! How do you screw up pasta ? The noodles Timo ordered were really over cooked and soggy , he did not eat it and the restaurant agreed it was not good and did not charge him for it . I ordered gnocchi and it was not so good either :( they don't seem to understand the concept of this pasta stuff ... Really it is not hard to make pasta and was one of the worst dishes I had on this trip plus our fat little troll waitress was not the friendliest person to have serving us . Not sure if we tipped her bug the reality is that we probably shouldn't have .

After our meal we went to the rink to work the locals .... I really pushed the goalies to work hard and showed them a few things . I could see they want to learn and they did ;) Torres impressed me the way he was working his butterfly but still had problems learning how to cut angles . I am sure both keepers will get much better by next years tourney if they stick to the things I showed them . We stayed at the rink late then headed back to hotel ... The next day was an early start to drive to Ushuaia , Argentina ...

Looking forward to seeing all my friends :) boludo ! 

Puerto Rican Retard

This is just a side note for anyone travelling to play hockey ... You don't want anything to do with Phillip Painter ;) I can't believe how disrespectful this piece of turd is ! I only speak the truth when I say this guy is a fucked up weirdo . He came down to South America to follow me around and ride my coat tails , made alternate plans to referee in the tournament here in Ushuaia and had the nerve to come to Punta Arenas and accept a free room without thanking anyone and snuck away like the pussy he is after we booted him for trying to sabotage our team !

This shit eater also ordered a jersey from Los Nordicos and has not paid and had a spot on our bus that he never paid of showed up for either ... We all know he is a dick head but I just want the rest of the world to know this too :) this jerk off is a one man wrecking crew , destroying hockey for Puerto Rico  . There was a time that I wanted to go there and then I met him,  he must have a touch of the downs or something LOL . I can here his whiny voice now as I read his comments that I erased , it is funny that he can use words with 3 or 4 syllables as I am so surprised the syphillis has not gone to his head yet !

The sneaky snake that screwed my friends hopefully will not be refereeing here as he will only do wrong . I am hard pressed to believe that he knows the rules of the game as I do recall him staying offside trying to get a pass in a game . I don't think he knows what the lines are for ? I am going to talk to my friends here to make sure this guy does not make a mockery of this tournament here . This is the guy who made alternate plans and used my friends in punta arenas . I don't think anything is too low for this snake ! I hope to see you around town you waste of life , lets see how tough you are in person ;) last time I saw you , you came with Argentines to watch Bon Jovi tribute and you left on your own LOL ... Maybe you are too stupid to realize that they don't like you either :)

I expect you to make a comment here or at least man up and pay Los Nordicos for everything you owe them ! Your room , the jersey you practically stole and the bus ride they booked for you . I doubt you will though as we all know you ate a scumbag asshole . Phillip Painter go fuck yourself !!! 

Day 17 South America : Champions

Woke up with a raging hang over from the amazing night out with all the guys from the tourney , we got pretty smashed with the guys from Los Nordicos  and it was fitting that we had to play them at noon which is way too early when you got to bed around 5:30 am ... Alas this is the kind of stuff that happens at these tourneys , it is a survival of the fittest LOL . The Bon Jovi tribute band really kicked ass ! Look up Banda New Jersey ! Hopefully it is a yearly event here at this tourney . Highlight of the night was when Caleb and Andi got on stage and did their topless act which got rave reviews from the ladies hahaha. Good job guys !

So when I woke up after my 4 hours of sleep I was still smashed but of course I made it to the rink , got dressed and had some laughs with the guys over the events that took place the night before then it was time for hockey . You could say I took it easy or you can say I was just drunk ... We won 21-10 after starting off losing 2-0 . It was a really fun game and I can clearly see that the locals are getting much better every day :) especially Omar who is playing for us , he actually got a hat trick ! After the game we wasted no time and left immediately to head to our rooms as we were so hung over and had to play in championship game at 6:30 pm ... The game was supposed to be televised but that was cancelled for some reason , we seem to think it was because we were killing everyone but that is debatable . Regardless things seem to change here on the drop of a dime ;)

After our big nap we all met in lobby and got ready for our big game vs C.A.U. the team from Aegentina . We have beaten them 17-5 and 14-2 so we were not overly worried and this game seemed to be a bit more light hearted for both teams . The other goalie is a great friend Marcelo , he has his son playing and he scored a couple goals on me and there was some great celebrations ;) Cami got a goal on me too :) we ended up wining 16-7 and everyone had a blast . There was a huge closing ceremony and we were mobbed for photos by the crowd . It took over an hour for us to get back to our dressing room .... I bought some bubbly for us and for the other team and we all relished over the attention we were receiving ... What a great feeling it has been playing in front of a packed rink . I can't hype this tournament enough and really hope to hear that all my hockey buddies make it down here !

On a side note ... Super douche bag slithered his way out of Punta Arenas and it is a good thing as we wanted to ditch him here . Apparently he wants to referee in Ushuaia now LOL .... Wanna bet that won't happen ? I am going to try my best to make sure he doesn't get on the ice and has no part in the next tourney ;) you get what you deserve LOL !

Last night during celebrations I snuck off because my body was in so much pain ... I have a training session today with Los Nordicos , but first I am going to hit the spa for a full day of maximum relaxation ... I want to thank Timo , Tyler , Omar and Andi for being amazing hockey ambassadors this past week !! Now it's time to focus on our next tourney  Lets GO LOS NORDICOS !!!!

Day 16 South America : The Puerto Rican

If you are too young to curse then you might not want to read this ...

Battling this cold here , a few others have gotten it also . We had a game vs Argentinians and they had to play Chile earlier in the day . So when I got up I took my meds ate some breakfast and met up with guys to go watch game . Now you have to understand that we are here as guests of the city of Punta Arenas . All of us have put our best foot forward and played with respect and we have not given our all . We have beaten the teams here quite handily but let me tell you it could have been far worse ... We have not tried or played to our full abilities . The game we went to see was a big win for the Argentinians and they clinched a spot to play us in finals on Sunday but first they have to play us in the evening . We lost our Argentine skater Adolfo who had to go back to Ushuaia . It's ok just more ice time for the guys .

Now as I said we are guests of the city and my squad is joining forces with Los Nordicos to play in Ushuaia . We came here to show them how to play hockey , so they could see and imitate the stuff we do , so we can teach them on and off the ice about this beautiful game . All of us have done this except for this asshole from Puerto Rico !!!! Phillip Painter aka Hockey Pur ... This jerk is here on his own agenda to try getting people to go to his country and has not shown an ounce of respect to me , my team OR the city of Punta Arenas :(

When a team brings you over to play for them should you be on other teams bench cheering against them ? When you come to play for a team do you show up to opening ceremonies wearing another jersey ? When you play for a team do you do things your team mates don't like ? NO you don't !!! This fucking waste of space piece of shit asshole has done all of the above and I have bit my tongue all week . From the moment this goof showed up at our hotel expecting to be there I didn't like him . None of my team mates liked him and I am pretty sure nobody at all does . He showed up here on his own agenda and is definitely not a good example of any sportsmanship .

At the opening ceremony he wore his Puerto Rican jersey , and skated onto the ice with another team ! Guys from both teams were asking me what this idiot was doing ... I let it slide . When he played for us that night he lolly gagged could not take or make a pass , whiffed on pucks , did not show an ounce of effort and I am very hard pressed to believe that this miscreant knows anything about hockey . When the team we are guests of were playing we all watched him on Argentine bench and we were astonished to see him fit all the teams cocks into his mouth ... Remember he has his room paid for here by the host club , no respect at all ! He never once came out with us or said thank you to me for bringing his scumbag ass  !

So last night when we played against my friends from Ushuaia , the people I introduced him to ... We knew something was up when we saw him giving away our water bottles that we paid for and when we saw him on other teams bench it got fishyer . We handily beat the Argentines 14-2 , the last goal was the last straw . He received puck in our zone and feathered a pass to one of their players for a break away ???? Stood there and watched them score , he did this knowing we would not like this . Great show of team spirit you asshole ! This is a team sport , why would you or anyone ever do something like this ? I was livid and chased him into our room ! Now I was not angry about the goal I was pissed off about his individualism and the fact he did this with full knowledge that it would make us angry . I big my tongue all week and this was the last straw .

Now I am pretty sure if I was on the other team this would have embarrassed me too , I mean these guys are competitive and knowing someone gave me a freebie is not the best feeling especially in front of this bug crowd . When I got to the room I asked why the fuck would you do that and his response was they are my friends , I quickly reminded him that the only reason he knows them is through me ! Then I told him to get the fuck out of my dressing room so he could go dress with his team and I kicked him off our squad and told him not to bother playing with us in Ushuaia . He responded by telling me he was already trying to make other plans !!! Remember his room here is paid for by the local team and this cunt is and has been making alternate plans ??? Why don't you just spit on the locals you disrespectful asshole ? They pay for you to stay here because you are supposed to play for them and you are making other plans . This guy is a fucking user , he has been riding my coat tail and abusing us this whole time . If a guy named Hockey Pur has added you on Facebook I am sorry because he has pillaged my list trying to make contacts for his own personal gains , he is an asshole ! Don't trust him and don't bother going to play in Puerto Rico . I feel sorry for the guys there that have to deal with him , and if they have entrusted him to keep the sport alive then they must know it is doomed :( He has made a fool of hockey in Puerto Rico and I for one will not tolerate this fucking retard anymore ... A few months back I became leery when he posted gay porn on my Facebook page and I should have known better then to bring this piece of shit out to represent my Ghetto Blaster hockey club .

To top if all off the douchebag showed up for the Bon Jovi tribute last night only to get a bunch of evil eyes staring at him , he snuck out like the snake he is ! I hope to never see him again as he makes my blood boil . I have never seen anyone do what he did to me on the ice ... NEVER !!! Not only did he embarassed me and my club he probably offended the other team and he disrespected the game of hockey .... Nobody should ever do something on the ice that they know their team mates won't like as this is a team game . This goggle wearing fuck face should never be able to skate anywhere aside from on the rink in Puerto Rico where he is probably used to skating alone .... I know you are reading this you shit head and I don't care what you think if you have a problem with it then go fuck yourself ! There are a whole bunch of people here that will fully agree with what I am saying and I would gladly love to kick the shit out of you for the way you have acted this week . You are lucky that I for one have enough respect to control myself and i would like to apologize to my team mates, my friends from Ushuaia and to the amazing people here in Punta Arenas for bringing you here with us . If you see this snake slithering down the streets don't think twice to avoid him ...

From here on out you are on your own !

And yes I got piss tank drunk last night and had the time of my life watching my great friend Alejandro and his Bon Jovi tribute band !!! You guys rock ;)

Day 15 South America : Getting Sick

Ok now I have time to catch up on my posts ... Only because I am getting sick :( woke up yesterday hung over with my throat burning on fire and a runny nose sneezing and I am pretty sure Timo and myself caught it from this guy here . We have met a couple people here that you could say are a bit slow in the head , the way you can spot the crazies is by their filthy dirty hands ! The 2 we met both had hands that probably have not seen soap or water in weeks , yeah it's gross but being the hockey ambassadors we are we have been shaking hands and kissing babies left and right ;) after a night out with this certain fellow we both woke up sick .... I am not a doctor but 1 + 1 = 2 and we kinda figure we got sick from this certain fella that would not leave us alone !

When we met up we agreed to go to the pharmacy where we bought some anti inflammatory stuff for our throats and some pills to battle our head colds . It kinda worked and we slept the day away in the cozy confines of our hotel ... This place is way too nice for me LOL . I mean I am used to sleeping in rooms the size of closets with no privacy and here my bed is actually bigger then some rooms I have shared . We had a game vs the host club Los Nordicos from Chile and we planned to take it easy on them , unfortunately not everyone understands English on my squad LOL ! In fact even the ones that understand don't seem to understand what hockey etiquette is as one of my guys doesn't seem to accept the fact that he has had his room paid for by our hosts and continuously cheers against them .... It is so disrespectful on his part and I want to apologize on behalf of my organization :(

Our game was supposed to start at 8 but actually started later because we are warning up for a half hour which makes no sense but remember these guys are still learning and just need the right direction  . When the game started we pounced all over them and our star players began to take it easy , we just didn't want our American buddy Caleb to score but he did .... Nice goal dude ! Actually tournament organizer Alejandro even scored and the crowd went absolutely bonkers .... Alas the 2 goals were nothing compared to the 20 we scored ! The stands were packed once again and we were mobbed coming off the ice with interviews and photo oops for everyone there , as I said earlier it is such a crazy feeling to get the treatment we have received here . If you come here next year I am sure you will see what I mean ;)

After the game we went to a bar then headed to our hotel to eat and pass out . There was a model runway show that I watched very briefly but in all honesty I have worked a bunch of these shows before so seeing women in bikinis isn't all that exciting for me .... I should get a nap in now as I have a game tonight .... Hasta la vista baby ! 

Day 14 South America : Relaxation

Things have been pretty hectic since arriving in Punta Arenas . As I have said before the tournament organizer here Alejandro Trabas has made this tournament into one of the best events I have ever experienced . It is unbelievable what is happening here ... Seriously I feel like a pro hockey player ! Tv coverage of our first game , radio interviews after , getting swarmed by 600 fans for pictures , and the cherry on top is the hotel we are staying in as guests of the mayor here .... If I could vote here he would have my vote hands down ;) from the sounds of it each of our rooms is about $ 4500 for our stay. We are staying at Casino Dreams , it is a 5 star hotel .

So comfort has never reached this level on any of my trips before . Coming here to play has been possibly the best decision I have ever made . Win or lose we came here to help popularize the sport and all we had to do was show up , Alejandro has given us all the tools to make that happen . On this day we didn't have any press related events and had no games or ice time , so we decided to hit the spa  . Yesterday before our televised game we went for massages and today we decided to hit the sauna and pool !! It was very relaxing almost too relaxing . All the facilities here are beautiful .

After a great nap we went to the rink to watch Los Nordicos vs C.A.U. ... It was a close heated match between the Argentines and Chileans ... Kinda like Canada vs U.S.A. ;) they get along off the ice but on the ice it was a bit different . The Argentines wanted to win after getting spanked by us , the newspaper called us relentless but I fact we turned it down a notch after 7-1 first period, can't blame the press as this was their first time watching ice hockey ;) our good buddy Caleb Duckworth from the States but living in Santiago helped Los Nordicos in this big battle. Last time these 2 teams met the Argentines won something like 27-1 but this time Caleb came to the rescue and the game was very close until the end with the final score being 10-6 ... It was a good game for both teams and was quite entertaining for the 600+ fans ... Yes the fans just keep coming and from what we hear there is more and more interest from the locals to play hockey , public skating is jam packed and people are getting into the sport . The seed has been planted and is growing FAST !

After the game we headed back to our hotel with Los Nordicos and went up to Sky Bar for drinks and then we hit the casino ... Yes I lost but it was fun hanging out gambling . Second time I have ever done this , not my cup of tea but was great hanging out with friends ! Have a game the day after so going to bed at 4 am is not the best plan but oh well LOL ...

Day 13 South America : Televised Game

On this day we were a part of history ... But first we were to meet the mayor . At 10:20 am only thing is he was busy and we had to go to rink earlier now :( so instead Timo and myself went for a sports massage ... No there was no happy ending ! I love and miss my girlfriend and would not even consider doing this . We went down for our appointment and it was very relaxing ... So relaxing that I passed out on the table LOL . After I headed to my room for a quick nap . It wasn't enough as I was way too tired to wake up .

When I got up I pumped some music and got my energy going and was seriously focused on winning . Our driver got us and we headed to the ink for opening ceremonies :) we were fully dressed in gear more then an hour before game time .... They played national anthems had a dance display and of course there was a lot of media there ;) the game was televised live locally and was the first ever hockey game on tv in Chile . It was an absolute honour to be part of this, can't thank Alejandro enough he has done such an amazing job organizing this tournament and I am really glad I came down here for this .

The game we played was also my first crack at entering a Ghetto Blaster squad into an international tournament which is not the easiest thing to accomplish . Our first game was vs. C.A.U. ( Club Andino Ushuaia ) which is full of friends that visited me earlier this year in Toronto . It was great playing against them and they have it their all . We were keen to win also and jumped out to a 7-1 lead after first period . The game was a bit long with 20 minute periods . In the second period we let up a bit and they got a couple goals , I think it was like 11-3 after 2 periods . The 3rd was pretty much the same with us ending up winning 17-5 .

After the game I was grabbed aside to do a radio interview which was pretty cool .... Never had to do that before , I felt like a pro and only has kind words about our opponents ;) the stands were packed with a reported 600 spectators !!!! Most stuck around and we took dozens of pics with the fans it was and will probably be the highlight of my hockey career as I felt so amazing ! The atmosphere itself is worth coming to play here !!! If you are reading this and you think it is cool don't wait too long to book your trip here !!! It will be a yearly tournament which I am sure will only grow . I have never played in such a well organized tournament and doubt any other will top this .

The best part of he night was when we found out they announced that Zona Franca will build an Olympic size rink here !!! Our goal coming here was to help hockey grow and I am pretty sure it is working and I am very proud for our Chilean friends ! We went to Lomito's to eat and celebrate with Los Nordicos and caught some of the game on tv there. With beers in hand we all cheered when we saw each other on the tv . It was a bad decision to leave as we were tired and thought we could watch it at the hotel :( unfortunately that channel is not shown here at Hotel Dreams ... It's ok we will get copies before we leave hopefully ...

It's almost game time I should get ready to go to the rink soon ...

Day 12 South America : TV Interview

Still behind on my posts :( it has been a whirlwind of events since we have arrived here in Punta Arenas . On this day we woke up had breakfast and had our rooms changed ? But it was for the better as from this point I have my own room ... Not sure how that worked out ? So when this was all happening I asked if one of our team mates had a room here as I was told we had 3 rooms , 2 singles and a double ... And this certain team mate was not on the list of players with a room here , so who is it? All I found out was that Phillip was not staying here as he could not confirm when we booked the room . He was old on many occasions to contact the tournament organizer as I was already too busy to do any more bookings . I did what I had to do months ago and had no time to waste on last second adjustments on anyone else .

Timo and myself then went out for a stroll to check out the city , we were both pretty hungover ;) the night before was a good drinking night with Los Nordicos , the local club that are hosting us here ! As I said our days are pretty busy and on this day we found out that all the hype over us coming here was real ! In the town square we quickly realized that this city has a small town feeling with people saying hi to each other everywhere and to be honest it is quite comfy being here in these surroundings .

Alejandro told us our driver would pick us up in the early evening to go to the tv station for an interview . So Timo , Andi , Tyler and myself met up in our hotel lobby to meet our driver . We were taken to the local tv/radio station where we were greeted with open arms ;) as I said everyone here is very friendly and happy to have us here . We are being treated like celebrities . I think we were on air for about 15 minutes with each of us being asked a question or 2 then we were whisked to the rink ! This time it was supposed to be a skate with kids but there are not so many kids playing here ...yet ! The goal for me is to help get hockey going here and two main objectives is to get more people interested in playing the game and hopefully help them get a new arena . The one they have now is nice but is only for 3 on 3 hockey . A bigger surface would be amazing !

Right before I left Phillip showed up at our hotel with the idea that he was staying here ??? Guess he never spoke to Alejandro as I had told him about 30 times ! He was with my good friends from Ushuaia that had all arrived that night . I broke the bad news to him but had to take off ,this kinda stressed me out but all ended up well in the end after I put in a word for him with Alejandro . I am not a big fan of last second changes or working for free . By this I mean it is not my job to book rooms for people ! No offense to anyone don't take it personal , I am supposed to be on vacation and the stress of breaking bad news to anyone that had not taken my advice is really not my cup of tea .

At the rink I also found out I had to dress in full gear which I was not expecting to do as I was in the mindset that it was children I was to skate with instead it turned into a training session for my friends here . I will do whatever  I have to do to help , after all that is why I am here ! So I got into gear and skated with the guys and the kids at the same time , most of all I was happy to see the kids smiling and enjoying themselves . It was worth getting dressed just for that reason . After the game Timo and myself handed out lapel pins and patches to the kids and to the big kids too LOL .

We were pretty tired after and just headed up to the Sky Bar here in our hotel to eat and call it a night . As usual the language barrier and lack of English menus had us ordering a side plate of fries to only find out our meals came with fries ;) would have been nice if our lazy ass waitress could have warned us ... I guess she doesn't know that we are celebroties here hahaha ! We gobbled up everything anyway and called it a night .,. Tomorrow is the tournament opener and we want to win .... Stay tuned ! 

Day 11 South America : Royalty

Didn't even sleep 3 hours ! Had to wake up at 3:45 am to shower and catch my ride to the airport . I just can't get on a plane without taking a shower ... Flight left at 7:20 am and it took almost an hour to get from Palermo to EZE airport in Buenos Aires . When we arrived some guy grabbed our bags go us into line and somehow got our bags checked in with no problems :) yeah we tipped him and the lady behind counter asked if he was flying with us ??? We thought he worked at airport but apparently he didn't ??? Oh well LOL . Things are so different here in the south .

Our first flight was to Santiago , Chile and when we landed there it felt like we were in the Paranoid States of America as there were so many security checks . We had to get our bags and they were scanned and we had to check them back in without a hitch once again . LAN airlines seem to not worry about weight or size restrictions which is awesome if you are a hockey traveller like  I am . Our next flight was to Puerto Montt and it a filled with kids . The leg room was limited and the douchebags in front of me tried to fully push their seats back onto my legs . It was a small child but honestly why do you need to be fully reclined ??? The kid couldn't push the seat back so the father tried it so I punched the seat . He didn't try it again ! My patience was being tested and I wanted to tell him an the other breeders on the plane to stop having kids . Our future is grim with the parenting I witnessed on this flight as the kids did absolutely what they wanted . As I said earlier ... Airlines should charge extra for children as it is such an inconvenience to the other travellers !!!

Even the stewardess was getting pissed off , good thing they all left the plane on our stop over and they were replaced with a gambling group :) much quieter ! We were moved to an emergency row as we asked if there were other seats so we could spread out . The flight was uneventful which was awesome and how it should be .

When we landed Alejandro Trabas was at airport with some of the mayors employees , we are guests of the mayor here ;) so we have our own driver . We were taken to our hotel Casino Dreams which is a 5 star hotel . We dropped our clothes off and were taken directly to the arena for our first skate .  We got to meet all the guys and had a 2 hour skate . The rink is called Pista Hielo de Zona Franca which is located in a mall in the tax free area of Punta Arenas . It is small but quite big for 3on 3 hockey . The ice is pretty good but the lack of a zamboni is not helping as they only water the ice at the end of the day , maintenance is a problem in South America . It would be nice if someone could help these guys out down here with some zambonis ;) aside from that the rink is kept well ... The surfacing just needs help . There are holes in the corners which is not much help either . When the puck went there we had to stop to pull the puck out LOL ! It can be dangerous though ...

After our skate we went to our hotel to shower as there is no shower facilities at the rink . This seems to be the norm down here in South America ... After we met the guys at a bar had a bite to eat and started drinking beers . We stayed until the place closed and about 7 of us went to another bar and we continued drinking until 4 am , we were awake for more then 24 hours and I was falling asleep at the bar . Somehow I maintained by splashing water on my face every 15 minutes or so hahaha , the guys must have thought I had some serious bladder problems or some sort of drug addiction LOL !

We went back to our rooms all pissed up and crashed hard ... Poor Timo had to deal with my snoring for another night , sorry buddy ! His efforts to wake me up didn't help as I am a sound sleeper once I pass out .

*things are pretty tightly scheduled here as we are getting celebrity treatment , so I am still behind on keeping my blog up to date , will do my best to catch up I promise * 

Day 10 South America : Hockey Galore

Was travelling all day yesterday so I didn't post anything , today I will try to catch up with my posts ! 2 days ago I woke up hungover as usual ;) and we all were hungry , we went downstairs and were suggested to go to this steal house . I mean its a must they I go eat a steak in Argentina because of their world famous beef ! This is a lesson you all might want to learn ... We walked over there and got into the place , nobody spoke English and the menu was all in Spanish :( if you can't understand what is going on then go somewhere or be with someone that can translate as I was about to eat one of the WORST steaks I have ever eaten ... I googled it and it sounded good and I ordered a side of french fries . Well I ended up with sweet potatoes and this brick . Yeah the steak was tough as a rock , it was so tough that I didn't eat it as I didn't want to eat it . I sent it back told waiter it's garbage and left . Unfortunately the cocksuckers at this restaurant still charged me for this absolute trash !!! I am not gonna mention the name of the restaurant but the least to say is that I was not impressed with Argentine beef ... McDonald's could have made a better steak ;)

It wasn't the best start to the day but was due to get better ! My friend Alejo offered to pick us up and take us to watch game 1 of the inline championship , I have never watched inline so it was something new and cooler check out . Driving in Buenos Aires consists of traffic , traffic and more traffic ! So we basically did some sight seeing on the way to Peru Beach . This is this giant complex with 2 inline rinks a few bars and a lot of other awesome things to do !!! And it is right on the ocean  , yes there is a beach there thus the name  . 

We had to leave early to go to practise on other side of city . The inline game was good but this sport is not for me as it has so many different rules then the better form which I play on ice ;) we satcom traffic on the way to pick up Matt ( the Americano) and continued sitting in traffic LOL ! When we got to the rink we parked and started walking then walked into this bar ??? I was confused as to why we were entering a bar ??? And there it was ! The rink was in this bar , no joke ... You walk in pass the bar and it is right there , the change area is upstairs so I headed up to change and Victoria ( one of the girl goalies ) gave me the gear they were lending me to use , I had a really early flight the next day and didn't want to risk having soaking wet gear as it will put my stuff way over weight for my flights !!! Unfortunately they only had Medium sized pants and I have probably never tried to put on anything that small with good cause as it does not fit :( so that being said I sat out and did not play instead we met with Lupe and talked all things hockey and I had the pleasure of meeting the "real" ice hockey federation president in Argentina !!! Diego Garcia Barthe is the president of the FAHH :) it was an honor and pleasure to meet him . He gave me a bunch of really cool pictures which I will put in my hockey room when I get home ! I am looking forward to having a few beers with him next week in Ushuaia , as I would like to ask him so many more questions .

At this point it was roughly midnight and I had to get up at 345 am to shower and get ready for my flight to Punta Arenas, Chile !!! As I said earlier the day started off bad but ended up great ;) 

Day 9 South America : Buenos Aires

When we left Iguacu I was not in the happiest of moods :( but it was not going to last long . Was a bit nervous about entering Argentina with my new Maltese passport ... We got into our personal van that drove us to Argentine side of Iguacu and when we got to the border the driver asked us for our passports , they didn't even have to see us to cross boarder LOL ! Things are much different it's not like the Parsnoid States of America . Actually it gets stranger as we go along .

Our flight was delayed and the board didn't show if so we kinda sat there in limbo waiting . It is apparently an "international" airport but there is no money exchange and no where to plug in for power so I am not sure really how it is considered "international" with only 3 gates the place was a joke ! When we were boarding we noticed nearly everyone entering with liquids ??? When we checked bags they showed us a sign with rules which said no liquids , no gels etc... So how is this possible in this "international" airport with no security at all ??? Apparently the sign is for show and the ticket taker told us it is ok to do this on domestic flights here !! Truly we must be on another planet LOL .

I snored the whole flight :) and when we arrived all the mouth breathers gathered at the luggage carousel as usual . Seriously all 5 people in your family don't need to huddle near the carousel ! If takes one person to spot your extravagant belongings ;) we tried to get a van but the dummy at the counter thought we needed 2 so we blew him off and grabbed a taxi that was kinda like a station wagon  ! And if you are the dummy from the van rental let me tell you that we got all our bags into a smaller vehicle then your stupid van ! Meatball ;) our taxi driver played some Steppenwolf and got me in the mood to party :) that was good because I was about to go wild !

We got to hotel , got online and I contacted Alejo ... One of my buddies in Buenos Aires , then met up with him at his friends place . Lupe I hope that is how she spells her name ! When we met up with Alejo we went to buy beers and headed out for dinner which was another meat massacre , another hockey buddy  showed up ... Max it was awesome seeing you again ;) apparently people here don't go to dinner until around 9 pm and I should mention that this is quite the climate change from Brazil ! It was like fall weather in Toronto . Dinner was another meat massacre ! It was awesome , the food the wine and the new hockey family were super ! And the night was still young ... After dinner we went back to Lupe's place and started pre drinking and met up with yet another hockey buddy "Coco" got pretty buzzed and headed out to the bar .

We went to this interesting bar that was like a house transformed ! It was pretty cool ! A bunch of other hockey friends arrived and there was about 20 of us drinking and dancing the night away ;) now this is speculation because I was totally hammered but I want to say I think we stayed until about 430 am . Not sure if there is a last call here which is awesome the only thing is you are not allowed to consume alcohol on the streets here which is probably good as we would have been total waste cases .

I actually slept in today but I was smart enough last night not to mix alcohol so I feel pretty good now , missed breakfast but I might head out for another kind of grease :) I want to thank everyone I partied  with last night ! You guys/gals are all amazing thanks for the memories !!!

Day 8 South America : Iguacu Falls

Feeling a bit fuzzy from the drinks , but I am an early bird :) had to be up early to book our helicopter trip . The booking agent is open at 730 am and I was down stairs before she was there . By the time I got upstairs the other guys were up . We booked our trip and had breakfast ! It was actually a decent breakfast , no bacon but at least there were eggs instead of sandwiches which I will never agree being a breakfast . It is a North American thing where we have bacon and eggs for brekkie :(

Our shuttle arrived at 10 am and we headed to the falls ! First thing we did was our helicopter trip which was nice . Only problem is we were told we would be alone in the chopper unfortunately that was not true . There was s family of Americans with the ugliest mongloid children I have ever seen !! Somehow we were ahead of them but they ended up with the front row and a window in the back ??? We had to sit in the middle and really we were very disappointed the way we were treated ! It was fucking bullshit that 2 out of 3 of us say in middle and all 4 of them had window seats , what little view we had was beautiful but to be honest it was a waste of money . Still can't believe they did that to us . They basically make videos and the Americans told them they would buy it so the bastards treated them better ... Don't bother with doing that unless you want to get scammed !!! As a company all in all I would not endorse not will I mention their name ...

We were all disappointed but carried on to the falls which was unbelievably beautiful ! We wandered around for hours and got soaking wet LOL ! When we had lunch Andi got to meet an elderly inbreed cunt . She fully pushed her way in front of Andi so she could order food before him as she felt more important then the others . Now I don't care how old you are there is a queue for a reason and only an asshole would do something like that . To top it off the old hag didn't know what she wanted and interviewed the server for 5 minutes leaving everyone in line waiting for her big decision . I wanted to spit on her but didn't as I don't want to be classified as an inbred as I was raised to have manners ;) the food was not great anyways as it usually is not at these tourist traps .

We left the park and headed to the bird sanctuary across the road and we loved it there as you get to go into the cages with the birds . It was really cool and we all had a laugh when one bird posing with me chewed the button off the top of my hat . It was funny but I kinda hope that bird chokes on it hahaha . We caught our shuttle back and bumped into our British friends and made plans to go bowling and eat some Chinese food .

When we got to the Chinese restaurant I was not impressed as the buffet looked a week old and was almost empty ... Nothing was labelled and the smell made me sick so I went looking for somewhere else to eat on my own , instead I was gagging from the smell of the Chinese restaurant , my stomach was turning and I did not want to wait in the grease pit so I went back to let everyone know I was heading home instead of standing outside waiting . Basically I had 2 choices of sitting an dealing with that awful smell OR walking through a seedy neighbourhood at night to get a taxi . I took the lesser of the risks and started walking . It took about 15 minutes before I found a taxi and good thing because I would have walked the wrong way if I didn't . Felt bad that I skipped on bowling but I just couldn't deal with that smell :( I didn't even eat dinner as the smell turned me off of food , just went to bed early .

All in all I can say and always will say that I don't enjoy tourist traps and as you can guess this city is a giant one . I can't wait to leave ! The city is half run down and half tourist trap . If you plan on coming here doing stay long ! The falls are worth seeing but aside from that don't expect much as the city itself is a dump .  I am gonna go eat and pack my bags now as I have a taxi coming in a couple hours to take me away from this shit hole ;)