Castellon, just about 45 minutes by train north of Valencia. Sadly it was just for the summer. I just arrived back in the states yesterday.

Thanks for the link! Fingers crossed it leads to something!

I hope it's amazing! I've never been to Europe in the summertime, only the winter. Should be a fun new experience.

I would guess I climbed up to around 30 feet in the pine trees in my parents back yard. Yes, going down is much more difficult than going up!

Thanks for the comment. I'm new to this site. It looks like it's a great forum for displaying photos and writing. I look forward to checking out your blogs and photos. Thanks again.

Love the photos...and you made me miss East Asia, for just one minute. A total time flashback. Me, with a bubble tea, dodging scooters. Ahhh, fond memories. Anyways, thanks for the post. It took me awhile to respond as I have been working my brain cells dry in Istanbul, though I received baklava as a gift twice this week, so that more than makes up for it....take care and happy travels.

Can I get some photo credits in your gallery? haha

"yunsil butiq" or thanks for the props on the pics. the answer to your question is living in a mayan town called cobá... i was working as a sea kayak and cultural guide in the yucatan and surrounded by the mayan language and started to pick up words here and there, but i had a few weeks off and at night when the tourists are gone the main language spoken is mayan, of the yucatecan sort...mayan as you may already know is like a lot of other native languages they are phonetically written, unless you can read &/or write the glyphs which i can do to some extent but by no means am i fluent.... nice job on this site by the way, a really nice concept...

Hey! I'm studying Italian there (in Siena) for the month of July, and after that am planning on backpacking around Italy/western Europe for a couple months.

Thanks for the recommendation!

Thanks for the welcome and the names, Ben. You guys are doing a wonderful job here. BNT is really shaping up, too, with consistent content.

thank ya, sir. i suppose that if you don't eat yogurt you must lack culture. but what does THAT mean?

Thank you. I cannot wait to finish the redesign and reorg of the site to make it easier to navigate and find the many articles, resources, and listings which are not as accessible as they should be to your community. Working 24/7 on this so I can get back to traveling.

The Matador community seems to have a slew of talented and passionate writers who have already made some excellent contributions.

Gregory Hubbs
Web Content Editor
http://www.transitionsabroad.com

will be in bangkok on sunday. give me the info. should be home on sunday. that is IF i regain my sanity, or not.

Hiya Ben. I am thinking of travelling to Southeast Asia this fall. Maybe Sept-Oct time. Gotta save up lots now though, but I think I can make it. It will be my first time to that part of the world so I am pretty excited.....and a bit scared!Are you planning a trip that way?

benny!
gng to be at bangkok in two qeeks, shoot up your request!

thanks! i actually am interested in writing some green guides.. ill c what i can do...! way cool site! i'm hooked!

yes i am teaching in bangkok, while also working on travel writing..i love it...

Thank you Ben. I look forward to working with you when our site is redesigned to reflect all our travel content. We hope to be a useful resource for your motivated and enthusiastic community.

You're welcome for dancing. Had a great time last night. Nice turnout. When I move to the city (which, yes, will happen....eventually) i think i want to learn more about 826 valencia. The guy at the info stand got me all hyped about it. Cheers!

Ben, I have been getting these emails on my Backroads email address and I can't believe I never looked closer. I am SO impressed! Congratulations on an incredible site, and I will do what I can to spread the word through the Tetons. When the time comes for me to take another big trip, I will definitely come here.

Ashley

Ben,

It looks like Matador faired well in the Google PR update. Google likes your site. Any thoughts about headin down south? Andrea and I enjoyed having Lyza and Meagan stay with us. We are headed back to California on December 26th. Will you be around?

REQ

Cheers - great photos on your site!

Sup Brah... HK just keeps getting better! Surf this weekend! Going camping on a mile long beach tom. Super pumped! Sup to Rassco and the States. Peace Punch

Ben,

Thank you for creating this site, and thank you for letting us know about it! What a fantastic resource for all.

Warmly,

Christopher Nesbitt
Co-director
Maya Mountain Research Farm
San Pedro Columbia, Toledo
BELIZE
Central America

www.mmrfbz.org

This is an awesome site! Thanks so much for putting it together :)

Site's lookin sweet bro. "You're cool."

So first of all, welcome home. Been reading the blogs and couldn't be more proud of ya PoPutz. So if you are feeling like doing a small trip, i am having a show of my work with an opening on the 7th, then that weekend is an insane music festival all over town. It would be a good excuse to come check out Portland, get at me.

The new Matador look is FRESH! Rock on!

Ben, this is a great site. I admire your passion.

Yo Benny, what's up with the outdoor activities? I'm almost out of my cave....get me goin'!

Great seeing you and Ross in London. Croatia was off the hook. I had Kim as our BR leader. The trip was awesome. I'll try and throw up a blog about it in the near future. Let me know when you are coming to Colombia. I am putting your room together.

La Playa Norte? Doncha mean Spiaggia del Nord?

Get a foccacia at Mario's for me sometime, please. I miss those things!

so are we gonna do the mashed potato at our favorite funk joint in Barcelona, come June?

great place you guys have started here. glad to have found it.

i would love to send you some artwork for your clothing...the designs you have so far are awesome. let me know
peace and love hils

So much talk finally came to action. It was funny, at one point (as massive hearty drops poured down on the uhaul) dave said, "woah, this is NOT san diego rain." No sir. Get your raincoats out. Despite the new nippy bite, I am stoked to finally be here!

costa rica session comming up, end of march for my B-day.. hows it going man?!

ben...i'm so proud of you...so so great. see you out in the zoo!

You serious about the backflips? If you actually know a thing or two, I might even buy you a lift ticket...:)

Good meeting you as well.

Good work my friend - I'm passing the site on to the travelers @ REEF

What up Ben, All our hard work and I don't see any Small World posts from you yet! Hehe. Let's see what you got up your sleeves! Any nice 6'10" Al Mericks laying around?
:-)

WEDNESDAY NIGHT AT MADRONE -- fire up some folks por telefono...see my smallworld post for detal-es

Hit me up if you ever need my Samurai parking skills to get you out of a tight jam..........or a parking space. I wish someone recorded that.

What up partner, just starting to get a hang of this Matador thing. The site looks good, the more I use it the more familiar I become. The pages take a while to load for some reason, maybe it's just my wack computer... Anyway, I'll be home for the holidays from December 14th, hope to see you then. Peace Peace.

dude- I am a hazard to society right now. ridiculous night, woke up in my car, lost my house keys, had an olive in my pocket this AM, etc. probably won't make it to the boubab (?) tonight. Have fun though. catch up soon.

pps. good job on the friend recruiting. you're crushing ross.

Hey Ben,
Love your map location, shame you missed the wave. ;)

Also you have some slick photos, love the guitar playing silhouettes! Keep on Rockin!
Kd

yo -- I'm meeting with Chris at Alian at noon. Climbing despues...then to Pier 23 to meet huntington and a bunch of party peoples? holla.

Its been a while! When do I get to hang out with you again?!