Jen and Oli on the loose...

Zipolite to Zihuatenejo

2010-08-17T17:10:00.001-07:00

It's been a while! Last we left off, we were in Zipolite, pool Oki was struck down by some bad papaya juice, and I was sipping beer by my lonesome. Oli did make it out to the beach for one last drink that night, but two sips in his tummy caught back and he was down for the count. I grabbed the check and we called it and early night.

The next morning we checked out of our grub ridden bungalow, caught a cab to Pachutla, and then a couple hour bus to Puerto Escondido. Our next cabbie had loads of trouble finding our next sanctuary, and after three times as long as it should have taken, we found our way to Casa de Dan y Carmen. We had a lovely little room with a fantastic view and cable tv. We spent our time in Escondido eating yummy food, vegging out, and even doing laps in the hotel pool. Oli mainly did the laps.. I acquired some little Mexican girls who enjoyed holding onto my legs while I dragged them around the pool, and also liked to hook their fingers into my belly button to hold onto me while I swam. Cute as they were, I didn't appreciate the belly hooks.

Also while we were in Escondido, we passed a cafe/library that had extremely familiar art. We finally went in, and the art was by Justine Ward, who does out art for the festival! She did a gorgeous mosaic, as well as some fabulous art on the walls. Incredible!
We really did want to surf while we we were there, but the surf was far far too strong for beginners. So we decided to do a day of scuba! We teamed up with Lorenzo, our divemaster, and headed out to swim with some fishies. Strangely enough, this was our first experience with a heavy surge. We have encountered heavy currents before, but in those situations you really just go with the flow. With a surge, you are thrown backwards and forwards, up and down. It is a lot more difficult to ensure you don't bang into any precious coral, or hurt yourself! Additionally, the visibility was awful, so you really needed to keep a close eye on your spatial awareness. The dives were not a wash though- we watched an octopus go nutso and all inky, and also found our first Spanish dancer! Good times.

We then ventured to Acapulco for an evening on our way to Zihuatenejo. The bus ride was long and awful, and arriving in Acapulco was just smelly. It literally smelled like raw sewage everywhere we went, even in our $100/night splurge of a hotel room. Gross. We did have yummy tacos and watched lightening touch down less than 500 meters away from us, so the layover wasn't for nothin'! We also stopped in at a Mexicana office and confirmed that our flights ARE still valid. Horray! We hopped on another bus and headed to Zihua. I feel like we've spent our lives on shitty transportation.

Piccies

2010-08-12T11:39:00.000-07:00

Here are the pics that we promised, another blog to come soon.....

Oaxaca

Zipolite and Puerto Escondido

Enjoy!

p.s. New beer photos too!!

Evening invaders and too much sun

2010-08-05T18:27:00.001-07:00

Zipolite is a pleasure. Gorgeous beaches, friendly locals, cheap beer, and yummy food! Our cabaña is interesting to say the least. It harbors more life than one would initially expect. After our first night here, we awoke to find a large family of grubs living in our shower, which is less a shower and more a corner of the bathroom with a shanty tap rigged to a beam, spewing out salt water. We can only surmise that our grubby little friends live in the smelly drain, and regardless of our attempts to relocate said family, they always resurface, slugging their way across the floor, even once visiting us right next to our bed. Maybe it's them that are smelly and not the drain; either way, there is a pungent odor of rotting onions/old man breath that permeates the room. The grubs are not the most exciting visitor, that honor belongs to a poorly deceased crab. While starting to dig out my bikini for a day of fun in the sun, I noticed an amputated crab leg on top of my backpack. Upon confirming the specimen with Oli and discarding it outside, I moved my bag and discovered the owner of the leg, an upside down crabby, that was missing not one but three legs. Where are the other two legs, and pray tell, how did the original leg end up three feet higher than the rest of the body? Something wicked this way comes. We can only guess that there was a brutal crab fight, and the winner took off with his earnings. I say it was a python, Oli tells me I'm ridiculous. Either way, there was a fight to the death, mere inches from my feet, and I am pleased to say the fighter has not resurfaced. Another pet that we have spied is a large moth that also likes to find it's way into our baño. It has the wingspan of a large bat, and thankfully does not hang out while we are in the area. After living on a farm since February one would have thought us prepared for such invasions, but I must admit these particular species are new to us in domestic form.

We lounged on the beach, Oli determined to bronze his newly toned physique. You can all guess how well that turned out, as sadly I am not permitted to post any pictures. Needless to say, after that first tanning sesh, I was left to brave the suns rays alone while Oli put some of our beer donations to use in the safety of a shaded bar.

And this is exactly how we have spent the last few days. Before our arrival here, I had grandiose dreams of finally learning to surf, but unfortunately the current is such that I can hardly enter the water above my ankles without flopping over and giving all the nudies a show. Yes, our end of the beach is rampant with the free of heart and free of clothes crowd, which at least gives Oli something to gaze at over his Coronas.

We have come to the end of our days in this free-wheeling town. Tomorrow we shall catch another bus and head up the coast to Puerto Escondido in search of cheap diving. As I type overlooking the waves, and sipping my Indio, my better half is bedridden with a bellyache. Let's hope he recovers soon enough for one last moonlit beer in our little paradise. We promise to enter a dreaded Internet cafe soon and upload the pictures of our adventures thus far. Until next time... Stay classy.

Birthday, beers and beaches

2010-08-03T13:57:00.001-07:00

We spent my dreaded 26th birthday gorging on huevos and chocolate, and the night ended after a fab margarita and not so fab mezcal, tasting too much like bandaids for comfort. Another year bites the dust.

On Sunday we hopped on a public bus up to Monte Albán, the old Zapotec city of ruins. Gorgeous views of the city, but far too many people to linger long. Once back in town we did a little self guided tour of the chocolate factories, and we were proud of our restraint. We needed to pack up and say adios to Oaxaca- thanks for all the delicious mole and chocolate!
We arose at 6 am to head to the dingy second class bus station, and the skies were pitch black until our departure. We managed to get one last chocolate con leche in before we boarded the bus from hell. What was supposed to be a 7 hour trip turned out to be anything but. Have we forgotten the cardinal rule?! Whilst traveling with a lonely planet guide, one must first and foremost double all prices listed, regardless of how recently it was published, one must also never ever expect a bus to arrive at it's estimated time. This bus was a true Mexican gem- threadbare seats, less than no legroom, hotter and colder than one thought possible, and packed to the gills. We picked up every person along the way, which extended our journey by at least two hours. And stubborn Oli wouldn't let me pack provisions- eating roadside is fun! While I agree, it's always good to have a backup. Needless to say, when we finally arrived in Pochutla at 4, we had consumed only that hot chocolate at 6:45 am and some warm water. We found an ATM, screamed "to hell with it" and hopped in a taxi to take us to Zipolite. Twice the price of a colectivo, but at a price of 100 pesos we arrived at our hotel in half the time. We checked into our place; we have a cabaña a few steps from the beach for less than $20. Ok, so the digs are less than luxurious but there is some semblance of a private bathroom, a fan, and a tolerable bed with a mosquito net. It will do! We dropped off our bags and headed next door for some much needed food and beverages. Revived, we explored the town. Zipolite is a tiny beach town which is reportedly overrun by naked hippies, but we have yet to encounter this demographic. It was "discovered" by a bunch of hippies back in the 60's as a perfect place to watch the eclipse, and the tourists have been coming back ever since. Cheap places to pop up a tent, $1 beers, and ten foot swells keep the frugal minded backpackers happy. As for the naked part, there are a fair bunch of naturalists, but they seem mainly of the domestic type, both male and female. And as is usually the case, those who bare all are the type you wouldn't necessarily WANT to see all of. But hey, everyone is having a blast, they are all super friendly, and why not shake what yo momma gave you?

We grabbed a few corona familiars and lounged on the rocks, swatting at the insatiable mozzies and having a ball. I must mention that some filming of one of my favorite movies, Y Tu Mama Tambien, took place here by the way. Not too shabby!

We went to bed early, pooped from our bus ride. I was pleased that I remembered my earplugs, as the only things louder than the crashing waves were the squeals of delight from our neighbors, who clearly love the free love aspect of the place.

This morning we headed into town, a block off of the beachfront, for delish huevos oaxaquena and tacos. The rest of our day has comprised of enjoying the sun and fighting the riptide just off the shore. Is it beer o'clock yet!? Thanks to our dear beer donators, we will have to start getting our thank u pix up! For now, I am writing on my iPhone, trying to keep the masses updated! Wifi on the beach, who knew? And how on earth did we ever travel without our iPhones?? We can now avoid the hours of sweaty hell in dingy Internet cafes, save money, and enjoy ourselves! Life is grand. I think we will stick it out in zipolite for a while.... We will keep you posted, our faithful readers!

Holy molé

2010-07-29T20:53:00.001-07:00

We have arrived! We spent yesterday in the city (San Fran, obvs :) with my dad, munching on some house of nanking and getting nostalgic about our old days on Green St. We were dropped at SFO and joined the hour plus line to check in; security check was no joke either. After a hellish sleep deprived coupla flights, we hopped on a combo bus that gave us a tour of rural Oaxaca before plopping us at our gorgeous hotel an hour later. The time? Eight-thirty am. Check in wasn't until one, so we put out bags down, enjoyed some delish cinnamon coffee, and stared at each other with the realization that we are completely outta practice. Nights like last were the norm a year ago, now we look like we have been hit by a chicken bus after one measly night of discomfort. We better shape up! We grabbed our camera and cash, and set out to explore.

First stop, the Cathedral de Santa Domingo. Dubbed the most impressive in all of Oaxaca, the carved ceiling and incredible reliefs did not disappoint. Southbound, to the zocalo! Oaxaca is a darling city- reminiscent of Antigua with its old colonial architecture and color schemes. We hobbled downtown, admired the local entrepreneurs and the crap they were selling (from a distance!) and settled in at a cafe on the SE corner of the square for what will be known as the best huevos rancheros of my life. Oli's huevos de oaxaquina were delightful, ohhhhh all that queso fresco! This is going to be a challenge not eating every second of our time here. Maybe we should bite the bullet and reserve another seat on the flight home for our inevitable taco-induced love handles. I digress...
One thing we were not expecting was the vast number of bugs here. No, not las cucarachas- more along the lines of the German type. There are vw bugs on every corner, on every street. They've got to be the most popular car in Oaxaca. Even on the drive in from el aeropuerto we passed two vw dealerships. Oh Mexico, you are always full of surprises.

We headed back to our little Eden, las mariposas, and our room was ready! And hot damn, they gave us the nicest room in the place. Right at the back, overlooking the courtyard, big window, vaulted ceilings, king size bed, and a shower that I was happy to use whilst barefooted. What could be better? Ah yes.... Nap time.

Fast forward to dinnertime, which coincidentally is when we woke up. We ventured into town, past the grand Santo Domingo, and arrived at a hip little place that was packed to the gills. Dos mezcales de la casa por favor, y dos coronas. And the best molé we have ever tasted. Oaxaca has certainly held up it's end of the bargain! We are gonna stay put until Monday, when we venture out to the coast. But for now, we have lots of chocolate to sample, some ruins to see, and of course, to celebrate the passing of my first quarter century on this earth. I have a feeling that not all 26th birthdays could possibly be this much fun. We truly are blessed!

Back on the loose!

2010-07-25T12:53:00.000-07:00

Oli and I are hitting the road again, for a nice little adventure along Pacific Mexico. We will be down there for a month- diving, eating delicious food, taking far too many pictures, and getting reacquainted with our good old friend, tequila :)

For those out of touch with our comings and goings of the past 8 months, here's a quick recap:

We finished up our relaxing, overindulgent times in Crete, and flew back to the UK. I split down to Melbourne, Aus. to attend the Australasian World Music Festival as a delegate for a week, coincidentally meeting up with our old pal Ryan for a few nights of mayhem. Oli relaxed at home with his family, and it was a happy reunion when I returned to Heathrow. We had a whirlwind few weeks ahead of us, helping out a bit with our good friends Nick and Lucy's wedding. It was amazing, to say the least. The bride was timeless, the groom a surprisingly adept public speaker, and Oli was one of the best men. Fun times! We then had my family come and stay with us at the Buchanans. We even had time to slip down to Brighton to give them a little tour! After a beautiful Christmas, Oli and I headed back to the states to visit with the other half of my family. We had a killer NYE party, and enjoyed a decompressing January, hitting the road in the 3rd week to venture back out west. We did another mini road trip, stopping in Birmingham for the best hospitality around with the Woods, and also getting to stop in on my old friend Kel in Austin. What would a road trip be without the requisite stop in Sin City with our old pals, before hitting that last 11 hour stretch to our new home- the Ranch.

Since February, Oli and I have been working on our family festival, Sierra Nevada World Music Festival, which went off without a hitch the June 18-20. We learned tons, it was nice to be around my Dad and Gret daily, and Oli is a handyman at heart, which brightened up the house dramatically. My dad was sick for a while, then our faithful old cat Wissa became ill as well, to the point where we had nightly drips from an IV. Oli became quite the nurse! Then there was the unexpected and tragic passing of my dear uncle Scott, which shook everyone up irreversibly. We were forced to power through and come together immediately, and as Scott was a key member of our staff, it was difficult moving forward with the festival. We pulled it off though, and couldn't have done so without the extreme loyalty and dedication of our staff and crew. The weekend was amazing fun, we were able to see so many of our favorite people, and even Oli's sister Sorrel was able to fly out at the last minute and partake in all the fun.

After the festival was over, we forced my dad and Gret to go on vacation in NY, and Oli and I held down the Ranch. Our planned week of silence and recuperation was put on hold when we decided to work our asses off and get the house in the best shape of its century plus life. Oli even redid the bathroom (or tried to anyway, that toilet might forever be a work in progress). We enjoyed our 4th anniversary, even though the dog ate our dinner, and decided to go and visit our Vegas pals once again. So we hopped in the car for a long weekend down south, followed by a camping trip and then a trip to visit Grams. Our long weekend turned into a week in Vegas as the camping trip was cancelled, and I was able to indulge in some much needed Aidan James time, my favorite little boy in the universe. We brewed some beer at my old buddy Brian's house (the boys did... we ladies watched movies), went out on the Strip for the first time in years, hung out at Chris and Heather's house, ate far too many good meals, swam in the pool(s) for hours, and indulged in hanging out with our friends. After the week ended we headed to San Luis Obispo to hang out Grams. Went to a play, made pizza, had breakfast with her buddies, and prepared the house for the imminent arrival of my Mom, Aunt, Sister, Brother, and Lauren, brother dear's girlfriend, and Henry, Jessy's new little pup. Amazing times, a trip to Hearst Castle, and I even got to celebrate my birthday early :)

We drove home, but the next day popped into the city to see the fam for a yummy dinner at world famous La Barca. Yum! Nice to see the fam, as who knows when we will be back east next.

Well... that was Thursday! The past few days have consisted of shopping, packing, GTL, and such. We have a trip to prepare for! So on Wednesday, the 28th, we hop on our flight to Mexico City, then continue on to Oaxaca. The adventure begins... stay tuned!

lazy bones

2009-11-08T03:49:00.000-08:00

Helloooooo! We have just 1 week left of our backpacking adventure.... and we have been totally crap at updating!!! Thankfully, there's not too much for me to type. :)
We spent lots of time in Dahab after Jordan, diving twice a day, eating yummy Egyptian food at local shops, reading, smoking (and buying our own!) sheesha... We were meant to head off to Luxor to check out the sights, but then.... Oli got the Temple trots, Cairo craps, whatever you may call them. Anywho, 18 hours on a bus (egyptian bus, no less) was not the best plan, so we decided to push our trip back a day... and the following day he was no better and I was worse for wear as well. Doesn't it figure, at the end of our trip!? Well, what better place to be ill than next to the Red sea, surrounded by the nicest locals yet. We made lots of friends at our hotel/restaurant/dive shop, and basically spent the rest of our time hanging out with them within running distance to the bathroom! Not what we planned, but not too shabby! We loved Egypt anyway, so we will be back, and next time we will head to Luxor first before we fall into the Dahab black hole. On the 1st we headed to Cairo for the night, hung out with an Egyptian friend of ours for the evening, and headed out the following day on a flight to Athens.

Dahab piccies:

Upon arrival in Greece, we headed into town to pick up a bag we had left in storage at the hostel, grabbed a few drinks, then "slept" in the airport. Of all the airports we have slept in (5, 6?) Athens was by far the worst. The shops never close, so music is blaring all night, and thoughtfully they have chairs with awkward armrests, so you can't even recline. I slept on a table, and Oli hunched over himself. We were please when 3:30 came and it was time to check in. Zoom forward, we landed in Chania, Crete! After a bit of waiting, our rental car arrived, we plodded on down to a grocery store to stock up on the essentials (taramasalata, wine, pita, and tzatziki) then to Almirida to meet Jo and get the keys for our new temporary home! We are staying at the holiday home of some friends of Susie and James', and we are so so pleased! Gorgeous views of snow capped mountains to one side, the blue blue sea to the other, a full kitchen, and a COUCH. We had some lunch, smoked our sheesha, then took a nice 5 hour nap. Luxury! Then next day we headed in for a wander around Chania, oblivious to the fact that Crete practices the ancient art of the SIESTA. Shops were closed for 4-5 hours, so we had a bit of a walking tour, grabbed more groceries, and headed home. And it was a home that we hibernated until today. Sleeping, reading, reading, sleeping, eating, relaxing. We needed a bit of down time after this past year, and as we will still be hopping around from parents home to parents home then moving to parents home, we relished the quiet and solitude. We emerged from our cocoon today to find everything closes on Sunday. Drats. Ah well, this next week will be busy- we gotta make our last week count! Next Monday, we fly back to London, then I head off to Melbourne until the day before Thanksgiving. We must enjoy this lovely weather while we can. LOVE and MISS you all!!! We're comin' home soon.

Petra

2009-10-30T04:20:00.000-07:00

Enjoy!

Seven of Seven

2009-10-25T10:36:00.000-07:00

We’ve been very busy since we last blogged, even though we had to deal with the extremes of the Egyptian way!

After a very long and cramped bus ride overnight we arrived in the port town of Nuwieba at 7am. From here our task was simple – get over to Aqaba, Jordan, and then up to Wadi Musa where we would set up for Petra in the morrow. Sounds easy right? Well…… getting the tickets was easy, even waiting until 3pm for the ferry departure was relatively easy, the rest was not. After a long hot day sitting at a café we went to board the ferry, only to be kept waiting and waiting. And of course when we were finally able to board (45mins late) it was an absolute nightmare of tour groups and generally oblivious people! Next was the journey, despite paying for the fast boat AND being assured we were on it, the trip was not 1hr, it was 3. The pain did not even stop here! When we finally arrived at the other side we had to go through immigration, and despite being the 1st people there, this honour is reserved for the tour groups, however long it takes them…. All of them!! Of course, by this time we were seeing red and being told to “take a seat” in a room full of people where there were no seats, was not a great way to stem the flames of anger. At least from here it was just a short cab ride to town, albeit 3 ½ hours later than planned. Yet our luck had not turned and our cabbie did not intend to drop us off at ouyr hotel so we hopped out in town and here we were told where we were – but we weren’t! So a little wander led us to find a hotel and we were able to settle in for the night, FINALLY!

With no intention of staying in Aqaba, but also no intent to haul ass to Petra, we allowed ourselves to sleep in and casually grab some food before getting into a share taxi to Wadi Musa. The trip was under 2 hrs and we arrived in time to get a nice room and find some more delicious Middle Eastern food before retiring for the night. After a nice sleep, with great anticipation, we awoke at 7 for breakfast and hustled out to get to Petra for the day – and what a day it was!

We got our tickets to the site and started the trek in to the heart of it all. On the way we were given little tasters of what was to come as with carved facades and caves in the face of the sandstone rock around us. After a short time we entered ‘the siq’ a narrow gorge forged from the tectonic plates separating. At time the light was almost cut out as we ventured deeper inside and the anticipation rose as we got nearer to the end and the figure-head of Petra, The Treasury.

When we did arrive we were able to see how so many people fall in love with Petra right there. It was astonishing. The detail and the craftsmanship involved and then the natural beauty of the lined and swirled sandstone. Also, Indiana Jones connect helps! Despite the throngs of tourists we were able to enjoy our time here with smiles on our faces as we had reached our final of the 7 Wonders of the World.

From the Treasury we strolled down the ‘Street of Facades’, a narrow road with carved tomb fronts on either side. This led us out into an opening, from which we could gauge the enormity of the site. A large amphitheatre stood in front of us with carved tombs on either side, rising up the valley walls. We could also see the wide valley in front of us with more and more ruins to explore.
We continued our trek and went to explore some of the huge tombs that we could see, all ornately adorned and carved from the sandstone. As we walked to go and view them we saw that a guy that had shared in our ferry agony was sat with some local Bedouins, sipping tea at their trinket stall. We joined them and spent the next half hour sipping Bedouin tea and taking in the scenery. With brief goodbyes we started our hike to a secluded overlook of the treasury. This entailed us picking our way through crevices, climbing/scrabbling up worn out carved steps and pushing our way through bushes past the carcasses of donkeys! Not another person the entire time.

We arrived finally, feeling pretty hardcore, at the top of the cliff, with just a few minutes left until the overlook. It was here that we met some people finally, who had chosen the route we decided against. The view from the outcrop was fantastic; we sat and had our hiking snacks looking down on the Treasury and the bustling crowd below. We descended via the ‘proper’ route and decided that ours was much more fun then the hundreds of restored steps that lead us down, back to the valley floor.

We still had tons to see so we hurried on to explore the very Roman city centre, with it’s colonnades and free standing buildings. We stopped here for another rest before a long and strenuous hike up the Monastery. Although we soon found that it wasn’t as bad as people seemed to think and was a very nice, yet step-y, trek and we were once again rewarded heavily. The Monastery was as impressive as the Treasury, not as ornate, but larger, and of the same design – these guys were serious!

By the time we had returned to the valley we had only one thing left to do before the day was out – a hike recommended by our guidebook that a renowned US rambler claimed as being in his top 6. Well, as usual LP didn’t fail to provide a crappy part of the map at a vital point! We set off under my direction. We were having a lovely tie, with beautiful scenery when we happened upon a group of guys who wanted to check our map. This was when, after consulting our compass, we were on the wrong trail heading nowhere except for a 2 day hike to a village!! Needless to say, we pulled a U-y and went back the other way, forgoing our hike, my head bowed in shame! We did make it to the final destination, well I did. Jen, still fighting off a nasty cold, decided to wait at the bottom of the rock face and the staircase that lead to the top. So I left on my own, on weary legs to finish the day at the ‘High Place of Sacrifice’.

I was a rewarding hike up and, after forcing myself to quicken the pace, I was up in 20 minutes. The view was astonishing, as were the 2 obelisks, carved from the sandstone, yet being the only 2 objects on a flat topped pinnacle! With a little exploration I managed to find the 10 x 20 ft shallow pool, presumably there to catch whatever the ‘sacrifice’ ‘leaked’!

I arrived back down to find Jen, surprised to see me so quickly (Yes, I’m gloating – the book said 40mins each way, I was up and down in 45) and we took a leisurely walk back to the end of the siq, to take one final look a the Treasury before departing. We were even able to get a quick piccie with no one else in it! After a very long, hot, dust, sweaty, up & down, 9hr day we decided that we had better relax a little before going back to the hotel. So we had a nice cold beer in the Worlds oldest bar (Thank you Ranch Kids)!

So there we are, we have seen all of the 7 New Wonders and what remains of the Ancients. We even managed to finish on a favourite, Petra is a beautiful blend of natural beauty in the amazingly patterned sandstone and the natural landscape, mixed with the truly magnificent feat of the civilization that once lived here in constructing such an awe inspiring city. Magical.

Nothing left to do on our trip but relax – and so we shall!

We left Jordan the next day, much more smoothly than before, although we did have to wait a few hours for the ferry to leave, and, once back on Egyptian soil, Jen haggled a VERY good price for a ride down to Dahab, where we are now. For months this has been a place we have been looking forward to, a sea-side paradise of lazy days, sheesha pipes, great food, cold beers and wonderful diving. So far it has not disappointed. We have found a nice little ocean front hotel with a great bar/dining area on the water that looks over the glassy blue waters of the Gulf of Aqaba ( the Red Sea) to Saudi Arabia. And furthermore, we have had 2 days of fantastic diving and plan to have 3 or 4 more!

Unfortunately, we can’t get these computers to load Picasa and therefore we cannot post the pictures yet…. So you will have to wait! Sorry!

Bye, time for food, beer and another sheesha before bed!

ruins and dips and friends and camels

2009-10-18T08:23:00.000-07:00

The next day we troddled on over to the brand new Acropolis museum- mere steps from our abode in Plaka (did we mention we can see the Acropolis from basically anywhere?!)paid our 1 euro entrance, and battled the tour groups gone mad for a small bit of space. The museum was phenomenal and incredibly well done. Oli was particularly tickled by the short film, however there were no copies to be found in the gift shop. We enjoyed every second of it!!! Next up we visited the Archeological Museum- fantastic!! Then back to our hotel for another night of lounging on the balcony, avoiding the rain.

On Friday we hopped on a bus and headed out to Nafplio- a gorgeous seaside town with a lotta history. It was the first capital of the Hellenic Republic, has a massive fortress or 3, and is a very nice place to sit in a cafe over a coffee. My old friend Angelo, whom I knew back in the old days at CSUC, lives there, and we were able to meet up for a few hours. He gave us a fab tour of the town and along the water and we were immediately jealous of his living in this paradise. We climbed around the fortress a bit in the afternoon, then hopped on the bus then the metro then to the hostel then the metro to the airport to wait until our 11pm flight to Egypt!!!!!!

The flight was uneventful but when we arrived in Cairo things spiced up a bit. It was vaguely reminiscent of our landing in Chennai all those months ago. Hot chaos, people hassling, grabbing, begging for your attention so they can get your money. We hired a car from the Limo company so we wouldn't have to haggle over the price upon arrival at our hotel, and set off. The purported 20 minute ride was nothing of the sort due to our poor timing right after an accident with a flipped vehicle whose passengers they had to break out through the windshield and which caused gridlock for 90 minutes as we were on an overpass. Then off we went, zooming through the streets of Cairo only to realize that our cab driver had no clue where he was, no clue where the hotel was, and no clue how to get from point a to point b. Fabulous, especially at 2 am (3 am on our body clocks due to the time change). What was even better was that he couldn't read our map or let us direct him as he spoke no English. He had to resort to screaming out the car window at bums sleeping on cardboard boxes, reverse through many streets, and then barely believed us when we shouted that we were pulled up by the hotel. And then emerged another gem of Egypt-Baksheesh. Now, we have encountered this before, a bit of bribery here and there to make things run smoothly, but here it takes on a new level. As the average wage is 8 Egyptian pounds- less then $1.50USD, people rely on baksheesh to make ends meet. So every time someone opens the door for you, points out something (obvious as it may be) has any sort of social interaction with you, you are expected and socially required to give them baksheesh. Now this may range from a few pounds upwards to 10 or more, and they always want more. We fled from our stupid cab driver after he refused to take our measly few pounds tip, but what did he expect? The past 3 hours with him were not exactly pleasant nor did we think we would come out alive, and we had already paid him for the cab. However we did have to shell out to the bum who ran to our building and opened the elevator door for us. And so it continued.

We checked in and passed out.

The next morning we headed off to see the famed Egyptian Museum. Housing a massive unparalleled collection, we expected the museum to impress us as well. Unfortunately, no care is taken with the artifacts- they are all dirty and jumbled together. Many things are out in the open and as we have learned, with every "don't touch" sign there are 99% of people who will immediately touch once having read said sign. We were incredibly pissed watching the guards sit around and nap while all these priceless artifacts were desecrated. There were a few rooms that had obviously been recently renovated but for the most part everything was a shambles- disappointing after $30USD entrance per person. We did see the mummies, who looked a bit raisiny and had surprisingly intact eyelashes, and viewed Tutankhamen's royal burial goodies which was sweet. We may sound a bit jaded, but after seeing as many museums as we have lately we are becoming sticklers for quality.

The afternoon was mellow, dodging touts and overly friendly men, eating fabulous falafel and dips, and going to bed early to try and kick this cold that is just not ready to quit.

This morning we were up super duper early and hopped in our hired car to head out for a day of pyramid-hopping. We couldn't imagine a day of haggling with random cabs so we decided with a private driver from our hotel- a rarely afforded luxury. First we stopped at the bus station to buy our tix to Nuieba for TONIGHT, then (drumroll please) the Great Pyramids of Giza. Plunked in the middle of urban Giza, or rather having watched with Giza encircled them, the pyramids are as impressive as you could imagine. Massive and sandy. We tried to dodge most of the touts but Oli did get attacked by a man with Arab head wraps who wouldn't take no or running away for an answer (the photo says it all). After the obligatory baksheesh, we climbed on inside the biggest pyramid. The climb inside was surprisingly short and we only passed one woman hyperventilating from the claustrophobia. The final room was smelly and dark. I guess you just do it for the novelty- its pretty cool to be under all that stone. Not much of a view inside, however. We did our lap of the 3 pyramids, posed with the Sphinx, then hopped in the car for the rest of our adventures.

We visited the Steps pyramid at the Saqqara (oldest stone monument in the world), then off to Memphis with a cool old statue of Ramses II, then to Dashur to see the red pyramid (oldest pyramid in the world) where we climbed inside, it smelled like pee, but was a bit more impressing than Giza as the ceilings were vaulted. Back to the hotel for some reading and now here we are! Time for some dinner and sheesha, then off to sleep on a bus! Less than a month left....

Hellenical Adventures

2009-10-15T01:05:00.000-07:00

Another blog so soon...... unheard of! We have close to 200 pics from yesterday so we thought we'd share them with you!! We were blessed with a beautiful day and some of the photos came out wonderfully (if I do say so myself!), so please, have a gander....

Firstly, here are the remaining photos from our short time in St. Petersburg:

And just a days worth of Athens:

Off to 2 of the worlds great museums today, so they say. Strange to think that tomorrow evening we will be in Egypt!

Greece Bound

2009-10-14T04:54:00.000-07:00

We have arrived in Greece!! Goodbye cold weather and somber faces, hello sunshine and pita bread! Before I get ahead of myself, lets recap the past 2 weeks, shall we?

We left Irkutsk for Tomsk in a lovely cabin on the train. We ate loads of noodles and bread, drank lots of tea, and napped. Upon arrival in Tomsk we were met by Nikita, our CS host. He drove us to his place, a very nice apartment which he shares with his wife, overlooking the city. Fabulous! We feasted on stuffed peppers (thanks Marina!), showered, laundried, and generally sorted ourselves out before heading into town with our lovely hosts for a grand tour. Tomsk is primarily a student town with gorgeous architecture overlooking the Tom river. We even went to the hill where Tomsk was founded! Lots of the buildings are adorned with wooden "lace", a characteristic of original Siberian architecture with Tomsk being having the most intact pieces. What a lovely time we had, strolling around and chatting. We went back to the apartment that evening for a dinner of solyanka, a delicious soup, and some mulled wine. We rounded out the night watching "Brother 2" a great Russian film.

The next day we continued our tour after a ridiculously great omlette brunch, and visited the campuses and parks in the southern part of town. In the afternoon we attended the annual meeting for the local branch of the Hospitality Club, an organization quite like CS. We even had to give a little speech and slideshow of our trip! The meeting was held in an awesome tiny theatre with the most fantasitc wooden puppets that move and talk to you electronically. Seriously awesome. We cooked our hosts dinner of Chili con Carne and wine, and enjoyed our last night in Siberia.

Two-point-five days on the train in 3rd class- woulda been grand had we not been plagued by this chick who decided to sit with us and talk to our neighbors all day and all night, regardless of the fact that her seat was down the cabin. Oli couldn't lay down when he wanted to and she was constantly crowding us!! ARGHHHHH.

Welcome to Moscow. Somehow, we found our way to the hostel without a hitch and found that Home from Home is not what it claims. We were met by a very confused staff, no record of our booking (a constant problem with this place, as it turns out) and then we were placed in the "dorm" in the common room- 4 saggy beds under the TV where the resident babushka sits all day watching the soaps. She also sleeps there and has a massive snoring problem, as we found out later. We headed out to grab a bite to eat (yummy blinys) and a night view of the Kremlin and St. Basil's cathedral. So picturesque!!! We rounded out the evening at a Cuban bar of all places, drinking extortionately prices drinks (thanks for the beer $ pops!!!!!) and avoiding our hellhole of a hostel.

The next day we went back to the Red Square to visit Lenin's Mauselium- creepy and sad, the past 85 years look like they were torture for the poor man. Lunch at a fab place in the famous GUM mall (Russians LOVE their buffet and cafeteria style restaurants!) and then the museum, afterwhich we were plagued with what to do until our 1am train to St. Petes. Oli decided on (what else) Tinkoff brewery! We lazed away the night having a few microbrews until our train. As we boarded our train, we realized that we had left our passports in the hostel's safe. Oh shit. Well, nothin to do but try to board the train with our photocopies and avoid the po-po at any cost! We boarded without a problem and slept the 9hrs to St. Petersburg.

Now this is a city we can dig! Immediately we loved the place, and were fortunate enough to be staying at the lovely Soul Kitchen hostel- nice! We checked in, grabbed lunch, and headed directly to the Hermitage. What a museum!!! We were there until closing, and saw every single room on both the first and second floors. It is one of the most fabulous museums we have ever been to and thats saying a lot after London, NYC, and the past year of globe trotting! Dinner at a local place where we munched on Ural dumplings and borscht.

Day two of St. Petes consisted of the Dostoyevsky museum (swoon), napping, and food at Yolki Polki- salad buffet for less than $10, a real feat in Russia, and where we found out later Obama had taken his kids to! Early night for us.

Final day in St. Petes was Hermitage time- had to finish up the 3rd floor! Hid out in a coffeeshop and then the ballet at the Mikaelovsky theatre- Giselle was on, and it was surperb. Russian ballet, can't beat it!! A bit fancy pants when you get down to it, and the men sure were proud of those tights they were wearing, but a great evening overall. Evening train to Moscow!

Final day in Russia, and it poured down with rain. We went to the armoury, where we saw a few Faberge eggs (I really don't get what the fuss is about), some awesome carriages, and a bunch of guilded things. Spent the afternoon in a coffee shop journaling and deciding on which Russian dolls to buy, then off to the airport for our 10:40pm flight to Riga, Latvia!

Slept in the Riga airport- I swear we were the only souls there. Not even anyplace to buy water, we had to suffice with sucking out of the bathroom taps. Slept surprisingly well for a few hours, had a cold pizza breakfast, and then caught our flight to ATHENS!!!

And here we are. We arrived yesterday and immediately had a beer at the rooftop bar overlooking the Acropolis, then found a market to buy dips and cheeses and pitas and wine, and spent the evening on our balcony enjoying the Grecian weather.

Today has been busy! We headed to the Acropolis first, where it was tour group hell, but still breathtaking. Of course, like every other fabulous thing in the world it was under refurbishment, but still- amazing. After that we popped in at a few other ruins around the city, ate a yummo Greek pita wrap, and decided to visit Nafplio on Friday. And that brings you up to date! Just a month left on our RTW adventure (then I'm off to Australia sans Oli for 10 days or so) and then Blighty for the holidays! Love and kisses.

Happy Anniversary to us!!!!

2009-10-01T04:18:00.000-07:00

Well, it has now been one year since we flew to Mexico City from NYC and now we are in Russia - weird! It is also weird to think that in 2 weeks we will be in Cairo, after travelling the remaining few thousand Km of the Trans-Siberian, a brief stop in Latvia AND going to Athens!

Anyway, a lot has happened since the end of the last update, for this we have to go all the way back to Beijing..... but to the best part...

Catherine arrived!! We made our way over to the Hilton to meet her and we were greeted with big hugs and a ridiculous room!! We snuck ourselves in and went out to explore the city, now as a threesome. We went 1st to the Temple of Heaven Park, we had a lovely wander around the grounds and even got to witness a large group of locals having a nice Sunday afternoon dance! From here we went to go for a quick drink and to the Duck Restaurant that had been recommended to us.

We arrived and were greeted with something everyone can appreciate.... free wine! A good start so far. We were all hungry and ready to experience Peking Duck in Peking. Unfortunatly the free wine was the best bit! Despite being delicious, the duck was disappointing as, despite ordering a whole duck, we all only had 3 limply filled pancakes - no good. It was so shocking thas
t we even complained and the girl donned some rubber gloves and started tearing at the duck. "Extra Lean" duck my ass! Anyway, it was delicious and we did not let it taint our night. We went to find a drink and before we knew it we were witnessing a pole-off! That's right people, a guy one one pole, a girl on the other and them both going at it HARD! Genius. Suffice to say, we had a good night!

We awoke in our (thx Cat!) still wonderful room and ventured out to The Forbidden City. When we arrived we were suprised to find a Cartier exhibit (Catherine works in the antique jewellery business) and it was one of the most enjoyable exhibits that we have been privy too, particularly as we had a cute little walking jewellery encyclopedia with us!! We left this to view the rest of the beautiful City before heading across Tian'amen Square to wander around the old network of streets on the other sides. From here we went for a really fun hotpot, cook your own, restaurant before heading back to the Hilton for the evening.

After leaving the Hilton and sadly saying goodbye to Catherine, ouк new fave travel buddy, we went over to our hostel for our last night in China before starting the Trans-Mongolian Railway trip. We left from here the following morning and bee-lined for the train station where we settled into a vitually empty train, meaning we had our own cabin. Yay!! The train trip was really something else, exciting and visually beautiful, seeing the landscape change from the green, limestone mountains of China, to the rock Gobi desert and then to the undulating hills surrounding Ulaanbaatar. Particularly memorable was Jen's puchase of Jack Daniel's at the border... only to find it was Jack Daniei's, a "very convincing" fake - she was not happy!

Arriving at our hostel, and for the 1st time for a while private room, we finally conceeded to machine washing our clothes, much needed after China, and went to explore the city a little. Finally we were really cold and we relished the opportunity to don our new coats and jeans! The next day we explored UB more visiting the very interesting and extensive National History Museum and then onto the Natural History Museum - more of a taxidermists wet dream than a museum - We went for a few local brews (thanks Kev & Arya) before heading back and packing up for our 2 nights stay with a nomadic family in a tradition ger in the Terelj National Park.

After a few hours in the car we arrived at our new family's place in the beautiful National Park. We were greeted with not only amazing landscape but warm mare's milk, and homemade bread & butter! We were left to our own devices till lunch and we went for a very visually rewarding hike up the peak next to the encampment. It was an amazing sight and at this time of year the trees were all an amazing bronze colour. We returned from our hike for lunch and (I) enjoyed freshly cooked (& killed) mutton with potatoes, rice and pickles. We vegged and enjoyed the countryside for the rest of the day before settling in with Anna and Peter, our new Portuguese buddies, and a bottle of vodka in our wood-fire heated ger.

Our 2nd day was greeted with new people coming to stay and more warm mare's milk! Today was our day to go horse-riding, for 4 hours, my 1st time..... it was harrowing! Actually, after nearly falling off in the 1st 5 mins, I got the hang of it and we had a great time trotting to 'Turtle Rock' - you guessed it, it looks like a turtle! With a sore arse we returned and had another relaxing evening, it was only after reviewing the photos from the horse-riding that we realised just how reeeeeeeeediculous I looked on the tiny horse!

We returned to UB after a 2nd night in the countryside and went to get our tickets for the next leg of the train. We rewarded ourselves at the Chinngis Beer Co. and went to stock up on provisions for the ensuing journey.

The next part of the train was just as beautiful, but a little more painful as there was the border crossing at 1am that took close to 6 hours with Mongolians asking us to help them smuggle coats across by claiming that they were ours! Yay. But we did make it into Russia. We arrived in Irkutsk yesterday after several hours skirting Lake Baikal, the World's deepest lake and largest deposit of unfrozen fresh water, to our 1st Russian Couch Surfing host. We hung out with the hairless cats till Spike got home at 1030pm. We hit it off and at 4am, after a bottle of vodka, we finally retired to bed.

Today we were late getting up thanks to the vodka but still made it to Lake Baikal to dip both feet in and gain 5 years of extra life per foot. Take that smoking!

We leave in the morning for Tomsk and more Russian fun!

Chinese trains, terra cotta, and tea scams

2009-09-25T02:06:00.000-07:00

Soooooooo we are super duper belated in our blogging, as China has banned many websites including blogspot! AND facebook! We had so much more free time while there :)

To start, here are some much belated pix from Hanoi:

We left off en route to Shanghai from Hong Kong...
The train was long and painless. Sleeper trains are far superior to sleeper buses. We slept well, and arrived in China to chaos in immigration/customs. Man, the locals are not fond of queuing! Additionally, we witnessed an old woman relieved of her fruit at customs, and she consequently spazzed out and started shrieking and lunging at the officials. No one really cared, and it was an interesting contrast to our fruit smuggling experience in Chile, as well as how the ol' US officials would have handled things had this incident gone down on our turf. Anywho...
We figured out the metro, and eventually landed at our hostel. We checked in and went for a wander- unfortunately Shanghai is plagued with tons of construction as well, so the views of the infamous Bund and walks through the old streets were tainted by bamboo scaffolding and banging. We spent just a few days in Shanghai as it was not really what we expected, but we did do some quality museum hopping. The Shanghai museum is top notch!! Unfortunately we were SCAMMED outside the museum by a nice little couple who we had a great chat with and they invited us to come and drink some tea with them. It felt a bit scammy from the start but I guess we were trying to believe that people actually want to talk to us! A big tip off for the scam was when Oli told he guy about his hobbies and mentioned Jujitsu.. the guy FREAKED out and looked terrified. Anyway, we ended up at this tea house and were informed that we should try a lucky 6 types of tea, at 8 bucks per person per type... yea, over $100 for tea. We politely excused ourselves. Another Shanghai highlight was our Crab ovary and digestive tract filled dumplings. They tasted like meatballs, but I could not get it out of my head how many little crabbies it took to feel that heaving queue of people. Though they were tastyish, I was a bit disturbed. Also please note we have lost our HK and Shanghai pix due to a "card error". Yay for cameras!!

Next stop- Suzhou. The "Venice of the East" is sprinkled with tiny traditional gardens, and we had such a lovely time exploring. We loved it there!!! Great little alleys, and a fab museum designed by IM Pei. Maybe the nicest and most atmospheric museum of the trip!?!?

Flash forward to Nanjing. We took another overnight train there, once again found our way on the subway, and got comfy in our hostel. We were pretty lazy while there, lots of hanging out and reading. We did make it to the Nanjing Holocaust Museum which was extensive and very well presented. On the way home we were tourist-napped by a cab that decided to take us on a wild ride in the opposite direction we wanted to go just to jack up the meter, and then pretend he didn't know where the metro station was. Thanks, dude.

We choochooed our way to Xi'an from Nanjing, and settled in one of the 10 most amazing hostels in the world according to Hostelworld. Set in a small neighborhood but within walking distance to everything, the seven sages hostel was awesome!! Great food, great drinks, poor music videos but hey, Vittis isn't for everyone. While in Xi'an we saw a few museums, ate kebabs in the Muslim Quarter, and saw the Terracotta Warriors!!!!!!!!! Self proclaimed 8th wonder of the world, it really was a fantastic visit. We viewed the 3 pits backwards, saving the main pit for last. It housed hundreds of soldiers in formation Life size, and no 2 alike, it was just amazing. We had a blast!! Oli left the guidebook on the bus there so we had to kind of make up our own stories. Thankfully Beijing is covered in our Trans Siberian books!!

Long train to Beijing, on which we tried but failed to make spaghetti in my thermos, and slept lots. Arrived in Beijing in the early morning, threw our stuff in the hostel, and hopped off to the Mongolian embassy to get Oli's visa. Afterwhich we skipped around the city attempting to book tickets to Mongolia, finally having success at CITS for double what we expected to pay. Too many beers (thanks pops!!!!) and off to bed far too late.

Woke up stinky and thirsty just in time for our tour to the GREAT WALL OF CHINA!!!!! We had booked ourselves on the Secret Wall tour to the unrestored part of the wall; no tourists, no touts, and definitely no toboggans to ride back down the hill. Three hours of napping in the van were topped off by getting dropped off in the middle of nowhere with a little Chinese man who spoke no English, and the fog encroaching on us with every gust of wind. Oooooh this should be good! We had to hike up the hills for about an hour. It should have been no big thang, but after last nights shenanigans we were huffing and puffing and sweating like madmen. Our little guide wiped the sweat from my brow, chuckled, grabbed my hand, and dragged me up at twice the speed. Ouch.

Our first view of the wall was sudden, as we were climbing switchbacks and the fog was so thick we were seemingly in a bubble. Suddenly there it was. Our 6th Wonder!!!! Wow, very exciting times. We climbed along the spine of the wall, snaking its way up and over the ridge, with little watchtowers at the peak of each hill. We had an absolute blast scrambling over the crumbling rock, dodging trees and weeds that were growing right out of the middle. And eventually, the fog cleared, and we were blessed with the most outrageous views. Good times!!!

We have booked our flights back to the states... Our little adventure will be coming to a close on Dec 30. However we still have to drive across the US to finish our second lap of the world, so we have that to look forward to too!!

China

2009-09-11T11:15:00.001-07:00

Well it's been a while but we are now in China and our blog site is blocked!! Also, Hong Kong has a distinct lack of internet cafes as the place as an over-abundance of wi-fi. Nice.

So we are here, in the big red, having a great time. We arrived, very late, after a very long bus ride, in Guilin. A place that is coveted by the Chinese people as the most beautiful place in the country, and it was really close! We arrived late so we didn't get anything done until the next day inehich we had a good chance to explore. The scenery here is amazing, limestone peaks rising from valleys and the Li River winding through it all. We had a lovely day exploring and topped it all of with visit to the acrobats show - despite the rudeness of locals, a great show.

The following day we headed down the river by bamboo raft, a wonderful experience, weaving through the unbelievable landscape towards Yang Shuo, a small town, supposedly even more beautiful. And it really was! On the banks of the river, seperated from itsaelf from huge pinnacles of rock, with nothing to do but admire them and wander around. We spent our 1st full day here hiking the pinnacles for amazing views and enjoying the scenery. Day 2 brought bike riding out to "Dragon Bridge", 10km away. We rented our bike and got on it, only to find the road turn to track, turn to bare rocks 5km out! It was quite the trek there but the whole ride was littered with amazing natural sights. The bridge itself is 500 years old and quite spectacular. From the bridge we started our ride back, which became very eventful as we the track got smaller and smaller until we were pushing the bikes through orchards! Eventually we ended up on a raft to cross the river again before we the short, finally smooth, ride back to town.

We left that evening on another terrible night bus for Shenzen, to finally get us to Hong Kong. We arrived in the morning and after a little wander with our new Japenese freind in the wrong direction (his fault!) we were in a cab to the border. We finally made it into HK and to Kowloon, just across from HK Island, and our hotel - a very dingy little place that still cost us US$25 a night! So we decided to make the most of it and hit the town right away. We had to get our Russian Visas here and had no idea how long it would take and we still had not recieved our package from teh Russian travel agency.... so all we had was time.

We explored the area we were in and visited both the HK Culture Museum and the Science Museum, both very nice and different to what we had seen before, lots of VERY old Chinese artifacts. We finished our day with more wandering and a financial saving by going to see "The Hangover" instead of visiting one of the many expensive bars! HK is a very expensive place for day to day living!

For our 2nd day we decided to head over to Hong Kong Island and explore that side. With lots of Shopping Malls and Western commodities on offer we decidedd to head to The Peak for a view over the bay to Kowloon. The tram up was fun but the view was smoggy! So we headed back down to start the evening with a beer or two. Somehow we managed to find a great little bar that had both Sierra Nevada and Anderson Valley beers!! Crazy!

We finally got our Visa support so we went to the Russian Embassy to find out that we were able to get it in just a day! It cost us a lot but was worth it! So we spent our day essentially wasting time, wandering around Central and the rest of Hong kong Island. Returning triumphantly with our visas in hand... Trans-Mongolian, here we come!

For our last full day in HK we decided to visit a blast from the past for us...... Disneyland! So we spent a long, hot day cruising the rides and having a childish time, enjoying every minute!

We left the following day on a 20 hr train to Shanghai, where we would get back into the swing of things again!

More soon!!

Good Morning, Vietnam

2009-08-26T23:24:00.000-07:00

Hoi An was fabulous, and we had a lovely time strolling the streets, enjoying yummy cuisine, and even had a date with the tailors to have wool coats made!! It was a cute little town, still intact throughout all the turmoil over the years, and though it was bloody hot, we had a blast. After Hoi An, we headed up to Hue, where we lounged for a few days, and viewed the amazing citadel in the center of the city, the purple forbidden palace, and more! So freakin hot though,.... we are getting a bit tired of this eternal summer we have been experiencing.

We arrived in Hanoi after a grueling 14hr bus ride,and have basically had a blast. We went to see the traditional water puppets and had our view blocked by some kids with huge foot long lenses and no concept of being polite, saw "the proposal" in the theatres and laughed about the visa/immigration/marriage problems that so reminded us of our issues, ate at Bobby Chinn's Restaurant, a fabulous place owned and run by an old friend of the family, and had a fabulous chat with him while we were there. We took a boat trip around Halong Bay and I came down with food poisoning for the second time in 2 weeks and saw more of the boats bathroom than the limestone cliffs in the bay. Such is my luck.

We have loved bia hoi junction, a crossing with a bunch of little shops with freshly brewed beer, at 3,000 dong per glass. Yes, that's 6 beers for a buck. Not too shabby! Never thought I would find a place even cheaper than Chico for a night out.

We are laying low today to make sure my tummy is decent, and planning on heading to the Moscow Circus tonight. Off to China in the morning!!!

Also- we have officially decided to work for SNWMF '10, so we will be temporarily relocating to Northern California when we return from our travels.

Love you looooooong time

2009-08-17T02:16:00.000-07:00

Hello!

We are still loving it here in Vietnam, the people are great, the food is awesome and the beer is cheap!! We have moved on from Saigon now, but 1st some piccies, unfortunatly our memory card has been corrupted and we have lost some of our photos from the last week or so..... hence the lack in quantity :(

Here are the pics of the kids from NFO:

Next, our pics from Saigon, an awesome, crazy busy city with more scooters than an Asda car park near you! We finished our days here at the War Remnants Museum and the Independence Palace. Both interesting places with a lot of history to tell..... even if most of it is quite depressing and somber. Also extremely anti-US!

We left Saigon on a horrid bus to head for the highlands. It took us a while but, despite breaking down just 5km short, we did make it in time to check into our very nice hotel and grab another great meal before bed.

The hotel was renowned for its brekky and they did not disappoint..... bacon, eggs, bread, fruit and marmite!! Even avocados for Jenny too! So, full to the brim, we set out to explore this wonderfully weathered town - finally it was both sunny and cool and there was no need to bring a sweat-bucket with you for your day out! We headed straight for just about the only attraction here, other than the faux Eiffel Tower cell-phone antenna, "The Crazy House" - a guest house that is basically a giant, adult jungle-gym! Fun times. We spent our afternoon doing not much else other than hanging out dreading the bus ride the following day.

From here a long-ass bus took us to Nha Trang, a beach town with lots of promise. We had been recommended a Angel Dive here (Thx Alec & Kate) so got right on it and booked in for 3 dives the next day. And for $47 each including rental and lunch, how could we not?! Without any further a-do we got out of the sun for a beer and a treat - sushi!! And it was good!

Despite the early wake up we were excited to dive and on our way before 730am. With just a short(ish) boat trip we were in the water in no time and enjoying a very nice and different dive on a rock pinnacle. And another change from the last time we dove, we could see our hand in front of our face! The next 2 dives were also very nice, with good visabiliy and lots of coral and marine life. So much so that when we returned we booked in for more diving today!! Last night I decided to treat Jen and we went out to Le Petit Bistro, where we dined fabulously on steak tartare (for me), pasta for Jen and an amazing cheese plate for dessert (mmmmm, cheeeeeese). It was still only 25 bucks! But it was only half way through that I had a 2nd thought about the fact that I was eating raw beef in Vietnam.... no repercussions yet....

As mentioned, we went out on the boat again today and had 2 very satisfying dives, even if one was a little cold despite the full wet suit.

Unfortunately we must leave here tomorrow (no doubt on another shitty bus - we pre-booked them all from Saigon with the same company, cheap, but it shows) and head further north to Hoi An. Thanks to the Vietnamese border folks it looks like we will have to skip Laos as I have no room in my current passport for the visa & we have no time to back-track So we will go straight from Hanoi into China with a brand-spanking new one!

More soon....

New Futures

2009-08-11T02:25:00.000-07:00

We headed to Takeo and grabbed a tuktuk to the orphanages guest house. No one was around so we kinda just hung out with no real clue what to do! Around dinnertime everyone surfaced and we got the gist of how things were run. The next morning we has lovely egg sanwiches and then headed over to the New Futures orphanage. Upon arrival we were inundated with 52 kids shaking our hands, hugging us, and asking our names. So incredibly friendly and happy! We got a bit of a tour of the facilities, and then it was play time. We spent the next few days playing hardcore vollyball and football with kids who were about 4ft tall, and chatting about our lives. The kids are so incredibly amazing and driven, all want to learn English so they can get good jobs. The orphanage takes great care of them, they all attend school and take English lessons, everyone helps cook and clean, and the kids all look after each other. Ages 6-19, the kids look remarkably younger than their western counterparts, but can eat at least twice as much rice as the hungriest westerner in one sitting. They want cuddles and to hold hands, are interested in politics, and all have such a positive outlook on life. It was so heartwarming and incredible for us to experience this part of Cambodian culture, and it was absolutely one of the highlights of our entire trip thus far. We handed our camera over to the kids and they froliked around and took pictures of the orphanage in their eyes. Just amazing. We plan on staying involved with the orphanage in the future, and are in the process of setting up penpals in NJ at my mom's elementary school, and will also be setting up some sort of non-profit booth or something at SNWMF10. If you are interested in getting involved, have the lucky opportunity to be in the area and want to visit, or just want to make a donation, get in contact with us and we will help sort you out. $20 will feed the kids 3 meals a day for 2 days- a 100lb bag of rice. Oli's mate Andy is currently making a new website for the organization and we will post the link when it is completed.

With heavy hearts, and after postponing our departure for 2 days, we took a bus back to Phnom Penh and then to HCMC, Vietnam. Riding on the bus from 8am to 4pm, we arrived and grabbed a room at Madam Cucs in the backpacker district, $13/night for ac, fridge, hot water, and cable tv. Also includes breakfast and dinner! Not bad. We settled in that evening excited to explore a new country in the month ahead.

The next morning we headed over to the British Embassy to sort out a new passport for Oli since his old one has been filled. It was pretty time consuming, but on the upside, during the embassys lunch break, we headed over to the zoo to say whats up to the animals. We were walking along, and saw a deformed bunny hopping around in a cage that was entirely too large for it. Then we noticed a huge lion napping in the background. THEY HAD POPPED THE LIVE BUNNY INTO THE CAGE FOR THE LION'S LUNCH! We were horrified. Well, I was. Oli was excited to see the outcome. The lion was lazy and didn't really stir, so eventually we headed on without witnessing the carnage.

After finishing the passport process, most of the museums were closing within the hour, so we headed back to the hotel to chill. We had been laying low for the past 4 nights as I had gotten some sort of violent allergy/food poisoning to some delicious fish and chips whilst in Takeo and was still not feeling tip top.

This morning we headed over to the Co Chi tunnels, in which the Viet Cong has hidden out during the war. The whole thing was a bit less authentic than we wanted it to be, but it was kinda cool anyhow. We did end up climbing through the tiny tunnels, on our knees, which was pretty interesting. The tour took a long time, and we ended up grabbing some Indian food when we arrived back in the city. Yum!

We will be in HCMC for a few more days to check out the museums, then heading to Dalat in the north. Pix from the orphanage up soon!

Happy birthday to me!

2009-08-04T22:12:00.000-07:00

We wrapped things up at our little hut on the hill and grabbed a saengthaew to Lonely Beach, where we waited at the Treehouse restaurant for another truck to cart us to the other side of the island to Long Beach. After a few hours crammed into the back of the truck like sardines, 10 other farang and the two of us arrived at the new Treehouse resort. So cool! For $5 a night, we had a stilted hut with a balcony overlooking the ocean in the only isolated part of Koh Chang left. We spent the next 4 days, including my 25th birthday, reading classic novels, eating thai food, drinking beers, and swinging on treeswings. It was lovely, and a perfect way to relax and get back into the backpacker vibe after living in the lap of luxury with the fam!

Once we had recovered from an overdose of serenity, we hopped on the ferry and headed to Trat, where we took a minivan to the Cambodian border. We were screwed out of less money than expected for the visa, but were still bribed to pay 30% more than it should have cost. That border crossing is notorious for screwing over tourists!

Because we arrived in the afternoon, there were no more buses leaving for Phnom Penh, so we had to spend the night in the shady border town of Koh Krong. To get there, we had to hop on the back of a motorcycle for 15km. Both of us, one motorcycle, 2 backpacks, and one driver. It made for an interesting journey and surprisingly we were not injured! We bunked up at the Apex hotel, and enjoyed having hot water, cable tv, and ac/ It was a good thing that we got a nice room too, because there was a torrential downpour for most of the afternoon! In the evening we ventured over to Bob's Bar for magical chicken parm and english sausages with mash and veg. MMMMmmm.

In the morning we hopped on a VIP AC bus to Phnom Penh, napping and reading until our arrival at 2pm. We found a hotel right by the river, with the same amenities as the night before but lacking a window. We threw our bags down and took a moto to the UK Embassy where we were informed that Oli needed a new passport and could not just get pages added in, as his was almost full. Awesome. We decided to take care of it in Vietnam, then headed over to the backpacker slum for some awesome sandwiches and to be comforted in the fact that we went for nicer accommodation than usual- the $2 rooms in this neck of the woods were not anything you would put your worst enemy in! We headed back to our hotel, watched tv and napped, then headed over to Happy Herb's pizza for some yummy pizza minus the happy herbs, and then retired for the night.

The next morning we rose early, took a moto to the Vietnam embassy to drop off our visa applications, then wandered over to the Russian Market to peruse the stalls and knock off clothing. We then walked up to the S-21 genocide museum. Over 17,000 men, women and children were imprisoned there during the Khmer Rouge reign. The history of Pol Pot and the atrocities that his underlings caused it horrendous, and worth a much closer look than I could describe. The genocide museum is in the former high school that was occupied in 1975 by the "revolution"and became a prison for intellectuals, nonconformists, "enemies" of the revolution, and anyone in their families. Cruel torture and barbaric living conditions were prevalent for 4 years, and the prison was a sort of holding place before the victims were moved over to the killing fields. The museum contained the original jail-like structures, the torture beds, and photos of many of the former inmates. Almost every single person who was jailed there was put to death.

After S-21, we had a quick lunch before hopping in a tuktuk to the killing fields. About 15km south of Phnom Penh, the fields once contained a sort of holding cell where the prisoners were kept blindfolded and handcuffed before they were led one by one to the edge of hundreds of mass graves, bashed over the head with one of many cruel weapons, then had their throats slashed and their bodies thrown in on top of hundreds of other lost souls. The small children were taken care of in a different way- taken by the feet and slammed into a tree until dead. The idea was that all children, regardless of age, must be taken care of to ensure no revenge or retaliation attempts once grown.

Pol Pot had a grand communist plan to form the nation into a self sufficient agricultural based country, with a huge export of rice as their only priority. He wanted to exterminate all city people and focus on the villagers, enforcing almost slavelike labor and abolishing hospitals, schools, money, and personal property. Though the reign of the Khmer Rouge lasted only 4 years, until Vietnam envaded and took over, they killed hundreds of thousands of people, and every single person living here not over the age of 30 was affected in some way during that cruel time.

After the killing fields, we had a somber drive back to the Vietnam Embassy to pick up our visas, then met up with Oli's old roomie Andy for a few drinks and dinner. Andy was on his way out of town after volunteering for an orphanage down south, and as he told us about it we realized that we really wanted to go help. He gave us all the information, and we formulated a plan to do a bit of time down south and enter by the southern border to Vietnam in a week or so.

This morning we woke up and visited the Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda, then headed to a real genuine supermarket and drooled over all the cheeses and other imports. We had lunch at fatboy subs- YUM, and now are killing time in an internet cafe until our 2pm bus to Takeo. Love to all, we will update again soon! :)

Just the two of us...

2009-07-26T23:49:00.000-07:00

For our last foray with the family we headed to "James Bond Island", where they filmed "Man with the Golden Gun", which was very touristy but great to see the amazing landscape amongst the hundreds of islands in The Gulf. We also got to learn how rubber was made, go on a sea kayaking trip that invlolved weird walking fish, and we went to a monkey temple where we got to feed (& pet!) the monkeys.

We hung out in Bangkok for a coupla days after the fam left, munching on 30baht pad thai and wishing for a bit more solitude than the city can deliver. We avoided the heat by going to the movies, HP6, and also finally made it to the Grand Palace and got to see the Emerald Buddha. Success!

Three days ago we hopped in a tourist van and scooted on down through Trat and then hopped on a big passenger ferry to arrive in Koh Chang. Our ultimate destination was Koh Mak, but as it is low season, things don't always go as planned. We took a sawngthaew down to Bang Bao, the fishing village on the southern tip of the island, and found that the inter island ferries are suspended during the monsoon season, so we ran on over to BB Divers to get the lay of the land before we found a hut to rest our souls. We head that the diving was still good, albeit a bit murky, so we signed up to dive on Sunday, and headed on off the pier, down a muddy little trail, and up a cliff to Cliff Cottages, where we rented a simple little hut for 4 nights. Back down the cliff for some crazy Korean BBQ- amazing. We bought some beers and went back to our place to enjoy the sea breeze and the oceans below. That same sea breeze began to roar, and I ran into the hut while Oli watched the rain come down. the rain and wind became a bit ridiculous and after coaxing Oli into the room, we both had to push against the door to keep the pelting rain from coming in- fierce! The lock didn't work, the floor was flooding, and the entire hut seemed to be lifting from the ground. I, needless to say, was not satisfied with our accommodation. The storm eventually subsided and we were not blown away. The view in the morning was unreal- from the porch we could see the ocean for miles.... a walk around to the other side of the cliff gave views of a gorgeous rocky inlet, and a little more walking gave us an unparalleled aerial view of the village. Not too shabby for 225/baht a night.

The day was spent napping in the hammock, writing in our journals, reading, and staring at the ocean.

On Sunday, we went diving off the coast of Koh Rang. The visibility was horrific, though there was tons of wildlife. It was so bad that we could barely see in front of us, so we had to crowd together so that we didn't lose the dive master. The pictures leave a bit to be desired. We did see a massive jellyfish, a fancy pants harlequin shrimp, schools of every fish imaginable, a nudibranch, and a humongous puffer fish. On the second dive we released two baby sharks given to the shop by local fishermen. They were so tiny and scared to be back in open water- it was so so sweet.

Back to the hut for a bit before dinner, then dined at a stilted restaurant over the ocean. On the way back my feet made some bad choices and somehow I found myself admiring the stars when I should have been walking across a bridge. Quick thinking helped me discover that the boards leading to that bridge were not so stable, and Oli was shrieking at me to get up- i was halfway off the embankment and dangling over the river. I hopped back up, ice cream cone still intact, and hobbled back to our hut to clean up the blood that was subsequently pouring out of my leg.

Today is another day for r&r. Gotta figure out what to do next!!!

Love and kisses.

Sad in BKK :(

2009-07-23T00:46:00.000-07:00

We are back in Bangkok and dealing with the loss of the Miller's leaving :( so right now we are just posting some more (& maybe duplicates) of the underwater pictures.

We will update more thoroughly soon.

Peace.

Phuket or Bust!

2009-07-18T23:22:00.000-07:00

Before we continue with our escapades in SE Asia with the Millers here are the photos from SNWMF '09 from Brian's wideangle:

Disclaimer: Sorry but there are so many photos in this blog that we haven't had the time to caption and rotate.... hopefully soon though!

We were all delighted when the millers finally arrived in Bangkok after a grueling trip over from NJ. We celebrated with cocktails in the beautiful evening warmth before retiring to bed to recuperate for the site-seeing ahead of us. We slept in a little and enjoyed a delightful riverside breakfast at the hotel in beautiful sunshine before setting off to the sights. We started off with a ferry ride up the river to visit the Temple of Wat Pho and the Grand Palace.

Wat Pho was amazing, so intricately decorated and adorned with hundreds of Buddha images and amazing carvings. It was the perfect place to start the Miller's vacation. After exploring the grounds a little we decided that it was time to see the main attraction, the Reclining Buddha that is 46m (140 ft) long and 15m (45 ft) high. It was enormous! After we had marveled at the Buddha we decided to make our way around the grounds to see the Grand Palace. As we strolled along the street a very nice guy came up to us and started chatting. As we had learnt previously there was a long religious holiday that weekend and apparently, because of this, the Grand Palace was closed for the weekend and therefore we could not go in. So the guy helped us out by showing us some other good places to go on our map and we all hopped in a couple of tuk-tuks to head off. We arrived at the 1st of the temples that was the supposedly the earliest temple in Bangkok and we sat down in front of the idol and took in the surroundings. It was very peaceful. That was until our tuk-tuk driver started talking about taking us to a gem market that was "for this week only" 300% off. This is where we started to get a little suspicious..... we explained that we didn't want to go shopping and that we wanted to go straight to the next temple, leading the driver to get very upset, shout at us, swear at us and even lunge at us!! We were needless to say soon on our way on foot to find a taxi!

After our harrowing experience we decided to mellow out a little and took the taxi to Jim Thompson's house. He was a pioneer in the Thai silk trade and a great collector of art. After disappearing in the jungle one day, never to be heard of again, his house was opened as a museum. The tour was great, very relaxing and with some very interesting stories to go along with it. When we had finished here the skies were starting to darken and the clouds close in for the daily dose of rain so we hopped on the skytrain just in time to get us to the ferry stop before the heavens opened. We took the hotel ferry the short distance back to the hotel for a few cocktails before heading to dinner across the river. The meal was fantastic Thai food and we even had the chance to experience authentic Thai dancing before retiring for the night.

We started the next day off with another great breakfast before heading to the Blue Elephant cooking school for our day's lesson. Our teacher David took us to the market before we began the class and we got see, hear and taste the experience! When we returned from the market we sat down in the classroom for our lesson. David showed us how to make the recipe and then we went into the practical room to do it ourselves. We had a great time making yellow curry, spicy beef salad, banana leaf baked fish and other delights. After the class we sat down in the restaurant below and ate the food that we had prepared.... it was all delicious! We had another great meal that evening out by the river on the terrace.

The following day was our last full day in the city before heading to Cambodia for the Temples of Angkor. We went again to the Grand Palace and made it in this time, however, The Emerald Buddha Temple was closed (legitimately!), so we decided to skip it before and come back in the morning. So we went for a wander around one of the market area in Bangkok by the palace and then up to Ko San road so that the family could get a feel for the backpackers area. Here we shopped, ducked into air-conditioned bars for a cold beer and ate Pad Thai from street vendors. When we returned to the hotel I picked up the suits that I had had tailored for me and we went out for a lovely dinner in the main business district. After which, the ladies went home and Michael and I went of to meet Alasdair to watch some Thai kick-boxing. Only when we arrived at the stadium we found that it was $45 a ticket to stand!! So we decided to go for a few drinks instead. We bar hopped and saw the sights that Bangkok's nightlife has to offer, which included a very brief stop at one of the "lady-boy" bars!!

Here are both our's and The Miller's photos from BKK:

After our breakfast we all decided that it would be best to relax for the few hours before our flight rather than rush around doing anything. So we hung out and explored the magnificent hotel that we had been staying in before heading to the airport for our trip to Phnom Penh. Upon arrival in Cambodia we were picked up by Pat at the airport where we found out it was a 5-6hr drive to Siem-Reap and the hotel!! We napped and watched the countryside go by and arrived to another great hotel and a delicious meal. We rested ready for Temple hopping in the morning.

We were picked up at 10 and we headed out to Angkor Wat, the most famous of the temples here. Just as we started up the steps our camera batteries ran out and the spares were in the van! Thankfully Michael had his camera and we could still capture the sheer amazingness of this wonderful place. It really was unbelievable to see such huge complexes that were built so long ago and so intricately. Every wall has elaborate carving on it that tells a story from either the Hindu or Buddhist belief systems. The whole experience was out of this world.

After Angkor Wat we traveled to Ta Phrom, a temple complex that is pretty much as it was found. The jungle sprouts out of the ruins and the ruins sprout from the jungle. Truly awesome. This temple is famous for the "Tomb Raider Tree", from one of the movies, a huge network of vines and trunk emerging from the rocks. This was again a wondrous place.

The next stop was beautiful pyramid temple that Michael and I climbed up. The view was amazing. We also visited anther smaller temple in the jungle before heading on to the last stop of the day. The Boulevard of the Elephants and Bayon, the next complex to be built after Angkor Wat. This place has faces all over the building and we were just getting into it when the heavens opened and we decided that it was time to leave! We had had a great day so far and we were ready for more tomorrow, when we knew that we would be riding elephants into the park to see Bayon again! We went out for a fabulous meal at Madame Butterfly's where we had authentic Cambodian fare and a wonderful time before heading off to bed to prepare for another day of temple trekking.

Here are our pics for the 1st day minus Angkor Wat:

The next day started earlier and we were on the road by 8 0'clock for our 1st stop....... the elephants!! Karle & Jessy got onto theirs and then Jen, Michael and myself followed. It was a great experience, if not a little bumpy, and we arrived at the other entrance to Bayon for another go at it! This time around we were far more successful and didn't get the rain coming in..... yet! This complex was again amazing and we had a wonderful time exploring the parts that we couldn't get to the previous day. When we had finished we headed out of the main area of the Angkor Temples to visit one that is further out of town but very special as it is made from red sandstone.

The ride was short out there and the temple was worth it, very intricate and very different from the other that we had seen. It was much smaller and didn't take us very long to go around, but that left plenty of time for Michael to shop!! It was hilarious to see the hoards of children all trying to get him to buy their scarves and in many cases succeeding! The next stop was another pyramid style temple, although this one was made from brick. It was truly unique to the others and was believed to have had 4 crematoriums on the top. This is when we got hit by the rain!! We ran back to the car and headed off in the direction of the hotel to call it a day and relax before another hellish day of traveling in the morning.

Here our 2nd day pics and the Millers from our stay in Cambodia:

Edit: Here are Jessy's pics from the sandstone temple:

And so the day began, 6hrs in a van, 2 delayed flights, and lots of airport food later we had another 1hr ride in the most luxurious van ever to arrive at the Kata Thani Hotel, Phuket at 1am. A cocktail or 2 later we were asleep and looking forward to the days ahead, relaxing and diving here. The following day, after a little confusion as a message was not passed along by the front desk, we got ourselves booked on a dive trips for the next 2 days and Jessy starting her certification that afternoon.

Since then Jen and I have done 5 great dives and Michael and Jessy 4. They were all spectacular too!! Karle came on the boat with us yesterday to snorkel and we all had a great day in the water. We have extended our stay here until Tuesday where we fly to Bangkok so that the Miller's can leave :( and we carry on to Koh Chang.

Here are the pics so far from Phuket:

Enjoy!!

holy cow..... we suck

2009-07-16T00:58:00.000-07:00

Hello friends.... it's been a while.

We have just been having so much fun stuffing our faces with curry and riding elephants that we haven't had the time to update. C'est la vie. Now we can torture you with a super duper update!!!!!!!!!

So where did we leave off?

We arrived in Chiang Mai, and enjoyed the lovely Pak hotel- awesome suite, complete with our own computer. So instead of updating the blog, we downloaded the most recent season of Lost, drank beers, and enjoyed our evenings! The temples were awesome,fod was fabulous. On our anniversary we had a lovely 2.5 hour spa treatment, then had lunch in town where we met an odd old farang and were offered an indecent proposal- to go home with him and meet his thai lesbian ladyboy girlfriend for some fun. Though we were offered unlimited funding to stay in Chiang Mai, we politely declined and ran back to our hotel. Now that's a memorable anniversary!

We enjoyed Doi Suthep but we had bad timing and ended up there on the day that the entire freshman class of Chiang Mai Uni were there doing their prayers. Miles of students walking up the hills, people singing and dancing and boozing... it was nuts. It took a bit longer than we expected!!! Headed to the Saturday walking market afterwards and bought some fisherman pants and paintings, then lounged for our last day in CM.

In the morning we had our last amazing breakfast at Pak, then hopped in a tuktuk and went to the bus station. We rode for 5-6 hours to Sukhothai and settled in at our little bungalow. Had a fabulous curry down the road, bought some Chang beers, and played cards all night on our balcony. In the morning, we hopped in a songthaew to Sukhothai Historical Park, where we viewed amazing ruins and frolicked in the rain.

After lunch we returned to the bus station and headed down to Ayutthaya where we stayed in an 80 year old restored teak hotel right along the river. In the morning we rented bikes and toured the city and ruins in the blazing sunshine. It was gorgeous, and Mr. Map Reader Oli made the mistake of leading us down the wrong road which was fabulous- we were right in the north of town where the residents live, and we saw them fishing, planting crops, laughing and smiling. It was a great detour and much better than the way we were supposed to go to the temple!

After a great day and a sore butt we headed to the train station to catch a train to Bangkok. The train was delayed and we spent our time drinking some beers at a local place with a guy who knew great English and even better bar tricks. I got a star up on the wall for my handy rubber band trick completion, and we walked away very satisfied.

The train was short and sweet, and we arrived in Bangkok surprised to see it so modern and well kept! We moseyed our way down to the river, hopped on a ferry, and headed up to Khao San Road, because as a backpacker, why not? We checked into our seedy hostel which was reminiscent of Leo's room in The Beach, then headed our to contact Oli's old friend Al. We rang him up and met him at a local bar, where we drank beers out of paper cups and chatted. We had a lovely evening with him, and experienced the backpacker culture for a bit, then retired to our room.

The following morning we grabbed breakfast, packed up, and headed back to the ferry to The Oriental stop. We got off the ferry, walked down the road, and were immediately whisked in to the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, where they grabbed our bags, gave us juice, and showed us to our lovely lovely lovely riverfront room. So luxurious!!! I wanted to collapse in the fluffy white pillows but we got our bearings straight and headed out. We went to a local tailor where Oli got fitted for some gorgeous suits, then hopped in a cab in the nick of time before the heavens opened up. We headed to the mall to look for some Mandarin Oriental appropriate shoes for me, but go figure- couldn't find a place with my size! Never thought an 8.5 US was large, but now I know!!! We killed time at the mall, then headed back to the hotel to lay around and watch Dexter and wait for the arrival of.... THE MILLERS IN BANGKOK.

Better really late than never!

2009-07-01T23:28:00.000-07:00

So, finally we are letting you guys in on the last 3/4 weeks of our travels. Well to say the least, it has been crazy busy!

We had a great final few days in Kuala Lumpur, staying with Mo, our 1st couchsurfing buddy, exploring the city (particularly the air-conditioned parts!) and hanging out with old friends. Gav, a guy that we both new from Brighton, is now living and working there, so we were able to catch up over several very expensive beers in the local Irish Pub - fantastic!!

After KL we spent 30 odd hours in transit - KL to Bangkok, Bangkok to Tokyo and Tokyo to sunny California. And after a little questioning from the immigration official who couldn't understand "why" we were travelling, we were finally stateside again, awaiting the arrival of Warren and Tessa! Tessa was apparently very excited to see us which was demonstrated by her urinating all over the pavement of the arrivals area, thankfully Warren greeted us with big hugs instead of following suit! We spent a wonderful weekend at the ranch decompressing after the long journey and enjoying the company of family once more. And we definitely enjoyed the trip to in'n'out too!

On Monday we left the ranch and cruised over towards the Bay Area to Tiburon to see Aunt Rayna and Uncle Jimmy. We had a great afternoon and a wonderful home cooked meal and great company in the evening before getting another great nights sleep. Tuesday we had another lovely day, went on a great hike where we snuck into the brand new, not yet open, marine wildlife centre, saw "UP" and mentally prepared for the Trivia Night at La Barca that evening. It was a blast! The food was great as usual and it was great to see Vance and Lori as well.

Next we ventured South even further and stopped in SLO to see Grams. We tortured her with a couple hundred of our photos, cooked dinner and ate Ollalaberry Pie! We also spent a great day touring Hearst Castle and looking through more pics and enjoying the opportunity to cook once more.

Come Friday we were rolling down to L.A. in time for lunch with our old work places. But 1st we had to swing by the old apartment in Westwood, completing one full revolution of the World heading East!! We both had great lunches and visited the LACMA for the 1st time before heading over to Erin's to start the night of fun. We had an awesome night meeting up with just about all of our great friends from L.A. and despite having at least one too many drinks we made it home and were up in time to leave L.A. once more. Not before a trip to the legendary Apple Pan for lunch though!

We made it back to the ranch in the early evening and detoxed before heading up to Boonville on Sunday to start pre-show for the festival. We spent the next 4 days working long hours, with short nights, enjoying more family time and getting everything in shape for Thurs/Fri. On Thurs our friends arrived and we celebrated heartily! It was amazing to see everyone again and we had a wonderful weekend with everyone. It was a really spectacular weekend with too many good moments to list them all but we thank everyone from the Vets Hall Camp for coming to Boonville and seeing us again. Even though it meant working the early or late shifts! We love you guys!

Come Monday, the show was over, we all felt great about the weekend but it was now time to start the clean up. Cue the long days and short nights again! Finally on Friday we were able to leave Boonville for another year and relax at the ranch with Warren, Gret, Bette and all the animals before our early start on Sunday.

Well, 34 hours of transit later we arrived here, in Chiang Mai, at our hotel on Tuesday the 30th. Yes, a hotel! We are splurging for our anniversary(Thx Mum & Dad)! We spent thye day lounging around in our suite, sleeping and eating the amazing food. Yesterday we explored the city a little, saw the amazing "Wats" (temples), ate more great food and finished the evening with a few drinks. Today is pretty much a repeat of that! We love it so far in Thailand and are looking forward to seeing Michael, Karle and Jessy on Wednesday and exploring more of it with them.

For now, that seems to be us caught up, so until next time.....

Peace. Love. Music.

2009-06-21T12:18:00.001-07:00

Hi everyone, we are still alive and well! We have been so busy since we arrived in California that we have not had time to update, but it has been 2 weeks so we wanted to say hi.

We have been down to L.A. and back, therefore completing a full loop of the World since we left in September!!

We are now at the family show, Sierra Nevada World Music Festival (www.snwmf.com) working hard and having a ball!! Good music, good vibes and good people.

We will have a proper update soon, peace, love, music.

Jen & Oli

Jungle men, the Great Singapore sale and vending machine haircuts

2009-05-31T22:27:00.001-07:00

Hello!!!

We are so so overdue for a nice informative blog. Forgive us, as we have been on many flights and buses and malls and movie theatres... Ahem.. So where did we leave off? Ah yes, Uncle Tan..... but first, some pix from Semporna:

We signed up for a 3d/2n jungle tour, where we would be doing treks and river cruises and staying in little huts. We left Uncle Tan's ops base after visiting the over hyped Orang-utan centre down the road, and ventured off for 2 hours of minivans and 4x4 through acres and acres of palm oil plantations. Side note- we had no idea how prevalent palm oil is in every day products. The demand for palm oil has increased so much over the past few years that most of the rainforest in Borneo has been cut down to make room to the trees. This has GOT to stop!! Look on your labels- food, home, body products, and say NO!! Anyways, we rode on towards the wilderness, and then hopped on a boat to cross the river and head on to camp after a quick little boat tour, where we saw proboscis monkeys, lots of birds, and lots of muddy water. Mmmm.

We spent the evening dining on delicious local cuisine that appeared outta nowhere, and then had a night river cruise, where we saw the likes of owls, sleepy kingfishers, and tired monkeys. We fell asleep to the roar of cicadas outside out hut, and the flopping of frogs in the swamp below.

The next day we arose at 6:30 for our early morning boat cruise, where we saw lots of Orang-utans!!! Lucky us. We also spied on the elusive silver leaf monkeys, saw lots of macaques, birds, blahblah, good times! Returned for some breakfast consisting of maggi noodles, fried bananas, and french toast. Then we headed out on our jungle trek. We were slightly unprepared for the muddy conditions, but enjoyed every minute of trudging around, looking for tiny creepy crawlies and the frogs that feed on them. Somehow our awesome guide found one of the smallest frogs in the world- as small as your pinkie nail!!

Back to camp for nap time in the hammocks, then an afternoon cruise where we again spotted an array of monkeys, birds, and this time huge flying foxes!! Dinner and then back out in the jungle, where I got bit by 2 fire ants, pooped on by what I can only assume was a bird, and photographed a sleeping butterfly.

We had one last boat cruise on our last day, where we saw a whole lotta nothin, and then jumped on board another 4x4 for the lovely tour of the palm oil plantations. Back to ops base for lunch and then the bus to Kota Kinabalu for our last night in Borneo.

Five hours later, we arrived at the bus station, hopped on a local bus, and got dumped in the touristy bit. We found a few beds in the hostel and then ventured out for some much needed cold beers and experienced some very passionate British karaoke. Not something I would like to witness again, but he did give Robbie Williams a run for his money.

We flew back to Singapore for the umpteenth time, and finally visited! We took the MRT to the backpackerish area, and found that our hostel had been removed to make way for a large construction site. Moved on to another place, where we paid far too much for the last dorm beds in the place, with very very shoddy a/c. If you're gonna have it, make it work!!! We toured Bugis street markets, and some of the local malls, where we found that we were just in time for the Great Singapore Sale!! A month long celebration where everything is on sale and people shop more than other times of the year. That being said, shopping is the main sport and hobby in Singapore as it is. We window shopped, and then decided to go and see Angels & Demons. It was just as expected, decent enough, though we want to reread the books to see how much things have changed. We headed to bed after that, prepared to delve into the shopping scene in the am.

We headed to Orchard Road the next day, eating much needed Subway for lunch, and then stumbling across a huge Marc Jacobs sale where we made out like bandits for a lump sum of $30. A bit more roaming, and then off to find the Tiger Beer Factory. Upon arrival we found it had been converted into 9 nightclubs, which is sad for us. We headed to another mall where we found the coolest store yet- National Geographic, one of the 2 shops in the world. Job! We spent lots of time roaming around, looking at all their cool antiques, maps, and luggage, and then Oli found himself buying a $S25 journal. We hopped back on the MRT and decided to go and see Night at the Museum 2. About 10 minutes in we realized why we never even liked the first one. We stuck it through till the end, where we spied on the credits that the Jonas Brothers were indeed the angels in the movie, and had provided the only LOL moment. Oh Dear. We went to grab our belongings, and found that the noisy hot date couple next to us must have nicked Oli's new journal! I stayed behind to comb the theatre, just in case, and Oli went to the lobby in search of someone looking confused with a bright yellow NatGeo bag. No luck! Oli checked in the bathroom and low and behold, the empty bag was sitting on the rubbish bin. Now lets think about this people- how sad has your life become when you get your kicks by stealing journals in the darkness of Night at the Museum 2? Oh lord. We were saddened to think that our first experience with direct crime against us was in Singapore, accompanied by the Jonas Brothers. Not exactly the rough and tumble tale you want to tell the folks back home.

The next morning we checked out some dive shops, wandered around, went back to the mall to replace Oli's journal and to buy ourselves a very nice duffel bag. We spent the day wandering, and just to keep up tradition, decided to go to another movie- Terminator 4. I was shocked to find this was my favorite of the 3 we've seen! We were also very happy to see Charlie Bartlett in the film. Cool!!!

We decided to depart Singapore the next day and head to Malaka, the Malaysian western port city. It took an hour to get to the edge of Singapore, and then 5 more hours to get to our destination! Hopped on a local bus to head the 9km into town, checked into our 16 bed dorm room for $3 each, and grabbed an English Breakfast for dinner. We discovered we were in Malaka on fireworks night, and Chinatown was bustling with a street market. We mosied around and then bought some overpriced Tiger beers, then some more, and then off to bed in the dorm that strangely reminds me of the convents in which Madeline lived.

The next day we slept in for the first time in a long time, then checked out the town. Crazy busy everywhere!! We headed over to the People's Museum (aka the worst museum in the world according to Oli) and looked at their Kite exhibit, and then their body mutilation exhibit. Fun times!!! We then went to the most confusing mall in the world and found ourselves sitting in the theatre watching Star Trek. It was a pleasure. You may wonder why we have been spending so much time in the movies over the past 4 days, and the answer is simple- a/c. It is delightful, and the cheapest option for evening entertainment since drinks are prohibitively expensive and we aren't very creative. Anyway, the movie rocked.

I then made a very bad decision. My love of frugality overcame logic, and I had put 12 ringgit in a vending machine before I knew any better. I then received the worst haircut known to man. I am not sure how it was possible to litter the floor with SO MUCH of my hair, it looked like more than I ever had.. in the end, I looked like Leonardo Dicaprio in Titanic, with a bit of Ellen spice thrown in. Oh dear. Oli had to help me out with his nail scissors when we got back to at least even the cut out. Never again.

Back to Chinatown to buy some chopsticks (we are determined to learn how to roll sushi back in the states) and have a few more drinks to attempt to numb the image of myself in the mirror. All in all, a productive and memorable day.

Here are the pics from Singapore & Melaka

This morning we checked out of our hotel, grabbed lunch, roamed a bit, then hopped on the bus to Kuala Lumpur. We have arrived and are about to head out in search of our home for the next 3 days. We are going to be couch surfing for the first time ever, with a guy named Mo. Wish us luck!!!!!!!

PS- Cali in 4 days!?!?!?!?!!?!?!?!? In-N-Out, fear us.

More to come soon.

2009-05-28T23:40:00.000-07:00

Hello peoples, we are alive and well. We have had a great week in Borneo and are now in Singapore.

We are heading back to Malaysia tomorrow, the peninsula this time. Hopefully the internet will be cheaper there, it is expensive here. Therefore, we are waiting to upload our pictures and write a full blog.

As I said, more to come soon..... prepare for wild orang-utans!

By The Chair of Hawking.... The Big Bang!!

2009-05-22T04:27:00.000-07:00

After 2 hellish days traveling and spending far too much time in airports (We don't recommend a night at Chateau Changi Airport Budget Terminal), we arrived here in Semporna excited to dive again. Semporna is the base for dives to Sipadan, supposedly one of the best dive sites in the world. What we didn't know is that only 120 permits a day are given out. Needless to say, our spur of the moment trip here did not qualify for 2 of the sought after permits! Fortunately the diving on the other islands is also very good.

We signed up with Dive Junkie and yesterday (Thursday) we were on a boat at 8:15am headed to the island of Mabul. Our 1st dive was not great, it was an artificial reef, cool to see but just not the same. (Jen's note- out of sight, out of mind. that dive was just terrible. Oli is being optomistic) Fortunately our 2nd and 3rd dives were very good (aka- ok. we have been spoiled in the past and we are just realizing it now) and we saw a wide variety of fantastic marine life. We were shattered by the end of the day and barely made it out for dinner before we retired to bed.

Today we boarded the boat again for more fun, this time to Sibuan. We arrived to a picture perfect, tiny little island in the middle of the ocean and descended into the depths. (This is where many gypsies live, of all origins, hiding from the law and civilization.) More good diving but I was wrought with problems - both my primary and alternate regulators were leaking, every breath was accompanied by a mouthful of salt water & my mask was both fogging and leaking! What can you do?! To top it all off, about halfway through the dive there was a thunderous bang, we could feel it in our ribs..... looking around showed that we were all OK and nobody's tank had exploded but we were a little perplexed. Turns out that there were some sea-gypsies close by who were dynamite fishing!!!

With a new reg. and a quick look around for fishermen we went on our 2nd dive we saw more great stuff, or not, as my mask was still playing up. What I did see was great! Our 3rd dive, all problems fixed, was wonderful, a great way to finish off our diving before Thailand after we are in California.

We leave tomorrow at 7:30am on a bus for Sepilok and our jungle excursion, we can't wait, it will really feel like Borneo then.

We will upload pix after that, hopefully when we are in Kota Kinabalu.

Cali in 2 weeks!!!!

Bali tours above and below sea level

2009-05-18T01:01:00.000-07:00

We left Ubud for Lovina, a beach town on the north coast of Bali. We hired a driver to take us to a few awesome temples, waterfalls, rice paddys, botanic gardens and more along the way. Gorgeous! It was only $10 more than the shuttle bus, and we saw things we never could have seen without him. SO MUCH FUN!

Upon arrival in Lovina, we signed up for 2 days of diving. The following morning we were picked up and driven 2 hours west to hop on a boat to Menjagan Island- world class reef walls and incredibly abundant sea life made for 2 awesome dives. Unfortunately, our personal guide did not really care about kicking/breaking coral,and poking sleeping fish with his long metal stick. Not cool. Thank goodness my mouth was occupied with my regulator or I would have had some words. We spent the evening with a few drinks and some delicious dinner before heading off to bed.

The next day, we dove the most famous dive in Bali- the U.S.S. Liberty wreck off the coast of Tulamben- two hours west this time. We arrived into a very chaotic situation- I have never seen so many freaking divers in one place. The lot was filled with dive vans, and the beach was swarming with wetsuit clad Westerners. We were not pleased, but suited up anyway and happily trotted into the water. The dive was great- the ship is nice and long (120 meters) and provided many penetration points, which was a first for us!! There is something nerve wracking about entering a broken down ship's cargo hold and corridors whilst being surrounded by all the bits and pieces that have collapsed and broken off during the years. We made it through without any problems,and it was phenomenal. The crowds made no real difference underwater, and when we did see others, they usually passed quickly in a cloud of bubbles.

After the wreck, we drove back to Lovina, napping the whole way. We wandered around a bit, then decided on having some beers at the local bar, Zurich. Cheapest beers in town! Still not so cheap, Bali is surprisingly tough on the budget. I digress... we settled in with a few large chilled BinTang and were joined shortly thereafter by a local guy, Agus. with whom we struck up a great conversation. We ended up spending the whole evening with him, telling him about the life we left behind, and he told us all about being a Balinese twenty-something working in a dive shop. It's amazing how differently we have lived our lives, but in the end its all circumstantial, and we want the same things and have the same dreams. It was so much fun talking to him, and I particularly enjoyed watching him kick Oli's butt in pool! For better or for worse, probably for worse, we also were the cause of his first encounter with pizza, and he seemed to enjoy it. We ducked out around 10 to get some sleep, as we had a shuttle bus the next morning to return to Ubud.

Agus brought us some gorgeous mangoes and papayas from his backyard- so so delicious, and how sweet of him!! The shuttle bus arrived early, and as it turned out we were the only two people so we were transported by SUV. We made it to Ubud in record time (barely over 2 hours!!) and found a cheap-as-chips guesthouse that looks like a royal palace. Sweet! We headed into town and had a much overdue sushi lunch, did a bit of wandering, and somehow found ourselves undressed and splayed out on two tables, receiving the most luxurious massages one can buy for 90min/$7. Life in Bali is tough, I tell you. We had dinner at a local health food/SoCal eatery. Delish but so not what you want to eat in Bali.

Yesterday we did a bit of the same thing. Woke up early... lounged... read a book... Lunch in the pouring rain, and somehow splayed out again on those two tables- cheap massages are addictive. Mellow afternoon, beers beside a lush green rice paddy while having an impromptu SNWMF meeting (we are super excited to come back and work for a few weeks! seriously!) and then some awesome dinner. We were hanging out on the veranda of our palace when a guy came by asking for a lighter- we ended up speaking to him for a few hours about Chile (where he is from), India (where he is headed), and lots more in-between. One popular topic is CouchSurfing- something we planned on doing for ages but have been too chicken to go through with. Its a huge network of travelers who offer up their couches free-of-charge to people who are coming to their towns or cities. We have heard nothing but fabulous things from other travelers about this new age way of traveling, and are determined to do it soon!

Today we took a temple tour, checking out the Elephant caves and the Stone temple (whilst wearing local garb supplied by our driver - a requirement to enter!) an amazing coffee and spice plantation where I found my new love, Ginsing Coffee, tried something that I swore I would never try (animal poo coffee) and we bought 5 grams of saffron for less than $10. The animal poo coffee was actually not bad - basically, this weird fox/rat/varmint type animal eats the beans out of the coffee tree, and during the digestive process ferments the beans, poops them out, then the poo is collected, rinsed, roasted, ground, and put into your cup for $3 a serving! It's a steal, actually, considering how freaking expensive it is elsewhere, and is thought to be the most delicious coffee in the world. We tried it, it was nice, but the whole idea kinda turned my stomach!

We just returned from the tour, and plan on a lazy evening before our crazy travels ahead. Tomorrow we fly Denpasar(Bali) to Jakarta to Singapore. We sleep in the airport overnight, then fly Singapore to Kota Kinbalu (Borneo) to travel to the east coast and start our jungle tour a few days later. Many amazing pictures to be had there, I'm sure!

Love to all, we will keep you posted!

PS- gonna make it to LA after all! One night, one night only- June 12, save the date.

And it's about time too....

2009-05-12T03:05:00.000-07:00

We sadly left the Gili's this morning and arrived on Bali, welcomed with torrential rain, just a few hours later.

We are in Ubud now, passing the time in the 1st remotely functional internet cafe that we have found in a while! So we thought we'd finally get some pictures up!

Therefore, we present, the very late, but much awaited, photos from our last week in India on the Andaman Is.

Also, we have our Indonesian photos up to today. Starting at The Hyatt and progressing to Gili Trawagan and then to Gili Meno. Prepare for lots of sunset shots....

We leave Ubud tomorrow for Lovina for some more diving and general hanging out. We now have our flight booked to connect us to Jakarta before Singapore and then Borneo - exciting times ahead.

More to come later.

Under da sea..

2009-05-11T01:24:00.000-07:00

We have been enjoying Gili Meno wholeheartedly.. it's like having our own private beach! We are staying in great little beachside cabanas at Amber House, enjoying local food and gorgeous sunsets at night, and diving with the wonderful crew at Blue Marlin daily. Sharks, baby sharks, eels, reys, puffer fish, sea lion face fish, pygmy sea horses, turtles, and many many more awesome sea dwellers are now our close personal friends. I can't help but hum little mermaid tunes as we float amongst the magical coral. The full moon was unreal here, lighting up the crystal clear ocean, making it possible for an unforgettable midnight swim. This is just amazing!

Last night we sat at a little cafe on the beach, enjoying a sudden dounpour and huge flashes of lightening as Oli dug into (and consequently choked on) a huge ass barricuda and I enjoyed some tasty chicken satay. This is the life. Thank goodness we have flights booked outta Indonesia or we might stay here for life and become professional divers/beach bums.

Alas, we must leave tomorrow, as we have 1 week to get our lazy butts to Jakarta to fly to Malaysia, and Jakarta is not close by any means! We have a few more dives to do off the coast of Bali along the way from a little town of Lovina, and we are gonna see some terraced rice paddies in Ubud. We opted for the pricier fast boat to get outta here, as no one would ever repeat the hellish public transportation journey that it took to get here.

What the heck am I doing on the net? I've got more fish to see!

26k in 24h. Sweet meat.

2009-05-06T03:15:00.000-07:00

The Bali Hyatt was more luxury than we could handle, so we decided to check out after 72 hours of pure bliss (topped off by a massage at the spa, happy Christmas me!!! thanks oli.)and headed down the road for more budget accommodating accommodations. We booked a bus to the ferry terminal for the following day, hoping to arrive in the Gillis by evening. Well, that didn't exactly work out, and we booked passage through a shady ass company that promised the journey would take 5 hours total. The first ferry took that long, and we found ourselves with 3 other travelers on a broken down bus. It took 2 hours to hop along the road until they dropped us off in Sengigi for the night. Awesome. They wouldn't even drop us at our hotel! We went out to eat with Brooke, Jeff and Joao at a local place and passed the evening relaxing on our unexpected stopover. We were picked up a bit late, grabbed 3 more tourists along the way, and barely made the 10(actually 11) ferry. They refused to send us to Gilli Meno, where we wanted to stay, and ended up on the party island, Gilli Trawagan. We still have had a blast here, staying and diving with Blue Marlin, eating fantastic food, enjoying the sun. So nice! Evening beers at one of the many many bars, dodging local workers in the bar who want to sell us copious amounts of Magic Mushrooms, which they promise will send us to either the moon or heaven. Still, we passed. The diving has been great, at shark point we saw lots of sharks, turtles, eels, and on other dives have seen great rays and some huge fish. The current is a bit heavy at times, but its still amazing. Today we are off to Gilli Meno on the island hopper. We promise to update a bit more often in future, but the net here (not to mention the keyboards!) leave a bit to be desired. Pix to follow once we reach the shore. Love and kisses.

Divealicious.

2009-05-01T04:33:00.000-07:00

As we left off.....

We hopped our flight to The Andamans and arrived in Port Blair to the island life..... we had to walk across the runway to the arrivals terminal! After which we got on the ferry to take us to Havelock. We arrived on Havelock and at Island Vinnie's to our little hut and Dive India. We arranged to start our Advanced Diving course the following day.

We were up far too early but excited and ready to dive again after not doing so for the last 5 months since Honduras. The network of islands that is the Andamans is extensive, with the best dive sites scattered between them. This meant that we had a looooooooong boat ride. We spent the 1hr45m getting to know our fellow divers, and fortunately, this time, we were blessed with some good ones! Kate and Alec, a married young couple from NYC are traveling for 4mths, specifically for diving, and both had a decent number of dives (in fact Alec has been doing it for 20+ years with +500 dives!). We got along straight away. Also, Rahul, an Indian who is doing his doctorate in Marine Biology and lived in New Zealand, was our other underwater companion. We were glad with our group and still very excited to dive.

We spent the 1st 2 days getting our certification, including a wreck dive, fish ID, deep dive, underwater navigation and a night dive. These were extremely fun and were made all the better by the world class surroundings that we had. The diving was amazing! Our last 2 days were fun dives, 2 a day. The 1st day was sketchy, with very strong currents, but the 2nd, and last, day was amazing. We left on an amazing note! (note from jen- the night dive was a bit scary, as i somehow ate part of my regulator and had to use my alternate. the wreck dive was cool, but we didnt get to penetrate. overall, we swam with 4 octopi, a grey reef tip shark, some crocodile fish, and tons more amazing fish. so much fun).

We had a great time there, both diving and hanging out with Alec and Kate, we were definitely sad to leave, but knew that we would be back and that we were off to SE Asia for even more amazing diving. We left saddened but ready for the next leg!

After having to waste 36 hot, sweaty and dirty hours in Chennai, we boarded our flight to Singapore. We arrived there for the 1st of many stop overs, extremely weary and not that excited about 10 hour is the "Budget Terminal"! However, it turned out to be OK and we made it to Jakarta safely, if in need for a shower! When we arrived we were determined to make it straight to Bali, with 45 mins till the flight departed, we left the terminal we arrived in and made it to the desk just in with just 10 mins to spare!

On arrival in Bali we headed for our hotel and then out to eat, it was late though and our choice limited. We stopped in for a beer and western food at a guide book recommendation. It was here, observing the crowds and wandering tourists, that we realised we were not in our element. It was perfect for young travelers, spring breakers and general partiers (Frat boy central!). Which is fine by us, but we were not in the position to meet anyone and ready to simply relax.

The following morning we went to the internet cafe and cashed in some travel miles.... 2 nights at The Bali Hyatt! Unbelievable! Luxury that we desperately need and are appreciating on another level after India! This is or 2nd and supposed to be our last night but we are going to use the remaining miles to stay another as it is just so good!

With that note, a clean body and mind, I sign off with the anticipation of more luxury and even some diving tomorrow!

Love to all!!

p.s. We also received some bad news today, the US government has requested our presence for an interview on the 13th of May to finalise green card proceedings. We are hoping to get the date changed as 2 $1200 flights would not do our budget any good. Please keep your fingers crossed for us as we need all the help we can get!! Have we not proved ourselves a legitimate couple yet? Conquering India together should be proof enough of our stability. Anyone want to send the USCIS a link to the blog!?

Happy and sweat-free.

2009-04-29T00:59:00.000-07:00

We are alive and well! After a week of glorious diving and relaxation on the Andaman Islands, (more on that later), we were in Chennai for 36 hours of hellish dust and chaos before departing last night to Singapore, where we have been in glorious air conditioning in an awesome airport for the past 12 hours. We have gotten much of the filth off of us, eaten too much western fast food (BEEF?!!?) and napped on abnormally uncomfortable lobby chairs. We are about to depart for Jakarta, where we hope to then book an immediate flight to Denpasar, on the island of Bali. We are excited for the change of pace, and the new horizons of food that await us! We will give a much more thorough account of our times above and below the Andaman sea shortly (well, that depends on Oli's promptness of blogging) but for now we are off to our flight! Love to all.

Ps- where are the comments people? We left the internets for a little more than a week and it seems that you have all disappeared. Have we been forgotten?! Say hello please.

Poop. Cow poop, goat poop, dog poop, and sometimes man poop.

2009-04-20T01:49:00.000-07:00

So our first impressions of Varanasi? Too much poop. It was grotesque, and not exactly what we wanted to wade through as we wandered through tiny slummy alleyways looking for our guesthouse. Of course our rickshaw ripped us off and then dropped us in the wrong part of town, but a friendly local led us through the cremation ghats and copious wood piles to our guesthouse, for a small fee. We breakfasted on the rooftop of the Ganpati Guesthouse while we waited for our room to be ready. We took a wander along the ghats after checking in, avoiding the oppressive touts and attempting to find the peace and serenity that we had heard was found in Varanasi. We found none, and decided to duck in for some lunch at a tiny cafe whose tagline was "Yes, we ARE less dirty". Nice. Awesome cheap food, however, and then we headed back out. Too many beggars grabbing our arms and clothes- we can't help everyone, and sometimes you regret helping the ones you do, but more on that later.

We found our way back to our part of town, where I got a pedicure and I think insulted the ladies when I told them which color to paint my toes- painting is apparently not part of the process here. We headed back to the guesthouse to nap the hottest part of the day away, then had dinner on the rooftop and climbed into bed again.

The following day we planned on going on a sunrise boat tour of the Ganges, but we were hot and tired and in no mood when we woke up. We peeked out the windows and could only see the burning ghats in action, and decided that we were probably not invited to see these cremations and were quite content that we had only seen 1 dead body in India, and that was under a sheet. No need to push our luck, and besides, everything else was pitch black. We went back to sleep, and a few hours later checked out of the hotel, left our bags there, and went in search of grub. We found organic heaven at the Brown Bread Bakery, with yummy baked goods and lots of CHEESE!!!! We were far too discouraged to walk around and be poked and prodded and asked for cash or to see each and every shop along the way, so we lounged and read in the lovely courtyard of our hotel until it was time to head to the train station for our very long journey to Kolkata.

We boarded, and found that a large family without tickets had decided to make our berth home. I clearly could not fit on the 3 person bench with 5 other people, so I climbed up on to the top bunk and slumbered away. Oli was content for the most part with cuddling the locals, until someone decided to lower the middle bunk, leaving him hunched over AND cuddling on the far too narrow bench. He hopped on to the top bunk on his side and relaxed until someone kicked him off. The Indian family was still huddling on Oli's assigned bed/bench, so he curled up in a ball and snapped at every inquiry I had. Finally, 6 hours into the ride when most of the passengers had gone to sleep and Oli was still folded up like origami, I climbed down and had a word with the husband, explaining in hand motions that it was Oli's bunk and they should move so he could sleep. They agreed in Hindi, I think, and had a little family meeting. The family got off at the next stop and left him to stretch out in peace. I cuddled in and slept as well as possible with people grabbing my feet and staring at me, and with the lights being turned on at every stop. Quite possibly the worst journey yet.

We arrived in Kolkata at 7:30 am, and had great difficulty finding a rickshaw who wasn't going to completely and laughably rip us off, so we settled for a shared cab to the Sunflower Guest House. We decided to splurge for the next few days, as Lonely Planet had made the place out to be heaven in India. We were told no rooms would be available for the next 45 minutes, so they ushered us to a waiting room to wait it out. I showered quickly, and when I was putting my things back into my bag, which was resting on the couch, I saw 2 pinky-nail sized bugs. Laughing, I said to Oli "ohhh look, icky bugs, they look like bedbugs! couldn't be though.." But oh yes, they were. And there were plenty more where they came from. Oli and I flicked tons of bugs off the outside of my bag, finding none on the inside, and a few on Oli's bag. And more on Oli's back... and legs... and chest. There was an infestation going on. Was it the train? The trunk of the grotty cab? Or.. the couch?! There were bugs all over the couch, climbing up and down and in and out, and when we lifted the cushions, we saw dead ones, live ones, big ones, and a nest of baby ones. Holy cow, this was bad. We quickly gathered our things, lodged a complaint, and got the heck outta there. We walked to Sudder Street and were harassed again by won't-take-no-for-an-answer touts until we checked out a few places and finally settled on the Times Guesthouse. Nice, and a quarter of the price of the bedbug castle.

We grabbed a lovely large breakfast at Fresh 'n' Juicy, then wandered around the New Market area, once again the subject of more harassment. There was a sad looking woman carrying around a sad looking baby with an empty bottle and she was begging for milk, not money. In a moment of weakness I bough her some instant milk, a large portion and quite expensive comparatively to what you can buy in India. Oli made a funny funny joke about how she didn't want money, she just wanted milk so she could hawk it to some passerby and keep the cash. I scolded him for his negativity, and not 5 minutes later, we passed her hawking the milk to man at a stall. I was livid. First of all, she wouldn't get half the price that I had JUST PAID FOR IT, and her kid looked hungry as hell. Feed the kid! And don't lie and get caught! I shook my head at her and carried on. Ohhhhhhh I think we are ready for our island vacation. We shopped a bit, napped a bit, found a BEER GARDEN - Thanks Whit!! We had a late dinner and then off to bed.

Today we slept in, then went for a lunch of Kati Rolls- quite frankly the best thing, EVER. A specialty of Kolkata, it is a paratha, often with egg coating in one side, and filled with red onion, chili pepper, and your choice of veg, mutton, chicken, or paneer, then rolled up in a bit of paper and taken to go, all for the equivalent of $0.35. Yum yum yum. We ventured through the Maiden park, apparently the rival of Central Park in NYC, and watched the horses eating dead grass, and garbage floating by in the hot wind. Not exactly the equivalent of the Central Park that I remember, but we have been away from home for a long time. We tried to go to the mall, but it was closed. We tried to go to the Indian National museum, it was closed. We passed the same beggar woman who apparently had forgotten us, and came up begging for milk, not money. I told her she was a liar and a bad mother. Probably a bit harsh, but geeze. Sweating profusely and tired, we headed to the cool sanctuary of the internet cafe, and here we are. Tomorrow we depart for a week of heavenly diving in the Andaman Islands, off of Havelock. We will lounge on clean beaches, eat fresh local food, and hike over to the most beautiful beach in Asia according to Time Magazine. We are seriously looking forward to it.

More soon lovelies!

Array of colours.

2009-04-16T23:41:00.000-07:00

We have now arrived in Varanasi after a 13hr overnight train.... pleasant. Our autorickshaw then dropped us in the wrong place so we had to wander down the narrow maze of streets around the ghat area until we found help to get us to our guesthouse. The streets are FILTHY! Anyway, we are here too early to check in and they have decent internet so we can finally catch up on some of the photos that we have from the past few weeks.

To start where we left off, here are the remaining pix from our last few days in Hampi:

From Hampi we travelled to Panaji for the night and onto Mumbai:

Afterwhich we went to Udaipur, for which we have LOTS of photos!

Here are the photos from Agra:

As an update from last time, we headed for Delhi after the Taj Mahal and didn't arrive till late that night. We hadn't planned to be in Delhi so we had no problems with having less than 24 hrs there. We slept in and decided to spend the afternoon at the zoo! The zoo was very big but a little sparse animal wise! We did see some subdued tigers and other beasts.

We left Delhi last night and arrived here in Varanasi this morning..... you know the rest!

Enjoy!

Taj Smaj.

2009-04-15T02:54:00.000-07:00

After our tour of Udaipur, Oli and I settled in for a nice long nap during the heat of the day, then went out for a nice meal in town. The following morning we checked our of our hotel and headed over to tour the City Palace. We wandered around the massive museum checking out all of the weapons and paintings. There were entire rooms covered in tiny mirrors and stained glass, and many sitting areas for the maharajahs. We spotted the portable tiger cage AND the crazy monkeys terrorizing tourists in the central garden. It was a treat! After the palace we grabbed some odd veggie burgers at the Sunrise Cafe, then moseyed on over to the Whistling Teal to lounge on their ourdoor couches in the garden and read while smoking hookah. It was lovely to escape the heat! We had dinner at our hotel and then went to a local haveli to watch traditional folk dancing and puppetry. Very interesting! Unfortunately we didn't have our camera, but the sights were pretty cool. One of the elderly ladies piled 9 large water bowls on her head an danced around! Other ladies danced with fire on their heads,and there was a magic puppet ho could juggle his own head. Fantastic!

Firoz took us to the train staion and bid us goodbye. If you know anyone who is going to visit Udaipur and would like a great, honest, reliable guide, let us know and we will send you his contact info.

We piled on to our overnight train to Agra and settled in for 12 hours of sweatiness. We arrived 20 minutes late today, shame shame, and hopped in an overpriced rickshaw to the Yash Cafe, where we had cheap breakfast, a shower, and stored our bags for the day. Then the main event- the Taj Mahal! This is number 5 checked off for us, only 2 wonders to visit after this! The people surrounding the Taj are incredibly forceful touts who scream at you and pull you left and right to go into their shops- we resisted and it is a wonder we made it to the south entrance in one piece.

After paying the extortionate entry fee, we were told that many of our belongings could not accompany us into the Taj- including but not limited to- a broken lighter, a headphone splitter, Oli's iPod, cashews, and a Suduku Book. We locked these up outside the gates and ventured in. You must walk through 2 large red sandstone gates in order to get the full view of the gleaming Taj. It was absolutely breathtaking (though a bit smaller than I had imagined. Oli says my expectations are too high.) There were tons of people swarming around, cutting each other off to get the perfect picture of them holding the Taj "in their hand". Oli and I made a grand escape to the side by the Mosque and I was lucky enough to take repeated photos of Oli's forthcoming "facebook photo". Oh dear.

We headed into the mausoleum and quickly made a lap as it smelled like 10,000 hot and sweaty feet. Ughhh. It was more impressive from the outside anyway! We sat ona bench outside and watched a ferret scurry across the lawn and then decided it was time to move on. We grabbed a rickshaw to the Agra Fort, and were once again molested by people selling gaudy trinkets, and even a large leather whip. I wonder who their main clientele are? We entered and wandered around the cool passageways and checked out multiple views of the Taj, and then agreed to take a rickshaw back. We realized too late that we were to ride on a cycle rickshaw, peddled by a small old man. Soon after we departed we reached a hill, and the old man's brother pulled up in another peddle rickshaw. Oli hopped over to the other one and away we went. I'm not sure what happened but suddenly I turned around and Oli was the one peddling! That man musta been very convincing. They then stopped on the side of the road and said that we needed to go and visit some shops so they could get commission, they were very poor men. We made them drive us back to Yash cafe, paid them generously, and retreated to the safety of the internet cafe. We don't wanna go back out there- its the most stressful place in India so far! Tonight we are off to Delhi, and tomorrow we have a train to Varanasi. We are attempting to upload photos right now, fingers crossed!

Namaste

2009-04-13T01:44:00.000-07:00

Sooooooooo sadly we hugged Ryan goodbye, and off we went. But FIRST,, here is a little update on what we did until he departed!

We spent another day in Goa waiting for a train to Mumbai, and we spent our time wandering and eating Portuguese Indian fusion food. Mmmmm. Oli and Ryan went to a shady little corner bar and came back without any interesting stories.... and then off we rode! Long ass day on an AC train- far too cold, so we napped most of the time. Arrived in Mumbai and stayed at Bentley's Hotel- very nice! We had our own private balcony and a nice big room. We set off to internet for a little bit then crashed out early, tiring day! The following day we bumbled around the area, passing the Taj Mahal Hotel multiple times in disbelief over the whole terrorist attack a few months back. Insane. We passed the Gateway to India, wandered the streets, and ended up at Victoria Terminus. Micky D's for lunch- no beef but the chicken sufficed. Mmm. Back to our room for a bit to let Ryan nap and then Oli and I set off to buy the train tickets for the rest of our time in India, but to no avail. We went to famous Leopold's cafe and had massive personal beer taps (thanks M+D) then wandered back to our place to chat and sleep.

Woke up the next morning and grabbed tickets for the ferry to Elephanta Island- the ferry was far too long and crowded, but the island was cool. The first of the five caves was infinitely better than the rest, and we got some amazing photos of the different carvings and pillars. There were cheeky little monkeys running around everywhere, and we killed some time before we headed back to the mainland. Finally bought our tickets at the Churchgate train station (sorry it took so long Ryan) and then we headed a few doors down to a hip cafe called Mocha's- it was packed with local twentysomethings eating fabulous cheap food and smoking hookahs. It was pretty cool.

The next day we bid our amazing travel buddy adieu, and hopped on our long train to Udaipur. We departed at 1:40, arriving in Ahemdabad at 9:30pm, and then switching to a nice AC 4 berth cabin for the next train to Udaipur. We had the cabin to ourselves, sweet! We slept nicely, and woke up as we arrived the following morning at 7:30. We groggily packed our things and grabbed a rickshaw- and we lucked out! Our driver was a 30ish Indian local named Farez who sometimes gave tours to tourists, so we booked him to take us to the Monsoon Palace that evening for the sunset. After he dropped us off at a better, cheaper hotel than the place we were planning on going (next door!) we relaxed and had some breakfast, then wandered around the city window shopping and taking photos. Udaipur is where they filmed much of the James Bond film Octopussy, and we got to see the different palaces used in the movie, though we don't remember a thing about the movie to begin with!

Farez picked us up at 5pm and drove us towards the Monsoon Palace, warning us that we were entering a national wildlife park and that there are panthers and wildcats, so to be careful. Yikes. We arrived at the top and toured the magnificent but deteriorating abode, then watched the sun creep down over the mountains, turning the sky a deep orange and illuminating the colors of the palace. We headed back down to town in our rickshaw, and Firoz took a little detour and invited us to have tea with him at his brothers place overlooking the lake. He showed us his photo album of his home and his favorite places in the city, and then took us to a secluded secret lookout over the lake of the City and Lake palaces- the view was absolutely insane. He took us back to our hotel and we booked him for a tour of the northern parts of the city for the next morning (today!) at 9am. We then grabbed some DELICIOUS chicken curry and biriyani at the Lotus Cafe and called it a night.

This morning Firoz picked us up and took us out to see the ghats where the poor people bathe and wash their clothes, then out to the Jain temple and then the burial place for all of the royal family. We visited the vintage and classic car museum and then the gardens that the ladies in waiting used to frequent, complete with elephant fountains. My personal favorite aspect of the tour was the walk through the local fruit/veg/spice market- completely off the tourist track, bustling with little old ladies selling out of baskets and larger operations with bags and bags of spices. The colors were phenomenal. We grabbed lunch at one of Firoz's favorite thalis, and then headed back to the hotel.

We have been having a fab time but we miss Ryan's head waggle and cheeky grins! We are off to Agra on overnight train tomorrow. We will keep you posted! Happy Easter and Passover friends.

btw- we booked our flights back to the states for SNWMF- we will be in California from June 5-28 working before we head back to Bangkok for another segment of our journey.

Celebrity Shot

2009-04-10T09:33:00.000-07:00

This is Ryan, I've been the third wheel on J & O's honeymoon for the last six weeks and these are some of the things that I've learned:

- If you feel something crawl across your feet in the middle of the night, but it weighs less than a pound, it's not worth looking to find out what it was.

- No matter how pissed off Jen might get she's easily calmed by a fat grin and head-waggle.

- Gin is poison. And if a guy who weighs 22 stone tries to get you to keep pace with pints, do not even try. I'm glad I was only around their English friends for two weeks or I might have needed a liver transplant.

- If you think you saw a medium-sized black cat run out in front of you, it wasn't a cat.

- Oli knows how to make your feet feel goooood.

- Your skin can start to smell of curry after only two days of pure Indian cuisine.

- While not showering for two days will get you extra space on the bus in Los Angeles the same is not true in India.

- If you are white man wearing a dhoti (basically a dress folded up like a skirt for men) locals will stare and giggle. If you are a ginger (red hair, freckles) they will ask to have their picture taken with you.

- Squat toilets are reason enough to be thankful for being born in a Western society.

- While it might feel manly to order prawns the size of your hand the ones that are like big fingers have more taste.

- Prawns in England are not prawns but itty bitty teeny frozen shrimp.

- Farting is always funny. Rumblers are funnier.

- The soft flab of skin over the triceps does not bruise when you pinch it.

- Jen thinks that all baby animals are cute. Including flea-infested kittens and mangy puppies.

- There is no need to refer to the travel guide as the "Lonely Planet." While talking to other travelers you can say "I read in the Bible..." and everybody will know what you're talking about.

- McDonalds in India does not serve beef, but you can still get a Big Mac.

- Sitting on the back row of a bus is better than any roller coaster at Magic Mountain.

- Cockroaches make good shower buddies. Sometimes when they fly to the opposite side of the shower it's like they're singing the harmony.

- If someone approaches you on the street and says you've got something in your ear it is not a courtesy. Be prepared to have them stick metal things in your ears, pull out ungodly amounts of wax and charge you 1000 Rs. Oli learned the hard way.

- If you normally only have one Coke per month be prepared, on average, to drink about five a day.

- "Anchorman" quotes are always relevant.

- Watching chickens eat trash on the side of the road makes you think twice about being a vegetarian.

- Packing extra pairs of socks is a bad decision when you wear flip-flops every day. Pack extra skivvies instead.

- Speaking of flip-flops: duct tape is a gift from Mount Olympus.

- Always have plenty of rolls of white gold.

- While being a third wheel the most important piece of equipment you carry are your big-ass noise-canceling headphones.

- United Airlines does not give free booze to economy class on international flights.

- The yoga instructor will always make it look soooo easy.

- If you start to feel alone in the world the thought of a Double Double and animal style fries from In N Out upon return to California will cure any depression.

- Double Double deserves double the bullet points.

- While it might seem like a cool idea at first growing a beard on holiday is probably better suited for cooler climes.

I had a lot of fun traveling with the two of them. I think they expected me to add a degree of crazy but India is not the place to go nuts. For one thing I don't think they expected to have only two nights of beer while I was here (and a reasonable three beers at that.) I'm glad they convinced me not to take a job my heart wasn't into so I could fly half-way across the world at the last minute and see a side of life that is completely different than anything I've ever seen before. So it is with a heavy heart that I take my own way and head back to the United States and once again be insanely jealous at what they've been managing to do for a half-year and still have the guts to keep going for another half.

Home from home

2009-04-06T23:02:00.000-07:00

The last time we left off we were going to spend our 2nd day in Hampi exploring the town. Well it didn’t quite happen like that! We loved it so much that we decided to stay a 3rd night and postpone the sightseeing another day. We lounged, ate, read and generally had a wonderful time relaxing in the beautiful surroundings.

Despite deciding to stay for a 4th night as well, we went out to see the temple complexes the next day. They were very impressive and our auto rickshaw driver took us to all the right places. After an hour and a half we were starting to feel the heat though and headed back to the town. We had decided to have a nice cold drink at The Mango Tree, more or less directly opposite our hut on the other side of the river. After our refreshing drinks we inquired as to how easy it was to traverse the river on our own. Of course the question was met with a quick head wobble and directions for the best route.

There are more pictures to add to this album when we are able to.

We left the safety of the road and wandered down, through the rice paddies, to the banks of the river. It looked deep! There wasn’t really anywhere to go either. We clambered over some rocks (another trouser crotch gone) and through the mud (nearly lost a flip-flop) to no avail. We ended up enlisting the local kids to help, Ryan 1st, Jen 2nd and me, with a bag full of cameras, last. This was interesting! It was very slippery and murky, not an easy crossing, and by the end I had 3 kids trying to take me 3 different routes! We did make it though, a little damp, 30 rupees and a pen down, feeling that our sense of adventure had been satiated – time to get back to the safety of our porch!

Our last full day in Hampi was spent as the others before it, doing nothing and loving it. We lounged and contemplated our early morning and day of travel the next day. We had heard about a temple only 10 mins by tuktuk from Mowgli that was kept by a guy who looked after the local monkeys. The plan was to get there for sunrise and see the monkeys being fed. We agreed a price with a tuktuk driver the night before and met him at 530am yesterday. When we reached the entrance to the temple we realised the extent of the climb ahead. The steps up to the top zig-zagged up the side of the rocky mountain and brought back memories of the Inca Trail, fortunately only for 15 mins rather than 4 days!

We sat at the top of the hill, watching the sunrise and seeing the monkeys roaming around the temple, trying to avoid too much confrontation with the local dogs! The steps were just as tiring on the way down and we were in no position to rest when we got back to the guesthouse. We finished packing and headed out the door for the long day ahead of us.

Three buses, 3 tuktuks and 12 hours later we arrived here in Panji tired, hungry and filthy! We checked into a budget hotel, my turn to sleep on the floor, and went in search of food and cold beer! We found them at a great restaurant that has both Indian and Portuguese roots in keeping with the town itself. After a lovely meal and deliciously cold beers, we got our heads down for the night. Today we had planned to leave for Mumbai but the train is full so we leave tomorrow at 940am and arrive a full 12 hours later. At least we went for the AC class this time.

We have spent the last few days planning the tail end of India and from there onwards. We fly to the Andaman Islands on the 21st from Kolkata for some island life and SCUBA diving, we will be getting our Advanced Open Water certification ready for some wreck and deep diving on the rest of the trip. We return to Chennai on the 27th before flying to Singapore on the 28th, where we head straight to Jakarta, Indonesia, for 3 weeks exploring Java, Bali and Lombok. On the 19th we return to Singapore for the night before flying to Borneo, the Malaysian part, for a week where we will hopefully get to see Brunei as well. After this we should have enough time to explore Kuala Lumpur and a little more of Singapore before we head to CA for SNWMF and family visits.

More updates soon!

Oops!

2009-04-04T07:21:00.000-07:00

So we forgot to post these few photos from Verkala last week:

Pictures from our Kollam canoe trip & the Kerala backwaters.

2009-04-03T08:34:00.000-07:00

Stressful overlanding, wonderful relaxing.

2009-04-02T08:35:00.000-07:00

Well it is just a brief update as we have the chance, we haven't done too much since the last time.

We left Sulthan Battery a little frustrated that we were not able to visit the wildlife park but we decided to see it as a positive as we are now a day ahead of schedule to get Ryan home. We spent the afternoon on a bus to arrive in Mysore in the early evening. It was time to make a tough decision.... see the palace there or stick out the travel and head overnight for Hampi. We chose the latter and I think all 3 of us are glad with the choice. The palace is supposed to be wonderful but we have made great time and given ourselves a little window of calm.

The overnight train was as expected, nothing luxury by any means. The booths have 9 bunks, 3 on each wall, and they are not overly comfortable! But we were able to catch a few hours kip before waking in time to disembark at our stop, they don't exactly announce the stations and we certainly didn't want to miss it.

The station is about 15mk from Hampi itself and we hopped in the slowest tuktuk in India and pootled on toward the town. We arrived and passed through the town to the river crossing. We are not staying in Hampi proper, but across the river on Hampi Island. It is much quieter here and just what we needed. We wandered down the road and found the Mowgli Guesthouse were we had opted to stay. We snagged ourselves a great little cabana looking over the rice paddies and banana plantations and some of the amazing rock formations. The scenery here is amazing, the rock formations and boulders appear to defy gravity as the river runs between them. We have spent the day lazing around, not doing anything and enjoying every minute of it! The only thing is that there is no meat or alcohol! I guess I will have to deal.

We are planning to stay another couple of nights here as we are enjoying it so much. Tomorrow we plan to do some exploring of the 500 odd temples here and see more of the phenomenal landscape. Hopefully we will also be able to get some more of our pics up too!

That West coast feeling.....

2009-03-31T21:52:00.000-07:00

After the beach the other day, we all went up onto the cliff to have Ayurvedic massages. Delightful! The boys said theirs was more like a rubdown, but mine was pretty deep tissue. Different customs here as well, no modesty allowed as you do the whole thing without privacy towels or anything. Interesting.

After the massage we were all too mellowed out to go to yoga in the 100+ heat, so we grabbed our things and headed to a restaurant for a bite to eat and some cool refreshments. We spent the evening chilling out, in preps for another early yoga morning.

But alas, we slept through our alarms, so we grabbed some breakfast and then Ryan and I headed down to the beach while Oli braved a rickshaw on his own to town to get a haircut. When he returned with his very Indian hair, he hung out on the beach for a while as well, sipping coconuts and jumping in the waves. After we had all burnt a bit, we headed in for a shower and then Oli and I went to the tailors to get some more clothes done and to have the ones we had made in Madurai cut down to size. We found out that we had been totally and completely scammed before, ahhhhhhhhhhh the perils of travelling. We met up with Ryan and some friends he had made on the beach for some drinks, which turned into more, which turned into watching how the locals dance at the clubs- if it was a bit more in sync, they could have passed for a Bollywood film! Oli and I called it quits at 3, and headed off to bed. The following morning when I went to wake Ryan up, he had apparently just gotten in after dancing all night, swimming at dawn, and then a game of cricket on the beach with some locals. Never a dull day with Mr. Stern.

We grabbed a rickshaw to the train station, then a 30 minute train to Kollam. When we arrived, we threw our stuff down at the hotel, then headed to the jetty to signup for the backwater canoe trip. It left immediately, so we hopped in (another) rickshaw and headed out of town for 45 minutes, before we were dropped off in the middle of nowhere with 5 other Westerners. We were led to a tiny canal with a long boat, and we hunkered down for our afternoon tour.

The trip was amazing, as we were guided through tiny little canals along houses and tiny towns, where we got to see men building houseboats, prawn farms, and lots of children begging for pens. It was so quiet and serene for the most part, and all of the people were incredibly friendly. It was an amazing experience. After the tour, we grabbed some dinner on the way home(burgers, how lame of us!).

The following day, yesterday, was the hell day. We left at 9am, took 2 trains, a few rickshaws, and a bus, and after 11 hours of travel, made it here to Sulthan Bathery, where we found out that the animal reserve is currently closed. UGH. So today we are going to head out to Mysore to view the palace, and then hopefully had overnight to Hampi. Love and kisses!

Ryan's India.

2009-03-28T22:31:00.000-07:00

Here are our travel companions photos:

From sea to shining sea......

2009-03-26T22:54:00.000-07:00

Namaste, faithful readers!

We last left you in Trichy, digesting a delicious curry. The following morning we woke up and were out the door by 7am, and on the bus downtown, to check out the Rock Fort Temple. Built on a rock (surprisingly), it towers over the short city and gives a 360 view of the area. Gorgeous! We discarded our flipflops and ascended the many stairs up to the first temple, which looked amazing but as we are not Hindu, we were denied entrance. On the second set of steps, Ryan cut his foot open on some broken glass, and while Oli played nurse with him, I jumped up and down at the sight of monkeys and played photo shoot. We continued up to the summit, and were greeted by a very nice Hindu who gave us candy, blessed our heads, posed for a photo, and stole Oli's special pen. We climbed back down to the street and hopped back on the bus to head to the outskirts of town to checkout some standing temples. Phenomenal towers of vibrant colors and carvings, the temples are scattered throughout all of India, and are all still in use. We wandered around taking photos and enjoying the local people watching before hopping on a bus back to the hotel. We had the best Indian breakfast ever, then grabbed our bags and headed 5 hours south to Madurai.

Madurai has a giant complex of temples, with dramatic carvings and paintings around every corner. The place was swarming at 7am when we took a look around, after being foiled the night before by mixed up directions and wardrobe issues. We wandered throughout the complex, feeling a bit awkward taking photos while the people around us worshipped. After the temple we had a bite to eat then headed to the bus station to head down to the tip of the country.

Three hours on a bus and we arrived at the end of the subcontinent- Cape Cormorin. Our main goal in this town was to watch the sun set and then rise over the same beach. The Bay of Bengal, the Indian Ocean, and the Arabian Sea all meet at this point, making this town a very spiritual retreat for Hindus. Rad! We checked in at our 350 Rupee hotel ($7 for 3 people)then rushed to the sunset point. We trekked a few kilometers and once we arrived, we were greeted with the beautiful Arabian sea and an overcast sky. Shoot! We headed back to town and had a delicious but cold dinner nearby. When we arrived back in our room, we discovered that Ryan's bed was absolutely covered in baby ants. We requested a change of room, but they dishonestly declared the hotel full and gave him a sheet to cover the bed . We were the only people on our entire floor! We slept in our sleep sheets and surprisingly had no more problems.

We woke up at 5 to make sure we could see the sunrise, which we could just view from the rooftop outside our room. Of course, we were foiled again by the clouds. Doesn't it figure? We slept a bit more then grabbed a big breakfast before we headed out towards Varkala. Two bumpy bus rides and 2 terrifying rickshaws later, we arrived in the beach side resort town and checked in to our lodgings. Starving, we grabbed a pizza and attempted to watch the sunset- clouds again. The boys went out to check out the local 'nightlife' while I did laundry and tried to enjoy some solitude, though at the restaurant next door some people decided to see who could make the best and loudest animal noises... for an hour. Boo.

Woke up for yoga today, but the instructor never showed up. Grabbed breakfast, and now we are headed for the beach!!

Love and kisses, miss you lots. BTW there is a pause in beer photos because we have been in dry areas, but thank you so much for the donations and we will put photos up asap! xoxo

Time for some visual updates.

2009-03-26T22:13:00.000-07:00

We have finally found a competent internet cafe so we are able to share the last months worth of photographic evidence with you all.

To start, more England:

Then, our 1st glimpses of India with the photos from Mamallapuram:

And to get up to date with the blog, Trichy and Pondicherry:

More pics to come with the next update, enjoy!!

Birthday shenannigans

2009-03-24T04:11:00.000-07:00

Barefoot and pregnant.....

2009-03-23T08:27:00.000-07:00

Not us though... just lots of the people we see. And those who aren't pregnant are still definitely barefoot. It's amazing, seeing as we still have to do a sort of dance in the street to dodge cowpies, dog doo, and other unmentionables. Ahhh the brave locals!

So, last I left off, we were taking the 2 hour bus ride at 7am to Mamallapuram. What a wake up call! Well, for Ryan anyway. Oli and I conked out on the bus pretty quickly, and awoke to a mad dash to exit the bus in a small little village. Out of the corner of my eye, I spied some stone carvings... we had arrived! We grabbed out bags and headed out into the chaos. Immediately a tout latched onto us and tried to get us to come see his guesthouse, but we cunningly told him we had reservations and were meeting friends. He pointed us in the right direction (score!)and off we wandered, a bit shell shocked from the past 24 (or 36?) hours of travel. We found the place, a small little guesthouse run by a friendly man named Xavier, and he showed us to the room. Decent enough, for less than $4 each! We threw down our bags and looked at the clock.. 9:30am. Damn, we couldn't just pass out like we wanted to! We locked up and headed down to the beach, just a block and a half away down the dirt road.

Mamallapuram was hit pretty hard by the 2004 tsunami, and it was easy to see that they had begun to recover but that there is still lots of work to be done. Rubble litters the streets, and children run out of decrepit buildings begging for change, while piles of rubbish burn in the alleys. Cows swarm the roads, followed by goats and dogs. This is pretty typical of India as we have now gathered, but the rubble bit was definitely aftermath of the disaster.

The beach was strewn with fishing nets and boats, and we wove our way to the beach to dip our toes in the water. Delightfully warm! We then headed over to the Shore Temple, which we discovered was completely shut off by a metal fence, and we decided to leave that for later. Feeling pleased that we had at least ventured out, we stopped at a little cafe to have some pancakes, then headed back to the room for a short nap. Fast forward to 5pm- ahhh we overslept! Jetlag is harsh. We attempted to make sense of everything and set out once again, basically just wandering the streets until dark, then finding ourselves at the restaurant above our place having another delicious meal (this is a recurring theme- the food has been outstanding). Off to bed after watching Slumdog Millionaire on Ryan's iPhone.

Yesterday morning we woke up, headed out to see the Five Rathas, a group of stone carvings that were uncovered by the Brits 200 years ago. They each (apparently) resemble a wooden caravan of some sort. Lots of schoolchildren who were delighted to see some white people, especially one with shockingly red hair! We then ventured up to a hilltop monument to see over the entire town (a whole 2k people!), before heading down to the Shore temple for a quick wander. A local family asked us to take a photo with their teenage daughter- random!

We grabbed our bags and hopped on the next bus to Pondicherry- 2 hours south but still on the coast. More chaotic driving, interesting people watching, and varying landscapes. We decided to walk from the bus station in Pondicherry to our guesthouse, grabbing some samosas on the way. The guesthouse was full, and the next place was far overpriced, so we trekked back around town until we found the International Guest House- basically the same price as the night before but with private bathroom! We went on a walking tour (led by Oli) where we saw a poor elephant being poked with a stick, visited a tomb in an ashram, walked along the promenade by the bay, took pix of the Gandhi statue, wandered through a food fair, walked through the local park, and then grabbed dinner at a pretty great place! Early to bed, early to rise!

This morning we slept in until 9ish, stopped by the bakery for some treats, then hopped on the 5 hour bus ride to Trichy. We arrived in the afternoon, with Oli feeling poorly, so the boys napped while I read, and then Ryan and I wandered around this part of town before grabbing some dinner (mmmm paneer butter masala and garlic naan!). And that's the news!

Hope life is swell for all you readers. We are (unexplicably) enjoying India to the fullest! If you have any advice, or know anyone you can scam some advice off of, please let us know. Lonely Planet is a blessing and a curse! oxoxoxo

A start on the pix...

2009-03-22T08:06:00.000-07:00

Here are some of the pictures from the 1st few days in England.

Enjoy!

More...

2009-03-22T07:34:00.000-07:00

After a very fun night with Tom and Catherine, including the most fabulous meal, we got on the tube to go to Nick's flat the following morning. We left there to go out sightseeing in London, something that I had not done for years. We saw the houses of Parliament, Big Bens, Westminster Abbey, No. 10 Downing St., Trafalgar Square and then to the Tower of London and the late night Jack the Ripper tour.

This was a lot of fun and was great to hear all of the facts about the case and then get to the theories ourselves. However, Jen was not impressed. We finished the evening with a good ol' English curry! Sunday followed with a trip to Harrods, and then to the V&A museum, we were able to make it out of here just in time to visit the Science Museum and go and play in the Launchpad area! Big kids!

We left London, leaving Ryan there for a few days and we were back of to stay at Nick's before meeting the folks again. We met them Monday morning in Burton-on-Trent, an old wool town not too far from home. We had another fun evening playing cards and having a "few drinks" before the pre-birthday birthday lunch on Tuesday.

We went to the Yew Tree, a Marco Pierre White establishment where we had the most fabulous meal (http://www.theyewtree.net/menus.php)! Thanks again Mum & Dad!! That evening we went and picked up Ryan from the station to start the influx of visitors to Wylye.... we went to the pub and ate Welsh Rarebit!

Okay, Jen taking over now.

So Wednesday we gave Ryan the classic Buchanan Salisbury tour, complete with multiple views of the Cathedral and numerous pints. We went back to Wylye for some more pints and a delicious dinner, and stayed up late chatting. Thursday was a mellow chill out day, with a few errands thrown in and some movie watching. Friday, trouble arrived from Vegas, by the name of Chrissi. We also had our old friend Mark train in from Eastbourne, and we started the prebirthday celebrations at the pub, followed by the most fantastic roast dinner, and more drinks.

Sunday (happy bday Oli!) we basically hung around until Nick arrived, then the boys minus Ryan killed some brain cells by playing guitar hero for hours on end, while Ryan, Chrissi and I went on a walk to the nearby village with James. We walked along the countryside, watching the sheep roam around, and found out the answers to such deep questions such as "What exactly IS thatch?" and "Who keeps these country paths so dang clean?!". Oh America, we must educate ourselves so we don't feel so silly asking such obvious questions!! Thanks James for tolerating us!

We ended up back at the house doing a bit of group band practice, passing around the mic and breaking some eardrums (poor Luce! sorry!), then it was time for a delicious paella and a surprise cake for Oli! It was in the shape of a pork pie, complete with pint of lager and pickled onions- it was eerie how lifelike the cake looked, though thankfully it didnt taste like pork. It was amazing! Well done Soz and Emma!

Then it was off to the pub for some drinkies before heading into Salisbury for the evening. I won't bore you with the details of our evening, but there was a heck of a crowd out there to celebrate, and we painted the town with lager. Seriously, that floor was lethal.

Sunday was a bit of a chill out day, watched a bit of Rubgy in the pub in Wylye, then off to bed at a reasonable time to head to Brighton for the next few days!!

Once again, details aside, Brighton was fab, a great mix of revisiting old haunts and memories and making new ones with some of our favorite people. Lovely! Wednesday we headed back to Wylye for out last evening there, and we enjoyed every minute of it. Thursday we were able to pick up some last minute supplies for our trip, and after a sad goodbye, we hopped on the train to Waterloo. Waterloo-tube-heathrow-Comfort Inn hotel. Bar food and bed, early morn! Check out- shuttle bus- 8am flight to Mumbai. Crappy plane but oh well! 5 hours in Mumbai airpirt, 2 cruddy meals later, we boarded our 3am flight to Chennai. MOSQUITOS EVERYWHERE; it was impossible to sit still in the plane until well after takeoff because of the swarms. Welcome to India!

We arrived in Chennai at 5am, emerged from the airport by 6, and were met by a sea of touts and rickshaw drivers. After a bit of chaos and frustration, we successfully found an atm and ended up in a legit cab to the bus station. Yet another sea of confusion, we found our way to the proper terminal and bay, and finally got on a bus to Mamallapuram at 7am. WOW. The lines in the road are strictly for show, as the buses are all over the place, dodging cows and motorbikes. Craziness! More soon my lovelies!

Back for more.....

2009-03-21T08:15:00.000-07:00

So to continue....

We of course ended up a the village pub on our first night back and, to the hilarity of everyone, I got ID'd.... turns out I am 3 years older than the barman!! We went back after a few beers and enjoyed a delicious Chinese takeaway - how English! I was up early to give Dad a lift to his speed awareness class (naughty-naughty) and we ended up in Salisbury for a nice pub lunch and a wander around, with a little shopping thrown in too. After which we headed out of town to pick up Jamie with Mum. She was a little groggy after a nap and a bit of a handful, but it was great to see her school. We headed back home where we again enjoyed a few drinks at the pub and then a FABULOUS Thai meal that Dad cooked. It was delicious. After this, and a few more drinks we went off to bed as we were off to see Gran & Grampa in the morning.

We were off early for our 4 hr trip as planned and when we arrived in Duffield, as decided, Jen and I were left to see Keddleston Hall, a Manor house now owned in part by the National Trust. It is a classic example of such a house, with sprawling grounds, it's own church and large rooms throughout. Jen was very excited when we walked through the door and we realised that this played a big part in the filming of "The Duchess" and they had a special collection of costumes from the making of the movie.

After a wander around the house and ground we took the short drive to my Grandparents, which I hadn't been to in close to 8 years! It was great to see the house that I had done so much growing up in and wonderful to see them both again and show Jen around. After a nice bite to eat, cup of tea and conversation we left with the family for the hotel we were staying at nearby, where we were having dinner at later that evening.

The hotel was lovely, the room that Jen and I got was huge, with a giant bed and great bathroom.... such a change from our usual accommodation! We got ready for dinner and went down to the bar to join the family - 4 generations of Buchanans! We had a wonderful time with Gran & Grampa and after a lovely meal we retired for the night.

Thursdays agenda entailed us going back round to the Grandparents for light lunch and then back on the road for the journey, taking the long way home, through Gloucester, where I was born, so Jen could see my first house etc etc. We arrived back down south in time for us to meet Nick at a pub close by him, where we were to spend the night before heading to London in the morning.

It was nice to see Nick and Luce's house now that they had lived in it and we had a great night hanging out before they had to work in the morning and we headed to London in the early evening to go to Tom & Cat's and meet up with Ryan (from L.A.) too.

Again, it's time to leave, so we will regale you with more re-caps of the last few weeks soon, pictures to be included.

Bye!!

Catch up time

2009-03-21T06:18:00.000-07:00

It has been another 10 days since the slightest peep from us..... lame I know. But here we are, now in India!!

However there is a little to recap on first. The last few couple days in Rio were hot and sweaty! We braved the beach, only to turn around 2 mins later because of the extreme heat and we wandered the streets taking in the last of ou Latin flavour. When it was time to go we were sad to be leaving the continent that we had called home for so long, but happy to start the new leg of our trip and be going home to England!

The flight, as always, was non eventful, and in fact, relatively short for us considering the bus journies that we are now accustomed to. Mum & Dad met us at the airport (a little late!), complete with pork pies, pickled onions and a cheese $ onion sandwich! We went off into the cold new weather of England for lunch at a wonderful old pub right on the canal, not too far of the road home.

We headed back home to Salisbury for the evening with some great, old fashioned, English style home cooking..... mmmmmmmmmmmm!!

Sorry but our time is up here, we are safe, it is hot, there is a lot of yummy looking curry!!

We WILL update again soon xx

Picture Update

2009-03-10T04:54:00.000-07:00

Here (after 10 days) are our pictures from Brazil....

Brazilian side of the falls:

Rio de Janeiro:

Enjoy!!

Real blog to come soon xx

Pushing 5 months...

2009-02-27T14:31:00.000-08:00

So here is a brief synopsis of the past few days:

On our last day in Foz Iguassu we visited the Brazilian side of the falls.... we were in a rush but did get to see it all. This side is not as extensive but does give some good views on the falls that we saw up close earlier in the week. It also gives a different point of view of Devil´s Throat. It was good but just not nearly as amazing as the Argentine side.

After our brief trip we had to rush back to the hostel, pack and head to the bus station for our 12pm ride to Rio... another 24 hours and we would be in one of the most talked about cities in the world.

We arrived at our hostel to a melee of people checking in and out after the end of carnaval, it was a mess! When we were done we started to explore copacobana. The beach was packed and ridiculously hot, we couldn´t believe the huge waves crashing down and the sheer skimpiness of everyones bikini.... including the men! We wound down the evening catching up with some journaling and having a few beers.

Yesterday we woke earlier than we expected and once again ventured out into Copacobana for some shopping and some good food. We were booked on the favela tour for 3pm. The tour is run by a group that give families a safe place to leave their children for the day so that they can work, a great cause for the much forgotten community. The tour started with a ride on the back of a motorbike to the top of the favela.... it was a little hairy at points but we made it safely, if not thanking our lucky stars that we were in one piece!

We headed into the favelas and were immediately wandering through cramped, filthy streets. It was quite something just to see happy, laughing kids, playing as any others, in the streets, water pistols and all! We then got to see the inside one of the houses there that is now an artists workshop. This guy started off small and now has his pieces in galleries all over the world, spreading the message of the favelas. http://www.artfavela.com

We headed further down and the streets got narrower and narrower until they were barely alleyways. It was great to see the kids running around but depressing to see the filth that they lived in. We finished with seeing the project that we were supporting and the good work they were doing. From the roof we had an amazing view back up the hill over the entire encampment. We were fortunate enough not to run into any gangs, however they do support the tours. Overall it was an experience that was not easily forgotten.

Today we went to see Cristo Redentor, looking over the city. We arrived in the late afternoon but it was still way too hot. He is big! It was really something and our 4th of the 7 wonders of the world! He weighs 650 tons and took 9 years to complete. He looks over all parts of the city, rich and poor indifferently. The view from up there was amazing but it was difficult to fit all of him in one picture. Particularly without catching a few other tourists in the scene aswell.

This evening we are cooking dinner ready for tomorrow when we plan to hang out on the beach and maybe go to Sugarloaf for the quintessential view of Rio.
More soon, England in 2 days... surreal.

Love to all xx

Butterflys fluttered by...

2009-02-23T04:33:00.000-08:00

Our picnic in Mendoza was hot, sweaty, and delicious. We gorged ourselves on yummy cheeses, meats, and olives. Not exactly hot weather food, but it was necessary and needed. We hung out in the shade for a few hours, then headed home to finish packing, then bid farewell and great thanks to our wonderful Killiner hosts. We hopped on board our Andesmar bus that night and settled in for 36 hours of hell.

After two sleepless nights and cankles like you read about, we arrived in HOT Puerto Iguazu. We immediately hopped in a cab and were whisked away to Hostel Inn, a mini backpackers resort outside of town. We spent the day tanning(me moreso than Oli), swimming, enjoying a few Quilmes, and relaxing. Yummy buffet for dinner, then off to bed.

We woke up on Friday morning ready to take the falls by storm. We caught the local bus out front, and upon arrival found that credit cards were NOT accepted, so I rushed off to the ATM inside the park and debated whether I should leave Oli behind (Gingers get cranky in the heat). Luckily for him, he was behaving himself today and I returned to pay his entrance.

The Argentinian side of the falls is extensive, with tons of different paths to various miradors, a free train system, and a ferry to take you to the island. The falls themselves are amazing- over 275 cataracts, with thick mist enveloping you, providing welcome coolness in the hot summer sun. Hundreds of butterflies swarmed railings and puddles- beautiful. The walk out to devils throat was interesting, where we even saw a huge crocodile sunning himself. The intense collision of heavy falls makes it impossible to even see the point of impact through the mist, but there was a lovely rainbow, great views, and that feeling of how small we really are in the world.

Check out the photos!!

After the falls we headed back to the hostel for a night of Asado, Caperinas, and fun. We also had a very interesting show, which the boys enjoyed immensely more than the ladies.

Miserably, we headed across the border to Brazil, where we ran into slight trouble with our passports due to a speedy exit from Brazil back in December. We made it through in one piece, hopped in a cab on the other side to ride to our hostel. We were severely ripped off, and huffing and puffing we checked into the dorm, where we had a nice rejuvinating nap. Afterwards, we ate some lunch at McDonalds (don´t judge), read for a bit.... Homemade pizza for dinner, then watched Penelope. Off to bed in the airconditioned room, where we found bedbug carcasses in the bedframe. We pulled out our sleepsheets and tossed and turned all night, imagining little bites all over.

Today the plan is to head over to the Brazilian side of the falls, which is much smaller than the Argie side. The who know s what? We are planning on leaving for Rio tomorrow, but we´ll see how the bus tickets go.

Less than a week left in South America, no use for our Spanish now.... we feel a bit out of sorts! Very excited for the UK though, and to see Chrissi when she flies over. Our friend ryan finally purchased a ticket to come visit, so we will see him in the UK and in India. Exciting! Love to all, xoxoxo.

Red red wine...

2009-02-18T08:31:00.000-08:00

After exploring the town, which is lovely and has a fabulous European vibe to it, we headed back to the house, where we found Duncan and Co. preparing an extensive asado. Argentines are famous for their bbq skills, as well as their meats, and we were about to experience first-hand how much time and skill it takes to make the perfect parilla. I could barely keep Oli´s tongue in his mouth as the short ribs were placed over the wood coals, soon followed by pork sausages, a prok slab, and finally a nice piece of rolled lomo. Preparing the grill alone can take upwards of an hour or more, and then through stratigic spacing of the red coals, each meat is prepared at a different temperature. Dinner was delicious, with different tastings of wine, nice salads, and of course the meaty main event. We finished dinner well after midnight, which is normal practice for mendocinos, then collapsed into bed.

Early Tuesday morning, we showered and dressed and prepared ourselves for a wine extravagenza. We were fortunate enough that there was room on the wine tour that Rosie and her associate Sam were giving, and they invited us to come along! Three vinyards, ranging from small boutiques to large commercial operations, as well as a typical pork lunch. We were excited!

We hopped in the van, picked up the clients, 6 young Americans (joy!) and headed off. The first vineyard we visited was Finca Decero, which was a new winery with state of the art machines, relatively new vines, and yummy wine. We were taught how to taste and see the colors present in each glass, and attempted to compare the wines using our newly aquired vernacular. We tried a Malbec, a Merlot, and a Petite Verdot, of which most tasters preferred the Malbec. The Petite Verdot was a bit too complex.. I was the sole fan of the Merlot(What can I say? I come from a family where Merlot lips are the fashion). We had a great tour of how the wine is made, where is it kept, where the cellars were, etc etc. Fabulous introduction!

We then drove 90 minutes to Posada del Jamon, a place with typical fare. Being a bit ¨meatted out¨from the dinner before, I opted for the ¨Pastry with plums, blue cheese and sweet peppers¨, while Oli went for Jamon con salsa de Naranja. We tried two different vino tintos, and when lunch arrived, I was suprised to see my food was not a pastry at all, instead a rolled up piece of pork stuffed with said ingredients, and covered in a plum sauce. Ah well, when in Mendoza! Lunch was lovely and relaxed, and after digesting a bit over a café cortado, we headed off to our second winery of the day.

Salentein was a much for commercial vineyard, with mass production and huge export numbers. We had an introduction film in the theatre, followed by a large, slightly impersonal tour of the production. The building was a bit cult-like, dark and ominous, and it brought a new feeling to the blood of Christ... We tried two wines, a Chardonnay and a Malbec. They were both alright, but nothing like the wine we had tried earlier in the day. In the sweltering heat, we headed back to the van and on to the third and final stop of the day.

Arriving at Finca Abril, we were pleased to see it was a small and quaint little winery, and found out that it was merely a hobby for the owners and not a means of income, so the wine was a bit more cared for. We got to try the delicious Onces Acres (Single Vinyard in the US) Malbec from the metal Cask, then the barrels in the cellar, and finally the bottle. I urge you to stop reading immediately if you find yourself in the tri-state area, and head out to buy this wine. It is FABULOUS. For more info, we have photos of the labels :) We also tried their lower end Rhapsodia, which is half the price in retail, but still amazing. If you are lucky enough to find either of these wines, the stars are shining down on you and you should stock up.

After a nice long day of wine and great company, we headed back to Mendoza. Nine different tastings, not too shabby for a Tuesday! We attempted to grab a bite to eat later in the evening, but found ourselves with very poor service. Still, the empanadas were amazing! Great day, we were so so lucky.

Today we are going to picnic here in Mendoza, and then we have a 36 hour bus journey to Iguazu. We have 3 minutes left on the net, and I just saw someone attempting to slide Oli´s bag out from underneath the table.. so we must run. Adios amigos!

We found curry and watched movies. How´s that for culture?

2009-02-16T07:57:00.000-08:00

Wow..... it´s been another week since we blogged. Well we haven´t been extremely active to be honest! As you know, after dropping off our passports at the Indian Embassy, we had a week to hang around Santiago.... it went like this:

After our Saturday at the fish and veg markets of Santiago we cooked ourselves a great little dinner, drank some wine and embraced our home for the next 5/6 days. Sunday allowed us a lie-in and then we took advantage of the free museums in downtown Santiago, so we wandered between them in the sweltering heat and managed to clock up 3 museums in one afternoon!

We decided to head out relatively early on Monday and see one of Santiagos most famous sights, the Virgin of Immaculate Conception, a 36m high statue that looks over the Chilean capital. We arrived only to find our early start thwarted as it didnt open until 1pm ! So after a nice lunch in the nearby Barrio de Bellavista, we headed up the hill..... by the finicular railway of course. Once at the top, the view over Santiago was amazing and a short (but v. hot) hike brought us to the base of the virgin. She´s really big! So now I really can´t wait for Cristo in Rio!

After seeing the Virgin we went to explore the rest of the park via the teleferico - cable cars! They were a little rickity looking and Jen was a little apprehensive to say the least! It was also hot as Hades inside the little glass bubbles! We rode thm around and decided to head back to the mall that we had been to before and see another movie - It was just too hot to do anything else! We hopped on the underground and headed out there.

When we arrived we got our tickets to "Si Señor" - "Yes Man" - with Jim Carey (based in L.A. which was cool to see again and actually pretty funny!) and went into the grocery store to get some snacks, only to find an awesome International section and both Indian and Thai Curry!! So happy! After the movie we went back to the store and stocked up. Curry for dinner tonight! (and the following night, and the one after that! And of course the leftovers for lunch the following day too!!) However, we didn´t end up having curry that night as we got back too late.

We spent Tuesday hanging out and we were even able to move to a private room with a double bed. We did in fact have curry too! It was delicious! On Wednesday we decided to head west to Valparaiso, a town built into the hills in the coast. There are finiculars all over the place to take you up the steep hills. It was a nice place to hang out for a couple days, eat LOTS of curry and enjoy our hostel - we had a nice private room with a TV, a great kitchen and...... A TRAPEZE!! It really had a trapeze! Lots of fun!

Here are the photos from Santiago and Valparaiso:

We returned to Santiago proper on Friday and picked up our Indian visa in the late afternoon so we decided, as we were halfway there, why not head to the mall (I misplaced my sunnies so needed some new cheapy ones) and see another movie.... it´s just too cheap and air-conditioned not to! This time we saw "Valkerie" - very enjoyable! Friday night we hungout and prepared for our Valentine´s day treat.... a hotel.

As we went to leave, we thought we should double check the location of the hotel again. Thank God we did. It turns out that the Radisson has 2 hits on the google map of Santiago, one right by where we were, as we thought, and one way out of town in a business park. Turns out that the later was correct. So after a lengthy subway and taxi ride we made it there. Great room, air conditioning, towels, a bath, TV and real privacy. Happy Valentine´s Day Jen! Unfortunately we were in the middle of nowhere. Thankfully we did find the sushi place across the street and were able to get take out. The sushi and sashimi were great, unfortunately they didn´t give us enough soy sauce to truly appreciate it though! We headed to the bar to have a drink and thought that we would enjoy a pisco sour, the local drink of choice (Thanks Jim, Lori and family!) Despite the few mishaps, we were able to have a great Valentine´s Day. It also should be mentioned that Jen noticed many bites on her arms.. then legs.. then feet... and spent the whole night itching! It must have been bedbugs from the hostel. She was miserable, poor thing, and some of the bites were bigger than grapes!

Yesterday we left Santiago and took a bus to arrive here in Mendoza, Argentina, late last night. Here we met Duncan, my 2nd cousin, who is from New Zealand but lives here with his Uruguayan wife, Rasuara, and their 2 boys. Duncan works in the wine industry here and all over South America and is having us to stay with him, walking distance from town. It is so nice to be in a great home and have the ammenities that one takes for granted but misses dearly when backpacking!

We are exploring the town today and, with any luck, tomorrow we will be able to go on a winery tour that Rosaura is organising for some of their clients.... fingers crossed! We leave hear on Wednesday night on a 36hr bus to Iguazu Falls, and then we are a mere hop, skip and a reaaaaaaally big jump away from being in England!

We will try and update again within the week!

Miss you all xx

The wheels on the bus go round and round..

2009-02-07T10:16:00.000-08:00

So last Sunday we left El Bolsón for Bariloche, but were unable to get the forward ticket into Chile. So we wandered the town, not much to do, why oh why do we continually arrive places on SUNDAY!? Anywho, we ate lunch, hung out at the hostel, blahblah...movies on tv, beers, etc. Monday we left for Orsorno, in Chile. Thankfully no border problems! Arrived, and found out we couldn´t get our onward ticket to Pucón until the next day. We lucked out and found a hotel right around the corner from the station and grabbed a private room. Made pizza, and watched movies all night.

TUESDAY! Off to Pucón. Finally. Upon arrival we find that all the dorms and hostels are crazy expensive, so we scout the streets looking for a deal. We find one, in the shape of a dilapidated old house with creaky floor boards, peeling paint, and constant smoke from the wood powered stove downstairs pumping into our room. Niiiiiice. Hey, it was less than half the price of the other places! We scout the town and sign up for white water rafting class 4/5 for the next day. Woo! Do a little shopping, then its off to our humble abode for a night of dodgy pasta we made in the backyard, and multiple games of Kings in the Corner.

Woke up late, grabbed lunch around the corner- biggest burgers EVER. We took halves home for dins. Then we wandered off to wait for the trip to start!!! The bus was a bit late, and it turned out we were to be in one of 4 boats, each holding 6 rafters and a guide, as well as 2 safety men in kayaks. Awesome! The water was freezing. We had wetsuits, booties, grip shorts, windbreakers, lifejackets and helmets... we were prepared! We hopped in the raft with our guide Carlos, and down the river we went. Some people had never rafter before, including Oli, so there was lots of excitement as we went through some training. We practised balancing (Oli fell out. Blames it on me.. whatever helps him sleep at night :), high sides and low sides, as well at paddling in unison. I found the guiding of the raft quite different than the style back in the States, but it was still safe and effective. We hit awesome rapids, went over 10 foot waterfalls... AHHHH! Can´t wait to do it again while we are in Asia.

Photoooooos:

So after the rafting, we mellowed out at home, so so happy to be warm and dry again as the clouds opened up and it continued to pour after we exited the river. More cards, leftover lunch, vino, and bedtime. Woo!

The next evening we had an overnight bus to Santiago, so we spent the day napping and reading. The bus was long and uneventful... but then.... WE ARRIVED!

It is so nice to be in a big city after being in isolated tourist destinations for the majority of the past month. Immediately upon arrival, we hopped on the metro (!!!!) and dropped our bags off at the hostel and walked over to the Indian embassy. We arrived just before opening, but the people there were SO nice and let us in to talk about the process. We had to do a bank deposit down the street, fill our some applications, and hand over our passports for the weeklong process. It was so smooth and easy, and we are soooo happy we did this now instead of attempting to do it in London!!! Can´t imagine how bad the queues and processing time would have been.

After the visa thing was sorted, we wandered for miles to the outskirts of town to find The North Face for Oli to get new shoes. No luck on the shoes, but we did find outselves in an awesome mall and I came out like a bandit! I can finally donate some of my more... loved... clothing. We went to see The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, which we loved, then wandered back with too many bags and sore feet. Made tacos for dinner (finally a place with tortillas!) with fresh salsa and guacamole... drank some vino and relaxed in the awesome dorm before bedtime! Side note, one of our roomies in the dorm is Sam, the German girl we hung out with in El Bolsón when Oli lost his bag! Small world.

This morning we headed into the city center to explore the fish market. It is quite famous, and you can smell it from a few blocks away. As we wandered around the lifeless mariscos, lounging on a bed of ice, we were astounded at the variety and quality of the place. You could seriously buy any of little Nemos friends or enemies and cook them up fresh for dinner. Amazing!!

We crossed the road and over to the local fruit and veg market, where we witnessed our first petty crime of the trip! A sneaky teen grabbed the gold necklace off the guy in front of us and took off, tearing through the crowd. He was persued by the victim, but the nimble feet of the young are hard to compete with. We quickly grabbed tight holds on our bags and entered, only to emerge with what must be 15 kilos or more of veggies in our brand new Puma duffel. Gotta love knockoffs! We then spent the next few hours wandering, getting lost, enjoying the gorgeous city, walking through parks and little classy neighborhoods, and here we are. We felt like we have been neglectful of our blog readers, and we should be much more diligent in the future. LOVE TO ALL! xx

ps- just bought our tix to India. flying london-chennai on March 20, then heading north. any advice? we wont recieve our india guidebook for another month, and would love some tips!

Chillin´out, maxin´, relaxin´and coolin´......

2009-01-30T10:48:00.000-08:00

Hola from El Bolsón! We have been here for... 4 days now? Hard to keep track... this is a lazy, laid back, awesome place. Big hippie town, along the lines of Berkeley, CA, with artisan markets every other day and organic produce everywhere. We are staying in a great little hostel outside of town in the woods- calm and relaxed, just like hangin out at the ranch. We have been cooking massive meals, handwashing all of our clothes, and reading far too many books while swinging in the hammock. Life is tough for us!

But alas, all good things must end, and we are skipping town on Sunday towards Púcon, Chile (we hope!). However, let me catch you folks up on what has gone on since our last update.

We had a terrible, sweaty 2 day bus, on which we were neither fed not watered. WTF!? Oh well, we slept and read and waited for the hell to end. And it did, dropping us off at 10am into the cool breeze in El Bolsón. Disoriented and without directions to our hostel, we wandered in the blazing sun as the breeze vanished, and eventually staggered upon our hostel with the help of a few amigos on the streets. Awesome little house, one of 3 or 4 on the property, with dorms upstairs, a double room downstairs, huge kitchen and great porch. We immediately settled our stuff in and then wandered around the town. Great huge artisan market with handicrafts and organic snacks, cerveza de casera, maté cups and straws galore, and loads of hippies. We felt right at home, as though we were wandering the vendors at SNWMF.

Spent the rest of the day kickin back, the following day too, come to think of it. We have not been overly productive while here, but everyone needs a break sometime. Yesterday we actually got our act in gear and hopped in a cab with our new German friend Sam, off to the Bosque Tallado. After a sweltering and steep 45 minute hike up a dusty hill, we made it to the entrance. The Bosque is a collection of 40-odd tree stumps that have been carved into works of art by different visionaries throughout the past few decades. Very interesting experience!! Photos below.

After wandering the Bosque, we hiked up to the Refugio to have some cerveza de casera and check out the view. Gorgeous panoramic of the mountains and the town! We hiked back to the start, waited an hour for the cab, and trudged into town. When we were getting dropped off, Oli realized he forgot his backpack in the parking lot. Passport, camera, cash, credit cards... everything. So he hopped back into the cab for another $40/90 minute round trip to see if he could find it, while I ran off to the local hiking club to see if they had anyone on site who could be radioed to grab it. I was in luck and they had someone go down to check. Thirty minutes later, they called back. Success!! They would deliver the bag to the mountain club that evening. I ran to the cab company to have them radio to Oli´s cab to let the driver know that all was well. A bit of flubbed spanish later, the message was sent, and I frolicked off to the hostel happy as a bee. Oli arrived about an hour later, bag in hand. He had run into the guy on the radio walking off with his bag! All was good though, and so we relaxed. I baked some bread (first time ever, it was aweeeeesome!) and we hung out for the evening. When we were in bed, we heard a knock on the door, a girl in the hostel had found Oli´s wallet dropped outside.

I have now come to the conclusion that Oli must be chained to his valuables at all times, and that we have very good luck. Musta been that gnocchi we had back in Dec. (If you eat gnocchi on the 29th of each month, it is good luck. We made sure to have some last night as well. We need all the luck we can get!)

So here we are, relaxing once again. We were going to hike today but my shoes were still wet from a little victory jaunt I had in the river. So we shall continue with our lazy selfs until Sunday.

We miss you all, hope all is well, and want to hear from you!!! xoxoxo

Whoopsie

2009-01-25T18:17:00.000-08:00

Forgot. Here are the photos from Ushuaia and the penguinos!!!

Tea in the Park!

2009-01-25T15:00:00.000-08:00

When we were in Puerto Natales we looked into the possibility of going hiking and camping for a few days, however, it was then that we found out that not only was it expensive, but it was really a minimum of 5 days on the trail.... a little much for us right now. We decided that we would come back in the future, but for now it was time to move on to a new place. After another wonderful bus ride, we made it to El Calafate on Wednesday, home to one of the world´s most famous glaciers.

Upon our arival we decided on our timetable. Thursday we would visit the glacier via the tour ran from the hostel, and then on Friday we would leave for El Chaltan, a beautiful National park with free hiking and camping. We would camp 2 nights and return on Sunday for a 3am Monday, 36hr, bus journey to El Bolson for more wonderful hiking.

We were picked up with 4 others from our hostel, early on Thursday, shortly to find out that this wasn´t the usual hostel tour but in fact a large scale affair with old, rude, slow, French, tour group tourists. Not what the average backpacker is after! We settled in for the ride and it rewarded us greatly (though we could have done the same thing on our own and saved 30 pesos each... blast!). Before arriving at the actual glacier, we paid an extra 10 bucks each to take the boat tour to see the South face. Packed boat, rude people, one lady used Jen´s head as a tripod. We cruised right up to the glacier, amongst floating ice debris and were able to take in the sheer scale of it. The Moreno Glacier is 5km wide and 30km long, larger than Buenos Aires! It rises 60m from the water and every so often a large chunk crashes down into it. Other than nearly being crushed in the rush to the viewing deck, and after cursing several incredibly rude people, we were awestruck. It was amazing, and very, very, blue!

After our boat ride we were dropped at the viewing point for the North face of the glacier. This is a series of gangways that take you right up to the glacier, looking across the valley that it consumes. The views here were just as spectacular and accompanied by the unbelievably loud crashes that sound like thunder and echo from miles back in the valley as various pillars of ice collapse in on themselves. It really was an amazing site and we were greatly satisfied with our days sightseeing!

Interested? See for yourself!!

We finished our day by renting our camping equipment and booking our buses for our next destinations and rounded off the evening with a few beers (Thanks Skip & Lauren!) with our new Engish mates, Liz & Hugh!

Upon arrival in El Chaltan on Friday afternoon we appeared to be in luck. The Sun was shining and we had our hiking route planned out nicely to touch on all the good bits of the park - we were excited to start our camping adventure. Despite the fact that we are backpackers in many senses of the word, it is very different having to carry your own food and shelter, and I for one, had forgotten the extra burden this caused for the shoulders! But the Sun was still shining and we were seeing some amazing sights, so as we approached our night one campsight, by the river at the foot of a glacier, we were full of cheer. By this time it was around 830pm, the Sun was still high but it was growing colder by the minute, so we bundled up to cook our dinner on the stove and drank the quite delicious glacial-spring water that we had scooped up alongside the trail. We clambered into the tent and snuggled down in sleeping bags for the night.

And a bloody cold night it was too! We both suffered a bit but were warmed with hot porridge and jam before we headed out for our day of hiking. We hiked most of the morning and early afternoon, a lot of tiring up-hill in the forest, but we were rewarded with lunch at the side of a beautiful lake, overlooking the amazing mountains of the Fitz-Roy range. And once again, the lake water was delicious! After lunch only a few hours hiking lead us to another amazing view of Mt. Fitz Roy and then onto our night 2 campsight. Here we hung out, ate another great meal and when it got really cold, got into the tent, read and even watched a movie courtsey of the ipod!

With only a short hike back today we were able to sleep in a little before our porridge (it was an even colder night so hotter porridge was required), and within an hour of leaving camp, the town was in sight. We were very fortunate as we had 2 beautiful days of sunshine and today the wind started. At one point on the trail I felt that if we were to stop, the wind at our backs would start to push us across the gravel trail as if we were wearing ice skates on a frozen pond! And it was just as bad in town, but here there were (5 peso) hot showers!

After a wonderful wash and some hot empanadas we hopped on the bus back to El Calafate. We arrived here not too long ago, and, after a bit of a fright when they were nowhere to be seen at 1st, retreived our bags of stuff that we had put in storage. Afterwhich it was time to get our dinner ready.

We still had a little gas remaining, and being as frugal as we are, decided that we should not waste it. So we hunkered down in the nearby local park here in town, lit it up and chowed down on the last of our hotdogs and soup, not giving up on the weekends tradition of eating out meals in a Park! Fortunately, this was the one time the packs of stray dogs left us alone, aside from the rock we had to launch towards a yippy one (startled but not hit, rest easy animal lovers).

We leave at 3am tomorrow, still 6hrs away, for El Bolson and arrive there at 11am in 2 days! Wonderful! Here we hope for more wonderful hiking and more, we will let you know as soon as we do!

Hasta Luego!

No One Eats Beaver in Argentina....

2009-01-20T07:30:00.000-08:00

Firstly, here are our photos from Puerto Madryn, Trelew and Gaiman:

Also, from our wonderful bus trip and arriving in Ushuaia and The Prison:

From where we left off last time we spent Friday in the National Park of Tierra del Fuego. We embarked on 7 hours worth of hiking in the light rain that came at us horizontally due to the howling wind! However, we were nicely prepared and were not concerned with the weather but with the amazing landscape that surrrounded us.

The hike took us through forests, wooded glades, bogs and marshes, over, around and near enough under the volumous mountains of the area region. As we hiked we came across wild horses and foals, numerous odd looking birds and some truely wonderful scenery, even an amazing example of a beaver dam. We stopped to enjoy our lunch on a shale beach in a tiny bay on the Beagle Channel, looking out over some amazing mountains. We were making good time but still were in a little of a hurry to meet our lift back to civilization. After getting to our bus stop with a little time to spare we settled in to wait.... nothing appeared. So we decided to walk along the road to the last stop, we would surely be passed by our ride on the way and we could see more of the park. Well, we were passed by lots of mini-buses, none of which belonged to our company. We started to believe that we would have to wait or the last bus at 7pm, still 90 mins away. We continued to hike and arrived at the very end point of Route 3, the end of the last road in the Southern Hemisphere, the last bus stop. By now it was 6pm, and still no 5pm bus, as more time passed we were concocting ideas of foraging in the forest and using the disabled toilet as shelter for the night!!

As luck would have it, at 7pm on the dot, to the minute, our bus arrived, so cold, tired and weary, we headed back to the hostel for some hot food and a little vino. We got chatting to some folks at the hostel (One girl, Jo, is cycling from Tierra del Fuego, North, up through South America!) and went to bed a little later than expected, particularly as we had to be up at 730am the following day for our penguin tour. We finally forced ourselves to retire, only to find our dorm door jammed shut... the locking mechanism had frozen! Our early bed turned into a very late night as we tried to fix the door, cliumbed in and out of the window, and eventually solved the problem in the early hours with brute force, lots of sparks and an angle grinder! None of this, coupled with the wine, lead to a pleasant wake up just a few hours later.

As expected, we awoke a little groggy and a little late. After quick showers we hurried down to the marina where we hopped on another mini bus and started our tour. After a little doze the tour started and it turned out that our guide, a young local guy, was really very informative. We stopped along the way, getting out briefly to look at wind swept trees, bays and more. We even stopped to check out a beaver dam - here we learnt that, 40 odd years ago, the Government introduced 25 pairs of beavers in the area to populate and create a booming fur business. However it failed miserably due to thin coats and now the beavers are in the 100,000´s. In fact, for every beaver killed, a hunter receices roughly $25, however, in the words of our guide, "in Argentina, no one eats the beaver"!

We continued on our tour to the small settlement where the launch to the penguin island leaves from. We huddled in the tea room here for warmth until it was time to leave. The boat ride was short and we disembarked onto a beach that was filled with penguins, as were the surrounding waters. It was quite the sight and we were able to observe their funny waddle first hand! We were very fortunate as the babies had hatched only a month prior and despite their size, were really cute and fluffy! It was also suprising just how noisy a penguin can be! We were able to walk around the island with our guide for an hour, we had a wonderful time despite the freezing temperatures and a wind that will tear you limb from limb if you are not careful! We left the island satisfied, cold but smiling, and happy that we were able to march with the penguinos of Tierra del Fuego.

Upon arrival back to Ushuaia it was apparant that Jen wasn´t doing so well, we had forgotten the travel sickness pills and she was suffering. We went back to the hostel to pick up our bags. We had to move due to it being super full. Because Jen was in no state to be sharing a room with 4 strangers, we decided to bite the bullet and get a private room for the night. I left Jen to sleep and went to run some errands before returning to find her a little better, but not fit for anymore than hanging out with the TV on, something that we rarely get to do and is suprisingly nice! We got a pizza-to-go and settled in for the evening.

The following day, we had to move once again, back to a dorm and regular life! We had nothing planned for the day, it being a Sunday, so we caught up in our journals, read and prepared for our 5am bus journey the following day. We even managed to ship out the postcards we´ve been accumulating since Machu Picchu! We cooked, made lunch for the journey and went to bed as early as possible considering the Sun doesn´t go down until 11pm!

When we awoke at 430am the Sun was already rising! We went down to the bus station, boarded and settled in for 16hrs on a bus. Well, it was a little longer than that, we were delayed a couple times at the borders..... once because of me! I had forgotten about 2 apples in my bag and when they found them I was repremanded! I waited and waited until everyone else was on the bus and then they pulled me into an office, fortunatly no latex gloves appeared! After a little lecture, some paperwork and having to watch them incinerate my 2 apples (!!) I was free to go, pending an email to tell me my fate!

Anyway, a few more hours, a missed connection, another bus and a few more hours, we arrived here in Puerto Natales, tired, hungry, smelly and worse, ready for bed, at 10pm. We found a cheap hostel (no dorms in Chile - yay), got some good dinner and finally made it to bed. Today we are sorting out the situation here with the national park and planning our next few weeks, all based around the amazing hiking and trekking here in the Lake District!

With only a few more weeks till our rest stop in the UK, it feels like we´ve come so far. We miss everyone and can´t wait to see you all as soon as possible!

We will be posting more of the pix from our adventures as soon as possible, the computers here have stopped uploading... again!

Adios till next time.

It´s the end of the world as we know it...

2009-01-15T16:03:00.000-08:00

And we feel fine. And no, we have yet to fall off the edge, but thanks for the concern! We arrived here after a 33 hour bus, longer than expected, and less comfortable than we had hoped. Alas, we were alive and in one piece. It is gorgeous here. We got in around 11, walked the town a bit as the sun was still up (freaky!) and then settled in at the Antarctica Hostel. This morning we ran around like chickens with our heads cut off attempting to book our passage out of here, as there is usually a very long wait for an open bus. As beautiful and majestic as it is, we don´t want to be stranded. So by lunchtime, we had bus tickets booked for Monday, off to Puerto Natales in Chile. HOWEVER, we are very excited to be here, and immediately ran off to the Maritime Museum, which used to house the prisoners back when Ushuaia was a penal colony. It was extensive and very interesting, full of dramatic stories of the murderous prisoners, as well as the sad tales of many ships lost at sea. It was a phenomenal museum, to say the least, and we actually spent over an hour and a half in there- which is quite the feat for us. We then headed down to the docks to book our trip to go waddle with the penguinos- thats on Saturday, we´ll let you know how it goes. We also checked out the Museo Fin del Mundo, which was small but sweet, and chock full of indigenous artifacts from the brave Indians who once dwelled here.

Then it was time for a wild goose chase to find a plug adapter, as the last one we had burst into flames while Oli was trying to pry it from the wall. No luck though, and we are hoping our camera lasts. Back to the hostel for a homemade gourmet pizza, and a hello to you chaps! Miss everyone lots. We are off to the National Park of Tierra del Fuego tomorrow for some nice hiking.

ALSO- we are in the midst of booking the next step of our trip- from England, we plan to fly to Egypt and then Jordan (mid march to late april). Does anyone have any advice, comments, tips, warnings, etc? We know things over there are in turmoil at the moment, but as the State Dept. has yet to issue a warning for travelers, we are still game to go. Let us know what we should do!! xoxo hasta luego!

Off to the end of the world...

2009-01-13T05:36:00.000-08:00

Hola Amigos!

We abandoned Puerto Madryn for a town an hour south, hoping to be closer to Puento Tombo so that we could finally see the penguins. After a bit of deliberation, we decided that it was best to wait until Ushuaia, as we would be taking tours down there anyway, and why waste the cash? So we booked our 30 hour bus ride down to the end of the world, leaving today at 1pm and arriving tomorrow night at 7pm. WOW, it is gonna be interesting!

So since we arrived in Trelew, we settled into our hostel where we had a 6 bed dorm in a retrofitted garage. As our bed was closest to the garage door (still intact!) I was quite happy that I brought along my earplugs. I had also come down with a pretty wicked cold, so we decided to mainly lay low for a bit and try to recover so that I would be in good shape for trekking down south. On Sunday we made some feel good food for dinner, and kicked back with a book for the evening, hitting the sack early.

On Monday, we decided to sleep in, then take the bus 25 min. west to the Welsh village of Gaiman- settled 150 years ago, quite an ugly little town, but with a few historical houses and some all you can drink and eat teahouses! We hopped off the bus near a long railway tunnel that lead to town, so we walked in the pitch black while thinking about how it would be a perfect place to mug tourists. Luckily, we came away unscathed, and did a quick tour around the town. We saw the oldest house, still with some furniture and appliances, and then we went to the Parque Desfario, a park decorated entirely out of recycling and found objects. Bizarre, but kinda cool! We went to the tea house, where we were gorged on breads and cakes and pastries until we felt ill from the sugar. We were a bit disappointed that we were unable to test out the all-you-can-eat aspect of the place, but decided it was not worth getting sick over. So we headed out into the rain and hopped on the bus home.

Last night we cooked again, drank some Argie vino, and planned out what we want to do in Ushuaia. The most southernly town in the world, or so they claim. I'm sure some places would beg to differ, but still- this place is pretty far down there. Our bus will be driving to the end of Patagonia, cutting through Chile, and down through Tierra del Fuego. Icebergs and penguins galore! We are so excited to see such a different aspect of South America, and this will be something neither of us have ever come close to experiencing before. Yay!! We will keep you all updated once we find a reasonably priced internet cafe (as long as I don't end up falling into the ocean, in true Jen style!). We tried to update our pix from the past few days, but the forces are against us and it just wont work. Love to all, miss you, hope you are keeping to your New Years resolutions!! (Did anyone make the promise to themselves to comment on all our blogs, or send beer money every fortnight? ;) We kid, we kid. Love you guys, hasta luego!

Argie Bargie.

2009-01-10T19:09:00.000-08:00

Well, it´s been a while since we updated yáll.

We arrived in Buenos Aries to meet the girls at our hostel. After a heavy night of partying we decided that it was time to see at least one sight! We went to the Recoletta, a huge cemetary in BA. The mausoleums here are like houses! Some old, some new, gothic to modern, all with coffins and caskets readily visible! It was quite something. Here we saw Evita´s grave, along with hundreds of other people at the same time and headed out to get some food and soothe our hangovers before the girls last night.

We managed to meet up with Jackson, a friend who was on our Galapagos tour with us, and went out to spend our last night out till 6am. Upon awakening, alone and disoriented, Jen and I decide to sort our shit out and get some stuff done! Internetting and phone calls were required, along with recovering and planning out the next couple days.

We spent the next day as real travellers. We loved having the girls in town, such a good taste of home, but despite the sadness of them leaving we felt like travellers once more and our livers were certainly happy! We hopped on the subway and explored more of the city. BA is a beautiful city, reminisent of many European capitals, with the culture, architecture and people. We wandered around the sites, The Cathedral, the Palace that Madonna was seen crooning out of several years ago and much more.

We finished our night by going to a Tango show, one of the things that BA is famous for and is not to be missed. It was a lot of fun. The house singer was as cheesy as you would expect, the tango as flamboyant and spectacular and the male lead as greasy! We had a wonderful night with great wine and better entertainment.

We had decided that it was time to move on, if we wanted to come back we could, so later the next evening we hit the road on a 16hr bus ride south to Puerto Madyr, settled by the Welsh (who would have thought?!) in the late 1800s. Despite how far south we are it is rediculously hot, but despite this, yesterday we walked along the beach for an hour or so to visit the Ecocentre here, dedicated to whales and penguins. After a short marine biology lesson we headed back for a delicious (& cheap) hand made ravioli meal and bed (& cheap wine!).

Today we enquired about diving, but with nothing special or worthwhile here, we saw all the sea lions and birds we need to in the Galapagos, we are heading to the 2nd largest penguin colony in the world tomorrow.

With that being said, there will be more to come soon. Love to everyone, miss you all xx

Photos from Porto Alegre and Punta del Este.

2009-01-08T06:42:00.000-08:00

Here they are, we will have some Argentina pics up soon too.

Porto Alegre

Punta del Este

Hope you enjoy!

Happy 2009!

2009-01-06T11:06:00.000-08:00

Hello from Buenos Aires! We are now on country number 12, and we have been having a blast. A brief update on the past 2 weeks-

We flew into Porto Alegre, Brazil, to stay with our friend Kiki and her family. Fernanda and Kiki met us at the airport, gave us a brief tour, and we had a relatively mellow night. The following day, Jacki flew in from LA. It was Christmas Eve, and that night we had a fabulous dinner with Kiki's extended family, after which we went to her local country club for a huge dance party. Fun! On Christmas day, Renya and Lisa few in, and we had another big meal with Kiki's fam. Basically, the entire trip was one big fiesta! Lots of great food and company, and late nights! It was amazing for us to experience eating dinner around 11, going to bars at 2, and clubs at 4! I don't think we went to bed before sunrise more than a few times. So many fun and friendly people, and it was so nice for us to be around familiar faces again. We spent the next couple of days wandering around Porto Alegre, and the Sunday before NYE we headed down to Punta del Este with 2 other Brazilian girls for a week of fun in the sun!

The drive was about eight hours and extremely sweaty. We arrived at our lovely apartment and were happy to see how nice and open it was! We spent time on the beaches and wandering around, though a lot of our days were sleep filled due to the different way of life down here in the South. We were invited to a lovely NYE party, where we rang in the new year with smiles on our faces and champagne in our hands. We hung out in Punta for a few days more, then hopped on a boat to meet Jackie, Renya and Lisa in Buenos Aires for a few more nights of fun with our old friends before hitting the road again as a duo.

The girls have now all left, and we are at a loss for what to do! Its amazing how accustomed you get to being around people; things seem very quiet now. We are going to sit down tonight and figure out what to do with ourselves here in Argentina as we still have many weeks to go. Head south probably, but any suggestions would be appreciated! We miss you all, happy new years, and we would love to hear from you. Did anyone actually make it through the 700+ pix we put up over the holidays?

We promise to update more often and with more detail in the future. Love you!!
xoxoxo

Feliz Natal!

2008-12-25T08:55:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas everyone! We are here in Porto Alegre, Brazil after the most wonderful Christmas Eve here with Kiki's family. We partied until late and drank even later! We have had a wonderful time so far and, with more friends coming from the airport as I type, we have even more to come!

With the pics of Machu Picchu finally uploaded and arranged, it is time for an update as to our antics since!

When we left Machu Picchu, sad and tired, we went back to one last night in Cusco before our flight to Lima. We arrived late and met up with Clair and Cody, they had arrived that day to start their acclimatisation for the Inca Trail. We went out for dinner and a quick drink or two....... we got back to our hotel room at 6am, 2 hours before we had to leave for our flight! After a quick sleep, we awoke a little late and rushed to the airport and got on the plane a little worse for wear!

I have to give Jen a lot of credit here as we spen the whole day travelling and I could not have directed us anywhere! but we made it all the way to Huacachina, just outside of Ica, in the south of Peru. Here we stayed for 2 nights, it is literally an oasis in the middle of the desert - a small lagoon surrounded by giant sand dunes. Quite an amazing place. After a very well deserved sleep, we decided to partake in the local past times.... dune buggying and sand boarding!! We had a blast and the dunes were beautiful to see the Sun go down over.

With these activities done, and nothing left to do in the middle of the desert, it was time to move on. Not without a trip to the Ica museum first though. Most of the exhibits in this tiny museum are not that interesting, but they do have some really, really well preserved mummies, shrunken heads, crazy skulls and even a re-hydrated mummy hand!! We only have one photo from here of the mis-shapen skulls - they look like alien heads but they are human! Quite the exhibit!

We left Ica and headed even further south for Nasca. One of the few "must sees' in Peru are the Nasca Lines. They were constructed in the sand hundreds of years ago by the native people of the area and depict a wide range of animals, beings and plants. To view them, it is necessary to take a short flight over the area. We arrived for our flight at 845am and were buckled into the tiny plane and in the air within minutes. Jen's dislike of flying seemed to disappear as we soared higher in our tin can of an aircraft! It was really cool to see the lines, but difficult to get decent photos as we were jerked around in the dinky aircraft. The lines themselves were a marvel, the organisation to put them together was amazing, and there were so many in a high concentration in this area, the flight was definitly worth braving to see them! We even made it back to the ground safely!

After the lines we headed West for the coast, just South of Lima. Here there is a small town called Pisco, ravaged only 1 year ago by an 8.0 earthquake. 80% of the town was levelled and it is evident today that it is a very long process to come back from such a disaster. Despite the mis-fortune, the people here were the friendliest that we had encountered so far, everyone waving and saying hello, a refreshing change! Fortunately our hostel was still standing when we arrived and we were able to book a tour for the next day to see the nature reserve close by. We were also very happy to have kitchen, and for the fist time in a long while, we were able to cook our own dinner!

We left for the Ballistas early the following morning and, upon arrival, set out on our boat tour. The wildlife here is similar in someways to the Galapagos. Lots and lots of birds and sea lions. Infact, so many thousands of birds that some of the islands appear black! The one bonus here though is that there are lots and lots of penguins (we missed them in the Galapagos)! We were also able to see dolphins! After the islands we went on to get a tour of the rest of the reserve, we started with seeing the flamingos and then on to see the beautiful coastline.

We arrived back in Pisco that evening and with the 3 guys that we had met on the, tour, Simon, Thomas and Andy, 1 Swede, 2 Swiss, we headed out to experience the local nightlife! The club was poppin'! And Jen even managed to get a kiss!! We retired late, ready for our long travel day that lay ahead.

We desided to get a bit to eat before we left as we would be spending the next 24hrs in the airport. So, slightly hungover, we went in search of food. I suggested a place that I had seen previously, and after a short but hot trek through the city, we arrived for the set lunch and sat down to enjoy. Well, when Jen dug into her soup, she pulled up a chicken foot! It was foul (or fowl!!)!! Put me right off my lunch! Didn't put us in good stead for our travelling to Brazil!

Our Brazilian adventures are still under way, stories to come soon!

Merry Christmas!! xx

The Sanctuaries

2008-12-24T06:31:00.000-08:00

Here are the photos of us in and around Machu Picchu. Both the Inca Site and the hotel were amazing! I hope that these photos do it justice as it was one of the most amazing places that we have ever been to. Also, it is the 3rd of the "7 New Wonders of the World" so far!

Hope that everyone enjoys! (& comments!)

At long last....

2008-12-23T12:21:00.000-08:00

here are our photos for the Inca Trail. They lead upto us arriving at Machu Picchu, more to come soon!

Can't wait for your comments!

Here are some photos of Cusco for ya!!

2008-12-22T14:59:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the delay....

2008-12-21T11:15:00.000-08:00

here´s a start!

Quito!

We will have more up asap, promise!

Sanctuary...... quite literally. Thanks Aunt R & Uncle J!!

2008-12-17T11:41:00.000-08:00

We left off last time checking into the Santuary Lodge as we arrived at Machu Picchu cold and wet! We went up to our room to drop our bags and change out of sopping wet clothes quickly before our tour started at 8. When the door opened we were greeted with a beautiful room with a splendid bathroom and a huge fluffy bed.... I dared not touch it for fear that the previous 27 miles may take its toll and I´d pass out before my head hit the pillow! We changed and reluctantly left the room.

The rain had stopped with perfect timing for our tour. The last 4 days had all been for this moment when we would enter into the Inca Sanctuary of Machu Picchu. We had followed the same pilgrimage route that the Incas would have followed 500 years previously. We had already seen the site from the trail, it was now time to enter and see the buildings from up close.

When we entered, our guide, Casiano, sat us down and we listened to the history of the site, its discovery in 1911 by Hiram Bingham, the myths and legends and the findings that had been made at the time. The information we were getting was wonderful and no one could wait to explore further.

The 1st thing that was so striking was how the Incas incorporated the natural rock formations in everything, whether it is the building itself, alters within or pools of water to view the constellations, the natural rock was ever present. Just as amazing was the use of a single natural spring to give water to the whole community. Elaborate channels, plumbing and irrigation feeds the whole site with fresh water. Machu Picchu is 60% agricultural and 40% residential. The seemingly endless terraces were used for all different kinds of crops and the residential area is comprised of palaces, temples, living quarters, a jail and more.

We also learned just how ingenious the Incas were. Many buildings and large structures are built on stone rollers, earthquake protection, and nearly all structures are built with an incline of at least 3 degrees, again for stability. Many of the alters are bult from the natural rock formations, but all with directional purpose. North, South, East and West points are used in the alters and are aligned to the degree (Jen has a little compass so we confirmed this!).

All in all we had a great tour, it is too difficult to put it all into words and do it justice. This really was a fascinating people and Machu Picchu really is a Wonder of the World. For me, the trek and the site itself was one of the most fulfilling things that I have ever done, the sense of achievement and sheer amazement at the site itself was something incomparable!

This was, of course, until we experienced the Sanctuary Lodge!! We went back and finally showered and lay down. We ordered room service and dined with just each other for company. It was wonderful! Next on our agenda were our complimentary massages.... They were fantastic, and much deserved! We decided to spend the rest of the afternoon exploring Macchu Piccu further and had a wonderful time doing so. As the light of the day faded we retired to the hotel bar and had a couple of drinks before relaxing on the bed watching TV before dinner.

We decided to sit and have dinner in the dining room, so after a quick drink, we sat down to indulge in the haute cuisine we had seen other diners partaking in. The whole 3 courses were wonderful for the both of us, including a delicious bottle of wine. I dined on crab and some amazing duck, whilst Jen enjoyed a wonderful avocado salad and Chicken in Tarragon sauce. We left the table plump and content and enjoyed the rest of our evening watching movies and lying in the oversized bed!

Unfortunately we had to leave the Sanctuary in the morning. After the buffet breakfast of course.... smoked salmon.... mmmm!! Thank you once again Aunt Rayna and Uncle Jimmy. It was amazing and even better as we had just hiked for 4 days. Thank you!!

More to come soon. We are having issues with uploading pics here I´m afraid. We have over 500, some from the tail end of Quito, some from Cusco, but mostly from the trail!

We are now in Huacachina, a little oasis in the Peruvian desert- south of Pisco and north of Nazca, 3k from Ica. It´s cool! We are going sandboarding and dune buggying this arvo!

Love to all! Feliz Navidad!

WE DID IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2008-12-15T08:32:00.000-08:00

So we left at 5am from Cusco with our Llama Path group, headed for Ollanteytambo. We arrived around 7am for breakfast, where we spied a guinea pig farm next door and some fabulous ruins in the distance. We ate in a hurry, and then hopped back in the van for the final 45 minutes to Kilometer 82- the starting point! How exciting. We organized our bags with the porters (who are incredibly fit and friendly) and then set off, walking sticks in hand!

Day one was nice. Fourteen km, slightly sloping uphill but nothing insane. We passed many houses along the way, with locals going about their business, cows and chickens and a baby pig roaming around. So strange to think that these people live here full time, watching tons of backpackers pass by their front doors in the middle of nowhere. There were lots of baños along the way, ranging from slightly scary to life-altering trauma (towards the end, as well as some local women selling water, soda, and gatorade to the unprepared passersby. We were blessed with gorgeous weather, and took tons of pictures along the way, clean and smiley, unaware of the horrors that lay ahead.

We passed two checkpoints along the way to our camp, getting the much coveted passport stamps that made us feel quite official. We camped at Ayapata, 3300m high. Our porters were amazing- they always passed us on the trail and had our meals set up and waiting for when we arrived, and our tents pitched, hot water to wash up, etc etc. We all felt quite proud that evening, and passed out very soon after dinner.

Day 2 was not as much fun, but was a lot more rewarding. We awoke to hot tea delivered to our tent at 5am, then rushed to pack and eat so that we could get to hiking. We had 9 hours of straight hiking, gaining 900m to the top of Dead Woman´s Pass, then losing 700m to the botton of a valley, another 500m up, then 400m down. This is all just the change in altitude, mind you, the actual hike was about 16km in total. The beginning was not so tough, but the trail quickly took a turn for the worse. At times, we were climbing up incredibly narrow yet very steep steps and thanking the Inca Gods for the lack of rain. We encountered a pack of llamas at one point, who turned angry when I tried to pose with them, and ended up chasing me up the trail for a while- very good incentive to run!

Everyone felt pretty downtrodden, but we pushed on, and made it to the top of Dead Woman´s Pass in much less that the estimated time. It was cold and windy up there, and the panoramic views were insane. The downhill was almost as bad as the uphill though, and as we went down the other side we felt our calves being pushed to their limits and knees getting a bit jerky. We had lunch at the bottom, then pushed up the next pass, which was much less intense but still tiring. We visited incredible temples and forts along the way, then entered the cloud forest right before our campsite. WOW, what a day! We shoveled our food in then passed out, freezing our butts off all night.

Day 3 was not so bad! Because we had pushed on so much in the first few days, we had only 7km to hike, mostly downhill (and down those damn steps!) visiting more Inca sites along the way. We arrived in Wiñay Huayna around lunchtime, napped for a bit, then checkd out more great ruins before heading to the small BAR(!)that was near the campsites. Beer to celebrate our new friend Chelsea´s birthday and to relax after our lengthy workouts. Dinner, then a ceremony with our porters and bedtime!

Day four- Machu Picchu! We woke up at 3am, ate a lovely cake that our chef baked for us, and hauled our butts down to the checkpoint gate, arriving second in line, and waited until the gates were opened at 5:30. We are not exactly sure why it is so important to arrive at that time and then wait, but whatever. As we sat there, it began to rain, then pour; our first rain of the trip thankfully but what a terrible day for it! As soon as the gate opened, we RAN as fast as we could, as it was the goal to reach the Sun Gate first. Well that didn´t happen for us, but 2 of the Aussie girls in our group made it there second! The trail wasn´t too tough, but there were some of those killer Inca steps thrown in that really put a kink in your pace. So tiresome! We finally reached the Sun Gate and there is was, in full glory. Machu Picchu in its entirety from a sort of arial view. There were few tourists in our view, so we shot some great pictures then headed down to the site, another hour of hiking, then there we were! We grabbed our bag from the porter as we waited for our tour to begin, and ran over to the Sanctuary Lodge to check in- we are SO LUCKY!!!!!!

Quito and Cuscotopia.

2008-12-15T08:28:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the lengthy gap in updates, we should have done this before we left on our trail but these things happen...

We did manage to realise our plans in Quito and see the Teleferico and the beautiful view over the whole of Quito. We also managed to venture into the amusement park at it´s base and go karting. It was awesome! Haven´t driven in a while but both of us managed not to spin out! That evening we left Quito for Lima, where we spent the night in the airport for our 5am flight to Cusco.

On arrival at 7am in Cusco, we went straight to our chosen hostel, Suecia II, and checked in to a double room and slept until the early afternoon. We decided it was time to explore this beautiful city that we had found ourselves in. We arrived in Cusco 3 days before our trek to Machu Picchu began. We had to acclimatise to the elevation, 13000ft above sea level. This also meant that we were not smoking and drinking, so no falling off boats and late night rum sessions!

Cusco is an amazing city, so much history and lots of interesting architecture. The main square, Plaza de Armas, has 3 churches and 1 cathedral squeezed into 2 of it´s sides, all with differing styles, many of the buildings mix original Inca foundations with the more modern Colonial style. Also, littered across the city, there are original Inca walls and foundations, some of which have withstood over 500 hundred years of use and even a major earthquake in 1650 - we later learned just how ingenious the Inca engineers were, most designs include an incline of at least 3 degrees and some of Machu Picchu is actually built on rollers!

After 3 days of exploring it was time to go for our briefing for our trek. As it turns out, we were in a very large group, 16 people. What made this even more interesting is that along with the 16 apying customers, we had 2 guides, 1 chef and 21 porters. Giving a total group size of 40! We were definitly in for an interesting time.

Photos for the rest of Quito, Cusco and thgen the Inca trail to follow.... another couple hundred!

Quito Pictures So Far.

2008-12-06T08:17:00.000-08:00

Quito.... still....

2008-12-06T08:05:00.000-08:00

The last blog finished with us doing nothing all day.... I was extremely hungover, which is unusual, usually it´s the other way around! But Jen kept me alive and we had a quiet evening. Yesterday we went for a great curry with awesome garlic naan and then came to use the internet. The plan was to go to the Botanical Gardens and maybe old town in the afternoon. The plan was not accomplished when it started to rain so hard and then HAIL all afternoon! After waiting out as long as possible we hurried back to the hostel and enjoyed an evening of reading, hanging out, and of course, a few beers!

Today I left Jen in bed (we had a very sleepless night due to a puking, M&M eating, snoring roommate) and we plan to attempt the Gardens again and the Teleferico - a huge cable car to the top of a nearby 4000m mountain for a view over the city. Fingers crossed the weather holds up!

Galapagos pics.... finally! There´s lots!

2008-12-04T13:48:00.000-08:00

Now we have 2 cameras these are in an odd order...... Guayaquil 1st, then waterproof camera and then 400 more!:

Galapagone

2008-12-04T12:57:00.001-08:00

Wow, time flew by!! Where did we leave off? Ah yes, day 1. Well, basically, we were on a 5 day/4 night cruise, and after day 1 our guide left on vacation and was traded out by a horrible guy named Daniel, who did not speak English. That wouldn´t have been so bad if he actually knew anything, but he was completely useless! He knew nothing, and made up everything else!!! You do get what you pay for though, so we should have expected some problems on our super cheap cruise. Other than that, things were fabulous! Great food, great day trips, and great company! Some of the highlights included panting blue footed boobies standing on eggs, smelly sea lions barking at each other, swimming with sharks, sting rays, turtles, and crazy fish, Oli being nibbled on by a large sea lion, and flying flamingos! Much much more, everything we looked at was amazing. It is impossible to sum it up with words, so enjoy the photos, please! One other highlight was our first trip (and 3 more!) to the local hospital!

On our third day, we were hiking along some volcanic rock and enjoying the scenery. Oli and I began fooling around, cutting each other off on the path, and in a typical Jen move, I tripped and chopped off part of my toe!! It wasn´t quite severed at that point, but it sure did bleed. Later, upon further investigation by Oli and our new friend Carolina (armed with tweezers), it was decided that the top part would need to be amputated at the hospital as it was not just the nail, but a large chunk of flesh encompassing the nail and more! So we wrapped it up, and the following day we were docked in the bay of Port Ayora. Clean hospital, lots of meds and painkillers, and half a toe later, we were ready for some Thanksgiving drinks! We all went to Limon y Cafe and celebrated until the wee hours of the morning, at which point Oli and I decided to head back for our last night on the Merak. We hopped on a water taxi and somehow it found our boat in the big harbor. Oli hopped off, and I followed. Now the following events were not the result of too many celebratory drinks and I feel like it was only a matter of time before it happened. I had one foot on the Merak and one on the water taxi, and suddenly the water taxi bounced back. I tried to leap for Oli´s arms, but I slipped, and after some struggling, there was darkness. And it was surprisingly warm! Somehow I found myself treading water in the pitch black of the harbor, with my bandaged toe becoming undone and my flip flops floating away into the night. Our cook came running up to the deck and tried to help Oli lug me up, and then they gave up and had the taxi do it. I was dead weight and slippery. Seconds later, wrapped in a towel, Oli and I sat on deck of the Merak and laughed to our hearts content.

We spent the following days in the Galapagos at the lovely Hotel España, drinking and dining with our new friends Clair and Cody. We were unable to do much during the day as I was not allowed to go diving or snorkeling or swimming or hiking or ANYTHING, per doctors orders. We relaxed and read and waited to get off that damn island!!

We are now in Quito, doing basically the same thing! We have been told by many many people that the city is incredibly dangerous, so we have not done as much sightseeing as we would have preferred. Yesterday, we hired a cab to take us to the equator, where we spied a shrunken head, large snake skins, and Oli´s new Halloween costume (he can tell you about it later). We then headed off to the Basilica, where we climbed entirely too many stairs and steps, and saw the entire city of Quito from atop one of the spires. Cody and Clair are staying at our hotel, so we have been drinking and dining and sightseeing with them. Last night we wasted away in a British pub, noshing on fish and chips and chilli con carne. Today we have done nothing, and it feels great!! Getting a bit thirsty.... :)

Well...

2008-12-04T12:47:00.000-08:00

There´s gonna be a lot going on today, updates & over 500 pix from the Galapagos. But..... just realised that we never posted the pix from Panama.... sorry! So here we are:

Sorry for the delay!!

You can´t always get what you want....

2008-11-28T08:56:00.000-08:00

We flew to Baltra from Guayaquil, and met our group at the baggage claim. 3 Germans and 3 Aussies, as well as our fantastic guide, Cesar. We hopped on a bus and rode to the docks to get on board the Merak, our home for the next 5 days. We immediately sat down to an elaborate lunch, and were shown our cabins. Oli and I had requested the Marital room, assuming that with a double bed, there must be more room than the standard bunk bed cabins. WRONG!! The bed was slightly triangular, pretty small, and cave like, as the ceiling lowered towards the back. There wasn´t even enough room for both of us to stand in there! It was cozy though, and we had a little port window for some fresh air. We set off for the first stop, a small bay on Santa Cruz Island. We saw hundreds of sea lions! Little tiny babies searching for their moms, barking until their cries were returned. The dads stayed in the water, swimming back and forth. They sure smelled! There were lots of dead babies as well, ones who had been abandoned by their mothers and left to starve and then rot on the shore. So sad! Ahh more soon, this internet sucks. $4 an hour?!?!?!?

How to Catch a 2 Toed Sloth

2008-11-23T15:24:00.000-08:00

So we arrived in Guayaquil yesterday, and hopped in a cab to the lovely Dreamkapture hostel in the northern suburbs. Relaxed, wandered, had some lovely Lebanese food in the mall down the road! Back to the hostel to relax a bit more, read, write, and then down the street to this AWESOME mexican taco place! We are actually taking a food tour around the world, and have been pretty successful in not having ANY local foods in most of the places we have been!! This is not on purpose, mind you, but it is becoming an embarassing trend. Read a bit more, then bed time!

This morning we had a lovely brekkie at the hostel, then headed out to the Parque Historico, for a little zoo wander, where our quide explained how to catch a 2 toed sloth, and then to see the historical reproduction of the city from 1900. It was... a bit tacky. As were the plantation fields and servant´s homes. Ahh well. Then off to downtown, where we witnessed one of the creepiest things ever- the iquana park. Its just a park in the middle of town, which has been infested with huge jurrasic looking iguanas. Tons of them! Climbing over each other, over people feet, and up some peoples legs! Ugh. Oli decided to pet one, but didn´t look very pleased afterwards. We then walked along the riverfront promenade, the Malecon, and enjoyed the breeze. We attempted to go to the MAAC, the museum of Contemporary Art and Architecture, but after searching and searching for the entrance, we discovered it is closed on Sundays. WTF?! Then up the 384 steps of Santa Aña to see the colorful houses and shops, and then killer view from the top. Gorgeous!

We are now trying to wrap up some of our affairs before we depart for the GALAPAGOS!!!! We will be gone until December 2nd, on a cruise for the first 5 days, and diving for the rest of the time, fingers crossed! We will update you once we reach Quito! Miss you all, love you, and Happy Thanksgiving, you Yanks!!

PaPaPaPanamaaaaaaa

2008-11-23T15:22:00.001-08:00

Hola amigos!

Out last stop in Central America was muggy, crazy, and memorable. We landed after the 1 hour flight from CR, and toddled on over to the bus stop, 300m from the airport entrance. We headed towarda Via España, and the first bus that came flying by was PACKED. We waited 20 minutes, then hopped on the next one, for the hour long journey into the city. The buses are old school buses from the U.S., like chicken buses, but they are painted an array of vibrant reds and pinks. And they drive like crazy! We found ourselves in the banking neighborhood, and hopped out by Hotel Continental. Walked down a small dead end alley, and found our hostel! Zuly´s was a great choice, with fun people everywhere. However, after living in luxury, it was saddening to share a bedroom with 5 other people... and the sheets were too small so they kept popping off, and Oli and I have found tiny red bites on our arms and legs.... bed bugs? Never saw any, or felt any, but would the marks lie?

Our first night in Panama City, we wandered around a bit, and found out we are situated right by a movie theater, $2.10 a showing. Wow! So we grabbed some lunch, wandered around.. Oli got a haircut and I got a French pedicure, costing us $10 combined. And then we were off to see 007! Great action scenes, very loose plot, and super annoying people! Everyone talks loudly, with no regard to the movie. I guess because it is subtitled anyway it doesn´t bother them, but it bothered me! After the movie, we grabbed some $0.50 beers and hung out at the hostel, playing Kings in the Corner all night.

Day 2 in Panama City- We slept in, then hopped on the bus to the city center, where we were supposed to catch another bus to the Panama Canal. Unfortunately, the bus stop had been ripped out, and we wandered around asking many people before finally a very nice man helped us out and told us we had to go to the bus terminal instead. At this moment, we once again cursed the writers of the Lonely Planet Central America On A Shoestring, 2004 edition. UGH. Guidebooks lie often, and are almost useless when 4 years old! But I digress..

We went to the bus terminal, which was chaotic, to say the least. Finally found our way, squeezed on the bus towards Paraiso, and away we went. Upon arrival at the Mireflores Locks, we walked for about 20 minutes to the brand spankin´new welcome center, which housed a thorough museum. We sprinted through the 4 levels, and up to the top floor viewing deck. What a sight! Words can´t capture the intricate sight, and unfortunately, pictures can´t suffice either! We went down to eat at a very very expensive restaurant(which we found out too late)and ate while we waited for 2 huge boats to approach the locks. We had a great view from here, which is when our camera malfunctioned and corrupted our memory card. Great. We do have pictures from after this incident though, so enjoy!

After lunch we trudged back out to the road to wait in the baking sun to catch a bus to the Summit Botanical Gardens and Zoo. The gardens weren´t so much botanical as they were a giant park with grass and tables and playgrounds... but the zoo was cool. We have never seen monkeys this excited and active in our lives! Cool ocelot, pretty birds, etc.

Waited for an hour for the bus, then headed home to go to another movie! This time, The House Bunny. We grabbed the best street chili dogs EVER, some rum, and then headed into the cinema. Believe me, the rum definitely helped this movie. It actually wasn´t so bad, and made us almost miss LA. Almost. Off to the Istmo Pub afterwards for a snack and some local brews, which tasted like a cross between band-aids, cigarette butts, and bacon. Not a very nice blend. And we tried all 4 on tap! Shame shame. Next time, we´ll stick to the Stella!

The next day we were basically worthless. We bought another camera, so we now have our lovely Fujifilm fancy one, and another Olympus point and shoot. We wandered around, caught up in our journals, and then for the main evernt.. a double feature! First we went and saw Body of Lies, a DiCaprio/Crowe movie. It was good, but not one we need to see again. We grabbed dinner at the pub, Oli tried the beers again with disgust. And then it was off to see movie number 2- Baby Mama! Man, we need to get out of this city. We were basically seeing everything available in English as it was so cheap. Thankfully, we had rum for this movie too.

Then it was off to bed, as we would be leaving for Ecuador in the morning!!

The Last of Costa Rica :(

2008-11-23T15:10:00.000-08:00

Cloudforesting.

2008-11-23T14:46:00.000-08:00

We awoke early on Monday morning and were out the door by 7am, on our way to the Monteverde cloudforest. Seth and Majela had not been there before, and believe it or not, neither had we! We were on the road for an hour or so and we stopped for some delicious ´pinto´, the local breakfast specialty. When we got back on our way we were surprised to find the turn off just around the corner. It was time for our hellish ride to begin - the road up there is notoriously terrible, 35km is a long way....

We were all pleasantly surprised when we found ourselves cruising down a beautifully fresh, tarmac highway! Seth was a little concerned as to how he could have missed the news of the new road, but was ultimately relieved! The scenery grew increasingly beautiful as we climbed but the road abrubptly turned to gravel, and then to dust, and then to mud. Before we knew it our gorgeous road was gone, we had fortunately got a little more than half way though.

Seth´s ´billy goat´ ride took us through the unbelievably potholed "road" unscathed and we arrived at our destination, the rain forest living up to it´s name with a light drizzle. When we knocked on the door of out hotel it appeared to be empty. We had chosen this place as it was home to one of the original Quakers (yes Quakers!) that had founded the area. We waited and still no one turned up so we decided to try some other places. We were pleasantly surprised when we stumbled upon the Mariposa Lodge, closer to the park entrance and we were able to secure ourselves our own 2 bed apartment for the evening! Before we left for our hike in the cloudforest proper, we went and stocked up, hiking snacks, nibbles and of course rum, limes and beer for our return!

We arrived in the park and started on the hike we had chosen, The Triangle, circumnavigating the whole park. It really was a wonderful experience. The path is literally carved into the vigin cloud forest, the light rain only adding to the authenticity! We wandered past streams and waterfalls, gorges and cliffs, all the while being extremely optimistic about spotting the greatly sought after Quetzal. We didn´t see one of theses elusive birds but we had a great time none the less! We finished our day in Monteverde hanging out in our cabin apartment, enjoying our beers, rum and company.

As we left the cloudforest we decided to check out the cheese factory there, started by the founding Quakers. Unfortunately no tour, or free tasting, but we did spot some very odd looking choco-cheese! We then embarked on the bumpy ride back to civilisation!

On the way back to Santa Barbara we stopped in the small beach town of Punta Reinas and had some good seafood and a short walk along the promenade. We then started back for Seth & Mayela´s where we spent our last evening with the family, eating great spaghetti, watching McHale´s Navy and playing a local version of Monopoly!

The following day we were up with the kids at 630, said our goodbyes and were off to the airport for our flight to Panama. It was sad to leave the home we had had for the past week and the family that had been so wonderful to us. Time to become real backpackers again though......

(..... now we just want the luxury back!!!!)

More Costa Rica Pics

2008-11-18T20:07:00.000-08:00

New Camera Frenzy:

Big Night Out, Santa Barbara Style:

More Costa Rican Bliss!

2008-11-18T20:00:00.000-08:00

We have been enjoying our stay here so much we haven't had the time to blog! But we are leaving for Panama tomorrow so thought we had better catch up a little.

After we hiked on Friday Seth took us to see an amazing waterfall at the base of a number of cascades. It was great, we were able to walk behind it and peer down into the pool of foam that lay beneath, home to the old bridge! We spent the evening hanging out in the sauna and watching movies, it was so nice to relax in a homely manner!

After a relatively early night, we got up on Saturday and went to 'Hiper Mas', fingers crossed, to find a new camera. We emerged triumphant with a great new camera that we were itching to try out. Whilst the kids went to the dentist, we got a tour of Santa Barbara and it's farmers market, including some awesome shrimp ceviche and coconuts! We wandered some more in town and decided to go for a really great lunch (they know how to do pork in this country!) and then to the local zoo! They had lots of great birds and monkeys and all kinds of animals. Aswell as the animals, the entire park was home to thousands of big 'ol spiders with golden threads..... apparantly not poisonous but definately scary looking! We came back to the house and relaxed before our big night out. Seth's friend Alex was having a bar opening - cowboy themed! We started with a quick beer and a shot at Mr. Pitufo's and then onto Bar Trapiche. As we pulled up the entire bar seemed to explode, it was someones birthday and the tiny bar had an 8 piece band in it! It was quite the experience, totally authentic and we enjoyed the music with a couple of beers and some more ceviche! When we got to Alex's bar the party was already underway and we joined in with the fun, Jen even ended up in a beer chugging contest! We rolled home later ready for bed and extremely merry!

Our Sunday started off with a football game, the biggest team in Costa Rica, Saprissa, was playing right here in town. It was a lot of fun to sit in the stands with Majela, Freddy and Jazmine, taking in the local flair and a sausage-in-a-taco!! The game ended 1-1, not a great result for Saprissa. After the game we walked back to the house, had lunch and hung out until it was time for us to go to 'Cuento de Navidad', the Christmas play, at Cafe Brit, not too far away. It was 'A Christmas Carol', in Spanish of course, and it was a lot of fun! We were able to follow along and enjoy as many of the jokes as possible. We finished our Sunday evening with a family trip to a great pizza place, we tucked in and came home for to get a good nights rest before we headed for the cloud forest 1st thing yesterday morning.

Well thats enough for now, pics and more story to follow!

Costa Rica Pics - The Story So Far

2008-11-18T19:25:00.000-08:00

Ticos and Ticas

2008-11-16T13:31:00.000-08:00

So we hopped on the first chicken bus to La Virgen, then caught another one to the border. Immigration was pretty fast, and we were sorted out by 8:30. The 9:30 bus to San Jose was sold out, so we played cards with Tamara and James until the 10:30 bus. Less than $8 to get there- not bad! We passed out on the bus, woke up briefly to say adios to our fellow gringos as they departed at Monteverde, and then slept again. Our phone was dead, and we didn't have the number for Seth, whose house we would be staying at, so we had to ride in to the center of San Jose and look for an internet cafe. Just our luck, it began raining as soon as we got off the bus. We were in a pretty bad area of town, and it was getting dark, so we ran into a few hotels asking for directions. Found the cafe, got a hold of Seth, then hopped in a tragic cab for the hour long ride to Santa Barbara. The driver was frightening, and quite stupid, and we were thankful to get there in one piece. He got lost constantly!!! We were finally dropped off in front of the church, where he tried to demand more money than we had agreed upon. Thanks guy!

Seth showed up and got rid of the driver, then off we went to a bar for some dinner! Delicious beans and rice with crunchy pork on top, washed down with a cold Imperial. Mmmm welcome to Costa Rica! We then hopped over to Mr. Pitufo's bar, with looks like it is in a 1950's time warp. Very charming! Caught up with Seth, who is an old friend of the family that I have known basically my whole life, and then headed up to his house in the hills to meet the family. The kids, Jasmine and Freddy, were still up, and super energetic. We also met Seth's lovely Tica wife, Mayela. We got the grand tour of the house, and went to bed early. Long day of travel!

The following morning, we had a great breakfast made by the maid, Lydia, and then spent the day lounging by the pool. It was so nice to relax! The sauna wasn't so bad either!! We got caught up on our reading, and almost caught up on our journaling. In the evening, we headed off to a few local bars, then to the grand opening of the posh bar Pitch. Pretty fancy, with camera crews and a live band. Oh, and free rum! We had a great time. Interesting clientele, and we wondered what type of longevity a place like that will have.

Friday morning, we went to Volcan Poas to hike up to the crater. It was a short walk, actually, on a paved road, and it was beautiful at the top! The fog was rolling over the top and mixing with the volcanic vapors- very scenic! Tough to describe, but photos will follow soon! We then hiked up a narrow trail lined with green trees and bushes, and lots of moss. We arrived at the other crater, which is now an acidic lake. Gorgeous views! Lovely short hike as well. It was nice to see some of the scenic beauty of Costa Rica. Ahhhhh gotta go, more soon!

Nica pictures!

2008-11-16T11:58:00.000-08:00

Pictures from Granada, before the camera incident (glad we had saved them!!)

Pictures from SJdS, AFTER the camera incident. (Thanks Becky and Chris for letting us borrow your camera!!!)

W-w-w-wipeout!!!

2008-11-15T07:04:00.000-08:00

We hopped into the truck to head to the beach for our surf lesson, unfortunately there was no more room in the back so we had to ride up front, with air-conditioning.... shame. We were particularly grateful when our short journey to the beach turned out to be an hours ride on another wonderful Nicaraguan dirt road. It was worth it though, as when we arrived we were treated to a great view of the secluded beach we were to spend the rest of the day on.

After a quick how to with our instructor, an older local guy, we were in the water, floating on our boards with him holding us. As a wave came along he told us when to start paddling and gave us a nice push onto the wave, all we really had to do was stand up! It wasn't quite that easy but we gave it our best shot and both of us (in fact Jen before I) were standing on our boards, wobbling along within 15 or 20 mins. It was now time to try it on our own and 2 and a half hours later our bodies were battered and broken but content (edit: Jen just wants me to recognise here that she was the only one in the water the whole time and the teacher said she was the best student.)!

We spent the whole afternoon in the water, trying again and again, succeeding and failing! The most frustrating thing was that even if one was successful, for 30 seconds of standing up we had to walk/swim/paddle for 10 minutes to get back to the same spot to start over again! It was great fun and we both surprised ourselves as to how well we took to the water, we did suffer though - sore knees, bruised ribs and especially for Jen, more bruises unaccounted for! Who knew it would be such a brutal sport?!?

After another long truck journey back (again, we were a little slow getting into the back of the trucks and just HAD to sit in the cab!) we knew it was time for a big meal and several beers, so the group of us went to Jerry's Pizza and feasted on good slices and great company...... and cold beers! We hung out for the evening, played some crazy 8 countdown, and headed off to bed after a grueling game, as we were getting up at 6am to the bus to the border of Costa Rica!!

Huevos Tortugas

2008-11-11T09:16:00.000-08:00

Hola Amigos!

So after the brutal mugging yesterday, we decided to wander the streets and explore the town. Very quiet, full of surf shops. Cute though! Hot as hades.. We went back to Casa Oro to read a bit, and then have some cervezas before the big event..... TURTLES! We are very close to La Flor, which is one of the biggest nesting colonies in the world. They are in the middle of a big arrival, with as many as 3,000 mamma turtles reaching shore nightly and dropping off their eggs. Fantastic!

We signed up for the tour, a whopping $30 each, and arrived at 6:30 for the very technical powerpoint presentation. Woohoo! Did you know that turtles mate with many partners, some at the same time, and then self fertilize? Did you know that a turtle can lay up to 120+ eggs in one sitting? Did you know that out of every 1,000 baby turtles that hatch, only one will make it to adulthood? If you answered ¨No, I did not know that!¨, then you would have been thoroughly enthralled at this presentation! We felt the same way.

So after our little lesson, we all piled into the trucks and vans to ride off to the turtle sanctuary. What a long, bumpy ride! I lucked out and the only seat left was in the front, so I enjoyed some rockin´ eighties tunes and nice air conditioning, while the others melted behind me. The 22k ride took a little over an hour. Yikes! We arrived at 8:30, had a little briefing, then off to the shore! Keep in mind that we were with a large, large group of gringos- who wants to take a guess as to how many of them followed the rules once we reached the sand???

When we reached the beach, we were stunned. The moon cast a bright glow over the sand, and there were TONS of big mamma turtles, en route to the sea or just emerging. Some were digging their holes with their back fins, some were filling the holes with sand.. and some were plopping out eggs. Wow! I have never seen a reptile fill their nest, and it was a sight to be seen.

Unfortunately, because there are so many turtles that surface each night to lay their eggs, the beach isn´t large enough to accomodate all of them. So each night, many turtles end up digging up the nests that were laid the previous nights, and laying their own eggs in their place. Because of all this digging and uncovering, a potent egg odor lingers over the beach. Mmmm.

Exciting evening! We hung around for an hour, dodging these determined turtles, while spying on this intimate time in their lives... Then it was back in the van for the long drive home! I slept quite comfortably, though Oli said he felt very violated by the bouncy benches in the back. Poor poppet.

We are off to go surfing... hang ten dudes!!!

We have been mugged....

2008-11-10T13:36:00.000-08:00

by a troupe of bandit jellyfish. They were a vicious bunch, and took no mercy. They snuck up while we were chin deep in the cove of San Juan Del Sur, and took advantage of the murky waters. They eyed up our gorgeous, 4 week old camera, and went for it. They caught Oli by surprise, with repeated lashings to his forarm. He dropped the camera, and I caught it under my feet. As we went down to grab it, the waves took us hostage, and knocked us off our tip-toes. Then when we dove for it, they came back for more flesh. My arms, legs, and feet fell victim to their ruthless ways. We kept on fighting the good fight, with the help of our new friends Becky and Chris, but to no avail. The attacks continued, and we were outnumbered. We returned to shore with our tails between our legs, and stingers in our extremeties. Oli had it the worst, but opted to head down the beach to a cafe for some vinegar instead of taking Chris up on his offer to pee on him.

Sad, sad day. We will not let the ocean gods beat us. We are going back for more later, but without any flashy valuables. And don´t worry, the pictures will continue- we are going to borrow one for the time being, and replace our dearly departed in San Jose. Lets hope number three´s a charm. I wonder if the insurance company will pay to replace this one as well.....

Hondurian photographs

2008-11-09T15:42:00.000-08:00

And below are the pictures from Honduras, and the Bay Islands. Please note that it is excruciatingly painful to upload this amount of photos in one day, and if the bars weren´t closed, we would not have been this productive!!!! Let us know how much you love our updates please... we know you lurkers out there are shy, but we can see you!!!! Say hello :)

Rio Dulce and Livingston

2008-11-09T15:38:00.000-08:00

Below are the pictures from our last days in Guatemala. ENJOYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!

"I'm gonna get ya little fishy... " - The Cat, Red Dwarf

2008-11-09T09:43:00.000-08:00

So the boat ride to Roatan was a little rough..... well it was a lot rough. Despite all odds though, none of the 4 of us got sick..... several others did though - the wonders of Dramamine! When we did finally arrive we were hoarded by a huge number of cab drivers, still with a dodgy belly, this was a little overwhelming but we managed to find a nice local guy who took us to the West End, via the shop and liquor store, to the sweet sounds of very loud Reggae!

We got to the west end and the place we wanted to stay at, The Mariposa Lodge, was full, so after a short trek we arrived at the 2nd choice, Chillies, and an awesome 2 bedroom cabana right at the back of the property, seemingly in the middle of the Jungle. We went out to explore and get some food and some cash and investigate the diving situation.

We arrived back at the lodge 2 hrs later, with no cash, all the ATMs were down, sore feet and a PADI course booked the next day with the Native Sons, starting at 830 am. So we opened up the rum! Several cocktails later we had walked down the beach with Angela and Ulla to a Reggae bar and were dancing away. 830 am came around a little too early!

Instead of it being just the 2 of us, 3 others had joined right then but fortunately our diving course started with a video. Our instructor, Andrea, was great and after a quick set-up tutorial, somehow, we found ourselves in a boat, suited up and ready to go. 3 - 2 - 1 and we were over the side backwards and in the ocean. Without really knowing what we were doing we ended up kneeling on the ocean floor (at least we were - not everyone had too much control!) and purposefully filling our masks with water and other fun stuff!! Despite the initial anxiousness and slightly dodgy feeling, it was awesome and we got to have our 1st experience of breathing under water, the reef, the little fish, the big fish and the general awesomeness of SCUBA - at least that is what I thought!

Who knew learning to dive took so much studying?! We watched more videos and read more chapters as the days progressed. We did "confined" water training in the bay and managed to stay out of the pool and everyday we had an open water dive. The reef in Roatan is dubbed as the 2nd best in the World, I have no basis for comparison, but would have to agree! As each day went on we both fell more and more in love with Scuba and the reading wasn't that bad!

Tuesday night was the last night for Angela, Ulla and Claudia (now that we had finally found her)so we all went out and had a few to drink, and then a few more! We also found out that Obama was the new President, so we had a few more!! Yay!! On Wednesday we woke up much earlier than we wanted and had our 3rd open water dive in the morning and came back for lunch, after which we took our final tests, and passed.... yay!! Only our 4th open water dive and we would be away!!

That afternoon things got messy..... I got ill and the power went out - no running water, no flushing toilet! And there was civil unrest on the Island. We stayed in! Come Thursday, still under the influence of a stomach bug, I was unable to dive but Jen went out and finished her course and came back a certified Open Water Diver! To celebrate we had lunch, and I kept it down... woooooo! Another quiet, powerless evening lay ahead and in the morning I was able to take my final dive and Jen had her 1st fun dive. Before lunch I was certified too and with the power back on we were even able to get some cash, pay our bill and get back on the road by lunch.

The boat ride back to La Ceiba was no where near as bad and we were able to enjoy our books and arrived safely on mainland Honduras, ready for a full 2 days of travel! We jumped on a bus and started our journey to Nicaragua, first stop Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras.

6 hours later we arrived and took a cab to the hotel there, where we even had a TV! But no remote! Come morning we trotted over to the TICA bus office for the 9am bus all the way to Managua, Nicaragua. It was full. So the journey began. A cab to the other bus station, a chicken bus to El Paraiso, another to the border. Another chicken bus (chicken buses are old US school buses, made for little kids, most Central Americans fit into these seats. I, however, don't.) to Ocotal and then a bus from Ocotal to Managua. We had a cab take us to the other bus station were we finally arrived in Granada, Nicaragua around 730pm last night. Long day! We met a friendly Aussie girl and Coast Rican guy who led us to the hostel, we wished however we had taken a cab as after 45mins of walking with our packs, we were a little hot!!

After getting a room we needed to eat and desperately wanted a beer. Just our luck, no alcohol may be served here for the 3 days we are in towne due to the election..... what are the chances? Early to bed it was!

Today we are exploring here and deciding where to go next before we head to Costa Rica, maybe stay here, maybe to the beach to surf and chill, who knows??

Till next time....

I'm gonna get ya little fishy...........

To bring you slightly up to speed.....

2008-11-09T09:40:00.000-08:00

Hmmm where were we.. where were we... ? Ahh yes! Volcanic excursion!! So the lava was tumbling down toward us. It was so unpredictable, with giant pieces of molten rock just rolling wherever it pleased. In retrospect, it really was quite dangerous, and we were tempting the gods, but alas, we are still alive to tell our tale. We approached the lava to take the obligatory pictures, warmed our hands and faces, toasted some marshmallows, then away we went. Back through the pitch black, the howling wind, and the unsteady rocks which tumbled down the volcano with every step. Thankfully only one person fell, and wasn´t hurt too terribly. I was wishing for a more powerful flashlight, and the rocks were so treacherous! After 40 minutes, we made it back to the tents, and climbed in to get any warmth we could. We fell asleep to the wind whipping our tent violently, and awoke many times throughout the night

We woke up at dawn, tore down camp, and admired the spectacular view. Absolutely once in a lifetime, amazing experience. We trekked back down to civilization pretty quickly, and were in Antigua, exhausted, by 10am. We unpacked, said goodbye to our amazing guides, and went in search of a hearty breakfast and some internet time before we departed for Rio Dulce. We caught the minibus to Guatemala City at 1, and then the bus to Rio Dulce at 4:30. Uneventful ride, consisting of scattered sleep and reading. We finally arrived in Rio Dulce at 11, where we hopped in a cab to Backpackers Hostel right on the water. We had a few drinks and some dinner, and went to bed in the 25+ person dorm (only $2.50 per person, what a deal!!).

We awoke the following day, Halloween! We hopped in the water shuttle to go up the river to the rasta town of Livingston, right on the Carribean. It was supposed to be about an hour long ride, but of course, things on this trip are never that simple! We went around picking up tourists and locals from many different places throughout the town, picking up the last batch about 45 minutes later. This crowd was so special. The minute they approached, they began spazzing out about how crowded the boat was, how the last one with this many people flipped over and sank, how it was immoral to put people in this situation, how dangerous it was to have no life jackets, etc. However, they had no qualms about jumping in, shoving the poor kid with the chicken in his lap to the floor, and pulling out their massive video cameras. Classic gringos, thanks guys! Americans have a tough enough time traveling without people like you tainting our reputation even more!! So about 10 minutes in, another boat pulled up beside us. I guess the weight was a bit much for our current boat, so we swapped to the other one, mid river.

Ten minutes later, the motor stopped. Ha. Awesome. It all honesty, the current wasn´t so bad, and it would have been easy to swim ashore, though a bummer to loose all of our belongings. The biggest guy on the boat began to scream. He was saying he needed ot go back to his hotel, how it was illegal to treat people this way, how if the boat didn´t turn around immediately, HE was going to turn the boat around. The boat began to rock. Thankfully, another boat pulled off and sent him away. As he drove off, he screamed how we should all get a refund, and how horrible things were in Guatemala. Oh joy. After he was out of sight, everyone began to chuckle and say they wished they had caught his outburst on camera. The boat immediately went ashore once the motor began to work, and we all received life jackets. Then, finally, away we went! The boat ride was gorgeous, we road through the jungle, past tiny water huts, local fishermen, lily pads, hot springs, and more.

It was so serene. We finally arrived in Livingston around noon, and set off to find a hotel. The town was alright, not really all it was cracked up to be by the guidebook and people we had met. Mainly a lot of cruiseship passengers wandering around, buying tacky souvineers, and lots of overpriced restaurants. However, our hotel had a fantastic balcony with hammocks, from where we could sit back, watch the passerbys on the streets, and drink cheap beer! So we spent our afternoon drinking, reading and writing, with the sounds of reggae in the background.

Dinner over more beers, and then some Coco Locos, which are coconuts filled with rum. MMMM.... Happy Halloween!!!!

The following morning, we took the 7am water shuttle to Puerto Barrios, and then another bus to the Honduran border. We met some lovely German girls, who were also heading towards the Bay Islands that day. We decided to team up with Angela and Ulla, and travel in a group. Four bus journeys later, we arrived in La Ceiba. It was pitch black, and way past the last boat rides to the islands, so we decided to find a hotel. We went to many places, then decided to head back to the first place we saw. It was torrentially downpouring, the streets were flooded, and there were sketchy characters around every corner. Ulla and Angela had been traveling with their friend Claudia, a girl from Guatemala, and she was with us until the rain got heavier, then she hopped into a cab. We didn´t see her for days.

We went back to the hotel, dried off, and went in search of food. As we left, the owner of the hotel said that we were in a very bad area, that there wasn´t food anywhere nearby, and that it wasn´t safe, even for four people to walk together. We ventured out anyway. We wandered for a long while, before we passed an expats bar, where a man told us that there was a Pizza Hut down the street. Victory!! We had some pizza, then went back and passed out.

We were unsure of whether the boats would be running the next morning, due to the heavy rain, but the hotel owner called, and we were in luck! We rushed off to the dock and bought our tickets. Finally, something was going our way!!

2008-11-08T20:15:00.000-08:00

We are alive!

Sorry for the lack of updates, we have been stranded in paradise! From Antigua we traveled up the Rio Dulce to Livingston, then off to Honduras! La Ceiba was a shithole, but then we were off to the Bay Islands. We were in Roatan, getting PADI certified and having a blast. There was a bit of civil unrest, some strikes, 48 hours without water or power, and then Oli got Monte´s revenge!! Poor guy. We left on Friday, and made it to Teguc. for the evening. We just arrived in Granada, Nicaragua, after 11 hours, 3 taxis, and 5 chicken bus rides. Wooooo! We will give a thorough update manaña. Hope everyone is well!

YAY OBAMA!!!!!

Hot like lava

2008-10-30T11:29:00.000-07:00

So, we wandered into to town to find ourselves a tour up to Pacaya to see the lava in the evening but when we arrived at the tourguides that we had heard about we chose to do something a little different. The plan was to leave at 2pm the next day (yesterday) and hike to the volcano and make camp to wait out until the sunset and from there hike to the lava, afterwhich we would spend the night on the volcano and head back in the morning. So we spent the afternoon on Tuesday wandering here in Antigua and hit up a couple of cool bars in the evening.

Come Wednesday, we packed up and headed for O.X., our guides, and by 330pm we were hiking up Pacaya itself. After a few wrong turns and a little backtracking, we made it to our campsite, with amazing panoramic views of the landscape and the other 3 volcanoes in the area. It was also bitterly cold and extremely windy! After layering up and eating a great curry dinner, huddled together for warmth, we started out for the lava!

Within just a few minutes we were able to see the lava on the side of the volcano, where we were heading to. Hot, molten rock just crumbling down... headed straight for us!!!

Details to follow soon, we have to catch a bus to Rio Dulce.

But here are the pics! Enjoy!