My travelling adventures...

:( Tomorrow I am leaving latin american after about 4 months - very sad - will be bizarre to be talking english to everyone - not that i am at all a spanish-speaker, but have gotten better!
Well Puebla was really pretty - had fun looking around... Oaxaca was nice (Puebla was a bit prettier) but had a great time there also - did a teeny bit of shopping...  Then we were off to Peurto Escondido on the coast - veeeerrrrry nice.  Had an amazing hotel (all of them have been pretty good)  on the beachfront and had a pool.  Did a couple of dives there too.  Then Acalpolco (however you spell it) - it is like a huge gold coast- but was good to see... Dee and I went down to Diamante Beach a bit out of the main town to get away fromt eh polution... had a foot massage while we lazing on the beach under our rented umbrella - very nice!  Gotta say the downside to the trip has been the long bus rides (wasnt expecting them to be quite so long) but it was still good to see the scerey (had 8hr, 5.5 and 6 hr bus trips). 
Now back in Mexico city - the trip officially ended today but all of us bar the tour leader are here at the hotel tonight so will be going out for a flashy meal :)  Was a really great (albeit quick) trip - had fantastic time at all the places...
And tomorrow I am off to meet my mum in San Fran for our 2-week driving trip!
Later gators!

Howdy!  I am in Puebla at the mo - and have had an awesome time shopping at the markets today (yes shopping again!)...  did do a city tour after our 2hr bus ride from mexico city.  It is a pretty city - lots of history as was the site for some revolutionary activity...
I really enjoyed mexico city  altho we were staying in the old historical centre so it was very nice... lots of green space - really beautiful big parks all over...  As i had already done the anthropology museum, while most of the group went there on our 'free day' i went out to the suburbs to see the Freida Kahlo museum - housed where she was born, lived and died - it was really interesting... Took the metro out there which was fun... you know when the doors close on the train and they beep and everyone keeps clear... well here on the busy stops when it beeps people still rush to cram in and the police try and hold the doors open for as long as possible - and you just hope you are in far enough!  there was barely breathing room when i first got in - after a few stops emptied about 1/2 - so probably what would be classified half capacity for us...  I got stared at a bit by a lot of people - dont think i felt so stared at apart from when i catapoulted myself onto all 4s on the top of the Sun Temple the other day - there was a collective gasp as i landed from behind me - so emabrassing! (obviously i am ok).   Back in mexico city I took in some of the must see sights - inside the national palace to see the murals, the post office (that was very pretty, was like a castle!), fine arts museum etc etc...  have been doing lots of group dinners etc as there is only 8 in the group it is a good size... most of us are from Oz (Melbourne actually), and then 2 from the UK (both from Leeds!) Went to a square on our final night in mexico to see the - you know the mexican guitar serendars musician people - and got a few of them to sing for us...
Off to Oaxaca tomorrow morning - meant to be a very pretty town, and amazing markets (oh no!) - weavings and stuff...
think that is about all for now!
Later gators!

hi! well have gone thru belize and am now in Mexico (and have now been to all 7 continents!!)...  Belize was great - a lot of people that we met were not that impressed but gotta say what i saw of it i really liked...

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well as you can tell I enjoyed tikal!
Our 2 day stopover in antigua was good - just wandered around...  We then caught the 10hr night bus from Guatemala to Flores - it was looong!  And was rather fun waiting at the dodgy bus stn at 9pm at night to catch the bus! Got to watch pretty woman and then the trip went a bit downhill (altho it didnt get hot which is a good thing) - the seats were ratehr uncomfy and the toilet was very smelly.  The bus did do a potty stop at about 4am.  altho it was mainly local guys on the bus and they didnt seem to care which toilet they went to - or whether they closed the door or not so i was waiting outside until this guatemalan lady came and yelled at the remaining men folk saying something in spanish and pointing at the ladies sign - hehe...  and after all that i think i wouldve been way better off in the bus toilet!
When we finally arrived in Flores Sara and I couldnt find our transfer to Tikal so had to wait an hour until the next chicken bus left... - people got on and off and exchnged goodies all along the way so the trip took about an hour longer... and then when we arrived at the hotel we couldnt check in til 2pm (3 hrs away) so we were pretty unimpressed tired little bunnies!
We went into the park at 4 (the $20 entrance then lasts the next day as well) and it was fantastic! -we had the place to ourselves pretty much (only saw 3 other people), visited a couple of the temples (the park is 16km2) and saw loads of spider monkeys traipsing in the trees above us, heaps of leaf cutter ants crossing the path, and we saw one of those giant guinea pigs things (even if i could remember its name i wouldnt be able to spell it).  We then made use of the electricity before the generator cut out at 9pm... was definitely wrthwhile staying in the park - and the shower was the greatest one i had this trip!
We got up at 4.15 to do the sunrise tour... did a rapid walk thru the park to the tallest temple (70m) and sat at the top waiting for the most to clear - didnt really while we were up there but it was nice to be there listening to the birds and howler monkeys and saw some toucans!  Then we did a proper tour of the park which was good...
We caught the 11am bus back to Flores where we are staying the night. It is pretty nice - it is a little island on this lakeand has some nice little buildings etc... Have booked a minibus to take us to San Ignacio (just over the Belize border) tomorrow morning...  We will spend the night there before heading up to Belize City where I will say goodbye to Sara :(  (she is flying to Panama) and I will take a little boat to Caye Caulker and do some diving and go to the Blue Hole hopefully!  (we were going to go to southern Belize but it is all flooded so decided against that ;)  )  Then on the 17th I fly to Mexico city!  yeehaa!

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Howdy!  Well Sara and I are in Chichi at the moment - why am I on the net when there are bargains to be had you ask? because we have way exceeded our budget - so with 2 hours to go we have decided to stop looking and retire to have lunch and close our eyes to the other goodies out there... was great fun tho! - was buying mainly xmas pressies (altho some stuff i liked so much i had to get 1 for me, then some for pressies - helps with the bargaining as well! :) )
The massage was very nice - had a very relaxing day.  Found a little vegetarian place for dinner and the waiter guy walked us home (little did we realise it was because there has been a lot of recent muggings in San Marcos after dark and the locals are doing all they can to help stop it).
Anyway bit tired - have a bit of a cold - but staying at the same hotel we stayed at with gap in Anigua so pretty nice (they have my backpack!)...
Nothing much else too exciting to report... so heres a couple of piccies!
Lake Atitlan
Chichi markets (these chickens are looking very healthy compared to some others we´ve seen)

Copan was beautiful - lovely ruins ;) 
Then had a nice 4hr bus ride to Antigua... then our ´last supper´with the group...  Went to a cuban restaurant, then an irish pub and then some bizarre little after party thing - was fun.  the following day Sara and I made our way to Lake Atitlan... we decided to take the chicken buses... despite taking a very long and indirect way to the lake it was brilliant as all the locals were so friendly and helpful running after buses for us telling them to wait etc... ended up taking about 7hours to get here (incl the 1 hr boat ride from Panajachel to San Marcos)...  Very nice and laid back here...  As we arrived at 6pm a lot of the places were already shut up for the night... this little boy took us round to help us find a hotel (the boys all meet the boats to help the tourists)... we ended up sharing a room at this fancy hotel that had a tree in the middle of it with 2 american uni students that are travelling round doing a documentary thing in their summer break.  Had a delicious pizza for dinner!
Sara and I moved hotels today - also a very cool place that has a spanish school attached so we have already learnt a couple of new words/grammar rules!  Having a 1.5hr massage this afternoon (san marcos is a spiritual/healing village - pretty cool place).  Getting up early tomorrow to make our way to the Chichi markets then back to Antigua - we decided to book a shuttle - good for time and then gives somewhere for us to store our bags while we check out the best markets in Guatemala!!  Very fun!
Then Antigua for a couple of days (where we may meet up with most of the group again), and then onto Tikal!
Later!
. Treetanic bar @ Utila - very cool place
Copan - tallest temple
Copan - main plaza
Copan - heiroglyphic staircase (over 2000 inscriptions)
San Marcos ´road´

howdy! well obviously survived the hurricane :) it was such lovely sunshiney weather the next day is was amazing - no rain at all for the whole day (was a first)... so sara and i went off on our own (the others did a day tour of Granada) - had breakfast at the 'best breakkie spot in granada - run by swiss guy who gave us instructions on how to catch a chicken bus to the Masaya markets - was... interesting... we got told where the tourist market was and to avoid it if we didnt want to pay double.. the bus dropped us off in what we were told was right in front of the markets.  we were offered several nearly dead chickens and hustled and bustled past a variety of little stalls with pots, pans, clothes etc...  eventually we did find the ceramics markets - we were the only tourists there - and unfortunately i could not resist a ceramic picture so my pack is mighty heavy!
The had the border crossing the next day - a lot more civilised and less muddy then the previous one!  Just had a quick stopover in the capital of honduras - tegucigalpa before departing for another long journey to get to utila (bay islands)... unfortunately after about 10hrs of travel we found out the ferry wasnt operating due to bad weather so we had to spend the night in la ceiba... a few of us had an interesting restaurant experience where the waitress didnt know what food she was serving (pork was enchilada etc) and then tried to up the prices when we came to pay the bill. yep central america - the place where bath mats do not exist, you are very lucky if you have a hot shower (you still think you are pretty special if you have running water at all), and a quick meal is going to take at least 1/2hr to get served! but we are fortunate in that its very green at the moment cos of the rain and very pretty... and have been having fun!
finally made it to Utila... got to do a couple of dives that afternoon (cheapest diving in the world!) - was pretty good...  then next day did 4 dives (including the most amazing night dive)... - the conditions were a lot better and then reef was lovely...  and met 2 seahorses!!!! one was prancing along the sandy ocean floor taking his time wandering from bunches of seaweed... - was fantastic!  Did a wreck dive which was pretty good... and then the night dive - had better bioluminescence than venezuala - it was like the most amazing night sky underwater with all the stars twinkling down towards the coral - so pretty... (altho got in trouble by the guide as he couldnt find me as i stayed behind with my torch off to see it) - worth it tho! ;) Utila was a pretty cool place - nice and laid back. 
Bizarrely I met a peruvian guy who i went diving with in Los Roques (Venezuala) - by coincidence we had dinner at the same restaurants 2 nights in a row!  Then on the ferry back I was chatting to this lady and she said when i go to antigua can i look up her friend who runs a hotel there... - turns out it is the hotel that the tour goes to!  Think it is amazing those kind of coincidences - makes me feel like i am going the right way :)
Anyway one night here in Copan (nice hotel), see the ruins tomorrow... then onto Antigua where the tour finishes!  Sara and I are going to check out Lake Atitlan and Tikal and head up to Belize together so that should be good.
Later!

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