Buenos Aires to Vegas - The Trek

"Hardcore" Trekking in Nepal

2010-12-07T03:43:00.000-08:00

Ok, it has been a "while" since my last post and technically it shouldn't fall under this blog but I thought I needed to get this down as it was such a fun(ny) experience.

Those who know me quite well may understand that I am fairly impulsive by nature, so when I was offered to join a trip to Nepal starting in 10 days all I thought was "Why the hell not??" ;). From there it was simply a matter of checking the work holiday calendar for openings and once that was cleared, book my trip.

I've been really interested in going to Nepal for quite some time. My interest was sparked during my time trekking in Patagonia. People would always say that if you liked Patagonia, then you would LOVE Nepal. My invitation came by way of a Russian lady called Nika. We had known each other for some time and she was en route to visit her Aunt Lesya who was living in Kathmandu. An open offer from her got me furiously checking flights, dates and itineraries.

I only had up to 8 days to spend so I needed to be efficient with my time allocation... something I wasn't used to compared with my trip last year when I had 7 months to see everything. Flights were booked and as the day drew closer we had a decent idea of what we wanted to do.

The flight left late Saturday night from Heathrow to Delhi. 10 hours later and with very little sleep, we touched down in the new Indira Ghandi Terminal 3 Airport of New Delhi. It was still early in the day (about 1pm). We didn't have our boarding passes yet for our connection to Kathmandu so we queued for an hour to sort that out. Next was the security check. In India it seems that men and women are checked separately so there are two separate queues. Bags are first checked as is standard and then every person is body searched. Women need to get searched within an enclosed cubicle so as to ensure there is no indecent exposure ;).

Once through, we moved on to our gate and boarded the plane. After 30 minutes of waiting we were told there was a minor technical fault which was being seen to. An hour later the fault was still being looked into. Another hour passed and we were finally informed that the plane was not suitable for the flight. It was 3:30pm now so we figured that Air India shouldn't have a problem finding a replacement plane to take us. It was then announced that due to "Sunset restrictions" in Kathmandu, no flight from Delhi was able to take off after 3:30pm... GREAT. We were ushered off the plane and greeted by a rep who assured us we would all be looked after. We camped out in the airport hallway and waited. It soon became clear we would not be flying out that day and instead had to check in to the earliest flight the next morning. As it stood, some people who were flying from Delhi at their initial leg were allowed to exit the airport. For us transit passengers however, none of us had a visa and we weren't allowed to obtain one as our bookings were to Kathmandu, Nepal and not within India. This meant we couldn't leave the airport to get to a hotel. The terminal also doesn't have it's own hotel so we basically had nowhere to stay.

Camped at the ticketing area of Delhi International

After about 3 hours of wrangling with the rep trying to get information we were handed some food and water and told we could check in to the next flight at 10pm and then move onto the departure lounge again. At this point he disappeared and we were on our own. Nika amusingly ranted at some officials. This caused much shuffling and consternation but in the end only resulted in her being offered a second portion of the crappy food. So we had to be content to spend our night with a mixed bag of 8 travellers, a disabled toilet and a smoking room.

We finally got our tickets and went through the whole security check procedure again. In the departure lounge we pushed 3 lounger chairs together and tried our best to get some rest between the intermittent airport announcements and flashing lights.

My Delhi bed

At 7am we were finally cleared to board the plane to Kathmandu. Once again it was delayed by over an hour but thankfully took off in the end and we arrived safely in Kathmandu airport. Our bad luck however had followed us. My bag did not arrive with the plane... By now I was fairly angry at the way we had been treated. I was quite rude to Miles the lost baggage official who apologised profusely and promised to let me know when it arrived in town.

So now I was 2 days into the trip with still the same clothes, no sleep and no bag. What a start!!

We trudged out the airport wearily and met up with Lesya, Nika's Aunt who greeted us with some flower Lei's which we hung round our necks. We hopped in a cab and joined the crazy Kathmandu traffic.

Kathmandu is vibrant, energetic, filthy dump of a city. There is a thick smog everywhere fueled by the throngs of scooters, motorbikes, small Suzuki Maruti 600 cars and burning garbage that seems to be everywhere. Many people wear face-masks to minimise inhalation of the fumes. I quickly felt my throat and nose clog up and get sore.

Thamel market district in Kathmandu

We arrived at the Yellow House Guesthouse in the Thamel district. The place was owned by a Swiss man called Nicholas and his Nepali wife Padma. Lesya had arranged us excellent accomodation where we dumped our belongings and moved to the in-house restaurant for some chai (tea) and food. It was a relief to be able to finally relax and eat some decent food. Lesya and Nika started to catchup and I picked up that Lesya had been living in India and Nepal for the last 5 years. While we ate we met several other travellers and discussed our plans for the rest of the trip.

Kathmandu. This was the view from the rooftop terrace of our guesthouse

Kathmandu

That evening we popped out to a nearby Israeli restaurant for dinner where we enjoyed a light meal and some drinks. Lesya had suggested we spend one more day in Kathmandu and then head for the hills in Pokhara for some trekking. This sounded like an excellent plan however I still had no kit for trekking in so we retired early that night and woke up to do a spot of shopping. I acquired some trail shoes, new pants, socks, underwear and a warm shirt which I hoped would tide me through until my bag arrived.

Dinner at the Israeli restaurant where I sampled the local Nepal Ice beer

Kitted out, we hopped in a taxi and went to one of the nearby hilltops to get some views of the Himalayas. We stopped on the summit of one of the hills for some tea and took in the spectacular panorama in front of us. I was beginning to get hooked on Ginger and lemon tea (it contained big chinks of ginger) and was knocking back at least 2 cups at each sitting. After chilling for a bit we moved onto a nearby trout farm where we had dinner of fried trout and trout curry. Filleting didn't seem to be part of the preparation so our trout came all in, heads, tails and bones included.

Himalayas Ahoy

Drinking tea with this view was really quite something

Something that we would have preferred not to see as we had just been driving on that stretch of road above!

Later that afternoon I received a call from our baggage man Miles who said that my bag had arrived and I could pick it up. I couldn't believe I actually had to go fetch the thing after so many cock-ups on Air India's part. I grudgingly took a taxi back to the airport and fetched it. We were due in Pokhara the next day and had a taxi booked for 5am. I hadn't been sleeping well the last few nights probably due to a combination of jet lag, clogged airways and the very firm bedding provided at the guesthouse. Nonetheless we were all up before 5am in anticipation of our taxi... which never came. Lesya got on the phone and finally managed to sort out another taxi... which picked us up a whole 2 hours later! We piled into the small car, unamused about our long wait but thankful we were finally on our way.

The drive through the Nepalese valleys was really beautiful. I snoozed for quite a bit on the 6 hour drive as I tried to catch up on lost sleep. We stopped for lunch at the Green Park Highway Restaurant which served a mainly vegetarian buffet. Tables were set-up in the midst of a lush garden which was teeming with butterflies. After an excellent lunch we continued the last leg of our journey and arrived in Pokhara in the early afternoon. Pokhara is a popular town for tourists as it is famous for the beautiful surrounding countryside and tranquil lake Fewa. It is also the starting point for trekkers who want to do the Annapurna mountain circuit, one of the most popular trekking routes in the world.

One of the large butterflies in the garden

We checked into the Blue Heaven hotel and met Chabilal, our trekking guide for the next few days. Chubby (as I ended up calling him simply because it was the easiest way to remember) was a quiet, unassuming local who had grown up in a rural village in Nepal. He was incredibly knowledgeable of the area and all the trekking routes so we quickly became comfortable that we were being led by the correct hands. Dinner was spent at a pizza restaurant which had views over lake Fewa. This was also the first place we sampled the local delicacy that is the Momo. A Momo is a steamed dumpling filled with chicken, veg or cheese and is delicious!

We awoke the next morning to a spectacular clear sky with the Annapurna and Machapuchare (Fish Tail) mountains on display from the hotel balcony. We packed into a taxi and were taken to(LOCATION) which was to be our starting point for our trekking. Even from this initial point we could see the huge Himalayan range in front of us.

Machapuchare (Fish Tail)

Local children taking their school lessons

After having some tea and lunch (chicken Momos) at a restaurant on the hilltop we started our walk to Puthana camp. The path was fairly busy with trekkers returning from Annapurna base camp and the surrounding villages. En route we passed a ritual celebration with upwards of 20 people singing and chanting. They were about to slaughter 2 lambs. Not really keen on witnessing such a thing we hurried on. The rest of the trek was very mild and we arrived at Puthana after only a few hours.

Some of the local kids

Puthana camp

After checking into the Heaven's Gate Guesthouse, Chabilal guided us up to the nearby hilltop. En route we passed some of the local water buffalo and one of the bulls had the audacity to mock charge us. Nika did not take kindly to this behaviour and vowed a fatwa on them. Up on the hilltop we watched the sun set over the Annapurna and Machapucherra ranges.

Nika's best friends, the water buffalos

Fish Tail in the setting sun

Back at camp Chabilal suggested we sample some of the locally made brew called Tungba. This sounded like a good way to round off the day so we seated ourselves outside and wrapped up warmly as the temperature had plummeted since the sun had set. We were each presented with a large metal flagon with a hole in the top and a long metal straw protruding out. Inside the flagon was real fermented millet which had quite a pungent odour. The method of drinking involves filling the flagon with hot water (from a large thermos provided), placing the lid back on and drinking it up through the straw. The water mixes with the fermenting millet and gains flavour and alcoholic potency. It tasted quite strongly of a warm mix of wine and beer. We persevered with our drinks and idle chitchat. Chabilal became quite animated from his usual quiet demeanour and was fervently refilling our flagons whenever we ran dry. Very quickly the Tungba had taken hold and we were laughing out loud and getting fairly raucous. Chabilal in contrast had suddenly become very quiet. As we got drunker and drunker, Chubby got quieter. I remember quite vividly how after laughing at some joke of Lesya's I noticed out of the corner of my eye Chubby leaning back in his chair. He continued his recline backwards until finally reaching a tipping point he crashed over backwards. I recall the distinct hard smacking noise of his head making contact with the flagstones. Suddenly there was no more joking. Nika, Lesya and I all exchanged alarmed glances and quickly got up to check on him. It was pitch black so I needed to take out my hand torch to check properly. Chabilal was splayed out on the ground not moving at all. It is surprising how quickly one can get sober in such a situation! I quickly checked his head and noticed no blood but he was staring out wide eyed and not moving. I did some basic checks to see if he could move his hands and legs - he could thankfully - and he managed to respond coherently to my questions... it appeared there was no serious issue in my mind at that point. The next moment some local guys from the restaurant trundled along with big grins on their faces. In very broken English they insisted he was ok and we needn't worry about him. This was easier said than done and all of us still kept a concerned eye on him lying there. One of the guys asked me to help turn him which I did and only then did good old Chubby throw up all over the ground, several times. Turns out he was totally pissed! Our concern began to fade and we manage to squeak out a few more laughs and drink some more Tungba, with Chabilal just lying there. Finally we reckoned it was time to move him back to his bed so a bunch of guys carried him there where Nika dumped 3 whole duvets on top of him to ensure he didn't get too cold. It was only around 8:30pm at this point so Nika, Lesya and myself carried our Tungba flagons back to the restaurant and had a spot of dinner. Lesya at this point was also beginning to feel the effects and suggested she was heading down the same road as Chubby. We quickly bundled her to bed and retired. What a hilarious night!

The next morning there were a pair of sheepish faces. Lesya and Chabilal were slightly embarrassed but took our teasing with good humour. The weather that morning was totally clear and the mountains looked spectacular in the crisp morning air.

Annapurna in the morning light from Puthana camp

After settling the bill we moved onto Australia camp which was a simple 30 minute hike. this camp also had impressive views of the range albeit at a different angle and perspective. We drank some more tea, ate some more Momos and chilled out for a bit before beginning our walk to Sarongkot camp which is very close to Pokhara.

Our initial hike took us to a roadway which led to the camp. We looked for a taxi but had no luck so instead decided to hop on a local bus. This thing was totally packed so we had to stand in the middle aisle and the roof must have been less then 5 feet high... this meant locals had no problem standing but I had to stand stoop legged and head cowed holding on for dear life as the bus roared along the road.

At an intersection we got off and took a few moments to recover. Our next option was to take a taxi the rest of the route. We secured a Maruti Suzuki 600 and started off on a crazy rutted broken road. The road got so bad that after 15minutes we figured we would be better off walking. This proved to be an excellent idea as we walked through the rural homesteads and were greeted warmly by the families that lived there. The kids had all been trained in basic English to say "Where you from?", "Give me sweets" and "Give me money". I simply high-fived them and carried on walking.

This little goat took a particular fondness for Nika and nuzzled her

As we were nearing Sarongkot we passed by an old homestead where an old woman gesticulated to Chabilal. She had prepared tea for us and wanted us to join her and her husband. How could we say no? We sat down in their garden as the tea was prepared. The couple had several terraced fields and farmed it for vegetables. they grew a large variety of crops including spinach, pumpkin, butternut and some other strange green thingies I have no name for. After tea, it was suggested we stay for dinner which we politely accepted. they cooked us a spinach (Saag) curry with roti bread. The vegetables were harvested and prepared in front of us and tasted delicious! We sat in this simple place with spectacular views as the sun slowly set. It really was a special experience.

Sunset

We bid the couple goodbye and walked into Sarongkot camp. It was still early so we went to a nearby restaurant for teas and Momos before getting some kip. Sarongkot is famous for it's sunrise views so I was up at 6am and walking up some steep steps to the viewpoint. The place was already crowded with tourists and locals alike. There was a group of elderly white tourists who were being led through a mantra as the sun rose.

Sunrise

Annapurna as the sunrise slowly creeps over it

It was decided breakfast should be had at our favourite little homestead again so we walked back down the road and were received with delight by the couple. We brought eggs along this time so they served us roti and omelettes and more saag curry! Once our bellies were full we were shown pictures of their Chori (daughter) who lived in Israel. We asked them to pose for some pictures with us and then went on our way.

Water Buffalos being used to plow the land

Nika, Lesya and Chabilal pose with the elderly couple (no idea of their names!)

It was yet another glorious sunny day so we got Chabilal to organise us one of the popular activities offered in the area... paragliding! It was at this point that my camera battery failed me so Chubby kindly offered to lend me his. We walked to the launching site high up on the mountain slope and met with our pilots, Christophe (French) and Claudio (Venezuelan).

The launch site

Nika geared up and ready to go!

There is basically no training involved in this so after we were kitted up in the harness all we did was wait for the wind to pick up and sprint down the slope at our pilot's instruction. Waiting around is not the most relaxing experience and I wasn't sure I was entirely comfortable throwing myself off a slope only to be held by a large plastic packet attached by strings. However the moment came and Nika was off first with Claudio and into the air closely followed by me and Christophe. All I could say then was WOW!!

Just after take-off

We glided out into the valley and then Christophe, using his expertise, caught the rising thermals to send us up even higher, well above the launch zone and over a couple hundred metres in the air! Soaring around in a spiral is amazing and exhilarating! I could see all over Pokhara and the mountains.

Soaring over Phokhara with lake Fewa below

There were lots of other paragliders out that day so the biggest risk we faced was a collision which we luckily avoided. While we were up there a few large eagles joined us in our flight. This was certainly an incredible experience and after 45 minutes or so we were taken down to the landing zone on the shore of lake Fewa all pumped up with adrenaline.

You can see there was a bit of traffic!

After a safe landing

This was our last day in Pokhara and we ended it with a boat trip across the lake at sunset with some food and beers. This may sound idyllic but 4 of us and the elderly woman rower were cramped up in a boat that was incredibly unstable and slowly leaking. Mild panic set in with the girls when we were halfway across the lake but luckily we had no major issues and alighted on the other side with very little fuss.

Taking it easy on the boat

Our final evening in Pokhara ended quietly. We had a flight booked back to Kathmandu the following morning where we would say farewell to Chabilal and have a final look at the Nepali capital before returning to freezing London.

Morning dawned with us all well rested. The plane we hopped on was a small 18 seater propeller carrier that actually seemed to be fairly new. The flight was surprisingly smooth and only took 35 minutes. Back in Kathmandu we had a busy day planned. We taxi'ed back to the Yellow House and made brief greetings to our friends there, dumped our bags, said farewell to Chabilal and hopped in another taxi to take us to the Boudhanath Buddhist Stupa. This Stupa sits on a hilltop in central Kathmandu and it's mandala can be viewed from almost anywhere in the city. I need to apologise for there will be no pictures from this point as my camera was totally dead and Chubby had left us. We walked up the steps past small Buddhist shrines and beggars and trinkets vendors. Another notable thing to mention is that the area is inhabited by many monkeys and also has the nickname of the Monkey Temple. At the top was the mandala which we entered. The construction is certainly large and impressive with the shiny golden mandala reaching up very high. Prayer wheels surround the central spire.

My best efforts at representing the Stupa courtesy of google images

There is a small building off to the side which houses the ritual chamber of the resident Buddhist monks. We were allowed entry to view their meditations, prayers and singing as long as we kept quiet. Now through what I have read and seen on tv, I had come to expect monks to be solemn and composed with some sort of serene aura. These monks however DID NOT seem like that. As soon as the girls stepped into the chamber it was blatantly obvious the looks they were getting from the monks. I didn't want to imagine the dirty thoughts they had but the girls clearly felt their attentions too and we made a quick retreat. So now we were all slightly disillusioned by the whole thing and needed to sit down, drink some tea and eat pancakes. The pancakes were delicious. Instead of taking the conventional steps down again, we opted for a more brazen path through the surrounding monkey infested forest. We spotted large groups of monkeys rampaging through the forest and spinning on makeshift ropes and discarded prayer flag banners that were left over from celebrations. They had even worked out how to wind a hanging rope up by spinning around continuously until it got taut and then letting it spin them around the opposite direction... this was hilarious to watch!

Once out of the forest, Lesya was determined to sample some more Tungba. A nearby restaurant had supplies which we indulged in. This Tungba was significantly less alcoholic than the last we had drunk due to the fact that demand in the city was much higher meaning less time for the millet fermentation. We left slightly inebriated and took a cab to Pashupatinah temple. Pashupatinah is to Hindu's what Mecca and the Vatican are to Muslims and Catholics. It is the main site for Hindu pilgrimages. It was getting dark now but luckily the temple is open at all hours and we picked up a guide who took us on a tour. There is a river that flows through the centre of the area that is a tributary of the Ganges river. For this reason it is treated with a holy status. The banks are lined with pillar-like stone altars which are used for human cremation.

You can see the burning altars on the sides of the river here

When a Hindu person dies, their family can bring them to the temple and pay a small fee to cremate them on one of these altars. This is the appropriate way to send off the departed except for children who are less than 5 years old who are buried in the ground. There was even an open fire that was slowly burning down when we were there. The body had largely been cremated at this stage but it was still a slightly intense experience being there and viewing it. This temple is also swarming with monkeys. They bound over the rooftops at random and use the electric cables to traverse the wider gaps. Safe wiring in Nepal however has much to be desired and several monkeys were running around on their hind-legs as they had had their hands burnt off in an electrical accident. This proved to be a slightly comical albeit sad thing to witness.

We were shown the rest of the temple and were taken to the eating area of the resident Holy Men who spent their lives at the temple. They ritually would apply the burnt ashes of the cremations to their bodies and didn't seem to cut or wash their hair.

Holy men

With our time at the temple up, we got back to Yellow House and joined a big group of the "locals" for dinner and drinks. One Canadian chap suggested we go to a gig that night called Dub Tec. We hadn't had a proper party in a while so decided to check it out. The gig was fantastic with the front man using his dub plate to record beat box rhythms and then sing along with that. Several drinks later it was all over and we were back at Yellow House.

Our flight was quite early the next day so with our bags all packed we said goodbye to Lesya and the other friends we had made and took our final cab back to the airport.

I had made a point of not checking in any luggage for the return journey as my trust of Air India was close to zero. Thankfully we only had to endure some minor delays on our flight to Delhi and then onto London. The wintery chill in London was not altogether appreciated but we were glad to be back in more comfortable surroundings. Having said that, we had only experienced a fraction of what Nepal has to offer so undoubtedly I will be making an effort to return at some point!

Is it really all over???

2009-08-24T06:11:00.001-07:00

So I have now been in the UK for a couple of weeks living with my brother. It has been really great catching up with him and my friends and thankfully the summer here lingers on so my tan hasn't totally faded yet! I also weighed myself upon my return and was shocked to see that I was a measly 78kg, almost 6kg lighter than when I had left!

The strangest thing I felt when I touched down back in London was that I could clearly recall the day I trudged out of my apartment in West Hampstead with my wheelie bag to embark on this 7 month journey. Nothing seems to have changed much from when I left besides cosmetic alterations. London life continues as it always has and I seem to have slotted in quite neatly without any trouble whatsoever. That's not to say I haven't needed to adjust though! Being responsible is a job in itself I have found. Now I need to find a employment to recoup my funds.

The question I suppose most people are interested in is whether I have changed and whether I have "found" myself. I suppose my answer to this is that I have "found" myself to the extent that I have shed a lot of the unnecessary bothers and worries that used to plague me in London life. I am not a whole new person but I certainly have been enriched by the places I have been to and, more importantly, the people I have met. In this sense I feel I have grown as an individual and I am now aware of so many other things in life. I have unleashed my passion for travelling although I do understand and accept the fact that I cannot carry on indefinitely and that there is a more defined reality for me. I relish the opportunity to settle back into a routine in London for a time until I am ready to start my next adventure. I feel anybody can do what I have done. You just need a bit of courage as it is not a decision taken lightly. Looking back, there are things I would have changed if I could do it all over again (learning Spanish a bit better for example!) but I certainly regret nothing. Everything you go through is a learning experience be it for good or bad. I am almost glad I got mugged in Honduras as I had no idea what it would feel like and it is something I have learnt from!

In conclusion, I would never say that this was something that I needed to "get out of my system" as I feel you can never really shake that thrill of exploring new places. But a person always needs to be sure of themselves and their timing before taking the big leap and going travelling.

Whoever has been reading this blog, I hope you have enjoyed it. I will be taking a break from it until I find a new pursuit that will be suitably interesting to document. I definitely am setting sights on Asia and Brazil for the forseeable future! So watch this blog spot! For any would-be bloggers, I highly recommend it! Looking back at my stories and adventures has been infinitely rewarding. Despite the many hours I have spent editing and posting and the many annoyances with blogging (I should really submit some suggestions to www.blogger.com about things such as text editing and picture uploads... there are some really frustrating things about it!).

Is it really all over? Not a chance.

Adios Amigos

Hasta Luego!

New York and the Conclusion of The Trek

2009-07-25T18:52:00.001-07:00

Can you believe 7.5 months have gone by since I took off. I can not even fathom it! What the hell did I spend 7 months doing..... oh wait..... I remember ;-)

I was recommended to take the Bolt Bus service from Washington DC to New York. Not only was this bus cheaper than the others I checked, but it also had onboard WiFi! Amazing stuff. I had an easy start to the day as the bus only left at 2pm. I woke up late, had a leisurely breakfast and said goodbye to Stign and the others I had co-habited with recently. The bus was on time and I hopped on. Washington had been great and I think I had just about seen everything I wanted to!

From warm and sunny Washington I travelled to wet and warm New York City. As I could use my laptop, I could keep myself easily entertained for the 4 hour ride. I was dropped off and promptly got on the metro and made my way to Steph Ligon's apartment in the West Village. This area is around the 20th street region of NYC (bottom half of Manhattan Island) and is known to be super trendy. Steph is a friend of mine from my early days in London. I got to her front door and realised that the handle had been ripped off. Luckily for me I had my Leatherman so I applied the appropriate tool and gained access. Slightly illegal but better then staying out in the rain! We did not linger though as we were both hungry and had a lot to catchup on. We ate at a small gastro-bar nearby and related all we had been through in the 2 years since we had last seen each other. After dinner, Emily was ready to receive me so I collected my bags and walked the short distance to her apartment. Emily had been my housemate in London for close to a year when we all lived in Kensington. This was almost 2 years ago. We had seen each other a few times since but but only on brief holiday trips. I also caught up with her girlfriend Katrina whom I had also met in London. They shared a very nice studio apartment right between the West Village and Soho. I was shown my large sofa bed... quite a luxury considering the dorms I had been living in of late. As it was fairly late, we just talked for a while and then went to sleep.

Katrina and Emily went to work in the morning and I had a chance to start exploring New York City. I had been to New York on two separate occasions and had seen just about all the sights typical of a tourist trip. The weather was pretty bad so I kept indoors as much as I could. I didn't do too much but I did spend time getting admin done. That evening we all went out for some Malaysian food. I also sampled a Sake Bomb which is quite entertaining when you take it. A tall glass is half filled with beer and two chopsticks are laid parallel on top of it. A shot of hot sake is balanced on top. Then everyone sings a song which goes like this:

"I say Sake, you say Bomb.... SAKE!.... BOMB!.... SAKE!.... BOMB!!!!" On the second chant of BOMB! everybody smashes their fists on the table which makes the shot teeter off and fall into the beer. You immediately have to down the glass.

Setting it up

SAKE BOMB!

After a few of those, it was decided to go to a nearby bar called The Standard where chilled for a bit chatting. The plan had been to go to a club called Kiss n Fly as the Roots were playing there. One look at the front of the door made us decide to avoid the place and move to another small boutique club. Somehow we managed to sneak in without paying the cover but beers inside were a whopping $10! Compared to the $1 beers I had been sipping on before, there was quite a New York premium laid on!

Sara and Jen, two Italian fast-talking New York Ladies

Don't mess with those guns

The next day was time to see the NYC sites. I took a huge walk from West 3rd St all the way to Times Square on 45 St. I was dismayed to see the Virgin Megastore there was shutting down... it is one of the places I always visit to pickup some music. I had lunch at the New York Burger Company which was better than McDonalds at least! Walking back down through the West Village was like walking in a separate city with shady trees and greenery and quaint little buildings.

Times Square

I rested back at the apartment for a bit before meeting up with Lauren (a friend I had met in Costa Rica). We were at the Town Tavern where her friend worked. I think the bartenders there were more drunk than any of the patrons as they frequently stepped up onto the bar and poured shots down to the eager people below. Sometimes their aim was off and I saw a girl get totally splashed with red gooey liquor. From 6:30 till 8:30 we were literally having free drinks thrown at us. I needed to get out to eat and recover from that heavy session!

Friday was another walk around day. I saw the east village and enjoyed the brief respite in the rain until it started up again forcing me to retreat inside. Everybody was up for a party that night again... sigh! We met at the office of one of Emily's friends, Kayte. She works for Yelp in the middle of the city. The office had free alcohol and food so, as we were all cheapies, we indulged. We were having so much fun we realised that it was too late to go out! We had a load of fun though, playing random music, throwing large inflatable balls around and generally trashing the office. I actually feel really guilty about the state we left it in! I did manage to break my camera when I dropped it! Luckily the memory card still works so I have all my pictures. Once we had had enough we just caught a cab back to the apartment and fell asleep.

Drinks at the Yelp office

Ready...

Impact was spectacular!

On Saturday, Emily and Katrina were off to a Maxwell concert in Connecticut with Katrina's cousin Sophie. I was intending to go but the event had sold out and ticket prices had tripled to over $120 which was out of my price range. I sadly watched them depart but still had some friends to hang out with that evening. Sara, a born and bred New Yorker, and some other friends showed me to the Off The Wagon Bar. This place is called a Dive Bar and appropriately so due to its shoddy upkeep and slightly off-beat crowd. It was, however, brilliant! The music was good and the beer was surprisingly cheap!

The rest of the house returned early in the morning. We brunched at the trendy Bar Pitti restaurant where we all ate the pappardelle pasta! Desert was at the famous Magnolia Bakery where I had a delicious cupcake. Next stop was the Standard where we lounged on the sunbeds a while before moving to a theatre to watch 500 days of Summer. The movie was alright... bit of a chick flick and the characters could get annoying. A thunderstorm had occupied the city whilst we were in the theatre so we were greeted by flooded streets and Metro stations. Back at the apartment we said goodbye to Sophie as she headed back to Washington DC. Sara and some friends picked me up and took us on a drive through the city at night while we blasted tunes out of the car.

My last day dawned hot and muggy. There were 8 hours for me to finish up in the city. My first choice was to go to the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). This had a great collection of Picasso, Cezanne and Pollock (to name a few). The museum conveniently supplies free audio phones to guide you through the exhibits. I plodded around in interest and occasional amusement. Museums have a bad tendency to put me to sleep after a few hours so once I felt my eyelids droop I knew it was time to move on. I got one hour to finalise all my travel arrangements and triple check my details. Then I was off to JFK to end the odyssey.

Getting Stuck into America's Culture in Washington DC

2009-07-21T07:20:00.000-07:00

My plan for Washington had been to meet up with Daniel Owens (Mountain Mama), who I had travelled the Bolivian Salt Flats with. Unfortunately he was scheduled to be in the town of Richmond for the time I had, so that would be impossible. So I booked into a hostel and, after a short stopover in Miami, arrived in Reagan International airport in DC at 7am on a warm Sunday morning.

I bought a metro ticket and made my way over to LOFSTEL hostel very easily. This place was slightly different to what I had grown accustomed to. On the surface it seemed like a standard family house, converted to accommodate up to 30 people in bunk beds. After chatting to some of the guests I figured out that almost everyone is staying there for at least a month and is either interning or working in DC. Short term travellers like myself were a minority although I didn't really feel out of place at all. I also felt a bit old as the average age must have lain at around 20 years old with the odd exception.

The informal setting meant that the on-duty hostel officer was not there but rather enjoying an extended brunch. No worries I thought, so I dumped my bags in the corner and took a walk back to the metro to begin my sightseeing tour. I got off at L'Enfant station which was on the edge of the National Mall (not a shopping centre but rather a huge stretch of land, a national park in fact, dotted with museums and memorials) and right next to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. Kris (from Vegas) had recommended the place so I popped in. Entrance was free as were guided tours, so I joined one group where we were taken through the history of aviation starting with the Wright brothers and ending at the Apollo 11 space shuttles. Alan Bean, a famous American astronaut, was at the museum that day for a book signing. I got a lucky snap of him!

The main hall in the National Air and Space Museum

The Original Wright Brothers Flyer

Alan Bean signing for his new book

The Moon Lander

Stepping out of the museum and into the Mall, I got to see that I had a lot of walking to do. The Mall stretches for around 4.5km end to end. I was on the east side near the Capitol building so I decided to march over there first. After checking it out for a bit, I turned around and started walking back towards the towering Washington Monument. This thing looks immense from a distance and is even more breathtaking when you stand beneath it. You can even take an elevator up to the top of it but it was closed by the time I had arrived there. After admiring it for a while I carried on the hike towards the World War II Memorial which is in the centre of the mall and on the edge of the reflecting lake. Fountains and large sculpted displays commemorated the American and Allied war effort.

Hippies

The Capitol Building

Smithsonian Castle

Washington Monument

Looking up from the base of Washington Monument

Looking over the Mall towards the World War II Memorial and Lincoln Memorial

Korean War Memorial - Spooky Soldiers

The Mall is headed by the Lincoln Memorial. I made my way towards it, walking alongside the reflecting lake. I detoured slightly to the left to view the Korean War Memorial which is a slightly spooky display of American soldiers on patrol. There was a swell of tourists at the Lincoln Memorial but I managed to sneak through and check out Abe sitting on his pedestal as well as the chiseled speeches to the left and right. Next was the Vietnam War Memorial which bore the names of the soldiers who died fighting there in chronological order.

Lincoln Memorial

Old Abe

A great view over the Reflecting Pool and Mall

Vietnam War Memorial

After absorbing all of this for a while I recollected my thoughts and tried to figure out where my next destination was. I wanted to see the White House but I hadn't brought a map. When I located one I realised it was back the way I came! Stifling a groan, I trudged back along the reflecting lake and took a left to the White House. After getting in the obligatory pictures, I was free to retire to my hostel bunk. The nearest Metro station was a fair way off again so by the time I got back to the hostel I was well and truly buggered. My feet ached from the unsupportive flip flops I had been wearing. A quick dinner and chat with the fellow dormies was followed by a long sleep-in.

Final stop of the day - The White House

I had met an interesting chap from Belgium called Stign. he worked as a business management officer for Verizon and was on a 3 week holiday down the east coast. He suggested we visit the National Air and Space Museum Udvar-Hazy building. This was an extension of the museum I had visited the previous day but contained much larger exhibits. It was located in a reallocated aircraft hangar near Dulles airport. Luckily for us, Stign had a hired car with SatNav so we got there with a minimum of hassle. Once inside I got to see some incredible aircraft including the F-14 Tomcat immortalized in the movie Top Gun, the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird (fastest aircraft ever built), the Enola Gay (B-52 bomber that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima), an Air France Concorde and finally the Enterprise Space Shuttle. This was a small sample of a massive range of aircraft present. Going through everything took a fair while and it was after lunchtime that we left for our next stop, the Pentagon.

The Udvar-Hazy Air and Space Museum

Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird... pretty awesome!

Jet turbines

F-14 Tomcat made famous by Top Gun

Enola Gay

Concorde

Space Shuttle Enterprise

Cruise Missiles

Photography is not allowed in the area surrounding the Pentagon although I think Stign managed to get a covert shot in. We were a bit put out not to see any Secret Agents. The people who worked there seemed mainly middle aged computer nerds with large rimmed glasses. Then again we surmised that a Secret Agent probably intended to look like that to throw off suspicion. After much discussion and analysis, we concluded that the most likely Secret Agent candidate was a grey haired 70 year old woman with a walker. There was just something not right about her.

You couldn't really see much of the Pentagon from our vantage point so we decided to move on to Arlington Cemetary. This place is probably one of the most significant sites in American heritage. It is a resting place for a great many of America's war heroes from just about every conflict since their independance. Upon arrival you can take in the huge scale of the cemetary. Identical, small, simple white gravestones line up in the groomed, rolling fields as far as you can see. They are shaded by the odd tree and there is a very peaceful atmosphere. It is quite an experience to behold. One of the main attractions is the burial site of John F Kennedy as well as the tomb of the Unnamed Soldier. We walked in silence along the paths and roads.

Arlington Cemetary

John and Jackie Kennedy's resting place

Guard ceremony at the Tomb of the Unnamed Soldier

By now it was around 6pm and we were hungry. We drove back to the hostel where I made some food. Shortly afterward, Mary and Kendra organised a trip back the National Mall to see the memorials at night. Even though my feet were still hurting, I decided to go along. It was well worth it as the sites were all lit up and the crowds were minimal. We hung out around the Washington Memorial and then the Lincoln Memorial, enjoying the balmy summer night.

My brief sojourn was over but I felt like I had seen a lot. I certainly had given my legs some serious exercise! Onwards to the last stop of the Trek. New York City.

Newport Beach, the OC and LA

2009-07-17T12:33:00.000-07:00

With Vegas behind me I felt I had a chance to lay back and relax on the beach for a few days. Essentially my obligation to this blog had ended with Vegas, but I think there is a space for a bit more. The Greyhound bus from Vegas to LA was fine... a bit cramped and the odd dodgy person but nothing to really worry about. Lauren picked me up from the bus station and informed me that it was situated in a particularly dodgy neighbourhood. Oops.

Anyway, we drove over to Newport Beach, catching up a lot on all that had transpired in the year since we met. Newport is a small town in the Orange County (OC), 1 hour south of LA and is famous for being the location of the popular TV series, The OC. She was living in a loft apartment 1 block from the beach with 2 other housemates. All 3 girls living there (Erin, Jackie and Lauren) were waterpolo players. I was shown my couch where I was going to sleep for the next few nights and was quite pleased with the size and comfort. Lauren and Erin were eager to show me the Newport nightlife so they drove us off to a bar called The District. It was fairly quiet but there was a hilarious guy singing 60s and 70s covers in the corner. He even had shiny, sparkly coats for his Elvis songs. We stayed for one drink before calling it a night.

The apartment, just one block from the beach

Myself, Erin and Lauren having a drink at The District

The morning started early. I was awoken by the sound of scurrying feet next to my sleeper couch. It turned out that the 2 cats Perry and Marley were having races down the corridor. They would race down to the end where Erin's room was and then walk calmly back before repeating it.This happened at least 5 or 6 times and seemed pretty bizarre to me. When everyone was up, we were off to Laguna beach. This place is also famous for the show Laguna Beach. We took along a beach volleyball and played against some young guys from Vegas. After a fairly close game (we lost), we swam in the ocean which was fairly cold but refreshing and baked in the sun before going back to Newport. We stopped off to buy some supplies for a burger and sausage barbeque later that afternoon and made some punch called Hop-Skippity (Beer, Lemonade and Vodka).

Laguna Beach

I sucked at Mario Kart

Erin and her cat Marley

A bunch of Lauren's friends arrived in the late afternoon for food and to play Mario Kart on the Nintendo 64. Wednesdays were the big night out in town so after the barbeque we went down to Malarky's Irish Pub where I met the whole Newport crew. Lauren and Erin got hold of my camera and took close to 100 pictures! I had to cut out a few gems for the sake of space and respectability.

Party started on the couch already

Drunken Darts

Steve (Erin's boyfriend) and me partaking in a friendly game of darts

Steve pulling off a great face and me appearing to be chewing his ear

I had known these people for one day!

More love

Too much love

The bar staff

Hangovers were communal when we woke up. We countered this with an amazing breakfast at the Omelette Parlour and allowed our meals to digest on Newport beach. We played some more volleyball and swam a bit before crashing back at the apartment. All this activity was exhausting!

Omelette Parlour!

Newport Beach

Water safety was paramount so I donned my barbie tube

Rudi's Sports Bar was our destination that evening. Some of Lauren's friends work there so we popped in to say hi and got some "I know the bartender" drinks specials. I met a cool Canadian guy called Will Farrell... very similar in name to one of my fave actors.

Long tongues

Julia and Will Farrell

My penultimate day was on Huntington Beach which was hosting the US Open Surf champs. We saw some pretty gnarly surfers shredding the waves although the big names were only due to arrive at the end of the week. The surf wasn't too big at the pier but the beach was packed. Lunch was spent at Big Belly Deli (all I seemed to be doing was eat!). They made massive, delicious sandwiches which I managed to finish all in one go.

Goofing around

Another day, another beach - Huntington Beach Pier

Lauren then drove us over to UC Irvine (her university) where there was a big waterpolo match on against UCLA. UCLA kicked butt. Erin cwas a bit of an obsessive Harry Potter fan so she "encouraged" us to go see the latest one with her that evening. Much to my personal chagrin, 10 minutes into the film I realised that I had missed the previous film! The last night was spent at Rudi's again. A DJ had been brought in for the weekend. Lauren's friends, Scott and Tyler, were working the bar so again the drinks were super cheap for us!

My flight on Saturday was only scheduled for 10pm so Lauren and I headed through to LA for a daytrip. We walked around Venice beach, checking out Muscle Beach (where steroided pumped dudes lift weights to entertain the public) and the skateboarders. Next we took a drive through to see the Hollywood sign. Our route took us through a picturesque neighbourhood that was situated on steep, narrow, tree-shaded roads that wound treacherously up and around the slope. We popped out at the top of a valley ridge that gave close views of the Hollywood sign and a large panoramic view of LA.

Muscle beach at Venice beach

Canyon Lake and LA in the distance

Lunch was spent at In-N-Out Burger and from there we moved into Hollywood Boulevard where we saw the Chinese Theatre where most of the big LA movie premieres take place. All along the street are the star signs from famous actors as well as impersonators who will let you take a picture with them for a nominal fee.

Lunch at In-N-Out

Chinese Theatre

Superman!

Last stop was at Rodeo Drive where we window shopped and indulged in wishful thinking. The street was remarkably quiet and serene... not what I was expecting at all. There was a sophisticated, classy feel to the area that was briefly clashed with by wandering groups of tourists. We spotted some beautiful cars too!

Rodeo Drive

This Mercedes Mclaren SLR will set you back close to $500 000

This Rolls doesn't come cheap either

By then it was getting late so I needed to be at the airport to catch my flight to Washington DC. Lauren kindly dropped me off and I was back to reminiscing about the past 4 days of fun.

LAS VEGASSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2009-07-13T10:01:00.000-07:00

What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas

End of Blog entry

However I couldn't be that mean so I will give a bit of news.

I woke up at 5am in Mexico City and got to the airport in time to fly to Hermisillo and then onto LA and finally onto Vegas. Upon arrival I got hold of Hailey (after much frustration with the local payphones) who let me into her apartment at Panorama Towers. These were a family of 3 high rise luxury apartment blocks that sat behind the Bellagio hotel on the main strip. Quite an incredible location and the view was even better from her balcony on the 25th floor. Hailey is a close friend of Nat's and in addition is an employee of the Wynn hotel meaning we had a local connection... an invaluable thing I was to find out.

I entered to see Nat Katz, a friend of mine from Melbourne, Australia, whom I had met in London. We had coordinated for a while to make this trip a reality and it was really exciting for the plan to come together. We sat overlooking the Vegas skyline enjoying a beer as the sun set.

View from the apartment overlooking the strip

This is where I stayed

Hailey introduced me to her housemate Kris and Lindsay. Kris was ex US army and had travelled a great deal. Lindsay worked in Vegas real estate. First order was for us to get ready for a few drinks at a locals place called Blue Martini which had ripping live music and a great atmosphere without the crazy drunkenness typical of Vegas tourists. We then popped downstairs to the Yardarm which serves something like over 160 different types of beers. Kris introduced me to Shiner Bock, a Texan beer that is brewed in the German style. Not too fizzy and quite tasty at the same time... I liked it!

3 Legends - starting off at Blue Martini bar

Next move was to the Luxor hotel (the famous pyramid shaped one) and into the LAX nightclub. Hailey used her connections to get us in for free ($30 cover) and free drinks in the VIP area. We then got invited to the table of Quinton "Rampage" Jackson, a UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) fighter. The reason he was around was because there was a huge round of fights setup for the coming weekend (UFC 100) and most of the big name fighters were in town. Despite me being slightly terrified by this large chap he was very welcoming and offered us to drink for free at his table. We met a Kiwi girl there called Joleen who was great to hang out with. We didn't stay too late as the club and music wasn't what we were looking for and we wanted to keep our energy for a big Thursday night.

And onto LAX nightclub

I got dared to go dance with the stage girls - I ended up getting kicked out of VIP

Quinton "Rampage" Jackson - UFC fighter

Joleen (NZ) and Nat (Aus)

The late shift cleaners gave out free rides

Thursday started off slowly. In the morning, Nat and I went shopping at the Fashion Show Mall for party related gear (an Abercrombie & Fitch shirt for me and a bikini for Nat) before having lunch at the California Pizza Kitchen with Hailey who was on her lunch break. After lunch we taxied back and relaxed by the Panorama pool area for the afternoon hours before getting prepared for the night ahead

In the Wynn

We were scheduled to be out at Tryst nightclub in the Wynn hotel. Before that however we made a brief stopover at The Bank nightclub in the Bellagio. Inside Hailey made a beeline for the private tables and secured us a nice drinking spot (drinks all free of charge of course). The music there was mainly hip-hop with a few Michael Jackson tributes thrown in. Occasionally a foam gun would splash around making it look a bit like a snow storm inside. After an hour or so we were ready to move on.

Bellagio

Ladies table at The Bank

A quick trip down the strip and we were in the Wynn. Again Hailey bypasses the large queue and speaks to the doorman and bouncers. In next to no time we were being ushered past the long line of waiting people and straight into the club VIP section. We were joined by Joleen and very soon we were back at a UFC table, only this time it was a large bunch of them. Now I won't lie that, as a guy, I wasn't the most welcome person there but I did have 3 girls in tow which meant I held a bit of sway so I was allowed to chill. These guys were all pretty massive and pumped up. I met Chuck "Iceman" Liddell along with several other big name fighters. The club was stunning. The social area extended around a large blue-lit pool area with incredibly detailed decor. In addition they played house music which bumped up the whole experience another notch!

Poolside at Tryst nightclub

Chuck "Iceman" Liddell

News came to us that another exclusive after-hours club called Drai's would be open and we had a ticket in. We marched over to the club in Bill's Gambling Hall and again bypassed the queue and the $50 entrance fee. More partying commenced. When it got really really late we thought it wise to head home. En route we took a food break at Denny's where I had a Hooburrito which was pretty gross and messed my stomach up a bit. There was also a crazy guy talking gibberish next to our table who got kicked out after causing a massive scene for not getting chopsticks with his chicken burger.

Sleeping in nice and late we got ready for a heavy session of tanning and relaxing at the Wynn hotel pool area. Nat went in before me as I needed to get some stuff done so when I arrived I realised I had no guest identification to speak of. Luckily I was given a tip to sneak through one of the terrace restaurants where security was lax. After my covert operation I cruised to a nice spot where I could bask for the next couple of hours. The pool area was festive. Loud music blared and people with cocktails filled the pool.

Recovering at the Wynn pool

When we got back to the apartment I was intending to head out to a local electronics shop to buy myself a laptop. This trip was cut short by Kris' suggestion we head to the Hard Rock Hotel for some beers. Feeling that this was a much better idea, I accepted. We met Kris' friend Erin by the central bar in the hotel. Kris knew the bartender there so we were getting very very strong vodka red bulls at bargain prices.

Hooters nostalgia - I stayed there the last time I was in Vegas

Boys night out with Erin and Kris

Erin and his girlfriend were going for a dinner at Agu which we joined in on. I tucked into a tender ribeye steak. We finished off with a desert and port before moving to another of Kris' suggested spots... the Hofbrauhaus. This is a copy of the original in Bavaria. They clearly went to pains to make it authentic. Buxom wenches clad in traditional German attire slammed large litre jugs of beer on our tables. A German band played in the corner and a beer holding contest was held (you stick your arm out holding a full jug and hold it as long as you can).

Hofbrauhaus

Authentic German band

Authentic 1 litre Hofbrau beers

It was there we met another of Kris' friends, Jason. he hung out with us for a drink before we took a drive to another interesting place... Stoneys Nightclub. This was an all-American country western hangout. The large dancefloor was filled with people line dancing and a mechnical bull sat in the corner. I was tempted to give it a go but after a moment spent viewing guys getting launched off it, I realised that my bad shoulder would never take the strain.

This girl LOVED the bull. She had like 5 goes

Jason and Angelica

I gave line dancing a go and was pretty bad so I sat down again. After hanging out with Jason, Kris and Angelica it was again time to go home. Another great night!

By now all this partying was starting to take its toll. Waking up groggy-eyed I resolved to go get something constructive done. Kris and I drove to a shopping complex and had some cleansing sushi before I missioned off to Fry's Electronics, a megastore that contained just about anything that could be plugged into a wall socket. I stared at the shiny laptops a bit bug-eyed and picked out one that was to my liking. I spent a bit more than I had planned but quality doesn't come cheap.

Sushi - really good!

This place stocked just about anything that contains an electrical circuit

Once again there was another party that was going on. This was at Tao Beach in the Venetian hotel. After dropping my laptop off at the reception at Panorama, I cabbed to the hotel. Hailey had given me a hint that I should be on JT's list. Nobody had actually met JT but this is how Vegas works. I got up to the pool area and as I was going into the sectioned off Tao beach enclosure I dropped JT's name. The bouncer promptly turns to the guy to his immediate right and says: "JT, this guy says he is on your list". JT gives me a puzzled glance and asks if he knows me. I say no but my friends had told me I was on his list. Thankfully he let me in with no hassle (and no charge!). I entered the thumping pool area of Tao Beach and saw people throwing money into the air and partying to heavy basslines. I caught up with Nat, Hailey and Joleen who had been invited to some guys cabana (sort of like a beach tent with tons of free food and booze). It turned out they all worked in finance and specifically in equity derivatives! We got along well after finding out this common detail. The party roared on into the late afternoon. The pool was filled with people dancing and splashing water around. Everybody was in their swimming costume and sunglasses and pretty drunk! The music was fantastic and kept us all dancing until the close.

Here we go again! Tao Beach party

Getting frisky in the pool

Partying in the sun wa exhausting so we took a tactical 2 hour nap to better prepare for the party later that night. A bunch of Hailey's friends from Texas had just arrived in town and were looking to go out with us. We were invited to their private bungalow at the Palms hotel where we had some pre-match drinks and food. Now it was Adam with 10 hot girls. Picture evidence is provided below. With a harem like this I felt close to untouchable on the nightclub scene. This was later proved as we got to Tao nightclub in the Venetian hotel. We all got into a limo to get to the club. Standard operating procedure was followed - Hailey walks to front of massive line and drops a name (the club owner's in this case), we get led into club with no charge and VIP access. We partied at the owner's table facing in on the dancefloor. Now I met my match as it was just the club owner and me representing the guys with close to 20 girls partying around us. Music again was fantastic and we partied hard. When we left there was talk of going to the famous XS nightclub in the Encore hotel but I was pretty tired and opted out.

This is what I am talking about

My Vegas dream becoming reality

A spot of lifeguard duty by the Palms pool before heading out

The limo ride was fun too!

Partying at Tao Nightclub. We were at the owner's table, pictured here

That was Saturday night but we still had one large party to attend which is probably one of the most famous ones in Vegas... REHAB at the Hard Rock Hotel Pool. We had a very long lie-in. By 2pm we were ready. We called in the private car service at the apartments to take us there.

My Lamborghini... jokes, it was some other dude's who allowed us to sit in it!

Joleen had organised for us on the guestlist so once again I did not have to pay the $100 (ridiculous I know!) entrance fee. Once inside it felt a lot like Tao Beach... just souped up on hardcore steroids! A huge pool area opened up that was packed with people dancing to booming music. This was in intense 38 degree heat. It drew back memories of Space in Ibiza such was the scale. We got ushered up to the private cabana area and were introduced to some British guys who were entertaining. We got the VIP treatment again with some pretty cool guys. The music here must be the best I had heard so far. House music anthems kept us dancing the whole day even though I had largely taken a break from drinking. I had never seen such wild hedonism in my life. Money truly ruled everything here. Roided up muscle bound guys were everywhere as well as silicone enhanced women in the skimpiest bathing suits I have ever seen. We smashed it as if it was our last party and indeed it was.

Welcome to REHAB at the Hard Rock Hotel

Submerged blackjack

Even though there were intentions of going out later... I got back to the apartment and passed out. I woke to join Hailey and Nat in a dinner date at the Daniel Boulud restaurant in the Wynn hotel. Fighting back the urge to sleep I made it out and had a classy meal in front of one of the idyllic Wynn pools.

The next morning Nat was off to Jamaica and I was trying to get onto a Greyhound bus to LA. I could only get on for the next day so I hung around doing a ton of admin and sorting out my new laptop. We had In n Out Burger for dinner and an early night. On the day of my departure, Kris and I went into downtown Las Vegas for some brunch. Fish tacos and beer worked like a dream. We also met a washed-up old surfer who spoke to us of his time as a tunnel rat in Vietnam and his experiences surfing the world. Kris dropped me off at the greyhound bus station and I waved goodbye to Vegas.

Downtown Vegas

This had been a whirlwind stay. Crazy and unceasing in every way but totally amazing. I needed a break!

One night stopover in Mexico City

2009-07-12T12:45:00.000-07:00

The trek was nearing to a close now. Vegas was just around the corner... only one night in Mexico City was left... so I decided to make the most of it!

I had taken the express bus from Puerto Escondido... a 12 hour ride as a opposed to the standard 18-22 hours journey. I arrived early in the morning at the bus terminal and cabbed it to Amigos hostel in the city centre. After settling in I was surprised to meet some friends from Tulum who were staying there too. The hostel is quite large and includes bed, breakfast AND dinner in its $17 price... not a bad deal. The place however was eerily quiet as Mexico City had become a tourist repellent due to it being Swine Flu Ground Zero. I had a feeling there were more staff there than guests!

Despite the short time of my stay I still wanted to see the city a bit. We walked out to the main square along the wide avenues. I had heard only negative remarks about the city such as it being noisy, polluted and crowded but I found it quite the opposite with relatively quiet streets and bustling yet unclaustrophobic walkways. My initial impressions was of a similarity to Buenos Aires but there were many more impressive colonial buildings here. We stopped at a small local eatery where we met the very friendly owner who asked us to write on the wall of his restaurant (I think this was on Avenida 5 de Mayo near the main square). I had delicious tacos!

There were some very large impressive buildings on the main square

A fairly typical tower with the setting sun in the background

After our short tour we moved back to the hostel and met up with John who I had hung out with in Isla Mujeres and Cancun. Alice (Eng), Katie (Eng), John and myself got in a taxi and drove to a nearby bar where we shared large bottles of Sol beer and some tequilas. Even though it was very quiet around, we had fun listening to the Mexican music and chatting to some of the locals.

Large bottles of Sol beer and tequilas were the order of the night. Here I am with John, Katie and Alice

I love those shades!

Katie and John doing Lime-faces

An early night was called for a I had a plane to catch at 6:30am the next morning. Despite all the bad things I had heard about Mexico City, I quite enjoyed my brief stay there and would definitely be interesting in going again to take in more of the sights.

VEGAS was one day away.

Puerto Escondido

2009-07-03T10:43:00.000-07:00

Another overnight bus meant I wouldn`t miss out much Pacific coast beach action in Puerto Escondido.

The bus was chilly again but I did have my hoodie so I got a few winks in. I arrived at the bus terminal around 7am. The Mayflower Hotel was just a short walk down the hill so I checked in and had a wake-up shower. The place was very quiet due to the early hour so I went to the local supermarket to stock up on supplies. For a large supermarket, they had a disturbing lack of basic things such as tomatoes and bananas!

I took a brief stroll to the beach and watched all the fishing boats come in with their catch. The inner bay near the hostel was calm but as you walk around to Playa Marinero and Playa Zicatela, you get to see the large rough surf the area is famous for. Puerto Escondido is world renowned for being the "Mexican Pipeline" of surf spots. The best surf apparently comes in around November time and professional bodyboarders and surfers flock to ride some of the massive waves that crash in. The Pacific ocean lacks the water clarity of the Caribbean and has a much stronger swell pushing through. The beaches are not the safest places to swim (especially at Puerto) as there are strong rip and cross currents.

Palmtree fronted Marinelo beach

A hand statue coming out of the rock - a tribute to the lifesavers

I met up again with Nick (Aus) and some Swedish friends also arrived so I was not totally lonely. A bunch of us hung out on Zicatela beach before we had some social drinks at the hostel. The hostel was quite large and had a bit of a social party atmosphere.

Nice social drinking ended when the Aussies brought out the beer bong

Alan (Eng)... I don't recall it was fancy dress that evening

The next morning the sky was clear and the sun was scorching. Beach time! Again we hung out at Zicatela. Johnny (USA) took along his guitar whilst Alan (Eng) and myself dug a massive hole to bury some cheeky English girls. It was pretty tough work but we managed to get a big hole after a lot of slogging. After taking some pictures we decided to release them. A long day in the sun meant that I had regained much of my tan making me very happy.

The construction site

Nice and cosy

Once we had them immobile we could take any pics we wanted

Nick getting in on the action

Nowhere to go

Daniel from Sweden was a professional chef so he whipped up an amazing pasta for a bunch of us that evening. We took drinks down to the beach and Johnny (USA) and Joris (Netherlands) took up the guitar and played some great tunes. Another lazy day followed. A bunch of people (most of the fun ones) left for another town for some surfing and boozing as Puerto Escondido was having an election on the weekend so no alcohol would be served at all. I decided not to go as frankly I was getting sick of the continuous boozing and I really needed some good sleep! So without distraction I slept late and chilled out on the beach and took the odd cheeky swim. Then things got boring with no cool people around. Luckily later in the evening some more cool people arrived to entertain me again.

Partying Backpackers (Matt the guy in the front and middle got pickpocketed by a Transvestite that night!)

My last day in Puerto was spent on the little inlet bay of Carrizalillo. The surf was again incredibly powerful and had the strength to chuck you around even at knee depths. We tanned and swam there for a few hours until I needed to depart. Another evening bus service awaited me. 12 hours direct to Mexico City.

Playa Carrizalillo

San Cristobal de Las Casas

2009-06-29T13:22:00.001-07:00

My bus ride from Cancun went by in a blur. I must have slept for the vast majority of the 15 hour ride and before I knew it we were cruising through the Chiapas highlands as the sun was rising. There was a thick fog in the tree covered valley below which caught the morning sunrise in a spectacular way. Up here the temperature was decidedly cooler... to the point I had to don my long pants and hoodie again! San Cristobal is another colonial town that is situated in the Chiapas region of Mexico. This region is fairly high up and is covered in pine trees and undulating grassy hills. The cooler temperature, fresh air and untouched surroundings was quite exhilarating and beautiful to look at. San Cristobal actually hangs in a little depressed valley which we descended into.

Sunrise in the cloud covered Chiapas highlands

The town, as you might expect, is post-colonial and has retained much of its character such as narrow cobbled streets still intact after many years. The buildings are all low and single story with large colourful churches, convents and cathedrals towering above. The streets are clean and most of the buildings seem to be well taken care of. Overall a very nice place to walk around in.

I caught a cab from the bus station to the Rossco Hostel. The place was spacious and the dorms seemed fine if a bit badly lit. It was still early in the day and I was relatively well rested. I walked through the town in bright sunshine admiring the town. I chose a nice outdoor restaurant to indulge in a Breakfast a la Americano and have a short read of my latest book (A Perfect Storm). After, I walked up to one of the viewpoints and it was there that I noticed the sun disappear and thick menacing clouds rolling in towards me. Light rain started to patter down so I scuttled down the viewpoint and tried to get to the Ambar museum which was nearby. The rain intensified and soon I was darting from cover to cover whilst referring to my useless map to find this elusive museum. Eventually I found it only to realise it was closed on a Monday! Annoyances! I couldn´t think of anything else to do so I ran into the adjacent church and got out my book and read for the next 2 hours, waiting for the rain to abate.

I had to troop all the way up there

A small section of the city

Main square

Lightning and thunder were regularly smashing around in our vicinity even causing the ground to shake. After a while I ventured out even though the rain was still just as strong as ever. The streets were flowing rivers and I was freezing in my beach shorts and flipflops. I dashed into a nearby internet cafe and amused myself there for another hour. By then the rain had diminished to a light patter so I could get back to hostel. I still was seriously damp and had to have a warm shower and change of clothes to feel normal again.

The hostel had decent TV channels so I settled down to watching some old movies and playing chess against Charlotte (Eng). I ventured across the road to get some tacos for dinner. I was a bit naughty in ordering some pork ones but nothing can really stop me once I have a craving. I only paid 17 pesos (1GBP) for 5 tacos with accompaniments (chopped onion, cilantro, radish and spicy salsa)... serious bargain!

The hostel offered several trips to canyons and Mayan ruins and whatnot but nothing really grabbed my interest so I decided I would stay a city slicker for my time there. Tuesday morning started off dry so I again tried to visit the museums. This time they were open and my first stop was the amber museum. This was actually a very interesting visit even though the English guide they hand you has about 4 pages on it and the exhibit consists of about 30 pages of text. I managed to piece together the fact that the Chiapas region is renowned as having some of the highest quality amber in the world. Some of the pieces and carvings were very intricate. The museum itself is not very large so I was finished there quite quickly. I moved onto the Museum of Popular Culture... which was closed for some reason I couldn`t fathom. Oh well, I called an early lunch. I moved to the busy market area of town which was nice and filled with gringo hippies. I actually think half the street vendors selling bracelets and the like were white travelling hippies with messy dreadlocked hair. I stopped off at a decent looking restaurant and had some weird breakfast thingie that consisted of chips soaked in a tomato salsa with chicken and sour cream and refried beans on the side. It was actually pretty good! Once again the heavens opened up so my stay in the restaurant lasted a good 2 hours longer than I planned.

The Amber Museum

Amber with some little bugs stuck in it

Intricate carving from Amber

Breakfast nacho thingies (with beans)

After some more wandering around I returned to my hostel and met up with some more travellers to have a few drinks at the Tequila Factory. It was me and 6 girls... a statistic I have never obtained before (and I didn't even have to pay...). This worked out wonderfully as the bar staff, in their eagerness to please and gain favor, gave us several free shots of tequila. I also learned that a tequila shot should be drunk by first licking the salt, biting the lime (and holding the juice in your mouth) and then finally taking the shot and mixing it all up. It makes a delightful change and I rue the fact that I have been doing it wrong all these years! We danced salsa at the Revolucion bar and then headed back early as the free drinks could not be handled by some of the youngsters.

Me and the girls... 6 of them

Tequila aftermath

Huh?

The morning dawned overcast and I was beginning to worry my tan was going to disappear. I was fed up with the cold and bad weather so I booked myself on a bus to the next beach, Puerto Escondido, leaving later that evening. The bus left in the evening so I had a day of leisure, eating and drinking and chilling until I had to say goodbye to San Cristobal.

Cancun and CoCoBONGO!!!!

2009-06-28T12:05:00.000-07:00

I´ve dedicated a whole blog entry to this day as it was pretty hilarious!

Despite my initial preconceived notions about Cancun of it being a tourist cesspit, I had heard really great things about the nightlife. As it was a Saturday night, John (Eng) and I decided to book tickets to the famous CoCoBONGO nightclub in the Cancun Hotel District.

4 days of calm in Isla Mujeres was going to be replaced by a huge American-style party extravaganza. We were booked on a party, bed and breakfast package. Once we got off our ferry, we took a cab to hotel Sotavento at the yacht club. The hotel was of similar style to Pocna with everything in white and in a Greek villa style however the hotel was much larger and more professionally run.

The hotel district in Cancun is like a separate city. One long highway stretches along the coast which is totally obscured by huge resort complexes that dominate the entire seafront. Moving into the centre of this area, there are large marketplaces and just about every American fast-food outlet you can think of. We walked around the market places with lines of Mexican shopkeepers trying to get our attention. John and I grabbed lunch at Subway and then bought some Cohiba cigars in a local market which we smoked on the beach until it started to rain heavily, forcing us to retreat into a nearby restaurant. I also grabbed a new pair of Diesel shorts that were on sale... I figured that most of my clothing was little better than rags so I needed to up my style a notch.

Ay Caramba!

The stormy beachfront

Back at the hotel we took a siesta and had dinner (great chicken and beef fajitas!) at the hotel restaurant which had an idyllic setting on the water´s edge. We finished off our cigars in front of the private yachts whilst an incredible sunset set the sky on fire. After preening ourselves for the night ahead, we were ready to hit the town.

John taking a siesta

Finishing off my Habana Cohiba cigar on my yacht

Spectacular

We moved back into the centre. Pumping music and flashing lights everywhere signalled that the party was already in full swing. People already seemed drunk and this wasn´t just groups of youngsters. There were whole families out joining in the revelry. We hesitantly started out at the Corona Bar which had a fairly busy feel to it and scantily clad dancers on the bar. MCs and staff coordinated to get everyone involved in the party. They handed out balloons and started crazy dances on the bar.

This dude had his own party going on. He was dancing like crazy in front of one of the bars with no idea where (or even who) he was

No John, she likes your money... not you

Watch out! You are about to get crunked!

At 10pm we queued up to get into CoCoBONGO. To keep the people happy, staff were handing out free tequila shots to everybody! Once we got let inside we wasted no time in getting to the bar. The club is fairly large and spacious and is tiered on the left and right much like a theatre. The show started soon after our arrival with a Phantom of the Opera scene. Acrobats, dancers, actors and singers continued throughout the night in a whole medley of performances including "The Mask", Spiderman v Green Goblin, Freddy Mercury, Austin Powers, Beyonce, The Matrix, Michael Jackson, Cirque du Soleil... the list goes on. Simply put, each show was brilliantly done and sometimes incredibly impressive to watch (such as spiderman flying through the rafters after the Green Goblin).

CoCoBONGO!

Free tequila shots while you queue

The Mask... one of John`s childhood heroes

Robbie Williams

Freddie Mercury and Queen

Spiderman vs Green Goblin

The Mask handing out free tequila shots

I think they were from Mexico

Click to view the video

Spiderman Vs Green Goblin 1

Spiderman Vs Green Goblin 2

After an exhausting night (rounded off with a swim on the beach), we crashed back at the hotel. We got a couple of hours in before I was due at the bus station to catch my ride to San Cristobal de las Casas.

The Island of Women

2009-06-23T19:14:00.000-07:00

Isla Mujeres means Island of Women and I had heard great things about it from some of the people staying in Tulum. It got its name from the conquistadors who, when they arrived on the island, saw many depictions of the Mayan moon goddess. This led them to believe the island was a shrine for women.

The tourism network in Mexico, the Yucatan peninsula especially, is very well setup. A bus was on hand within 20 minutes of me purchasing a ticket at the Tulum terminal and within 2 hours I was in Cancun and in a taxi to a ferry where I only waited 10 minutes before boarding a massive catamaran that took just 20 minutes to reach the island. We crossed over perfect turquoise ocean and I could feel I would like this place.

The Cancun Port

Incredible blue ocean

Once we had all disembarked I got in a cab to Pocna hostel and checked in. The place is setup as an expansive sort of Mediterranean villa. The dorms were spartan but spacious, clean and well ventilated by fans... all you need really. After getting my affairs in order I joined in a beach volleyball game with some of the other guests. It was pretty awesome playing as the sun went down. Everybody was very friendly and I met some fun and interesting people. Later that evening the hostel bar opened and everybody wandered down for some cheap cocktails and good music.

Benedict Meissner (Ger) going up to spike the ball

In the morning I meandered through the town and ended up at Playa Norte (North Beach). I chillaxed in the intense heat for a while trying to keep out of the harsh sun as much as possible. People had been remarking how tanned my feet were (???) so I thought I needed to tone down the tan a bit. The swimming on the beach area was brilliant. The water was clear, calm and with white white sand. I cooked in the sun for a while before getting a small bit of reading done followed by a power nap. Upon awakening it was time to start beach volleyball again! The players were always a mixed bunch. Some people were really good so we needed to keep the teams balanced most of the time. I began to realise that not much happens on the island and most socialising is done right in the hostel. So just I hung out with a bunch of cool people from all over the globe.

For the sake of my departed Norwegian friends

Playa Norte

In the morning, the routine kicked in again. Beach was followed by lunch back at the hostel and then I watched South Africa play Brazil in the Confed cup. Julia (Brazil) was watching with me and there was much sniping going on throughout the game until Daniel Alvez scored a lucky goal right at the death! Oh well, I guess nobody fancied Bafana Bafana`s chances against the Brazilians.

Sporting the colours. Julia (Brazil) is on the right

That evening after a brief session of volleyball, John (Eng), Nin (Eng) and myself went to the beach to watch the sunset and enjoy a few Coronas. It was yet again another party night at the hostel but I kept it pretty relaxed. Hedonism can catch up with you! John and I also found a dead lizard in our dorm that looked like it had been mauled by a cat and unceremoniously dumped in the middle of our floor.

The island hasn`t escaped the "resortification" that is typical of Cancun. However it is not nearly as severe

Dead lizard

My last day on the island was spent watching movies, relaxing and reading. John and I played a few games of chess and I am proud to have won 3-2. The bar, as always, was where we ended up chatting to people. Scott (Aus) supplied his Hubbly-bubbly which made him an instant attraction for just about everybody.

John trying to out-psyche me with a piercing glare

Enjoying Hubbly-bubbly on the beach

We had now decided to head into Cancun for a Saturday night party at the famous CoCoBONGO nightclub. We packed up our bags and took the ferry back Cancun.

Cenote cave diving and beaching in Tulum

2009-06-21T12:51:00.001-07:00

Tulum is a small Mexican town on the Yucutan peninsula about 2 hours away from the tourist hub of Cancun. Unlike the infamous party-town of Cancun, it is a quiet sleepy town that is more famous for its backpacker friendly atmosphere, excellent beaches and cenote cave diving.

From Tikal, it only took 2 hours to reach the Belize border where the transfer was pretty painless. Our driver drove us onward through the north of Belize where I noticed how poor the country was. Belize used to be a British colony so most of the signs were in English, a bit of a surprise to what I had grown accustomed to. 4 hours later we were at the Mexico-Belize border where I had to pay an exit fee of $15 USD... quite a hefty price for only spending 4 hours in the place!

Our driver dropped us at the Mexican border town of Chetumal where I got on the first bus to Tulum. That only took 4 hours too and it was still light when I checked into (the appropriately named) Weary Traveller Hostel. There I spotted Mikael, a Swedish dude I met back in San Juan del Sur (Nicaragua) who possessed a huge mane of blonde hair. I also met up with an Argentine guy called Martin who by chance had been in Aspen the same time I was there all those years back. We even knew many of the same people which was pretty bizarre.

Mike (Sweden) and Susie (Holland)

Mike playing his version of Gecko master

It was beach time again and we spent a large chunk of the day chilling on the bleached white sand right near town. The beach also has its own set of Mayan ruins which are quite popular to visit. The water was incredibly warm and amazing to swim in. Also with the swine flu issue, the beach was fairly quiet, allowing us to pick any shady palm tree we fancied to sit under.

Now that is a beach

Veronique (Holland) dressing Martin (Arg) up as Jesus

Martin and I swam a few hundred metres out to the offshore reef to check it out. We saw a spotted eagle ray but not too much else. Later we met some Mexicans and played a bit of beach soccer. My side won comfortably although the sheer over-competitiveness of one of my team members annoyed us a bit. I also met a "local" German guy who had been living in Tulum for the past 8 years. He was now over 70 and had travelled the world, visiting just about every country I could think of (and according to him, having several wives along the way). He now spends his days painting a bit and playing chess on the beach. I watched a few games between him and Martin and realised he was pretty damn good! He also loved to tell his theory of the evolution of humans, citing that we were genetically engineered by aliens to work for them long long ago.

Way in the background you can see the Tulum Mayan ruins

You have to be careful when swine flu is about

The town doesn´t provide much in nightlife but we entertained ourselves at the hostel by playing card games and listening to our own choices of music (ie. not latino music!).

Anne and Anne from Denmark signed up to do some Cenote cave diving with me the next morning. A Cenote is an underground sinkhole or cave network normally containing fresh water. Our first dive was at Grand Cenote. The water is filtered through layers of limestone, so when it reaches the subterranean cave network, the visibility is 200 to 300 metres! I was surprised at how warm the water was. Our guide (from the Czech Republic!) took us through a maze of tunnels and caves all of which had incredible stalactite and stalagmite rock formations. This was a totally different experience to what I was used to with scuba diving. Claustrophobia never took a grip on me however when you swim through a narrow tunnel and see there is no light above, only a solid wall, nerves can develop!

Entrance to the Grand Cenote

Me, Anne (Denmark) and Anne (Denmark)

The water was ridiculously clear

It was dark in there so these stalactites needed to have a torch shone on them for pictures to come out

I don`t think any of us were Cave trained. Naughty naughty!

You can even see my dirty Mexican moustache underwater!

Going through a tunnel

After 40 minutes we surfaced and drove over to the next nearby cenote called "Calavera" (Skull). Entrance was made by jumping 3 metres into a hole in the ground. Pretty fun especially when you are kitted out in scuba gear. Luckily there was a ladder on the side meaning we could make an exit when we were done. The cenote gets its name from the 3 large holes that lead to it. They shape to resemble a skull.

Entrance to Calavera

A 3 metre Giant Leap

This dive was a bit deeper (18m) and had one very interesting detail. The first 10m is composed of fresh water and then you go through a 2 metre halocline layer where fresh and salt water mix. The water gets all funky and blurry in this part and makes it very difficult to orient yourself. Below that the water becomes clear and is salt for another 6 metres. As the salt water erodes the limestone much more aggressively, the lower layers are all smooth, shiny and white. A total contrast to the more jagged and grey caves just above us. We were guided by our torches and I was totally amazed how unique this diving was. All too soon it was over and we were dropped back at the hostel... money well spent for sure!

When diving through cave networks, signs with the Grim Reaper can upset your rhythm and focus

The bubbles we released formed silvery blobs on the cave roof. These gradually seeped back up the limestone and released on the surface

One of the "eyes" of the skull

The Cenote doubled as a bat cave

I had intended on leaving Tulum the next morning and proceeding to Isla Mujeres near Cancun but I decided to hang around for one more day to go to Playa Akumal where you can swim with turtles. An earlyish start had us at the beach at 11am. Stig (Nor), Mikael (Swe), Martin (Arg), Veronique (Holland) and Susie (Holland) all came along. We found a secluded spot a bit down the pristine beach and decided to spend the day there. There were tons of palm trees around so Martin showed us how to open up the coconuts simply using a glass beer bottle. We drank loads!

Another great beach

Martin showing how to open a coconut with a glass beer bottle

Once we had setup camp, we got our snorkel gear on and ventured out into the water. A short swim out and we spotted our first Hawksbill turtle. They seemed quite unconcerned with our prescence and even got close enough to touch (I resisted). We spent ages trying to get good shots of them and succeeded to a certain extent. The turtles were large and moved gracefully through the water. While we were diving down to get closer looks, some local officials reprimanded us for "disturbing" the turtles.

Stig with the first Hawksbill turtle we spotted

Turtle Rides were great

Close enough to touch!

A large stingray with his fish buddy

Stig (Nor) showing us how he likes to drink coconut milk - a la snorkel

Next up was a fiercely contested game of beach soccer against some french guys. We were losing badly at one stage but came back to win a nailbiting 15-14 victory. In the process just about each one of us got injured several times. I only had a few blisters and a massive bruise on the top of my foot which forced me to limp a bit. We dried our eyes and went to the nearby shopping centre to buy ingredients for a big pasta we were cooking up. Martin was the chef with Flavio (Switzerland) and myself assisting in making an excellent pasta.

Beach football

I slept in a bit the next day but eventually got the motivation to pack my bags and walk to the bus station. Next stop, Cancun and Isla Mujeres.

Mayan Ruins in Tikal

2009-06-17T20:39:00.000-07:00

The shuttle ride to the town of Flores ranks as one of the worst of the trip. However in retrospect I have been unusually lucky with my bus rides in general. I was jammed in a small seat at the back with very little leg room. I also wasn´t feeling too well after over-indulging in the Mexican buffet the previous night. Matters were not improved as the roads were decidedly bumpy. 8 hours of this was not fun.

Anyway we got into the small island town of Flores and checked into Los Amigos hostel. The place was large and quite bustly. The staff were friendly and I was happy with my spacious dorm room. Riverdance and Irina had been there a few days prior and complained of some weird biting bug that gave them a bad skin reaction. I questioned some of the staff who reassured me that all was fine. Stig (Norway) and I walked around the little island town which was fairly quaint and quiet. We did this until our bellies reminded us that it was feeding time. The restaurant at Los Amigos is purely vegetarian fare but was very very tasty and provided large portions. I had a large pesto pasta with cashew nuts.

Looking out onto the Flores lake

The little island town of Flores

Beers at Los Amigos

We booked the Tikal tour for the following morning. It started at 5am so an early sleep was called for. My alarm blasted me out of dreamland at 4:30am and I joined the rest of the mornings grumpy Tikal tourists at the nearby bus stop. An hour drive put us at the entrance to the park where we had sandwiches and coffee and were greeted by our guide Boris. He was well spoken and knew a great deal about the local flora, fauna and history of Tikal. The first big highlight was when he beckoned over a friend to show us his pet tarantula. I got it to walk on my hand which was super cool!

Tikal depicted on a scale model

Tarantula - sweet

Cute and cuddly

There was a light drizzle in the morning so Boris took us first to some Mayan living quarters and then to Temple 5 where we hiked up and took a view of the surrounding jungle. The pyramid shaped temple popped up just above the treeline and we could see the other taller temples poking out in the distance too. The climb up was almost on a vertical staircase that was damp and slippery from the rain... not exactly a safe stroll up and even more dodgy coming down!

Temple 5

View from on top of Temple 5. Temple 4 is in the distance

Boris pointed out several tucans (my first authentic spottings of the entire trip!) and large weaver birds. He also showed us several species of plant that are used in everyday life. I chewed a leaf of the all-spice plant which was gross and made my mouth numbish. We moved onto the temple plaza area where a great deal of sacrifices and rituals used to take place. The small altars on the ground were shockingly used for babies! Stig and I wandered around taking lots of pictures and imagining scenes from the movie Apocalypto where human sacrifices had their hearts cut out and hurled down the temple steps. The Mayans sounded like really charming folk.

Parrots

Some kind of wild turkey

The Grand Plaza

Me at the top of a temple

The temples are laid out in a fashion so that the sun temple faces the rising sun whereas the acropolis and some other temples face the sunset which represents the underworld. Finally the remaining temples face north and south respectively to form the cardinal alignments. There was even an astrological pyramid where the Mayans studied the stars and formed their unique calendar.

The last site we visited was temple 4, the highest one by quite a way. We sat up top and admired the vast stretching jungle in all directions. We also saw many Howler and Spider monkeys moving through the trees. They appeared to be having a bit of inter species warfare with the Spider monkeys trying to attack a baby Howler monkey. There was much frantic jumping around in the trees above us.

Meditating (not really) on top of Temple 4

Baby altars

Howler monkey in the tree above us

As we still had a bit of time left in the tour, Boris took us on a short jungle walk which wasn´t particularly interesting as we saw little wildlife. We trudged on for an hour getting very sweaty and tired in the process. Back at the tourist centre we took the bus back to Flores and promptly fell asleep. I woke up later to enjoy a huge vegetable burrito at the restaurant.

Machetes: Good as a deterrent for muggings

From Tikal I had a few options. I wasn´t particularly interested in visiting Belize as my primary interest there would be to do the "Blue Hole" scuba diving adventure which costs a whopping $200. I found out that the country is expensive and there wasn´t too much to do besides diving. For this reason I decided to skip it and move straight through to Tulum in Mexico... passing through Belize on the way!

Lanquin and Semuc Champey

2009-06-16T18:42:00.001-07:00

For some reason my bus was close to empty meaning that I had the luxury of 4 adjacent seats to myself. Sleep was a definite option and I took advantage.

Shotgun wielding civilians

6 hours later we pulled into the small town of Lanquin and got dropped at the El Retiro Hotel. This place was really cool! It is a collection of thatch-roofed houses on the banks of a clear, strong flowing river. There is a huge open plan design to it and a lot of travellers chill out around the river and bar/restaurant. It is here that I meet the first South Africans I have seen for a very long while. They had just completed their Chartered Accountancy articles and were moving down towards South America for the next 7 months.

The hostel does large international buffet meals every evening. That evening it was an American buffet with meatloaf and all sorts of other salads and breads. We played a late game of drinking Jenga which got pretty amusing.

El Retiro Hostel

I signed onto the Semuc Champey tour. In the morning we were cattle-loaded onto 2 small trucks and shipped over to the Semuc Champey valley. Upon arrival we were all given the chance to swing across the river and jump into it. I even managed a front somersault which was soon bested by some Canadian with a backflip.

River swinging

The next activity was the underground caving. The network of caves apparently stretch for over 11km but we were only doing a small section. We trooped up a small way to the cave entrance and were each handed a candle. The cave is filled with water so we were immediately wading through with candles held aloft. The caves were fairly large and had a huge amount of hanging, spiraling stalactites which you had to avoid hitting your head on. We wound our way through and then things became a bit more hairy when the water we were wading in began to get a deeper, a lot deeper. It was also pretty cold too and most people were shivering noticeably. Soon we were swimming through sections frantically waving candles above water so as not to let them go out. We moved up to a small waterfall which we rope-climbed up and then a few more sections where we almost had to totally submerge as we wound through and under small holes and overhangs. Finally we were rounded up at a large amphitheater where we blew out our candles and listened to the rush of water in silence. After a few minutes we were told to make our way back.

Moving into the cave

The water was fairly cold and got deeper than I could stand in a lot of places

We had to scale subterranean waterfalls

Freedom at last!

It was good to be back in the sunshine where we could warm up. Our guide led us onto the Semuc Champey pools. These are natural limestone pools of clear water that are great to look at and swim in. We reclined here for a few hours taking in the tranquil surroundings. We also hiked up to the Mirador viewpoint where we could see the whole pool network. En route it started pouring with rain, leaving us all soaked.

Semuc Champey pools

View from the mirador

We weren't done yet! Back at the river we moved upstream to a large limestone-carved waterfall where we climbed up the side and jumped into an eroded inner basin... great fun! They then handed us inflated inner tubes to cruise down the river to the camp. Our final activity was to jump off the large bridge right near the camp which was around 11m high. Piece of cake.

The bridge jump

We then got herded back onto the cattle-wagon and sent on our way to the hostel. It had been a long day and we were pretty drained. Thankfully there was a Mexican buffet that night to cheer us up. I gorged myself to the point of bursting and retired for the evening very happy. One thing I had failed to take note of before leaving Antigua was that there are no ATMs in Lanquin. I had only a small amount of money with me (barely enough for 2 nights) so that meant that even though I wanted to spend one more day in Lanquin, I couldn´t. Thankfully the hostel accommodates dumb tourists like myself and allows you to catch buses out of town on a goodwill basis. The goodwill is that you hand your passport over and only get it back when you pay them for the ride.

So it was in this manner that I got on the bus to Flores in the morning.

Antigua and Lava-Roasted Marshmallows

2009-06-14T10:47:00.000-07:00

The route to Antigua was not as direct as I had hoped so we needed to detour to the Honduran town of Copan which was right near the border. This town is actually worthy of a visit itself as it is where the Mayan ruins of Copan are located. I had seriously considered going to visit the ruins there but after several discussions with people who had already gone I decided not to. The reason was that I am scheduled to go to Tikal which is known as THE Mayan ruin site to visit. If I was to see Tikal there would not be a strong reason to see Copan unless I was absolutely fascinated by the Mayans... which I was not. Copan was also pretty pricey to visit too! So we arrived in the pretty little town and booked into a hostel for the night along with purchasing a ticket to Antigua, Guatemala, in the morning.

At the time my companions were Alex (Eng), Emilie (Fr Can), Polly (Eng) and Olivia (Eng). We were all still exhausted from the previous night´s party and the day spent travelling so we all crashed into our beds early. The shuttle in the morning picked us up at 6am sharp and we proceeded through a relatively fast border crossing. 6 hours later we arrived in Antigua where we checked into the Black Cat Hostel. It is a bustling place with a narrow bar and restaurant that is simultaneously used as a thoroughfare to the street and as a social gathering place. My dorm was a bit cramped for space and moving around was difficult as there were so many bags and items strewn on the ground. Alex and I grabbed some lunch (nachos and a ton of guacamole) at the Travel Menu restaurant and then walked through town. Antigua was very busy and wandering tourist groups were plentiful. In terms of the architecture it was fairly similar to Leon and Granada but thankfully the weather was far milder. Antigua was also the first capital city of Guatemala until an earthquake destroyed most of the town way back in the conquistador days. The town was rebuilt but there are still some preserved ruins from that quake which are dotted around town.

One of the ruins of the original city

The town archway towards the convent

Impressive design on the convent

The fountain in the middle of the town square

Loads of tour agencies combined with a heavy American presence and people trying to sell you stuff at every turn reminded me of Cuzco in Peru.

The thing most people come to Antigua for is to experience the history of the town and to visit the active volcano Pacaya. I had read up about the history so only needed to walk the streets and visit the monuments. What I was excited about was to go see some lava! A tour was booked through the Black Cat travel agency for the next afternoon.

Riverdance and Irina arrived in town that day too from Tikal in the north. We had dinner at Las Palmas restaurant and spent ages recounting our experiences up until that point. After dinner we went walked around town looking for a nice bar to relax in. We first went to Cafe No Se which had a very bohemian feel and gave out free popcorn! After a cheeky drink there we moved onto a few other places, none of which were too appealing until we got to Cashba which was pretty fun.

A spooky shot

The breakfast at Black Cat Hostel was pretty impressive considering it was included free in the $8 per night room charge! I tucked into a mammoth omelet with cheese, tomato, bacon (it actually tasted like the real deal!), onion and a side of fresh fruit.

At 2pm we were picked up for our Volcano tour. The shuttle took an hour and a half to get to the base of the mountain. I met yet some more Norwegians and proceeded to show them my full range of Norwegian vocabulary (mainly swear-words).

Something I didn´t expect to see: A newly-wed couple cruising around in a stretch hummer

Our guide's name was Carlos and he only spoke Spanish. The first section was a gentle walk through some cloud forest until the terrain opened up into a desolate ash-covered wasteland. Yet again this was just like Lord of the Rings with steaming vents and sharp volcanic rock walls. We found a lone dog wandering around there too!

It was a short scramble up the loose shingle to the lava viewpoint. The stuff was actually flowing quite briskly! We moved ever closer until we were less than 3 metres from a small lava river. The heat was intense, much like being right in front of a large bonfire. I opened up the pack of marshmallows I had bought earlier and stuck it on a branch provided by Carlos. Reaching out to roast them over the lava was not too easy as the stick was pretty short! Nevertheless I still got a nicely melted marshmallow to eat. As I am not the biggest fan of these sweets I gave away the rest of the pack to the other tourists around. Walking around the lava rock was pretty treacherous as it was not too stable and often very hot underfoot. The smell of burning rubber informed me that the trainers I was wearing were indeed melting!

Yup, that is a river of lava

Alex and myself warming ourselves up

It literally felt like a furnace standing there. I persevered and got myself a nicely roasted marshmallow

After hanging out for a short while longer it was time to return. The rain started coming down at this stage and I had forgotten to bring waterproof equipment. I was very wet and grumpy when I got back in the shuttle. Even though we were all pretty exhausted after a long day, people still found the energy to dress up for a Saturday night out. Mathieu and Martin had arrived too from Honduras and already had their 3 litre coke bottle with rum. I arrived in the middle of a men's fashion show that was being run by Black Cat. It was amusing to see guys dressed up in bikinis and push-up bras and the winner, from Australia deserved it as he shaved a heart in his chest hair. We drank hard and fast and went to O'Reilly's Irish bar. After a bevvie there we decided to move to the adjacent Cashbar where all the locals were queuing up. Mathieu and I were intercepted by a local journalist with cameraman who wanted us to comment (in Spanish) about our impressions about Guatemala. The question is directed at Mathieu who promply screws up his face, and points at me saying that I can speak Spanish. I am drunk and try my best to form a coherent sentence. What comes out however is: "How the f*$k do I say I think it is a very cool place???"

Nice one Adam. You have now sworn on Guatemalan TV. Way to promote yourself!

Anyway the reporter still wants to hang out with us in the club so we follow him in, pretending to be important foreign actors at the door. The ruse kinda works as we only have to pay entrance for one person. Also, when Mathieu is confronted about his 3 litre rum 'n coke bottle, he thinks quick and urgently says that it is required for his diabetes and he cannot be without it. The bouncer somehow buys this ridiculous story and let's us in with a bottle of our own booze.... sweet. The reporter then pairs us up with random locals and we just hang around looking a bit dumb.

Afterward we move back to O'Reillys and hang out with our friends. As everything shuts down at 1am, the party moved onto the street. Amidst a lot of jokes and horsing about, Mathieu somehow attracts the attention of the police and is pinned up against the wall and frisked. I turn and laugh at him but am subsequently also pressed against the wall and frisked. My wallet is checked as are all my pockets for what is apparently a drug search. Once he was satisfied we were clean he let us go so we could carry on with our drinking.

The next morning I felt pretty rough. Thankfully I had nothing to do that day so I could happily relax in the hostel and in the park and do some reading. I was getting stuck into Richard Dawkins' book "The God Delusion", a very interesting if somewhat controversial read.

Martin, Mathieu and myself visited the local marketplace and played some arcade games against the local kids. They kicked our butts most of the time! I also bought a nice new pair of Havaianas flip flops to make them my 5th pair of the trip.

Things got a bit aggressive when Mathieu and I faced up in a game of arcade Tekken

After Mathieu kicked my butt, it was time for Martin to take over

That evening we felt like a bit of salsa! La Sala was offering free lessons so I joined in with Mathieu, Andre (Guatemala) and Julia (Nicaragua). After the short lesson the real pros got involved and once again I was very impressed. It was a bit difficult to dance yourself when you felt like a clumsy ox around these experts. Mathieu had another bottle of rum 'n coke to keep us motivated.

Andre (Guata) and Julia (Nica)

Once again, the rum ´n coke was out

Salsa! Julia and a local salsa pro (despite what you may think, this guy could really move it!)

Mathieu showing that he is definitely not a pro

I was on a shuttle early the next morning to Semuc Champey, a short 6 hour drive north.

Honduras and the Bay Island of Utila: Are you for Scuba?

2009-06-04T05:49:00.000-07:00

The bus stop in Leon is actually more like the pavement at the local Shell petrol station. I arrived there and met Neil and Emma, a recently married couple on their honeymoon. There were a few nervous jitters when the bus was 30 minutes late but it soon arrived after that and we were on our way.

Again it was a Tica bus so I was prepared with my hoodie for the ice-cold air conditioning. Passing through the border was easy and we spent another 10 hours driving through beautiful vivid green countryside. When we arrived in San Pedro Sula, the industrial and business capital of Honduras, I was expecting to have to spend the night over there, however luckily the last bus to La Ceiba was scheduled to leave in 30 minutes. This was the executive class Hedman Alas bus which although a lot more pricey ($18) than the standard option ($8), it was infinitely more comfortable and I got free drinks and snacks.

A quick 3 hours later and I arrived in La Ceiba which is supposedly the party town of Honduras. There is a saying that Hondurans govern in Tegucigalpa (the capital), work in San Pedro Sula and party in La Ceiba. I was tired and had no interest in partying so I booked into a small hostel with some friendly people and took an easy night. Early the next morning we were off to the harbor and booked the tickets onto the catamaran to Utila... the backpackers island. Roatan is the biggest island followed by Guanaja (the most exclusive island catering for luxury vacations) and Utila which is the closest to the mainland.

I met a local dive instructor called Tyler on the ferry and upon arrival on the island I went to check out his dive centre called Alton's Dive Centre. I had been recommended the place by others and after a bit of shopping around I decided to stay there and do my advanced diving course. The small town is fairly similar to Bocas del Toro, with a very long main street and cramped up shops and hotels. Diving is the main interest of people coming to the island, followed I think by partying. Alton's provide certifications for PADI (who I got my open water licence with) and NAUI. The main difference between the two is that NAUI gives an extra training dive and also allows you to dive deeper after certification than PADI would. This saves time and money on doing an extra PADI course. In addition, NAUI uses most of its revenue to educate divers and preserve the environment whereas PADI is run more like a global corporation with most money spent on mass media marketing. I decided to go with NAUI as the two courses are both internationally recognized and I was keen to be able to dive to 40m!

Walking along the main (and just about only) street in Utila town

Alton´s dive centre. I took this shot from the jetty

Alton´s from the other side

I relaxed most of the day on the hammocks at Alton's and met quite a few of the people there including a South African called Rian who had just finished his dive master training. That evening, the centre was providing a Bando stew which is a local Utilan specialty. Some local dudes spent most of the day preparing the vegetables and fish in a massive steel pot and when we finally got served it was well worth the wait. The island is a mixed bag when it comes to the inhabitants. The "local" people are of Caribbean descent and speak English fluently with a really cool West Indian twang. There are a lot of Spanish speaking Hondurans who have moved to the island to work and then most of the dive centre owners and instructors are from all over the globe such as USA, England and Australia. Many white people have lived there for several generations so it was quite interesting to hear them speaking in the same way as West Indians.

As Rian and another guy had just completed their dive master certifications they had to go through the snorkel initiation where a large amount of alcohol is poured down into a snorkel and mask funnel. Very amusing to watch! Later we also visited the famous Treetanic bar which has a very unique design. It is built like a tree house with winding bridges and lofts and walls made of mortar and colourful bottles. It is almost like a maze when you walk around.

Rian getting his divemaster initiation... 2 litres of lethal cocktail through a snorkel!

Bando Stew... amazing

Martin and Mathieu (in Honduras shirt)

The jetty at Alton's is a veritable dive site itself and I spent a while exploring underneath. There were lots of barracuda and large fish relaxing right there. They even had moray eels living in the rocks! I got some nice macro shots of freaky looking spider crabs and some starfish. I also discovered a great cheap meal called the Super Baleada... a sort of flour tortilla stuffed with egg, tomato and beans. Awesome for breakfast lunch or dinner!

There was a resident Moray eel at the centre!

Coming out for a snack left for it

Spider crab thingie with anemone in the background

My first dive on my course was a night dive. At 5:30pm we arranged all our gear and after a short briefing from my instructor, Neal, we got on the boat and made our way to the dive site as the sun was setting.

Night dives as you might expect are done in the dark so you need to use a flashlight. Luckily the moon was almost full so there was some natural light too. We took the dive down to about 18 metres and explored the Black Coral Wall site. We moved along a steep coral wall and shone our torches amongst the nooks and holes, spotting a lot of lobster (looks exactly like the crayfish from SA) and crabs and some sleepy fish. Night diving is an entirely different experience and it took a while to adjust to the spooky surroundings. Fan corals would cast shadows in strange ways depending on the angle you shone your torch. As I was checking out a small shrimpy thing I noticed out the side of my eye a flash light shaking left to right which is an indication that I must pay attention. As I turned around, I had a split second to realize a large Hawksbill turtle was gliding straight for me. Frozen more out of fear than any sense of calm, I watched it move straight over my head, less than 20 cm from my face. I was really tempted to reach out and touch it! As it moved on and melded with the dark, we carried on with our dive, spotting a large grouper and even more lobster. We tried to get some phosphorescence going but it seems there wasn´t any about where we were.

My only picture, post-dive on the boat

I emerged from the water fairly thrilled with my experience. I had never seen a turtle before and the whole night experience was slightly surreal. I had an early start the next morning with some more diving so I went to RJ's for an amazing Mahi Mahi (Dorado) fish barbeque, a few drinks at Treetanic with Polly and Olivia (both English) and then scuttled off to bed. Even with a fan going full blast in my direction I struggled to sleep in the heat.

Polly and Olivia from Bath in England

Geckos showing their nasty side! Here they have caught a large dragonfly and are preparing to dismember it

The morning dives were once again training oriented. Dive 1 was at Duppy Waters on the north side of the island. Alex (Eng gap year student) and myself were on our navigation training where we needed to use a compass to travel around the site in a square and a triangle. No problem! The water clarity was pretty good so even though I don't think I was spot on with my bearings, I still managed to make the correct turns.

Prepping on the boat

Neal from North Carolina USA was our NAUI instructor

This type of tree coral was fairly typical

Dive 2 was at the Aquarium site. Our instructors, Lauren and Neal, setup a small underwater acrobatics and obstacle course for us to improve our underwater buoyancy and control. They sat us down on a large sandy patch about 12 metres down and demonstrated all the actions we were required to perform. I might have felt a bit like a circus animal when I was instructed to go through hoops (it seemed the fish even came quite close to curiously observe) but it was fun so I never minded too much.

A Parrotfish chomping on some coral

Back at the centre everybody was prepping for a booze cruise. At 5pm we hopped on the boat along with many other revelers and circled the bay whilst drinking beer and listening to Reggae beats. The night carried on at CocoLoco on the seafront. The party was cool but if you sat still for even a second you would get bitten by hordes of voracious sandflies!

Luckily I didn't have a dive on Sunday morning meaning that the hangover could be nursed until midday. I was quite excited though as we were scheduled to visit the Halliburton wreck site. This wreck is actually artificially created as it was intentionally sunk for the purpose of diver training. After gearing up we got into the water and made our descent. The first sign of the boat was the bow. 2 large spotted grouper eyed us as we moved in on their territory. The wreck has a few weird things on it including an old bicycle and a lot of white mannequin heads. We cruised from bow to stern and made a swim through at the navigation deck. Along with the usual mix of colourful fish, I saw one huge snapper that had made its home on the fore deck cabin.

Hangovers were best spent in hammocks

I am ready for Scuba!

The Haliburton wreck had some great corals growing on all sorts of things such as metal posts pictured here

Spotted Grouper guarding its territory

A bicycle and attached mannequin head

This is all growing on the metal hull of the ship

Large Angelfish

The next dive was a simple "fun" dive meaning that there was no training involved for it. However we encountered problems when our boat wouldn't start so we called in for help and got the other boat from Alton's to tow us to our site! Thankfully this didn´t take too long although the captain was resorting to smashing the engine solenoid to get results! The dive itself was more of a shallow water affair as we had been down to 30m at the wreck. We didn't see anything too spectacular except for a cowfish.

A well camouflaged flounder

Goatfish

Little shrimp

Lobster (aka Crayfish)

Cowfish

Trumpetfish

I had dinner with some French Canadians and English that evening. One chap called Mathieu (Can) was getting fully drunk and provided us with some hilarious entertainment. I had a tuna kebab which was massive and I almost failed in finishing it! Even though it was a Sunday there was still a party going on! I exercised some restraint and took it easy. That evening the island experienced a mild earthquake but I was fast asleep and never felt a thing!

Kayak races

8am was the start for our next 2 dives. First dive was our scheduled Deep Dive. We sank down to 36m along a vertical coral wall. At that depth it becomes fairly cold and dark and breathing becomes noticeably harder. We spent a short while down there to get a feeling for what it is like before we slowly ascended again.

Once we had hit the surface we were told that there was a possible whale shark sighting nearby. We cruised around in search for it for a while but had no luck. A bit disappointing as I would have loved to swim with one!

Dive 2 was a drift dive meaning we just jumped in and let the current take us along. Nice and relaxing was my cup of tea. This dive was great as we saw several interesting things such as a stingray, porcupine fish, squid, large snapper and a barracuda. This was my last scheduled training dive so technically I was a certified NAUI Advanced Scuba Diver. Boooya!!!

Some small private offshore islands. You can see the Honduran mainland in the far distance

I think this is a rabbit fish but I am still pretty stoked about this shot

Black Triggerfish

Squid

Huge Snapper

Porcupine fish

Remora

That evening we visited the Tranquila bar for some drinks. On my way back to Alton's, I was jumped by a local Honduran with a 3 foot machete right on the main street. He demanded my money which I quickly handed over. As I did this, I subtley pulled my camera out of my left pocket and tossed it into the bushes on the side of the road. Thankfully he seemed happy enough with the money and let me move on. I rushed back to Alton's and got some guys together to go back and help me look for my camera. After a short while of searching it was miraculously recovered!!! I was so relieved. The whole incident cost me around $30 USD so it is not too bad, all things considered.

I had to go file a police report in the morning. The police station sits on the corner of the local football field and seems more like a sports clubhouse than any kind of municipal building. The officer on duty was lounging in his chair watching a Spanish soap on TV with his girlfriend. After a bit of confusing dialogue I managed to get the message through about what happened and he drew up a report for me. Later the afternoon, Mathieu, Martin and some other people at the hostel were interested in getting some fresh fish off a local fisherman called Zorro. We bought a huge barracuda for 150 Lempiras ($8 USD and enough fish for over 8 people) and cooked it up that evening with some mashed potato. It was amazing!

Zorro with some of his catch, including a very large shark!!!

We visited CocoLoco again which was very quiet so Mathieu decided to host an impromptu speed dating session amongst everybody gathered there. Amazingly enough people actually listened to his instructions so I met several cool (and weird) people by the simple process of Mathieu shoving me in their direction with the words: "You... go speak to her. And You... go there...." etc etc.

Our last day was spent idly in hammocks, swimming and reading. I was informed that there were seahorses under one of the nearby jetties so I swam over and had a look. Our fisherman reliably turned up again and we bought several black tail tuna from him for dinner. The tuna was also delicious and we all knew we would miss freshly caught fish that only cost about $1 per person. We went out again to the Treetanic bar and hung out with some German friends, Lea and Julie. Our ferry back the mainland was at 6:30am in the morning so there were a lot of bleary-eyed backpackers getting onboard and not much was said the entire 1 hour ride back to La Ceiba.

Sea urchin under the dock

My first sea-horse spotting!

Don´t mess with the chef preparing you amazing tuna steaks!

We needed to get to Copan, near the Honduran and Guatemalan border so this meant another visit to San Pedro Sula and then the direct bus to Copan. We all spent much of the trip snoozing and arrived in good time as the sun was setting over the very pretty town of Copan.

More Geckos, Volcanoes and Colonialism in Leon

2009-05-31T14:50:00.001-07:00

We arrived in Leon at midday meaning we had a fair amount of time to explore the city. Leon was originally the capital of Nicaragua upon Independence but this was later shifted to Managua. It is a large student town and is most famous for its architecture and being the city where the Sandino revolutionary movement originated. We checked into Lazybones hostel, owned by the same people as Oasis in Granada, which explains why it bore a startling resemblance. We took a walk around town to find food and a laundry to drop off my dirty clothes. Leon seemed to be even quieter than Granada despite it being a bigger city. The architecture was also very similar with many classical colonial churches, although perhaps leaned a bit more towards modern in some areas.

Lazybones hostel

Awesome wall art at the hostel

Just like Granada

The ladies posing at the town square

A Sandino mural

A Sandino mural depicting Uncle Sam getting squashed

After spending ages wandering around in vain trying to find a laundry, we took a break at Bar Baro for lunch. I ordered a steak skewer which came back 40 minutes later as a vegetarian kebab... After sending it back I had to wait at least another 30 minutes before the right dish came through and by then the others had long ago finished their meals and were waiting for me to chomp down quickly so we could move on.

I finally found a laundry and dropped my clothes off. We visited Via Via hostel and caught up with Arnfinn, a Norwegian party animal we had met briefly in San Juan del Sur. The night proceeded to some local bars and ended in a lock-in at some shady joint. We saw a big fight amongst locals at one point. The show was intently watched by all the Gringos, amused by the unprofessional handbag slapping that was going on, until the violence escalated and large rocks were being hurled around. At this point we thought it wise to move on and out of range.

I didn't feel like doing anything the next day although I didn't have much choice as Leon appeared to have very little to offer in terms of activities and there were hardly any people walking along the streets making it appear a semi ghost town. Swimming in the hostel pool was quite nice though.

Pool antics

Ice-cream on a Cinderella table... if only I had my Barbie plate from San Juan del Sur!

We booked onto a hike up Cerro Negro for the next day. I wasn't so sure of the wisdom of this decision as we had to wake up at 3:45am!!! A total nightmare in my opinion. Nevertheless the trip is booked and I have to go. We decide to go through QuetzalTrekkers agency which is a volunteer organisation that was setup to provide help to Nicaraguan children by providing food and education. They do this by getting volunteers who take hiking tours out to various locations near Leon. All profits are put towards the charity. We wake up at the scheduled time and it is just as bad as I feared. Taking 10 minutes for my vision to return I donned my hiking gear and we walked over to the QuetzalTrekkers. Our guides were Jack (Canada) and Laurent (Canada too but French). Jack was our guide proper whilst Laurent had just arrived in Nicaragua and was getting training to become a guide.

We met them at the agency and had a light breakfast. Luckily they had a range of hiking boots I could use meaning that the problems of the Isla Ometepe hike would not be repeated. With breakfast over, we walked down to the local bus stop and got on one of the old American school buses to our destination. We got off at an unmarked spot amidst the rural communities. The hike started off through some quiet farmland where we saw the black looming mound of Cerro Torres in the distance. The volcano is still considered active and erupted quite recently in 1995 and 1999. Evidence of these eruptions is clear as all around the base, and stretching out quite far into the wilderness is a fine, black sand where almost nothing grows. We marched on through this soft sand for almost 2 hours and made a brief stop at the rangers station where they farmed Iguanas and had several cages of snakes.

Waiting at the office at 4:15am... I MEAN COME ON!! Who the hell wants to go trekking at that hour???

Cerro Negro

Iguanas tanning

This little fella is gonna be lunch pretty soon

The next part was the ascent of the volcano. We stepped out onto a roughly constructed path made of the volcanic pumice stone. I felt like I had moved location to a scene from the Lord of the Rings, such was the extreme desolation of our surroundings. It was sharply contrasted with lush greenery on the adjacent mountains. We ventured into the first cone from the 1995 eruption and walked amongst the steaming sulfur vents. Breathing was difficult so we did not linger. We then hiked up and around the cone to the very top and looked down into the newer cone from the 1999 eruption.

In the background is the 1999 cone

Sulfur vents. At some of the volcanoes you can cook food on top of them due to the intense heat

Notice King Kong stuck in the mountain (Head, and 2 hands)

After a brief rest we were ready to make our rapid descent. Jack gave us some basic tips about going downhill.

1: If you are comfortable going slowly, then try running faster

2: If you are comfortable running fast, then jump!

Great. We started off tentatively but soon momentum took over and we were racing down. I took a small slide down one section, managing to tear some fresh holes in my shorts but did not let this slow me down. At the bottom I had accumulated a few kilos of grit in my boots so needed to flush it out first.

One and half hours hiking up the volcano, 10 minutes getting down.

Go Go GO!!!!

Me taking a ride down on my bum

Volcano Sprinting: Click "Play" to view video

At the bottom, sweaty and coated in black dust

We took lunch at 10am and then made our way back to the bus stop. We got ourselves some sodas in a plastic bag and endured the constant stares of all the locals, especially the guys, who seemed obsessed with the 2 Norwegian girls.

Coca Cola in a bag

Local wildlife

Not much to do around here except chill on your porch

Via Via hostel was hosting a quiz night that evening so we participated in the hopes of winning the first prize of a bottle of Flor de Caña rum. We narrowly missed out and ended up in 3rd place, which meant we had 2 large complimentary bottles of beer. We almost raised a dispute as the winning side consisted of over 8 people, 6 of whom wore glasses. That is fairly unfair considering we were only 4 with no glasses.

Our last day was spent going on a trip to the nearby Las Peñitas beach. We boarded a school bus and were there within the hour. Our first impressions when we got onto the beach was that there was nobody there. A short walk though led us to a gringo hangout with a few people. The surf was very strong and had a powerful shorebreak, making swimming a touch dangerous. Nonetheless we were determined to enjoy ourselves so we spent the day eating, tanning, relaxing and reading our books. All too soon it was time to return. At the hostel I had to pack for an early start in the morning. We had a meal in the town square before watching some movies back at the hostel. This is the point where everybody would be going on their own separate ways. Marie and Helene were off to El Salvador. Elaine and Irina were still in Granada doing a sailing course and I was set for the Bay Islands in Honduras. It was a strange feeling as we had come so far together and I found it hard to imagine what it would be like without my travel companions. After meeting in Salta in March we had spent over 4 months together (on and off) so it was a bit emotional for me when we had to say our goodbyes.

Las Peñitas

At 5am I was up and took a taxi to the bus stop to move onto my next destination, Honduras.

Granada. A taste of Colonialism

2009-05-28T17:00:00.001-07:00

Our taxi from San Jorge to Granada got haggled down to $20 which we were happy with. Marie and I were sharing with the Aussies from San Juan del Sur. The only moment of note on the journey was spotting a dude standing on the roof of a large truck which was going full tilt in the opposite direction. Crazy.

We met up with Elaine, Irina and Helene at the Oasis Hostel which was full for the evening. We luckily bunked down at Los Amigos Hospedaje which was 3 doors down and provided a great breakfast.

Not wanting to waste any time, we walked around town, taking in the attractive main square. The traditional colonial architecture reminded me strongly of Salta in Argentina. There were some very striking churches and municipal designs. Most of the single story buildings were painted in a shade of the primary colours which added a bit of energy to otherwise dull looking structures. We found a place for lunch called Nectar. The girls all got dodgy Greek salads with no feta cheese and I found a long black hair in my Chicken Curry Crepe. After a bit of complaining I got my meal for free although the girls weren´t so lucky and had to pay for theirs (minus the tip).

The unfortunate lunch at Nectar

Town square in Granada

We also found a place that offered Salsa lessons right on the town square. We arranged for a lesson which was great fun although I wasn´t too good to start with! The lesson was conducted on a high balcony overlooking the square which was a terrific setting. Afterward we enjoyed a nice meal at an Indian restaurant which had surprisingly good service and excellent Mahi Mahi fish fillets!

Uno, Dos Tres!!! SALSA!!!

The following day, after checking into Oasis hostel, we booked onto an excursion to the Laguna Apoyo in the extinct Apoyo Volcano crater. The fresh water is regarded as being some of the clearest in all of Nicaragua and scuba trips are even offered there. The laguna also has several species of endemic fish. I spotted a few that resembled minnows and tilapia but didn´t manage to catch any. The water was very warm and nice to snorkel in although the steep banks meant the water quickly got deep so viewing was quite limited. We spent the day kayaking, swimming and lounging in hammocks on the water´s edge. Very nice and relaxing.

Water´s edge at Laguna Apoyo

Some of the endemic fishies

I let Marie do all the paddling

The evening started with another salsa lesson where we learnt a few new steps. The humidity meant that it wasn´t long before we were dripping in sweat despite the low intensity of exercise! We ended up at El Club and Cafe Nuit (salsa club) for a few more late night bevvies with the Aussies. The humidity in Granada was much the same as we had been used to the entire time in Nicaragua, meaning that sleep was uncomfortable and hard to get. Luckily the town is very relaxed so most of the day could be easily spent procrastinating in hammocks or in cafes without distraction.

Drunk gringos

Party time with Marie, Jess (Aus), Amy (Aus), Nic (Aus) and Irina

Midday the next day, Helene, Marie and myself were in a taxi to Leon to check out some of the famous volcano trekking.

Sweating it out with the Bugs and Geckos in Isla Ometepe

2009-05-27T16:44:00.001-07:00

Upon arrival at San Jorge del Sud, a small town on the banks of Lago Nicaragua, we were greeted by clouds of small insects which bore a remarkable resemblance to mosquitos but luckily did not bite. There were also some chained up monkeys near the ferry office who didn´t look very happy.

Here is what wikipedia has to say about the Isla Ometepe:
"Ometepe is an island formed by two volcanoes rising from Lake Nicaragua in the Republic of Nicaragua. Its name derives from the Nahuatl words ome (two) and tepetl (mountain), meaning two mountains. The two volcanoes, Concepcion and Maderas, are joined by a low isthmus to form one island in the shape of an hourglass."

Concepcion is still regarded as active. It last erupted in the 1950s and bares the scarred slopes from that time. Maderas has been extinct for many years and is covered in cloud forest. The area had once been connected to the Pacific ocean but a land bridge developed which created the independant lake. Slowly the water turned from salt into fresh and all the saltwater fish and creatures that had been trapped adapted to their new environment. This has resulted in several endemic species to emerge such as the freshwater shark and marlin.

We got on a ferry to Isla Ometepe which only took an hour. From there we bargained with a few people and secured a taxi to the Playa Santa Domingo at a hugely discounted rate. We picked Hostal Buena Vista to stay. The place was on the lake beach Santa Domingo and had a very relaxed feel to it. We unfortunately discovered that our room was ridiculously hot and humid but we lacked the motivation to seek out alternative accommodation. Along with the heat were more clouds of the tiny mosquito-like insects. When I looked out onto the lake it seemed like it was raining as the fish close to the shore indulged in a feeding frenzy on all the bugs landing on the surface.

By a fluke we were at the same place as the Aussies and English travellers we had met in San Juan del Sur. Just as in San Juan del Sur, there were geckos everywhere making their strange yapping noises. My first step was to get a large cerveca and walk out into the calm lake to enjoy the twilight. There were already quite a few people chilling out there too and the water was very warm and relaxing. I sank contentedly up to my neck and started to enjoy my beer. Just as I was starting to unwind, I feel a sharp insistent tug on my submerged left nipple. A cheeky fish had decided that it looked like a tasty meal and had had a chomp on it! I told Marie who thought I was joking until she got nibbled a few times on her legs, each time letting out a yelp and almost jumping out the water. After several more nips I decided that I had endured enough harassment and got out of the lake.

Map of the Isla: Volcan Concepcion is the big part on the left and Maderas is on the right

Playa Santa Domingo with Maderas in the background

A huge downpour ensued later in the evening. I woke up with water from outside dripping on me and half my mattress soaked through... not what I was needing at all! I managed to get a couple of hours sleep before we were summoned, exhausted, to the taxi to take us for our Maderas Volcano hike. Marie and I had stocked up on 4.5 litres of water between us. That should be enough right? As I had no hiking boots I was generously lent a pair of white Dunlop trainers by Max (Eng) who had decided he would rather go motorbiking for the day. A taxi took us to the base of the volcano where we paid the informal park entrance fee (hidden costs are a specialty in Nicaragua it seems). Our group was made up of Marie, Jack (Eng), Jeanne (Canada), 2 Navy officers from Spain (who we suspect were intimately involved with one another), Victor, Niklas and myself.

The first section was a gradual incline which was easy enough. As the sun rose, the temperature and humidity spiked quite sharply and we found that we had become walking sweat dispensers. Water bottles were frequently in use and by the time we had reached the halfway viewpoint, we realised that we needed to slow down or else we would run out. Our fears were intensified as we had heard a month earlier a tourist couple had actually died on the trek. Apparently they got lost which I find hard to believe. Surely all it takes is a bit of common sense to walk downhill from the volcano to reach the shore??

Smiley faces... little did we know what was in store for us

Concepcion and the isthmus

Anyway we continued our ascent and got immersed in the cloudforest that covers the volcano. The mist enveloped us and the path became damp. There was a great deal of wildlife that we heard such as Howler monkeys and the absurdly loud noise made by a large green species of cicada. The incline became steeper and the path muddier until I was sloshing ankle deep in it and having the occasional slip. Finally we reached the apex of the cone and moved down into it. We collapsed on the grassy banks of the small crater lake and took a long timeout. Most of us went for a swim in the cool waters but the mud at the bottom sank up to your knees which wasn´t pleasant so I didn´t linger.

In the crater lake

Exhaustion!

After some lunch and relaxation our guide kicked us back into gear to make the return journey. This was the difficult part for me. The muddy path had converted the slick bottomed Dunlop trainers into a pair of skis. I literally skidded my way down the volcano for the next 3 hours, cursing wildly at the mud, the shoes and anything else that I happened to crash into. Marie did not help matters by placing a large green cicada on my shoulder that started to make a racket and gave me a minor heart aneurysm. I emerged at the bottom covered in mud and fairly grumpy.

A bored Howler monkey

Back at the hostel we all had a rest as the hike had been really tough (well for me at least). We had dinner and went to sleep early but struggled to get much rest as the temperature and beds made us far too uncomfortable.

Granada was our next destination so in the morning we took a shuttle to the port where we ferried back to San Jorge. In the air-conditioned cabin we were tormented with the music video of a local Nicaraguan artist. I can´t remember his name but I do recall that he was about 50, had a potbelly and long straggly hair to his shoulders. The shocking thing about it was that in the music video were several young girls, (all most likely teenagers) shaking and dancing in a very very provocative manner with him. It was a bit amusing how bad the acting was though.