The Comeback Tour

Gallery: Mexico

hellie_and_bracey — Fri, 6 Feb 2009 22:25:00 GMT

Gallery: Belize

hellie_and_bracey — Thu, 5 Feb 2009 03:59:00 GMT

Mexico - Week 15

hellie_and_bracey — Wed, 7 Jan 2009 03:05:00 GMT

We were up before the crack of dawn on Sun 28th Dec to catch the 5.30am bus from Placencia to Dangriga. In Dangriga we changed buses and immediately left for Belmopan, Belize's capital. After only a few minutes wait there we caught another bus to San Ignacio - which we weren't thrilled about seeing again. Our grand plan was get into Mexico via Guatemala and we were hoping to pick up a tourist shuttle bus in San Ignacio that would whisk us through the border crossing and take us to Flores in Guatemala either that night or the following day. We made some enquiries and whilst enjoying the culinary treats at Cafe Sol again, we decided to tough it out and take public transport all the way. So, we got a bus to the border town and then a taxi to the border itself. After completing all the border formalities we strolled into Guatemala and arranged bus travel on to Flores. We arrived there at around 3.30pm, some 10 hours after leaving Placencia. Travelling truly isn't as glamorous as some people think, especially when, after a 10 hour journey you then have to trudge around looking for a place to stay that isn't either full up or horrible. After various trials that I won't bore you with we eventually got settled in to Dona Goya 2nd hostel, which wasn't great but was good enough. Since we had stayed in Flores before we knew where we could get a good meal at least (Hotel Terrazo for awesome pasta, if you're interested)

We were out on the pavement in front of the hostel at 4.45am on Mon 29th (day 99 by the way!) waiting for our bus to Palenque in Mexico. I'm sure many of you who know me will be staggered at the amount of early mornings I have braved on this trip. Due to the absurdly early hour of this journey I slept soundly all the way to the Guatemala side of the Guatemala/Mexico border control where we were all 'processed' quickly. We then got driven to a river bank and directed towards a couple of lanchas. This is another example of how you just have to go with it when travelling. For all we knew they could have been ferrying us down river to a slow and grisly death, but a little faith goes a long way here and after a surprisingly tranquil ride we were deposited on the Mexican side of the river at the border crossing there. After satisfying Mexican immigration we hopped onto another bus and, after some tedious delays, arrived in the town of Palenque. We checked into a stark but vast room in Hostal San Miguel and then went straight out to find somewhere to eat. We ordered waaaay too much food at Las Tinajas and left feeling totally stuffed.

Day 100!!! Tuesday 30th Dec and we were up early again to go and see the Mayan ruins of Palenque. We had thought we might beat the crowds by getting there early but we were wrong. The site was already heaving by 8.15am. It was also very warm and humid so after checking out all the major temple complexes and getting plenty of photos we decided we were 'ruined out' and went back into town. We checked out of our room and went to wait for our bus to San Cristobal de las Casas. It was dark by the time we got to S-C-de-las-C so got a taxi to our first choice of hostel which was full, as we suspected it might be so close to New Year's Eve. We managed to get a dorm room at our 2nd choice and after changing into much warmer clothes (San Cristobal is chilly) we struck out in search of dinner. As we walked through town we ooooohed and aaaaahed over the gorgeous Santa Domingo church which was all lit up, showing off its amazing carved and painted frontage to glorious effect. Seriously good veggie grub to be had at Casa Del Pan if you ever find yourself passing.

New Year's Eve dawned and after dressing very hastily to avoid getting cold we went out in search of somewhere a bit plusher to stay that night as a treat to ourselves. We found a room at the very civilised and grown up Posada El Paraiso. We enjoyed a wander round San Cristobal, sampled the coffee (much stronger than other countries so far) and shopped like people possessed at the mazelike market. We recovered from all the activity with a couple of beers back at the Posada (which means something like 'inn') and started to get Happy New Year messages from people back home at about 5.30pm. That got us in the mood and we did a spot more shopping for special New Year's outfits. Bracey bought a quite marvellous cowboy shirt and I got myself a poncho. When in Rome...

We had dinner at the Posada (yummy 4 course affair) and then went for a couple of drinks at Bar Revolucion. We joined the crowds in the town square for the midnight countdown and watched fireworks being set off from a nearby hill. Large numbers of people had 3ft long sparklers, which was unnerving yet amusing. After the fireworks came the live pan pipes band and they played all the classic tunes we associate with Mexico. Next time you see us ask us to sing them to you. I guarantee you'll recognise at least 2 of them.

We felt surprisingly fresh when we woke on New Year's Day and went out for some breakfast, spotting the most gorgeous blue church on the way (check the album). Unfortunately I got a stinking migraine after breakfast and had to lie low in the hotel for most of the morning (not a hangover I promise). Once I had sufficiently recovered we hit up the artisans markets to buy gifts for the folks back home. We're definitely going to have to ditch some of our manky clothes to make room for all these pressies and souvenirs. We killed a bit of time in the afternoon, whilst waiting for our onward bus which we caught at 10.30pm that night. We had been freezing on the bus from Palenque so wrapped up super warm for this journey. We were pleasantly surprised to find that the bus this time was warm and comfortable (although it's still tricky trying to change an ileostomy bag in a teeny loo whilst the bus hurtles round hairpin bends at speed).

We arrived in Oaxaca bus station at 10am on 2nd Jan feeling less than fresh. We eventually managed to convey to the taxi driver where we wanted to stay and checked in to Hotel Lupita. Our room was 'en-suite', which turned to mean that they had bricked off one corner of the room and put a toilet and shower in it. Said loo and shower were so close together you almost had to sit on the loo to take a shower. The other down-side was the walls of the 'bathroom' didn't actually reach the ceiling so bathroom activity tended to pervade the whole bedroom. Mmmmm. We went and had breakfast on the Zocalo (town square) and enjoyed checking out the town in beautiful sunshine. We did some more shopping in amongst seeing the sights and as I still wasn't feeling right cracking after yesterday's migraine we went back to relax in our room for a while before dinner. We were disconcerted by the total lack of other customers in 'Flor de Loto', although the food was good, so no real complaints. Passed a lovely evening watching tv with beer and chocolate. Bliss.

After a euro-style breakfast on Sat 3rd (sorry, but eggs and tortillas are losing their appeal by now...) we went to look at the spectacular Santo Domingo church. The interior was almost completely covered in gold leaf, some of which was being restored to it's full shiny glory. Luverly. I hung around outside the church whilst James furtively went looking for interesting seed pods from the trees outside for my Mum who finds artistic inspiration in such things. Imagine if you will that our appetite for shopping was still not sated by this point and you'll be able to picture us prowling yet another craft market. Seriously - every country seems to present more and better retail opportunities. We sampled some mezcal that afternoon (Brace liked, I didn't, quelle surprise) and our bus tickets on to Puerto Escondido for the next day. We had a supreme feed at La Olla that night. Muy caro (that's - expensive, by Mexican standards anyway) but delicioso!

Gallery: Honduras

hellie_and_bracey — Thu, 1 Jan 2009 11:06:00 GMT

Belize - Week 14

hellie_and_bracey — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 23:45:00 GMT

So, by week 14 we had made it as far as Belize. We feel pretty proud of ourselves whenever we look a map and see how far we've travelled. We checked out of our dingy little hotel room in San Ignacio and hopped on a bus destined for the capital, Belmopan. After a short wait there we got another bus to Dangriga, a town on the coast. It was pretty warm when we got there and we weren't sure how far we had to walk to get to the hotel we had in mind so indulged in a very expensive taxi (won't be doing that again!). After a much needed shower we took a walk into town and had lunch at the Riverside which the guide book quite rightly says is nicer inside than you would think from the outside. We were slightly apprehensive upon approaching but since we’re hardened travellers ready for anything these days we ventured forth. Glad we did too as Bracey had the best fried fish going dosed with liberal helpings of Marie Sharp's famous Belizean hot sauce. After eating we took a walk along the beach and listened to the gospel choir singing on a church porch for a while and then chilled out back at the hotel. Louise, the owner told us that we would need to eat at a Chinese restaurant that night as local people cost too much to employ on Sundays so all their restaurants shut on Sundays! It was a bit strange but the food was pretty good and we ate a LOT. Ironically it the most familiar food we'd had in ages.

We had a relaxing lie-in on Mon 22nd before checking emails and having brunch back at the Riverside Cafe. We spent the afternoon on the beach at the Pelican Resort Hotel at the far end of town. They have the cleanest beach in town so we soaked up the sun for a couple of hours and enjoyed some beers. Walking out to the beach gave us quite an interesting insight into the town which is really 'local' and not touristy at all. The houses were all wooden clapboard designs and looked quite ramshackle although were all painted in cheery colours and with music blasting out from all sides it had quite a nice feel to it. Dinner was at the Chinese again as everywhere else was a bit heavy on the meat for us veggie types.

While we were checking our emails on Tues morning we got chatting to a lovely English couple form Norfolk who were heading down to Placencia that day, as we were planning to do. They had bought a car in the USA and had driven down to Belize through Mexico. They very generously offered us a lift which we readily accepted as we had planned to take the bus. It was a fairly long and bumpy ride as most of the roads were unsurfaced but we had an enjoyable journey chatting and getting to know each other. Once in Placencia Dave and Carol went to book into a room and then took us to our gorgeous pre-booked apartment. We had decided to treat ourselves to a nice place over Christmas and were staying in the Decked Out House for 5 nights. We had the ground floor apartment of the huge house which had a deck out the back right on the water. The apartment also came with kayaks and bikes for our enjoyment which was really the clincher in our decision making process. We were stoked to discover that the apartment was actually bigger than the website had suggested and felt luxurious. Once Linda, the owner, had got us all settled in we took a ride into town to explore. Having the bikes was a real bonus as our place was a fair way out and we would have been far too lazy to walk in and out all the time. Placencia is, apparently, in the Guinness Book of Records for having the narrowest main street in the world. That may well be the case but we were sorely disappointed by said ‘main street’. It was simply a concrete walkway running parallel to the beach with buildings alongside. Some of the buildings still showed signs of damage from Hurricane Iris in 2001 but those that had been renovated were typical in their cheery Caribbean style. We checked out the beach and decided it would be our destination for some Christmas Day relaxing. Back at the apartment James went out in one of the kayaks and did some croc-spotting in the surrounding mangroves. Managed to scare himself without actually spotting any. We met up with Dave and Carol for dinner and drinks in the Pickled Parrot restaurant-bar and had a slightly wobbly ride back after cocktails and eggnog. I was hoping for a great nights sleep since our apartment was in a lovely quiet spot but ironically it was too quiet. I have obviously become so used to the noises of Central America that I’m now unable to sleep without them!

Wednesday was Christmas Eve and despite the heat and general lack of anything familiarly Christmassy I still felt an inexplicable tingle of childish excitement. We paddled out in the kayaks in the morning and could hardly believe it was Christmas as we basked in the sunshine. Still didn’t see any crocs though. On checking our emails we discovered that Bec and Kate, 2 lassies we had met in Guatemala, had also arrived in Placencia for Chrimbo and had suggested we met for a drink that night. Carol and Dave popped over for a cuppa (oh, the joys of being able to make your own tea!) and Carol and James went out in the kayaks for a bit while Dave and I relaxed in the sunshine. After some seriously good seafood scram, with Bec and Kate at the Pickled Parrot, we went to the Barefoot Beach Bar for cocktails and live music. Dave and Carol joined us there and despite a spot of tropical rain we all had a jolly old time.

Thursday was, of course, Christmas Day and it was set to be a Christmas Day unlike any other. For a start it was hot, plus we had no presents to unwrap and no prospect of a traditional Christmas dinner with family. However, we had arranged to see Bec and Kate at our place for drinks and board games so not entirely unconventional. We phoned and spoke to our folks back home in the morning which was very important to both of us. Bracey made Bec, Kate and myself beans on toast for lunch (I know – for Christmas lunch – mad, aren’t we?!) after which we played Uno, Yahtzee, Sorry and cards all afternoon. A touch of afternoon rain made it feel more like Christmas back home. The four of us went to meet Dave and Carol at the Secret Garden restaurant for dinner that evening where we had a lovely meal in great company. No-one really felt up to a big night (after the relative excesses of Christmas Eve) so after eating we said our goodnights.

Boxing Day was spent in traditional fashion eating, loafing around on the sofa and watching films. We rode down to Bec and Kate’s cabaña after lunch, the plan being to go snorkelling and sit and bask in the sun. However, that plan fell flat as the sun failed to materialise and the weather was generally a bit pants. To the great amusement of the local kids we flew Bec’s kite, broke Bec’s kite, fixed it and then flew it again in an endless cycle of repairs and fleeting moments of aviatic glory. The others taught me how to play poker that afternoon, hustle baby, hustle. We all went for dinner at DeTatch restaurant which was chosen because of the presence of lobster on the menu. Bec was hankering after her traditional Aussie Christmas meal of fresh lobster so we obliged - just to make her feel at home of course. The things you do for friends eh?

We did a bit of souvenir and postcard shopping on Sat 27^th and were kept entertained by the two little girls whose mum cleaned the Decked Out House. They found James’ jumping into the water antics highly amusing and demanded we take photos of them jumping around in the sand. Proper cuties. We had dinner that night with Carol and Dave at Wendy’s seafood restaurant and bade them a fond farewell as we had to head on the next morning.

Gallery: Costa Rica

hellie_and_bracey — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 07:00:00 GMT

Guatemala - Week 13

hellie_and_bracey — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 23:42:00 GMT

Week 13 starts on Sun 14th December with us first in line for the inclusive breakfast at the Yellow House Hostel in Antigua. We had a full day of shopping and general travel admin planned so needed the fortification. We also found fortification in the best hot chocolate in the world again and this time bought a truckload to bring home too. We found time to watch some local Sunday league football action and phone home to talk to the folks. Busy day so how better to finish it than with a beer on the roof terrace followed by a good veggie stirfry for dinner?!

Another bus trip on Mon 15th, this time to Lanquin in Guatemala´s heartlands. We got to Hostel El Retiro mid afternoon and had a choice of accomodation. We decided against the thatch roofed loft room for 2 reasons - a)it had no door so security was potentially a problem, but more importantly for me was b)the room had high potential for wildlife intruders of the insect and spider variety so it was definitely a no-go. Plus entry and exit was via a steep wooden ladder and given that I often need to get up in the night to use the bathroom I also saw potential for broken limbs. So, with all that in mind we opted for the room below which had walls and a door and no ladders etc. We chilled out in their restaurant/bar for a bit before dinner and managed to get several Mayan employees and children involved in a game of Uno. Of course we really didn´t speak each others languages at all but Uno´s a fairly simple game and we weren´t much worried about sticking to the rules. It was far more fun making it up as we went along. One of the older ladies who joined in asked me (in Spanish) how many children we had and was aghast when I said none. She then either suggested we make a baby there that night (?!) or take one of theirs (?!) Little Wendy for example - who was sitting on one of the little girls´laps. I started to feel uncomfortable by the way the conversation was going, even though she was chuckling away, and was relieved when our delicious veggie lasagne appeared providing a much needed distraction.

We had booked on to do a tour of the beautiful nearby Semuc Champey on Tues and were whisked off in the back of a pick up truck at 9.30am with an English girl called Becci who had been on the same shuttle as us the day before, an English guy called Carl, an Aussie guy called Jack and an Aussie couple - Ben and Sophie. We drove out for a hour to some caves where we all stripped down to our swimming costumes and were given candles to light our way. The caves were partially submerged and it was pretty entertaining watching everyone try to swim holding their candles aloft. We were smug as we had brought waterproof headtorches which made it much easier. Although the water was refreshing it wasn´t really cold and it was great fun exploring in the dark. I didn´t even freak when a bat flew right at my head. There were various challenges along the way, including rope ladders up and down mini waterfalls and jumping off rocks into pools and only after an hour and a half in the caves did we start to feel chilly and came out. We then had our packed lunches from El Retiro (sandwiches wrapped in banana leaves) before being given an car inner tube and then taken upstream for a tubing session. The water in the river was a fair bit cooler than in the caves but was moving really slowly so sitting in the tube and drifting downstream was an altogether relaxing experience. The only things that would have improved it would have been a wee bit more sunshine and a beer to sup along the way! Back on dry land we were challenged to jump off the road bridge back into the river we had just tubed down. The boys all went for it whereas Sophie and I didn´t even pretend to consider it. Thankfully Becci stepped up for the girls and made the leap. After that we walked up to the Semuc Champey pools park where we did a very steep walk up to the mirador (viewing point) and got a fabulous view of the pools below. Semuc is famous for being a natural bridge where one river actually flows over another and the upper one was stepped into a series of pools, all in shades of blue and green. Our appetites suitable whetted we scampered back down and got into the water again. Bathing in the pools was wonderful and while the boys all did jumps and dives from one pool to the next, us girls lounged and chatted. The last part of the tour was another challenge set up by our tour guide Elvis (yes, it is an unfeasible name but it´s funny). He wrapped a rope ladder round a rock and threw it over a waterfall and then encouraged each of us to climb down. All of us did too - even me and Sophie the group scaredy cats. Once down the only way back was up the same way and I still can´t decide which was sketchier. A character building experience it´s fair to say. Once back at El Retiro there was a scrum for the hot showers and then we all stuffed our faces at the veggie Guatemalan buffet in the restaurant. So much good food, such comparatively small stomachs. We played uno, chatted and drank cocktails with Becci, Ben and Sophie until late into the night.

Unfortunately we had to leave the lovely El Retiro early the next morning to catch yet another shuttle to Flores in northern Guatemala. We both felt a little tender as the drinks from last night came back to haunt us but thankfully we were the only two going all the way to Flores so could stretch out and sleep and the driver stopped whenever requested for toilet and food breaks. It was a pretty chilled journey made interesting by a novel river crossing but we were glad to arrive in Flores that afternoon. We had to transfer into a taxi in Santa Elena to go on to Flores (which is an island connected by a causeway). We still aren´t sure of the purpose of the vehicle switch but it gave the driver´s companion an opportunity to show us a hotel room (which we ended up taking after comparing it to our other choice) and he also sold us bus tickets on to our next destination. Ok, so we might have been sitting targets but it was a good deal and he made it real easy for us! We circumnavigated Flores a couple of times in pursuit of the best place for dinner before deciding on the first place we looked at, Cafe Yax-Ha which served traditional Mayan food.

I regret to tell you that by the time Thurs morning rolled round, James had managed to convince himself that he had caught rabies from one of the coatis at Panajachel nature reserve. I wish I could tell you that he was only half serious but he wasn´t. So serious was he that we had to take a taxi out to the hospital in Santa Elena where he was looked at by a doctor who examined the scratch site and declared "No hay problema" (There´s no problem). Unconvinced by this somewhat blase approach we then had to go to a clinic down the road and get looked at by another doctor who also proclaimed he had nothing to worry about. The scratch site was clean and totally free of infection so no need to worry. Back to Flores then for breakfast! We caught a bus out to the grand Mayan ruin of Tikal that afternoon where we had decided to camp the night before exploring the ruins early the next morning. We had sent our tent home from Costa Rica but had the hammocks we had bought in Nicaragua so hired a palapas to hang them from. I was concerned about mosquitos so we hired a couple of nets. I would like to say that they were bona fide mosquito nets, but they weren´t. Mine was really just a old net curtain cunningly rearranged to do a new job. And it smelt suspiciously of cat wee. I told myself this was deliberate protection against attacks from jaguars in the night. We had an early tea in one of the comedors outside the park grounds and then settled in for our first night hammocking. Several things occured to me as I tried to sleep that night. 1)Jungles get a lot colder at night than you might think. 2)The smell of cats wee is not very nice. 3)Any, and I mean ANY sound you hear in the jungle at night is almost definitely a jaguar or other large carniverous creature with designs on you for it´s dinner.

We were both extremely glad that we had booked in for an early tour on Fri morning as it meant we had an excuse for getting up early. We joined the tour group at 6am and our guide, Chino, took us off into the park. The idea was that we might get to see the sunrise from the top of one of the temples of Tikal but unfortunately the weather was cloudy and all we could see from the top of Temple 4 (the tallest one) was mist with a few tree tops poking through. We stuck it out for a while though and were rewarded with a spine tingling view of the top of a nearby temple emerging as the mist cleared. Very atmospheric. Chino took us through all sorts of short cuts where we got to see spider monkeys - but none of the jaguars that had been lurking round our hammocks last night. Chino was extremely knowledgeable about the site and Mayan culture and told us so much more than we could ever have gleaned from a guide book. Tikal is an immense site and the ruins we explored had been discovered completely covered in jungle with tree roots having ripped apart most of the structures. They have only cleared this 20% as it´s involved and expensive work and every now and again we would pass a huge grassy mound covered in trees and vegetation which had another temple underneath. The tour lasted a total of 5 and 1/2 hrs by which point the site had become hot and crowded so, having seen pretty much everything, we decided to head back to Flores. One blasting hot shower and an awesome pasta dinner later and we both slept like the proverbial that night.

No rest for the wicked though and on Sat 20th we were on the move again, this time to Belize. We caught a shuttle to San Ignacio at 8am, crossed the Guatemala/Belize border with no problems and arrived in San Ignacio at about 11.30am. Belize is totally different from the rest of Central America. It used to be a British colony so the official language is English. They also have a much more mixed population so it was quite a new experience for us. We checked into a hotel that promised much and delivered only a dingy room with old furniture and a strong whiff of mothballs. We headed out for some brunch and after a brief perusal of what San Ignacio had to offer we realised that we wouldn´t be spending much time there at all. We spent the afternoon checking emails and then reading and chilling with a drink at the lovely Cafe Sol where we also had dinner - simply outstanding veggie wraps. Yum.

Gallery: Guatemala

hellie_and_bracey — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 06:27:00 GMT

Guatemala - Week 12

hellie_and_bracey — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 06:43:00 GMT

Our Sunday morning lie-in was rudely truncated on 7th Dec by the sounds of firecrackers and music coming from the streets of Antigua. I should just mention at this point that noises such as these are by no means unusual in Central America. Almost everywhere we have been there have been people setting off bangers and playing loud music from their shops, cars and houses. But this sounded more organised and jubilant than usual so we went out for a look. It appeared to be a parade in honour of the festive season and featured school bands and dance troupes interspersed with commercial floats. Yep - trucks and vans and typical carnival style floats decked out for Chrimbo with people aboard handing out their products to onlookers. We managed to bag ourselves a couple of packets of instant noodles for lunch, James was lucky enough to get a box of condensed milk and the 3-M float gave us a scouring pad and 2 rolls of scotch tape! They also took our photo with one of their reps with us proudly displaying our goodies for their promotional material!! We did some more shopping that afternoon and tried to get to see the Burning of the Devil Ceremony that evening. The ceremony takes place outside one of the main churches in the town and symbolises the elimination of evil prior to Christmas. A huge effigy of the devil is built and burnt on a pyre - a little like our Guy Fawkes night. Unfortunately for us the crowds were epic and I got crushed trying to see anything so we called it a night before I got trampled and went for dinner instead.

We were up and out early for another bus journey on Monday morning - this time to Panajachel on Lake Atitlan. The ride was a little crazy as our driver was mad keen on overtaking, especially on blind corners whilst hurtling down steep mountain hairpins. But, in fairness, we made it in one piece so mustn´t grumble. We found a place to stay, which had a nice balcony but rather tired decor, and then went in search of some brunch. Lake Atitlan was described by Aldous Huxley as "the most beautiful lake in the world" and I can see why he would say that. Seeing it for the first time on the drive in to Panajachel was a real wow moment. It isn´t a huge lake so you can see all the way across and the land around it is all really steep hillsides which just seem to disappear into the water with little towns clinging to the sides! We had brunch in a little place with a superb view of the lake and then took a walk by the waters edge. Whiled away the afternoon with a bit of time on the internet and then with a drink on the balcony before going for dinner at a lovely veggie restaurant. The meal came to an interesting conclusion as we got cornered by 2 young Mayan girls who wanted us to buy their handicrafts. Before he knew it James was draped in scarves and jewellery with both girls cooing over him and telling him how cheap everything was. We ended up making them an offer on a few bits which was in line with what they had advertised but now seemed mysteriously unacceptable to them. One girl gave James the most doleful puppy dog eyes and seemed to be asking why he would want to break her heart with such a low offer for her work. Artful, very very artful! The giveaway for me was that she couldn´t quite keep a straight face so I think they did ok out of us.

We took a look around Panajachel on Tuesday morning including a browse in the local museum which contained items that had been found by divers in the lake. It seems that there is a submerged village down there somewhere! We were approached by another little Mayan girl at lunch who James tried a delay tactic with, telling her he would catch up with her later on to buy something. We bumped into her again later on as we were heading out onto the lake for a paddle in a kayak, so he promised we would find her later although I was starting to suspect that this tactic wasn´t going to work as she had a spectacular memory and a tenacious sales pitch. Our kayak outing was interesting. When we had arrived the lake had been like a millpond and looked ideal for kayaking, but, of course, by the time we went out a brisk wind had picked up and we actually had quite a job paddling out. We both got pretty wet and cross words were exchanged every now and again as waves came at us from all angles. But it was a good laugh nonetheless. Really, it was. We went for a coffee later to recover and who should we bump into but our little friend! This time there really was no escape so we bought some lovely scarves from her which seemed to make her happy. We had probably the best burritos ever at Llama del Fuego that night, and that made me happy.

We left Panajachel on Wed 10th and took a lancha round the shores of the lake to the little village of San Marcos de la Laguna. It´s a bit of a hippy retreat but I liked the idea of doing some yoga and we were both up for decent veggie grub. We stayed at the unfeasibly funky Aaculaax hotel (which I´m sure would sound great said through an echo machine). It´s hard to describe the decor, so I´ll put some photos up for you. As we were exploring the coastline/lakeside around San Marcos we got snaggled by another dinky little Mayan girl called Sandra (?!) and since we definitely weren´t in the market for any more scarves we gave her a tip to be our guide and show us the best spot to view the lake from. The girl came up trumps and we sat admiring the view in the sunshine with her for a while. After a bit of chill time with beers and Yahtzee we went for dinner at Il Jiardino. Although the food was nice the extremely unhurried staff did seem to take rather a long time to produce the somewhat undergenerous portions. But it´s not exactly like we were in a rush and we got to chat to Bec and Kate, who we had met on the boat over, which was nice.

I had planned to get up early and join Bec and Kate at yoga early on Thurs morning but changed my mind when the alarm went off. Instead we enjoyed a leisurely breakfast on the terrace and then took a walk out to our beauty spot that Sandra had showed us. We lazed about in the sun for a hour or two and after lunch I actually made it to a yoga class, which was lovely. The rest of the afternoon was spent soaking up the peaceful atmosphere of Aaculaax before having pizza for dinner at El Forno where they even put a film on to entertain us while we ate!

I did actually manage to get up in time for the early morning yoga class on Fri 12th, which took place inside a wooden pyramid building which is part of the Las Piramides complex. Las Piramides is a renowned spiritual retreat in San Marcos and was full of people on macrobiotic diets who had taken vows of silence until the full moon. The yoga class centred around a glass pyramid with a crystal ball inside. Just a little much for me I´ll confess, but the yoga session was good nonetheless. After breakfast we went back out along the coast path to find a spot where Bracey could go for a swim in the lake. I didn´t fancy it much, preferring to sit in the sun and read, but the water was clear and not too cold, apparently. We caught a lancha back to Panajachel late morning and trudged around trying to find somewhere to stay. By the time we checked into Mario´s Rooms we were hot and grumpy, but nothing that a good shower and a tofu burger for lunch couldn´t fix. We did some souvenir shopping after lunch and made use of the free internet at the hotel before hitting up the awesome burrito restaurant again for dinner.

We took an early tuktuk (crazy Central American version of a taxi) out to the Atitlan Nature Reserve first thing on Sat morning. We had a lovely walk through their nature trail and saw coatis and spider monkeys - which freaked me out a bit as I didn´t realise a)how bloody fast they move through the trees and b)how spookily human they look from a distance.... cousins indeed (except for the gurt long tail that is). The trail took in some decidely decrepit hanging bridges but we got to see clear winged butterflies which are amazing. After a coffee we bought some bananas to feed to the monkeys, which would have been awesome, if the coatis hadn´t mobbed us for them first. I kept well clear but James literally had them clambering all over him to eat out of his hand. I think he thought it was quite funny until one of them climbed up his leg, digging his claws right in for better purchase. Ouch. Back in town we had a couple of hours to while away before our shuttle bus back to Antigua so went for a drink down by the lakeside and read in the sunshine for a while. The shuttle back was marginally less terrifying than on the way out and we got back to the Yellow House in one piece. It was really nice to go back to somewhere familiar, especially as they remembered our names and had kept the same room for us. If you ever find yourself in Antigua we highly recommend that place!

Gallery: Nicaragua

hellie_and_bracey — Mon, 8 Dec 2008 10:21:00 GMT

Honduras & Guatemala - Week 11

hellie_and_bracey — Sat, 6 Dec 2008 03:02:00 GMT

We awoke to find ourselves in a rather bleak hotel in Tegucigalpa early on the morning of Sun 30th November. Early being 4.30am. Yep. We were hoping to catch the 5.30am coach to Copan Ruinas in the northern most part of Honduras. We woke the security guard who was kipping on the sofa in reception to let us out and got a taxi from the street to the bus terminal. We had emailed ahead to reserve seats but unfortunately they mustn't have received it as there were no spaces available on the service we wanted. Instead we had to wait until 10am. Not very impressed. Since we hadn't really eaten anything the day before we were pretty hungry and waited eagerly for the bus station cafe to open. It would appear that Honduran Spanish is not the same as the Spanish we learnt and I had so much difficulty making myself understand to the lady serving that I ended up being served a portion of plaintain chips with mince beef for breakfast. Which being veggie is not my idea of yumminess. Luckily I also managed to get coffee and a couple of stale pastries so we could stave off the hunger pangs for a little longer. The bus staff all thought it was highly amusing that we waited for 5 hours in the bus station and chuckled heartily as they took our photos ready for boarding the bus. (I still don't know why they did that - for body identification?!) Unfortunately we had to put all our bags in the storage compartment under the bus so the meagre snacks I had managed to obtain were out of reach for the whole journey and although they served us sandwiches they contained meat. We were being teased with food we couldn't eat. Needless to say by the time we arrived in Copan Ruinas 8 hours later I was ready to eat my own face I was so hungry. We hastily found a place to stay and then found somewhere to eat and literally demolished veggie burgers with chips AND pudding. Food never tasted so good. They say humans can live for up a week without food. We went 48 hours and it was touch and go.

Mon 1st Dec starts in Copan Ruinas, the little town which serves as a base for visitors wanting to visit the Mayan ruins of Copan. We had spoken to several people about what there is to do in Honduras and we had heard the same thing from almost everyone. Copan and the Bay Islands - if you want to dive. We didn't want to dive so that just left Copan. Hence travelling for 2 whole days all the way through practically an entire country. Luckily there is quite a bit going on around Copan Ruinas so we knew we could fill several days there. We went to Macaw Mountain on Monday which is a bird sanctuary up in the hills. We saw macaws (naturally), parrots, toucans, hawks, owls etc. All the animals had been brought the the park either by the authorities who had confiscated them from illegal sellers or by people who no longer wanted them as pets. In one section they let the birds fly completely free but they always come back as they know they'll get food. James got himself decked out in macaws and even had his t-shirt munched by one of them. I guess that'll be why it was no longer wanted as a pet then. We also looked around the town museum that afternoon to get some background on Copan ready for our trip to the ruins the next day.

We were up and out early on Tues morning, eager to be history boffs. The ruins are a short walk out of town so we strolled out at about 8am. The site was quiet at that time in morning and we were able to take our time looking round. Copan is famous for it's sculptures and there are lots of stelae (carved standing stones) dotted around the place. The carvings are remarkable - very detailed and surprisingly intact. The Mayans built temples over the top of previous ones and there is actually a beautiful temple (Rosalila) buried inside another one, which they have built a full size replica of in the museum on the site. It was amazing to walk around the ruins of what was once a really powerful city. Copan isn't a vast site and we were back in town by the afternoon which we spent relaxing and doing laundry etc until a powercut hit the town in the early evening. Fortunately we were still able to get food. I think they have contingency plans for such situations as it is quite a common occurence.

Wednesday morning started with a horse riding trip into the hills first thing. A local girl called Carolina was our guide and took us right up to a little Chorti Indian village where we were taken around a women's weaving cooperative and shown how they create their beautiful blankets and mats. Neither of us had ever ridden before but apparently impressed Carolina with our skills, even though my horse kept cutting James' up and James' only seemed to want to eat. That afternoon we went out of town a little way to look around a butterfly house and, even though it was the wrong season for many species, we saw several huge and beautiful butterflies. We had a great 3-course backpacker special meal at 'Twisted Tanya's restaurant that night which I can highly recommend! Good cocktails too, apparently....

We were up and out at the crack of dawn (literally) on Thurs 4th. We caught a shuttle bus to Antigua in Guatemala which got in at around 2pm. We checked into our hostel which had a lovely roof terrace and as the sun was shining (something it didn't do that much in Honduras) we spent the afternoon in the sunshine reading and writing up journals.

We well and truly checked out Antigua on Friday and it is a really gorgeous town. Many guidebooks will tell you that it's not the REAL Guatemala as it's affluent, clean and totally unfrenzied! Ok, maybe that's true, but it's still full of stunning ruined churches and cathedrals which were damaged in earthquakes and wars, as in Granada and it's a real pleasure to walk around. There is also a great artisans market where we bought some more Christmas presents. Our favourite church was the Iglesia de Nuestra Senora de la Merced (Church of our Lady of Mercy). It was having it's yellow and white relief frontage redone when we were there and it is stunning. I'll definitely get some photos of it up when I can. Antigua is surrounded by huge volcanoes and we had great views all day of them, some with plumes of cloud and ash erupting from their tops! After a very nice day of strolling around the town and sampling local chocolates, we had a much longed for thai meal for dinner.

We had a proper Saturday morning lie-in on 6th Dec as our hostel (The Yellow House) was extremely comfortable and even included a buffet breakfast in the price so we didn't even have to venture far when we got hungry! We did head out into town eventually though and got a coffee on the Parque Central. Well, James had coffee, I had the yummiest hot chocolate on the face of the planet. Seriously - Guatemalan's know chocolate. We fuelled up with a decent lunch ready for our trek up Volcan Pacaya that afternoon. Pacaya is still a very active volcano and we were assured of seeing real, actual red hot magma. James could barely contain the Geography teacher inside him at the prospect. Our tour bus picked us up from the Yellow House and drove us for an hour and a half out to Volcan Pacaya National Park. We then had a long walk up. We got fantastic views of surrounding volcanoes on the way up. The last part of the climb was definitely the worst as we had to scramble up very loose and very, very sharp lava scree - basically chunks of solidied lava that came in all different shapes and sizes but not of them stable or easy to walk on. It was a case of 2 steps forward, one step back the whole way. And it was hot and steep. But it was most definitely worth it as at the top we were rewarded with an up close and personal view of real lava oozing out of the side of the volcano. I'm not totally convinced of the safety of having 20-30 people all standing on a thin rock crust right above molten lava, all jostling for the best position to get photos and toast marshmallows but, this is Central America, and besides, it was so hot that you didn't hang around too close for long! The climb down was even sketchier than the way up as the whole mountain side seemed to shift with every step plus it was getting dark. But that just made it more spectacular when you looked back up the mountain side and saw the lava tumbling down! I had to make a few stops to empty the lava gravel out of my walking boots. We celebrated with a beer when we made it safely back down and then the tour bus took us back to Antigua. As it was late we went out for a quick bite and then hit the hay for a much needed sleep after such a strenuous and exciting day!

Nicaragua - Week 10

hellie_and_bracey — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 09:29:00 GMT

Wow - week 10 already! And we start in San Juan Del Sur, Nicaragua on Sun 23rd Nov. San Juan is a beautiful beach resort where we had come to surf. Since I had never done any surfing before and James wanted a refresher we booked ourselves some time with a teacher. His name was Alfredo and he was a gnarly Peruvian surf veteran who assured that we would all be able to stand on the board by the end of the lesson. He wasn't in the least bit concerned about how long it would take either - for the cost of an hours tuition we got more like 3! I confess to being a little scared by the whole thing and had to have several goes just lying on the board and floating in on the waves before I could attempt to stand. Poor Alfredo was very patient with me and it finally paid off as I did stand upright on the board (yes, whilst riding a wave) for a few seconds!!! He kept saying "Vamos, Chiquitita, your wave!!!" and eventually it was. James on the other hand was a natural and Alfredo was most impressed urging him to keep surfing in the future. We celebrated that night by going for lobster dinners (I know it sounds flash but it's so cheap it's laughable) with Haley and Jes and a couple of other guys who were staying at our hostel.

We were sad to leave San Juan on Mon 24th but had to push on as we still have so much to see. We got a bus to Rivas, then a taxi (which almost took James' nose off with it's crappy boot) to San Jorge. Once in San Jorge we bought tickets for the boat across to Isla Ometepe. Ometepe is an island in the middle of Lake Nicaragua which is basically just 2 large volcanoes joined by a narrow strip of land. The boat ride over was pretty lumpy as the lake is vast and the wind really gets up. We wanted to stay a little off the beaten track on Ometepe so went over to the south-eastern end of the island and checked into the beautiful 'El Porvenir' lodgings. El Porvenir is located on the side of Volcan Maderas and is close to many of the petroglyphs (rock carvings) on the island. Our room faced out onto a gorgeous garden complete with family of pigs snuffling around. Luckily they had a restaurant on site as we were miles from the nearest town/village. We sat and ate dinner that night looking out over the lake and Volcan Concepion watching the sun go down. Very romantic. Until we realised that it was actaully pitch black and the rancho (a thatched hut with open sides) we were eating under had no power, it was now night time, we hadn't brought our torch and we couldn't see what we were eating. Back in our room we wished we had no power so we wouldn't have seen the mutant creature lurking in the corner. I was freaked - goes without saying. But the scary thing on this occasion was that even James (animal magic man) was little a little perturbed by the monster's presence. I will put a photo of it up in the album when i can get to a pc that will actually let me upload pictures. But neither of us had ever seen anything like it and although it disappeared quickly after we came in, I had a restless night wondering where it had gone...

We ate a hearty breakfast on the rancho on Tues morning ready for our hike up Volcan Maderas. It wasn't a hot day but was quite humid and we got a fair sweat on during the steep climb. It was worth it though as the view from the point we stopped at just below the cloud line was spectacular. We had been able to hear Howler Monkeys all the way up so ventured into the trees above the cloud line a little way to see if we could spot them. We weren't disappointed and even got to see a mummy and baby monkey! We then headed back down to go and look and look at the petroglyphs that are all around El Porvenir. Some of them had amazing carvings on but we weren't able to find out anything about who they were carved by or how old they were. The rest of the day consisted of eating ice creams and relaxing and then another meal in the rancho - but we chose the one with lights tonight! Scorpion monster thing was lurking in our room again when we went in that night but scuttled off again when we appeared. Joining him that evening was a rather enormous spider (which even James was cautious about handling), a gecko (but even I can cope with them) and a tree frog which retreated under our bed and stayed there all night. I don't think I've ever felt so close to nature.

We headed up to the northern end of Isla Ometepe on the morning of Wed 26th to head back to the mainland. We got a bumpy tourist shuttle to Moyogalpa and waited there for a while for a lancha to San Jorge. Once there we got a taxi to Rivas and got dropped at the bus station. It looked as though our bus to Granada was about to leave so we hopped on and got our seats. I was a little uncomfortable though as I needed the toilet and didn't know how long it would take us to get to Granada and whether I could hold on. We also didn't know how long the bus journey was going to be so I dithered for a few minutes and then decided to make a dash for it. The bus station at Rivas is in the middle of a huge market which no obvious sign of a public bathroom. I asked several people for directions and they all kept pointing in the same direction. I felt like Anneka Rice from the olden days as I ran through the market desperately trying to work out what everyone was pointing at and where the hell the bathrooms were. Eventually found them, did what I needed to do and then ran back to the bus praying that it hadn't left without me. It hadn't. And it didn't then leave for another 20 minutes. All hot and sweaty for nowt. Mmmmm, nice. Perfect when you're on a very crowded bus with 3 people squashed into 2 seats for an hour and a half. And they say that getting there is half the fun....Still, we made it to Granada in one piece and checked into Hostel Dorado where we made the most of free and surprisingly quick internet before going out for dinner. We ate that night at a place called 'Imagine' which was kind of 'Beatles' themed (which might sound really tacky, but it wasn't). We ate a good meal but the best bit was quite definitely the pudding. We realised that we had seriously pudding deprived throughout our travels and took advantage of the opportunity to break this fast with warm mango bread covered in ice cream and hot chocolate sauce. I may have had nicer puddings, but I don't remember when. It was so good James actually licked up a bit I'd dropped onto the table. Yep, that good guys.

After going out for breakfast on Thurs morning we packed up our stuff and moved to the slightly cheaper Hostal Oasis where we got beds in a really big but really lovely dorm. We then had to try and sort out our long distance bus tickets to Honduras so mucked around all morning seeing to that and then managed to do some sight seeing. Granada is a beautiful old colonial town that has been destroyed (and partially restored) due to earthquakes and civil war. We climbed up the tower of the Iglesia de la Merced where we got a great view of the town. We sat and enjoyed a drink in the Parque Central and bought some souvenirs from the many stalls there. It was a hot day so after a lot of walking around we went back to the hostal for a shower. We were invited to join some Americans for their Thanksgiving Dinner but I had set my heart on a curry so we declined their invitation. As I have found in every place since, Asian food, that's good Asian food, is hard to come by in Central America and my curry was a little disappointing. Good thing I get on ok with local cuisine eh?!

We took a bus out to the town of Masaya fairly early on Friday 28th. Masaya has a huge handicrafts market and we were ready to shop! We loved the hammocks at Tio Tom's so much we were determined to get a couple to take home. Apparently they were Nicaraguan style ones so where better to buy them than in Nicaragua? The bus from Granada dropped us miles out from the market so we had a bit of fun finding the place but it was worth it when we did. So many gorgeous things to buy! We did go a bit wild but got lots of Christmas pressies for friends and family too! Picked up the bus back to Granada from the mental bus depot in Masaya and then spent the afternoon in Granada sorting out postcards, sending a birthday gift to my mum, swapping books at a book exchange etc. We ate pizza that night at a streetside restaurant where we were kept entertained by kids doing 'break dancing' and then asking for money. Yeah right. Brace was tempted to get up there and bust a few moves himself and see how much money he could make. I managed to dissuade him though as anyone who has seen James attempt to break dance will agree was a good thing.

We had to pack up and get a bus to Managua, the capital of Nicaragua on Sat morning as we were destined for Honduras that day. While we waited for our long distance bus at the terminal in Managua we were harangued by kids, and really grubby ones at that. I don't mean to sound really middle class and snooty when I say that but we don't think these were street kids who were actually destitute, more like kids who were bored on a Sat and bugged gringos for whatever cash they could swindle. I had had enough after one of them wiped his finger in the dirt and smeared it down my arm through the doorway beside me - twice. The armed guard was clearly no deterrent to these vagabounds. Finally we could escape to the haven of the coach. We were so happy to have an air conditioned bus with enough leg room for James for once! We even got given snacks which was nice since we didn't have enough Nicaraguan Cordobes left to buy left. We crossed the Nicaraguan-Honduran border at around 7pm, so it was dark. We had to take our bags off the bus and get them checked by border control (meaning a guard opened the top of my rucksack, lifted up the top item of clothing and then waved me through). There seemed to be a lot of aimless people milling around our bus which coupled with the fact that the luggage compartment was open under the bus while we were waiting to leave made me nervous. And lo and behold, when we got to our hotel in Tegucigalpa (Tegus) we found that someone had been through our rucksacks. Nothing had been taken luckily as we don't carry anything valuable in our main bags, just shoes and clothes which they obviously weren't interested in. Still felt horrible though. We were really hungry when we got to Tegus as it was 9pm and we'd hardly eaten all day. There was a snack cabinet in the hotel but the night receptionist told us he couldn't sell us any of it (WHY??!!). Instead he directed us to go and find an eatery around the corner. With some trepidation we ventured out into a considerably dodgy part of a pretty dodgy city, in the dark, only to find that nowhere was open. And the hotel staff didn't seem at all surprised when we told them this, which makes me wonder why they sent us out in the first place?.... So, we went to bed hungry....woe is us......

Costa Rica and Nicaragua - Week 9

hellie_and_bracey — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 08:55:00 GMT

Thankfully we didn't start week 10 with James in hospital as I had feared would be necessary. But, I knew I had to get him somewhere more peaceful than Costa Rica Backpackers as our room was like a prison cell (actually, worse as there was no TV or ensuite) and the noise all around us was horrendous. I went out to check out a hostel which is part of a Quaker meeting house and it seemed perfect so I fetched James and our belongings from the cell and moved to the tranquility of Casa Ridgway - just 5 minutes down the road. James spent the day in bed feeling rough as rats and thoroughly miserable but the quiet seemed to do the trick as he woke the next day feeling almost human again. So, no need for a repeat visit La Clinica Biblica, which I'm sure our travel insurance company will be glad about.

So, as planned, we were able to get a bus out of San Jose on Mon 17th Nov and head for the hills. One tedious 4 and a half hour bus ride later and we were in La Fortuna, which is north of San Jose and as it's higher up, considerably cooler. Our chief reason for visiting the town was the active volcano (Volcan Arenal) which towers over the settlement luring thousands of visitors every year. We spent the rest of the day dodging rain showers whilst checking out the town. It's mostly tour operators, restaurants and gift shops and without the view of the volcano (thanks to the low rainclouds) not the most inspiring town of our travels so far. Gringo Pete's, the hostel we were staying in, had a nice atmosphere though so we played yahtzee and chatted to other travellers through the evening.

Our primary objective on Tues was to book on to a tour of Volcan Arenal, after which I took care of the important business of getting a birthday card for my sister and shipping her pressie off. Our volcano tour left at 3pm with us, a Dutch couple, a Swedish couple and 2 German girls (who were sadly underprepared for the adventure). On our drive up the start of the trail we were lucky enough to see a sloth and a toucan in the trees! We had a fairly taxing trek through 'really real jungle' as Danny our guide put it. The German girls were wearing open toes sandals which Danny wasn't happy about 'because of the snakes' and didn't have ponchos or waterproofs, but umbrellas instead, which Danny wasn't happy about either, because, as he said, this is 'really real jungle'! Nevertheless we went ahead at a furious pace climbing hand over foot in some places over tree roots and rocks. After about an hour we made it to a clearing where we hoped to be able to see the lava flow coming down the sides of the volcano. Unfortunately the cloud cover was really low that day so we didn't see much. By this point it was dark (have I mentioned thatnight falls in C America by 5.30pm?!) and the German girls were seriously unimpressed at a)the lack of lava and b)having to walk back the way we came (which was very steep, slippery and extremely muddy) as they thought it was too dangerous. Not as dangerous as sleeping in the jungle as Danny pointed out. Besides the rest of us all had torches so what were they worried about?! James and I found the walk back highly entertaining, especially when Danny jumped out of the undergrowth at me, in the pitch black, pretending to be a wild boar. Yes, I did shriek and squeal but then laughed a great deal. Once at the bottom he treated us all (except the teetotal Germans) to a drink of guaro (Costa Rican fire water) and lemonade. From this spot we did actually see some lava flow which made us happy, although the entertaining trek was worth the money for me!

We left La Fortuna on Wed 19th headed for Monteverde, home of the famous Cloud Forests. Rather than the standard 7 or 8 hour bus ride between the towns we opted to get a boat across Lake Arenal and then the bumpiest minibus shuttle through the mountains as a shortcut. If I ran that shuttle company I would seriously consider investing in 4x4 vehicles, it would have to be cheaper than replacing the suspension on your minibus every 6 wks, surely. As soon as we arrived in Monteverde we booked on to a guided night walk in the forest where we hoped we would spot lots of nocturnal creatures. We looked around the Ranaria (frog house) that afternoon and were seriously chuffed to see the famous and spectacular red-eyed tree frog, which is practically Costa Rica's national symbol. The weather had taken a decided turn for the worse during the afternoon with rain and very strong winds and we were disappointed to find that our guided walk had been cancelled, mainly for safety reasons but also as we were unlikely to see much wildlife in those conditions. There was also a powercut that night but it didn't stop us going for pizza with a British guy and a Norwegian girl that we had met in the hostel.

We had hoped to visit the Santa Elena Cloud Forest Reserve on Thurs morn but the weather was still abysmal and as there is almost nothing to do in Monteverde itself we decided to cut our losses and head back to San Jose. In the interests of travelling light we had left most of our luggage in storage at the Costa Rica Backpackers so had to go back to collect it before we got move on. We were really disappointed to have travelled all that way and not to have seen what we went for but also figured we could have spent several days there waiting for the weather to improve in vain. So, another long bus ride (this time featuring more unfeasible looking roads, flat tyres and rock falls) and then we found ourselves once again in the delightful haven of Costa Rica Backpackers in San Jose. Oh happy day. We booked into a dorm room this time for economy and were fortunate to have it to ourselves but the decor was still bleak and depressing. We spent the afternoon washing our stinking clothes from the volcano trek and trying to change money ready for entering Nicaragua. We were delighted to find some veggie sausages in a supermarket in town which we cooked up with some pasta and broccoli in a tomato sauce. It had all the makings of being delicious. One of the best backpacker meals ever. But it fell so, so far short. The sausages were sponge. No, seriously, I'm certain that they had been mispackaged and should have been in the toiletries section of the shop. So they never made it to the pasta pan. But we figured you can't go too far wrong with the rest of our ingredients. So, so wrong. No-one was ever hungry enough to eat the slop that we had concocted. I still don't know how we made it taste so bad. James missed the bin too and most of it ended up on the kitchen floor. I almost reopened my abdo scar through laughing so hard. Lucky we weren't that hungry.

Fri 21st saw us waiting for yet another bus. This time from San Jose to the Costa Rica - Nicaragua border. After 5 hrs on the filthiest coach yet we arrived in Penas Blancas where we queued for our exit stamp and then walked through the border to try and get our entry stamp to Nicaragua. The border was baffling and we teamed up with a couple of Canadian girls, Haley and Jes, to work it all out. Eventually we found a building with a huge crowd around one door which we were told was the place. After much kafuffle we got the necessary forms completed and handed them in with our passports and $14 and then had to wait it out. It is always slightly nervewracking handing your passport over into the unknown but I kept chanting my personal mantra (trust and faith Hel, trust and faith) and, lo and behold, we were rewarded with fully stamped up passports. From there we raced through into Nicaragua and were briefly distracted by a group of men trying to con us into paying a 'tourist tax'. The giveaway was that one of them was a grizzled crosseyed old bloke dressed in a poor imitation of a policeman's uniform. The other men tried scaring us into paying by pointing out that he was 'POLICIA' but his appearance plus lack of gun gave it away. Laughing heartily the four of us hopped on a bus bound for San Juan Del Sur. San Juan is a beach resort famous for it's surf breaks which was our reason for visiting. We didn't get to the beach that day though as the best ones are out of town. Instead we took in the town and enjoyed the sunset from a seafront bar with a beer in our hands. Bliss.

We hit the beach on Sat 22nd. Brace hired a surf board from the hostel and we caught the lunchtime shuttle bus out to Playa Madera. Each time we get a bus it seems bumpier than the last but this journey was in it's own league. Pot holes 2 ft deep and fords to cross. Wait until you see the photo of the vehicle we were in too! Still, it was worth it as the beach was great and not too busy and Brace was able to get some surfing in. I even had a go ahead of tomorrow's surf lesson but found it a little overwhelming. The weather turned grey and a bit rainy towards the end of the afternoon so we had to content ourselves with a beer in the surf club instead. We had the added bonus of howler monkeys hanging out in the trees right by us too, which is always a treat. Once back in town we went for food and then checked out a new bar that had opened that night called 'Gecko's'. There was a tv crew interviewing the very nervous American owner and if you ever find yourself watching Nicaraguan tv commmercials for bars in San Juan you might spot us supping cervezas in the background of one!

A little bit of Panama, but mainly Costa Rica - Week 8

hellie_and_bracey — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 06:52:00 GMT

Week 8 kicks off with our last couple of days in Panama - on the Bocas Del Toro islands to be precise. We woke on Sun 9th Nov to lashing rain and howling winds. We couldn´t complain really though as we´d had spectacularly good weather up until then and being in the tropics you do have to expect some tropical storms every now and again. It was actually quite nice to be confined to Tio Tom´s all day and laze around in hammocks reading and snoozing. Certainly no hardship!

We packed up and said goodbye to Bastimentos and Tom and Ina our lovely, but slightly crazy German hosts, and made for the border on Mon 10th. We first had to get a boat back to Isla Colon and then get on another headed for the mainland - this time to Changuinola. The ride there was quite lengthy and took us through mangrove swamps where we kept eager eyes out for crocs etc but no luck. Once on dry land we were accosted by taxi drivers all offering to take us to "la frontera", the border. It probably would have cheaper to get a local bus but we weren´t sure of our bearings and suspected the border crossing could be lengthy so plumped for a taxi for speed and convenience. Once at the border we queued for our Panamanian exit stamp and then had to walk across a cranky old metal bridge with hoofing great holes in it to get to Costa Rica. Once there we got our entry stamps and made for the bus station where we hopped on a service to Cahuita. We were dismayed to discover that Spanish sounds different in Costa Rica and we couldn´t understand anyone! However, we soldiered on and got to our lodgings in Cahuita - Spencer´s Cabins.We had a nice little room with a balcony looking out to sea, not quite as atmospheric as being OVER the sea as at Tio Tom´s, but nice all the same. Our concerns about Costa Rican spanish took a back seat in Cahuita and most people speak Caribbean English, which is cool.

I had a rather disturbed nights sleep that night as my digestive system had obviously taken umbrage to something. Thank god we had an ensuite! As many of you may know I don´t have a complete digestive system and have an ileostomy (if you don´t know what this is see www.ostomylifestyle.org for an explanation). This meant that I lost a huge amount of fluid in the night and woke the next morning feeling most peculiar.

So, we started Tues 11th with as much Gatorade and water as I could handle to try and rehydrate me. I managed to eat a little bit and my system seemed to have settled down a bit but I didn´t feel at all well so we spent the day relaxing on the balcony by our room. I felt considerably better by dinnertime and managed to eat a decent meal.

We got up early on Wed 12th so that we could walk in Cahuita National Park as the animals begin to stir. The trail through the park is really flat and follows the coast so nothing too taxing, although quite humid. As we walked I kept thinking I couls see hundreds of spiders by the sides of the path but they turned out to be crabs! They were so funny as they would all disappear into their little crab holes as we got close. As we got a little further into the park we begin to see what we had come for - MONKEYS!!!!! First we saw black faced howler monkeys and later some capuchins - including one which was very curious and came really close giving us ample opportunity for some great photos! It was so brilliant to see (and hear) so many monkeys in the wild just doing what monkeys do (making a noise, eating and flinging poo around). We went to the beach in the afternoon but I still wasn´t feeling 100% so we didn´t tax ourselves unduly. Managed a cocktail and some dinner later on though!

I awoke feeling rough on Thurs 13th as my tum was playing up again. We were destined for San Jose that day so packed up and trudged (and I mean TRUDGED) to the bus station. Poor old James had to carry virtually all our bags as I was too feak and weeble to even carry myself. James force fed me more Gatorade and water throughout the bus ride but I could hardly manage it as I felt so sick. By this point we knew I needed medical help as it´s almost impossible to rehydrate yourself when you´ve lost as much fluid as I had. I have suffered with severe dehydration before which hospitalised me for several days so I knew the signs. The bus ride from Cahuita to San Jose seemed to go forever but we finally made it. James bundled me straight into a cab (which ripped us off, but whatever - we were too preoccupied to care) and took us to our hostel. We dealt with the formalities of checking in as fast as we could and then got straight into another taxi and went to La Clinica Biblica, which is a private hospital that gets excellent write ups. We were seen virtually straight away in the Emergency Room and within 10 mins of getting there I was being examined by Dr Rafael Guerra Leon. He spoke excellent English and knew all about Crohn´s disease and ileostomies. He got me hooked up to a drip pronto and took some bloods. In all I had 3 litres of saline and also some iv antibiotics as the blood test results showed a bacterial infection - or good old Traveller's Diarrhea. As the doctor explained this kind of illness affects loads of travellers but as I take immuno-suppressants to control my Crohn's disease, I'm a little more vulnerable than most. I was discharged feeling heaps better, with some antibiotics to take and a follow up appointment for Sat morning. I was ravenous when we left the hospital so we got some soup at the shop near the hostel, after which I got some much needed sleep.

I was feeling so much better on Fri 14th that I felt up to taking a walk around San Jose. We looked around the gorgeous Jade Museum and also the Gold Museum, which is deep underground. San Jose is actually pretty nice for a Central American capital city and the weather was sunny without any humidity. We had a good wander around and then crashed out at the hostel. Unfortunately it was Brace´s turn to have a bad night, but mainly from the noise of other guests and then the cleaners clattering around and shouting from the crack of dawn.

On Sat 15th we had some admin to deal with. We were carrying around a ton of stuff we didn´t need (tent, winter clothes, souvenirs etc) so packed up a box and took it to the post office to be shipped back to Britain. I got the all clear from the hospital and we then pottered around the artisans market and bought some gifts for family before having lunch back at the hostel. James started to feel unwell that afternoon and by early evening was vomiting every half an hour or so. This wasn´t good and I was considering taking him to the hospital by Sun morning.

Gallery: North Island

hellie_and_bracey — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 07:29:00 GMT

Northern Panama - Week 7

hellie_and_bracey — Sun, 9 Nov 2008 08:37:00 GMT

So, week 7 begins on Sun 2nd Nov in David which is Panama's 3rd city and is situated towards the northern end of the country. Our bus from Panama City got us into David at 7am which meant that we got to enjoy the hostel room we'd booked for the night before for all of about 2 hours! And they still charged us.....and when I say 'they' I mean Andrea, the slightly sour American ex peace-corps veteran, who runs the place. She was nice enough but lost her sense of humour somewhere along the way we think.

We got moved to another room that morning and slept for a large part of the morning before going out for the yummiest pineapple smoothies I've ever tasted. Being excellent students we did some more spanish study in the afternoon while the rain poured down outside. Which was fine by me but not fine by James who had to trudge out to collect our laundry from the cleaners up the road. Let's just say he got soaked. We think we know rain in Britain but let me tell you you ain't seen nothing til you've seen tropical rain!

Mon 3rd Nov took us away from David, which was only ever a stopping off point, and on to Boquete. We got a bus up in Boquete in the mountains with a dutch guy called Jos who had also been staying in the hostel in David. When we arrived in Boquete there was a huge parade on in celebration of Panama's independence from Columbia. I've put some photos up in the album but this really had to seen, and heard, to be believed. It seemed to be different school groups who had dressed their female students up in various takes on military uniforms to 'march/shimmy' along to the drumming of the boys. The outfits were borderline inappropriate - and I hope I don't sound prudish when I say that, but honestly! The girls, without exception, were wearing white knee-high, high heel boots, short and very clingy skirts, fitted jackets and little hats set at very jaunty angles. None of which would have been so wrong if it weren't for the way they sashayed along the street in time with the music. Who taught these teenage girls to move like that? Their mothers?! Latin americans are born with rhythm - it's the only explanation.

After watching the parade for a while we went to check in to our hostel by the river and then went for lunch. Boquete is in an area famed for it's coffee production and as it rained all afternoon we whiled the hours away sampling the local produce. And very nice it is too.

Tues 4th Nov was supposed to afford me a lie-in as James and Jos got up really early to go white-water rafting on the Chiriqui Grande River. However, it would seem that Panamanians are so proud of their Independence that they celebrate with 2 days of parades. So, I was woken to the intense banging of drums at stupid o'clock. Nothing else for it but to go and marvel at the sights and sounds a second time. I then passed a very tranquil afternoon reading and writing my journal until the boys came back from their rafting adventure and we all went for more coffee!

We spent the morning of the 5th doing a little souvenir shopping in town before heading out on a tour of a coffee farm in the afternoon. Our guide was a dutch guy called Hans (which made Jos feel at home) and there seemed to be nothing he didn't know about coffee. This guy was passionate to say the least. He took us outside to look at the various species of coffee plant and then into the farm itself where he talked us through every part of the process from the beans being brought in from the fields, sorted, washed, sorted again, dried, sorted again and finally on to being roasted. After all that talk of coffee, naturally we were all ready to try some and Hans then took us to the 'Cupping Room' - no sniggers please. Apparently selecting the right roast for you is a detailed business and involved us first smelling different roasts to get a gut instinct and then tasting them with and without milk - just to sure we had chosen the right one for us. Interestingly light roasts have a greater variety of flavours and contain more caffeine than dark roasts. After much consideration we decided we liked the dark roast best and naturally bought a bag to take home. While we were 'cupping' a very shy and extremely sweet Ngobe indian girl called Maria crept in to see if we would like to buy any of her handicrafts. I bought the most gorgeous bag from her and she also allowed me to take her photo - which you can see in the album.

When we got back from the tour we were all suffering with caffeine overload so went for some much needed food and discussed politics all evening in light of the fact that Barack Obama had just been elected as the next american president.

We left the lovely town of Boquete on Thurs 6th and got the bus back to David where we said goodbye to Jos and got straight onto another bus which took us to Almirante. The bus journey was pretty uncomfortable as it was crowded, extremely hot and 4 hours long. At Almirante we got a water taxi to the island of Colon in the Bocas Del Toro archipelago. Several people had warned against actually staying on Isla Colon as it is a party place with a bit of a crime and drug problem so when we got there we got straight on another boat which took us to Isla Bastimentos where we had a room reserved at a great little place called Tio Tom's.

I should explain a little about Isla Bastimentos. It's not a very big island but it is very beautiful and very Caribbean. The residents of the only town, Old Bank, speak Guari-Guari. a Creole version of English which sounds awesome but is utterly indecipherable to us! Old Bank doesn't have roads, there are no cars on Bastimentos, instead there is one concrete walkway through the town which disppears as you reach the jungle. The people there are very poor, but through choice apparently. Tom and Ina, the owners of Tio Tom's, explained to us that if locals don't feel like working they won't bother and they just go without stuff. No bother. Everyone certainly seemed very friendly and chilled out and why not - they live in one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen!

Tio Toms' is built on a jetty right over the sea so you an actually see the water through the floorboards of your room. One slight downside is that all the toilets flush directly into the sea, which you'd think would be gross but actually the water is so full of life that you never see anything unsavoury in the water - it all gets eaten right away! Still wouldn't fancy swimming around there though as the local kids do......

We had dinner that first night at a place called Rooster and ate with some travellers we had encountered in Panama City and Boquete - it seems everyone is following the gringo trail!

Fri 7th Nov came and it would have been rude not to check out the island's famous beaches. The most beautiful one is Wizard Beach which you get to by walking through the jungle for 35 minutes. It's pretty isolated and exactly what you'd expect a Caribbean beach to be like. Crystal blue, warm sea, golden sand all of which is fringed with palm trees.....heavenly. We both had a swim and then went back to Tio Tom´s for some lunch and so that Bracey could hire a surf board for our return trip to the beach that afternoon.

We had a very slow start to Sat 8th - this is the Caribbean after all, no-one does anything in a hurry. Tom and Ina made us gorgeous pancakes with lots of fresh local fruit for breakfast which set us up nicely for our morning of activity. We hired a kayak and some snorkeling kit from Tom and paddled over to a nearby island where there is a renowned snorkelling area called Hospital Point. We stowed the kayak on a beach and James taught me the basics of snorkelling as I had never done it before. It took me a few goes before I remembered you could breathe through the snorkel but once I got the hang of it I loved it. I could not believe how much more life you can see just inches below the water than you can from above. As the water is tropical we saw loads of brightly coloured fish and coral. I was utterly entranced by this new world that had just opened up to me. I confess to freaking out just once when I thought I felt something swim up my shorts! We snorkled at a couple of different spots before paddling back over to Bastimentos for some of Ina´s awesome sandwiches. We took a water taxi over to Isla Colon and the infamous town of Bocas Del Toro. Of course it wasn´t nearly as bad as we´d been led to believe (barring the occasional offer of drugs from random guys) and we had a little walk around before using the bank and internet cafe which were the main reasons for our visit. We didn´t linger though and soon went back to Old Bank for a great creole dinner at a restaurant called Roots.

Panama City - Week 6

hellie_and_bracey — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 08:39:00 GMT

Well, after a gruelling journey from New Zealand to LA, then LA to Houston, Texas we finally made it to Panama City on Sun 26th Oct - which we're counting as day 35!

We were met at Panama Tocumen airport by Senora Xiomara who we would be staying with for the coming week. We had already arranged to do a week long Spanish course in Panama City with a homestay with a local family and Xiomara was our lovely hostess. We had travelled in all our heaviest clothing to save space and weight in our packs so were entirely unprepared for the heat and humidity that hit us outside the airport! The first thing we did when we got to Xiomara's was to take a lovely cool shower. It seems that hot showers are rare in Central America but with this weather you can see why. The rest of our first day in Panama was spent feeling shell shocked and jet lagged. Xiomara has a kind of open air, undercover living space in her house so we 'chilled' there for the afternoon trying to acclimatise.

We got to the Spanish Panama school at 9am on Mon 27th as instructed all ready and eager to learn some Spanish. We got given what appeared to be some kind of assessment of our current linguistic abilities. I say 'appeared to be' as no-one was really telling us a lot. So, we spent half an hour or so muddling through and quickly realised that we were going to need the most basic possible level of tuition for the week. After that we were given a timetable of our classes for the week - starting at 1.30pm that afternoon. We were a little dismayed by this as we had no idea what we should do with ourselves all morning. The administrator suggested we travel through the city to look around the ruins of Panama Viejo (old Panama). This alarmed us not a little as we had no idea of the geography of the city, ways to get around and, as yet, no spanish whatsoever!!! So, instead we hid ourselves in an internet cafe for the morning!

When they started our classes went well. We had 2 lovely teachers - Urbana and Nancy. Urbana's lessons were slower and made us feel like we might actually get the hang of this thing sometime this year. Nancy was tougher and although her lessons were more challenging, ultimately we got a lot from them. We had 4 hrs of lessons each day for 4 days which might not sound like a lot but we covered a lot of ground and took plenty of material away with us so we feel as though we now have the groundwork on which on build a language! Time will tell......

Our first impressions of Panama City left us reeling. Obviously it is incredibly hot and humid with cracking thunderstorms almost every afternoon for an hour or so. It is also unbelievably noisy. Drivers use their horns here like we use indicators in the UK. We learnt that the horn is a way of letting other drivers know that you're coming through, passing, turning, about to hit them etc etc. They also have a street called Via Espana which is the main one-way thoroughfare of the city. Old American school buses clatter along Via Espana belching out Kyoto-cringing emissions. These buses also use any kind of horn, siren or klaxon they can lay their hands on to drum up custom. And they are an airbrushers dream - fairground 'art' gone mad. Couldn't get any photos unfortunately as we weren't yet sure whether it was a safe place to get cameras out. We already stood out like the Gringos we are without drawing more attention to ourselves.

Back to Mon 27th - after classes we were invited to attend a salsa dancing class with other students from the school. We were taught by a very sweet and impossibly rhythmic latino lassie who made the dance look incredibly easy - which it is really, you can`t think about it too much! By the end of the class we were all very tired and sweaty but had had a great laugh. We went for some food after the class with an american girl and an australian lady who were also taking classes at the spanish school. We got a taxi back to the house where poor old Xiomara was sitting up waiting anxiously for us as we hadn`t been able to let her know our plans and she was worried in case we had got lost or mugged in the city. We felt really bad but she waved our apologies aside.

Before classes on Tues 28th Xiomara took us down to Panama Viejo which is the original site of Panama City which was ransacked by Henry Morgan, a Welsh pirate, some time in the past - history was never my strong point! The ruins were quite impressive as you can see from the photos in the Panama album. From Panama Viejo we then went to the Amador which is a causeway of reclaimed land connecting several small islands at the far end of the city. It`s a good place to watch the ships line up ready for entering the Panama Canal, looking back at the city skyline and admiring the tropical fish in the marina.

We spent the morning of Wed 29th studying some Spanish before our classes which impressed Xiomara no end. Between classes we sampled a churro at Manolo`s. Churros, which are a Panamanian speciality, are hot dog shaped donuts with a kind of gooey caramel filling and apparently Manolo`s restaurant is the place to get them. Yum.

By Thurs 30th Oct we felt confident enough to take a walk around town before our classes. We went to a great bookshop to get some Spanish materials and have lunch. Our last classes went well although we were sad to be finishing as we had enjoyed the teaching and knew we still had so much to learn. That evening Xiomara and her daughter Izabel took us back down to the Amador to watch some traditional Panamanian dancing. Izabel used to dance with this troupe so explained what the dances meant - the costumes were incredible as you can see in our photos. There was a lot of stamping of feet and yodeling involved but it looked pretty complicated and we really enjoyed this taste of culture.

We didn´t have any more classes so on Friday 31st Xiomara took us on a tour of the city. Naturally no trip to Panama would be complete without a visit to the canal so that was our first stop. We went to the Miraflores locks where there is a great visitors´centre and we saw a couple of ships coming through the locks. It´s really incredible just how enormous the locks are and quite cool for James and I as both our fathers have been through the canal with the navy.

After the locks Xiomara took us to the famous and beautiful Casco Viejo which is very reminiscient of Havana and is undergoing quite a facelift but remains one of the poorer parts of the city. We went to the church with the Golden Altar behind which there is quite a story. Apparently when Henry Morgan (the naughty Welsh Pirate remember?!) was going around claiming stuff for himself the local priests covered the golden altar in mud so that Henry Morgan wouldn´t see it´s worth, and thus saved it. I don´t think it´s solid gold,maybe gold leaf on wood, but beautiful all the same. We also checked out the President´s house and generally got rained on a lot!

So Sat 1st Nov was the day we were to leave Panama City and our lovely host family. Xiomara drove us out to the bus station to catch a coach to David in the northern end of Panama. Unfortunately we miscalculated slightly. This weekend was the national celebration of Panama´s independence from Columbia and it seemed as though half the city was trying to get on a bus out, either to the seaside or to visit family. The queues for bus tickets were so long we had to wait literally hours for our turn and then found out that the next bus didn´t leave for David until midnight (this was at 11am). So, poor old Xiomara drove us back to her house, feed us up and then arranged for a taxi to take us back to the bus station later on that night. We were a bit miffed at the late hour of the bus journey but happy that we got to spend some more time chatting to Xiomara and Izabel.

We were a bit concerned about taking a night bus as many of the guidebooks urge caution on this issue but we were left with little choice so just had to go for it. The journey was mostly ok but incredibly cold as they cranked the air-con right up. We finally made it to David at around 7am the next day - but more about that in the next chapter....

Gallery: Panama

hellie_and_bracey — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 10:07:00 GMT

North Island - Week 5

hellie_and_bracey — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 15:56:00 GMT

So - we're into our last week in New Zealand already - boo!!!!

We start this week on Mon 20th Oct in Rotorua (with the heated tent sites, remember?!) It would have been totally rude not to go and check out some real geothermal goings-on, so we went to Wai-O-Tapu. We saw Lady Knox Geyser which (with a little prompting) shot hot water about 20 ft in the air for almost an hour. And James filmed most of it. If you're interested ask us to show you when we get back. I'm sure you'll find it riveting. We also saw lots of sulphur craters, pools of multi coloured water, steam, boiling water pools, bubbling pools of mud (something quite reminiscient of ostomy matters going on with these...) and smelt a LOT of rotten eggs (because of all the sulphur). James explained much of the geology etc behind what we saw and, again, if you're interested ask him when we get back.... We pottered around Rotorua that afternoon, which is a nice town actually, if you can get past the stench. Of rotten eggs - because of the sulphur right?!... We will put up photos for you to see of all the geothermal stuff - it's not like anything you'll find in Farnborough.

Day 30 (Tues 21st Oct) was when we left Rotorua and went up to Auckland, via Raglan. Raglan is a world famous surfing spot and a nice wee town too. We drove to see the Indicators - apparently the longest left hand point break in the world (for the surfers amongst you) - it wasn't working that day unfortunately - another reason to come back one day. We drove on to Auckland which felt completely different to anywhere else in New Zealand before you even get into the city. There was traffic for a start. Luckily we were staying with Guy, a friend from the UK, that night so we had a guide for this jungle. He took us out for sushi (when in Rome..) and gave us a tour of the city centre, which is actually really nice! It´s not too sprawling or intimidating and we managed to get our bearings ready for when we come back here later in the week.

Then on Wednesday we took a drive up to the Coromandel Peninsula, which is east of Auckland and very beautiful. We drove along the coast road to Coromandel Town and stopped for a picnic on the beach. We drove on to Hahei, where we set up camp for tonight and tomorrow night. In this area are the two main reasons we came to the Coromandel - Hot Water Beach and Cathedral Cove. Cathedral Cove was the picture on a Bon Voyage card we got given before we came away so we were keen to see the real thing. We took a walk out there that evening and it is spectacular. It´s a really huge archway through the cliff on a beach and judging by the rockfall inside and the general marine erosion going on around it it might not be there in not too many years to come!

Then on Thursday morning (day 32 now) we went to see the other main attraction - Hot Water Beach. We had heard a lot about this place from guidebooks and stories from other travellers so were excited about it! At low tide (and 2 hrs either side) a piece of beach is exposed which has hot springs close to the surface of the sand. You can hire a shovel and dig yourself a pit which the hot water fills and you can then lie back and enjoy! Unfortunately we were a little late that morning and the hoards had beaten us to it. By the time we got there the only areas left had either cold or scalding hot water underneath so we vowed to be sprightlier the next morning and get there before all the good spots were taken. We spent the rest of the day being really lazy, pottering around Hahei village, writing up journals and reading on the beach as the weather was good. We treated ourselves to a meal out that night (and a glass or two of local plonk) which we followed up with a couple of games of billiards. No, we don´t know how to play either but we made it up as we went along and had a good laugh.

Day 33 - Fri 24th (our last full day in NZ) saw us on Hot Water Beach bright and early and the first to arrive! With the whole beach to choose from we found a good spot quickly and James dug a great big pit that was fed by hot, warm and cool water so we got a good overall temperature. The only problem with these geothermal novelties is that they don´t self regulate very well, so every now and again a boiling hot bit of water would come up and burn you! It was funny to see people looking really relaxed in their pool and then hop up squealing when the water changed temperature (us included)!! Leaving Hot Water Beach we drove on down the coast and back towards Auckland. It was the beginning of Labour Weekend in NZ and as we were leaving the coast it seemed like the entire population of Auckland was headed for it - just like bank holidays in the UK! We checked into the YHA in Auckland and begin the tedious task of unpacking the car and organising our stuff ready for flying out tomorrow. We packed up a couple of boxes of souvenirs and winter clothes to sent back home and took a look around the city - which we felt familiar with after being around by Guy earlier in the week. We followed up on a recommendation he had given us for a restaurant that evening and ate at the most delicious vegetarian Chinese place. Auckland actually has a huge Asian population, hence the oriental cuisine we enjoyed both nights there!

So, Sat 25th was the day we left New Zealand. We checked out of the YHA and did the most typically touristy thing there is to do in Auckland- we went up the Sky Tower! It´s the tallest structure in the Southern Hemisphere and gives you great views of the city and surrounding bays. We watched a few people do bungy jumps off it too....no thanks. We then did the other top pick in Auckland which is the War Memorial Museum. It´s in a great location in the Auckland Domain, on a hill overlooking the city. We thoroughly enjoyed the kids´ interactive natural history exhibition before having to take the hire car back to the depot and then get shuttled to the airport. We then had a 12 hr flight to Los Angeles where we had 10/11 hrs to kill in LAX airport (which isn´t the best airport in the world) before getting another 3 hr flight to Houston, Texas (which we slept through thankfully as it was the middle of the night). We then had 3/4 hrs in Houston airport where we got some breakfast before catching yet another flight to Panama City!

North Island - Week 4

hellie_and_bracey — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 15:14:00 GMT

So, our fourth week travelling started on North Island of New Zealand (day 22, Mon 13th Oct). We drove from Paekakariki up the west coast to Whanganui and then on to Stratford which is in the Egmont National Park. In the park is a volcano called both Mt Egmont and Mt Taranaki. We flew over this volcano on our way from Auckland to Christchurch and it is remarkable as it's almost a perfect circular peak, surrounded by an almost perfectly circular fringe of forest. It is a lone peak and one that we both had to visit. So, we camped that night in Stratford and made our preparations for an overnight hike on the mountain the next day.

Tues 14th Oct took us up to the visitor centre on Mt Taranaki to get some advice on the best walk and overnight stay to do in the area. On the advice of the ranger there we walked on the Pouakai ranges which are Mt Taranaki's next door neighbours. The walk was steep and through forest most of the way and carrying our rucksacks full of sleeping bags, stoves, fuel, food and clothes made the walk even tougher. It was a mighty relief to see the Pouakai hut at long last so we dumped our stuff and carried on a little way over the top to be greeted by the awesome sight of Mt Taranaki right in front of us. It is a breathtaking mountain and we were gifted with clear views of the snowcapped summit. The weather was being kind and I hope the photos do some justice to our reward for the tiring day's hike. We had the hut to ourselves that night. It's a pretty basic affair run by the Dpt of Conservation. You buy hut tickets from the DoC office in advance and it's on a first come, first served basis. You get a bunk with mattress, running water from an outside tap and an outside pit toilet. There's no power so after 6pm we were eating dinner and playing cards by candlelight. James got a lovely toasty fire going in the wood burner and we had a very comfy night. Thankfully I didn't have to get up in the night to use the loo as I didn't much fancy the pitch black, freezing cold walk outside!

Wed 15th started with much worse weather than the day before. Our view of the coast from the hut was completely obscured by cloud and the walk back down was wet and boggy. By the time we reached the car our trousers were clagged with mud up to the knees! Quick change and then we drove off to New Plymouth for a little look around and then we drove on up to Waitomo (stopping briefly at an organic beer brewing place to make a purchase!) We treated ourselves to a private room in a backpackers that night so that we could sort our smelly walking kit out without upsetting anyone else!

Thurs 16th Oct was the 10 year anniversary of me and James getting together so we celebrated first with a trip to watch angorra rabbits being sheared for their fur! I'm not even joking. Obviously angorra wool is lovely and soft and some of you may even have clothing made from it. Did you ever think about how it's obtained? Me neither. Well, they shave the rabbits. And to do this they strap them to a rack and rotate them like a hog roast. Has to be seen to be believed. I know it sounds cruel but the rabbit honestly doesn't seem to mind and James and I almost died laughing at it's expression. Check out the photo of Kyle who had been completely shaved and even he seemed to know how absurd he looked. Poor chap.After the rabbit circus we went to see some glowworms. Waitomo is famous for it's glowworm caves and there's a myriad of ways you can get to see them (including abseiling, caving, black water rafting to name a few) but we took the sedate option which was also the one David Attenborough took when he visited (good enough for him....) A group of 9 of us were taken down to 2 caves by local guy Norm who knows the area really well. In the first cave we walked in a little way lit by our headtorches and couldn't really make anything out. Then we all got onto a raft and Norm punted us through into the most breathtaking cave ever. There were literally millions of glowworms giving out a blue-ish light which actually lit the cave up enough that we could see each other without any other lights on. It was absolutely quiet and still and so so beautiful. We drifted through for 20-30 mins and as we walked back out, our night vision was so much improved that we saw loads more right by the cave entrance! After a lovely cup of tea and lots of biscuits we drove on to the 2nd cave where the focus was the amazing rock formations and cave structure - and a few glowworms too! We had dinner at a lovely restaurant in Waitomo that night (well, actually I think it's the only restaurant- the town only has 46 permanent residents).

Fri 17th Oct (day 26) took us away from lovely Waitomo and over to the Tongariro National Park. North Island has 3 big volcanoes right in the middle called Ruapaho, Tongariro and Ngauarahosjelmlg (or something - haven't got my guidebook to hand) They're still quite active and we saw clouds of smoke or some volcano matter pluming out of the side of one of them. We took a bit of a drive around and spoke to a few people about doing some walking in the Park but the weather forecast was wet and there's still a fair bit of snow and ice on the tracks so we thought it was best left til next time. Instead we stayed in Turangi and went to bathe in some natural mineral hot pools for the evening. Nice.

Day 27 started with some indoor climbing action (the backpackers we stayed in - 'Extreme Backpackers' boasts it's own wall) and then moved on to mini golf. I know mini golf might not sound like the most NZ activity but all the holes were designed to represent features of the Tongariro Nat Park - quite clever see. We did do a little walk that afternoon up to see the Silica Rapids. The walk started from a town called Whakapapa (which is quite funny written down but funnier when you say it as it's pronounced 'fakapapa' - go on say it without giggling). We did get a bit rained on during the walk and were teased with only the most fleeting glimpses of the volcanoes. Tongariro Nt Park is way down the league table from Egmont Nt Park let me tell you.

Sun 19th (day 28) and after another quick play on the climbing wall we drove up to Taupo and stopped to check out Huka Falls. I had a major flashback to when I was in NZ before as I had totally forgotten but am pretty sure I went to the Falls before. They're quite cool. We then went to look at the Craters of the Moon. Not actually of course. It's just a area of geothermal activity that's called that. It's really just some holes in the ground with lots of steam belching out from underground. We are now moving into Rotorua land- where the earth's crust is so thin that all sorts of crazy geothermal sheenanigans go on. Including heating our tent site that night from under the ground. Sweet.....toasty.....