Well, 8 and a half months ago I ditched the old London Bank job, packed up my little life and bounced around South and Central America...then back to London, then on to Australia, then off to Canada, then back to Australia...zero structure, zero commitment, zero Sunday blues...zero job offers...zero income...
Now it's all over, routine is finally upon me. Pretty much finished my cert III in Fitness, have found it super interesting so far. It's going to be taking a back seat until November I reckon!
This week is the lead-in week for my Diploma in Education programme...they are holding a mid-year conference. It's all a little overwhelming - I'm part of the semester 2 intake, so there are loads of people doing the same courses who have already done a semester and a prac placement. Hopefully they'll be handy when it comes round to assignment writing time! :) I'm quite liking the prospect of a hectic semester, then a HUGE long summer break, then another hectic semester...then back to the simple life?!? haha. There's free food at this conference, it's amazing...morning tea is like high tea at the Ritz...every type of cream cake you can imagine. Funny looking around at all the different types of people who are psyched about becoming teachers...and soooo many stupid questions at the end of each lecture!! Some people just love the sound of their own voice - I suppose they'll make great teachers though!
One of the lecturers was explaining the risks of social networking sites etc... 'my space - which used to be a big thing a few years ago', I love that they had to explain that - how young are some of these students?? eeeek. So far the majority of the lectures have all been about behaviour management...if you can control your class - you're in! Also kids these days are not lazy - there must be another explanation, one of a zillion new learning disorders that we must learn to identify. 'The kids are disgusting and I can't do anything - maybe it's you who's crap'. Waaaaa hahaaaa.
Zooming up to uni on my scooter is awesome, just like being in a computer game. It costs $3.50 to fill her up, and she'll go 100km on that ;) No parking worries at the other end woohoo.
I finally had to break out the alarm clock - 5am to go cycling, 5:30am to go swimming...soon it will be light and the strange birds will be singing their crazy aussie song, that should help.
Proper lectures start next week - Mon, Tues, Weds pretty full on. Thursday OFF, Friday 8-10am!! Just 6 weeks of lectures, then exams, then 6 weeks in school, then holidays!! It's going to FLY!!!!
My hip has been sensitive lately - I did long runs 3 weeks in a row...I've now stopped the long runs...pretty depressing really. I don't think I could handle the same injury all over again!!! I'm training for the Gold Coast Half Ironman in October. I think if I ease up a for a bit now, I'll still have time to build up some running before the race. Sigh.
My brain is fried! Miss McRae, over and out.
Thursday, 22 July 2010
Friday, 9 July 2010
Tuesday, 15 June 2010
New beginnings
I couldn't find a job.
I've started a certificate III in Fitness, which leads on to a certificate IV in Fitness...which means that I can be a personal trainer, or work with group fitness....I'm doing it online, so that I can cram in as much as I can before my Graduate Diploma in Teaching (Primary) starts at the end of July. This year is now the year of taking on new skills! It's also the year of checking out this huge country and deciding if I want to be here.
I have an awesome little scooter, zipping around the coast on it. It costs $3 to fill up, and that lasts 100km!
I'm swimming in a 50m heated outdoor pool, cycling around the countryside - coastal routes or mountain routes galore, running with a serious group twice a week - intervals and hills. (My right shin has been hurting, and my right hip has also been a little sore. I think it's because the running that I'm doing is the toughest I've ever done in my entire life - I'm taking a week off to see how it is.)
I'm still missing people...but am thankful for the world that is facebook, and emails, and iphone applications!
I've started a certificate III in Fitness, which leads on to a certificate IV in Fitness...which means that I can be a personal trainer, or work with group fitness....I'm doing it online, so that I can cram in as much as I can before my Graduate Diploma in Teaching (Primary) starts at the end of July. This year is now the year of taking on new skills! It's also the year of checking out this huge country and deciding if I want to be here.
I have an awesome little scooter, zipping around the coast on it. It costs $3 to fill up, and that lasts 100km!
I'm swimming in a 50m heated outdoor pool, cycling around the countryside - coastal routes or mountain routes galore, running with a serious group twice a week - intervals and hills. (My right shin has been hurting, and my right hip has also been a little sore. I think it's because the running that I'm doing is the toughest I've ever done in my entire life - I'm taking a week off to see how it is.)
I'm still missing people...but am thankful for the world that is facebook, and emails, and iphone applications!
Friday, 21 May 2010
'Homeward' bound
I find myself lying on an airport sofa - staring up at an altered
Asian piece of art, with the Taipei sun streaming through the tinted
roof...11 hours done, 9 to go with china airlines. But first, a day in
the airport :)
My toothpaste was confiscated at security in Vancouver :( this is my
first mission of the day. Next mission is shower - there are only a
few places where renting hotel rooms by the hour is seen as acceptable
(airport being one of them)!
Asian piece of art, with the Taipei sun streaming through the tinted
roof...11 hours done, 9 to go with china airlines. But first, a day in
the airport :)
My toothpaste was confiscated at security in Vancouver :( this is my
first mission of the day. Next mission is shower - there are only a
few places where renting hotel rooms by the hour is seen as acceptable
(airport being one of them)!
I managed 2 movies on the way over - The one about the South African
rugby team winning the rugby world cup, and the other one was Percy
Jackson - demi god.
Already missing my new moose travelling friends :( for them the
travelling continues, but I suppose it's the same for me. So much to
explore in Oz, not a minute to waste!
Travelling gives you so much perspective; I just hope I can hold onto
it this time.
Sent from my iPhone
Monday, 17 May 2010
The Moose Tour
Hiya,
Well, I'm on the Moose Tour - currently in Banff. It all started in Vancouver on May 11th. Our little mini-bus was driven by French-Canadian Philippe - very charismatic and enthusiastic about everything - mainly skiing. We drove up to Whistler stopping at various scenic view points along the way. Our hostel was on a stunning lake. The next day we went skiing on Blackcombe Mountain - still really great snow up the top. It was totally hard on my body, I think the ski boots were a little tight, had sore muscles and bruises!! Didn't fall over too much, super fun. I forgot how much I loved skiing :) We headed back to Vancouver that night, stayed in the Jerico Park Hostel - again, amazing location, right by the beach and very close to University of B.C. (Perry's old Uni). I went for a run early the next morning and came across a sign for a beach: 'Clothes Optional Beach'. Haha. There seems to be a lot of nude sun-bathing here!! We saw more nude sun-bathers in Whistler, on the 'Lost Lake'.
The next day we joined a new bus - with Shelly as the driver - great chick, works way too hard but is furiously passionate about her job, and her beautiful country. She's a great guide and has really added huge value to our experience. The first day we crossed through the Fraser Valley, we stopped in a beautiful rainforest - Bridal Falls - a stunning huge waterfall. Then we headed into desert country - Merrit - the Canadian Capital of Country Music. It was a really strange little place, it gets up to 40 degrees celcius in the day and they have to use sprinklers to make anything grow!! Felt very weird after seeing all the snowy peaks and having been skiing just the day before! We stayed on the shores of Shuswap Lake (about half way to Banff from Vancouver). They had these old broken bicycles for us to get down to the lake - no tyres, no breaks, some with broken handle bars, it was hilarious. We got the whole group into the whole 'jumping' for pictures thing. After dinner we sat in the hot-tub before an early night. The next day we had another long drive to Banff - we passed through 4 national parks on this day. We witnessed the destruction that the pine beetle is causing to the pine forests in Yoho National Park. Basically, the pine beetles lay their eggs in the trees and the trees die. The problem is that the extreme cold and snow used to keep the beetle population at bay, wiping them out every winter. With the warmer winters the beetles are taking over and dominating entire hillsides, killing all the trees. They say that the forest will take 100 years to regrow. In Banff National Park they have decided that to burn the forest is the lesser of two evils, as the regrowth period is only about 30 years. Coming in to Banff we saw a black bear looking for grain on the railway tracks!
We arrived in Banff on Friday night, just in time for Caribbean Karaoke Night. It was a great party. Rebecca and I won prizes for best dressed :) Drank a fair amount, cheap drinks and karaoke, always a fun happy time :)
The next day I had a sore head! But we were back on the bus heading north to Jasper along the Ice-fields Parkway - a famous route through the centre of the rocky mountains. On the way up we stopped at lake Louise, a stunning lake with a huge Chateaux, still partially frozen. We stopped at the Columbia Icefields centre, where you could do a trip onto the Athabasca Glacier. There is a HUGE amount of snow and ice up on the Columbia Icefields. The trees in the area only grow branches off one side of the trunk because the glacial winds are so cold. In the visitor centre over the winter they recorded a temperate of -57 degrees celcius!!! So cold!!!!
We saw a black bear at the side of the road - the whole mini-bus had our camera jammed against the window, this big bear was just wandering along the side of the road, then he stood up to scratch himself on a tree ;) It was amazing!! Shelly told us that black bears have to eat something like 20,000 calories a day when preparing for hibernation!! Insane!
We stopped at numerous canyons and waterfalls along the way, all absolutely stunning. The snow-capped mountains looming up all around are unbelievable, I have a zillion photos of mountains at the moment...we had amazing weather, blue skies the whole way.
Our hostel in Jasper was an eco-hostel, with no running water. They did have a well outside, you had to pump up the water and use it for cooking etc. We weren't allowed any food in the dorm cabins for fear that the bears would come and eat us!
The next morning we jumped back on the bus and headed south along the icefields parkway towards Banff. We stopped at even more stunning locations along the way, spotted another bear, and lots of Bighorned sheep, climbed up more waterfalls, then our last stop of the day was at Lake Peyto. We hiked up through the snow to a high viewpoint - the snow was up to our waists....jeans and trainers were probably not the best snow hiking gear. We did see someone trying it in shorts....his legs were bleeding all over the snow! Gross!! Some of the group turned back, it was really hard going, but the view was amazing. We could hear avalanches on the opposite mountain!! This cute Aussie girl was so miserable, her feet were totally numb and she didn't notice that her shoe had come off in the snow!! We had to dig into all the footprints to try and find this shoe, she was so upset and was really worried about frostbite, but I think she's ok! It reminded me of the time Kirsty and I hiked up Gaustatoppen mountain in Norway - having to dig out your legs from the freezing snow - hands all numb!!
Anyway, after that we hurried back to Banff and jumped into the showers at our swanky hostel - which used to be a hotel :) Shepherd's Pie for dinner before the Sunday Night Pub Crawl...Everything was running super late so we actually only went to one bar before going to Club Arora - I think there are only 2 clubs in Banff - it's a very small place!
Today is the 'free day' in Banff. We were going to hike up another hill and get the Gondola back down, but our trainers are all still wet from yesterday's hike - we're all a bit knackered and just happy to be chilling out and walking around this cute little town, gazing up at the snowy mountains all around.
It's an amazing part of the world, so much nature. Looking forward to the rest of the trip - we go as far as Kalowna tomorrow, visiting more scenic spots and a winery. Then the last day we head back to Vancouver, then I fly back to Australia the night after that. It's been a really quick trip!! I am starting to think about my new Australian life again...putting my life back together, finding friends, finding a job, finding triathlon clubs, finding some new definite direction...!!!
Well, I'm on the Moose Tour - currently in Banff. It all started in Vancouver on May 11th. Our little mini-bus was driven by French-Canadian Philippe - very charismatic and enthusiastic about everything - mainly skiing. We drove up to Whistler stopping at various scenic view points along the way. Our hostel was on a stunning lake. The next day we went skiing on Blackcombe Mountain - still really great snow up the top. It was totally hard on my body, I think the ski boots were a little tight, had sore muscles and bruises!! Didn't fall over too much, super fun. I forgot how much I loved skiing :) We headed back to Vancouver that night, stayed in the Jerico Park Hostel - again, amazing location, right by the beach and very close to University of B.C. (Perry's old Uni). I went for a run early the next morning and came across a sign for a beach: 'Clothes Optional Beach'. Haha. There seems to be a lot of nude sun-bathing here!! We saw more nude sun-bathers in Whistler, on the 'Lost Lake'.
The next day we joined a new bus - with Shelly as the driver - great chick, works way too hard but is furiously passionate about her job, and her beautiful country. She's a great guide and has really added huge value to our experience. The first day we crossed through the Fraser Valley, we stopped in a beautiful rainforest - Bridal Falls - a stunning huge waterfall. Then we headed into desert country - Merrit - the Canadian Capital of Country Music. It was a really strange little place, it gets up to 40 degrees celcius in the day and they have to use sprinklers to make anything grow!! Felt very weird after seeing all the snowy peaks and having been skiing just the day before! We stayed on the shores of Shuswap Lake (about half way to Banff from Vancouver). They had these old broken bicycles for us to get down to the lake - no tyres, no breaks, some with broken handle bars, it was hilarious. We got the whole group into the whole 'jumping' for pictures thing. After dinner we sat in the hot-tub before an early night. The next day we had another long drive to Banff - we passed through 4 national parks on this day. We witnessed the destruction that the pine beetle is causing to the pine forests in Yoho National Park. Basically, the pine beetles lay their eggs in the trees and the trees die. The problem is that the extreme cold and snow used to keep the beetle population at bay, wiping them out every winter. With the warmer winters the beetles are taking over and dominating entire hillsides, killing all the trees. They say that the forest will take 100 years to regrow. In Banff National Park they have decided that to burn the forest is the lesser of two evils, as the regrowth period is only about 30 years. Coming in to Banff we saw a black bear looking for grain on the railway tracks!
We arrived in Banff on Friday night, just in time for Caribbean Karaoke Night. It was a great party. Rebecca and I won prizes for best dressed :) Drank a fair amount, cheap drinks and karaoke, always a fun happy time :)
The next day I had a sore head! But we were back on the bus heading north to Jasper along the Ice-fields Parkway - a famous route through the centre of the rocky mountains. On the way up we stopped at lake Louise, a stunning lake with a huge Chateaux, still partially frozen. We stopped at the Columbia Icefields centre, where you could do a trip onto the Athabasca Glacier. There is a HUGE amount of snow and ice up on the Columbia Icefields. The trees in the area only grow branches off one side of the trunk because the glacial winds are so cold. In the visitor centre over the winter they recorded a temperate of -57 degrees celcius!!! So cold!!!!
We saw a black bear at the side of the road - the whole mini-bus had our camera jammed against the window, this big bear was just wandering along the side of the road, then he stood up to scratch himself on a tree ;) It was amazing!! Shelly told us that black bears have to eat something like 20,000 calories a day when preparing for hibernation!! Insane!
We stopped at numerous canyons and waterfalls along the way, all absolutely stunning. The snow-capped mountains looming up all around are unbelievable, I have a zillion photos of mountains at the moment...we had amazing weather, blue skies the whole way.
Our hostel in Jasper was an eco-hostel, with no running water. They did have a well outside, you had to pump up the water and use it for cooking etc. We weren't allowed any food in the dorm cabins for fear that the bears would come and eat us!
The next morning we jumped back on the bus and headed south along the icefields parkway towards Banff. We stopped at even more stunning locations along the way, spotted another bear, and lots of Bighorned sheep, climbed up more waterfalls, then our last stop of the day was at Lake Peyto. We hiked up through the snow to a high viewpoint - the snow was up to our waists....jeans and trainers were probably not the best snow hiking gear. We did see someone trying it in shorts....his legs were bleeding all over the snow! Gross!! Some of the group turned back, it was really hard going, but the view was amazing. We could hear avalanches on the opposite mountain!! This cute Aussie girl was so miserable, her feet were totally numb and she didn't notice that her shoe had come off in the snow!! We had to dig into all the footprints to try and find this shoe, she was so upset and was really worried about frostbite, but I think she's ok! It reminded me of the time Kirsty and I hiked up Gaustatoppen mountain in Norway - having to dig out your legs from the freezing snow - hands all numb!!
Anyway, after that we hurried back to Banff and jumped into the showers at our swanky hostel - which used to be a hotel :) Shepherd's Pie for dinner before the Sunday Night Pub Crawl...Everything was running super late so we actually only went to one bar before going to Club Arora - I think there are only 2 clubs in Banff - it's a very small place!
Today is the 'free day' in Banff. We were going to hike up another hill and get the Gondola back down, but our trainers are all still wet from yesterday's hike - we're all a bit knackered and just happy to be chilling out and walking around this cute little town, gazing up at the snowy mountains all around.
It's an amazing part of the world, so much nature. Looking forward to the rest of the trip - we go as far as Kalowna tomorrow, visiting more scenic spots and a winery. Then the last day we head back to Vancouver, then I fly back to Australia the night after that. It's been a really quick trip!! I am starting to think about my new Australian life again...putting my life back together, finding friends, finding a job, finding triathlon clubs, finding some new definite direction...!!!
Thursday, 6 May 2010
May 6th
Well hello there. I should really have checked the last thing I
blogged about...sorry if I repeat myself here!!
blogged about...sorry if I repeat myself here!!
So after a 'familiar' few days in Taipei I arrived in Vancouver.
Hannah picked me up and we went for celebration cocktails up
vancouvers revolving restaurant. Great to see her, just like old times
- except this time she's getting married!! We spent the week preparing
little bits and bobs - drawing up table cards, seating plans,
playlists, decorations, all the last minute arrangements. It was great
to have something exciting to focus on! Maiko San - teacher from
Okinawa, and I took one day off to go to Bancouver Island. Beautiful
ferry ride over - you go through all these little narrow inlets,
gorgeous scenery. I spotted an orca? a whale? a killer whale?? Not
sure - just saw the large slow dorsel fin! Victoria is a cute little
town but Vancouver island is HUGE!!! I didn't feel like I did it
justice - you'd need to rent a car and zoom all over the place.
We also skipped south of the border into the US to do some last minute
wedding shopping. Much cheaper down there. Outlet malls :) amazing! We
ate cosco hotdogs...amazing at the time - felt rancid later :(
The wedding day came, hannah looked amazing. Matt (her bloke) is great
- he's American but studied at the same university as Hannah - they
never met each other but they share all the same friends! Fate must
have been keeping them apart until they were ready!!! Thank the lord
for facebook bringing them together years later :)
Great wedding. Photos in the forest by Cultus Lake then the ceremony
then reception - then clean up party!! :)
The next day I went to meet the happy couple so that I could get
hannahs car for the week they are in Mexico! We stumbled on an Asian
shopping plaza, with a huge 100 円 store inside - bigger than the
one I found in Taipei! Everything was $2.
So, I have the apartment and the car - it's great! I went up to north
Vancouver and hiked around the forest up Lynn Canyon and Rice Lake -
perfect running trails up there. Watched the big hockey game on tv
last night - the Canucks lost :( it's the play-offs and everyone is
very serious about it!
Today I decided to venture back to the US - as far as Seattle. It only
took 2.5 hours to get here - the weather is beautiful. I walked around
the Pike Market. I found the original starbucks :) went up the space
needle, (really cool view and has loads of information about the city)
went up to Capitol hill to the Asia art museum - the first Thursday of
the month, all the museums are free in Seattle. They had an exhibition
of Japanese woodblock paintings. Really beautiful. Then strolled back
to downtown. My hostel-The Green Tortoise- has free dinner! I'm off to
check it out!
Tomorrow I'm going to run around the city, then drive back to
Vancouver - stopping at a big triathlon shop and the Nike outlet mall
on the way north :)
I jump on a 9 day backpacker tour on Tuesday, it was the most economic
way to see everything. I'm excited!
Sent from my iPhone
Tuesday, 27 April 2010
Pre-wedding Vancouver!
Sooooo, the rest of my Taipei experience was pretty good. I discovered the biggest 100 yen (Japanese $1 shop) in the top of 'New York, New York' shopping mall. It was brilliant, I was in there for hours! I went to the National Palace Museum and saw an exhibition on Mongolian treasures. I ate out at the street markets and bought lots of stuff!! Taipei is super cheap!! I had to post a box home already!!
I arrived in Vancouver Friday night and Hannah was there to meet me - she even had a sign! It was brilliant to see her, just like old times. We drove in to Vancouver and went up a revolving restaurant for a celebration drink - we managed to get the cover charge waived as Hannah is soon getting married! They love a romantic story! :)
The last few days have flown by. We've been making lots of preparations for the wedding, making table cards, play lists, organising all the final details, scouting for photo venues...it's been great!!
It's so cold here!!
We popped south of the border, into the states for a spot of shopping - everything is much cheaper down there.
About to head out to a BBQ. Running in the morning. Printers tomorrow.
busy busy, but fun fun.
I arrived in Vancouver Friday night and Hannah was there to meet me - she even had a sign! It was brilliant to see her, just like old times. We drove in to Vancouver and went up a revolving restaurant for a celebration drink - we managed to get the cover charge waived as Hannah is soon getting married! They love a romantic story! :)
The last few days have flown by. We've been making lots of preparations for the wedding, making table cards, play lists, organising all the final details, scouting for photo venues...it's been great!!
It's so cold here!!
We popped south of the border, into the states for a spot of shopping - everything is much cheaper down there.
About to head out to a BBQ. Running in the morning. Printers tomorrow.
busy busy, but fun fun.
Wednesday, 21 April 2010
Taipei day 1
I arrived last night. It's the first time I've been back to this part of Asia since I left Japan almost 3 years ago. I was immediately struck by how similar everything is to Okinawa here - MOS burger! Family mart! I suppose just reading the kanji again too - although it's Chinese here, Japanese language has many Chinese characters, so even though I can't speak Chinese, I can tell the meaning of some things, which is nice.
I found my hostel fine, right next to Taipei's main station. Everyone always forgets to mention that Taipei's main station is humongous. It literally takes 30 minutes to find your way out of the correct exit. It's a new hostel, complete with 'mini single rooms'. I have one, it's tiny, but it has nice details...a lamp, pretty cherry blossom painting on the wall, air-con...and remarkably NINE power sockets!!
This morning I woke up and researched Taipei a bit online then decided to head out to the south, Taipei Zoo. Apparently the largest zoo in Asia, it cost me less than £2 to get in! I saw the pandas (sleeping) and the penguins (in their freezy enclosures) and the giraffes, zebras. I was most impressed with the hippos. One hippo managed to get his jaw stuck between some railings...not a good idea! I have photos.
After trekking to the far end of the zoo I decided to jump on the shuttle train up to the MaoKong Gondola. It's a pretty extensive gondola system, going up and down and over a few different hills, terminating on a tea mountain, which conveniently overlooks the whole of Taipei. There are loads of tea 'plantations' here, and lots of tea houses, and a 'how tea is made' factory thing.
After walking around all day I decided it was time to get back on the gondola, back on the metro and get some food before going up Taipei 101 for dusk. I was in the queue to get up to the observation deck for what seemed like forever. Plenty of time to people watch. I gave my place in the queue up 4 times because the people behind me were so argy bargy! Beautiful view from the top, you get a free audio guide woohoo. It is an amazing building. Then I came home, and I'm wrecked!!
I found my hostel fine, right next to Taipei's main station. Everyone always forgets to mention that Taipei's main station is humongous. It literally takes 30 minutes to find your way out of the correct exit. It's a new hostel, complete with 'mini single rooms'. I have one, it's tiny, but it has nice details...a lamp, pretty cherry blossom painting on the wall, air-con...and remarkably NINE power sockets!!
This morning I woke up and researched Taipei a bit online then decided to head out to the south, Taipei Zoo. Apparently the largest zoo in Asia, it cost me less than £2 to get in! I saw the pandas (sleeping) and the penguins (in their freezy enclosures) and the giraffes, zebras. I was most impressed with the hippos. One hippo managed to get his jaw stuck between some railings...not a good idea! I have photos.
After trekking to the far end of the zoo I decided to jump on the shuttle train up to the MaoKong Gondola. It's a pretty extensive gondola system, going up and down and over a few different hills, terminating on a tea mountain, which conveniently overlooks the whole of Taipei. There are loads of tea 'plantations' here, and lots of tea houses, and a 'how tea is made' factory thing.
After walking around all day I decided it was time to get back on the gondola, back on the metro and get some food before going up Taipei 101 for dusk. I was in the queue to get up to the observation deck for what seemed like forever. Plenty of time to people watch. I gave my place in the queue up 4 times because the people behind me were so argy bargy! Beautiful view from the top, you get a free audio guide woohoo. It is an amazing building. Then I came home, and I'm wrecked!!
Tuesday, 6 April 2010
Sunday, 4 April 2010
1 month in Australia
Well, I've been here for a month now. The first 2 weeks were busy with sister Eilidh and niece Kyla. Lots of family time. The three of us visited more relatives in Sydney for a long weekend. Since Eilidh left I've been on more of a mission. I've been trying to kick start all areas of my life, one part at a time. I've been playing the harp quite a bit. It's amazing how much my fingers can remember! I've made a basic website to try and improve my chances of getting hired for weddings and functions on the gold coast. All the other harpists have one, so, I feel like I'm ready now, if I need to become a harpist overnight!!
I've been searching for jobs in the sports industry - a huge vague umbrella covering all sorts of roles. But I did find a job on the Sunshine Coast - 2 hours north of Brisbane - the job is Regional Coordinator, Active After-School communities. This involves working with primary schools and hooking them up with the local community sports providers to try and encourage inactive children into sports after school. Sounds like a perfect job for me...but if I don't get it, it's not the end of the world - at least it's forced me to crack on and get my CV in order and the letter writing process under way. The next letter will be easier! The search continues!
Sports! Sports have been keeping me going through this strange time. I've been swimming most days, there's a pool in the garden, and a 50 metre outdoor pool 5 minutes away, so that's brilliant. I've been cycling 2 different routes - the first is a 40km valley road - out and back. The 2nd route is a 70km loop, going up into the mountains - a beautiful ride, but massive elevation, hills galore. It's currently taking me 3 hours...hoping to gradually speed this up. It's a tough tough ride at the moment. Need to find a cycle group. I saw a group of girls this morning on the valley route, but I was going the other way. I'm thinking of turning around next time, joining their pack and find out what the deal is!!
Running. I've been running along the beach - with no shoes...it's been good for my running I think. Then I found the bike shop in Coolangatta - they are about to set up a whole new triathlon training scheme. The first run was that very same night, so I managed to get a group run in - the hills were harsh though! Training buddies! There were only 3 guys, 2 of which used to be on the pro olympic triathlon series, now overweight and trying to get fit again! The third guy does sub-10 hour ironman distances, so pretty quick. Really fun to find a good bike shop anyway. At the moment, they only have super fast bike ride groups...a little out of my league at the moment, but hopefully I'll get fitter and faster!!
So, I have just over 2 weeks until I head to Canada, my friend Hannah from my Japan years is getting married! Hooray! So, the McRazy travels continue!!
Life with mum and dad is pretty chilled and relaxed. The kookaburras are on the balcony from about 6 am until 8 am and again from 5 pm...funny things. We're having BBQs almost every night! The house is amazing, the view of the ocean is stunning. Sunrise from my bed isn't too bad either.
I have been missing my friends and Andrew a LOT. Having no routine and no job...it's a weird thing - but everything will come together eventually. I have the luxury of hanging on until the RIGHT job comes along. It's all very exciting.
Seeing 2 of my best Japan friends next week. Dona lives an hour north of here on the Gold Coast. Jaimee lives further north but is back in Brisbane for Easter holidays. Great to have such good friends so relatively close!
Time to put the BBQ on :)
Happy Easter everyone!
I've been searching for jobs in the sports industry - a huge vague umbrella covering all sorts of roles. But I did find a job on the Sunshine Coast - 2 hours north of Brisbane - the job is Regional Coordinator, Active After-School communities. This involves working with primary schools and hooking them up with the local community sports providers to try and encourage inactive children into sports after school. Sounds like a perfect job for me...but if I don't get it, it's not the end of the world - at least it's forced me to crack on and get my CV in order and the letter writing process under way. The next letter will be easier! The search continues!
Sports! Sports have been keeping me going through this strange time. I've been swimming most days, there's a pool in the garden, and a 50 metre outdoor pool 5 minutes away, so that's brilliant. I've been cycling 2 different routes - the first is a 40km valley road - out and back. The 2nd route is a 70km loop, going up into the mountains - a beautiful ride, but massive elevation, hills galore. It's currently taking me 3 hours...hoping to gradually speed this up. It's a tough tough ride at the moment. Need to find a cycle group. I saw a group of girls this morning on the valley route, but I was going the other way. I'm thinking of turning around next time, joining their pack and find out what the deal is!!
Running. I've been running along the beach - with no shoes...it's been good for my running I think. Then I found the bike shop in Coolangatta - they are about to set up a whole new triathlon training scheme. The first run was that very same night, so I managed to get a group run in - the hills were harsh though! Training buddies! There were only 3 guys, 2 of which used to be on the pro olympic triathlon series, now overweight and trying to get fit again! The third guy does sub-10 hour ironman distances, so pretty quick. Really fun to find a good bike shop anyway. At the moment, they only have super fast bike ride groups...a little out of my league at the moment, but hopefully I'll get fitter and faster!!
So, I have just over 2 weeks until I head to Canada, my friend Hannah from my Japan years is getting married! Hooray! So, the McRazy travels continue!!
Life with mum and dad is pretty chilled and relaxed. The kookaburras are on the balcony from about 6 am until 8 am and again from 5 pm...funny things. We're having BBQs almost every night! The house is amazing, the view of the ocean is stunning. Sunrise from my bed isn't too bad either.
I have been missing my friends and Andrew a LOT. Having no routine and no job...it's a weird thing - but everything will come together eventually. I have the luxury of hanging on until the RIGHT job comes along. It's all very exciting.
Seeing 2 of my best Japan friends next week. Dona lives an hour north of here on the Gold Coast. Jaimee lives further north but is back in Brisbane for Easter holidays. Great to have such good friends so relatively close!
Time to put the BBQ on :)
Happy Easter everyone!
Monday, 8 March 2010
Diving in Borneo, Sipidan and surrounding Islands
This is wayyyyy overdue - about 2 weeks ago now!
I was met at Tawau airport by Scuba Junkies staff, hooray (always nice to see your name on a piece of paper at the airport), and driven to Semporna - the base hub for diving the islands. It takes an hour from Tawau airport to Semporna, driving mile after mile through palm oil plantations. I arrived late morning and booked in all my diving, one day at Sibuan, 2 days at Sipidan, then a 4 day rescue diver course.
Scuba Junkies have a backpacker hostel, super cheap with an amazing breakfast. They also have a resort on the island of Mabul, it's more expensive, but it's absolutely gorgeous. The town of Semporna is pretty scuzzy, stinky and dirty - only really explored once, and that was enough. People come here to dive, and that's it! There is a pretty cool fish market, pretty stinky too!
The boats all leave at 8am. 3 dives and lunch, returning at around 5pm. It's a long fun day. The sun is really strong, and divers don't usually have much time to build up their tans...they all come back with RED faces!
The first day was pretty standard diving, at Sibuan Island. I'd seen most of the sea life before, and with a sandy bottom, there wasn't a vast reef. Still a great day diving though.
The 2nd and 3rd days I was diving at Sipidan...the golden egg of these islands. Sipidan is a protected nature reserve and has a permit system, I think about 150 permits per day, somewhere in that region anyway. There are no resorts on the island, only a military base. Until 2005 there were a number of resorts, and no limit to the dives. People do think that the reef has recovered significantly as a result of this heightened protection, so that's great.
The minute we jumped into the water, we knew this was going to be a spectacular day of diving.
Reef sharks, and turtles, too many to count! 2 really nice wall dives in the morning. Our 3rd dive was at 'Barracuda Point'. The minute we jumped in the water we were surrounded by a tornado of big eye trevally, or 'jack fish'. Very cool. Then a few minutes later, a huge huge huge school of chevron barracuda came by. Again, sharks and turtles galore...insane.
The rescue diver course was fantastic - really important. Our teacher and the dive master who was helping us were hilarious - on our practical dive, they literally had every problem you could think of. I'd look around, one of them would have lost their mask...or a fin...or they'd be floating upwards, or sunk on the bottom, or their BCD would be floating behind them, or they had spat out their regulator, or they'd be having a panic attack...endless problems!! These dives were really exciting!! Challenging too!
Best diving I've ever done. I will definitely be going back there to do more fun diving.
I almost left without my passport, which could have been exciting...but all worked out in the end. Off to Singapore!
I was met at Tawau airport by Scuba Junkies staff, hooray (always nice to see your name on a piece of paper at the airport), and driven to Semporna - the base hub for diving the islands. It takes an hour from Tawau airport to Semporna, driving mile after mile through palm oil plantations. I arrived late morning and booked in all my diving, one day at Sibuan, 2 days at Sipidan, then a 4 day rescue diver course.
Scuba Junkies have a backpacker hostel, super cheap with an amazing breakfast. They also have a resort on the island of Mabul, it's more expensive, but it's absolutely gorgeous. The town of Semporna is pretty scuzzy, stinky and dirty - only really explored once, and that was enough. People come here to dive, and that's it! There is a pretty cool fish market, pretty stinky too!
The boats all leave at 8am. 3 dives and lunch, returning at around 5pm. It's a long fun day. The sun is really strong, and divers don't usually have much time to build up their tans...they all come back with RED faces!
The first day was pretty standard diving, at Sibuan Island. I'd seen most of the sea life before, and with a sandy bottom, there wasn't a vast reef. Still a great day diving though.
The 2nd and 3rd days I was diving at Sipidan...the golden egg of these islands. Sipidan is a protected nature reserve and has a permit system, I think about 150 permits per day, somewhere in that region anyway. There are no resorts on the island, only a military base. Until 2005 there were a number of resorts, and no limit to the dives. People do think that the reef has recovered significantly as a result of this heightened protection, so that's great.
The minute we jumped into the water, we knew this was going to be a spectacular day of diving.
Reef sharks, and turtles, too many to count! 2 really nice wall dives in the morning. Our 3rd dive was at 'Barracuda Point'. The minute we jumped in the water we were surrounded by a tornado of big eye trevally, or 'jack fish'. Very cool. Then a few minutes later, a huge huge huge school of chevron barracuda came by. Again, sharks and turtles galore...insane.
The rescue diver course was fantastic - really important. Our teacher and the dive master who was helping us were hilarious - on our practical dive, they literally had every problem you could think of. I'd look around, one of them would have lost their mask...or a fin...or they'd be floating upwards, or sunk on the bottom, or their BCD would be floating behind them, or they had spat out their regulator, or they'd be having a panic attack...endless problems!! These dives were really exciting!! Challenging too!
Best diving I've ever done. I will definitely be going back there to do more fun diving.
I almost left without my passport, which could have been exciting...but all worked out in the end. Off to Singapore!
Tuesday, 16 February 2010
London
Kirsty and I were pretty excited about returning to London for many reasons; the quirky people, familiarity, tea, biscuits, access to a kitchen, mosquito-free atmosphere, friends. Within 3 hours, all these yearnings were satisfied and we were back to normality.
Our flight back was a total nightmare. We arrived at Miami and soon found out first leg to Detroit was severely delayed. If we took the delayed flight we would have missed our London connection. Instead they re-routed us through Atlanta. This left us with about 11 hours to play in Miami airport. We bought some trash celebrity gossip magazines and hit the bar; a fantastic way to kill 11 hours by the way!
Our flight to Atlanta was running late too, and as soon as we arrived we found ourselves sprinting through the airport to reach our London bound flight gate – when we got there everyone was already on the plane. If we were sprinting, there was no way that our bags would have made the connection, so it was no surprise when they didn't show up in London. It made the journey home much easier though, as we strolled from Paddington Station back to Baker street on a freeeeeeezing afternoon!
The bags finally showed up the following day, much to my relief – I had already sent all my belongings to Australia and was left with a jumper and a pair of jeans, and no shoes!
I had 6 days to reunited with as many people as possible, and actually managed to cram in quite a lot. Jetlag was on my side…sleep in while people were at work, then party into the wee hours. I went to Andrew's comcomedy.com live night on the Wednesday. Thursday I visited my old colleagues at the bank then out for drinks with Mike and Roger – it was great to see them, and a funny feeling being back in that office, it felt very very small after being outside for the last 3 months! Friday night was a Uni girly night in Windsor. Saturday I made it to the huge Triathlon Expo at Esher where I met up with Japan Ironman friends and met Chrissie Wellington again (my hero – 3 time world champion). The rest of the time I spent with boyfriend Andrew (another tragic love story…ripped apart by my silly international lifestyle. L)
I really wanted to go to the British Museum before I left – they have sooooo much stuff in there. So many times on my travels they have little signs saying – the original is located in The British Museum.
Departure day, Monday 15th, came around extremely quickly. My flight was at 11:05pm so I had the day to pack and watch more Olympic craziness during the day, hanging out with Kirsty and Andrew. Lisa popped by on her way home from work, just while I was dyeing Kirsty's hair! Then it was time to go. Andrew was going to come with me to the airport for a final farewell. All was going to plan, we jumped on the bus to Paddington Station – where the Heathrow trains leave from. We bought tickets and went over to look at the flight departure screens. Hmmmmm that's weird, I couldn't see my flight on the board…then it hit me, like an elephant falling on my head from a 100 storey building. My flight didn't leave from Heathrow at all…it left from Stansted!!!!! Oh NOOOOOO. It's only the FURTHEST airport from London. I have never ever felt such a feeling of dread in my entire life. I've never missed a flight in my life, and I wasn't planning on missing this one either. I think I burst into tears, it had been a very emotional few days! Action plan – taxi to Liverpool street station then Stansted Express. I left Andrew at the ticket barrier as I boarded the train – not exactly the goodbye that I had planned. I had worked out by this point that I was going to make the flight and was pretty sure I wouldn't be back in London that night. So, Airasia flight to Kuala Lumpar. £150, not bad. I had the screaming baby infront of me and a strange passenger next to me, but as an overnight flight, the 12 hours seemed to fly by. It did feel very strange arriving at night – quickest day ever.
I flew into KL (LCCT), which is the airasia hub, about 15 minutes shuttle bus from the main KL airport. I wasn't aware of the two terminals and I'd booked the airport hotel that turned out to be super close to the other terminal. I found two other British girls who were in the same situation and we shuttled around and found our bed for the night.
I had to be back at KL (LCCT) for a 7:20 am flight the following morning, so was able to pack in about 5 hours sleep. I proceeded to have several nightmares about missing my flight, and awoke 3 times within the 5 hours to check the time. I had a wake-up call from the front desk, then when I was inconveniently in the shower, a follow-up wake-up call. How annoying! I suppose some people go back to sleep!
Now I find myself up in the air again, bound for Tawau on the Island of Borneo. I have 3 seats to myself, just had my pre-booked meal (which I didn't really need) and am hoping to be met by the 'Dive Junkies' shuttle.
Wednesday, 10 February 2010
Miami - Super Bowl Weekend!
So, we find ourselves back in Miami - our last weekend on the road. It also happens to be Super Bowl Weekend...one of the biggest party weekends for the US. We weren't aware of this event at time of booking, but it definitely added a new dimension to the trip.
We caught the Go Shuttle shared taxi from Fort Lauderdale to South Beach, shared with a glamour model and a club DJ from New York. On the way along Washington Ave we saw a club where Snoop Doggy Dog was playing, massive queue outside. Apparently everyone was in town for Super Bowl - Even Brad and Angelina (we just caught up on all the celeb gossip after 3 months of withdrawal from the world). We were dropped at 'Jazz on South Beach' hostel - we'd booked through hostel world, everything was booked up (we couldn't understand why...doh!) Anyway, the hostel was insane, they couldn't put us in the same dorm room, couldn't give us female dorms, couldn't guarantee that tomorrow would be better, 18 year old girls tottering around wearing hot pants and mini-skirts, music blaring...we were SO culture shocked! We couldn't get out of there quick enough! This makes us sound so old and over it!!! Perhaps we are!!!!! We ended up at a hostel called 'Santa Barbara International Fun Hostel!' It turned out to be a better location and much more chilled.
We felt totally knackered that first night, starving hungry, struggled to get a taxi from one hostel to the other, overwhelmed by all the party people and the football fans...slept like a log.
The next day we hit the beach. They had Celebrity Beach Bowl going on, stars from Dexter, Gossip Girl and J-Lo were all playing football on the beach! How exciting!
Then we hit the shops...such great shopping! We have no room for shopping in our packs, but somehow we make it work!
The next day we ran on the beach in the morning, then slept on the beach, then hit the shops again, then watched the super bowl. Everyone seemed to be supporting the New Orleans Saints - the underdogs...everyone running around the town 'Who Dat?' which is their slogan. Crazy crazy. We were offered tickets to go to the game...$900! We watched it in a bar, both teams heavily supported within the bar...insane. It's a miracle the place held together, people running and jumping everywhere!
Finally headed off to the airport, then the chaos ensued. We were meant to be going Miami Detroit London. The Miami Detroit flight was severely delayed, which missed the further connection, so we were pulled off that flight and re-routed through Atlanta. We were then stuck in Miami airport for about 10 hours - shopping and drinking at the bar! Our flight to Atlanta was severely delayed also, and we literally had to sprint to make the London flight - so no big surprises when our luggage doesn't show up in London eh. :(
We caught the Heathrow Connect back into Central London, headed home to the freezy flat and fired up the heating, the oven, anything that produced heat basically!
It's great to be home (even though none of my belongings are here!!) There's a lot to be said for familiarity after 3 months on the road.
We woke up to SNOW this morning. I leave for Malaysia in 5 days time, my mission is to get my missing bag back!!!!!!!!!
We caught the Go Shuttle shared taxi from Fort Lauderdale to South Beach, shared with a glamour model and a club DJ from New York. On the way along Washington Ave we saw a club where Snoop Doggy Dog was playing, massive queue outside. Apparently everyone was in town for Super Bowl - Even Brad and Angelina (we just caught up on all the celeb gossip after 3 months of withdrawal from the world). We were dropped at 'Jazz on South Beach' hostel - we'd booked through hostel world, everything was booked up (we couldn't understand why...doh!) Anyway, the hostel was insane, they couldn't put us in the same dorm room, couldn't give us female dorms, couldn't guarantee that tomorrow would be better, 18 year old girls tottering around wearing hot pants and mini-skirts, music blaring...we were SO culture shocked! We couldn't get out of there quick enough! This makes us sound so old and over it!!! Perhaps we are!!!!! We ended up at a hostel called 'Santa Barbara International Fun Hostel!' It turned out to be a better location and much more chilled.
We felt totally knackered that first night, starving hungry, struggled to get a taxi from one hostel to the other, overwhelmed by all the party people and the football fans...slept like a log.
The next day we hit the beach. They had Celebrity Beach Bowl going on, stars from Dexter, Gossip Girl and J-Lo were all playing football on the beach! How exciting!
Then we hit the shops...such great shopping! We have no room for shopping in our packs, but somehow we make it work!
The next day we ran on the beach in the morning, then slept on the beach, then hit the shops again, then watched the super bowl. Everyone seemed to be supporting the New Orleans Saints - the underdogs...everyone running around the town 'Who Dat?' which is their slogan. Crazy crazy. We were offered tickets to go to the game...$900! We watched it in a bar, both teams heavily supported within the bar...insane. It's a miracle the place held together, people running and jumping everywhere!
Finally headed off to the airport, then the chaos ensued. We were meant to be going Miami Detroit London. The Miami Detroit flight was severely delayed, which missed the further connection, so we were pulled off that flight and re-routed through Atlanta. We were then stuck in Miami airport for about 10 hours - shopping and drinking at the bar! Our flight to Atlanta was severely delayed also, and we literally had to sprint to make the London flight - so no big surprises when our luggage doesn't show up in London eh. :(
We caught the Heathrow Connect back into Central London, headed home to the freezy flat and fired up the heating, the oven, anything that produced heat basically!
It's great to be home (even though none of my belongings are here!!) There's a lot to be said for familiarity after 3 months on the road.
We woke up to SNOW this morning. I leave for Malaysia in 5 days time, my mission is to get my missing bag back!!!!!!!!!
Thursday, 4 February 2010
Antigua, Guatemala
We left El Tunco beach in El Salvador on Tuesday. Our hotel, Mopelia,
runs a shuttle service direct to Antigua, pausing at the border for
passport stamping. It was glorious compared to our chicken bus
experiences of late!
Antigua is similar to Granada in Nicaragua - an old brightly coloured
colonial town, now a Unesco World Heritage zone, surrounded by huge
looming volcanoes. The setting is incredible. Antigua runs shuttle
services to anywhere and everywhere. You could definitely fly here and
shuttle back and forth to all the top places in Guatemala without
having to deal with the crazy public transport systems. We shared the
shuttle with two Aussie surfer lads. Staying in a decent little hotel,
complete with resident pushy tour operator - skinny, scarf around his
neck, pops up constantly asking us where we're going...we slammed the
door in his face and still he persists!
Our first trip was to the active volcano in the region, Pacaya.
runs a shuttle service direct to Antigua, pausing at the border for
passport stamping. It was glorious compared to our chicken bus
experiences of late!
Antigua is similar to Granada in Nicaragua - an old brightly coloured
colonial town, now a Unesco World Heritage zone, surrounded by huge
looming volcanoes. The setting is incredible. Antigua runs shuttle
services to anywhere and everywhere. You could definitely fly here and
shuttle back and forth to all the top places in Guatemala without
having to deal with the crazy public transport systems. We shared the
shuttle with two Aussie surfer lads. Staying in a decent little hotel,
complete with resident pushy tour operator - skinny, scarf around his
neck, pops up constantly asking us where we're going...we slammed the
door in his face and still he persists!
Our first trip was to the active volcano in the region, Pacaya.
We left at 2pm on a mini bus and drove about an hour to Pacaya
Volcano, it's about 2800 metres or so. Our tour guide named our group
of 14 people, Toucan. He proceded to blow his whistle and yell
'Toucans' non-stop for the rest of the evening!
We hiked up the dusty volcano path for about an hour and a half,
trailed by horses - the 'natural taxi' for those who struggle with the
climb. As we neared the lava flow field we could hear the volcano
hissing and spurting, just like a steam engine. We were about the
clouds, overlooking 3 other volcanoes as the sun set. As we watched
Pacaya's peak we could see lava spurting out the top. Everyone was
totally mesmerised. We clambered over the old lava flows to a hot spot
where people were roasting marshmallows. In previous years the lava
flows had been very active, coming down the volcano, but the day we
went, the only lava was the stuff spurting out the top. As it got
darker the lava was brighter. We had to head back down in the dark,
mighty bright to the rescue again. Our tour guide had a nightmare
trying to round us all up to return down the volcano, blowing his
whistle non-stop, toucanssssss let's gooooo. He must have this problem
every day! Our path down the volcano was lined with glowing fire flies.
Definitely one of the highlights of our trip so far, cannot wait to
upload photos when I get back to London next week!
Today we chilled out and walked around this beautiful town. We just
sat in a cafe, bagel barn, and watched a really depressing documentary
called 'When the mountains rumble' about the terrible history of the
Guatemalan people and the injustices of civil war :(
Tomorrow we fly to Miami.
Sent from my iPhone
Sunday, 31 January 2010
El Tunco, El Salvador
Amazing waves, amazing weather, funky little surf village with a great
vibe, good social scene, amazing food.
Spent a few days chilling, doing absolutely nothing - we haven't
really done much of this on our travels! Today we looked after a guy
who jumped off a rock into shallow water and fractured his foot. Oh
dear. The local dentist came to the rescue and drove us to the
hospital - scary driving again! No charge for x-rays and a plaster cast!
Kirsty has been surfing loads. I haven't, I've had a sore back for
almost a month - not quite sure what's going on there. Not too serious
but not feeling like surfing.
2 more days here then off to Antigua, Guatemala for 3 nights, then we
fly to Miami for 3 nights, then back to London for a freezy few days!!
vibe, good social scene, amazing food.
Spent a few days chilling, doing absolutely nothing - we haven't
really done much of this on our travels! Today we looked after a guy
who jumped off a rock into shallow water and fractured his foot. Oh
dear. The local dentist came to the rescue and drove us to the
hospital - scary driving again! No charge for x-rays and a plaster cast!
Kirsty has been surfing loads. I haven't, I've had a sore back for
almost a month - not quite sure what's going on there. Not too serious
but not feeling like surfing.
2 more days here then off to Antigua, Guatemala for 3 nights, then we
fly to Miami for 3 nights, then back to London for a freezy few days!!
Sent from my iPhone
Saturday, 30 January 2010
Tikal to the surf
We spent an afternoon walking around the little island town of Flores.
It draws tourists simply because it lies in the middle of a lake,
connected by a bridge. After about 10 minutes we had walked around it
and had about 6 hours to kill before our night bus to Guatemala city.
We chilled out at a little cafe called 'Cool beans'. It had wifi and
hammocks, but the salsa on our nachos had that nasty fizzy off taste -
we knew immediately and got more. After cool beans we relocated to a
beautiful empty hotel across the lake, we read books and killed
mosquitoes then headed for the bus station.
We haven't done an overnight bus since the freezy freezy ice bus in
Colombia. This was the total opposite- The sauna scorcher bus. At
about 1am we awake to the booming sound of the tyre exploding. We then
sit by the road for 2 hours while the driver sorts out what to do.
They end up changing the tyre (aided by our mighty bright torch
light), but in the process manage to deflate the spare tyre... 4 tyres
across the back (1 of which was flat - but better than noisy shredded
tyre). We rolled into Guatemala city about 4 hours late.
We were heading for the pacific coast in search of waves. We caught a
chicken bus ( old American school buses now used as local buses - they
stop everywhere...extremely slow!) bound for Sipicate. The lonely
planet listed this as one of the highlights of Guatemala, surf
capital. The bus took forever, it would zoom along little country
roads picking up and dropping people off before parking up ( in the
scorching sun) in each village for 30-45 minutes. We finally arrived
at the coast, piled our stuff into a tuctuc headed for the surf
paradise hotel resort, Rancho Castillo. Tuctuc got lost and took us
somewhere totally different, then realised, then short-changed us for
his mistake. Grrrr.
So, Rancho Castillo is on the beach, separated from the town by a
swampy canal, you cross over by speedboat. First impressions were good
- resort with 2 pools, on the beach, rooms were spacious, resident
crocodile pen, massive restaurant etc. We checked in and it soon
became apparent that we were the only guests in this huge resort. They
told us the restaurant opens at 5 - We were starved from not eating
breakfast or lunch. We came back from our stroll on the beach and most
if the day staff had gone home - just 2 guys and a child remained. I
found some menus and told him what we wanted, then we
waited...waited...for an hour. We then had a conversation that
concluded that the restaurant wasn't open, we couldn't have dinner
here and that we would have to speedboat back into scuzz town to get
food. Sooooo angry (mainly because we were super hungry) our Spanish
is not great but it was clear that we were trying to order food - menu
in hand. Our nice boat driver showed us a good place to eat (he waited
for us, personal escort). The main reason we were here was fir surfing
so bright and early Kirsty heads out to check out the surf. There were
waves, but really small and it was low tide, wasn't going to happen.
We checked out (argued and paid less for the room) and got back on the
chicken bus, this time headed for the surf coast of El Salvador.
We had our bikinis in these breathable bags attached to the outside of
our backpacks, which were now on the roof of the bus. We realised
later that it must have been the overweight pervy bus conductor whol
had stolen our bikini bottoms - sicko!! Kirsty was first to notice
that they were gone. 'ah, you must have left them at the resort' I
assured her. Then I checked and mine were gone too :( yuck!
We crossed into El Salvador - tuctuc buggy assisted us between the
immigration offices at the border. We had hoped to catch a bus to the
surf town of El Tunco but all the buses only went as far as sonsonate.
We splashed out and got a taxi, which was worth every penny. Our taxi
driver was also a driving instructor, so his car had a brake pedal
under the passenger seat! I was tempted to use it soooo often as this
guy was a shocking driver. We swerved about 3 dogs before finally
smashing into one - yelp! Terrible! We arrived at El Tunco after dark
but were happy to see lots of surfers walking around. Hooray, hostel
on the beach!
It draws tourists simply because it lies in the middle of a lake,
connected by a bridge. After about 10 minutes we had walked around it
and had about 6 hours to kill before our night bus to Guatemala city.
We chilled out at a little cafe called 'Cool beans'. It had wifi and
hammocks, but the salsa on our nachos had that nasty fizzy off taste -
we knew immediately and got more. After cool beans we relocated to a
beautiful empty hotel across the lake, we read books and killed
mosquitoes then headed for the bus station.
We haven't done an overnight bus since the freezy freezy ice bus in
Colombia. This was the total opposite- The sauna scorcher bus. At
about 1am we awake to the booming sound of the tyre exploding. We then
sit by the road for 2 hours while the driver sorts out what to do.
They end up changing the tyre (aided by our mighty bright torch
light), but in the process manage to deflate the spare tyre... 4 tyres
across the back (1 of which was flat - but better than noisy shredded
tyre). We rolled into Guatemala city about 4 hours late.
We were heading for the pacific coast in search of waves. We caught a
chicken bus ( old American school buses now used as local buses - they
stop everywhere...extremely slow!) bound for Sipicate. The lonely
planet listed this as one of the highlights of Guatemala, surf
capital. The bus took forever, it would zoom along little country
roads picking up and dropping people off before parking up ( in the
scorching sun) in each village for 30-45 minutes. We finally arrived
at the coast, piled our stuff into a tuctuc headed for the surf
paradise hotel resort, Rancho Castillo. Tuctuc got lost and took us
somewhere totally different, then realised, then short-changed us for
his mistake. Grrrr.
So, Rancho Castillo is on the beach, separated from the town by a
swampy canal, you cross over by speedboat. First impressions were good
- resort with 2 pools, on the beach, rooms were spacious, resident
crocodile pen, massive restaurant etc. We checked in and it soon
became apparent that we were the only guests in this huge resort. They
told us the restaurant opens at 5 - We were starved from not eating
breakfast or lunch. We came back from our stroll on the beach and most
if the day staff had gone home - just 2 guys and a child remained. I
found some menus and told him what we wanted, then we
waited...waited...for an hour. We then had a conversation that
concluded that the restaurant wasn't open, we couldn't have dinner
here and that we would have to speedboat back into scuzz town to get
food. Sooooo angry (mainly because we were super hungry) our Spanish
is not great but it was clear that we were trying to order food - menu
in hand. Our nice boat driver showed us a good place to eat (he waited
for us, personal escort). The main reason we were here was fir surfing
so bright and early Kirsty heads out to check out the surf. There were
waves, but really small and it was low tide, wasn't going to happen.
We checked out (argued and paid less for the room) and got back on the
chicken bus, this time headed for the surf coast of El Salvador.
We had our bikinis in these breathable bags attached to the outside of
our backpacks, which were now on the roof of the bus. We realised
later that it must have been the overweight pervy bus conductor whol
had stolen our bikini bottoms - sicko!! Kirsty was first to notice
that they were gone. 'ah, you must have left them at the resort' I
assured her. Then I checked and mine were gone too :( yuck!
We crossed into El Salvador - tuctuc buggy assisted us between the
immigration offices at the border. We had hoped to catch a bus to the
surf town of El Tunco but all the buses only went as far as sonsonate.
We splashed out and got a taxi, which was worth every penny. Our taxi
driver was also a driving instructor, so his car had a brake pedal
under the passenger seat! I was tempted to use it soooo often as this
guy was a shocking driver. We swerved about 3 dogs before finally
smashing into one - yelp! Terrible! We arrived at El Tunco after dark
but were happy to see lots of surfers walking around. Hooray, hostel
on the beach!
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Monday, 25 January 2010
Tikal
We managed to jump on the San Juan shuttle out to Tikal - although
Flores is known as the jump-off point, it's still 70 km away. There
are a couple of hotels at the main gate to Tikal, and you can camp at
Jaguar Inn. We camped, with the ants. You can go into the ruins after
4pm when you buy your ticket for the following day. We arrived too
late to do this. We woke up at 5:30 to try and watch the sunrise over
the complex. We hurried through the jungle, howler monkeys shrieking,
and stumbled into the main plaza complex...soooo misty and still
pretty dark - nobody around, very creepy! We finally made it to temple
4, the highest temple, but the mist hung around for hours, our view
was limited to about 3 metres, we were frozen and hungry so went back
to get breakfast and a picnic. We spent the rest of the day wandering
around the temples and jungly mounds - 85% of Tikal is still to be
uncovered! They have done a good job on the current restorations but
it'll be amazing to come back here years later once they have
uncovered more. All very mysterious. On one of the paths between
temples we spotted an ant trail, then another, then another, then they
all merged into one huge mass of ants - they were taking over the
entire footpath, all heading in the same direction, a sea of ants.
I've never seen anything like it! Big ants!
Flores is known as the jump-off point, it's still 70 km away. There
are a couple of hotels at the main gate to Tikal, and you can camp at
Jaguar Inn. We camped, with the ants. You can go into the ruins after
4pm when you buy your ticket for the following day. We arrived too
late to do this. We woke up at 5:30 to try and watch the sunrise over
the complex. We hurried through the jungle, howler monkeys shrieking,
and stumbled into the main plaza complex...soooo misty and still
pretty dark - nobody around, very creepy! We finally made it to temple
4, the highest temple, but the mist hung around for hours, our view
was limited to about 3 metres, we were frozen and hungry so went back
to get breakfast and a picnic. We spent the rest of the day wandering
around the temples and jungly mounds - 85% of Tikal is still to be
uncovered! They have done a good job on the current restorations but
it'll be amazing to come back here years later once they have
uncovered more. All very mysterious. On one of the paths between
temples we spotted an ant trail, then another, then another, then they
all merged into one huge mass of ants - they were taking over the
entire footpath, all heading in the same direction, a sea of ants.
I've never seen anything like it! Big ants!
So many people just come for the day, but because we were camping we
could stay until the park closed at 6pm, again we found ourselves
alone at sunset - just the zillions of birds and monkeys for company.
This morning we went to the 2 museums at Tikal. They show lots of
photos pre-restoration - the jungle had totally taken over, it's taken
them decades to clear! Also, lots of original limestone carvings and
ceramics found on the site. Very lucky to have made it up here, was
really worth it.
We're now trying to get an overnight bus to the south of Guatemala,
looking for surfing waves, we seem to be ahead of schedule!
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Rio Dulce
Rio Dulce, Guatemala
We caught the ferry back to La Ceiba, taxi shared to the bus station
and hopped in a bus to San Pedro Sula where we stayed in Hostel
Tamarindo. We popped our for food - Spanish fail. Couldn't read the
menu and ended up with a plate of fried plantain with kebab style
stuff on top.
Woke up at 4:15 am to catch a bus to Rio Dulce. All we knew, from
google searching and blog write-ups, was that the bus company was
called Fuente Del Norte. Sure enough, Fuente Del Norte had buses into
Guatemala across that northern border, we caught the 5:30 bus. Border
crossing was easy, stated on the bus but jumped off in Guatemala to
get passport stamp. Had to change buses in Morales. We were in Rio
Dulce by 10:30. Rio Dulce is a river that cones in from the Caribbean
and opens out into Lake Izabal. They say it is the safest place in the
caribbean to keep your boat in hurricane season, as a result there is
a substantial international community based here, or their boats are
based here anyway. We stayed in a hotel across the bay from the main
town, you could only get there by boat- Hacienda Tijax. It was all
built on stilts with wooden walkways linking all the buildings together.
Rio Dulce is a tiny town, crazy. We went by collectivo to a thermal
waterfall. Cold river with a scorching hot waterfall cascading into it
- almost too hot to stand under! The next morning we went to see the
old Spanish Fort, El Castillo de San Felipe - built in 1652 to keep
pirates out, pictures of Johnny Depp around the place.
We jumped on another Fuente Del Norte bus bound for Flores, the
jumping off point for Tikal. Very hot bus, we stood for about half the
4 hour trip. Beautiful countryside - very lush and green.
We caught the ferry back to La Ceiba, taxi shared to the bus station
and hopped in a bus to San Pedro Sula where we stayed in Hostel
Tamarindo. We popped our for food - Spanish fail. Couldn't read the
menu and ended up with a plate of fried plantain with kebab style
stuff on top.
Woke up at 4:15 am to catch a bus to Rio Dulce. All we knew, from
google searching and blog write-ups, was that the bus company was
called Fuente Del Norte. Sure enough, Fuente Del Norte had buses into
Guatemala across that northern border, we caught the 5:30 bus. Border
crossing was easy, stated on the bus but jumped off in Guatemala to
get passport stamp. Had to change buses in Morales. We were in Rio
Dulce by 10:30. Rio Dulce is a river that cones in from the Caribbean
and opens out into Lake Izabal. They say it is the safest place in the
caribbean to keep your boat in hurricane season, as a result there is
a substantial international community based here, or their boats are
based here anyway. We stayed in a hotel across the bay from the main
town, you could only get there by boat- Hacienda Tijax. It was all
built on stilts with wooden walkways linking all the buildings together.
Rio Dulce is a tiny town, crazy. We went by collectivo to a thermal
waterfall. Cold river with a scorching hot waterfall cascading into it
- almost too hot to stand under! The next morning we went to see the
old Spanish Fort, El Castillo de San Felipe - built in 1652 to keep
pirates out, pictures of Johnny Depp around the place.
We jumped on another Fuente Del Norte bus bound for Flores, the
jumping off point for Tikal. Very hot bus, we stood for about half the
4 hour trip. Beautiful countryside - very lush and green.
Sent from my iPhone
Roatan, Bay Islands, Honduras
Roatan, Bay Islands, Honduras
The ferry was like a giant speedboat. Pancakes for breakfast. Sunny
day, all looked calm, 5 minutes into the crossing the stewards handed
everyone an orange and white stripped sick bag. Felt rough, worried
about the pancakes in my belly, moved downstairs...everyone was
throwing up, stewards constantly on the move with their bags and
tissues. Gross!
Arrived in paradise. Headed to 'West End' and found our apartment at
Arco Iris. Amazing to have a kitchen after eating out every day for
months! Everything on the island was expensive, more like normal US
prices - you pay to be in Caribbean paradise. It was exactly what
paradise should be like though... lapping water along White sand
beach, little jetties going out over crystal clear water, bars on the
beach, and over the water, white sofas with overhanging curtains
overlooking the beach etc.
We were here to dive, so we went with Coconut Tree Divers - looked
like a fun sociable shop, owned by British ex-pat, PJ. $25 per dive.
Amazing reef all around the island, wrecks, caves, tunnels, loads of
fish, turtles. I did 11 dives, didn't see anything huge or unusual,
but I've been spoilt by Thailand, Phillipines and Okinawa. We did see
the biggest moray eel I have ever seen - huge long and very fat. Also
a huge area of garden eels, don't see them very often but very cute
little things. Kirty's daily mission was to find gear that fitted her
- she's tiny, and all the wetsuits were huge and holey. Her nickname
was 'The bag lady' as some of her wetsuits were shredded and hanging
off her. We had one day where we both had the wrong sized fins. Tragic.
We walked along the beaches checking out all the resorts - had
cocktails at Luna Beach, where they filmed a series of Temptation
Island. It was nice but not as grand as we had expected. We wandered
off the beach into this insanely nice resort, it seemed totally
deserted. They had glass bottom canoes, which I thought was a spark of
genius. We found ourselves on a rope swing bridge across a lake and
proceeded across and down to sqawling parrots in cages - huge brightly
coloured birds. We noticed some White faced monkeys running around, as
they came closer we started to get a little nervous. They were very
cheeky and were obviously not afraid of us, probably looking for food.
As more and more came, they became bolder and bolder until one of them
stood up and grabbed my legs. Time to evacuate! It started to bare
it's ugly teeth. Cute monkey became scary screeching monkey, we backed
off then ran, as I looked back over my shoulder o could see at least 5
of them gallopping along behind be at great pace, all with bared
teeth... we picked up our pace - difficult as we were laughing
hysterically. We have this entire episode on flip video.
We escaped the monkeys, then got eaten by huge mosquitoes before
finding our way to West Bay beach.
We had one night out, starting at Luna beach resort drinking monkey
lalas cocktails, then walking back through town. The night ended with
Kirsty dancing on a bar to get some shiny beads. She only managed one
dive the following morning.
We left Roatan after 5 days. Onto our last country, Guatemala!
Sent from my iPhone
Friday, 22 January 2010
Nicaragua to Honduras
We arrived in Managua around 3pm. Our bus to Honduras left the next
morning at 5am, so we were staying at the TICA bus terminal. Really
basic hotel in a shoddy area, but perfect for the early start. We
managed to hitch a lift to the shopping centre, shops, food and
cinema. We saw Avatar; brilliant movie. We had pops milkshake,
reminded us of Costa Rica. Argued with taxi man over the fare... this
happens EVERY time now, frustrating.
Our target destination in Honduras was the island of Roatan off the
Caribbean coast. That night we were heading for the Honduran capital
city, Tegucigalpa. After a few announcements (and watching avatar
again- screener bad quality) I realised that this very bus was heading
up to the Caribbean coast, so we decided to stay on the bus and
continue as far as San Pedro Sula. There were lots of foreigners on
the bus, all headed for the islands, and they were keen to get to the
ferry town that same night, we decided to join them and jumped off the
TICA bus to get on a more direct bus to take us to La Ceiba. We waited
2 hours for this bus, after 12 hours on the road already we were
starting to flake. As the bus was coming into La Ceiba suddenly a
massive smash crash... A rock had come hurling through the bus window
sending glass flying everywhere. In that moment we were terrified, but
as soon as we realised what it was we just felt relieved that it
wasn't our window, could've been really bad.
We rolled into Banana Republic guest house around 1am, and were gone
by 8am, off to the ferry.
Bed time! Next update coming soooooon xxx
morning at 5am, so we were staying at the TICA bus terminal. Really
basic hotel in a shoddy area, but perfect for the early start. We
managed to hitch a lift to the shopping centre, shops, food and
cinema. We saw Avatar; brilliant movie. We had pops milkshake,
reminded us of Costa Rica. Argued with taxi man over the fare... this
happens EVERY time now, frustrating.
Our target destination in Honduras was the island of Roatan off the
Caribbean coast. That night we were heading for the Honduran capital
city, Tegucigalpa. After a few announcements (and watching avatar
again- screener bad quality) I realised that this very bus was heading
up to the Caribbean coast, so we decided to stay on the bus and
continue as far as San Pedro Sula. There were lots of foreigners on
the bus, all headed for the islands, and they were keen to get to the
ferry town that same night, we decided to join them and jumped off the
TICA bus to get on a more direct bus to take us to La Ceiba. We waited
2 hours for this bus, after 12 hours on the road already we were
starting to flake. As the bus was coming into La Ceiba suddenly a
massive smash crash... A rock had come hurling through the bus window
sending glass flying everywhere. In that moment we were terrified, but
as soon as we realised what it was we just felt relieved that it
wasn't our window, could've been really bad.
We rolled into Banana Republic guest house around 1am, and were gone
by 8am, off to the ferry.
Bed time! Next update coming soooooon xxx
Sent from my iPhone
Granada, Nicaragua
I'm way way behind on this blog so I'm going to do highlights!
Granada. Beautiful little colonial town, really well preserved, every
building has a beautiful courtyard, including our hostel. Tourism has
been a main focus of Granada for a long time. If you had a week's
holiday and you wanted to see Nicaragua then you could totally base
yourself in Granada; big volcano nearby, Ometepe island with the two
volcanoes, the coast, horse ranches, beautiful countryside, it's all
right there.
I bought a painting and posted it to Australia; I had it for about 10
minutes!
I burned photos onto disk. Kirsty bought a ring with a crocodile tooth
in it. We did laundry. We wanted to buy hammocks, big beautiful
hammocks, we managed to find some self control.
We went to a Spanish horse expo, but nothing was happening, so we
left. We had to get to Managua to catch a bus to Honduras.
Granada. Beautiful little colonial town, really well preserved, every
building has a beautiful courtyard, including our hostel. Tourism has
been a main focus of Granada for a long time. If you had a week's
holiday and you wanted to see Nicaragua then you could totally base
yourself in Granada; big volcano nearby, Ometepe island with the two
volcanoes, the coast, horse ranches, beautiful countryside, it's all
right there.
I bought a painting and posted it to Australia; I had it for about 10
minutes!
I burned photos onto disk. Kirsty bought a ring with a crocodile tooth
in it. We did laundry. We wanted to buy hammocks, big beautiful
hammocks, we managed to find some self control.
We went to a Spanish horse expo, but nothing was happening, so we
left. We had to get to Managua to catch a bus to Honduras.
Sent from my iPhone
Tuesday, 12 January 2010
Costa Rica to Nicaragua
We had heard lots of bad things about this border crossing, mainly that it took hours and hours to get through as it is a major route. As we approached there were queues and queues of trucks and cars, but our taxi drove straight to the front, dropped us off, and we lined up for about 15 minutes, exited Costa Rica. We had read that the distance between the passport control offices was really far and that you could rent golf buggies, well, we didn't see any golf buggies, and walked for about 10 minutes and found the Nicaragua office. Again, a short queue and it was done. Much quicker than Costa Rica - Panama.
We had teamed up with 2 other Brits, who were heading to the same Island - Isla de Ometepe, in Lake Nicaragua. This island is formed by two volcanoes, one active, the other dormant. We stayed in the main town the first night, the only place with an ATM on the island, Moyogalpa. The 2nd night we stayed in Santa Domingo, on the thin land between the volcanos, on the beach of the lake. The next day we climbed the active volcano, Conception. We got as high as the cloud level, we were nearly blown off the side, it was sooooo windy. We were up and down in 5 hours, much quicker than we thought, so managed to get a ferry back to the mainland the same day. Our next stop was Playa Maderas, north of San Juan del Sur, on the Pacific Coast. We haggled our taxi driver down to 25 dollars and off we went. The roads soon deteriorated and we got totally lost, but eventually rocked up at the much talked about 'Camping Matilda's'. It was dark and we were shattered from the volcano climb and accepted a dorm room on the beach for 10 dollars each. We pretty much ate dinner and went straight to bed.
The next morning we woke up. Kirsty had been eaten alive by an army of big red ants in the night....oh dear! We decided that we would have to change rooms if we stayed another night. We stepped outside and were blasted by the first of many insane gusts of wind, blowing sand into whirlwinds, in our ears, eyes, nose, mouth, sand everywhere. It was like a typhoon, but it was sunny. We stumbled out onto the beach and noticed a group of people all standing around. We went over and it was a turtle, covering up her eggs - which had been taken away by the manager of the hotel for safety - she had birthed 85 eggs and was about to head back to the ocean. It was an amazing sight, she didn't seem to be at all worried about all the people watching her. Great start to the day! We got breakfast, pancakes and fruit with syrup...soon to be covered in sand. It was almost impossible to eat!
We tried to upgrade rooms, but they have a policy where if you stay one night in a room it's super expensive, so after being sandblasted for about 4 hours, we decided to make an exit and head back to the town of San Juan del Sur. Also, the main reason we had gone to Playa Maderas was for surfing...but there were NO waves. This coast is usually great for surfing because of the offshore winds created by the presence of the huge Lake Nicaragua, however, there seems to be severe windy conditions at the moment, destroying any possibility of surfing, plus no Pacific swell.
We spent the afternoon at a resort called Pelican Eyes, on the hilltop overlooking San Juan del Sur. They have amazing infinity pools and food and cocktails. Very luxurious. It costs about 250 US dollars a night to stay there, so after sunset we retired to our 7 dollar hostel instead! The typhoon style winds continue!
We are currently in San Juan del Sur, about to head to the touristy colonial town of Granada, 2 hours away.
Trying to escape the wind.
We had teamed up with 2 other Brits, who were heading to the same Island - Isla de Ometepe, in Lake Nicaragua. This island is formed by two volcanoes, one active, the other dormant. We stayed in the main town the first night, the only place with an ATM on the island, Moyogalpa. The 2nd night we stayed in Santa Domingo, on the thin land between the volcanos, on the beach of the lake. The next day we climbed the active volcano, Conception. We got as high as the cloud level, we were nearly blown off the side, it was sooooo windy. We were up and down in 5 hours, much quicker than we thought, so managed to get a ferry back to the mainland the same day. Our next stop was Playa Maderas, north of San Juan del Sur, on the Pacific Coast. We haggled our taxi driver down to 25 dollars and off we went. The roads soon deteriorated and we got totally lost, but eventually rocked up at the much talked about 'Camping Matilda's'. It was dark and we were shattered from the volcano climb and accepted a dorm room on the beach for 10 dollars each. We pretty much ate dinner and went straight to bed.
The next morning we woke up. Kirsty had been eaten alive by an army of big red ants in the night....oh dear! We decided that we would have to change rooms if we stayed another night. We stepped outside and were blasted by the first of many insane gusts of wind, blowing sand into whirlwinds, in our ears, eyes, nose, mouth, sand everywhere. It was like a typhoon, but it was sunny. We stumbled out onto the beach and noticed a group of people all standing around. We went over and it was a turtle, covering up her eggs - which had been taken away by the manager of the hotel for safety - she had birthed 85 eggs and was about to head back to the ocean. It was an amazing sight, she didn't seem to be at all worried about all the people watching her. Great start to the day! We got breakfast, pancakes and fruit with syrup...soon to be covered in sand. It was almost impossible to eat!
We tried to upgrade rooms, but they have a policy where if you stay one night in a room it's super expensive, so after being sandblasted for about 4 hours, we decided to make an exit and head back to the town of San Juan del Sur. Also, the main reason we had gone to Playa Maderas was for surfing...but there were NO waves. This coast is usually great for surfing because of the offshore winds created by the presence of the huge Lake Nicaragua, however, there seems to be severe windy conditions at the moment, destroying any possibility of surfing, plus no Pacific swell.
We spent the afternoon at a resort called Pelican Eyes, on the hilltop overlooking San Juan del Sur. They have amazing infinity pools and food and cocktails. Very luxurious. It costs about 250 US dollars a night to stay there, so after sunset we retired to our 7 dollar hostel instead! The typhoon style winds continue!
We are currently in San Juan del Sur, about to head to the touristy colonial town of Granada, 2 hours away.
Trying to escape the wind.
Mal Pais, Surf Camp, Costa Rica
We said goodbye to the paradise beach and zoomed by speedboat to the peninsula surf town of Mal Pais.
Kirsty had been here before, so it was all very easy and familiar. Mal Pais Surf Camp is a very special place. It is the friendliest place we have stayed at on our travels, everyone talks to everyone. Most people are beginner surfers, so the atmosphere is really relaxed, everyone sharing their surfing attempt stories, wipeout stories, standing up without falling over stories...all good. The waves were much more beginner friendly and I feel like my surfing really progressed, hooray. It always feels like a battle of survival though, big wave coming straight at me...yikes, in the wrong place, turn round and ride it in or get mashed like in a washing machine. Good fun. After 3 days of this I felt pretty battered and bruised though and I was ready to have a break!
We had one brilliant evening where we ran up to a 5 star villa resort, they had a swim-up bar in an infinity pool, overlooking the whole coastline - amazing sunset. You barbeque your own food, then drink more cocktails in the pool.
We decided our next stop would be Nicaragua. The buses around that peninsula are really limited, so we jumped on one of the shuttles and headed for Nicaragua.
Kirsty had been here before, so it was all very easy and familiar. Mal Pais Surf Camp is a very special place. It is the friendliest place we have stayed at on our travels, everyone talks to everyone. Most people are beginner surfers, so the atmosphere is really relaxed, everyone sharing their surfing attempt stories, wipeout stories, standing up without falling over stories...all good. The waves were much more beginner friendly and I feel like my surfing really progressed, hooray. It always feels like a battle of survival though, big wave coming straight at me...yikes, in the wrong place, turn round and ride it in or get mashed like in a washing machine. Good fun. After 3 days of this I felt pretty battered and bruised though and I was ready to have a break!
We had one brilliant evening where we ran up to a 5 star villa resort, they had a swim-up bar in an infinity pool, overlooking the whole coastline - amazing sunset. You barbeque your own food, then drink more cocktails in the pool.
We decided our next stop would be Nicaragua. The buses around that peninsula are really limited, so we jumped on one of the shuttles and headed for Nicaragua.
Wednesday, 6 January 2010
New Year 2010!
At the beach house we slept, surfed, played tennis, played cards,
played articulate, played drinking games, laughed a lot, body surfed,
football, napped, cooked, looked at iguanas, looked at monkeys, looked
at tucans, ate out at amazing places, took a lot of surf photos,
celebrated New Year, played golf, Internet, got happy, got sad. 2
stories from the week make the cut: 1) Kirsty and her fungi. 2) Will
and the intruder.
Full details coming soon.
played articulate, played drinking games, laughed a lot, body surfed,
football, napped, cooked, looked at iguanas, looked at monkeys, looked
at tucans, ate out at amazing places, took a lot of surf photos,
celebrated New Year, played golf, Internet, got happy, got sad. 2
stories from the week make the cut: 1) Kirsty and her fungi. 2) Will
and the intruder.
Full details coming soon.
Sent from my iPhone
Bocas Del Toro, Panama
We decided to squeeze in a little trip to a group of islands called
Bocas Del Toro, about an hour east of the Costa Rican border. Big
queues at the border, but a good opportunity to make some new friends
- everyone was going to the same place. We stayed on Isla de Colon,
the main hub. It was scorching! The hottest place we've been so far.
We decided to rent bicycles and cycle 15 km to a beach on the other
side of the island. These bikes were creaky and rusty but we were
confident they would make the journey. All was good until the road
turned to deeeep gravel, and the hills. Kirsty's bike wouldn't go into
the easy gear so we switched. After about 10 minutes I realise that I
can't actually turn the pedals! Oh no! We still had 8 kms to go until
the beach. Two policemen stopped on their motorbike to try to help us
with their Swiss army knife - they failed. We ended up running with
one bike, freewheeling down the hills, legs out the sides, while the
other person rode the ok bike. We switched over a few times and
managed to reach the beach just before sunset. There was a minibus
waiting ready to head back to the town, they driver was happy to throw
our bikes on the roof, but he was leaving in 13 minutes! Quick! We
were absolutely dripping in sweat after our mini duathlon, we ripped
off our clothes and sprinted into the water. Quick photo session
before jumping in the minibus. The reason we had headed to the beach
was to look at starfish, but we didn't have time to go and search for
them.
That night we met 3 Brazillian blokes. Alex owned a yacht and had been
sailing around the Caribbean for the past 15 months. Alex was a keen
surfer and had 6 surf boards on board, also scuba gear and fishing
equipment. They offered to take us out on the yacht the next day. At
first we were sceptical but after dinner together we had decided that
they were safe friendly guys just wanting to hang out. So next day off
we go, beautiful yacht, cruise up to deserted beaches, snorkelling
with the tropical fish, surfed off the boat, we decided not to dive as
the conditions weren't great. Perfect day, sailing back we saw
dolphins. We got back and totally crashed out; we got fried in the hot
hot sun and after cycling and running the day before and surfing all
day...shattered!
Day 3 we went on an organised boat tour to see a few different
islands. First stop Dolphin Bay...picture 15 speedboats, all zooming
across the bay looking for dolphins. If I was a dolphin I would not
hang out there. Anyway we saw a few before heading off to some other
islands. Then it chucked it down with rain, the warmest place was in
the ocean. Headed to another island for lunch and we totally froze.
Last stop was red frog beach...famous for red frogs!
The coolest bar that we found was a sunken shipwreck with decking
around it, spotlights in the water, you could see all the jellyfish
and fish swimming around. We never made it to the illusive Aqua
Lounge, on the neighbouring island - they had one of those big
hampster ball things.
Next morning our goal was to go from Panama back to Costa Rica,
through San Jose and down to Andrew's beach house just west of Jaco on
the Pacific coast. A full day of boats and buses.
Bocas Del Toro, about an hour east of the Costa Rican border. Big
queues at the border, but a good opportunity to make some new friends
- everyone was going to the same place. We stayed on Isla de Colon,
the main hub. It was scorching! The hottest place we've been so far.
We decided to rent bicycles and cycle 15 km to a beach on the other
side of the island. These bikes were creaky and rusty but we were
confident they would make the journey. All was good until the road
turned to deeeep gravel, and the hills. Kirsty's bike wouldn't go into
the easy gear so we switched. After about 10 minutes I realise that I
can't actually turn the pedals! Oh no! We still had 8 kms to go until
the beach. Two policemen stopped on their motorbike to try to help us
with their Swiss army knife - they failed. We ended up running with
one bike, freewheeling down the hills, legs out the sides, while the
other person rode the ok bike. We switched over a few times and
managed to reach the beach just before sunset. There was a minibus
waiting ready to head back to the town, they driver was happy to throw
our bikes on the roof, but he was leaving in 13 minutes! Quick! We
were absolutely dripping in sweat after our mini duathlon, we ripped
off our clothes and sprinted into the water. Quick photo session
before jumping in the minibus. The reason we had headed to the beach
was to look at starfish, but we didn't have time to go and search for
them.
That night we met 3 Brazillian blokes. Alex owned a yacht and had been
sailing around the Caribbean for the past 15 months. Alex was a keen
surfer and had 6 surf boards on board, also scuba gear and fishing
equipment. They offered to take us out on the yacht the next day. At
first we were sceptical but after dinner together we had decided that
they were safe friendly guys just wanting to hang out. So next day off
we go, beautiful yacht, cruise up to deserted beaches, snorkelling
with the tropical fish, surfed off the boat, we decided not to dive as
the conditions weren't great. Perfect day, sailing back we saw
dolphins. We got back and totally crashed out; we got fried in the hot
hot sun and after cycling and running the day before and surfing all
day...shattered!
Day 3 we went on an organised boat tour to see a few different
islands. First stop Dolphin Bay...picture 15 speedboats, all zooming
across the bay looking for dolphins. If I was a dolphin I would not
hang out there. Anyway we saw a few before heading off to some other
islands. Then it chucked it down with rain, the warmest place was in
the ocean. Headed to another island for lunch and we totally froze.
Last stop was red frog beach...famous for red frogs!
The coolest bar that we found was a sunken shipwreck with decking
around it, spotlights in the water, you could see all the jellyfish
and fish swimming around. We never made it to the illusive Aqua
Lounge, on the neighbouring island - they had one of those big
hampster ball things.
Next morning our goal was to go from Panama back to Costa Rica,
through San Jose and down to Andrew's beach house just west of Jaco on
the Pacific coast. A full day of boats and buses.
Sent from my iPhone
Tuesday, 5 January 2010
San Jose and the Caribbean Coast, Costa Rica
We arrived at the airport LATE, but boyfriend Andrew was there to pick us up, yey. He drove us to his house in Santa Ana, overlooking the whole city - a really beautiful spot, and such an amazing house. After all the hostels and buses, it felt like we had been rescued, taken in, properly looked after!
We stayed 2 nights before heading to the Caribbean Coast for Christmas.
Our first stop was Cahuita (4 hours from San Jose) - a tiny little reggae town with a national park right next to it. After seeing hardly any animals in the amazon, we were pretty excited about seeing more - loads of monkeys and crab-eating raccoons. One bold monkey tried to steal Kirsty's sunglasses.
The next town along the coast is Puerto Viejo. This is where we were for Christmas Day, we had heard that it was a bit more of a party town. Our expensive hostel was swarming in mosquitoes, and they had overbooked, so we managed to move to a nicer hostel more than half the price, hooray. We ate lots of seafood and lay on Playa Negro - black sand beach. It wasn't the nicest beach in the world, and wondered why people raved about this town so much. In the afternoon we went for a walk along the coast and discovered the white sand beach, where all the surfing waves were...and all the gringoes too! Everything made more sense after seeing that beach! We saw dolphins in the sea as we waited for the bus heading for Panama!
We stayed 2 nights before heading to the Caribbean Coast for Christmas.
Our first stop was Cahuita (4 hours from San Jose) - a tiny little reggae town with a national park right next to it. After seeing hardly any animals in the amazon, we were pretty excited about seeing more - loads of monkeys and crab-eating raccoons. One bold monkey tried to steal Kirsty's sunglasses.
The next town along the coast is Puerto Viejo. This is where we were for Christmas Day, we had heard that it was a bit more of a party town. Our expensive hostel was swarming in mosquitoes, and they had overbooked, so we managed to move to a nicer hostel more than half the price, hooray. We ate lots of seafood and lay on Playa Negro - black sand beach. It wasn't the nicest beach in the world, and wondered why people raved about this town so much. In the afternoon we went for a walk along the coast and discovered the white sand beach, where all the surfing waves were...and all the gringoes too! Everything made more sense after seeing that beach! We saw dolphins in the sea as we waited for the bus heading for Panama!
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