Well I know I said I'd keep my blog more up to date, but I guess I'm just getting a little bit lazy with it at the moment. So I'm just going to say from now on how often I'll update my blog, it will just be when I get round to it.
So I'm now on the island of Utila in Honduras and I arrived here two weeks ago. I've signed up to do my divemaster course here so the plan is to be here for at least 5 weeks. To do the divemaster course I had to first take the rescue diver course which I did last week. So now I'm a qualified rescue diver so you can all feel very safe now if you ever go diving with me now as I know how to save you if anything goes wrong! The course mainly involved trying to rescue people who were trying their best to drown and make it very difficult for us to save them. The bonus is that now I'm doing my divemaster training I can volunteer to help out on a rescue diver course and deal out the same problems to other people.
So I'm now doing my divemaster, I started it on Monday. The first thing we did was to get given a ton of books and a staff t-shirt. One of the big roles of being a DMT (divemaster in training) is to be a dogsbody for instructors, carry tanks back and forth to the boats, and setting up the boats. So apart from that I've been reading books and learning teaching skills. I have the first of two exams tomorrow.
Well that's the diving part of my time on Utila over, I'll go onto what I've been doing while not diving. I met 2 Danish guys and 2 English girls on the bus from Guatemala to Honduras who were also going to Utila, so we all went together. Oh yes, the bus ride over the border was interesting. I was queueing up at passport control and looked round to see my bus driving off! As I pointed thud out another bus driver kindly said that he would take me to the Honduras border control to catch up with my bus. 5 minutes into this ride to the other border we still hadn't got there yet, and dropped various people off at their houses, I was starting to get worried. I've never known of people living between borders before, but apparently they do here as we did eventually get to the Honduras border post and to my relief my bus was there. I went and complained at the driver but he didn't seem too bothered!
Right so back to the story. So the five of us stayed on the mainland for the evening before we took the ferry to Utila in the morning. Not much to say about where we stayed really, the only places we could find to eat was Pizza Hut, Wendy's, etc. Happily I don't have that problem on Utila, not a chain in site! For the first week on the island I got 7 days free accomodation at a hostel, with a pool. So if I wasn't diving we were in the pool. The evenings usually consist of eating nice food and one or too drinks! The 10 Limperas (30p) a shot of tequila nights have been a bit messy!
I moved into a house a couple of days ago as it much cheaper than a hostel. I'm sharing with a Guatemallan woman who is also on the divemaster course. We have ourselves a 2 bed house, with a bathroom each for $400 USD a month, I dread to think what you would get in London for that price. It's nice to be staying in a house for a while where I have my own room and I can un pack. One slight problem is my shower gives me a electric shock if I try to turn it off. In fact it also does through the water if I touch the shower head!
Oh yes, one more thing, I was doing an 800m snorkel in the sea as part of my course when I felt someone touch me on the leg. Only I turned round and it was a dog! He nudged me a few times, I think he was trying to save me! Once I managed to convince him I was fine he let me Cary on with my swimming.
Sunday 1 May 2011
Friday 15 April 2011
A few photos from diving in Belize
A couple of pictures from inside the blue hole, it was an awesome site.....
Thursday 14 April 2011
A couple of photos from diving Mexico
Turtle...
Ship wreck...
A funny looking fish...
If you look closely you can see a seahorse
Moral eel.....
Cave diving...
Ship wreck...
A funny looking fish...
If you look closely you can see a seahorse
Moral eel.....
Cave diving...
Wednesday 13 April 2011
First 3 weeks part 3 - Belize
Right so now let's try and get fully up to date with my blogging. So from Play del Carmen we got a bus down to Chetumal on the Mexican side of the Mexico/Belize border to get a water taxi over to Caye Cauker, which is one of the Belizian islands sitting just inside the barrier reef. The 2 hour boat ride over was very bumpy and we were please to get there. There island is a small sandy street island where the only transport is golf carts and the motto there 'go slow'. In fact I witnessed a local telling a woman to go slow because he thought she was walking too fast.
So the morning after we arrived we headed to the dive shop to book our trip to the blie hole, after all that was the reason we went to Belize. So we had a 5.30 am start the next day as the blue hole was a 2 hour boat ride away. If you don't know what the blue hole is the google it to see some amazing pictures. The blur hole is a circular hole 300 metres in diameter and 124 meters deep with a deep blue colour to the water in it. On arriving there we could just about make out the feint outline of dark blue. The best way to see the surface of it is from the air. So we jumped in and started heading down to 40 meters where you see these amazing huge stalactites hanging down. It was quite eerie. Again photos to follow. 15,000 years ago the blue hole was a huge cavern where these stalactites formed. After the ice age when the waters rose the cave flooded and the roof caved in. When we were ascending again we were luckiy enough to see a school of about 6 sharks in the centre of the hole, which was an added bonus. It was definitely woth coming to Belize just to dive the blue hole.
After this we headed over to half moon caye island were we did some amazing wall diving. It was just a wall of fantastically coloured corals dissapering into the murky depths below us. After this we headed to the island for lunch and the prommise of lots of boobies. Before you start getting too excited they were actually red footed boobies, which are actually birds. And it was the only nesting site in the whole of the Carribean. Well if you're a bird watcher maybe you will be just ad excited!
After this we did a final dive on a different part of the wall and then headed back to Caye Caulker. It was definitely one of my best ever diving experiences to date.
The next day we headed out for some more dives much closer to the island, which were only mediocre dives. But what made up for it was stopping by at shark ray alley between dives. As you can probably guess you can see sharks and rays here, and not just one or two but dozens. I was standing the the water and rays were just swimming up to me and the just darting round me at the last minute. Again photos to follow.
So for the rest of the time on the island we just spent our time relaxing on the beach, swimming, a bit of kayaking and eating.
So Emmanuel, James, and Dan left last weekend and it was time for me to go back to travelling by myself again. So I promptly sat down and read for a couple of days! I finillay decided it was time to move on somewhere else and decided to head down the coast to Placence to do some more diving. So one boat ride, a taxi, two bus rides and eight hours later I was there. There was only one hostel in Placence so I headed there. Although when I got there it was deserted and a bit grotty, I couldn't find any member of staff at all. So I headed down to the next place, which was even grottier, but cheap and I got my own room. I was in no mood to trawl around all the hotels so I thought I'd just stay there for one night and find somewhere else to stay in the morning. So I dumped my bags and went for a wonder to find some food. I didn't like what I saw of Placence so decide that there will be plenty of other places to dive. So next morning I got up bright and early and decided to head up to Guatemalla instead. I'd had enough of Belize and thought it was time for a change. I've heard people say that there is no point in going anywhere else in Belize apart from the Cays, and I have to agree with them. So three bus, one taxi and one mini bus ride later I arrived at Flores in Guatemalla yesterday afternoon. Flores is a little island on a lake connected to the mainland via a 500 meter bridge. It is very nice here, and quite hot.
As for my plans from here, who knows! I don't know what I'm going to be doing tomorrow, or where I'll be. All I know is that I'll end up at the bay of islands in Honduras for some more diving at some point. Whether that will be in a few days or a few weeks, well that will depend on how much Guatemalla suits me.
Well that's got me all caught up with my bogging and I'll try not to leave it so long between posts next time. Oh yes and some photos to follow soon.
So the morning after we arrived we headed to the dive shop to book our trip to the blie hole, after all that was the reason we went to Belize. So we had a 5.30 am start the next day as the blue hole was a 2 hour boat ride away. If you don't know what the blue hole is the google it to see some amazing pictures. The blur hole is a circular hole 300 metres in diameter and 124 meters deep with a deep blue colour to the water in it. On arriving there we could just about make out the feint outline of dark blue. The best way to see the surface of it is from the air. So we jumped in and started heading down to 40 meters where you see these amazing huge stalactites hanging down. It was quite eerie. Again photos to follow. 15,000 years ago the blue hole was a huge cavern where these stalactites formed. After the ice age when the waters rose the cave flooded and the roof caved in. When we were ascending again we were luckiy enough to see a school of about 6 sharks in the centre of the hole, which was an added bonus. It was definitely woth coming to Belize just to dive the blue hole.
After this we headed over to half moon caye island were we did some amazing wall diving. It was just a wall of fantastically coloured corals dissapering into the murky depths below us. After this we headed to the island for lunch and the prommise of lots of boobies. Before you start getting too excited they were actually red footed boobies, which are actually birds. And it was the only nesting site in the whole of the Carribean. Well if you're a bird watcher maybe you will be just ad excited!
After this we did a final dive on a different part of the wall and then headed back to Caye Caulker. It was definitely one of my best ever diving experiences to date.
The next day we headed out for some more dives much closer to the island, which were only mediocre dives. But what made up for it was stopping by at shark ray alley between dives. As you can probably guess you can see sharks and rays here, and not just one or two but dozens. I was standing the the water and rays were just swimming up to me and the just darting round me at the last minute. Again photos to follow.
So for the rest of the time on the island we just spent our time relaxing on the beach, swimming, a bit of kayaking and eating.
So Emmanuel, James, and Dan left last weekend and it was time for me to go back to travelling by myself again. So I promptly sat down and read for a couple of days! I finillay decided it was time to move on somewhere else and decided to head down the coast to Placence to do some more diving. So one boat ride, a taxi, two bus rides and eight hours later I was there. There was only one hostel in Placence so I headed there. Although when I got there it was deserted and a bit grotty, I couldn't find any member of staff at all. So I headed down to the next place, which was even grottier, but cheap and I got my own room. I was in no mood to trawl around all the hotels so I thought I'd just stay there for one night and find somewhere else to stay in the morning. So I dumped my bags and went for a wonder to find some food. I didn't like what I saw of Placence so decide that there will be plenty of other places to dive. So next morning I got up bright and early and decided to head up to Guatemalla instead. I'd had enough of Belize and thought it was time for a change. I've heard people say that there is no point in going anywhere else in Belize apart from the Cays, and I have to agree with them. So three bus, one taxi and one mini bus ride later I arrived at Flores in Guatemalla yesterday afternoon. Flores is a little island on a lake connected to the mainland via a 500 meter bridge. It is very nice here, and quite hot.
As for my plans from here, who knows! I don't know what I'm going to be doing tomorrow, or where I'll be. All I know is that I'll end up at the bay of islands in Honduras for some more diving at some point. Whether that will be in a few days or a few weeks, well that will depend on how much Guatemalla suits me.
Well that's got me all caught up with my bogging and I'll try not to leave it so long between posts next time. Oh yes and some photos to follow soon.
First 3 weeks part 2
Well so where was I? Oh yes just heading off to San Cristobal. The drive down there was just a series of twisting and turning mountain roads for mile after mile. I was enjoying driving round them, although I'm not sure my passengers were enjoying it quite as much as me. I only wish I'd had something better to drive than a 1.6 automatic. San Cristbal was a nice old colonial town with cobbled streets, I can't really remember too much about it as we only stayed one night there and headed for Palenque the next day to see our second set of Mayan ruins.
Another eventful drive on the way to Palenque as well. Well the drive itself was pretty straightforward, but about half way through we hit a traffic jam. When it became clear than the traffic wasn't moving at all we got out to see what was going on. Teachers had set up a road block on the only road to Palenque to protest about pay and we were told the road was going to be cloased for four of five hours, so the only thing we could do was sit it out and have a very long lunch break. All the restaurants mush have done fantastic business that day. So we eventually got to Plaenque in the evening and found somewhere to stay. The town of Palenque itself isn't much to write home about, it's basically just there as as a stop off point to visit the ruins. So we just used it as a stop off and visited the ruins and headed up to the costal town of Campeche the next day.
The ruins of Palenque were even more impressive than the ones at Monte Alaban and well worth the visit. To describe them as ruins is not really doing them justice as a lot of the temples have been rebuilt. You get up there and these temples just start appearing from the jungle. They have only excavated and rebuilt part of the site, and that was large. So it must have been even more impressive still when it was first built. It's to hard to describe the site to do it justice so you will have to wait until I get around to uploading the photos.
So from Palenque we headed up to the coast to Campeche, which is on the Gulf of Mexico. This is were our stops from the army started! All around the south of Mexico there are army checkpoints, or I should say heavily armed checkpoints. But they were all very plesant and just wanted to know where we came from, while searching our car and armed with automatic weapons. At one checkpoint we were asked if we had any guns and we all just laughed. I also saw one of the army guy whip one of the others with a metal rd jokingly. I personally would never do that to a guy with a gun in his hand, even if I did know him!
Campeche was another nice old colonial town with cobbled streets, the only problem was even though it was on the coast it had no beach. I was struggling to think of what else to say about Campeche, but then I just remembered our visit to the purgatory club were Emmanuel found himself a local male admirer. He thought that the way to get rid of him would be to give him a beer! Well I'm sure you all realise that that didn't work! Emmanuel wanted to leave after the first drink, but as the rest of us found it very funny we stayed for 3 or 4. They bar did eventually gently push him out of the bar much to Emmanuel's relief. Oh yes just before I move on I can't miss out the showers I. Our hostel, there was a large hole in the wall between the two mens showers. Very disconcerting turning round and seeing another mans arse. It wouldn't have been so bad if they had been unisex!
So after Campeche we headed of east to Merida, yes you've guessed it, another colonial town with cobbled streets. We all really liked Merida, as I said in my previous post everyone was really friendly in Mexico, but it was even more so here. This was the heard of Mayan Mexico and they were very keen to make us feel welcome and share their culture and show us their craftsmanship. Plus the hostel had a nice pool with hammocks hanging over it.
So after Merida we headed of to Cancun via some of the best but very touristy Mayan ruins of Chichen Itza. The guide book said that they are very touristic but look past the hordes of crowdes and they are worth it. The entrace to them felt more like the entrance to Disney world, but they were right, definitely worth it. Again pictures to follow.
So we chose the hotel district to stay in in Cancun rather than the old town as this is where all the beaches are. Cancun is known as Mexico's Ibiza, so I e
Wasn't arriving with high hopes. The only hostel in the area was in an old shopping centre, which was quite cool. But that's about all that I'll say good about it. There was no sign of beaches as all the hotels had built infront of them and this allowed very few access points to the beach. So we headed the next day down to Playa del Carmen were we knew we were going to spend a few days as we were planning on diving there. Oh one more thing about Cancun, I have never been to Ibiza, and probably never will, but if it is like Ibiza then Ibiza has a lot less clubs and night life tha
I thought.
Anyway I'm just going to finish off my time in Mexico and leave Belize to another post as I'm getting iPhone RSI again. Playa Del Carmen was a lot more built up than I was expecting. There were all the posh shops you would expect in a westernised city, and multiple Starbucks! But there were nice beaches and very good diving. I had my first experience of fresh water diving when James and myself went diving in the cenotes. Cenotes is cave diving, I thought it might feel a bit claustrophobic, diving when I couldn't just surface when I needed to, but I didn't have any issues with that. Unfortunately it was too dark down there to take photos, so I have none to share. We also did some reef diving, where got some very good photos of turtles, which I will share, and saw my first sea horse. I was staring at it for quite a while before I actually saw it, they are very good at camouflage. As I said tired fingers so I'll start part 3 later with Belize
Another eventful drive on the way to Palenque as well. Well the drive itself was pretty straightforward, but about half way through we hit a traffic jam. When it became clear than the traffic wasn't moving at all we got out to see what was going on. Teachers had set up a road block on the only road to Palenque to protest about pay and we were told the road was going to be cloased for four of five hours, so the only thing we could do was sit it out and have a very long lunch break. All the restaurants mush have done fantastic business that day. So we eventually got to Plaenque in the evening and found somewhere to stay. The town of Palenque itself isn't much to write home about, it's basically just there as as a stop off point to visit the ruins. So we just used it as a stop off and visited the ruins and headed up to the costal town of Campeche the next day.
The ruins of Palenque were even more impressive than the ones at Monte Alaban and well worth the visit. To describe them as ruins is not really doing them justice as a lot of the temples have been rebuilt. You get up there and these temples just start appearing from the jungle. They have only excavated and rebuilt part of the site, and that was large. So it must have been even more impressive still when it was first built. It's to hard to describe the site to do it justice so you will have to wait until I get around to uploading the photos.
So from Palenque we headed up to the coast to Campeche, which is on the Gulf of Mexico. This is were our stops from the army started! All around the south of Mexico there are army checkpoints, or I should say heavily armed checkpoints. But they were all very plesant and just wanted to know where we came from, while searching our car and armed with automatic weapons. At one checkpoint we were asked if we had any guns and we all just laughed. I also saw one of the army guy whip one of the others with a metal rd jokingly. I personally would never do that to a guy with a gun in his hand, even if I did know him!
Campeche was another nice old colonial town with cobbled streets, the only problem was even though it was on the coast it had no beach. I was struggling to think of what else to say about Campeche, but then I just remembered our visit to the purgatory club were Emmanuel found himself a local male admirer. He thought that the way to get rid of him would be to give him a beer! Well I'm sure you all realise that that didn't work! Emmanuel wanted to leave after the first drink, but as the rest of us found it very funny we stayed for 3 or 4. They bar did eventually gently push him out of the bar much to Emmanuel's relief. Oh yes just before I move on I can't miss out the showers I. Our hostel, there was a large hole in the wall between the two mens showers. Very disconcerting turning round and seeing another mans arse. It wouldn't have been so bad if they had been unisex!
So after Campeche we headed of east to Merida, yes you've guessed it, another colonial town with cobbled streets. We all really liked Merida, as I said in my previous post everyone was really friendly in Mexico, but it was even more so here. This was the heard of Mayan Mexico and they were very keen to make us feel welcome and share their culture and show us their craftsmanship. Plus the hostel had a nice pool with hammocks hanging over it.
So after Merida we headed of to Cancun via some of the best but very touristy Mayan ruins of Chichen Itza. The guide book said that they are very touristic but look past the hordes of crowdes and they are worth it. The entrace to them felt more like the entrance to Disney world, but they were right, definitely worth it. Again pictures to follow.
So we chose the hotel district to stay in in Cancun rather than the old town as this is where all the beaches are. Cancun is known as Mexico's Ibiza, so I e
Wasn't arriving with high hopes. The only hostel in the area was in an old shopping centre, which was quite cool. But that's about all that I'll say good about it. There was no sign of beaches as all the hotels had built infront of them and this allowed very few access points to the beach. So we headed the next day down to Playa del Carmen were we knew we were going to spend a few days as we were planning on diving there. Oh one more thing about Cancun, I have never been to Ibiza, and probably never will, but if it is like Ibiza then Ibiza has a lot less clubs and night life tha
I thought.
Anyway I'm just going to finish off my time in Mexico and leave Belize to another post as I'm getting iPhone RSI again. Playa Del Carmen was a lot more built up than I was expecting. There were all the posh shops you would expect in a westernised city, and multiple Starbucks! But there were nice beaches and very good diving. I had my first experience of fresh water diving when James and myself went diving in the cenotes. Cenotes is cave diving, I thought it might feel a bit claustrophobic, diving when I couldn't just surface when I needed to, but I didn't have any issues with that. Unfortunately it was too dark down there to take photos, so I have none to share. We also did some reef diving, where got some very good photos of turtles, which I will share, and saw my first sea horse. I was staring at it for quite a while before I actually saw it, they are very good at camouflage. As I said tired fingers so I'll start part 3 later with Belize
Sunday 10 April 2011
3 weeks in my friends have gone home. About time to write a post.
Well I know I'm long overdue writing a post and have a lot to catch up on. Dan, Emmanuel and James have now all gone home so now I have some time to just sit around doing nothing and update my blog.
Well I should start from three weeks ago and try and remember everything I've been doing. It's going to be hard as I tend not to remember what I did a couple of days ago, let alone three weeks.
Well it all starts in Mexico City. With nice old cobbled street and old colonial buildings the centre Mecico City was very nice. We spent the first day exploring the city and sampling the local cuisine. It's pretty much what you'd expect various styles of tortillas filled with meat and plenty of chilli sauce. Oh and always some refried beans on the side. The second day we headed out to a place called Xochimilco on the outskirts of the city to visit the canals there. There are hundreds of miles of canals there, although nothing at all like Venice as there banks are surrounded by fields and garden centres mainly and not buildings. Oh and bizarely in some places had dolls and teddys tied to the trees. The canals were however more crowded. You take a vibrantly coloured put down the canals and you frequenly come across traffic jams. There are also boats floating past selling almost anything. Beer, souvenirs, live music, even boats floating by cooking tacos! Emmanuel, James and Dan spent about 30 min haggling with one over the price of blankets. Unfortunately I don't have any photos to add at the moment as I'm writing this on my iPhone, but I will try to get some up soon.
Oh yes I was just about to move on to our road trip going south when I remebered about our trip in a police car I need to tell you about! On the last night in Mexico city we decided to head out to find some live music to listen to. Well there was plenty of Mariachi bands playing all over the place and Emmanuel was just about ready to strangle the next musician he heard so we thought we would try some jazz instead. I found a place in the lonely panet and we headed off in that direction. Via the main square for Mariachi bands in the city so had to keep Emmanual on a tight leash through there! We were looking at the map on the next street over when a police car drove past and then reversed back towards us. They got out and asked us where we were going. They told us we were in an unsafe place for tourists and offered us a lift. So the four of us, with some difficulty squeezed into the back of this police car for a 5 minute ride. We noticed throughout our trip in Mexico that everyone was so pleasant and helpful and would go out of their way to assist, even if we didn't ask for it.
So when we got to this club it was actually full of old people dancing to live Latin music. Now I haven't told the guys about this yet for fear of retribution but I had accidentally looked in the wrong section of the book and taken them to a Latin dance hall instead! Sorry guys.
So with our time in Mexico City over we headed to the car hire place in the morning to pick up our wheels for the next ten days. Our first stop was 470km down the road in Oaxaca. On the way there we had some amazing views as we drove through the mountains, and in some places you could just see mountains covered in thousands of cactuses. It was a pretty spectacular site. One site that wasn't quite to nice was the dead body covered by a tarpaulin we past on the way. There we lots of people on the way that were running the gauntlet of crossing the duel carriageway, so think we were lucky we only saw one.
We got to Oaxaca when it was dark so could only see a vague outline of the mountains from the hostel, but when we woke up in the morning we could see the amazing view in it's full glory. In the hostel we were staying there was this American guy in his 60's who had driven there from New Mexico in a battered old beetle, and boy did he like to talk. I got stuck with him for 4 hours while he talked at me about his experiences in Mecico and Belize. The other three had long since escaped saying they were going to bed but actually went and hung out somewhere else, cheers guys. He was also telling me how brave we were to drive all the way down to southern Mexico from there. Well as you can tell from this post we made it. But from what I've heard driving across the border and through northern Mexico is far more dangerous.
We headed off to our first Mayan site of Monte Alban the next day. And it was very impressive, pictures to follow. The sheer scale of what they build nearly 2000 years ago is pretty amazing especially compared to what we had in the UK at that time.
The next day we had another long drive down to San Cristobal de las Casas, but I think I need a bit of a break from typing for a while so I'll continue on with my first 3 weeks in my next post. Don't think I've got through the first week yet.
Well I should start from three weeks ago and try and remember everything I've been doing. It's going to be hard as I tend not to remember what I did a couple of days ago, let alone three weeks.
Well it all starts in Mexico City. With nice old cobbled street and old colonial buildings the centre Mecico City was very nice. We spent the first day exploring the city and sampling the local cuisine. It's pretty much what you'd expect various styles of tortillas filled with meat and plenty of chilli sauce. Oh and always some refried beans on the side. The second day we headed out to a place called Xochimilco on the outskirts of the city to visit the canals there. There are hundreds of miles of canals there, although nothing at all like Venice as there banks are surrounded by fields and garden centres mainly and not buildings. Oh and bizarely in some places had dolls and teddys tied to the trees. The canals were however more crowded. You take a vibrantly coloured put down the canals and you frequenly come across traffic jams. There are also boats floating past selling almost anything. Beer, souvenirs, live music, even boats floating by cooking tacos! Emmanuel, James and Dan spent about 30 min haggling with one over the price of blankets. Unfortunately I don't have any photos to add at the moment as I'm writing this on my iPhone, but I will try to get some up soon.
Oh yes I was just about to move on to our road trip going south when I remebered about our trip in a police car I need to tell you about! On the last night in Mexico city we decided to head out to find some live music to listen to. Well there was plenty of Mariachi bands playing all over the place and Emmanuel was just about ready to strangle the next musician he heard so we thought we would try some jazz instead. I found a place in the lonely panet and we headed off in that direction. Via the main square for Mariachi bands in the city so had to keep Emmanual on a tight leash through there! We were looking at the map on the next street over when a police car drove past and then reversed back towards us. They got out and asked us where we were going. They told us we were in an unsafe place for tourists and offered us a lift. So the four of us, with some difficulty squeezed into the back of this police car for a 5 minute ride. We noticed throughout our trip in Mexico that everyone was so pleasant and helpful and would go out of their way to assist, even if we didn't ask for it.
So when we got to this club it was actually full of old people dancing to live Latin music. Now I haven't told the guys about this yet for fear of retribution but I had accidentally looked in the wrong section of the book and taken them to a Latin dance hall instead! Sorry guys.
So with our time in Mexico City over we headed to the car hire place in the morning to pick up our wheels for the next ten days. Our first stop was 470km down the road in Oaxaca. On the way there we had some amazing views as we drove through the mountains, and in some places you could just see mountains covered in thousands of cactuses. It was a pretty spectacular site. One site that wasn't quite to nice was the dead body covered by a tarpaulin we past on the way. There we lots of people on the way that were running the gauntlet of crossing the duel carriageway, so think we were lucky we only saw one.
We got to Oaxaca when it was dark so could only see a vague outline of the mountains from the hostel, but when we woke up in the morning we could see the amazing view in it's full glory. In the hostel we were staying there was this American guy in his 60's who had driven there from New Mexico in a battered old beetle, and boy did he like to talk. I got stuck with him for 4 hours while he talked at me about his experiences in Mecico and Belize. The other three had long since escaped saying they were going to bed but actually went and hung out somewhere else, cheers guys. He was also telling me how brave we were to drive all the way down to southern Mexico from there. Well as you can tell from this post we made it. But from what I've heard driving across the border and through northern Mexico is far more dangerous.
We headed off to our first Mayan site of Monte Alban the next day. And it was very impressive, pictures to follow. The sheer scale of what they build nearly 2000 years ago is pretty amazing especially compared to what we had in the UK at that time.
The next day we had another long drive down to San Cristobal de las Casas, but I think I need a bit of a break from typing for a while so I'll continue on with my first 3 weeks in my next post. Don't think I've got through the first week yet.
Friday 25 February 2011
Destination Mexico, decision made. Nearly....
Right, I now have a plan for when I'm off to Mexico. Well almost anyway, I'm going to fly to Mexico on the 19th March, probably. I'm going over with James, Emmanuel, and Dan. They are joining me for the first three weeks. Two weeks in Mexico and one in Belize. The reason I am still only probably going on the 19th of March and haven't booked my flight yet is actually because I might leave earlier. As I am starting this leg of the trip with the employed they have considerably less time than me. I probably would have spent a month or two in Mexico if I were by myself so I'm undecided whether or not to arrive a few days earlier than everyone else. Also I'm trying to work out my plan after Belize, I know I'm heading south but apart from that who knows. As you all know I don't like planning more than a day in advance, but trying to weigh that up with flight costs is a bit tricky. Well I'm sure I'll sort it out before the 19th.
For those of you who don't know who James, Dan, and Emmanuel are then here is a picture of them attempting to cycle. For those of you who do I'm sorry for reminding you!
Well what have I been up to in the past few weeks, well not much really. That was kind of the point really, just to chill out and relax for a few weeks. Well I've done a bit of looking after the niece and nephew too, a few changes of stinky nappies and lots of playing and being ordered around by the Monster! As I have access to free fast internet at the moment I'll make the most of it, so here are a couple pictures form the past few weeks.
I'll post some more details of my plans for Mexico soon, and of my antics in London.
For those of you who don't know who James, Dan, and Emmanuel are then here is a picture of them attempting to cycle. For those of you who do I'm sorry for reminding you!
Well what have I been up to in the past few weeks, well not much really. That was kind of the point really, just to chill out and relax for a few weeks. Well I've done a bit of looking after the niece and nephew too, a few changes of stinky nappies and lots of playing and being ordered around by the Monster! As I have access to free fast internet at the moment I'll make the most of it, so here are a couple pictures form the past few weeks.
I'll post some more details of my plans for Mexico soon, and of my antics in London.
Saturday 5 February 2011
Long time no post
Well some of you already know what I've been up to in the past two weeks since my last post. Well I've been on six different time zones, five different flights, four different countries, and three different continents. Phew that sound exhausting, and I think I have only just about recovered after only waking up at 12.30 this afternoon.
Well I suppose I should start off from where I left you in my last post, so New Zealand. So my flight over to LA was quite pleasant really, this was very much helped by the fact that I had four seats all to myself so could stretch out and lie down. Well what to say about LA, well their winter is very much the same as an English summer except for less rain. That's just about as positive I can be about LA though. It was a very grubby and run down city. Also very spread out and no real centre to speak of. I took me the best part of a day to find a book shop, well it was a very nice book shop when I eventually. I guess people in LA aren't all that big on reading.
After LA I headed to Houston in Texas to visit a school friend Claire and her husband Adam. For those of you who nothing about Houston, like me before I got there, it is near the coast, the fourth biggest city in the US and it is unbelievably flat. Houston was huge and the only possible way of getting round it was by car, well can you really imagine the Texans being into public transport! I just stayed there for a couple of nights, just enough time to get a brief overview of Houston and to eat lots of food. Will definitely have to go back for longer later on this year.
So after Houston I headed for New York, and that was a shock to the system after nearly a year of sun. -6 degrees in the evenings and a few foot of snow. So in New York I did most of the touristy things, so walked through Central Park although it was covered in snow so I can't tell you what it really looks like. I went up the empire states building, walked around time square, went to Macey's. I also met up with Jeff who I first met in Cape Town, so I got an evening out in New York with locals. It's always nice to be able to go out with the locals in a place as you get to see the real side of a city.
So you're probably wondering why I was in New York as it was the last stop on my trip. Well I had a change of plans. No now I'm in France having been via London. I decided I wanted a break before heading down to Mexico and South America, some time to visit friends and family. Especially the little ones who change so quickly. Matilda, Owen, and Barney (Who I hadn't met yet a he was only born just before Christmas). Well I thought why does a trip around the world have to mean you have to stay away for the whole of that time. Nothing wrong with coming home in the middle, it's nice to be staying in a house for a while where I can unpack my clothes and get a room and a double bet to myself for a while. So here a some pictures of those little people I was particularly eager to see.....
Matilda (AKA Monster)
Barney (AKA Barnicles)
Well I suppose I should start off from where I left you in my last post, so New Zealand. So my flight over to LA was quite pleasant really, this was very much helped by the fact that I had four seats all to myself so could stretch out and lie down. Well what to say about LA, well their winter is very much the same as an English summer except for less rain. That's just about as positive I can be about LA though. It was a very grubby and run down city. Also very spread out and no real centre to speak of. I took me the best part of a day to find a book shop, well it was a very nice book shop when I eventually. I guess people in LA aren't all that big on reading.
After LA I headed to Houston in Texas to visit a school friend Claire and her husband Adam. For those of you who nothing about Houston, like me before I got there, it is near the coast, the fourth biggest city in the US and it is unbelievably flat. Houston was huge and the only possible way of getting round it was by car, well can you really imagine the Texans being into public transport! I just stayed there for a couple of nights, just enough time to get a brief overview of Houston and to eat lots of food. Will definitely have to go back for longer later on this year.
So after Houston I headed for New York, and that was a shock to the system after nearly a year of sun. -6 degrees in the evenings and a few foot of snow. So in New York I did most of the touristy things, so walked through Central Park although it was covered in snow so I can't tell you what it really looks like. I went up the empire states building, walked around time square, went to Macey's. I also met up with Jeff who I first met in Cape Town, so I got an evening out in New York with locals. It's always nice to be able to go out with the locals in a place as you get to see the real side of a city.
So you're probably wondering why I was in New York as it was the last stop on my trip. Well I had a change of plans. No now I'm in France having been via London. I decided I wanted a break before heading down to Mexico and South America, some time to visit friends and family. Especially the little ones who change so quickly. Matilda, Owen, and Barney (Who I hadn't met yet a he was only born just before Christmas). Well I thought why does a trip around the world have to mean you have to stay away for the whole of that time. Nothing wrong with coming home in the middle, it's nice to be staying in a house for a while where I can unpack my clothes and get a room and a double bet to myself for a while. So here a some pictures of those little people I was particularly eager to see.....
Matilda (AKA Monster)
Owen (AKA Wrigglesworth)
Barney (AKA Barnicles)
So what are my plans from here, well true to form I can't really say yet. I'll head down to Mexico, then into Belize and South America. When will I leave, in a few weeks, in a month, in two months who knows. Knowing me I'll decide and then leave the day after! Well whatever my decision I'll keep you up to date via my blog.
Sunday 23 January 2011
Off to LA tomorrow
Well change of plans, I was originally going to be in New Zealand until 15th February. But now I'm flying to LA tomorrow. As I've always said, I wanted to be totally flexible with how long I stayed in a place. I stayed in Australia longer than I wanted to because I booked everything from the start because of it being such a busy period. I knew fairly early on that Austalia wasn't offering what I was looking for on this trip, and New Zealand is the same. They are both lovely places but are both just culturally similar to England.
One of the main things I was looking for on this trip was to experience new cultures, meet people from whom I can learn from and expand my horizons. Cliche I know, but I can't think of a better way of putting it.
What I have seen of New Zealand has been beautiful and I know that I am missing out on the most spectacular areas of New Zealand, but I don't regret my decision to move on and not see those places. There will be plenty of other spectacular places on the way and this trip isn't just about visiting all the spectacular places around the world. If it was I probably would have finished my trip by now. Hopping from one place to another, not made anywhere near as many good friends, and not had anywhere as much good fun.
So for my last to nights in New Zealand I've gone and splashed out. I'm staying in this lovely B&B in Auckland. I'm paying about the same for two nights here as it would cost for 2 or 3 weeks in a hostel. But hey you've got to treat yourself once in a while. Plus I did get a very good deal and the breakfast is very good.
So as I said I fly into LA tomorrow and actually arrive 8 hours before I left! A very strange feeling. Not sure quite how long I'm going to stay in LA yet, but probably not too long and then I'll head off down to Mexico. I need to start learning some Spanish though. I am thinking of doing the next stage in my diver education on LA before I head down though. Which is the rescue diver course. This is the last course I need to do before I can do the dive master course. I'm thinking of doing the dive master training in Mexico or Belize. This is the first step in the professional training. It would allow me to get paid to lead dives, I don't want to do it to necessarily find work but to help make me a better diver. But it won't hurt to be able to earn a bit of money if the opportunity arrises. The course would probably last three or four weeks and it would also be quite nice to spend a while in the same place as I've been constantly moving around for nearly five months now.
Well that's it for now, I'll give you my opinion on LA in a couple of days, and who knows I may have firmer plans on where I'm going by then. Then again maybe not. I do like not knowing from one day to the next exactly where I'll be.
One of the main things I was looking for on this trip was to experience new cultures, meet people from whom I can learn from and expand my horizons. Cliche I know, but I can't think of a better way of putting it.
What I have seen of New Zealand has been beautiful and I know that I am missing out on the most spectacular areas of New Zealand, but I don't regret my decision to move on and not see those places. There will be plenty of other spectacular places on the way and this trip isn't just about visiting all the spectacular places around the world. If it was I probably would have finished my trip by now. Hopping from one place to another, not made anywhere near as many good friends, and not had anywhere as much good fun.
So for my last to nights in New Zealand I've gone and splashed out. I'm staying in this lovely B&B in Auckland. I'm paying about the same for two nights here as it would cost for 2 or 3 weeks in a hostel. But hey you've got to treat yourself once in a while. Plus I did get a very good deal and the breakfast is very good.
So as I said I fly into LA tomorrow and actually arrive 8 hours before I left! A very strange feeling. Not sure quite how long I'm going to stay in LA yet, but probably not too long and then I'll head off down to Mexico. I need to start learning some Spanish though. I am thinking of doing the next stage in my diver education on LA before I head down though. Which is the rescue diver course. This is the last course I need to do before I can do the dive master course. I'm thinking of doing the dive master training in Mexico or Belize. This is the first step in the professional training. It would allow me to get paid to lead dives, I don't want to do it to necessarily find work but to help make me a better diver. But it won't hurt to be able to earn a bit of money if the opportunity arrises. The course would probably last three or four weeks and it would also be quite nice to spend a while in the same place as I've been constantly moving around for nearly five months now.
Well that's it for now, I'll give you my opinion on LA in a couple of days, and who knows I may have firmer plans on where I'm going by then. Then again maybe not. I do like not knowing from one day to the next exactly where I'll be.
Thursday 20 January 2011
Monday 17 January 2011
Gone up north and booked some wreck dives
Well I left north for the Bay of Islands this morning and arrive an hour or so, and I have booked four dives already. I'm going out to dive the HMNZ Canterbury tomorrow along with another dive on a reef. The Canterbury was deliberately scuttled a few years ago to offer a wreck for divers. I'm going to dive the Rainbow Warrior and another reef dive on Thursday. The Rainbow Warrior was a Greenpeace boat sunk by the French in 1985 as it was getting too close to their nuclear test on Mururoa Atoll. Typical French, I don't think us Brits would dare do such a thing ;-). Both sites look amazing and I've been dying to dive a wreck, and now I get to dive two! Pictures to follow next week.
Well coming into the countryside it still feels quite like England. Well except for some more exotic trees. Rolling green hills, and it's even raining and will be for the next few days. So I can't see too much of the bay of islands yet as it's very misty and cloudy. But the little of what I can see it looks very nice. Hopefully it will clear up before I leave and I'll be able to see the amazing view.
Well coming into the countryside it still feels quite like England. Well except for some more exotic trees. Rolling green hills, and it's even raining and will be for the next few days. So I can't see too much of the bay of islands yet as it's very misty and cloudy. But the little of what I can see it looks very nice. Hopefully it will clear up before I leave and I'll be able to see the amazing view.
Saturday 15 January 2011
Arrived in New Zealand
Well I have just arrived in Auckland, not much to report yet as all I've done so far is gone from the airport to the hostel. One thing I will say though is that on first glance New Zealand feels more like the UK than Austalia so far. I'm in Auckland for 3 days and then I need to work out what to do from there. I'm looking forward to getting back to less structured and organised way of travelling. I have a month here, I'll tour the North island first and see where I get to before deciding if I have time to see any of the south island. I think my first stop will to go north of here and do some wreck diving. Then probably head up to the top of the island before heading south and see the caves and Lord of the Rings country.
Well my last few days in Ausralia were a bit of a washout, literally. I'm sure you have all heard about all the floods in Brisbane. It was good timing for me to turn up just as the worst floods in 35 years hit. So there isn't much I can tell you about Brisbane and most things were shut. I didn't even realise what was going on until I got to the hostel. On the train from Brisbane airport I could see some water on roads and lots of traffic but I didn't realise what was going on. On the way to the hostel I got a phone call from them asking what time I was going to arrive as they were going down to look at the river. Sounded like a very strange statement when I didn't know what was going on. They filled me in on what was going on when u got there. I went down to look at the river on several occasions over the next few days and saw all manner of things floating by. Boats, pontoons, larger wheelie bins, trees, and even a fridge freezer. Some people even saw a couple of cars.
Anyway that's it for now, I should be able to give you a better account of New Zealand in a couple of days once I've done a bit more exploring.
Well my last few days in Ausralia were a bit of a washout, literally. I'm sure you have all heard about all the floods in Brisbane. It was good timing for me to turn up just as the worst floods in 35 years hit. So there isn't much I can tell you about Brisbane and most things were shut. I didn't even realise what was going on until I got to the hostel. On the train from Brisbane airport I could see some water on roads and lots of traffic but I didn't realise what was going on. On the way to the hostel I got a phone call from them asking what time I was going to arrive as they were going down to look at the river. Sounded like a very strange statement when I didn't know what was going on. They filled me in on what was going on when u got there. I went down to look at the river on several occasions over the next few days and saw all manner of things floating by. Boats, pontoons, larger wheelie bins, trees, and even a fridge freezer. Some people even saw a couple of cars.
Anyway that's it for now, I should be able to give you a better account of New Zealand in a couple of days once I've done a bit more exploring.
Monday 10 January 2011
A few photos from diving the Great Barrier Reef
As you can see from the pictures below, I had a great time diving on the Great Barrier Reef over the past few days. I saw sharks, turtles, rays, and lots of other fish. I'm really glad I got the underwater case for my camera, despite it costing more than the actual camera!
I did eleven dives in all, including two night dives. Night diving was certainly an experience, it looks like everything is floating in mid air rather than water, quite spooky. I found the best place to spot things while on a night dive was under the boat as a lot a large fish and sharks hang out under there. In fact one shark swam right in front of me, which was very cool. They may look like small great whites but I can assure you they are harmless to humans. Well although it was great diving, South Africa and Mozambique were better. So the Great Barrier Reef currently ranks third in my favorite dive sites, but it is a pretty good list so far. Next dive spot will the in New Zealand in a week or so.
So that's 27 dives I've now done and I'm enjoying it more and more, I think I may go on to do my divemaster course next. I've also been checking out were to go next to do some diving. The list currently includes Mexico, Belize, Philippines, Jordan, Malaysia, Caribbean. Although I don't think I'll be able to do them all on this trip!
Anyway here are the photos, I took far too many to upload onto my blog so here is a small selection
A white tipped reef shark
A picture I took of myself to prove I was actually there!
A purple spotted ray
This is what a Cuttle fish looks like before it is reduced to being in a budgies cage
Clown fish (or Nemo as they are more commonly called now thanks to Disney)
A parrot fish
A green turtle
I'll try to load the rest onto Picasa when I get a chance.
I did eleven dives in all, including two night dives. Night diving was certainly an experience, it looks like everything is floating in mid air rather than water, quite spooky. I found the best place to spot things while on a night dive was under the boat as a lot a large fish and sharks hang out under there. In fact one shark swam right in front of me, which was very cool. They may look like small great whites but I can assure you they are harmless to humans. Well although it was great diving, South Africa and Mozambique were better. So the Great Barrier Reef currently ranks third in my favorite dive sites, but it is a pretty good list so far. Next dive spot will the in New Zealand in a week or so.
So that's 27 dives I've now done and I'm enjoying it more and more, I think I may go on to do my divemaster course next. I've also been checking out were to go next to do some diving. The list currently includes Mexico, Belize, Philippines, Jordan, Malaysia, Caribbean. Although I don't think I'll be able to do them all on this trip!
Anyway here are the photos, I took far too many to upload onto my blog so here is a small selection
A white tipped reef shark
A picture I took of myself to prove I was actually there!
A purple spotted ray
This is what a Cuttle fish looks like before it is reduced to being in a budgies cage
Clown fish (or Nemo as they are more commonly called now thanks to Disney)
A parrot fish
A green turtle
I'll try to load the rest onto Picasa when I get a chance.
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