Hammerhead hijinx

Finally the big guniea pig thing...

Agouti - the big guinea pig thing.

I arrived on the the Galapagos Islands Monday and it's been great.  It's either the start or end of the wet season as it's still hot, but it seems to rain most evenings.  But it's ok in the day so that's good.

In my first day or so I met a small but good crew of people to hang out with.  A few people from the US, Israel & Switzerland.  We checked out some beaches, have been diving, seen the giant tortoises, marine iguanas and lava tubes.  All this and I've only seen part of 1 island!

The first night, myself and Richard - a New Yorker I met getting off the plane, went hunting for a cheap hotel and managed to talk a lady down from $45 to $30 a night each for rooms.  We thought we had done well until we met a girl, Sasha, who was staying the same place as us and paying $15 a night.  Ripped!  The next day we asked the guys we were diving with how much they were paying and they were paying $15 and $12 a night!  Obviously we must look like suckers.  That was it, we got off the boat and followed our new friend, Gilard (can you believe I kept forgetting his name), an Isreali dude, to his hotel.  We had a look at the rooms and the standard was the same as our $30 a night rooms, so we switched hotels, never to return, except when I've gone back to the restaurant next door so I can steal their wi-fi ;)

The diving, although somewhat expensive has been amazing.  Turtles, reef sharks, muebla rays, blue-spotted eagle rays, sea lions and hammerheads as well as all the usual small reef fish.

So our second dive on Wednesday was not only one of the best dives I've ever done, but my 50th dive ever!  Towards the end of the dive we saw this big school of hammerheads, then as we were watching them a school of muebla rays swam past, then a huge turtle came swimming through the rays right past us. 

There was so much going on I didn't know where to look.  I probably should have been looking at my air gauge :(  When I finished the dive it was on 0 and my dive buddy, Richard, he had to share the guides air for the last couple of minutes.

We went through air quick in that dive because we went quite deep and there were a lot of strong currents which we had to swim against.  At the end our guide was a bit far away so he banged on his tank to get our attention and for us to follow and then took off.  He was almost out of sight when Richard and I went to go after him, then I realised that the other girl was still watching the sharks and going the opposite direction.  I wasn't sure whether to go after her or get richards attention first, but turned around and saw her and I was low on air so left him to chase her.  So I was left danglling in the middle, trying to wait where they could see me and I could see where the guide was disappearing to.

So we all got back together in a group and did our 3 minute safety stop.  But Richards dive computer said we had to do extra time because we'd gone too deep.  So the guide took the other 2 to the surface then came back to Richard and I who were just hovering in the water waiting to see how long his air would last.  The guide came back just as Richards air ran out, so they shared and I got to keep my diminishing resources to myself.  Longest 9 minutes ever.  Perhaps a little excessive for a safety stop, but better safe than sorry. So yeah, exciting 50th dive.

Turtle

School of blue-spotted eagle rays

School of hammerheads

A quaint town called Quito.

Oh yeah, found out the big guinea pig thing is called an Agouti.  Poo, tried to upload a pic for you, but the internet is too slow.

So after Monteverde I spent a couple of days looking around Quito and thought it was a cool little city.
Except for the repeated warnings from the hotel guy about catching taxi's everywhere after dark.
So during the day I wandered about, but my evenings were pretty quiet as I was staying in a hotel, not a hostel so didn't really meet anyone.  Although a room to myself was nice for a change - and $7 a night, who can argue with that.

One day I went on the Teleferiqo which is a big ski-lift thing that goes to the top of a mountain called Cruz Loma which overlooks Quito.  Amazing views and from the top of the Teleferiqo you can hike to the peak of Cruz Loma.  Hiking to the peak had been my original intention, but I should have given myself a couple of days in Quito first to get used to the altitude.  The top of the Teleferiqo is 4100m and when I got to the top and had a bit of a walk around I found myself getting a splitting headache and out of breath all the time.

So no hike to the peak for me.  Instead I had a walk round for a couple of hours then went back down into the city and went to check out the 'Jardin de botanico'.

The Quito markets are also amazing.  A lot of fantastic knitted ponchos and jumpers, all made with soft snuggly wool, not itchy wool and seriously cheap.  I thought I would have my bucks until I got out of Quito to Otavalo which is a couple of hours away and apparently has the coolest markets.  As well as hand craft there are food and animal markets and all the locals dress in traditional dress.  It sounded good for a look, but was not to be as when I got out to the bus terminal there were no buses.

So instead I went to the National Museum and had a wander about the Old Town of Quito.  The Museum had a great history of the area and the development of the various cultures and how they made things ie. gold, silver, copper, ceramics.

Really there is a lot to do in Ecudor and I would have liked to go to the Amazon, Otavalo, Cotopaxii, Banos, etc.  But I was just getting a little impatient about the Galapagos as it's somewhere I've ALWAYS wanted to go. I will fly back to Ecudor to go overland to Lima so should be able to check out a bit more of the country then.

I ain't no Jane.

Monteverde is a beautiful place.  High up amongst the clouds, serene forests and an abundance of wacky birds and animals, it's the kind of place where 2 weeks isn't long enough, let alone 2 days.  But 2 days was all I had.

The first day I got up early (still on sloth time I guess) and watched the day break over the mountains from the kitchen of the hostel where I was having a lazy breakfast.  I followed this up with a wander about town and in the afternoon I did a canopy zipline tour. 

It was pretty fun.  I don't think I've ever done big ziplines like that before.  Some of them were pretty quick and some went out over the valley which was pretty high and the wind had you rocking all around too.  The last thing on the tour was a tarzan swing.  I don't think I actually knew what it was.  I just though big swing, cool.  I was wrong.  Fuck-off sized swing is more like it.  It was like 40m!  But there was another girl on the tour who was all gung-ho and her boyfriend wouldn't do it with her, so she was like are you going?  And I was all 'yeah, I'm tough.'  And I was until I got to the edge.  And at the edge I was pretty nervous.  Then I jumped.  Then when it was just that little bit too late I was like 'oh shit I don't want to do this!'  But it was too late.  And it was awesome.  Except for that bit where I nearly crapped myself.  After that I was like 'oh my god' but it was fun.  Although I did have the shakes up when I got to the ground, the other girl was all 'Wow you didn't even scream.  I screamed the jungle down' and was like 'I think maybe I was too scared to scream.'

The second day I got up early for the 6.30 tour at the Santa Elena Nature Reserve which is a beautiful bit of cloud forest.  The tour went for about 3 hours and the guide showed us lots of plants, bugs and birds, including a Quetzal - a bright blue and red bird, which apparently is pretty rare.  After the tour I did one of the hiking tracks.  I heard a hummingbird and went to take a photo only to find out it was not a hummingbird, but a big beetle the size of a humming bird.  Later down the track I heard the big beetle and turned around to find it was actually a hummingbird.  I also almost stood on two snakes.  Stupid things what are they doing in the middle of the path anyway?  It's a walking track - they don't even have legs.

The next day I had the morning to explore before heading back to San Jose.  I went to the Sanctuario Ecologica and did a couple of the tracks there.  I was pretty excited when I saw one of the big guinea pig things.  I tried to get some photos but he was hiding in amongst the trees.  However, later I came out into a clearing and there were about half a dozen of them all wandering about and chasing eachother.  I still gotta find out what those things were called.

WTF? Week 9 already?

I've now left the sanctuary and sloth-filled days and am heading off to the other side of Costa Rica to Monteverde for a few days.  Monteverde is cloud forests, canopy tours, lots of wildlife and supposed to be a beautiful place, so can't wait.

My last day at the sloth sanctuary was good.  I did get to play with Roly-bear, and he tried as usual to bite me but succeeded in only scratching the hell out of my boobs.  He's so cute though so he's forgiven.

I'm also going to miss the little old ice-cream lady.  Today I had 2 ice-creams after lunch because I know I'm not going to get any more.  The little old ice-cream lady is tiny and about 100.  She lives in a house as old and as tiny as her and it is surrounded by lots of flowers and at footpath entrance is a little blue sign that says 'Se vende helados c200'.  You go in and ask her for her homemade ice-cream which comes in 3 flavours - coconut, peanut or this strawberry condensed milk thing.  They cost the equivalent of 40c and ice-cream is in little plastic bags that kinda smell a bit fishy from being in the freezer, but that doesn't matter, you just bite off the corner and get into it.  It's so good, we've been dropping in on her pretty much daily, so the sloth volunteers must be a fantastic source of income for her.

After work we went into Cahuita for a couple of beverages at the Reggae bar which was fun, and then were home about 8pm.  Another big night out partying for the volunteers.

It's a bit sad leaving the sanctuary as I would have liked to have spent another couple of weeks there.

But this week Beth arrived who has recently come from Ecudor and the Galapagos Islands.  She gave me heaps of info and tips and told me how fantastic it is, so now I'm getting pretty excited about that.  I fly out Thursday to Quito, Ecudor and have about six weeks to see Ecudor, the Galapagos and then get to Lima.

Random slothy facts

- Sloths have four stomachs, but they don't regurgatate like cows, it just goes straight through
- It takes about 25 days for sloth food to digest
- Sloths supposedly poo/wee just once a week and always go down to the ground to do it  - except for two in my section who decided to poo & wee 3 times this week.  And do it in their container for me to clean up.
- A sloths sense of smell is their best sense.
- Surprisingly, sloths aren't very smelly at all.  It's a part of their camoflage, they
take on the scent of their environment. 
- The sloths at the sanctuary do not have fungusy-stuff growing on them as they do in the wild.  This is something they pick up from their environment. Another of their devious ways to blend in with the environment.

Yay. Play date with Roly-bear.

Today is my last day here and I'm just waiting down on the dock for baby time.  There is a caiman crocodile laying in the water just below the deck.  But the waters a bit deep so it's hard to get a pic.  Today at baby time, as it's my last day, I'm going to play with my favourite Rolo, who I like to call Roly-bear.  He's so cute, and a little fiesty.

Baby-time

Roly-bear playing on the jungle gym

I've been here for two weeks but I guess I haven't told you a lot about sloths themselves.  There are two types, three-toed and two-toed.  However, both have three toes on their back legs, it's just hte front that changes.  The two types are quite distinguishable.  The three-toed are smaller and look like ewoks, they are also very friendly and like to crawl all over you when you get in their cage.  The two-toed are larger and look more like little pig-nose bears. 

3-toed sloth

2-toed sloth

Sloths are not at all related to bears though.  They are more closely related to armadillos or something like that.  They live to about 20-30 years.  The two-toed eat leaves and fruits, the three-toed only eat leaves.  Big leaves covered with bitey ants.

If you want some more reading material and little more sloth fact you can check out the sanctuaries web site http://www.slothrescue.org/ or the blog of Becky who is a researcher here at the sanctuary http://beckycliffe.blogspot.com/

If you have any more slothy questions ask away!

:( sad face, my sloth days are numbered.

Time here has gone so fast.  My two weeks are almost up.  This is such a great place for taking photos.  As well as the fact you can never take enough pictures of sloths because they are so cute the sanctuary is just abundant with photo opportunities.  The flowers, trees and the lagoon.  The birds, crabs, lizards, bugs, iguanas, nests of baby humming birds and howler monkeys.  The place is just fantastic.

Sloths, like a lot of animals, have their own personality.  Some are love-junkies and always looking to climb all over you.  Some love a bit of attention and being hand-fed.  Some come running (or the sloth-climbing version) when they see food.  Some just give you a dirty look and pull the towel up over their head.  So pretty quickly you get your favourites.

I like Jasper and Tuffy.  Jasper is a hungry boy who is always hanging off the door before you even get there with his food.  Tuffy is in the last cage in the row and just looks at you with big sad eyes because he's had to wait til last again.  Sometimes I take him his first and he just looks at you all confused like 'what the hell?' 

Piphany and Zoe are cute, they're really light, almost white in colour and all smiley.  And the little brady's (the 3-toed sloths) are cute.  They come and try and crawl all over you as soon as you open the door of the cage.

Of the baby's I love Poco and Rolo.  Poco looks like a little fluffy possum.  Roly-bear looks like a tiny bear and is so feisty.  He loves running around on the jungle gym and eating dirt.  He also doesn't like sharing so will bite anyone who gets put on the jungle gym with him.  The first time I had him at baby time he got shitty because I took him off the jungle gym, so he bit me on the arm.  It was pretty funny. He hasn't bit me again yet, but not through lack of trying!

I've just got back from being taken to the incubator room.  Those babies are so so tiny.  Like the size of your hand.  Baby sloths are born fully formed with hair, claws everything.  Just damn tiny.

More sloth goodness and Easter Crime

So my first week at the Sanctuary is almost over already!  The sloths are so cute and I've taken about a billion photos and videos.

The girls, the other volunteers, are great fun.  :( - sad faces for Nicole and Sophia who left this morning.  Sophia has been telling us about the fantastic Norwegian tradition of Easter Crime where over Easter they watch and read a lot of crime shows and novels.

So Easter morning we get up and go feed the sloths, Mia, Erin & Sophia were having a sleep in as it was their day off.  When we came back to the house for breakfast there was a big bloody sign at the door saying 'Easter Crime'.  It was all very exciting, especially when we heard screaming and went inside to find a bloody knife on the floor.  We followed the conviently place paper arrows upstairs to find a body on the floor of a room with lots of Easter chocolates everywhere.  Easter Crime and Easter bunny rolled into one.  It made the morning feel much more Eastery.

We also followed up that night with some fantastic vegan french toast made with mashed banana & coconut milk covered with cooked mangos and a chocolate and almond sauce.  Tast-tee!!  Then a jug of iced rum & chocolate and a couple of rounds of 'telephone pictionary' (will teach you how to play when I get home) and it was an all-round successful easter.

Aww widdle swoths

Monday I arrived at the Aviarios del Caribe, the Sloth Sanctuary.   It's in a beautiful part of Costa Rica, although from what I have seen all of Costa Rica is beautiful, with the amazing rainforests, giant trees and bizarre animals looking like something out of Avatar or Star Wars.

The life of a volunteer is a hard one.  You get woken at 5 by screaming howler monkeys, then get up and got feed the sloths their breakfast.  After their breakfast you go home for yours.  Then you go back and play with the baby sloths, take them for walks and let them crawl around on the jungle gym.  Then you peel about a thousand carrots and camotes (kinda like a potato).  Then go home where there is a nice hot lunch waiting.  In the early afternoon you go back and feed the thousand carrots to the sloths.  After that, the day is done and it's time to relax.  Catch a bus to the nearby towns or go to the beach.  Very hard life.

The sloths are so much fun and so cute, especially the babies.  The brady's I think look like ewoks and the other babies look like little bears.

Volcan Concepcion and the uber-fit germans.

I only had 2 days in Nicaragua, so I went to the Isle de Ometepe which is a large island which has two volcanos on it.  One is a live volcano, the other is extinct and has a lagoon and cloud forest at the top.  I only had time to climb one, so I picked the live volcano, Volcan Concepcion.  According to the guides, tt is one of the toughest climbs in Nicaragua. The slopes are very steep and the volcano is one of the highest in Nicaragua.  

The hike up Volcan Concepcion was pretty hard, and up and back took about 8hrs, but it was not the hardest hike I've ever done.  However, I did feel a bit second rate doing the climb seeming the only others on the tour were to uber-fit germans who just raced off up the mountain leaving me for dead.

But I kept on going.  And going.  This volcano is the second steepest in the whole of central america.   And it is a mix of slippery shoal and steep rock so hard to climb.  So I was using my hands as well as my feet to climb up.  After a while the guide came back for me, and he took my bag which made things a little easier.  And finally I made it to the top.  The view is pretty spectactular, you can see the whole island and the other volcano, as well as down into the crater of concepcion.  The crater was smoking and but you couldn't see right down into it without probably falling in.

The hike down was just as hard as the hike up because of the slippery rocks and shoal.  The german girl struggled and a one stage fell and rolled about 3 times before stopping.  When I asked if she was alright, she said it was about the 10th time she'd fallen, then she sat down and started crying.  Which was good, made me feel a bit tougher.  I may be slow but at least I didn't cry!
 !
On the hike back my guide was telling me how in the morning he didn't think I would make it to the top.  I sure showed him.  I just took my time doing it!  However, I think he took a bit of a shine to me as I was down at the bar of the hostel looking through the menu when he appeared.  He'd come to the hostel looking for me.  Then he told me the hostel kitchen wasn't even open tonight and asked if I wanted to go have dinner with him.  I couldn't really be bothered, but he'd already caught me going through the menu so I couldn't tell him I wasn't hungry.  It felt a little like an awkward first date, as he was asking all these questions about whether I think I'll get married and have babies and telling me his life plans.  But he was nice and helped me practise my Spanish, so I just mentioned 'mi novio' a few times to make sure he wasn't getting the wrong idea. 
Anyway, Sloth Sanctuary next! Yippee!

Lanquin tubing

The hostel I was staying at in Lanquin was a good place, especially once they gave me a bed.  It's called the Zephyr and had a great vibe as well as cheap beer, good food and a fantastic view.

My second day in Lanquin I went tubing down the river.  It was pretty much the same crew who went on the cave tour the day before, but with hangovers.  It was an easy 3 beer trip though, so a relaxing way to spend an afternoon recovering from the beers, shots, limbo and twister from the night before.

I would love to have had time to spend another day or two in Lanquin hanging out at the pools and such, but los peresozos need to have their poo cleaned up by me soon, so I was back on the road again. 

Another 9hrs back to Guatemala, a missed bus and overnight stay in a hotel that looked like something out of a horror flick (nearly as bad as the Rosedale hotel).  Then a 24hr bus trip in the second class bus, including 3 border crossings throughout the night, being stopped for another 1/2 hour for a random bus search, and at the last border an El Salvador passport nazi who didn't want to let me through because some doodle 3 borders ago had stamped my passport incorrectly.

And then I was only in Managua, 3 hours away from my destination.  So then I got a taxi with a mad old lady who kept yelling at the taxi driver, me and random people on the street.  I got out at the bus port to be absolutely mobbed by guys trying to take my bag and lead me to their bus.  So I blew up, left them fighting - literally, over my bag and just went back to the taxi.  So the nice taxi man sorted it out for me and I got on another shitty bus for a couple of hours.  Then I met an american couple and we decided to split a cab, except I went to the wrong place and then had to catch a cab back.  The cabby was playing this crap rap, mixing songs like 'do ah diddee diddee dum diddee dee' - you know the one, with new words about getting pussy, sucking cock and shit like that.  It was so bad and he played it so loud, and I just agreed when he said it was good, so he tried to give me the cd!

So finally I got on a ferry over to the Isle of Ometepe.  It's a nice looking island.  It has 2 volcanos, one live and puffing up smoke and the other is extinct and has a lagoon in the top and cloud forest.  Tomorrow I climb to the top of the live one.  Should be cool.

Sensational Semuc Champey

Friday 2pm I left Antigua for the 5hr trip to Lanquin.  I arrived 9hrs later at the hostel only to find out they hadn't received my email, had no booking for me & no beds left.  However they did have a spare hammock out the back and that's where I ended up for the night.

The next day I joined a day tour of Semuc Champey.  Amazing.  And the tour guide was excellent and there was a good group of single-serving friends on the tour.

It was seriously one of those days where you are just 'wow, this is the best day ever'.
We started the morning with a cave tour.  The caves had underground streams in them so all we had was bathers, shoes and candles to light the way.

We had to scramble over rocks, climb rickety ladders and climb a rope up a waterfall.  You had to swim along holding your candle above your head.  At the end it opened up into a fairly deep pool.  Up on one side you could climb up and jump off.  It was about 3m high, but if you jumped too high you would hit your head on the ceiling and if you jumped too far out you'd hit the rocks on the other side.

So I climbed on up.  It wasn't til I got to the top that I remembered I don't really like heights or jumping off things like this much.  I must have looked like I was shitting myself because everyone was cheering me on.  So I jumped, it was way easier than trying to climb down again, and I didn't want to look like a pussy in front of everyone.  Peer pressure such a great thing.  It was so much fun.

Outside the caves there was a river and a swimming spot with a great rope swing from this huge tree.  In the water were a couple of old guys having a bath, soaping themselves up while they watched us on the swing and nodding their approval and giving you a 'muy bien' if you landed well.  It was a great swing, about a 4m drop when you let go above the water.  One of the girls did the hugest belly-wacker I have ever seen.  She just dropped straight on her gut from about 4m.  And yeah it took her a long time to get out of the water, the next day it was all red and bruised looking. Ouch!  And the old fellas were all 'ohhh muy malo'.

So after the caves we went to Semuc Champey.  First we climbed to the lookout where the view was just sensational.  The pools of Semuc Champey lay in the bottom of a steep, narrow valley. The series of pools run along the bottom and the water is a bright aquamarine and crystal clear.

So we went down for a swim and went from pool to pool sliding down the rocks like slides and jumping off others.  A perfect day.

Volcan Pacaya - My first volcano

So I've spent 3 days in Antigua, exploring the town and an overnight trip to Volcan Pacaya.  I wanted to go to Volcan Fuego as it is more active, but they weren't running any trips there til the weekend.

Antigua is a pretty little town.  Cobble stone streets, lots of cool little galleries, markets, antique and used book stores.  Kinda like Hobart if it had decent weather.  That and there's a fuck-off size volcano overlooking the town.

Actually there are about half a dozen volcanos, but I only had time to climb one.  So I did an overnight camping trip to Volcan Pacaya.  It was so good.  On the trip there was myself and two american girls.  Really nice chicks.  With us was our guide, two other guides who hadn't hiked that route on that mountain yet, a local guide and some old guy who looked about 70 - who was there for security. Overkill anyone?

Anyway, we did the drive up to the start point where we were bombarded by about a thousand
kids trying to sell us walking sticks for about 80 cents.  So after wading through needy children we set off.

The climb was pretty easy, all through dusty shoal which can be a pain with a pack as it's slippery, but we reached the camp area in about an hour.  Not a hard hike but enought for my sexy new hiking boots to give me some killer blisters.
 
From the camp we could see straight out over the volcano.  Pretty cool.  The volcano is live, with the last eruption being May last year, but you can't see any explosions or lava flowing, just smoke coming out the top.
 
After the guides set up our tent for us - see that's why you need 3 guides,
we went walking out on the old lava flows.  We took our marshmallows and found an open
crack that was warm and toasty and began to eat.  On the way up we ran into a couple coming down who had the best marshmallow stick I'd ever seen.  It was pretty much a tree of marshmallows, and the guy gave it to us as he went past.  Bless his cotton socks.

After having our fill of marshmallows we went back to camp for dinner, some wine and a few more marshmallows around the campfire. I love a good campfire.  And it was perfect campfire weather, cool not cold and no wind.  And the american girls and the guides were all pretty fun people.  I went to sleep with my jaw aching from laughing.  One of the girls farted in the tent our tent conversation turned into something that so made me feel like I was back home camping with Krichelle, Casey, etc. LOL for real.

Living la vida Oaxaca

So Oaxaca did get better with a little sleep.  I spent two more days there, getting out to see some of the ruins, the main zocalo and the markets.

I hired a bike and rode to Monte Alban.  For future reference, and I may be stating the obvious for some, but Monte means mountain.  I kinda realised that when I set out.  But two hours later when I had been riding uphill - not just up hill after hill - but continually uphill for the entire time and I had rounded three mountains and was thinking surely I'd taken a wrong turn I saw what I thought could be a ruined temple in the distance.  Another k and there was a sign, finally I was going  the right way, and 3 k after that I got there.  I was pooped, but I knew the whole way home was downhill so I managed to trek about the ruins for a couple of hours.  They were in pretty good nick and similiar to those in Mexico in style.
 
The ride home was sweet, except for when I found the bike didn't really have breaks and the couple of times I realised I was riding on the wrong side of the road. Der!  You'd think I'd have it figured out after a month.

The other ruins I went to see were the Mitla ones.  This town is a little further out of the city than Monte Alban so I caught buses.  The first bus I caught was the right bus, but going in the wrong direction.  By the time I'd figured this out, I was like 'ah well I'll get a bit of a city tour', which was fine except this guys driving was shocking and I was feeling pretty queasy by the time I got off.  The Mitla ruins were good too.  Quite a different style to the Monte Alban ones.  Mitla also had quite a large market area.  There are a lot of cool handcrafty things and traditional dress clothes and stuff in the markets, but markets are markets.  The cool shit in Mitla is the same as the cool shit in Oaxaca.  And the cool shit in the first half a dozen stalls is repeated through the rest.  I do like all the Dias de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) decorations and trinkets though.  That stuff is cool.

Antigua; nice people, good music

I've just spent the last 24hrs travelling from Oaxaca, Mexico to Antigua, Guatemala.  The bus I caught took me to Guatemala City, getting in just as the sun was going down.  I had been tossing up whether to stay in Guatemala City and then Antigua or go straight down to Antigua.  But the drive in Guatemala didn't look too impressive and from what I'd read/heard there wasn't much to see and I didn't have a good vibe about the place, so I decided to go to Antigua straight away.  However, to get there it was a cab and a second class crowded chicken bus with all my gear after dark then another cab.  Or a A$50 cab straight there. So I took the cab. 

But the cabbie didn't understand the directions to the hostel as I had them written in English.  So I explained as best I could, but to no avail.  However, I think he was dumb as opposed to my bad Spanish being the problem.  He stopped and asked directions from this nice policeman.  We showed him the directions and I translated the bits I knew again.  He got it straight away.  He explained it to the cabbie, who still looked baffled.  He explained it to me, I got what he was saying.  He cabbie still looked baffled.  He explained it again.  The cabbie decided the best thing to do was give up and find an Antiguan cabbie to take me there.  So the nice policeman came and explained it to the new cabbie who knew exactly where it was and got me there in 2min. It's nice when people are helpful.

So I checked in.  The hostel here is really nice and in one of those cute cobble-stoned streets with the cool old buildings.  I had a nice hot shower and went across the road for dinner.  It was a real lovely little restaurant, with these fantastic photos everywhere, a big outdoor garden and they were playing old music like Ella Fitzgerald.  The nachos and fish crocettes were so damn tasty.  A lady, on her way out the door, told me it was her last day here otherwise she'd be back for the homemade ravioli which she said was fantastic. 

While I was eating I looked at the table across from me to see a lady down a shot of something.  I thought 'woah, she downed that pretty easy', my thought must have been written on my face (reminder as to why I don't play poker) because she started laughing at me.  So I asked her what she was drinking and it was some kind of liquer thing made from a flower.  Hibiscus maybe.  Anyway, she poured me one as she had the bottle sitting on the table.  It was pretty tasty but went straight to my head.

After dinner I thought about going to the bar next door as I could hear a band and a girl in my hostel room said she would be there with friends, but I couldn't be bothered.  However, from my hostel room I can still hear the music from the bar.  It's been really good.  First there was a blues band.  Now it's just a guy and a guitar and he is good.  So I'm just vegging out in bed listening to the music.

Antigua after only a few hours is nice people and good music.

Bye bye Puerto :(

Last night was my last evening in Puerto before catching the night bus to Oaxaca so before leaving I went with a few friends to watch the sunset over Playa Carrizalillio and have a beer.  It was hard, I wasn't really keen to leave Puerto as it is such a good place, and I'd met some cool people and I like being by the beach, but I didn't want to stay too long as I don't want to miss out on anything later down the track.

So we hung out and watched the sunset, went and had some food, the sopa pasole again. Yum.  Then I hopped on the night bus to Oaxaca.  Worst sleep ever.  Luckly I wasn't queasy from the windy roads, but the constant corners and then the bus slamming on the breaks for random potholes and speed humps made for a well interrupted sleep.

I got to Oaxaca quite early, so dropped off my bags at the hostel and went for a walk.  I had been wanting to come to Oaxaca because I'd heard a few people talking about it and they all talked it up.  For me, so far the jury is still out.  I like the fantastic old and colourful buildings.  I like the markets everywhere.  I like all the crafty stuff.  However, I don't like the large amount of beggars, especially that alot seem old or disabled.  Who is supposed to be looking after these people?  I don't like the spitting everywhere, it's disgusting.  And I especially was not a fan of the old man who grabbed my arse in the street.

I think maybe once I've had some sleep the dislikes won't seem to outweigh the likes so much.

After I'd had a walk and then returned to the hostel to check my stuff in, I spent the afternoon doing some domestic chores.  Took my clothes to the laundry.  It's good, you pay like A$2 and come back in a couple of hours and it's all done for you.  After that I went and got my hair coloured.  I usually do it myself, but didn't want to in a hostel as whoever had the shower next would probably think someone had been murdered in there with the red everywhere.  But the hairdressers here was good, it only cost me like A$25.

Now time for a little planning of what to do in Oaxaca and how to get to Guatemala, then a big long sleep I think.

The gambler, the fisherman and the tiger.

Today is my second last day in Puerto.  I spent it having a Spanish lesson and wandering around a couple of beaches taking some photos.  Puerto is one of those towns that feels as if you've been there forever after a couple of days, but when it comes time you leave you feel like you've only been here a few days.  I've met quite a few people who have come here and have now returned or never left.

The days are hot and sunny.  I've now adjusted to the ridiculous heat and have bought myself a big sombrero so life is good.  I've been spending my mornings taking Spanish lessons, in which the theory is going well but the practise not so much.  Israel, my teacher is always telling me I should be practising.  This morning I tried practising on a guy playing a flute on the beach; he's now taking me in his canoe in the lagoon tomorrow morning for $300 pesos.  So I'm still up in arms whether that was a success practise or not.  I was also practising with a cabbie this afternoon.  He told me he loves living in Puerto and has for 10 years.  He loves Puerto because this is where his 3 daughters are.  Or he loves Puerto because this is where he has 3 girls on the go.  I'm not sure, I just kept hearing 'tres senoritas'.

So I've been checking out the different beaches, Manzanillo is a small beach where you can go do some snorkelling.  The other day Matt, Dr Kennedy's friend, and I went out there for the afternoon.  The water had cleared up a little since I had last been there and there were a few large schools of fish so it was good.  We swam and snorkelled, had a little nap on the big beach recliners and played cards.  Matt showed me a game called Cabul which I'd never played before and we also played shithead, but his rules were different.  So I kicked his arse at cards and then we walked up the cliff to the bar at the big posh hotel and had a couple of beers while we watched the sun set.

Matt's been fun, we've been playing a lot of cards.  But he likes to have little wagers on the games.  For example, I still owe him a dinner.  But he left Wednesday, so sorry Matt :(  We were also playing at Fausto's place while Fausto was busy prettying himself up for the night.  We were playing that the loser had to put on a mask and wear it for the next game.  So we're playing cards, I'm in a fox mask and Matt is in a chicken mask with a hat and sunglasses as well (obviously I was winning).  But there were also dances to go with the masks.  I also lost a bet where if I met anyone that night I had to introduce myself with 'Hi I'm Kelly and I like to party.' - Hod rod style.  Matt also had to do the same thing but introduce himself as Voltron.

Nadine, a Swiss girl I've met, organised for her, Matt & I to go out to the waterfalls the other day.  It cost us about A$30 each, and the taxi man drove us out there, hung around waiting for us all afternoon and drove us home.  The trip out there was a bit longer than we thought.  We were told half an hour only to discover it was an hour and a half, along windy, dirt roads, so needless to say, the trip ended up being even longer when we had to stop for yours truely to get out and have a vomit.  But the queasiness was worth it.  The falls were big, but not gigantic, maybe 20metres high and they collected into this big pool which was great for swimming in.  The water was alot cooler than the beach and freshwater too, so it was lovely to swim in.  The rocky river it the falls led into reminded me a little of being up at the channels at home, although the vegetation was a lot less bushy.

We've also been eating a lot of good food.  The other night we had these tasty tacos from a street vendor.  We also went to a local restaurant that had awesome burritos and this soup called 'sopa azteca', which is like a tomato-based soup, it's thin and not chunky, but has corn chips, cheese and avocado in it.  Yummo, although I am not a big fan of the cheese here, it lacks flavour and smells like it needs another couple of months to mature.  Nicole, you'll be happy to know that you can get pancakes for breakfast anywhere and everywhere. 

But last night was a great meal.  I went fishing with Nadine, a friend of hers and her husband who is a local.  I feel bad as I've forgotten their names alreadty, but they were really lovely and had a little boy who was just turned 1, so cute as.  The hubby was fishing with a net, so i got a few cool photos of that.  It looks like pretty hard work and it would take a bit of practise.  Once he'd caught a few fish, they invited us for dinner.  So we just had this fantastic fresh fish cooked up for us, along with some guacamole, tortillas and a couple of beers.  Yum again.

So yesterday before we went fishing, Nadine took me for a bit of a ride on her scooter.  That was pretty good fun and the roads here are fairly quiet so it was too hairy a ride.  But those things can get some fair speed up.  We drove up out of Puerto in a direction I hadn't been before which was fun and I got some good photos of us out on the road.  But before that we went into town.  We passed a bus and suddenly were face to face with a tiger.  No shit!  In front of us was a ute with a cage on the back and a real live tiger inside.  I was like WTF?  The poor thing though, stuck in the little cage in 35 degree heat all afternoon while they were driving around with a megaphone on the roof spruking about a circus or something.

Anyway, I'm off to the lagoon tomorrow with the man with the flute and tomorrow evening will catch the night bus to Oaxaca where I will hang out for a couple of days.  And, yeah I'm slack, but photos will be coming soonish.

Puerto egg and level fiesta

So last night I thought I'd try a get a few photos of the moon rising and practise some night photography on the beach.  Here are some of the results.

On the way down to the beach I ran into Dr Kennedy who was going to meet a few people for dinner and invited me along. Fausto, a mexican guy who works at the school, took us to a little local place where we had tacos and this soup thing.  It was so good.  The soup was like a simple broth which you could get with chicken or beef or with both.  So I got both.  The beef I'm pretty sure was pork, but it was pretty tasty anyway.

Then in the way of the Mexicans you add a heap of things to the soup, ie. peppers, onion, lime and lettuce.  Yep, warm lettuce in your soup.  I was like I might pass on that one.  But then I added too many peppers and needed something to cancel out the heat a bit, so ended up piling in the lettuce.  And the whole thing was so damn tasty!

After that we went to Sativa, a bar with a rooftop deck that overlooks the ocean.  It's a great little bar, although unsurprisingly a little quiet on a Monday night.  The people who run the place are good value though, so it's fast becoming one of my fave places for a quiet beer.

Matt showing us how his level egg can stand up by itself.

Hey gringos!

Here is where I am studying Spanish.

So today my Spanish teacher told where the term 'gringos' comes from.  I thought it was a semi-derogatory term for white person or white tourist.  Apparently it applies to white Americans, whether a tourist or not is irrelevant.

The term was coined back in the day from Mexicans who needed to cross the border into the US for work.  To do this the Mexicans needed a visa which was known as a green card; funnily enough because it was green.  The people manning the border where white Americans who would check the Mexicans green cards as they went through.  As they went through they would spot the card and wave them through saying 'Green. Go'. 

When the Mexicans were talking about going into the US they would say you have to go through the man at the border - the 'Green. Go.'  Now white Americans are known as gringos and when I get called a gringo I can say 'No gringo, yo soy de Australia'.   

Learning Spanish in paradise.

I've been in Puerto for almost a week now and it really is a fantastic spot.  Hot all day every day and the beaches are just lovely.  I've completed my advanced dive course and started taking Spanish lessons.  So I'll be here until the 1st of April and then start heading towards Costa Rica via Guatemala and Nicaragua.

I'm staying at a homestay organised by the language school.  It is staying with a lady called Reina and her family.  Her granddaughter is about 3 and the cutest little thing, she looks like Dora the Explorer.  I don't speak much Spanish yet, but that's ok.  I know how to say yes and no when Reina asks if I'm hungry and can tell her that I'm going to the beach or going to classes, but that's about it.  But I've had Dr Kennedy here to help me.  Yes, he's a doctor and his name is Kennedy.  He's a nice guy with a bad mo and has been showing me the ropes. Literally.  As in the rope through the window with the key on the end for when we come home late at night.

The other night I went out with Dr Kennedy and a few people from the language school.  It was good fun, we had a few cervezas and were ripping it up on the dance floor.  Then a new singer came on and the music went from bluesy stuff to the chilli peppers, then the guy announced he was doing a little song he wrote back in 2004 called 'my funkititus'.  Pure gold I tell you.  The chorus went something along the lines of 'you can't deny this, my funkititus'.  Sounds like a venereal disease if you ask me.

So Feliz cumpleaños! Krichelle, if I can find this song anywhere on the internet this will be your birthday present.

Embarcaderos

So last post i forgot to write about the Embarcaderos in Xochimilco.  I had no idea what it was, but Sophia said she was going out to this floating garden thing with canoes and mariachi.  I think she was thinking the same thing.  But when we got there we found out it was more like venice-style pole-driven boats, not little canoes and there were hundreds of them going up and down this canal system which was apparently a series of old moats built by the Aztecs.

So Sophia and I got a boat, by ourselves, these things are made to fit 20, and headed off down the river.  It was really nice and relaxing cruising down the river, but we realised we came under-prepared when we started passing the other boats.  Each one was like it's own little party on the river.  They all had food and music and drinks.  Some had portable cd players playing everything from local mexican music to western pop to metallica and some boats even had their own mariachi bands!  There were also small boats of people selling stuff and small Mariachi bands pulling up beside the other boats if needed.

It was all pretty cool, however half the adventure was getting there and back.  Sophia had the instructions, catch a train to the end of the line, then there should be signs showing the way and a short walk.

So it began.  A train ride to the end of the line, then a tram to the end of the line.  Then we walk out and see the signs 'Embarcaderos' and an arrow.  We follow the signs until we come to a T intersection and there are no signs, and very few people.  And this part of town is looking a little more like what you expect from Mexico, dusty roads, squat square buildings, cracked pavements, random dogs running about and bad street lighting.

Sophia, however speaks a little Spanish, so asked a guy for directions.  He told us it was about a 40 min walk!  I was more than a little reluctant to be walking 40 min in downtown Mexico in any direction. Then the guy said that the bus could take us there.  So this little old bus pulls up and we get on. 

This bus was would take off like a bat out of hell, then slam on the brakes at a stop, however it didn't quite stop and people were just jumping on and off as it rolled past.  But we got there in one piece.  The trip home on the bus was similar,  except this time the bus didn't take the little back roads, but the main highway. Remember the night bus in Harry Potter?  Besides the screeching halts and  take offs similar to Nicole in the Micra, there was the swerving from lane to lane, overtaking and squeezing between cars, running red lights and everyone in the crowded bus just swinging from the rails.  So a little adventure in the real world Mexico.

Salsa, Audiorama & Museo de Historia

Squirrel in the park

Tomorrow I am leaving Mexico City for Puerto Escondido (a 12 hour bus ride away) where I will spend a few weeks taking Spanish lessons, cooking lessons and doing some diving.  Can't wait, Puerto Escondido is a small town on the coast and looks lovely.

So over the last couple of days I've been seeing the sights of Mexico City.  I went to a Salsa bar, visited the big park Bosque de Chapultepec, had a canal boat ride at the Embarcaderos, visited a few museums  and chilled out in the Audiorama.

I went to the Salsa bar with a few people from the hostel, Nathaniel, Sophia from Canada, Chris from Germany and Antonio along with a couple of his local Mexican friends.  It was good fun, the band was great and we all danced, but gee I suck.  I think I whacked Antonio in the face at least three times when he was trying to swing me around.  His friend Alessandro was nice though, took it easy on me and acted very impressed when I didn't screw up the simplest moves.  Anyway it was a good night, but I don't think I'll be getting right into the salsa thing any time soon.

Yesterday and today I went to the Bosque de Chapultepec, it is a big park walking distance from the hostel.  In the park are lots of markets, museums, statues, couples who really should just get a room and squirrels.  Today I went there for the museums and lucky me, Sunday is free day at all the museums, so I went to 3 and saved myself a whole $15.  The Museo de Nacional Historia was the best. The Galleria de Historia was too much reading and I can't read Spanish yet, and the Museo de Arte Moderno was just a bit crap, a lot of the old WTF? art.

The Museo de Nacional Historia is in an old castle/fortress.  It's a fantastic building and a lot of the displays are rooms refurbished to look as they would have back in the day, along with all the original furniture and stuff.  There were also some great city views (except for the pollution limiting the visibility) and really spectacular gardens.

However, the museum everyone is talking up is the Museo de Antropologia, so I will go there tomorrow before I leave.

So the one other great thing I found in the park is the Audiorama, I found it yesterday and went back today.  It's kind of hidden away behind this big statue thing, but you go in and it's a little closed off garden.  There are speakers playing cruisy music and all the park benches are reclining.  And there is a table of books, so people come in and just chill out or read a book.  I think it must be the only place in Mexico City where you can't constantly hear the traffic.



Me in the park

Audiorama

Museo de Historia



Teotihuacan pyramids

Yesterday Nathaniel & I went out to the Teotihuacan pyramids.  Being the tight-arse backpackers that we are, we did this via public transport.  So 3 train changes and and hour long bus-ride later, we were there.

There are 3 main pyramids and a multitude of other small ruins all along one street known as 'Calle de los Muerdos' or Avenue of the Dead. 

And it was damn hot too.  But being pasty and freckly like I am, I kept covered up and managed to only burn one forearm.  We climbed to the top of the largest pyramid, which is called Pyramid of the Sun, the second one is called Pyramid of the Moon, but you can only go half way.

Photos will be coming soon via facebook...

Beggars, buskers and hawkers

It's not a big surprise, but Mexico city is chock a block full of people try to sell you something at every turn.  Whether it's in the streets, at the metro stations, on the trains and on the buses.

They wander up and down the trains shouting about what they've got to sell, and it could be anything from bottled water, to batteries, to some random kids toy.  And all for a tenth of what these thing would cost you in Australia.  Yesterday there was a man who was selling cd's.  He had a portable cd player which was blaring snippets of bad 90's pop throughout the carriage.

Nathaniel & I went out to the Teotihuacan pyramids yesterday.  On the bus they had a man get on to sell drinks, at the next stop a lady got on to sell some kind of sweet cake thing.  At the third stop a guy got on with a guitar and played a few songs before asking for donations.  And he was damn good!  I was hoping he would play again if he got enough.  He was singing in Spanish, but it was songs I recognised.  It made for enjoyable trip out of the city.

Mexico city

So I have arrived in Mexico City.  The first few days have been relatively uneventful with me spending a lot of time sleeping off the jetlag and generally struggling to get in and out of my top bunk.

The first day I went for a wander around near the hostel and ended up stopping at a sushi bar for something to eat.  Bad bad idea.  Warm sushi with cream cheese in it, ugghh!

Yesterday I did some wandering around the Zocalo with Nathaniel, from Malta, who I met in the hostel.  He was telling me that the area we're staying in is a good area, 'see look at all the police', I said I wasn't so sure that police everywhere is such a good sign! 

The Zocalo is a big city square, with lots of old Spanish-style architecture and lots of market-style shops.  And everything is so cheap!

Last night we went out with Antonio, a Mexican who now lives in Germany.  He took us to a Mariachi bar.  It was good fun.  We had guacamole with chips, tacos and were drinking beer and tequila all night and it cost us the equivalent of $50 each.  Beers are like $2 here and you go out and get a quesadilla off the street for less than a dollar.

So Antonio got the Mariachi to come and sing for us.  The band has about 10 people with various instruments, guitars, violins, trumpets, etc and they surround your table and play and sing.  And they're really good.  So they also got me up for a bit of a dance, then sat me down in a chair and a couple of them started wiggling their bums in my face!  Then another one grabs my hand and puts it on his bum!  I was all, 'agghh I don't want to touch Mariachi's bum'.  But it was pretty funny and he had a pretty hard arse for an old fella ;)

South America here I come.

South America is a trip I've been wanting to do forever.  I'm not sure whether it was ever since I was 10 and starting watching The Mysterious Cities of Gold (remember that one people? best cartoon ever) or when I once saw a doco that had sloths and this guinea pig thing the size of a cow.

Here's a sloth.

The mysterious cities of gold.

Anyway, I've always wanted to go, and have spent a lot of time, since back in Melbourne, talking about it.  So now I'm finally planning the trip.  And now that I'm planning the trip I am reviving the blog. 

'So what is the plan?' I hear you ask.  Well, thanks for asking.

Due to the fact I have an awesome job and went to my boss and was all 'wahh I don't wanna quit but I really really need 6 months off', I now have 6 months leave without pay from March - August 2011.  How fantastic is that?  I really appreciate that I've been given this break and can go off knowing that, I still have the security of going back to my job at the end of it.

So I've booked the flights - flying into Mexico in March and out of Santiago in August.
I've booked a 3 week tour with Intrepid to go from Lima - Cuzco and ending with the Inca Trail.
I'm also looking into volunteering at the Sloth Sanctuary in Costa Rica for a month and booking a tour (perhaps a dive tour) in the Galapagos.

And in between those things the plan is to have no plan. 

Now just 3 months til I go...

:( home again home again

Only 4 more days of holidays. I easily could spend so much more time here. The diving out at Mataking Island was great, we saw heaps of sea-turtles and a frogfish and a tiny tiny sea-horse and a pikachu - don't ask me what the hell it is, it was that small i could barely see it.

Lisa and I did a second day diving out at Sibuan Island. Not quite as good. There were some strong currents running through and a shit load of rubbish - plastic bags etc which was a bit disappointing after Mataking Island which was a pristine tropical island paradise kind of island. The dive guides out at Sibuan were also a bit crap. There was my guide who was a german dude who was nice, but a couple of the other guys were fat lazy backpacker types who thought it was fine and professional to smoke all over the passengers and throw their cigarette butts in the water. Dirty pigs.

Ahh well I guess they fit in in Semporna then, it really is a hovel of a town. The markets stink of rubbish and there are rats running around everywhere. Not really what you would expect as the gateway to one of the worlds top diving spots.

So after Semporna we spent a couple of days in the Gunung Mulu National Park which is in Sarawak. It was great. We only had 3 days so we didn't get to climb the pinnacles which looked like it would have been fantastic. But we did get in a couple of days adventure caving which was awesome.

hmmm, this internet is a bit slow so i'll post this and write a new one for the caves.

Fat nosed monkeys and tiger leeches

Hey guys,

Today Lisa and I arrived in Semporna which is in southern Sabah on the coast. It is where everyone comes to go diving. So, although we couldn't get out to Sipodan Island because it was fully booked, we are going out to Mataking Island to do a couple of dives which should be fun.

We spent the last couple of days out in a little resort thing on the Kinabatangan River where we did some cruises and some little walks. The walks were good fun. All muddy and lots of leeches. The funniest bit was when our guide first came out dressed for the night walk in blue overalls and gumboots; he looked like dad ready to go milk the cows!

On our last day as Kinabatangan we saw a heap of probiscus monkey. They are the massive blue and orange monkeys with these big fat noses. And they live so damn high up in the trees it is hard to see them. We also saw an orang-utan which was pretty cool. It's pretty rare to see them in the wild, but we saw one that was quite young sitting in a fig tree by the river, it was so so cool. I have taken about a billion photos, I just hope some of them turn out ok.

Still no Slow Loris or Pygmy Elephant, but I'll keep my eyes peeled.

Trekking the jungles of Borneo

I was going to add a post on facebook with my Borneo adventures but decided it would be better revive my old blog. Hopefully later in the week I will get some photos up.

Anyway, for those who are a little behind the times. Lisa and I are holidaying in Borneo. It's a great place. We first flew into KL and then to KK (Kota Kinabalu) which is a cute little city on the beach. We didn't have time to see much of it, but it reminded me a bit of Zanzibar which was cool.

The next day we went out to climb Mt Kinabalu. It's just over 4000m, so big but not a massive mountain. But it is quite a full on hike to get to the top as it is very steep. Although I think that the going down was actually harder than the going up.

The first day was quite hard work. 6k up to the base camp. The first 2k's we hardest for me as I was still throwing up from getting car sick (which may or may not have been caused by numerous margaritas the night before) in the bus on the way up. That was a long trip. 2 hours of windy bumpy roads and me having to get them to stop the bus every 15 minutes so i could have a throw!

The other thing that made the climb hard was the fact that our tour operator wasn't fan of letting you know what was going on or organising anything much. So we were the only people climbing the mountain with 16kg packs! Everyone else had been told what to bring or had porters organised for them.

But it was all worth it. 5 days later my calves are still aching but the climb to the top and the view of dawn breaking over the mountains was spectacular. We got up at 3am to climb so we'd be there for dawn. The climb in the dark is so steep that they have ropes bolted into the side of the mountain to help pull yourself up. Then we got to the top about 1/2 an hour before dawn and it was bloody freezing!

Then the sky started to lighten up and you could see the outlines of the mountains and although the sky was clear where we were, there was cloud cover over the other peaks which turned all kinds of colours as the sun came up. Hmm, i don't think i'll even bother to try to explain it any more i'll just get frustrated because it's not right. anyway, it was really really good and then when you went to come back down you could actually see the path you had climbed in the dark and were like holy hell i came up there?!

After the climb we went to poring hot springs for some relaxing hot spring jacuzzi action. We also got to see the evasive Rafflesia in flower. This is a rare plant that flowers once every 5 years and only for 7 days! It is the weirdest looking plant and to me looks like something that belongs in the ocean not sitting in the rainforest.

We're now down in Sandakan and have seen some Orang utans and sea turtles, but Stilly wants a go on the internet so i'll write again later.

Nine Inch Nails

Wow it's been ages and ages since I wrote. I think it's because I was always wanting to tell everyone about my hols, telling people about work isn't as exciting. So the obvious solution is MORE HOLIDAYS. I am thinking after France and learning how to ski I am all excited about that so I think I'll take a couple of weeks off in the winter and go to Kiwi-land to do some skiing.

Tonight is exciting, I am going to see Nine Inch Nails. They are going to rock. I love 'em. I saw (I see-ed 'em Auntie Yonie) them once before, years ago, at the Big Day Out so I've been hanging out to see them again. And I also got tickets to go see The Butterfly Effect in July which will be fantastic too! I saw them in Perth a few years back and they're great too.

Ohh, guess what I did. I got myself a place to live. That's exciting. A little hovel of a unit in Kooyong. It's a good area, I met my first neighbour who told me I could come over if I need sugar or salt or anything, so that's good, nice neighbours. It's not too bad a place, it will be better when I get some furniture and housey stuff like cups and bowls. Everything is coming over from Perth - hopefully soon. At the moment all I have is a bed, a sandwich maker and little tea set from turkey! Poor Tan has come all the way from Perth and has to stay with me and has gone into shock because I don't have a kettle or some coffee!! Ah, screw 'er, she'll live ;)

i'm a doodle

i forgot to tell you about what i did on my way to footy training last week. it was funny, i am a doodle head.

i got off the tram and so did Michelle, this other girl who plays. As we were walking past Burnley Campus I said 'oh, someone told me it's a short cut, we can just cut through the campus and come out the other side where the oval is.' so michelle was like 'ok'.

god damn longest short cut EVER! we walked through the campus and came out the other side in this big paddock with greenhouses and little gardens everywhere and 8ft high fences! we walked to the end where we could see the training oval on the other side of the road, but the gate was locked. so we walked back up the way we had came in, but that gate was locked too!! someone had locked us in!! and by this stage it was dark so where wandering around in the dark going 'shit we've been locked in!'

so i said 'let's jump the fence', but michelle wasn't too keen on that idea, but seeming we were locked in we didn't have much choice. so i climbed up and over, then michelle climbed up and started having difficulties with the over bit. and me being the nice, helpful person I am was nearly wetting myself laughing while she was stuck on the top of the fence and cars are going past and other people are turning up to training thinking 'what the fuck are they doing climbing the fence?' she finally got over and it was all a good laugh, but i am not listening to other peoples 'short cuts' again!!!!

lovin' melbourne

Hey gang,

How goes it? I hope everyone had a good easter and got lots of chocies from the easter bunny. I went home for easter and took my brother and sister to the pub where they had a band in the back of a truck in the carpark. I got them pretty drunk which was funny. I got me pretty drunk too and I thought I was funny. But that's nothing new.

I am getting myself settled in melb now. I have started my new job which is great. Everyone there is really nice and I have been 'doing lunch' with a friends who also work around the city.

I've also started playing gaelic footy again. It's hard work though; the hard work being getting out to the games as they are on sunday mornings and in the arse end of nowhere. Last week we got flogged by the team on the bottom of the ladder and I copped an elbow in the face which gave me a black eye, but it's good fun all the same.

The only thing I need now is to work on the 'place to live' thing. I am still staying at my auntie's, she's on holidays (Africa and Barcelona, i am very jealous despite the fact I just finished 4 months of holidays), but i should find something soon. Some crappy little place close to the city so i don't have to comute too far.

But Melbourne is such a cool city. And it's comedy festival time at the moment. Last week we went and saw Wil Anderson, fuck he's funny. I also want to go see a couple other comedy dudes and I have tickets to see Nine Inch Nails in May which I am excited about.

Anyway, that's me for now. Keep in touch people!!

Work Work Work

Once again I have been slack on the blogging, but I haven't been up to alot. Catching up with everyone, looking for work & spending way too much time in dirty ole geebong.

The work thing has happened pretty quickly. A couple of weeks ago I thought I should start looking because I'm not sure how long it will take to find work. So I had a bit of a look on seek and started sending applications and I was only half way through when I started getting calls from recruitment dudes and later that week I had a couple of interviews and the next week I got offered a couple of jobs and so I start on Monday. So it's all happened pretty damn quick. I'm excited though, I think the company I'm going to work with will be good if the interviews are anything to go by.

So I will be starting gaelic footy this week which will be good. A bit of exercise wouldn't go astray.

Ah crap, nothing of interest to write so will get back to you later.

There's no place like home

Hey guys,

It's been a while since I last blogged so I think I'll just give you a quick run-through of what I got up to in Africa. It was awesome, by the end I was very sad because most of the group were going on to Capetown while I was going home. I was like 'I wanna go to cape town too!'. But as Blue told me on the last day of the tour, after Andrew's parting words to me were 'Kelly, I'm sorry we never got to have sex', 'Kelly you can't always get what you want.' So I headed back to Melbourne.

But fuck that was a mission and a half. I got delayed in Nairobi over 5 hours and then over 2 hours in Dubai and if you included stopovers it ended up taking me almost 3 days to get home! But I am now back in Melbourne catching up with everyone and starting to apply for a few jobs. So it's been good. Melbourne really is a beautiful city and I think I'm gonna like living here. (Until winter - then it may be a different story)

But back to Africa. The tour was great. The group were all pretty good people. Lots of aussies, kiwi's, irish and english. We went white-water rafting which was awesome and to the serengeti national park and ngorongoro crater. It was so cool, we saw lions and elephants rooting - well not lions rooting elephants, the lion was rooting another lion and the elephant was trying to root every other elephant it could get too. but that was pretty funny. and in the bush camps we seemed to get a different animal in the camps each time.

first it was a fat old pumba roaming around like he owned the place. then the next camp had baboons who came up and stole our carrots. with their beady ugly little eyes, i'm pretty sure they are all evil. and then one night i woke up and there was something grazing right by our tent. i was so sure it was an elephant and all excited i snuck out to have a look. but he heard me and shit himself, and i shit myself and all i could see was this massive shadow jump and nearly land on one of the tents and i was like 'oh crap he's gonna trample someones tent' so i quickly hid back in my tent and woke sara up to tell her there was a crazy elephant right outside the tent. it turns out it was a water buffalo, but still those things are bloody huge and i wouldn't be happy if one landed on my tent.

we did other good stuff like the elephant orphanage where we got to see baby elephants and the giraffe sanctuary and the trekking with the mountain gorilla was fantastic. oh and the diving in zanzibar and the seafood markets in stone town and the meat on a stick was pretty damn good as well.

anyway, writers cramp is setting in. keep in touch kids and for those of you around melbourne i'm sure we'll catch up soon and i'll get to tell you all my holiday stories.

hippos sweat blood and look manky

hey guys,

i made it to the tour after a 2 1/2 hour taxi ride and US$130. but it has been all good since then. we've been to rwanda where we trekked to see the mountain gorillas which was awesome. they are so bloody huge! there was this massive sliver-back in our group and when get got up you were ready to bolt! they were so cute, especially the young ones playing and wrestling.

in rwanda we also went to an orphanage and played with the kids there. they were such cute kids. all orphans due to HIV which is pretty sad. at first it was a bit strange, all the kids came up and were introducing themselves and hugging us. and we all know i'm not exactly the hugging type so that was a bit odd. then they sang us a song, but they all looked bored silly. so then our tour guide said we should sing a song. so we sang hokey pokey and then got them to join in. the kiwis taught them to do the haka which they loved and we taught them to thumb wrestle which they loved. so we all ended up having a good fun time.

crap, i was gonna write more about it, but am running out of internet time, so will do it later.

anyway, am having an awesome time and rwanda and uganda are real nice countries. next we are going to Ginja where we get to go white water rafting and quad biking which should be good fun.

catch yas