Beck in Holland Oh, and England, Germany and Belgium too Because there’s more to life than just travelling the world and marvelling at its varied peoples and cultures. In the end, I could no longer ignore the desperate cry of Europe’s 500 million people frenziedly clamouring for my return. So here I am, back in the Old World. And hey, it’s nice to be back after all that time, meeting up with friends, revisiting old memories and battling my mum’s cat for possession of my suitcase. After getting pampered at my mum's for a bit I moved [View Full Entry]

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The Tail End of Central America, and Back to the Real World And so it's home I go. Costa Rica and Panama first, and then I'm taking the long way home, via Miami, Boston and New York. Then it's London for a few days, then Holland, where I'll be crashing at the maternal parental unit's place for a while. Have Slob Habits, Will Travel Living like a pig back home is a great way to stay on a budget when you’re travelling. My immune system’s been previously exposed to every imaginable type of microbe by virtue of a heroic lack of [View Full Entry]

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All Creatures Great and Cool Yes! Tick, tick, tick! Well worth 200 pesos for the chance to tick off most of my wildlife wannasees: three crocodiles,* a huge day-glo yellow iguana, vultures, and also some boring herons and cormorants, but hey, it’s all good. Add that to the turtles, whales and dolphins I saw in Puerto Escondido and I’m a happy man. And that’s quite apart from the stunning views you get sailing down beautiful Cañón del Sumidero gorge (Chiapas state, Mexico), worth the price alone. Still no armadillos or huge sombreros, but I can live with that. [View Full Entry]

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Yeehaw No armadillos or humongous sombreros yet, but I saw a road sign riddled with bullet holes the other day. Outstanding. The Brum-Brum Beat the Choo-Choo Since the privatization of the railways in the 1990s, there’s only a handful of railway lines left in the country. Long-distance travel in Mexico is dominated by buses and coaches, and after a while you begin to pick up a few pointers. * Strategies for ensuring an empty seat next to you on a bus * — Sit in the aisle seat — Avoid eye contact — Pretend to be asleep. If it’s r [View Full Entry]

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Arrival A spine and a sense of adventure being potential assets that my ancestors probably lost due to natural selection many generations ago (together with their tails), I decided to follow the extremely well-trodden Gringo Trail south to a place called Oaxaca (an ancient Zapotec word meaning "Place where all the gringoes go"). Having got here though, I have to admit I can understand why everyone flocks here. The place really is enchanting. Yikes! Oaxaca's Santo Domingo church, though stunning, is a regular assault on the senses. A humongous overkill of gold-leaf and [View Full Entry]

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Welcome to the City, Kiddie: Big, Bad Mexico City Pleasant Homecoming The toilets and dorms in my dorm are thoroughly scrubbed with armadillo shit every day. I surmise this to be the case since nothing else can explain the STENCH of the place. What on earth have my dorm-mates been eating? One good thing about DF, as the locals call Mexico City, is that at 2,200 metres, it's lovely and cool. I'm still walking around in my T-shirt, but the locals are all wrapped up like little Michelin men in twelve layers of serious winter gear. You know, I was expecting [View Full Entry]

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Go South Young Man: Monterrey to Mexico City Armadillo I've been in Mexico for a while now, and I still haven't seen: — an armadillo; — huge sombreros (except on TV); or — a Mexican taking a nap underneath said sombrero. I want my money back. Stains 50 pesos for laundry service is pretty good, but whenever I hear that song Get What You Give by the New Radicals, I think what a shame it is that this band were a bit of a one-hit wonder. The singer's thing was stained T-shirts. My Ts are stained all the time because I [View Full Entry]

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Visited Countries Map Monterrey Loopy Fruities Mexico being a (kinda sorta) tropical place, exotic fruits are sold on every street corner. And they put chilli sauce on everything. Buy some sliced melon, they'll ask you if you want chilli sauce on it. On your melon. I shit you not. For Gods' Sake The National Museum of Broken Bits of Pottery had a neat exhibition on the pre-Columbian Teotihuacan civilization, featuring obsidian sacrificial blades and statues of [View Full Entry]

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!Viva México, cabrones! Well hey, and welcome to Aard's travel blog. Mexico The first stop on my world tour just had to be Mexico. You'll know what I mean if you've ever been there. Anyway, first stop: Mexico's second city, Guadalajara. Guadalajara They’ve got some cool names for towns and cities here in Mexico. I mean, “Guadalajara” sounds a lot more exotic than “Swindon”, you have to admit. I’d almost move to the town of Querétaro, just so I could say “Querétaro” a lot. Caffeine [View Full Entry]

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