We started the day with a hike up an active volcano. The dome had collapsed so the view down into the volcano was quite impressive. It was hard to breathe because of the gases and the warning signs to park backwards in the spaces made you aware that it could errupt at any time. A view in the adjacent inactive volcano showed how the vegetation filled in, while the lava flow from the active volcano showed little vegetation. Sat down for a rest and realized there was a wasp nest next to us. We enjoyed stopping at a small, but informative [View Full Entry]

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Up bright and early for a drive to the beach town of San Juan del Sur. On our way we stopped at an old family friend of Maria's parents that runs a finca of sugar cane and plantain. It was interesting to hear the process of making sugar from the sugar cane. Much of the sugar cane is hauled to the processing plants using oxen drawn wagons. The cane is cut to small pieces then pressed to get the sweet juice out. The husk is then burned to produce the heat to process the sugar and molasses for cattle. Interesting to [View Full Entry]

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The drive to Leon was quite the experience, and quite tiring for Martin how literally drove at the side of the road at time because the pavement was so full of potholes. Little kids stood by the side of the road holding out their hands for donations for whatever cordobas you would give for their effort to fill the potholes with dirt. [View Full Entry]

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Spring break 2008 and we are off to Nicaragua; leaving our beautiful Atlanta spring behind. So far we have been fortunate to be getting a more normal amount of rain and the plants are rewarding us. And sure enough it's rainy and fog as we take off No matter how many time i fly, I still enjoy popping above the clouds. We had a uneventful 3+ hour flight to Managua. Tried to get a picture of the volcano as we approached, but on wrong side of plane and then a cloud concealed the view. The inactive volcano and lake are adjacent [View Full Entry]

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This will be the last blog for this adventure and my head is swimming with all kinds of thoughts and emotions, so if you are not into that kind of musings you may want to click the X'd red box. I'm also going to write reversing the chronology, as the time in Sydney was just too memorable. Did I need this trip or what?...real food for the soul. We have more than documented our amazement at the natural wonders of our earth, the facinating people of our world community, and today stunning architecture, a delightful musical performance in the Sydney [View Full Entry]

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With this blog we are all caught up. The YHA hostel in Hervey Beach is really great...better than a lot of hotels we've stayed at. Tennis courts, swimming pool, really nice community space, good hot showers, great staff and most important at this point is fast Internet with USB ports. We are staying here the two nights either side of the two days and night on Fraser Island. Got up to have breakfast and be picked up for our tour of Fraser Island. It is a world heritage area set aside because of it uniqueness. Approximate 475,000 acres of sand...largets [View Full Entry]

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Boy there is a lot to cover here, so many KM to cover today. We all wanted to jump out and get a picture to show we have finally made it to the Northern Territory. Not enough people to handle this huge area of land so it's not a state. Then we saw the Rock!!!...nope it was "Fool-a-ru" or Mt. Conner. It is twice the size of Uluru, but because it is made of two kinds of sandstone it's not a monolith. But it's not long until the real Uluru (white man says Ayers Rock) is in site. We made [View Full Entry]

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Our late afternoon flight was uneventful and we arrived in good time to arrange another two days on our car rental. We've decided to drive up to Cape Tribulation...everyone talks about the beaches. We are staying at the hostel for two nights so we can focus on a full day on the reef. It was interesting to drive up north of Cairns, you can't see much because there is sugar can everywhere, right up to the road right of way. The white seed heads are really pretty in the morning sun. We made our usual stop at a quaint little [View Full Entry]

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We arrived at an Airlie Beach hostel around sunset last night, and were greeted by what sounded like a butch of fighting cats. Found out they were Flying Foxes... bats, and big ones 24-30" wing spans. They were fighting over some of the fruit in the trees around the complex. We shared our breakast with a bunch of parrots, then took a wonderful hike to a remote coral beach. Couldn't help but talking a picture of the proper ladies participating in a bowling tournament. While drive we saw that Gladstone had a good botanical garden, so stopped..it was wonderful.. botanical [View Full Entry]

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By second day we were beginning to consider everyone a new friend....packed in a bus, sharing meals and kitchen duties, and using neccessities of life together tends to do that. A couple from Sweden, nurse from Holland, guy and girl from Germany, a girl from Maine, an asian girl who grew up in Melbourne, (all twenty something)and a Kiwi, Les, the old guy on the trip, celebrating his 60th birthday by retracing his single days in Alice. Erica was our leader, she's got a great playlist (read Dire Straits/Mark Knopfler/ and more) on her MP3 player, so we know we're [View Full Entry]

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