Olstar

Road Trip So me, Dan and Phil left Jersey harbour to make our way by boat to St Malo in France in order to drive roughly the 600 miles to Chamonix for a week of skiing and boarding in the Alps. The drive down to Chamonix was great with Phil taking the reins all the way to Chartres on the first day where we stopped for the night at a Mercure Hotel. Before bed we decided to watch a quick bit of TV before getting some well needed rest and happened to come across an old black and white movie. This would normally make one immediately turn over in boredom. However, it happened not to be your average black and white movie as it was some man probing a woman with a 12ft long branch with ... read more

Hiroshima Upon arriving by Shinkansen train we were immediately greeted by warmer weather and it has to be said a warmer people. Hiroshima will always stand out in history as the place where the first atomic bomb was dropped to devastating effect. So much of the area is understandably dominated by this history with monuments, parks, museums and sculptures and there is a huge sense of what happened that fateful day should never happen again with the city representing a warning to mankind. However, despite this morbid past Hiroshima happens to be a thriving city. With plenty of lush greenery and trees, a main river that runs through the city and plenty of restaurants and tourist sites to keep the majority interested. The people are warm and friendly and seem happy rather than indifferent to the ... read more

Japans efficiency was impressed upon me even before our MD-11 had touched down in the country. Flying into Kansai airport you can easily see its perfect rectangle shape of reclaimed land sitting as an island just off Osaka, but it can be slightly unnerving for some as the plane drops lower and lower while viewing from your window seat nothing but the blue sea, which gives for the briefest moment the impression that your about to touch down on the ocean and its all gone horribly wrong (don't like flying by the way, can you tell?) then suddenly tarmac is there and you've touched down for a safe landing. Once through immigration and having completed the promise to notify authorities of any flu like symptoms me, Matt and Alex made our way to information to find ... read more

Mindo Me and Miriam as we had our friends car for the weekend decided to take a trip to Mindo a small town about an two hours or so outside of Quito. There you can do various things like tube rafting, cable sliding and swim at the different waterfalls on the river Nambillo. First we had some lunch after the drive steak apanada (breaded) for around three dollars and a huge plate at that! So after lunch we (I) decided to take a walk to the River to see whats up. Along the way we saw various groups ready with protective helmet and life saver to take on the tame rapids of the Rio Nambillo. Moving on we continued to climb the hill to find the waterfalls which as the sign indicated were around two miles ... read more

The plan was to sell Miriam's Car in Cuenca with the help of her Brother Santiago, so that involved a fairly substantial road trip but first we would stop in Babahoyo to pay a visit to Miriam's Mum and Aunt. I always enjoy coming out of Quito and hitting the tropical plains and feeling the warm breeze, looking at the local shops and houses as they pass by. Babahoyo is a fairly plain town with no Tourist attractions as such and merely a place most people pass through to get somewhere else. It is surrounded by two rivers, the San Pablo and the Caracol, which joined form the Babahoyo river, which flows into the Guayas river, eventually ending in the sea. A processing and trade centre for the surrounding agricultural region handling rice, sugarcane, fruits, balsa ... read more