Hawaii? FIne thanks. The 6 hour flight from LA to Honolulu arrived just before midday. As we approached to land, we were surprised at how big Oahu was and how many high rise buildings there were. At the airport, we boarded the bus to Waikiki, where we had booked a hostel just one block from Waikiki beach. After checking in, we went for something to eat before getting our first taste of Hawaii's beach bathing. Waikiki beach is very busy with a line of high rise hotels all the way along it. It turns out that the beach is actually artificial [View Full Entry]

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California road trip part 4 After cleaning up the mess left by the racoons at our campsite, we headed towards San Fancisco. The route in from the north took us over the famous Golden Gate Bridge which provided great views over the city and the bay. After a short drive through the city centre, we headed over the Bay Bridge to the university town of Berkely where he hoped to find some cheap accomodation. Unfortunately there wasn't any and we had to settle for a fairly expensive motel but it was much nicer than camping. We spent the rest of the [View Full Entry]

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California road trip part 3: Yosemite Yosemite, another one of Americas national parks was our next destination. As we crossed the hills from Death Valley into Owens valley we could see the Huge Mountains of the Sierra Nevada where the park was. We headed North and camped for the night in the foothills near Lone Pine which was a beautiful site but which quickly reminded us that high means cold and we were only going to get higher. We carried on up the valley to Mono lake which is an inland salt water lake with it's own unique eco system which [View Full Entry]

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California road trip part 2 We left the campsite at Sunset Crater and headed off on the long drive through Arizona to Nevada. By mid afternoon, we reached the famous Hoover Dam which holds back the Colorado river and provides energy and water for most of Southern Nevada as well as creating a huge lake for fishing and boating. We crossed the dam and parked on the Arizona side. We walked along the top of the dam and admired the views over both sides as well as the new bridge that is under construction to divert the traffic away from the [View Full Entry]

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West coast road trip part 1 We picked our car up from LAX airport and headed off on the highway. On the way out of LA, we drove up to the Hollywood hills to get a closer view of the famous Hollywood sign. We couldn't go too close though, as we'd heard that the letters were protected by many security cameras, and anyone wanting a close up view would soon find themselves on the wrong side of the LAPD. Leaving LA behind, we drove east into the desert and towards the Joshua Tree National park. We'd bought a national park pass [View Full Entry]

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Southern California: 1st September 2008 Our first stop back in the States was San Diego, just a short tram ride from the Mexican border. We had booked a hostel in the centre of town for three nights which was right next to the Gas Light district where all the restaurants and bars are. Although San Diego is quite a large city, it never seemed too busy and it was easy to get around. While there we visited the attractions at Ocean Beach, a laidback surfer hangout with lots of bars and surf shops. We also spent a whole day at the [View Full Entry]

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Here's a page of some of the videos we've made on our camera, they include the magic hat video and roller blading Richard, enjoy! [View Full Entry]

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Baja California - Mexico It was time to leave mainland Mexico so after having chicken and chips for breakfast we headed to the ferry port at Mazatlan to see if there was going to be a ferry that day. Thankfully there was one due to leave at 5pm, the journey being 12 hours long. We didn't board the ferry until 4.30pm so we knew we were going to be behind schedule. The boat eventually left the harbour at 7pm and headed off into the amazingly red sunset over the Sea of Cortez. We had only purchased salon class seats and not [View Full Entry]

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Pacific coast August 15th - August 24th When we had arrived in Taxco we immediately attempted to purchase tickets to our next destination, Zihuatenejo. Unfortunately, unlike as we had thought, there was no direct route. This meant we had to get a bus from Taxco to Acapulco and then Acapulco to Zihuatenejo, meaning an extra 5 hours on our journey time... hey ho! The buses were pretty comfortable and during the change at Acapulco we managed to get some nice tostadas for lunch. On arrival in Zihuatenejo we got a taxi to our hostel, via another hostel which sounded similar, and [View Full Entry]

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Central Mexico 7th August - 14th August After filling up on the great Hostel breakfast, we left Oaxaca and caught the bus North to Puebla. We were headed for a small town outside of Puebla called Cholula which the guide book had recommended. From the huge bus station in Puebla, we took a local bus service to Cholula and started looking for the hostel we had booked via e-mail, in Spanish and everything! We eventually found the hostel which was a bit out of town in a residential area and appeared to be just a house where the owner had a [View Full Entry]

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