Shez and Lu

To save money I was able to find a short term sublet with a young shared house. I was sharing with 2 girls and 2 boys, they took me under their wing and I joined in on their movie nights, bike trips to the beach and shops, headed to a bar for live music. It was fun to keep busy in-between job and longer term accommodation hunting. Vancouver was hosting Celebration of Light festival, where Canada, china and Spain competed firework displays to music. For the Canadian entry I met up with the girl from the whistler tour. We grabbed a coffee as we sat out on kitsilano beach watching the great display. Afterwards I met up with some of the work people I met at my interview and was able to try my first Vancouver ... read more

Lucille flew home to surprise her family for a 3 week visit so I explored Vancouver on my own for a bit... I started by organising all the practical things I needed to do; got a bank account, cell phone, Insurance number so I could work and printed my cv ready for action. This is where I decided to give myself one last fun trip before job hunting really begun. So I signed up to a one night tour to Whistler, a nearby skiing resort known to have beautiful views and mountains. There was 16 of us on the tour and quickly learnt each others names through the ice breaker games and the drive out of the city. We stopped at Shannon Falls, which is the third largest falls in the state. It was pretty and ... read more

San francisco While in San Fran we walked to Pier 59, enjoyed the atmosphere, watched street performers and indulged in good seafood. There is an arcade full of all the old machines so using up our quarters we got our fortunes told, arm wrestled to test our strength. There was one that was a scene from a crack den, designed to put children off drugs. We walked up multiple steps to see the Colbert tower and admire the long stretch of views. In the evening we headed to a bar with live music and had fun talking to a few Americans and making song requests. The next day we window shopped a long an art district before making it to golden gate park. A huge park with museums and art galleries in. We enjoyed people watching ... read more

We flew into Vegas at night so we were able to see the bright lights of the strip below and marvel at our home for a few nights. Our friend from home, Dave joined us in Vegas. To try give him a good start, we organised for a limo to take us to the stratosphere hotel from the airport once we picked him up. Through the jet lag, he appeared overwhelmed but impressed and pulled through to go exploring. We enjoyed wondering around seeing the different hotels; watching acrobats in Circus Circus, being spun around on the New York, New York rollercoaster, seeing the Treasure Island pirate show. One evening we went to the old Vegas strip, Freemont St and soaked in the atmosphere. We watched the video ceiling offer a 80's music montage and listened ... read more

There is much to say about our Texas road trip as we crammed a lot into such a short space of time (I'll try not to waffle too much). We organised a hire car as it become quickly apparent everything is far apart and would be cheaper than separate bus bills. Houston We pitched up early after a long night on a bus and a tedious border crossing. We checked into the nearest motel before exploring the downtown area. It was eerie quiet; no one else was walking around. We learnt later, just before leaving, that they were in an air-con underground walkway/restaurant area instead of walking in the incredible heat like we were. After the first day, our adopted traveller Nim left us to spend the last of her trip with her uncle. Lucille moved ... read more

We parted from Belize and the company of the kiwis and headed north to Mexico. With only 5 nights to work with before needing to be in Houston to meet Katy, we decided to make only one stop in Playa del Carmen. It is from here we could reach Chichen Itza, one of the new 7 wonders of the world. It was interesting to see and clearly it is a much higher tourist attraction compared to Tikal with lots more souvenir vendors and crowds. The guide discussed how they used to play a game where the winning team's captain was sacrificed to the gods and it was the losing captain who did the beheading. Apparently that was the shame to losing and being beheaded was an honour. It was interesting to hear that they only ever ... read more

An interesting 48 hours involving 3 border crossings and pulling an all nighter in a 24 hour Denny's we made it to Antigua, Guatemala. It's a beautiful city, rich with colonial buildings and cobbled streets. Volcano trek The main reason for our stop in Antigua was to trek an active volcano, Payaca. We organised a afternoon tour so we could enjoy a morning strolling around the city and street markets. On our tour was 6 kiwis and a couple we'd met on our bus to Antigua. The hike was difficult as the temperature was high and the trail was steep. Unfortunately due to an eruption in 2008 we were unable to reach the very top but this is probably a good thing as the weather began to turn. We quickly roasted some marshmallows on a vent ... read more

A bombarded border crossing ended us in Nicaragua, we picked up a bus to Granada a city close to Nicaragua lake. It was very quaint, with tall colonial buildings and old churches. After dumping our bags off at a hostel we headed to the cathedral where you could pay to go up the bell tower. We were told it was the best view of the city and we believed it. The sun set as we were at the top so we saw the beautiful change from day to night and the city lights being switched on. The following day we hired bikes with the plan to visit a lagoon, recommended for swimming and snorkelling. The rental owner gave us vague directions and a map that stopped at the edge of the city - we were doomed ... read more

San Jose We started in the capital city so we could meet Ellie from her flight into central America. We used our time before she arrived to see Hangover 2 (Spanish title is 'Que pasa ayer?' trans: What happened yesterday?) at the cinema. It was fun to watch with the locals as they became very vocal and immersed, reacting to the film throughout. Knowing Ellie had travelled a long time and was dealing with a 7 hour time difference we kept the first few days very chilled out. We wondered the local parks and enjoyed an nice evening meal out. Tamarindo From San Jose we moved onto the costal town Tamarindo. On our first evening we met English girl, Nim who is now joining us for the rest of our time in central America. We spent ... read more

After two flights, we arrived late evening in Panama City. We were hit by the change of temperature and were ready to embrace the heat! We spent a day wondering around the historic centre, viewing the churches and scenery. We wondered down to the main shopping street and treated ourselves to $2 tops and $3 skirts. We were recommended to see a mirador by the canal so we jumped on a public bus asking for the main terminal; we decided we could book our onward travel then get the correct bus to the mirador. Turns out we didn't get the right bus, after hour travelling out of the city (there was no stops to get off any earlier) our driver told it was too dangerous to get off so we paid for our return and spent ... read more