SimmiG

Hi everyone I arrived home safely on Friday 13th which was a feat in itself! My very special friend Leanne picked me up at the airport. It was great to see her and her little boy Riley and I was not feeling too jetlagged after upgrading to business class from Auckland to Melbourne so I could get a little sleep! I found before me a house full of balloons and a big surprise with my beautiful sister Nikki, mum and my two gorgeous nieces Stephanie and Ellie jumping out from behind the door as I opened it. It was so great to see them. And mum did all my washing which was fantastic...thanks Mum. Nikki had the fridge stocked with lots of healthy stuff and then it was time to hand out some presents which I ... read more

After trapsing the streets of Mexico city for 2 hours I finally found a place to download my photos one block from my hotel! It has taken me 4 hours to put them all up. I wish I could have done them with my stories however hopefully you will be able to follow them. They are in the following order Havana (at the start and end of my trip), Santiago de Cuba, Trindad, Santa Clara, Veradero (just a couple of the beach here) and Vinales and Pina de Rio. I really hope you enjoy them as much as I did taking them. The ones of the Tropicana show have turned our really well and I have some great people shots as well. I even managed to get in a few myself. See you all soon!! love ... read more

Hi everyone, My last day in Havana today. I will be sad to say goodbye to Cuba as I have lots of fond memories now etched into the eclectic landscape of my mind. I caught up with Laura my friend from the UK again here and we have been hanging out and having lots of fun. We have been having dinner at the Hotel Sevilla which has the most amazing view of the city from its resturant on the 9th Floor. You can really imagine Frank Sinatra singing a few songs around the grand piano here. It is beautiful inside and out and it has an internet cafe as well which is where I am now and its about 2 mins from my hotel...bonus! I have a few pics to show you so you can see ... read more

Hi everyone, I spent yesterday in Santa Clara visited the Che memorial which is actually where he is buried and also visited the site of a train derailment which he instigiated during the revolution to capture ammunition and a few hundred of the enemy. Its funny you know everywhere you go there are so many photos of the various aspects of the revolution. There were before and after shots of the train wreck. They used a bulldozer to move the tracks and had photos of this they were very clever in the way they captured history and I am sure this was all about marketing the whole revolution thing as well. Laura the girl I met from the UK and I travelled from Trinidad to Santa Clara and we shared a hotel room. Our hotel had ... read more

Hi everyone, Still no ability to load photos here I am afraid hopefully when I get to veradero in a couple of days. I have a fantastic collection however until then you will just have to take my word for it. I am currently in Trinidad. I was supposed to leave yesterday however met a couple of great people and decided to stay a little longer. Laura is from Manchester in UK and Mary is from South Korea. We went to Casa de la Musica the night before last and had a great night. More Cuban music and salsa. There is a Casa de la Musica in every town I think however this one in Trinidad is outside. Was a beautiful night and the mojitos and beers were flowing. There was another Australian girl there who ... read more

Hi everyone, Well it has been tough trying to find an internet that works in this beautiful part of the world and as for loading photos onto CDs I am not sure that I will get to do that till I get to Mexico City in just over a week. I can´t use my hotmail at the moment as it keeps crashing the system so if you need to contact me please use my bigpond address simone.guild@bigpond.com My first day I spent wandering around Havana and felt a little like a fish out of water because of my under developed spanish language skills. I needed to buy a bag to leave some stuff behind at the hotel cos you all know how I can shop well my backpack is currently 20kg and rising. I went to ... read more

Hi everyone I have been in Mexico now for almost a week in Playa del Carmen. I spent my first 4 days relaxing on the beach and was starting to get bored so thought I better do some day trips to keep things interesting. The weather has been brilliant every day and of course I got burned to a crisp on day one and only now does it not hurt to sit down. The fake tan from NYC has certainly washed off so I am working on my own now. Slow process. Yesterday I went to see Chichen Itza which are Mayan Ruins. It is rumoured that the Mayan´s were actually aliens as they were so advanced and mathematically brilliant. They came up with the zero and the negative and positive numbers either side way back ... read more

Hi Everyone just wanted to let you know that I am having a fantastic time here in New York city. I spent my first couple of days shopping and Danielle joined me a week ago. We went out and didn't have to pay for a drink all night!!! these accents work really well over here if you know what I mean...and people are really generous. I have met heaps of great people and we are having a ball. I haven't had my photos downloaded to a disc yet so will post them later. So far we have seen the Empire State building, The Museum of Modern Art, have seen a broadway show RENT which was fabulous, have done the cruise around the statue of Liberty at night and saw the Manhattan skyline which is just beautiful. ... read more