The flight in from Tokyo was a little brutal, truth be told, as it didn't land until nearly 11pm, and then there was the queue for immigration. I've been in some slow moving queues before, but this one took me an hour to move about 10 metres! Naturally my luggage was waiting for me when I walked through the otherside, so I guess there's a silver lining to most things! On the other hand it meant it was now midnight and I needed to get into Beijing with two huge bags... After a quick chat to the "tourist information" people I decided to brave the taxi rank.... the TI had said that my luggage wouldn't fit in a taxi, but that they had a car they could provide, for a mere snip, at 5 times the ... read more

I've been in the resort for about a week now, and we've had over a metre of fresh snow so far, and it's snowing very lightly as I write this. We were all moved into one house together - the skiers and the snowboarders, and it just so happens to be brand new, and very plush! It's a bit of a hike from the slopes, mind, but we can slide across the carparks on the way back at least. The town has 5 onsens - thermal baths, (need to explore these) and the resort is actually down the side of a volcano; i'm not sure if it's extinct or not! This explains the baths, and the horrendous smells at various points on the slopes! There's a spectacular volcano opposite, too, looking for all the world like ... read more

Flying out of the states was a whole lot easier than flying in, but everyone still has to take their shoes off, without exception. I'd allowed 3 hours, and I was at the gate in 20 minutes. Oh well! The 12 hour flight seemed shorter than that, even allowing for a couple of hours kip. On the way in the captain spoke over the pa to tell us there was a good view of mount Fuji, and sure enough, there it was, rising from the haze and completely dominating the landscape; you can see why it's so important to the Japanese. On landing my snowboard was almost on the carousel before I got there! Had to wait for my backpack, mind, and I started to remember why I like Japan so much; it's the little quirks. ... read more

So I thought i'd just jot a few things down about the continent. People keep asking what was my favourite bit and I don't know how to answer; spotting the giant otters in the pantanal was pretty special, as was the snorkelling at Bonito. Iguassu falls were awe inspiring, as was the perito moreno glacier. The whales getting so close at peninsular valdes was very special, and the view of mount fitzroy was simply breathtaking. Low points would have to be breaking my camera, and adding insult to injury by losing the memory card, and I was not as awestruck as I was expecting by torres del paine, or machu picchu. Speaking of which I spot that there's bad flooding there now - I seem to have been 1 step ahead - rio, ilha grande, and ... read more

Despite the roosters, it turned out to be a nice day; even the sun had come out! We had to take a water taxi to the boat as the tide was out, then northeastward, through almost unbroken sunshine to Santa Cruz. After jumping off the boat and frying in the heat we jumped into another minibus, up to another tortoise sanctuary; they were a little bit bigger here, but it started to rain again! Nevermind, the next activity was walking down a mostly huge lava tube. I say mostly because there was one point where we had to crawl through the mud as the roof was only 40 centimetres high! The afternoon's activity was a walk to Tortuga (arrr!) bay, a beautiful sandy beach hiding an equally beautiful lagoon. We hopped into a few kayaks, and ... read more