So, its now autumn (my first since 05) and some might ask the question - Australia + No Sun = Why? Not me though. Still having a good time. I finally got myself a job and am living the 9-5 dream in an office. Except that its actually 11-7 and its pretty damn cushy. Can't complain. Pretty much done all the sites in Sydney now. Still have to do the Harbour Bridge Walk and thats about it. Kirsty and I went out to the blue mountains last weekend and that was good fun. Tomorrow we are going to the Easter [View Full Entry]

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Well, managed to stay in Scotland for a few months and had an awesome time over Christmas and New Year catching up with everyone, shivering in the cold and not drinking for an entire month! Decided to extent my post-graduation travel and visit my sister in Sydney. So, I endured what seemed like weeks of travel on 4 trains, 3 tubes, 2 planes and 1 rather late lift. Having travelled on trains all day with an excess of baggage, been tortured by my cousins, woken at 4 to trudge through the London snow to my 10 hour flight to LA for [View Full Entry]

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So, i recovered for another day in a nice hotel room in Guatemala city before getting my 18 hour bus the next day to Managua. Nothing worthy of noting happened apart from sharing a taxi with a nun at 3am to get the bus at 4. Before this trip sitting in a taxi at 3am with a nun would have seemed strange, but at the time i didn't think anything of it. Got 2 seats to myself on the 'luxary' King Quality bus and napped intermittently. The bus was freezing cold with the Air Con but maybe thats better than the [View Full Entry]

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well, i don´t really know where to start with this one. Left San Cristobal and the intense cold and got a touristy shuttle bus to Quetzaltenango (aka Xela). We were sharing a bus with 2 Slovenian ladies in their sixties who roped us into helping them find the hotel they wanted to stay in. So we ended up staying in the same place right next door and hearing more Slovenian than Spanish for the next few days. So Quetzaltenango´s rein as the coolest name of a place i had been to was short lived when we got up incredibly early on [View Full Entry]

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Well, i slept more than 5 hours for the 1st time in God knows and we got a relaxed bus to San Cristobal De Las Casas. This is a colonial town in the heart of Chiapas. We stepped off the bus to be met by the freezing cold!!! it was bloody freezing, we got to the hostel to find everyone in Mayan hats and jackets sitting round a fire. We soon joined them and sat wondering if we were actually in Mexico. So apparently it gets cold during the nights around here!! So today we spent wandering around the marvellous markets [View Full Entry]

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OK, so spent the night in Flores and nothing much happened apart from spotting Jamie Theakston walking down the pathway outside the cafe i was sitting in. (No really, a whole film crew trailed along behind him). Left for Mexico at 5am the next morning on a wee rickety minibus along a pot hole filled dirt track. I was half asleep the whole time but things appeared to keep falling off the underside of the van and we´d stop so the driver and the bag guy could fiddle around a bit before we set off again. The drive didn´t take long [View Full Entry]

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Well, today i arose from my hammock with a middle-aged Guatemalan man waving a torch in my face. I use the term arose in the standing up sense as opposed to the waking up sense because its bloody hard to fall asleep in a hammock. So we left Rio Dulce after an enjoyable few days seeing the river and the Caribbean coast and headed up on a bus to the Nothern region of Guatemala, Peten. This bus ride was an experience and a half as it was 2 hours late, broke down twice and i spent most of the time standing [View Full Entry]

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well, ended up leaving San Pedro La Laguna the same day i last wrote in this and ended up in the super touristy Panajachel renamed Gringoachengo, which means Gringotown. Fortunately we only had to stay there for one night before catching the 5am chicken bus to Guatemala City or, as it´s referred to here - Guate. Had a fairly easy stopover and got the bus up to Rio Dulce, a nice little river town near the Caribbean coast. Arrived here at night and got persuaded to a hotel on the river only accessable by boat. So we floated up the jungle [View Full Entry]

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ok, so we left Antigua at midday the day after arriving having got a good feeling of the place and seeing what there was to see. Had a good night out on the Saturday night and met a lot of locals which was surprising. From what i have experienced here the Guatemalans don´t appear to be as open and receptive as the Costa Ricans. But i suppose í´ve only seen some very touristy places so that is to be expected. So we managed to barter down a minivan ride straight from Antigua to Lake Atitlan which was a whole lot easier [View Full Entry]

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ok, so here i am on my first proper stop on my travels and i have to say, it´s a very beautiful place. This old colonial town near the capital jam packed with tourists and a bustling market. So, finished working last friday and headed into San José to stay for a few nights. Had a very good few days with a very special person and recharged my batteries before heading off on the 7.30am bus to Managua, Nicaragua. So i got 2 seats to myself on a very plush, aircondicioned bus and was content just to watch the landscape. It´s [View Full Entry]

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