michaelandcaroline - Michael Blake & Caroline Proverbs | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe | 0 Comment(s) | 35 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s) | [diary=321282] | 2008-09-08 15:03:00
 michaelandcaroline | Michael Blake & Caroline Proverbs | Travel Blog |
michaelandcaroline - Michael Blake & Caroline Proverbs
Where our journey will take us!
Map Legend: 12%, 32 of 263 Territories
Yellow 
Green 
Maroon 
These are all the places we plan to visit. As we go through our journey we'll change the colour to green for the country we are in, maroon for where we've been and yellow for where we've yet to go.
Hi and welcome to this diary of our big adventure - travelling the globe and fulfilling our lifetime dream. Along the way we plan to do some voluntary work in South Africa, India and Central America.
We hope this blog provides a way of keeping in touch, sharing our experiences and introducing you to some wonderful people and places.
Michael's daughters, Sarah and Louise, will be joining us along the way. Whilst we'll miss them a lot, we've been encouraged by their support and patience in indulging this moment of self discovery.
We hope you enjoy our journey and perhaps it may inspire some of you to do something equally mad and wonderful!
Thanks for tuning in.
Michael & Caroline
Joined on: October 28th 2007
Last Login: September 8th 2008
Blog Entries: 32
Photos: 1023
Last Login: September 8th 2008
Blog Entries: 32
Photos: 1023
Status: BLOGGER
Blogs & Travel Journals
by michaelandcaroline, order by Date newest first.By michaelandcaroline
September 8th 2008
September 8th 2008
Brazil 2 - Rio de Janeiro
South America » Brazil » Rio de Janeiro » Rio de Janeiro
Arriving in Rio at the Novo Rio bus station we get a co-op run cab (supposed to be a safer option) to the Trip Hostel in Santa Teresa - so we pay what should be the fair price of R26 (£8)& discover that if we’d just hailed a cab from out side the fare would have been R12 (£4) - lesson learnt! Trip Hostel is perched on a hill side off a winding cobbled street which has local buses & the Bonde (tram) running past it regularly - both stop & pick up passengers when asked to (anywhere along their route) [View Full Entry]
By michaelandcaroline
August 29th 2008
August 29th 2008
Brasil 1 - Foz do Iguassu & Salvador.
South America » Brazil » Bahia
Foz do Iguassu We set off from Buenos Aires at 7pm on the Crucero del Norte Bus to Puerto Iguazu, still in Argentina but 17 hours away!! It’s the rush hour & it takes the bus nearly an hour to get past the limits of BA - competition for the M25 definitely & they have 8 lanes in places!! We settle down in Ejecutivo class (semi Cama - this is just short of the sleeper option but very comfortable non the less. They also do a Cama leite - which is where your seat converts to a bed!!). We are upstairs [View Full Entry]
michaelandcaroline - Michael Blake & Caroline Proverbs | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe | 0 Comment(s) | 29 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s) | [diary=317663] | 2008-08-29 19:19:52
By michaelandcaroline
August 5th 2008
August 5th 2008
Argentina - Buenos Aires & a taste of Uruguay in Colonia del Sacramento
South America » Argentina » Buenos Aires
The American Airlines flight from Mexico City to Dallas Forth Worth, in the US is slightly late taking off which is a concern as we only have 1¼ hours for the connecting flight to Buenos Aires from there. After a mild panic & contradictory advice about luggage collection and security - we make it with 10 minutes to spare. We take AA again for the 10 hour (thankfully overnight) journey to South America which is uneventful other than they showed the worst film ever made - Penelope - (mostly Brits in it including Lenny Henry as a cop!!) - M gives [View Full Entry]
michaelandcaroline - Michael Blake & Caroline Proverbs | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe | 0 Comment(s) | 59 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s) | [diary=308399] | 2008-08-05 01:41:36
By michaelandcaroline
July 24th 2008
July 24th 2008
A little taste of Guatemala (via El Salvador) and a final adios to Mexico City
Central America Caribbean » Guatemala » Antigua
Going to Guatemala for 3 days is clearly madness! We definitely got our planning wrong as we should have allowed more time here before going to South America. Unfortunately we stayed a bit too long in Mexico - on the Mayan Riviera stretch - waiting for Louise to join us in Belize and we could have done Belize in a week so had more time for Guatemala. But, if it wasn’t for the fact that we had pre-booked our flights - we needed to show the US immigrations folk that we had a journey out of States territory within 90 days [View Full Entry]
michaelandcaroline - Michael Blake & Caroline Proverbs | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe | 0 Comment(s) | 29 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s) | [diary=304109] | 2008-07-24 22:34:33
By michaelandcaroline
July 12th 2008
July 12th 2008
Belize with Louise!! The Caribbean “island” attached to the mainland!
Central America Caribbean » Belize » Belize District » Belize City
So we set off from The Chetumal Hostel at 7.15 am to catch the Premier Line primera class bus direct to Belize city, which we were assured by Lilia, our host, departed at 8 am. There wasn’t one! At the ADO terminal we are informed that other than the 5am & 6am buses the next one is at 11.45am! Not something the guide books or the Premier Lines website tells you. We catch a cab to the Nuevo Mercado as we are told that there are many primera class buses that leave for BC from there about now. There aren’t! The [View Full Entry]
michaelandcaroline - Michael Blake & Caroline Proverbs | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe | 0 Comment(s) | 34 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s) | [diary=298881] | 2008-07-12 21:19:54
By michaelandcaroline
June 26th 2008
June 26th 2008
Mexico - the Caribbean Coast
North America » Mexico » Quintana Roo
We take the trusty ADO bus from Merida at 8am to Cancun where we spend an hour (which is more than enough - the Benidorm of Mexico and full of testosterone charged American teenagers just out of school, we have yet to meet one traveller who has anything nice to say about the place!) and catch the 25min fast ferry to Isla Mujeres - a small island off the coast with a totally different feel - very Caribbean. It’s small, beautiful with lovely beaches where you can walk into the sea for about 50 metres & still not be up to [View Full Entry]
michaelandcaroline - Michael Blake & Caroline Proverbs | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe | 1 Comment(s) | 25 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s) | [diary=291794] | 2008-06-26 03:46:54
By michaelandcaroline
June 17th 2008
June 17th 2008
Mexico - Chiapas and the Yucatan
North America » Mexico » Chiapas
Well, it just gets better and better!! San Cristobal de las Casas (SC) is a beautiful small town in the Chiapas region of Mexico with a lot of history & famous for it‘s Amber & organic coffee. It‘s home to the Mayan people (called indigenous people rather than Mestizo who are the mixed race folk with Spanish ancestry). A colourful & great place to chill out and enjoy real Mexicana - which is exactly what we do on our first day after an overnight (11 hour) ADO air conditioned first class bus trip from Oaxaca. The start of the journey is [View Full Entry]
michaelandcaroline - Michael Blake & Caroline Proverbs | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe | 0 Comment(s) | 49 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s) | [diary=288211] | 2008-06-17 00:48:12
By michaelandcaroline
June 4th 2008
June 4th 2008
Mexico City, Puebla & Oaxaca
North America » Mexico » Chiapas » San Cristobal de las Casas
18th May - 6 months exactly since we started the adventure and what a weird day! We leave Hong Kong at 11-35am and get to San Francisco at 08-30am the same day after an 11.5 hour flight!! Have crossed the international date line. By the time we get to Mexico City (MC) at 6-00pm we have been up for 24 hours! We’re staying at Mexico City Hostel in the heart of the city near the Zocalo (a Mexican euphemism for central plaza) in the centro historico. It’s a lovely building with tiled floors and murals on the walls; very traditional Mexican [View Full Entry]
michaelandcaroline - Michael Blake & Caroline Proverbs | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe | 1 Comment(s) | 42 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s) | [diary=283479] | 2008-06-04 01:47:41
And so we are getting to the end of the Asia part of our adventure with 3 days in Hong Kong with Sarah. We’ve been before (M twice) - we passed through from Oz 11 years ago - and so are really a bit blasé about it all. But what a difference 11 years can make. We wish we’d allowed longer!! The flight to HK takes just over an hour. We discovered late on that there was an overnight train from Guilin to HK - 11 hours getting into HK early am. Something to clock for next time perhaps!! HK Airport [View Full Entry]
michaelandcaroline - Michael Blake & Caroline Proverbs | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe | 0 Comment(s) | 23 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s) | [diary=278141] | 2008-05-20 04:16:27
So, 3rd May, Sarah’s due at lunchtime, and once we’re back, the plan is to walk around the city, eat at Wu Yi early and then let Sarah get, hopefully, a good nights sleep. The reality is there are thunderstorms all over Beijing so she gets diverted to Dalian, near to the Korea border, and while we sit at Xi’an airport waiting for her - sans mobile - she is desperately trying to contact us to find out what to do!! By the time we make contact Sarah has made it to Beijing and is waiting for her flight to leave [View Full Entry]
michaelandcaroline - Michael Blake & Caroline Proverbs | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe | 0 Comment(s) | 50 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s) | [diary=277373] | 2008-05-18 03:43:20