K- The last few days have been a little “trains planes and automobiles” – albeit without trains or planes. We are definitely back to nitty gritty traveling after our little Caribbean break! Reluctantly leaving Bocas del Toro we took a water taxi, normal taxi and bus to the border with Costa Rica followed by 2 buses (with an overnight in San Jose) to Nicaragua. The border crossings were relatively painless - just tedious, hot and completely inefficient. I took a few chill pills and smiled bravely but it was very hard to stop myself suggesting process improvements! We then took a ferry to Ometepe – a Nicaraguan island made up of 2 volcanoes joined by a lava flow in the middle of a vast lake. There was a big local event on there this weekend – ... read more

M- Our first stop in Central America was Panama City. Apparently there are three things you must do in Panama City – the Canal, the old town and look back at the city skyline from the causeway. We stayed a couple of days and did all three. The fourth, which is obligatory, is to sweat several pounds every hour. The first three you could really do easily in a day but we wanted to break ourselves in gently to the first few days of our RTW trip outside of the US. Re the fourth, we gained short relief from it by retreating to our B&B's pool. We visited the old town first. It is a Unesco Heritage site and undergoing a huge revamp because basically it is mainly derelict and about to fall down. It sits ... read more

K - Those of you from England will probably remember the Tango man advert which was finally banned due to the chaos and injuries caused in school playgrounds (and some offices) throughout the country. For those of you who think Tango is an Argentinian dance see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1jywlZG74o. We have now found where Tango man actually went to recover after his summary dismissal from TV advert land.......where else but South Carolina?! We lured him out of retirement to do a quick photo shoot for us and are assured that he is fully enjoying hunting & fishing in the Palmetto State. Following the excitement of catching fish earlier in the week our foray in to the natural world has continued with the discovery of a Black Widow spider plus eggs lurking under the BBQ. Some of you may ... read more

M- We arrived in the Carolinas yesterday to hook up with my mum and brother from the UK and brother and nephew from Florida. The plan is to scatter my father’s ashes at the weekend and generally hang out for a few days at my mum’s house on the lake and spend some family time together. My aunt, uncle and cousins who live nearby have been keeping an eye on the house for my mum. When we arrived yesterday everything looked fantastic. Thanks guys. With the 100 deg. temperature and high humidity it didn’t take long before the family was laughing and joking by/in the pool. The house is in the middle of a forest on a small lake with a few neighbors. You can’t help but chill when you come here. After an afternoon in ... read more

M -After an unsuccessful evening whale watching whilst enjoying a very tranquil sunset off Lime Kiln Point to the west of the island looking for Orcas we decided to stump up the money and take a whale watching trip. I seem to be the kiss of death to these trips but given that Orcas inhabit and pass through this area I assumed we were on to a sure thing. 2 hours into the trip all we had seen was a porpoise but the flotilla of boats on the horizon was promising. Sure enough, as we arrived at the group we were rewarded with a water spout from a Humpback Whale. The whale then breached the surface and did a number of shallow dives for the assembled masses giving us a few tail shots none of which ... read more