Geo: 9.98102, -84.8392What a different country is Costa Rica! After the poverty ofNicaragua this was an immediate change. Sure, they have their poor people likeeverywhere but as soon as we arrived it was clear that this was a prosperouscountry. In fact their immigration “problem” is that lots of Nicaraguans comedown for work and do the jobs the Costa Ricans don't want to do. The economy isbased on coffee production, money coming in from overseas and tourism. They arethe only country in the world to have no standing army. The army was abolishedin 1948 and all the money that was spent on defence was spent on education withthe result that they now have a 97% literacy rate. If only the rest of theworld would follow suit. They also havea welfare state with the equivalent of national contributions ... read more

Geo: 13.9154, -90.7993Guatemala was the heart of the Mayan world. They built their huge temples in the north and collected jade from the south where the Pacific and Caribbean tectonic plates meet resulting in frequent earthquakes which throw up the jade from lower in the earths crust. There are also 33 volcanoes in the country several of them still active. The Spanish came along and colonised the country in 1527 so the language is mostly Spanish but some Mayan still exists. Originally it was the largest country in Central America but politics caused the country to be changed in the 30s in order to make what is now Belize and Honduras. Antigua was the first capital of Guatemala and is a very Spanish colonial town built up in the hills where it is much cooler than ... read more

Geo: 22.88, -109.9Cabo San Lucas is a small holiday resort in Mexico. It is really a cheap place for a holiday especially for people who like beaches and water sports. The marina is a pleasant place to walk around and there are numerous trips offered to go fishing, whale watching or parasailing, which did look good and I would like to try it one day. We did not have an official tour booked so just strolled around, had a beer and strolled back. We heard later that the tours were a bit pathetic so glad we did our own thing.The ship was moored in the bay so we were tendered in. The 7 Seas Navigator was also moored in the bay. It was on a world cruise and left before we did ,sailing all the way ... read more

Geo: 34.0533, -118.245I never realised Los Angeles was so huge. The county itself is massive with lots of different areas which are small cities in themselves and all merge into the main city. It is not a city you can walk around in a day and you certainly need a car if you are going to see anything at all. We were very fortunate to stay with friends in West Hills, one of the suburbs in the North west of the county. Our wonderful hosts kindly drove us all around the place. Poor things had to wait ages at the airport as it took about 3 hours from when the plane landed to getting out of the airport. Be warned. The queues for passport control were the longest we had seen anywhere in the world. On ... read more

Geo: -32.7171, 152.155Australians are a friendly informal bunch of people and none more so than Helen's friends, who arrived in boats, planes, vans and cars on Friday and Saturday. We went up to her place on her birthday which was on Friday Dec 2nd and had champagne and present opening in the morning and then down to the Rock Lobster for lunch for 12 of us. Lovely to meet old friends and new. More people arrived on Saturday which was the day of the party and the whole road was lined up with their vans and cars. The party in the evening was freaky dress so Helen had the apartment appropriately decked out with freaky stuff and there were some amazing costumes, disco, loads of beer and wine and not too much food! I think we ... read more