Sunday October 7th An early rise today saw us ready to leave by 7.30am. We had only been ready for a couple of minutes when Peter called out and we proceeded to pack our luggage into his car. We made a stop at a bakery before arriving at the ferry terminal. Rags was surprised at the size of these car ferries even though we had seen a couple on our way past on the bus over the last week. Although our ticket said to be there at 8.00am it was typically almost 8.30am before the gates opened and we were able to board. However, it did promptly leave Dubrovnic at 9.00am. There were plenty of seats and we found a comfy one in the bar area. Here we spread out and passed the time reading our ... read more

Friday 21st September After an early start we arrived at the bus stop before 8.30am which took us to the harbour. Of course we were early and almost went on the wrong boat! We started chatting with another fellow who had the same ticket as us. His name was Mark Oman and he was here writing a movie script set in Vallarta during the fiesta for the Day of the Dead. The working title for this is “Always not Forever”. By the time we boarded the boat we still only numbered a dozen and this included only 7 gringos. It was glorious cruising south along the Bay of Banderas, the breeze blowing gently, the sun masked by some clouds and the captain taking us close to the land to explain the various sights. Our first stop ... read more

Friday 7th September This morning we met the challenge of what we have nicknamed “Pancho's Ladder” rather than Jacobs Ladder in Perth. There are 200 steps compared to about 250 but with the humidity here it isn't any easier! With several of the locals we did our 3 (or slightly less for J) climbs before jumping into the ocean to cool off. Unfortunately, the ocean temperature is like a tepid bath and not very cooling so we had to test the pool as well when we got back to the condo. Rosa, the cleaning lady was in for the second time this week, not much to do as we keep the place fairly tidy. She looks for work however, and pulled apart our made up bed and changed the sheets again, took the towels, and to ... read more

Monday 27th August This morning we decided to treat ourselves to a full breakfast at one of the restaurants we had seen last night in the Zocalo. Firstly though we packed our backpacks as we had to catch a taxi at 1300 to the airport. Breakfast was great and we both ate enough to last us for some time. Judy had scrambled eggs Mexican style, Rags had hotcakes - 3 large ones smothered in maple syrup even he found hard to finish! The heavens opened whilst we were having our meal so we waited for a break. We headed off for the Fuerte De San Diego, a fort built for protection from English & Dutch buccaneers. It is now a museum and, as we soon found out, closed on Mondays! To add to our frustration the ... read more

Tuesday 21st August The taxi ordered by the hotel was waiting for us at 8am and had us at the airport by 8.30. There, an officious young lady searched our belongings quite thoroughly before we were eventually allowed to board a twin engined Cessna with 4 other passengers. Even if we were armed, bomb-carrying terrorists what real damage could we do? Perhaps this whole terrorist thing is being overplayed! Nice easy flight, 29 minutes to our destination. Unfortunately the plane's perspex windows were crazed and sun-damaged so we could see little detail below. On arrival at Puerto Escondido we noticed there were holes in the leading edges of the wings, crudely patched with fibreglass! Glad we didn't see that before we got on. The bus alternative wouldn't have been pleasant - over 7 hours for 300 ... read more