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Hello! How are you? Really? That good!? Glad to hear it. I am also grand, thanks for asking. I thought now was as good a time as any to let you know what we've been up to since the easy life of Fiji was left behind.
Those amongst you with good memories might recall me mentioning in my last blog that we were about to head back in time on our flight to the States. This did indeed happen, we lived out the afternoon of May 22nd in both Fiji and America. If you struggle to get your head around the subject, don't worry, I lived it and it confuses me.
LA was our destination in America, for what was essentially 13 hours in transit. We decided that we wanted to take advantage of our little time there by heading into the city rather than sit doing nothing all day in the airport. You may think that the fact that both me and Chris visited LA almost 4 years ago would have given us a handy advantage in terms of maximising our time there. It didn't. We took a bus miles and miles to an area with nothing of interest anywhere around, before eventually managing to make our way to Venice Beach, which for those that don't know, is situated fairly close to LAX. Where we were to begin with.
We had a cool afternoon there anyway enjoying the wide range of, um, 'interesting' people who roam the boardwalk and capped our day off in fine American style by demolishing a 22 inch pizza between us for our tea.
Of course the best thing about our whole, brief America visit happened in the airport when we landed and bumped into none other than Russell Brand, fresh from being deported from Japan. I seem to have told people that we had an extensive chat. This is indeed true. But only if extensive means, err, tiny...
Once our time in LA was over it was time to embark on what is undeniably the final leg of our trip, 8 weeks in Central America, making our way from San Jose to Mexico City.
It is fair to say that once we arrived in San Jose we were a teeny bit jetlagged. I slept for 14 hours which was fairly epic. Chris managed a cool 18! If you're a sleep fan like me you can't fail to be impressed.
We had two nights in San Jose before heading south to Manuel Antonio where there was a national park which we walked around, seeing some monkeys, sloths, tapirs and lots of other smaller critters. Whilst we were in Manuel Antonio we were treated to the loudest thunderstorm the world (probably) has ever seen. At one point the thunder made our room physically shake. It was class.
Our next stop was a town way up in the mountains called Monteverde. Our time here was quite heavily influenced by our desire to watch the Barcelona masterclass in the Champions League final, and we didn't do all that much.
From Monteverde we went to La Fortuna, where we spent just one night, having spent our day there at the Baldi Hot Springs resort which sits on the side of an active volcano. The hot springs were amazing, the water stupidly warm and relaxing. The downside was that I managed to give myself quite a hefty bang on the head in a water slide incident. I'm OK though, stop worrying! We even managed to end the day feeling genuinally clean for the first time in a very, very long time. Even Chris's feet, which is a remarkable achievement!
Our next day was spent crossing the border from Costa Rica to Nicaragua. Or to put it another way, spending 11 hours on 5 buses, a boat and a taxi crossing the border from Costa Rica to Nicaragua.
Our first 3 nights in Nica were spent on Ometepe island. We didn't do a lot initially, but more than made up for this on our last day when we tackled Maderas, the smaller of the two volcanoes which make up the island. This was a genuinally tough days walking which began with a half 4 wake up call. When we got to the crater at the top the cloud was blocking out the whole view and on the way down there was a lot of falling over from Gandalf (he had a stick) and myself in the slippy mud. It was definitely worth the effort though, and there we got a true feeling of intrepidness from walking the tricky terrain, in what was genuine rainforest.
After the island we have spent a couple of nights in both Granada and Leon, where we are now. These are both very attractive, colonial towns which are much closer to the typical image of Central America we had in our minds than what was provided by the greenery of Costa Rica. The day after tomorrow will probably be spent 'volcano boarding'. I'd love to tell you this isn't what it sounds like, but it is. There's an active volcano, a toboggan and, probably a slightly scared, Simon. So that'll be fun...
The best I can offer you in terms of foolish behaviour from The Honey Monster (he is refusing to shave) has been his wearing of plimsolls on our super muddy jungle walk and his struggles to master hobs in our hostels. He tried to light an electric hob with a lighter the other day.
I know.
That will do from me anyway, I've gone on long enough. I do hope everything is fine and dandy with you wherever you are in the world.
Speak soon,
Si
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mum
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Volcano Boarding......
.... seriously Si what is your problem? Do you have to try that? I'm sure there is no need you know - how about a nice little walk somewhere - much more sensible! (Yeah well its a mum thing - we worry). Have a great time anyway and take care, tis good to hear that you are both OK and have finally had a decent wash by the sound of things! Keep the blogs coming and enjoy your birthday on the 16th! Miss you loads lots of love Mum xxxxxx