24 April 2010 - Eating, drinking and sleeping like royalty

Mendoza turned out to be quite a treat. Firstly our accommodation was a family run B&B rather than the usual hostel fare and secondly it was Lisa's birthday whilst we were in town which meant that we could take our eyes off the budget for a little while. The next few days included:

• A delicious meal for Lisa's birthday made up of a huge pork steak, morcilla (blood sausage) and chorizo as well as an excellent bottle of red;
• A full day touring the vineyards of the region including wine tastings at three vineyards and an enormous Jacobean banquet of a lunch;
• A day recovering from earlier excesses in the wonderful and enormous public park in town.

It was excellent to take our first adventures in wine tasting (especially having previously passed up the opportunity in Napa, California) and it thoroughly lived up to my expectations as our driver took us down dusty roads to huge wineries where we nodded patiently through explanations of the wine making process anxious to get our hands on a glass of the good stuff. And good stuff it was, I'll definitely be searching out Mendoza Malbec when we come back to the UK.

The journey out of Mendoza was in style. Having endured some nasty journeys on our travels so far we decided that for the overnight bus to Rosario we would push the boat out. So we ignored the semi-cama (literally 'half-bed') class of bus and its upmarket cousin cama ejecutivo and went right in at the top - we were travelling royal suite. This involved sitting on huge leather armchair-like seats, eating an inordinately large three course meal, drinking a glass of wine with dinner and then champagne as a digestif, enjoying a movie on our personal plasma screen TV, then the coup de grace, reclining our seats completely flat in order to get a surprisingly good night's sleep - see pic of Lisa snoozing as evidence. A worthy investment.

Rosario was a pleasant if slightly non-descript town but it was nice to be released from the pressures of 'must-see' sights for a couple of days. This meant we could wander the streets, drink coffee, eat pizza and go to the movies (Clash of the Titans - truly awful but hilarious for all of the references to 'saving Argos'). The town wasn't completely replete of sights though - we checked out Che Guevara's birthplace (and accompanying groovy mural - see photo), a huge monument to the designer of the Argentine flag and a rather disconcerting monument to the Falkland Islands (or Islas Malvinas as they are known here) that declared that the islands are 'always Argentina's.'

Rosario provided some much needed respite as next up was the rather full on Buenos Aires, an international mega-city to happily compete with London, New York or Paris. We have just completed our first full day here and already we've explored the famous Recoleta cemetery which features some family vaults that make Vegas look tasteful and taken in a tango show that varied in quality from excellent to confusing - c.f. a tango to Sweet Dreams by Annie Lennox featuring light up feather boas, bewildering. Tomorrow we move it up a gear with another big one, a visit to La Bombonera for a Boca Juniors match. Very, very excited.

16 April 2010 - Take me down to Panama City where the grass is green and the girls are pretty...

Boquete turned out to be a very nice place to relax and we easily filled our days exploring the small town and taking in the Easter week celebrations (including the obligatory procession). Christina and I spent a day hiking the Senderos los Quetzales, a path that extends through the rain forest to connect Boquete with the town of Cerro Punto. It was a nice hike and as always, I quickly started reminiscing about the Appalachian Trail. It was fascinating to learn more about Christina's job during our hike - she works as a back-country ranger at Sequoia National Park in California which means that she lives in a cabin deep in the woods for six months of the year getting to known the local terrain by going hiking everyday. Sounds incredible.

Following lots of games of table football and an ill-judged game of Monopoly (surely the meanest game in the world) it was time to go our separate ways - Christina back to San Jose and Lisa and I further south to Panama City.

Panama's capital was quite a contrast from the other Central American cities we experienced. It is the region's richest city and it wears its wealth with pride throwing up high rise buildings and designer shops all over the place. Nowhere is this feeling of new found wealth more apparent than in the Casco Viejo neighbourhood. Once the heart of the city, this area was abandoned and left to rot for years before more recent attempts at restoration and gentrification. The result is a fascinating mix of tumble down buildings that look as if a decent breath of wind would knock them over next to brand new swank-a-dank restaurants and boutique hotels. It was a unique place and the changes going on were so dramatic that it almost felt that if we came back the next day it would have changed dramatically.

During our cab ride back from Casco Viejo, we noticed (on the enormous video screen that sits on the waterfront) that there was something of a big event taking place in the city that evening - Guns 'N Roses were in town. After some speedy internet searching, Lisa found out where to buy tickets (strangely, the Panamanian equivalent of Boots the Chemist) and by early evening we had secured our place in the company of Axl Rose for the evening. We wolfed down dinner and hot-footed it to the venue on the outskirts of town.

We arrived just ahead of the scheduled 8pm start time ready for an evening of classic rock tunes. We took our spot in the crowd and were quickly approached by a girl gabbling away in Spanish about having seen me before in Boquete - she had been hiking the trail the same day as Christina and I and remembered me (the ginger beard makes me pretty memorable in these parts). So now equipped with a new group of friends for the evening we were introduced to the legends of Panamanian rock, Trente-Tres fronted by a chap who (in direct contravention of Rock's anti-establishment rules) is now a member of the countries national congress. They cranked out a few tunes (and a few ill-advised dance moves) and then made themselves scarce.

It was from here onwards that the night got frustrating. The next band, Sebastian Bach, played a full two hour set, long outstaying their welcome and pushing the time to around 11pm. This was followed by an awful lot of waiting around before finally at 12:30am, Guns 'N Roses took the stage. So, after keeping his loyal fans waiting for hours, many of whom have waited for years for his bands first visit to their country, how did Axl Rose repay them? By coming on stage and immediately having a hissy fit about somebody throwing a plastic water bottle that landed close to him. His first words to the crowd were to tell them to 'play nice boys and girls' or he wouldn't be continuing with the show. Agonisingly this did not sour the Panamanian crowd who seemed to be endlessly forgiving (either that or their English wasn't too sharp) and still cheered him along albeit a little sheepishly.

Despite the early bad blood, the distinct lack of guitar legend Slash and the insistence on playing a large number of 'hits' from their new record, when the band finally got around to cranking out some of their classics I couldn't help but smile. Sweet Child O' Mine, November Rain, Paradise City - classics every one. The show, delayed again by Axl Rose making more costume changes than Lady Gaga (how many check shirts does one man need?), finally drew to a close at 2am. We were exhausted and very glad to make it home to our beds.

Now, it's safe to say that Panama is famous for two things. Having established in Boquete that it was going to be difficult to find a Panama hat big enough to fit a Waggott sized head, it was necessary to make a visit to the country's other point of international notoriety, the Canal. Being a Birmingham boy, I fancy I know my canals, but the Miraflores locks rather put the Gas Street Basin in the shade. We arrived just in time to see a huge container ship passing through the locks and it was impressive just how quickly they get them through and how tight a squeeze it is (the ships are built to fit the locks almost exactly). We hung around for a couple of hours taking in the excellent museum (including a simulator version of the bridge of a container ship for which Lisa developed quite an affinity) and watching more ships pass through including a huge US Navy transport vessel, the Watson.

The next morning it was time to say farewell to Panama City, Panama and Central America as we took our seats on our flight to Santiago, Chile and the South American leg of our trip. Much like my emotions on leaving the US for Mexico (see here) I looked back with fondness on our time in Central America, but was ready for a change, not least towards more developed countries where simple things like using public transport are less of a trial.

Santiago couldn't have delivered this any more perfectly. Despite having suffered a pretty hefty earthquake just a month earlier, the city and all of its services were fully functional which was a delight having endured the defunct US school buses that often pass as public transport in Central America for about as long as I could bear. But it wasn't just the basics that cheered us up, Santiago felt like a thriving young city that seemingly had a university on every corner. Equally prevalent, much to our delight, were shops selling the South American favourite, empanadas. Similar to Cornish pasties from back home these half moons of delight come stuffed with cheese or meat with onions and olives (as well as various other flavours). Put this alongside decent bottles of wine for a couple of pounds and strawberries and other soft fruit at incredible prices and you have the recipe for a pretty delicious place to stay. One particularly happy morning Lisa and I ate a kilo of strawberries for breakfast for the princely sum of 60p.

We spent a couple of days taking in the city including the beautiful Cerro Santa Lucia, a hill covered in fountains and small parks affording a great view of Santiago and its spectacular back drop of the Andes. To put the icing on the cake of a great visit, we spent our final evening in the city watching a football match in the Copa Libertadores (the South American version of Europe's Champions League) something I had desperately hoped to be able to do on this trip. The match between Universidad Catolica (of Santiago) and Flamengo (from Rio de Janeiro) was a cracker. There was plenty of goal mouth incidents and the home side ran out 2-0 winners (always best, atmosphere-wise). The win kept Catolicas hopes of progressing to the next round of the competition alive and inspired a whole lot of singing in the stand behind the goal where we were sat (or rather, stood). After something of an Olympic bus journey back into the city, we returned to our hostel after midnight, tired but satisfied. After the awful football we watched in Guatemala, the game helped to rebuild some of Lisa's faith in the beautiful game.

From Santiago we headed west towards the coast and the port town of Valparaiso which also surpassed our expectations. What at first appeared to be a fairly grim port town turned out on closer inspection to be something of a bohemian enclave complete with brightly coloured suburbs in the hills surrounding the harbour with graffiti murals on just about every wall. Lisa's camera went into overdrive and we had fun riding the creaky funicular railways that run up and down the hillsides. We also sampled the local speciality chorrillana - a heart stoppingly greasy pile of french fries topped with onions, eggs, spicy pork and cheese (and served with a massive beer). We both agreed it was the Chilean equivalent of the Teeside after-pub delicacy, the Parmo.

Our final evening before leaving we went to the docks to see the spectacular tall ships moored there as part of some sort of round the Americas race to celebrate Chile's bicentennial. The ships, with their towering masts all decked out with lights were incredible and it seemed that all of Valparaiso had turned out to see them in all their glory.

Sad to leave the town and the country behind, we boarded a bus the next day to cross the Andes and head for Argentina. I feel that we only scratched the surface of Chile and it is definitely somewhere that I would like to return to and get to know better (particularly the wilder areas in the south). But for now we are climbing up and up into the mountains headed towards Mendoza and more delicious wine.

1 April 2010 - The sweet taste of liberty

We're free! We left the farm the day before yesterday under a cloud of negative energy. Maji asserted that there would be no further volunteers at the farm after us, something that in it's current state would probably be a good thing. We are definitely glad to have our liberty again and it is nice not having to get up at 5:30am or wrack our brains for ways to fill the day any more.

After leaving Costa Rica (including a border crossing where the staff in passport control were watching the Manchester United vs Bayern Munich game whilst issuing tourist visas) we spent one incredibly hot night in Panama's second city David before moving on to the mountain town of Boquete. We have been joined here by Christina, one of our fellow inmates at Earth Rose Farm, who met us following an incredibly speedy visit to San Jose to replace a stolen passport. We will stay here for the Semana Santa (Easter Week) celebrations and hopefully take in some hiking amongst the cool mountain air.

P.S. As a last reminder of the crazy wildlife on the Farm, our last day saw an encounter with a huge scorpion in our lean-to toilet (see picture - click into it and then zoom in to see the full horror). The little blighter was tucking into an enormous cockroach, a meal that proved to be his last...

28 March 2010 - The pantomime continues...

Last night saw some fireworks as Sarah and Darien informed Maji that they wanted to leave the farm early and would not be completing the minimum stay of three weeks (or 15 working days). Maji had a genuine tantrum including a string of expletives and then stormed off like an angry teenager. He drove off the farm and spent the night in his car (not least because he managed to get it stuck in a ditch). There were more arguments this morning but things seem to have died down now. This place is really something of a soap opera and it sometimes feels like we are here against our will as we talk of 'just doing our time'.

Anyway, there is just one more day of this madness until we can get back on the road and, hopefully, to some measure of normality.

27 March 2010 - Abandon hope all ye who enter here...

Since the last entry my opinion of the farm has gone downhill (if that were possible). The lack of direction has continued and we have increasingly been making ourselves scarce rather than risking being put to work on mind-numbing or ridiculous tasks. Today took the biscuit as we attempted to drag some large freshly cut trees uphill using the farm's two dilapidated horses. This was both impossible and very dangerous and something we quickly gave up on. This was part of an unplanned, uncosted and generally ill-conceived project to build a new kitchen and dining room on the farm, a project that Maji seemed to think could be completed in 2 days but would take more like 4 weeks.

Some positive highlights of the last week have included:

• A visit to the local town of La Rivera for a dance. We had envisioned a quaint, traditional fiesta but were greeted with a full on disco complete with smoke, lights and dance music choicely selected by the local equivalent of Fatboy Slim, DJ Danny;
• Walking to the neighbouring farm, La Chinchilla, to see how real Costa Rican farming is done. The farm had emus, hundreds of chickens and beautifully kept vegetable gardens (as well as wonderful owners, Guillermo and Luz);
• More amazing smoothies and juices including the almost freakishly orange mandarina juice.

As I said before, the other volunteers continue to be a source of positivity and our ranks have been swelled this week by the arrival of two newcomers, Sarah and Darien, two Floridians. We were also briefly joined by Joaquin, a Spanish chap who wisely decided to scarper after two days on the farm having quickly assessed that Maji was chronically difficult to work with and the farm a directionless mess. We have stuck it out largely because it provides us with a low cost option in a relatively expensive country and because we have paid a deposit that we would forfeit if we left early (something not particularly in agreement with the principles of the WWOOF programme).

Ah well, we only need to bear with it for a couple more days before we have our liberty restored and can return to a more normal sort of traveling.

P.S. The latest addition to the menagerie of creatures on the farm is an incredibly huge cockroach - about the size of the head of a ladle - that has taken to frequenting our toilet at night. Think the attached picture just about does him justice.

21 March 2010 - More farming (or something like it)...

We have been volunteering on Earth Rose Farm for a week and it has been quite the learning (and eye opening) experience. Before arriving here we had read various travel blogs online about the farm's owners Rosie and Maji (see here). Some people had painted them as loopy hippies and others as incompetent gringos out of their depth on a Costa Rican farm. Both of these views are at least in part true.

Maji (single name only like Madonna) is an aging hippy in his mid 60s living out his dream by owning a farm in Costa Rica, a dream that is somewhat undermined by the fact that he spends six months of the year living in retirement-ville Florida watching the Boston Red Sox on his flat screen TV. He loves the sound of his own voice and has a very specific way of doing just about everything although a heart condition prevents him from doing any of the work on the land. Mealtimes are when he attempts to hold court, chancing his arm at just about any subject and arbuptly changing topics when they don't suit him.

Rosie, his wife, is an amiable and down to earth woman who is always keen to chat and to talk about her gardens and beloved chickens. She is knowledgeable and practical as is evidenced by her management of her three small vegetable gardens - the only successful areas of the farm. She is also a good source for clear concise answers to questions about the work on the farm.

The farm itself is around 45 acres of hillside leading down to a river and is made up of some pasture, fruit trees (bananas, mangoes, star fruit, oranges and different varieties of mandarins) and a lot of neglected coffee plants. Maji is also attempting a reforestation project that aims to see hardwood harvested from the farm over the next 15 years.

On arriving the first thing that alarmed us about the farm was that neither Rosie or Maji spoke Spanish which meant that they are more or less isolated from the local community and from their single paid employee Carlos. Watching them try to communicate with him is somewhere between abject farce and complete horror as Maji mangles both the English and Spanish languages before inevitably turning to one of the volunteers to translate Carlos' responses. Then there is the work - taking direction from Maji is painstaking as he seems to have little concept of what he wants to achieve or in what order. When we asked him about his priorities for the farm he told us that maintaining the coffee plants was one of his top two things to focus on. A day earlier he had been lamenting how the coffee harvest was not worthwhile and Rosie had said that she would like to pull all of the plants out. The volunteers here are often put in the middle between the husband and wife owners meaning that often you are best to listen to neither of them and do your own thing.

Our time here would certainly have been negative were it not for the other volunteers. Christina, Kimberley and Brian have made being here worthwhile and provided some hilarious moments along the way (see picture, ably taken by Brian). We have drunk amazing fresh fruit smoothies and freshly squeezed juices every day which has helped to keep us in a (largely) positive mindset. We have decided to forgo days off in order to fulfill the minimum requirement of 15 working days more quickly, and so have 8 days remaining which we are hoping to make as pleasant as possible.

P.S. No note on our last week would be complete without a mention of the wildlife. We have had both a huge spider (6 inches long) and a whopping scorpion (4 inches long) over our bed in recent nights. This has been supplemented by the late night snufflings of an armadillo who mooches about outside the volunteer dormitory most evenings. Every night heading to bed is something of an adventure. Here's hoping for a few quiet nights ahead.

14 March 2010 - Costa Rica on the double

In the end the rainforest won out over the beach and we headed for the town of Santa Elena and the famous rainforest reserve at Monteverde. Since Costa Rica is substantially more touristy than the other countries that we visited in Central America, the next few days required that we loosen our purse strings and live a little more like holiday makers and less like budget travellers.

This allowed us to enjoy a number of activities including:

• A day of hiking through the rainforest spotting birds and crazy insects and getting our first sighting of a coati (see picture);
• A visit to a frog zoo where we saw all manner of brightly coloured and highly poisonous amphibians;
• A transfer to our next port of call, La Fortuna, by tourist bus and boat across Lake Arenal;
• A night tour to watch the lava exploding and tumbling down the slopes of Volcan Arenal;
• A day soaking in the wonderful hot springs at Eco Termales near to La Fortuna (complete with a visit from a dinosaur sized iguana).

From here we moved on to the Costa Rican capital San Jose for a night (spent at a very modern mall watching a movie with all of the locals in their Saturday night glad-rags). We are now on a bus towards San Isidro and our next calling point for the coming three weeks - volunteering on Earth Rose Farm.

9 March 2010 - Adventures on a fairytale island

Our remaining day in Livingston was cheered up a good deal by seeing Sannee, our housemate from Antigua, sailing into the harbour as we were eating breakfast. One of the benefits of the rather narrow backpacker trail in Guatemala is that (much like on the Appalachian Trail) you're never really sure when goodbye means goodbye. We spent the day with him and his friend walking along the beach and sampling the the very disappointing local specialty, tapado. Whilst we had been promised a big bowl of coconutty soup packed with sea food and plantain, what arrived was more akin to the leftovers from the stockpot (complete with whole, but meatless, crab). This didn't diminish the evening though as we caught up on each others thoughts on Guatemala and then said farewell once more.

If the tour around Guatemala was whistle-stop, then the next 9 days were express. We were more or less in perpetual motion after leaving Livingston visiting four countries in nine days (Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica) having previously managed four in nine and a half months. We left Livingston for an epic overland journey involving 5 different modes of transport (boat, minibus, random Honduran chap's car, taxi and, mercifully, luxurious air conditioned bus) and made it to the Honduran capital Tegulcigalpa that evening understandably exhausted. But the next morning it was the road again and another bus, first into Nicaragua and the capital Managua and then on to our next port of call the colonial city of Granada.

It was a blessing to call somewhere home for a few days, but we were less than in love with Granada. It had something of the feel of Antigua, and was not without its charm, but was inundated with tour groups and American high school students pushing up prices and creating a resort type vibe. The town served us well enough though, enabling us to do the usual towny stuff - laundry, internet, etc - and for me to put the finishing touches to the video we had made for Andrew's 30th birthday (see here). We also sampled the local delicacy, vigoron, a combination of steamed yucca, pork scratchings and pickled cabbage served on a banana leaf - odd but surprisingly palatable.

Next it was another of the things that I'd been eagerly looking forward to in Central America. Whilst hiking the Appalachian Trail, I met a chap called Greenlite who had done some traveling in Nicaragua and he was the first person to tell me about Ometepe, a place that immediately sparked my imagination. Ever since I have been looking forward to getting there and seeing it for myself. Ometepe is an island in the enormous Lake Nicaragua formed from two volcanoes that, due to eruptions over the years, have emerged from the lake and joined together to form one island. The larger of the two, Conception, is regularly seen with smoke billowing from its crater. We got our first glimpse of the island on the ferry from the mainland (see photo) and it was like something from a fairy tale, two huge peaks rising from the centre of the lake.

Our plan for our three nights there were to simply relax by the lake and breathe in the atmosphere. Having spent a day getting our bearings (and making good use of the many hammocks), we then ventured further afield for a short hike through a nature reserve where we saw spider monkeys swinging and sleeping in the trees. From then on however it was just relaxing all the way. There was definitely something about Ometepe - it had just enough tourist services to make life comfortable (somewhere to sleep, somewhere to eat) but still maintained its rural spirit (cows, pigs and horses wandering around on the beach). Put this alongside the cool breezy climate and the incredible setting and you have just about the perfect place to relax.

From here we had another epic journey first to the Nicaragua - Costa Rica border (which is a big, dusty, traffic filled and very confusing place) and then onwards into the heart of Costa Rica. The 12+ hour journey concluded in the touristy (and slightly grubby) beach resort of Puntarenas where we are currently considering whether to head to the beach or to the rain forest. Decisions, decisions.

Saturday 27 February 2010 - Militant teachers and rivers of lava

Having recovered from our illness, we returned to lessons for our final week studying Spanish. However, when we totted up all of the things that we had planned to do before we left Antigua, suddenly our days were looking very full indeed. We decided to cram in as much as we could, and so in seven days, as well as studying Spanish for 20 hours (plus homework), we:

• Took our first salsa class where I shambled around like a slow witted giraffe in an attempt to move my hips to the rhythm;
• Climbed to the top of a hill overlooking the city allowing Lisa to take several hundred photographs;
• Explored the myriad ruined churches in town and worried about the magnitude of the earthquakes that ruined them;
• Climbed an active volcano (Volcan Pacaya), complete with river of lava that we were allowed to go alarmingly close to (see picture);
• Finally enjoyed our belated Valentine's dinner at a swanky restaurant;
• Saw some of the Antiguan celebrations of lent including huge ornate carpets of coloured sawdust depicting religious and natural scenes on the floors of the local churches. Also part of the festivities was a procession of hundreds of people through the streets carrying a ridiculously large statue of Christ resisting temptation from the devil;
• Returned (like gluttons for punishment) to Antigua F.C. for our second match and were rewarded with a 1-0 victory and the discovery that women will bring you a hot individual pizza to your seat for less than 1 pound. Genius.

After managing all that, as well as saying goodbye to our teachers (Ana and Mariesol), our Guatemalan family (Cornelia, Irma, Lionel and Luis Enrique) and our new friends (Rob, Sannee, Ines and Cathy) we were almost exhausted before we hit the road for our nightmare journey to Coban. The travel agent that we had booked our shuttle bus with assured us that we would arrive in Coban in the early afternoon after a 5 or 6 hour journey. Little could he have known the calamities that awaited us. Just over an hour out of Antigua our bus was instructed to leave the highway by a police officer that seemed to be employing an arbitrary system as to which vehicles could pass through his road block and which needed to adhere to it. This forced us through the outskirts of Guatemala City and into heavy traffic. After around an hour crawling along at 10 miles per hour we came to a complete standstill where we remained on our tiny un-airconditioned bus in the baking sunshine for two and a half hours. And the cause of the traffic? A terrible accident perhaps or some major roadworks? A teacher's strike. Although it was tricky to understand exactly what was going on (my Spanish still needs an awful lot of work) it seemed that teachers in Central America are a militant bunch not adverse to blocking highways to get their point across. When we finally got moving again and passed the barricades (which the strikers had, by then, rather genteelly moved to the other carriageway) we saw that it was constructed from just a few large tractor tyres and manned by a smallish number of protesters comfortably outnumbered by policemen. It seems Guatemalan teachers are not to be trifled with.

Having cleared that obstacle and following a break for lunch at the all conquering Guatemalan fried chicken franchise Pollo Campero, we returned to our bus to find that it now had a flat tyre. This necessitated a further hour and a half whilst a chap removed the wheel and then fixed the inner tube (confusingly using a file). As we crawled towards Coban (and were caught in more jams including one amidst a cloud of black flies) it became very clear that our projected afternoon arrival time was not going to materialise. We finally rolled in at 7:30pm, our 5 or 6 hour journey had taken more than 11 exhausting hours.

Our sleep that evening was not as peaceful as we had hoped as we were awoken at 5am by a fairly alarming earthquake (which we later learned had measured 5.6 on whatever scale they use to measure earthquakes these days) and then a smaller aftershock a few hours later. There was no real damage in Coban although a few places lost electricity (not surprising looking at some of the bonkers wiring in the streets. Thankfully our day in Coban provided some much needed respite. We visited an excellent orchid farm where we saw hundreds of plants and some wonderfully intricate flowers (as well as tasting fresh cardamom for the first time). We then went on to a coffee plantation where we saw the entire (surprisingly laborious) process from plant to cup and then finished off with a delicious cup of joe whilst looking out over the coffee fields.

From here it was something of a dash through Guatemala's highlights. First on the list was the natural splendor of Semuc Champey. This consists of an odd natural phenomenon where a river disappears underground into a large cave and re-emerges 300 or so metres further on. Above ground this has meant that water coming down from the surrounding mountains has no river to enter and so forms a series of bright blue pools perfect for swimming (and general larking about). We hiked up to a viewpoint to see the whole complex of pools (see picture) and then went for a swim. Our guide took me and a couple of others off to jump off waterfalls and explore more of the site whilst Lisa and the rest of the group stayed behind to relax in the cool water. It was a fun day completed by a visit to a local complex of caves (complete with bat colony) and a night in a shack in the jungle.

Our next calling point on our whistle-stop tour was somewhere that I had been looking forward to for weeks. When we first thought of coming to Central America, one of the big draws for me was the possibility of seeing ancient temples poking out from dense jungle. This was exactly what I had been promised from the mother of all Mayan ruins, Tikal. We awoke in the picturesque city of Flores at the ungodly hour of 4am in order to arrive at the ruins around day break when the wildlife is at its most active. We were not disappointed. Tikal was everything I had hoped for - spider monkeys swang in the trees whilst all manner of brightly coloured birds filled the air with their songs. We walked amongst the jungle and then emerged at huge temples from the top of which we could look out over the forest canopy. Also, since we arrived so early in the morning, for the first few hours the site was more or less deserted. Lisa and I sat alone at the top of huge Mayan temple and ate our breakfast. Add to this the realisation that Tikal is one of the locations for Star Wars (see here) and you have the ingredients for a wonderful day. The trip to Guatemala would have been worth it for Tikal alone.

Wasting no time, the next day we were on the road again to the riverside town of Rio Dulce for the much vaunted boat ride to the isolated town of Livingston. The journey was absolutely spectacular - the jungle was dense right up to the water's edge and was teeming with birdlife. Pelicans, comorants and herons flew alongside the boat whilst children paddled up in small canoes to sell shells to us. It was the sort of boat journey you would imagine in an Indiana Jones or Tomb Raider movie.

As soon as we reached our destination the contrast with the rest of Guatemala was apparent. Livingston is a town populated largely by Garifuna people - black people who came ashore from the Caribbean many years ago to settle here. Hence the feel of Livingston is very different with reggae playing in every bar and women asking every five minutes if Lisa and I would like our hair braided. We will stay here for one more night to get more of a feel for the place before rolling on again.

14 February 2010 - Sickness strikes Valentine's Day

Our second week in Antigua was much less fun than our first. We continued with Spanish lessons and my vocabulary and ability to communicate certainly improved although after two weeks, conversations with my teacher Ana are beginning to become a little strained. There are only a finite number of conversations that you can have with a limited number of words and a grasp of only the present tense. An explanation of the London congestion charging scheme was something of a tour de force on my behalf, but then, with a sudden burst of over confidence, I over-reached myself with an attempted explanation of the British Freedom of Information Act (ambitious, particularly as I don't have a particularly thorough understanding of it myself). Cue lots of blank looks and shoulder shrugs before an awkward silence and then a swift return to learning verb endings. Lessons are still interesting though and I continue to enjoy the challenge.

As part of school on Wednesday we took an impromptu trip to a small local snake and reptile house. They had an excellent variety of creatures which our guide helpfully ranked for us in terms of deadliness. At the end of the tour we had the chance to hold some of the animals - I held a large tarantula (see picture) and Lisa got her hands on a bright red snake. However the most affecting part of the visit for all involved was the sight of a fluffy bunny rabbit hopping around happily in a glass case whilst above him slept two enormous boa constrictors. The rabbit, we learned, was to be dinner for the snakes when they got around to crushing him to death. Didn't go down well with the girls...

The reason for the less pleasant edge to the week reared its ugly head on Thursday. On coming home from a local bar (where I promise I'd only had three beers) I was struck down with flu like symptoms and endured a horrible sleep free night. The next day I was forced to miss school whilst I recovered in bed. My condition had picked up enough by Friday for me to return to lessons, but by then Lisa had fallen sick and was unable to come along. Friday also saw my visit to a local doctor in order to try to resolve a blocked ear that has been driving me increasingly bonkers - his repeated attempts to blast warm water into my ear with equipment that he described as 'dinosaur' (presumably meaning old rather than highly dangerous) were unsuccessful - I will return for a second attempt next week and will hopefully recover my powers of hearing then.

As the weekend dawned Lisa and I were hopeful that we would recover our health enough to enjoy some R&R and a nice Valentine's Day dinner. Unfortunately we just couldn't shake the remenants of the illness and so spent the majority of Saturday and Sunday convalescing in our room. Our romantic dinner was reduced to a tentative hamburger in a desperate attempt to find some familiar food that would be gentle on our stomachs. We then returned to our room to watch a film on our laptop only to discover two hours in that the last ten minutes had for some reason been cut off leaving our heroes stranded in space and sorely lacking a conclusion to their adventures. So it was that we took to our bed early to shake the last effects of our illness. Who says romance is dead?

Here's hoping our third and final week in Antigua sees our health and spirits pick up.

P.S. Should mention that Valentine's day wasn't without some joy: Lisa bought me a year long subscription to Newcastle United TV meaning that I can now watch all the goals and highlights as the Toon attempt to regain their Premier League status. This was a truly selfless act by Lisa as now not only do I monopolise the computer when we have internet access, but she is forced to smile pleaseantly as I spin the computer round to show her Andy Carroll shambling into the penalty area to prod a ball past a hapless Coventry City goalkeeper. Romance dead? Never.

Sunday 7 February 2010 - Yo hablo un poco espanol

We have now completed our first week of studying Spanish in Antigua and I have certainly improved my language skills (although they could hardly have gotten worse). We have been having four hours of one on one tuition each day (from 8am to noon) and although my progress has been a little slow (largely due to the sheer volume of vocabulary, verb endings and grammar rules to learn) I am definitely improving. I can now at least communicate basic ideas in a rudimentary way which would have been jolly useful in my conversation with a 12 year old last week. Lisa's Spanish also seems to be progressing apace - she is remembering lots of what she learned in Mexico in 2003 and formalising some of what she picked up there.

The school has also arranged for us to stay with a Guatemalan family whilst we study here - we have settled in quite well although it's still difficult for me as my Spanish is a long way from conversational. Thankfully though much of the language barrier has been bridged by food. As part of our stay we are served 3 meals a day much of which has been made up of typical Guatemalan cuisine. This has provided us with plenty of opportunities for conversation as we try to understand the nature of a strange Guatemalan vegetable or work out how Irma (who prepares the bulk of our meals) manages to make the incredible refried beans that appear on our table most days.

Antigua itself is something of a strange place. It sits on a flat piece of land between three volcanoes (the placid Volcanes de Agua (see picture) and Acatenango and the forever grumbling and smoking Volcan Fuego) which makes the town's setting spectacular. The population of the town is what makes it peculiar - the thriving language school scene in Guatemala very much has its heart in Antigua resulting in the city being awash with people learning Spanish. Add into this mix a prosperous tourist industry and a not insignificant American ex-pat community and you have a Guatemalan town whose very 'Guatemalan-ness' has been diluted (not unlike some of the tourist towns in the south of Spain).

This has, however, suited us pretty well - we are getting plenty of genuine Guatemalan chat at home and with our teachers at school so it is quite nice to have some western luxuries in town. These include a thriving coffee shop scene and a McDonald's restaurant that is outstandingly lovely. I have often scoffed at the use of the term 'restaurant' to describe McDonald's franchises, but the branch in Antigua (the first one we've been to in a long time) is amazing. It has mahogany coloured furniture, a huge open air courtyard (complete with topiary), a free internet cafe for customers and table service in its coffee shop. Eating there was really quite a pleasant experience (something of a change of gear from the Chelmsley Wood branch).

Other things we've been up to this week include:

• A (less than spectacular) visit to a macadamia farm;
• A visit to a local indigenous village with which our school has a charitable relationship. A particular highlight was when, halfway through explaining the local traditions and clothing, our guide had to stop to answer her mobile phone;
• Watching Antigua FC (who play in the second tier of Guatemalan football) grind out one of the dullest 0-0 draws it has ever been my displeasure to watch. In the second half it seemed that both teams could think of nothing worse than staging an attack on their opponents goal;
• Enjoying the Antiguan nightlife with a few of the local beers imaginatively entitled Gallo (cockerel) and Cabro (goat).

We plan on staying in Antigua for two more weeks to further develop our Spanish skills (and enjoy more of those beans). Maybe I can convince Lisa to give Antigua FC a second chance...

30 January 2010 - Loopy borders and impossible conversations

It was difficult to tear ourselves away from the beach, but after three nights the road was calling again. A taxi, three buses and an overnight stay later we found ourselves in the mountain town of San Cristobal de las Casas, probably the best example of a Mexican town handling the tourist trade well. Although there are lots of bars, restaurants and local handicraft shops (and a large local artisan's market) the town maintains a distinct local character, helped out by the fact that some Mexicans visit as tourists, not only foreigners. We spent some time exploring the markets, looking in churches and generally breathing in the local atmosphere. The local markets here are on to a winner selling hats, socks, mittens and jumpers to tourists who, having come from warmer climes, are unprepared for the distinctly chilly evenings. Having been in Canada not too long ago the frigid mountain air still felt positively balmy to us - I didn't even need my thermals.

On our final day in San Cristobal we took a tour of the unique indigenous Mayan village of San Juan Chamula. In order to get there we first took a ride in a purple VW beetle (with classic 80's rock pumping on the stereo) and then met our guide, 16 year old Juan, and our trusty steeds for the day - two fairly tired looking horses. This was my first ever riding experience and it wasn't exactly problem free. Namely:

• Wooden saddles are very unforgiving indeed;
• The old problem of being tall in Mexico arose again as both Lisa and I had our feet grazing the ground (and various rocks and bushes) on uphill sections;
• Lisa's horse, Colorado, was not particularly responsive to instructions, frequently getting a little up close and personal with the other horses;
• The sun in the mountains is deceptively strong - I ended up a less than delicate shade of pink.

The town itself was interesting - the locals beliefs blend Mayan and Catholic traditions meaning that although the church looks quite ordinary from the outside, inside the floor is covered with green palm fronds and people sacrifice chickens and drink soft drinks in order to burp and release evil spirits. But, as ever with indigenous villages, visiting was not without its problems. Most unfortunate was the feeling of tourists looking at the locals as if it were a zoo - turning up to see the local dress and rituals for the afternoon before heading back to their hotels. The locals seemed to bear this as a necessary evil (as tourists bring much needed cash) but with an understandable lack of pleasure. After whipping round the town for an hour it was back on our horses (including a short ill advised gallop), back in the beetle (more rock classics) and back to the hostel to wile away the rest of the afternoon talking to our parents (Skype really is excellent) and making plans for the trip ahead.

Bright and early the next morning, we boarded our minibus for the Guatemalan border and the next stage of our adventure. If the journey to the border was uneventful, the trip from there onwards was anything but. As we approached the border, the roads were suddenly thick with people and lined with market stalls. We disembarked from our minibus and walked the last few hundred metres in order to cross over in to Guatemala on foot. Unfortunately, our bus driver who was supposed to guide us to the border did not show any consideration for his passengers being laden with large backpacks and went dancing off into the hubbub at speed. In trying to keep pace with him, Lisa, unsighted by backpacks and the crowd, rolled her ankle, managing to grab our fleeing guide in order to break her fall. She hobbled on and we made it to the passport check point in one piece.

My perception of international borders has always been much the same: sterile places with heavy official presences that one just tries to get through with (hopefully) the minimum of fuss. It's safe to say that the border at La Mesilla defied this stereotype. Whilst we waited to have our passports stamped, locals merrily walked backwards and forwards past the barriers without showing any paperwork. People were literally going to Guatemala for a taco and then back to Mexico for an ice cream. It was excellent.

When we finally got moving again (our bus waited for an hour or so for other passengers) we were suddenly plunged into stunning scenery - the road weaved through valleys flanked on either side by unfeasibly steep mountainsides covered in lush green forest. It was exactly as I'd imagined Central America in my mind's eye. After a few more hours of traveling, we rounded a turn in the road and got our first glimpse of our destination - Lago di Atatlan. The lake is located high up in the mountains and on one side is bordered by two impressive volcanoes - it was quite a sight.

Our first night at the lake was spent in Panajachel, a very touristy, but very fun little town. We had arrived on the bus with a British chap called Mike who we went for beer and dinner with that evening. The latter consisted of sitting around a small street stall whose name translated as 'Smoke Gets in Your Eyes.' This was quite literally the case as we sat around a charcoal grill as two women prepared sausages, chorizo, chicken and pork. Served up with guacamole, tortillas and a carrot side dish (all for the princely sum of 1 pound 50) it was delicious. However, the best part about dinner was listening to Mike conversing (in his fluent Spanish) to the ladies working at the grill and the chap sitting next to us. Lisa was able to follow the conversation and pitch in, but for me it was a case of grabbing what snippets I could understand. The experience only intensified my desire to learn at least some Spanish.

This feeling was multiplied the following morning. Having taken a boat across the lake to the small village of San Marcos La Laguna, Lisa went to look for somewhere to stay whilst I waited with the bags close to the docks. Almost as soon as Lisa was out of sight I was approached by two young girls (who I later learnt to be 12 and 14). They didn't want me to buy anything or to give them money - it was much worse than that - they wanted to chat. The conversation was difficult to say the least (my Spanish vocabulary being limited to around 50 words) but we muddled along somehow helped in no small part by Antonia's (the younger of the two girls) tendency to happily monologue for five or ten minutes at a time. Rarely have I been as relieved as when Lisa arrived back.

We checked into our hotel (a very funky affair - all new age chic and stained glass) and set about relaxing and enjoying the lake - first off though we thought we would explore the village. It was here, more than anywhere else, that the contradiction of the place struck us. On the lake shore were a number of small hotels and hostels similar to ours along with other new age style places offering alternative therapies, meditation, massage and month long spiritual discovery retreats running in time with the lunar cycle. Alongside all of this was an ordinary Guatemalan village complete with avocado trees, coffee bushes and a dusty football field. The locals seemed to view the tourists with a kind of weariness (almost all of the businesses were owned by westerners) as they saw other people coming to their town and making all of the money whilst the best that they could hope for were a few fringe benefits (increased sales on fruit stalls, a job at one of the hotels). This gave the place a feeling of unreality and not necessarily a pleasant one.

It was good therefore to see a local woman castigating one of the western travelers for making an inordinate amount of noise one evening down on the beach. The locals, it seemed, would put up with a certain amount of odd behaviour from visitors, but they had their limits. As for us, we just did our best to enjoy the place (and made a pretty good fist of it) spending our days swinging in hammocks, listening to music and swimming in the lake. From here we leave for Antigua, our base for three weeks of intensive Spanish study - hopefully on my next encounter with a Spanish speaking twelve year old I won't feel such a half-wit.

23 January 2010 - Those Damned Cucarachas...

Although Puerto Escondido provided a beautiful beach (an isolated cove down 140 steps from the headland) our accommodation there was not quite as salubrious. At first glance our room seemed excellent, almost like a small apartment with a separate living area, a fridge and our own bathroom. However whilst having a beer in the bar on our first evening, other guests were complaining of cockroaches and other creatures in the ceilings of their rooms. Sure enough, when we turned in for the night, we found that several large cockroaches (about the length of fun size Mars bars) had emerged from the wooden rafters above our bed. Having made our best attempts to deal with them (using bug spray) we then put together our mosquito net in order to prevent ourselves being rudely awakened by falling roaches in the night. What followed was a night of fitful, but thankfully 'roach free sleep.

We toughed it out for one more night (as we had paid up front) and then were very glad to get out of there. We caught a taxi to the small coastal village of San Augustinillo and as soon as we arrived the contrast couldn't have been more pronounced. We secured a nice beach front room looking out onto waves crashing onto a more or less deserted beach. It was a little slice of paradise and a place that felt like it wouldn't stay small and undiscovered for long.

We wiled away two days snoozing in hammocks, sun bathing and playing in the sea and generally having the sort of experience that I'd hoped for when we headed towards the coast. I've never been one for beach holidays, but San Augustinillo definitely brought home why so many people find them appealing.

19 January 2010 - More bus adventures...

Just a quick one to note another hair raising bus journey, this time through the mountains that separate Oaxaca from the coast. We drove for six hours on a large minibus and the vast majority of the time was spent on mountain roads perched over some very deep valleys. Add into the mix a bus driver happy to talk on his mobile phone whilst overtaking four vehicles and approaching the brow of a hill, leg room sufficient only for your average Mexican (who is generally smaller than 6' 3") and two hours sitting next to a sleeping old lady who nuzzled into me more at every bend in the road and you have the recipe for quite a fraught journey. We will need some time at the beach to recover.

18 January 2010 - I Don't Like Cricket...

Lisa's cold finally cleared up and allowed us to get on the road again to Palenque - the site of another set of Mayan ruins. Whilst the Chichen Itza ruins were impressive, Palenque was much more fun. Huge stone buildings rise from jungle covered mountain slopes and we were more or less free to explore as we chose, which meant lots of climbing of stone pyramids.

On leaving the ruins came the part of the journey that Lisa and I had been viewing with some trepidation for the last few days - the 15 hour night bus to Oaxaca. Despite the frequent stops, very bumpy and twisting roads (on which our driver decided frequent overtaking was necessary) and inspections of the bus by soldiers, I managed to secure a pretty healthy six or seven hours of sleep. Lisa fared less well. The journey for her consisted of a running battle with the portly Mexican gentleman in front who kept trying to recline his seat further and further in spite of the presence of Lisa's knees. I soundly slept through all of this. So it was that we arrived in Oaxaca with me feeling spritely and refreshed enough to keep Lisa from falling asleep in her breakfast.

We are currently on our third day in Oaxaca and are both enjoying it greatly - if there was a Mexican city built for us then this would be it: huge chaotic markets, lots of delicious street food (I had a tomatillo tamale which was incredible), hot chocolate like none I've ever tasted and a general feel of friendly bustle. We decided to be adventurous at the markets and tried some dried crickets (palatable but far from delicious - see picture) and cheese ice cream (not really very nice at all), but it was all fun voyage of discovery.

From here we're heading to the Oaxaca coast for some time at the beach - it's a hard life this traveling lark.

P.S.Last night, we went out to the cinema to see Avatar (which we've long been hunting for in English) and were blown away by the 3D and the incredible way the movie looked. We'd been kicking ourselves for missing it in the States, so it was really nice to have a night at the movies.

12 January 2010 - Beheadings, drownings and a nasty cold

Merida was excellent and definitely the rest that we needed - it was nice to have a few days of not doing too much, sleeping late and generally relaxing. We managed to fit in a few sights - we visited the city's anthropological museum and on Friday the site of the Mayan ruins at Chichen Itza. The latter was particularly impressive as it comprises the ruins of 15 or so large buildings that were used as temples, ancient sports arenas and for other ceremonial purposes. Chichen Itza was made particularly fascinating as it was the site of a large number of human sacrifices both of vanquished military foes and and members of sports teams unfortunate enough to find themselves on the losing side. Sacrifice took the form of beheading or being thrown into the sacred cenote - a large watering hole - to drown. All very grizzly, but very interesting.

We left Merida for Campeche on Sunday planning to stay for a couple of nights before moving on. Campeche is a pretty walled city that served as an excellent place to relax some more by sitting in the sunny zocalo (main square) during the day reading our books, exploring the old ramparts of the city and eating Mexican food in the evenings. Our stay has been extended from our initially planned two nights to four as Lisa is suffering with a terrible cold and hopefully some more rest here will help her recover.

We've also been doing some planning here with the intention of doing some more voluntary work and perhaps a language course as we move further into central America. It seems that our appetite for standard traveling has been tempered a little recently as moving from place to place only staying long enough to see the main sites has become a little repetitive (arrive by bus, find hostel, get map, find supermarket etc, etc) and probably needs to be broken up with a more permanent stay. Our thoughts have frequently turned to our time at Pretty River in Canada and how spending an extended period of time with the same group of people made us really happy - I think that this is what is driving our attempts to have some more extended stays in places.

Thursday 7 January 2010 - Quite a Month...

It's been just over a month since my last journal entry and hence we've done a great deal and traveled a long way since I last wrote. We now find ourselves in the Yucatan town of Merida and a jolly long way from Seattle (where I was headed at the end of my last entry). In the intervening weeks we have:

• Visited and loved Seattle, staying longer than we had planned uncovering new and excellent things every day such as the Freemont Troll (see picture). We also found a genuine pinball parlour serving cheap beer, sailed across Puget Sound as the sun was setting, saw country/swing/rock and roll threesome Hot Club of Cow Town bust some grooves, watched a Seattle bands showcase and (a personal highlight of mine) ate at a genuine Chili Parlour (see here);
• Spent a day searching for locations from the TV series Twin Peaks, humming the theme tune and being generally spooked out by the North West woods and the potential presence of 'Bob' around every corner (if you don't know what this means I recommend that you get hold of the box set);
• Been bewildered at the array of Twilight merchandise available in the town of Forks, Washington where the books and movies are set;
• Driven the highways of the west coast hugging the shore all the way from Washington state to San Francisco and taking in some beautiful views (and more motel rooms than I ever thought I would stay in);
• Spent 6 days in San Francisco (expertly guided by Lisa's friend Tom and his fiancee Christie) including taking in a Lady Gaga concert (at which I felt greatly lacking in flamboyance), visiting Alcatraz and eating some wonderful Mexican food in the Mission district;
• Drove from Los Angeles (taking in Venice Beach and Santa Monica) to the barren salt flats of Death Valley which was like a theme park of natural wonders and like nowhere I've ever been before. Everywhere we looked the views were breathtaking that made me feel very small indeed;
• Spent three nights of wonderful excess in a suite in the MGM Grand in Las Vegas (including taking in a Cirque de Soleil show and rather more frozen margheritas than I would recommend);
• Had Christmas (complete with impromptu rucksack based Christmas tree) in an apartment near to Sedona, Arizona. We took walks out into the amazing red rock country on both Christmas and Boxing Day and cooked our first ever Christmas dinner (turkey, beef and all the trimmings) which was a more or less unmitigated success (if I do say myself). We also marveled at the wonder of Skype which allowed us to feel as if we were simultaneously enjoying Christmas in the UK and the US;
• Visited the Grand Canyon which was beautiful but incredibly icy and watched a succession of people slipping over (including me);
• Saw some very large saguarro cacti in the Sonoran desert;
• Spent a very drunken New Year's Eve in San Diego (happy hours right up to midnight are a recipe for disaster).

And now we have found our way south of the border to Mexico for a definite change of pace and what feels like the second leg of our travels - we no longer have rent-a-cars or the comfort of communicating in English (although Lisa's Spanish impresses me daily) but do now have the wonder of excellent food seemingly on every street corner and for the first time in a while, some sunshine.

Having flown into Cancun, we spent one night and then made our way to the city of Merida where we had decided to stay for a week. Having moved around a lot in the past month we really wanted somewhere to call home for a little while and so managed to secure the rental of a small apartment. This gave us a base to relax and do some planning ahead of our Mexican adventure (much as we did in Montreal at the start of our Canadian adventure).

Merida has been very good to us so far (setting aside a brief drama where having locked my passport in the apartment's small safe I was no longer able to unlock it - a locksmith with a hammer and chisel soon resolved the problem). We arrived here on 3 January just in time for the festivities for Dia de los Reyes (or Day of the Kings) on the 5th and 6th. This happens to coincide with the town's birthday and hence causes quite a fiesta. On a trip to the supermarket we stumbled upon part of festivities - music and some pantomime-esque comedy around trestle tables supporting literally hundreds of feet of cake which was both very impressive and, for the nominal fee of of 1 pound per enormous chunk, delicious. That evening we headed for the central square for more celebrations including some traditional Mayan dancing (which was a little like Morris dancing but with better costumes) and then a procession through the streets led by four Mariachi bands each with more than twenty members. The procession concluded with some genuinely impressive fireworks and ended what was, all in all, a thoroughly enjoyable party.

It was all an excellent introduction to Mexico that made me reflect on all that we've seen over the past months in North America. I'll certainly miss the US - there's many things that they do incredibly well (I don't seem to be able to shake my American football fixation for one) - and Canada provided some of the friendliest people I've ever met, but I think that after 21 states and 4 provinces, it's time for pastures new. I can't wait to see what joys central America holds.

Monday 30 November 2009 - The Great Vancouver Dreadlock Battle

We arrived in Vancouver at 10pm after our epic bus journey and made our way to our hostel where we had two beds booked in a dormitory. Fortunately, on arrival, due to some odd complexities with the booking system, we were allocated a private room with our own bathroom. Somehow we had booked 4 nights in the cheapest accommodation available and were given 4 nights in the most expensive. We were very happy (since we only had to pay for the cheap beds).

As you may remember, after finishing the Appalachian Trail, I undertook a battle to remove the two big dreadlocks that had naturally formed in my hair following months of neglect (the full of extent of which can be seen to the right).
I had made some slight progress, but it had become increasingly clear that if I wanted them fully removed I would need some professional help (from a hairdresser, not a support group). It just so happens that Vancouver is home to the legendary Knotty Boy Lock Shop - an international authority on all things dreadlocked. I called and agreed to go in for a consultation. The salon is located in the super-trendy Commercial Drive neighbourhood full of coffee shops, book stores and restaurants and I was encouraged that my initial consultation was not as negative as I had feared - they were confident that they could remove the dreads without having to cut my hair off. So the next day I returned for what amounted to a woman pulling my hair for two and a half hours (fairly painfully) but resulted in the removal of one enormous knot from my hair. I have one smaller dreadlock left that Lisa and I are going to work on over the next week.

As for the rest of Vancouver it was really very nice - the city is located on a peninsula and so benefits from lots of coastlines and water views. On Saturday we went for an incredible meal at the Twisted Fork Bistro (courtesy of the lovely people at Pretty River) which included confit duck, cod with chorizo, a caramel biscuity dessert and a couple of glasses of Sauvignon Blanc. Roughing it? Moi?

On Sunday we took in lots of the aforementioned water views from Granville Market and some of the paths around Stanley Park. We saw some excellent totem-poles (the native art in Vancouver is really outstanding - lots of beautiful carving) and then did our first very Christmassy thing - a train ride on a miniature railway lit up with thousands of fairy lights and playing Christmas songs. Very festive.

This morning saw an early start to make our train to Seattle and some initial stress as we cleared passport control (who knew that you needed to pay $6 US to re-enter the States?) but having crossed that obstacle we have now entered Washington state - my 17th state of the trip so far. Looking forward to some good coffee in Seattle.

P.S. A particularly dull aside, but one I can't forget - Vancouver has particularly wonderful tap water - one of the first places to rival the good old Brummagem canal water.