Location: Brazil
Hey i found footage from Carnival in Salvador, i bought tixs to the Fat Boy lim Bloco, watch the footage its wicked
http://youtube.com/watch?v=GG1lXXxI2kE&mode=rel...
or if the link doesn´t work search youtube Carnival Salvador 2007
Location: Cali, Colombia
Well I hope everyone had a nice new years, mine was lets say ok as much as Cali is a party town apparently not on new years, its more of a family affair for the Colombians.
We still managed to drink 4 bottles of rum and go to a couple of different clubs but just not that many people around, but hey all good can´t complain i´m in South America haha.
Location: Cali, Colombia
We left Bogota on the 30th Dec and got a 12hr bus to Cali, the bus was pretty decent and the senery was spectacular, driving through the mountains.
Arriving in Cali the Hostel was booked out, so we got a hotel around the corner only $5US a night for our own bedrooms.
The night life here is awesome they have these party buses music pumping people dancing and I havn´t seen so many discotec in the one spot.
Tonight should be pretty good, i´ll let you know how it goes, lates.o)
Location: Bogota, Colombia
Alrighty then, last night we drank a bottle of Jack rum and vodka at the hostel then got a taxi to the other part of the city where a couple of clubs are, you can imagine we were in pretty fine form by this stage, we started drinking with a few of the locals, they had some kind of grappa snapps drink and insisted we have about 10 shots each, by this stage we were off and dancing doing a bit of salsa, I danced with a couple of girls that would stand on a chair to dance with me, they loved it always a good laugh.
The night was ended with the usual takeaway from out the front of the club, it was some kind of potatoe salsa bbq something, it hit the spot, then back to the hostel, woke up around noon today still drank, think i´ll go and have another nap, cya
Location: Bogoya, Colombia
Hey its my birthday 28 on the 28th golden birthday, i´m in Bogota, Colombia just spent the day walking around checking out the sites, its a pretty cool city very european.
We got cable carts up to the church on the hill and the view was very impressive, I didn´t realise how big this city is.
So its now 6pm I have a bottle of Jack Daniels Rum and some Vodka back at the hostel with my name on, and yes i´m wearing my dancing shoes, so i´m off to start drinking i´ll add an another entry tomorrow let you know how the night went, cya.
Location: Panama City, Panama
Alrighty then, i'll will try to get the diary up to date before I get to South America, its now 2am have free internet at the hostel so trying to make the most if it.
The trip has been wicked so far, definately recommend central america, I have had a few laugh, think I broke my little toe and yes I have shaved the beard off, cheers to the people that emailed to say they didn't approve, it does feel better to have it off I must admit.
So after San Pedro we made our way across to Honduras, the bus have been pretty interesting so far, a few have been awesome air-conditioned bed, DVD movies playing the works, I do love the chicken buses they are always over crowded not much room especially for my long legs, but thelocals are friendly and give me a smile when they see my height.
Also the chicken buses are the american style school buses except they are decked out to the max, as you can see from the photos in Antigua.
Making our way across the boarder when made our way to San Pedro Sula, the accomodation was average so when decided to venture out being sat night and all. The place we made it to was a local discotec, lets just say now I know what it feels like to be the minority, everybody in the place was looking at us with interest. After a couple of hours of drinking some locals came up to us, english being their second laungage we did our best to practice what spanish we had learned, we didn't get to far with the conversation after the initial names country we came from etc basic stuff, so they just started speaking english which was pretty good, for some reason when they did speak english they did with an American accent.
So we had a great night with the locals, me and David the english guy stayed out to around 7am ended up at a gay bar with our new found friends, lets just say if I was gay I think I would do ok, got a bit of intention if I don't say so myself lol.
The next day after a couple of hours sleep we headed off to Tela which is on the carribean coast, the weather wasn't the best and the accommodation was lets say from a horror movie, it was so bad I actually like it. After 2 nights we headed to La Ceiba and out to the bays Islands the date being the 5th of dec.
The Island we chose to gop to was Roatan the nicer and more expensive one, we obtained an nice apartment with cable and I made good use of it falling sick on the first day, I didn't eat for 3 days and stayed in bed the whole time going to the toilet about every 30min, fever was high and each day the cleaning lady would come in to clean up, I would sit outside for the 40min or so while sdhe did this, the first time she called me back into the room to explain the wet patch on the bed, I tried to explain in broke spanish that its just sweat due to my fever but i don't think she understood, in the ended I just said change the sheets don't I don't care can you please just get out.
I guess you have to get sick at least once while travelling, hopefully that will be my last fingers crossed.
I must add while I write this i'm listening to triple J the Australian radio station at the moment and loving it.
OK so we leave the Bay Islands which I didn't see any of and made our way to the capital Tegucigalpa, we only stayed for 1 night which was more than enough not exactly the safest place getting harrassed on the street a couple of times. The following day we headed to Managua and onto Granaga, this place was very similar to Antigua and like like to insteadly, even the streets and town square looked the same, we stayed here for 2 nights spending one of the days out at Laguna de Apoyo which is a natural lake inside a volcano.
Thursday the 14th of December we headed to Isla de Ometepe, its an island formed from 2 volcanoes joining and is in the middle of the largest lake in Central America. We stayed stayed for 2 nights spending the days swimming in the lake and surrounding lagoons.
Our next stop we headed across the boarder again and into Costa Rica, stopping in Liberia to get another bus to Playa Tamarindo. Now this place is on the west coast and know for its partying and surfing both of which we made the most of for 4 nights, also the hostel had a kitchen needless to say mash potatoes all round, I was loving it.
Taking surfing lessons on our second day we were off and surfing hiring boards in the days to come, nothing better than surfing working on the tan and drinking the nights away, the hostel was very friendly we quickly made friends to help with the alcohol consumption.
We did think about staying there for xmas but would have had to skip Bocas del Toro which we were keen to explore. Heading off on Tuesday the 19th we made our way to San Jose the capital staying for just 1 night, we arrived at around 9pm and quickly booked into a hostel, the place was fully booked but they kindly made beds for us in the TV room, it actually was one of the nicest hostel i've stayed in with a swimming pool bar and resturant.
Leaving the following morning getting to Cahuita on the Carribean coast, we met some norwegians on the bus and were quickly into the drinking games on arrival rum being the drink of choice, we had a great night out partying dancing,would have liked to stayed longer but left the following morning still drunk and headed across the boarder into Panama and out to Bocas del Toro island, we stayed for 3nights, celebrating Matt birthday on the 22nd, it was done in style the hostel had a pimp's and ho's theme night party, and we ended the night going for a swim at 4am.
On the 24th Dec we got a flight to Panama City for xmas which we enjoyed cooking a roast and drinking for most of the day. Our second day here we went out to the Panama canal and watched a couple of large tanker ships go through the locks, very impressive.
So now its 3am in the morning and I must be off to bed for my flight to Colombia tomorrow, if you have read this far I do appreciate the interest you have taken in my travels, and will endeavour to keep the photo's and diary up to date, obviously I have plenty of other stories to tell but probably better explained in person.
Central America done, Its been a blast I hope the good times continue in South America I'm sure they will, If you have checked out some of the photo's I have added a few more to previous pages.
Location: Panama City, Panama
We then headed off to Antigua, which is this cool little city at the base of a couple of volcanoes, we did a trip up to one of the volcanoes at sunset which was amazing, walking over the cooled lava, we walked up to a couple of lava rivers, very exciting
The markets in Antigua were wicked I bought about half a dozen t-shirts which I probably shouldn't have due to not much room in the back pack, but I couldn't resist.
The hostel we stayed at was called the Black Cat, bit of a party hostel, the pub crawl was good fun. We made plenty of friends namely the girl Chris from Jersey which is an island between the UK and France and an English guy David, Chris travelled with us for the next few weeks until Playa Tamarindo and David is still with us, both are good fun and their spanish is a bit better than mine and the boys which has made us a bit lazy leaving the talking up to them.
Our next stop in Guatemala is San Pedro La Laguna, we stayed here for a week doing spanish lessons, the place is very relaxing, its on a fresh water lake.
We spent our days getting up at 730am, we would then walk the 15min to our lessons picking up a banana cake from the little girls in the street for breakfast each morning. The teacher I was given was named Delia, she was such a loving lady and gave me homework each day to be tested on the next morning, the lessons were taken in the garden over looking the lake, I loved the lessons but after 3hrs my brain was ready to explode, luckily our lessons were for only 4hr each day.
Each morning Delia would say "como esta Brendan" asking how I was, which i would reply "yo estoy thirste" Delia would then look sad at me, I would say its fine Just a bit thirsy i'll just go and get a coffee all good, it wasn't until the last day that I realised at 'thirste' means sad not thirsty, D'oh.
The rest of the day we would spend swimming in the lake, the fresh water made it very refreshing. During our time here it was Carl's birthday which we celebrated by drinking lots of rum and not going to bed until lunch time the following day.
So we arrive in Lanquin on the Thurs 16th Nov, the Hostel we were recommended to was El Retiro and i´m glad we were this place was beautiful with sweeping green fields overloking a wide river.
We stayed here for 3 nights and each day did a different activity, the first was a walk around the caves at sunset, inside the caves the temp sored as you can probably see from the sweat on my t-shirt.
The next day was spent swimming in the caves hiking up a mountain jumping off a bridge and swimming in the fresh water pools. I must that swim in the pools was one of the best i have ever had.
The nights were spent drinking, playing cards and jenga and meeting other travellers.
the Last day we were asked if we would like to try the new zip lines and ab-sailing they have set up and a very cheap price , due to nobody has tried them before, the boys were a bit worried but it was a l fine and i had a wicked time.
Location: Tela, Honduras
So we got to Caye Caulker Island and stayed for 3 nights, its a nice little islands takes prob 20min to walk one end to the other.
The nights were spent drinking Rum in American style bars and getting sun burnt during the day, i havnt been so hot before the sun was intense.
On the second day we went out snorkelling on the barrier reef, plenty of sting rays and nurse sharks around as you can see from the photos, Carls was a little worried having the same last name as Steve Irwin, I always had an eye on where there barb was.
Monday the 13th Dec we got the boast back to Belize City and straight onto a bus to Flores, Guatemala.
The only reason to go to Flores was to see the Tikal ruins, we booked that as soon as we got to Flores and the bus picked us up at 330am the next morning.
Tikal ruins date back to around 700BC and were worth the effort to get there, our tour guide took us through ther forrest with torches and we climbed one of the temple to watch the sun rise.
The jungle really comes alive at the time of the morning with animals calling out to each other from everywhere, the spider monkeys make one hell of a noise which would scare the crap out of anyone.
The view ontop of some of the ruins was very impressive, with some of the other temple tops visible through the jungle mist.
We arrived back in Flores at midday but was so tired from the early morning trek we decided to stay an other night and sleep the rest of the day, very smart option.
The afternoon of Wed 15th Nov we got a bus to Coban, Coban is a largish city but one its best not the stay in, unfortunately we arrived at around 9pm so had no other option, our accomodation was like a jail cell and nobody used the toilets or showers and we left at around 7am the next morning.
After walking the streets for about 50 min following this old local guy we found a bus to take us to Lanquin, it was only 2hrs on the bus but when the bus is only a 15 seater with 23 crammed in its not the most comfortable, but the people are so nice and will really go out of their way to help.
Location: San Pedro, Guatemala
Well its been a while since my last entry, sorry i have been rather lazy just enjoying the sunshine, lakes, beaches, caves, ruins, and volcano and doing some spanish lessons.
Our stay in ulum was wicked staying in bungalows right on the beach for a few nights, spent the day swimming and working our our tans, the place only had one set of ruins so we quickly got that out of the way so would could just relax.
We heading from ulum on the 10th november and headed to Belize, the chicken buses were crammed but fun all the same.
The officals at the boarder crossings love chucking in some Aussie slang when they see your passport which is always entertaining mostly for them.
Got to Belize City and headed straight out to Caye alker Island for a few nights.
Location: Palenque, Mexico
Arrived in Palenque monday morning checked into a hostel and went on a tour at 8am.
The tour went to the Palenque Maya region(250-900 AD) the city consisted of 12 temples set amongst a rainforest.
After we went to 2 waterfalls for a swim.
Location: Mexico City, Mexico
Arrived in Mexico city about midnight night so just had a quiet one, second day check out the city museums etc then went to the wrestling that night, was so much fun, we all bought mask which im sure you will c in upcoming photos.
Third day got a bus out to the ruins, missed our bus back but managed to get on another bus companies bus, all good.
Left Mexico City on the Sunday night bus to Palenque.
