Tess and Adam Travel the World

A visit from home and a taste of the South

2009-03-23T15:08:00.003-06:00

So we had our second family visit since we came out here to Middle Earth... seems that we are becoming an excuse for the inner travelers in you! My Mum came over for a bit of an explore and had the added benefit of catching up with her lovely daughter (me) and my charming chap (thats Adam). We took her to all the local spots, the rapids, hot-springs, kiwi house, mountains, Maori village, geysers, wineries and so on and so forth; Perhaps the highlight of all this for her was the sail out on the lake to see the Maori rock carvings on Errol Flinn's yacht (I'm sure that most of you who have seen her since she got home have already heard all about this but here goes). It was a beautiful day here in paradise, blue and hot with a slight wind that made for good sailing and a bit of chop on the water. We of course, being the ladies of leisure that we are did very little other than sun ourselves on deck and admire the views. As we took the corner of a hidden bay the beautiful and impressive carvings came into view and we anchored. Mum and I dived off the side to swim closer and explore. It was absolutely beautiful, the water pretty warm but refreshing and the whole experience idyllically escapist. It was only made better by hot choc and biscuits to warm us up on the return sail.

In fact she had such an awesome time that she really had to take us somewhere in return. Having family come to visit from the other side of the world really helps the appeal for time off work it seems... so we packed up old Clementine (my beautiful orange rucksack (thanks Beverly) that has seen me around the world) and headed south.

Perhaps it is an understatement to say that our eternal-summer traveling wardrobe had not prepared us for an uncharacteristic autumn chill in the mountains. The first snow had fallen early which gave Queenstown a distinctly antarctic chill that was particularly reminiscent of the

Swedish spring we had just about caught before we left Europe. In my opinion this made the whole southern experience. The grey stone buildings of Queenstown were warmed and lit my roaring open fires and the smell of burnt wood embraced the town. Adam had to tear me away from my delicious and very reasonable Vudu cafe breakfast to head down to Te Anau.

The next day we headed off early to catch the first boat trip down the Milford Sound. We stayed positive as the rain poured down the windscreen and we had the heating blaring out on full just to keep our fingers and toes from frosting. Turns out this improved the sights tenfold... how'd have thought that rain could add to the scenery. Well in New Zealand anything is possible. As we headed through the mountain passes, the rain torrented down the sheer edges of the cliffs surrounding us in temporary waterfalls. Absolutely beautiful and just fantastical really. The boat trip was great too, every corner we turned seemed to present us with a new weather front. We saw sun, rain, fog and hail at one point! We also were lucky enough to spot some dolphins diving in and out of the waves. Anyhoo, you should just check out the pics on flickr really.

After Milford and Te Anau we went up to Wanaka via Arrowtown (a really quaint little gold mining village that is pretty much un-spoilt). Its funny, we thought that the one thing that we would have to sacrifice to live here in New Zealand would be the pretty little English towns. This trip put us straight! Wanaka was gorgeous but very quite so the next night we headed back to Queenstown for bit of a send off. We ate the most incredible rustic and cheap pizza in front of a roaring open fire in some back alley called cow street. Then spent the evening not jigging (sorry Mum) to Irish music in the pub as we had a catch up with Mexico traveling companion Kay (whose also been won over by Queenstown). So there you have it. Hope you have made it this far! Sorry for the oversized blog entry.

new house and all things nice

2009-02-14T16:30:00.002-06:00

Hey guys. So, we have been busy bees... mostly with the mundane trawl of the real world working schedule... but also moving house! So there are some pics of the new pad on flickr to check out. All artsy of course but hopefully they give you a flavour for it. We have a REAL kitchen again, a veg plot, a nice big deck which is great for bbq's and with a little peak at the lake! In fact we are only a minute away from the lake... so no excuse for us not being fighting fit with swimming by the time we see any of you! We also have two lovely double rooms, so perchance you are on this side of the world there is a now a place to rest those weary heads! lol. Yeah So the only draw back is that we don't have good internet yet but perhaps thats on Adams list of things to sort out.

We also did a trip down to wellington not too long ago (about 4 hrs south). It was wet n windy but there were lots of quirky cafes n boutiques and the TePapa museum was pretty awesome. The big event of that weekend though was Adams first speeding ticket. A run in with the Kiwi law was (it turned out) not too horrific but we are yet to understand the general speeding restrictions as we cruised at 40mph down a huge deserted highway. Who knows!! Perhaps we may have run down two many sheep in that area or something. pah.

Tobin visited us a few weeks back too, and we muchos fun playing on the Kayak in Kinloch, jumping in to the lake from the cliff rocks and all around playing in the beautiful blue water. Generally much better than Beeston we decided. Will pester him to put up some pics so you can decide!

Anyhoo, later alligators.

Congratulations --you are the 10,000 viewer!!

2008-12-28T17:32:00.006-06:00

Yup to bring in the new year the flickr web site (with the photos on) has just had its 10,000 view! wow we are popular buggers arent we!

Talking of the new year, we will of course be celebrating new years at midday on the 31st in your time, so we will give you a heads up on how 2009 is shaping up, and try to pass on any advice we will have learnt from the future!

anyhoo just to prove im not talking out my arse..... the last column shows total views! and the above map shows where you all are coming from!

Merry Christmas to all

2008-12-24T21:54:00.003-06:00

...and to all a merry christmas.

So its our first Pacific Christmas in the sunshine (and the sun is shinning though it rained all yesterday) and a whole new type of festivity. Mostly the festivity revolves around having a day off... but also all your lovely cards, prezzies and some classic Christmas chow. I am unsure as to whether either of us have eaten this much blue cheese, nuts or chocolate EVER. Luckily Adam bought me an exercise ball so there is still hope as to recovering from it all. We weren't entirely lazy today though, we walked up to the lookout point of Taupo (3 mins away) and contemplated life bvefore heading down for a swim in the lake. Well.... I swam in the lake while Adam declared that I was a nut. The water was beautiful, as blue as the Caribbean, as cool as Lake Champlain and as fresh as a cenote in Mexico! lol, its been a good year.

Blogging of late has been a little sparse its true though we've been having a wicked time in-between the hard slog that is the real world. Exploring the Huka Falls, bathing in the hot springs, seeing glow-worms for the first time and blah blah blah. Though the best thing recently by far was getting to see Adam's parents... heh! We LOVED getting to show you Taupo (toepaw! lol) and it was fantastic having a bit of an explore with you guys. Thank you soooooooooooo much. We finally got to see and learn a bit about Maori culture, and... my favourite, ... wine culture! Dude, we can now spot a good Riesling or a spicy Viognier in an instant. It was also really great to have a christmas corner in the house, with our stockings, presents and pine cones (not to mention a fully stocked fridge), So thanks again!

I hope you guys all have a wonderful Christmas. By the time you read this it will probably be at least boxing day for us (which means back to work). We'll be thinking of you stuffing your faces with turkey, goose, chicken or ham and dreaming of yorkshire puddings.

Take care everyone, get fat.

Lord of the Rings!

2008-11-24T22:10:00.005-06:00

When Mr Adam Baggins of Bag End announced that he would shortly be celebrating his eleventy-first birthday with a party of special magni- ficence, there was much talk and excitement in Hobbiton......

In our very own Lotr adventure we journeyed to Mt Doom, a long and dangerous journey across middle earth(well 1hr 30 down state highway 1, but is was 5 am!) so that we could, like Frodo destroy the one true ring...or go for a walk in the snow. The approach from Taupo at around 6am, the sun casting a deep red glow across the mountains and mist we could almost believe we were in the movie....

ok well not quite... we were taking part in the tongariro crossing, one of the great walks of New zealand and said to be the best one day hike in the country and in the top ten of the world! The Hike is around 18.5km and took us about 6 hours, from the start in the volcanic slopes of the mountains to the snow capped plains nearer the summit the down past the geothermal pools and the golden grass medows and through the birch forest to the end. The walk was in no way as hard as half dome, but with us working full time (doing this on our day off) we really felt it (well at least i did!) Unfortunately as we reached the high point the clouds started to set in and so the promised view of coast to coast never materialized, however the views were still incredible! We did'nt climb up Mt Ngauruhoe (Mt doom) (due to the lack of climbing equipment and experience, but we did attempt to reach the summit of Mt Tongariro, however the mix of snow, ice and deadly drop made us stop half way (Tess would have gone on....) but hey, at least we got to play in some snow!

Here is the view from the base of Mt doom! Oh yer if you are looking at the photos on flickr tess is wearing shorts for most of the alpine walk... that there some hardy little legs!

The far side of the world

2008-11-02T19:47:00.004-06:00

----------- CRAZY NEWS!!!!! - now i think this may be a error on the behalf of Flickr, but yesterday it is recording over 650 views of the site in under 12hrs (i dont really believe it) what the hell you guys doing?!-----------------

Hey all.

So i decided to fill you all in on whats happening here in New Zealand and what we have been up to since we left fiji also 3 weeks ago. After arriving at Auckland we grabbed a tent (tess once again showed her obbesive compulsive need to name everything, the tent is 'Milly') and a car ('oti') and we decided to hit the road exploring where we would like to base ourselves. Of course this is the simplified version, and without the help of David and Sue im sure we would still be wondering around car dealerships with no ideas what was happening! To keep this brief, our road trip took us up to the Coromandel penisular (at one campsite here i asked where the water was, and the guy pointed at the river like i was a moron 'what no tap?' i cried. Again the same look as he explained there was no need for a tap, as he had just pointed out, the river is just there!) then we went down the Mt monganui, played with a kite on the beach and did a short hike, then to Rotorua, the thermal hot springs and Kiwis breeding center. From here we went down to Napier, did some wine tasting and enjoyed the chilled out seaside town atmosphere before arriving here, in Taupo.

Now this is where the story gets even better. After sending out some CVs and waiting a bit we both now have jobs! both in cafes, Tess in 'Replete' and me in 'Taste'. With jobs under the belt the tent was put away and we have now found a nice little apartment 20min walk out of town overlooking the lake and moutains (which i totally forgot to mention, Taupo has the most amazing setting next to the largest lake in austrailisa with three snow covered moutains as a backdrop. The one mountain was Mt Doom in lord of the rings?!, which basically means we live next to a celebrity! Anyhoo just wanted to keep everyone up to date!

YAH

2008-10-29T22:05:00.003-06:00

holy poop.....i may have got every photo from Trek america (and therefore the whole of america) on flickr!

wow

now best get started on fiji and new zealand......

you better all go look and leave amazing comments!

Fiji!

2008-10-29T16:33:00.001-06:00

I feel bad for Fiji because it kinda got lost between trek and the anticipation of New Zealand. So I think that it should get its very own blog. It was actually really lovely. We were both taken aback by how much we liked it. We arrived early in the morning, just before dawn and got through customs in an instant. As our driver took us to our hotel, telling us a little about landmarks and Fijian culture the dawn broke over the mountains to reveal a stunning and dramatic landscape that neither of us expected. We never even looked into what Fiji would be like. It was always a sort of stepping stone between America and Australasia… the half way point of the whole trip really. The people of Fiji have been the kindest and most sincere that we have ever encountered. Everyone was friendly and interested in what we had to say and really willing to tell you about their traditional customs and belief. As we drove, the island came to life with sugar cane workers and ox drawn ploughs tending the fields. People hitch-hiking to work, goats crossing the road, horses grazing along under the coconut trees. Like nothing you could ever have expected.

Our hotel was great; all the staff had learnt our names within a day and always greeted you on your way to and fro. We had a sea view or the coral coast which was perfect for snorkelling. We saw loads of shoals of pretty coloured fish and some ominous looking sea worm things. They looked like under water snakes but were harmless. It was reallllllly warm too. Like a bath almost cause it was so shallow. All round it was a great place to recover from having lost a whole day on route from the USA. In fact we pretty much slept and cotched for 4 days. But we did break up the sleeping and eating with one day trip to a traditional Fijian village… by river canoe and bamboo raft of course!

So after an hour or so of canoeing we reached the village where they greeted us with a Kava ceremony. A drinking ritual of a root tea to welcome important visitors to the homestead. The whole village (minus the chief) were there to welcome us, dance, cook and show us their way of life. They unearthed our meal… literally and served us lunch. Then we saw the school kids who sang for us. To wear of the food we all danced with the ladies as the men played guitar and sang. Great fun! Our guide was really informative and generally lovely (as almost all Fijians seemed to be). We left and he took us further up river to some hidden waterfalls. The landscape was just like in the Jurrasic Park films… so I was happy. We had to hike to the big waterfall through the river which was kinda novel, then we got to swim at the base of it and play. Just like you imagine a South Pacific paradise to be.

All in all, it was incredible and I recommend that you all by-pass the Caribbean for your island dream trip and head straight to Micronesia.

Adams Note –
So as im sure you have noticed, we have been missing from your everyday lives for over 6 months now (please, no tears). How is it to travel for so long? Well, I hate all my clothes (mostly my ‘dyslexics untied’ due to the two types of morons who approach me when I wear it – first the wow what a brilliant idea, im dyslexic too! Were basically best friends! And the idiot who decides to tell me who long they were staring at my chest to work out the joke. Do I look like someone who wants a stranger talking to him?) plus they always smell, after 6 months BO is so ingrained into the fabric there is no getting it out., also none of it fits which brings me onto my next point, my weight has never yoyo-ed so much in all my life. One place I losing (mostly in liquid form from one orifice or the other) it so fast I can climb in and out my trousers without undoing the buttons, next its storing its self in huge great tyres across my waist (thank you USA), only to be walked off (thank you half dome). I dislike the reliance that I have on battery power, its not until you cant charge everything up in an instant you realise this, there is (and this is a fact) nothing more disappointing than your ipod running out of juice 7mins into a 10hr drive. I dislike The French , they are everywhere (like a bad rash) whats worse is you can normally tell that’s they are French before they open there mouth and insult you. Brilliant example, to write this blog in a wifi café we had to plug the laptop in, but a lovely young French couple had plugged their inerpopiatly large adapter into the center socket so noone else could plug in the sides ones. And then they had placed bags and assorted crap around the plug so there was no way of getting to it anyway. They could oviosly see that I wanted to plug this in, would they move? hellll no. (in the end tess went in all guns blazing and we are now plugged in, yah!)

So tess is looking at me in disappointed way, she thinks that I have ruined the perfectly pleasant post with my complaints so now for the things I do like.

The term European and how it can be applied to anything and make it posh, its not caburys dairy milk, its a rich European chocolate. Its not just pasta with tomatoe sauce, its European, italian pasta, its not a slutty mini skirt, its European fashion. Therefore I am not a dirty English man, im a stylish European traveler.

I like the freedom of just getting in the car and driving, seeing new cultures and mocking them cos its just not like England (look at these silly fools,on the wrong side of the road!). I like the queen, and the fact she is still on the money here. (in fact i have become positivly patriotic), if anyone asks we we know/met etc the queen i reply, 'who? oh her britannic majesty? everyone knows her!' I like the fact you can tell an American you are 21^st in line to the throne and they will belive you and that by law you have to send her a birthday card on at least one of her b'days.

. I like the fact people look forward to going to London and seeing the white cliffs of dover (hehe poor buggers) Most of all I like all the people we have met, who have shown us uncommon friendship in times of need, helped us and truly gone out of their way to help make this one of the best experiences ever.

As that last comment is a bit gay, the one thing I love the most more than anything else. My darling, my love my Nikon D80 with her 50mm lens.

adam

Las Vegas and Los Angeles

2008-10-18T01:15:00.001-05:00

Part 4... the end on the USA! Adam wrote this one... so it'll be long and probably include lots of B***ching:

From the peaceful settings of Zion nation park we headed 4hrs west, to the city of sin!. Now I have wanted to visit Vegas for ages, not because of a addiction to gambling, the love of alcohol or seeing way to much CSI but due to a discovery channel feature I watched about 5 years ago about all the little secrets (eg. I made a bet with Rohan that he would never see a clock on a gaming floor..) and the logistics of running a city in the desert (so if you didn’t already know that I’m quite sad, I think I just cleared it up for you). Anyhoo after we arrived we went for some Italian in a cool little restaurant, where you ordered portions for the table (so they were huge!), and the table came with its own effigy of the pope in the centre…. Then we were picked up by a ‘party bus’ which gave us a tour, took us to the Vegas sign and the light show in downtown (the road out side the golden nugget is now under the largest TV screen in the world, which shows a different music video every night (we had the pleasure of ‘we are the champions’ by Queen, At first pictures of the band and the union jack were shown, then as the song reached its climax, a US flag took over the screen as pictures of American doctors, police, fire crews and ‘free, strong and all American citizens’ flew round to cheers from the crowd. Then it was back to the strip for drinks.

The next morning we got up early to hit the strip, Tess had decided to go to every casino (not the crappy ones) and get a dollar chip, and in the really big ones spent a dollar on a random game (which for the most part was the wheel of fortune, no skill involved but relatively exciting). We started at the Luxor (shaped like a giant pyramid) and worked our way down the 3 miles to the Stratosphere. Now most the casinos were amazing (sorry Excalibur and treasure island, you were naff) but the 3 that take the price were the Belllagio, the Palazzo and the Venetian (the Mirage, New York New York, Planet Hollywood, Mgm Grand, Caesars Palace were also pretty amazing). We spent some time in the Bellagio and had lunch there, the place exuded wealth and class, now we went for a buffet lunch and expected for our $20 dollars not that much……it was amazing, the best meal we had in months. There was steak, sushi, soup amazing salads, fish, Chinese, Indian, tapas, hand made pizza, a carvery and the deserts…..ohhh the deserts.

Anyhoo, then off to the Venetian with its canals and gondolas, I knew about the one outside, but the canal, opera and shopping street on the 2nd floor….again just amazing, you cant believe that under all this there was a casino, and no leaks!. In the Venetian we made the most money (for a $1 bet we left with $50…..what high rollers we have become!!) It was also here that after losing $10 on Casino war, Rohan looked like he had just been kicked in the nuts, we watched the guy next to us play $500 and lose it in under 20secs, then play $1000 and double it. That’s the way to do it!.

In the Palazzo we went looking for a bar, and whilst asking for directions Tess got us $30 dollars worth of free drinks (you have never seen us look soooooo happy!!). The bar was incredible, dark, sleek and stylish (like in the movies) with us sitting in 4 week old unwashed camping gear… the wash basins had the water come from the ceiling down into large stone vases! And the free drinks again, wow. A sage mojito, and a white grape crushed something or other. Anyhoo after several casinos we reached the rides at the Stratosphere, we did the tall drop and the rotating arm over the strip, both gave wicked views of the strip. Then we headed back up to cool bits before heading back to bed.

Fright night

For the last day of the trek I insisted that we all went to fright night at universal studios, because it is possibly the coolest thing on earth. Now I believe that most people especially tess thought it wasn’t going to be that bad, I mean it doesn’t take to much to scare me. So when the chain saw wielding actor chased tess down the corridor and she attempted to literally climb into my skin and out the other side, without a care for Sophie who lay on the ground in a state of fear I knew that I had chosen a good way to end the trip!

Although all the haunted houses and rides (different to the orlando ones!, the mummy is totally different!!!) were amazing, my favourite moments came when after carefully checking the exit Tess and Amanda left the one haunted house to be chased by an actor scrapping a metal bin on the ground for about 100m. Then at the end all the actors gathered at the exit, as a siren went off at midnight they all stopped there chain saws and stood for pictures, we decided the night must be over. So we went for some pics, then about 2min later another siren went off and instantly amongst all the crowds of photo taking people they started their chainsaws and chased people. Seeing the look of terror in people eyes as they realised the zombie clown who they had just been having their photo with was now chasing them out the park was pure glee!

New Video

2008-10-17T04:43:00.003-05:00

Hey all,
Greeting from Auckland !!!
just a quick one. Now many of you (ok none of you) have asked how you can see some of the best photos with some catchy music in under 4min from the trek America trip..... check it out (i love my mac)

Grand Canyon and Zion Nat Park

2008-10-17T01:10:00.001-05:00

Part 3!!!!!

Grand Canyon was a really cool camp ground. We set the tents up in a little circle and had a private long-drop! Lucky us eh? This was our last night in our tent (Billy)… except we ended up sleeping out under the stars cause they were just so twinkly and beautiful. But I’m getting a little ahead of myself. First off, on the way we made up some paper-bag masks so that we would be blindfolded from the view up until the last minute. Adam saw this as another opportunity to wear his creepy tranny mask whose eyes and mouth he covered with the electrical tape. Don’t worry, I’ve thrown it out now. As we piled out of the van the walk to the edge was really an exercise in trust as Monica led us in single-file past the confused public to a view point. It was really worth it though. I’ve never seen anything so incredibly vast. It was breath-taking. Well I thought so… then Adam exclaimed “well its not what I imagined”. He still to this day believes that tv ruined this moment for him. That sunset we watched over the Canyon before heading back to make dinner. Where team B (that’s us plus Rohan and Mark) kicked culinary butt with our shepherds pie, cauliflower cheese, green-beans, sweetcorn and peas. The fire that night was HUGE and toasty and we settled down to sleep under the stars to the sound of near-by Coyotes. We were up at the crack of dawn to see sunrise (much the same as sunset but in reverse) and do a hike down the canyon…then back up again. Check out the pics.

Zion

Our last night out camping, our last national park and our last hike was today at Zion. I’d never thought about seeing Zion so I didn’t know what to expect. Although the name should have given it away I think that everyone was completely unprepared for how incredible this place was. It was named by the Mormons who tried to settle there because of its intense natural beauty but they had to move out because of problems with river flooding. Anyhoo, it was made into a national park and I vote it up there next to Yellowstone… or pretty damn close. It has the deep red rock of “The Great Staircase” but has all this lush green vegetation aswell. Check out the photos, I just can’t do it justice. That night we didn’t bother with the tents and pretty much the whole group slept out under the stars. It was the best nights sleep I’d had, really warm in my sleeping bag but with a cool breeze on my face. It was the perfect way to end the last 4 or 5 weeks of camping. The hike that we did here was called Angels Landing. It was my favourite one of the whole trip because it was pretty short with amazing views at the top and a good bit of steep incline rock scrambling for excitement/adrenaline or whatever. This bit was sooo much fun, it was really narrow and some bright spark had to put the cables… when there was any… on the inside rather that the outside. This meant that at times we were scrambling along a 12” ledge with a drop half way down the mountain. Anyhoo, it only took about 4 hrs so we were done before the hottest part of the day and still pretty full of energy for the night in Vegas...

next installment coming soon!

Monument Valley and an early halloween

2008-10-13T16:43:00.003-05:00

Heres part 2 of our catch up posts...:

Ok, so for all those who have seen Forrest Gump you may recollect the point where he decides to stop running and go home. On route to Monument valley we passed that very spot and played chicken with the passing traffic as we tried to get some pics of us in action. No casualties and some good group shots later we headed on to our first real cultural experience of the trek. We were really excited, cause we are sad like that… and we were gonna get to meet some Navajo Indians and stay the night in one the their traditional Hogons (mud homes that look a bit like an igloo, but orange and with a complex wooden structure thing inside). This was also the first time we were gonna get to stay in the heart of one of these incredible landscapes away from other campers and hikers.

The reserve was AMAZING, the whole world as far as you could see was deep reds and oranges… exaggerated by the fact that we arrived pretty much at sunset. We were picked up by Marvin… possibly the funniest guy we met on the whole trip… in his make-shift tour jeep on which we feared for our lives at every turn. I think that his true calling was to be a stunt driver cause that is the only reason I can imagine why he would hit the accelerator at every sharp corner or vertical drop. He took us around the valley, pointed out the shapes in the towering rocks and told us any myths or stories about them. As the sun went down he took us to some rock carvings that he had to illuminate with a torch. That only made it more atmospheric. Last thing before heading to the hogons, he took us to a cave with the shape of an eagle on the ceiling where we lay back whilst he sang us some native songs.

At the camp we were served a delicious meal and danced and sang around the fire before heading off to our sleeping bags in the hogon. Just before we turned into bed we did some star gazing and I saw the brightest shooting star EVER. Perfect. In the morning we were up before the sunrise and headed out to get some pics as the sun crept over the horizon. Despite the fact the Elmer (our Navajo informer) made no sense at all and managed to avoid answering any question with a structured sentence, I would recommend this trip to everyone! For those wondering where monument valley is… for oldies John Wayne films were set here… for middle-agers Back to the Future 3 (bit at the start with the Indians and cavalry) was here and if both of the above are before your time Will Smiths Wild Wild West film, Mission Impossible 2 (the bit at the start where he is rock climbing) and one of Metallica’s rock videos were all here as well.

Easterns Halloween,
Ok, so somewhere along the trip we had decided to have an early Halloween party, carve pumpkins, dress up and dance the night away. Don’t know how that happened… but as I’ve always wanted to celebrate a proper American Halloween I was pretty chuffed with the whole idea! After an on-route dip in the controversial Lake Powell, we made our way to a super Wal-Mart to put together some creepy consumes. Now Adam really took the word CREEPY and ran with it. In fact he ran with it sooo far that barely anyone would dare say a word to him later that night. Everyone else had dressed up as zombies, vampires, clowns, witches … the usual. Adam however being the creative little being that he is donned a skin-suit and a tranny mask. Then he covered himself in fake blood and carried a butchers knife around with him. I’ll say no more. We made some delicious punch and had an awesome night.

Seattle to Utah

2008-09-26T12:03:00.002-05:00

Hey all, So while we were on trek america we wrote some blogs that never made it to the net... here is the first. Sorry for the lack of photos, the internet here is on Fiji time. Just keep checkin flickr, we'll put some more on when we get to New Zealand in 3 days!

p.s what did you all do on Monday the 6th? For us the day disappeared totally as we crossed the international date line... weird or what! We want to live our lost monday through you guys!

Over the last week we've gone from having freezing cold weather to really hot down here in the desert. We've also been some amazing places and done some wicked things!

So lets start from the top! Seattle was kinda fun, Adam REALLY liked it, it had a really creative atmosphere and the Pike Place market was wicked! It probably helped that some of his fav photographers are based there too. We got to see the original starbucks and got a well needed thermos which was to become our best buddy over the next few days as the weather got colder and colder.

The next day we were off to Montana to stay on a cowboy ranch and do some horse riding. It was a great place, check out the pics! we lodged in cowboy lean-tos made of canvas... complete with some muddy bear prints leaning up on the window. We rode in the evening as the sun was setting on a small loop around the ranch. got a bit of a trot in but nothing too dramatic. Adam looked a little ridiculous on his 3 yr old ... having said that he didn't want a pansy ass horse... he got the smallest of the bunch! tehe. In the evening the ranch over did a cook out of spare ribs and we played pool and checkers in the barn with the new members of the group.

Then it was off to yellowstone, possibly one of the most beautiful places i have ever seen. We spent 2 days hiking around, seeing amazing waterfalls, golden plains, bison, elk deer and the hot springs. On the evening of the first day we went up to boiling river (sounds cool or what!), where a river and a hot-spring meet, creating a hot section of the river, we spent an hour swimming around in the hot water, carefully avoiding all the cold currents!. Next day we were off to see 'ol faithfull', who as promised went up in all his glory. Whilst hiking around this area we were chatting on the trail when about 10foot away a large rock stood up..... well a dirty great bison got up (at this point the warning signs stating to stay at least 50ft away from bison as they would 'gore you' came to mind as we backed away slowly!) he gave us one quick snort then walked off down the path.

Camping in yellowstone was essentially hell. no kidding, there was a 70% threat of snow (thank god the 30% won out!) but it did get down to -5c. so everything froze, beer, pens toothpaste, deodorant, shampoo (didnt know that could happen).

From yellowstone off to jackson, a cowboy town where we went white-water rafting, which was amazing! it was just like in the movies! the best bit was when Tess got to sit at the front for one rapid and the biggest wave threw here right back into the boat (hehe). Whilst here we went to the Grand Teton nation park, and did a morning hike up around jenny lake, it was like a blue mirror reflecting the mountains and trees, again one of the most beautiful places we have vistited. Here camping was just as bad, we had to leave at 6am (up at 5) as we packed up the tents were frozen, which made it even more fun!

Now we are in Utah (a dry state!) at arches nation park. Its amazing here, again the places we go keep getting better and better. Last night we hiked up to watch the sun set over delicate arch, the sunset mixed with the reds of the sandstone was amazing, looked just like a wild west movie!

hope you like the photos!

cya all later

Speed blog

2008-09-20T01:34:00.002-05:00

Hey, greetings from Seattle. We only have a few mins on the internet (spent most of the time puting photos up on flickr). In the last week we've been to San Fran (awesome) met an Alcatraz in-mate who signed our book and went on a sailing sunset cruise and a wine tasting!; we've been kayaking in the Redwood forest, Dune buggies in Florence, been painting in Paradise (Mt Rainier), Bathed in the Hot Springs of Olympic Nat Park and went to a rainforest (spent about 40hours in a van driving between all these places!).

Anyhoo hope you all love the photos on flickr... there'll be more on the way! oooohhhh, cause of all this camping we have had chipmonks play on the tents, raccoons try to steal our food and some dirty great bears patrolling the campsites! tehe.

No idea when we'll have access to the net again but keep checkin!

Miss you all.

Top of The Dome

2008-09-13T00:21:00.003-05:00

Just a quick one. Here is a panorama from the top of the dome! see a bigger one on flickr... Enjoy!

trekkin' tales

2008-09-11T22:07:00.003-05:00

hey people,

well we are in the first few days of the trek, and so far after LA we traveled up to Santa Barbara which is just like in the O.C, then up the big Sur and route 1 to Marina before heading inland to Yosemite nation park and now we are in San fran preparing to leave for the redwood forests tomorrow phew.....

anyhoo i have loaded a ton of photos up (so far i have taken over 600 in 4 days so think yourselves lucky that only 49 made it to flickr....)

We have lots of fun stories but the one we are proud of was at Yosemite, where we decided to go on a hike and climb up the half dome mountain..... google it.....its big!

We had the idea that we would go on the hike as far as we could then when it got too hard, we would take some photos and come back down... well after 11hours, 16 miles and a 5000ft elevation gain we reached the top...

we started off on the easy walk and reached the first waterfall, from the pictures you can see i still had my sense of humor and Tess was feeling good about the experience.

By the 2nd water fall (considered the medium hike), our spirits were failing, but the views of the mountains and the semi-cute animals kept us going (even thought this bit included a grueling climb up 600 steps well not really steps, just big stones that jutted out, ouch)

now the difference from the medium walk to the hard was noticeable, the path kinda disappeared from time to time and the incline got much greater till in the end we had to scramble up a granite surface to reach the top!..

well we thought we were at the top, as we came over the top this was the view that greeted us..

now you notice the small back dots on the left had side of that rock, yup they are crazy ass people climbing up the side of a 85 degree wall, using nothing but two guide ropes to support them. Now we arent stupid, and so we decided to be happy with the semi-top (which is just as cool) we got to after 5hrs, anyhoo, its not the winning the matters, its the taking part.

What a load of toss, what a naff blog story that we be for you guys. We saw those ropes and ( after a little hesitation) the adrenaline kicked in and up we went, a 120m climb up a granite surface with no safety rope just so we could share these photos with you guys! yes, YOU! we just cant stop giving!

on the photos the little black dots sitting on the end of the rock are us!

all comments on how amazing we are will be appreciated.

Of course the only problem with going up is the coming down, another 4hrs down with knee destroying steps and tracks.... but hey we did get to see a bear (just before he was shot by a ranger...with a bean bag to scare him away, which was mighty cool!)

anyhoo just wanted to rave about how amazing we are!

adam x

ps tess is still tending her massive blisters ( will get photos cos they are gross)

Vermont and a run in with Gustave

2008-09-05T20:35:00.002-05:00

Alright, I think that our regulars haven't been getting their blog fix this week, sorry! Its been a manic week... or rather a manic weekend and several days of stress recovery!

So we packed up (or rather threw all our stuff into the boot of a rented car) last Friday and headed north into rural New England. City living was fun and all but it was time to follow the trees and see some of the countryside. Basically, we had spent some time watching episodes of the Gilmore Girls and wanted to see small town living Vermont style. On the 4 hour drive up through New Hampshire: "Live Fee or Die"... yes their state slogan was such a shock that I missed the camera op, so you'll just have to believe me... we stopped off in the White Mountain National Forest for a walk, a wonder and a run in with some pretty persistent mosquitoes.

By the late evening we arrived in Cabot where we met Lydia and her Mum... the plan was to meet her in town, when we asked where in town she replied that we'd know that when we got there. Turns out town was only two shops so all was well. We had a perfect evening in Caleb and Mary's farm house where we picked and ate the best sweetcorn I have ever tasted, home-grown burgers and many local favorites like local ales, dips and of course Ben and Jerry's ice cream. Thank you for having us!

As we woke up the next morning we found out that Hurricane Gustave was heading towards New Orleans and that our flight for the following morning was canceled. With a lot of help from Lydia and Peggy (Brock's mum) we avoided too much financial pain... sort of. Honestly, both of you deserve medals thank you soooooooooooooooooooo much. So hurricane or no we had not been deterred from visiting Ben and Jerry's factory on Saturday. It was tasty and filled us with dreams of creating an empire of ice cream!

To de-stress Lyds took us to Brock's bar/restaurant called Splash, on the Lake Champlain water front of Burlington (which is also really pretty). It was really beautiful and the water didn't smell like lakes in England. It was clear, fresh and bordered by distant mountains. Vermont really was the most beautiful place we've seen in America. Anyhoo, that in mind we got drunk... and took photos... eeek.

Next day we took a dip in their private beach which was realllllly cold but definitely chilled me out. I say we of course by that I meant me and Lydia , the boys were too chicken. HA. Then we headed out to the mountains to get a good view of the landscape... truly breathtaking. You all should go see it.

In the evening we were lucky enough to get an invite to the family corn-roast... even after we has been such a pain with stress and phone calls, can you believe it! We headed out into the sticks to Lydia's grandmothers farm. This was such a cool night, we got driven on a chevy truck thing to a field where a fire was lit and a buffet of homemade grub was laid out on the back of a truck. Our gift the the group was a pack of jammy-dodgers and some hobnobs. I think they went down pretty well!

Having Brock as a chef/tour guide we got to experience over the next few days the best breakfast places in town (they were amazing, i have a new appreciation of breakfast and its many forms). Throughout the week we camped at North beach, an amazing site right next to the water with amazing views across to the mountains, and spent 2 days wondering up and around the lake and the town, eating in cafes, going to tea shops, shopping and watching Tv at Lydia's.

Now we are sitting in LA after a 7hr flight across country, tomorrow we start our 28 day Trekamerica, so for those Blog junkies out there, expect some delays!! but we cant wait, its going to be amazing!!!

New York, New York!

2008-08-28T14:51:00.005-05:00

I'd say that this pic pretty much sums up our impressions of New York

So it was quite a commitment going to New York... cause it meant that to avoid spending LOTS of money we had to get a reallllllly early bus. We got up at 5am ergh! to get our cheap China town bus from town. We had spent days trying to give Greyhound our good money to get tickets that would have been twice as expensive but to no avail. So we spend half as much and got there quicker with the Fung Wha. Seriously recommend it. It was comfy and quick... our only issue was with the camp kid behind us who had an unusually loud, brain-piercing and head-ache giving voice. It takes me quite alot to be confrontational, but as I saw Adam creasing his little brow... ear plugs in and still unable to get this kid out of his head I had to say something. The only other issue was that at this time in the morning people were eating egg fried food at every angle. Now I can list several things that I wouldn't want to smell after only a few hours sleep... fried chicken is at the top of that list but ah well.

That is the Statue of Liberty on Adam's shoulder... lets hope she isn't luring him with her promises of freedom

We got to New York sometime before midday... I was still trying to avoid my watch at this point... and went to get the Statton Island ferry. A great way to see the Statue of Liberty it has to be said, especially cause it was FREE! It only took like 20mins each way and we got to see some great views of the city from the water as well as the Statue of Liberty of course! Sleep and caffeine deprived we went in search of Central Manhattan to find a Starbucks (it had to be done).

We looked for the Big Apple for ages but we didn't even see an unusually large one

We passed Ground Zero on the way which was sort of moving. Just to be in that place where such a horrible thing had happened... in real life. And the space was just so big! They really must have been Huge.

Our rather over-sized tourist map made sure we stood

out as practical and well planned people

Walking through central park was just like on tele and in the movies. People jogging, picnicking and reading under the trees. All very cool but we really didn't get a sense of the size of it until later, when we saw it from above. As yet we had not encountered one Starbucks. Which really went against everything we had heard about the coffee fueled citizens of the Big Apple. Walking down 5th Ave (where all the expensive and posh shops are) it was not until we hit the Rockefeller that we found one! Course afterwards we saw them all over the bloody place but thats Sods Law I guess. Adam took pride in ordering a very complicated coffee as fast as he could just to test the efficiency of the staff.

Recharged we went in search of Grand Central Station to get some lunch and watch people buzzing about being city-going Americans. Now i imagined the station to be a but like..well a train station, but as we entered the huge chandliers, arches and amazing painted ceiling (and lack of trains, as these are hidden behind some posh looking doors) made it seem like the entrance to an art gallery or museum. True to our word we grabbed 2 salads and sat watching the world fly by. Adam set up his camera on a slow shutter to try and capture the hussle and bussle of all these people moving around.

Us at the top of the Rockefeller in front of the Empire State

After food we headed to the Crylser building and the UN before walking back up to the Rockefeller center to go up the 70 floor to the top of the rock observation area. Part of the visit incluced a video (an advert for the center) and a photo made to look like the famous one of men sitting having their lunch on a girder 70 floors up. Now everyone else in the que sat nicely and smiled, me and Adam, knowing that we were not going to buy the photo decided to have a more eventful shot, i hung from the girder, whilst Adam stood on it trying to pull me up... tehe!

We tried to wait on the roof until the sun went down and the city got lit up, but after an hour and a half we were just too bored of waiting and decided to go for a cocktail (not that it wasn't an incredible view but there is only so many times you can walk to all 4 sides of the skyscraper.) We had a Manhattan in Manhattan and a Long Island ice tea just for good measure... felt like we were in Sex and the City. So which characters do you think we'd be? ooo, we'll put pics up on Flickr soon... after we have had some more sleep.

Adam rather enjoying the cherry in his Manhattan

Day trip to ....Plymouth!

2008-08-23T23:33:00.005-05:00

As promised we headed off yesterday to see Plymouth, Plymouth rock, the Mayflower and the Plimoth plantation. I could go into the details of all the things we saw in excutiating detail .... however i hope a few small select stories should suffice....

Sooo we are at the Mayflower, and im reading about scurvy when a delightful family decides to join and parks their ass right in front of me (not that uncommon, its seems) now the small ( i use the term 'small' to describe age, not his pyhsical attributes) child starts asking his mother about scury and the british...' Oh all british have black teeth, cos they dont eat them vegtables, and they die cos the vegtables stop scurvy, thats why the english eat limes so we call them limies but they call them lemons'

wow... i would have grinned and beared it, but that may of scared them more!

I think we all can learn a bit about English culture from this - People eat your VEGTABLES thats whats killing our youth! I almost expect this family to get an BA flight to heathrow, and during the preflight saftey talk, just after ' to buckle your saftey belt (by the way, if you cant do that, you shouldnt be on a plane) 'Ladies and gentlemen in the event of scurvy limes will drop from the ceiling, please eat your lime before assisting those around you'
Just in case you have started to get worried....

http://www.nhsdirect.nhs.uk/articles/article.aspx?articleid=332&sectionid=10

if you have any of the symptoms eat a lime, dont just do it for yourself, do it for me...

im sorry, this is why Tess does most the blogging (i hate people)

Next we get onto Plymouth rock. So for a game, which below do you think is the plymouth rock...

Yup its the 2nd one, behind dirty plastic, metal scafolding it really was just a rock, the only real way to see it was to scrabble down the side of the beach. We decided against doing this and so went to see some of the other interesting less famous rocks in the area (end photo) and had a game of rock, paper sisors.

Next we took the 1/2 hour bus (totally empty, just us the driver and his remixed versions of 8o classics played on the panpipes) to Plimoth plantation. I have to admit that it was quite fun here, a small indian camp, a english villiage and lots of role players. My only issues were that all the 'english' were this weird mix of accents, they had been told how to say certain words in a 'English way' such as Laaaandan, or toon instead of town, but everything else was in an american accent. Also i find role players a little scary, dont know why, but hey ho.

I promise to let tess start blogging again soon.....
adam

Random Boston Days

2008-08-21T21:46:00.002-05:00

Over the past few days we have done a few things that weren't quite blog worthy but together they may just pass as a half decent Blog...
Sooo we went to the science museum to see the world largest Imax (tess had never been to one before) we went to see a movie about the Grand canyon- preparing ourselves for the real thing in a few weeks! anyhoo.. after pushing the thousands of kids away( or by using foul language so their parent moved them for us ....whats sad is that really happened...) we had a play on some of the toys (we spent about 5hrs there)

Later in the week we went to Harvard, which was very cool. We spent time wondering round and going into book stores. Whilst in the Harvard Bookstore, as tess looked at history book i found possibly the only 'pub humour, dirty joke book' in there and so spent much of my time giggling away in a corner. I admit Harvard is nice, but Nottingham, i believe is nicer....we have a Lake for example.... and errr.....lots of concrete buildings!

Then we headed off down the Freedom trail....basically a trip that reminds everyone how America won its independence and how they beat the British etc etc (yawn). Most the time it sounds like the script from Star Wars (The big evil tea swigging empire trying to take the universe whilst the republic saves the day and destroys the death star) anyhoo we got near the end and wound up at USS constitution, which was very cool (even though the HMS Victory is older and has a better name, and won battles by not cheating) there were loads of Navy folk hanging out all over the path which just made we giggle lots ... lots of seamen all over the place covering the freedom trail etc etc

anyhoo tomorrow we are off the Plymouth rock, which i am assured is just a rock (not even the first place they landed, that would be Provincetown in Cape Cod) but should be Fun......

cya later Adam

Salem

2008-08-16T16:37:00.002-05:00

So a few days back we got up nice n early and trudged down to the port to catch a boat to Salem, a nearby historic town which is most famous for its witch trials and then hangings in 1692. This was our first boat trip so we took LOADS of pics on the boat trip looking back over the sunny cityscape of Boston... Don't know if you'll find these at all interesting but just in case ...

After the usual social dance with the locals on the boat ("oh you're from England! These people are from England too!") we sat back and enjoyed the stunning views of the New England coast. The sea front houses were idyllic, of the typical American style but with views of the ocean and set against little tufts of woodland. Most of them also had steps going down the cliff to their HUGE private yaughts... *sigh*. On arriving we wondered down a huge painted red line that conveniently took us to, and on a tour of the town. I swear I have never seen anything so many bizarre exhibits that claim to be 'museums' in one place. Every corner we took there was another Ghost museum, Witch wax works, Horror museum, Witch village, Witch life museum. It wouldn't be sooo bad had they not had big, tacky, Halloween-costume style window decorations that made them look really tacky and kitsch. We decided to go to 'the most visited museum in Salem', the Witch museum in hope that we might get a proper idea of the history of the town trials etc etc.

The give away should have been the big ugly hag statue and the painted witches on broomsticks out the front of the building but we were trying to keep an open mind! We were led into a large auditorium where we sat in the dark for about 15minutes before the presentation finally kicked in... honestly we had begun to believe that the 'horror' of the story would be being stuck in a room with about 50 motionless, silent strangers with no air con.... but that turned out just to be part of it!

The presentation told the story of the trials... sort of... it seemed to add some weird comments and conclusions as to why the whole thing started... like the repression of young women (ok maybe...) then the idea of the devil as a black person causing these girls to go insane (what?). Then, to conclude, they tried to justify the whole thing by saying "19 people were killed in the village its ok, cause we weren't as bad as Europe... they killed more". Also they mentioned that it was a good thing in some way because it reminded Americans to be tolerant and in that way better than Europeans... (hmmm can you say Mc Carthy witch hunts?). Just as we raised our eyebrows the final concluding statement told us to "Ask Europe who the devil is and who's side he was on". You can understand why this caused offense to the few Europeans in the room who stared at each other in utter confusion and disbelief. We left with the cliche pagan anatromical midwife started talking about being a 'strong women'.

After a wonder around the town taking pics of the old houses and gravestones we headed to the Peabody museum to see the Maori tattoo expedition which was very cool. Then we had a really delicious and HUGE dinner in a harbour front pub. I tried the local delicacy of clam chowder which was really very tasty. I thought I was very brave!

On the way home we did get a little scared as at the habor we were the only two people waiting for the last ferry home.... so when the 400 person capicty ferry arrived it was quite fun to go to the very front and play lots in the cold wind ( a much more sexy version of Titanic i think you will agree!) we also tried our hardest to get some pics of the city at night without a tripod. Still pretty but next time we will go more prepared!

Call me Ishmael...or Adam.....The story of Adam Dick

2008-08-14T20:22:00.003-05:00

So for my Birthday i decided we were going to go Whale watching, Tess had been reading Moby dick and the timing seemed perfect. The only problem was dragging our sorry butts out of bed at the crack of dawn so we could get to the boat!
I have to admit that i was expecting to see one whale several miles off for a second and that be it...and thats how it started

.....then they just seemed to appear around the boat, the marine biologist started by saying 'now look to the left and you will see ...' to then 'Wow! just look anywhere off the boat and you will see something!'

They managed from people photos on the journey back to identify over 20 different individuals! We saw several mothers and calf's humpbacks and lots of feeding!.

The feeding basically involves swimming round under water blowing bubbles so the fish get confused and trapped in the middle of the circle, then the whales come up in the middle with their mouths wide open.

The sea birds fly round looking for an easy meal and often sat on the whales whilst they swam round! Then one woman shouting something about 'Believing' and grabbing an oar jumped off the ship and danced on the nose of one whale whilst the rest of us chanted 'SHAMU, SHAMU'

Ummm......
The three hours flew past then we headed back into town for some food shopping and a movie. A good day allround! Anyhoo the pics dont really do it any justice, kinda just look like wet rocks!, but it was truly amazing!

The JFK Museum

2008-08-12T21:14:00.002-05:00

Sooo yesterday we headed off out of Boston (well just south) to the JFK museum to see what it was all about... i shall not bore you with the details of the exhibits that we saw... instead we have some pics of the architecture which was really cool! (Few more on Flickr!)

Ps. Todays favorite moment came whilst on the 'T', with my map out a friendly local came over to see if i needed help. 'nope im fine' i replied....a look of amazement appeared over this face....'Your English...my brother visited England once...Hey mike come over here, there from England!' i saw the look on tessa's face, she was turning away trying to avoid the fast approaching awkward conversation.... HA! like a lightning bolt it hit me, the perfect way to end this ...' You know tess is from London' i said it quickly waiting for the inevitable response 'HEY!, i went to London do you know the.......' i turned with my map and chuckled, the best thing about coming from the Midlands is no one ever goes there.....

Boston, week one.

2008-08-09T10:44:00.004-05:00

So I'm sure you all know by now that we arrived safe and sound in Boston. After a mild panic attack on the first couple of days... which we wont talk about... we settled into our place here for the month. We have been finding it hard to blog about Boston because we have been so darn busy exploring! We have yet to take the camera out into town I am afraid but we have got some pics from the highlights of the week.

There are all sorts of free money saving activities that we have been taking FULL advantage of. Our favorite so far came about from the rivalry between two local Boston beer companies Sam Adams and Harpoon. So we thought it was only fair that us beer drinking Brits go and show them what it is all about.

We had a nice early start so as to fit in the optimum about of beer tasting. Off we ventured on the T (Boston underground) to the far end of town in search of the fabled Samuel Adams. Arriving at our stop we made a point of looking gormless until a very nice assistant gave us directions. By the time we got there it was only about 9.45am... this was gonna have to be bloody good beer to settle on our stomaches so early. We got two tasters on arrival, a blackberry and a coffee one.

My God were they delicious, more than made up for the association of Sam Adams with the Boston tea party. The tasting continued through the tour and into the official tasting room. I have to say that there wasn't one that I disliked and to top it off I won a posh beer tasting glass for guessing the secret ingredient in their most expensive brew was (c: not bad for a mornings work eh!

After a hearty and delicious meal at a local pub with sweet potato fries and freshly battered onion rings we headed off to the docks to compare Harpoon. The brewery here tried a different approach to a beer tour, less of a tour more a open bar with free samples of all there beers. While drinking you would get a brief history of each drink and how it was made. Seeing from our ID's that we were British, the tour guide/barman immediatly assumed that we would allready know about different types of European Beer and so would regularly redirect questions to us (Are German beers fruity?, whats your option of French strawberry beer...etc etc) and at several points during the 'session ale' taste asked about how we would drink this at every meal and what an Englishman would consider a good alcoholic content for such an Ale...

Anyhoo maybe it was the 2 free tasting glasses, or the fact Tess won a prize, but we preferred Sam Adams, sorry harpoon.....

Ps .. my favorite moment came when a southern man , who proclaimed himself to be a true beer drinking American asked the tour guide at Sam Adams why they were effeminate beer by adding fruit and 'delicate girly' tastes. All he wanted was a real American Bud!. He looked proudly at his son, as if he had just beaten some sense into all these 'beer homos'. The tour guide sighed and asked us in the calmest manor ' i hear in Europe Bud is seen as an effeminate drink compared to Ales such as Sam Adams? Oh yes! Tess replied, something you would give to children..

Charleston

2008-08-03T20:34:00.003-05:00

First off we need to say a BIG BIG thank you to Owen for letting us stay with him and carting us about the place for three days! You were an excellent host and tour guide... you should really go into the business!

Charleston was beautiful, even better than Savannah... I'm going to label it the Henley-on-Thames of the USA (although there were more dolphins, Spanish moss and quaint colonial homes.)

The shops were posh and pricey so we tried to stay out of them but we much enjoyed prancing about pretending to be part of it all. It was the first place that we have been where we felt we could live ... we would just have to win the lotto first so we could afford one of the plush, elegant homes on the seafront looking out for pirates whilst enjoying a gin and tonic. Owens place was gorgeous. Set into suburbia (just like on tele) with the rocking chair out front and a back yard overlooking the wildlife of the trees and pond. We got to feed the ducks, watch the local wild deer and see Owen prove that you can put a cat on a lead and take it for a walk around the back garden!
On our second day Owen took us out to see one of the old rice plantations called Middleton Place. It was incredible, with breathtaking scenery and charming French style gardens to wander round.

We also took the woodland path where we encountered some HUGE spiders... spiders are even yuckier when you see them that big... as well as some turtles, frogs and strange ducks whose necks make them look like snakes when they are swimming (creepy!).

Then we went off to the swamp gardens of another plantation to look for gators. We didn't see any but the swamp was pretty cool and lots of other wildlife to admire.

On our last day we explored the town a little more and went to the Charleston Museum. It was all very interesting and then... dun dun duh... we found the dressing up section. The day was made.

We ate out on a pretty harbour where Owen's mum works. It looks just like Amity Island but without a great white killer shark. Anyway I swear she must be the luckiest woman in the world as wild dolphins swim and play about the boats every day and were great fun to watch. I ate my first Mahi fish and it was delicious... Adam tried it too aswell as Owen's Flounder and declared that he like them both! He may turn into a fish eater yet...

Savannah!

2008-07-28T22:35:00.003-05:00

soooo.... Savannah is pretty, lots of green space, nice buildings. It was especially beautiful to Tess who had her warm hued tinted sun glasses on. she kept exclaiming 'look at that pretty wall, and that tree, and that back alley full of trash bins!' ... seriously I have the photos she kept taking as proof. Also the people sitting about the parks all seemed very and genuinely hopeful that we had a good day and kept asking us as much... we thought that was all an act that you only got from shop assistants but it seems not. anyhoo, what is much more important - we found our first gun shop (yah!) well it was a hunting shop, lots of guns, silly clothing and archery stuff, basically a warehouse of death. (for any american readers who find this neither interesting or exciting please remember in the UK our idea of hunting is dressing up in dashing red jackets on noble steeds chasing foxs and using dogs to do the dirty work then having high tea and crumpets). Also when we went around some shops people made fun of our accents (we dont see people like you in these parts!) ohhhh and the hunting shop had a camping size icecream maker.....why?!

anyhoo here is the first video from orlando, on the last day mom looked after my camera , when i got back I found that she had taken over 300 random photos. It provides an interesting introduction to my family...sorry Aunt Tracey, seems you were moms favorite model...the bit of Paige (in the blue) dancing on the pier cracks me up every time!

Three weeks sumed up in a few lines

2008-07-27T21:38:00.003-05:00

Sooo... we arrived in the USA and our blogging kinda went down the drain. Sorry about that!

Landed in Miami, spent Tessa's birthday getting her hair cut, cinema and shopping. Then we attempted to walk back. Ha! we failed miserably and ended up lost in a HUGE hospital (we thought there would be cabs there... there wasn't).

Took a bus to Orlando and met the Madge/Moriarty clan. We spent two weeks with them enjoying all the fun stuff of Universal, Seaworld, Nasa, Gatorland and Hollywood Studios. (Thanks soooo much everyone for a wicked time if you are reading!).

The 'Clan' at Gatorland

Favourite rides: Cracken, Mummy, Poseidon's Fury, Jaws and ET
Fav shows: Murder mystery dinner and the Seaworld shows... and the stunt shows...
basically everything!

Today we drove up to Savannah in Georgia from Orlando as our first US road trip. 300miles in 6 hours with two stop offs. The second stop was at a stereotypical American roadside diner. It was just after we crossed the state border into Georgia. Country music jukebox, strong Southern accented waitress and truckers sitting at the counter with their caps hung up at the door. The best moment was when the old guy sitting beside me said that he was going to go get his chainsaw! I almost spat out my drink before he went on to explain that it was to cut down a tree.

This was the view for basically the whole 6 hours (Tess liked the 'big pretty trees')

Arriving in Savannah we got a cheap but nice motel and headed into town... just in time to be hit by the eye of the most terrifying storm I have ever experienced (and we saw some pretty awesome ones in Florida). The lighting was striking literally on top, in front and to the side of us. We couldn't even see the rear lights of the car a few metres infront. The lightning was sooo close to us that several times we actually saw where it hit the ground. So we'll say more about the town tomorrow.

Sorry to be such bad bloggers, we promise to be better from now on.

Bye bye mexico!

2008-07-10T08:46:00.003-05:00

Well after 89 days, countless corn tacos, mohitos, spells of food poisening and amazing sights we are finally leaving mexcio. Got ourselves free internet here in the Bubba Gump shrimp shack in the airport ( waiting for my ameriacan breakfast, 2 eggs, scrambled, 3 pancakes, 3 bits of bacon and 3 bits of Ham and cheese! yum). i got uus here really early thinking that it would be busy, no que at check in or security, so total time from getting off bus to departures, 10min. so i thought we would make a quick list of what we will be missing from mexico and what we will be glad to never see/ do again!.

Tess will miss....
- cenotes, jungle, sea, outdoor eating/drinking, sense of national pride and the sites of course! The chocolate...ah cacao!

Adam will miss....
- The bus service (sad or what buts its amazing), the cheap beer, cheap food, the music, some of the food, the friendly, patient people who allowed us to try and speak spanish

Tess will not miss...
- lack of down pipe guttering on buildings so they just shoot out water on your head, lack of reasonable pavements (they either just stop or are impassable from concrete objects that jut out of them), drivers who just stop right in front of you when you are waiting to cross the road... they are not going anywhere so they make sure its an arse for you to.... argh!, being accosted on the street by taxi drivers "taxi taxi taxi" The voices on mexican TV (ear piercing!), badly dubbed movies.

Adam will not miss
- Having to put used toilet roll into a bin next to the loo (once i flush, that should be the last i see of it), mexican driving, sweating so much the salt stains my shirts.. leading to tess forcing me to take a re-hydration drink yuk! corn tacos (man i hate them) people standing outside shops shouting to get to you to come in by attempting to guess your nationality and shouting across the street..italy!, France!, Germany!, England!

We have really enjoyed our time here....Bring on USA!

Xel-Ha, all inclusive rocks

2008-07-05T15:33:00.004-05:00

So yesterday we went to Xel-Ha (pronounced Shell-ha meaning 'where two waters meet' in Maya). It is an absolutely stunning natural inlet where fresh water springs and underground rivers meet the sea. The good people of the Yucatan have very tastefully made it into a water park, with snorkeling, Kayaking, inflatable tubes, swing ropes and cliffs to jump into the water from and some tropical animals. Oh... and the best bit restaurants, bars, lockers, towels, snorkels and loungers all included in an entrance fee. We ate like kings (and queens- Adam actually ate his own body weight in steak, chicken and pork loin) and drank like them to - frozen Pina Coladas and Margaritas are the way forward. We started the day off with a good snorkel swim right at the point where the sea met the inlet. The fish we saw were AMAZING and some quite scary! We saw little tiger-striped fish, manta rays, big bright blue fish, some scary looking and HUGE bulbous eyed fish and some things that looked like small barracudas but we think may have been pike? It was a great morning and we swiftly followed it up with cocktails and muchos food! But the problem with these places is the fact that they are always packed ... hmmm

You may remember that I saw my first dolphin but 5 days ago in Xcaret, well at Xel Ha I got to swim with one! It was absolutely incredible. As I walked to the water he poked his little head out of the water and swam along with me. He was called Jake ... or at least that is what it sounded like but the trainers Spanish accent was pretty strong. I had a full hour in the water with the dolphins but it felt like 15 mins! I got a kiss, a hug, a dance, a belly rub, a foot push (which I am assured will make Sea World all the more cool.) a whirlpool where he danced around on the spot. I fed him a fish and got lots of strokes. Check out the pics... Am mighty chuffed right now, I literally could not stop smiling! So thanks Mum for my early birthday prezzie, it was just, well, fantastic!

We have definitely learnt to appreciate the tourist attractions here in the Yucatan. They have been a really great way to end our time here and remind us of all the beautiful landscapes (and cocktails) of the Caribbean tropics.

Xcaret

2008-07-01T21:41:00.003-05:00

Ok so we finally did it, we have been to a big American-style tourist attraction. To be honest, we loved every minute of it, it was a really great day. That is right, we loved all the cheery folk greeting us, the safety signs, the photo points and the moron guide as to how to put on a life jacket. Its not that we are not proper travelers, honest, but this park just put together all the little bits of the Yucatan that we have loved so much elsewhere. Underground rivers to swim down, archaeological ruins, amazing wildlife, cenotes, beautiful beaches... the list goes on. Tess saw her first dolphin, manatee and sea turtles so was gleaming all over, there are three more things that we have to add to our list of pets we aspire to own, urgh.

To top it all off there was a wicked night show where they performed the infamous 'ball game' of the Maya, hockey with the ball on fire, loads of traditional Mexican dancing which made us reminisce of our 3 months here in Mexico, oh and lots of Gay singing cowboys (don't know what that was about!). The show ended with a flock of parrots flying over the huge auditorium and streamers falling all over us from the roof. They even flew a British flag right in front of our seats! So much fun! Check out more pics on flickr!

Bringing it down a notch

2008-06-27T10:50:00.003-05:00

Because we have had so many complaints about how blue the sea and sky are, we thought that today we'd give you something a little bit different. We have been having some tropical storms here for the last few days and we got some awesome pics a couple of nights ago. Now you might ask us to remember what you should not do in a thunder storm.... find the highest point under what is essentially a big tree and take photos. It got especially exciting when fork lightning hot the bar opposite. Well they just carried on the drinks and music. Then of course three fire engines came rushing down the pedestrianised road outside our apartment and stopped two roads down from us. Don't know what had happened there because our view was obscured in that direction by the big palapa roof we were under. Before we made our hasty exit we managed to get a few shots. Thats right, we go into the heart of the danger zone so we can bring you the latest news and images from the Yucatan. We are Adam and Tess and this is what we do.

So here is the sky with no lightning
...And here it is lit up only by the lightning!

Crazy huh! On another note, Adam is building up his tolerance to cyanide having consumed a local Chaya plant leaf before it was cooked. It is a type of spinach that is only looses its cyanide content after being cooked. Before we realised this Adam decided to give it a taste raw. Luckily he only ate one leaf and so is fine... his body temperature is obviously so hot here in Mexico that he cooked it internally. Phew

Tulum

2008-06-23T23:01:00.004-05:00

Sometimes we write a blog to inform, sometimes to keep you updated and on days like today its to make you jealous! Seriously sit down and look out of the window. Of the 200-odd people who viewed our blog the other day, I bet for at least 90% of you its grey. Check out our latest from the beautiful sight of Tulum (just down the coast). Maybe you could print out the pics, stick them on your window and imagine that that blue blue sea is your view!
Check out Tessa's new hat!

Calling for the fashion police

2008-06-22T22:42:00.004-05:00

So there have been a lot of rumours circulating concerning a certain pair of sandals that Adam purchased to avoid a confrontation with a Meridan leather worker. I'd like to take this opportunity to say that he was complaining how ugly they were and I merely agreed with him! There has been so much controversy surrounding the infamous shoes that we thought that a blog post was required to let you all decide for yourselves. Tess

The sandals were purchased because I wanted to support the local craftsmen. No really! And I wanted to wear what all the Mexicans were wearing. Sadly the only people who wear this style of sandal are stupid tourists who have been conned by wily leather merchants. Also the leather stretched so the sandals ended up being approximately four sizes too big. After several weeks of pain (the delightful metal decorative features acted like a cheese grater against my skin) and negative reinforcement about them by Tess and local children... I was persuaded to go for something a little more stylish. Designer labels are the way forward and so I'd like to introduce my new Oakley flip flops. I still can't walk in the damn things but I am assured that I will learn the art. Also I seem to have lost my beard... if anyone finds it please pop it in the post and return it to me asap. Adam

LOST! Not just a beard but a very significant part of my character, I may look happy here but that is just the brightly coloured shirt therapy, I am crying on the inside.

Coba: back to the jungle

2008-06-16T23:21:00.003-05:00

So today we visited another Maya site. I know what you are thinking... "oh no, another 200 pictures of random stones that make no sense on flickr". Well, hah, you will have to make do with photos of us playing around with a plant with really big leaves! key information about Coba that you can use for after dinner conversation:

Its really big! 12 stories up (137 ft), its the second tallest Mayan pyramid with great views over the jungle and lakes.
Scratch point 1, first mistake.. its not one site but over 6000 structures (many yet un-excavated hidden beneath the jungle). The site covers 31sq. miles.
Coba (water stirred by the wind in Maya) is the meeting point of several ancient white highways called sakbes in Maya.
The tall temple is called 'nohoch mul' and scaling it nearly killed Adam.

Like to take this time to note that I also saw my first wild crocodile at the site, hanging out in one of the lakes waiting to eat me. Very cool.

Ok I am on the hunt for a hat cause my poor round head is getting burnt. All I can find are sombreros, panamas, cowgirl hats, chav caps, big floppy things and little round wicker things with sunflowers in them... yuck! Any suggestions as to any nice styles of summer hats out there? All suggestions will be considered and pictures may help.

blog central exposed

2008-06-14T23:38:00.006-05:00

The last 3 weeks we have been inundated with emails requesting the exact location of ?blog central?. So today we decided to lift the lid on one of the most sought after mysteries after the secret ingredients of KFC (I mean how do they take lovely chicken breast and make it taste so vile?) and what happens in Area 51? maybe it is just Kentucky fried alien we are eating?You may also be wondering why we have been mute for nearly two weeks. Well, without going into the dark and sordid conspiracy of what really happened on the island that shall not be named? we left and are now in Playa del Carmen. Since we have arrived here in Playa we have finally had several good nights sleep because our bed is massive and we have a fly screen balcony so its lovely and cool! Combine this with slow internet, beach time, very cool bars, a book shop and cable tv and you might get to the heart of the lack of blogging. So today's special treat will show you where and why we are here in Playa.

Things to note:
1. Adam knows that the photos are out of focus, hmm, seems taking photos every 7 steps on a beach makes you look like a pervert.
2. See if you can spot those people who think he is a pervert.
3. The bagel shop is amazing
4. Ah Cacao (our local café) serves the most amazing sipping chocolate I have ever experienced ? even as good or better that the one in Stockholm. That is serious chocolate goodness and the cake is just as good.
5. I am trying to persuade Adam to take his camera out at night to photo the gorgeous beach bars here. The street looks like a contemporary, bohemian wonderland, like the tropical version of Stockholm at Christmas, all lit by candles and with great music to set the mellow mood of Playa.

So here goes, enjoy?

Our first week in Cozumel

2008-05-31T14:41:00.002-05:00

And what a week it has been! Our place here (lets call it ‘blog central’) is great. It is right at the back of the only town on the island (San Miguel) right in the heart of local life. Our neighbours live in shacks mish-mashed together with concrete, wood, corrugated iron and any other useful junk they can find. The kids drawing table for instance is a board of wood roped onto the front of an old motorbike, which they sit on as the scribble away. Our house is really the only building that you’d recognise as a ‘house’ on our street and the kids love it! Every evening they come and play on our little patch of grass at the front, as if it were the best toy they could have! They are all very friendly and talk to us in Spanish through the kitchen window while we are washing up. We don’t understand most of what they say but they have introduced themselves one by one, very cute. The town itself is very much a ‘locals’ Maya/Mexican town like this until you get towards the water front; literally the pavements, walls, buildings etc change two blocks before you reach it. Along the main promenade are a long string of jewellery shops and big American chains like Ron Jon’s Surf Shack. This district is where the Americans from the big cruise ships shop (more money than sense?) and they don’t really seem to venture any further in. It is nice to have some Western amenities though. We have a cinema here that shows films in English so yes we did go and see Indiana Jones on our first day … hmm, we don’t know about aliens but we sure have seen some interestingly shaped skulls whilst we’ve been here in the Maya heartland.

We will report to you first hand if we encounter any more supernatural goings on. Yesterday we went to one of the beach clubs on the south-west coast. At first we were astonished at the price of a cocktail, until we saw the size of the glass and just how much alcohol went into it. We only needed one for the whole day!

Adam informed me that he’d never been on a banana boat ride so I frog marched him down to one. The guy in the boat thought we were drunk cause we fell in twice! To be fair we probably were a little. The whole falling in thing was great fun until we remembered that there were sharks in them there waters! Eek! No limbs lost yet though (I think that makes me two up on Jaws now). Anyhoo, it seems that one Long Island Ice Tea makes Adam fearless as he then suggested that we should go parasailing, having never done that before either. So, we did! It was amazing. The sea is just sooo blue and its really sort of peaceful whilst your up there, well I thought so anyway!

Now we are in the Caribbean we decided to experiment with Caribbean cooking. So far we have mastered one rum cocktail and a delicious spicy chicken meal with coconut and mango. Can you believe that we actually made perfect coconut rice! We will have to make it for you because it was so damn delicious. Best start preparing your taste buds!

The Ultimate Day in the Yucatan

2008-05-27T11:59:00.005-05:00

On Friday we ventured out with a couple of very nice people we met in our hotel the day before (hey to Robert and Helen if you are reading cause that’s you!). This was going to be our last day of doing stuff in the Yucatan before we ventured out to Cozumel so we decided to do as much Yucatan stuff as poss. So after a hearty breakfast of huevos (eggs) a Mexicana (Adam had cake instead) we grabbed a cab and headed off to Ek Balam. This is a relatively small and only recently excavated Mayan site – after our b*tch session about Chichen Itza it was just what the doctor ordered! It was empty, we could scramble all the way to the top of the main pyramid temple where there was amazing view over the rest of the site and the lush, green jungle.

Excavation on it, it turned out was so recent that it was still going on while we were there (hence the blue tarp in some of our photos). It was great to see two more large structures still partially hidden under the foliage. Very Indian Jones. After a little enactment of scenes from Apocolypto (I’m sorry, but it had to be done) we went to explore the nearby cenote.

To get to it from the site we had to cycle a couple of kilometres through the jungle after which we were confronted we a big, open green pool with a rope swing for the brave (me and Helen) to swing in.

What more could you want! As the afternoon kicked in we made our way to Rio Lagartes to give flamingo spotting a second chance. We arrived late and were told that there would be no buses or taxis for us to get back so had to carouse our flamingo boat tour guide called Elmer to drive us. Disaster diverted we headed off on the boat in search of pink. Just as Adam had decided that the flamingo population of Mexico was seriously depleted on the horizon arose a sea of pink. WHOOP! Finally, check out more of the pics on flickr!

On the route back Elmer took a detour and showed us some salt flats, The water here was red (very creepy or biblical or summat) and made you float like in the Dead sea. Once me and Helen had had a swim, thought we saw a crocodile and fled, we Elmer with his hand down a hole in the ground! It turned out that he was retrieving some posh mud for us to apply all over our bodies. Who needs a rip off spa?! So we caked ourselves in it and felt baked and crisped in the sun as Elmer took us off in the boat once more to a fresh water spring to wash ourselves off in. My skin felt lovely and soft, it was a wicked extra!

Elmer was true to his word (and the cash we’d offered him) and saw to it that we got home safe and sound. After all this we had our second meal of the day (it had been about 12 hours!). We ate in the most posh and expensive restaurant in town. Can you believe we had to spend £4 on a meal with drinks! Oo, and I tried some of Helen’s shark pie (hah, one up to me Jaws!).

Tess

Todays lesson children .. if you do not ask you shall not receive

2008-05-25T02:23:00.000-05:00

Hey

Well we arrived in Valladolid (pronounced Vhy - ath -o -leeth or something like that) on Tuesday which is one on the earliest colonial towns in the Yucatan. Its nice, small, bustling and we have a pool in our hotel! From here we are busy busy busy as its well situated to see Chichen Itza, Ek Balam, another flamingo breeding ground, lovely cenotes blah blah blah. So Thursday we went to see the local cenotes ... and now back to the lesson. We got all the usual pics of the cenotes as you'll see on flikr, but just as we were about to leave I noticed a dark stairwell carved into the cave. We venture up as the explorers we are and there we found a man sitting in the shadows. We asked him about what was up there and he pointed us towards a small, mangled cave. We asked if we were allowed to go venture up; he looked us up and down and then spotted Adams big camera. his face lit up, softened as he had obviously decided we were worthy for a bit of an expedition.

He whipped out a small spotlight and took up scrabling up and in to the nooks and crannys of the cave. It turned out that he was a keen photographer (of cenotes at least) and we discovered that this was all in aid of us getting the best possible photographs of the cenote from hidden ledges in the cave above the pool. This was just an incredible experience, and it seemed like we were the only people he was willing to show it to (as a group trapsed about being us looking for something of intrest at the top of these stairs). Anyhoo, we got some great pics and this bit really made the trip for us. We are constantly being suprised at the kindness of the Yucatan people. Despite having to put up with so many tourists, some of which seem to be quite hostile towards the locals, they are ever patient, friendly and seem to genuinely want you to adore their home as much as they do. Its very cool. And so ends todays lesson, if we hadn't have asked, we would not have seen the secrets of cenote Dtiznup.

Blog bitchin time!

2008-05-24T10:41:00.003-05:00

hey all

so it couldnt last, it had to happen and damm it im going to say it. Sit yourselves down, get a cuppa tea (or your beverage of choice) and prepare for a blog bitch (man i love moaning). no one else will tell you the truth, they are scared and feel presured into enjoying themselves, they fain wonder where it is not due, and gasp in awe at a sight that is unworthy. Thats right....im going to bitch about one of the 7 wonders of the modern world, the most vistied site in Mexico and a cultural icon of the Yucatan..yes its Chichen Itza.

So i got Tess up at 6.30am to make sure that we beat the crowds and the heat, and it paid off the site in truely amazing and archaeological wonder, its what is happening to it that gets me. So, we arrived at opening time and had the main pyrammid structure to ourselves for all of 10 minutes before the first tour group trooped in ... and I mean trooped ... think Germany going into Poland here folks. Urgh. This was the most amount of white westerners that we've seen in the last month! and this was just the beginning. We expected tour groups, It is a wonder of the world afterall but by the time we left at 11.30am 50 coaches had already parked up and more were waiting to get in. It is not that there was a huge number of either; its the fact that they have more right to be there than anyone else. Par example, while trying to take a photo I was whistled at (as you would a dog) as a command, apparently, to move. What do you know, it seems that the one foot square of ground that I took up blocked the path of the hoard behind me (we were standing in the middle of a dirty great field. Secondly, God forbid you would be allowed to go near anything. There were ropes, bars, fences and no entry signs around all the buildings... every other site we went to, including Uxmal (the other really big one) allowed people to interact with the site.

This was in all respects NAF. As we wondered around we heard the odd tour guide tell wondrous stories about interesting features that were either within, above or behind what you could see from a 'safe' distance. well, we thought, at least it'll be explained, depicted etc with all the finds in the museum ... right? WRONG! the museum Tess was idly told 'shut down years ago!', how silly of us! of course it would be! God forbid you see anything detailed or more obliquely interesting. Here size and scale was what was supposed to awe you. Nothing about who build and lived at the bleedin' thing. To make thing even better the site was flooded with 'artisans' trying to sell their wares - problem -- all six hundred of them had the exact same stuff for sale, mmm perhaps no so unique after all.

To be totally honest with you, even in these respects Chichen Itza is completely outshone by Uxmal, however that is another hour or so away from Cancun so we can't really expect the majority of tourists to venture that far into the wilds of Mexico. So, here is my bequeathal ... Uxmal is far more interesting, awe inspiring, rewarding and quiet than the dare I say it... overrated Chichen Itza. Sorry.
ps. we got our first military check on the bus today. Big guns, kinda scary.
pps. got our first rain yesterday! was cool.

Sexy New Blog!

2008-05-18T20:47:00.004-05:00

Howdy folks
Welcome to our sexy new blog, designed by Tess (with muchos help from adam!). God, we are creative genius'... to start things off here is a quick slideshow of some things that we think sum up Merida (which we say goodbye to on tuesday). Notice how 1 certain brand seems to be all over the city! Anyhoo -there is music, a song called 'A Yucatan' its sung all over, in bars, restaurants and by Trios in the square. We have no idea what its about apart from the Yucatan (the province which Merida is situated).
Adam

Some little things about Merida: the incidentals.

2008-05-16T15:48:00.001-05:00

As we have spent so much time here, and only written about the big day activities that we have done I thought I’d jot down some of the smalls incidentals about it here that have given it its charm. So, thing 1:

People talking to you on the street:

There is a man selling his goods on the streets. He approaches us every day in one place or another, whether it be a bar, café or just as we are sat on a bench. He obviously really enjoys his job and tries really hard to make his ‘wares’ seem novel and appealing. Every day is the same routine (he must have a really bad memory for faces); First he pulls out a fan and shows it you, then he raises his eyebrows and, which dramatic pause as if he is performing some sort of magic trick he flays the fan and shows you that it makes wind! We laugh a little and shake our heads saying something like ‘no, pour el momento per favour’. So next he takes out a box of cigars with a nudge-nudge at Adam. He says something or other in Spanish to the effect of ‘go on, I know you want them, eh, eh.’ Adam, again shakes his head, ‘no, no’. Finally, as if he has saved the best until last and that we could possibly refuse the next item, he pulls out a little wooden bat with a group of five wooden chickens which he makes peck the board by squeezing the handle together. Bizarre! The first time we giggled a bit at this one, which the man took as a sign that we liked them and joined in with the most roaring laugh! He looked very disappointed when we did actually refuse the chickens afterall. But he continues to offer us the same three items every day apparently oblivious that we have ever seen his performance before.

The seaside

2008-05-15T20:06:00.007-05:00

Hey all

just a quick note after the longest blog ever! (sorry about that, you may all blame tess...no you may not!). Today we went to progresso to escape the heat of Merida, its a small seaside town (how very British, nowhere else in the world has a 'seaside' I mean, really, can you imagine an LA surfer heading to the seaside to catch a wave?) 20min north of here. anyhoo as we arrived at the bus station we waited in a que to get the tickets, as we reached the desk the woman without looking at us passed two tickets and some change, we looked quizzically at her untill she looked up and shouted for the next in line. Now we have no idea what happened here, but BUS COMPANY 0 ADAM & TESS 1 hell yeah! this is public transport that i can enjoy!

The Biggest Blog EVER..... maybe

2008-05-09T16:52:00.005-05:00

First off – sorry for the ridiculously long post (over 2000 words), Its really 3 posts combined because we didn’t get to the internet, its also a mix of me (Adam) and Tessa writing, you can normally tell which is which!

The following takes place between 7pm Sunday the 4th and 1pm Friday the 9th of May.

Mexican rock:

To experience proper Meridan culture we made the decision to start going to some of the free local events in the ‘cultural centres’ dotted about the city. On the weekend we chose a music show, what we thought would give us some idea about the sorts of sounds developed in Latin America. We went expecting some Mexican rock music, their version of guitar-based wailing and youthful angst that you expect from the genre but with infamous Mexican guitar intricacies and, well, lyrics. What we got was not this! We queued for about 30 seconds to get in, and were seated in a beautiful white building with a fabric dome as a roof, well kept shrubbery, a girl playing the violin and a man giving what must have been a very stirring speech backed by the acoustic guitar; not quite rock city I hear you say.... The audience consisted of two rows of teens who sat very orderly and sensibly at the front. Behind then sat their mothers, fathers, grandparents or other responsible family members to keep on eye on what they got up to. We tried to figure out what was acceptable behaviour for a teenager from Merida, was holding hands with a boy too much? It seemed to be because in the first 10 minutes a women sitting next to us stormed to the front, picked up her daughter by the ear and dragged her out of the venue. Then the bands began to play, dressed in white, flailing across the stage with their electric guitars, head-banging along to the hardcore tones of the Beatles ‘Yesterday’. At the end of each song, (all American), the audience (still sat) muttered a respectable ripple of applause. If this is the underground rock and alternative culture of Merida then everyone else must be actual saints! I’m not going to lie, we were a little disappointed, our search continues for the ‘real Merida’, the grit and the angst, surely it can’t be sweetness and light, right? So the next day we headed off to Celestun (to the west of the city on the coast).

(we should also note that during this period we met up with Gemma, who use to live with Tessa, and her friend Kay, who lived in Solihull before setting off around the world)

Celestun:

Celestun is said to have the one of the largest population of Flamingos in the world, and at times 25000 birds can be seen in the mangroves and low waters around Celestun. Upon arrival we headed to the beach to find the fisherman coop, which provides the locals an extra income, fishermen take tourists out to see the birds, this option seemed better than the big tourist chains that provide the same tour. As we walked down the beach a cry of “FLAMINGO, FLAMINGO” from a group of men in boats let us know we were at the right place, we decided to wait for some other English speakers to fill the boat up (and split the cost), and so to pass the time we sat at a near by bar to get some drinks. This for me was the starting point when the cracks in the Yucatan sweetness began to appear. We sat for a while and a young man came over to take the order, then he simply disappeared….gone….vanished…..so we sat, and sat waiting with idle conversation. In the end (no idea how long had passed) some more English speakers had arrived and the boat was leaving so we left drink less and got on the boat.

Considering how much effort the man on the beach had put into getting all the English speakers into one boat, we had expect an English speaking guide, nope the guy didn’t speak a word of it, and neither did we. He did however insist on giving his tour (didn’t matter no one on the boat understood a word he said!) and so off we set to the petrified forest. Too cut this long story short we saw some tiny crabs, like 12 flamingos (this is this the biggest flock I’m worried about the state of the flamingo population, well not that worried, I’m still going to sleep ok) some pelicans and fishermen pushing there boats around (seems no one told them about oars or engines).
The highlight was the fresh water pool which was a brilliantly tranquil blue pool in the heart of the mangroves, well it was until Tessa and Gemma jumped in! Full of fishes and bubbling springs, it was really amazing!

So after the 12 flamingos we headed back to get lunch, we tried several establishments, one in which no one would serve us as they watched Tv in the kitchen, the one we settled with gave us our drinks quick enough, but no food menu (this was a restaurant) so when we finally got one we had to go looking for a waiter to take the order… and at the end trying to get the bill and pay involved us waving at several members of staff who just waved back with a smile until we started getting up and leaving. Also they split my beer on my lap and over Gemma, so that half the bottle was gone, didn’t get me a new one or apologise or take that one off the bill. It seems the service industry hasn’t really got to Celestun (or am I just so use to American style service?)
Anyhoo we headed home, vowing not to return.

Cenotes:
Yesterday we went to find our first cenotes. Do you know what cenotes are? I’m sure I didn’t before I studied them… well, the Yucatan is basically a huge limestone outcrop, completely flat and riddled with holes which act as entrances to a vast underground river system.

These holes are called cenotes (se-note-ehs) in Mexican and sinkholes in English (Our language really is beautifully evocative isn’t it?!). Anyhoo, they look a bit like caves filled with big pools of clear, fresh, indigo blue water illuminated by shafts of light from the holes in the rock above. Often the roots from the trees above stretch down to the water, as do stalactite looking rock formations. They are really beautiful, mystical places, which the ancient Maya held sacred. They used to place votive offerings of jadite plaques into them and worship in them. When you see the photos you’ll probably understand why, but also they are also the only means of getting fresh water in the Yucatan (cause its so flat there are no normal rivers!). So we decided to go see what all the hype was about. We chose not to go with a tour operative (very oddly after our experience at Celestun), but to support another one of these eco-sustainable- local cooperative thingys. We caught our first combi bus from merida. This was an experience in itself! When any normal person would consider all the seats taken, the driver this was only half satisfied and continued to cram more and more people in. I don’t know if you have ever had the pleasure of thigh on thigh contact with the people around you in 90 degree heat; its definitely a bonding experience! I didn’t know whose sweat was whose … at least if we’d crashed we’d have not moved in our seats as sardines in a can springs to mind! The driver, having taken one look at us knew where we (as opposed to all the other locals) were going and kindly offered to take us a little closer to the site for a small additional fee. We literally tumbled out of the van, peeling ourselves off of the people next to us, sweating profusely; it was all very attractive and paid the driver a meagre 20 pesos (£1) each for the hour long trip. As the combi pulled off we were left to negotiate with the local chaps a price for the next leg of the journey. This was really the best bit! The cenotes are reached by horse drawn wagons on an old rail system (left over from the 1900’s when they were used to bring precious natural fibres from the jungle – the strongest in the world). Ok, I know the picture you have conjured up in your minds; something resembling some kind of stage coach I bet. You’re sooo wrong! It was definitely more like a cart, or one of the wheeled boxes you see in mines in the movies. We almost fell out at every corner. The horse obviously thought it was far too hot to be pulling along four English tourists and fought every step of the way, rearing and bucking and intermittently galloping as we jiggled up and down, side to side, almost head butting each other on a regular basis. And so we made our way down, deep into the jungle. I’ve no idea how long it took to reach the first cenote. Fear for my life and the distracting itching as my sweaty thighs vibrated along with the cart must have messed with my sense of time, but as we arrived it was soo worth it! The driver cast as ominous gesture in the direction of a small wooden platform (resembling the gestures of the ghost of Christmas future in ‘A Christmas Carol’). Dubiously we trekked off and descended into the ground.
It was absolutely incredible, truly breath-taking and within seconds we had stripped off to our swim clothes and dived in. I’ve never felt anything so refreshing. The water was crystal clear and fresh, not salty or chloriney, just delicious and reviving. We spent the full half an hour swimming around the cave and pulling ourselves out just to jump back in again from the platform. It was really deep and there were little fishes swimming about that would come and investigate you if you sat still enough. The colours and the cave rocks were mesmorising. Check out the pics. We reluctantly returned to our cart and were taken to the second and then a third cenote. While as the first had been in a large-ish cavern that had been made easily accessible by wooden steps down from the surface, the second and third were progressively more precarious. I don’t mean dangerous at all but just much more restricted access with only small entrances, the second you’d have to duck under the rock or you would hit your head! The third was fully enclosed except for a small hole through which a vertical ladder took you into the darkness of the cave. At first we couldn’t see anything and I had to feel my way down into the water. Scary stuff! Gradually our eyes adjusted and we got some of our best pictures in the cave. By the end of the day I had done so much swimming that I could barely keep myself afloat! We took our cart back to the village; every now and then having to disembark as another cart came the other way! Finally, to get us back to where the combi would pick us up we paid some poor guys to cycle us for 20 mins in the heat, back to the bus stop. At least they were getting fit for the £1 they earned! Truly I’m beginning to feel like a colonial English explorer. This was my best day so far (sorry about the excessively long blog!). Tomorrow we have been here three weeks … we are yet to see any rain or Mexicans dancing on their hats (I’m beginning to think that you may have got the words to the song a little wrong…maybe.)

some arcaheology (at last)!!!

2008-05-04T14:49:00.002-05:00

Howdy!

well i decided i should finally do a blog, dont want tess having all the fun!. Also, im currently suffering from montezuma's revenge (more commonly known as the 'trots' the 'runs' or just plain diarrhea, and so writing this helps take my mind off the stomach cramps and what not....)anyhoo that should really be enough about my bodily functions (if you insist on more information email me at toiletdestroyer@merida.com). What i have learnt is that the water in some of the less touristy locations may not be as clean as it appears.
The last few days have been a whirlwind of archaeological fun and frolics (that does make it sound like we did things at some pace, what it should be - a whirlwind of sweat and intolerable heat). We went to the Ruta Puuc, which is a series of less well known mayan sites south of merida, the bus ride took us through jungle (like on tv!) and we arrived at literally small openings next to the road, with small shacks placed under the shade of the canopy that enveloped the surrounding area, after leaving an entry in the guest book we took the small walk through the trees to the sites (each of the 5 sites had a very similar 'visitor center') . The sites rose up out of the jungle after a 5 minute walk, the beautiful blue skys and the bright sun made the white stones almost shine in the morning light, and arriving in the large bright openings from the shade and relative darkness of the canopy made them seem even more imposing and impressive!. The sites we visited were Labna, xlapak sayil and Kabah. Instead of me attempting to describe each site, i have placed the best photos from each on the Flickr page (i also have some panoramas i need to stitch together).

From these smaller sites we traveled onto the more touristy Uxmal, here the site had a real visitor center (with shops and everything!), as you leave the center you must walk up a hill that hides the site from your view, so that as you reach the top and look ahead you are confronted with a massive mayan pyramid, temples, palaces and ball court. We clambered round the site for several hours, taking hundreds of photos, climbing to the top of several building and just sitting on the bottom of the stairs enjoying the landscape. What made this site perfect was what was missing, when you look at the pictures try and guess what it was, think of the big touristy sites in the UK and Europe. It made the experience even better, and as we clambered around overgrown walls looking for mayan 'treasure' we truly felt like little explorers.
after all this trecking round in the heat, yesterday we were well worn down (the 90f heat is taking it toll!) so we headed indoors to the modern art museum. Now i have to admit that i was disappointed, i wanted unmade beds, vomit on canvas, things in jellly and empty rooms with people staring at the walls with a dignified look, what we got was history of artistic styles and more contemporary work (according to tess, i just enjoyed the AirCon)
anyhoo today is a festival/ market day here (as is every sunday) so there are people dancing in the streets and live music, street performers, and cool looking food, anyhoo my belly is feelin better (and in need of a beer!) so i shall be off
adam
ps we also think that a 'happy meal' here is called an 'el chavo' LOL how fitting

los dos cooking

2008-05-01T18:45:00.006-05:00

We found an apartment! Yay, its not the most wonderful thing in the world, it has a live electric cable to heat the shower … so we will only be having cold showers for the next 3 weeks or so! But we have a kitchen, double bed, dining table, sofa and air con in a gated and safe building. Next door is an American girl who has been living and teaching here for the last year and seems quite nice and makes us feel better about the place. It is also really central to town so will be handy for various trips to the archaeological sites, cenotes, caves, flamingo beaches etc etc. We don’t have the internet here but we can get it free in one of the many near-by plazas so we are still very contactable!

We did our first real ‘activity’ in Merida yesterday! It was great fun. It was a cooking course at the Los Dos school of Yucatan cooking. It was run by an American chef who basically took an early retirement here having renovated his beautiful central hacienda. The course was really personal, there were only 6 of us, and was within his house. He gave us a big talk about the history of food in the Yucatan, The Mayan influences, the Europeans ones and stuff, then took us out to the market to buy all our ingredients. So now, we have some sort of an idea about what to buy there, and from which stalls! Then we went back and got cooking! Some Mayan ladies taught us how to make proper, fresh salbutes and panuchos which are kind of a cross between pitta bread pockets and tacos/nachos (made of corn meal!). For this we made various dips, notably one made from the hottest chilli in the world (habanero chilli) which is 350000 scoville heat units! We were both very brave and gave it a try. He asked us to try and describe the flavour like we would for a fine wine … the other couples said really evocative words like ‘woody’ ‘grassy’ ‘tender’ … Adam boldly and very Britishly said ‘bloody hot!’. Then we made a three course Yucatan meal with all the ingredients we’d bought from the market (which he had paid for of course). I tell you, the food was incredible! The chicken we spiced, and wrapped in a banana leaf before cooking them in a make-shift pib. A pib is a pit in the ground that it is traditional to use as an oven. We didn’t desecrate his beautiful solar though, we mimicked the pib by smoking wood in a big sealed casserole pot lined with foil! But it made it so deliciously tender! Oo, for pudding we had corn sorbet which sounds gross but was actually really good, it tasted almost like a really rich vanilla one. The other couples were really nice, both American (we are yet to meet any other British travellers yet) and we might meet up with them again on Saturday at a big street parade on the main route into the centre. What is really great about this city is that they don’t seem to have any qualms about shutting off major roads to traffic. It makes it such a cultural and bustling place. There is also a really high police presence so it feels really safe.
cya later (we may put some archaeology in soon?!)

Crococun and Merida

2008-04-27T14:50:00.005-05:00

Ok, so crococun was brilliant as you've all probably figured from the photos. It had none of the safety features of the Western world, ie, fences, walls, glass in fact anything separating you from the animals. The scariest ones were definitely the snakes; in particular the Boa Constrictor as it began to make itself comfortable around our shoulders and necks! The other bit that had my heart beating was when we walked through the croc enclosure and one decided to walk straight at us down the path. Our guide promptly told us to step back off the path, which would have been fine and reasonable except that there was an even bigger one looking suspiciously troublesome just behind us! Now I don't know if crocodiles run but I was imagining him to suddenly awaken from his docile state and make a leap for our juicy English legs (not that I think being English makes our legs any juicier but the mosquitoes certainly seem to find them a delicacy!). The highlights were definitely the monkeys and the baby deer who was only two days old! The pictures don't even show just how sweet and tiny they were (especially the monkey who dropped down from the trees when we were holding the big lizards!).

On Saturday we packed up from Puerto Morelos and headed to Merida city, which is on the western side of the Yucatan peninsular. This is our cheapest stay so far in a hostel for only £5 a night each. We have a private room and tiolet/sink but share communal showers which is fine for me as women are much cleaner and respectful of the showers; Its a bit icky for Adam though as I saw a man go pee in the shower at breakfast rather than using the toilets. Bit weird and gross but there you have it, £5 p/n you cant really complain. Merida is fantastic, it is like every city wants to be. It is rustically charming but has so much vibrant and cultural life to it, everywhere you go there are performances, markets, crowds and music. There are several squares where most of the shows and events take place (all free). These are decorated with the jungle trees, grasses and topiary and have lots of benches where the locals all hang out. The weirdest thing though are the fact that within these squares are hundreds of (loud) tropical birds that sing their hearts out all day and night! It seems to be very cheap to eat here, we had dinner for £5 between us and lunch for about £3. Anyhoo, this is a long entry so sorry! Am hot and waiting for the weather to cool a little. Will try get some pics of Merida soon, all the colonial haciendas are really pretty.
See ya,
Tess

Im a poor student, Get me out of here!!

2008-04-24T10:06:00.002-05:00

Buenos Dias!
So I think that I should explain why we are so attentive to writing our blog. We have free internet at the mo and as Adam passes out at 8pm from the heat (when you see the latest pics you’ll understand why) I get bored, and use it! Today we went on a trek through the jungle which was fab. I think Adam was expecting concrete paths and national trust style health and safety, what we got was 5sq miles of jungle with a hut by the road with a sign ‘Jungle walk’, no guide just a sign pointing to a semi-worn path. Anyhow, we saw lots and lots of lizards, snakes, birds of paradise and well, trees. By far the best bit was the suspended rope bridges and lookout towers, which really do exist (not just a Hollywood fantasy). It was very funny cause Adam wouldn’t start to cross until I had reached the other side, how very romantic and brave of him wouldn’t you say! Lol. We took a whole bunch of photos and would have taken more but we had been warned that all cameras were at the mercy of the monkeys so we were extra careful. I had my first Margarita cocktail today and it will probably be my last for the sake of the budget but that made it all the more treasured and delicious. You guys really should see the drinks menus here, half the page is a variety of beers, soft drinks and cocktails; the other half is a list of various different tequilas. Personally, I don’t see how tequila can taste that different from any other tequila but there you have it. Perhaps on the last week we’ll feel affluent enough to try and find out what all the fuss is about. Oo, one last thing, the guy who owns and runs our current hotel (Rancho Sak Ol) was an archaeologist here pre-tourism, can you imagine how incredible that would have been! Wondering through the jungle to discover ancient Maya ruins… lucky b*stard. So we had a big ol chat with him … as far as his English and our Spanish (scoff scoff) would allow and he has told us all the best places to go.
Well, ciao for now amigos.
Tess
ps as i write this the owner of the hotel walked past with a harpoon gun, snorkel and flippers, he has just retured with a bucket load of fish! sooooo cool!

its a tough life....

2008-04-22T12:38:00.002-05:00

Hola everyone! Ok so paradise does exist and it is here. Our new hotel is AMAZING!!!! It is on the beach, a beach which is virtually empty; we sleep on a suspended bed that hangs down from the rafters of a traditional palapa. We have a balcony overlooking the sea with a hammock each in which to while away our afternoons. We have a resident Ghecko to eat all the mosquitos, he seems very friendly and not at all icky. Then there is the communal space that is on the beach-front, but covered. There is a giant swing in the main room, which hangs down from the second floor. There is an open access kitchen so food costs can be kept down and they gave us a bike and snorkel sets each to explore the reef. In the main building again there is a tiered balcony overlooking the ocean (all weaved roofs of course) where there are beautiful rocking sofas and chairs. The breeze up there is delicious, utterly!!! I bet you are so jealous, HA! To prove I’m not lying, here are some pics! Miss you all but, quite frankly, am not missing home! This is how life was meant to be… lazy.
Tess

as tess has done the last 4 blogs and has started using words like 'icky' i feel its time for me to butt in... i just loaded some photos for you all to see. Also in response to the comments made by our swedish friends, Helga and Ivan, we are 'roughing it' this place was only slighly more expensive than the orginal naff center of cancun hostel. also the food her is well cheap, so im loving it! (like 2.50 a meal, 70p for beer!) its just that roughing it in mexico means having to put up with the sound of the sea in rhythm with the rocking of your hamock!
cya later
adam

Flying in to Mexico and our first day in Cancun

2008-04-21T07:57:00.004-05:00

Hello everyone! (pic=tess enjoying a typical cancun drink)
We have arrived and at the mo have the internet so seems like a good opportunity to let you all know the story so far. The 11 hour flight, believe it or not, flew by (excuse the pun, i'm just so damn witty). We officially love seat 52 A and B and BA of course (we just love the thoughouly Britishness of it all, especially the pilot and cabin crew). So, we wouldn't recommend Mrxico City (or at least the airport) It was soo big and sprawling that we almost missed our connecting flight, let me tell you that running after severe sleep deprivation is not a nice thig to have to do. When we flew in to Mexico City, it seemed as though the sun was almost blocked out by the pollution could that hung over it. Luckily Cancun was very different, clean, green and hot. We did a bit of exploring yesterday and have decided to move on ... what after 24 hours we made a decision to leave? Yes. its basically an American colony. We met one (an American) yesterday at the bus stop on our way into the Mexican part of down and he put the fear of God into us about how we would be killed by some Mexican gang if we were to leave the confines of the hotel district. talk about fear mongering! he asked if we'd ever been to a 3rd world country, and if we had a weapon or any fighting skills. Adam asked what it would be rated on the American terror scale ... definately orange or red. After some consideration we decided to ignore him and rightly so it turned out. It was fine, sleepy and the people were friendly and warm (although they really didnt understand a word we said! Now i'm not going to say its a nice city, it was sort of empty. The plantation of the American chains in the hotel district and the fear mongering told by the hotels means that no tourists (no money) gets to Cancun proper and it seems to be dying. We went out for dinner last night looking for something Mexican and all we could find was Hooters, Hard Rock, Pizza Hut, Starbucks, Burger King etc etc. It seems that far from bringing money to Mexico through tourism, all the cash spent stays within the confines of this really weird fortress hotel resort. To the point that we are even using American dollars to pay for everything. It was really sad. Anyway we are moving onward and upward outside of all this madness to Puerto Morelos. A small town just south of Cancun. Its cheaper there, supposedly more Mexican and we get to enjoy the seriously beautiful landscape and Carribbean sea with less of the American madness. Check out hotel online, its called Rancho Libertad. Looks lovely. On a final note, we had to call and book it completely in Mexican (the lady didnt speak a word of English)... our learning curb for Spanish is very steep, but we think we rocked! miss you all, Tess and Adam

Goodbye Beeston

2008-04-17T03:37:00.001-05:00

So today is the day that Adam's lists finally have to get done! the list has been transferred from the empty box (in his head) to paper! watch this space. We'll be online tonight and tomorrow but after that we'll have no idea cause we'll be in the Yucatan in Mexico!!!!!!! Some random facts about the region for you then: the capital city is Merida (which we plan to visit on our second week) but we fly into Cancun! The region has a population of approx 2000000 and is 6 hours behind us. So don't call us before 3pm and after 5am UK time cause .... well... we'll be asleep (unless we discover religion and some strange nocturnal prayer rituals) in which case we'll have probably lost our minds anyway and won't be worth holding out for. Urm, the currency is Mexican pesos which is approx 20 to £1. An moderately priced meal should cost between £3.50 and £7. Check out www.cozumelmycozumel.com which is the island we'll be living on for 5 weeks! 25th May to July 10th.

Adios!

Goodbye RV

2008-04-11T06:24:00.002-05:00

last night we said goodbye to the Rv, which we decided was costing way to much, and downgraded to a car (same price, but for 3months not 1).

2008-04-10T04:17:00.000-05:00

Last night Jerry the Yucca plant and George (of unknown type) left Beeston to settle in West Bridgeford. )c: Well, at least they'll finally be somewhere warm. This is a defining moment in the lead up to the trip. It is a rite of passage that separates our life in Beeston with a whole new chapter which promises tales of exoticism and adventure. To George and Jerry then ... we'll never forget you.
Tess

practicing putting in maps!

2008-04-09T09:38:00.001-05:00

here is are current location...

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the fun filled town of beeston!

Packing Up!

2008-04-09T08:24:00.000-05:00

Packing up and getting organised! Today is the penultimate Wednesday in Beeston, scary stuff! So this is what they call a blog eh! Makes me feel a little geeky but I guess it means you lot can keep update with us ... that is if you really want to feel incredibly jealous!!!! watch this space (c: me.

12 days to go!

2008-04-07T08:49:00.000-05:00

with very little time and so much to do, im wasting time creating a blog page!