Fairfield Inn By Marriott Monterrey Airport

... d want from the States is here - Chili's, Applebees, Office Max, Office Depot, FedEx, Wal-Mart, HEB, you name it... Also, about half of the TV channels on cable are from the United States. Some are dubbed and some are subtitled. They say that most travelers going abroad for an extended period of time experience culture shock: (1) the honeymoon phase, where you're excited and curious, (2) disintegration, where you experience ...

... Vimla at midnight and the best chocolate cake ever which Anna found near to where she works. We had some delicious thai food and a really lovely chilled out time (apart from almost splitting my sides laughing at Vimla's hilarious if totally non-pc jokes). I will certainly remember my 34th birthday in Mexico City. In picture below, from left, Juan, Daniela, Anna, Louisa, me (!) and Vimla with Matt doing the honours behind the camera (natch).

... We both thought we were at about 5,000 ft elevation, like Antigua, but after huffing around the Museo de Anthropologia I decided to look online and whaddaya know, this city sits at 7,347 ft above sea level. That explains it. Plus the lack of clean air here makes breathing a little challenging at first. When we planned this trip we knew that we would be close to the rainy season and it looks like we were ...

... a warning to keep them out of site of the park wardens me and el robbo filled our boots and ambled out of the jungle! we could either walk or get a collectivo home. the magnificent 7 minus jo (who said she was ill but i reckon she wanted to scarper pronto before anyone noticed that tree) decided to walk the 3k back. it was hotter than balls but worth it to do something other that sit on a bus or stand staring at something interesting! bout halfway back ...

... We got into quite a heated discussion with the driver about how he had lied to us and we now had a whole other 2 hours in another hot mini van and would end up paying MORE than if we had just waited for the nice air con bus... To add insult to injury, there was some cab driver heckling me on the side saying go back to the usa (in spanish) if you arne{t happy so i asked him how he would feel if he had been lied to... anyways, it was getting out of hand so i went to the conveniently ...

... t burn so much. Good tequila apparently doesn´t give you a hang over, but this was not the case with Nicole as when she woke up the next day she suffered a two day hang over. Day 12 - Palenque Waterfalls Kerry woke up fine, Nicole not so good and headed to 3 waterfalls around Palenque. We can't even begin to describe how good these were. The water was turquoise and clear and falls had huge swimming holes all around them. So we spent the day sun baking ...

... n pasamos por el barrio más antiguo de la ciudad, dónde la calles son más angostas y de piedras y la mayoría de las casa fueron convertidas en diferentes tipos de negocios pero sin modificar su estructura y manteniendo la arquitectura original. Día 3. Tramo Monterrey-San Luis Potosí. Salimos de la casa de nuestros amigos en dirección a San Luis Potosí. Yo estaba muy cansada y Claudio no tanto. Nuevamente en la autopista y hemos pagado primero 33 pesos y luego 52 ...

... or hair..It is not clear where the word originated from but one credible theory is that it came from the Mexican American war of 1846-48. It's said that the Mexicans used to roar to the American soldiers "Green go home" ..the Americans were wearing a green uniform. This theory doesn't quite explain why the whole of Latin America use the term but anyway, you''ll know what I mean by it.....]]]] So we landed in McAllen on Saturday October 28th and first on the cards was a ...

... look beyond the garish display of architecture one immediately understands the importance of the space. What struck me first were the pilgrims walking to the basilica on their knees. I had heard of this from my advisor, but had never prepared myself for seeing it first hand. People walk from god knows where on their knees to the steps of the basilica out of devotion and reverence. It was impressive to witness an entire family crouched on their knees as they approached the church ...

... that beach going and relaxing and was time for Phoebe and I to make our way to Cancun to catch our flight to Cuba. However we had to make a quick stop at Taxco (the silver capital) and stock up on our jewels. This was such a cute little town, set in the hills and filled with little cobble stone streets. Cancun was as tacky as you can imagine, Phee and I felt like old bags amongst all of those American Spring ...