Hotel del Valle Ensenada

... there was a wedding party arriving close by.<br><br>We wandered back towards the ship and stopped off en route for yet more margaritas. Greg decided he wanted a souvenir guitar ... yes one of those cheap rubbish ones.....so him, Roger and Rick dashed off to a nearby stall and thought they had done well by getting a lovely green one for $15 instead of $20! Wendy arrived just too late to stop the deal. Back with the others Greg commenced to ...

... at a minimal cost to me which is nothing compared to the priceless experience of being in Baja. March 16th. (Time to head back): Spent the drive just enjoying the isolated road and barren beaches. It still is amazing to me how much of Baja is untouched and that a lot of the beaches are only accessible by boat or maybe by air but definitely not by road. It was on this road where we stopped about 30 miles south of Puertecitos for a ...

... side of the border. When stopped by Mexican pòlice at a random stop, Bill even managed to have the the cops laughing at a story about mexican submarines smuggling drugs across the border. We said goodbye to Bill reluctantly at the town with the bank but happy to be on our way again. There are other photos of the cacti desert in my facebook profile follow the link here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2 4615&amp;l=89bff&amp;id=503909686

... small group of people dedicated to see this sight. It was a long 17 hour day. But it was worth it, it was one of the most amazing sites I have seen. I have been able to get into a routine; the second day was the toughest for sea sickness on the ship. My classes are tough, however enjoyable I signed up for a 5th class in economics. There is a course called Global Studies that everyone including faculty and staff attend ...

... gorgeous rustic hot springs a few kilometers south. We were rowed across the most beautiful river to 3 pools, 2 hot pools cut into the rock and one warm one just in the sand. Some friendly Chileans showed us how to have free volcanic rock facials too! Most of the time we gazed at the spectacular volcano the cottage looked out onto, ate some yummy food or sat in the hot tub drinking wine and looking at the stars, hard life this.

... were friends of his from his youth group 10 miles north of OB (Ocean Beach). I had many long talks with Caleb. We talked about philosphy, how life has changed so much for both of us. It is exciting to talk to a friend after not seeing him for a long time, but things arent exactly the way they used to be either. He's definently moved on and lives a much different life now. Nonethless I had a very nice time. The 2nd day was Caleb family day. I spent time with his family ...

It's Wednesday, March 15, 2006; two days away from St. Patrick's Day and nine days from my trip departure! Being the perpetual procrastinator, I waited until this week to start my preparations. Amazingly, things fell into place quickly and I got ready a lot quicker than projected. (Many thanks to Connie!) Connie and I are leaving on a red-eye Friday March 24, 2006 from San Diego to Bangkok (via Hell A). We arrive on March 26th in Kathmandu where our trekking guide, Santaman ...

... either that we'd either already met on the Chicago - San Diego flight or were milling around in that "we're waiting for a rep to turn up" kinda way. In particular, we were spotted (or rather, Graham was, as he had Xander on his shoulders at the time) (or rather, Xander was spotted and they assumed that Graham was me) by a group of folks from the forums at CruiseCritic.com. Nice to put faces to names at last. Uncle ...

... evening so I joined in. My new skate-board-dude friend was a guy called Rich from Reading, England. We had a great laugh at my favorite bar, The Star Bar. It was great because everyone that I liked from the hostel came out as well and we all sat around and chatted for ages. I cannot really remember much more of the evening I'm afraid, apart from that apparently I was having a bit of a boogie to The Beatles, or so I am told!

... to get the bus to Coronado and do the hippie thing - watch the sun go down. But we missed the bus and there wasn't another one for an hour so had to give that idea up. I returned to the hostel and watched True Romance, Indian Jones and The Mummy Returns - cheap night in! While I was asleep Suzannah and Nadia (another girl in the dorm) came to get me to go out with them. I didn't wake up, and I missed a good night at Hooters, with karaoke. Damn!