TravelStream™ news feed for member barbarabryson on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/barbarabryson en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Sat, 14 Jul 2007 13:51:40 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/barbarabryson/central_america/1184435460/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/barbarabryson/central_america/1184435460/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/barbarabryson/central_america/1184435460/tpod.html Sat, 14 Jul 2007 13:51:40 -0400 North and Central America

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Miami, Florida, United States

So this is it, my last blog of the trip.

After Costa Rica we spent 2 nights in Panama City. We saw the canal which was pretty cool. After being through the canal a few years ago it was really interesting to see how its works from the other side. We also did quite a bit of shopping in panama as we stayed right next to a shopping mall. My credit card is still smoking! It was nice to have a brief stop over in Panama City, the shopping is amazing and really cheap compared to England :-)

The last stop of our trip was to be Miami. We stayed in a hostel just by south beach. Compared to LA, Miami is very expensive. We planned beforehand to have a big night out here to celebrate the end of our trip but prices kind of stopped that from happening. We haven't really done much here. We went shopping yesterday and I bought some trainers and some apple merchandise. I also got to play around with the new iphone. Its really wikid but unfortunately it wont work anywhere but the US so I couldn't buy it for home. We also had a really nice lunch at Nikki Beach. It was cool to go to another Nikki Beach in the world after experiencing the one at Marbella so much. It wasn't as expensive as the one in Marbella but the mojitos certainly weren't as good.

Now we are just waiting around until we get the bus to the airport. It's so hot here at the moment so we are just waiting inside as there's air conditioning.

Looking back on the past 6 months it seems that we have been away forever. We have seen and experienced some amazing things. However all good things must come to an end. I just need to start planning my next trip away. Maybe South America?????


Xxx
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/barbarabryson/central_america/1184003160/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/barbarabryson/central_america/1184003160/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/barbarabryson/central_america/1184003160/tpod.html Mon, 09 Jul 2007 14:00:05 -0400 North and Central America

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Samara, Costa Rica

after playa del coco we headed south to a small town called samara on the pacific. samara is renowned for its great surf and chilled out atmosphere. anne, michael, james and I spent 4 nights there sunning, relaxing and a little bit of partying! james and I wanted to have another go at surfing but never got round to it as the waves were a little too small on our last day. we still did some boogie boarding though which was a laugh. it was nice to spend our last part of travelling in central america chilling out and catching some rays. hopefully i shall look slightly more tanned for my return! we left samara on sunday to come to san jose. san jose isn´t the nicest place on earth. at night its quite dangerous so we don´t bother venturing out. tomorrow morning we say goodbye to anne and michael and get on a plane to panama city.

costa rica has been a nice end to the trip. even though it slightly more americanised and more expensive, we enjoyed our time relxing on the beach and catching up on some zzzz´s. it will be sad to leave anne and michael as we have been travelling with them since honduras. i´m very jealous though as they are heading to NYC! xxxxxxx
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/barbarabryson/central_america/1183411680/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/barbarabryson/central_america/1183411680/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/barbarabryson/central_america/1183411680/tpod.html Tue, 03 Jul 2007 17:37:07 -0400 North and Central America

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Playa del Coco, Costa Rica

The next day we headed to the border, to enter our penultimate country, Costa Rica. When we got to the border it was pretty funny as to leave Nicaragua they just had a large gate guarded by a local who you paid one dollar to get through...... very random!

We headed straight to Playa del Coco, on the Pacific coast, as we heard that there was good diving there. We booked what was to be our last dive and descended into the water today. It was pretty special, we saw plenty white tip reef sharks, an assortment of sting rays and a disputable nurse shark. The only bad thing was that on our last dive when we looked up at the surface there seemed to be millions of jelly fish above us. We couldn't see to find an area where it was jellyfish-free, so we had to ascend to the surface within them. One got me on the face which was annoying. Lucking they were only small so it didn't hurt that much!

As it's quite expensive here tomorrow we are going to head further down the Pacific coast in hope to find a cheap town. Unfortunately Costa Rica is the most expensive country in Central America so I don't think we'll find anything much cheaper!

Only 12 days left now and everything is getting sentimental. Our last trek, our last dive. Soon we will be saying bye to Anne and Michael and before we know it we'll be back in rainy England!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/barbarabryson/central_america/1183325040/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/barbarabryson/central_america/1183325040/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/barbarabryson/central_america/1183325040/tpod.html Tue, 03 Jul 2007 17:32:13 -0400 North and Central America

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Isla de Ometepe, Nicaragua

Our final stop in Nicaragua was to be Isla de Ometepe, an island formed from the volcanic rocks and sand of two volcanoes. We decided to stay south of one of the Volcanoes, La Conception, which is still active. I actually didn't realize until after our trek up there that in the past 6 moths it has had 4 eruptions (explosion sort, not lava!)

We decided to do a half day trek up the volcano rather than a full day one as most of us are starting to get physically tired from all activities and fancied something a little lower key. Despite our choice, the hike ended up being quite difficult! Two and a half hours hiking uphill until we reached a flat are where we had some amazing views of the Island. After having a small snack we climbed the final stage where we were greeted by 120km/h winds. I could stand at an angle without falling over! It was pretty wikid and I got some good videos. The descent took us about an hour. When we reached the bottom I was very relieved as this was to be our last hike of the trip, my boots can now be hung up!

We stayed another day on Isla to chill out on the black sand beach as we were all pretty worn out from the trek the previous day.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/barbarabryson/central_america/1183151880/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/barbarabryson/central_america/1183151880/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/barbarabryson/central_america/1183151880/tpod.html Tue, 03 Jul 2007 17:27:08 -0400 North and Central America

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Granada, Nicaragua

For our final day in Grenada we decided to go Canopying (activity where you zip line between trees at various heights). We have come across many places where you can do this but we finally decided to do it in Nicaragua as it was cheap, and we got to see a coffee farm as we did it right in the middle of one! We drove for an hour on probably the bumpiest road that exists; it was more like a dried out river bed than a road! After recovering from the drive we got kitted up for our zip line frenzy. Michael wasn't sure whether he was going ahead with it all as he isn't the keenest when it comes to heights. We all got briefed beforehand below the first zip line. Unfortunately a bloody bee of some sort decided to sting me on my arm. I was quite distracted from the pain so I didn't hear much of the brief :-S (luckily it was pretty simple)

We ascended the first ladder and started zipping over to the next tree. It was really fun, very important to break (grab the line) before splatting against the next tree though. Some people did forget! Michael went ahead and did it all which was cool. There were 14 platforms in all, each zip line ranging in length, the longest being 100m long! On the final platform we had to abseil down from to get to the ground. We got to choose the speed we went down - between slow and Ferrari. Of course I chose Ferrari and managed to descend 18 in a world record amount of time. I definitely left my stomach up in the trees.

Very happy we got to do Canopying! It was nice to view the heart of the forest and the coffee farm without damaging nature (all zip line attachments are pro-conserving trees, as in they are pressure attached, rather than screwed in)
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/barbarabryson/australasia/1176524700/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/barbarabryson/australasia/1176524700/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/barbarabryson/australasia/1176524700/tpod.html Thu, 28 Jun 2007 13:37:59 -0400 Australia, New Zealand and Fiji

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Hervey Bay, Australia

we embarked on out Fraser island adventure on the 10th....doing a 3 day, 2 night self drive trip round the world's largest sand island.

firstly before we left the mainland we were introduced to the rest of our group. there were a total of 11 of us. us 4, 3 Canadians - Katie, Sarah and Marcio, 2 Swede guys and 2 Swiss.

our first task was to purchase food and drinks for the trip. we distributed these tasks between us all and once everything was bought we headed to our 4wd vehicles.

the vehicles that we had managed to carry us all in and all of our bags (on top of the roof though)

the first to drive was James. after a bit of heavy footing on the clutch we arrived at the ferry which was to take us over to Fraser island. before leaving the hire company gave us a map and rough itinerary of what and when to go and see things on the island. we used this loosely but mainly did our own thing.

our first stop on the island was lake McKenzie. this fresh water lake was amazing! crystal blue sea for about 2 meters from the shore, then going to a striking deep blue colour where the lake bed dropped down. we all had a little swim and took in the sights before heading off to our base camp. to get to our base camp we had to drive along the beach. we drove past a WW1 ship wreck which poked out of the sea, a natural creek and coloured cliffs (very similar to the isle of wight). when we finally got to our base camp we had to set up our 2 6 man tents. the boys managed to do it perfectly where the tent where girls were involved was slightly below par....must be all those scout years that gave them the advantage!

once everything was set up we had a quick briefing by the camp manager, an eccentric guy called Macca, who was the living twin of jack sparrow. he warned us of the deadly creatures that surrounded us, a couple of spiders and snakes which really didn't rock my world! luckily I didn't come across anything though!

after the briefing we started to cook our first meal on the island. we had BBQ-ed burgers and chicken...well by the time the chicken was done everyone was full so these became our lunch for the next day.

by the time we woke up and were ready to go the next morning we were the last to leave (whoops) and so we had to hurry as the tides of the sea meant that before certain hours it would be difficult to drive on the beach. I started off our drive along the beach, reaching speeds of 100kph. unfortunately I failed to se a washout (big ditch) in the road approaching and hit it pretty hard, luckily the 4wd suspension was awesome so no harm done! we arrived at some cliffs which we climbed up to the top off. on a clear day it is possible to see the tiger sharks and mantle rays which stalk the oceans below but unfortunately it was quite windy so we didn't see anything.

the next stop was champagne pools, which the aboriginals used to catch fish and bathe in when they lived on the island years ago.

we then drove back on ourselves. unfortunately, we got stuck on some soft sand but through teamwork and a lot of digging we managed to get free. our group then drove back down to the south of the island where we stopped off at Lake Wabby. we couldn't find the car park so we stopped and did a 2km walk to the lake. during the walk we came across a massive black and gold spider...not deadly but can be nasty if you get bit by it - I kept my distance...

Lake Wabby was another amazing lake. it looked more like a swamp but surrounding the lake were massive sand dunes which stretched for ages. after an hour or 2 we headed back to our 4wd to drive to base camp before it got dark.

for dinner we cooked a lovely chicken pasta which went down well. after a couple of goons (boxed wines) we all headed to bed as we were keen to get up earlier the next morning to get more done.

we visited 2 more lakes the next day. the first, lake boomanjin, was a bit disappointing but the second, lake birrabeen, which was similar but bigger than lake McKenzie, was more impressive. the final port of call was central station. there was nothing really much there so we just took the time to chill out and were luck enough to see some giant lizards.

we caught the 4pm ferry back to mainland Australia where we cooked the rest of our food in the evening for the group before we all dispersed in different directions. in the evening us and the Canadians hit a club to celebrate our fantastic trip to Fraser island.

we are in Byron bay now and hope to be in Sydney but early next week.

out of all the things I have done in oz so far, Fraser island was definitely the best. the method of self driving gave us the freedom to do what we wanted and our group was so fantastic that it made the whole experience definitely worth while...

more soon... xxxxxxxxxxx

p.s. stu love ur comment about dad - made me laugh out loud in the internet cafe
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/barbarabryson/southeast_asia/1171908060/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/barbarabryson/southeast_asia/1171908060/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/barbarabryson/southeast_asia/1171908060/tpod.html Thu, 28 Jun 2007 13:16:37 -0400 Indochina Loop: Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos

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Hanoi, Vietnam

Ok so its been a while since my last entry so I've got a lot to write. So last you heard I was in Hue ready to get a train to Hanoi. We got to the train station and when the train arrived it seemed that we had been given sleeper tickets (beds in a carriage) instead of seats...wicked! apparently not though. we discovered that because New Year was approaching (and the trains being absolutely packed because of this) they had converted each sleeper bed into 3 seats...as in 3 of us had to sit on a bed for 12 hours! and to make things worse we got to our cabin and it had about 40 Vietnamese inside crammed in with no space whatsoever. for one of us let alone 4 and 4 bags! luckily, however, the next cabin along contained only one guy, from Manc, and he let us sit in there instead which worked out great as nobody else came in during the journey so we effectively had a bed each to ourselves! I think the train operators were glad to segregate the foreigners off in one place as they didn't seem to care that we were not in our correct seats!

we arrived into Hanoi around 5am. luckily when we disembarked there was a guestroom tout there who took us to his hotel and paid for half the taxi fare. this was fortunate as when we actually drove through the town all hotels were closed so that would of been fun walking around that early with nowhere to go!

when we got to the guestroom we had an hour's lie down before getting up and going to Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum. The whole grounds were very regimented...you had to walk in single file throughout the whole area, not crossing the white lines which defined the path. Seeing HCM was strange.... the body looks like a waxwork rather than and actual person....it was quite eerie. Next we walked around town for a bit as we wanted to book our Halong Bay trip ASAP as we knew that it would be busy and difficult to get transport over New Year. Our hotel quoted us 56 or 80 dollars but we thought maybe we cold get it cheaper somewhere else. we eventually found a place which did the 3 day boat cruise for 45 dollars, leaving on the 17th which was ideal as it included all meals, transport and activities (but not drinks) so it worked out very cheap in the end. James Laura and Dave wanted to go shopping in the markets for a bit but I decided to go back to the hotel as I wanted to use the internet to research on how we could get into Laos. when I got back the hotel owner was there and asked whether we had decided on whether we were gong to book the Halong Bay cruise. I told him that we had booked it somewhere else and he went away and came back and asked us to leave the hotel as we were bad luck and didn't want us there for New Year! so when the others got back we all decided that the situation had turned a bit too sour to even stay that night so we paid them for that day and left to find somewhere else.

the new place that we found was brilliant! family run, the owner is a legend! I want to adopt him!!!

the next day we got up and tried to go to the ethnology museum. this was closed, however, for Tet, so we jumped in a taxi to the Temple of Literature. This was cool but I think everyone was templed out so we didn't it quite fast! We chilled out in the afternoon as everything was closing down for Tet so we just walked around and soaked up the atmosphere. in the evening me and James found an awesome Bar which overlooked the lake where at midnight they had a fireworks display where we watch from the balcony of the bar. Experiencing Vietnamese and Chinese New Year was a fascinating experience. The streets were packed full of people and the atmosphere was electric. Things cleared up pretty quickly after the fireworks display so we didn't stay out too late as we needed to get up the next day to catch our bus to Halong Bay. when we got back to our hotel the owner was still up and invited us to join him for food and drinks to celebrate the New Year. it was really nice celebrating and eating the traditional foods of Tet with the locals...definitely wont forget that experience anytime soon!

the bus the next day took us to Halong Bay. Halong city itself is a bit of a dump but once we got on our cruise boat and set sail through Halong bay we were witness to amazing views and scenery. The weather was quite overcast but this was nice as it made Halong Bay look even more mysterious (Halong Bay - meaning descending dragon - is a collection of just under 2000 islands which nobody knows how they formed, no even the professionals) Our first stop on the cruise was a cave. The cave was amazing! so big and beautiful inside. the interior had been sculpted by millions of years of rain and dotted around the cave were natural formations of animals and objects - we saw one of a tortoise which head was shiny as in Buddhism the tortoise brings long life so everyone rubs its head when walking past it. The next stop was one of the smaller islands. It had a trail up to the top which we climbed and once we got there the view was breathtaking. I took a video of it as I felt a mere photograph wouldn't express the beauty of the bay. In the evening we had dinner on the boat and had a few beers before retiring for the night in onboard.

the next day we arrived at Cat Ba, on of Halong Bay's bigger and more developed islands where we did trekking and kayaking. Trekking was very interesting.... I thought it would involve climbing up hills etc but this was not correct. we ended up scaling rocks for 2 hours holding on for dear life! luckily because of my experience in rock climbing I didn't find it too bad but I did feel sorry for another guy in our group who had put on black loafers for the trek...he still made it though!

Kayaking in the afternoon was brilliant. they were 2 person kayaks so me and James jumped in one and had a paddle around for an hour exploring the islands ourselves. We came across a cave which we were tempted to go in and have a look but unfortunately time was not on our side and we had to return to the fish farm where our boat was waiting to take us back to Cat Ba. That night we were staying at a 3 * hotel on Cat Ba which was a nice change.

Our Halong Bay trip ended the next day at 12pm and we got a bus back to Hanoi. We didn't do much when we got to Hanoi as we were all quite tired and low on money. Today we get the bus to Vientianne, Laos which apparently takes 12h ours which I know is a lie so it'll be interesting to see how long it takes us to get to Vientienne (this bus route has many scams operating on it so I'm sure it'll be an interesting read when I next write here) bye for now! xxxx
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/barbarabryson/central_america/1179528360/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/barbarabryson/central_america/1179528360/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/barbarabryson/central_america/1179528360/tpod.html Thu, 28 Jun 2007 12:29:52 -0400 North and Central America

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Mexico City, Mexico

We flew out of LA at around 1pm local time and arrived soon in Mexico City. We grabbed a cab to our hostel, Hostel Amigo. Once we found our room we got chatting to a girl who had already been there for a few nights. She said that she hadn't been going out a night times as she thought it was too dangerous. However, I spoke to the chap on the reception and he said that the area we were in was safe as there were loads o police about (and believe me, there are!) After sorting ourselves out we went down to the bar for a bev. Suddenly after about 10 mins the bartender jumped on the bar and started pouring tequila down everyone's throat. When he came to me I didn't know what to do as I am not a big fan of the stuff but I though ´what the hell´ and opened my mouth (see picture!) After a while we were tempted to go out to a bar nearby. When we got there it didn't seem anything special but we ended up having a good time dancing with loads of people from our hostel

The next morning/afternoon neither of us were feeling right as rain, Eventually we got up and walked into town. The main square, Zocalo, in Central Historico, was amazing. They had a massive flag flying high in the centre, which comes down every night at 6pm during a small ceremony. We went into the Cathedral first; it had an interesting layout but was very spectacular. Next, to the Palace! It was interesting that we had to show ID to get into the palace. Once we were in we took our time walking about. All on the walls were beautiful murals (couldn't take any photos though) We spent about an hour wondering around - even coming across a guard on duty getting very close to a lady - and headed for some lunch. I didn't realise that we would have to depend on Spanish so much over here, I suppose its good though! Somehow I ordered me and James through the meal, and it was very nice. Next on the list was Temple Mayor. This was an ancient Temple that had seen 6 stages of re-building. I think it was destroyed via earthquakes and flooding eventually. It was such a hot day that we scampered around a bit! Just before heading home we had a look at the local market. James purchased a hilarious wrestling mask for a friend back home whilst we I picked up Shrek 3 and Pirates of the Caribbean 3 on DVD for a grand total of 25 pence! We have no idea whether they work or whether they are in English but for that amount of money you can't really go wrong! That evening we went out for dinner. It took us a while to find a restaurant as I remembered that the Spanish/Mexican culture eat their main meal at lunch, so not many places were open for dinner. Eventually we found a place that was alright. Enchiladas were sooo spicy though and me and James had to blow our noses a couple of times whilst consuming it!

We booked a trip for the next day which lasted around 8 hours. It took us to a few significant churches (don't ask me the names as they were soooo complicated!) We learnt how Lady Guadalupe (Virgin Mary) is a big part of the religion over here. We then did some tequila tasting down the road. One was nice as it was sweet but the rest were hardcore :-P. Next was the final part of the trip, the pyramids of Teotihuacán. There were two on site, the Pyramid of the Sun and the one of the Moon. We walked around for around 3 hours learning the history of the site and climbing the pyramids themselves. We got back from our trip around 5pm. We decided to go out for dinner again, this time a little further out. Our roomie came with us and we got the metro west of where we were staying. After a little exploring we found a cute little place. We all treated ourselves and ordered pre-dinner cocktails. James randomly picked one which he thought sounded nice. However, upon arrival he found it to be a very large shot of tequila! Yuck! hahaha! We got the metro back after we had some nice Spanish food, including yummie chorizo! We met with Laura and Dave back at the hostel where we chilled in the bar before going to bed.

Today we went to the Anthropology Museum. It had some really interesting things to read on the Aztecs, Mayans and the attack of the Spanish, but there was a bit too much of it (could of done with days to cover it all) Also my legs were all strained from climbing the pyramids and they kept on giving out! After the museum we walked through the zoo. It was free entry so we weren't expecting much but it was awesome! It had animals which I have never really seen up close like Hippos, Chimpanzees, and Orangutans! Brilliant for free! Lunch took us to Zona Rosa, an area on the way back to our place. It was quite expensive there but found a cool spot. I had fajitas de pollo (chicken fajitas) and they were amazing!

Tonight we head to Friday night Masked Wrestling. It does exactly what it says on the tin! It should be a laugh and nice to do on our last night before we fly to Cancun tomorrow.

Mexico City has been a brilliant place. I felt I have definitely done it justice! Sometimes its nice to spend a little longer in certain places. After reading all the ´dangers´ in Mexico City, after experiencing the City firsthand I can say that all the stories are blown out of proportion. I know that there are areas which are no go and some things do happen here but all I have experienced are brilliant friendly, kind and helpful locals. I definitely wouldn't say no to another trip here!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/barbarabryson/central_america/1179285420/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/barbarabryson/central_america/1179285420/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/barbarabryson/central_america/1179285420/tpod.html Thu, 28 Jun 2007 12:25:32 -0400 North and Central America

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Los Angeles, California, United States

We arrived in LA just in time to do Saturday the 12th all over again - crossing the international date line is confusing! by the time we sorted everything out it was going on 7pm so we headed out for some dinner. we were staying on Melrose avenue in Hollywood and there was loads going on. we ate at a cool little Mexican restaurant. the food was really good. we got out hostel shuttle to sunset strip later on at about 10pm and hit some bars. we went to Johnny Depps' old bar, the viper rooms, which he used to own and which river phoenix died outside of. we then headed to a couple of clubs. the first one, 'privilege' was cool (also cheap as girls got in for free) however the whole of LA stops serving alcohol at 2am so this club shut around then. We headed to our final destination: spiders, a super club on Hollywood walk of fame. We danced the night away until the wee hours. The first time on this trip I've gone to bed when its light!
We got up fairly late and walked into Hollywood. We saw the Hollywood walk of fame, the Chinese theatre where they have all the movie premiers (incidentally Shrek 3 was premiered there the night before). We then jumped on a tour bus which took us round to see different movie locations and celebrity homes. We saw the likes of Britney's, Angelina Jolie's, Shaq Oneal's, Richard Gere's etc etc. I took loads of photos but I can't remember whose house it who's. Oh well! After we returned we went for a drink at hooters (had to be done) and then went to watch a movie at Mann's Chinese theatre. It was amazing inside and the sound quality was second to none! Once the movie ended we started to walk back to our hotel. We ended up having a few drinks in a place called the saddle ranch and then headed back to the viper rooms (ex- Johnny Depp bar). It was quite quiet as it was mother's day in America but got talking to the bar tender and he ended up putting us on the guest list for the next night! we were just about to leave but got talking to the final band that was playing in the bar (most bars on sunset strip are live bars) really randomly we joined them for some beers back in their place and once again didn't get back until it was light outside
our last day we got a bus to Venice beach then walked along the shoreline to Santa Monica pier. The walk was really nice, especially because of the weather. Didn't see too many freaks but did catch a glimpse of a couple! That night we headed back to the saddle ranch for dinner and Laura and Dave joined us (just flew in from NZ) we then went back, again, to the viper rooms where we got cheap drinks from our bar tender friend. We then headed to another bar until 2am when we got a cab back to our hostel.
Today we flew into Mexico City. It seems really wikid. and just before I did this blog the bar tender was pouring free tequila into people's mouths! crazy city!
LA was wikid. it really grows on you. at first it seems really seedy but Hollywood is cool and the nightlife is really amazing, and quite cheap!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/barbarabryson/central_america/1182633540/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/barbarabryson/central_america/1182633540/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/barbarabryson/central_america/1182633540/tpod.html Tue, 26 Jun 2007 17:30:21 -0400 North and Central America

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Leon, Nicaragua

After we had our well deserved rest in Utila, James, Anne, Michael, Betto and I headed down south to cross the border into Nicaragua. It took us a total of 2 days to get down in to Leon in the North of Nicaragua. It was a long and painful journey but it did save us all a few bucks. We went to Leon to do one thing... Volcano surfing! Basically you get a sleigh type thing, hike up a black sanded Volcano with it, sit down, prepare yourself, and launch yourself down the side of the Volcano. It was pretty steep and there were a fair few wipe-outs, including James, who is now minus skin on his left arm. We did get given thick boiler suits though so the damage was reduced (a few months ago people were surfing down the Volcano in just bikinis!!!)

After Leon we made our way down the side of Lago de Nicaragua to Granada. Granada is very similar to Antigua in Guatemala, maybe slightly more colourful. Today we spent our time walking around and exploring the streets, churches and museums.

Another short blog: James and I have changed down a few gears from before when we were trying to squeeze too much in, in too little time. Instead we now are spending a lot more time now just chilling out and taking in the scenery (this activity is cheaper also!). We are now enjoying spending slightly longer in a few chosen places, relaxing before we come back home in 19 days (?!?!?!).
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