Mark In Belize.

Another week in Belize

2009-03-05T02:06:00.004Z

Another working week has passed with no major happenings. I am starting to settle in well to this laid back pace. My day starts early here, any time from 6 - 6.45am (depending on how lazy i feel and if I go for a run) and I so an honest working day of 8am-4pm. No cure/breakthroughs or Noble prizes yet but I'm sure that is just a matter of time!! Yea right...

Last week I met a great canadian couple in their mid fifties - some of the coolest people I have ever met travelling. After a few late (work nights I must add) evenings drinking the local brew with these guys I decided to follow them up the coast to a small fishing village and stay in the highly regarded (Lonely Planet Belize) Backpackers Paradise. When I think of Backpacker joints I think of late nights, beer and Bob Marley music but none of this was to be found here (the odd trace of a reggae beat occasionally though). The place is run by a young French-Swiss couple and basically they're trying to develop a sustainable, organic lodge with cheap prices and they're doing pretty well with it. On a down side (many would think it a plus) it was very quiet, just myself and my new canadian friends. However, it was a very welcoming place and excellent food and my own private Cabana for BZE$22, about €8.

For the Saturday daytime we organised a full day trip to Shipstern Nature Reserve. I think this was one of the first nature reserves set up in Belize and it is basically set around a huge lagoon. It was mainly a bird-watching day, something which I am slowly getting into (interest started in Tanzania this year). The highlight of the day was my first sighting of a toucan (made famous by Guinness many years ago). Myself and Emma spent a summer in this part of the world and never got to see one, so obviously I was very pleased with myself. Below are a few pics from the trip.

So coming to the end of another week, it means planning my weekend trip. This weekend I am going to go to Caye Caulker, a small island off the coast (I am nearly sure I have a posting from the last time I was there 3 years ago). It's a holiday weekend here so that;s perfect for me, an extra day on the beach. I'm sure I will have a few pics from this trip for next week...

Welcome to Belize.

2009-02-21T17:24:00.006Z

Finally I have arrived in Belize after the 5week build-up of waiting to leave. Flights were fine and a fantastic stop-over in New York was enjoyed. I limited myself to one area in New York to see which was the 7th Avenue/Times Square/Empire State Building area. I thought London was multi-cultural but NYC is in a league of it's won - fantastic! The weather was pretty similar to dublin when I left but (perhaps stupidly) decided to go to the top of the Empire State Building for sunset. The view was amazing but it was SOOO cold! I sucked it up and stayed for about an hour and a half (had to get my $20 worth!) and got some amazing photos (see below). However, it was very windy and having the shutter opened for a long time to get some of the night shots made most of the shots blurry (leaning the camera on the wall with a 86 floor drop!) but I think I managed to get a few nice ones.

After an uneventful evening in the Holiday Inn in Newark, New Jersey it was off to the airport for a 6am flight to Belize via Charlotte. Everything went smooth and arrived in Belize last night. First impressions - different to what I remembered it to be like, I cannot understand Creole (Belize's version of English), People are not overly friendly but that may get better, but importantly the weather is amazing! Start work on Monday so god knows what that will be bring but I think I will start planning my first trip to the beach for next weekend.. I said it before and I'll say it again, Life is hard in the tropics! A few pics below of NYC and my new (acquired) dog (watchman).

Darjeeling & Sikkim

2008-05-14T11:19:00.002Z

After the heat of Calcutta we were surprised to see that Dublin would probably have had better weather than in Darjeeling - we were greeted with 14 degrees and rain! Darjeeling is at the northern tip of West Bengal in the foothills of the Himalayas (altitude - 2100 meters). It was a fine escape from the 40+ degrees in Calcutta. We got a great place to stay for around 2euro a night overlooking the mountains. The biggest difference about Darjeeling (apart from the weather) to the rest of India is the people... The people up here are a mix of Nepalese, Burmese and Tibetan. This made for a more relaxed atmosphere compared to the rest of India, I'm guessing because they're all Buddhists and chilled out (unlike the Indians/Hindus).

Our days were mostly spend eating Tibetan soup, running from the rain or when it was clear, gazing at the snow peaked Himalayas with the 3rd highest mountain in the world in front of us! It was nice to see the Tibetan community who have fled from China over the last half century. They have a refugee center where the refugees work producing crafts and clothes to sell in the market. It was nice to see a small sustainable community like this. It also introduced us to the hardship the Tibetans face in Tibet and got to see many pictures of the bloodshed that took place there in March. It was incredible how gentle the Tibetans were (especially compared to the Indian population who are, on the most part, unwelcoming and very aggressive!). It has really encouraged me to think about a trip to Nepal and Tibet in the near future, which, I think would be amazing!

After a week of lazing in Darjeeling, we got an extra permit and went further north to Sikkim. This region is disputed between China and India, however, India has pumped a considerable amount of money into the area to try build up confidence in the locals about the Indian government. The scenery was amazing. We were in the middle of all the mountains that we could see from Darjeeling. However, the weather was crappy and it ending up raining most of the time we spent there. A real pity because all the activities up there are outdoor orientated and we didn't have the gear to even attempt do anything. Again, it was a brief introduction and would love to come back to this area to do some proper trekking etc in the mountains.

We had booked a 31 hour train journey from Sikkim back to Delhi (which I was in no means looking forward to - it's all about the experience blah blah...yea right!). Unfortunately, the morning of the train Emma was feeling poorly (blaming the chocolate cake she had) so we, disappointedly, canceled the train and booked a 2 hour flight the following day! Strangely, Emma was feeling grand just after I booked the flight... so suspect cake??? Suspect Emma's endurance!!

It was great to be back in Delhi (never thought I would ever say that) but it was familiar and we knew how much things cost and where we were going. One of the most annoying things traveling is reaching a new town, not knowing where to go and not knowing how much things cost - having been to Delhi a number of times by this stage, we were sorted!

Accommodation prices had gone up (how - I dunno, it is low season now) but we ended up finding a brand new place which was amazing. One of the best finds the whole trip! We ended up spending a week in Delhi, shopping, sight-seeing, eating (even a sneaky veggie burger from a well known fast food chain) and generally chilling out. A good time had by all!

As time is pressing on, we decided to make a dash to the Taj Mahal.... To be continued....

Calcutta -Volunteering

2008-05-03T05:26:00.002Z

We're finished our 10days working for the Missionaries of Charity - Mother Theresa's order. Overall thoughts on the expereince is that they do good work for the poor - provide food and shelter (and medical threatment - I will get back to this point), but in my opinion their best work is with the kids. They have two kids homes, one for orphans (which the sisters arrange adoption for around the world) and one for mentally/physically challenged kids. It was this one that Emma volunteered at and they do some very good work and raising kids that would otherwise be on the street fending for themselves.

I volunteered at their hospital, basically two large wards which bed 80 men (they have a similar one for women but only women can volunteer there). They are provided shelter, food and medical attention. The hospital is made of up some mentally and physically disabled men and lots of amputees and other people who have severely damaged limbs by getting knocked down crossing the hectic Indian roads. 99% of the men are otherwise homeless. With a little persistance on my part, I got to work in the dispensary, bandaging and cleaning the wounds. I found this all very interesting and good expereince for an aspiring doctor like myself.

However, there was some issues about the place I did not like. In a country that has the second largest HIV/AIDS problem in the world, they do not test each patient for HIV/AIDS or Hepatitis. Yet, they share razor blades and medical equipment such as scalpols. Not confirmed, but I am pretty sure there are cases of TB in the hospital, but, all the men sleep in the same ward (TB infected individuals with non infected individuals). Doesn't take a genius to realize the problems with this!! Their approach to HIV/AIDS is non-existant (not suprising since it is the catholic church we're talking about) which also annoys me.

Some of the long-term medical staff I worked with (when I say medical staff, they're more paramedics/nurses than anything, yet they are performing procedures that they are in no position to perform) I found very irritating. They were always disrespectful to patients, be it hiting them or verbally abusing them and patients were scared of them. It was no way to threat vulnerable people who, on the most part, have been abused most of their lives. All very irritating!!

I honestly feel, if they had a long-term plan, and what I mean by that, not relying on short -term volunteers like myself to run the place, but strive towards something a bit more sustainable, they could provide much superior threatment. A qualified doctor, physio and nurse could perform so much good work in this hospital. From my experience, recent graduates from these professions all want to volunteer overseas for a period (mostly for a year). I really feel that the order should tap into this, advertise and try attract more long-term medical volunteers. I truely think there are people out there who would come for a year. Secondly, I really believe that they should have adult health education classes at the hospital - ie on Hygene, Sexual transmitted diseases etc etc.

Thats enough of a waffle on my experience. Emma had a totally different experience from me, as i said, she worked in one of the childrens homes and I couldn't critisize it at all, the sisters are doing some great work there (I spent an afternoon there helping out). I will get Emma to post something on her experience...

Calcutta is a great city, one of my favourite places I have been to. It is more relaxed than most Indian cities and has a totally different vibe to it than say Delhi. I honestly feel if I had a proper job (ie doctor or something in health) and a proper place to live I could really live here. If you want it, you can get all your western comforts and yet live somewhere as mad and hectic as Calcutta. We've spent two weeks here now and we're booked to leave for the himilayas tomorrow. Neither of us really want to leave, we've settled into a routine which is nice as when your travelling from place to place, there is no real routine in your day. With only 5weeks left of this trip, we need to press on....

Some pics of Calcutta soon.

Goa - Calcutta

2008-04-21T06:27:00.014Z

Well we arrived in Calcutta yesterday afternoon and woke up today with a full day of activities planned to discover that the whole city is on strike, all monuments,public transport,taxis, restaurants ....everything. Finally found an internet open so the blog will get an update at last!

So after skiing we decided to treat ourselves to a flight down south instead of few days train. Goa seemed so amazing when we first got there, beaches were lovely, we met a really big gang of people and weather amazing. We basically lazed on the beach for a week so not much to say. Wasn't really like being in India to be honest, just like any beach holiday. Nice break! Capital of Goa is Panaji which is gorgeous, all Portuguese colonial buildings and very relaxed vibe which is unusaul in India but think perhaps all of Goa and kerala has that vibe. Saw few nice churches and Vasco de Gamas tomb and the patron saints of Goas also. In Goa we started getting alot of local buses which are great fun and so cheap and they let us keep our bags inside the bus so much better than any other we've got!We went to the big wednesday market in Anjuna which was huge and full of hippies and strangely enough loads of Russians on holidays all sporting very weird styles! After this we went to Palolem but this wasnt exactly the party scene we had imagined. Since the girls murder in Anjuna and a few more reported cases of foreign women being attacked the police decided to shut down the season early, so curfews and no noise on the beach and nearly everything shut by 10pm...so I definitely wouldn't tell anyone to come to India for the parties seeing as most other states are dry also! Friend took this photo of mark and I, and sunset really was like this, we're not photo shopped in i promise!

Next we headed to Kerala which was so amazing and if we'd known it was gonna be so nice we might have skipped Goa all together for it!Its got everything, the colonial towns, the mountain stations, tea plantations, nature reserves, backwater boating and amazing beaches!Everything we did here (all of the above) was brilliant, although the only tiger we saw was in the zoo :(. On our trek in the nature reserve we did see fresh tiger foot prints though which was quite exciting and smelt rotting meat so our guide said that the tiger must have hidden a kill nearby. At that stage I was actually glad we didn't see anything as our guide was only armed with an umbrella!! This is photo of the leach socks we had to wear because there were so many in the jungle, tonnes! Other photo was taken near where we saw the tiger prints.

The tea plantations, beaches and backwaters can all be explained better with some photos which will be put up soon. I've borrowed a few from a friends camera that will give you an idea for now! These are of backwaters and one of mark having typical banana leaf south indian thali!

From Kerala we got an overnight train to Chennai and mark was planning on volunteering in a HIV clinic. We had rang before and they said just come along. So when we got off train we just rang for directions and then the guy said we couldn't come that he needed us to post a letter of our intent first. He wouldn't even let us come speak to him. Typical. So we headed down to Pondicherry, French colonial town on the east coast. This is where we got the best food we've had in ages. Never have we been so excited for croissants and salad!!Most exciting thing we did here was visit Auroville. Known as an experiment in Human Unity...or something like that. Was basically a big cult. We had to be shown a video first on the concept and community and then got to see the centre of the village which was a huge big gold golf ball with a meditatio room inside. Inside also had a hue crystal that connected peoples souls with 'the truth' or something. The information centre was as equally vague as the film. All a bunch of hippies but really funny!

From there we went to Mamalapuram, famous for it rock carvings and temples which I thought were brilliant (think mark may have been bit bored!) and mark got to shadow a doctor in the local clinic. So everyone was happy. He got to see a lot of typhoid, dengue,HIV, lots of dehydradtion and motor accidents! He was as excited as a child on christmas day! No photos of this yet. And now we are in Calcutta, going to Mother Teresas this afternoon to register and see about volunteering here for a while. Just hope we can find our way there without any public transport!

Slow Slow Slow updates....

2008-04-16T05:20:00.001Z

Sorry, It has been a while, not a great deal has happened over the last month, we sat on a beach for a good chunk of it, but a proper update is in the pipeline!

Rajasthan & Kashmir

2008-03-07T07:36:00.008Z

Leaving Jodphur (where I got a tailored black suit made for 80euro - polyster/wool) we went to Jaisalmer, a desert town not far from the Pakistani border. When atracted us to here was the annual Desert man festival that was taking place over the three days we were there. As with most (actually all..) town in Rajasthan, the main feature of the town was it's central fort, but what made Jasilalmer different was that 4,000 people still live inside the fort, which again is perched high atop a rocky outpost.

Inside lay a maze of winding streets, all made of sandstone (obviously...we're in the desert!). Interestingly however, the fort is lited in the top 100 most endangered forts in the world as it is sinking. They say it is unethical to stay in the hotels there as the place is sinking, so we didn't. I kind of wish we had of stayed in the fort - much cooler! The fort did remind me of Stonetown, Zanzibar and I must admit, I think this fort had nicer winding streets. I actually just realised I did not take any pics of the fort from the outside... but here is one of a cow (as per usual) sticking it's nose inside someones shop withing the fort.

The desert festival istelf was a bit of a let down, we missed the mustache competition and the Mr Desert finale as that was held the night we arrived. We did get to see some camel racing and camel polo and a tug-o-war competition. I have some photos on a dvd from the event, but since this computer does not have a dvd driver, I cannot upload them...grr!

Jaiselmer is also famous for its desert camel safaris - so when in Rome!! We decided to do a 2 day 1 night safari in the desert and sleep on the sand dunes. People normally do 3-4 days in the desert, but who really wants to spent that long trudging through the heat of the desert, bent over a camel with a sore groin... not me! The desert itself was alot of fun, actually once you got over the smell of the camel (bad smell is a common feature of India!). Camel riding is much like a horse, but more comfortable and slower. We each had a camel each (there was a group of 6 of us). The first day passed pretty peacefully and we stopped under a tree where our guide cooked up a curry and chapatis. Not bad for the middle of no-where!! We eventually reached the sand-dunes which was stunning! As far as the eye could see was dunes, it was very hard to appreciate how grand it all really was. Below is a pic og Emma thinking she's cool...

One night was enough, I don't think we would have got to do anything new (but bruise my ass) if we had have stayed more nights. So overall a very enjoyable excursion.

From here we pressed on back to Delhi, via Bikaner - home of the famous "Rat Temple". Supposedly, Krishna granted all these "holy rats" to this site (there is a long story to it, not going to get into it) and the temple is over ridden with rats. Bikaner itself is the biggest kip known to mankind and the rat temple was not much better. I was expecting the place to be swarmed with rats but realistically, we slept beside more in Delhi railway station a few weeks before! Bowls of milk is left out for the rats and people feed the, corn balls. We spent 10 minutes there and left. Below, a pic from the temple...

It actually felt good to be back in Delhi, and the hatred I once felt towards it had faded. The weather had picked up and we found a nice part of town to hang out in. From here, we finally organised our skiing trip to Gulmarg, Kashmir. We decided to fly up with Spicejet, Indias best budget airline. Arriving in Srinigar (the capital of Kashmir) airport was an experience. The airport is an amry base and there is soldiers and fighter jets everywhere. As you know, Kashmir is a disputed region between India and Pakistan, the conflict dating back to partition in 1947. In 2000, Bill Clinton described Kashmir as the most dangerous place on earth - George Bush has changed that. Cheers George, now I can go skiing!

Gulmarg is situated around 70km from Srinigar into the Himilayas. We got a taxi there and on the way your made very aware of the huge military presence in the region. There was lots of soldiers, AK 47's, armered vehicles everwhere. Every 50 meters on the road was a soldier, crazy. Reminded me somewhat of Northern Ireland when I was young but with more guns in your face. We eventually arrived in Gulmarg to 6/7 feet of snow. The Guardian newspaper has written a few articles on Gulmarg and .

Gulmarg is one of the highest ski resorts in the world and has the highest gondola in the world. The ski lift can bring you up to 4000meters and from here you can ski down. It is essentially the same as jumping from a helicopter and skiing down but without the helicopter. Therefore, Gulmarg attracts some hardcore skiiers and boarders from all over the world. People were suprised that we had come to learn how to ski there, little hardcore. However, Gulmarg has some good learner slopes and cheap ski gear to hire. The first day we hired an instructor who was overpaid but at the end of the day he did teach us how to ski. Unfortunately on the second day I fell sick (first time in India - bloody vomitting and diarrhoea) so that counted me out. But, Emma and Trevor went to the slopes and practised hard. On the third day, feeling mucg better, I was back in the action. Unfortunately, Trevor suffered some severe beer poisoning and that cut his day short. By the fourth day we were all out again and flying down the advanced slopes. Next stop... the mountain! There are two phases to the mountain, 0ne and two. One is a stretch of around 2 km through the woods, starting at 3050meters abhove sea level and goes back into the town of Gulmarg. The second phase, as mentioned starts from 4000m and goes back to the town of Gulmarg. Emma did not join us the first day we went to the mountain, she stayed on the advanced slope and honed her skills. Maybe she was right, myself and trevor are too reckles!

Phase one was amazing, it was nice to be able to do a long run (baby slopes are only 200m long). The path was very narrow at parts and there were some very technical parts (which I fell on my ass). After the first run we were hooked and ended up doing it twice more that day. On the final day, Emma joined us and she did really weel. I am more gutsy than her but she was technically a much better skiier than me, I didn't really care at all if I fell. The pics are on picasa but here is one or two to tease you...

For the third time, we're back in Delhi. Trevor is leaving us tomorrow for China and we are flying to Goa. We are skipping Mumbai as myself and Emma are not in the mood for another city. I know it will be a big miss for Bollywood but fame is not worth the price. So check out the pics on Picasa and hopefully I will have another update soon...from the beach!

Photos and the like.

2008-03-06T07:58:00.003Z

I am slowly trying to sort out all our photos now that we are back in Delhi for a few days. I am putting the "best" on picasa, so here is the link to check them out...

http://picasaweb.google.co.in/mark.sherlock

Enjoy.

India... A proper Introduction

2008-02-15T08:23:00.003Z

A proper introduction to India is required! After leaving the sunny warm shores of Tanzania, we arrived in a wintery, cold, dull Delhi. Trevor met us a the aiport with a lift which was handy and we went to his hostel to stay for the night. Our first impressions of India (apart from the arctic weather) was mixed. Extremelly dirty, traffic everywhere, people drive everywhere (not using lanes)touts in your face. But anyway... we arrived in Parangaj, the main bazaar in Delhi and also the backpacker area. It was crazy. cows, people, touts, everywhere. What an introduction I thought. We stayed in a crap backpacker hotel and tried to organise our swift exit out of Delhi. The following day we arranged a train to Varanasi (center of the world for the hindu religion). Our train was at 9.30pm, however when we got there the train had been delayed until 2.30am, ahh we can manage that, they had a little clean cafe, decent food and warm. We entertained ourselves with a curry (or 2) and a competitive game of monopoly (travel monopoly...what a great Christmas present for Emma). Soon it was 2am... time to get the train. We waited at the platform and a train arrived...great we thought! However, disaster occurred - the train had to go get "cleaned" and it would not leave until 7am. In the freezing conditions of the platform of Old Delhi train station we bedded down. It wasn't long until we noticed the swarm of rats hovering around us... A quote from Emma - "I will never complain about the DART again". We will wait and see! We actually did leave on the stroke of 7am, and arrived in Varanasi at 4am the following evening.

Varanasi was one of the most interesting, crazy and I don't know how to describe it, place I have ever been. Varanasi is situated on the banks of the holy ganges water, the mecca for hindu religion. Many come to die here and get cremated in public on the banks of the ganges. Our cheap as chips hostel was located right beside the burning ghats (where the bodies were cremated) and smoke filled the surrounding area. A strange feeling walking through smoke that is coming from a burning body. Our first day was rather strange, we would be walking down the street and a possession of people would come running through the 2meter wide streets carrying a dead body wraped various leaves and cloth. From here the body is taken to the burning ghat where it is burned and the ashes sprinkled in the ganges. Interestingly, if you are under 18, pregnant, a holy man, died from the bite of a cobra or died from leprosy you are thrown straight into the ganges, wrapped in banana leaf and a stone tied to your ankles. That is why sometime you can see a dead body floating in the river. We did two boat rides, one at dawn and one at dusk. Both very interesting as you get to step away from the madness of the street and have a look at the ghats from a distance.

India's poverty was obvious in Varanasi, with dead bodies paving the streets. Every morning, at 6am, a person comes around the streets to collect the dead bodies... only in India!!

Overall, we really enjoyed Varanasi, it was so in your face but a very special place all the same. It is very hard not to get caught up in all the madness that goes on around you. Also, we had some great food there... cauliflower curry... Yum Yum!!

We had to make a decision of where we wanted to go next. Trevor had 5 weeks from then so we wanted to do something that he'd enjoy. Originally we had planned to go to Nepal trekking etc but we heard that the weather was freezing. Trekking would be no fun in that weather so as all good pale skinned paddy's would do in such times....head for the desert. We decided to do a 4 week trip around Rajasthan, the desert state of India that borders Pakistan. We braved the trains again and did a 18 hour train ride from Varanasi to Jaipur - the pink city (very smooth - no complaints at all).

At first, I loved Jaipur, it was a bid more modern than Varanasi, had some good shopping and we got an OK place to stay. Emma shopped her heart out, buying lots of semi-precious stones and jewelery. Interestingly, both of us got stylish sunglasses with our prescription in them - something you cannot get at home. Total cost was 30euro each - good buy! We also found a great "shabby sheek" restaurant in the old city which served up the most amazing curries and nan bread, We also got to watch the chef in action - very enjoyable.

However, Jaipur eventually got very irritating. Touts lined the streets, giving you hassle on every street corner. It all got a bit much and it was time to head rural - to Bundi, 5 hours south of Jaipur.

What a surprise Bundi was - not a tout in sight! A beautiful town on a small but handsome lake where you get get cheap good food and read your book in peace. Bundi in a little way reminded me of Guatemala/Chiapas (Mexico) with its small winding streets and colonial buildings. Mountains surrounded the town and perched high on one overlooking the town was a majestic palace. The views were superb from the top. This was the India I was looking for.

Next stop was Udaipur - a 7hour bumpy overnight bus journey. However, every bump was worthwhile! Udaipur was the setting for the great Bond movie - Octopussy! Every hotel pays a nightly homage to this peace of Hollywood greatness (not so great) with it being shown in every hotel/guest house. The place itself was stunning, the down sitting on the banks of a 3km by 4km lake, with two islands in it. One the Lake Palace Hotel. The hotel, originally a palace of the Marahaj, is thought to have inspired the architect of the Taj Mahal. Nowadays, it is a hotel, and at around 700euro a night for a cheap room - a bargain! the second island has been converted into another hotel/restaurant - the sight where Liz Hurley had her wedding reception a number of years ago.

Hassle was minimal here, chilling out was maximal. What a great place. We fond the most adorable roof top terrace called dream heaven (it really stood up to its name) - a great spot for a beer, stunning views of the lake and sunset. The clock was ticking and we had to move on.

Another 8 hour bus journey through the desert brought us to Jodphur - the blue city. A relatively large city, and most building painting blue, has nothing really going for it apart from the fort, perched high on a rocky hill over-looking the city. This fort put the palace in Bundi to shame. Very hard to describe other that simply beautiful. The views from the top were stunning and you could see far into the desert. The second best thing about Jodphur is the tailor. I got a suit made for the grand fee of 80 euro, not much for a suit that is made to your exact requirements.

Thats a bit of a rushed up-date on India. It is very hard to describe (as I keep saying), could write pages on each of the places we've been and on people we met along the way, but I really do not know how to put it into words.

There is a lack of pictures here, as when I hook my camera in the computer here I get a nasty electric shock and I'm also afraid of what that will do to my camera, but I promise, I will but pictures up soon.

We're off to a camel festival and a tash growing competition this evening, which should be interesting. Chao...

India.... Hmmmm

2008-02-08T11:45:00.000Z

Hi All, Just a quick note to say that we are still alive. However, this internet is probably the worst I have used in around 5 years so I will write something proper once I find better internet (with pics).

First impressions of India - Thee craziest place I have ever been! Where to start, I don't know. India is indescribable (if that is a real word) I'll just throw out a few words which try to sum it up!

Dirty/Noisy/Yum food/Beep beeeep/COLD/Cows/Cows everywhere/Monkeys/Spitting/Rude men/Poverty/People dead on street/Richshaws/The Ganges/Burning bodies/No spitting sign - everyone spits/Did I mention DIRT!/Motorbikes/Bad driving/Vegetarian/Hindu/Cheap Cheap/Dinner for 1 euro...

These are a few words that spring to mind. We are currently in Bundi, Rajasthan.

A full up-date in a few days.

Zanzibar!

2008-01-26T20:13:00.000Z

Hi all, bit of an update before India. Got the boat over to Zanzibar on the Tuesday morning following a disastrous banking situation in which Emma’s card was chewed up. But, we eventually got it back after waiting for three hours! Great African efficiency if you ask me!!

We had already organized somewhere to stay in Zanzi - jambo guest house which, turned out to be an oven, so hot with no fan and air con from about 1950 Iraq that really didn’t work! When I say really, it actually didn’t at all and sounded like a helicopter taking off and the plug got so hot it probably added to the Sahara like conditions of the room. But cheap cheap for Zanzibar anyways at a bargain of $15 each (roll on India – cheap cheap!). The island is mostly Muslim so had to dress appropriately etc… but found the vibe on the island much better than the mainland, much more relaxed and people seemed friendlier though still did get quite a bit of hassle from touts and wouldn’t recommend it for lone woman as I saw quite a few being followed in streets and getting hassled a lot but nothing dangerous just annoying. It had changed a bit since my last visit, the gardens in stone town were closed for renovations, which was a really relaxed area just to chill out and, more importantly this was where the touts hung out. Now, instead they are on the street hassling people. Aw well!

The main town - stone town - is like a maze of tiny winding streets and buildings a little Mediterranean/Morocco like with their white wash and very pretty carved doors everywhere. They have sirens going on every few hours calling people to the mosques for prayer and you can hear the prayers all over the town. We went on a spice tour one morning and were shown around the plantation and told what all the native spices were, how they were grown and harvested and their culinary and medicinal uses. Very interesting to see where it all comes from including tumeric, ginger, cardamom to name but a few. We also went out to Prison Island which is a little island just off Zanzibar, took 45min in a little boat (very sea sick!!) it was used as a quarantine island when a lot of trade was going through the island and immigrants, I guess like Ellis Island in NY. The best part of the island was an endangered giant turtle sanctuary. They’re so huge and were so relaxed just walking about, you could feed them (red cabbage) and pet them. They live up until they’re between 65-95 yr but a guy there said the oldest on the island is 117 years old and one had just died recently at ~ 150 yr! Emma was saying while there that she would so love a giant turtle in her garden at home but not sure what buddy would say!

All in all, Zanzi was a great excursion, got to meet some cool med students from the UK and Germany (I’m re-inspired to do medicine again) and went to a few nice restaurants. For our final weekend in Dar, we didn’t plan much. We went to Addis in Dar, an Ethiopian restaurant here in Dar. What an amazing place, it was even better than I last remembered it. For yee that have not experienced Ethiopian food, you basically sit around a small circular (~20inch – very large pizza) table that has a layer of pancake like, slightly sour bread. On this, a variety of dishes is placed all over the bread. On the side, you have little rolls of this bread and that’s it – you tuk in with your hands! Maybe it’s the novelty factor that amuses me so much but, the food is damn good! A mixture of meat and veggie dishes (Indian curry like really) is essential. I wonder how such a restaurant would fair in Dublin, I could see it as a very yuppy, trendy spot, but the atmosphere that Addis in Dar (an outdoor venue – palm trees all round, under the stars of Africa) could not be replicated in a 10ft by 10ft loft on Wicklow St! A challenge is out there for any blossoming entrepreneur (Audrey – Emma thinks you should try find an Ethiopian near you, that Dave would love it!!)

Bags are packed and we’re ready to go! Until India…Adios.

Ps - I'll post a few pics from Zanzibar in a few days.

Life is hard in the tropics!!

2008-01-14T18:57:00.000Z

Hi All, So we have arrived in Tanzania after a non-eventful 9.5 hour flight from London, highlights include the snoring man behind me and Emma waking up the whole flight with her uncontrollable fits of laughter at the the British comedy "Death at a Funeral". I'm blaming Emma really, but to be honest I was also in histerics... A must see movie!!

My brother Paul met us at the door of the plane, quite literally at the door, and took us through customs. Irish people now have to pay for a visa (the last time I came, Irish people got a free one). Nearly everyone nation pays $50, but no, us and the americans pay $100. Least we're not from Pakistan... they pay $200. Suckers!

For the first time in four/five trips overseas, my bag actually arrived. For the first time, I also packed my hand luggage with enough clothes etc that would last me a few days, but alas, they were not required. Horaay - my bag arrived! Normally Emma would be particular in times like this, for the last few years she would always pack her hand-luggage with some clothes and other bits-n-bobs just incase her bag didn't arrive. However, Emma was cocky - "my bag always arrives, why should I bother packing clothes away?" she echoed in dublin airport. Bad move... no bag!

The first few days were very chilled out, we went to the beach, went sailing and snorkling on one of the islands just off the coast from Dar. The snorkling was great, lots of cool tropical fish including a nemo! For 20min I had a small yellow and black stripey fish follow me beside my face, it was amazing. Everytime I stopped, it would stop and then continue on with me. I chuckled to myself underwater. Here is a pic below of the beach....

After the weekend, we decided to go to South Beach, A beach about half an hour south of Dar Es Salaam. We decided to camp (as it was the cheapo option). It was very relaxing, although Emma turned into one big overall infected mossie bite and I was stung by a jelly fish. On the plus side... Emma got a tan (so she thinks) and some of my freckles conjealed together to form the perfect tan. Also, Emma got to experience her first chipsie my eye(spelling is totally wrong but sounds like that in Swahili) which is basically chips in an omelette. a speicality in this part of the world, and also she experienced her first dalla-dalla (hi-ace van, crammed full of people AKA public transport).

Thursday night saw the arrival of a very special guest... no other than our very own Bertie Ahern! We networked ourselves over the previous week and hung out with all the right people and low and behold we were invited to the exclusive Bertie reception at the Irish Ambassadors house. Free booze + free Food = great time had by all!
It was actually a really fun night, we got to meet him and his entourage. Pretty friendly, however I didn't get to talk to hime long enough for me to give him some recommendations on how to save Monaghan Hospital. Maybe next time!

The most exciting part of our trip thus far was upon us... Safari! We left Dar early on Saturday morning and went to Mikumi National Park, around 4 hours south west from Dar. We were privledged enough to be staying in a lodge right in the middle of the park, in beautiful little cottages (or the wee house as Eva liked to call it) overlooking a water hole where the animals would come up to. The great thing about this safari (and unlike my previous one) was that we drove ourselves, so no guides and our own schedule! On our first game drive we got to see an array of animals, the highlight being a pair of honeymooning lions! Over the course of the weekend we got up close and personal with some hippos, crocodiles, giraffe, elepehant, lions, zebra, warthog and impala to name a few. Emma was amazed throughout the weekend and she really enjoyed it. Some pics below to make you jelous...

Thats only the start of the pics, it is a pity it take them so long to upload onto the blog. So sin sin, off to Zanzibar in the morning, hopefully we'll get some pics up of that before we're off to India...

Coming soon....

2007-03-15T13:02:00.000Z

Thailand, Cambodia and Veitnam, KO 13-6-07 9.55am

Peurto Escondido to Mexico City

2006-09-06T16:34:00.000Z

So we're home now, and the weather is amazing!!! Yea right. for the last week of the trip, we had to skip Oaxaca in Mexico due to riots there so we decided to go to the pacific coast and staying in Peurto Escondido, a small beach town about 13 hours from Mexico City. It was quiet but tacky, rather like most of mexican beach towns, although we stayed with a crazy english guy who owned a cool hostel with a really nice pool, which was great. Reminded me of my uncle Brendan, just a nuts sort of guy who was an absolute clean freak and would be knocking on the door of the shower if you spent longer than 2 min in the shower, met lots of people there and had a great time. After a few days there, we took the over-night bus to Mexico City, did the tourist thing there for two days then it was off home! Flights were fine, but Heathrow was a bit nuts with the security, and they managed to lose our bags (AGAIN!!!), but got them the following night so the service in that sense was better than on the way over!! Iw ill put some pics up another time. So thats that, Where is next on the list, i fancy India!!!

San Christobal de las casas,Mexico

2006-08-26T19:41:00.000Z

It was an 8hr bus journey from the lake to San christobal,which has possible even more charm to it than Antigua and doesnt seem to be as overrun with tourists (although im sure it just seems that way!). It is a bit pricer and we{d forgotten that about Mexico but its nice to be somewhere so civilsed in a way.The landscape and buildings are beautiful,especially all the baroque and neo-classical churches,the markets are expensive but the municipal one is fun to walk about.Its high up and so quite cold at night and you could even were jeans during the day,We saw some crazy thunder and lightening here also, which even struck the ground near us,and something though we dont know what exploded with smoke (little scarey!).We met some english lads and ended up going to a techno club for my birthday with a group from their hostel.Good night was had by all.

From there we were going to head to Oaxaca but there are riots there at the minute and the buses werent even going,so a change of plans and we went to the pacific coast to Puerto Escondido which reminds me alot of San Juan del Sur in Nicaragua except more catered for tourists,in fact we may even stay somewhere with a pool as its our last week!

Lake Atitlan, Guetamala

2006-08-26T19:28:00.000Z

The morning after Buena Vista we headed north to Lake Atitlan not far from antigua.I was sick so we got a fancy bus.we went to a quiet place on one side of the lake were we had arranged to meet a friend and stayed there for the night. Then we all headed to San Pedro de la Laguna which is the liveliest town on the lake,however we could go out while i was sick and then when i got better emma got food poisoning again.So the nightlife was lost on us!!we did however make it to Chi Chi were they hold the biggest market in guatemala twice weekly,where all the traders and mayan come from there mountain villages.We went on the busier day,sunday.It took ages on terribe roads, in a crap bus but it was worth it.Great bargins and the haggling was fun.We even spent less then we brought with us and could barely carry the stuff back to the bus (emma got a huge quilt!!).didnt bring the camera so sadly no pics of the market.the pics of the lake are stil on the camera so will have to wait.

Volcan Pacaya, Guetamala & Buena Vista Social Club

2006-08-26T19:05:00.000Z

WE were supposed to leave at 6am to hike to volcanoe but i think all these early mornings were getting to us and we slept in. at around 7am, the watch-man at the hostel came a franticly woke us up saying that we were late, but lucky enough the bus driver was an hour late so at the end of it all we weren´t late at all and got an extra hours sleep, we had the last laugh at all the suckers who got up at 6am.

It was a windy drive to the volcano, but amazing, as the sun was only coming up. From where we were dropped off it was around a two hour hike up the where we should see some lava flowing! Since the volcanoe was erupting a few days beforehand (we saw it on CNN) there should be some nice fresh lava....

WE eventually got to near enough the top of the volcanoe, although i wouldnt go any further up incase it erupted (there was people on top, they must have been absolutely crazy!!). Where we got to there was lava flowing past us, just feet away, it was stunning!! Really warm and lots of sulphor fumes coming off the lava. It was mad at how close we could get, there really is no rules in Guatemala. Here is a few pics...

That night, we had booked a table to see Buena Vista Social Club. It was one of the most enjoyable gigs i have ever been to, we had a table up the front, but when i mean up the front there was only six tables in the room, and the best thing of all that it was FREE!!! they played for over three hours, some stuff i knew other songs i didnt. It was nice, sitting back watching Buena Vista sipping on a mojhito... excellent!! I have a video of one of their songs, dont know hoe to attach it on so will get ryan to help me there so all i can put up is a pic-

Nicaragua to Honduras

2006-08-15T18:58:00.000Z

We left Granada at 3 am and eventually arrived in La Ceiba, Honduras at 9.30pm, an uneventful journey really, lots of movies on our lovely Tica bus which passsed the time. La Ceiba is on the Carribean coast of Honduras and is where you get the boat to the Bay Islands. The town itself is very americanised, like most of the larger towns in Central America, lots of McDonalds and the like. We stayed in the Dingiest hotel but was cheap and what else do ya expect really!!! The following morning, we went the Utila, the cheapest Bay Island to stay on. To do your open water PADI it costs $160, nothing compared to other places around the world. Utila is very like Caye Caulker in Belize, the locals speak some strange version of English and its a little tropical Island in the Carribean. Ourselves and the other Irish couple got a little apartment on the water for ourselves, which was actually really good value. We had a little kitchen and wait for it... cable tv!!! We got to watch the news which was good with all the stuff thats going on at the minute.

We thought about diving but i´m not the biggest water fan ever but i was really thinking about it because it was so cheap, but having bad signose problems (i could never breath through one side of my news!!) i´m not able to dive anyway, and emma has had a cold for the last 4 weeks so counted her out. It sounds like something small, but if you have a cold you really cant dive, it can be really painful and dangerous at worst. The other Irish couple did their PADI and had some mad stories. With it being so cheap, there is a huge number of dive schools there is a huge turnover of divers on the island and there´s not that many dive spots, so the water is very busy. One guy got hit by a boat when he was coming up and Paul, The irish guy we were with ran out of air after 20 mins (a faulty tank) had to do an emergency ascent but the boat was gone when they went back up. It was all a bit sketchy, their boat had actually gone to another dive spot to leave more divers off, so the boat doesnt stay where your diving which is pretty scary if you had an accident or something!! Maybe it is better to go somewhere quieter and pay a little more....

Apart from diving, there isn´t that much to do on Utila as it doesnt have many great beaches. The snorkling was ok, Belize was alot better. I had to laugh (And Ryan and Paul would like this) that Neddies (Vincent Lee-Vice principle at our school) son was a dive instructor on Utila, Thank God i didnt have the priviledge of meeting him but heard from another Irish person that he was there!!

In total we spent 5 days on Utila then went straight to Copan, which is on the border with Guatemala. ITs got the "second best Mayan Ruins" in Central america. WE arrived in copan late on sunday and had to leave monday afternoon but the place was amazing. It´s set up in the mountains and has all little cobbled streets and it really feels that tourism hasn´t changed it (Even though it has the ruins). We went to the ruins early the next morning which were pretty impressive. They were alot smaller than Tikal which was totally amazing but Copan ruins are still a must see. They dont take long to get around as they are quite small but they had loads of macaws there which makes it extra cool.

That afternoon we made it back to Antigua, Guatemala which took around 6 hours. Its nice to be back here as its a really nice town, tomorrow we are going to the volcano that is erupting at the minute so you can see the lava flowing past you (it is safe, we have a guide and stuff). So Sin Sin... home in two and a half weeks and still got a lot of ground to cover....eek!

Collection of Sunsets

2006-08-12T00:45:00.001Z

San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua

Mayogalpo beach up north of San Juan, Nicaragua

Collection of Sunsets

2006-08-12T00:45:00.000Z

San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua

Mayogalpo beach up north of San Juan, Nicaragua

Canopy Tour, Granada, Nicaragua

2006-08-12T00:26:00.000Z

After the laguna, we wanted to go straight to the bay islands in Honduras, but as usual the bus was full. We had to stay in Granada again, for the third time, for two days, this turned out to be a great laugh and met up with an english and an irish couple. We went on a canopy tour....pictures as follows.

Emma looking scared!!!

Me, Not scared at all!!!! AKA Tarzan.

For good measure, here is a picture of Granada, as with every Central American town, it has a volcanoe in the background. We actually did the canopy tour on that volcanoe.

Laguna De Apopoyo, Nicaragua

2006-08-12T00:22:00.000Z

This is the view from our place on the lake....

Laguana de Apoyo

2006-08-05T22:03:00.000Z

So we just returned from the gorgeous crater lake. It was a paradise and as soon as we got there we knew that one night wasnt enough, so we stazed two nights,three days. Its heated from below so the water is always warm and everyone swam day and night, with the use of rings,caykes etc..The area around the laguana is now zoned and conserved so only the few houses that are dotted around can be used of which i think two are hostels. This place is up for sale for $350k and everzone there was imagining buying it and running some sort of place and never going home to col/work etc..Weve met alot of people who are out here setting up luxery lodges or hostels just because they fell in love with the place and cant leave.We met so many irish people at the laguana,it was crazy and now two of them have decided to join us on our trip to the Bay islands in Hondouras, which will be in two days. So yet again were back in Granada and this is our third time back here,keep on liking the place more and more each time, so its a good thing weve booked our bus out or wed get trapped!!!

Nicaragua

2006-08-03T00:55:00.000Z

It took 2 days from Antigua, Guatemala to Granada, Nicaragua with a night in San Salvador, El Salvador, and that was a night in the biggest kip of a hotel in the biggest kip of a city in the world!! had to be done though, the hotel was joined to the bus station so we didnt have to leave, thank god! On a brighter note, the bus we got was amazing, really comfy seats, tvs etc.... which was great and the journey didnt drag at all. All cental american countries have come togehter now as one (like europe) for immigration purposes so no more stamps for the passport as you go into another country, although everyone still feels a bit confused about the whole affair!

Granada is like Antigua a little but alot shabbier and poorer but its got a nice feel to it, with a great italian restaurant or two... There isn´t a whole pile to do here and not very touristy compared to the likes of Guatemala, we went to Isla De Ometepe, which is an island in the middle of lake Nicaragua, its beatuiful sailing out to it, took 4 hours from Granada in a rickedy little boat, but coming up to the island the volcanoes looked amazing. I wanted to hike the larger one which is aperfect cone shaped volcanoe but there wasnt enough people to climb it, guides wanted a 5 person minimum so i couldnt do that (Emma was happy ´cos she didnt want to do it!!) so no guide would just take me on my own. SO we cut our losses and went to the beach (guess who´s idea that was!!!), we wanted to try surfing and stuff, and just relax because it felt like we were just on bussess for the previous week. We eventually got to San Juan Del Sur and went to a remote beach just further up the coast, it had a few surfers and backpackers and we met an American couple to hang out with which was cool. The beach was amazing (pics to come some other time), with big waves and exeptionally warm water (warmer than carribean, suprised beacuse i thought the pacific was still cold this far down). We basically just chilled out, sat on the beach, Emma got a tan, i burnt and was mistaken for a lobster. Last night we were sitting on the beach and a turtle came out of the water, this thing was huge, there was a few locals around taking an interest too but we ignored them.

It was amazing, this turtle crawling up the beach towards us and dug a hole beside us to lays its eggs. It was absolutely stunning to see this creature digging a hole beside us and sitting into it and laying its eggs. But the local guys took a closer interest and it was then that we realised these guys were poachers, waiting for the eggs. They had big macheties and made it known to us that they had these knives!! Eventually they just lifted the turtle off the eggs and moved it to the side and started to scoop up all the eggs. We didn´t know what to do, some of the opther people that was staying there came out. (we later found out that the woman who owns the hotel has a rifle that she takes out to scare poachers off, but only if she see´s the turtle first, ie before the paochers so she can claim it, she´s got into loads of fights before, then she would take the eggs and lay them somewhere else).
Together with some american girls we bought the eggs off them, and with the help of the owner we burried them in the sand in her property. She does this every year so she knows what she´s doing with them. But the poor turtle, it didnt know what to do, it just flapped around, all scared! it was really sad, poor thing! The poachers then just lifted the turtle and put her back in the sea and that was that! Couldn´t believe it!!

We came back to Granada for the night and are going to a crater lake in the morning to stay for the night, its supposed to be beautiful... From there we are going to the Bay Islands in Honduras (Utila), and there is a Full moon party/Rave on there on a little island on Sat night so we might make that (see www.sunjamutila.com). On a bitchy note, We want to outline how crap the bank areGuatemala, Emma´s atm card was sucked up but the bank said we´d get it back the next Day (lots of peoples cards were taken that day) but she never got her´s back (there was a huge pile of credit cards the next day but somehow the atm cards went missing). We cancelled the card straight away but we just checked her online backing and around €400 was stolen from her current account!!! Really sucks so if your ever in Guatemala.... BEWARE!!!!!

After the Moth Attack, Lanquin

2006-07-29T03:47:00.000Z

We had a very unfortunate moth attack and had to sleep in the hammocks outside... Emma looks like a refugee!!! Not very "PC", Sorry....

Tubing in Lanquin and Semouc Champey, Guatemala.

2006-07-29T03:16:00.000Z

Lanquin, Guatemala

2006-07-29T03:14:00.000Z

Guatemala part 2

2006-07-25T18:03:00.000Z

After leaving Flores we headed south to an eco-farm run by an american woman(her husband set it up with her in the late 80's but he was murdered by the guatemalian government in 1990 and this contributed to the US cutting off aid to guatemala in 1995). It was set in the middle of a forest, lots of hills but it rained the whole time so couldn't really do much but eat, which suited me nicely!! After two nights we moved on to Lanquin, it took us 5 busses and 10 hours to get there, all on little mini-busses packed with up to 30 people. It was really cool though because we went throught the countryside and places tourists dont normally get to. As the crow flies it was only about 120km but it took 10 but thats Guatemala for you!!!

Linguin is in the middle of the mountains on the edge of a valley and is absolutely stunning (like all of this country). The hostel we stayed at was set of by an English guy and is on the hill leading to the valley floor and the big river. Its all huts and cabanas with a good restaurant. I'll attach a picture of it onto this. There;s lots of water activities you can do here, so we went tubing down the river, not a good idea since i'm probably the worst swimmer known to mankind!!! It was amazing but some parts of the river had very strong currents and there was fallen trees across the river at parts and you couldn't really stop your self flying into them and in doind so, i cut all my hand and half ripped a nail from one of my toes... its all part of the experience though!! when you come to the hostel your supposed to hang onto a rope and pull yourself in... that didn't really work and Emma ended up hanging onto an overhanging branch with no where to go....eek! a local had to save her, i couldnt do much because i was hanging onto a different part of the tree. We all survived and really enjoyed it!

We also went caving in Semouc Champey and hiked a mountain and went to the most stunning natural pools.... From there we came to Antigua which is the Old capital of Guatemala until it moved to Guatemala City in the 1700's after an earthquake. Its an old spanish colonial place, all cobbled street and overlookd by volcanoes all around the town. Buena Vista Social Club play here twice a week but are very hard tyo find out where they are actually playing, so hopefully going to catch them tonight or on the way back (we have to pass through here in about 3 weeks). Tomorrow we're going straight to Nicaragua on an epic 36 hour journey via El Salavador and Honduras and on to Managua and then Granada... Fun Fun Fun

Guatemala part 2

2006-07-25T18:01:00.000Z

Guatemala part 2

2006-07-25T17:24:00.001Z

Photos from Tikal

2006-07-25T17:24:00.000Z

Guatamala part 1

2006-07-16T21:29:00.000Z

well the border crossing this time was not as smooth.we made a group of friends on the bus one guy could speak fluently so when we played dumb to the unofficial fee into the country,he said none of us would pay without a receipt to show it was a legitamit tax...well that didnt go down well at all,she let all 6 of us go without paying but told him he couldnt enter for being such a hot shot.He had to bribe a randomer to get in,but never got a stamp into the country so now he´s illegal...kinda funny, kinda not!!but it didnt bother him so much that he wasnt going to enjoy himself while he was here and this morning at 3.30 am a group of 6 of us got picked up to go to Tikalñ for sunrise. Tikal is an amazing Mayan Temple, though not just one,set among the jungle where we saw many endangered animals. We saw monkeys,stange colourful insects etc...we got a guide for the ruins who took us around for 5/6 hours, teaching us about the Mayans and their beliefs,rituals and how they may have built the temples. It was great, and we were done before the mid-day sun came out to torture us!!planning to leave Flores tomorrow,which is were we are staying in a small cute village in the middle of a lake.We want to go south to some hot springs and waterfalls,so you´ll get some photos in a week or two.

Belize

2006-07-16T21:03:00.000Z

First off, sorry about how the pics went up... we blame Guatemala!
the trip overland from mexico to belize couldnt have gone smoother and we got to the islands ( Caye Caulker)in one day!!the people were so lovely and it was such a break to speak english with everyone. The place is so relaxed with just one street. People drive around in golf carts,we only saw one car which was the police tho i cant think what they do all day except hang on the streets watching basketball or chattn to the rastas.Food was great and its lobster season,so a huge full lobster with loads of side dishes for $9 on a bbq out by the sea!!heaven!!backpacking is hard work...tho i feel we deserve a break after our reception in cuba.We went snorkling out by the reef which is the 2nd biggest after austrailia,and swam among sharks and loads of sting rays (scary at first but then really cool) and then all your usually tropical suspects like colourfull cute fish,crabs,coral...although sadly the turtles didnt make an appearane for us but im sure we´l catch them in Honduras!!So that was mostly it for Belize ,sun, sea,tanning (burning),eating,drinking etc..We didnt stop anywhere else in Belize but are considering going back up through it on the way back if time permits.

Viñales Horseriding

2006-07-16T20:57:00.000Z

Havana old school cars

2006-07-16T20:54:00.000Z

Havana

Cuba pics

2006-07-16T20:49:00.000Z

Viñales

Cuba Part 2

2006-07-16T20:43:00.000Z

After leaving the airport we (as part of the package got a hotel for 2 nights, the night we came and the last night) went to the hotel. Supposed to cost $80 a night, most hostel i thought would be better!! Everyone was smoking and a think smell of cigar smoke in the room, didnt help my helpless little lungs!! The following night and the rest of the nights we stayed in casa particulars, which are much like bed and breakfasts, in Havana these copst $25 for a room and this is "budget" accomodation. It didnt take us long to notice that everyone wanted to "help" you, but their hand was out all the time looking for money. even the post man just gave us directions to one of the casa´s and the hand was out!!! got really annoying, could never tell if anyone was genuine!!

Havana was a cool place, vcery old and lots of old colonial buildings and old 1940 and 1950´s cars roaming the streets. Good atmopsphere but again you wpuld never know if people were genuine. The majority of times they weren´t!!! I will bring you through a dialogue of a typical conversation..... Emma and a randomer...

Cuban: Oh my ffriend where you from.
Emma (trying to ignore him)......
Cuban: Talk, I´m not the Mafia....
Emma: Irlanda
Cuban: Oh Holland, very good!!
Emma: No... IRELAND!
Cuban: (confused look on his/her face)
Emma: Beside England...
Cuban: Still confused... Oh Beautiful place!!
Emma: Argh....
Cuban: My friend, you have milk for baby?
(Baby happens to be 15 yrs old, babies are old in cuba, must be the communism or something!!!)
Emma: No
Cuban: Snotty face and walks off...

This can happen for a number of options, depending on the approach of the person. they ask for
1) Milk for the Baby.
2) U like Cuban cigars...
3) Can have your trousers?
4) you have t-shirt for me in your hotel room... "no"... Reply.. "do they not have t-shirts in your country"
5) Can i have your watch?
the list could go on..... and this happens at least 20-30 times a day in havana!!!! Good job the mojitos are so good!!! I dont thin we have met as rude of people in my life unreal! really put us off the experience!

After spending 2 nights in havana, we went to the Pinar Del Rio region and the town of Viñales. This was a small town, with ox and cart in the street, it was an absolutely amazing place, very beautiful. It has mountains called mogotes, only found elsewhere in the world in Southern China, They´re square limestone mountains. I will post some pics after this. We went horse riding through them which was an experience (and a sore arse!!!).

We stayed there 3 nights then back to Havana for the rest of the time. I must point out that the food in Cuba is absolutely terriblñe, a delicacy to them is rice and beans!!! or spam for that matter. at our hotel we had a "HUGE BUFFET", here´s how it went...

1) the fruit counter consisted of a few manky pieces of mango and pineapple with some beautiful slices of grapefruit! all very appealing...
2) The pancake section (which was ok) with a dish of beautifully sliced spam with a handul of delicately sliced process cheese on top!
3)(my favourite section) Croquettes (which are supposed to have potatoe in them, right?) but yet again, they had spam inside them... i can hear your bellies rumbling from here...mmmmmmmm! This was served alongside some sort of fried veg, possibly cabbage with a few sporatic carrots thrown in there for good measure!!

Are you suprised Emma got food poisoning... I think not!!! EMMA DID NOT EAT THE SPAM!!!!

Same bloody plane back...grrr

Overall, we were both really glad that we went to cuba, and got to see just how crazy the place is with its comminism and all that. The people were extremelly rude which kind of spoiled it at times, we also got to see tobacco plantations and coffee plantations which was also cool and how all that works.

Verdict: If your thick skinned and have money to burn, go to cuba!!!

Cuba

2006-07-12T01:16:00.000Z

hey all, just got back from cuba this afternoon and where do you start or try to explain that place, its absolutely nuts!!!

I could just give a reference to a Jeremy Clarkeson book which he wrote a chapter on cuba, it describes it to a tee, we read it the other night and were in stiches about how true it is.... ill put the refernece up some other time, you must check it out!

Part 1.

We flew from cancun airport, we were there in good time, got to relax. just the way you want to be at the airport. After sitting at the gate for 2 hrs, the flight was then delayed for an hour, thats grand sure its only an hour (and my book was getting good..."star of the Sea" by Joesph O Connor). So finally we were allowed to board, this invlolved getting a bus to the plane which was situated about a mile away (we further realised that the airline was probably too embarissed to park their plane beside the shinny American Airlines planes and the like). We eventually arrived to the plane where there was a que to work up the steps to board the plane. we remained standing there for about 15mins barely moving. Looking at the plane, it looked a tad worn, you could see where the external panelling was fixed (from most probably rust) and didnt look too exciting (would make ryanair look like airforce 1!!!). we eventually made it up the steps. You had to see this, the door was about 3 foot high, it should have featured in lord of the rings or something (would suit a hobbet), i had to practically get on my knees to get into the plane. Hilarious!! Once inside we just looked at each other, we couldnt believe it! it was like something from 1940 with russian signs everywhere (obviously cuba got it off the soviets about 100 yrs ago). I have never seen a plane like this, there was lots of people like us who couldnt believe it. you though ryanair was bad for leg room, there must have been like 10 inches leg space. we got to our "assigned seats" but somebody was sitting there, they wouldnt move so they said it was freee seating so me plonked ourselves down! These abnoxious americans came and moved us on! so we were left with no seats, we eventually got two seats together and that worked out fine! Then here is for the good part, we seen smoke rissing from the seat in front (never a good sign), we started to panic and asked whats going on but never really got an answer, loads of us just looked at each other and were amazed! then we were told that it was the air conditioning(????), it was like a cheesy smoke machine at a club where you can not see two inches in front of you. They gave their "safety" announcement which was not much and off we slowly went down the runway.., it was a bit wierd because it felt the plane was really struggling to get up and the plane was full of this "smoke". It was all just really weird. the rest of the flight was ok and landed in havana. We had to go through customs first which took an hour and the customs were sooo rude. i had to take my glasses off and turn my head at different angles, he didnt really believe that it was me, suppose i had not shaved in nearly 3 weeks and am 16 in the passport photo!!

With that done, all we had to do is get our bags then hit the town, we might even get a walk around before bed.... oh cuba had other ideas!!!

Waiting patiently at baggage claim, one bag from the flight would be put on, that would go around for about 15 mins then they would but another bag on, and another 15mins would pass before another one would be put on... an hour passed and no sign of the back, and somebody said to us that this was going good, god i wonder what bad would be like???

we ended up waiting 2 hours to get our bags, and we were one of the first to get them... thats cuban efficiency for you!!! part 2 to come.....

Cancun and the like....

2006-07-03T20:05:00.000Z

We made it to cancun fine, glad we flew, it would have taken sooo long on the bus, prob would have just arrived today at some stage. we got off the plane and your just hit back with the heat, its soooo hot!! its like 31 degrees but feels like 41 degrees (thats how the weather channel put it) and there is about 100% humidity. you just sweat the whole time!!

The first night here we stayed in a new hostel called the blue hostel, extremelly clean, nearly too sterile looking, it had no character at all, apart from the bar on the roof which had a hot tub. At night it turned into a rave with a dj, strobe lights and a giant projector screen with music videos on it, quite strange (ryan you would have loved it). Possibly had thee worst nights sleep ever there, we were staying in the dorm which had no air con. you couldnt lie there it was so hot, remember thing at about 12 that i could just cry it was so irritating!! We both fell asleep eventually and woke aroiund 7. we packed our stuff up and got lonely planet out to see where there is a hostel with aircon. by 7.30 we were in a different hostel with aircon. The woman here is really nice, she has made a backpackers hostel in her own house, its very homely and clean. She gave us breakfast once we arrived from the other hostel, that was really nice of her. So we are staying here tonight again the we leave for cuba in the morning.

I had this really bad image of cancun built up in my head, that its just going to be full of american and european package tourists out on the piss for a few weeks. The high rise tourism is about 8km outside the downtown area of cancun (where we are staying). Its all high rise hotels and clubs, pubs and there like, much like spain (i think...never been on a package holiday). the beach is amazing, and the water is so warm. Each hotel is directly on the beech, but my mexican law you can plomp yourself anywhere on the beech, regardless if your in front of a fancy hotewl. So we set up camp on the sun loungers of some fancy hotel and kept our mouth shut.

Mexicans come here on hols too but they tend to stay downtown and then go out the beeches in the morning (like us) and then come back in to the town in the evening and eat here. There is a square in the town where loads of stalls are set up at night and where all the locals hang out. The food is good and cheap (unlike 8km away at all the hotels). so it was quite cool to hang out there.

We are going to cuba in the morning, got some sort of package and a hotel for two nights, we are staying in cuba for a week so we will find other little places when we are there. its supposed to be a crazy place so im looking forward to it....

The mexican presidential elections were on over the weekend (of which no winner was announced due to it being so close, both men have very different, radical ideas so it will be interetsing to see who wins). there was an all out drinking ban over the weekend for the elections, so we might go out tonight! imagine how that would work in ireland???

Anyway better run, ill up date this when we get back from cuba.

clothes...yay!

2006-07-01T14:37:00.000Z

Emma has pointed out that my spelling, especially of the word "Licorice" is awful. anyway... my bag arrived just after i wrote on the blog, soooo nice to have a shower and get some clean clothes!! so we booked a flight for 1pm to cancun, $50 more expensive than the bus. the bus takes 26 hrs, flight is 2hrs.. do the math. although on our way back up to fly home we will overland it to check out some of the south, especially planque etc.. which is supposed to be amazing.

Emma is also giving out about how i´m writing depressing stuff on the blog... so on a positive note... we have made loads of friends (including irish), we went to lots of touristy things, like zocalo square and the angel (however it was taken down and covered in scafolding !!!), we also went to Frida museum, Diego Riverias wife (check out the movie "Frida" its actually really good) which was cool. So Mexico City isn´t sooo bad! Note my positive manner once i´ve recieved my bag!! Its great having broadband in the hostel for free but there is no way of getting to internet or calling ireland from cuba...eek.

Aidios Mexico City

2006-07-01T12:56:00.000Z

We haven't really done that much since we got here, the weather has been really bad and kinda cold, i'm sure dublin is nicer at the minute!! My bag has yet to arrive and it is now saturday morning, so i have been wearing the same clothes since tuesday... i smell like roses!!! I think it is in the airport this morning so hopefully i will have it this morning at some stage!

Mexico City is alot more developed than i thought it would be it really could be any european city, especially in areas like zona rosa and La Reforma. Al though there is sewage drains everywhere and especially when it rains it smells so bad.... eek! The people are friendly but there's no english speakers anywhere. Emma is good at her spanich and she is getting to use it alot which is good.

The food here isn't great[i'm not bitching or annoyed, just saying]. there is not that many restaurants, alot of street vendors though/ they eat alot of pork, you see lots of pig noses and intenstines going into the tacos. We went to a traditional mexican place the other night, and me and emma are by no means picky eaters, we would eat anything or at least try it. We had a set meal, we had a broth thing first which was nice but then we got the strangest thing ever. i had some some chicken in the most hidious looking and tasting brown sauce with rock hard refried beans, it did not look or taste appetizing [although it was by no means as bad as the ox tale in Mbeya, Tanzania]. Emma had some chicken thing with molet. for you's who dont know what moley is, its a sauce thing thats made of cocoa beans and lots of spices. I have never tasted anything so disgusting in my life!! It was a plate full of brown smudge.... we tried or best but the waiter couldn't understand how we didnt like the food... he seemed to look very disappointed in us!!! so for the final course it was jelly. You cant go wrong with jelly can you.....

Out he came with licorice flavourded jelly, I HATE LICORICE. both of us hate it!! we had to eat it though, i wasnt sending back a bowl of licorice.

We have just stayed our last night in the hostel, Hostel Amigo, good place and have been helpful about my bags and stuff. last year it was voted the second best hostel in north america. Hopefully today we're going to fly to Cancun [if my bag comes] and stay there for a night then onto cuba [which i hear from people here that its just a mental place, two currencys, one for locals and one for tourists and tourists can't use the local one!!].

We'll let yous know how that goes....

Mexico City

2006-06-29T11:13:00.000Z

Olla, we finally made it to Mexico City. Bit of a shit trip from which the service was crap from dublin all the way here, although the Mexico City flight was ok. The aer Lingus woman was such a bitch in Dublin, She could have got out borading card for the next flight in London but she didnt and wouldnt give it to us so we had to check in again in Heathrow. We had 1.20 Hrs to get from Terminal 1 to terminal 4, we had to sprint the whole way, not cool. Got to the connecting flight just in time, Poor Jose Mourinho [Chelsea manager] had the same problem and he was running to the flight with us.. well i think it was him, grey hair, sunglasses on, he was on his blackberry,went to 1st class etc...

Afyer the 11 hour flight we got to Mexico City but minus my bags!! 1st time it has ever happened with me. They weren.t overally helpful either, although about 20 or 30 ppl from our flight lost our bags. they might arrive Friday, but we cant organise the cuba trip until i have clothes so overall it sucks a lil. The hostel we're in is fine a dhas broadband. We haven't really seen much of the city itself, alot of polution and very smelly air and roads and cars just coming from every direction. We'll go for a wander now when emma wakes up, have some bites on me already and all our deet is in my bagt...grr but i think they were only bed bugs last night so i'll be fine....... Next post i wont be so angry, i'n going to write a complaint to aer lingus and BA now....

One More Day to go!!!

2006-06-27T11:47:00.000Z

We're off tomarrow so hopefully by the end of the summer this will be full of many stories of advanture and madness, the itinery is as follows: Mexico City-Havana-Cancun-Belize-Guatemala-Honduras-Nicaragua-Costa Rica (maybe) and back to Mexico City. Lets see if we can keep to it......

The Route for this summer

2006-04-06T20:22:00.000Z

Summer is coming...

2006-04-06T20:20:00.000Z

I'm not very consistent with my additions to the blog, but at least its not like Ryans... a picture of a new bike every week!!! ;o) I've settled back into college again, for the last time this academic year! I cant believe its last term aldready and now its time to start studying. The exams should be ok, only on really hard subject and thats cardiovascular so im trying to get my head around that at the minute.

The summer holidays are now planned, i'm going to work for 4 weeks with dad (and usually stuff with Shane i'm sure) after i finish college then on the 28th of June we're (we're being myself, emma, her friend eva and her boyfriend niall) flying to mexico city. From here we're going to travel through southern mexico, belize, Guatemala, Hondorus, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Panama. then back up to mexico city to fly home on the 1st of september and work for a further 5 weeks until college starts. I paid my africa loan off last week so i think its time to take another one out....

I've put on a map of the route we're going to take this summer so if any one has any suggestions of places to go along the way, feel free to let me know.

Life in the library...

2006-03-02T20:33:00.000Z

Its been a while since i've put anything on this so i better get my act together! nothing has really happened of any interest, college is extremely busy with lots of presentations and essays on at the minute, on many interesting topics from anticancer drugs to malaria, which as you know is of keen interest to me. Haven't left the library any night before 9pm this week so life as a student at the minute aint so rosey (like back in Paul and Ryans days!!!)

I haven't mentioned Galway... it was a good trip, nice food, nice hotel and most of all a free bar! student heaven or what? it was more civilised than you'd think but all and all a good time was had by all. I made(well emma made) a collage of photos from africa which turned out really well, i didnt really want to hand it over and keep it for myself. She really appreciated the present and i think alot more thought went into it than any other of the normal 21st type presents.

There is still no definate plan for this summer but I think i have to get some relevant college experience in there somewhere. I cant see myself working in a lab though, way too boring (and nerdy) for me. I'd rather be out and about working with people. I do want to get a holiday in so a possibility is to go back to africa or possibly central america for maybe 6 to 8 weeks. it may be the cheaper option and its somewhere i havent been (although i think id like to pick africa over anywhere else).

Road Trip....Galway

2006-01-26T21:49:00.000Z

This weekend we're all off (we're being all my mates) to galway for eleanors 21st birthday party. if its anyway like her sisters 21st this time last year, we're in for a good night. its in some hotel and we're all staying there so should be good! had some hastle getting the room, eleanors parents organised a deal with them for a double room for E59 in a good three star hotel. but whn we went to book all room were gone. so cheap student mode was put into place. from a bit of searching on the web we found another website that we could book the same hotel on and booked it!! we got a conformation number and five minutes later the hotel was calling us saying they had double booked us. so now they had to find us a similar hotel (with pool) close by for E59. but any of the hotels near by was E100 per room so we were going to get a good deal. they just called me there now and they have happened to get us a room in the same hotel so all turned out well.

Did a VO2 max test (fitness test) on tuesday and i nearly died!! you run untiul you can't run no more, by either fainting or getting sick so it wasnt the most pleasent of fealing, i nearly blacked out and got sick but survived!!

for my lab today, myself and jonny had to sit in a fridge just in shorts for an hour and a half! we started at 20 degrees and went down to five degrees. it was absolutely freezing!! my fingers went yellow and nose knumb!! i can easily say it was as cold as killi!!! pictures of galway after the weekend.....

Emma and I, not looking great but you's want pics

2006-01-19T23:22:00.000Z

At a 50th (of all things..happened to be madder than any 21st i've been at, 5o yr olds can party!!)

Birthday Party

2006-01-19T23:18:00.000Z

My mates Neasa, Jonny and Anna

21st Birthday night, Oct 05

2006-01-19T23:14:00.000Z

The birthdays boys (and girl), myself, Caroline and Alan

My Lovely looking Head

2006-01-19T23:11:00.000Z

this is how my forhead looks now....

My lovely class

2006-01-19T23:03:00.000Z

OK...time to get my act together

2006-01-19T23:00:00.000Z

i haven't posted anything for a while now so im going to get my act together, but nothing interesting really happens around here, college and basketball and the like, dont really go out anymore, must be getting old. college work is starting to pile up though and once i fugure out how to put pictures up ill show one of my class. if you dont realise, im the shaggy looking one on the left!!!

Mark Sherlock

2005-10-04T16:45:00.000Z

so its freshers week this week but for the second freshers week...im sick!! been sick since the night i came back from africa so after two weeks time to get checked out, its gotten really bad in the last two days, couldnt breath last night! i've a really bad chest infection and doctor seems to think malaria is coming back (???..irish doctors doent know nothing about malaria) so have to go to hospital for lab tests tomarrow (AGAIN..5 times in africa). im on steroids, two antibiotics and an inhaler!!! thanks africa...ah its all part of the experience!!!

I cant believe i started a blog....

2005-10-02T22:52:00.000Z

first it was my brother kieran, then ryan and sadly paul was sucked into the world of blog. paul is as computer iliterate as i am(or maybe just afraid of technology or the stigma of being a "nerd") so i must follow him and create a blog. so here i am.... enjoy!!!