Exploring the Great Wall

Firstly, I forgot to mention quite a few things that we have already done or have happened to us.

In Shanghai I forgot to mention that we visited the Jinmao Tower (the tallest in China - but not for long as they are building 2 taller ones right next to it - we got quite a few pictures of the contruction workers from the Jinmao Tower)

In Beijing, I forgot to mention that because of the 2008 Olympics the entire city is under construction and renovation...the hotel we were staying in was on a market street (and was also a sex shop street!) and the entire market is being torn down to make way for a snazzier and more tourist-friendly upper-class market. So most of the people working in these market stalls will have to go back to their home towns without compensation, as they only rent the space).

I also forgot to mention on saturday, after visiting the Forbidden City and the rickshaw ride we were left at the end of Behei Park where there were people offering massages ( we couldnt resist :) and there was an old man writing chinese characters with a huge brush and water on the pavement - after he spotted us he gave me the brush to write (well, I couldnt remember most of my characters even though I had an exam a month ago so I just wrote "wo shi hen hao" I am very well" :) well, the guy was happy! Afterwards, we got into a taxi to go to yet another photography shop (Jo is addicted!!) and our taxi got into an accident!!! He hit another car while changing lanes - quite interesting to watch, at first they werent mad, then they became mad, then the police came, and then they shook hands!

So, I think that is all I have forgotten so on with the trip :)

We went to the Great Wall - We had to get up at 3:40 in the morning because the guy with whom we booked the tour told us that the bus left at 5:00 (we wanted to see the sunrise in the wall so we said why not - however that was not what was in store for us!) Once we got on the bus and it started to move, ten minutes after it was stopping again - we didnt understand why but we followed the crowd - It is when you are standing around Tiananmen Square at 5 in the morning to witness the rising of the flag that you comprehend just how many chinese there are!! We were two needles in a hay stack among them!!!

- we were silly enough to book a tour by ourselves (meaning not going to a foreigners travel agency) and we ended up being the only waiguo ren (foreigners) on the bus!! Quite amusing, especially when we were trying to find out at what times we had to be back for the bus. We had a couple of "english" speaking chinese on the bus that would help us so we made a few friends (especially when they needed to open a bottle on the bus and we were the only ones with a swiss army knife :)
The weather was crap - estremely foggy (as opposed to 1999 when it was blue skies!!!) so we went up one side of the wall and took a couple of photos - Jo went as far as we were allowed but since the weather wasnt helping we didnt hang about long. After (as with all chinese tours) we visited shops (one was a jade shop and another a candy shop - I would like to know what commission the guides make when they take us there) Chinese candy is, well, different :)
Afterwards, instead of visiting the Ming Tombs as promised we were taken to the Ming Dynasty Museum - all made of realistic and well made wax works telling the story of the Ming Dynasty from rise to fall - that was quite interesting and luckily for us each work had an explanation in english so we didnt have to follow the guide and pretend to understand what she was saying!

When we got back to Beijing we still managed to visit the White Pagoda, where we ended up witnessing an amazing thunderstorm. On the way back we found that we couldnt take the normal route because there was a huge army celebration happening inside Tiananmen Square and all the roads were closed around it - we saw it on TV this morning from Xi'an :)

Our super deluxe train was leaving for Xi'an at 21:36 and we were told not to be late...so at 8:30 we figured it was a good time to head for the station - that was another adventure - no taxi would stop for us, even when they stopped to let people off I would go beg them and they would still say no - so we were forced to take a rickshjaw but Beijing is huge (and the map will fool you!!) so I told the guy to go fast (we dont have a photo but imagine us both in a rickshaw with our 2 big bags and our 2 small backpacks - we couldnt see a thing!) The guy was trying his hardest but when we told him the train was at 9 (just to make sure) he said we needed a taxi so then he spent 10 minutes while on the rickshaw trying to get a taxi to stop us - I kept saying that they dont like us but fortunately he was able to get one and we made it to the station on the time!!

All the time we feel like needles in hay stacks - there are just sooooo many of them!!! The station was packed!
But once we got into our super deluxe 2 person suite (thats the last time and only time that will happen!!) we were finally able to relax and let our feet take it easy for a while :) We even had our own private bathroom and tv hehehe

Observations Post

1 -Everything in China is HUGE!! Literally everything...I dont really know if they know how to construct small here. Also, Chinese people are mostly very nice and they enjoy it when we try to speak with them in Chinese...my only problem is that they answer back too fast and I have to keep asking them to repeat themselves until I actually get it, otherwise our favorite saying at the moment is "wo bu dong" (I dont understand) or "bu yao, xiexie" (no, thank you!) - we have been using those a lot. Back home we're used to the "chinese shops" where you can buy everything, well you can think of China as a big Chinese shop because there is nothing here you cant buy!

2 - I was in China the first time in 1999 and let me tell you that when we came there werent that many tourists and most importantly, you could still see the sky of most cities. Today the mass of tourists are actually Chinese - with the economic boom they can now afford to travel everywhere and en mass! And for the sky, the amount of pollution also caused by the economic boom has not done much for the skyline of the cities.

3 - In the cities there is not much difference from our own western cities - the big brands are here and just about everywhere ex. when we arrived at station in Beijing on friday we decided to buy a map of the city as the lonely planet one never has all the streets and the one being given as the official tourist guide has all the McDonalds of the city along with all the shopping streets!

4 - Chinese people are really amused with us. They love to take pictures with us and of us and talking to us, especially when we answer back in Mandarin :)

5 - After almost 2 weeks in China we have seen A LOT of children, however I have yet to see a pregnant woman (Jo spotted one on the train but that is it)!!!! Also, most parents still stick to the one child policy even though it is no longer law. And most of these single children seem to be pretty spoiled! :)

Ni hao from Beijing!!

Last time you heard from us we were still in Shanghai...We have now made our way up through Nanjing and to Beijing and will leave for Xi'an on Monday night.

Anyways, better start from the beginning (I will try to make this brief and we promise to put a lot of photos so you dont get bored with my monologue!)

We left Shanghai on thursday morning to Nanjing - I wanted to see the city as there is quite a lot of history to it but unfortunately when we got there we were told that the Memorial Hall of the Nanjing Massacre was closed for 13 months for renovation :( So we visited the city as best we could - we saw the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Museum and the Fuzi Temple where we tried the Teahouse where they serve you tea as it should be through a whole complicated process and after made our way upwards towards the station through a huge shopping district (there are many of those in every city here) - I wanted to see more but transportation was hard to come by as metro stations are very far apart and it was impossible to get a taxi during rushhour! Let's just say our feet will be happy to go home hehe

We left Nanjing towards Beijing with a night train (12 hours) - we figure we're going to spend most of our money on transportation while here, as comfort doesnt come cheap! - we took the soft-sleeper trains which means you have 4 beds to a compartment (for Xi'an there were no more 4 bed compartments available so we will be forced to take the 2 bed for double the price, ouch!) Anyways, quite comfortable transportation and luxurious as well - you sleep the entire way and are woken up with breakfast (that is if you dont have a China man snoring loudly next to you - that didnt really help!)

After getting accomodation and catching up on some needed sleep we made our way to Tiannanmen Square (biggest square in the world for those who dont know). However we were sideswept on the way there by a rickshaw man that wanted to take us around one of the many "ghettto" neighbourhoods of China - dont worry mum, they almost dont pedal anymore as they have electric bikes now - he then took us to a huge Beijing Roast duck restaurant (hey, when in Rome...) We spent quite a lot of money in this restaurant but the duck was great! We were the only tourists there (it was a 6 floor restaurant, each floor held 200 people so you do the math - like I said earlier - HUGE!)

Tiananmen - also HUGE and extremely crowded with Chinese tourists. By the time Jo took all the photos he wanted from the square it was already too late to do the Forbidden City so we just went into one of their many gardens to enjoy their tranquility :) Afterwards, we figured it was best to buy the tickets for Xi'an so we made our way to their -again- HUGE Beijing West Train Station where after much waiting in between impatient Chinese (who by the way are not very good at staying in line or not cutting) we were able to get our very expensive tickets to Xi'an.

Yesterday, we visited the Forbidden City (3 hours inside and we could have done more if we had gone to see all the exhibitions but we only saw the main halls and the clock exhibition). Then we took another rickshaw ride around yet another neighbourhood (this one was quite interesting because it was already around during the Ming and Qing dynasty and it was where the people who worked inside the Forbidden City during the day came to sleep at night) - we also "supposedly" passed Deng Xiaoping's house (before he was president). At night we visited the markets (our hotel is on the same street as one of them so we didnt have much to walk :) The trouble with China is that you want to buy everything because it is so cheap and completely different from back home but when you travel with backpacks you really have to be aware of your limitations! That night we also went to visit Tiananmen Square because Jo wanted to use his tripod for some night photos - good for me cause I got to interact with the people and practice my mandarin! I also got to fly a chinese kite (we ended up buying one of course!)

Today, we visited the Temple of Heaven Park - biggest architectural site to pray to Heaven. You have to hand it to the Chinese - they know how to enjoy their weekends - we arrived to a singing group and then made our way to a little hidden area where the older generation were practicing their instruments and singing opera but very relaxed and enjoying each others companies. A bit further along we ran into a game area where people where playing various games with each other - one was where you threw a fabric ring across to some one and the other person has to catch with their head - Jo was immediately invited to play :) We did also visit the temple of course, which was very nice (photos can speak for themselves) although I do remember that it was much nicer in 1999 when the sky was actually blue! When we were almost at the end Jo was yet again invited to play a type of tennis - but the rackets have a soft material and you are not actually supposed to hit the ball but let it fall gently on the racket and throw it to your partner - we ended up buying a set as well!

Afterwards we visited the Lama Temple - the biggest Buddhist temple in China outside of Tibet. Also very nice with a lot of halls and Buddha statues - it had one that was 80m tall and carved out of a single white sandalwood tree (it made it into the Guinness Book of Records) but again I thinkg the photos speak for themselves - I already bore you enough with the other details!

Tomorrow we are going to Badaling to visit the Great Wall of China - since we were forced to stay one more day we decided to keep this for last as it is worse to visit during the weekend! Then, hopefully if we have time (and since we are waking up at 5 to go to the Wall) we should still have time to visit the Summer Palace - our train isnt until 21:30 for Xi'an so we will see :)

Until then, Zaijian!!

Love
Jo and Fil

Hi from China!!!

Hey guys,

Its a new trip for us and this time we have picked China...well, actually we wanted Mongolia, and then New Zealand but its a long story and here we are!!

We have arrived in Shanghai yesterday morning after a 2 hour train from Brussels to Paris followed by an 11 hour flight (sleepless for Jo) where we were warmly welcomed by a choffeur nonetheless sent by my mother´s counterpart in Shanghai.

We decided not to sleep straightway otherwise it would have been murder for the jetlag. Anywas, after a nice shower (which by the way is a bit worthless here considering that it is close to 40º C with 80% humidity, meaning as soon as we leave the air conditioned apartment we are bathed in sweat!!) we went for lunch and then were dropped off in the Old City to visit the Yunnan Gardens (which I had already visited when I came to Shanghai before in 1999 when my dad moved to Macau but I came with my mum so it was a bit different)...

After visiting the Yunnan Gardens (and getting bitten coutnless times by invisible mosquitoes) we walked up the Bund (which follows the River Huanpu) and looks on to Pudong where you can see Jiamao Tower (the biggest skyscrapper in the whole of China but soon to be outtaken by another one being built right next to it)... It was monday afternoon and full of Chinese people enjoying the river breeze with their families...

After Jo spotted a photographer with a Benro trippod I tried in my miserable mandarin (quite proud actually that I can make myself understood) to ask where we could find the nearest store and after 10 min of "conversation" we managed to get an answer. We then spent the evening walking up Nanjing Road - a bit like Time´s Square in New York - and we did find that store where Jo did buy his "baby". We also ran into a groip of students who were all to happy to practice their english with us...

Anyways, enough of the boring stuff. We are now trying to figure out our next move up to Beijing and out west towards Xining to take the road less travelled...So watch this space for some more interesting and rural encounters with the provincial villages of inner China!!

lots of love,

Fil and Jo

Dream Wedding in India!!

No silly, not ours!! :)

In January, Jo and I flew back to Mumbai (yes, we had been there already during that terrible monsoon season in the summer of 2005) and now we went back to see one of my great friends get married to the love of her life :)

We went for a week and as you probably know there is no monsoon in January and it's actually summer time there so it was a great break from the cold for us!

The wedding was to be a traditional Indian wedding - so a 3 day ceremony was awaiting us - and no, it was not like Monsoon Wedding because my friends are not Punjabi...

So, on with the story... what do you get when the son of the highest non-elected official of the state of Maharashtra gets married to the daughter of a guy who works for the richest man in India as well as having I don't know how many companies under his wings -- the most spectacularly opulent wedding you will ever see in your life!

Out of Dee's (the bride) 5 great friends only Dora and I were able to come, with our respective significant others...
And out of the 3,000 - yes, that many - people at the last ceremony of the last day our dear friends Dee and Sanjoy had only invited 30...So we got the feeling that a rich wedding in India is a lot like networking - you have to invite just about everyone that is, or can be, important for the parents' careers...

So, I figure the best way to do this is by splitting the days of the ceremony...I'll try not to be too boring or detailed and let the pictures speak for themselves :)

We arrived on Wednesday and had a lovely reunion with Dee's family before we were whisked away by the happy couple for dinner and partying the night away...As we had not been to a club the last time we were there we were a bit curious...although I have to admit that it was quite hard for Jo and I to amuse ourselves freely thinking that just outside on the sidewalk there were about a dozen families with little babies living in very precarious conditions...Well, we made the best of it and actually ended up meeting a very nice Swedish couple with whom we ended up spending the entire next day visiting Mumbai and Colabba fish and vegetable market before Dora and Claudio arrived.

So, on to the ceremony...

Day 1:

Sanjoy (the groom) is part Jewish so we had a small Jewish prayer ceremony in the morning with just the family and well us, followed by a nice lunch...
Then in the afternoon, the boys were free to wander and the girls had to "babysit" the bride as she dons on her bridal henna...let's just say that she had to stay still while 3 other women designed intricate patterns on her arms and feet for about 5 hours!!!!

Dora and I also got henna "tattoed"... oh and we were also given (and this was designed by Dee) beautiful skirts and tops to match a bit of the Indian traditional dress code...Then afterwards when the henna was all dried out there was a nice party with all the family from both sides where we had to dance and the relatives had to give offerings of money to the bride and groom...the groom also had to put on henna but he only needed to have it on one finger of his hand and the saying goes that the darker the henna the more he loves his bride...ooohhh :) That was the only time we had dancing music and alcohol...

Day 2:

This day was reserved for the bride's family - there is a Puja, which is a prayer ritual where you have eunuch priests come and bless the bride and her family and everyone else who would like to get blessed...I was kinda of pushed into the queue by Dee's lovely auntie so I ended up with a red dot and rice on my forehead!

Then after the Puja, the best was yet to come...We had lunch on banana leafs where for once we could actually play with our food!! We had to eat with our fingers you see...so for you to imagine we had the banana leaf then around the edge we were given the servings of all different coloured food and then the rice in the middle so with your fingers you are supposed to mix a bit of the rice with a bit of the many servings - oh yeah, and this time around both my and Jo's stomach was finally used to the spices and we actually really enjoyed it, I even miss it I must say!!
We finally were able to get the bride and groom to ourselves after lunch when we were able to give them the presents from all 5 of us (Dora, Ticha, Anya, Ugonna and me) -- they had a good time opening all the pressies and I know that some of them have already been used ;)

We got the afternoon off so we showed Claudio and Dora around Mumbai (after we took a very deserved nap, of course!) and then we ended up having Chinese food for dinner at Colabba market.

Day 3: D-Day

The actual marriage took place on Sunday morning...the families rented a cricket field---yes, so you can imagine the size of the thing! - and we were all decked out (Dora and I in sariis and Claudio and Jo in traditional Indian's men's shirts - there is a proper name to these things but I am afraid I forgot but you can see from the pictures)... The ceremony was very nice although the place was crawling with photographers and cameramen that made the viewing quite hard...it was also very long because it was filled with tons of religious symbolism, such as dropping a veil to represent the first time the bride and groom see each other, the passing around the couple a cord representing the binding of the two together, the inhalation of smoke (don't ask me what that was, to me it was just dangerous) and the walking around the fire 7 times as a married couple...there was a lot more but I really cant explain all of it...there were vows though, they were in Sanskrit, Hindi and then English...

Afterwards we had a lovely lunch, in turns seeing as there were so many of us, on banana leafs again so I definitely enjoyed it (I could just see my mum writhing in pain (if she had been there) watching me eat so messily with my fingers hehehe)

Afterwards we made it back to the house for our customary nap...Jo and I were able to sneak out for a while to go to the beach (not, not a swimming and wearing bikini beach) but we remembered that since it was a holiday weekend it would probably be packed and great for photo opps...we had corn on the cob and India peanuts and enjoyed our Sunday afternoon before we had to go back for the last leg of the ceremony...the reception...

For the reception the cricket field was opened even wider into an L shape and when we arrived the newlyweds had already been there for an hour and were standing on a podium receiving all their guests -- all 3,000 of them -- so you can imagine the queue!!!

The dining hall was the size of a football field with different Indian food going from one side to the other...and if that wasn't enough we had "western food" in the middle (meaning Italian, Swiss and Hungarian!! Don't ask me to explain the last two!) - it was a buffet so we served ourselves and then made our way, if possible, to a vacant table...The food was of course delicious...we tried to have a bit of everything but that proved to be quite impossible although we did make the trip to the buffet about 3 or 4 times (and Jo of course about 6 times...)

There was a band but the music was soft and definitely not for dancing and there was no alcohol...so definitely not your typical western wedding where most of the times the purpose is to dance the night away completely sloshed hehehe

We finally joined the queue to greet the newlyweds about 4 hours after we had been there and when there was hardly anymore queue - smart eh! We hardly got to spend time with the newlyweds as they rushed through dinner at like midnight and then were whisked away to enjoy their "first night" together... So Dora and Claudio and Jo and I headed back to Dee's house where we were staying and decided to make a little "party" of our own on the balcony :)

Last day:

Jo decided to be a cowboy and left quite early to go explore the biggest slum in all of Asia (which happens to be in Mumbai) with an Indian "guide" that knew his way around...yes, I was worried but I had to let him do it...he did not let me go along - macho bullshit and all that :)

We said our goodbyes to Dora and Claudio who were continuing their journey to Goa to enjoy the lovely beaches and I headed to Colabba market to buy the last presents for home...

When Jo got back we still managed to visit one of the slum's we had visited the last time in Mumbai and find some of the people we had met to give them back the photos we had taken of them. There was specially an old couple that had taken us in the last time we were there for coffee and we were able to find them again and give them the photo we had taken of them. Conversation was hard as they did not have very good English and our Hindi is not exactly up to par but they were very touched with our "return" and insisted that if we ever come back again we must have lunch with them and the entire family :)

Then, as our flight was quite late in the night we were able to have dinner with the newlyweds...

Right, as a wedding gift Dee's father surprised them with a 2 night stay in the Taj Mahal Hotel (the most expensive in India) and not only that, they spent these nights in the Tata Suite (Tata is the richest man in India and he owns the Taj Hotel so you can just imagine it) and to make things even more extravagant...the last person to use the suite had been the President of Portugal, my president...

All in all, I must say that Jo and I had the experience of a lifetime at this wedding...Definitely something we will not see again...unless of course we befriend the son of the president or something like that hehe
And yes, it was hard to see the two extremes together...rich and poor...and it does hurt the heart to see so many little kids asking for food...although I do have to say that it seemed a bit better than last time with less people living on the streets...and also, after the last ceremony when there was so many food left I asked one of the aunties what would happen to it and they guaranteed me that it would go to the poor, along with all the flowers that were used as decoration so they would be able to sell them on the streets...I'm not saying this solves the problem, but I guess it's a little help...

At this moment, I wouldn't mind going back...India is beautiful and it is quite a huge country to explore, so who knows :)

Lots of love
Jo and Fil

The BIG Apple!

So we made it to New York just fine, after removing all our liquids and gels and seeing a lot of good expensive make-up being thrown away (no, not mine, I can' afford that stuff!)
We got delayed though and so the ultimate happened, our hammock got lost on the way and we only got it back the next day...at least we got it back, just imagine if we were leaving the states staight away!

Anyways...on with the story...We arrived late to Enca's appartment (my mum's friend that was very nice to put us up for the weekend) and we had absolutely no idea where to go eat seeing as it was so late...well, I have to say I'm not proud, but damn it, I misssed it...we went to McDonald's where we ordered the chicken nuggets with honey mustard sauce (mind you, I have searched and searched and I have ony found this amazing sauce at McDee's in NYC) and they were great!! I swear we never did it again :) We decided to call it an early night seeing as we had sooo much to do in such a short time (it was Jo's first trip to New York!)

Day 2:

The next day we started out in Battery Park to look at the Statue of Liberty and I showed Jo the site of the World Trade Center where they now have a huge history of how it happened and now instead of having tons of flowers and banners for the deceased they have a plaque (like in Washington D.C. for the Vietnam Memorial) with everyone's names on it. All the other stuff was moved to a church right nest to it where a lot of people gathered and prayed and were rescued to after the planes came down on the towers, very beautiful and emotional...

We make our way uptown, passing Chinatown's busy Canal street where I got a cheap Gucci knock-off bag (yeah I know its wrong but the prices say differently!) Jo was looking for a good fake watch but didnt find anything he liked...
We continued on up into Little Italy (I have to be honest and say I had actually never walked through Little Italy!) and it was really nice, well, the day was great and hot and the city is always full of people and things to look at...Through Washington Square Park where the chess players were trying to con some poor guys who just wanted to beat "the masters" and we passed City Hall (where the Al Pacino movie was made) oh, and also where good ol' Giuliani "ruled" his town, well, now he might be going up for the next elections...we'll see how that goes.
I showed him the East village and the West village and on up to Union Square where NYU (New York University) has its headquarters and also a very nice area to go out at night, which we did, but that comes later :)
Then we came to the masterpiece...well, it's not my favorite building, that would be the Chrysler, which we also saw, but I showed him the Flatiron Building which is a magnificent work of architecture so we stuck around for a little bit to take pictures...That was pretty much it for the first day...at night we went out with my friend Stephanie from highschool and her boyfriend (whose work we are not allowed to say...hint hint...its for the government :) We went out for sushi (cmon, after a month in Central America you didnt expect us to go out for fajitas I hope) hehehe and then we went out to check out the bars in the Weast/East village...they ended up taking us to a Belgium Beer Bar, well, we couldnt complain but let's just say the beers back home in Belgium are a bit cheaper seeing as they are not imported! But it was a great day all in all, even if we were exhausted andwe knew that we would have to get up early again! Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, we also did some shopping...I got to go to my favorite store: Old Navy and Jo got a couple of things from Banana Republic and also Old Navy - yep, we spoiled ourselves ;)

Day 3:

Got up and made our way to the Moma (Museum of Modern Art), which was really great, we spent quite a big part of the morning there...I got the catalogue if anyone is interested :)
Then we continued on up (it seems this is all we did - go up!) and made it the Central Park...but not before stopping at the new Abercrombie and Fitch Store on 5th Avenue...of course we went to 5th Ave! And we saw the Plaza, which unfortunately was under renovation so the outside was not very nice but at least Jo got to see it. They ahve now made right in front of the Plaza a huge Apple-MAC store with a huge crystal cube leading down to the store, that is about a block long. Let's just say Jo got a little lost in there with all the toys, he almost conviced me into getting an ipod! So we got out of there before our budget collapsed :)

We went through Central Park, where we passed the Walmon Rink which had been turned into a children's fair for the summer and I also wanted to show him the Bethesda Fountain but some idiot had thrown something in it so there were cops everywhere blocking us from getting near it, so we had to go around and then I showed him where the memorail to John Lennon was put, almost in front of his building where he was shot...

Then we hopped back on the metro (yes, we did quite a few rides down there) and made our way to Broadway, but it the day time so it wasnt all lit up like you should see it but Jo got an idea of it...We met my friend Tatiana (my first friend in the States...we've been friends since 1993, talk about friendship!!) for drinks, unfortunaly too short as we had to meet yet another one of my friends for dinner that night....well, I dont go back often so I need to get as many reunions as I can!

We hurried our way home after saying goodbye to Tat...we were hurriyng everywhere in New York, after a whole month of no stress no worry vacation it was really hard to get back in the game! And we were late, of course, to meet Jean-Marie (my great friend from New York...she's a Queens native and yes she's got the accent :) and had a great Chinese dinner before going back to her place in Queens for dessert... All in all, another great day

Day 4: Our last day

There was still a very important thing to see in this trip and we knew we didnt have much time as we had to get to the airport by four, and its not like the airport in Belgium where it would only take you max 15min to get there form any point in Brussels (okay, from our house, but that's all that is important right!) So we needed to plan our day well...

We first had a priority: Jo's priority of getting a high-intensive super indestructible can be used for defence flashlight and the only store that sold it in NYC was downtonw and only oppened at 10 so let's just say I was seeing our plane leave with us if our day was to continue this way...but we got the flashlight ans his smile was worth it :)

We rushed to the Empire State Building where we had to wait in line for an hour in order to go up and see the great view - unless of course you wanted to pay the exorbitant 40 dollars each and the you could do the Express line (I prefered the Twin Towers but oh well, there is nothing that can be done about that now). We got the usual picture taken with the viwn of Manhattan behind us and then we went up...it was too crowded and you had to wait for people to move in order to take good pictures but we saw it and Jo got to see it and experience it and that's all taht matters...

Then we rushed to Duane Reade (a pharmaceutical everyday store where you can get just about everything) in order to stock up on medicine that I cant buy in Europe ...damn all the legistlations! hehehe and then we rushed to a luggage store we had seen while making our way downtown in the morning on a taxi (we needed another bag to fit all the things we had bought on this trip) and after the purchase made...I have to say it came in handy and I still use it constantly to visit Jo in Madrid and go to Strasbourg every other month...so money well spent :) we rushed to go see the United Nations - Jo's dream job location :)

Then we rushed again where we quickly ate something, made our bags, rushed to ICEP, Enca's job on 5th Ave in order to return her keys and then make it to the airport.... I'm getting tired just writing about all this rushing we did!

But it was great and worth it and we had a great time throughout the entire vacation...it's something we will enver forget and hopefully we'll get a chance to go back and show it all again to our kids...oneday :)

Thanks for travelling with us, hope you've had an enjoyable journey and we look forward to travelling again with you in the future...Don't forget to buckle up :)

Bye bye for now
Love
Jo and Fil

Our last day in Central America!

Hey guys, we've hit the end of the road in our trip through Central America and it has been a ride to remember!

The day before yesterday, as I said, we went to Masaya, north of Granada and also a little larger but it is the "capital" of Nicaraguan artifacts and since it is the end we thought it would be the right time to stock on traditional items hehehe. There was the "Mercardo Viejo" which resembled a lot the one in Antigua...actually pretty much all the three countries (Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua) have the same artifacts and they all sell hammocks...the local pastime :)

We got back to Granada in the afternoon and had dinner in the main square before heading back to the hotel with the free internet and telephone calls, not to mention the pool in the middle of the courtyard hehe

Yesterday we took a chicken bus down to San Jorge where we got a fishing boat (converted to passanger boat) to the Isla de Omotepe. The boat trip was a bit of an adventure as the lake water was rugh because of the weather and the boat rocked back and forth as if a baby in its cradle with water coming in from all sides and quite a few people getting seasick! The island is made of 2 volcanoes -- Concepcion and Maderas -- one of them is still active and the other now has a lagoon in its crater...unfortunately we did not have enough time to climb up the one with the lagoon as we had to leave the next day and a tour usually takes at least 8 hours! We got a hotel on the shore of the lake pretty deserted from everywhere else but next to Charco Verde (green lagoon) which we explored this morning.

Today after walking a bit around the lake and taking some photos of the local women washing their clothes on the shore with little tables set up in the lake with huge stones on top for "beating" the clothes clean we got back on another chicken bus to get to the ferry (this time a big ferry made for cars that didnt rock as much as yesterday's :) and then on another chicken bus to make the 2 hour ride back to Managua, where 2 canadian girls we crossed on the island had gotten robbed by 4 "kids" with a gun (dont worry, they didnt have much of value on them)...needless to say we dont plan on venturing much farther than the hotel today except for, of course, the internet hehehe. Also, today in Managua is the last day of Carnaval which, according to the taxi driver, is when people get the most drunk and the most likely to pick a fight, especially with an easy target such as a tourist with a camera hehehe...so yeah, he recommended us not to go see it...too bad :(

Right now, we are checking to see the new developments with flights into the USA due to this latest "terrorist plot" and we can no longer bring liquids or gels of any kind in our carry on but luckely they dont say anything about cameras so we're safe, its only for travelling into the UK that they are being more strict! So as of now (and for your knowledge in case of anything, tomorrow we will be on an American Airlines flight #970 from Managua to New York with a stopover in Miami and we should arrive in New York via flight #1072 at 9:15 pm(21:15) (local time). So keep a look out on planes tomorrow or the news hehehe

Thanks for reading us! Hope you've had a good time following us around Central America. We will update the blog with photos and some stories of New York once we get back to Brussels on tuesday morning!

Love,
Jo and Fil

The last stretch --- Nicaragua!

So, we made to our last country on our list an d friday we will be on our way to the Big Apple!

While still in Honduras we went to visit the national park La Tigra, 11 km from Tegucigalpa. For this we had to get a chicken bus in the morning that took us nearly to the entrance of the park ( all uphill by the way). On this bus we had an old Italian guy and middle-aged biologist /historian which completed our bus ride with a detailed briefing of the hi story of the European continent and of the Central American continent (not bad for a sunday morning:)

We got to the park with the sun beating down on us and alraedy with the full knowledge that we were going to miss the last bus back to town if we were to cross the entire park (11km), which was our goal that day :) So up a steep hill we go for at 1km. The park was beutiful but we didnt get too see too much wildlife although it is home to many different bird, insect and mammal species such as jaguars!! We only got to agoutis (sorta of a big cute rat and rounder and browner :) and quite a few insects but we only heard the birds as the park was very dense. After our arduous climb it began to get easy and we made it throught the uneven path, crossing many Hondurans on the way, to find a beautiful waterfall (this park is where 70% of Tegucigalpa's water comes from). There was a TV station with a camera there filming the people that came to see the waterfall so we might have been on TV this weekend :)

We crossed the entire park in 3 hours and of course got to the end to find that the last bus had already left so we start our walk down to the little quaint town on Valle dos Angeles where the lonely planet told us was definitely worth seeing. As we are quite lucky on the way down we found this nice (rich!!) Honduran couple who were looking for the old mine and decide to be nice and take us along with them as they were heading down to Valle dos Angeles as well!!! So we found the old mine, which is now closed and then went down in their very nice and comfortable car to Valle dos Angeles where they said that if we did not fin d a bus they would be more then happy to take us with them back to Tegucigalpa (I love nice people!)

Valle dos Angeles is very beautiful. Its a small town and since it was sunday night everybody was out walking and taking their kids to the central plaza for ice cream and cotton candy. We decided to stay there for dinner so said goodbye to the nice couple. We walked around and took some pictures before settling down for dinner on the main plaza. After,as we had been told that there were taxis that could take us to Tegucigalpa, we went looking for one, to find none whatsoever!! Everyone told us there wasnt any taxis and all buses had left. When we saw that our only chance would be to hitch hike back we were told of a nice man that might take us as he was the only taxi driver of the town...so we went to knock on his door and negotiate our trip back (as we would be leaving Honduras the next day we were running low on lempiras!) He was kind enough to take us in his beaten up taxi and we got back to the Hotel at the decent hour of 8 at night :)
Early to bed as today we had to get up at 4:30 in order to catch our bus down to Nicaragua!
We got the deluxe (although there are not very punctual around here as the bus is supposed to leave at 6, the customers didnt arrive until 6:30 and the man supposed to run the office didnt arrive until 7 and we had been there since 5:15!! ), although it was the same price as the normal bus and it wasnt even on our guide! We even had breakfast served to us and the chairs could recline almost to sleeping position---how's that for comfort?! At the border we got the foreigners treatment and didnt get our bags searched while everyone else had to -- I call it favourable discrimination or mayb e they just cant be bothered to check backpackers as they are tough to look into without taking everything out hehehe

Made it to Managua (the capital) by 1pm and after a quick stop in an ATM machine got on a minivan down to Granada, the most beautiful colonial town of Nicaragua.
It is quite beautiful and the hotel we are staying at makes it even more so...called The Oasis, it acutally has a pool in the middle of the spacious courtyard (which our room gives out to), there are hammocks, free internet, free phone calls (each person gets 10min each day) and it is locally right in the centre of town! Oh, and we ran into the couple we had shared the dormitory with 2 nights before (its quite common when backpacking : )

We had a nice walk around town this afternoon looking at the colonial buildings. At one point, after lunch, on the way back we walked to a side street full of kids that as soon as they saw our cameras came rushin g to us to get us to take photos of t hem and they even asked to take photos with our cameras :) We stayed with them for a while letting them play a little with the digital camera and Jo letting them see through his camera but of course not letting them take pictures hehehe
We got back to the hotel for a nice dip in the pool and we will probably hit the bed early as tomorrow we would like to go to another colonial town known for its artifacts called Masaya and chill in Granada in the afternoon before heading down to Isla Omotepe on wednesday :)
Its almost over guys...thanks f or sticking with us and dont forget to send us your comments!

Love,
Jo and Fil

White river...

We are now in the capital of Honduras, Tegucigalpa and very soon on our way down to Nicaragua where we will end our Central America journey....

Yesterday we had a pretty full day. We decided to go white water rafting up in Pico Bonito and the Rio Cangrejal as we were told it was definitely worth it.

Well, you definitely get your money's worth!! We got there and there were two more couples (both American) and 5 guys from El Salvador (all quite big and clumsy :) We were to have 4 boats in between all of us but before we were allowed on the boats we were in for some training...this meant passing two hours learning how to swim against the currents, getting caught in the rapids and knowing how to get out of them!! Well, I had done rafting before, once in the States and we never had any training, and Jo did kayaking in Bolivia and there they just checked that you knew how to float :) Here it was a whole other story that left us quite worse for wear! We had 4 tasks: the first was just to swim against the current from one side of the river to the other...you probably guessed that I was already freaking out by now as they also told us that an instructor had died on these rapids about 3 years ago and that is why one of the falls is now level 5...yes, an instructor!!!!
But anyways, we did the tasks well enough although the current was really strong and the river a little flooded as it had rained the night before so the instructors were throwing ropes every which way in order to catch us before the big rapids gobbled us up hehehe ... Think getting stuck in a washing machine and you will understand the feeling of getting sucked in and out of one of those rapids, not a pleasant feeling but we got through it (I with a couple of bruises and Jo begging for more!)

During the rapids we had tons of instruction from our guides: paddle forward, back paddle, on the floor, lean back-- but we made it through it all, even the level 5 drop! Jo never fell out of his boat (we werent allowed to be together as the guide said that when couples got on a boat together they are more preocuppied that the other is safe than doing the necessary paddling hehehe) and I only felt out once after a drop because the instructor that was next to me leaned too far left and made me topple on him making both of us fall out of the boat but they caught me straight after :) It was fun all in all but we had to work so hard against the current that now we could do with a long massage: I have a huge purple bruise on my left knee, my left shoulder feels like it just shoved 3 cows and Im limping on my right foot due the amount of pressure I was putting against the boat in order not to fall off!!! Okay, I need a massage, Jo was happy if we had done it for the whole day instead of just half a day!!! hehehe

We left the lodge and the mountain in the afternoon and just decided to walk down the mountain all the way to La Ceiba but after an hour down a nice pick-up truck picked us up free of charge and dropped us off at the entrance to La Ceiba where we then got a chicken bus that dropped us about 2 minutes from my friend's house.

We went to the cinema last night (for 40 lempiras each who wouldnt!! (that's 2 dollars per person!!) We saw Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest and to be honest the film was good but the ending crap so we dont know if we can honestly recommend it...

This morning we said goodbye to Tiga and got our butts to the bus terminal to catch our 6 hour bus to Tegucigalpa...

We arrived at 16:30 and had no clue where to go and shared a taxi with another American couple and ended up getting the same hotel...at the beginning there was only one double room and one dorm room with 2 bunk beds...being the nice people that we are we decided to look at another hotel where there were 2 double rooms...kinda got screwed there as the other hotel was much more expensive and when we got back to the first hotel the double room had already been taken so for the first time during our trips (including India) we will be sleeping in bunk beds with a nice American couple from Idaho :)

Tomorrow we will be visiting the supposedly most beautiful national park of Honduras called La Tigra and visit a quaint little town called Valle los Angeles before heading down to Managua in Nicaragua on monday...

See you later
Love,
Jo and Fil

P.S. We have added some more photos so dont forget to scroll down to see the other entries :)

We are now PADI certified!!

Hey guys,

When we last left you we had already done two days of scuba. The third day we had our final exam and we did great although jo had a little bit of trouble but that was mainly due to the translation to the french, it was quite crappy! Then we had our last two dives where we still had to do some skills, such as the mask flooding thing I dont like but we did great, I'm telling you, once you know you can do it you just need to breathe and take it easy and redo what you know you can :)

That day we also learned how to use a compass underwater, quite cool but I was crap at it, so Jo and the instructor had a good laugh about it...well, at least I'm good at reading maps!
At night we had a really nice barbecue, although we had to wait 2 hours for it as they got our order wrong the first time (just a tip, you need to be very patient with the island people here, they are incredibly slow and a bit dim-witted sometimes!!) And then we went ot one of the local bars and they had a band from El Salvdor playing drums and a hippie guy was juggling some fire torchs, pretty cool but we had an early night as the next day we had to get up super early in order to get our free fund dives before leaving with the 14:00 ferry back to La Ceiba.

For our fun dive we went to the other side of the island where the current is much stronger. I had a really hard time equalizing and sometimes it was really painful! And Jo went into the water with a headache so that wasnt too good either. We did get to see a lot of waterlife but in the process you kind of forget your underwater and start chasing the fishes and then find yourself much deeper than you should, at one point we were at 24 meters when we really should have only gone down to 18!!! So, when we left the water -- which was in itself a battle as the current was killer that at points you were swimming with all your strength and you still felt like you werent moving --- Jo started getting decompression symptons, such as headache and tingling limbs and had to be administered oxygen for 40 minutes, the poor guy!! I was okay but my ear was blocked for the rest of the day, also very painful...so all in all, we didnt get to do the second dive as it wasnt safe for Jo to return to the water... but we are now certified and free to dive unsupervised anywhere in the world (where gonna check out where we can do it in Belgium hehehe)

Now we are in La Ceiba with my friend Tiga.Tomorrow we are taking a tour to Pico Bonito, a mountain with white water rafting and we stay in a lodge in the forest so shuld be nice and then saturday we will head out towards the capital as we do have to start moving towards Nicaragua and our flight home hehehe...

Speak soon,
Love,
Jo and Fil

Scuba diving with the fishies!

Hey everyone!
Since our last entry we had just enrolled in the Open Water Diver Course which will make Jo and I certified to dive anywhere in the world unsupervised but always with a buddy :)

Now I have to admit I was nervous, scared, anxious and all the rest while Jo was just plain looking forward to it, but I do have a couple of things against me that he doesn’t, like I'm claustrophobic which makes me panic a lot faster, I have also never done this before and he has (even if it was 6 years ago he knew the experience!) and I am coming off a bad cold which could cause respiratory problems (but Jo had a little one too and that only meant that there would be more snot than usual in our mask (yummy!!) ). Even so, with all these things against me, we went and tried it :)

On our first day we had to study our manuals and do quick quizzes and knowledge reviews, also watch 3 DVDs (telling us the same thing the manual did!) and do two quick exams. That was the morning... In the afternoon we had to learn how to assemble and disassemble our gear out of water (of course!) and then we got on the boat with a couple of other divers and our instructor ---we had an instructor all to ourselves which definitely reassured me cause that meant we would get a lot more attention (especially me -- the anxious one hehehe). We got into our suits (squeezed was more like it -- those things are hot and with the sun blaring its not much fun), got our gears on ---you try walking on a boat with a huge tank of air on your back! -- and did our first long stride into the water with our regulators, fins, masks and all that stuff....Breathing underwater is cool -- a bit scary at first because you don’t really trust the regulator and its hard to tell your brain to switch from nose to mouth and stick to it! We snorkeled out to the shallow end for our contained water dive (that means that we are always close to the surface in case of emergencies or panic attacks)... I'm guessing that from all my mentions of panics attacks you've assumed I've had one -- well, you're right! Jo did all the tasks perfectly while I had quite a bit of problem with mine at first. There is a part when you are asked to flood your mask and take the air out after -- well, as the most important rule of diving is to never, ever hold your breath, I didn’t really get how it was possible to keep breathing through the regulator and breathe out your nose while holding your mask up and removing the water (and I have contact lenses so I had to do this with my eyes closed while Jo didn’t!) Anyways, to sum it all up, I got water in my lungs, panicked a couple of times, rose up, coughed, burped and even puked (yeah, I know, not pretty but at least I got to feed the fish hehehe!!) At one point I was really bad but I was able to get my breathing and gagging under control, floated for a bit and regain the nerves to keep going...also I asked a lot of questions of what I was doing wrong and finally understood the concept!!

We spent 3 hours doing these exercises and by the end both Jo and I could switch from regulator to snorkel and from regulator to alternate air source underwater, we could flood our masks and clear them, we learned buoyancy control (one of the most important lessons as this permits you to stay in the water without floating or sinking and most importantly without touching the coral at the bottom!!) and we (our I) learned that I could do pretty much everything with the regulator that I can out here, such as cough or spit into it (necessary if you have trapped air or some water in the regulator!) Came back out of the water a little shaky but happy that I didn’t quit (Jo would have killed me and I would have been disappointed with myself! -- especially when you see 9-year-olds do it so easily!!!!) We were exhausted after that so headed home (or hotel) and watched some TV before dinner and then decided to go to the bar next door to do our next chapters of the manual with a nice cold beer :)

Today, we had 2 more DVDs to watch and 2 more quick exams before hitting the water. We first had to prove we are physically fit so the instructor (Dan from London who has been diving since '96) made us swim 6 laps (without our gear --- don’t worry) and float for 10 minutes :)
Then, in the afternoon we got back on the boat but as we were leaving the propeller got caught on a rope so we had to wait for them to cut it off (this meant me looking out at the horizon in order not to get seasick!) When we finally made it to the site we dove in for a nice 43 minute swim to get to see the coral and get more used to the equipment... I was a bit anxious at first (just from remembering yesterday's experience) but I also remember that I did master the skills needed so there really shouldn’t be a problem!

The first dive was pretty cool but we had a bit of problem with our buoyancy control at first and I was having a hard time equalizing (this means popping your ears on the way down so that the pressure outside is equal to the pressure inside your body so that you don’t experience that painful sensation in your ears you get when you free dive deep down) but it got better as we went along and our confidence got higher :)

We got back on the boat to rest and also to let the nitrogen out of our bodies and got to enjoy a bit of swimming without all the gear (it’s a really nice feeling when you finally get the fins out :) When we were nice and rested (1 hour and 6 minutes -- we had to learn to calculate all this!!) We got ready for our second dive which would involve going through some of the skills we learned yesterday like buoyancy control and flooding masks (my favorite - NOT!!) Again Jo did great (he even managed to remove his mask at one point when it got fogged and actually took out his regulator to put saliva on his fingers to put it into the mask to defog it and get it back on -- I don’t know if I could be that brave hehehe) I didn’t do too bad myself and mastered all the skills, I'm quite pleased with it and after we completed them I felt even more confident because now I knew we could do it! So, from here on it was just smooth sailing and enjoying the wildlife -- it was amazing!

We saw tons of fish, of course, of all colours, shapes and sizes but we also saw coral life, jellyfishes, conchs, water snails and the coolest of all, a crab fight (but not just any regular crab, these looked like giant spiders with really thin legs and were yellow with back spots but are actually crabs) there were four of them and 2 were battling it our for the territory -- imagine these tiny things at the bottom of the ocean and you can actually enjoy the fight like a WWF wrestling match hehehe -- one finally managed to send the other running by pocking one of its many legs into its opponents mouth -- it was great!! hehe

We came back up happy and exhilarated -- the dives went great and the wildlife was amazing!

Tomorrow we finish the course and have our final exam. Then we just have to complete 2 more dives in which we redo some of the skills we already know and get to learn to use a compass underwater -- then we will have our Open Water Diver Certificate :) followed by 2 free fun dives on Wednesday --- can't wait so catch you guys later!

Thanks for the commentaries (would still prefer to get more though -- you don’t need to register in order to post!)

Lots of love to everyone,

Jo and Fil

Résumé en Francais 2 !

Ca m’apprendra d’attendre de trop pour faire un résumé en français!!! Beaucoup de choses à dire !!! Et puis ZUT !!! De nos jours vous devez bien exercer votre anglais ! Non !? Donc, après Chela (Guatemala) nous n'avons pas pu voir Julien qui est arrive’ a Panajachel 2 jours plus tard… Nous avons donc prit la direction de Flores dans le nord du pays. Flores est presque île sur un beau grand lac ou’ nous avons pu nous baigner au petit matin, c’est aussi un point de départ pour les ruines Maya de Tikal, en gros c’est des pierres ! Mais bien assemble’ ça vous donne de belles grandes pyramides et autres temples ! Malheureusement on ne peut pas toutes les monter, certains touristes auraient décède’ en glissant d’un marche… Nous avons ensuite prit un bus pour Rio Dulce, afin d’y prendre un bateau pour remonter le fleuve jusque Livingstone, un des premiers villages d’esclave noir. Sur la première partie du fleuve en partant de Rio Dulce ce n est que des maisons de riches énormes (les maisons bien sur ! ;p ) avec des bateaux splendides. A Livingstone nous avons fait un petit « trekking » pour visiter les alentours ainsi que pour allez voir des lagunes et des cascades en pleine foret et donnant sur la mer… Baignades et plongeons ont fait notre bonheur. A Livingstone il y a des gens bizarres ! Tout d’abord une vieille grosse femme qui avait l air bien sympathique, qui s’approche de moi en regardant mon appareil photo autour du cou avant de me caresser le pénis en disant « I want this ! », j’ai même pas pu réagir tellement j étais surpris, Filipa ne faisait que rire ! Et puis ce vieux sur la plage avec sa machette qui veut tuer tous les touristes… De la nous avons décide’ de nous rendre a Belize . Ce n est que sur le bateau qu on a remarque’ que le prochain bateau de retour était vendredi alors que nous étions lundi. Nous nous sommes donc diriger vers Belize City pour aller a Cayer Caulker, une île paradisiaque dans la mer des caraïbes. J’ai d abord réussi à me couper le pied sur un corail et me brûler tout le torse et le vendre sur des algues !! (j ai toujours les marque une semaine après). Nous avons fait de la plonge’ libre et surtout nous avons nage’ avec pleins de requins !!! Depuis le bateau le guide jette des reste de poison, et a ce moment la plus de 5 requins viennent se goinfrer et se battre pour des bouts de carcasses ! Et puis HOP dans l’eau, je n’ai hésite’ que 2 secondes avant de me lancer ! C était vraiment excellent ! et impressionnant ! Nous avons acheté un appareil aquatique, vous aurez donc droit aux photos sous-marines ! De retour a Belize City nous avons décide’ de « splurger » ! Bref de casser la tirelire pour un peu de confort, nous avons eu droit à du Luxe !!! The Great House, vraiment splendide, et après un coup de téléphone ‘ de la réceptionniste au Manager, nous avons eu moitie’ prix ! Un bus puis un bateau très inconfortable a ricocher sur les vagues (j ai du amener un vieux croulant a l arrière du bateau ; devant moi il était presque a mourir, il était presque a faire un arrêt cardiaque Nous voila donc en Honduras ! Puerto Cortes, plus (-) de bus, mais on s arrange et trouve un voiture… Sur le chemin on arrive 5 minute après une fusillade, un homme est a terre sur le bord de la route, il a bien reçu une dizaines de balles dans la poitrine, la police vient d arriver, je regarde la scène sans trop réagir et nous continuons notre chemin, Filipa n a rien vu, je ne lui ai dit que 50 mètres plus loin, le taxi avançant a pas d’homme. Bref encore un autre bateau ! et puis Utila, une petite îles, ici nous restons 5 jours, demain on commence trois jour de cours de plonger sous-marine pour avoir notre permis international, ce soir c est le dernier jour du carnaval, la nuit s’annonce longue…

PS : rien ne pardonne mon français exécrable, mais c’est gratuit !

A hop, a skip and a dive away: Honduras!!

Well, after an early start, three hours of minibus, another three hours of the most uncomfortable boat ride (not to mention the one hour it took for immigration!) we arrived at Puerto Cortes in Honduras (the official language is Spanish but in the Bay Islands its mostly English). We were greeted by tons of people wanting to change our money for lempiras, yanking our passports from us for immigration and ushering us in groups towards taxis --seemed like a cattle ranch! But we arrived ... now we just had to find a way to get to La Ceiba!

After eating we got a bus to San Pedro Sula and got there to find out that the last bus to La Ceiba had already left. We found another 2 guys that had come on the boat with us and with them took a taxi to find among the many bus terminals one that still had a bus! Unsuccessful, the taxi driver negotiated with us to takes us to Progresso where he guaranteed us there would still be a bus. On the way to Progresso we passed a crowd of people and tons of policemen around a guy who had been shot at least 3 times in the chest and was just lying dead on the road -- I didnt actually see it as when Jo told me the taxi had already passed but Jo said it was quite impressive (not in a good way of course!) The taxi driver said it wasnt normal but it was probably just rivalry or something!

Got to Progresso to wait for a bus where we found yet another girl that had come on the boat with us. The buses came and went without stopping (and it was already 7pm and night out) but as we are the luckiest people on earth a minivan stopped and Jo hurried to it and after much negotiation managed to get 300 lempiras (19.2 lempiras = 1 US dollar) for the 5 of us (yes, not each for all of us!!! something the other girl wasn’t aware of until we arrived and she paid 300 and then we told her that was for all of us and that we had to pay her back the rest! She was quite impressed I must say! :) So we bunked for the night in La Ceiba in a comfortable hotel, not expensive but also with TV and air conditioner...

In the morning we tried to hurry to get to the bank and to the ferry terminal before the morning ferry to Utila (one of the 3 Bay Islands of Honduras and also the cheapest) where we knew there would be a festival tonight as this week was Carnaval!! We missed the ferry and had to wait for the one at 12 -- we checked out the port in the meantime and Jo got a couple of photos and then we were told by a port authority policeman that we were actually not allowed in the cargo area of the port and that pictures weren’t allowed! Oh well :) Made it on the boat and enjoyed an extremely rocking trip (it was as if we were on a see-saw going up and down -- but none of us got seasick :)

Now, at first we had just thought to come to the island, enjoy the festival tonight and tomorrow do canoeing and snorkeling and head back to La Ceiba on monday -- well, as you know, we are not very predictable and our plans have changed. As soon as we got off the boat we headed to a Dive shop where we learned the prices for beginner courses in scuba diving. We didn’t like the first and went looking for a hotel...on the way we went into another dive shop: Deep Blue Divers (5-star PADI certified...for those that don’t know PADI is Professional Association of Diving Instructors) and decided to take its 3 day course...se now tomorrow morning bright at 8 we start with our scuba lessons (in french and english!) and will already be in the water in the afternoon learning how to use the equipment and we will get about 4 dives in all and at the end will have a nice card saying we are certified to scuba dive without supervision anywhere in the world and all this for 200 euros each -- yes, this is the cheapest place on earth to learn to scuba and also the 2nd most beautiful reef in the world -- so not too bad I might say :)

Tonight we are gonna jam with the locals at their beach party but before that we have to catch up on some reading for our course tomorrow as we actually get tested after the 3 day course hehehe :)

Catch you all later...we send our love and besos to everyone and keep those comments coming!

Love
Jo and Fil

Finding Nemo (and some sharks too)!

Right, not only do we not get value for money we also get cockroaches and smelly water as well -- but at least we had an ocean view with a hammock and some cool iguanas and we managed to finally wash most of our clothes!

The day in Cayer Caulker was great...we got up early so as to not experience too much heat and also to go to the bank!! Then we went to our tour operator to get our fins and snorkeling gear and prepare ourselves for an adventure. The trip consisted of 3 dives and lunch at San Pedro, another island off to the north. At the first dive we saw some rich coral and lots of different kinds of fish (one was black with blue sparkly spots and we saw clown fish (like Nemo!) and those cool ones that actually swim sideways and blend in with the sand (like chameleons!)

We tried out our underwater camera (hopes the pictures come out good!) We stayed there for an hour and when we were about to return to the boat I spotted a huge shark just lying in between some corals -- we found out it was a Nurse shark (the guide couldnt explain to us why they are named that way) but they are harmless :)

After that we headed to San Pedro for lunch -- good Belizean food :) and then got going to Shark and Ray Alley. As soon as we got there the guide started feeding sardines and barracudas to the sharks and there were around 20 circling the boat --- it was AMAZING! And when we got in the water the guide actually caught one and turned it on its stomach and we were able to touch it and caress it -- the skin felt rubbery but it was smooth and really cool as you could also see inside its mouth with its three rows of spikey teeth! The guide also caught a manta ray and taught us how not to irritate it and get stung hehehe -- the skin was also rubbery. With the barracuda head the guide was able to entice a huge eel out of its hiding place inside a coral. All in all, a great day!

We were exhausted when we got back and instead of going to see the sunset out at the beach we ended up falling asleep in our room :) Then had a nice dinner, a cocktail while listening to the sounds of Raggae (yes, Bob Marley is still alive on these islands!) and a nice walk back to the hotel along the beach.

The next day was our leaving day from the Cayer... we had to get moving down to Honduras in order to be able to enjoy a bit of Honduras and Nicaragua before we leave! We ended up spending the morning looking for a hammock for my friend Tiga who says that you cant get anything decent in Honduras and then caught the boat back to Belize City.

As it was our last night in Belize Jo decided to splurge on the hotel...hint: no cockroaches! We were heading towards one on the guide but ended up having been sold to a private family. But then we were told about another one: The Great House Inn...and it really was a great house!! We got there to find that it was way above our budget but the receptionist was amazing and actually called the manager to check if they could give us the room for cheaper!!! And they did --- we got it for half its price and it consisted of a king size bed, air conditioning (our first so far!!), tv with cable, a fridge and a nice bathroom with a bathtub (also our first)! Luxury all the way-- it was amazing!! So needless to say after having that room we just went out for a nice Belize dinner and came back in order to enjoy it!

Next stop: Honduras!!

Welcome to Belize!

First impressions: super expensive (compared to Guatemala and especially compared to India) and super lazy! They are so lazy they don’t even bother walking to the bus terminal and just wait for the bus to make a turn around the square in front of their house!!! Okay, it is incredibly hot here so it could be understandable!

We got to Punta Gorda (yesterday) and got our passports stamped at immigration. Here they speak mostly English with a carib accent but they speak Spanish and Garifuna as well. We got a bus from Punta Gorda on the same day. When we said it is expensive it really is: the exchange rate is 1$ US = 2$ bn and the prices are around the same as back home (at least for the food and transportation)…and the worst is that you don’t really get quality for the money! But oh well…we didn’t plan to come to Belize and now we are gonna enjoy it to the max :)

The bus ride was interesting – it was 6 ½ hours -- the longest time we spent on a “chicken bus” (the same as Guatemala) and for the price we could have gotten a deluxe in Guatemala (okay, I’m gonna stop complaining about the price hehe!) We did about half of the country on that bus so we got to see a lot of the countryside and a lot of bana plantations (they cover the bananas with blue plastic bags to protect them from the insects so its like a cloud of blue among the fileds. Their expressway is only one lane either way and straight as the eye can see and with no sidewalks so the bus has to honk its horn every time it’s about to pass so as not to run over the people. The countryside is very pretty, down south it’s more flat and it starts getting more mountainous towards the north. We stopped constantly to pick up people along the way but the main stops were Placencia, Dangriga and Belize City.

Oh, I forgot to mention, here they is great diversity of ethnicity (Chinese, Indian, Garifuna, Mayan and Ladinos) and there is more mixing in between them than in Guatemala) so the bus was filled with just about everything and since the bus was a basic one people brought their own stereos so I crooned a bit to Celine Dion (they seem to like her here!) and of course R&B :)
We had to switch seats at one point because two fat Garifunas were unhappy with their seats (we had assigned seats but you didnt see us complaining for not getting them!) and at one point the bus picked up a family and the woman was pregnant so being the gentlemen that he is Jo let her sit with us except that meant we were crammed for about an hour of the journey (until another seat cleared)! The bus also had to dogdge a family of pigs at one point (it was the mum with all her little piglets --too cute!)

We got to Belize City (not the capital -- that is Belmopan) at 9pm and had to get a taxi to the hotel. I have to say it was the first time we had to use a credit card -- like I said --- expensive!!! And we didnt even get a tv or air conditioning with it, just a ventilator! But anyways...we had a quick hot dog on the street and then headed straight to bed as yesterday we got up at 4am, took two boats (each 1 hour long) and a chicken bus ride to get here, talk about travelling! :)

This morning we got our bearings and went off to find the tourism agency to get information for planes out of Belize to Honduras (as we unfortunately saw too late in the guide that the next boat out to Honduras was on friday and we didnt want to stay here that long). After walking in the blistering heat with our bags we found that the of the 2 tourist agencies in town one had moved out to the highway (5km away) and the other was closed and for rent! So we walked back and got a water taxi to Cayer Calker instead where we were told we could swim with sharks!!!

After another hour on yet another boat we find ourselves in something close to paradise (if it wasnt for the heat and the prices hehehe). The Cayer Calker is an island off the coast of Belize known for its diving and snorkeling and everywhere you walk you see tour agencies guaranteeing the best sights underwater ever --yes, we have already bought a waterproof camera but those pictures we wont be able to put up on the blog :(

We got a nice cabana hotel in front of the sea and have decided to stay here for two days (so we will be leaving for Honduras on friday afterall). We headed out to the Split after eating (thats the north end of the island and it is acutally called that due to the island having split after it was hit byt the last hurricane!) There the party goes on all day with music, beer and a cement pier filled with tourists where you look out and dive into the beautiful turquoise sea. The water was amazing! Jo yet again saw an opportunity to use his incredible bag again (this time with all the equipment inside) --- it really does work and it floats too hehehe So we took a couple of photos while in the water...I sneaked my Rolleiflex into his bag as well :)

The day was amazing however it could have been better if Jo hadnt cut his foot on a sharp shell or gotten stung by algae while with his camera in the water -- by the way, the best solution for algae sting is vinegar (so we found out)!!! So we headed home before the sunset (which I was really looking forward too) to treat his foot -- good thing we had a pharmacy with us :) and also to wash our clothes seeing as we will be resting here for 2 days...gives them plenty of time to dry :)

Tomorrow we are heading out with an all day tour to the reefs where we will be swimming with sharks (they have 5 different kinds here -- I hope they wont smell Jo's cut foot hehehe) and manatees and rays and turtles and of course the coral reef and lots of colourful fish -- we cant wait!

So we will catch up with you after that -- take care, hope everyone is doing well wherever they are in the world and lots of kisses!

Love,
Jo and Fil

P.S. We put up more photos on the blog and also some in the earlier entries so dont forget to skim down the blog to take a look at them :)

And now for something completely different!

Leaving Flores (22.07)

After the promised dip in the lake at 8am (extremely worthwhile and refreshing) we ran to get our bus to Rio Dulce. We met a nice Swiss couple travelling for 6 months on the bus and ending up hanging out with the them the last two days. Our paths have diverged today as they are heading to Guatemala city and we are in Puerto Barrios awaiting a ferry boat to Belize (which wasnt in our original plans!)
We arrived at Rio Dulce (you should check out a map of Guate to follow our route :) and we were immediately ushered to the port to get a lancha to Livingston -- luckily that was what we had in mind in the first place. Now, in Flores we already saw very little Mayans and indigenas, people were mostly ladinos ("white latins") and after an amazing 1 1/2 hour lancha ride across the Golfete and seeing tropical rainforests, castle San Filipe and amazing rich houses on the river (cabanas) with luxurious yachts (yep, we arrived where the rich Guatelmatecos vacation) we are face to face with Garifuna (black carib people originaries of the first slaves brought to Central America).
Livingston is a relaxed “easy living” village on the carib coast. The people are friendly and speak mostly Garifuna between them but do know how to speak Spanish and English --- most have relatives in the US and you see a culture clash between the young and the old as the young are all sporting big basketball shorts and large t-shirts with their caps on backwards (very US) and there are quite a US citizens on vacation. We had a hard time finding a hotel as most were taken and walking in the steaming humidity with backpacks is not a good idea. We finally found one with bungalows…
We spent the day mostly walking around town and through the beach (which was actually quite disappointing as the water is polluted and there is rubbish everywhere but the next day promised something better as we had already booked an ecological tour :) We had a couple of beers at night with our new Swiss “friends” and headed out to a local Garifuna disco where we were told there would be live Garifuna music -- well, apart from us 4 there was only another Spanish couple but we were given a taste of the local music which consists of drums and xilophones made out of shells and a lot of singing -- Jo didnt resist trying it out or dancing with the disco owner :)

As for something extremely funny, while we were walking around town constantly saying “Buenas Tardes” to the friendly locals we ran across this old and fat Garifuna woman that thought it quite amusing to go up to Jo and actually touch and caress his penis!!!! I found this extremely amusing as we actually thought she was going for his camera and Jo didn’t have time to react, I’m still laughing about it!!


And now Paradise….
We woke up not as early as usual and had our usual breakfast (we have been eating so many eggs we can start a plantation in our stomachs!!!) Then we got off to our ecological tour with our guide Eddie, a local Garifuna. Thankfully we thought well to put on our walking shoes, even in the hot weather, as we found ourselves going to the local museums, seeing 3 crocodiles that have been put into a miserly basin in the center of town, and walking all over town and through the mush and mud and people’s houses! We walked to the river basin where we were supposed to had a canoe waiting for us…instead we had to dig out one that was already there and push it through the mud into the water among all the crabs!! (Of course, us girls ---the Swiss couple was with us as well--- just watched and took pictures hehehe) The canoe was big enough for all 5 of us to remain standing – Jo, of course, tried to rock us a bit :)

After the canoe ride we arrive at the beach where we have ham and cheese sandwiches (well, the tour was cheap…) and then headed down the beach (passing a crazy old Garifuna with a machete that has actually had to be stopped by the police for attacking tourists with his machete --- all he did to us was cry out after passing us that “voy a matar los tods” – translation: im gonna kill you all!!”) to the Siete Altares, or as I would like to put it, PARADISE!!!

It consisted of fresh water pools with waterfalls where you could jump into clear turquoise water and just enjoy yourself. It was amazing!!! Me and Jo and Claudio (the Swiss) jumped quite a few times from different spots and of course, as usual, Jo tried to keep jumping from higher and higher – we got a couple of photos but due to the speed and the light they are mostly out of focus! And Jo finally got to test his waterproof camera bag --- it works :)
We stayed there a good hour before heading back to town (the entire tour was from 10am to 4pm so you can imagine our state after that!) Both Jo and I got sunburned --- which has now turned a nice colour brown :)

At night we took it easy…tried to find internet but as electricity is not always guaranteed on the island we were unlucky in our pursuit. So we enjoyed a nice quiet dinner with the most amazing soup called Tapado made out of curry and coconut milk with crab, fish, shrimps and octopus inside (yeah, all that!) --- it was delicious!!!
We headed back to the hotel (we had changed in the morning for a cheaper more spacious one as we are on a budget!) with an ice cream and attempted to make our bags as we would be leaving at 4am the next day to get the ferry to Puerto Barrios. I hardly slept during the night as there was a two hour extremely loud thunderstorm that I thought was going to gulp up the entire village! But luckily it subsided and by the time we left it was nice and breezy.

The ferry to Puerto Barrios was filled with Garifuna and indigenas (they don’t mix much amongst them – we only saw a couple of mulatto kids) and it took an hour…we saw the sunrise over Puerto Barrios
Now we are waiting for the ferry to Belize and have already got out exit stamps and tickets…so next stop Belize!!

See ya guys then :)

Love Jo and Fil

P.S. Hope you enjoy the photos --- sorry for the quality—next on my list: a proper digital camera—the colours here are too amazing to miss!