Those funny accents

Boston's another pretty town.

Boston, too, is a very nice town. The States could really grow on me. I'd love to do a road trip here, either coast to coast or north-south, it's all good. Jo and Julian put us up in Harvard Square for a few nights (thanks again guys!). Poor Jo was in frantic study mode as we turned up several days before her final exams. Our bad, but they both still took the time to be great hosts! We poked around Harvard and MIT which were both great to see. This will sound parochial, but Harvard is somewhat like Sydney uni (writ large), with an excess of sandstone, history and general gravitas, while MIT is like UNSW (also writ large), much much newer, somewhat more shabby concrete than sandstone, a slightly nerdy air, and a desperate effort to convince people that it's more than just a science and engineering meccha. (It's not, but with a record like MIT has, it doesn't need to be.) Among other things, the MIT student association boasts the largest library of science-fiction literature in the world, which yours truly managed to visit and be duly impressed by :).

We caught up with Yan, which was fun (Bec where were you!) and, for a change of pace, hired a car and drove out on Cape Cod to visit Fiona, in residence in an artists' colony in Provincetown (I love saying that). The Cape is meant to be the incarnation of every American's dreamy childhood summers, filled with long hot days and ice-creams by the beach. Of course, we visisted on the one day of freakishly thick fog when you can't see more than a metre and all the wooden architecture looked spooky rather than quaint. Still, was nice to catch up with Fiona and she says hi to all the gang.

Boston skyline, on not such a nice day.

Harvard by night.

Ice cream in a converted bank vault! Now that's kinda fun.

This was the end of our brief sojourn in the States, and, bracing ourselves for another bout of culture shock, we headed back to Boston airport for a flight to Chile and 3 months in South America. Before we left though, one final cute moment of Americana - check out what passes for a waiting lounge in genteel New England!

Waiting, old-school.

It's a wonderful town

We play tourist on top of the Empire State.

We've fallen in love with NYC and had an absolutely amazing four days here. It's exactly our kind of city - all about food and shows and museums and galleries, and all on foot or public transport. Fantastic!! Actually, I'm sure the city can be all things to all people - but that's the beauty of it. Now we just have to work out a sustainable (ie affordable) way of living here. Still, there was plenty of incentive to work something out. Current plan - A becomes an academic and relocates to NYU - which hands out apartments to its staff. Nice.

Hehe.. The Hersheys and M&Ms stores face off across Times Square.

The New York Stock Exchange. In what country now?

Middle of a very heavily fortified Wall St.

Boating in Central Park. It's all good.

Fun and games

Coban marked the end of our Central America stint. From the caving and rock climbing fun of Coban we headed back to Guatemala Cty for a flight to Miami, picked up a car, and drove across the interstate (known as Alligator Alley for the numerous alligators that cruise the canals beside the road and emerge to sunbake) to the Naples Beach Hotel, to celebrate the Hightowers' wedding.

Needless to say, this was great fun. Wednesday consisted of settling in, a meet and greet party by the pool and an impromptu final bucks night for HT. Thursday was a beautiful day for a round of somewhat hung-over golf and some poking around Olde Naples. Friday was the big day. The wedding was spectacular and the reception was great fun. Saturday was recovery day, with a sunset cruise out into the gulf to say goodbye to the gang.

It was a fantastic few days catching up with Andrew and Tara and some of the old Minters gang, as well as meeting more of the Benson circle. We had a great time, and hopefully will catch up with the newly weds in Hong Kong later in the year.

Wednesday night... last chance, ladies.

Another beautiful day.

The big day arrives...

...in a beautiful spot.

The boys party...

...while the happy couple do their (much more photogenic) thing.

Thanks for the great times all!

We do what now?

Our final stop in Guatemala was Coban, an area of national parks, caves and outdoorsy type activities. Made for a bit of a change from our days spent lazing on beaches. The highlight here was a visit to Semuc Champey - a series of amazing rock pools linked by a series of waterfalls and cliff jumps set in some amazing jungle surrounds. Exploring the pools involved a guided swim/jump/climb through the pools, which went from crazy to insane to suicidal. After each jump from a high cliff or slide down some crazy rock chute I'd stupidly say something like 'Well that must have been the hard bit,' following which the guide would point to something higher, steeper or craggier and gesture us all onward. It culminated at a spectacular waterfall which clearly couldn't be jumped, scaled or otherwise surpassed by a bunch of tourists in barefeet and swimwear. At which point the guide reached behind a rock and pulled out a rope ladder, which he proceeded to tie off around a rock midstream, throw over the edge, and climb on down through the waterfall itself.

From there it descended into the surreal as we climbed into a huge cave system behind the waterfalls themselves, squeezing through tiny tiny holes to slide down pitch black rock chimneys and duck out of the way of displaced bats chasing an exit. All the while wondering how we were going to get back up. The end result was some amazing sights but of course no photos. Great fun tho :).

The pools at Semuc Champey

A disturbance in the force

Mayan ruins rock. Following are photos of the city complex at Tikal, in the north of Guatemala. Or at least of those parts of the city that have been reclaimed from the jungle.

And yes fellow nerds, if it looks familiar it´s because it also stars as the jungle base on planet Yavin in the first (fourth) Star Wars movie :).

Mayan pyramids. Very cool. Also very Jedi.

Jungle

Many of the (major) pyramids could be climbed. Issues of personal safety or respect for the relics were.. well... not issues.

For example, check out the following series I like to call 'tourists conquer the monument'. Apparently falls are common and deaths are not unknown (imagine this in the wet season!).







Nothing like a race up a pyramid.

But the views from the top were pretty impressive.

Everywhere you looked, ruins rising out of the jungle.

...and ancient Myan shuttle landing pads.


Finally, for perspective on the pyramids, two fellow tourists below...

...and the pyramid atop which you can (just) see them perched.

(also note the crazy ladder arrangement to the left by which the top was accessed)

Tikal was fun.

Good times

Carribean culture is fun, and not really what I had in mind when I was thinking about this trip. Roatan (the island we dived from in Honduras) is where the Garifuna (black Carribean culture of the region) emerged in the 19th century, and have since spread along the coastline and various Carribean islands of Belize, Guatemala and Honduras. We encountered the culture) or at least its more touristy form - ie lots of rastas, rainbow beanies and Marley) at Livingston, a tiny port town in Guatemala accessible only by boat.

Livingston had a great attitude (or at least the hostel did). And you´ve got to love a place where the town square consists entirely of a basketball court, a children´s playground and an alligator pen, in which a number of the town's mascots are being raised and bred.

Bad photo but cool town square. Behind the basketball court is the kiddies playground and behind that - the low brick wall you can just see behind the slide - is the alligator pit. Order yourself one today.

After a few days in Livingston, we jumped in a boat for a ride up the Rio Dulce, a beutiful ride with the jungle pressing in on both sides with old Spanish forts and hot sulfur springs providing the odd diversion along the way. Pretty sweet.

Another day another beach. This one private and boat-access only.

And yes when hungry we really did climb the nearest (short) tree, pick a coconut, and smack it open :).

For more active entertainment we hiked into Siete Altares - cool swimming holes where apparently the first ever Tarzan movie was filmed. Who knew.

Random jungle shot from the Rio Dulce. Jungle really just looks like a big bunch of trees in photos.

Carribean days

Somehow we've been a little too busy to keep up with blogging. Our respect for those who manage to maintain a detailed, witty, complete and, most of all, up-to-date blog, while travelling, grows by leaps and bounds.

Sooo... when last we posted we were in Honduras, checking out Mayan ruins in Copan. After that we headed to the Carribean coast for a week's R&R diving on the Bay Islands. The islands are infamous for having some of the best (and definitely the cheapest) diving in the world. Getting there was another story, involving a crazy rough 2hr ferry ride and extensive sea-sickness for locals and foreigners alike. Still, an isolated beach town was a great place to sit out the crazy Easter rush and the dives were amazing, including some great wreck diving and an underwater Easter Egg hunt on Easter Sunday :).

Anyways, gratuitous Carribean beach photos follow. I realise now they all are somewhat dark coz they are all end of day shots, once all the swimming, diving, snorkling was out of the way :).

Out front of our hostel / dive shop

Clearest water we´ve ever dived in - was amazing!

Dive boats were everywhere, yet somehow you never saw any other divers out there...

Random diving platforms in the water. Just because.

Sun goes down as the boats head home. Purty.

And finally, we gather at the beachbar after a hard day´s diving :).

Cocoa for chocolate

With increasing signs that Easter weekend would be manic wherever we were, we decided the Bay Islands off the coast of Honduras was our best bet. So, after our time at the lake, we headed back through Antigua and GC and crossed the border near Copan, where we stopped off to visit our first Mayan ruins. The ruins at Copan together with the Bay Islands appear to constitute the entire tourist trail in Honduras, but we´ve loved what we´ve seen. The ruins were amazing. We hired a guide to talk us through it, which led to us spending a gruelling 4 1/2 hrs in 40 degree heat working our way round the main complex (a measely 1 square km, of a complex that spreads over something like 24km and encompasses several thousand buildings). 'Fidel-from-Habana' (our guide) assured us Copan was the Paris of the Mayan world (with Tikal being the New York) and wouldn't move on from any given sculpure until we took a photo ('this one is very famous! very famous!'). He had the usual guidely manner of using the same few stock speeches on many many occassions. Most of his speeches ended with a (never varying) list of crops that (depending on the subject of discussion) the Mayans a) grew, b) sold, c) ate, d) offered to the gods, e) buried with the dead or f) used in some other way. Apparently, no matter what the purpose, the Mayan world ran on 'tobaccomaizesquashricebeanspepperstomatoes and cocoaforchocolate.'

Copan also offered us the best food we´ve had so far- cheap and ridiculously oversized platters of meat (our basic two person platter included 4 steaks, a chicken, local sausages and a couple of racks of ribs, char grilled with onions, peppers and other local goodies - so good!). If anyone passes through Copan, eat at Momo´s.

By the way, cocoa trees/fruit are kind of cool and not at all what I would have expected.