Last of the WTUs: Western Oz & Japan

This is Alan. Wife's called Susan. (Said so in stencil on the back of his caravan)

Had some stick lately for not posting any shots from Western Australia.  Truth be known, we didn’t stop to take that many – we were doing so much danged driving (and trying to shoe-horn in as many last ditch activities as possible before we came home) that by the end of each day all we could think about was Bundaberg Red and a dip in an ancient rock pool.  But, in the interests of completeness…

We started our epic final leg in this unfathomably massive place by picking up a converted Toyota Hiace in Fremantle and headed for the Great Western Highway.  Mile-for-mile, this is the single-most boring stretch of tarmac on Earth.  Passing Cervantes, Pinnacles, Geraldstown and Monkey Mia, we eventually arrived in Exmouth, 1500 kms later, where the unending road was temporarily relieved by turquoise waters and the Ningaloo Reef.

The reef is a National Heritage Marine Park in which the Aussie government has licensed a small number of operators to run tours and give tourists the small chance of swimming with the world’s largest fish – whale sharks.  And by sheer fluke (you can pay top dollar for puns like that…) we had scheduled this leg during the six-week period when they gather here in droves to feast after the annual coral spawn.

We got to swim with a 5m long beauty called Chompy, a 20-year old male who’d earned his nickname thanks to some Great White savagery, and Claire and I agreed that this was the most privileged thing we’ve ever done.  It was like swimming alongside a slow-moving limo.  We did get some video from it but, as I’ve not had time to cut it yet, you’ll have to make do with some stills for now…

 

This is like finding a signpost for Frankfurt - in Southport.

 

 

Which meant we had to plan our toilet stops. (It's the fly on my nose that makes this for me)

 

 

 

 

Got down and dirty for this one

 

 

Mine?

 

Claire feeding a *wild* dolphin by hand.

 

 

The biologists at Monkey Mia have formed bonds with 5 females who come here each day - from the ocean - for brekkie.

 

 

 

 

Sunsets were ridiculous.

 

 

 

 

Skippy's nut-job cousin outside the amenities block on our campsite. Immediately after this, he sprang off to a random point about 150 meters away (took him about 6 seconds) turned about-face and then belted straight back towards me. Until that moment, I had never consciously accepted - and then awaited - death.

 

 

 

 

Claris in Wonderland... (snooted SB800 to camera left)

 

 

Kookaburra was cool

 

 

Moving on... a small section of Tokyo's Imperial Palace wall.

 

 

 

 

This is the view Bill Murray had from the bar in Lost in Translation. We ran out of cash trying to get drunk here.

 

 

So we switched to this stuff which you could pore (!) yourself!

 

 

 

Here’s a photo I didn’t want to see!

When I loaded up the fully-recyclable/whittled-from-a-single-piece-of-aluminium MacBook this morning, I’d intended for this post to just show my contender for 2009’s Rear of the Year, courtesy of Darcie (one of our nieces).

Then this showed up on the screen.

("Happy birthday, Gonzo", said Dr Davey. "You've bust your Scaphoid...")

I didn’t blog about this at the time, but whilst Claire and I were in Honduras, and Claire was eating her delicious breakfast at Georphies, I was busily distancing myself from a moving motorbike and getting a ‘proper’ feel for some wet, Honduran gravel.  10ft or so later, I came to a stop and knew I’d hurt my left wrist pretty badly.

The flesh wound healed, but something’s still not right.  So today I wen’ to di doc’s, and di doc say…is broken.

The bad news is, I need to go under the knife and have a bone graft taken from another part of my body.  The good news is, it means I’ll be losing a couple of inches from my ass!  My Dad thinks I might even be able to fart out of my thumb, which would be nice.

So on hearing this joyous news, my attention immediately turned to my wife.  How would I prepare our candlelit suppers, clean the house for her, and iron her clothes?

“You’ll find a way, Mike, you’ll find a way”, I thought, so my mind quickly moved to my photographic commitments.  He estimates I’ll need to be in plaster for a total of 8 weeks, and the problem is that I’ve now got 4 confirmed weddings booked for this year, more in the pipe and other cool stuff planned beside – at least one family portrait session in June, more in July, then I’m spending a few quid days in August shooting with this guy in Philadelphia before my wedding bookings kick in.

I COULD leave it to fester, and hope the “95% chance of me getting arthritis in 10 years” doesn’t materialise, but if I square it away then the chances reduce to 5%.  The fact that I’m a right hander doesn’t matter – I need both to change a lens, pick-up heavy things (which I’m pretty good at), play golf, read a book, clean a dish, stick a shelf up, do the mowing, drive a car – so I figure the business case is there.  Either way, though, apparently I’m never doing press-ups again – unless it’s on my knuckles (sweet!).

So I’m biting the bullet and getting it done.  I go in this week.

For the record, I love you all.  But Claire’s my favourite…

Oh yeh – here’s the shot of Darcie on Shoreham beach last weekend.

Intergalactic Tour Update: the Milky Way and, erm, New Zealand

The Milky Way above the Church of the Good Shepherd, Lake Tekapo, New Zealand.

For Claire’s birthday, we spent the night star-gazing at the Mount John Observatory on New Zealand’s South Island. The Observatory’s location, in the Mackenzie basin, was chosen because it has very little light pollution and great year-round weather conditions (70% of nights are cloud-free).  A decent place to go star-spotting then!

The picture above, however, was taken a couple of km’s away on the shores of Lake Tekapo where the tiny Church of the Good Shepherd stands.  After we’d been shown around the night sky by the resident astronomers at the Observatory, we headed back to our camper and I set the big gun up on a tripod in the grounds of the church.  It was about 2am when I took this – if you’re interested, I dialed in ISO 6400, f2.8 on my 14-24mm and left the shutter open for 30 seconds.  The church is illuminated by the ambient light from the village nearby.

Then Claire waited patiently with me for the following 30 minute exposure.  The guy at the observatory had helped me to identify the southern celestial pole (there isn’t a star there like there is in the northern hemisphere, which is known as Polaris).  The trails you can see are attributable to the Earth’s rotation during a half-hour period.

 

ISO 6400 (should have been lower, rescued it in post), f2.8, 30 minutes.

The thing we both like most about these shots are that they contain 3 galaxies – our own Milky Way which is clearly identifiable, as well as the two Megellanic Cloud galaxies which you can make out to the right of shot in each photo.  There’s an estimated 400 billion stars just in our galaxy and we can only see a fraction of a percent of nearby stars because most aren’t bright enough to reach us.  Minds.  Blown.

Anyways, astronomy lesson over.  Hope you come to terms with it all faster than we did…

Back down to Earth. Lake Tekapo reflected in the window of the Church of the Good Shepherd.

 

Spent the day cycling around the "grape bushes" of Malborough. (*snigger*)

 

Recommended. Food was as good as the vino here.

 

Although not everyone here was enjoying what they ate! This was the Havelock Mussel Festival's Mussel-Eating Competition Loser, 2009!

 

Just clocked up our 10,000th campervanning kilometer. We remember most of it being on this road!

 

One that managed to avoid the harsh reality of our windscreen.

 

 

 

These shots were taken by our Rafting co. Had a blast but it was flippin' cold!

 

One of NZ'z prized natural springs.

 

Nice.

 

Mount Cook. We're guessing this is the Head Chef!

 

 

Milford Sound. Yet another totally awesome place, dude.

 

And you've got Mordor just up the road. (And of course "Auckland", where Claire reckons the Orcs came from!)

 

Je suis artiste.... (there was something fishy about these mountains...)

 

This was a deserted beach that Claire found in Abel Tasman (thanks Zara!). And we had not one but TWO shags on it!!

 

Couldn't tell you what kind of shags they were though, any ideas anyone?

 

Unbelievably, our trip is now nearing its end.  We head to the land of the rising sun tomorrow and we’re home in less than a week.  So here’s a couple of things to mention before you desert these parts…

1) We’re blogging on… the blog will continue once we’re back home.  I’m enjoying doing it too much to stop and I’ve also got some inordinately exciting photo engagements + opportunities lined up that I’m going to be posting the results from.   So, if you’re interested, stayed tuned!

2) One of them is some one-on-one mentoring that I’ll be getting from Cliff Mautner.  Cliff is a world-class photography veteran with 6000+ assignments to his name and 700+ weddings. He’s Nikon’s Wedding Photographer-in-Chief and, to cap it all off, was just voted one of the world’s top 10 wedding photographers by American Photo.  Check out his site, he’s an absolutely amazing photographer and has some beautiful images there http://www.cmphotography.com.

3) As well as commercial portrait & wedding photography work, I’m looking to regularly undertake pro-bono work for good causes.  If you are closely linked to any charities or good causes, please hit me up in the comments/send an email to mike {at} north dash room dot com/send them here.  Also, if you know of anyone looking for a commercial portrait/wedding photographer, please help to spread the word – the official www.north-room.com website is currently in design!

4) Remember we’re having a few swallies at ours on Saturday 9-May, from 3pm – we’d love to see you all so please come round if you can!

See you soon!

Mike & Claire x

Islabot!

I love you, Islabot!

 

(And I'll protect you.)

(I had the privilege of keeping Isla amused during our car trips around Sydders. She seemed genuinely taken by my news of Nikon’s new 50mm f1.4 AFS.)

A quick hello from a scorching Western Oz!  We’re 1300kms up from Perth (or Fremantle, rather – I think it might be twinned with Hove, actually) and are hoping to spend some time swimming with Whale Sharks tomorrow (Easter Sunday, don’t hate us too much).  It’s about 500 degrees centigrade here in Exmouth and Claire is nearing such an extreme shade of red that I’m now wearing Night Vision goggles so I don’t lose her.

This is just a quick segway for anyone who knows Lou & Ru (who kindly put us up, entertained and looked after us during our brief interlude in Sydney – thanks a million guys, was really nice to meet you properly) – and also to show you what their daughter Isla now looks like.  This psuedo-photoshoot now holds the record for shortest amount of advance warning (~6 minutes) as well as shortest window to do it (~12 minutes) – despite which we actually managed two wardrobe changes, and that was just for Ru! ;O)  Hope you like them L&R, see you when you get back across the pond.

M&C x

 

 

 

 

Safe.

 

 

 

 

After a killer press-up set, Isla hit me with back-to-back ab-crunches and squats. ("Try boring me again with camera-talk, mate!")

 

 

Claire outside the SOH.

 

Sydney's helter skelter is absolutely pants. Dead slow and REALLY painful.

 

Strawberries & cream?

 

Was gutted I'd left my speedos on the, ermm, bus.

More to come…

WTU: Chile & Argentina

Perito Moreno Glacier, Patagonia, Argentina. In a word, spellbinding.

Claire and I woke up before the sparrows started stretching for this and it was worth every minute of the bracing cold.  We arrived so early that it was still pitch black and we even avoided the Park’s entry fees because security hadn’t woken up.  Save for ourselves, there was nobody there.

Whilst we could barely make out the glacier’s form from the small amount of ambient light its icey exterior gave off, we could hear it loud and clear – its perpetual advancing motion provided a back-drop of gunshot-style explosions as the ice cracked and yielded to pressure from the frigid waters of Lake Argentina which it divides.  It was so eerie seeing the outline of this humungous wall of ice gradually emerging as day broke, particularly with its unique and arresting soundtrack.

If it wasn’t for us chatting to a french couple, Virginie and Théophile, whom we met at our lodgings in Valparaiso, we almost certainly wouldn’t have gone here.  I don’t even think we knew it existed.  But they both insisted that it was worth seeing so we took the 28 hour bus journey to do so.  Bottom-numbing drive aside, it was absolutely marvelous.

Argentina as a whole was actually wonderful.  I have to admit that our potted history with the Argies on the fields of both football and battle presented me with a small number of negative preconceptions about the place but the Argentines were such genuinely nice folk – warm, friendly and thoroughly welcoming.  And what a country – the 8th largest on Earth with a huge array of diversity.  Winelands, mountains, glaciers, beautiful lakes and waterfalls, even world-class archeology, with the largest collection of dinosaur fossils you can find.  Buenos Aires was brilliant too – we tangoed like retards the pros, ate and drank like kings and partied our socks off.  We’ll definitely be coming back here, not least because we only really felt like we scratched the surface.

So now we’re in Perth, Western Australia, and are heading to the beach.  Neither of us can believe how quickly New Zealand came and went, our campervan escapades there were great and we’ll have some shots from there, as well as our short stay with Lou & Ru, up here soon.  Stay tuned…

The Mitchams x

PS – homecoming party at ours on 9-May-09 – everyone welcome.  Hit me up on email if you need our address.

260ft high, 5km wide, 0 degrees C.

 

I shot this from a hill about six miles away. If you look closely, you might be able to see a tiny black dot in the water just before the glacier. It's a passenger-carrying catamaran.

 

 

To warmer climes, this is a spot we found for lunch whilst biking around San Carlos de Bariloche, Argentina.

 

"Actually, make it half a portion of fries please, Pepé"

 

Buenos Aires.

 

 

La Boca - where Maradona learned his trade. There was actually a Maradona look-alike in a bar there who I wanted to photograph with Claire, but she refused. Don't blame her. I crunched him in a massive sliding tackle on his way back from the gents.

 

Valparaiso, Chile - our hostal is just out of shot to the right. Cool, but a tad on the wrong side of dodge.

 

Claire at the so-called "Three Maries Stones" - naming so tenously shoe-horned in by the Chilleans that I couldn't bring myself to take a closer shot.

 

 

 

 

A church in the Atacama.

 

"Honestly Gary, aren't ewe fed up of this road always being rammed?!"

WTU: Bolivia

Salt FLAT

G’day from the spare room of Lou & Ru’s house in Sydney!  We arrived here night before last after a 14 hour flight from Buenos Aires and have been spending some quality time with little Isla who is very cute and smiley!

Since our last post we’ve done Argentina, where we dutifully engorged ourselves on mouthwatering steak & lamb and fattened up quite nicely, thanks.  Little bit jet lagged at the mo so I’ll dive straight into the fact that this post is dedicated to the Bolivian leg of our trip.

Having spent a few days in La Paz, we headed down to Uyuni and spent three days cruising through its salt lakes and scenery.  La Paz was interesting to say the least – actually it was downright bizarre in some ways.  We declined the opportunity to take a ‘tour’ of the infamous (self-governing, corrupt) San Pedro prison – some inmates have their wives and children living with them in the cells that they ‘rent’ – and we also passed up the chance to purchase Llama foetuses which the Bolivians bury under new buildings as an offering to the Gods.  (Roller – I’ve got you a six-pack…)

But the Salar de Uyuni was possibly the most bizarre of the lot – as the world’s biggest salt flat, it’s a massive expanse of white salt that stretches as far as the eye can see in hexagonal patterns created through water evaporation.  It took us three days to cross it and also the mountains that fringe it to finally reach the Chilean border.  South America doesn’t do much on a small scale.

Anyhows, here’s some shots of us gooning around there, we’ll have some more from Chile and Argentina up in the next week or two as well.

Hope everyone back home is keeping well – we were dead chuffed to hear Ray, Charls, Susie & Paul’s news of their new nippers, congrats guys, we can’t wait to meet them.  And also happy b’day Dad – have a great one mate, we’ll be thinking about you!

Lots of love to everyone else (we continue to cry ourselves to sleep on a nightly basis thinking about you all).

M&C x

 

The "We Speak English" claim proved highly amusing - we paid an extra 50 Bolivianos for an English speaking guide/driver who spoke Spanish to us for the whole trip. When we told him we'd paid extra about 30 minutes in, he said he did speak English - he just chose not to.

 

 

Bullet hole duly noted.

 

 

Bolivia's train graveyard.

 

Climb on

 

And then in. (Taken shortly before being escorted off the premises)

 

 

Claire with Danielle and Chris. We spent some time soul searching after 6 hours of intensive Spanish commentary by our 'english speaking' driver.

 

 

Dear Ray & Anne, I write to report that in a moment of abject hunger, I scoffed your daughter up like a Burrito. Tasted like chicken.

 

 

 

Line & Marie from Denmark. I didn't know that Danish people should never be washed above 40 degrees centigrade.

 

The Bolivians have made inventive use of their most abundant commodity. Not that weather-proof though.

 

 

Song 2?

 

 

This is the Salar's Salt Hotel. Everything is made of salt. Really wish someone had told us to take our own toilet paper.

 

Apparently, the word "salary" comes from the fact that often, in the old days, wages were paid in salt ("salar" - y). And ever heard of someone not being worth their salt? (Thanks to Isla's parents for these timely pieces of triv!)

 

 

 

Fish Island. Not sure why it's named as such but it may have something to do with the salar being covered in water thousands of years ago.

 

Some relief from the salar's brilliant white.

 

 

 

A combination of heat-stroke and cabin fever?

 

The Bolivia/Chile border. Bin there.

 

Behold, the legacy of the world's greatest salesman. An Italian, in the 1920's, took a boat load of bowler hats to Bolivia to sell to the local men. They didn't want them. So he convinced the women to buy them instead.

 

1/4 lb of Midget Gems please, Fernando. Actually, gimme a couple of those Llama foetuses too whilst I'm here.

 

all images copyright North Room Photography.

WTU: The Galapagos Islands

This was the scene at a bus stop on Baltra Island. Most people don't realise the extent of the homeless problem in Galapagos.

Greetings from Puerto Montt!  A detour from our envisioned route down south as we were expecting to head straight to Argentina from Bolivia.  Instead, we have spent the last week or so in the Atacama Desert – the driest place on Mother Earth – and guess what?  It rained!  Not much mind, but enough to raise a smile and make us feel slightly hexed.

At this precise moment in time (Monday evening in the UK – bizarrely, we’re only 3 hours behind you) we are half way down the thin but immensely long country of Chile having spent a grand total of 36 hours on buses getting here from the north.  Tomorrow we’re finally headed to Argentina’s lake district, though from there our precise bearings are as yet undetermined – the Perito Moreno Glacier in Argentina’s Patagonian south or the Iguazu Waterfalls in its tropical north.  Decisions, decisions.  Possible coin flippage on this one.  Either way, we’re ending up in Buenes Aires for some hot to trot Tango action in a week or so which should be good.  Finally Argentina’s capital will have the kind of sweet moves it’s been longing for…

As promised, we now have some shots to show from our brief visit to the achingly wonderful Galapagos Islands, although the short video (contains sound) is a personal favourite – the opening shot of two bull males almost coming to blows is unmissable… I’m expecting a call from National Geographic.

Some shots from Bolivia’s Salar de Uyuni (Salt Lake) to follow in the next week or so, hope everyone is keeping well back home.  Again, please keep us posted on your news, it’s so nice hearing from you!

Mike & Claire x

 

A Nascar Booby. He was sitting on his arse until I got the big gun out.

 

 

Dude spent about 15 minutes sitting on my boots. Got quite emotional when he left.

 

 

Galapagos Hawk. We saw 5 of them hunting for baby sealions on the beach. This was taken with our Canon G10 point & shoot from about 2ft.

 

 

Food fight!

 

 

"Some quality Boobies kicking around here Steve" "Mate, I'm still thinking about that pair of Tits I saw yesterday"

 

A Blue-Footed Booby.

 

 

Not the world's greatest shot but I counted a total of 10 animals in it!

 

This was a bit odd. Baltra is a bit more built up than we were expecting.

 

 

We didn't get to meet Lonesome George but this was one of his chums - 180 years old.

 

 

 

Marine Iguana. Indigenous to the Galapagos.

 

 

One of Darwin's famous finches.

 

 

 

We saw this little lady burying her eggs before returning to the ocean.

 

 

Having avoided the sub-prime crisis, Herman was hoping his shares in Shell would pull through.

 

 

Many species in Galapagos have become so accustomed to photographers that they are now born with certain features covered in make-up.

 

 

I mean look at this one. What a complete tart!

 

 

Others, however, only have their natural looks to go on. This was on the back of our boat on day 2.

 

 

"Hello? Oh hi. Look, Heidi, you're going to have to stop calling me. I don't love you anymore, and if Seal finds out you keep ringing me I'm a dead man!"

 

More to come…x

WTU: A bit more on…(Guatemala)

Well, we’re now in La Paz, one of the highest cities in the world at an altitude sickness-inducing 12000ft and as a result we’re soaking up the Coca tea like a pair of addled crackheads!  I’m on 6 cups a day, Claire’s getting a few less in principally because she hasn’t managed to pilfer as many old ladies handbags as me!!

We’ve just got back from the Galapagos and this will be our next post in a week or so – we hit Bolivia’s Salt Lakes tomorrow for a four day excursion to see the otherworldly environment this provides – but we can report that Galapagos was absolutely amazing.  My only question coming from it was whether us human folk can actually be trusted with it, and I fear for the worst.

We shall write again in a week or so forthwith, but please feast your eyes first on some more of our highlights from our favourite central american hosts.

Buena noche.

Mr & Mrs Gonzo x

Fuego letting off some steam.

 

 

There was so much volcano dust swilling around up there even the... cloud... phoenix...? was... choking...? WTF!?

 

 

The trophy shot from Acatenango. Yes we *absolutely* would have done it had we known the whole of Guatemala would be covered in cloud that day.

 

 

 

 

"And there we sat, atop the world, eating Kendal Mint Cake." (If it's good enough for Sir Edmund, it's good enough for me - cheers Anne!)

 

 

 

One of the views from Antigua's Plaza Majore.

 

 

...which we managed to enjoy despite very difficult navigating conditions?

 

 

 

The work of genius. The answer to stinky public toilets? Free pitches for Florists.

 

"Oooh, I've always fancied climbing Acatenango"

 

If you thought we liked our beer, the Guats make theirs clothes! Appearing in a kitchen in SW London soon.

 

Guatemala's buses are the coolest on the planet. Claire and I want one when we retire in 600 years.

 

After Antigua we made our way North

 

Through the jungle

 

 

To here. The gobsmacking Mayan city of Tikal.

 

 

This is the gargantuan Temple 5. We got here at 5:30am to watch the sunrise and there were two Germans at the top sitting on beach towels.

 

 

After the disappointing Chicken Prick in Nicaragua, I decided to go for the: ".........." !

More t.c. x

World Tour update: Nicaragua, Honduras (and a bit of Guatemala)

Sunset over Lake Nicaragua from Ometepe island. The sky was filled with colour.

 

Herein endeth our first month and we’re almost done with Mesoamerica.  We’ve just arrived back in Flores, Guatemala, having spent yesterday and this morning walking round the ancient Mayan city of Tikal. (Albeit walking like we were both wearing calipers and looking like we’ve both had accidents in our respective all-weather trousers…).

Since our last post we’ve done some pretty serious mileage. In a nutshell, we’ve moved from Granada in Nicaragua to Ometepe island, survived Managua (the Nicaraguan capital), moved across the border to Tegucigalpa (the Honduran capital), up to the Bay Islands, across to the Mayan city of Copan (awesome), again over the border into Guatemala, stayed in the beautiful city of Antigua, visited the beautiful Lake Atitlan, hiked more than 4000 metres up the side of the absolutely hard as nails Volcano Acatenango (which I think is Spanish for “Stupid english wazzocks, do not bother”), then headed up to where we are now for our last bit of Central American culture and history.

Of the four countries we’ve now visited, Guatemala has to be our favourite.  It’s been much easier to access the culture and fabric of the place here than anywhere else we’ve found, and the places that we’ve visited and things we’ve seen have just blown us away.  Antigua, for example, is not only the most visually interesting place we’ve been to in its own right, but it also nestles between (count them) THREE volcanos;  Agua (to the North), Fuego (to the East), and Acatenango (just South of Fuego) are all clearly visible from the town.

During the days we were there, we were blessed with a number of eruptions of huge plumes of gas and ash from Fuego. And, after a painful 8-hour hike up to Acatenango’s 4km summit, we were also lucky enough to see one up close. As the only crew up there – we were with a German couple, two Dutch girls, two Aussie guys (one in shorts!) and our Canadian guide – we had the run of the place to ourselves and could not believe our eyes when we got up to the top – we were so far above the clouds we felt like we were in space and, right on cue, as the sun went down, Fuego rumbled loudly and spurted out a tonne of hot black ash. After the hardest day since records began, the experience we had up there just blew our minds. 

Check out the photos below, hope you are all well and keep us updated with all your news.  Lots of love, M&C x

As we headed North, the fauna changed a little.

 

 

 

Claire teaching some local kids how to talk proper, like. I wanted to teach them You'll Never Walk Alone but I think the teacher was an Evertonian.

 

Thought I'd lost my old Streetfighter 3 moves, guess not!

 

The laundrette in Ometepe had a strong environmental theme.

 

Granada's impressive Cathedral. Most of the churchs here are scared from when the city was nearly destroyed (deliberately) by fire.

 

 

 

Whilst a little dated, Granada's transport network works better than ours.

 

 

Better get inside ma (blizzard's a' comin'). One of Granada's fire-damaged churches.

 

Claire @ Masaya. Behind her is little brother.

 

And this is Big Brother. The Spanish called this place "The Mouth of Hell"

 

And in 1991 it spat this out - a mere 1000lb lump of rock - crushing a car like a Coke can, apparently.

 

Large - the vehicles on the right are buses.

 

Another obligatory church shot - Granada.

 

Nicaragua's most prolific Cigar Magnate is quite a dish (hot wife too)

 

I remember rolling my own at Uni, but this took the biscuit.

 

 

Roatan - we waited all week for that sun!

 

I hear you fella.

 

Copan, Honduras.

 

 

(cheese)

 

An early version of footy was played here to the death. My suggestion of a cheeky game of Heads & Vollies went down like a lead balloon.

 

Climb THIS?

 

 

Claire and some of our posse at the summit of Volcano Acatenango.

 

The in-flight meal on the trans-Nicaraguan coach was RUBBISH. I went for the former and it wasn't filling at all.

World Tour update: Costa Rrrrrrrrrica!

As with 16 year olds the world over, these fellas laughed at my request for a picture. But obliged. I think the guy in the leather fingerless gloves was the tough one.

Am pleased to report that we survived the recent quake in Costa Rica – luckily we missed it by about a week and had moved away from San Jose and into the Guanacaste province.  We’re having a blast out here in Central America and the traveling vibe we’d been hoping for has really kicked in here in Nicaragua, where we have been for the last few days.  We are currently staying in the lap of luxury – a present to ourselves following a close encounter with muchos cucarachas.  Many dead, some very much living.  “Scared by the earthquake”, our hotelier told us, “we never normally see them – bat don’t warry, I will fumigeeete” – he said, in his best Speedy Gonzalez voice.   Aside from this, and one or two other mishaps on my part:

1. Wolfing down a couple of delicious sultana muffins before being informed by my wife that the sultanas were, in fact, lumps of mould
2. Spending the next 20 minutes forcing myself to honk over the bano (no burst blood vessels this time)
3. Handing Claire some delicious dried pasta shells for dinner which were also mouldy and teeming with flies INSIDE the sealed packet (that I’d bought with the muffins – not my best shopping expedition to date)

…things have gone swimmingly.

This wasn't part of the plan? Arenal Lodge, Costa Rica.

 

On our first day here it didn't stop raining.

 

Hey little furry dude. (Why the long face?)

 

“

Incoming.

Arenal Volcano, Zona Norte, CR.

 

The sun finally came out.

We spent a few days at Arenal, one of the world’s ten most ACTIVE volcanos (situated in Costa Rica) which is as awesome as it is colossal, spewing lava out every few minutes and dominating the skyline of the wilderness area of La Zona Norte (Northern CR).  Then we moved on to the cloud forest of Monteverde (you can see a shot of Claire zipping through the canopy below) and from here had the bus journey from hell over to the beach on the Nicoya Peninsula – a 9 hour slog-a-thon that had us waiting in the baking heat for 3 hours (for a bus that never came) and standing the rest of the way on a coach driven by the star of Police Camera Action.

Arenal at dusk. Check out that lava. The haze above the volcano is ash.

The beach was a tad warmer than the weather we’ve heard you guys back home have been having.  I used Claire’s face as a barometer and judging by its perma-redness, we were consistently enjoying temperatures in the mid-thirties here.

Having relaxed here for a few days, we plucked up the courage to buy another bus ticket, and luckily this time we hit the jackpot.  An old yellow, American school bus with two vacant seats and its own pet puppy, we managed to break-down 12km outside of our destination.  Luckily though, without a single health & safety official within a 600 mile radius, we got a PUSH from a friendly Land Rover owner for 2k’s until we reached the area’s high point – from here we free-wheeled for about another 6km where a replacement bus came to get us.

Spider Monkey! This dude came at us with welcome presents from his *butt*

 

On the look out for more tourists to cack on.

 

Claire zipping above the canopy in Monteverde

 

Bomber - could have done with some inspiration here.

 

This was a hot volcanic spring we visited in La Fortuna near Arenal. Note that I'm NOT one of the fat dudes at the bar.

 

This colourful chap and his mates ate platanos outside our breakfast window each day.

 

You wouldn't think it but he screwed up the landing really badly on this one.

 

A pet of Arenal Lodge, this guy gave us a synchronized flying display with none other than his wife. He also nearly de-throned an American guy one lunch by flying onto his table. V. funny moment.

 

Do you remember this stuff! Laughed out loud in the supermarket when I saw this - the Costa Ricans must love it.

 

Claire during our 3-hour stand-off for the bus that never came. Several people came close to being hurt.

 

When we first got to the beach we went for a wander and saw these boys getting proactive on their dinner. Made our seagulls look so lazy by comparison.

 

Sunset over the Pacific. My first.

 

This small dude was tethered to our bus driver's seat. Lucky for him, he got off 1km before it broke down. Skills on the sixth sense.

 

We weren't interested in the jewelry or sweets we were offered ON THE BUS, but the fried chicken tortillas in a bag were tempting. Rivas, in Nicaragua - absolutely awesome place (dude).

So now we’re in Granada, Nicaragua – the oldest Spanish-founded city in the America’s – and it’s the most beautiful place we’ve encountered to date.  Tomorrow we head to market (Claire remains endlessly amused at my hapless but incessant attempts to communicate with the locals in my crap spanglifrancetinglish lingo) and then on to Ometepe – an island created by two conjoined volcanoes in the middle of lake Nicaragua.

Anyway, must dash, we hope you’re all well and we miss you!! (but clearly not enough to come back yet…)

Love M&C (on the veranda at Hotel Alhambra). x

PS – big congrats to Si and Vix on their news and a belated happy new year to everyone at home!  And please keep us posted on your news!