What it itches the most?

Is it my sun burn or my all new mosquito bites hmmmm, let me think about that one while I laugh at Martyn - he came back from the shower this morning and mentioned that his nose was peeling. Being the good wife I am I felt duty bound to tell him it wasn't just his nose but his whole face. Its okay though as I think my back will probably look worse in a day or two !

I am very worried about him though - yesterday he said that he felt he should try list writing as it seems to be a good way to get things done and then this morning he said he likes having plans of what to do during the day. Please help - aliens must have kidnapped my husband and done a brain transplant overnight...

After I recovered from Martyns obvious mental lapse we left (with him driving just in case his plan/list statements were a result of delayed trauma due to my driving yesterday)

Having done Kauri shop yesterday morning (did I forget to mention that?) and Kauri forest yesterday afternoon this morning we went to the Kauri museum in Matakohe it was massive - bit like the trees it was all about. Lots of gumdigging photos and history ad some great machinery for chopping up wood - if it chopped wood it was there, axes, hand saws, band saws, chain saws- you name it. I even managed to enthuse over the automated steam driven cutting table as Martyn explained the actuators ...... There were some thigh high leather boots that apparently the gum diggers wore. The boots were quite nice if you were into that sort of thing but I do not think I would have made a food gum digger. It looks like a very hard life.

There were some cool models of the dams they used to rig up to enable them to shift the giant kauri trees when they had been chopped down.

There was also a school house with rules for teachers but no rules for students - I wonder what today's trainee teachers would make of these Ts and Cs. I think I might have been okay but only if they were prepared to negotiate on the cleaning and ice cream clauses!

The post office and telephone exchange were a blast from the past - loads of old telephones and of course we had to point out the ones we had had ( oh dear) and it was a manual exchange until 1987 wow!

After the museum we went on to the East coast again to Goat Island Marine Reserve up and down lots of windy tracks past lots of flooded land and land slips. The best one was when there was a sign on a hairpin bend saying 'one lane only' this was because the other lane no longer existed - well it did but literally only the Tarmac, every bit of sub soil and land supporting the road had disappeared. Martyn couldn't decide whether to drive slowly and carefully so as not to disturb or, quickly to get it over with!

The marine reserve would have been a beautiful place teeming with fishes and great snorkelling/diving which was the plan but we had managed to forget about the cyclone there for a moment and of course the lovely crystal clear blue waters were a kind of sludgy brown stirred up run off colour. We remembered just before we thought about hiring some snorkel gear so that was good - we went splogging in rock pools instead. This was even funnier when Martyn stood on some solid looking seaweed only to end up nearly knee deep in a hidden rock pool!

Then on to current campsite for trip to supermarket and sleep. After funny conversation about our friends two boys. They are called Aston and Morgan. Martyn commented they are both named after cars. I got the Aston but had to ask what a Morgan looked like. I was told 'a sort of curvy square box with big wheel arches' poor man was quite indignantly upset when I started laughing. It took me while to explain that to a female he had just described every car in existence and could he please be a bit more specific about the Morgan. So 'they have big radiator grills on the front' okay...., we've narrowed it to anything from a Monster truck to a Jag. It went on. I think I have it now.

Better go- Martyn has found someone who has left their Android phone wireless open so we might be able to post this (unless a guilt complex as to the size of the bill they might get wins out!)

Oh and if anyone knows where I have put my (paper) notebook could you let me know. Had it in supermarket, can't find it in van anywhere, walked back to supermarket and it hasn't been handed in.... It takes a special person to loose something in a 5m by 2m space don't you think......

Kays driving day

So having discovered that Martyns aversion to me driving the campervan was more to do with his concern that he wouldn't be able to map read than to do with my driving I was able to allay his fears... there are only three roads out of where we stayed last night and they all go south so he couldnt really get it wrong! He didn't seem very pleased to be told this but I did get the van keys woo hoo.

Things were a bit complicated by some of the roads still being blocked from cyclone wilma but we figured we could just turn around if we had to.

So off we headed south to Wairere boulders where we were quizzed by a slightly odd Swiss owner of the property about the route we had taken and which roads were open. She then proceeded to tell us in lots of detail about the boulders and how they were formed etc. You see these rocks were made of basalt but what is extra special is they were fluted. Fluting is when acid rain makes vertical channels by running through rock. usually it only happens in limestone or sandstone. These boulders are supposedly the only fluted basalt rocks in the world. Don't know about that bit they were cool and nice to walk around.

Every so often on our little walk around the boulders there was a little muddy bit and the odd bit of driftwood and then we got to a bridge we needed to cross. Don't worry - all was fine but it was our first real view of how bad cyclone wilma was in terms of how much rain actually fell as we were driving along the other day. This bridge was about 4metres above the current river level and it was covered in debris and bits of the fence surrounding it were demolished.

We pondered how glad we were that we got to a campsite when we did and stayed put (well apart from our bus fun) yesterday for a bit and then wandered on wondering if we would make it to our next sort of planned sleep spot.

Next stop Waipoua forest and the giant Kauri trees, in particular Tane Mahuta the largest Kauri tree left standing in NZ in terms of height (he is known as God of the forest) and also to the Father of the forest (whose Maori name I forget) who has the widest girth - does my bum look big in this? Well yes Mr Tree quite frankly it does- and also the 4 sisters which is actually four trees sort of joined together at the roots.

After Waipoua we went off to Trounson forest to pitch up for the night. We picked it because it had a night walk you could book but it was full. Having seen the number of little people manically swinging torches at about 7pm we were quite glad we didn't get on the tour as we don't think we would have seen anything anyway.

So we set off for our own little night walk along the banks of the river only to be reminded that river = freshwater = Mosquitos darn it.

I also discovered flip flops are not that great for nightwalking in (well unless the nightwalk is actually a quick trip to the toilet) as a managed to slide down a slope for one big step and the rest of the way down I was on my bum. What did Martyn say "oh, I was just about to tell you to be careful" - thanks for that darling :)

At this point I decided I had had enough of trying to be a gung ho outdoorsy type (I can hear my mother now wondering why I ever bothered trying to be that in the first place!) and headed back to the campervan to seal myself in under the duvet and listen to the frogs :-)

A 44 seater coach can do that?

So we got ourselves organised for trip out onto 90 mile beach which is a big swizz as it's actually only about 90km. Apparently in the old days they reckoned they did 30 mph with horse and cart up the beach and it took them 3 days to get from one end to t'other - they forgot to take account of wet sand slowing them down and then noone bothered to change the name.

Anyway book said it was a gravel track up to Cape Reinga and hire cars not allowed so we thought we better do tour. Have just checked and guidebook is 3 yrs old - gravel track now road so we could have driven ourselves but nevermind - if we had done that we would not have experienced our bus journey.

We were picked up at 0930 having been told it was a good job we were doing the trip today as all 3 roads out if here were blocked by wash outs due to the cyclone. Our company was apparently the only ones brave/stupid enough to go out today. Off we went and in 5 mins we were zooming off down the beach at 100 km/hr which was fun in a bus.

We stopped for some piccies and the driver said something about the normal route going up a small stream and we had got so close we might as well go and give it a try. Then the real fun started. Now we've done 4WD trips and loved them but we has no idea a BUS could 4WD the water spray came up to top of window, we tried to see if we had missed snorkel in front of bus but no.....

We went round in circles for a bit as the driver said there were some surges he was trying to time- this did not fill me with confidence.....made it through that bit only to look out window and just had time to say to Martyn "hmmmm I dont think we're going any further" before the driver said "woooaaahh, hold on folks" and swung the wheel hard. I swear we only had wheels on one side on the ground. There was a very big wave, the bit of road we were supposed to exit on was instead something of a raging torrent and a stick got stuck in the air vent. This was apparently v bad as it may have resulted in the brakes sticking on and we has to keep moving as we were on quicksand!!!!!!!!

After numerous more requests to "hold on folks" we made it back to the beach for some quick bus repairs.

Rest of day quite boring really, just tootled on up to lighthouse and back. Martyn loves bus driver though as he scheduled stop for ice cream on way back!

Sun came back out again but it is blustery and I needed a jumper which is a bit much.

Oh, and Martyn and i are having an ongoing debate ..... Cheese and apple - which tastes best? He says cheese then apples, I say apple then cheese. This is serious stuff you know.

And the rain came tumbling down

Which is just as well really being as I forgot the usual delay required for sun to fully take effect. We've had worse but suffice it to say my shoulders are sore and Martyn looks like a panda again as he has pink cheeks and White marks where his sunglasses were.

Apparently there is a cyclone on it's way here. I am seriously not exaggerating when I say it has rained for 14 hours so far without stopping. The campsite man has given us his most sheltered spot with the comment "it moight git a bit windy loiter on" (I have tried to type to take account of the accent for you).

Rain hampered sight seeing somewhat today but here is the run down..... Head off from campsite in Russell at 9 ish just as the rain really starts. Catch car ferry across bay of islands to Pahia . Cross bridge to Waitangi and see Treaty house, waka etc and do a bit of cultural stuff very interesting and nice to see where treaty of waitanga was signed. Watch Maori presentation which was worryingly a participation event but it was okay. All I had to do was swing a ball on a rope around a bit. Martyn had to demonstrate his ability at the Haka - he said it was quite nice to stick his Tongue out and pull faces and be allowed to - I said it didn't seem any different to normal!

Drive to pretty waterfalls called Hararu falls to take piccy. Check out guidebook for things to do - first line for this area says "pray for fine weather" doesn't bode well a the windscreen wipers were on fast and the demister was on full at that point.

Decide we are not walking or going on boat trip or kayaking or diving today (well not unless we need a boat to get to the toilet block anyway) so just drive stopping at a few craft shops in Kerikeri and the oldest stone building in NZ (looked like it belonged in the Lake District) and end up at the base of 90 mile beach in our nice sheltered spot.

Have just poked head out door to see about running to loo, might need boat after all a our campervan appears to have moat!

Kia Ora

Slacking again - no blog yesterday or the day before - sorry about that. Our excuse is that for us 25th Jan did not exist. We have gone from being however many hours it was behind UK time to now being roughly 11 hours ahead of you. Didn't think we could blog on a day that didn't exist!

So we arrived on 26th and after an inordinately long campervan collection process set off in our new little home. Martyn slept so well last night he has declared he is putting his parents in the tent when they arrive!

Anyway, drove up to Waipu because the name sounded funny (yes you do say it like that!) and walked on the beach then slept the sleep of people who have crossed the international date line and been on a plane for 13 hours.

Woke up and Kay had domestic moment making cooked breakfast (see photo - Martyn very happy). Read guidebook which we hadn't done in jet lagged state yesterday and discovered we had driven past the pretty beach and nice walk so set off back to see them.

Mhangewai cliff walkway was beautiful despite Martyn trying his hardest to slip down the cliff - probably path only wide enough for one but we went two abreast and his left foot slipped a bit (it's okay though I grabbed his arm, he got his balance and then I made him walk on the inside! Martyn now even more impressed - cooked breakfast and life saving but then I reminded him I needed him around to pay for the rest of the trip and life returned to normal :))

Also enjoyed walk along beach and what we realised was our first dip in the ocean. Well it was supposed to be a little paddle but the tide was coming in and we got caught out by a wave - oops soggy shorts.

Then back up the road to Whangerei for ice cream and a nice shady walk by the river. Due to the ice cream stop we didn't have time took make it to the Kauri boardwalk but it's okay because I've just found a whole Kauri forest to go to on the map!

Drive coast road to Russell which is very quaint. Lovely drive through farm land, tree ferns and Coastal views with lorikeets flying across the road ( or were they parakeets - I can never remember the difference - these ones were red headed with blue tails)

Have narrowly avoided sun burn disaster today - we are a little pink and sort of 'tight' feeling but we think we've got away with it- phew. It may be a long sleeved top day tomorrow - we forgot you can get sunburn in a car if you drive with the windows open!

Better go, Martyn has fallen asleep - well it's a late night, 21.30,

By the way Kia Ora is welcome in Maori I think! this is truly a beautiful country.

Lastly this has been bugging me today so if someone could let me know the answer it would be great as our brains are collective mush and we can't work it out. At 11.30 am here we looked up and could see a half moon. Does this mean that folks in UK can't see moon? Are we seeing same side of moon as you ( I don't think so but Martyn said we are) generally confused please help. Have managed to observe that Orion is lying on his side here but the moon thing was odd.......

LA in two days

Book hop on hop off bus for day one - can't do usual " walk the route" scheme as map says the rout is 37.5 miles to see the things we wan to see- darn it actually have to pay for tour!

Bus from hotel to Venice beach, wall length to Santa Monica Pier past Muscle Beach and get on tour bus.

See Hollywood sign, Rodeo Drive, Beverly Hills, Santa Monica Boulevard, La Brea Tar Pits, Grausmanns Chinese theatre etc etc. Highlight of all tacky tourist things seen - the staircase and street at the end of Pretty Woman which Richard Gere climbs up to give his red Rose to Julia Roberts.

Martyn even knows the end line of the film apparently it's " this is Hollywood, land of dreams, what's your dream?" someone please watch it and check just so I can tell him how sad that is!

Back to pier during stunning sunset walk back down Venice Beach in the dark which is nowhere near as nice as during the day. Strategically avoid all the "marijuana doctors" and get bus back to terminal nearest hotel. Delayed dinner to room service as we had planned to eat near the pier or beach but strangely the prevalence of so many "doctors" put us off!

Day two - tour of Warner Brothers studio very cool. Backlots, front lots, Central Perk set from Friends, Harry Potter costumes, General Lee, Batmobiles, Scooby Doo van, Props and costumes from the Matrix, The Watchmen, 300...... Loads of stuff oh and the little shop where Gizmo the Gremlin was bought, and the wall that Spiderman hung upside down on to kiss Mary Jane, Boss Hoggs house and the jungle from Jurassic Park when the TRex chases Jeff Goldblum in the jeep.

Brains full of movie and tv stuff with 5 hours until check in went to mall. Kay has spending accident which she is blaming Martyn for as she kept saying she didn't need it and he kept saying it was nice though......

Repacked bags in hotel lobby to cater for spending accident.

Worry that Martyn is keeping track of spending accidents and adding up his total for gadgets later......

And

"ha ha ha Ha ha. That's all folks"

Gadget bed

So we arrived in LA and checked in to hotel. Didnt get much further than that though Martyn discovered the bed. Seriously it came with a remote control - weird we thought. Martyn didn't bother with the instructions - when does he ever? He just jumped on the bed and pressed the button "ooooooeeeerrr" was the next thing he said. He had managed to deflate his side of the bed. He then discovered that each side of the bed could be set separately. We leave you to imagine how much hilarity ensued......

Anyway when we had stopped laughing enough to agree on suitable settings we did manage to book tours for next two days including trip to Cirque Berserk which is pitched as a kind of adult Cirque du Soleil. Think Cirque du Soleil in Burlesque with a bit of Rocky horror show and Tim burton thrown in for good measure. It was very very good.

We asked the hotel to call us a cab to get there and we ended up with a chauffeur driven limo with blacked out windows. Ha ha when we arrived everyone was so disappointed to see two tacky tourists in jeans and smelly t shirts get out!

Next two days were whirlwind of organised tours......

Martyns Day

Just realised didn't do a blog yesterday so better make up for it now.

Left Everglades and headed in to Miami for last 2 days here before on to LA.

Mosquito bites recovering nicely now and realised we needed to do some (more) washing! So as I did that I left Martyn with instructions to work out what he wanted to do the next day.

Martyns Day went like this:

Up for breakfast inc - bagel and cream cheese, pack up day bag and cross road for bus. Catch bus for 30 minute journey down to South Beach. It would appear that speed limits do not apply to buses here, very fast. Seats so high up my feet didn't touch the floor.

Get off bus at LARGE gadget shop which Martyn swears he didn't plan - yeah right (Mart: "But I didnt go in"). Walk length of Lincoln Mall, head down Espanola Way for a bit of Spanish architecture etc. Turn right on Ocean Drive and walk down to the Art Deco Welcome Centre which is just a gift shop.

Meander Art Deco district admiring lovely architecture and old cars. Take pictures. Get hassled by vendors offering discounts etc for eating in their restaurants. Decide we need our friends the Lloyds to help haggle people down. Decide restaurants on Ocean Drive too noisy to hear yourself think let alone eat. Head back on to Collins Avenue into the Jewish district and find Jerrys Diner. Lovely Art Deco interior and no music + air conditioning. Perfect. Biggest menu we had ever seen. Eat at least half a cow in a baguette. Groan and walk for a bit more to try and reduce likelihood of indigestion.

Saw some stunning buildings and some stunning people. On the buildings front the 'stunning' is all very positive. On the people front the 'stunning' encompasses gorgeous, siliconed and ridiculous. Personally we think the most bonkers was the somewhat large moustached man with a pot belly and very hairy legs wearing pink lipstick,  a black leather thong, leather chest strap with money in it and some play boy bunny ears. After a while we worked out that the money tucked in his 'outfit' was from people asking him to move on.

Get speedy bus back to hotel.

Head to Aventura Mall for dinner - slice of cheesecake and yogurt. Realise still didn't really need to eat anything so groan again. Head to 24 screen cinema complex to watch TRON 3d.

Have decided I love art deco buildings - felt like we spent the morning on a very sunny Poirot set!

Today we crossed the street from motel to the supermarket we found yesterday - needed smaller meals again! bought lunch and dinner and sun bathed for 2 hours before the rain arrived. And boy did it rain - real gulley washer. Window shopped in Aventura Mall as we only had 2 hours before we had to return the car. Returned car, currently enjoying noise of aeroplanes in our 'no airport noise' advertised motel!

Off to LA tomorrow off to research what we can do there now! - wake up call at 05:30am. Ugh.

Tv themes

All will become clear on the title of today's blog never fear!

After slow start ( see previous entry) we tootled off to Flamingo to see what we could find. For some reason weren't really in mood for kayaking don't know why but instead took motorised launch into backwaters of Whitewater bay which has both sea water entry from Gulf of Mexico and also fresh water from Lake Okeechobee. We saw saltwater crocodile to go with our alligators of yesterday and learnt that my bright red bird from yesterday was a member of the Jay family and I realise I've gone and forgotten it's name, pants. It'll come to me....

And then, if yesterday wasn't perfect enough on the wildlife front what should swim in front of our boat but mummy manatee with her cub. I nearly fell out the boat!

Well we couldn't think what we could possibly do in the Everglades that would top the last day and a half, after all our luck we figured the possible dolphin would be pushing it and so we hatched a plan to head for a bit of local culture at one of the indian tribal villages. Oh well never mind. After we learnt they offered an alligator show we left but not before a quick half hour trip on an air boat - cue the Gentle Ben theme! Yes we know they're not exactly environmentally friendly and the guide book says think carefully before you go on one and is obviously disapproving but hey it had to be done! And we did pick a short one so it was only a little bit bad!

Then on to Miami. Martyn has declares me a useless mosquito slapper and has definitely won the prize as he has 11 bites in total including one on his eyelid. Apparently the mosquitos were at the "bearable" stage on the scale - horrid and hysterical to go. Despite this the eyelid bite won and Martyn declared no more camping in Everglades.

On way to Aventura Mall for dinner in food court we crossed over Sesame Street - dinner was argentinian beef and a chicken burrito with cookie and brownie for pud. Sound excessive except that we forgot about lunch in all our excitement and had only eaten a tub of Pringles and an apple all day so we were playing catch up.

After mall went off to find somewhere to sleep and ended up with - get this - ocean view of Miami beach in the Thunderbird Days Inn - it has a 1950s car in the lobby and were waiting for the roof to come off our bathroom so the space ship can launch.

So there you go - three tv themes without even trying.

FAB Virgil.

Slow start

Here in the Everglades things start slow, the morning mist is just rising and everything is suitably damp. We are fairly certain we should now ideally be out kayaking on some mysterious mangrove swamp canal trail but we are too busy watching the Mosquitos try and get in to our tenpt! Ha ha keep trying you **~{!?<\€|$|*•£;£('s

Bite count so far - Martyn up to 6 and Kay on 4 but Kay is winning as her entire left hand looks like a puffball and that is after anti histamine, just got wedding ring off in time!

In Borneo a student developed what became known as "the leech walk" here we are going for "the mosquito slap". The start of this was a little stressful as Martyn thought I was just randomly slapping him on the back which he didn't like much. All was forgiven when I peeled one of the little blighters off his shirt to show him. We've allowed each other free slapping rights until we leave !

I think the funniest thing was Martyn searching the tent for them after we scrambled in last night. Sensible locals have bug spray for their tents. Doh.

Martyn is disgruntled as three of them appear to have got him through his shirt! Of course , given afore mentioned slappin rights, this is my fault. He's gone off to brave the shower as he figures his smell might be attracting them more. Personally, I'm not going out there, ever, it's quite nice sat here watching the ibis through my mosquito net and laughing at the occasional proboscis that pokes hopefully through.

Aha he's back and apparently there is hot water now is that worth getting out the tent for ? It's a tough one.....

But will we survive...

The Mosquitos ? Currently lying in sealed up tent (we hope) listening to the somewhat worrying whine of Mosquitos. Kay so far has three bites Martyn has just counted and also has three that he knows of, oh and some blood splatters on his t-shirt.

As long as the tent holds up this will go down on the list of 'best day's. The Everglades are amazing.

After a quick fuel stop (which was interesting as we discovered the truck of luck does not hav a fuel cap you just shove the pump nozzle in the hole) off we went.

First stop "Robert is here" for the biggest chocolate fruit and banana milkshake come ice cream ever - Martyn couldn't finish it. Quick walk around the petting zoo and onward (we only stopped as it was listed in guidebook and was an address we could put into gps to get on the right road!)

Made it to Ernest Coe visitors centre and had a good look around to learn all about Everglades. then on to Palm Grove to walk the FANTASTIC Anhinga trail and the Gumbo Limbo trail which apparently only take 30min. Well we spent at least an hour on the Anhinga trail. we saw alligator, turtle, wood stork, anhinga, cormorant, ibis, egret, coot, moorhen, and LOADS of other birds that I have to look up it was brilliant.

We stopped at a couple of other viewpoints on the way to our lovely campsite for tonight, pitched camp applied DEET and went out to do 'Coastal prairie trail' which with our usual success we couldn't find but we did see some beautiful green sea grass stuff an then on the way back two lovely red backed hawk (or is it Red breasted? Not sure now but they were lovely) arrived back at tent to see woodpeckers tap tapping away at the coconut palm that Kay successfully talked Martyn out of pitching the tent beneath. Decided to set off in search of Eco pond.

Found pond - and a Spoonbill very cool think short flamingo with a big long beak that someone stomped on to make it flat. WOW.

Also saw amazing bright red finch like bird that I have to look up.

Brilliant day.

Have to go now - must stop Martyn snoring and it's dark in tent now so I suppose we better brave the mozzys and go brush teeth. Then again it sounds like there is monster swarm of them out there........

We survived!

Rain stopped enough for a quick loo dash at 10pm and then back in our most excellent tent which did keep us nice and dry.

Do have to change my previous description of toilets though - no longer functional! No more flush and when I brushed my teeth all the water came out the sink some pipework appeared to be missing!

Needless to say we left campsite this morning having dealt with our only wet issue. Kay decided to shake some of the water off the rent but forgot to shut the door. It was her bed that got wet though. As penance she had to stand in the sun drying her mattress. It's a hard life.

Bank holiday

Means what? A day off work, some shops shut and rain usually. Well guess what - it's not UK specific only remember that in the good old US of A they love to go large. And we're camping which means it's bound to rain and rain and rain and thunder and lightning.

Photo is of campsite we were at for last three nights as taken through windscreen of our truck - lucky us got tent packed away just in time waited out the downpour and headed off to Crane museum (which is not a crane museum but is named for the people who lived there). Very nice palm and mangrove walks with butterflies, a bird rescue centre, boardwalks, a little museum and two historic houses. Learnt a bit about the local indian tribes as well.

Headed on out after lunch with plan to see everglades as rain has stopped but forgot 45mph speed limit which hampered progress a little (as did the required pit stop for our last key lime pie ice pop).

Made it to campsite at Florida City which is a bit like an American Slough. Campsite is hmmmm, functional. Bit like the truck stop equivalent of a campsite. It has flushing loos but to be honest I've been in nicer toilets that don't flush. Besides with the way the rain is coming down it won't matter as I'll be crossing my legs all night.

Tent picnic of salad and mini pitta breads was yummy as we worked out how close the storm was from the thunder and lightning. Nearly didnt need head torch there was so much lightning. Its alright though Martyn has agreed "trucky" is our codeword if either of us doesn't like the tent in the storm and there is a motel down the road - he says we can peg it an come back for the tent tomorrow! Methinks we're made of sterner stuff- we survived 5 days in the Lakes as everyone disappeared around us!

At least it's not cold and I've worked out why Martyn chose this campsite - there is huge gadget shop 10 mins walk away!

Anyway if we don't float away tonight we're going to try for Everglades tomorrow!

BTW there are warning signs for evacuation routes and hurricane shelters all over the place here - they all say if the siren sounds turn tv to local news for instructions. Can you spot the problem ? Ah well still dry so far ;-)

Rockin railroads ...

Sunday lie in - at least we think it's Sunday so that's our excuse.

Walked along two miles of the old seven mile bridge to Pigeon Key today and learnt all about Henry Flagler who funded the East Coast Railway and built Miami and founded Florida light and power and loads of other stuff. Oh and he was an early partner in Standard oil with mr rockerfeller as well.

Apparently he came up with the idea for wind and tidal power in the late 1800s but everyone thought he was bonkers.

He paid people 1.5 dollars a day for a two year contract with transport paid to come live down here and build it. If you wanted to leave you had to pay forty bucks for the transport.

Apparently his third wife pushed him down the stairs too finish him off but it's okay coz her second husband poisoned her with strychnine.

Failed miserably to find out why it was called Pigeon Key completely forgot to ask - we were too busy admiring Buddy the HUGE cat who was completely soft and looked like a small puma.

Currently sat listening to the entertainment that goes with tonights cook out. He's quite good actually so we're rockin along as the sun sets. have discovered new pudding Key Lime ice pops - slice of key lime pie dunked in chocolate and then frozen - very yummy.

Not sure about the "brat" as the lady at the food counter gave me a choice of hotdog or brat so I said one of each just in case. Unfortunately we have no idea which was which but they were both good so that's ok.

8pm and very dark here now so off to tent to download some piccies as Martyn has filled a card!

Various memories

More things I have so far forgotten to mention

1) Easter island - to give you an idea of how expensive it was I have worked out that the tomato we bought to go with our lunch was 75p. Now it was a big tomato but I've double checked the exchange rate and it was definitely 75p. Makes the cauliflower in sainsbugs look cheap hey mum?!

2) why did the chicken cross the road? To get to Key West - the place was full of them.

3) Kay intelligent statement - "lobster steakhouse - how do you get a lobster steak Martyn? ....., oh oops" the next sign was for cheesesteaks.

4) Martyn " all our data is up in the cloud" Kay "thunder cloud ? And what happens if there is a tornado?" Martyn "upset now" Kay " try this then - how come with virtual machines you said we would only need one computer but we have loads more and now all the data is in the cloud we have even less need for computers so I should be in negative numbers of computers by now......." Martyn "baaaandwidth, that's what we don't have, that's why we need private local cloud" Kay "sounds like you're getting desperate and watch out coz there might be a lightening strike from that cloud and that would probably be bad." Martyn "ummmmmmmm"

5) Martyn on looking through coupon booklet for motels ....... "kay - this one includes free wifi and ice cream" can you believe it - his ice cream radar tummy can even find adverts for free ice cream 200 miles away.....

Big Truck heads south...

View from our camp site near 7 mile bridge on the Florida Keys. After landing in Miami yesterday morning before the sun came up, we picked up our LARGE SUV (they were out of the small ones!) stopped at supermarket for supplies and headed south on highway 1. We tried two campgrounds along the way, both being met with 'what is a tent?' (well, actually they just said RVs only), until we landed at Knights Key- tents no problem, thankyou very much

It gets dark here about 6.30pm this time of year, and we fell asleep (slightly jetlagged) shortly after that.

Awoke to beautiful sunshine this morning and CEREAL for breakfast (this was an important development in our adventure as most mornings had been started with bread and jam or some other less suitable substitute since Chileans don't really do milk with breakfast in the morning) they don't seem to do milk at all really.

Spent today exploring Key West - right at the southern most point in the US, though if we are being picky the actual most southern bit is about 400 yards south west of all the tourists photographing the sign inside a nasty looking naval base with a high fence.

Tried the compulsory Key Lime Pie which was nice. Martyn had the inevitable 2 scoop ice cream cone which was possibly his ideal flavour combination (Cuban banana and coconut rum raisin ) but was not as good as our Chilean ice creams.

Scored a blinder seeing the sights again - picked up a leaflet for the tour bus and then walked the route saving ourselves a not inconsiderable number of bucks and because the tour buses were open air as we walked we could hear the commentary anyway. These hints do not appear in the budget section of lonely planet harumph!

Saw Hemingways house (needs coat of paint), lighthouse (which blew down in hurricane so strong it also emptied the local cemetery depositing the bodies in trees eeeewww), oldest house, Mallory square, walked up Duval street and along the boardwalk reading all distressing signs about how they used to eat and farm turtles ;-( found new cemetery ( with crypts in which bodies are 4 high and apparently have things like "told you I was sick" engraved on them)
Avoided truly IMMENSE amount of tat, the vast majority of which was either shell, sea life or pirate oriented, laughed at awful t shirt slogan and bar names.

Currently sat in snack bar at campsite - everyone else here owns an rv and is definitely over 60 and some are apparently here for 3 months after which they play it day by day. Sign above bar says "shirts and shoes required bra and panties optional" it's very tame for here!

Thinking of taking part in activities here tomorrow there is shuffleboard on the map and I need to know what that is, there is also "brat on the beach" at the stay up late partying hour of 5pm to 8pm we think at a push we might manage to stay awake for that. A "brat" is apparently a sausage type thing and not an annoying young person so we think it's got potential.

Moai Bling

Just spotted this in the airport - among countless wooden carved Moai, you just have to have a silver / stainless steel one - bit too large to hang from the rear view mirror, and might fall off the dashboard - awesome if you had a giant monopoly game of the world though!

Easter Island had a high degree of overpriced tat unfortunately - no presents for you then.

Ahu, Moai and Pukau

So having worn our feet and legs out yesterday we took the guided tour slightly further afield on the island today.

First stop Ahu Akahanga which is a large Ahu with several fallen Moai we also saw remains of a village with canoe shaped houses, caves and old stoves.

Then onto Ahu Tongariki which supports 15 Moai that were re-erected by a Japanese company because a huge tsunami in 1960 knocked them all over with a look out over Peninsula Poike and the oldest part of the island - this is where the first of the three volcanoes that formed the island is.

After that to Rano Raraku or the nursery. This is where the Moai were hewn from the rock using basalt axes and the like. Then they were rolled down the hill into a hole so they could stand up. In this way their carving was finished with obsidian tools and then the carvers let the families know their moai was finished - delivery was not included!

Had lunch here and then onto Ahu Te Pito Kura and the largest ever erected Moai - 9.98m tall and 60 tonnes of it. It was another fallen down one though. Humour of the visit here was the oohing an aaaahing by the other people on the tour when we got to the "tummy button of the world" a big rock supposedly bought here by Hotu Matua when he claimed the islands. It apparently gives out energy and can affect a compass. I kept quiet about the fact that this just meant it had lumps of iron in it and let the guide break the news!

Finally to Playa Anakena - one of only two White sand beaches on the island for a bit of a chill before heading back.

Phew what a day.

Tomorrow having come one third of the way towards New Zealand we are going to go back the wrong way and head off to Miami so might be quiet for another little while hopefully we're sleeping on the plane! Always assuming we survive dinner tonight as we found a supermarket and hostal has kitchen so it's Chilean supernoodles (from Japan).

Oh and in case you were wondering an Ahu is the platform, the Moai are the big statues and the Pukau is the topknot that supposedly copies their hairstyle. we didn't realise there was so much fashion involved but the original Moai were quite small and then later they became bigger with pointy noses and the like. When they had their eyes painted in it meant their spirit was alive.

Biggest Moai not erected was 21.6m tall and it's still lying down in the nursery. Personally I think the best one is a much older one called Tukuturi which is quite short, he is sat on his feet and has a little goaty beard.

Enough info for now - and we are leaving our first guidebook here to save weight - enjoy the picture of Playa Anakena.

Sore legs and grit blisters

So Easter Island is a maximum of 24 km at its longest point and 12 km at it's widest and it feels like we walked most of that today!

Left campsite and headed south to Orongo a tribal village built into the side of Rano Kau one of the three volcanoes that made the island. Lovely shady walk up hill in eucalyptus wood very nice. Orongo is a ceremonial village where the bird man ceremony was held. Blokes from clans had to jump off 300m cliff, swim to nearest island, grab a seagull egg and get it back to their chief intact. First one back got to be leader for a year. Bit like the great egg race but more physical!

Down the hill, along the length of the runway to the oil station, back down the other half of the runway, into town, one drink and one ice lolly later and we're walking out the other side of town to Ahu Akivi which would have been much easier if the map was accurate. All I can say is there must have been A LOT of Coastal erosion here as the map shows the start of the trail at an Ahu that is inland. It was actually right on the coast. Still of we trot for what the map says is 1.45 hrs of walking. 2 hrs later we have got another 20 mins of our "we turn back at 7" time left and it's still nowhere to be seen. At 7.05 whoop de doo there it is. Very important as it is the only inland Moai and the only ones to face the sea. Something important to do with the equinox....

Back down as quick as poss before sun sets as we have no torch. Make it to Ahu Tahai for sunset great timing.

Stop at cafe for three drinks and a donut as it's too late to cook dinner.

Left at 0930 back to Hostal at 2200 to discover bleeding feet and goodness knows how much dust. No one mentioned the dust. Look like we have taken a dust bath. Shower freezing cold and no clean clothes as bags in storage in airport! Great day though.

Ia ora na and a booty call

Okay so we are now a third of the way towards new Zealand on Easter Island, Rapa Nui or Isla de Pascua whichever you want to call it.

Plane was delayed a bit so plans for museum had to be put off but never mind it doesn't seem that long since we did a museum anyway.

We were met at the airport by our campsite staff and presented with our garland of flowers. All very Polynesian and then taken to our Hostal/campsite which is right on the coast we found the tourist info office, bought a map and went off in search of dinner.
Ia ora na means hello in Rapa Nui by the way. The ancient language is actually Rongo Rongo but that is all heiroglyphs and no-one knows what they say anymore.

So why the "booty call" part of the title? Well the guide book said that one thing you had to do while here was see a traditional dance show so we found one. Beyonce would be proud of the bum wiggling that these girls can do. not sure they knew how zoomed in the little Japanese mans camera in front of us was though!

The men were actually wearing less than the women (who were basically in bikini tops and grass skirts of various designs. All the men had on was a kind of g string with a sporran on the front (well one shy bloke had a flap at the back as well). This was especially interesting when some bloke handed one of the men some money Martyn said "oh no...." I said "hmmmm, where is he going to put that?" and the lady next to me (who I had no idea spoke English) just guffawed. Watched what I said for the rest of the evening I can tell you!

Anyway it was very interesting with a little display at the start showing how they uses to make all their clothes etc and in terms of lack of clothing it definitely had something for all the over 18s in the family!

And a big plus - we managed to stay awake for the whole thing.

Honestly though as is always the way I think the best thing was on the way to the dance show when we heard some music, saw a crowd, wandered in and met up with what must have been half of Hanga Roa doing some kind of polynesian line dancing. Great fun.

Easter Island

Ok, we're off again today, not sure of the connectivity situation on Easter Island, so more blog in 3 days perhaps..

Major crisis (but don't panic)

Martyn has used up ALL of our emergency toilet roll blowing his nose from his cold. We better not have any other need for it! We've nicked another one from our hostal - don't tell!

Its no good,I am a desert chick I am. The sun, the sand, the space. Don't get me wrong I loved southern Chile as well - green and lush and warm with beautiful mountains but up here is just lovely. I had to write down some notes on things I think I forgot to blog about so I didn't forget them:

We saw rocks made of salt that was polished clear like glass and also heard rocks. Heard rocks? Yup, completely wicked. These rocks are made of salt and in the heat of the sun the expand and then contract when it cools (obviously) anyway, as this happens they make loud cracking noises just like corrugated iron. Its a little disconcerting when you're stood underneath them.

And the STARS.
Its 32oC at 6pm. Lovely.
Oh and I now know the difference between vicuna, alpaca, guanaco and llama. They are the four types of american camelid although none of them have humps! Vicuna and Guanaco are wild whilst Llama and alpaca are domesticated. An alpaca is shorter and furrier than a llama and a guanaco is bigger than a vicuna and has a black face. I think vicuna are the prettiest ones.

Will be sad to leave - which we are about to do in 2 hours. Its time for Easter Island. We'll let you know if we find any eggs.
So no blog yesterday as we kind of had a do nothing day. All we did was catch a bus to Calama. Actually thats not true we also went to the archaeological museum which was very interesting but no mummies as the indigenous people asked them to be removed. Lots of axe heads and old bits of cloth though.

Hang on, just looked back at the photos of the south and now I don't know which I prefer - oooohhh big dilemma. Its all stunning. Snowy mountains or cactus mountains........its no good, thats too big a decision to make!
Sort of a do nothing day today and a bit of yesterday. I have actually been sunbathing for a bit in the nice secluded courtyard of our hostal. We tried to make our walking tour of Calama last 2 hours but after an hour we gave up. Lonely Planet actually has a statue of a coal miner with a strategically located pneumatic drill listed as a site to see so of course we went and found it. The church is also interesting. It has a roof and tower made entirely of copper which is an interesting thought considering the eletrical storms they have up here before the rains come. Also it wins the prize for the soonest ever playing of Christmas carols. Its 9th January and when the bells ring they play The First Nowell. Only 350 days to go in case you were counting....

Scarily Martyn is almost half way through a book and I have managed to do two crosswords in my book without looking up any answers! Its doing well this crossword book - I got it for Japan!

Anyway flight back to Santiago tonight and then hopefully Easter Island tomorrow although apparently they always over book the Easter Island flights so we'll see. Not that I'm neurotic about flights or anything!

ooh goody, Martyn has successfully been and purchased choc ice, I'm off.

Flamingo at Laguna Chaxa

Heart Attack on a Plate

More commonly known as Chorrillanos. We went local again for lunch but were fed up of empanadas. Basically its a plate of fried potatoes, onion, red meat, chicken and sausages all topped off with two fried eggs. We didn't know what it was when we ordered it and we shared one. We ate half of it 7 hours ago and still can't think about food for dinner. We do have a photo but we felt too ill looking at it to post it!

Anyway, reason for lunch blow out was that we were up at 03.30 for a 4am pick up to get up to the highest geyser field in the world El Tatio Geysers. Very cool and nowhere near as smelly as the ones we saw in Iceland which was good as a 6am Kay stomach with rotten egg smell at altitude is probably not a good combination. On the way back down from 4320m we stopped off at a little village called Machuca - population 40 where Martyn made friends with a local chap called Miguel. We have no idea what he was saying to us. We think we managed to converse about the fact we had been to the geysers and hadn't been for a swim in the geothermal pools because it was -6 and quite frankly too cold. But he could have been telling us about his llama herd to be quite honest! Although we are fairly sure he mentioned water. He seemed to like the kiss on the cheek Kay gave him anyway.

After that it was off to a nice little canyon with cacti in it which we wandered through for half an hour. Some nice photos to post later. These cacti grow 2cms a year so some of them must have been 200 - 300 years old! They were cool.
Back in time for massive lunch as previously mentioned. We ate with the biggest dog we have ever seen guarding over us - certainly a contender for the hound of the baskervilles I think I upset him by not giving him any sausage but he let me out the eatery so all is well!

Whoever 'anonymous' was who posted that Martyn looks like he is losing weight on all the ice cream - he loves you dearly and says he did his best to make up for it with the heart attack on a plate today. He's whinging as apparently I only let him have an orange lolly instead of another ice cream for pudding!

Wow - room service tomorrow - little lady at hostal has just been by, we think to say its her day off tomorrow so can she bring us breakfast on a tray at 8am. Fab. Always assuming that is what she said of course....

Flamingos and donkeys.

Up at 0530. In bus at 0615. Viewing Chilean and Andean flamingos at 0800 at laguna chaxa. Fab. Oh and avocet and plover as well. Have never seen flamingo fly. Very cool. The Chilean flamingo is the one with the redder neck and black wing tips. Their necks get more red the older they are. The Andean flamingo is the pale pink one.
Coca tea for breakfast before off up to 4300m to view beautiful lakes Miscanti and Minique where we saw James flamingo before lunch in a nice little place called Socaire. Then on to Tocanao to look at a church and some handicraft shops in which we found the most phallic statue of a pair of mating donkeys ever so we sent the rest of our trip group in to see it. They were very impressed but strangely no-one bought it and we could manage the Spanish for "we don't want it but can we take a photo" so you'll just have to trust us. We felt we added a lot to the trip for our group!
So having recovered our sensibilities we made it back to town by 1530 and felt obliged to have possibly the biggest ice cream ever. We did manage to ask for two spoons!
Have to go pack bag now for 0330 trip to geysers tomorrow - so looking forward to it!

Rally ho

So we said to the people next to us at breakfast ( who were off sandboarding) that we were having a free day to just take it easy - hmmm

We read about a fort that was 3 km away so after a 45 min detour to see if we could find the Dakar rally at the customs point we set off. Of course we forgot that most forts (including this one) are built on top of hills. By the time we got there it was midday. At least with the sun directly overhead we has manage to find a breeze. Anyway this fort ( Pukara de Quitor ) was the last bastion of the Atacameno people against the Spanish who beheaded a load of them to make a point and having done that promptly converted them all and gave then Spanish names. They were not impressed. Little museum was cool and I practised my Spanish again by translating all the signs. Of course I have no idea if I was right or not but hey....

then we decided one hill was not enough and so we walked down from the fort and up the other side to the viewpoint which was very good. Martyn especially liked it as at first we could here some very loud engines and then as we rounds a corner and looked down quite a way there were all these rally cars and bikes going past - guess what we had found. Hurrah. So the one hour round trip to the viewpoint became about 2 hrs as we sat and watched the cars and then after our wall back to the Hostal as we sat having our empanada lunch/dinner all the support trucks started driving by which was quite funny ad the little village streets here are quite narrow and the trucks struggle to get round the corner. Martyn very excited. So excited he didn't notice how patchy and red his legs were starting to look - uneven application of sun cream issue. I put extra on and he said "oh I'm alright" hee hee. He's zipped his trouser legs back on now.

Oooops better go and have a wifely enthuse more rally trucks coming. I have to say that sat on the patio in the shade with an ice lolly waiting for the rally to come to me is my preferred way of watching.
PS more piccies uploaded and Martyn has apparently managed to upload some video as well - enjoy (we are!)

Penguins at Sten Otway

Slightly out of order, as I've only just got the video off the TZ-10, here are the delightful pengiuns at Sten Otway:

Valley of the moon

So after our 2am get up we flew to Calama which really is as bad as guidebook says- which is pretty bad. Martyn started off by saying he thought book was being pretty harsh but 10 mins and two blocks in he agreed with the book. Tried for trip to chuquicamata one of the biggest copper mines in the world but it was full so practised my Spanish with directions to bus. Bus found eventually hurrah practiced more Spanish and got two tickets for right bus hurrah again got to San Pedro de Atacama and wondered how come in supposedly cold Patagonia we were warm and in the driest desert in the world we were cold. Then realised we were at 2440m and it was still only 10am ish by lunchtime we were frantically looking for somewhere cool and shady. 4pm saw us leave for tour of valley of the moon and watching the sunset. Bootiful.

We have just discovered that the Paris Dakar rally is due somewhere near here in next two days. Martyn very excited and trying to work out route to see if we can watch. I think they need new sat navs if it's the Paris Dakar and they are over here but never mind. I shall plan my route around the archeological museum just in case we can't find the rally - Martyn will be pleased.
Empanadas for tea yummy more tomorrow methinks.

P.S Happy Birthday Claire!!!
PPS possibly more photos to be uploaded tomorrow as we have another easy day prior to a 4am and then a 6am start for a couple of tours around here.....

Pounding the pavements...

In Santiago is how we spent yesterday. I've just realised Martyn gave you a food update but didn't tell you much about what we actually did.
Having made the absolute most of the breakfast Inc in our 5* hotel ( with an actual doorman in a posh red coat and hat ha ha they did look at us funny with our dusty bags) we left at 10am and walked long the lovely brown mapucho river which Mart describes as looking like Willy Wonkas chocolate river. He has no idea it was way too thin for that maybe more like a manly river of Milo (think runny cold hot chocolate if you don't know what Milo is).

Found the artisans district quite by accident (honest) but managed to resist temptation. Then wandered to main square and lovely cathedral.
After epic lunch fail we took funicular railway up hill to see view of Santiago and statue of Virgin Mary; very nice then spent an hour walking back down the hill and though the posh suburbs to our hotel.

In amongst that lot inevitably also found the university, cemetery, dodgy food stalls, markets galore and red light district ( well either that or just some very dodgy nightclubs)
Bed early as flight to Calama is at 0510. With 2 am check in and 0.5 hr cab ride there. Martyn assures me this is no problem. Sometimes I am astounded by his selective memory regards my morning capabilities!

Off grid

We will be shorty getting up at 3am for a flight to Calama, this may mean we are off the grid for a few days, will tweet when we can!

Lunch Recovery

Much better. Yum

Epic Lunch Fail

We had a pleasant walking tour of Santiago today, it was 30c in the sun 8-). We were perhaps a little over confident when it came to lunch however. Firstly Kay gallantly decided on a mystery fruit juice, and only just avoided ordering it, as the the dictionary revealed it to be 'carrot' at the last moment.
Martyn was sticking to maximum vitamin c to attempt to frighten off his man flu, we then decided to lunch at a cafe full of locals. Unfortunately the menu was hand-written by staff and our healthy salad turned out to be cold over-boiled beans (similar to a Japanese noodle disaster we will not refer back to) and some sliced tomato. Damned if we could find the lovely salad the people next to us ended up with. We fixed this failure with a huge ice-cream - which was 50p !!!!

Made it...

to Santiago - phew. Great flight - straight over all the glaciers that we missed due to the snow in London, brilliant views but internet a bit dodgy here so no pictures - sorry about that.

Apparently we also flew over an earthquake, just heard about it on the news. It seems to have struck about 6 - 7 hours south of Santiago and we're going further north on Tuesday morning!

Arrived in Santiago at about 3pm and then had nightmare taxi journey - speed signs said 80km/h  and we were doing 140 in a tunnel under a park. (like Need For Speed - Underground) - I think if Martyn knew the Spanish for 'please slow down before we die' he might have used it!

 

We have apparently scored a blinder and do appear to be in a 5* hotel for the next two nights. We were looked at a bit oddly as we walked in with our packs - didn't really fit in with the Gucci dahlings. We were also a bit thrown by being asked to sit down whilst we checked in but I think we covered ourselves as we resisted the free sweetie from the dish!

Have just been and found dinner which was interesting a) because its Sunday and all is closed and b) because its only 6pm and Chile doesn't really wake up fo another 2 hrs but we were starving as the chocolate biscuit on the plane didn't fill us up. Martyn decided his cold required protein and so went for steak egg and chips but then realised he needed some vitamins so topped it off with a passion fruit juice. I went a bit more local and had corn pie with chicken which is apparently a summer snack although i think it was more like a large winter comfort food meal. Oh and I had a Cherimoya juice, which is custard apple which was actually quite nice although I seem to remember I don't like the fruit but the juice was okay. Interestingly I was encouraged to put sugar on my pie. Kind of sweet and savoury. Weird but okay.

Walking tour of Santiago all planned out for tomorrow.

Glacier Ahoy!

Despite missing out on hiking to one of the glaciers today, our flight back to Santiago had stunning views of all of the Torres Del Paine:

Lomit the Vomit and the New Year Disaster

If you laugh as hard as we are you'll bust a rib so be careful reading this one but its long so make sure you have time!

So the New Year party was a corker here. There were fireworks, street parties, bazookas, air horns and all the boats in the harbour let their sirens off. The party from along the promenade then moved through all the streets of the town. At least we think it did - we woke up at midnight having missed it all and enjoyed the noise for a bit before we fell asleep again. Oh dear, we had the best of intentions. If only New Years celebrations happened at 9pm then we'd make them......

But still, we made it up at 08.30 to go see the Magellanic Penguinos which were ACE. We were the first ones there with our lovely guide Roberto and unbeknownst to us we had booked our own private tour so it was just the three of us all day. LOVELY. We have seen baby penguins and waddling penguins and swimming and snuggling penguins. All penguined out. We had lunch looking out over the Fitzroy Channel and then drove around the water to look for Dolphins which must have all been busy swimming with the penguins. Then we saw three Condor roosting and one swooped right over our heads when we had our lunch. Very cool. When we went to Torres del Paine I bought a little wildlife guide with 52 plants and animals listed. I've ticked most of them off now and a few more not included ones. Brilliant Day.

Got back to hotel at 4.30pm and decided to walk into town. Just like Christmas - all shut. Apart from Lomits which is listed in Lonely Planet as Chiles answer to a roadside diner. It had a big sign outside saying ICE CREAM which Martyn needed by then. He has man-flu but is dealing with it like a trooper and knowing him it will be gone tomorrow and I'll be having it for the next two weeks....Anyway, we went in for the obligatory ice cream which was yummy - although Martyn got himself three scoops and then me three scoops so he's eaten 4.5 scoops but he says his seperate ice cream tummy is still only half full. While we ate our ice cream we watched the chef cook on the griddle in the middle. Well, we watched until we felt ill anyway, the slices of raw beef were stored next to the fresh tomato, the chef wiped his nose on his apron, then he made a fresh raw beef patty by slapping some mince down on a wooden countertop and without washing his hands he picked up a cooked roll and burger and put the salad on it. Lovely. Oh and he dropped his knife on the floor and then carried on using it. Hence we coined the term Lomit the Vomit. Needless to say we ate our ice cream and ran out of there!

Back at hostal we decided it would be a good idea to reconfirm our flight for tomorrow. Good job. Flight had been cancelled. Not sure why - airline cock up - something to do with our first cancellation and rebooking we think - they cancelled the return flight twice instead of once we think. Ho Hum. At least we found out. Orlando on reception was very helpful as our fairly limited Spanish could not cope with all the telephone confusion! Never mind. Snottogram sent to airline for compensation and refund of cancelled flight organised. Extortionate amount of money paid for new flight tomorrow with NON BUDGET airline so we can at least get to Santiago and not lose our hotel there or the rest of our flight legs but we reckon the refund we're going to get will cover it!

Nip to fridge in hostel to get dinner that we bought in supermarket yesterday. Bag not there. Martyn very worried about dinner. Runs to reception. Reception very worried about dinner. Lots of Spanish mutterings. Leave them to it for a bit, phone call, dinner found HURRAH.

Have now given up for the day and I'm afraid we've turned the telly on to sit and have our crackers and meat paste which had been taken out of the fridge so we may well have been better off at Lomit the Vomits but we're hungry and the meat paste still feels cold - can't be any worse than it being in a lunchbox all day right???!

Lets hope we make it to Santiago tomorrow - have just discovered that we seem to have managed to book ourselves in to a 5* hotel for two nights. We got it cheap with some points from something......had no idea it was 5* but after the last flight 'disaster' we're quite looking forward to it - we'll let you know!