Its been a long time since my last post, I have since moved up to the Gold Coast, am Married with 2 children.

I will start adding posts about our life on the Gold Coast as part of our travels.

Back in Melbourne

A long flight, the plane left late but all is good, I am now home.

Universal Studios

Universal Studios opens at 10am so I have a full day ahead of me. A train, then a small bus gets me to the entrance and line-up was huge. The quickest way to get in was the ticketing machines, I am only coming here once I so I get the VIP ticket to avoid the lines.

As soon as I walk in, I go straight into the first thing I see, the House of horrors. It was a bit of fun, a couple of young girls behind me made me laugh, they were screaming allot with characters jumping out from hiding places.

Everything runs like clock work, need to really organise everything around the show times.  I realise on my way to the simpson's ride, that the VIP was a great idea, the line had to be near an hour long. A 5 minute wait, I am ushered through to the front and into the virtual roller coaster. This ride was the best of its type that I have been on, it was awesome, it felt like I was on a real roller coaster.

Terminator 2 3D felt like a pretty old, the show had both actors and 3D effects up on the big screen. They took us forward in time to blow up the main computer, it was entertaining but probably needs an update.

Onto the main reason most people go to Universal Studios, to do the studio tour. The sets were awesome, its crazy to compare real life to the movies. The 3D ride where you drive in on tram and everywhere around you for 360 degrees, you see King Kong saving us from a Tyrannosaurus Rex, pretty cool.

The Mummy and Jurassic park rides were right next to each other, down 3 sets of long stairs. The Mummy ride was a quick roller coaster ride, fun, fast but I would have loved it to be longer. The Jurassic Park ride was in a boat, dinosaurs everywhere and it was cool getting drenched because it was so hot.

The special effects stage showed us how everything has progressed and the importance of technology in evolution. A heap of volunteers got involved, flying around the stage and put in different situations.

Quickly I head off to Shrek 3D, hoping to see whatever else I could. Turns out that this was the same as the one in Warner Bros on the Gold Coast. It was good but ended up being the last thing I did.

It was near 5pm, I am getting picked up at the hotel at 7:30pm so I decided to give the last couple of things a miss. I look back and think I got to see so much, yet I think some unlucky people might have only seen 3 or 4 things max.

A small bus, then a train back to the hotel, all is good, the shuttle arrives and I catch the plane that night.

LA Angels

I head off early this morning, the plan originally was to go to Universal Studios, those plans changed when I worked out the only time I can watch a game of baseball was this afternoon. I go for a walk to check out the home of the LA Lakers, the Staple Centre and ESPN has a massive big X-Games festival on today. I walk around, its got some cool stalls and some of the contests would have been awesome.

I look up the metro lines to see how to get to Anaheim, the only one I find is out near Long Beach, a fair distance away. I get out there around 11:30am for the 12:30pm start between the LA Angels and  Texas Rangers. The instruction on the web seemed easy, get off the train and go across the car park. I see no car park and nothing even close to a ball park.

I wander around, ask a couple of people who don't know what I am talking about, I get to a Holiday Inn. They advise me that I should have headed over to Anaheim in Orange County. Instead of a Taxi, I get a hire car which will save me a bit of money and I have 20 minutes to get there. The guy speeds, I arrive at the end of the first innings but it costs $90 including a nice tip.

The game was low scoring, LA kept a lead for most of the day, my seat was down in the sun not to far from the play. Texas put a bit of scare into the locals at the bottom of the 9th with bases full but LA came up on top.

I find the correct train back, turns out it is a rural train, which only runs so many times a day. I get lucky with the last train of the day running a little bit late. I get back to the hotel, really tired, dehydrated and hungry, I didn't really look after myself today not wanting to eat the rubbish served up at the baseball.

Happy to eat Subway and recover for tomorrow which is going to massive day, I head to the room early and relax for the night.

Welcome back to America

I wake up feeling fine this morning, no hangover, nothing, just the after effects of a day I wasn't sure how to take in. I get a knock on the door, it seems I have organised a ride to the airport, I decide I should renegotiate the price, the price halved before I am happy.

I get through security with about 3 hours to wait, I eye Bubba Gumps, for a decent feed and it also provided free wifi. The Rib Eye was the most expensive thing on the menu at $30 and exactly what I felt like. The time seemed to go slow, the flight left on time around 2pm.

A long day of travel, I arrive into LA at 8pm. A wait for the shuttle into town took longer than expected, I organised it earlier this morning online in Cancun. I get to the hotel around 10pm, get some food, have a quick look around and head to bed. For a saturday night, I was surprised how quiet it was in downtown LA.

Last Night in Mexico

I woke up this morning with a massive grin on my face, a good sleep, everything paid for and was looking forward to getting some breakfast. The buffet was alright, a couple of non alcoholic juices and straight back up to my room to plan the day.

I read on the balcony for a bit, letting my tummy settle and down the gym for a workout. This place is hot, so I sweat up a storm and head back to the room for a shower before its pool time. The weather was awesome, relaxing in the pool drinking cocktails. I don't like waiting for the pool bar, so I like to walk up out of the pool to another bar, and then jump back in.

This works well, talked to heaps of people, enjoying myself. I started ordering bigger shouts, they were going down nicely and I was giving some to others also. I am pretty happy, half way through the afternoon, I order another 4 drinks, on my way back, I slip over spilling all the drinks. I think nothing of it, picked up the drink which was atleast half full and kept going.

Turns out, the hotel were not impressed, they grabbed me, ripped off my arm band, kicked me out the front of the hotel and called the cops on me. That, alcohol and being scared witless that all my money and passport were in the hotel had me in a state of panic.

More than 2 hours later, the cops look at me, I am told that for one last night, you can stay in the room and can go no where else. In my state of panic, I was scared that they might come back, I take this as being kicked out so I grab my stuff, and leave as quickly as I can in a taxi to the airport.

I get there, its getting late, I was hoping to change my flights to find somewhere to sleep. I go from terminal, to terminal but all was pretty much stopped. It was after 10pm at this stage, I find some dodgy dudes in there taxi, who take me to a hotel and I can atleast sleep it off. For $210, they get it all organised for me and atleast the hotel was real nice, the end to day I would prefer to forget.

Cancun

The tour ends this morning, I was planning to go with David and Anne to Cancun but I wasn't ready so they left at around 11am. I had a bit of lunch, got myself back together and left at around 1pm. I arrive at the hotel around 3pm, wait for a while for the hotel to work themselves out, drop my stuff in room and at the bar by 4pm.

This place is massive so I grab a drink and keep moving. Anyone who loves resorts, good weather and heaps of people would really enjoy this place. It has a pool bar, a beach bar, and a couple of bars spread out around the place. I start off on beer, soon realise, cocktails were free also so I moved onto them.

A bit of walk down the beach I descovered the Parasailing centre, I hadn't done it before so off I go. I didn't know what to expect, it is mainly cruising up in the air about 50 metres looking into the distance. Relaxing and enjoyable but no adrenaline rush at all.

A few more drinks at the pool, a buffet meal with a glass of red and I decide to head back to my room and catch up on sleep from the Mexican tour.

Playa Del Carmen

Wake up this morning around 9am, go have a bit of breakfast and go for a small walk. We don't head back to Cancun until 1pm, its a 25 minute boat ride. We arrive and get straight into taxi's for the bus stop, another hour to go down to Playa Del Carmen.

This place is a mini, more classy version of Cancun from what I am told. We have a few hours to ourselves before going to dinner, I decide to get a sports massage. The lady absolutely destroyed my shoulder, she found a notch and did everything in her power to level it out, hopefully doesn't hurt to much tomorrow.

We go to dinner at a place called Go Natural, healthy stuff. I chose enchilada's and a tropical juice with a splash of tequila, a nice combination. Next stop is a pool bar on the roof top of a hostel, it was real nice and prices were pretty good. The night ended for everyone else at that point, I wanted to go check out some clubs on the last night of tour.

I joined a group of people from the hostel, the were from a wide range of nations, France, Germany, England and Denmark. A bit of a pub crawl then onto the best club in town, the Blue Parrot. The girls got free drinks, I just got my hold on one of there drinks before a bouncer threatened to kick me out for not buying the drink, he could have waited 10 minutes for me to finish it. The club was on he beach, great fun and I stagger back to the hotel at around 3:30am.

Isla Mujeres

Up a bit later today, you spend it however you like. I was catching up on stuff from home, updating websites Dolls Clothes and Ashwoodfc, the morning disappeared. Mid afternoon, I have to go do some something on this beautiful little island so I go and hire a moped for an hour. The island is 8km long and 1km wide, I get around in an hour only just. Speed limits sucked, 20kmph in the centre with 40kmph for the rest of it, I opened up a couple of times but the speed humps were everywhere.

The island had beaches and piers everywhere, a turtle hatchery and place where you can swim with the dolphins. I was happy to just look around and get the moped back on time, beer on the beach was awaiting me. 5 beers before dinner on the beach went down a treat, then off to meet the others.

Back down the main street, a beach style restaurant with sand on the floor and a live band. The kebab I ordered was huge, I was lucky to get through it and the 2 for 1 margaritas, $3 is a steal. We all moved on to look for other places open, they all give up so I went on alone.

I went to a bar where you can smoke waterpipes (seesha's or hooka's). Started to order, then I recognised a girl walking past the talked to last night who was sitting by herself in the bar. I invited Victoria over for a few beers,we chatted about her life of travel and her new company Swish Wetsuits. Her life sounds awesome and she was a real nice girl, we said our goodbyes and I head back to the hotel to crash.

Chichen Itza

Up at 5:30am, a taxi to the bus station, our bus leaves at 6:30am. We arrive at Chichen Itza at 8:30am, drop off our bags in storage and a guide meets us. Chichen Itza is one of the 7 famous wonders of the world. It gets allot of tourists because it is so close to Cancun.

The guide took us around most of the temples and told us stories of the Mayan people who lived here. 2012 is believed to be the end of the world by some people but Mayans lived in 52 year cycles, at the end of the cycle it gave you a chance to live a different life or change something about yourself, 2012 is the end of the cycle. The main temple was built to show a serpent on the northern side on March 12th, the serpents head is down the bottom of the stairs and the sun sets in the right direction to show a slithery body which attaches to the head.

Allot of stories on the sporting heroes, how the captain would be killed at the end of each match and there ashes would be spread over a certain temple. The game involved a 3kg rubber ball and each team consisted for 7 players. You had to scale the wall once with it to win the game, I reckon a few games wouldn't have lasted to long.

Just as the tour finished, the heavens opened up and we got drenched. Back onto the bus to Cancun before getting a ferry to Isla Mujeres, our destination for this evening. This place is a huge tourist destination, with the place setup for just tourists. A walk down the bar strip had every type of restaurant and 2 for 1 specials everywhere. I went through the list of Daiquiris and plenty of tequila shots before eventually calling it a night.

Cuzama Cenotes

Today we follow the advice of a few other guides that Adam had talked to, a journey out to the springs. Off to the bus station, after a few wrong turns we arrive just before 10am, the next bus to Cuzama was at 10:45am.

A ride that took more than an hour, we get off and straight onto some motorbikes with 2 seats at the front for transporting people around. The guys drop us off at the company that takes you to the springs, they use horses to pull carts with 4 people along a little railway track.

After a 2 ½ hour wait and a very badly run business, it starts bucketing down. The company gives you a cart driver, that's why it took so long, a busy day and all the drivers were out on the track. At last we get onto the track, not long after we have to pull the cart back off again to let others pass, the tracks were only single lane. The horse was probably the slowest one they had, he kept wanting to stop and down the hills he was lucky that the cart didn't run him over.

Cenotes are naturally formed underground caverns that house pools of crystal clear water. The 3 cenotes were deep in the earth, you had to go down stairs or steps down to the water hole. The first had a cool 2 metre platform to dive in, great fun. Onto the second one, we stay long here, it was way to crowded and it didn't look as impressive as the first. The third one involved us climbing down a slippery ladder to a small platform, about 3 metres from the water, that was also great fun and did a somersault off this. We stayed long enough before it got way to crowded and we couldn't miss the bus back. The horse ride back took around an hour, around 11km, the horse decided to speed up on the way home.

Motorbike back into town, then a small bus was offering an easier way back to Merinda at the same price. We didn't get back to the hotel until around 8pm, a long shower then some Hungry Jack's. I went back to the room around 10pm to get on the internet for a bit, after a long day.

Merinda

I was up real early this morning, not knowing the time because my second phone decided to play up. The bus leaves at 8am for Merinda, at full day of travel ahead of us. Stopped 3 times by police, the bus checked for drugs, eventually we make it to Merinda at 5pm.

Straight into the pool to wash away the day long travel, then off to dinner. I had been keen to get nacho's for the last week but our restaurants hadn't been serving them. These nachos were enormous, beef pieces, refried beans, guacamole and cheese. A few beers then back to the hotel, a relaxing evening tonight.

Palenque

Up at 8am for breakfast, 9am leave just down the road to the Palenque Ruins. Got to talk to Bronnie for a bit, put a smile on my face. It turns out the Palenque Ruins is the 8th wonder of the world, only 5% has been uncovered and it is so mystical.

The scripture temple was made right next to the palace by the son of the ruler, the mother must really love her son. It is filled with hieroglyphics and it was the tallest temple in the village. His tomb was protected by 6 people who gave there lives, behind a hidden door and inside is the best art that has been found in Moran history.

For lunch, we walked just down the road, then David and myself decided to go for a run. 4km to the ruins and back in 30 degree heat, 80% humidity. Good to get a bit of exercise into me, looking forward to having a game of footy when I get back.

A quick shower and then a 6km walk with Adam and David into town for a look around. Interesting place, walked around for a bit, went off the beaten track and decided on a bar. It was covered up, so you couldn't see who was in there, we chose the one with the most sunlight getting in.

As we ordered the beer, I quick glance to my right and I straight away noticed a guy dressed up as a girl. Adam clicked as quickly as I did, but it took the until he said cheers for David to catch on. Not long after, he was very direct and offered a head job to me, then the others, we thought he must be a prostitute.

After a while, Adam decided we would, for a bit of fun ask how much he was charging. He responded free for me, he wanted to taste me. I could only work out some of this, with hand signals and facial expressions. After not getting the hit, he started offering anything I wanted, making allot of rude gestures. He seemed fascinated by me and I couldn't speak a word of Spanish other than “ no thank you”. I found it a little amusing but there was no way I was leaving until we had finished our beers.

The next bar was Adams turn, the local bar maid, around 40 years in age, with gold caps on her teeth decided that she wanted to ravage him. We had only just ordered the beers and here we go again. Another couple of beers and it was time to go back to the hotel and the restaurant nearby.

A few beers, some wood fire pizza and live entertainment was good. Every seemed more interested in the proceeding for the day, oh well, a good story to tell I guess.

Agua Azul

Off at 8:30 via a private shuttle, our destination is Palenque tonight. We stop at the Agua Azul waterfalls around lunch time. A long walk to the top, with views of waterfall after waterfall, left us all pretty warm. The water was so brown after heaps of rainfall of late, it scared most people from going in for a swim. Not me, the water tasted like dirt a little but it was a great temperature and easy to swim in.

We had a late lunch, chicken, potato and cheese in some kind of tortilla, cooked in oil. A few beers helped wash it all down, I was pretty content and ready to continue the journey. About 30 minutes later, we get stopped by a friendly protest, no way around, no way through. A chain up in 2 places has stopped everyone on a very busy road. A plan of a 2 hour wait sounded mighty fun in very warm day.

The road block ended up lasting allot longer, we missed out on the second waterfall for the day and arrived at the hotel in torrential rain. I was surprised the locals didn't all get out of there car and cut the wire cable or at least fight the guys who were lucky to number 20. The walk to the cabin had my feet underwater, everything seems flooded, good times.

Tonight, we couldn't go to the local restaurant, it was flooded and most of it was under water so we brave the rains and catch a cab to the closest joint about 2km's away. A few beers and a good meal made it all feel better again.

Chamula and Zinacanton Villages

Up at 8am, I decided to avoid the hot breakfast to get a juice and a few bananas. We leave at 9:30am on a private little van to go check out some local native villages, Chamula and Zinacanton. A guide had been organised for the trip to help us understand the people and there customs.

Our first stop was Chamula, we walk through town to the Priests house, as part of taking the office he has to make a place in his home where people are welcome to pray. It had allot of fresh plants through hanging from the roof and pine needles on the floor. They are believed to ward off evil spirits. As part of the visit, we all tried some fire water, a home made alcoholic drink at about 48%, it warmed you up and wasn't to bad.

Next stop was a huge church in the middle of town. It had pine needles on the floor that were replaced every few days just like the last place and was filled with around 1000 candles all through the church. On the walls, statues of all the saints were displayed with tables in front of each for the candles. Medical men were on the floor, opening a space in the pine needles to get down to the tiles, setup a heap of candles on the floor, spit alcohol onto the flames while having a few drinks themselves and doing there magic. All people that pray in this place must be constantly drunk as they aren't allowed to knock back a drink of fire water if it is offered to them.

We get back into the van and head up to Zinacanton, a much smaller town. The church is very different to the first as it is allot quieter and only has pine needles on the floor on special occasions. Our guide then takes us up to a local families house to watch them cook and make fabric. 5 generations live in this house with all the building spread out. We got to have tortillas made there on the spot with a little cheese, pumpkin seeds, salsa and chilli, they were real nice and very filling. That was our last stop, so we all tipped and thanked the family before going back to the hotel.

The afternoon and night was mainly checking out bars around the area and celebrating Barbs birthday. A bar full of locals had beers at the best price in town and the place we had dinner gave 2 for 1 margaritas, probably should have stayed on beer.

San Cristobal

We arrive in San Cristobal at 9am this morning after surprisingly getting a bit of sleep on the bus. Everyone looked a bit ruff and we didn't get any chance to freshen up as the hotel wasn't ready for us. A bit of breakfast, organise of 4kg of washing to be down at $6 and a walk around town eventually we have some rooms.

Ray, Barb, Adam and myself head to a couple of churches on different sides of the city. Both up big hills with rather nice views. You can tell this place is in celebration as balloons are attached to the taxi's and streamers all through the streets. At one of the churches, it had stalls around it with games and tasty treats.

Adam and I decided then to find bars around town by doing a bit of a pub crawl. We found some really classy bars, It's funny, the expensive places only charge $3 for there dearest beer. On the way back to the hotel, I called in at a falafel joint, they were amazing. Freshly made on the spot and cooked, it melted in your mouth.

That night, everyone went out for dinner, I was happy to have desert and a drink. Tequila Sunrise and an ice cream covered in whipped cream was a little gay, it filled me up a little to much. Most of the crew went to a documentary on Mexican independence, Ray and I went to a karaoke bar. Good fun listening to music in English but the karaoke didn't start so we left and called it a night.

Oaxaca

This morning we meet at 8:45am to view the Monte Alban ruins. They weren't as big as the last ruins but they sat on top of a hill offering priceless views. These ruins were declared a national heritage trust site in 1987 and were known to be the ancient capital of the Zapotec culture.

Back into town around lunch time with heaps of free time. We get a bit of food in the main square, it turns out a little earlier today in the square there was a riot and police were still everywhere in there riot gear.

A bit of looking around in the markets, I arrive at the Santo Domingo Cultural Center, the home of world-famous treasures of Tomb 7 - Mitla, Yagul Lambityeco, Dainzú, Huijazoo and other prehistoric sites. The only bummer, it is closed on a Monday. I go for a walk to a chocolate (mole) factory at the other side of town. A few tasted and I avoid the tour, the stuff is horrible.

A few beers, before checking out a couple of churches, the Santo Domingo De Guzman is a famous one for the town. That night, we are going on an over night bus to San Cristobal. Adam and I sneak a few beers onto the bus to help us sleep, an 11 hour trip.

A day of Travel

Up at 5:15am to catch the 6am bus down the road. We have to travel all the way back to Mexico City, before heading to our next destination, Oaxaca. Our bus got moved to 6:30am but we made up heaps of time to arrive back in Mexico around 9am. We catch a taxi over to another bus station to find out that all the bus's are booked out, we need to upgrade and wait until 1pm was our only option.

After a few hours in the food court, mainly surfing the internet, we get on the bus. For an upgrade, I think our first bus to Taxco was nicer. We arrive at the hotel around 7pm, check in and get out ready to look around. Today is the first day of the holiday week in Mexico, this place is absolutely packed with markets and people.

After a little walk and some searching we arrive at a roof top restaraunt for dinner. A lasange and a few beers were mighty tasty before we got to enjoy the celebrations. Fireworks went off, the bands were playing and all the streets were filled with people. It was a special night for the Mexicans, the first night of Guelaguetza.

Taxco

Meeting down in the lobby at 7:15am to try and catch a coach at 8:30 towards our next destination. The coach had heaps of space for each seat, allowing you to lay straight out. It was weird watching Wolverine and only understanding about 3 words.

We arrive around lunch time, get some nice tucker before getting access to our rooms. I got a lovely large room with a massive bathroom on the far side of the complex, hopefully nice and quiet.

We head off around 2pm toward the main square and up to the Santa Prisca Church. The church was beautiful, with walls of sculptures with in depth detail. Taxco is famous for being the first place in North America to mine Silver, so there were heaps of silver shops. We catch a van to the cable car, only $3.60 for a return trip to the top of the mountain. Up the top we have a beer at a hotel, that looked dodgy from the outside but had a fantastic pool and bar area out the back.

Back into to town, where we grabbed a few margaritas in a can. Up on the roof of the hotel, it had a fantastic view of the city, so a great place to drink them. That night was a quiet one, into bed around 11pm.

Teotihuacan Pyramids

Up at 8am to meet the new tour, I knew it was going to be small but 6 people plus the tour manager. It looks like we use public transport to get around which should add to the excitement. I am also lucky as I am the only single male so I get upgrade to a single room, been a while since I haven't shared, might get lonely.

As a group we head on the local bus to the bus terminal and catch a couch to Teotihuacan. I should really read about my tours, I didn't have a clue that we were doing this. The place was pretty cool, well preserved. The coach there picked up a couple of locals, who sing to you for a few pesos at the end.

We got a guide while we were there, it lasted around 2 hours. I wasn't to happy with the stories behind the Pyramids though, it turns out that they would sacrifice people on the current level, then leave them there before building the next level of the pyramid on top. These people were normally important people, kings, rich, and it turns out, even captains of the winning sporting team would be sacrificed, wouldn't be to keen on that job. At the end of the guided tour, most of us climbed both the Pyramid of the Sun and the Pyramid of the Moon.

Back to the hotel around 3pm, giving plenty of time to look around Mexico city. After a walk around, it reminded me of a cleaner version of Cairo. Shops all over the street, great architecture covered up by advertising and mobile towers.

That night we head to a cafe a few blocks away, there speciality is a pepper dish, chile en nogales, normally only gets served at news years, the Mexicans love it. I only managed to eat half of it, tasted like mushed up lentals served up cold in a piece of leather, not my type of tucker. Turns out Adam, our tour manager tried it last week and thought they must have cooked it wrong, nope, it is always crap.

The boys went off to a little pub with a live band, drinking a few local drops, the girls went back to the hotel. The beer was served up in big cocktail glasses, they were going down a treat. We thought we would check out another bar that denied us early because it was full and they wanted to nice little amount under the table to let us in, they were still full but the drummer was downstairs and was happy to talk to us. He got us in, great live music, the place was only full with seated people, no one was standing or dancing which I found weird. Eventually I get back to the hotel, 6 hours of sleep before I get up nice and early.