Lollopoleza

Mexican Sugar Skulls

2011-03-06T12:57:00.003-06:00

I have been playing around with ideas today, trying to think of something to do with the table top ...bought some Mexican Sugar Skulls images from etsy.com you can buy them here: http://www.etsy.com/listing/60018823/sugar-skulls-digital-collage-413-sheet

They come as small images perfect for making badges or pins but I have photographed some with my macro lens and messed around in photoshop to remove the background colour and printed one out - could look good pasted as a decroative pattern on to my kitchen table top....figuring it out - don't want them to sit side by side but may paste them on in to a radiating star shape or something.

I love all things Mexican since spending so much time being there - thinking of doing up the Edwardian chairs I bought on ebay last week by painting them in hot Mexican colours, maybe one in hot pink, one in turquoise, one in orange - and the last one could be yellow or red or green.....saw some fab tassled orange trim that would work well on them too - bring on the Mexican bling. It's bringing back memories of being in the arts capital of Mexico...Oaxaca, amazing place.

2011-03-06T12:55:00.000-06:00

As seen in US crafting magazine Stuffed .......Nosferatu as a soft toy!

chilli squid!

2011-03-06T12:53:00.001-06:00

Me and my friend Lucy are totally addicted to Wagamama - chicken ramen and chilli squid - heaven.

Little Isobel

2011-03-06T12:49:00.003-06:00

Way late but this is our dear friend's Sandra and Tony's little girl Isobel - when they came to visit us last October...been meaning to post this up for ever because she's rocking the Nippaz with Attitude Mama Ain't Raisin No Fool babygrow and just looking all round lovely. They live across the water too far away on Vancouver Island, so I don't get to see them when I want anymore which SUCKS!

December 2010: Snow in London

2010-12-22T15:43:00.019-06:00

We woke up on the morning of my birthday and realised our weekend plans (a 40 minute drive to see Dave's Mum and Dad) would have to be re-scheduled. We got 4 inches of snow in 2 hours. This was the view from our deck around 11.30am.

The front door to the house, our flat is on the top floor.

So we went for a walk about in Chiswick and I took some photos on my new Canon pocket camera for the days when I am too lazy to drag around the SLR. Dave bought me it for my birthday and it's great.

Our road.

On the green in Chiswick about a 15 minute walk from the flat.

Dave throwing a snowball for Bruce on our road......he would have to have one hell of a bowling arm for it to reach Seattle!

Me in the snow on our road

The railway tracks at our local overground station where I catch the train to work....pretty much all the trains were cancelled but a fox came out to have a look around.

Our flat is at the very top in the roof

The local bus got stuck on the railway bridge at the end of our road and had to be abandoned til they could get it towed.

Tomorrow we fly to LA to stay with Danny and look forward to sunshine and getting out of this freezing hell!

Damascus, Syria: Last day 24th Sept 2010

2010-10-02T16:36:00.011-05:00

My new favourite, lemon and mint drink, in the courtyard of a hotel on Handicraft Lane.

Menu item

Leza with Lyes and Katrina at dinner on our last night on the roof terrace of Al-Kawahli (above) and Khaldoun (below) who works at Sah Al-Naum Hotel where we stayed in Damascus.

Damascus, Syria; Black & white photos of our last days in the ancient city

2010-10-02T15:51:00.025-05:00

The infamous storyteller in café Al-Nawfara where we went on our last night with Lyes, Katrina and Khaldoun (who works at Sah Al-Naum Hotel). We couldn't tell if the storyteller was speaking in Arabic (which Lyes speaks but didn't understand him) or Syriac; Khaldoun didn't understand the storyteller either...either way he was pretty amusing and told me (translated by a neighbouring table who did understand) that when I laughed I had a mouth full of diamonds. I wish my dentist was so enthusiastic about my teeth.

Lyes (above) and an old car parked in an alleyway (below).

An etched brass ashtray in a hotel courtyard where we went for a drink.

Drinking lemon and mint with crushed ice.

We went in to a Shi'ah mosque at prayer time, Dave to the men’s side and me to the women’s...

...and an Iranian woman came over and photographed me….(I think she was Iranian and not Syrian from what people told me) then filmed me, and walked off without saying a word…..now I know what it feels like....quite surreal.

Very moving watching them all praying with the sound of the mosque calling them. I felt a bit bold going in but I really wanted to be right in it for the experience of being surrounded by all the women covered up, kneeling on their prayer mats…..they didn’t seem to mind and I just had to wear the black robes and cover my head and take my shoes off. It’s quite an emotional and daunting experience. Friendliest people I have ever met here in Syria, really amazing….you can walk around everywhere and never feel threatened or feel that someone will steal from or harass you….they just want to communicate in whatever way they can…they touch their hearts a lot if we greet them in Arabic.

When Dave came out he said he had accidentally stepped on someone's hand as they prayed and a little kid in the mosque had shouted tourist at him.

Hand written medical book in a museum.

Lyes explained to us that what we thought was a decoartive pattern (below) is in fact writing.

A shy naana (mint tea) stop at a cafe.

Syria: Maalula, Krak des Chevaliers and Hama

2010-10-02T09:16:00.038-05:00

Wednesday 22nd September: Today we got picked up from our hotel in Damascus at 8am ready for our 14 hour day trip with Jawad....we didn't realise it was going to be 14 hours but it was well worth it. We headed first to Maalula, معلولا in Arabic, meaning High Place.

Maalula is the only place where the Western branch of the Aramaic languages is still spoken, said to be the original language of Jesus Christ. We visited two monasteries important to Syria; Mar Sarkis named after St. Sarkis (St. Sergius) a Roman soldier who was executed for his Christian beliefs ....and St Thecla Monastery. According to legend, in the 1st century C.E, St. Thecla was being pursued by soldiers of her father to capture her because of her Christian faith. She came upon a mountain, and after praying, the mountain split open and let her escape through. The town gets its name from this gap or entrance in the mountain. We walked down through this gap known as the Thecla Gorge.

Imagine living in the house at the foot of this mountain and in the path of that flipping great big rock which looks set to roll down it any minute.

Views of St Thecla Monastery.

A mosaic in the monastery.

Pimp my bike...digging the turquoise beadwork.

A 2 hour drive further on through rocky dusty barren landscapes we reached Krak de Chevaliers, a Crusader fortress and one of the most important preserved medieval military castles in the world. In Arabic the fortress is called Qal'at al-Ḥiṣn (Arabic: قلعة الحصن‎), the word Krak coming from the Syriac karak, meaning fortress. It is located approximately 40 km west of the city of Homs, close to the border of Lebanon.

Taken from Wikipedia: During the First Crusade in 1099 the castle was captured by Raymond IV of Toulouse, but then abandoned when the Crusaders continued their march towards Jerusalem. It was reoccupied again by Tancred Prince of Galilee in 1110. In 1142 it was given by Raymond II Count of Tripoli to the Hospitallers, contemporaries of the Knights Templar.

Krak des Chevaliers was the headquarters of the Knights Hospitaller during the Crusades. It was expanded between 1150 and 1250 and eventually housed a garrison of 2,000. In 1935, the castle was bought by the French government and restoration work began. The castle was made a World Heritage Site in 2006 and is owned by the Syrian government.

It is HUGE. Its outer wall is three meters thick and 7 guard towers eight to ten meters thick create a concentric castle. The fortress may have held about 50–60 Hospitaller knights and up to 2,000 other foot soldiers. Included amongst the buildings two vaulted stone stables could have held up to a thousand horses. Other storage facilities were dug into the cliff below the fortress and it is estimated that the Hospitallers could have withstood a siege for five years.

This was the oven. Dave could only imagine the size of the pizzas.

After clambering around for over an hour Jawad arranged an amazing 15 plate lunch for us at the Panorama restaurant literally a stone's throw from the castle.

Wow, my favourite said Dave......more humus! We ate til we were fit to burst, the staff were really friendly, one guy went outside to pick a pomegranate for me and cut it at the table. We went outside and chatted to an Australian couple whilst Jawad sat and finished his coffee with the other drivers....... and I found a dead cat under a bush. I was talking to it for about 5 minutes before I realised it was actually dead.

Next stop the Monastery of St Georges which was a really beautiful place overseen by Father Isaac who looked really tired when we turned up...and a tall Albino guy who followed us from room to room and whenever he sat down, he fell asleep with his head on his arms. The downside of travelling with a driver is that they always want to photograph the happy english couple enjoying their holiday...so here's another shot of us grinning inanely at the camera. It looks like we are locked up in an elaborate prison cell.

Last stop of the day about another hour's drive further north and a place I insisted on going to, was Hama...home to the Norias or giant wooden water wheels.

There are only 17 Norias (meaning "wheels of pots") left along the Orontes River in the city of Hama and they are mostly unused these days. One of the locals told me that they are 600 years old.

The sun was just starting to set as we arrived.

These kids were funny, they came over to us in the park and were asking me in the little english they knew, for me to take their photo and once I took a photo they would pose and ask for another.....about 30 shots later and looking for a get out a passing balloon seller was a suitable excuse for my exit. I bought each of the kids a balloon but I had to persuade them to take them from me...I wasn't sure if they were confused and thought they had to pay for them but it took me a good 5 minutes trying to explain that the balloons were a gift. Looking back as we walked out of the park all of the kids were running around with the balloons whooping and laughing and showing them off to their Mums. So even though we arrived at the end of a very long day, the extended trip to Hama was well worth it just to see the Norias at sunset and to meet these great kids.

On the drive back to Damascus Jawad stopped at a shop in Hama and bought us Halawa Bil-Jibn, a kind of very sweet cake roll, filled with whipped cheese topped with pistachio nuts and an orange water and rose water syrup. Absolutely delicious but so sickly…it was amazing and served very cold.

Damascus, Syria: In the Souqs

2010-09-30T15:52:00.022-05:00

Monday 20th Sept 2010: Wandering the alleyways and souqs in over 30 degrees of heat gets tiring so a pitstop for tea in a local cafe gives time to chill for a bit and people watch. We drank tea at Café Al-Nawfara on the steps of Sharia al-Qaimariyya.

Bizarre looking shops in the Souq al-Bzouriyya (seed bazaar).

I have no idea what this guy is making.

...but his shop doesn't appear to be accessible so he has a basket and pulley system to send items down to street level.

A shop next to Leila's restaurant in Souq Al-Abbabiyya based in a beautiful old building with amazing painted walls and ceilings. The chandeliers are typical of Damascus.

Furniture shop in Souq Al-Hamidiyya; a lot of the furniture is inlaid with mother of pearl.

The latest fashions in Muslim head coverings for women.

This one looks very Elizabeth Taylor...glamourous old Hollywood.

Maybe not this one though.

I wanted the one in the middle sitting - but where would I wear it?!

Coffee seller in the souq.

Ice cream from Bekdach in Souq Al-Hamidiyya made with sahlab (semonlina powder) and smothered with pistachio nuts...so good we went back twice.

Sad...why would anyone want one of these as an ornament.

The covered Souq Al-Hamidiyya.

Perfume maybe?

Wedding sweets.

Prayer beads.

Damascus, Syria: Wandering the alleyways

2010-09-30T15:30:00.017-05:00

The Old Town of Damascus is a fantastic place to wander. These giant coffee pots were for sale on Handicraft Lane.

This shocked us in the shaded vine covered lanes of Sharia al-Qaimariyya; a metal sign of the flag of Israel bolted to the cobblestones...for the locals to stamp on to show disrespect as they walk across it.

Local breadmakers who ran their family business close to our hotel and invited us in to show the machinery and ovens making the ubiquitous flat bread seen all over Syria. They were an incredibly friendly family, sharing fresh out of the oven hot bread with us and inviting us to join them for mint tea on their shop floor.

Another local bread shop.

Dave trying to lose me down a dark alley...hah! he would be so lucky.

So there you are trying to buy a gaily patterned nylon top when out of nowhere a Beetle nearly runs you over. There's a pretty steady stream of cars, scooters, delivery vans, pick ups and bicycles and my favourites.....taxis......careening through these alleyways. They leave just about enough room for you to squeeze up against the wall (barely 2 inches) and pray they won't run over your feet. Then there's the guys pushing fully loaded barrows made of heavy iron on hard rubber wheels, who scrape by your ankles and occassionaly bump over your toes.

If only there had been room in the suitcase....

...and all through the alleyways and in the shops, restaurants, banks and hotels hangs the portrait of Bashar al-Assad, the President of Syria...even on the wall of this alley where a local vendor of bed throws purveys his brightly coloured synthetic goods. Damascus is famous for its jewel coloured silks and infamous Damask prints; but in the alleys peopled by the average shopper 100% poleyster rules.

Which new outfit can I buy for you today? The black one or the black one?

The equivalent of the Tesco raid after school run...the 'only 2 children allowed to enter at one time' rule need not apply as there is no inside....just a counter.

Back in Damascus, Syria. The Umayyad mosque.

2010-09-29T15:26:00.012-05:00

Monday 20th Sept: Back in Damascus where we started from a week ago when we first flew in. Got our Syrian pounds and borrowed a guide book.

We had a lie in after so much running around and sightseeing in Jordan...chilled out in the courtyard of Sah Al-Naum Hotel.

We headed out to explore this ancient city, allegedly the oldest city in the world. Walking through the alleyways and narrow streets having to press our backs to the walls to allow the cars and taxis to squeeze by. The smell of fresh baked flat bread hangs softly over the entire city...they are a nation of breadmakers and bread eaters. The Shi'ah Mosque is close to our hotel with it's stunning tilework.

We checked with the guide book kindly lent to us by Ahmed who manages the hotel and went to the Umayyad mosque, one of the oldest and largest mosques in the world and in the grounds of which is also the mausoleum of Saladin (Salah- ad-Din). We entered through a large elaborately carved wood door and had to remove our shoes. A man in a booth to our left handed us our attractive brown robes to wear to keep us covered up so as not to offend.

After the Arab conquest of Damascus, the mosque was built on the Christian basilica dedicated to John the Baptist and the mosque holds a shrine which they say contains the head of John the Baptist, who was honored as a prophet by both Christians and Muslims alike.

From Wiki: Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn Yūsuf ibn Ayyūb) (c. 1138 – March 4, 1193), better known in the Western world as Saladin, was a Kurdish Muslim, who became the first Ayyubid Sultan of Egypt and Syria. At the height of his power, he ruled over Egypt, Syria, Mesopotamia, Hejaz, and Yemen. He led the Muslims against the Crusaders and eventually recaptured Palestine from the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem after his victory in the Battle of Hattin. As such, he is a notable figure in Kurdish, Arab, and Muslim culture.

He wears it well! Dave had long shorts on but was still asked to cover his legs by wearing this.

Definitely much better than the garb they handed to me...in which I look very fat and appear to have only one arm.

Intricate carving and inlay details.

Stunning tiled floors.

Dave's arty parting shot of Amman city in Jordan.

2010-09-26T08:34:00.001-05:00

Sunday 19th Sept: Little Petra, milking a camel, Kanafeh desert, driving back to Damascus in Syria.

2010-09-26T07:28:00.017-05:00

We spent all day yesterday in two cars one from Petra to Amman in Jordan swapping to a Syrian driver to drive from Amman to the Syrian border to drive to Damascus arriving at 8pm.

The Jordan drive was leisurely with our driver and new friend Tarek. He took us to see Little Petra which was beautiful; no tourists there...we wandered quietly through the Siq and rock carved buildings for 45 minutes.

We had lots of stops for mint tea (shy naana) and yogurt drinks (shanina - salty and sour - Dave hates it I love it) and to get some camel milk for Tarek in the middle of some scrubby desert land

where the Bedouin guy insisted on teaching me to milk the camel at the same time that its baby was suckling from it. Didn't drink it though-I still didn’t fancy a day of bowel evacuation.

Pull up first then down and squeeze apparently... whilst baby camel pulls up and down on the other teet...I would make a totally hopeless Bedouin wife.

This camel was very docile, a few I had tried to stroke on earlier trips were pretty surly, one at Petra nearly took my hand off.

We had lunch in a roadside falafel place in Shobak. Another tea stop about 45 minutes later where young men sat puffing on their hubbly bubbly pipes and a kid came over and said ‘Hi Man’ to Dave….but didn’t speak any more English. Arrived in Amman city and Tarek took us for a Kanafeh stop. Tarek first introduced me to the delights of Kanafeh on our first day with him in Amman...I have since become addicted to it.

Tarek and Leza eating Kanafeh.

Here's a recipe link of how to make Kanafeh. A cheese based sweet desert, it is delicious: http://simplyheaven.wordpress.com/2009/07/10/kanafeh-dessert/

Tarek had new people arriving in Amman that night so he took us to the taxi rank to hire a taxi to take us back over the border to Damascus. The young guy didn’t speak English but Tarek took his number and made the driver take his and after 15 minutes of haggling Tarek got us a good price. Exit visa stops for leaving Jordan and re-entry visa checks at the border patrol for Syria where our driver disappeared…a phone call to Tarek who tracked him down on his mobile buying cigarettes in duty free shop.
The drive seemed uneventful until 7pm when in the dark we pulled over at the side of a busy motorway where 2 cars were parked and about 6-7 guys loitered. No-one spoke English but we realised that our young driver was knocking off for the day and swapping with another guy. The swap took about 15 minutes with Dave and I sitting in the car in the dark wondering what the hell was going on and with driver number 1 trying to take the balance of the payment from us, which I refused knowing that the driver number 2 would ask for more money as soon as we reached the hotel. The new driver didn’t speak any English either (fair enough, we don’t speak Arabic) but was obviously in a rush to get home because he drove consistently at 140kph… right up behind other cars, flashing his lights, beeping the horn, forcing cars, bikes, buses and huge oil trucks off the road without slowing down. He also chain smoked, his one concession to some air in the car, to occasionally open the window to chuck out his litter and fag ends. It was a manic heart stopping arrival in Damascus where in dense traffic the driver continued to bully his way through..narrowly avoiding pedestrians, ignoring most road signs and a few of the traffic lights; every other Syrian driver seemed united in his deathwish. I closed my eyes, found religion and prayed we’d make it. The driver didn't know where the hotel was Dave managed to direct him straight there from the centre of Damascus after us only being here once before when we arrived late at night a week ago. We arrived around 8.30pm, frayed and stressed but thankfully un-maimed and had a pizza in Sah Al Naum hotel which Khaldouhn ordered in for us. In return I introduced him to Iggy & The Stooges; he went off and downloaded I Wanna Be Your Dog – which I heard filtering from his phone a while later. Iggy saved the day.

Sat 18th Sept 2010: Wadi Rum: Desert trekking with a Bedouin in a knackered Toyota pick up

2010-09-26T06:09:00.026-05:00

Hamed lead us into some rock crevices in the desert to experience some natural 'air-conditioning'.

After spending yesterday as a rest day in Wadi Musa to recover from our long day climbing around in Petra… and finding a guy called Ayman who sold us his version of desert trip, we got picked up at 11am and set off to Wadi Rum. All in all a bit of a disaster really; we realised on arrival at the ‘Bedouin camp’ at the edge of the desert (rather than deep in it) that we had been ripped off….took the camp manager aside for a private word and decided to do the desert safari and then forego dinner and a night’s stay in the desert to return instead to stay another night at the Sun Set back in Petra....who are such fantastic people that they were so sad that we had been ripped off that they gave us a room for free....despite the fact it was nothing to do with them!

All you need for a desert experience; a fantastic Bedouin driver called Hamed and a pick up truck....the random camel wasn't travelling with us but adds to the authentic desert shot!

Yup, you can still get reception, Hamed carries 2 mobiles.

We couldn’t fault Hamed the desert driver, he was a fantastic person to spend 3 hours with despite the fact he didn't speak much English...we still managed to converse and had great fun bombing around the desert of Wadi Rum in his worn out old Toyota pickup stuffing our faces with a bumper size packed of Lays salty crisps.....which I bought along and Hamed loved. No air-con… in fact no windows. It looked like it was held together on a wing and a prayer but it served us well.

Hamed takes us to a sheltered space surrounded by huge rocks to make a fire (glad he had a Bic lighter with him) and brew up some Bedouin tea.

The Bedouin people are incredibly friendly and generally great fun, they seem to be a lot more relaxed and a lot less pushy ...and genuinely welcome you and want to share time, food, tea and their personal space. Hamed is a great character; mischievous but also informative…pointing out different plants and showing us different types of rock they use to grind down and mix in to paste for women to decorate their skin (like makeup or henna).....

...dressing me up in his Keffiyeh held in place by a black rope circlet called an Agal...

...and writing our names in Arabic using a stone.

We stopped along the drive for Dave to climb up some huge rocks for a photo

...and drove on to an area called Lawrence Springs. In the West, Wadi Rum is best known for its connection with the British officer T. E. Lawrence, who based his operations here during the Arab Revolt of 1917–18. In the 1980s one of the impressive rock formations in Wadi Rum was named The Seven Pillars of Wisdom in memory of Lawrence's book written in the aftermath of the war. Most of David Lean’s 1962 film 'Lawrence of Arabia' was filmed in Wadi Rum.

Where would you be without another photo of a rock...in fact Wadi Rum has now become a popular destination for rock climbers and several rock climbing films.

If you want to book a desert excursion to Wadi Rum, be warned that many people in Wadi Musa will try to overcharge you for the experience. It is exceptionally difficult to work out who to trust and to ensure that you are getting what you want. We found out later that our small B&B hotel The Sun Set – run excursions there at a good price and in a good camp. Unfortunately we booked with a guy who said he worked with a reputable company called La Bedouinas (but he may have been making it up, who the hell knows)….but the camp was at the edge of the desert and surrounded by other camps – the popular Captain’s Camp (which does look good) was next door. Our camp looked like a scene straight out of ‘Mash’ if Alan Alda had wandered out in his surgical scrubs I don’t think I would have batted an eyelid it looked so familar…very small khaki canvas tents which were over a 100 degrees inside, an open Bedouin style tent for communal lounging and eating was a concession to some authenticity…. but all atmosphere was ruined completely by a giant loudspeaker setup and a computer on an office desk through which they were ‘djing’ music. There were 2 other guests in the camp who they didn’t even bother to introduce us to and no-one seemed particularly interested that we were there; you could have cut the atmosphere with a knife. We weren’t deep in the desert as promised in fact we weren’t even that far from the road…even though on negotiating prices back in Wadi Musa we insisted several times that we stay in a Bedouin tent deep inside the desert and not in an outlying area.

Dave's Arty I-Phone Hipstamatic shots of Petra

2010-09-26T05:51:00.007-05:00

16th Sept 2010: Life would be so much more boring without camels..and donkeys. Petra/Wadi Musa

2010-09-18T01:53:00.053-05:00

Thursday 16th Sept 2010: Petra...and a gurning camel.
Travelling to the Middle East is worth it just for the chance to visit the incredible ancient site of Petra, voted recently to be one of the 7 Wonders of the World and having had the opportunity to see it, Dave and I agree it’s a justified title for this jaw dropping experience.

The entrance to Petra was only a 5 minute walk from Sun Set Hotel in the town of Wadi Musa. The word Petra means rock….and Petra was ‘built’ around the 6th Century by the Nabataeans as their capital city. Hidden deep on the slopes of Mount Hor in the mountains, Petra remained unknown to the Wetern world until 1812 when a Swiss explorer Johann Ludwig Burckhardt found it after searching to find a mythical city he had heard about. It is like a fortress surrounded by towering rose red rock faces and entered only by a natural ‘siq’ or pathway which winds through these huge rocks for several kilometers before opening in to wide open spaces. Petra was the centre of the caravan trade for the Nabataeans; camels carrying goods or passengers in a group as part of a regular or semi-regular service between two points, trading spices, silks, food, jewels etc.

This is a photo taken from a distance and above. See the dark seam running through the rock? This is the siq entrance we were walking through as seen in the photos above. It shows how well this ancient city managed to keep itself hidden.

Petra has flash floods at different points in the season and the Nabataens built a series of dams, cisterns and a water conduit to control the flow of water. As you enter Petra you walk first through open space past ‘God Blocks’ and carved buildings until you reach the daunting towering rock entrance to the Siq, flanked by a long water channel carved out of the rock.

It’s hard to explain the atmosphere of walking through the Siq for the first time; it’s like entering a massive gorge on foot, huge rock faces looming overhead cutting out the fierce blistering sun, the coolness of the rocks protecting and sheltering you ......

.....as you wander across a sandy surface for several kilometers which then astonishes when it opens to a large space overlooked by the incredible carved rock building of The Treasury. My photos just don't do it justice, it is to coin a Northern phrase.... totally gobsmacking.

The walk from the main entrance to the Treasury took about 40 minutes through the gorge, we continued on to emerge back in to blistering sun blazing down onto the wide open flat space between the rock faces. There are many other buildings carved in to the rocks which we explored before climbing up to the High Place of Sacrifice which took over an hour; dripping with sweat, negotiating centuries of worn rock pathways and ‘steps’ often with sheer drop offs to the side into deep ravines. Bedouin women set up along the route brewing tea on little fires shaded by trees or their makeshift shops, trying to flog you necklaces, little brass camels and lumpen sparkling rocks of Petra.

It was worth the gruelling slog for the incredible views from above.

Carved Nabataen obelisk at the top of the High Place.

Camel nap.

Horse and carriages wait at The Treasury to carry people back to the town if they are too knackered to walk any further.

Should have worn knee pads. I think this one was pretty young as he was way smaller than the rest of them....and very gangly legs.

About 5 hours in and we decided to attempt a second climb up to The Monastery…we were both absolutely knackered and too hot but had been advised that this was one of the main highlights of Petra. More sensible people perhaps would have come back on a second day and approached it as a separate climb but Dave and I decided to see it on the same day… but caved in and rented two donkeys to take us most of the way up. The embarrassment (mainly Dave), terror and bewilderment all paid off when we reached the last stages by foot (it's about 1,000 'steps' up, the donkeys scrambled up about 900 of them) and climbed down in to the open space where the Monastery looms sheltered in the rock face it had been carved from. To explain the scale of this incredible building, the entrance doorway is about the same size of a large 3 storey-house.

As much as I wish we had photos of us on the donkeys, believe me when I tell you that trying to negotiate the donkey, the 13 year old kid guiding them up, avoiding maiming or killing other tourists, hanging on for life and attempting to take photos at the same time was impossible. Plus Dave would have killed me. His slightly taller black donkey led the way, farting at pretty regular intervals. Sitting closely behind and downwind on my smaller white donkey and whilst passing above an especially deep gorge that fell away to my right literally a donkey stumble away, the 13 year old kid explained when Dave’s donkey farted again that my donkey couldn’t lead….because it was mostly blind. He assured me ‘do not be alarmed Madam because your donkey is strong and knows the way, he just can’t see very well so he needs to follow the other donkey by smelling him’. My donkey’s keen sense of smell sporadically resulted in it stumbling obligingly forward but if another donkey passed coming down, it would attempt to turn full circle in confusion thinking it should follow the other donkey back down. Every time it did this the 13 year old kicked it deftly up the bum and it would turn and face the path upwards and lock it’s olfactory senses back to its farting partner carrying Dave ahead. As if this wasn’t enough Dave and I also discovered that it is impossible to steer a donkey that isn’t familiar to you and as the paths were steep and only 2 person wide, our donkeys would scramble upwards taking the best path for them but totally oblivious to other tourists which they routinely squashed up against rocks and forced to one side. Dave was mortified and also nervous for the other tourists so had to shout ahead ‘excuse me, please move away from the donkey, I have no control over it’. The photo below shows part of the path we farted and blindly bumped our way upwards to the Monastery. We walked the 1,000 steps back down...there was no way Dave was getting back on a donkey.

Back down to the Urn Tomb.

Ceilings inside the Urn Tomb.

Over 8 hours later we walked back...absolutely exhausted, roasting hot, thirsty (even after downing 10 half litre bottles of water between us), covered head to toe in a coating of dust, blistered and desperate for a shower and a bed. It was well worth the effort ... but maybe spreading it all over two days may have been wiser!

Madaba to Petra along the Kings Highway; The Dead Sea, Wadi Mujib, Lots wife, Karak castle

2010-09-17T10:12:00.015-05:00

Wednesday 15th September. Madaba to Petra via The Dead Sea, Wadi Mujib and Karak.

Look he really can smile and have fun AND allow for his photo to be taken on the odd occassion...hah! Dave floating in The Dead Sea.

Had a lie in and Terak drove back from his family home outside Amman to come and meet us again in Madaba. We drove a short way up the road to St George’s Church to see the famous Byzantine mosaic map of the Holy Land laid in the floor of this 19th century church. No-one knows the date that the map was created but they believe it to have been laid in the second half of the sixth century in a Byzantine church that stood on the same site as the current church. The surviving map is still impressive but the original would have consisted of over 2 million stones and measured 15.6m long by 6m wide; depicting virtually the entire Levant from Lebanon in the north to the Nile Delta in the south (info taken from the Rough Guide!). Talking of mosaics, Tarek took us to a mosaic workshop where trained disabled crafts people make incredible mosaics, but at pretty incredible prices. Stunning but I didn’t want to pay £500! The workshop had an adjoining craft shop, Dave and Tarek sat and drank some mint tea with the owners and I had a wander around. Tarek joined me to get me to taste some of the local spices also for sale. We tested a few and on the same counter there was a large amber coloured rock which we couldn’t figure out. I thought it was perhaps crystallized carob sugar, Tarek wasn’t sure so he broke a piece off and tasted it....then encouraging me to taste it. It was absolutely disgusting and I told him so...Tarek agreed and asked the owner what it was. It turned out we had just eaten a piece of raw incense used in incense burners to perfume a room. The owner thought it was hilarious...can’t say I blame him really!

From Madaba we drove to Suwayma to visit the Dead Sea...something Dave has wanted to do since being a child and seeing those old photos of a man floating in the sea reading his newspaper. Nothing can survive in the Dead Sea because it is full of salt. It’s actually a huge lake in the Great Rift Valley and at 400 metres below sea level is the lowest point on earth. To give you an idea, sea water is about 3 or 4 % salt, the Dead Sea is over 30%. It is impossible to dive in it or really swim...and literally impossible to sink, you couldn’t touch the bottom if you tried. When you lie back the buoyancy of the water supports you. It feels a little slimy on the skin but it is an amazing experience floating around in it. 15 minutes are about enough because every cut or blemish or ‘open’ area of the body (without going in to detail!) starts to sting from the salt which gets pretty uncomfortable after a while. I had already been warned not to get the sea water in my eyes which plenty of the other tourists had managed to do; the evidence apparent from their red eyes and constant rubbing. Our friend Bruce in Seattle had forewarned Dave not to shave the same day as going in otherwise it would have stung like hell! You have to pay to go in to the Dead Sea. Like everything else here it isn’t cheap. We went to the public beach which still cost 15JD each (approx £12 each) just to use a towel and a shower and go in o the sea to float for a while. Buffet lunch in the restaurant set us back another £10 each...it’s definitely not a cheap country to travel in. If we had gone further along to the tourist beach they were charging around 25JD each (over £20 each!) for a slightly flashier changing room and shower. The rich people went to the resort hotels and paid 50JD each! It’s worth going to the public beach to see the Saudi Arabian women going in to the sea fully clothed in their black robes and head scarves.....in some cases they do wear a bathing suit, also black which covers the entire body and then they will still have to keep most of their face and head covered with a scarf.

Leza at karak Castle; Dave's been getting experimental with the hipstomatic app. on his i-phone.

From the Dead Sea back in to the car along the King’s Highway towards Karak driving through the spectacular scenery of Jordan’s equivalent to the Grand Canyon; Wadi Mujib. Stunning canyon views over 500 metres deep and up to 4km wide. Winding up through the hills we reach the town of Karak, southern Jordan's most important town, which lies largely within its Crusader-era walls.

The hill on which the town of Karak stands has sheer cliffs on three sides with views over the Wadi Karak.

The Crusaders began building a fortress here on top of the hill in 1142. It’s not as complete as the castle we saw at Ajloun the day before and to be totally frank, two castles is enough to see before you start to get castle fatigue. It is however a worthwhile stop off and the views are great.

In Karak town, a local butchers...selling extremely fresh beef by the looks of things.

Leaving Karak and further on through an increasingly dusty arid landscape Tarek stopped the car to point up a steep cliff to what looked like a lump of wind-blown rock standing at the edge viewed easily from the road below. This is allegedly Lot’s wife; a figure from the book of Genesis known for being turned into a pillar of salt as punishment for looking back upon the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. There is another misshapen lump of rock or a ‘halite pillar’ (according to wikipedia) on Mount Sodom by the Dead Sea in Israel.... also said to be Lot’s wife. I remarked on viewing the Lot’s wife in Jordan that it looked pretty tall; the local answer... ‘yes but people were taller in those days’. It’s a surreal conversation... and a biblical stretch of imagination for me.

A Bedouin camp near Wadi Mujib.

Approximately an hour's drive from Petra we stopped to watch the sunset over the Nature reserve of Dana.

We drove in to Wadi Musa the local town for Petra at 8.30pm and after a few phone calls on Tarek's mobile, the accommodation listing in Rough Guide and a bit of driving around, we finally checked in to The Sun Set Hotel (yes 2 words!) where we got a basic but big room with a huge bed at the top of the hotel for only 30JD a night; a fantastic price for this expensive tourist town and it includes breakfast....more bread and yogurt for Dave!

Amman to Jerash, Ajloun, Mount Nebo and Madaba

2010-09-15T02:36:00.045-05:00

Tuesday 14th September: Driving to Madaba.
We left Amman with Tarek our driver and hit the road, endgame for today; the small city of Madaba. First we drove 50 kilometres North from Amman to visit Jarash (Jerash) one of the best preserved Roman cities in the Eastern Mediterranean which is based in the hills of Gilead, a place which apparently is mentioned frequently in the Old Testament. Gerasa briefly became the centre of the Roman Empire when Trajan’s successor Hadrian stayed here. We entered the site through Hadrian’s Arch which was built in honour of the visit of the Roman Emperor Hadrian in 129-130 AD.

Gerasa was the ancient name for Jerash and was founded in 170BC. It is a pretty big site but we had a couple of hours to explore. Walking among the huge columns, some of them 15 metres high, we could look up to see the finely carved Corinthian details at the top of each one.

We walked through amazing colonnaded pathways to visit the Temple of Zeus believed to have been built in 162-163 AD. A guide was on site showing tourists how the columns were built in sections to withstand wind and sandstorms in such a way that these huge stone columns can sway, rather like a poplar tree, and remain standing.

In the sun the columns glow an amazing deep pink/orange colour which looks beautiful against the bright blue sky. (Below - The Temple of Zeus).

The city of Jerash built in to the hillsides around the ruins.

Tarek drove us to a restaurant not far from the ruins of Jerash called The Green Valley; a place he obviously knows well as the waiters and main manager came over to the table in a flurry of activity. They showed us the ovens where 2 guys bake the local flat bread which you eat every day, every meal here. It gets monotonous but it is incredible bread! We were brought a selection of Mezza; small dishes like freshly made humus topped with olive oil and local herbs, other types of dips made from local ingredients like freshly chopped parsley, tahini and lemon and aubergines mashed in to form a paste called Moutabbel. Fattoush and Tabbouleh and labneh, a thick yogurt paste which tastes great with bread dipped in to it but which they serve at every breakfast, lunch and dinner! The main dish was several plates of BBQ strips of different meats and we drank the local drink called naana lemon; a sweet lemon and mint cold drink which Dave and I can’t get enough of. We also drank a thick yogurt drink which they call Shanina. I love it – Dave can’t stand it. It’s sour and salty and in the restaurant it was thick and creamy. Tarek bought us some more later on which was a lot thinner and runny in texture. Dave didn’t want to be rude so drank it all down in one go as quickly as he could! Good Arabic food is amazing but you need a local, like anywhere in the world, to take you to the best places to eat. Green Valley is a fantastic restaurant.

Coffee seller at Ajloun.

From Jerash we drove 25 kilometres further West to the city of Ajlun (Ajloun) pronounced ‘adge-loon’, to visit its famous Saracen hill top castle known as Qal’at ar-Rabadh. It is on the top of a hill known as Jebel Auf, Jebel means hill in Arabic. The castle was built on the site of a ruined Christian monastery in 1184 in the midst of the Crusades. The scenic views from the castle are well worth the climb to the top.

Back to the car; we hadn’t been able to park in the shade so we had to turn on the air-con for a while to cool down the seats. I think temperatures in the car must reach about 38 degrees when parked in the sun! Dave got in and sat down and immediately leapt out again complaining of a ‘burnt arse’.

A family outing to Ajloun.

Driving through the Jordan valley and heading south again we headed for Mount Nebo about 10km northwest of the city of Madaba. Mount Nebo is a series of peaks known in Arabic as Siyagha and one of the holiest sites in Jordan. According to the bible Moses led the Israelites for 40 years through the wilderness and from the vantage point of Mount Nebo looked down on to the Promised Land that God had forbidden him to enter. Moses was said to have died on the mountain and in Christian and Jewish tradition was buried somewhere in or on Mount Nebo. Muslims however believed that Moses was a prophet and that his body was carried across the river and placed in a tomb lying off the modern Jericho-Jerusalem highway. Spectacular views from the mountain look out across wild, barren looking rocky desert but on closer inspection you can spot Bedouin tents scattered through this arid scenery.
Driving along one of these roads I spotted a group of camels and a pick up truck and asked Tarek if we could stop to explore. He took us up a rocky incline where a Bedouin tent, not visible from the road, was erected alongside the Bedouins goats and camels which were being watered a few feet away from the tent.

The head of the family, Mohammed, invited us to join his family to drink sweetened black tea and we sat in his tent, opened on all sides to incredible views, drinking tea and communicating through Tarek our driver.

Mohammed.

When a male Arabic visitor arrived, the woman quickly scooped up the children and moved quickly in to a separate closed section of the tent. Tarek explained that the women is not to be in the same room as another male or to converse with him. I found this a little difficult to accept as it was only minutes earlier that we had been sitting drinking tea and taking photographs, but of course when in their country everything is to be respected.
A shockingly bad photo of me, trust me to be hot and sweaty when some Arabic bloke who looks like a movie star drops in to pose in your sunglasses.

The tea was great but the amount of flies in the tent coming from the camels and goats a few feet away was a constant irritation. As tarek said in the car leter – it was good o share half tea and half flies with the Bedouins! The Bedouin people are incredibly hospitable, they invited us to stay to eat but we had to move on to reach Madabar.

Tarek said they might offer us camel’s milk but I had already been forewarned by my father who used to live in Saudia Arabia, that to drink came’s milk for the first time would result in the entire contents of your stomach being evacuated rapidly and extremely thoroughly. I explained to Tarek several times walking towards the Bedouin tent, please under no circumstances let them give us camel’s milk. Tarek was laughing because he had also explained the effects of it when drinking it for the first time. I might go back and drink it at the end of this holiday because the rate of bread I am eating every breakfast, lunch and dinner, I will need a purge in another week’s time!
Below; the tents of the Bedouin.

A modern cross built to signify when Moses turned a stick in to a snake.

From Mount Nebo we continued through the Jordan Valley driving to Mdabar where we stayed the night at The Black Iris, run by a Jordanian guy called Odi who had travelled the world and runs his bed & breakfast place with his Balinese wife and Jordanian father. The rooms were very basic and rather bland but everything was clean and Odi’s hospitality fantastic...therefore recommended. If it’s clean, has a fan, they feed you in the monring and the owners and staff are friendly... then 0 star can be just as good as 3 star. Odi also told us about a great restaurant a few streets away called Haret Jdoudna where we went to eat that evening......more amazing flat bread and oven baked chicken with several dishes of Mezza but an in-house DJ blasting out Arabic music which meant we ended the evening a little earlier than expected. We couldn’t hear ourselves above the din and we couldn’t figure out who he thought his audience was, the only other table in the courtyard being a large family gathering of Jordanians formally dressed and most of them knocking on in years!

Damascus, Syria and Amman, Jordan

2010-09-13T12:41:00.019-05:00

11th Sept 2010: flew to Damascus in Syria and arrived late at night in time for a heavily sugared mint tea at our hotel Sah Al Naum in the old city. Ahmed our host is fantastic, very welcoming and wants us to treat the hotel as a second home. In fact it used to be a family home.

I am trying to wear long sleeves and long trousers in respect to local culture….can’t expose much flesh…the throat apparently is erotic! I am not supposed to smile at men as it can be misconstrued. No access to facebook or you tube here – they are banned. We couldn’t get any Syrian currency in advance in the UK in the usual places or at Heathrow as it’s pretty much a closed currency. This country has only really opened up in the last few years. No MacDonald’s – fantastic! Finally managed to get some cash….only one of my cards works – Dave’s Barclaycard doesn’t! Nowhere seems to take credit cards. So far – it’s great fun – I love all this crazy stuff….I love being out of my depth.

We are sitting waiting for a driver now to Amman in Jordan. We are sitting in a beautiful inner courtyard which is part of the hotel. All of these photos show the inside of the hotel walls from the outside it is very basic looking and it took us a few minutes to figure out what was the front door. Lots of rambling balconies, corridors, plants, courtyards and really steep stone stairs to the rooms.

Looking for a cash machine we saw this cool hand painted car. Seems to be lots of old American cars here.

These kids folowed us down an alley and were shooting us with pellets and stones!

On the streets of Damascus.

Adnan our driver below. It took us a full day to get from Syria to Jordan yesterday over the border because they stopped us for our passports so many times….so much bureaucracy. If it had been a straight drive with one simple exit stamp stop and a visa stamp entry for Jordan the whole thing would have only been about 3 hours…..but they stopped and searched loads of times…everything pulled of the car, off the roof racks of buses, going through tons of boxes...everyone was trying to push in, cars and trucks and buses, it was total bedlam but it worked out somehow. For some unexplicable reason our driver Adnan had a full box of unused empty Corneto ice cream foils. He couldn’t speak English so it will forever remain a mystery but the armed guards and military were far more fascinated with that than with our one bag!

I am glad we decided to hire a driver as so few people at the border spoke English really….apart from the guy at the foreign exchange bureau who wanted to chat and when we asked his name he said Osama….hastily adding ‘but not HIM’ !!!! There wasn't a whole lot to see along the route, some camels on the roadside and masses of open rocky land that stretches for miles under a blazing sun.

12th Sept: We are in Jordan, in Amman……the people are incredibly friendly. An older Arab gentleman drove us for an hour yesterday from Adnan's drop off point.....to find our hotel – and didn’t charge us a penny. He did get completely lost and it was Dave who actually did the directions and found it in the end. The driver wouldn't believe our map and said it was not right - in fact it was. Turned out we had driven past the hotel twice and it was 10 minutes from where he picked us up. Most people are very kind. The lady who manages the hotel we are staying in, in Amman drove us to a restaurant last night for free so we wouldn’t have to take a taxi. The restaurant was packed with local families with their children celebrating the end of Ramadam. We ate great food, all Arabic…..koftas, and chicken and baba ganoush, lots of lovely fresh made leavened bread.

13th Sept 2010: We have now hooked up with Tariq, a friend of our Engish friend Mark's. Mark works for Explore.co.uk and has a lot of useful contacts in Jordan and Syria. Tariq is a driver and a guide, speaks excellent English and is a genuinely lovely man. Courteous, helpful and he really wants us to enjoy his country. Tariq drove us around Amman today. First stop The Citdael on Jebel al-Qal'a (Citadel Hill)...this is the site of a partly restored Umayaad Palace. Parked in the car park was this car with a bizarre looking soft toy dog on the back windowsill.

Views from Jebel al-Qal'a

Dave admiring the view of Amman at lunchtime when the mosques were calling the Jordanians to prayer. The call to prayer was coming from several different mosques around the city and echoing around the hills. The sound was incredible and very moving.

The Roman Temple of Hercules; the arms of a massive statue of Hercules were found here - all that remains at this site is part of hand and an elbow which are shown below.

Bedouin head dresses displayed in the museum at the site of the Citadel. The museum is wel worth a visit and included in the 2JD entrance fee to the citadel ruins.

The new bridge in Amman linking the city to the West of Amman where the embbasys and wealthy houses are located.

The Roman Ampitheatre (below) in downtown Amman, the centrepiece of Roman Philadelphia....Jordan's original name. Approached from Hashmi Street along a street lined with an impressive Corinthian colonnade and sonme original Roman paving. The theatre is cut in to the hillside and was built between 169 and 177 AD during the reign of Emperor Marcus Aurelius for an audience of up to 6,000 people.

Mosque.

A fig stop! Tariq pulled over on a busy motorway and a guy and his son were selling figs under the flyover. Realy fresh and cold when you bit on to them, fantastic.

29th September 09; Fractured my elbow!

2009-10-05T02:15:00.002-05:00

So there we were back in New York for the 3rd time in a year hanging out with Kat and Jon and feeling lucky to be back in our favourite city and hanging out with great friends; when I tripped over some discarded box banding tape on the pavement, went full length flat on my face and fractured my left elbow. A big shout out to the medical staff at Beth Israel Hospital ER who were great; xrayed me, put some gel on the huge yellow bruise on my right knee, stuck my left arm in a sling (for 6 weeks - groan), packed me up with painkillers and sent me on my way again. Still managed to enjoy the next 3 days and got to have dinner with Quique...but what a way to end the month away.....ouch! Arrived back in London last Friday 2nd October and got an appointment with the fracture clinic this week!

Last day in Oaxaca

2009-10-05T01:50:00.024-05:00

25^th September: On our last day in Oaxaca we loped around the streets marvelling at all the amazing buildings and ate way too much food ......again. Great galleries here and some incredibly designed restaurants. So many tourists visit Mexico just for the beaches but they miss out on driving inland to see the mountain ranges and the great cities this country has to offer.

Dropped in to the art gallery to see an exhibition called Serie En Riesgo by the Mexican artist Fernando Aceves Humana. Pretty amazing stuff – a series of paintings of monkeys in apocalyptic style settings, very dark canvases wherein the subject matter was picked out in almost luminous golden colours. One room held around 6 large canvases and was completely dark apart from a few directed spotlights centred on each canvas but covered in black paper pinpricked to allow a small amount of light to shine on the subject matter of each canvas. I have never seen an exhibition lit like this before; genius. It gave an atmosphere of walking through a nightmare and the subject of each canvas seemed to glow. A fantastic artist and brilliantly displayed.

After a quick trip to one of the markets to stock up on some pots of roja and negra mole (famous hot paste pronounced molay made from approx 45 different spices) and some local bitter chocolate we met Roberto for even more food and then hung out at the trendy restaurant/bar Los Danzantes for cocktails.

They have a great painting on display by Mexican artist Rauol Herrera which I could look at for hours – it makes me think of the Paul Theroux novel Mosquito Coast which was set in the jungle of Honduras. If I was an accomplished art thief I would sneak in at night and nick it. I feel like I am in that lush tropical jungle in its suffocating heat when I look at it....we have been to this particular restaurant several times now and always sit in the same place!

Sitting on the table next to us was a group of Mexican photographers preparing for a lecture this evening at the Photography Museum. We got talking with them and on their recommendation went to the museum to see the exhibitions. It turned out that one of them who we met again later is a well known Mexican photographer called Antonio Turok whose latest work was on display in the museum. It’s pretty powerful imagery and we would have loved to have bought some prints. I have added him to my list of Mexican photographers that I find inspiring; also check out Graciela Iturbide – pronounced E-tur-be-day - (whose work I saw on display in the Getty museum in Los Angeles 18 months ago) and Flor Garduno.

Back in the room feeling knackered – just packed most of our stuff up ready for our early morning flight to Cancun tomorrow. Roberto will leave us there and head back to Tulum; we have 2 nights in Cancun back on the beach before flying to New York to stay with Kat and Jon and catch up with our friend Quique. 3 days after that and we will be back in London and back to reality.

Already dreaming about a trip to the Middle East or to Namibia next year if we can get it together...but first we need to buy somewhere to live and get our stuff out of storage which has been there for 2 years this November. The Nomad life has suited us so far....would be bloody great if we can keep it going in some way!

oaxaca graffiti, day of the dead crafts, arts

2009-10-01T07:11:00.023-05:00

Around Oaxaca: Monte Alban, Cuilapan de Guerrero,San Martin Tilcajete and Santa Maria Del Tule

2009-09-27T12:29:00.035-05:00

24^th Sept Thursday – it’s pretty handy having Roberto along to have someone who speaks Spanish – he did a deal with a cab driver from the luxury hotel Camino Real for 100 pesos a day to take a tour around the famous sites in Oaxaca state. About 10 miles out of the city lies the famous Zapotec and Mixtec ruins of Monte Alban ....elevated on beautiful grass plains we wandered the site for around an hour to see the ball courts, the great plaza, the observatory and a tomb. It’s not quite as impressive as Coba, Palenke or Chichen Itza but it is a very serene and pretty site and worth the visit.

That's what I call a view....

Roberto is the worst tourist in the world - he wants to run round everything in 15 minutes - here he's hassling Dave to hurry up - it was pretty funny.

From there we headed off for an hour’s drive to the beautiful open chapel in Vicente; the unfinished church and ex convent of Cuilapan de Guerrero.

We hired a local guide who walked us around the site for an hour.

The roof terrace was huge and looked out over the local town of Vicente. Roberto and I were dreaming of owning it and transforming it in to a stunning hotel with vaulted chambers and rooftop pool – outdoing the Camino Royal in the ex monastery in Oaxaca city centre – yeah I know we are capitalist philistines.

We skipped the market in Zaachila as it turned out it was mainly a food and livestock market – didn’t fancy buying a pig and trying to bring that back through customs from Mexico. We instead drove through Coyotepec where they make the black pottery famous in this region and on to San Martin Tilcajete to the home and art workshops of Jacobo and Maria Angeles who specialise in Zapoteco art.

Last stop was to visit this incredible tree - the widest in the world - it certainly looks like it - it takes a 100 schoolchildren linking hands to surround it. It is HUGE! It's called El Árbol del Tule or the Tule Tree. In 2005 its trunk had a circumference of 36.2 m. It grows in the church grounds in the town center of Santa María del Tule approximately 9 km east of the city of Oaxaca on the road to Mitla. This tree is a Montezuma Cypress and it is the stoutest tree in the world….it blew us away, my favourite stop of the day.

Found in Oaxaca - an Owl in Melon!

2009-09-27T11:58:00.000-05:00

Police march in Oaxaca central square-23rd September 2009

2009-09-27T11:41:00.009-05:00

The 3 of us were hanging out in the central plaza one evening when the Oaxaca police band marched through carrying the Mexican flag which they folded in front of lots of local dignitaries.......

The Mexican police come pretty tooled up....there have been a lot of protest demos whilst we have been here - a lot of it seems to be about low salaries paid to workers such as university teachers. We walked down one small street one afternoon and were surrounded on both sides by around 60 armed police stationed ready for a march that was reportedly going to be passing through.

......check these guys out, they look like the local Dons.

Oaxaca decorative flags made from paper or plastic

2009-09-27T08:29:00.004-05:00

Oaxaca Market Traders

2009-09-27T08:14:00.010-05:00

Don't know if you can see close enough - but see if you can guess right as to what these women are selling to eat ........ and they are pretty tasty....

The ice-cream stall (above) - I had coconut ice-cream with shreds of coconut flesh in it - love it. There's loads of flavours including mescal - famous in this region, especially the drink.

A lunch stop in the food market (above) .......Roberto gets down to some haggling...(below)

Walking Oaxaca

2009-09-27T07:33:00.024-05:00

Oaxaca is a fantastic city, lots of energy, amazing indigenous crafts and arts scene, beautiful architecture, cathedrals, churches, colourful painted houses and cobbled streets. Oaxaca (pronounced Wah-ha-ca) is one of my favourite cities in the world.

Wandering in to some of the big hotels which have been renovated from 15^th century monasteries, prisons, old haciendas etc reveal some stunning inner garden courtyards and amazing balconied walkways and huge stone paving slabs.

The walls of many of these buildings are incredibly thick which cools the building in the hot weather. Would love to live in one of these places! There’s quite a large community of ex-pats here, mainly Europeans and Americans...the downside is that them being here has really pushed up the prices.

The streets are really colourful and we have been visiting the 3 large markets - all indoors and in the town centre; done a fair bit of shopping and bartering and browsed in some lovely book shops like ‘Amate’ which holds a fantastic stock of English and other language fiction as well as a great selection of Mexican photography books and fictional and historical accounts of life in Mexico. Whoever buys stock for that place has a great eye – I could spend hours in there

Women from the Chiapas region come to Oaxaca city to sell; they are recognised by their traditional dress, slighter build - slim and quite short, usually long hair plaited with colourful ribbons and more Indian looking facial features.

....Dave and Roberto walking around with their bags - so I got them to pose for this shot.

Flying in to Oaxaca: 22nd September

2009-09-26T20:48:00.004-05:00

22nd September: We are now in Oaxaca – just under 2 years ago we drove here and loved it and decided to have a revisit...... and Roberto has flown up here with us for 4 days. But first some beautiful shots taken from the window of the plane as we flew in over Oaxaca.

Jorge and Dave

2009-09-26T17:52:00.002-05:00

A couple of jokers.....

Last days in Tulum before flying to Oaxaca

2009-09-26T15:22:00.009-05:00

Went in to a coma on the beach it was so hot; did manage to read Papillion which was even more exciting following his jail breaks after we had last year spent time in a few places in Colombia that he escaped to. Had a few day trips to Play del Carmen with Roberto including an evening at the cinema to see a film which Carolina and I enjoyed but sent Roberto and Dave to sleep; it was a bit on the arty side for them...made worse cos they could hear the action blockbuster rumbling on the screen next door. Before Duilio headed back to Italy we went with Roberto to look at a big plot of land he bought some years ago and which they have cleared of trees recently. The land should fit around 12 luxury houses on it and as Dulio's an architect he came along to have a look at the size of the plot.

The plot of land has been cleared of all but ONE tree - this one below which is poisonous if you touch it. A specialist has to come in to remove it. Amazing that amidst all that jungle there was this single poisonous tree.

Played with Carolina’s little girl Amelie on the beach which got hotter and hotter and then the weather finally broke and we had a few biblical rain storms. The crabs came out – they migrate from the jungle (literally over the road from Shambala) to the sea which means crossing the road dodging being squashed by the cars and scuttling through Shambala across the beach to the sea. We had at least one crab in our room each night which created some pretty comical scenarios as we tried to get them back on course whilst avoid being nipped by their one large claw.

Carolina in the yoga room playing with her daughter Amelie above and on the beach below.

Amelie playing with the carved Buddha in the yoga room, hanging necklaces on his hand.

Beach life at Shambala Petit Hotel

2009-09-16T08:13:00.007-05:00

God I love this place - it's stunning......beach is amazing, the sea is bright turquoise, deep blue and brilliant white spray, the sand is white and powder soft....no wonder we keep coming back to visit Roberto and stay at Shambala Petit Hotel. This is without a doubt the BEST beach we have ever been on in our lives and we have been on beaches in Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam and Zanzibar...nothing comes close to this one in Tulum.

And there is no-one around right now. Some days we see only 1 or 2 people on the beach – economy crash and hurricane season doesn’t help but apparently the swine flu scare has killed tourism here in Mexico since last May – bloody great for us but I fell really sorry for all the local hotels and restaurants and stuff......don’t know how they are surviving....me, Dave and two Mexican women staying at Roberto’s place right now – and before that was just us and our new Italian friends Leticia and Duilio who you can see frolicking in the surf below on their last day here yesterday. Come to Shambala - it's the best time to be here!!!!

Duilio and Goa.

Duilio and Leticia making the most of their last day! Come back we miss you!!!!!

Back in Mexico! Old and new friends at Shamabala, Tulum

2009-09-16T07:55:00.007-05:00

Goa on the beach in the shade - she was a puppy last September and is still a handful at 1 year old but unfortunately was hit by a car a few months ago and now has a bad leg and hip. She comes in to the sea with us for a swim but we have to keep an eye on her when she goes out of her depth. She lives here with Enzo, a black lab who origially came to Mexico from Italy!

Leticia above and her husband Duilio below....our new fantastic Italian friends from Turin. They left yesterday after being here for 2 weeks. We have had a lot of fun and laughter with them and the place is very quiet now they have gone. We already miss them. They are also friends with Roberto so it has been a happy family reunion here.

Carolina is from Buenos Aires in Argentina but has lived in Tulum for around 6 years. She is now working with Roberto heping him to run Shambala Petit Hotel. She's also the person who gives massages, I think I need to book one in because she is allegedly a brilliant masseuse! She has a little girl called Amelie who is only 3 years old and is very funny...she comes here after nursery school to swim in the sea.

We were reunited with Aura (below) who is from Venezuela but has lived in Mexico for almost 2 years now - Aura was staying here last September when we were here. Last year she gave me a beautiful pair of earrings which are typical Venuzuelan style - small woven threads in different colours with silver. Aura only stayed for one night as she had to go back to work near Playa del Carmen (about 50 minutes drive from here)...but we managed to grab lunch together down the beach at one of the local restaurants called Om.

..when we get a new house I want to buy these!

2009-08-25T15:51:00.005-05:00

One of my favourite blogs: Print and Pattern

2009-08-20T12:23:00.004-05:00

http://printpattern.blogspot.com/

I can spend hours on this amazing blog, the lady who does it has really made it a labour of love and recommends fabulous prints, cards, gifts and books. Found these amazing prints on there by an artist called James Brown.

http://generalpattern.bigcartel.com

Artist I am liking this week: Tim Biskup

2009-08-17T02:23:00.005-05:00

...currently listening to

2009-07-27T01:52:00.011-05:00

Albums I love right now White Denim - Work Out Holiday especially the track Shake Shake Shake...a good summer album. Deadweather - Horehound, great album and great album cover....and bizarre video : http://www.youtube.com/user/TheDeadWeatherTV#play/all/uploads-all/0/M7QSkI6My1g

La Roux - La Roux, debut album...great pop. Haven't made my mind up about Kid British yet but Florence and the Machines have their moments and she looks amazing...the single Kiss with a Fist was excellent. STILL playing the Seventh Tree album by Goldfrapp - permanently on my ipod.

...more Mark Hearld lino cut cards, love this guy's work

2009-07-27T01:30:00.004-05:00

Zero dollar

2009-07-21T10:25:00.002-05:00

Found this on the internet - zero dollar - like it but totally forgotten the name of the artist and now can't find it again.

Beautiful wood engravings and lino cuts

2009-07-20T15:25:00.007-05:00

So here are some beautiful things that I have discovered on my travels back home in England!

Grey Heron and eel wood engraving by Colin See-Paynton.

Grassholm Gannets wood cutting by Colin See-Paynton.
Geese and fish linocut by Mark Hearld

Sea Change linocut by Mark Hearld

Starlings on the shore linocut by Mark Hearld.

You can buy all of the above from one of my favourite card and art companies based in the UK: http://www.art-angels.co.uk/

Giant monkey

2009-07-15T17:28:00.003-05:00

I am soooo lazy with this blog now we are back and every time I look at the blog I just want to go away and travel again - okay here is a silly picture for you nicked from my mate Richard's facebook pages - it made me laugh....

Blog all....

2009-06-04T15:20:00.002-05:00

yeah yeah I know I have written absolutely blog all on this blog for eons.......funny thing is we discovered that we turned up on someone else's blog...2 young Kentucky guys we met months back in Antigua in Guatemala...their post about meeting Dave, myself and our mate Hadley is quite amusing, you can see it here if the link works...there that will get me off having to write anything else for a wee bit longer...but seriously maybe I should write on this thing ...I am too lazy to keep notes and a diary so maybe I will start burbling on my blog more often.

http://www.twoguysaroundtheworld.com/blogs/travel/youretravelingtheworldnobigdeal.html#formMessage

2009-04-30T12:22:00.002-05:00

Started work at the new job Nippaz with Attitude. How's it going? Well it be going good for the first week but then I got laid out by a downer of a chest infection which knocked me on my back for a few days....not the greatest start to a new job gotta say. I love the logo Ian created for his company so much I am sharing it with you here. At least I haven't got Swine flu. Cannot believe the amount of out of control scare mongering in the media to do with swine flu...if it's in Mexico City why have Thompsons cancelled flights to Cancun in the Yucatan....do they know how huge a country Mexico is and how far away the capitol is from Cancun? But now we have 2 cases in Scotland, responding to medication we hear.....but no-one's cancelled flights to Scotland! More likely to die of a heart attack in Scotland from eating deep fried mars bars than die of a flu in Mexico I reckon.

Blighty is blooming...but feeling a bit brittle.

2009-04-14T06:34:00.067-05:00

Dave, Tim and Sandrine walking in Norfolk...my moody David Lean 'Great Expectations' homage... to Magwitch out on the marshes.

So we got back from our 14 months wandering around the world....felt exhausted but happy, took a while to readjust to being back in the UK and started job hunting in London. The re-adjustment part has been hard; well as far as I’m concerned anyway….I enjoyed waking every day to new adventures, meeting new people, road trips, stunning sites and in general…pretty amazing weather, who wouldn’t and we were lucky we got the opportunity..….but landing back in London mid January possibly wasn’t the best time to come back....can’t really speak for Dave…..he’s been out lunching it daily with old work colleagues and business contacts…hopefully he will get a new job soon but this current calamitous economic market isn’t helping much. Jobs are thin on the ground and everyone has tightened their belts. I have got a new job working for our old friend Ian managing the daily running of his fab company Nippaz with Attitude http://www.nippaz.com/ Ian is heading off with wife Flavia to live in Brazil for a while.

We have been catching up on friends; met up with Hadley who’s now back from his world trip, we originally met him in Guatemala...we received a beautiful gift from our friend Hong in Dalat, Vietnam who took us on the Easy Riders tour….we email regularly, as does Van in Hoi An, Vietnam who made all of our tailormade clothes. Keep the pictures coming Van, we love seeing what you and the family are up to. We will come to visit you again one day. We meet up soon with Mark and Ella who we met in Tulum in Mexico…and although our Belgian friend Ian is still tripping around the world, we expect to see him when he drops by London sometime in the near future. We have just got back from a few days in Hunstanton in Norfolk for the Easter break...where we stayed with Tim and Sandrine in Tim's dad's holiday flat, overlooking the sea. The scenery in that area is fantastic, very flat....we went for long walks through the marshes and along the beach. Sandrine tried to win on the arcade games but to no avail unfortunately...it's all a fix!

We ate handsomely on pub grub, one of the meals at the local Gin Trap Inn.

Tim and Sandrine. Tim won his first title fight boxing last month!

Colourful cliffs and boulders and an old boat wreck on the beach.

My Dad, Hatch, sent over some new photos from his place in Kampala..here he is eating Easter Sunday ice cream accompanied by his new pup Brooks.

And here's Anna posing with an enormous Cycad plant that has recently flowered in their compound. Looks a bit too little shop of horros for my liking, if the locals start going missing, blame it on the man eating plant!

We've covered a fair few miles around the UK recently...making the most of not being back at work yet. Visited Jayne, Duncan and their kids Max and Jed in Bristol where we also went to a groovy graffiti exhibition.

Jed...8 months and very cute.

...and big brother Max...also cute albeit a LOT noisier!

Caught up with my Dad who’s been over from Uganda for his canal boat tripping, around the Midlands….catching up on our gorgeous niece Sarah now 15 months old...and in to absolutely everything!

Sarah May, fresh back from her first trip to Uganada to see her Grandpa Hatch and now on his canal boat motoring the English canals. Baby world traveller already.

My sister Emma inside the boat ....contemplating making a bacon buttie.

Messing about on the river....on Hatch's canal boat.

This swan started getting a bit too up close and personal and nearly took my finger off with his beak!

Hatch on his boat - showing off his specially cultivated beard for the Captain look.

Hatch shows Dave's Mum how to navigate British Waterways.

Dave's left holding the baby...but she looks pretty amused!

Security onboard a neighbouring canal boat.

Through the tunnel.

And so many friends we made along the way have had big changes in their lives since we first met. Roberto who owns Shambala Petit Hotel in Tulum, Mexico had a beautiful baby girl called Naia…we will definitely be back there someday...although we are in touch every week, we both really miss Roberto. We love you brother!

And though he seems to have disappeared recently…..a big shout out to Jorge wherever you are in Mexico you crazy ass Mexican! Hi to Adrianna – keeping rolling the sushi….we will be back to see you guys I promise. Day of the Dead November 1st in Mexico, it’s in our diaries for 2009 or 2010! We went to visit Zuzi and Peter in Taunton, our Slovakian friends who we met in Palenke in Mexico at the start of our travels; they have since had a baby…Olivia…she’s gorgeous of course.

Daddy Peter contemplates dealing with Olivia's future boyfriends.

Mum Zuzi.

And Georgie and Mike who we met in Thailand.....flew back to Oz where baby Jules was born. I hope we meet again one day guys because hanging out with you was hilarious!

We are still in touch with so many people we met along the way, people who really made a difference to our experiences; people who were fun, generous, kind, knowledgeable and often hilarious…..we remember them all and hope we meet again!

Review: Some of my favourite personal photographs taken in the last 14 months

2009-01-23T15:09:00.064-06:00

So it's over; 14 months around the world through 16 amazing countries; Mexico, USA, Canada, Japan, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Guatemala, drove through Belize in a day, Peru, Argentina and Colombia. Back in London and reviewing my photos I have uploaded a round up of some of my favourite shots below in no particular order.

Mexico

Favourite place to stay, Tulum in Mexico; Shambala Petit Hotel.

New friend Roberto.

Vietnam

Peru

Japan

Hong Kong

Vancouver bound

Guatemala

Cambodia

Malaysia

USA, Joshua Tree

Borneo

Argentina

Thailand

Laos.

The Children of Laos

New York: Our last day - flying back to London this afternoon!

2009-01-13T10:52:00.005-06:00

Our last night in New York city last night (12th January 2009); at our friend Kat and Jon's apartment with their gorgeous daughter Sophie (5 yrs). It has been freezing cold here, icicles hanging off the cars outside...but it is still the best city in the world. We are looking forward to going back to all our friends and family in London but at the same time sad to end our 14 month adventure and leave Kat, Jon and Sophie and this amazing city behind. We also hooked up with Quique again here in New York (who we met in Vietnam back in April 2007). Betsy unfortunately hasn't been around because she is currently in Bogota of all places for work..we just missed each other in Colombia. It's been an AMAZING 14 months but now it's back to reality!!!

Amherst with Dan & Andrea and the gang and Seattle: Down from Vancouver Island; Sandra & Tony.

2009-01-04T19:41:00.029-06:00

Dan and Andrea drove us the 3 hours back to their house in Amherst, MA because Andrea's youngest Owen (above with Dave) was playing a gig that night with his amazing band Client # 9. They played at The Iron Horse in Northampton, Massachussetts; a famous venue which has hosted some very big names over the years. Client # 9 seriously rock, a very tight band, no vocals, very Mogwai influenced with a bit of Joy Division and maybe some early Smashing Pumpkins thrown in to the mix. They also remind me of the UK band Hope of the States whose first album was amazing. Two other bands also played, all made up of members ranging from around 11 years old to 15.

Leticia (above) who was one of the musicians I worked with when at Blue Rose, dropped round on Sunday morning with husband Rhys below enjoying a cuppa (bass player in leticia back in those crazy fun days). I haven't seen them for 8 years so it was fantastic to spend time with them. In fact Leticia was pregnant with Gruff the last time we met! Dan was the guitarist in the band and Andrea a backing vocalist.....and Andrea and leticia are sisters....hence all the connections!

Rea, Mat, Chelsea (Andrea's eldest daughter) sit with Leticia in Dan and Andrea's kitchen.

Andrea looking beautiful after her morning work out class dishes out the 26 bagels Dave and Dan went to buy!

Rea and elder brother Gruff...no idea if I am spelling these Welsh names right! Dad Rhys is originally from Wales.

Back in Seattle on the opposite coast of the US, we spent a great night with Tony and Sandra in Coopers our favourite bar near Bruce's in Seattle. Left to right: Sandra, Bruce, Darin, me, Dave, Tony, Ryan and Nico.

Me and Darin being silly in Coopers.

Me in Ryan's ski mask in Coopers getting jiggy with it.

Tony and Bruce rib each other about bad darts scores while score keeper Dave looks on.

Tony, Dave, Sandra and Bruce hanging out at breakfast in one of the local Seattle joints called Breakfast Club....which has National Rifle Association ads on the walls and the bills of rights for the right to bear arms....and various of the owner's photos of their family toting guns...kind of a strange and intimidating place to eat your bacon and eggs in!!! Unfortunately Deb couldn't come as she had an operation after Christmas and was laid up for several days...but is now recovering great!

Sandra, Tony and Dave under the Lenin statue in Freemont.

Who is Sandra calling about the tacos?

Reading about the rocket in Freemont.

Christmas Day at Darin's house in Seattle with Peggy, Bruce and Deb.

Peggy and Bruce recovering from gorging on English Christmas dinner complete with yorkshire puds and christmas crackers!!! Plus a handmade English Christmas pudding made by Peggy which was amazing. Thanks Peggy!

Seattle: Dave skiing at Snoqualmie Pass!

2009-01-04T19:37:00.002-06:00

What do you mean only Black runs !!!!!!!!!!!!!! Dave went skiing again with Darin at Snoqualmie Pass.

Seattle: Dec 2008 Hanging with Oliver & Henry

2009-01-04T19:17:00.012-06:00

We dropped round to Evan and Amy's to hang out a while with their cute twins Oliver (on the right above) and Henry and met Evan's best mate Brian.

Henry.

Oliver.

I went out a couple of days before Christmas to buy a tree with Bruce and Deb....now known as the 'puffee' Christmas Tree! They usually buy something a little sparser 'Charlie Brown' style...but I persuaded them to go for this bushy little number.

Bella runs away from the camera in the main living room - it really scares her and she won't come near when she sees me with it.

Our cosy basement room at Bruce's house.....

....and the basement living room area.

The snow got very deep and swamped Bruce's deck.

Seattle: What? MORE snow!

2008-12-27T00:38:00.016-06:00

Bruce's comedy post box - but there's no post as the postal van can't get up or down the hill.

Bruce's street is a really steep hill. Local kids have been sledging down it and lots of people have been walking by on snow skis. It's been pretty surreal.

The front path to Bruce's house.

Bruce's - our room is in the basement part. You call this type of house a baby split - but there's nothing baby about them, they are pretty big.

Bella looks out of the front window.

The front garden is several feet in snow.

The trees in Bruce's front garden, there are hundreds of large fir trees all over Seattle.

HAPPY CHRISTMAS !!

2008-12-25T12:03:00.001-06:00

Seattle: 18th December Birthday sleep over for me!

2008-12-22T21:03:00.019-06:00

So after running around town with Joni I went over and stayed at her place and woke up on the 18th, my birthday morning, to this view below from Ava's bedrooom window at around 7.30am. About 12 inches of snow fell overnight. It looked amazing...a real winter wonderland.

Later on in the morning, the view from Joni's front door below.

All the schools closed, no-one could get to work....so what else to do but to go sledging with the kids!

Joni kitted me out in full snow gear and Erics steel toe-capped rubber work boots - don't I look just dreamy....not!

Joni's house.

Joni clearing the car off so Eric could drive me back to Bruce's where I could open my birthday presents!

Seattle: 17th December: Macys Christmas window and the Teddy Bear Suite!

2008-12-21T18:47:00.017-06:00

17th December was mine and Dave's 14th wedding anniversary so the best gift I could give him after 13 months in each other's pockets 24/7 travelling...was some time off from me! So Joni swung by again and picked me up and we ran around downtown doing Christmas stuff with her crazy kids Elsa and Ava. Joni' tree is up in her living room....and below I took the kids in to the Fairmont Hotel where they checked Father Christmas's list of naughty kids to make sure they weren't on it.......

...and hung out in the Teddy Bear Suite; a room the Fairmont Olympic hotel puts aside every year at Christmas and fills with teddy bears for the kids.

We also stopped by Macy's window to see the Christmas train scene.

Seattle Tuesday 16 December: Out and about with Joni and Ava, reindeer and Blue Ridge

2008-12-21T12:44:00.017-06:00

More snow fell on 16th December but at this point it wasn't too deep or too treacherous! The view above is from our basement bedroom window at Bruce's house which overlooks the back of the property across to Darin and Sherry's house. Joni came over with one of her little girls, Ava (4) and we went for a drive around. We took Ava to a local garden centre where they have some real reindeer in residence for Christmas. One of them had massive bulging eyes and scared the crap out of us. He wasn't very photogenic and refused to pose so I took photos of his mate instead.

Ava was way more interested in the model railway they had set up for Christmas.....

...Mum Joni pointed out the minature houses....

...but Mum couldn't stop this cheeky little monkey.....

...from dropping her toy dog on to the tracks.

We had a pit stop at Costume & Display which is one of my all time favourite places in Seattle; a massive warehouse styled store selling costumes and display items for parties etc and at this time of year has a staggering display of Christmas trees and crazy ornaments. It is completely over the top but fantastic fun. We went for a drive around Blue Ridge, a Seattle neighbourhood overlooking the water and full of old houses that look beautiful in the snow.

Seattle: Heavy snow and traffic chaos as bus almost goes over the 1-5!

2008-12-21T12:19:00.007-06:00

Two buses packed with 80 students returning home to their families for Christmas, narrowly avoided plunging onto a major motorway below after sliding across ice and crashing through the railings above. The front end of one coach was left dangling 20 feet above Interstate 5 in Seattle for several hours before a tow-truck was able to pull it back from the edge. Dave and Bruce were out driving and luckily had turned off one junction before!
Winter Weather for Seattle, WA, USA - more days of this? I want to go shopping!!!
Current: Cloudy/Wind: W at 38 mph
Sun -1°C -2°C / Mon 0°C -4°C / Tue 1°C -3°C / Wed 3°C 1°C

16th December:Seattle:Putting up the tree at Peggys house

2008-12-19T20:24:00.012-06:00

On the night of the 16th December we were invited to Peggy's house to help her put up her tree. It's a fake tree but looks very realistic. Above, Bruce and Dave get stuck in to assembling the tree...and below the finished result standing in the corner of Peggy's lounge.

Bruce and Dave kick back.

Bruce and Deb admire the tree.

Peggy shows Deb her handmade quilt.

Peggy cooks up chicken soup for dinner.

Peggy's dinner table.

4th December to 11th Dec: Los Angeles

2008-12-19T19:36:00.012-06:00

We have visited several times so I didn't take many photos whilst in LA.....but here's a few for you. Danny's dog Roscoe above does his impersonation of a Edward Hopper painting! Dave hangs out below in Danny's lounge.

Our room when staying at Danny's presided over by the King himself.

Our old friends Richard and Barbara have bought a bakery since we were last in LA back in January. Villa Rosa turns out some tasty treats.

Richard shows Dave around his new business.

A bit blurry - but this is Barbara in the kitchen helping the staff with the Italian wedding cookies. Thanks again Barbara for the coconut cup cakes, a very yummy early birthday treat for me!

Our friend Paul from London was in LA whilst we were there....over for his job working on the new Batman game due out next year. It was great to hook up with him and go out for drinks in Santa Monica on Third Promenade at the Broadway Deli. There is a Batman theme going on every time I visit Los Angeles. The first time I visited coincided with the release of a new Batman movie and the batmobile was parked outside Mann's Theatre, the second time was in January this year and we sat eating lunch in the Broadway Deli watching the news break about Heath Ledger's death just before the new Batman movie came out with him in it as The Joker.....and here we were again hanging with Paul who was working on the new Batman game. Next time I visit I expect nothing less than a midnight meet with the caped crusader himself.
We went to a memorial service with Danny for a guy called called Jay who ran a restaurant called Che Jay and was very well known in Santa Monica. It was quite a hilarious couple of hours. The bald actor who plays the agent Charlie Runkle in Californication and Charlotte’s husband in Sex and the City was there…….. as well as Nancy Sinatra (way too much plastic surgery and a midget) and lots of other actors more famous in the US than the UK (Danny recognised a few child actors now in their 60’s and 70s) and people you recognise but can’t figure out who they are (so not that famous really), a few orange people who had gone over the top on the perma-tan, tons of plastic surgery and toupees, a couple of quite frankly freakishly scary old women who looked like they may have been in ‘Whatever Happened to Baby Jane’ – they really were that scary…tons of surgery, wigs, 10 inches of make up, shuffling around in high heels 3 sizes too big for them……we mingled in a kind of empty car park area cordoned off with velvet ropes eating free food and having free wine, a great LA experience. Danny knew a writer guy there – and no kidding this bloke (no names mentioned - but you know who you are!) actually had a 5 minute conversation with Dave and me telling us how famous he was – “I have written 3 books – I am more famous than my brother in law – I am a famous author”. Seriously – that was pretty much the entire conversation – I was really trying hard to keep a straight face. It's not surprising that so many have such good fun at the expense of this city...it's definitely a one off!

Colombia: last day - Cartagena town and punk iguanas!

2008-12-03T16:06:00.047-06:00

December 3rd: Our last day in Cartagena Colombia. We are now in Los Angeles but a few parting shots of Cartagena's beautiful buildings.

He tried to prevent having his photo taken but a slow shutter speed caught him out - hah!

Punk iguanas in the park.

I wanted to buy this feather head piece but it wasn't for sale.

Cartagena Christmas decorations.

Dave knocking at the hotel door to get in - they check who you are in a little window first - if you look shady you ain't getting access!

Colombia: Still in Cartagena hanging out with parrots at breakfast

2008-12-01T09:41:00.023-06:00

Just a few photos of where we are spending 10 days dossing in Cartagena in Colombia at Casa Relax. Not much going on to be honest, just whiling away our days now until we fly to LA. It's baking hot, there's non-stop Salsa versions of old Christmas tunes blaring out on the streets of Getsamani the neighbourhood we are in...which is great fun...they party all the time here...all day AND all night. The parrot above is the friendly one out of the 3 they have living here at the hotel....he comes and nicks my breakfast in the morning from the big wooden communal table we all sit at.

Two new friends, Hugo and Adriana from Argentina who were staying here for a few days; they were great fun. Adriana works as an architect in Caracus in Venezuela.

Casa Relax at night from the balcony outside our room.

On the balcony outside our bedroom door. Dave bangs his head on this light every day without fail...ha ha ha.

Michel the French owner of Casa Relax at breakfast.

Me at breakfast with new friends. God I need a cut and colour - Mary help me!!!!!

This one below looks cute....but bites.

Hugo and Adriana.

Jean Louis and Claudia. Jean Louis lives in Colombia.

Adriana chills out by the pool.

Around the big communal table....we cook here too some days in their open air kitchen. Before Hugo and Adriana left they cooked up a great Parilla (BBQ) for us Argentine style - loads of meat! It was excellent.

Watch out under the table - the one who bites hangs out under here too some mornings.

Dave doesn't like the parrots - he prefers the computer - it doesn't bite.

The breakfast girls......these 2 are great - crepes or scrambled eggs, toast, marmalade, fresh pineapple juice.....they sort it all out for the guests every morning......and are always smiling.

Taganga: dossing about doing absolutely nothing.

2008-11-27T15:37:00.039-06:00

Not much news from Taganga, it's a one road fishing town with a handful of restaurants and a few hostels. People go to Taganga for the cheap diving courses, Tayrona Park and the small beaches. We found a funky hostel called Bay View and stayed there for 6 days and did absolutely nothing the whole time we were there.....it was great. We left on Monday 24th and came back here to Cartagena.

I was maybe a little unfair in my previous rant about Taganga because we did meet a lot of great people at the hostel and it was great hanging out with them all....even if it did age us a bit as most of them were only about 23! This couple below are Johnathan and Camilla from Sweden; they have also spent the past year travelling and were also eeking out their last days on as low a budget as possible.....similar to us really.

Johnathan has some pretty cool tattooes...he had this phoenix tattooed in Thailand.

Rajvir, a beautiful English born Indian girl who is Lee's girlfriend. We spent quite a lot of time hanging out together...me and Raj talking non-stop about food....honestly it became obsessive. She also seems to know some amazing Indian receipes...at this stage in our travelling I am DREAMING of eating great Indian food.

Lee chilling out on the beanbags.

Our room was at the far end of this single level block.

This is Ricky the infamous Great Dane, actually he's not a Great Dane he's some Brazilian breed I had never heard of. Anyway since nipping a couple of people, trying to steal everyone's food, finding his own way in to the fridge and stealing pizza, jumping up and eating all of Johnathan and Camilla's food off the BBQ and shovelling his entire head in to the communal BBQ salad bowl one night....then biting one of the backpackers (the one in the trilby hat one night)...the owners realised they needed to take action and took my suggestion of a muzzle seriously....

...but boy did he look really hacked off...especially when he realised he couldn't eat his own breakfast never mind all of ours. Ricky looks like Hanibal Lector.

Lee and Dave at breakfast.

My lovely husband Dave was very generous today and gave me 50 million! Actually even though it says Mil on the note it means thousand...so this is a 50,000 COL Peso note.... about £15.

Bay View Hostel swimming pool, fantastic for a hostel especially at £14 a night for a double room.

The breakfast area.

Arthur's baguette shop in Taganga...real deep filled baguettes, real bread...it was heaven, we ate there every single day to make the most of it! And by bizarre coincidence we bumped in to Mark, an American guy we last saw in Guatemala a few months ago and turned up in Taganga and was renting a room at the baguette shop. It surely is a very small world.

Taganga is so small everything is pretty close, we had to walk about this far from the hostel to lunch, hardly taxing.