Rain, we don´t mind

So, we are now waiting for a night bus that will take us from Palenque to Tulum. We are doing a runner. Palenque is one of the most stunning ancient sites in the americas. It is also set within rain forest. The clue is in the name. Last night Jamie woke up around midnight, got out of bed and splash, stepped in a big puddle covering half the room. Half our hotel was leaking, some rooms were inundated. After 4 days of heavy storms, including pummeling thunder, it is a bit of a mess in places. We got a few hours of dry weather this morning to see the the Mayan ruins and waterfalls, and it was amazing, with the highest palaces having views across the Yucatan penninsula. But it is time to get cracking and get back to the beach. It was impressively humid and a stunning jungle setting (of course the famous local howler monkeys escaped us this time) and fascinating - particularly the revelation for Anna that humans have been playing silly ball games for millenia, which in some cases were life or death.

Speaking of silly games, it is about time we mentioned the backgammon. In our downtime, and at suitable dining or drinking locations we have been continuing our mortal struggle. So far Anna´s skill and festidious mental preparation have been a match for Jamie´s jammy luck. We have just started the third series-of-series-of-series in the Americas Royal Celebrate Eternity (ARCE) Backgammon Cup.

In other news,
In Vegas we met the Big Mid Western couple in the Stratosphere sky bar. They were off to their drive through wedding in a chevvy and suggested we do the same.
In San Blas we saw a one-legged girl surf ((stand-up i.e. much better than Jamie).
At the Grand Canyon Moby´s In My Heart played very loudly from Jamie´s phone for no reason during a particularly moving and idyllic vista moment.
All guitar teachers should teach how to change spanish guitar strings to save hours and hours of agony.
We still havent seen dolphins (2 guys in Bahia de LA saw ´hundreds´ and we didnt realise our boat taxi in PE was also a dolphin watching boat until later).

Next stop Tulum and the beach... more ruins... and let´s keep an eye on that hurricane... pictures next time we promise (just a few to go with the blog... we only have 1846 to choose from...)


Palenque in a break from the rain

Oh-Wha--haka (Oaxaca)

After PE we decided against checking out other beaches nearby and headed for Oaxaca in the hills. We can´t think of anyone who wouldn´t enjoy Oaxaca. It has bars, music, art, revolutionary activity, politics, museums, crafts, mescal factories, food markets, ancient ruins, great food, a dizzing mix of native influences, big student population, protesting teachers sleeping in the main square, friendly people, safe feeling, good value tours, stunning valleys all around dotted with indigenous folk and their wares and some good value accomodation - though our hostel had great breakfast and free Internet - it was packed and had queues for the 2 bathrooms. Nico and Ines then of course appeared and proceeded to unravel the local drinking scene - and one man tried to drink a mescal factory dry on a free tasting tour.

We saw the Zapoteca ruins of Monte (Dr) Alban and Mitla. And we got a treat at the Hierve de Agua limestone falls where there is a bubbling spring and natural infinity pool looking out over the Sierra Madre. The local art is pretty tasty, especially the stuff based on the ancient patterns, the ´diamantes zapotecas' (which we find very funny if you say it very fast over and over again like our eager, rug-peddaling, bi-lingual guide).

And we saw Leo, our first taste of spanish guitar. Billed as ´fusion´ we were stunned by his ´Volare Cantare´, ´Bumberlayer´(probably not spelled like that but you know, the Gipsy Kings´ anthem), darting tongue, toneless singing, rhythm-bypass operation, Israeli Sidekick Tambourine Beard Dude (ISTBD), total lack of neck during performance (it would just disappear after every intro - which were all the same by the way and involved cod tapping and endless E to F major changes, which, you know, sound sooooo Latin) and his special move. Yes, Leo had a special move. In every song. His whole body would sync with the room for the special move. Well everyone in the room except ISTBD, who couldn´t possibly understand the rhythmic complexities (or bad timekeeping) of the special move.

Time slowed down as his eyes circled the room, but within milliseconds his right strumming hand would reach for the head of the guitar, the tongue would begin to peak obscenely out, the head would retract further into the now-Hut-like body, and then with a swish of a 19th century French maiden´s fan, the arm would strike across the length of the fretboard as both sets of fingers picked out an intricate, pulsating, flourishing rhythm - the kind you get when the CD player you have just thrown to the floor jumps persistently while playing your least favourite Roni Size outtake. Finally with the fingers finished, having paraded up and down the neck several times the thumb would finally be brought up tantalisingly close to the now-loping tongue. And then as quickly as it came it would be over. ISTBD would jangle and the song would continue.


Oaxaca street art

It's my life... at (Dr) Monte Alban

The atmosphere was electric in the Neuvo Babel with our new axe hero

Romance at the infinity pool at Hierve de Agua

Going loco

Mexico has been exceeding all our expectations, which been significantly lowered by every American we had met in the US. Unfortunately the prices have also exceeded our expectations which has made us keen to get a move on and search for paradise further south.

First of all there were some must do´s we had to deal with.

From San Blas we took the monster 23 hour bus via Tepic to Acapulco after the Puerto Vallarta bus was cancelled. On this trip we were accompanied by the Irish Hangover couple. Late arrivals and newly crowned members of the San Blas social club (and in his case, a victorious ManU fan who we watched the game with and actually met because we all decided to stay an extra night to watch the footy), enter, stage-left, Nico and Ines. Friendly, easy going and refreshingly non-judgemental, they (well, Nico) certainly don´t mind a drink, and have been great company.

We saw the famous cliff divers of Acapulco in the morning and blagged our way into a swank beachfront hotel pool area in the afternoon, ate amazing 100% Natural soya burgers and the best guacamole so far, and got back on the bus to the surf centre Puerto Escondido. By this time we had already bumped into the Irish again, and of course, they were on the bus.

PE was a cool town though the Zicatela surf beach was a bit zen for us, the town´s coves were charming if a little packed. We had a war with several species of ants of various sizes (large, very large, and f***ing-massive-red-and-flying) eventually defeating them by spraying all the electricity sockets in the room - well Jamie did that while Anna took them on in hand to hand combat!


Big waves at Puerto Escondido

San Blas social club

As well as the beach San Blas is blessed with a small military base, plenty of policias turisticas (who we witnessed extracting some folding from an idiot group of fighting american fisherman guys), and a large mangrove swamp.

We took the jungle boat ride with our strange american, Joe, and with the Lovely English Radio couple Greg and Elise. We shared plenty of coincidences (Joe and Jamie have both been disappointed by the Dunlop Crybaby wah Hendrix model which doesn´t quite have that top end clickety click, and Greg, Elise and Jamie also have many years in commercial radio behind them. Greg and Elise had also been driving around California for three weeks and been in Whistler before that. For every Grand Canyon we had, they had a Coachella Festival...). The surprises didn´t end there. Joe was just 9 days out of Iraq having served for eight years as a marine. Articulate, razer-sharp, generous and funny, Joe seems to know about every item on every menu from Alaska to Zimbabwe. He has survived the sting of a giant jellyfish in Oz, took a wild dingo home and had it on base in Iraq and is not very good at pool. And we have basically adopted him. Even though he is not here now we usually have a place for him at dinner!

On the jungle boat we saw small crocs, lizards, vulchers, turtles and got close to big crocs at a croc farm and better than that, we made friends. We are sure we will get Joe to Finland at some point. And chances are we see them all again at some point as we travel south.


Cooking up breakfast in San Blas

On the jungle boat

The San Blas social club, featuring the shy and retiring Nico (centre), who is wreaking havoc across Central America

San Blas, a godforsaken place, and other animals

We still don´t know why we picked San Blas out of the guidebook. Our Rough Guide (who will be recieving a stern letter, wand whose Mexico publication you should avoid until further notice) described San Blas as a godforsaken place ridden with biting insects, and lacking in charm. We thought of it as the first of the Pacific beach towns and one that was probably underdeveloped compared to the mega resorts down the coast.

We were very pleasantly surprised. We arrived at dusk at San Blas to the small terminal on one corner of the town square. First impressions were actually great. The square was subtely lit by the church´s soft neon lights from one side, and by the street lanterns above the giggling teenage couples and dozing grandparents lounging in the square. We only had to walk a few metres to Posada Morelos to be greeted by our resident pelican (christened Big Bird), the four grey kittens, the basic outdoor cooking facilities and our street side room. We were the only gringos staying there when we arrived and it seemed that locals would park their trucks on our quiet street outside our window and test their 2000 watt sound systems just for us!

Big Bird wasn´t the friendliest. He (or she - we couldn´t get close enough to find out) announced our first tentative foray towards its corner by giving a very loud and threatening clap of the beak. He (or she) is famous in the town for leaving the posada´s courtyard and wandering into the town square to harrass the locals.

On our first night in San Blas we took an orientating stroll and a strange american recommended La Famila, where we had our first taste of San Blas´ great value cuisine.

San Blas beach was a 1 1/2 km stroll down the road from the square and our place. The weather was a constant and dry (not humid) 32 degrees with maybe the odd cloud around. On the beach were the usual lineup of (palm-roofed) palapa cafes and a sweeping crescent of sand stretching a couple of kilometres.

We ended up staying a week. The beach had Mexican and foreign surfers in small numbers, there were a handful of gringos staying on the beach when we arrived, the town had a great indoor market in one corner of the square, and everywhere the food was above expectations. From the ceviches on the street stalls (fish with lime open tacos) to the carne asadas in the dine-ins with the glorious assortments of toppings. There was the ex-pat-type bar on one corner with the Italian-american-owner-with-the-dubious-past, the well airconditioned pool bar that was ideal for the football, sweet, welcoming locals at every turn and a safe, cosy, understated feeling. We liked it a lot. And, staying by the square, we were able to avoid the nightly nibbling by the extremely vociferous sand flies on the beach!

These piccies go with the last post...

Room with a view at Cal's in Baja

Party on dudes

Just deserts

Whale of a time in incredible Bahia de Los Angeles (you can't see the wind)

There must be some kinda way outta here

Crossing over

San Diego was cloudy, unusually, had some very big boats (the Nimitz, Enterprise and Reagan - all the biggest US aircraft carriers) were there. We saw some great live music in the gas quarter and stayed in waffle-ishious HI, which was filled with laptoppers as ever. Again in SD we didnt get any positive American views on Mexico and no other travellers we spoke to were going to Baja - so we started getting a bit jumpy.

Anyway, we decided to skip Tijuana and its bad reputation. The SD tram goes straight to the border and it its a short walk and a bit of paperwork into Mexico. We were on the bus within minutes, got off at the wrong stop in Ensenada to change, but managed to proceed to the crossroads on the Baja highway for Erendira, where we cabbed to Coyote Cals. We were the only guests that night and had the superb crows nest room with windows on all sides and great views of the windy pacific. The owner Rick also drove us around and got Anna birthday cake the next night and conducted a birthday singalong with all the passing american fishermen.

Baja was stunning with amazingly varied desert scenery but it was windy everywhere we went. It is also very remote. The buses only go down the main highway and you have to hitch or get dodgy truck taxis into the coastal villages. We hitched the 70km from the deserted desert petrol stop at Parador Punta Prieta to Bahia De Los Angeles (but we had to pay the towns boy racers 30 bucks to get us out - as they were the only thing on the roads - and they were racing up and down the tiny village dirt tracks in mums people carrier at 70mph - it was a hairy but quick ride back to the desert stop where we waved down the bus).

Bahia De Los Angeles is a magical place. A lovely wide bay, mountains rising all around, islands shielding the bay from the Sea of Cortez, and a bay teaming with marine life. We stayed at the loveable, eccentric Larrys Place, a motel on the beach for american fisher folk that drive down for the sport fishing. Unfortunately the wind meant that boating, the free kayaking, beaching, swimming etc were not possible for us. If we were in Phoenix and needed a weekend break, in whale season, this is one place we would definately go back to.

The prices of the buses, accommodation and food in Baja shocked us and gave us the first feeling that our guidebook for Mexico might not be the most accurate.

From the Bay of LA we got our first monster bus ride to La Paz, followed by the overnight ferry across Cortez to Mazatlan. We followed that up with the bus to Tepic, which was held up by a tyre that exploded under Annas seat - and we arrived in San Blas on the Pacific Coast after about 50 hours of almost non stop travelling.

On the ferry and bus to Tepic we started to also notice that there might be a few other people travelling down the americas - the Cowboy Hat Kiwi boys we had met in Hermosa (LA) and San Diego were on the ferry and the bus...


Lunch time, it's always lunch time

Look over there!

Comedy moment

In LA the first time we saw some great stand up.
And in LA last night there was a moment of great humour.

Best joke from the Comedy Store, courtesy of Carlos from Honduras, speaking on 'beaners' the self-prescribed nickname for all peoples lookig the slightest bit Latin (read Mexican) in LA. It goes something like this, and it is rude, so look away now:

"So God and his angels are in the process of handing the defining qualities and characteristics to the different human races. The Asian delegation pause for a while and request to be given the defining trait of academic excellence. So the lord gives the Asians good grades but in celestial balance makes their sexual organs and feminine physical features diminutive. The Afro-Anmerican contigent see this and immediately request big asses and big schlongs. The heavenly committee of course temper this by giving them the trait of poor literacy and terrible school attendance.

Meanwhile the Hispanic delegation are debating what they should request, when from the back of the pack a diminutive voice squeals out "pointy shoes". Amid the sighs, scolds, disbelieving recoil and general incredulity of the attendent beaners ("no, not the pointy shoes), God and his mighty host grant them their wish.

Now centuries have passed and beaners far and wide can see the benefit of divine wisdom as the pointy shoes are perfect to enable them to climb the fence into the USA."

Thanks Carlos.

And last night one of our American hostel-mates suggested that Bolivia was rife with indiscriminate shootings, terrible multi-bus pile ups and more more than one case of gunmen boarding buses only indescriminantly shoot dead every passenger, including women and children.

MC Delicatessen countered by suggesting that that was a lot different from the USA where they waste no time by having the gunmen enter school classes to indescriminantly blow everyone away.

Thanks Bush.

On a related theme, we have been reasonably active in searching out Native American contexts on our travels. We did find amazing rock art near the Lava Beds and, though we haven't been painstaking, we are pretty shocked at how (unklike say Australia) there is basically nothing on the tourist trail celebrating or informing native culture. There are the Indian casinos and the lakes have Indian names but you are more likely to find a memorial glorifying another Indian massacre or displacement than anything even trying to explain Native American life. Or the end of it.

California here we come

Singalong if you know the words.

In the last few days we have hit the OC, Orange County, to check out the vibe at the homes of some of our favourite and least favourite TV shows.

We started with Newport, land of yachts, yacht clubs, harbours, harbour clubs, recreational water vehicles, 17 year olds not driving daddy's Merc but driving their own, perma-tans, perma-shades, Balboa island, beach bars and a nicer atmosphere than expected but still nit nearly as friendly as the hidden opulence of Venice's canal houses to the North. Huntingdon beach was party central, the place to park your RV (we have seen so many huge coach-like 6 wheeler RVs pulling their own SUV's - not the other way around!)...HB had some Brighton vibe, great people watching... Laguna beach was a bit older, artsy, hidden in the hills, but charming. And Long Beach was a bit too cruise-harbour and tourist friendly. We are now in LA's central beach land. We haven't seen much of Redondo to the South and Manhattan to the North but we are staying the only hostel in the whole of southern LA on Heromsa beach (proviso: there is an HI scout-style hostel at San Pedro point open high summer only).

The Surf bay hostel is very cool. It is the second building from the beach on Hermosa's happening Peir Avenue, a parade of just-hip-but-friendly-enough bars, stores and restaurants on the short strip perpendicular to the sea. The streets behind rise up towards the Pacific Coast highway and there is a small town feel. The hostel has 8 Finns (including a certain Laaksonen), a half Finnish worker, and at least 3 more people continuing on, like us, overland through Central America. Like every other private hostel the Internet terminals are unusuable, the free wifi is actually whatever unprotected network you can pick up by standing in the window and the TV is dominated by the two resident American sports fans (I secretly love this part). Kitchen is good - we were definately the annoying-cooking-and-wine-couple last night - but the hostel has one over-riding...let's call it a feature. With a club bar downstairs and two live music bars in the next two buildings, both shooting low frequencies out of flat roofs and skylights straight up to our window, we have felt like we are sleeping on the dancefloor until cut off at about 1AM the last two nights. I like to think I have high tolerance for noise and we are going for it for another night - and tonight it has to be that we can't beat 'em and must join 'em. The weather has gone cloudy which has conveniently enabled us to get to planning and researching getting through San Diego and Tijuana on the border and working out if and where we want to go in Baja in Mexico.

Yesterday we gave the car back and we spent 6 hours in USPS, UPS, Fedex and on related issues arranging for our snowboard bag to be sent home. It was a bit of a saga. Our original bag that I got from Jarno wasn't really up the task and was damaged on the flights to Canada. We got a new bag cheap in Whistler, a bit bigger and bit stronger, and with wheels. However, I had researched sending our 160cm bag bag back cheaply by USPS but our new 183cm bag just exceeded USPS limits so instead of $200 we had to pay $570 with Fedex. We went the torturous process of filling it with clothes and expendable items to lighten the load and we sent back over 40 kgs. We still have a lot of stuff but at least now we are more confident we have the items we had in our mind's eye. We both have bought things like lightweight trekking shoes, light water proof jackets, great socks etc. And I have bought some incredible hoodies for like $15-20 each. We had to send a lot of new stuff home and wish we could go straight back shopping to Vegas - it really was a paradise. Now it's time for a break while we count the c-c-c-c-ost of our great adventure so far.

Big up yourselves, the Deli

Intermission

So, for various reasons we skipped the Joshua Tree park (though we saw plenty of Joshua trees), the Humbolt Redwood park (the we saw plenty of giant redwoods and also the big Sequoias on the way out of Yosemite), the Lassen park (though we saw lava stuff at Lava Beds) and Death Valley - which we will have to do another time. And in the Grand Canyon it would have been cool to have more time to do an overnight hike. But generally we kept up the pace around California, had enough flexibility to deviate when neccesary (not with the Fairbrasses but with Shasta, Reno, extra days in Yosemite, Vegas, Grand Canyon, pivking up random motels, plenty of random stops and detours etc etc.).

We have been mostly eating our own breakfast, having roadside sandwich lunches (Reuben is a fave), and eating out at night in the 10-15 dollar main region. We didn't spend a night in the car in the end as we always found a 40-70 dollar motel. The exceptions were in Raggedy Point on Big Sur and just outside Yosemite where we paid the arse-end-of-nowehere-big-wiggly-bricking-cliff-top-drive-in-the-dark-to-get-out premium and paid $120.

Last night we finally downed the best bottle we bought in Sonoma - a Cab Sav for $40 that was so close to some of the $100 Cab Savs that we tasted that we had to buy over the delightful $25 Syrahs and blends that also got our attention.

We really miss the car already. Pete was one of the family. When we got him he was pretty filthy inside. There were nuts all over the inside, big stains on the back seats, chippings in the boot, and mank all over the centre console. We had to clean him up ourselves (he was the only Sebring available - tip: when renting from Dollar and given a choice of cars, hang around a while because the selection changes rapidly - we nearly took a tiny Cruiser and were actually driving away, which would have been a waste of the upgrade we paid for, but then Pete waltzed in). Anyway, Pete saw a lot of great sights, we didn't have a fender bender, though we had a couple of heavy brakes, we got one parking ticket in LA, and we got a caution for speeing in Mount Shasta doing 87mph (down from 93) in a 60 zone - but we got let off - hoorah. We hid a note for Pete's next driver and hope they get as much mileage and satisfaction as we did.

Three songs about cars:
#3 Driving in my car, Madness
#2 Drive my car, Bobby McFerrin
#1 Crosstown Traffic, James Marshall Hendrix

...not exactly a ground breaking selection but then cars aren't really that big and clever either. And don't get me started on the enormous volume of imbaciles driving Toyota mini trucks and the like on the freeways.

Squaring the circle

Yes, we did gamble and lose. But we broke even in Vegas. It was on the back to LA where we stopped off at Laughlin on the Colorado river that we put our luck to the test. And blew 100 dollars on roulette. Laughlin was a mini Vegas with a steamboat motel and pop-up desert charm. Lake Havasu was a bonus. At Havasu city we saw London Bridge. The London Bridge lovingly relocated many moons ago by another crazy entrepreneur. Of course the locals and strays have built a whole industry around the bridge. Though the town will be rembered for the beach filled by speedboats and posers out on a Thursday afternoon in the desert sun.

We have seen quite a few lakes now. Tahoe is a rugged natural beauty surronded by imposing mountains (and ski resorts). Havasu, like Powell, Mead and many more are products of the dams that have been built on the Colorado and other rivers to enable the growth of the desert behemoths like Vegas. On all the lakes the abundance of water craft, from house boats to jetskis and everything in between, is frightening. We saw some amazing images of a square mile of Havasu filled with recreational water vehicles shoulder to shoulder. And then we went to Palm Springs where every shop and restaurant has sprayers dusting a fine mist of cool water across its threshold. And where every palm on the sidewalk has its own personal irrigation system. And our motel had a pool. And the atmosphere was actually very pleasant. I am very confused by desert living. On one hand I am amazed by the resoucefullness, but then I am shocked by the articiciality. Driving in Arizona we were stunned by the vastness and desolation. And then in the gambling centres you are of course struck by the tackiness, shamelessness and futility.

Now we are back in LA I am so glad we got to see so much. We both agree that just the three weeks around California is the best holiday we have ever had.

I is ah bidnissman. It wahs bidniss.

Three songs about coming back:
#3 Take it to the limit, The Eagles
#2 Hear my train a comin', James Marshall Hendrix
#1 I'll Stay, Funkadelic


One helluva big hole in the ground

Trying hard to relax in Palm Springs

Hermosa beach vibe

The big stuff

We had already started to realise that Califorinans have no real reason to ever leave. Nature's bounty. Their cup runneth over. And we were about to do the big stuff. Yosemite, Vegas and the Grand Canyon.

Yosemite was storybook jaw dropping. But overcrowded. We saw it on one of the first weekends of the year and it was tolerable but full. From May through the summer it is apparently double packed, with all accomodation gone and every access road blocked with traffic and parking. For all its natural beauty Yosemite has had pollution problems back in the 70s through over crowding, and now it is quite a mess, with bad signs confusing the melee. I think they should take a leaf out of Hearst Castle's book and get all traffic (except booked campers) out of the park. There is a great free bus service within the park. But we would have gladly taken a 90 minute ride from a park and ride outside the park to help save the place from being overrun. One drawback of going at the end April was that the 120 through park to the North was still closed. Our advice would be to only go at the start or end of season with Autumn beging favourite. This was Anna's favourite place so far and we had some lovely short hikes to see the waterfalls but I feel pretty sad about it as it is just too popular.

Vegas baby. Well, we stayed at the cheapo Sahara and went up the brilliant Stratosphere tower for the strip view on the first night. We toured the Bellagio, Ceasar's and a few more on the strip. But on the way in and the way out we discovered incredible outlet malls, filled with factory outlet stores of many of our favourite apparel brands and more. And we shopped. We should have been prepared. Being naked to this point would have been good. Prices were around 10-25 of (not off) Finnish prices. We left with big smiles and would go to Vegas again just for the shopping.

And on to Jamie's personal favourite so far, the Grand Canyon. We spent the best part of two days there, watching the sunset at the west rim and walking in to the south rim to try and get more perspective. I left a part of myself there and will return - I feel like a have to. Vast is an understatement. Words cannot describe. Brain cannot compute.

Three songs about rock:
#3 Let's Rock, Sly & Robbie
#2 Rock'n'Roll Music, Chuck Berry
#1 Jenny from the Block, J-Lo


Hello from Lake Tahoe

Picnic stop makes ya jump, jump

The Yosemite money shot

One of many stunning falls at Yosemite

A slight fear of heights inherited from the paternal side

Lava, luck and lakes

When we found out that Lassen volcanic park was closed for the winter we set our pilot on course for the Lava Beds National Monument in the far North of California. To get there we straddled the Oregon state line and drove through some stunning volcanic scenery. What we didn't realise was that we should've been prepared to go caving as the highlight of the park is a score of very accessible lava tube and similar underground caverns. We toyed with getting out our snowbaord helmets but when we realised our torches had flat or no batteries and we were frankly clueless (and in my case well lanky for the narrow caves) we had to duck out and just do the one kiddies cave that was lit. We pushed on to Reno in Nevada and then to Lake Tahoe. Regarding media, our trip so far has been dominated by watching the weather channel and listening out for local radio stations traffic and weather reports (so far no rain in California and no notable traffic jams either - touch wood). We found that we were in Tahoe for the last weekend of some resorts but we still had about 15 possible resorts to choose from for a saturday of spring skiing. We plumped for Squaw Valley which had the most lifts open, including a cable car and gondola and hit the slopes in the sun. We followed up by driving round the gorgeous Lake Tahoe and trying to shop in the South Tahoe City, only to find that it is way behind Whistler in development and not able to satisfy our shopping lust. Our eyes were just starting to get trained on the outlet stores we heard were coming around Vegas.


Cycling in Sonoma (previous entry)

The big prize in Sonoma's Ravensbrook winery

The Finlandia motel - with jacuzzi and sauna

Boom - Mount Shasta - check your aura at the gate

SssanFran, streets, Sonoma, Shasta

SF exceeded expectations. We explored most of the areas of town briefly and enjoyed the trolleys, cable cars, driving the zig zag Lombard street, stayed on the hill and downtown, ate Italian, saw cool Jazz, had the best burrito we will ever have, and dug the whole vibe. We can totally understand why people rave about it - so much more charm than LA and so much more accessible physically and spiritually. And we fell victim to the City Lights bookstore as Kate predicted and we came away with far more cool books, especially about Central and South American politics, than we can realistically carry.

Our plan to do Sonoma valley wineries by bicycle worked a treat. This was the first time it became apparent how lucky we were to be travelling off peak in spring. The roads were clear, the wineries empty, the amazing picnic store was easy to shop in, the weather hot but mild, and again we were able to take our first chpoice accomodation by turning up on the day (in fact as I write this we only had a hitch with accomodation when we first arrived in Santa Monica/Venice - fingers crossed we stay lucky). I don't know if Otso has planned a next vacation but I couldn't help think how much you would love this. The wineries were so cool and relaxed and the rolling hill views made it a really special day.

We checked out some big trees on the way out of SF on the Avenue of the Giants. The trees were big, very big, but didn't really grab us so we decided to didtch the other redwood park we were planning to go to and we went to Mount Shasta. This place was a big surprise. The mountain itself is awesome, looking like a perfectly sculpted peak that can be viewed from all sides that dominates the landscape. It is the size of Mont Blanc and casts a mystical shadow over its surroundings. I cant remember if Robin told me about this place but it is head heaven and I couldn't help but think how Bob would love this place. We found our own surprise at the Finlandia motel where a Finnish family laid on the Finn discount, piped up the sauna and hot tub and entertained Anna by, er, speaking in the native tongue.

Three songs about wine:
#3 Lilac Wine, Jeff Buckley
#2 Water with the Wine, Joan Armatrading
#1 We don't have to take our clothes off, Jermaine Stewart


And that's just the tourists!

chillin by the pier

Cheesey view... and a nice skyline

The streets of San Francisco

Cheesier view

Santa Barbara and up the Big Sur

Santa Barbara was a lot more laid back, cosy, relaxed and cool than I had imagined - definately a place I would go again. Conversely, though many people talked up Santa Cruz, we found it was a bit threatening, lazy and shabby - like the worst side of Brighton. The hostel we had in Cruz was lovely, with a sweet garden and cabins. But it was slackerville. The Big Sur driving was spectacular and we have far too many photos of rock/sea scapes. We saw hundreds of sea lions close up at Piedras Blancas, spent the night on Raggedy Point in non/budget luxury and delighted in the Monterrey aquarium. The highlight though was probably Hearst Castle. Take Portmerrion and exponentially inflate it and add a large dose of celebrity debauchery and multiply the budget into biblical proportions and you get the idea. Even though it was only accessible by guided tour it was stunning . I am still looking for David Niven's books about the shenanigans there.

Three songs about big:
#3 Mr Big, Free
#2 Big Bottom, Spinal Tap
#1 Notorious B.I.G., P Diddy


This doesn't even begin to get across the enormous opulence of Hearst Castle

Up close and personal

Anna has a lot of new boyfriends to choose from

Big Sur

Bigger Sur

Are you sure...

Too sexy for the strip?

Our last few days in LA the first time round were marked by a scorching weekend. We hit Venice beach in 35 degrees on a busy weekend to see the freak show and the beautiful people and we hit Sunset Strip in the evening to go to the famous Comedy Store to see stand-up. We were treated to a parade of comics from various TV shows and it was well worth it. Though the evening will be remembered for our sushi dinner where we sat next to Neil's favourite male vocal duo, Right Said Fred. The chaps were looking smooth as ever. I had a quick word with Richard Fairbrass and bit my toungue to avoid the obvious "too sexy" lines. How they must be haunted by that tune - but probably loaded from it too. Anyway Neil, Richard said he will be round for yor usual rendezvous - nudge nudge. In LA we also added to our celebrity total by watching an acoustic gig with the Scottish Hobbit from Lord of the Rings. Not exactly Depp and Pammy...

A note from the Ed

So, apologies for the lack of communications these past few weeks but we have been frustrated by the lack on Internet cafes in the US, the poor quality of free hostel wifi and the limited functionality of paid Internet access in hostels - generally it has been frustrating but also great to avoid computers for a while. We are back in LA in Hermosa by the beach taking advantage of the free public library Internet to update the blog and plan our next steps. We have been on the move a lot in the last few weeks (we have covered 4000 miles). Hopefully we will get the chance to add pictures and add some Finnish to the blog soon - but until then you are stuck with me. Love, MC Deli


I'll be there for you... etc. etc.