Alaska 2

Icy Straight Point was a cute little town, with over-priced fish and chips and not a whole lot else. We got to see a bald eagle who was pretty cool and laid back. Probably because he knew he could eat us if we caused any trouble. Other than that we just wandered around the woods there. The Captain of the boat went bear watching but didn't see any. He's pretty funny, he's norwegian and thinks everything is smashing, and he really likes bears.

After that we headed to Ketckikan, which is a fairly big town. Well not really but compared to others we had visited. It has an area called creek street where all the buildings are built on stilts over the edge of a creek, it was pretty nice looking but the stilts looks pretty slimy and old so hopefully they don't fall down. We got to see a bald eagle that someone had shot and then someone else had looked after, it couldn't fly, but it liked to flap a lot. We also got to meet a hawk and a tiny owl who was really cute. They also had been saved.

Yesterday we went to Victoria on Vancouver Island, which is a pretty cool town. It has about 300 thousand people there, so its pretty big. We went out for dinner, which made a nice change from the ship food, which while its nice its pretty heavy and we wanted something different, after that we got a horse and carriage ride which was really fun. We had a horse called Mike who responded to words so they didn't use reins. After Victoria, we got back on the boat and woke up in Seattle and disembarked this morning. We catch our bus back to Vancouver this afternoon.

Alaska

We wrote this on Wednesday but couldn't post it til now:

On Sunday we boarded the Norwegian Pearl, after waiting in line for 3 hours. Through the US customs they had about 6 people processing US citizens and 2 processing foreign including Canadians. Seeing as we left Vancouver there were a lot of Canadians hence the wait. We got on the boat and were pretty excited to explore. There is so much stuff on here; a bowling ally, pools, hot tubs, movies, theatre, casino, shops and food. There is so much food on board. And so many fatties, bum bags and perms.. About half the restaurants are free and the others have a cover charge of about $10-$20. Its all surprisingly yum. We had expected it to be greasy American food, but there is a whole heap of different stuff. There is a buffet, a couple of proper restaurants, and one with burgers and things. Eating is our favourite past time on the ship, but we've also seen some comedians and dancers and things in the theater, played a fair bit of Big Buck Hunter Open Season PRO in the arcade, lounged in the sun loungers and watched some covers bands.

For 2 days we went through the Alaskan Inside Passage, and the Tracey Arms fjord to get to Sawyer Glacier. We couldn't make it to close to the glacier because there was too much ice, but we did get to see some spectacular scenery. We got to see a bear hanging out on the shore, he was pretty cool.

Yesterday we docked in our first point, Juneau. Its pretty small for a capital, but pretty cool. We saw the governors house, where Sarah Palin lived, we went out to a glacier that was pretty massive and chilly and looked at Russian dolls and ate some Russian dumplings.

Juneau is kind of like Pleasantville in that its roads dont lead anywhere. To get there you have to arrive by boat or plane, even so there are still fast cars, I couldn't work out why.

Today we arrived in Skagway which is a goldrush town. When the Klondike goldrush happened, Skagway was one on the main ports in. The town now has about 700 year-round residents and pretty much looks like it did during the goldrush – its not a big development town. The area around is pretty amazing. To be let into Canada from Alaska the people looking for gold had to take enough food and clothing to last a year which became known as the 1-ton rule. They must have been pretty tough to carry it over the mountains that are around the town, and most of them didn't find any gold anyway. Now there is a railway over the mountains, which would have been nice to go on, but it was too pricey for us.

We're off to Icy Straight Point tomorrow, which doesn't exist in our lonely planet book, so it must be pretty small. We've enjoyed our trip so far, and feel pretty young. We're about 20 years younger than anyone else not with their parents. Everyone else all seems to also have cruised many a time before. The old people let loose, getting buckets of Budweiser at 9.30 am and staying up til midnight at the cabaret shows. They love it!

Hasta luego Mexico

Our last days in Puerto Escondido were just spent lazing about and swimming which was pretty fun. Then we flew out of the wee airport back to Mexico city. The flight was so fancy, I bet that's how classy planes were in the 60's. So much space and peanuts. When we landed we caught a bus to a town just outside of Mexico city, Puebla. It was pretty nice, just the right size and also it happened to have an arts festival in the zocalo which was 2 blocks from where we stayed. We watched some sort of who's line is it anyway comedy thing that was done in a wresting ring, some acrobat/juggler/comedians in really tight white Lycra suits, a band in Mexican wrestling masks, and a jazz band.

One of the days we were there we went to watch some biesbol. It was super fun. They got so excited about it, and the Puebla Pericos beat the Oaxaca Guerroros! Yay! Oaxaca had better uniforms though. Sam liked it so much he bought a hat in support.

While we were there we went out to another town 20 mins away to see a church built on a giant pyramid, in front of a volcano. The photos and descriptions were somewhat misleading in regards to the volcano - it would be like saying Christchurch was built amongst the southern alps. But it WAS built on a pyramid, which is kind of funny because they didn't realize it was there because it was covered in dirt for reasons unmentioned. We were looking forward to going into the tunnels of the pyramid, but they were closed. Sad. It is the biggest by volume in the world, but did look a lot like a hill.

After Puebla we headed back to Mexico city. We went to the zoo which is free, and therefore attracts a lot of school groups. It was a pretty fun zoo, but the orangutan had dreads and looked so sad. He had people eyes which made him seem sadder. There was a super cute monkey family, and a capuchin who had some pesos that he really liked.

The next day we finally went to the pyramids. I'm glad we left the til last because all the other ruins would have been boring after them. They're so big, and in such nice condition. It's on about 20kmsq and is has 2 really big pyramids, a bunch of other buildings, frescos that are still detailed and bright and a podium for speeches that echoes off the surrounding pyramids that was pretty fun.

Today we left Mexico for Seattle. The customs guy took some convincing that it was me in my passport. He said I was too brown, in the photo I had no freckles and today I have lots. But I convinced him and made it! Yus!

Tomorrow we head back to Vancouver then Alaska! Exciting!

flying fish

Yesterday we went on a somewhat seaworthy vessel with a Mexican man who promised us turtles and dolphins. It was pretty fun because it was just the 2 of us and the man who spoke very little English. We didn't really find any turtles, we found a boat who had already caught one who we got to look at after. I felt pretty sorry for the wee turtle because he looked like he really wanted to go swimming, but it was still pretty nice to be able to talk to him. As for the dolphins, I think the boat man had given up on them and was just heading for the lagoon to drop us off, but we spotted some in the distance so he took us toward them. It was a pod of them and they were so good at backflips even Crusty Demons would have been impressed. Then a mama and baby dolphin swam by the boat. They were pretty cute and freckly. As we were heading back in we saw some flying fish which are speedy little fellas. Pretty impressive.

Then the boat guy took us to a lagoon which he'd pick us up from in a few hours. When we got off the boat he told us to follow these two guys, which we did. They led us to an umbrella which we didn't realize we would have to pay $60 peso for as soon as we had sat under it because most places let you use them if you buy stuff. I guess they have some sort of deal together. Anyway, the beach was pretty nice and clear and a lot safer than the one near where we are staying. The water is so warm around here, and we had a pretty fun day of swimming.

When we were picked up by the boat man the umbrella/cafe owner gave home a Corona to say thankyou for bringing us and our pesos. As soon as we headed off he popped the top off, judging by the empties, his 8th beer of the day. He thought it was hilarious and yelled something in spanish about cerveca. Sam says probably cerveca 4 lyf.

The past two days we have gotten fairly burnt as a result of two winters in a row so today decided to hang around our hotel. So today has mostly been spent reading and practicing underwater handstands while trying not to peel. Nice and relaxing!

Puerto Escondido

So we spent our last day in Oaxaca looking at ruins, which is pretty hot work. We went to see Monte Alban which was the strongest of the Zapotec civilizations, they even had stone carvings of upside down leaders from other towns just to show how strong they are. Then they abandoned the town though, and no one really knows why. There were so many massive monuments and things, it was pretty impressive. We bought some guide book anticipating a lot if Spanish signs, but it was in english as well so it was ok, any way the guide book made this one tomb sound really amazing, but it looked like a closet when we went to see. I guess they took the stuff out so no one would steal it. Other than that it was a fun trip. The mini bus ride up was an experience, it was about 70km p/hr in a 20km one lanes area with judder bars.

Anyway, turned out that trip had nothing on the trip to puerto. It was about 260km but took 6 hours because it was like driving on traffords hill ( takaka hill for the south islanders) all the way, with donkeys wandering on the road nibbling. Also, I guess speed limit signs don't work that well here, so throughout villages there are brutal speed bumps every 100m or so, which act to slow people down only just before they hit them. For all this speeding up and slowing down fir 6 hours you'd think they'd go through a lot if petrol, but the tickets were only about nz$15 and there were only 6 of us. I have no idea how anyone earns a living here, but they seem to be doing ok. We arrived safely, and are really excited to be here. We've been swimming so much in the pool were we're staying, not in the beach yet because we need beach towels, but it's on tomorrows adgenda. Where we're staying is nice, it's an apartment which means we get to make pancakes for breakfast every morning and it'll be nice to cook for ourselves again. There is a pool which is nice, and it's super close to the beach. We also have our own patio which is pretty cool, and our room is pretty cute. All for only $35 a night! Bargain!

Everyone seems to speak English in the town which is popular with Americans, but not so much that it's like Cancun. It's so nice and tropical here with coconut trees, and mangos, so many they're in the gutter, in Canada they were like $5 each. Limes here are 70c nz a kg which seems pretty nuts also. So we're here til the 24th then we fly back to Mexico city and probably will go to a city called Puebla from there then back to Mexico city for a few days then back to Vancouver to go on our cruise.

We haven't heard anything from any job prospects yet, so we've booked tickets back to NZ, so we'll see everyone on the 28th of may, after which I will be joining the Westpac Christchurch ranks once again!

Montezumas revenge

On Saturday night Sam came down with a case of montezumas revenge, which involves a lot of spewing etc. so Sunday was mostly spent drinking Gatorade and eating imodium. Sam was too sick to leave the hostel so it was up to me to brave the markets alone to get some fruit so he could eat some thing. Numbers are not my forte in Spanish so I was a bit nervous but luckily the fruit was $20 and the water was $8, which are two of the only numbers I learnt, which made me happy even if the fruit was pretty pricey.

Today we explored Oaxaca, we looked through the markets, saw a dancing mascot (so funny I almost choked on my churro), had some chocolate snacks, and bought some trinkets. While we were out I saw a cute bag in the shape of a pig but it was about the size of a jack russel so way to big to get home, but I later found one the size of a piglet so bought that one with some successful haggling. He's so cute.

To get to Puerto Escondido it's 5 hours faster to get a second class bus so today we tried to suss out the second class bus station, but it smelt like poos so we went elsewhere and got minibus tickets, which will hopefully be more successful.

Tomorrow we are probably going to head out to see some ruins then off to Puerto Escondido the next dat

EXPLOSIon!

Woah totally forgot to mention:

Gasoline Tanker Explosion En Route To Oaxaca

We passed the still smoking wreckage of a gasoline tanker as it lay upon a flatbed tow truck. The proud road was decorated with an immense CRATER as the minstrel trees looked on. Holy shit. Too real.

Taxco- Mexico City-Oaxaca

On Wednesday we got up bright and early to march up to the church of Guadalupe which overlooks taxco, which was pretty cool. But then Sam made me walk up to see Christo (Christ) on the very top of the hill. He was so far away and I got so puffed. We had to walk up a million stairs and roads with an incline of what felt like about 50 degrees all in jandels and a dress which isn't the best hill climbing outfit and all on narrow cobbled roads built ages ago while dodging vw beetles (taxcos favourite car. I think its because that's all that will fit up the wee streets). But we made it, but it wasn't very exciting. He was no rio de janeiro Christ. It looked like they had spent the most time carving his moustache. Anyway, so we wandered back down and looked through the markets in taxco and then headed back to mexico city on Thursday.

This time we stayed in the centro historico which is the area around the zocalo which is the 2nd biggest town square after the red square. It's a really fun area with lots of museums and monuments. Also it had a really impressive bakery. It was about as big as a Deka and had so many treats all for about 4 peso, which like 40-50c. Upstairs was also exciting because they had so many cakes on display. They had wedding cakes were like 10 tiers tall and some that weighed 110kg. They also had cakes for Jesus, Mexican wrestling, birthdays and graduations. And people went nuts about this place, everyone left with boxes of treats. Lucky.

Today we caught a bus to Oaxaca which is about as big as Christchurch and seems to be closed on weekends, which is a bit sad since we're here for only 4 days and 2 will be weekend days. Oaxaca is famous for it's cuisine especially chocolate. Yum. Upsetting that we're going to be at the chocolate capital just before we go to the beach though..

Taxco

Today we went to taxco by bus, which was super fancy. It was better than the plane we came on, we got pepsi, nuts, and got to watch kung fu panda all with ample leg room. We arrived in taxco which is about 2 hours from Mexico city and went to our hostel which is really cute. It's run by a retired doctor who is really kind and who gives out welcome cocktails. After that we walked around taxco which is a really cute town with cream buildings and teracotta roofs and narrow cobbled streets. We went to see some churches and looked through some shops and wandered around the streets. Tomorrow we might go to see another church way up on the hill if we can wake up before the heat, and maybe we'll go see some caves. Taxco is really cute. If we were retired doctors who could speak Spanish we'd open a hostel here too.

Tengo vomitos

On Saturday we caught the underground to coyoacan, which was surprisingly easy, to see the frida kahlo museum. It only cost 55 pesos to get in and was really cool because it was in the house she had lived in so it was really fun and colourful. Then we looked through some markets and for some reason there seems to be a big market for adult costumes because there are heaps for sale. I found a really sweet harry potter costume but didn't go for it. Then we headed home for tequila night. There were only 4 of us and the only rule was once the bottle is open it's got to be finished. The bottle was 1.75 l and I have never been so sick. We tried to get lunch but I made us leave half way through to vomit in a garden. I couldn't keep anything down, even water. So pretty much Sunday was spent sleeping and vomiting. Then this morning I still couldn't get out of bed so Sam brought me some toast down from breakfast and after laying still for about an hour so I wouldn't puke it up I felt much better. Then we headed our to see the basilicas for the virgin of guadalupe. They were so cool and massive. One was really modern and extreme built in the 70's and the other was old and classical and was sinking like a lot of buildings in Mexico city. Within the grounds of the churches there were 6 churches. I don't know why they have so many, but the were all really pretty and ornate. I touched so many statues to try and cure my sore belly, but then I had a pepsi and was pretty much back to normal. It was probably a holy pepsi since I bought it at a church. After the churches we stopped off halfway home to see some ruins which were the last fortress of the Aztecs before the Spanish conquered them, so they were pretty old, built in 1325, and impressive. Lizards like to live there, but it was too hot for us so we headed home for a siesta. Tomorrow we're off to taxco for a couple of days, which is a smaller city famous for it's silver, so that should be fun!

Mexico city, day one

Today we set off to the zona rosa, which is an area near where we are staying. We went to visit a giant gold angel called glorieta angel de la independencia. She was really cool and everything in that area is so tidy with such nice lush gardens. While we were there we met a fake policeman with a Velcro badge who tried to sell us a trip to the pyramids, we didn't take up his offer. Today is good friday, meaning everything is closed to mourn Jesus and reenact the crucifixtion, but most people seemed to be in the gardens we went to which were also really cool, there were heaps of museums, galleries and a zoo to see, but we're going to explore more when it isn't a public holiday. There were lakes with pedal boats but the water was an opaque green so we'll test them out when I'm not wearing a white dress. We resorted to dominos for lunch because it was least confusing and pretty delicious. Siesta time now then maybe we'll study some menu ordering techniques, and maybe off to the pyramids tomorrow.

The Union Forever

4 out of 4 Americans are not willing to trade airline seats so you can sit next to your girlfriend. And we were in the air again. From Seattle to dust etched Houston was a 6 hour flight and then short layover, enough to imbibe some tex-Mex, before we belted into our connecting flight. High above the gulf of Mexico at night we could see the torchlights of far off cantinas and lovers flames and taxicabs and pure fire until the endless sprawl of Mexico City formed absolutely. Once arrived our trepidation becomes tepid in the mixture of new air and foreign status. Our taxicab peels off it's rank and through crest filled highways we motor at inappriate speeds. Comfortably delivered to Bed and Breakfast Mexico, we rest our bodies upon our bed made of an unfurled blanket on soda cans and breathe our new home.

Today we are in Mexico.

Seattle

Today we arrived in Seattle, the first leg of our mexican adventure. We don't have a computer, just an iPod so can't upload any pictures, but it was a fun day. We saw the famous fish market, the original starbucks, two mummies, and explored the underground part of the city which is pretty creepy. The city burnt down in 1889 and they decided to build it up to stop the flooding so built the buildings with the second floor as the main level and entrace, then built retaining walls with roads on top and slowly filled the gap with dirt and unwanted stuff, leaving the footpath at the original level. Then they ran out of money and the footpaths stayed at a lower level for 4 years. 17 people died from falling from the road level to the pavement. Weird.
Anyway, we're off to Mexico city tomorrow, which is pretty exciting!

Limo Goodbye

Yesterday was our last day of work, but because of high winds the mountain was closed. Hooray! Last night we went to Abotsford, which is about an hour away, to watch some hockey with some people from work. It was pretty fun. We went there in a limo bus, which made us feel like we were rockstars. The hockey teams were the Manitoba Moose and the Abotsford Heat. We supported the moose, which I thought was because they had a better name, but turns out they are the feeder team for the NHL Vancouver Cannucks, even though Manitoba is ages away. There was lots of fighting, which caused this Aussie we work with to yell 'bring back the biff'.

There were the intermission kids playing which were pretty cute, although not as small as the last ones we saw

Then we headed back to the limo for the ride home.

We head off to Seattle and then Mexico tomorrow morning so that is probably the last time we'll see everyone, although if we get summer jobs at Grouse we'll see some of them again. It was a fun night, now we are into holiday mode, and have to hope for jobs or book some tickets back to NZ soon. We wont have our computer, but will have my ipod so we can write blogs, but not upload any photos unless we have computers in the places we're staying, but we will be able to keep in touch.

EXCITING!

All you can eat Japanese

For St Pats day 5 of us had some Guinness at our place and headed out for some all you can eat Japanese. This is what we had, the numbers on the side are how many plates of each dish we ordered.

It was so delicious and plentiful all for $11 each before tax. I recommend people should visit Vancouver just to eat this.

Day of FUN

Yesterday 6 of us went to Castle Fun Park, which was ages away, but worth the trip. As the name suggests it's a fun park in a castle. There are go karts, dodgems, arcade games (2 floors), batting cages, remote control boats and 3 mini golf courses. It would be the best place ever to have a birthday. And everything was super cheap.

Sam, Pat and Alex tried some batting. Pat and Alex tried the 70mph baseball cage, Alex being the most successful. Sam stuck to 50mph softball, socking some sweet dingers.

Sam tried some hockey target practice, which turns out is harder than it looks.

Everyone tried the soccer goal but me because I was afraid I would lose my sneaker.

Then we played jungle mini golf. It was really cool, the fanciest mini golf I've played. There were dwarves.

They pushed Pat in the well. Oh no!

The results were;
1.Pat
2.Sam
3=.Sara
3=.Alex
5.Jessie
6.Sam (Jessies little brother)

After that we played some arcade games and I won some nerds, a tootsie roll, a chupa chup, a parachute man and a jumping frog. Fun!

Then we drove back to Vancouver and watched a Giants game. It was really cool, turns out hockey makes way more sense in real life.

Then some wee hockey players played between two of the periods. They were maybe 5 years old, and very good at falling down.

We got to meet Mr Peanut. He was so classy.

In the car park I met the biggest ute I've seen. It was a dodge ram, which has a really corney ad on the american channels where he has a personality. Hence I was fairly excited to meet him.

Mexico

Yesterday we booked a month long trip to Mexico!

The winter season on Grouse ends sometime this month, and the summer season on Grouse and at the other resorts we have applied for jobs at, start mid-may, meaning we have a month and a half off. Hopefully by the end of this month we'll know if we have new jobs or will be heading back to NZ. We've handed in our notice for our house, and will be heading to Mexico on the 1st of April, so we'll either travel between our jobs, or fit in some travelling and head back to NZ for our 3rd winter in a row!

Alaska

Today we booked a cruise to Alaska for 8 days. Exciting! It leaves on the 1st of May. I'm sure we will be the youngest by about 60 years, but everyone says its worth it because it's so scenic and nice. Fun!

Olympic happenings

During the Olympics there is lots going on around the city. There are marquees with the games being projected on that anyone can go to watch, and places that are different nations houses (pretty much just massive bars), free concerts, but there are massive lines for them so we haven't actually gone to any of them yet. We have however wandered around the city and seen some things.

We saw the Canadian Jump Rope team (look how fast her feet are!)

Some Natives and their art (thats actually what they call them)

This wasn't for the Olympics but we went anyway, it was a candy store with so many flavours of Jelly Bellys and so many colours of m&m's

And also we went to the NZ welcome party sponsored by Icebreaker. Sam met Larry the Lamb

So did Blake, but he wasn't so keen on him

And Sam also met John McBeth!!

We saw some Kapa Haka

Exciting. It made us feel like we were in NZ. They also had a band playing kiwi essentials such as Blue Lady, Why Does Love Do This to Me?, and of course Whaling.

Hopefully we'll get to do more Olympic things, and see some bands etc. Its pretty happening around here, we'd better get in on it.

FLAME ON!

hello readers, last night we had our first overnight shift at work & it was really good. this picture shows sara & i drinking hobo speed. it demonstrates our commitment to wide-eyed excellence.

as you may know, the opening ceremony was yesterday & it went off without a hitch. there was a big firework display in the harbour which we could easily see/feel from our house.
we have just been for a walk through town & it is BUZZING!

some people aren't so excited about certain aspects of the olympic games & today they staged a protest. some of the protesters got the wrong memo or something & dressed up as ninjas & wrecked & vandalised some store-fronts and properties, which, if you are to make a point about money being wasted, doesn't make a whole lotta sense. eh. these are some repair trucks.

we also visited the olympic torch which was very crowded but a grand sight!

Almost Olympics!

Yesterday we got to catch up with Blake, and he gave us 2 passes to watch him train this morning. So this morning we went out to the Pacific Coliseum to see him.

There were lots of gates and security to get through, and no one had seen our 'friends and family' passes before, but they let us through anyway. But they did make us go through a metal detector which I guess is something. The stadium was decorated to look nice and pretty and Olympic themed.

Blake was pretty speedy,

but he had some blade troubles which he dealt with pretty casually.

After Blakes training, the Japanese team had their turn. They had pretty sweet outfits so we took photos.

New Zealands is the best and least cheesy by far. Australia's is definately the worst.

This is the heat for Blakes first race.

This is a Mountie protecting everyone. I liked his hat. You can tell Mounties from Police because they have a stripe on their pants.

Then we went to work and it was time for the Olympic Torch to come up the mountain. Sam got confused and ended up with this on his face.

Every one got pretty excited and shook bear bells. Including me.

Then the torch went past. It was a suprisingly big flame, which explained why the torch bearer went on the tram roof, rather than inside. It was also quite lucky, because due to an Olympic miricle it snowed. Hard. And visibility was pretty low.

Some people had better views than others.

The Olympics are getting pretty close, only two days til the opening ceremony. During the Olypmics we have to dress in things supporting our countries. If anyone has any suggestions on what we can make/buy to wear, let us know because we don't have anything really!