After leaving Ilha Grande we took a short bus ride to the town of Paraty a pretty little town with cobblestoned streets. Paraty is also the home of cachaca sugarcanederived spirit that makes Brazilrsquos famous caipirinhas. Caipirinhas are great the first taste of them is reminiscent of a tequila mixed cocktail which might put you off but if you stick with it yoursquore fairly drunk a

May 2nd 2010 Only one month left Doune ScotlandI am now in Stirling Scotland another very old city with a deep past mainly which is of William Wallace. My hostel is even called the ldquoWilly Wallace Hostelrdquo. Though I am in Stirling I will not have the time to see the William Wallace sight because I decided yesterday was better spent in Edinburgh seeing stuff outside of the town. I do

Hey folks I know I haven't kept up with my blog as much as I would have liked but it's too late now I'm leaving tomorrow at 5pm out of Fredericton and flying to Toronto on to Amsterdam and then lastly to Accra. I promise to try my hardest to keep you updated as much as possible if not I'll be keeping a journal to fill you in on my return. I love you all you have no idea what your support me

Wow what an amazing few days Since my last update I went to a place called Abel Tasman which is the second largest national park in new zealand we got there pretty late after a few pit stops for shopping and a wine tasting session in Marlborough mmmm. Mum it turns out I dont like chardonnay at all not just that one we had but the other wines were goooood Abel Tasman was fantastic it was rea

Well here we are making a change in our itinerary. After some discussion we decided to drive south into lower Texas and explore Big Bend National Park. Judy had been there with Outward Bound almost 30 years ago. Wow time flies It was a very long trip as once you are in the park you must travel miles and miles. Itrsquos about 147 mi. just to the park then 47 or so miles to Rio Grande Vi

We landed late afternoon to Singapore and were instantly dazzled by the airport took one look around and knew our fortunes had changed after India The place was spotless no touts and linked by an underground system MRT to the city. We instantly loved the place. We found the hostel with ease perfectly situated in the Bugis Area the previous red light district until the government buldozed

So after the cliffhanger last ending I can reveal that my friend's incredibly talented housemate adjusted remade and sewed costumes for the Renaissance Pleasure Faire. Yes Faire. A frills and whistles recreation of Elizabethan England in LA. It was...something. Hillarious but also totally overwhelming. Overwhelming partly because of the huge numbers of people and when you're wearing an

My first bday batch in Vegas and Los Angelesto be continued .........

Well it certainly does not pay to be writing this log at midnight as mistakes are made. It is April and not March.Day 46 April 29thLast night we stayed in Brookings Oregon called the Carmel of Oregon. We left early early for Kirk 930 and drove to Samoa and had breakfast family style at the Samoa Cook House. A memory for Kirk as he had breakfast here 40 years with David and Hazel on a canoe

Well it had to be done at some point. Today was a mamoth day of much driving thanks to my longsuffering friend.First we headed for Sunset Boulevard and from there turned on to Beverly Hills. For a Brit it's easy not to be impressed by Beverly Hills it's essentially a pretty green overgrown spot. Then you remember that the rest of LA is dusty yellowing scrubland and you realise that t

Saturday May 1stWe drifted up from a deep and peaceful sleep to Zulu crowing and a sunny morning that quickly turned into a rainy one. An hour later it was sunny again so we dug out the chainsaw gave it a thorough cleaning and started it up. Memories flooded back as we heard that familiar sound and smelled the oil and the chainlube. Good memories mostly. Happy that it still runs beautifully we

Hello my poor neglected readers. Sorry itrsquos been 7 months since my last blog. Hmm kind of coincides with getting a fulltime job. Anyone heard of the Expo 2010 Maybe news of this multibillion dollar extravaganza hasnrsquot travelled much outside of China but itrsquos all you hear about in Shanghai. Haibao Expo mascot pops up all around the city the ldquoBetter City Better

This was our 4th cruise port stop. We took a 7.5 hour tour for this stop since there was a lot of ground to cover beyond the dock. We put our feet and eyes on some of the oldest and most amazing ancient roman ruins. We had no idea Turkey was so rich with ancient roman history. Our first ancient site was Ephesus. At first glance it looks like a bunch of rubble. Well all the ancient ruins look li

Brisbane Shiplifts provided the venue for our 2010 haulout with 300 and 600 ton travel lifts to make even the largest vessel look like a dinky toy in the slings. Four days of beauty treatments at the spa for Marnie buffing her topsides and antifouling from the waterline down. Hindered by continuous rain one day dickies at the ready and full speed ahead applying three coats of Jotun C Victor 50

The Wellington chapter has come to an end. On May 2nd we headed across the Cook Straight by ferry to Picton.The ferry journey was surprisingly calm Laura still managed to get queasy but it really could have been a lot worse. Wellington disappeared out of view very quickly and with that all our connections to the city were cut.The latter half of the ferry journey about an hour and a half was s

I liked my little blondie title it made me laugh if noone else this blog entry is about my trip to South Korea from December 29th to Jan 10th when I went to visit my friend who is there teaching english. This was my first venture into Asia. I flew from Edinburgh to Amsterdam then Ams to Seoul which was 11 hours......boring when you're by yourselfMy friend met me at the airport and I was a me

Ribadiso AlbergueThe evening at Ribadiso turned into a bit of a nightmare. The albergue seemed to have settled down around 10.30pm and all was quiet until a few well lubricated individuals returned to the dormitory just before 1.00am. Unlike conventional buildings where it would have been possible to close and lock the door at the designated closing time this albergue is based on a collecti

This is our second trip of 2010 and is a local adventure which we normally wouldn't put on the blog. However this one was unique as it was the first time we were able to take the the dog on a motorcycle trip. This was actually a ferry trip interrupted by some motorcycling. We had 6 ferry rides to get all the way around the circuit. Including camp fees ferry tickets and gas the whole 4 days cost

FinToday started walking through eucalypts feeling a bit homesick. They are grown as a plantation timber around Arca. The tall straight trunks and the leaves and bark on the path made if feel very much like walking in bushland around Canberra. There are plantings of different species almost all the way into Santiago itself along the Camino.It was hard to decide whether to push or just take i

03 05 2010Today was an in transit day. We essentially kicked our heels around Sydney whilst waiting for time to elapse to go to the airport and fly to Thailand.The Crowne Plaza nice hotel and very comfortable. A warm day in Sydney and took a few pictures of the Government building and the Queen Victoria building.The chauffeur turned up and took us to the airport and into the luxury of Emirates bus