Cusco: Week 2

4 yr-old room

Really settled into routine now the boys have gone but I still haven't learnt to deal with the weather properly.. this week has been freezing and raining then suddenly turning burning hot, or the other way around every day! So always need to carry rain jacket and be wearing sunscreen.

On Monday the playground was all mud and puddles because it had been raining overnight, so the kids turned into soggy grubs, their trackpants soaked in mud up to their thighs. The boys crawl around on all fours roaring at each other pretending to be tigers or monsters or something, and a new game today was trying to pee on each other. Lovely.

Tuesday was hot, I can't remember what we did at kinder, but neither Sophie or Jenny were there on Monday and Tuesday so it was just me.

Wednesday was cold, and Sophie was there. We spent the morning tracing shoes onto 25 pieces of paper (the joys of no photocopier) for them to paint and lace wool through, learning to tie a bow. Then we played outside on the basketball court with a plastic set of bowling pins and balls she brought, it was very uncoordinated and cute.
Everybody watching Johan bowl

On Thursday the teacher was asking the class about Christmas, it was hilarious. She'd ask 'who was born on December 25?' and they'd yell Papa Noel! When she drummed it into their heads it was 'bebe hesus' she asked 'where was he born?' and they'd say things like 'hospital!' and 'Cusco!' They also sung a carol in Quecha (the native Inca language) which was really interesting to hear.
Presents!

Then a Peruvian woman came in (I didn't catch where she was from/ working for) but she was donating a big box of toys for the kids and you should have seen their faces. The younger class came in too with Jenny, and every boy got a plastic digger truck and the girls got a little backpack full of plastic toy food, tiny spoons and forks and pans and a cooker. They loved it but were heartbroken they had to put it all back in the box because if they'd taken them out to the playground the older kids would have taken them straight away. Still they tried to smuggle the toys out in their backpacks and jumpers and got in a lot of trouble from the teacher.
I got so burnt today in the playground, it felt hot but not roasted shoulders hot!

The teacher disappeared so we couldn't leave at 12 because our bags were in the locked room, so ended up hanging around for ages til she came back. Had some really cute conversations with some of the shyer kids who normally don't get a look in because the needy, bossy ones are usually all over me. But asked them things like what siblings they had (lots, often 4 or 5!), what their parents do (they weren't too sure, but their mamitas cook very well!), how far from school they live etc, trying to get a better picture of their lives.
We also started up some games like Duck Duck Goose and What's the time Mr Wolf? which both actually worked quite well for a little while. They all ended up chasing each other round in circles when duckduck failed, and What's the time mr wolf ended up with about 15 wolfs wanting to chase the other kids.
Duck Duck Goose


On Friday (today) it was rainy and muddy again. Sophie tried to do a little test on the 5 year olds in our room to see how they compared to the 5 year olds at her other placement she goes to on Monday and Tuesdays. Our kids failed miserably, some of them still don't know how to write their names, their numbers are all upside down and backwards, etc. She said the kids at the other school knew so much more; she could write a word missing the vowels and they'd fill them in no problems, but no chance here. The only way they are taught things here is by copying them over and over on a piece of paper. But as soon as the numbers or letters they are copying aren't there to look at, they have no idea how to do them.

In playtime the girls 'cooked' us up some pollo y arroz y chocla (plastic chicken rice & corn) with their new cooking toys and fed us, we stopped fights on the seesaw, picked crying kids off the floor, etc. I'm pretty sick of hearing 'carga mi! carga mi! carga mi!' (carrryyyy me!) but am getting to know the quieter ones more, they're really sweet. Cute names like Maricely, Marleni, Rubi, Nadin, Fresia, Isabel, Maria Magdelena, Celeste, Cintia, lots of Carlos' and Manuel's.

As for Spanish classes, we're learning so much each day but when I read outloud I have a horrible half French half Spanglish very Australian accent. I keep saying french things like 'le' instead of 'el' and pronouncing things like they would be said in French, so while French knowledge helps me a lot in recognising similar vocab, it also hinders!

A 24 year old Texan guy has moved into my house, and his girlfriend is staying next door, so now I have some young people to hang out with at home which is fun! They're doing a TEFL (teaching english as a foreign language) course at Maximo Nivel for the next month, then wanting to teach English in South Korea.
I went out with them and some other TEFL students on Wednesday night to see a Peruvian cover band which was a really fun night!

In an hour I'm heading off on a 15 hour overnight bus ride with Haley from Spanish and a few girls who live in her house, to Ica for sandboarding down giant sanddunes this weekend! Hoping the bus will be okay!

Cusco: Weekend 1 & free time!

So last week is a blur of waking up around 7am, having a rushed breakfast in Yoni´s house (usually drinking yoghurt and a roll), then powerwalking up to the bus-stop to meet Jenny at 8.30am. We'd sit together in the van trying quietly to remember the words and actions to Hokey Pokey, discussing whether Duck Duck Goose is too violent for the playground, and trying to think of other activities that would work beyond the language barrier.

After placement we'd catch the bus back into town and walk to our seperate houses for lunch. Peruvian lunches are the big meals of the day, usually vegetable soup and then rice and chicken, or potato and chicken. After lunch I'd walk or taxi (less than a dollar) up to Plaza de Armas to meet Scott and we'd go exploring or shopping or just have a drink in the shade if we were already sunburnt. He knew his way around really well because he spent most of his days exploring the streets!

Then I'd go to Spanish class at 4pm. My class has only 4 people in it (including me) and is so much fun. There´s 2 American girls with Jenny and myself, and we're all about the same language level and all do childcare in the mornings, so spend quite a bit of time asking the teacher for vocab like 'stop hitting' which we all scribble down! Haley, one of the girls, works in a daycare centre with 3-5 year olds and was excited to learn the word '¡comparte!' for 'share!', but told us the next day that when she confidently told this to a child, the child just looked straight up at her and said 'no!'
We learnt regular and irregular verb conjugations last week, so I can finally start making sentences that I haven't learnt as a phrase. Our teacher Esthe is great and it's a really relaxed and fun learning environment, so far away from the stress of uni French tutes!

At 6pm Scott would pick me up from school which was cute, the sun sets around now and it suddenly gets cold. We'd have dinner around Plaza de Armas then I'd taxi home, so tired that I'd be in bed by 9.30pm, and he'd hang out at his hostel.

Chris and Jake arrived on Wednesday, and had a couple of days to acclimatise before we went to Machu Picchu on Saturday!

On Friday my package arrived finally yay! I went straight from placement to the Post office and got there at 12.39pm, but they didn't want to give it to me because they only give out packages from 8.30am til 12.30pm. I was a whole 9 minutes late. I begged and pleaded in Spanish, so they let me through to look at the package, but I didn't have my passport (I'd brought my license instead) so they again didn't want to give it to me. More begging and pleading and trying to explain that I needed it today because there was a replacement bank card in there and I needed access to money before Monday! Finally they allowed me to tell them my passport number (luckily I'd memorised the new number of my emergency passport) so I could take the package.. What a victory! So now I have a debit card for the first time since it was stolen in Mexico. And Mum sent me a camera charger so I can charge my camera for the first time since the charger was stolen in Belize! Just in time for Machu Picchu.

On Saturday morning it was a bumpy 2 hour bus ride (through amazing scenery.. up so high the clouds hanging over the valleys were level with us on top of the mountains) to Ollaytaytambo where we got a 2 hour train to Aguas Calientes which is the town at the base of Macchu Picchu mountain. A scary bus ride up the mountain (sometimes so close to the edge of the road we couldn't see the road out the window.. just a sheer drop) with almost Avatar type mountains opposite.. except they weren't hanging.

Up the top we could walk straight into the ruins. The words Machu Picchu actually mean 'Old Mountain' and is the name of the huge mountain behind the ruins (not the one you see in the classic photo; that one is called Huayna Picchu and means Young Mountain.) There were a few tour groups around but the place wasn't crawling with tourists like I've heard it is in June- August.

We learnt some really cool stuff and I was glad we had a guide because otherwise we would have walked straight past rocks that he described as used to be covered in gold and worshipped, etc. There were cool things all over the place like windows that the sun shines directly through at dawn on the 21st June, casting light over a certain rock that then casts a shadow in the shape of the Andean Cross.. and the sun also hits a certain rock at the same time which then appears as a Puma... etc. Saw places of llama sacrifices, an open area with amazing acoustics, a sun dial by which they knew when the solstices were so when to sow and reap crops, so much cool stuff and we got some awesome photos!

We walked around to the Inca Bridge which is a scary structure across a sheer mountain face, it's closed now because someone fell to their death, but scary enough just sitting on the edge of the cliff. Couldn't fit the whole cliff in my camera viewfinder. Then we hiked backwards along the last couple of k's of the Inca Trail, to the Sun Bridge where the hikers get their first rewarding view of the ruins. It was really tough going uphill, even though Machu Picchu is at lower altitude than Cusco I struggled!

On Sunday I explored some more of Cusco, like the San Blas hippy/ artist district where I bought an amazing necklace from a traditional Inca healer dude.. this is a whole story in itself but he was all on about my aura being green and orange instead of a harmonious purple, so I needed this energy balancing fire opal necklace... haha anyway it's beautiful and the back has (apparently) rocks from Machu Picchu and Huana Picchu to help trap bad energy and transform it into positive... and noone is allowed to touch it for the first 10 days I wear it so they don't mess with my energy! Anyway that was a fun conversation.

I met up with the guys and we checked out a couple of markets; San Pedro market where there are witches stalls selling potions and spells and dried llama fetuses, then El Molino, the 'black market' where you can buy anything from soccer balls to flat screen TVs to Nike shoes. Then we just chilled out at their hostel before an all you can eat Indian dinner, then they hopped on an overnight bus to La Paz. Won't see them until we're all back in Australia for Christmas!

Peru: Cuzco volunteer placement first week

Jenny (far left) in the playground

The company I´m volunteering with in Peru is called IVHQ (International Volunteer Headquarters), and I chose it because the prices were very reasonable compared to any others I could find. i-to-i run by STA charges over a thousand dollars for a month's placement, and others are similar, but IVHQ was only a couple of hundred. The options were construction, jungle conservation, teaching English, or childcare.

I chose childcare and knew I wouldn't find out what sort of placement I'd be in until I arrived, because out of all the schools, orphanages, day-care centres and street kid centres they wait to see which one needs help the most at that time. So on Tuesday morning a Sydney girl called Jenny and myself were taken onto a local bus (tiny white van) by a woman who works at Maximo Nivel to our placement.

The van was so crammed; our knees were interlocked with elderly women in traditional full skirts, woollen cardigans and amazing hats, students schoolbags hung over our shoulders, and we were leant on by kids pulling bags of market produce. The van crawled up the cobbled streets of Cuzco past markets and squares and streets I'd never otherwise see, through old archways and around steep corners. Then we left the city and headed up the hills, past packs of dogs snoozing and scratching on the side of the road, past shanty towns with corrigated iron rooves and rubbish littering every surface. People flagged the van down every 20 metres and squeezed on, and others yelled 'Baja!' when they wanted to hop off. We wondered how we would remember our stop as it all looked the same, memorising landmarks like 'the rubbish skip with three dogs in it' and 'the pile of tyres.'

But luckily ours is the last stop so we can't possible miss it! It's about 30 mins out of town up at the top of the hills, so we can look down on the sprawling brown rooves of Cuzco, the tiny shiny specks which are cars, we can even see the runway. It's an amazing view with a snowcapped mountain in the background. Up here it's very rural, pigs and chickens mixing with the dogs. We learnt we are placed in the kindergarten of a tiny school called 'Chinchasuyo,' me in the 4 year-olds room and Jenny with the 3 year-olds. I was a little apprehensive of the language barrier, but as soon as I stepped into the room I was greeted with a shouted chorus of Buenos DIAS!! and had my hands taken and others hugging my legs.

The room has a dirty, broken concrete floor and an open bucket which serves as a toilet. The kids had gorgeous smiling faces but most of them were filthy; string holding up their pants, ripped clothes, rotten and broken baby teeth. Some looked better off and had clean faces and hair, and some had nicer clothes like a little girl in a long skirt, lacy blouse and cute sunhat. We did a little bit of maths (3 + 1 = 4) then it was playtime with the 3yos outside.
Fresia being a monkey

In the playground is a broken set of rusty swings, two slides, and a scary metal see-saw with sharp bits sticking out of it. Jenny & I tried Ring Around a Rosie (which the kids sang in Spanish) and some other games but all they wanted really was to be picked up, dangled upside down, tickled. I started a game to try and get them to go down the slides instead of climb up them and block up the top, where I'd lift them off the bottom of the slide, and swing them round before putting them back on the ground. Silly idea by me, there was a fighting queue a mile long wanting to be swung off the slide, and I got exhausted and light-headed and had to stop!
Elizabeth (looks cute but she's so naughty!)

I was supposed to leave at 12 to be home by lunch, but the teacher (who speaks no English) left the room with me alone with the kids so I couldn't leave, and chaos reigned. We were supposed to be drawing our families, but there were brawls over the eraser, pencil stabbings, and general paper tearing violence. It was completely out of control and overwhelming as I couldn't even tell them to sit down, stop fighting, important vocabulary like that. Jenny came in to get me, and ended up helping until another woman came in (not the teacher), then we could leave. Exhausted, realising how much Spanish I needed to learn to be able to have a bit of control.

The next few days were much better though because a 3rd volunteer was there, a girl called Sophie in her late 20s from Belgium. She's been there for 3 weeks already, speaks Spanish, and brings in all sorts of activities. Wednesday was skipping ropes. 3 and 4 year-olds can't skip, but they can whip each other with the ropes, and loved jumping over the rope when it was wiggling on the ground like a snake. Lots of tears and ´Senorita mirar!´' (Look Miss!) at what someone else had done to hurt them. I am called either Senorita, Gringita (whitey), or Yessica. 'Mirar' is about the most used verb in the playground.. 'look, he stole my hat/ pushed me/ pulled my hair/ threw a rock at me...' etc. The boys are cheeky, blocking up the top of the slides, holding down the see-saw so one end is stuck up the top. But the girls fight just as much; punching, throwing rocks, pulling each others hair.

Thursday was hair washing. Lots of the kids knew about shampoo and obviously had their hair washed by their mothers at home, but some turned the water brown. I was on combing duty.. and made sure to be very gentle on knotty hair because I can definitely relate, hated having my hair brushed when I was a kid.
Boys wanted to be 'perritos' (puppies) when we facepainted.

Today (Friday) was face painting. All these activities are Sophie's ideas, and she brings the things in. She's been fundraising for ages so can buy things like skipping ropes etc, she even bought a whiteboard for the room. We did butterflies, hearts, monkey and dog faces. I got to learn the words for colours. The kids are so funny, wiggling and laughing until you take a photo of them when they suddenly look solemn and sad. It's great having Sophie next to me because she can translate the important things the kids tell me, or what they're asking for.
Sophie swamped by kids

The cutest moments include the teacher beginning the lesson by asking 'Who's been eating all the colours (pencils)?' and everybody chorusing 'Johann!' And when they dance and sing.. I've got to try and get a video of it!

Peru: First impressions

(Cusco. Scott took this photo on his iPhone, out of his hostel window.)

Scott & I arrived from Guatemala City and stayed overnight in Lima on the 13th November because due to winds picking up in the mountains in the afternoons, there are no flights to Cuzco after 4pm. I met up with Flick (and her new volunteering friends) for dinner that night which was great and caught up on everything we´d done since we saw each other last at Oktoberfest! But that´s all I saw of Lima; taxi rides to and from the airport and a night in Miraflores.

We got to Cuzco around 11am the next morning; the landing was exciting as the plane came down into the city which is in a tiny bowl surrounded by mountains, and the overall colour was brown brown brown. As soon as we got off the plane a group of elderly tourists scurried to an oxygen stall in the baggage hall and strapped on some masks.

I was shown around the language centre/ volunteering program office where I´ll be spending a lot of time over the next month (I´m here right now) and then dropped at my homestay, and Scott wandered off to find his hostel.

I´m staying in a woman called Yoni´s apartment, with 4 other people. There´s 2 beds in my room but so far I´ve got it to myself, it´s about 15 minutes walk to the language centre, and Yoni (in her 60s) is lovely. But I was a bit disappointed that there are no other young people in the house... one Polish lady is in her 40s and the other three (an American and a French Canadian couple) are all over 60. They´ve all got much more Spanish than me and are able to converse and express opinions amongst each other and with Yoni in Spanish, never speaking in their first languages.

I´m torn: I´m absorbing lots of vocab just by listening to them at meals, and I´m able to understand the gist of all conversations but not produce it yet, so I know staying with them will help me language-wise, which is what I´m here for. But on the other hand, I´m really wanting to travel on the weekends with people my age, and make some friends to do things with in town. So I don´t know whether I want to ask the program to move me to a ´volunteer house´ of which there are 3 or 4 in town and they´re full of people my age (they must have been full the day I moved in) or whether I should stick it out and be as immersed in the language as I can at Yoni´s.

Anyway. The altitude affected me a little for the first few days as I got lightheaded going up the tight wobbly spiral staircase to my room on the 3rd floor, and when I walk quickly up the road I get out of breath and feel like an asthmatic. Also woke up with headaches that stuck around all day for the first 3 days, but nothing as bad as the French Canadian gent in my house who had to spend 3 days in hospital attached to an oxygen mask!

Impressions of the town:
To get to Maximo Nivel (language centre) I walk past a gorgeous cocker spanial X pup who I pat every day. Then the first market I pass has street food out the front (deep fried batter like some kind of doughnut, fruit, chicken rolls, some kind of coloured drink scooped out of buckets, & mystery meat skewers.)The worst bit of the walk is next; dusty path always under construction next to a busy road so my lungs fill up with dust and exhaust fumes. Then the second market I pass is the Artisan´s market and I struggle to not stop and look at the knitted beanies, scarves, jumpers, and very touristy keyrings and things. Alpaca´s on everything. Then the path gets interesting as for some reason they have pulled up random patterns of tiles on both sides of the road, so it´s like a game of hopscotch, tiles wobbling precariously over muddy holes and puddles. This is now the main street and I´m hopping past restaurants, mini markets, travel agencies, a bank, a post office.
Avenida del Sol

If I keep walking up Avenida del Sol (main street)past Maximo Nivel right to the top, I get to the main square Plaza de Armas. It´s gorgeous around here; cobbled roads, cathedrals, fountains. But this is the most touristy spot, and you can´t walk 5 metres without being offered massages, paintings, shoe shines, menus, jewelery, and even photos with women in traditional costume holding baby alpacas!
Kids & baby alpacas (had to pay them for this pic)

Plaza de Armas

Cuzco is called ´the bellybutton of the world.´This makes sense when you notice it´s in a bowl, hills surrounding the town. In daylight ´Viva Peru´and other signs are visible carved/cut into the hills, and at night the lights in all the buildings on the hills appear like stars in the darkness surrounding the city. It´s so beautiful sitting in Plaza de Armas at nighttime as the streetlights show up the churches and cobbles and arches,the lights on the hills like stars all around, and real stars above.



The daytimes have been really warm and sunny, or warm and cloudy. I got sunburnt despite being warned to wear suncreen. I guess being 3.5kms closer to the sun really does matter. But as soon as the sun goes down, it´s cold. Cold enough for woolly jumpers, beanies and gloves (all of which I bought pretty quickly from the artisans market!)

I´m running out of time before I have to go to Spanish and don´t want to rush writing about my volunteer placement so that will have to wait til later. Unfortunately my camera cables and chargers were stolen back in Belize so I can´t upload any photos until I get home, and can´t even take any photos on my big camera until I recieve a new charger in the mail! But Jake and Chris arrived yesterday, and Scott is still here, so if I don´t get my charger before Saturday (we´re going to Machu Picchu then) hopefully between us we can get some good pics!

Guatemala

Colourful street of Flores

Los Amigos hostel

Flores & Tikal

Caught the water taxi and then a couple of busses from Belize to Guatemala. A Brisbane guy called Mick was traveling with us, and we all got beds in a hostel called Los Amigos, in Flores.

Flores is an island in a lake in the north of Guatemala, and the hostel was run by a Dutch guy and lots of Guatemalan chicas. The communal part of the hostel was so nice; a big jungly garden filled with hammocks and beanbags, a TV showing foreign movies and alternative documentaries, a huge bookswap bookcase, and the yummiest, healthy (mostly vegetarian) food on the menus. Two big fat dogs lounge around, lots of friendly cats snuggle on the beanbags with you, the trees are full of tropical squawking parrots, and it's so pretty at night with lanterns and fairy lights.

We booked a tour for early the next morning, to go to Tikal; the Mayan ruins in the jungle. The main reason people come to Flores is to go to Tikal, so about half the hostel occupants were getting up at 4am like us (and all the others had either gone the day before, or were going tomorrow!) We thought the idea was to get to the park by sunrise, because when it gets light all the birds and monkeys start howling and you realise how much life there is in the jungle. But the sun came up as we were driving, so I guess we would have had to leave much earlier. We arrived at 6am, in the cold, and decided not to pay for a guide because then we'd have to shuffle around with a big group all day, so bought a map and headed into the jungle by ourselves.

We met a nineteen year-old German girl called Janne and got her to join us for the day, she was right at the start of her year-long solo trip through Central America. Brave!

So Tikal was once a major Mayan city, with architecture dating back to 4 AD(and agricultural relics from 1000 BC), but most of the buildings are from 200- 900 AD when it was the capital of the Mayan Kingdom and dominated a huge area of Mesoamerica. It was deserted around 950 AD because of war in the Mayan region, collapse of authority, overpopulation and agricultural fail. The city was only rediscovered in the 19th Century, totally overgrown by the jungle.

There are over 200 structures at Tikal; temples, plazas, pyramids and palaces. They've got fantastic names like 'Temple of the Mask", "Temple of the Jaguar Priest" and "The Lost World Pyramid." Very Indiana Jones. There's a ball court in a kind of arena where the game was to pass a ball using only elbows and knees, and shoot it through a vertical hoop at either end (like in Quidditch.) The winner of the game was sacrificed at an altar, usually decapitation! It was an honour for him. Some of the pyramids were built around the tombs of kings and queens, which were filled with jade, ceramics, shells and dried stingray spines (would have been transported from the coast- a long way away!) and also the bones and skulls of sacrificed adolescents to keep him/ her company.

"Mayan"

We saw a beetle as long as my hand with a horned nose like a rhino, huge butterflies, guinea-pig type rodents the size of wombats, howler monkeys, and even a toucan! The jungle was dense and quiet, but full of rustling. When the sun warmed up it got steamy and mosquitos flocked around us, we regretted having stopped our malaria medication! We got to climb a couple of structures and look out over the impenetrable jungle canopy from above, giving a great view of the tops of other temples poking out of the trees. Before the jungle was cleared it would have been so easy to pass within five metres of a structure and not see it, they are so covered in moss and vines.

By 12.30pm we were exhausted and got the minibus back to the hostel. I had to sit on the bench in the middle of the front seat and kept nodding off, my head snapping forwards and back, Scott sitting behind me kept leaning forward to squeeze my shoulder to wake me up and stop me dozing off on the driver's shoulder!

We had one more day chilling out in Flores, just reading books and drinking banana smoothies in a hammock, and eating tacos from up the hill because they were cheaper than the hostel food. Chris, Jake & Mick caught a bus to Semuc Champay but Scott and I had an earlier flight from Guatemala City so we caught an overnight bus there. It was really comfortable!

Guatemala City

We'd booked in at Quetzalroo, a newly opened hostel in Guatemala City, run by an Aussie girl Jodie and her Guatemalan partner Manuel. Manuel picked us up about 6am from the bus station and later that day took us on an amazing city tour. This couple's friendliness and excitement at showing us around was incredible, it really made us enjoy a city that otherwise we would have felt lost and unsafe in, as it's the most dangerous city in Central America.

Manuel drove us to some city sights and then to two markets where he could answer all our questions (what's that? what's that?) and picked us bits of fruit and sweets and tapas style things to eat. He was so happy and proud to be giving us a good time, it was infectious, and really demonstrates the importance of sometimes getting a local point of view. We would have never, never found these markets, learnt what we did, tasted what we did, without him. He even carried my camera for me in the most dangerous streets.

The second market was a sprawling slum of stalls and sheds, I was the only blonde in sight, and was gawked at. Kids pushed wheelbarrows full of toothbrushes/ oranges/ underwear/ hair gel. Beautifully traditionally dressed Indian Guatemalan women in bright costume were sitting on the floor with their vegies. Manuel kept saying 'Australian' to everyone we walked past who obviously were asking where we were from. There were fried iguanas.

Manuel with a fried iguana

The fresh produce sections were about 100 times the size of the Vic Market. We walked through about 200 metres of a shed which was only the Oranges section. Then 200m of onions, then spices and nuts, then limes. Talk about assault on the senses. We bought seven avocados for $AUD 1, a pound of strawberries for $1, two pineapples for $1. Unfortunately my camera ran out of batteries, and the charger has been stolen!

Took this fruit back to the hostel and all made smoothies together in the kitchen, and ate a mysterious fruit with a spoon (it looked & had the texture of like an avocado but pink, with a creamy sweet lychee/kiwi flavour, I think it was some kind of sapote.) That night Scott and I were going to walk out to find some dinner when Jodie freaked us out about the dangerousness (how long are you going for? when should I get worried? Walk fast and only on this path, wear your hood to cover your blond hair, etc.) So we ended up just going to Maccas 50 metres down the road!

Manuel dropped us at the airport early the next morning for our flight to Peru. I so highly recommend Quetzalroo, they really care about your experience in the city!

Belize

Main street, Caye Caulker
Fun times had in here.

So I had my shiny new Emergency Passport and we'd just met up with Chris & Jake again in Tulum. Caught an early bus down to the border at Chetumal and things started going right: ate an awesome torta outside the bus station (bread roll filled with beef, onion and lime juice.. made up for a gross one we'd had in Mexico City) and then the bus driver came and told us the bus was ready to leave (more than an hour earlier than expected.) This got our hopes up that we might make it in time for the last water taxi to Caye Caulker this evening, so we didn't have to stay a night in Belize City!

BC was a slum. An impression of tarpaulins, market stalls, dirty broken buildings, people laying around the bus stop, broken vans parked precariously along the canal. Luck seemed to be with us, we jumped into one of these van 'taxis' to go to the ferry dock and were just in time for the last water taxi to the island Caye Caulker.

The hostel we wanted was booked out so we settled for two wooden cabanas outside another Backpacker's place. Chris, Jake and an English guy Sam they'd met in Tulum took one cabana and Scott and I were in an adjoining one. They were so flimsy and bare, but we could lock the door, and we didn't even think twice about looking for another place to stay. After dinner we had an early night, locking the door from the inside and automatically taking our valuables up the ladder to the mattress on the top floor. Left our big packs on the bottom floor. I would like to return to this moment and drag the whole thing up the ladder.

So round 5am we both woke up to a deafening wood banging sound, I thought it was Scott falling down the ladder. It was a bump bump falling sound. He thought it was coconuts on the roof. But as the minutes went by with no other noises we started forgetting what it sounded like, how close it sounded.

We didn't notice anything else and I went back to sleep but he stayed awake and heard rustling outside our window about 20 mins later, looked out the window and saw a balaclavad man moseying around! Scott started climbing down the ladder- to do what? something heroic?- but I said we should just turn the light on to scare him off. So we did, and then realised with the light on we couldn't see outside anymore, too dark. It was quite scary. Turned it off. He had gone. Then discovered that Scott's whole big pack was not in the room anymore. And mine was ransacked. And the window was broken open.

Where we were sleeping when our stuff was stolen just down the ladder (that I'm standing on to take the photo)

Luckily when we looked outside we found his pack all ransacked on the ground. And through our dedusive dectective skills we reasoned: the noise was the burgler trying to lift Scott's pack through the window, but the flimsy bed had broken and all the planks hit the ground, waking us up. Then he scrammed out the window. And as we hadn't investigated after hearing the noise, he came sneaking back 20 mins later to go through the pack he had dropped outside, and that's when Scott saw him (but couldn't see low enough to see the pack.)

So what we lost: Scott: camera, toiletries, medicines (inc. malaria) Jess: camera gear like chargers, cables, battery, memory cards, etc which were all in a mesh bag in my big pack. And my underwear bag. I guess he thought I could have put valuables in it? But nope, just annoying for me.

Thank God I'd had my cameras, new passport and wallet up on the top level in my daypack, and Scott had his iPhone, passport and bank card up there too. That could have been a real disaster if I'd lost my Emergency passport. It was so frustrating though. We'd just caught up to the others and were ready to be backpackers again, not to spend the next two days in Police Stations first at Caye Caulker and then at San Pedro (another island) to get police reports. And for this being an English speaking country, it took even longer than the Mexican debacle.

Snatched the end of the sun up at the Split

Long story short, Chris & Jake were snorkeling and sunbaking and drinking beer up at the Split while Scott and I were sweating on broken plastic chairs in a tiny office while the un-uniformed police officer chowed down on a fish burrito and typed with one finger. We were constantly interrupted by people bringing him things for lunch, trying to work out who could do the next shift -"Naw, he sleepin"- And a Rasta guy kept asking if they'd found his dog yet. The document looked a bit like this:

"I am Scott Sayers I am an Australian Student at Victoria State which is in Australia. I want to say that I arrived for the first time in this country and this morning I was awaken by a massive noise. I saw a male person with a beanie over his face with holes for eyes covering his face. And I saw my room had been Burglarised and ransackled."

We couldn't quite believe this document was going to be taken for real, and then found out we had to go to another island for an official one. The second one was better grammatically and on official paper but mine starts "Jessica Hoadley, 22 year-old Austrian lab technician." Not sure where they got that from!

Cooling my jets after frustrating hours in the police station. Quite a nice spot.

Anyway. Caye Caulker was pretty. It's a tiny island a couple of km long and about 800m wide. The motto was 'Go Slow' which would have been fine if we weren't trying to get things done. There were no beaches so the place to swim was up at the Split where you could jump off a jetty. We ate both nights by the water at a place called Jolly Roger's where Roger himself (one of the fattest men I've ever seen) serves you. There's no menu but the choice of chicken, lobster, or just vegies which are all bbqed in some amazing sauce and served with mashed potato, garlic bread, rum punch and chocolate cake.

Most of the restaurants/ bars had signs up saying 'Happy Hour: 3pm Until Everybody Happy!'

Obviously we moved hostels to the good one which had been full the first night, and that new place was great.

Got up really early on the third day to start our journey to Guatemala, new police reports in hand, hope we're not making this a Central American tradition!

Mexico

Said a sad goodbye to Nadeane (don't know when I'm ever going to see her again!) and flew to Cancun. Spanish speaking country for the first time since Spain.. I was hopeless again. Discovered McDonalds has a burger with guacamole and Doritos corn chips in it!

Photo: Hostel in Cancun

Our hostel was hidden behind big security gates in a jungly garden. The guy working there was so chilled out, he said the computer was down and he didn't know how much we owed him, to deal with it later. We had a "6 bed" dorm to the 4 of us; it was just 2 sets of bunks, the 5th and 6th beds were air mattresses on the floor. It was really hot in there, the fan didn't really hit the top bunks very well, and when it rained hard the floor flooded and Jake's pack kept getting soaked! But it was a nice chilled hostel with hardly anyone staying there, we made friends with three English girls who are on a year-long RTW trip.

Photo: Cancun dorm

Cancun beach
Cancun stormy beach

Cancun beach blinded me. It was the first glimpse of a Mexican beach and it was spectacular! Dazzling white sand, and fluorescent turquoise water. My photos look like I've changed the colours on Photoshop but I promise I haven't. It was a dramatic scene our first afternoon on the beach when a storm was coming over the horizon... black clouds with the white sand and glowing water.

The Cancun nightlife was crazy! Our first night was $20 each for the boys to have unlimited bar tab, and free for me all night. There are definite perks to being a girl in Mexico! We went to Coco Bongo another night which is huge and the most amazing clubbing experience of my life! It's a cross between Cirque de Soleil/ concert/ theatre/ nightclub with dance teams, trapeze artists, scenes from The Matrix, The Dark Night, Pirates of the Caribbean etc played out on a multi-level stage. There's Spiderman flying over your head, Austin Powers dancing on the stairs, a Robbie Williams impersonator performing. Balloons, confetti, glowsticks falling from the ceiling. Mucho tequila. Jake took some awesome photos and videos, you've got to see it to believe it!

Coco Bongo club

We persuaded the English girls (Cat, Kat and Lauren) to bus down to Playa del Carmen with us. I loved this place heaps more than Cancun. Makes such a difference when you can walk between hostel, beach, shops and clubs (in Cancun we had to bus and taxi around.) It was so so beautiful. Free guacamole on the table at every restaurant. Nachos don't really exist in Mexico, but we learnt the difference between tacos, burritos, fajitas, tortas, flautas, quesedillas, tostadas and more! Also learnt the hard way that the green salsa is always hotter than the red ones. Chris wanted two tongue transplants (he didn't think that one would be enough!) and then practically sprinted to the mini mart to buy some milk after eating tacos from a street stall.

Scott, Chris, Jake, Cat, Lauren, Kat arriving at Playa del Carmen

The fateful plan was to head back to Cancun and ferry across to Isla Mujeres for a few days. Unfortunately I was feeling pretty relaxed on this bus, with Scott beside me and Chris and Jake in the seats behind, and forgot to lock my daypack which was at my feet. Someone had asked to swap seats with Chris and Jake (and they politely said OK, thinking the person couldn't see the TV or something) but then he must have spent the whole trip foraging in my bag under the seat. I lost my iPhone, passport, ATM card, and paper plane tickets. It was such a hassle. I knew I had to get a police report so I could claim stuff on insurance, but it was so weird in Cancun. The taxi drivers refused to drive us to a police station or even tell us an address. The police on the street were evasive and wouldn't answer any questions or tell us where a police station was. We seemed to have a huge crowd around us and then they all vanished. Weird. So headed back to our old hostel and got an address from the helpful manager there.

That was one of the most frustrating mornings of my life. I'd written 'I had things stolen and would like to lodge a police report for insurance purposes' in Spanish on a piece of paper which I showed anyone who'd look. We were told to wait outside this door, then someone took us to another building, then someone else took us back to the first place, etc. No-one spoke English. There seemed to be no system. Wasn't in the best mood but finally got it done.

Realised how much I rely on my iPhone for everything. Not only for phone things like messaging, Skype, and calling, but it was my watch, alarm clock, calendar, notebook, camera, ipod, internet access, calculator, and currency converter! I had photos and videos on there from moments when I couldn't use a proper camera! I'd saved peoples contact details, reminders of things to write about, and important lists in there! It's the sentimental stuff that's most annoying. And my passport was getting quite an impressive collection of stamps and visas that I was fond of.

Anyway spoke to the Embassy in Mexico City and realised I had to fly there to get an emergency passport, but they weren't open over the Halloween/ Dia de los Muertos long weekend, so we kept to our plan of Isla Mujeres for a few days and then I'd go.

Isla Mujeres Evolution of Dog

Isla Mujeres (Island of Women) was beautiful too. The same white beaches, colourful houses, street food, felt safe walking everywhere. Really chilled out. On Halloween all the island kids dressed up and Trick or Treated their way up the roads, and the day after is Dia de los Muertos (day of the dead) when people honour shrines of lost family and friends, leaving special cakes and fruits out for them. Our hostel was one of my favourites ever! The grounds were full of palm trees and hammocks and stretched onto the beach, and they offered free daily Spanish lessons. Ate the best burritos of my life. We made friends with an awesome dog on the beach who was Abi's soul-brother.

Halloween Isla Mujeres
Isla Mujeres beach
Hostel grounds Isla Mujeres

Scott and I flew to Mexico City to sort stuff out while Chris and Jake stuck to the original plan of Tulum. Very jealous of the stuff they got to do there like swim in a ceynote and see the Mayan ruins on the beach, and sorry Scott had to miss it to accompany me. Not much exciting to report about Mexico City, I didn't want to be there so wasn't in the mood to do touristy things. The Embassy made me a little homesick, it had a rainforest garden and digeridoos, posters of Jillard and Krudd, the first Aussie things I'd seen in ages! We saw Paranormal Activity 2 at the movies which was terrifying and actually gave me nightmares!

Met the boys in Tulum after heaps of travelling to catch up with them and continued on the bus across the border to Belize. There's so much more I want to see in Mexico, I'll definitely return one day.

USA: Los Angeles & Las Vegas

Photo: At the Dodger's baseball game

I was so excited to see Nadeane that it felt like Christmas on the morning I was leaving NY to fly to Los Angeles. I was also really happy that it was the end of my travelling alone, for a while, because Scott and the boys were meeting me in LA to travel Central America.

Travelling alone definitely has it's benefits (deliciously selfish; can do what I want when I want, forced to make friends out of strangers, meet so many more people, more open to opportunities, people respect you and include you because you're alone, and a real feeling of achievement and self-worth and growth etc, having succeeded on your own) and I was glad I did it, but so happy when it was over as well.

Being alone is so much harder; everything is left to you (choices, maps, asking for help, security.) Just little things like having no-one to mind my pack when I went to the toilet, so had to drag the whole thing in the cubicle with me. I had to fight so many internal battles because half of me is eager and half of me is lazy, had to always motivate myself to put myself out there. Sometimes you have nobody to share moments and experiences with, it can be a little scary and boring only having yourself for company, and experiences really depend on the people you meet. Sometimes you luck out in hostels- that's when I got lonely.

Either way (travelling alone, or with friend/s) has such positives and negatives. I had this conversation a million times with lots of people who agreed. So I'm glad I mixed it up a lot on my trip. Started with Scott and soon made friends with Matt, Nadeane and Drew (who were all travelling solo) for the rest of Asia. Had Mel in France and Spain, and Zoe as well for Ireland. Then alone until Mum met me in Eastern Europe for two weeks, then alone again until now. Will have the boys until Peru, then my last month alone in Cuzco.

Anyway. The flight was a little claustrophobic as I was seriously trapped in my seat by the obese woman in the aisle seat. At first I was just being polite, not wanting to cause her the effort of getting up to let me out. But then I started needing to go to the loo and told myself I'd wait until her tray-table was cleared, to make it easier. But every time an attendant walked past, she ordered a new soft drink. I think she drank like four cans. And kept the tray-table down the whole time. I was about to ask her to move anyway, when we started descending into LA. Decided I could wait, but of course we were delayed on the tarmac for what felt like a year and then I was stuck behind her as her thighs had to be squeezed past every seat on the way up the aisle. Torture.

Then I was so giddy about seeing Nadeane's friendly face (she was picking me up) that I waved madly at about five strangers, thinking they were her!

It was so great to see her. I couldn't believe how much we'd bonded in Asia and how much I'd missed her since then! After her Asian trip she moved from Canada to LA into an apartment in Park LaBrea and started a new job as a cardiac nurse at Ceder Sinai Hospital where all the Hollywood rich and famous get treated. Juggling her night shifts at work we still had a lot of fun, and it was perfect for me to be able to drop my pack, have a home base, cook, watch TV, catch up on my journal and blog, stop travelling for a bit.

I met some of her nurse friends and we did things like:

Turtle racing at a bar (yep betting on turtles)

Photo: At Venice Beach

Surfed at Venice Beach. This place is insane. The pavement running along the beach is like a stage filled with the craziest characters having the most random interactions. I saw a guy with blue hair and a Ramones tshirt telling off a policeman, and an old half-naked man twirling a fire-staff and losing his shit yelling at a tree. A leathery skinned hippy woman kicking her bare feet out dancing to a band, yanking on the leads of her two chihuahuas who just stared at each other disdainfully. There was a black bodybuilder wearing only red Speedos and running shoes walking around with a boombox on his shoulder, and a tiny blond punk guy rollerblading along with his labrador on a lead, his dog was wearing wraparound sunnies. Old surfer dudes on the benches, a pirate in a wheelchair. A perfectly normally dressed man in one of those scary full-face gas masks.

Walked around Hollywood searching for Heath Ledger's footpath star (shattered he hasn't got one) and bumped into Dave Niproski.

Photo: Disneyland

Went to a Carrie Underwood concert at the Hollywood Bowl (she's a country singer who won American Idol.. she was actually really good!) Listened to country music in a non-ironic way for the first time in my life!

Found ourselves at Beverly Hills Hotel (I think it's the classiest place I've ever been) for her nurse-friend's boyfriend's 30th birthday... Had one of those moments wondering how on earth I got here as the last time I'd been with Nadeane was in a horror-movie type bungalow in Vietnam..

Went to a baseball game with Dave (ate a hot-dog, sung Take me out to the Ball game, and saw David Hasselhoff in the crowd)

Photo: At the Ice Hockey game

Went to the Getty Museum, and out with her friends on Hermosa Beach, in Downtown LA and we even went to Disneyland! When Scott and Chris arrived we went to an ice-hockey game between LA and Vancouver Canucks, and then we drove to Vegas and met Jake there.

I found driving through the desert so inspiring. I'd never been in a desert like this before. There were fantastic signs like 'Ghost Town Road' and 'Peggy Sues 50s Diner' and biblical quotes. And listening to Edward Sharpe just made it perfect.

View from our hotel window

Vegas was so strange. Mostly because so many movies are set here, it's weird seeing the places in real life. I couldn't get Ocean's 11, Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas and The Hangover out of my head. The Bellagio fountains. Dollar margaritas. Neon lights and stripper cards. Roller coasters on the roof of casinos. This stuff actually exists! Through Nadeane's friend Robbie we got free accomodation at The Orleans which was amazing after one night in a creepy "hostel" motel.
Photo: In front of the Bellagio

Photo: NYNY Casino in the background

Then back to LA for a couple of days while we planned Mexico!