Simon and Lucy's amazing honeymoon!

We arrived late in Mexico City and Jake and Yhali treated us to a traditional Mexican take out of a variety of tacos accompanied by micheladas – the Mexican way to drink beer, with salt round the rim, and lime, chilli sauce and sometimes even clamato mixed into the beer itself. We were also greeted by Yhali's incredibly cute and fluffy cat Junio, who proceeded to take over our bed every night we were there but who was far too lovely for us to say no to!

The next day Jake had to work, so Si and I took ourselves off to Chapultepec Park and strolled through the park to the huge and very impressive National Museum of Anthropology, filled with various Mayan and Aztec and other artefacts. Afterwards we hopped on the metro (we were very proud of ourselves for mastering it so quickly!) to the Zocolo and looked around the Cathedral before meeting Yhali for a drink at a nearby rooftop bar with beautiful views across the city to the mountains that surround it.

The next day Jake took us out for a walking tour of the area near where he and Yhali live, with the requisite break for tacos, ending up (with beer!) in a little English book shop owned by an expat friend of Jake’s called Grant. On Sunday morning we were up bright and relatively early and took a taxi to the southern part of the city, to the barrio of Xochimilco which is famous for its system of canals - the last remaining part of the lake that used to cover the whole area that is now Mexico City. We met some friends of Jake and Yhali, and joined up with a very nice Taiwanese couple and some Japanese girls to hire a canal boat/gondola for a few hours. We then floated down the river very happily, stopping occasionally to pick up drinks, snacks and even Mariachi bands from passing boats! Our boat ride finished far quicker than we would have liked, but we were soon looking forward to our next outing – a football match between local team Club America (Aguilas!) and Jaguares de Chiapas at the Estadia Azteca football stadium (famous for Maradona’s hand of God goal). Luckily America won and we entered a metro carriage full of happy Americas fans after the match, at which point Jake’s rather tipsy friend Diego decided to announce to the carriage that his friend Lulu (me!) was a Chiapas fan, and the whole carriage began chanting my name, along with (I was told later!) the Mexican equivalent of “get your tits out for the lads” – not so lovely!

The following morning we had planned to get up very early to visit the incredible ruins of Teotihuacán, but unsurprisingly we slept in and after a very large but yummy lunch near Jake’s flat we headed to Teotihuacán, arriving early afternoon. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise because although we only had a couple of hours to look round, most other tourists had already gone and we had the site pretty much to ourselves and were able to enjoy the spectacular temples - including the third largest pyramid in the world! - without interruption.

The next day was an admin day – I had to do job applications and we were both behind on emails, not very exciting, but we did decide that it was time to get out of Jake and Yhali’s hair for a couple of days, so the next morning we took a bus south of Mexico City to the colonial town of Taxco – the silver capital of Mexico – which sits on a hillside and is full of steep winding cobbled streets and picturesque churches. We had another delicious dinner (this time of Guerrero (‘warrior’) chicken) on a balcony overlooking one of many lovely little squares, and stayed in a very atmospheric hotel (Hotel Los Arcos) which was a converted 17th century monastery. The next morning we spent wandering round the streets and squares (and silver shops!) and then hopped on another bus back to Mexico City after lunch. That evening I had more job applications to do, but Si went with Jake to his friend Kim’s birthday party.

The next morning we were off again, this time taking a bus north-west of Mexico City to another lovely colonial town called Morelia in the state of Michoacan, a little off the typical Western tourist trail. We arrived late in the evening at our guest house (which I fell in love with instantly due to being greeted on arrival by two very cute dogs!). We were too late to do anything except eat, but we found dinner in a square called Jardin de las Rosas which had a number of outdoor cafes which were full of people drinking, eating and talking while a saxophonist played jazz in a doorway – fabulous!

This next morning was another bright and early rise, this time to get to the monarch butterfly reserve in the mountain range in Michoacan. Every year hundreds of thousands of monarch butterflies fly south from Canada and the northern united states to escape the winter, and they can been seen hanging in bunches in the trees and flying in hug groups across in the sky in this one particular mountain range in Mexico. One of the most amazing sights I’ve ever seen. (Monarch butterflies sounds much more beautiful in Spanish – “mariposas monarca”). That evening our very friendly hostel owner shared his wine, bread and cheese with us on the roof terrace, while we watched the lovely fireworks which are let off every Saturday after sunset over the Cathedral.

We started Sunday morning with a stroll around Morelia – some of the central streets of the old town are closed on Sunday which makes a lovely lazy atmosphere for starting Sunday. Jake arrived early afternoon and we looked at a few more of the sights (mainly the Cathedral!) before hiding from the rain and cold in a bar where I had hot coffee and the boys had micheladas. We then spent the early part of the evening on the roof terrace playing cards and drinking a little more beer and mezcal before heading out for tacos for dinner. After dinner I headed back while Jake and Si decided to explore Morelia’s Sunday nightlife. I expected them to be back pretty soon, but by “following the music” they managed to find a bar that was open until 3am, so unsurprisingly on Sunday morning they were very unresponsive when I suggested getting up, until we reached check out time.

After a rejuvenating lunch of whole Rotisserie chicken eaten with their hands, the boys perked up and we found a taxi to take us to our next stop, another pretty colonial town further west called Patzcuaro, which sits on the shores of Lake Patzcuaro. After a stroll around the town taking in more 17th Century churches, pretty squares and a set of artisans workshops housed in a great building called La Casa de los Once Patios, we had a rather early dinner and bed.

The next morning after a delicious breakfast in a local cafe we walked down through the town to the shore of Lake Patzcuaro and after getting a little lost on the way managed to find the docks (muelle general) where we hopped on a boat to one of the islands in the middle of the lake called Janitzio. On the top on Janitzio is a very large and, if I am honest, not terribly attractive statue of Morelos (a Mexican hero) inside of which is a museum full of murals representing the fight for independence which curl up the walls with a walkway going up until the raised arm of the statue is reached, and then you can climb a winding staircase into Morelos’ fist where there are small slits through which are beautiful views of the lake and surrounding scenery (it is a little odd though to be in someone’s fist!).

The next morning we left very early in order to reach the nearest large town, Uruapan, where we planned to pick up a bus to take us to the coastal town of Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo. Our original plan had been to go on and up to Guadalajara and Tequila, but a drugs baron was captured in Guadalajara and in retaliation there was violence and the burning of tourist buses, so we thought it best to change our plans! Unfortunately when we reached the bus station at Uruapan it seemed strangely empty, and we soon discovered that students in the state were protesting against government cuts, and as part of this had taken over 30 buses and the toll booths on the main highways, so there were no long distance buses in the whole state. Annoyingly this meant that we had to get a taxi all the way to the coast, although it also meant that we arrived a couple of hours earlier than expected.

Ixtapa is a serious high-rise tourist resort, which we avoided, and Zihuatanejo which is just next door is still very touristy but has more of a laid back feel, having said that as soon as we arrived we walked out of the centre of Zihuatanejo and over to the next beach Playa la Ropa. Playa la Ropa was still rather more full of tourists (particularly American tourists) than we’d hoped or expected, but luckily that evening we found a restaurant set slightly back from the beach, run by a local man (the amazing Gus) and his wife, and serving delicious, cheap, traditional Mexican food, including an amazing fish stuffed with seafood baked in a tomato sauce. Simon, after we'd finished, proceeded to pure the left over seafoody-tomatoey sauce into his michelada in true Mexican style - Gus was very impressed! On the walk home along the beach, we snuck into the private beach of one of the hotels, and lay on a huge swinging bed to watch the stars, and more specifically the beautiful sight of Venus and Jupiter together in the night sky.

The next day we went exploring and found a rough path across the rocks on the shoreline which lead to another beach further round the bay - Playa los Gatos – which was much more local and much cheaper! It was also perfect for snorkelling due to the fact that there was a rocky ridge about 20m out in the sea, behind which a 5m statue of Jesus Christ had been sunk. So after a great afternoon of snorkelling, we headed back to our hotel room to cook dinner in our little kitchenette.

The next morning we started with an investigation into how were going to get home to Mexico City – the students were still striking but luckily they were rerouting some buses through Acapulco and we managed to get tickets for a night bus. We spent the rest of the day relaxing on Playas los Gatos, this time basing ourselves in on of the many beachside cafes, where the waiter took a shine to Jake and offered him not only the food and drink on the menu but also marijuana and women! To go back to Mexico City we had the most amazing night bus: there were only three seats across, so they were wider than any aeroplane seat I’ve ever head, and the reclined virtually to horizontal, and we even had individual screens on which we could watch films, TV programmes and use the internet (although sadly most films were dubbed in Spanish).

We arrived back in Mexico City just in time for Jake to make his Saturday lessons, so after a little rest Si and I did some much needed washing, then walked to the nearby artisan market (Mercado de Artesanias de la Ciudadela) which sold an amazing range of local arts and crafts, before meeting Jake and Yhali again for a delicious seafood dinner (at what Jake swears is the best seafood restaurant in the whole of Mexico!) followed by a trip to a pulqueria – pulque is a traditional Mexican drink made from Agave which has a weird smell and a very soupy texture, and a rather unpleasant taste which is disguised using an amazing range of flavours (my favourite being celery!).

After a wonderful and very Mexican last evening with Jake and Yhali, we flew on Sunday to Chetumal which is a town just above the northern border of Belize. Not much to say about Chetumal, except we left it as early as we could the next morning on a very slow bus to Belize City and from there hopped on a water taxi to the lovely Caribbean island of Caye Caulker. After wandering around for a while trying to find a hostel to stay in (Caye Caulker was a little busier than I remember from the last time I was there 6 and a half years ago!) we had a happy hour cocktail on the beach before heading to the Raggamuffins office for a pre-trip briefing for an island hopping sailing and snorkelling trip which we were due to start the next morning.

We set off in the morning with perfect clear blue skies on a lovely 50 ft sailing boat called the Raggaqueen along with 3 crew (the wonderful Dane, Shane and Captain Kimani) and 15 other passengers. On the first morning we lazed and sunbathed on the deck and roof of the boat before stopping in the middle of the Caribbean sea for some fabulous snorkelling and lunch cooked by the crew, and then accompanied by rum cocktails headed straight for the tiny island of Rendezvous Caye (about 5 palm trees and one hut!) where we were camping (we were supposed to have another snorkelling stop but adverse winds meant that we ran out of time). On the journey to Rendezvous, Amy managed to catch a massive barracuda using one of the trawling rods set up at the back of the boats – seriously impressive for someone who hadn’t fished before! We arrived in Rendezvous Caye in time to set up the tents (in our case pretty badly!) and go for a quick snorkel before it got dark, at which point it was time for ceviche and more cocktails, and then Amy’s amazing barracuda along with Belizean prawns and rice for dinner.

The wind was still pretty strong, and the caye we were on was unprotected and in the morning we woke up in our tents to find that we were covered in sand! Luckily we were able to jump straight in the sea for another quick snorkel before we had to pack up, have breakfast and get in the boat. We stopped midmorning on another section of the barrier reef for more amazing snorkelling and an early lunch, before setting sail for Tobacco Caye, our next island stop. On the journey Si had a period in charge of the trawling rods at the back of the boat and managed to catch a HUGE barracuda about 1m long! Sadly on the way to Tobacco Caye we received a message that Si’s brother Mark was very ill and we needed to get home as soon as we could. So the second we arrived on the island (this time 5 shacks, 10 palm trees!), an agonising three hours after we had the original message, we found (with the help of Captain Kimani) a speedboat to take us back to the nearest town on the mainland (Dangriga). The speedboat driver was determined to get us to shore before dark so raced over the waves in a boat the size of a double bed, bouncing on the waves for an utterly terrifying 40 minutes. We reached Dangriga to find that there really wasn’t much of a port and no taxis around, but after explaining that we needed to get to Belize City airport to a guy sitting on a wall nearby, he wandered off promising to come back with a friend of his with a car. So we were soon on the road in an ancient car (no seatbelts in the backseat!) with a driver with no sense of road safety and his slightly dodgy looking friend Joe. Driving in the dark on roads with no streetlights, he was taking hairpin bends at about 60mph, so that the rear of the car bounced on the road and more than once we came off the road onto the verge, not to mention losing a hub cap which flew off on one of the many car-shaking corners. At this point Si and I were pretty sure we weren’t going to make it as far as Belize City, let alone home! We found a pretty basic hotel near to the airport (after dismissing the official ‘airport hotel’ which looked utterly abandoned!) and BA were very helpful and got us onto the first flight the following morning. After a stop in Miami we arrived at Heathrow at 6.30am Friday morning, from where we were picked up by my parents and driven to Watford Junction and jumped on a train to Manchester.

We were picked up bright and early in San Jose by Jairo (our guide for the next couple of days) and drove to a small town outside the city to pick up the rest of the group (2 Canadians, Beth and Cathy, and 3 Americans, Debbie, Philip and Tony) who we would be white water rafting with. We then had a couple of hours drive and a short hike to our starting point on the Pacuare River. We were given a life jacket , helmet and paddle and some very basic instructions (adelante - forward, alto - stop) before heading off in three rafts - two with a guide (our guide was Moses who was brilliant, and never made us do any more than we needed to!) and one full of food. The river runs through the rainforest and the scenery was breathtaking - lots of beautiful butterflies and birds, including the famous Costa Rican toucan!. The river is relatively low at this time of year which meant we had plenty of time between the rapids to look around us (and occasionally to jump in and go for a swim!). We only had a few hours on the river on the first day, and felt we finished much to soon at our riverside camp in the jungle. We were expecting some seriously basic camping - digging loos, collecting firewood etc but instead found tents already put up, actually toilets and freshwater showers and even a kitchen/dinning area where our wonderful guides made us cocktails from limes growing nearby and the local spirit (guaro) and a delicious dinner (with silver service and flower petals scattered on the table!), which we followed with a rather punishing game of cards (the loser of each round had to drink a shot of rum, and Si was the loser rather more often than everyone else!).

The next day we set off bright and early for a full day of rafting through more gorgeous rainforest scenery, past waterfalls and through river-carved canyons. Today there were a few more tricky rapids (class IV) and the guys in the other raft fell in at one point, so we had a mad scrabble to try to grab anyone floating past downstream! Luckily everyone was fine apart from a bruise or two and we carried on down the river. After a few hours we pulled over on the shore and turned one of the rafts over to make a table for a picnic lunch. We finished the day near the town of Siquirres, and were picked up in a minibus to take us to the town of La Fortuna at the base of Arenal Volcano. We had a delicious dinner in a local restaurant with our group, and Si had the typical Costa Rican meal- cosado. This was a huge portion and it is typically an assortment of frijitos (refried beans), rice, fried plantains (savoury banana type fruit), corn, various veg, and meat.

The next day we joined a different (smaller) group for a 2 hour nature walk in the rainforest, following a path which has been completed with hanging bridges - perfect for seeing the hundreds of different types of local birds. We again had a great guide who told us all about the various flora and fauna of Arenal. We even managed to spot a tarantula who was hiding in one of his holes to the side of the path! After the walk we were driven to Rio Fortuna waterfall - a stunning 120ft waterfall with a huge pool at the base where you can swim (the water's freezing!) the only downside being that to get to the pool there's a steep downhill walk, which of course you have to do uphill again in order to leave! After lunch we picked up a few more people and then went round to the far side of the volcano for a guided hike up to a viewpoint for the volcano on cooled volcanic rock - an old lavafield. The volcano is still active (although it has only been emitting gases for the last couple of years) so you are only allowed to walk part way up. On the way back from the hike, which finished at sunset, Si and I were dropped at local mineral hot springs, where we were the only people and we had 8 small pools of increasingly hot temperatures to wallow in (not to mention the wet bar and fantastic barman who brought us drinks to the pools!). It was a very romantic place under the stars. We were picked up again far too soon to be taken to dinner at a nearby restaurant (where a mad Austrian lady who was travelling on her own invited herself onto our table just as we were about to continue our nice evening together! In a stereotypical fashion she did not consider our situation for one moment and we, of course, said she could of course join us!).

Yet another early start and new group saw us being taken to the edge of Lake Arenal to pick up a ferry to take us to the far side of the lake where we were meeting a guide to take us horse riding along the edge of the lake and on to Monteverde. I had a lovely, very obedient, horse whereas Si had a rather sluggish one who wouldn't respond to anything until the guide gave Si a stick and told him to wave it in front of his eyes, at which point he was off like a shot! We had thought our ride would take us all the way to Monteverde, but sadly it ended just past the edge of the lake, which meant we had a nightmare minibus journey on bumpy winding roads up to Santa Elena. I was incredibly travel sick and spent the rest of the afternoon in bed while Si went for a walk. Monteverde is an eco resort set up in the mountains and the local people have agreed to not pave the roads in quite a large radius around the town in order to prevent it becoming part of the international tourist bus circuit. We sort of admired there stance but the journey really was awful and it also means it can get quite dusty. That evening we went to the Monteverde Frog Pond to see all the amazing varieties of tiny, brightly coloured frogs native to Costa Rica.

The next day we allowed ourselves our first lie in in a week and the set off on a 2 hour hike up to the Santa Elena cloud forest where we did a two hour nature walk (our guest house owner looked at us as though we were made to hike to do a walk, but I couldn't face getting in another minibus!), we then walked to the Selvatura zip lining centre, where we had a fantastic couple of hours zip lining high in the tree tops of the cloud forest! This included one line which was 1km long which we did together. Finally we walked back to our guest house (luckily rather more quickly than on the way there, because it was mainly downhill!).

An early start again the next day - leaving Santa Elena in the dreaded mini bus to travel down to the coast where we were picking up a ferry to take us across the Nicoya Gulf to the Nicoya Peninsula. We had another mini bus to Montezuma, on the tip of the peninsula. We found a beachfront hostel called Hotel Lucy just outside of the village and decided it was fate. Having dumped our bags and put on our swimmers we headed instantly for the beach to go for a swim. Sadly we found out that the nearest beaches had water which was full of red algae - pretty harmless but smells a bit like dead fish, so instead of jumping straight in we wandered around the shore until we found a cove with lovely clear blue water. Apparently they usually get a bloom once a year, but whilst it only usually lasts a week or so, this one was in week 6! That evening we had dinner at the most amazing (and great value!) beach front restaurant next door to our hostel - Playa de los Artistas. Right by the beach (as the name suggests!), with nice mood lighting by candles and starlight, great wine, and a new handwritten menu everyday. One lady is emplyed solely to talk the customers through the menu - both because it´s in Spanish but also because a lot of the dishes are quite adventurous and unusual. (Simon had a stuffed mushroom cooked inside a lettuce leaf in a woodfired oven, whilst I had a delicious fish mousse, and we then followed it up with the largest ravioli either of us had ever had!) Afterwards we headed into the centre of the village where we'd agreed to meet our white water rafting group for drinks at the one and only late night bar in town - Chicos. Like most places in town, the bar backed onto the beach, so to escape the terrible DJ playing cheesy pop music, we took our drinks down to the shore and sat and talked until the early hours (we did attempt to go in and dance later but the music was so rubbish that the place was full of people leaning against the walls waiting for the DJ to put on something good!).

The next day we spent the morning catching up on emails and admin and then headed up to Montezuma waterfall in the afternoon. There are in fact two waterfalls but we didn't make it up to the second - the first one is the most impressive and is about 80ft high, and we held our breath as crazy local boys jumped off from about a meter below the top down into the pool. It created a huge splash. Having swum in the pool at the base of the waterfall and cooled off, we walked back down to the beach and along to the little cove where we'd found clear water. After our swim, we stopped for happy hour at the rather swanky Ylang Ylang resort, where three of our rafting friends (Beth, Cathy and Philip) had moved for a bit of luxury on their last night in Costa Rica. While we were there we spotted a huge whale out at sea - amazing - it was the first time either of us had ever seen one.

The next day we moved on around the tip of the peninsula to the Pacific side, and stopped at Mal Pais, where the beaches are famous for surfing. We dropped off our bags at the cabins we were staying at just up into the hills behind the coast, and headed straight for the beach. We walked along the shore to Santa Teresa where we went into a surf shop to discuss hiring surfboards. Having been told that as beginners we should get straight in the water because it was low tide, and otherwise we'd have to wait til the next day, we hired surf boards to test out the surfing skills we'd been taught in Hawaii. We thought we might struggle a little as the waves here were a bit rougher and bigger than we'd learnt on but decided to go for it anyway, so put on lots of suncream and headed into the water. After about an hours of being in the waves, we were both bruised, battered and had swallowed oceans of seawater, not only that but we hadn't managed to catch a wave! Both being rather stubborn people we decided to stay in still we did - after another hour we had each caught one wave and were both sunburnt and were ready to give in. We went back to the hotel and napped til dinner!

Having been beaten by the waves so completely the day before, we decided to stick to the pool at our lodge (this also meant that Si could hide in a hammock in the shade to protect his incredibly sunburnt shoulders - you'd think by this point in the trip we'd be past getting burnt!) and relax (leaving only to walk to restaurants for lunch and dinner!). This turned out to be so pleasant we did it the next day as well, although this time we went for a lovely sunset walk along the beach and discovered a great little bar and restaurant with a beach-front garden to have dinner in.

The next day we left for another long journey via various modes of transport back to San Jose for our last night in Costa Rica before flying on to Mexico City to see Jake and Yhali...

Having finished the last blog entry with us flying to Costa Rica, the title of this one may be a little confusing, but while in Hawaii we realised we had 6 days to spare before we joined an activity tour in Costa Rica. Given that we were flying into Liberia, which is less than 1 hour south of the Nicaraguan border, we thought we might as well use the opportunity to explore another country! So having arrived in Liberia late on Sunday, we left Costa Rica on monday morning and took a bus across the border, and then a taxi to the shore of Lake Nicaragua and a ferry across to the beautiful island of Ometepe, formed from two volcanos with a small bridge of land in between.

We reached our B&B (La Omaja - lovely owners, beautiful cabins!) just outside the village of Merida at the base of the smaller of the two volcanoes late in the afternoon, but just in time for a quick swim in the lake with monkeys swinging in the trees overhead. The next day (Valentine's day!) we rented some bikes and cycled round the base of the volcano to find a footpath which leads up to a waterfall. We started the walk sweltering in the heat but by the time we reached the waterfall it was pouring with rain, and although we decided we had to swim in the pool at the base having hiked so far to reach it, we were so cold that we only stayed in the water for about 5 minutes! Later that evening we celebrated Valentine's in what we awere told is true Nicaraguan fashion - at a local rodeo with a couple of cold beers and some fried chicken! They celebrate the day rather differently to how we do in England and it is more customary to share the day with friends and family, rather than just with your other half. A nice idea!

The next day we went down to the lake and rented some kayaks. We had a guide with us to take us into a river that cuts across the island and to point out all the local wildlife. We were hoping to spot a caiman but sadly only saw rather a lot of herons! Having said that, the scenery was beautiful, totally unspoilt, and we were virtually the only people around.

The next day we left beautiful Ometepe with heavy hearts and moved on via taxi, ferry and taxi again to the lovely colonial city of Granada. (Ometepe is likely to be very different in the future as they are halfway through building an international airport and paving the road that goes around the island, so we feel very lucky to have seen it before this change). Having settled into our B&B straight away due to the friendly attentions of the owner's cocker spaniel (Emmett), we then spent our first couple of hours in Granada hunting out bus ticket offices in order to book tickets back to San Jose in Costa Rica, both the offices we found couldn't do it! We gave up and went for a wander around the town and found out that in the main square there was a huge stage set up for the second biggest poetry festival in central america. We listened for a while but having such a basic understanding of Spanish meant that we had no idea what they were saying although it sounded very emotional!

The following day was our only full day in Granada, and annoyingly we again had to spend the first couple of hours hunting out bus tickets! But the rest of the day we spent wandering around the historic centre. We had dinner in a very atmospheric little cafe which was made up of small tables surrounding a beautiful jungle garden which had been created in the middle of a courtyard in one of the older buildings in the historic centre.

We left our B&B early the next morning and arrived at the bus stop at 7.30am, only to find that our bus had been delayed by 2 hours! Si was furious at his loss of sleep, but we wandered back to our B&B where they kindly made us delicious pancakes for breakfast before we left, so we weren't too hard done by after all. After an 8 hour bus journey we arrived in San Jose just in time for a quick dinner before early bedtime - we were being picked up at 7am the next morning to start our tour!

We had a great time in Nicaragua and would wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone. We barely touched the surface and would definitely go back. The country is beautiful, the people were all really friendly and we heard of no issues around crime etc. Sadly it´s reputation for that still lasts, although this does mean less people go there and it is a LOT cheaper than neighbouring Costa Rica - where we headed next!

Crossing the date line, we arrived in Hawaii earlier on Tuesday than we left Sydney which felt totally surreal. We arrived in the pouring rain, and went straight to our B&B - run by an incredibly sweet couple called Jeanette and Bob, who were in their 80's and reminded us both of my grandparents (Bob, a WW2/Korean and Vietnam veteran proudly called us America´s best allies after finding out we were British - a compliment we felt poorly qualified to receive!)- for a little power nap before grabbing a huge slice of delicious pizza and taking a stroll along the beautiful Kailua and Lanakai beaches until sunset. Neither area has any hotels, and Lanakai has lots of rich and famous staying there, whilst the Obama´s holiday in Kailua near the Marine base. For dinner we went to a cafe called Zippy's where we had some great chilli and a slice of all American apple pie (food was quite a big focus of our time in Hawaii!).

The next morning we gave ourselves a lovely long lie in and eventually got up and rented some bikes (seriously basic - no gears, back pedal brakes) and attempted to ride along the coast, sadly a marine base on one side and an airforce base on the other meant that this was not going to work out, so having decided that we really didn´t want to be cycling on the highway we rode around town and a local nature reserve for a few hours (amusing ourselves by trying to perfect no hands - it turns out we both struggle with balance! (Simon disagrees strongly with this comment!)). That evening we went to an amazing steak house for some more classic american dining - delicious!

We woke up super excited the next morning because it was the day of our surfing lesson!! We had a great instructor who was totally laid back and after a few practises jumping up on the board on the sand, got us into the water to start catching our first waves. Si had had a lesson years ago in Australia and got into it straight away. I on the other hand was very enthusiastic but distinctly lacking talent for it and spent a significant amount of time under the water. Eventually I made it up on the board and it was so exciting although I hadn´t quite figured out what to do on reaching the shore and still ended up falling off at the end! The best moment of the day came when Si and I both managed to catch the same wave and ride it in together - magic! After a few hours in the water we were exhausted but happy, and headed home via a deli to pick up some talapia (local fish) and pasta salad.

Having spent our first few days in Kailua, we decided that we should really explore a little more of Oahu, so hopped on a bus up the coast to the north shore in order to walk along some of the beautiful long beaches on the North Shore and watch the pro surfers catch waves 15ft high and surf through incredible pipelines - absolutely incredible to watch. While we were there, we saw rows of photographers with professional looking cameras - later we were told that one of the top surfers in the world had been on the North Shore that day so we really had been watching the best of the best on the biggest waves! Having spent the afternoon strolling along beach after beach, watching the surfers, we eventually decided we should head back, but by this time we´d come so far up the coast that it made more sense to do a big loop round through Honolulu and back to Kailua. Sadly we underestimated quite how slow the bus would be and how high the air-conditioning would be turned up so we had a VERY cold 2 hour bus ride to Honolulu, followed by the purchase of a couple of cheap jumpers and a quick dinner in a shopping centre in order that we wouldn't miss the last bus to Kailua which left at 9.30pm.

The next day was our last day in Hawaii and we spent the morning on the beach followed by delicious burgers at an amazing 50s style diner before we had to head over to Honolulu to fly out to Costa Rica.

So…..next we headed back up North to see my Dad and Jeewana in the Northern Territory. We were relieved to find the flights still scheduled as a storm just off the size of a cyclone had passed through a couple of days before and flights had been cancelled. After a night´s sleep in Darwin we headed again to the airport to pick up an Air North Flight to Elcho Island (via another aboriginal community on mainland Arnhem Land called Maningrida). Our flight was a small Embraer plane which took 20 people. Unfortunately the passengers behind were sporting a unique scent which we tried to combat by putting tiger balm just below our noses. This only proceeded to make them burn! Anyway, we got there in the end and, after flying over endless bush and water we arrived 2 hours later to an airstrip at Elcho. Dad picked us up in his 4x4 and we headed to his house. He has made a nice little home out of the bungalow with Jeewana and we set about relaxing whilst they finished off at school.

The next few days were made up of us relaxing and doing various bits of admin in the perfectly air conditioned house during the days whilst going on some drives and walks along the beach in the evening when Dad and Jeewana got home. Lucy was driving around in the 4x4 and when we were on the roads out of town I was also given a go. Most of this was going along VERY narrow bumpy ´roads´ in the bush at less than 20 kmph. It was an unusual way to learn to drive but the fact that it was an automatic and that there were basically no other cars around made it a lot easier. Elcho Island is a very sparsely populated island with only really one proper town (with 3 shops!) and then a few other aboriginal settlements around the island. It´s actually quite a large island and driving is relatively slow as the roads are not paved. We also seemed to come across quite a lot of aboriginal processions/ceremonies which blocked the road. Sadly on our last day, one of these was for a guy in his mid 20´s that had been taken out by a riptide saving a young girl the day before.

At the weekend Keith took us on a day trip up to the northern end of the island. We were initially planning to go to Mission Beach but we found our path blocked by a big tree that had fallen over. We then took up plan B and went further up the island to find another beach. Eventually we got there, but only after sawing 2 (smaller) trees in half that blocked our path. Lucy was very keen to put on the gloves and get stuck in and showed some pretty good sawing skills… We´ve got some great pictures! After lots of driving up the coast we found a river inlet with some shade from the wind. After grabbing some lunch we set about fishing. The tide was coming in so this was in theory a good spot. My dad went down the river with a net to catch some live bait whilst we used some artificial bait to no effect. After we had the livebait (small little fish you put onto the hook) we had some more luck. First of all Lucy caught a large mud-crab (around the size of a dinner plate) which refused to let go of the fish. I went to help out and Lucy suggested grabbing it from behind. I picked it up but then it moved its huge pincers around and gave me a really sharp pinch. I immediately dropped it but luckily my dad came to the rescue and secured it. Pick it up by the back legs! Just as all this was happening my line got a big bite, so I ran around and picked the rod up. There was clearly something quite strong on the other end as it was tricky reeling it in. Eventually we could see it was a little shark. After a few minutes of bringing it in, we eventually got it onto land. I reckon it was a couple of feet but Lucy is just laughing at the suggestion. Will try and upload a photo as evidence! On the way back it was dusk and we saw lots and lots of wallabies running around. The next day we took a ride out to Richards´s (my aboriginal grandfather – he adopted my Dad…) place and gave his first wife (he has two!) the shark as a gift.

Other highlights of our stay were Jeewana´s food (in particular the Thai curries!) and the few hours we spent at the school on the Friday helping my dad´s class out for a maths lesson and then spending some time with them in the library, trying to persuade them to read rather than jump on each other and on my back! The academic level they were at was not that high and they had lots of energy which was not always directed in the right way, but Lucy was surprised to see that they were at least more polite and respectful than her kids in London!

We said goodbye on the Monday and headed to Sydney for an overnight stop before we moved on to our next continent and next destination… Hawaii!