San Pedro (Lake Atitlan), Guatemala

May 14-17

A four hour bus ride through the mountains took us to the lovely little town of San Pedro, which overlooks Lake Atitlan. On the bus we met Corina, from Austria, who joined us for some of our adventures. After finding food and accomodation we hired some kayaks and set out on the lake. What started out as a nice relaxing paddle soon became incredibly difficult! On the way out the water was flat, but then the wind picked up and suddenly there were big waves and a strong current (going against us of course)...then the rain started! Needless to say, it was a VERY good workout.

We went to a lovely lake-view restaurant for dinner, where we ate some very disappointing pad thai. So naturally we had a second dinner.. Pupusas! El Salvadorian street food. This might be the most delicious thing I've ever eaten... Basically they made a tortilla, but before cooking it filled it with chicken, cheese, veges and beans. Ohhhh my god. Amazing. And only $1.50! The rest of the evening we spent at a bar, listening to live music.

Our second day in San Pedro, Ryoko and I went zip lining! The journey there (an hour and a half!) was on a 'chicken bus' which is basically a dodgy local bus. Dodgy because tourists often get robbed. But we had a guide with us so I felt quite safe. We began our zipline halfway up a mountain. The first zip line was 150m long. This took us to another mountain, where we had a strenuous walk up some stairs to find our second zipline. This one was a LOT higher, longer, faster and scarier. The 400m ride took us back to the first mountain and we got an incredible view over the lake on the way.

 

The journey back to San Pedro was interesting, to say the least! It was going to be more than an hour until the next chicken bus, so instead we hopped on a shuttle bus. Yes, on..not in. The bus was full, so we rode on the roof, using people's luggage as seats. Fun! Then when that bus came to its end, we got in a 'taxi' - which involved standing in the back of a crammed ute. Then eventually we arrived in a small town where we got into a tuk tuk. So I think we've now checked off just about every possible form of transportation!!

Later that afternoon we had a look around the outer parts of town. We stumbled across a gorgeous little (barely standing) pier. 

It was a beautiful spot, surrounded by buildings that had been swallowed by the lake. Apparently the water levels are constantly rising, and so houses and businesses are gradually becoming a part of the lake!

In the evening we relaxed in the solar pools, watching the sun go down by the lake with a few drinks.

On our last day in San Pedro, Ryoko and I got up ridiculously early to do a sunrise tour. With the same guide as the day before, we hopped on another (very crowded) chicken bus at 4am. We arrived, in the dark, at a little village where we began walking through a field. The path quickly become steep and unstable. The treturous half hour walk led us to an amazing viewpoint, where we could see the whole lake lit up pink and orange by the beautiful sunrise.

While we admired the view Volcan de Feugo started erupting again! I love it!

After sunrise we walked back into the village and our guide showed us around the market, pointing out various fruits and vegetables that were foreign to us. We had chicken for breakfast (as you do?!) and headed back to San Pedro to nap.

That afternoon we got a boat across to Pana, a town on the other side of the lake. There we spent hours roaming the markets. I made one purchase (I am really really tryyyying not to shop!) It is a hand-woven Guatemalan top. She initally asked for about $60 and I got it down to $10!!! Winner!

Further north we go...

Antigua, Guatemala

May 12-14

I only spent two days in Antigua before heading off to explore the rest of the country, but I intend to go back and spend some more time there, perhaps to learn Spanish. My hostel (at just $9 a night!) had a pool, a rooftop bar, a restaurant and plenty of hammocks to relax in. So naturally I spent my first day lying by the pool.

I met up with Ryoko, a friend from work, in the evening. She had already been in Antigua for 3 weeks, learning Spanish, so she showed me around. Antigua is a beautiful town. The cobble stone streets are lined with colourful buildings, old churches and Mayan ruins. It is surrounded by amazing views of mountains and volcanoes (which I intend to go up at some point!) I got my first taste of Guatemalan food for dinner - I was particularly impressed by the corn on the cob. It tastes completely different from home, not sweet at all... And I loooove it. 

My second day in Antigua I properly explored. I wandered the streets for a while and eventually I found the Saint Jeronimo ruins. I paid a small fee to go in and have a look around. Apparently many hundreds of years ago it used to be a school, but was largely destroyed by the Santa Marta earthquake in 1773. While there, I also got a view of one of the volcanoes! So picturesque. 

In the afternoon, when Ryoko was done with her Spanish lessons, we went up to Cerro de la Cruz. A short walk up some stairs led us to a pretty spectular view of Antigua and Volcan de Agua.

As we were walking around town, around sunset, we noticed one of the volcanoes (Volcan de Feugo) erupting! This was just about the coolest thing I have ever seen in my life. Because it was still light all you could see was clouds of smoke coming up. But when it got darker (and impossible to take pictures) you could actually see the bright red lava spewing out and falling down the side of the mountain. Apparently this volcano is famous for being constantly active at a low level, meaning that this probably happens very regularly. Amazing!

We decided to try out the street food for dinner! For just $1.50 we got a 'tostada' which was a massive corn chip covered with avocado, chicken and salad-y stuff. Really yum! I did have a teeny tiny stomach ache after, but my magical glucose tablets killed that pretty quickly! 

Here's a few more snaps of this beautiful, vibrant this place:

Can't wait to come back and explore Antigua even more! 

New York, USA

May 3-12

After a horribly long plane journey, I finally arrived in NYC late Sunday night. Monday I spent just roaming around the city, walking through Times Square to sus out what shows to see and relaxing in Central Park.

 

In the afternoon I got a bus to Albany, to visit Karsten - a friend from my UMass exchange a couple of years ago. We managed to also meet up with Dirk, another UMass friend. The three of us went out for a 'greasy American dinner' complete with that disgusting fake cheese Americans put on everything! Mmm...Tasty! We ventured to a couple of pubs after & played some darts (yes, Dirk and I won!)

On Tuesday Karsten and I drove to Buffalo, to visit Shinasa - a friend from high school who's over here on exchange. I thought it would be like a 2 or 3 hour drive.... Turns out it was almost 5 hours! And not much to see on the way. Shin showed us around her 'hood and we ate the world's most delicious pasta. We soon realised it was Cinco de Mayo! This of course meant that we needed to purchase some booze. The afternoon and evening consisted of typical American drinking games such as flip cup and beer pong. I also lost many games of Mario Kart (/beerio-kart!)

  

Wednesday morning Karsten and I headed for Niagara Falls, which is only a short drive from Buffalo. I can't even begin to explain how spectacular it is, and pictures really don't do it justice. But here are some happy snaps anyway:

After my little upstate-NY adventure I had five days left in New York City. Naturally I tried to cram as many musicals into this time as possible.

#1 ALADDIN.

Oh. My. God. Amaaaaazing. Aladdin was one of my childhood favourite movies, so I was desperate to see this! It went above and beyond my expectations. Abu and Jasmine's tiger were missing from the show, replaced by a couple of friends for each of the leads. Otherwise it follows the movie fairly closely. All the songs from the movie were incredible, plus they've added new songs which are equally incredible. The best number by far was 'Friend Like Me'... There was magic, there was tap dancing and there seemed to be an endless number of chorus members in a wild array of incredible costumes. The genie (James Monroe Inglehart) was brilliant and Jafar was played by the same man who voiced him for the film (Jonathan Freeman) which is pretty cool! The magic carpet only appeared twice but they did it SO well. If there were strings attached to that thing, I certainly couldn't see them. Must've been magic!!

#2 FINDING NEVERLAND. 

This is based on the movie (of the same name) about J.M. Barrie and how he was inspired by the imagination of four young boys to write Peter Pan. It is a really beautiful story and even almost brought a tear to my eye! The music is outstanding and they put it together amazingly. Once again, I was baffled by the magic of theatre: the show opened with a tiny light (Tinkerbell) fluttering above the audience, gradually making its way to the stage where it bounced between the actors. I have no idea how they did it! Matthew Morrison (the teacher from Glee) was the lead and Kelsey Grammer (from Cheers) also had a starring role. Both were fantastic! 

#3 HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH. 

Well. What to say... This has to rank as one of the weirdest shows I have ever seen. Darren Criss (from Glee & A Very Potter Musical) stars as a German drag queen in this rock musical. There are only two cast members, plus four band members - so you can count out any dancing or big chorus numbers. It's almost like a 100-minute monologue from Darren Criss. At one point he actually made out with a guy in the front row...strange. There are some decent songs and the story he tells is actually quite interesting...but this just wasn't "my cup of tea" sadly. I feel like it has a bit of a Rocky Horror-type cult following... I could see numerous people in the audience who had clearly already seen in a million times. 

#4 SOMETHING ROTTEN. 

 Possibly my favourite out of them all... This is a musical for musical lovers. It is set in the renaissance and based around 2 brothers, rivals of Shakespeare, who are trying write a play and decide to make it a musical (the first musical) It is BRILLIANT and HILARIOUS. There are sooo many references to other musicals, so perhaps not as hysterically funny if you don't know all the other shows. That said, I dragged Karsten along to this one and he enjoyed it too! The song 'A Musical' is maybe the most amazing musical number ever. 

#5 DISENCHANTED. 

An off-Broadway show about Disney princesses, full of sas and sarcasm! This was a bit of fun! It didn't really have any storyline...just a showcase of D
isney princesses sharing their not-so-happily-ever-afters. A few good laughs!!

As well as making the most of Broadway, I did also do some sightseeing.

I took a boat tour up to the Statue of Liberty, which also went along the southern-most part of Manhattan and under Brooklyn Bridge. Fun fact: when Brooklyn Bridge was first built people didn't believe that it was strong enough, so they sent 21 elephants across to prove its strength!

I also went on a free walking tour of Lower Manhattan, where the guide works purely off tips. He was very enthusiastic! One area I liked was Stone St which was created mostly out of Brownstone after the Great Fire of New York in 1776. It's a really beautiful area with lots of cool bars and restaurants.

I spent a bit of time at the New York Public Library. There was an exhibition on about photography and the way we share our photos (approximately 250 million photos are shared on facebook every day!) There were a few things about surveillance cameras and what they capture- which is pretty much everything. There was also some incredibly old photos from all around the world. Another cool thing at the library was the original toys, belonging to A.A. Milne's son, that inspired the Winnie the Pooh characters.

I can't believe it has taken me until my fifth trip to New York...but I finally saw the Friends building!

Karsten came down to NYC for 2 nights. While he was here we did a pub crawl, which was a LOT of fun.

 We also walked across Brooklyn Bridge one evening and it was beautiful! 

 

On my very last day in NYC I went down to Coney Island, which takes about an hour on the subway. When I got there it was incredibly foggy. Hot, but foggy. You couldn't even see the ocean from the start of the beach... But it soon cleared to relatively blue skies..and then started raining. (Am I back in Melbourne?!) Anyways, I wondered along the boardwalk and the beach. It's a cool area! 

Off to Guatemala I go...

Oh, the Places You'll Go!

"You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself
any direction you choose.
You're on your own. And you know what you know.
And YOU are the guy who'll decide where to go."

Dr Seuss