Party Time, Cancun to Vegas to California

G'day all,

Again, it’s been a “Heaps Good” couple of weeks since my last cheeky update. Sorry this one took so long but I had a computer virus which destroyed my computer but it's back in business now. Anyway back to the trip. After suffering another torturous Central American 70’s chicken bus ride and a almost daily border crossing I finally arrived in Belize to a very interesting town called Belize City. I was expecting skyscrapers and pollution but it looked more like a little country town in Kansas from the 50’s thrown on the edge Caribbean with dirt roads and a real laid back atmosphere. All the buildings seemed to be wooden and on stilts and painted all different colours. The locals didn’t look a thing like the rest of Central America as it was full of cool African looking dudes with dreadlocks and happy clothes and Caribbean accents everywhere to be heard. As soon as I arrived I pretty much jumped straight on a water taxi which whipped me over to the number one tourist attraction in Belize, Caye Caulker. Now if I was impressed by the chillness of Belize City then Caye Caulker was so chilled out it makes you want to just fall asleep under a coconut tree. The moment I arrived in Caye Caulker I was in love with the place and could have moved there in a flash. Unfortunately I only had 2 nights there due to my tight schedule so decided to make the most of it. I first found a hostel called Belles which was run by the biggest Menopausal Dutch bitch I’ve ever seen. This one lady and the price of food on the island were my only complaints I could think of about this Paradise Island. I get to the hostel and this ‘people hating’ old chook with more bush under her arms than in South Australia glares at me as I walk towards her. I’m like “G’day luv have you got any spare beds for the night?” and she’s like “take your shoes off and go find a bed for yourself.” I felt some really bad energy and BO wafting my way and pondered the idea of staying under this beast of a woman’s roof. As I was just about to give her an answer she yells at me “Well do ya bloody want it or not, I don’t have all day.” I then nose laughed and said in my pissy little weak voice “Yes Please” and found the nicest bed I could find. After that awkward little discussion I organized a snorkeling trip for the following day and went for a stroll along the long skinny island it is. I really was shattered to be only staying here 2 nights as I walked along the palm lined main dirt road filled with people walking, riding bikes, and cruising around on golf buggies. As I walked I watched people play soccer on the beach and drink beers in a bar hanging out over the clear light blue Caribbean water with a diving board hanging from the second floor. The next morning I did my snorkeling trip out on some protected reefs with more marine life than you could ever imagine. We all went on a sail boat and sailed out to the 3 reefs for about an hour. I had to help the guy with the sails and he was like “Don’t pull that rope mun, nah just joking mun” and it was a joke a minute for the whole day. I had a brilliant day andI have. never snorkeled or dived in a place like it. I saw everything from sharks and sting rays to the highlight of the day, a Manatee. I didn’t even know what a Manatee was until I saw one. I never expected to get so close to it. We were told not to get too close to it because if they get scared they swim away. I swam up to it within a few meters and stopped moving and videoed it with my camera (as in video) As I was videoing the Manatee it swam right up to me and stared me in the eyes suddenly bringing back some instant strong memories of the lady running the hostel. It was an amazing moment and I couldn’t believe how close we got to it. Our second swim was almost as good as the rusta men running the tour poured a heap of food into the water next to the boat causing a rush of huge fish, sharks, and rays to engulf beside the boat. I couldn’t believe how close these huge creatures were to me and they were so busy eating that they didn’t even notice us snorkeling around them. Anyway that’s enough about fish back to the trip. My last night on Caye Caulker was spent indoors gripping my bunk bed as a hurricane like storm just about blew over the hostel. I’ve never heard winds or rain like I did that night and I was actually pretty scared feeling the building being blown around all night. At one stage the windows in my room blew off the building and one fell inside my room and a man came in the room saying something about a hurricane but I think it was just an extreme storm. After Caye Caulker I headed up to Playa Del Carmen in Mexico and after waiting for my 4 hour late bus ride amongst a pack of angry backpackers. As soon as we crossed the Mexican boarder it was a very nice feeling and felt like I was back in a western country again. The cars were all new and shiny and washed and the roads had no pot holes and had a nice surface. I was also excited to see Mcdonalds, Burger King, and KFC lining the highway as we zoomed towards Playa. I was so used to twisty flooded dirt roads, full of land slides, rocks and holes, and random animals from being in Central America that a normal road felt so pleasurable and smooth. I spent 3 nights and 2 days in Playa Del Carmen and most of my time was spent just relaxing, swimming, and eating junk food again. I never realized how westernized Mexico was (even though it’s a beach resort town) and I really enjoyed the structure and standards of it but wasn’t enjoying the high prices again. Playa was a really nice place, very clean, and easy to get around, and the beaches were near perfect. Playa Del Carmen is supposed to be a mini Cancun and most people prefer it to its big brother town. I only went out one night while I was there and I stupidly sprained my ankle trying to do salsa dancing. I’ve now been limping around for the past week with a swollen and bruised ankle due to my pathetic attempt to do the Salsa. My last stop in Mexico was Cancun, party central. I was there for only 3 nights and they were 3 very big nights at that. I was hoping to meet another party animal like myself at my hostel in Cancun and luckily I met my perfect match, another Aussie guy called Damian. Damian was originally planning to move on from Cancun the following day but after our first huge night out he decided to stay for another 2 nights and party with me. We stayed downtown which is a fair way away from all the action in the hotel district but managed to catch the good old R1 bus into the party zone each night. On our first night out we went to a club called ‘The City’ which is the biggest club in Central America and holds about 15,000 people. As soon as I stepped into the front door of The City I saw what all the fuss was all about. This joint was bloody massive and not only was it a club, it was basically a circus. In the centre of this huge super room was a stage where different circus acts are performed all through the night. All the bars and clubs in Cancun have a entry charge of about 20-60 bucks where you get free drinks all night once you pay the cover. On Saturday we pretty much slept all day and at night we went to another super club called ‘The Bulldog.’ The Bulldog was also big but was crammed full of try hard tools everywhere which really annoyed me. Everyone in that joint loved themselves to bits and the only cool thing about the night was this hot tub they had on stage with 2 hot girls in bikinis making out. On my last night in Cancun I went to the famous ‘Coco Bongo’ club which was the most expensive but best of the lot. It was more of a show than a club but the entertainment factor was 100% During the night they had dozens of different impersonators from Michael Jackson to Elvis and thousands of balloons and streamers fell from the roof. The highlight of the night was a spiderman show they had where a guy was attatched to cables hanging from the roof and he flew and did flips over the crowd with many special effects. After Cancun I few off to Las Vegas to meet up with my brother Simon who is travelling with me for the last 3 weeks of the trip. Everything seemed to go wrong when trying to meet up with Simon as his flight was delayed causing him to miss 2 flights. To make things worse my flight to Vegas was cancelled during my stop over in Florida because Spirit "bloody" Airways was striking and I ended up arriving 24 hours later after flying half way around America (via Pittsburgh). Never fly Spirit Airways...Ever. They were so bad and rude that the news came and videoed everyone at the airport and my boofy little head got on CNN news....again. So 24 hours later I rock up in Vegas and finally meet my brother who had already been to Grand Canyon and Hoover Dam while I was sitting in the airport. We had 2 nights and 3 days in Vegas and had a ball. I had already been to Vegas 8 years ago on my first trip but it didn't stop me being just as amazed, if not more this time around.Vegas really is the Disney World for adults and we really could have spent a month there and still only seen half the casinos. Our hostel was called 'Sin City Hostel' and was right across the road from the wedding chapel where Britney Spears accidently got married once. Simon and I walked constantly for 3 days straight and still saw half the things we planned. Where ever you looked there were huge flashing lights and shows of all sorts. I only spent $20 on gambling and stuck to the slot machines because it's the only thing I know how to do when it comes to gambling. Each casino had different themes from the Circus to New York and some even had mini zoos inside and huge swimming pools. New York New York was probably our favourite casino as the place just looks just like Manhatten and it's only a casino. There was even a roller coaster weaving in and around the Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty. Las Vegas was boiling hot each day and making our way up and down the strip ended up being quite a process. They have a bus which runs up and down called the main strip called the "Duece" which was always full and kept driving past us and left us out in the heat but the great thing about it is you can pay $5 and use your ticket for 24 hrs! Last Thursday I introduced my brother to the infamous dodgy "Greyhound" bus and ended up having Robo-Cop as a driver. The bus system is so bad over here that to go from Las Vegas to San Francisco we had to go to LA first then up the coast 14 arriving hours later. After such a crazy week or two Simon and I chilled out and caught up on some sleep on our first few days in San Fran. I've also been to San Fran before but I never realised how many homeless people there are, or maybe it was just the classy location of our hotel. It seemed almost like 1 in 10 people on the street was a begger and the funny thing was they also seemed to be quite intelligent. Simon and I went to the library to check our emails one day and there were homeless people galore reading books and surfing the net and I think that explained some of the unusually intellectual conversations I had with them. All the homeless people seemed to own their own stolen supermarket trolley and had it packed with all their goodies. On Sunday night we did a ghost tour which was unlike any I've been on before. Our first stop on the tour was in this haunted hotel which was very spiritually active. We were warned about the hotel having many cold spots and while I was listening to the guide talking I felt this cold sensation constantly running up and down my hand. We then took a heap of photos of the inside of the hotel and orbs were appearing in almost every picture in eveyones cameras. It was crazy and the next thing we did was hunt cold spots where we actually tracked a cold spot and there was three of us feeling it's shape and size. The other freaky thing that happened on the tour was we stood outside a haunted house and the guide put a key in his hand and we all witnessed it rotate around 180* over about 30 seconds bit by bit with no explanation. The wind and gravity were both facing the opposite direction and his hand didn't move at all because everyone held it firm. It is peak tourist season at the moment and unfortantley there was a week wait to go out to Alcatraz because of everyone booking their tickets online these days so we missed out on that one. Instead we decided to invest the money in something much more fun and rented a sporty red Mustang convertible and zoomed down the Californian coastline on HWY 1. I normally wouldn't go near a Ford but this was one sexy sexy car and it was damn fun to drive. We had the roof off all day and had the radio cranking tune after tune as we drove across the Golden Gate Bridge, then down Lombard Street (crookedest street in the world) and even tried to get it airborn off the steep Cisco streets. It was an awesome drive down the coastline to Monteray and we even stumbled across some humpback whales swimming off the shore. The funny thing was that we forgot to ask how the roof is put back on and ended up driving in dark with the roof down and us shivvering the whole way back to San Fran with the heating up full. When we got back we found a button that popped the roof back on and we felt real stupid. We've been having a great time so far and are currently in LA with under 2 weeks before my trip is finished and I'm back home to face reality. Only 1 blog update left to go.
Having a wicked time,

Woodsy + Woodsy