South of the border

What a day its been, a truely spectacular brilliant disaster! more on that in a bit. I am close to completing my second week on the road and am now in Mexico. Following on from my previous entry, San Antonio was a really cool city, theres so much history and the mix of Texan and Hispanic cultures is fascinating. I also got on really well with the guys at the hostel, I say guys as the hostel has sex segregated buildings rather than just dorms! a tad extreme methinks.

On Wednesday, I think it was (already losing track of the days) I crossed the Mexican border at the Laredo-Nuevo Laredo crossing. The border was relatively simple, I did find it hilarious that I was the only non Mexican on board apparantly the crossing isn`t as popular as it was some years ago. I arrived in Monterrey at around 4:30pm after watching Spiderman 3 in Spanish which somehow made it more enjoyable. After a brief culture shock at the crazy traffic and millions of people everywhere I found my hostel which was a really good one and empty as well! I had an 8 bedded room to myself both nights. My second day in Monterrey was spent sightseeing. As seems to be the theme so far most of this involved wandering around enourmous, beautiful plazas and topping it off with a musuem, this time it was the musuem of art in Monterrey which I wandered around in for about half an hour.

I eventually gave in to the heat which was pushing 30 degrees yesterday, stunning weather so far. I spent the evening in the hostel and got an early night in preparation for todays early start, a 7am bus to Guadalajara.

Just to fill you in, Monterrey is a long way from Guadalajara, the journey took over 12 hours and when I finally got here the taxi took an eternity getting through the traffic. I eventually arrived at the hostel at getting on for 9pm. It was the first one I had not booked and proved a mistake as not only were they fully booked but most of the other hostels in town were too. I eventually found the place I am in now, Hotel Fenix, for my budget its expensive but it is money that can easily be made back seeing as how dirt cheap the countries will be from now on. The room is nice at least and a night of privacy and a TV may be what I need after going at a pretty hectic pace since the start.

Here is the itinerary for the next week and a bit. It has changed slightly as I am now skipping Mexico City as I have been before and its too big and chaotic to just spend a night or 2 in transit.

28,29,30 Nov - Guadalajara, Mexico
1,2,3 Dec - Morelia, Mexico
4,5 Dec - Puebla, Mexico
6,7 Dec - Veracruz, Mexico
8,9 Dec - Villahermosa, Mexico
10,11,12,13 Dec - Cancun, Mexico

I apologise for the crappy spelling and pronounciation, one reason is this keyboard and all the symbols being in different places, the other reason is it has been a very long day!

Buenos Noches!

Remembering the Alamo

I'm now in San Antonio, Texas which is my 3rd and final stop in the USA. Firstly a slight change in my itinerary, I'm now bypassing Nuevo Laredo on the other side of the border and heading straight to Monterrey on the 26th meaning an extra night here in San Antonio instead.

I last updated having arrived in Austin, after a relatively quiet evening I went out and explored the city properly the next day, amongst the highlights were E 6th Street which Lonely Planet describes as 'a frat boy brawl' and various important buildings to the state of Texas of which Austin is the capital. I found myself an Irish pub and had some fajitas which is the best thing i've eaten so far and gives me another reason to be excited about crossing the border on Wednesday.

I arrived in San Antonio on Saturday, the neighbouhood is like something out of grand theft auto and the hostel is very basic, the owner and some of the people staying here are so nice that you tend to ignore that though. Yesterday I spent exploring the major attractions which included the Alamo, scence of a famous battle in the 19th century, the Riverwalk and a 450 foot high tower in the middle of a park. Tonight I will see the Riverwalk at night which is supposed to be pretty spectacular I'm told.

Photos on the way in the next week or so!

The first few days

I have just arrived in my second hostel in Austin, Texas and it is a really funky place, lovely view of a lake and internet is free! hence me updating here. I spent the previous 3 nights in Houston which was a pretty cool, if dauntingly big city.

I got into Houston about 2pm local time and spent almost 2 hours queuing for immigration. When I got there I was through in about 30 seconds, so much for them being strict! the first thing I noticed was how big everything is in America. There are launderettes here as big as supermarkets and supermarkets as big as.. you the idea, it makes you feel like you are a very small person surrounded by giants.

I got to the hostel after some confusion, my cab driver asked me directions which I found bizzare considering he had a sat-nav and lived in the area. The hostel itself wasn't fantastic, the lockout hours were extreme and they actually expected us to help out cleaning the hostel! after spending the last 6 months cleaning a hostel I wasn't getting roped into any of that crap so I made sure I was out early every morning which seemed to work.

The 2 full days I spent in the city consisted of a visit to the Houston Zoo which was a nice way to start and then a chill out in the beautiful Hermann Park which was a 5 minute walk from my hostel. The second day I explored the classy Montrose area where I had a stupidly large American breakfast at a place called Breakfast Klub. The area had several free museums which I wandered around all dedicated to local artists none of which I'd ever heard of. I then went to the museum of History and Natural Science which wasn't free but well worth it, there was some fun stuff in there. I finished the day off in the park again and today made the 4 hour journey on the Greyhound Bus to Austin. It took a while to get here so I'm going to have a lazy evening here and then explore this music obsessed city tomorrow!

Chris

Leaving on a jet plane.../last UK entry

I was thinking about saving my final entry in the UK for Sunday night which is the last night before I leave but I'll probably babble then, either from being excited or drunk, the former is a given the second always happens when I least expect or want it to.

I have done exactly what I wanted to do with my free time back in Ipswich, I have seen family and friends, got everything sorted for the trip and just generally chilled out completely. Travel insurance and my flight were more expensive than originally intended but then isn't everything?

I have managed to avoid going to Caracas, flying there at least, I will now be going to the nearby city of Valencia via a 54 minute stopover in Panama which will be rushed to say the least but I am generally happier to be going to a much safer city, in saying that I know nothing about Valencia, it's the only place I'm going thats not in my guidebooks but it's all part of the fun.

My itinerary has been printed out for the 4th time and will no doubt change again so take this more as a guideline than anything else, so here is where I'll be going for the rest of November.

17th, 18th, 19th - Houston, Texas
20th, 21st - Austin, Texas
22nd, 23rd, 24th - San Antonio, Texas
25th - Nuevo Laredo, Mexico
26th, 27th - Monterrey, Mexico
28th, 29th, 30th - Guadalajara, Mexico

I have only booked as far San Antonio for accomodation, partly because Nuevo Laredo isn't exactly a tourist hotspot and also because of this there are no options of booking online for this area.

Anyway I will leave you with a couple of pictures, one of the beds in the first hostel I will be staying at and the second of the Houston skyline, pretty soon I'll beable to add pictures of my own to this, next update will be from another continent.....

Back home

I have finished my job now and am back home in Ipswich for a couple of weeks before I set off on the 17Th of this month. I'm actually suffering a bit of a culture shock being back here so goodness knows what I will be like when I actually get to the U.S. It is gradually getting more familiar though and I am starting to wonder if the last 6 months of living in a village in Derbyshire even happened at all.

To the trip then, I went to see the nurse today and all that was needed was a booster injection for Hepatitis. My Yellow fever and Typhoid injections are still up to date. The prices for flights from Costa Rica seem to be going up fairly rapidly so I had best book it soon, maybe even today.

The prospect of leaving is now becoming very real and whilst I am getting more nervous, it doesn't even compare with the excitement I am feeling, in less than 2 weeks I will be in America.