20th January – Vancouver, Canada

We awoke to a beautiful blue day in Vancouver. Days like these are very few and far between so we decided to get out and walk around the city and enjoy the sunshine. We could look down the end of the street and see the snow clearly on the mountains. We headed up to Vancouver Lookout which is quite high and provides 360 degree views of Vancouver. The ticket let us up in the day and also let us come back in the evening to see the city lit up at night. The lookout was also interesting because it provided history on many of the buildings and areas around Vancouver, which is relatively young. Photo’s of Canada by the day looking out towards the mountains (Grouse, Cypress and Seymour).

Photo’s of the city.
In the evening we headed back up around 8.30pm not realizing that the tower was closing at 9.00pm. After a quick call to upstairs (they had already closed the lift) we got in and made it up for a quick wander around the tower.

Shots of the city at night.


The little bit of white towards the top of this photo is Grouse Mountain lit up for night skiing.
We still think of all the cities we have been to, Vancouver is one of the most beautiful, although we're not sure the day photo's really do it any justice.

17th-19th January - Vancouver, Canada

We had forgotten just how cold Canada was. First job on the list was to go and collect our thermals, jackets and other warm clothing so we could actually function outside. The forecast for the next few days sits somewhere between 4 and 1 degree during the day. Bring back the shorts and t-shirts we say. Our daily average temperature from Mexico literally dropped overnight by around 30 degrees. We also had so spend today (17th) trying to find a notary to witness Dan’s passport. Long story why but we found a solicitor who charged us a fortune for the pleasure. But most importantly of all make acquaintance with out favourite sushi train again- hooray! At the moment Vancouver has the “Dine Out Vancouver” festival happening for the next fortnight. Which basically means that participating restaurants are offering three course meals for between $15 - $25 dollars. For two people who have cooked about one meal since August this is good news. We tested it out and Jaeggers and had a great feed. We also visited our other local haunt Malones where they have introduced these ridiculous wine glasses with no stems.Dan went to work on Friday which has probably resulted in a change of plans about when we come home but more to follow on that once confirmed.

Yesterday we headed to the Vancouver Aquarium. It was a cold, wet and grey day and it was best spent indoors. Cheap n’ Nasty (now affectionately called CNN) came out again for a visit. I’m still betting it will last the distance.

We had to look hard to see the sun. There was something bright in the sky. It could of been it?

Dan had been to the Aquarium back in July when I returned to Australia and had an annual pass but it was a first for me and we both enjoy visiting aquariums around the world in our travels. This one had Beluga Whales which look like a mix between a dolphin and a whale and they were white. There were four of them and one of them would blow a huge bubble underwater then spin around and pop the bubble in his mouth. It was kinda cute. The seat otters were both our favourite and they would like on their back eating and swimming around. Very cute. The Aquarium is quite large and we spent the best part of the day just wandering through the different exhibits. We walked back along the Seawall. Even with a gray day, the city is beautiful.
One of the things that we wanted to do whilst in Canada was attend an Ice Hockey (just plain old hockey for you Canadian readers) game. The ticketmaster had said that the game had sold out but we wandered down in the evening and managed to jag a couple of tickets just before the game sold out with 18,500 people. The lady placed us in the wheelchair section (I did have to ask if this might be a problem seeing… well…. we weren’t in a wheelchair!!) No problems and we were on our way to the nosebleed section. We could not have sat any further away but the wheelchair section did afford good unobstructed views and the stadium is small enough that it doesn’t matter if you are sitting up that high. Dan sat next to a man in a wheelchair who had a carer that warned him that when he got excited he had random muscular spasms that might knock him around a bit. Dan took a few hits but nothing too bad.

Knowing nothing about hockey, I asked the man next to me how long the game went for. Ah, 3 lots of 20 minutes with two seventeen minute breaks. Righto – easy.

The Vancouver Canucks (at least we knew they wore blue to barrack for them) played against the LA Kings (boo hiss). The Captain was given a standing ovation at the beginning and a presentation for his 1000th game. We had no idea who he was but cheered and clapped just as loud as the rest of the stadium. The national anthems for the US and Canada were sang (we ate our pizza during the US one and pretended that we knew the words and sang proudly for the Canada anthem).
The game started with the dropping of the puck (not kick off as I had asked the ticket lady as to what time the game started) and it was on. It was fast and the skating and stick skills of the players were amazing to watch. We cringed everytime we heard a player slammed into the wall and cheered even louder with yells from us – bring on the biff – when it looked like a fight was starting to break out. By the end of the night the Canucks lost 4 to 2. It was still a great game and we had a load of fun. We even picked up a few rules along the way, always a bonus!

12th-16th January, Playa Del Carmen, Mexico - Vancouver, Canada

We had good intentions of doing lots of things upon our third visit back to Playa Del Carmen. Tulum and Cozumel were just a couple of things on the list and we did…. Absolutely nothing. Our few days here before our return to Vancouver consisted mainly of the beach and soaking up the sun (far too much on one day when I turned a nasty shade of red) before heading back to the cold and wet of Canada.

Now, it’s fair to say that we like a good curry and Babes, the noodle house across the road does good curries and huge daiquiris. So in four nights in Playa, Dan had green curry, red curry and yellow curry and finished with another green curry. All with prawns (shrimp in North America) and with the most awesome mixed roles. The kittens were pleased to see us again.. and again.

Mother Nature got us ready for our Canadian return with lots of rain on our last couple of days. Still the days and nights were both warm so we didn’t let it get in our way.

The sun finally set on our Central American odyssey and after two months it was time to head back to Vancouver. We had to say goodbye to the owners of the hotel, Thed and Pia who Dan has fondly renamed Piassed and Wasthed as they are ALWAYS at the bar and generally drunk (we have obviously been there too long when we get hugged and kissed goodbye) and Jez the Manager who had some great travel tips. We wore our thongs and shorts to the airport and changed back into our cold weather gear (what little we had – most of it is still scattered around Canada) and hopped on the plane for our four hour flight to Phoenix.Ridiculous immigration procedures in the US again meant we had to clear customs, be finger printed and photographed and clear security to continue on with our three hour flight into Vancouver.

Coming into Vancouver the cloud cover was low but once we got below it, we could see the ski fields lit up on the mountains!! We also flew in a different way above the city of Vancouver instead of the sea. It’s very easy to forget what a beautiful city it really is. So our plan from here? Watch this space.

12th January – San Jose – Costa Rica, Playa Del Carmen – Mexico

A 4.10am wake up call to get our taxi to the San Jose Airport to take us to Cancun via Mexico City. The airport was fairly busy, even at that time of the morning, much to our surprise. We paid our departure tax, cleared security etc. and hung around the airport which is in mid-renovation. A mixture of nice and new with crap and old. The plane was called on time and we boarded for a four hour flight to Mexico City flying past the coast of Guatemala.

On the way to Mexico City, the captain announced that if we all looked out of the left hand side (where we were sitting) we could see an active volcano with glaciers and snow on it. It was massive! The volcano is called Popocatepetl (Aztec for ‘smoking mountain’) and it is 5,465m high, North America’s second highest mountain. By the way, who associates Mexico with snow and glaciers? Not me until now!We then flew over Mexico City which was obviously densely populated with 20 million people. The captain had to cut through the hills and do a very scary sharp downwards embankment to get near the airport. Mexico City from the air looked like a sprawling mass of housing with a thick blanket of smog covering the city. The buildings on closer inspection were brightly coloured even through the haze of smog. We were glad we were only there for a one and a half hour layover.

Mexico City airport had some interesting objects which we haven't seen at other airports. One was a Herbie, a volkswagon beetle (far right in photo), which was used as a security car (no number 53 on it) and another Stars Wars like personnel carrier (a mobile transit lounge).

After a quick beer (in a blue bottle) at the airport at 11.00 am (it’s beer o’clock somewhere in the world), we boarded another plane to head towards Cancun. Another 90 minutes on the plane and we made it, very thankful to see our luggage arrive this time! We caught the bus to Playa Del Carmen, a long day of travel over.

Back to our normal hotel, we collected our left luggage (we now only have additional luggage in Vancouver and Saskatchewan – God knows how it will all get home) and headed out for a long awaited Starbucks (yes we are addicted) and then later to our favourite old haunt, Babes for dinner. An early night after such an early start.

11th January – Manuel Antonio – San Jose, Costa Rica

We headed out early this morning to go on a Jet Ski Tour, sharing the experience with Paul and Wendy from Surrey. It’s a long time since we have both been on a jet ski. In fact, we think it may have been around 96/97 when we went jet skiing in Esperance. A quick van ride to the marina and then a transfer via boat to the station that held the jet ski’s followed. Dan and I shared a jet ski with him driving the jet ski on the first leg. A very quick demonstration on how to use it and we were off. Dan wasted no time (like about 30 seconds) and soon we were speeding at top speed along the ocean at between 60 and 70 km’s per hour getting air off the swell. The ocean was calm and very warm. After about 15 minutes we saw what we thought was a dolphin but upon closer inspection realized that in fact it was a humpback whale cruising the ocean with her baby! In Costa Rica none of the normal restrictions in terms of distance that you have to keep away from the whales apply so we got quite close – initially 20 metres away but otherwise not close enough to scare her or get in her way. Once she disappeared underwater we would cruise ahead of her by a couple of hundred metres and wait for her to arch out of the water. It was truly an amazing experience and we got to see this beautiful creature for around 40 minutes.

Dan and I swapped drivers position on the jet ski and after a quick intro, we were soon going full speed ahead on the ocean, even faster than the guide. We stopped for a while to follow some dolphins around although they didn’t hang around too long compared to yesterday. It didn't matter as we saw the whales!!

We then made the long trip back to the Jet Ski Base going as fast as the jet ski would take us. Dan was yelling instructions in my ear (backseat driver!!) and before long, we were zipzagging behind the guide in his wake and actually getting the jet ski airborne on its side to the point we nearly fell off. We had a ball and I think our cheeks both hurt from laughing so much. The whale was an unexpected highlight and the jet skiing was phenomonal.

We then had to head back to the hotel to pack. We had a chance for a final drink though I think someone might need a bit of help!After lunch we started the drive back to San Jose, our final destination of the trip.

Going down the hill into Quepos, the razor wire reminded us of why we didn't stay in town.

We passed through palm oil plantations now used for bio diesel. It was amazing to see the difference in climate as we headed north and then east. From warmth to rain (again) and then into the highlands with lots of cloud before ascending into the central valley to San Jose. We spent about four hours in the bus making it back to San Jose just as the sun had set. As we had to be up so early for our flight back to Mexico tomorrow we opted to eat in the hotel with Dana and Sal and an early night. We said goodbye to our group and that was the end of just over two week of Costa Rica. We had an absolute ball!!