easter in xela

Hi friends and family
I hope you all had an amazing easter... and the little fluffy bunny was kind to you all with lots of chocolate....

I spent Semana Santa (easter) in a little town called Xela.... (pronounced shayla).
I moved in with my homestay family of 8 (and one bathroom) which was fun....
Myra (mother) and the rest of the family couldnt speak a word of English and I couldn't speak a word of Spanish which was rather interesting.... especially when we were cooking together....
It bought back some memorable moments of when I moved into the English Family when I was 15...

Then 8am in the morning... off to intensive spanish speaking lessons... which were very intense.... in fact 5 hours of complete garble....
I felt like I was back at school again.....now I know why I disliked school so much.
I dont think it was a good idea coming from a mediatation retreat and a weeks silence into a family of 8 and spanish lessons. Anyway I can now manage to buy myself veges at the local market, greet people as they walk by and ask for the time in spanish.....

Now the salsa lessons that I took were fun.... as you all know me ... I really love dancing.... and yes... I managed to find a great pair of stilettos at the markets....

My homestay family and I spent the night before good friday visiting all the local churches viewing the Easter displays.... which was really exciting....
some of the displays were carpets of coloured sand...(photo attached) which were pretty spectacular.
Over the next 3 days we had a religious Mardi Gra..... of themed easter floats....in procession in the streets with thousands of people.....I must say it was pretty amazing.

I managed to get some pampering in true Guaetmala style... visiting the hot springs after school.... they were natural springs and soothing after a hard day... so we all jumped in like vegetables in a pot at a cannibals suprise dinner...

A group of us managed to take an interesting afternoon volcano hiking for 4 hours..in Antigua..... which was great exercise....
When we got to one of the craters... the guys managed to pull out sausages and marshmellows and the a cook off was on.......
yes the volcano was live.... and at sunset when we were near the bottom it gave us an amazing display of fire...and erupted......

After the hiking (which I dont think was on the flash packing agenda sheet)I booked in for a real pamering session in true Myan style... For a mere $54 I spent a whole day (yes from 9am to 4pm) being pampered at the Spa and Suna.... this included 1 1/2 hours massage, 1 hour facial, hair treatment and blow dry, myan sauna and manicure, relaxing tea.....what a bargin....

Yep the flash packer is back....

Well I am off to Hondourus onto the Bay Islands to go diving with the Whale Sharks..

I will keep you all posted of the next adventure.....

Kat on the ultimate journey

meditation on the lake

Hi guys......
Since we last spoke I have been to an amazing yoga and meditation retreat in Guatemala. I have been staying in a little Myan village in San Macos which is on Lago de Atitlan.. (lake atitlan.).. the lake is surrounded by 3 exciting live volcanoes...and several little villages....
The cabana you can see on the lake is my favourite meditation place... and when you can see the view and am sure you can understand why...

There is a photo of me in a Guatemalian hot tub... which was decieving... it was extremely hot and had a cold one next to it.... and of course it overlooked the beautiful lake....

The yoga retreat was refreshing... with 4 weeks of yoga, meditation and metaphysics.....the sunrises were something worth getting up early for.The meditation temple was a pyramid and was rather interesting when we were hit by earthquake tremors.....

The man you can see with the cigarette in his mouth is known as Sam Simon... He is known as the smokin god...He is a god made out of wood and is popular in the highlands. He is usually draped in silk scarves and smokes a fat cigar.. or cigarettes...now how does that work when he is made out of wood..... go figure... but when i bought him a cigarette.... yes he was smoking it.....He is the god of vices...
so if you want a hit on your next door neighbour... you can go to ask him.... make sure you bring rum and cigars..... of course you can ask for good things too.. like money...

Well i finished the retreat off with a weeks silence (yes you can get up off the floor now)... because I did it... and a week of fasting ... which was great....
just what i needed.. a months meditation in a vortex living with the locals and living off the land....life is so simple here.....
A huge thank you to such a great room buddy Christina.....you are an amazing woman and it was a pleasure sharing my experience with you..

until next time

chow chow
katrina

somewhere in the jungle

Hi guys

well i am somewhere in the jungle in central america.
i arrived in guatemala about a week ago and came here because i like guaccomole....the name sounds similar.

I have ditched my trolly bag and high heels for thongs and a back pack.... yes i no longer look like a flash packer... i now look like a backpacker in mid life crissis.

Its all happening here... i have bee travelling with 3 guys who just want to drink beer, party ad get laid.... yes 2 aussies and 1 nz.....

My sidetrack has let me to an adventure.... so far i met some students from Canada who have been shot at..... then when we all went caving ... the NZ guy cut open his foot which is always interesting getting 6 stitches in a third world country.
And on the way hitching to the doctors he was in the back of a truck which rolled off the road.

Not to mentioned the earth quake that we had ... but it was only minor... not as bad as chile.

We visited an amazing Maya ruin site which was a whole city which was called Tikal.
It was where Mel Gibson based his movie called Apocolypso which looked at the human sarifices. The Maya settled here around 700 BC with a population of 100,000 people.
The place was amazing with the wildlife here cosistig of the howler monkey... which i have attached.... it is the loudest animal in the animal kingdom and lets off a sound to a jaguar.... other animals included spider monkeys, crocs, tucans, many birds and jaguars at nite.

Next we went on a 10 hours bus ride... in 35 degrees... with no airconditioning.
when we arrived at the camp ... they had run out of water.... oh i love this back packing....
The next day we went caving.. which is a bit like Jeonlan Caves filled with water.
We waded through with candles in our mouths...it was incredible.
Next tubing.. which is going down rapids on a inner car tube.
Then we went swimming in the limestone pools called Semu Champey.

That now leaves me on a boat today to stay at a retreat to do yoga, meditation and relaxation for the next month... after that i am doing homestay and an intesive spanish speaking course...

until next time

kat

somewhere in the caribbean

hi guys
I hope you are all well.
congratulations to my sister Carla and Jay on the birth of their son Deisel.. 9 pound.. i am sure that hurt... well done guys

Since i left you last i have been floating around in the Caribbean. First stop Cozumel which is a little island.. some where off Cancun.I was still traveling with my travel buddy from Germany Jan...Not much to do here except eat great pastries.

Mind you we decided to go for a motor bike ride late one night. After riding in the pitch black of the night on a dirt road we pulled up at a beach to meet a man guarding the beach... in the dark...mmmm
he told us not to travel the road and to leave because we are in the mafia drug running road and we should have been stopped by the police road block.. which i think we missed....
he told us to get on the bike and go back and not stop for anyone...which we did.
Until we were pulled up by the police who searched my backpack saying something about turtle eggs... now do we really look like we are drug running with the mafia?.

Next stop the Country of Belize...where i spent valentines day, my birthday and carnivale. What a beautiful country ... we stayed on the island of San Pedro... which Madonna sang about in one of her songs.
Birthday was great and relaxed.. i found the worlds best banana bread and key lime pie.

Belize is like an island off the Whitsundays. its hosts itself to the second largest reef (of course we have the best in Australia) we did some amazing diving. i even held a 1.5m nurse shark. we saw eagle rays, eels and huge gropers.
Although i didn't dive the worlds famous blue hole (which is 130ft deep) the photos were amazing.

Working on my sun tan and lying in hammocks are how my days are spent.

Thank you to all those who sent face book and emails remembering my birthday... i am truly grateful when i am so far away from home

until next time

kat on endless vacation

havana-Cuba

Well

Just a small side trip to Cuba. I met so many people who recommended this country to me, urging me to visit it before Castro dies. (mind you he has been in office for 51 years now and the people still love him.).

Being in Havana was like stepping into a movie set. A scene from the sixties, with old cars (yes pete even morris, plymouths and old german motor cycles), the architecture was late 1800s and the buildings were beautiful.

Meet my new travel buddy, Yan from Germany. The second German I now know with a sense of humour. (yes Jurgen... you are the other one,.. and its our birthday soon).

We spent 6 amazing days here and we even managed a night at the Opera. We saw Puccinis Tosca (in Italian not Spanish )which was so moving.... yes its oficial I am a flash packer (no longer a back packer).

We ate at the best Italian Restaurant in the Carribeen (according to the Lonley Planet Guide) and drank some of the best wine from Chile. Backpacking in your 40s is so much easier than in your 20s.

until next time

Adios Amegos

kat

cancun-mexico

Hi guys

Well, I have decided to spend some time in a little sun. I have travelled to Cancun and spent a few days here sunning myself. Meet my new travel buddy Tess. She is an amazing lady from the USA/London and a ton of fun.

The photos are of the coastline on the Island of Women (Isla Mujeres)and the main transport on the Island is by motor bike or golf buggy (nathan I knew those golf trips paid off).

Tess and I then visited one of the famous Maya ruins (one of the seven wonders of the world)which was exciting. The ruins called Chichen Itza are used by the Mayas to as a calender.

Then its off for a swim at one of the many local Cenotes. They are underground swimming holes, a little like the Jenolan Caves with a bath tub.

The other photo is my kitchen in one of the hostels that i was staying at in the jungle.

ill keep you posted as to where to next

love and laughter

kat

marcy lane you are a goddess

Hi guys
After the last time we met i think i left you in Vail skiing.... flying out of Vail was certainly an experience....
when we were on the runway waiting to leave the pilot announced we woud be a while because he had to park the plane in the sun to let the ice melt off the wings....what a worry.. but then the cherry picker turned up with the heatlamps and the firehoses spraying the wings to we could get out of there....

I then found myself a new soul sister.. Marcy Lane... yes another aquarian.... we set off to Lake Tahoe for a Thelma and Louise road trip. (but she refused to drive off the cliff).
So we went off to Lake Tahoe for a long weekend... the timing was perfect... skiing in a blizzard in 1 foot of powder snow with often white outs....she is a gun skier and i think my whole skiing ability went out the window... so much for those lessons in vail.

We had to take a day off the next day to thaw out..it was so cold and she took me on a little tour which was exciting.. i dont think i have seen any place so beautiful in my life (yes it outdoes central park). We visited the beach with snow on the sand, had lunch at the Hyatt and spent the afternoon at the beauticians. What an amazing weekend with an amazing and truly imspiring woman.

We got back to San francisco and by defult I managed to land myself as her date at the Social Event of the year. It was a black tie ball with priority seating to the opening of the ballet season in San Francisco. (also the 25th anniversiry). It was held at the town hall, the evening amused us with the high society of San Francisco. Women in furs, diamonds and designer label gowns...
We were welcomed on the red carpet and a classic martini..and of course the rich and famous (even George Lucas was there).
It was truely an evening to remember and Marcy Lane .... I love you.... for making this possible .
I think she just raised the bar to my level of back packing around the world..

Until next time
signing off from Cancun, Mexico

Kat