Charlie Snooks

Length no. 46 (via bgarthp)

Sat, 06 Jun 2009 17:17:52 +0100

Length no. 46 (via bgarthp)

Big Dive (via bgarthp)

Sat, 06 Jun 2009 17:16:30 +0100

Big Dive (via bgarthp)

Gracias I mean Thanks!

Sat, 06 Jun 2009 17:07:00 +0100

So my last update we had just arrived in Puerto Escondido, Mexico, since then a lot has happened. Our 9 day stay in the small surf/fishing town was amazing, we filled our days with early mornings (Ben surfing, me taking pictures), swimming in the hotel pool, reading books and going for walks in the blistering heat. With a little regret at having to leave we got on a coach and travelled 8 hours up the road to Acapulco, we had found our hotel on Hostelbookers surprisingly and it turns out we chose the right place. Our room was overlooking the harbour and the beautiful sunsets were right in front of the building.

We took advantage of the airconditioning and enjoyed the numerous swimming pools and the waterslide, but the high light of our stay was definitely the cliff divers, it wasn’t the diving that impressed me the most it was the 30m climb up a cliff that was amazing these men just climbed up in a matter of minutes wearing only a pair of dodgy speedos! My final comment on Acapulco is that it reminds me of a British holiday resort like Blackpool, a place that was once glamorous and great is now, 20 years down the line, faded and forgotten by foreign tourists which is a shame because I can see the appeal it once had.

So we left Acapulco and headed to the airport, we decided to splash out and stayed in the Ramada by the airport. It was such a shock to the system all the space, the posh soap, soft towels and …a free sewing kit?! After the excitement we ordered room services and settled in for the night watching the ‘f’ word on tele’ and not looking forward to our 5:30am start.

We arrived in San Diego just after lunch and got a bus to our hostel dumped our stuff and headed straight to Ocean Beach, we had been told it was the ‘must see’ place in San Diego and it was nice but nothing to write home about ;)

Yesterday we had day 1 of the Ben birthday celebrations, we headed to Mission Beach by bus and spent an fantastic afternoon of taking pictures and filming Ben on his present to himself the ‘flowrider’. Its like a manmade wave and soon I will put up some pictures of him (he got some amazing bruises from falling off!). In the evening we headed to the cinema to watch ‘Up’ the new pixar movie, we went to a 3D screening which was brilliant I looked so funny wearing 3D glasses over my normal glasses (no picture evidence available).

Today we are heading to see the Body Worlds exhibition by Gunther von Hagens’ as Ben has wanted to see it for a while, after this we are doing what I have been looking forward to the whole trip we are going shopping (Victoria Secret mid season sale here I come!), and then picking up a car for a couple of days of exploring.

Less than 3 weeks to go now so I will be seeing you all very soon, expect texts as soon as I get my phone back and remember how to use it!

Love Charlie xxx

Hot Molten rock (via bgarthp)

Fri, 22 May 2009 23:58:37 +0100

Hot Molten rock (via bgarthp)

Long Slide Down (via bgarthp)

Fri, 22 May 2009 23:57:49 +0100

Long Slide Down (via bgarthp)

You want me to what?!?!?!

Fri, 22 May 2009 23:56:00 +0100

So in the last week since my update we have discovered Antigua (Guatemala), walked up a live, and I mean molten lava live, volcano and travelled a very long way to Puerto Escondido in Mexico!

So Antigua was really relaxing, a good chance to enjoy cooler (still about 30 degrees) weather and the ability to eat 3 meals a day which was lovely :)

On Monday afternoon we decided to do the must-see active volcano near Antigua, we arrived at the base to multiple men on horses shouting ‘taxi!’. It was definitely the first time I have ever heard a horse referred to as a taxi, but as we walked the few km up hill on dodgy paths I started to understand the reference.

Due to the altitude my ears popped and my fitness was put to the test, we were followed by one of the so called “taxis” and all I wanted to do was turn around and say ‘I don’t want your bloody taxi, now will you please piss off!’ but due to my lack of Spanish and the fact that I was too knackered to breath properly let alone speak I just plodded along wishing that we would get to the top.

When we finally got to the end of the path the guide pointed to a very very steep bank (hill/slide thing) made of volcanic sand stuff and proceeded to demonstrate to us how we were to get down it.

Now anyone who knows me well will understand my unexplainable fear of falling, its not nice and I don’t even like stairs and escalators, but it turns out that doesn’t matter and I was expected to slide step by step down. I started to cry and sob stating that there was no way I would be going down that thing but in the end with Ben on one side of me and the guide on the other I made my way down crying and squealing pretty much all the way.

When we got the bottom and I had stopped being a complete baby we made our way to the molten lava to take pictures and feel the heat, and I mean heat! the soles of cheap shoes were steaming it was so hot. (please see pictures :)

So we did that and then on Wednesday we made the journey from Guatemala over the border into Mexico and then got on a 12 hour over-night coach to Puerto Escondido were we are now sat in our little apartment overlooking the ocean, for how much we are paying the place is heaven with our own kitchen, bathroom, bedroom and lounge it makes the heat more bareable having somewhere to escape from it.

Anyway we are here now for a week before heading to Acapulco and from there to the last leg of the trip: the USA and Canada.

Hope everyone back at home is doing well.

Charlie xxx

Smug Charlie (via bgarthp)

Sat, 16 May 2009 19:36:06 +0100

Smug Charlie (via bgarthp)

Traditional Costume at town festival (via bgarthp)

Sat, 16 May 2009 19:34:32 +0100

Traditional Costume at town festival (via bgarthp)

How many Nicaraguan men does it take to change a bus tyre?

Sat, 16 May 2009 19:32:00 +0100

The answer is lots! After our stay in Leon we had a long day of travelling to get all the way to La Libertad in El Salvador.

It all started at 9:30am when a dodgy looking taxi arrived to pick us up from the hostel, we then got dropped off a someones house and waited in their living room for our coach.

The coach was very hot and full of central american residents which gave us a real experience of travel, the coach stopped a lot for petrol, lunch, other undisclosed things! The biggest problem came with a tyre blowing out on the main road, we stopped and 7/8 men climbed off the bus to check for damage…it was bad so they decided to put the spare tyre on (which by the looks of it had a puncture) and it caused a stop in Honduras to get a proper replacement :)

We finally got to San Salvador at 10:15pm that night and jumped in a taxi to get to our hostel on the coast. Like most hostels I have found on this trip (including our hostel now in Antigua Guatemala) the taxi drivers have never heard of it and have major problems trying to find the place!

So we finally got to our hostel at midnight and were told of an outing the next day which might be fun. The next morning we woke up and got ready, there were a few couples in the hostel, we all got on the minibus and were taken to a village/town in the hills around San Salvador where they were holding their annual festival. The day was fantastic with lots of colour, a wonderful art gallery and some fantastic views.

The next few days were taken up by lots of relaxing and trying to stay out of the sun, it was around 37/38 degrees during the day which was insane you couldn’t do much in such heat we spend time sitting in hammocks reading books hoping the sweat would stop running front my body.

We are now in Antigua, Guatemala a tourist friendly town which offers cobbled streets, cute shops and little cafes :) After 4/5 days here we are heading to Mexico for Puerto Escondido and a bit of going loco down in Acapulco ;)

Hope everyone is good, miss you all but am having a fantastic time with Ben.

Love Charlie xxx

Back in Civilisation!

Fri, 08 May 2009 20:32:03 +0100

Hi All

We are now back from Hotel Chancletas on the coast of Nicaragua and staying again in Leon, the hostel is rather rough but tomorrow we are heading to Le Libertad in El Salvador which I am looking forward too.

Our plans today consist of checking our internet, finding Ben a cheap nicaragua beer t’shirt and going to cinema which has aircon and as we both have colds (no its not Swine Flu) its really nice to be cool for a period.

Anyway we will be out of range for possibly a week but when we are back online I am sure we will have lots of interesting things to tell you all about.

Love Charlie xxx

Air-Con

Sat, 02 May 2009 22:41:35 +0100

Hi all

Ben has written a really long blog which I have included below.

Not much else to say except about the beloved air-con. We have been travelling now for over 2 months and in Popoyo we had our first taste of AC it was amazing you could just hang out in the dorms during the mid day heat and not worry about sweating too much :)

The funny thing is I have obviously aclimatised to this unforgiving heat because all 3 nights I ended up wearing trousers, a jumper and socks so I could sleep it was just so cold or so my body thought I think summer in England could see me in a coat and a woolly hat if I’m not too careful!

Anyway going to the cinema this evening its the first time we have seen one and it costs around $2.25 usd to go so we want to make the most of it :)

Miss everyone loads, we are having an amazing time and if H1N1 flu virus (also know as that pig/swine rubbish) clears up a bit we can still follow our plans of going into Mexico in 3 weeks.

Keep your fingers crossed ;)

Love Charlie xxx

Nicaragua

Sat, 02 May 2009 22:33:36 +0100

benpascoe:

A proper update is due, we are now in Nicaragua, we’ve already stayed for a few nights in Popoyo (pronounced po-poi-yah) where the surf was really good fun and the accomodation was more expensive than we’d have liked, but very nice.

Getting to Popoyo from Tamarindo was fairly straightforward, involving getting the 9am bus from outside the local bank to Liberia - the bus takes ages to get there, stopping at every tiny village and town on the way, often it would stop two or three times in the same 500 yard stretch as people waited outside their houses to be picked up.

From Liberia we walked in circles with a couple of New Zealand backpackers who had the lonely planet book, we’ve not had the best of luck with the lonely planet guide and I’m glad we didn’t buy one before leaving, the maps are usefull but the information is often out of date and their most recommended hostels have been pretty crappy so far.

After finding the right bus - one stop over from where we started, and loading our stuff on a very nice English speaking gantleman explained to us exactly what we needed to do at the border to get to Nicaragua.

Penas Blancas is the border city in Costa Rica, apparently they don’t get on with Nicaragua so you have to get out, get your passport stamped, walk 1km to the incredibly poorly signposted immigration office in Nicaragua and pay your $7 US to get in to the country.

When you approach the building you are accosted by half a dozen local entrepreneurs who wave the official customs form (which by now you’ve filled in four times already) at you and ask “Money, Tip, Cordobas, Dollar?”, Charlie and I have got used to this and were able to walk the last 5 feet to the window and pick up our completely free forms ourselves without the need for a paid guide.

The next hurdle is finding the bus station which they cleverly hide all the way on the other side of the immigration building, forcing you to walk past the incessant taxi drivers and the nurses in masks… hmm, not seen them before.

Taped to the wall is a hand written list of symptoms of Swine Flu, in front of it are two or three nurses with face masks on, fiddling with their stethoscopes and looking bored. By this point Charlies researcher routes had gotten the better of her and she probably knows more about swine flu than any of the nurses there, so we roll our eyes and bundle on with our stuff to find the buses.

You pay one US $ to get into the bus station, this is tax or something, who knows, it’s worth it to get the crazy bus people out of your personal space. Next we needed the bus to Rivas, the second Rivas slips from your mouth three conductors (the seemingly randomly appointed civilians who collect your money and heard you onto the bus) grab at your bag and shoulders and explain they are going to Rivas.

Inspecting the front of their bus, it says something completely different, you look quizzically at them and say “Solo Rivas?” - “Only Rivas?”, “well, I’m going somewhere else first, but I will definitely go to Rivas afterwards, I promise you, it will be the best bus ride of your life” they earnestly reply, so we ignored them and got on a bus which actually said Rivas on it. Phew.

The buses are like the ones in Panama, old US school buses, but not so lovingly made-up, we clatter along overtaking horse and cow-drawn carts and whole families on single pushbikes watching the huge Lake with the volcanoe in the middle roll past, the millions of midges and thousands of birds eating them and the suprisingly familiar site of wind farms.

Rivas is a transport hub, the bus stop is, as always, in the sketchiest neighbourhood, making even the toothless taxi drivers and their death-trap vehicles look inviting to any tired tourist arriving there.

We negotiated, mostly through sign language and counting on fingers, a taxi ride first to a supermarket to get some supplies, then to Popoyo, our next destination.

Our taxi driver was helpfull, he went in to the market with Charlie while I waited with all our gear in his unlocked taxi parked in a side street, expecting any minute to be threatened or just stabbed when someone fancied making off with all our possessions.

After a bum-numbing 2 hour ride along the worst roads we’ve experienced so far - (the dirt roads are OK, it’s the ones they tried to pave but have given up on which are the problem, the only way to navigate them is to drive in the potholes avoiding the odd island of tarmac which sticks up, you end up doing a painfully slow slalom along whole stretches of what should be decent roads) - you pass a salt extraction field with massive piles of salt waiting to be taken away.

Popoyo itself is a dusty street with occasional glimpses of waves breaking between the hostels, hotels and aboandoned houses.

The hotel we had decided on has a website called: hotelpopoyo.com, understandably we were therefore looking for Hotel Popoyo - after driving the length of the dirt road, which ends at a river with two or three run-down hotels overlooking it, we discovered that it doesn’t exist.

It was about 5:30pm, about to get dark, quickly, so we thought for a minute and decided to try the hotel right on the end, spectacular sea views gauranteed. We stuck our heads in and asked about a room, there were many available, for good rates.

We were ushered upstairs and into the bleakest looking room you could imagine, no mossie nets, sketchy looking bed, bare dusty floorboards, no other furniture, err thanks, we’ll settle in, do you have internet? “no, down the street” OK, thanks.

It was desperate, one look at Charlie and I knew we weren’t going to be staying here tonight, some digging on the computer revealed the rest of the URL - it included “El Toro restaurant” - something new to go on, we politely declined the offer of the room from hell, queue confused: “you no like?” - err no, we don’t like. Adios.

We set off with our big packs, small packs, board and four tearing carrier bags of shopping down the dusty dirt track, sure we’d passed some nicer looking places on the way to the end of the road.

By now it was getting pretty dark, and we didn’t know where we were going to sleep, asking the next guy who rode past on his bike about the El Toro restaurant was useless “I’m not from round here” he said in Spanish, I understood him but had to wonder what he was doing cycling around a dirt track in a village in the middle of no-where that he didn’t live in.

The next pair of people were drinking a beer in a hammock outside a partially built house, they knew where it was and we established that it was down the track 500m on the right.

Eventually we got there, tired, emotional and covered in a course layer of dust. We were shown to our room and instantly perked up when we felt the air conditioning pumping cool air around the room.

Downstairs for some dinner then to bed.

We were at the El Toro Restaurant/hotel, which is a stones-throw from the beach and offers private rooms and dorms, we opted for the cheaper dorms and shared with a couple of E-coast USA surfers called Nate and Matt.

They were good company, each night we’d have a meal in the restuarant for around $5 US each, beer was $1.50 US, then watch VH1 classics or American sports and discuss Swine Flu.

During the day we’d head for a surf in the morning, come back and eat an improvised picnic lunch using food we bought in Rivas (there are no supermarkets, cashpoints or anything apart from hostels and hotels in Popoyo), swim in the pool, lounge around in the hammocks and play with the hostels puppies before going to the beach for another surf and repeating the restuarant routine.

Having originally planned to stay for 4 nights we were starting to think that Popoyo was not the most exciting place to be for any length of time, Luckily Nate and Matt were leaving for the capital on Friday and had arranged a shuttle through the hotel, it would cost $120 in total so they were keen to get a couple of people in to spread the cost.

$30 each took us to Managua in record time in a 4x4, these are the roads 4x4’s were made for, fording rivers, climbing hedges to avoid rubble and beating along the dirt tracks was fairly comfortable.

We’d been warned off staying in Nicaraguas capital by Marcus from the hostel in Tamarindo with a few scary stories, it looked pretty nice at this end as we were dropped outside a swish hotel, the porter eager to carry our bags for us before we told him we weren’t staying there.

The taxi driver deserves credit for translating my garbled Spanish and taking us to the collectivo station for Leon, where we happily joined the other 10 passengers in a tiny mini-bus, our ridiculous amount of luggage somehow squeezed into the spave behind our seats.

We sat facing backwards, a blessing as the driver wound around the queues of cars and trucks along the highway, several near misses when overtaking has de-sensitised even me, a nervous passenger at the best of times, but I appreciated the view out of the back window on the trip.

we arrived in Leon and some cocky young taxi driver tried to squeeze my board into the boot, twice he tried and twice he battered it with the boot, I winced after the fourth time he slammed the boot down on soft foam and told him we’d put it on our laps.

Bigfoot hostel was the call, but they didn’t have a private room, so we stayed in a dorm, then moved to our current address, Lazy Bones hostel, which seems very nice and relaxed, has a good internet connection, and is located near to the bus station and cinema, the plan for tonight is to watch a film and get some nice cheap food.

More updates as we move on, the weather is supposed to be stormy for our last few days in Nica’, which we are spending on the North West coast at an American run surf hostel/hotel, should be fun.

benpascoe: El Toro, Popoyo (via bgarthp)

Sat, 02 May 2009 22:23:57 +0100

benpascoe:

El Toro, Popoyo (via bgarthp)

benpascoe: Charlies first go at Bodyboarding in Costa Rica (via...

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 16:21:10 +0100

benpascoe:

Charlies first go at Bodyboarding in Costa Rica (via bgarthp)

Pura Vida

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 16:19:34 +0100

Hello! Yesterday was our half way mark! very excited about it all, to celebrate the momentous occassion Ben has given me my first proper bodyboarding lesson which was really fun once I got over the salt water in my eyes thing. We are currently in Tamarindo in the north of Costa Rica, after San Jose we went to Santa Teresa but to be honest it wasn’t my cup of tea so after 2 nights we decided to head off early and we definitely made the right decision. Tamarindo is becoming quite the tourist trap with posh hotels and expensive restaurants but its not quite there yet with building going on all the time. But you can understand why, there is good surf off the reef, a beautiful long beach with surf suitable for the beginners, and some nice still reasonably priced restaurants around to celebrate in! The heat is very strong during the day, we are down to 2 meals a day with just lots of water to keep us going. Tomorrow we are going to head to a place called Liberia to find a bus to go into Nicaragua going from the border to a place called Popoyo which has good surf and a hostel with a swimming pool and Air Con!!! Am very excited about sleeping in the cool. Hope everyone at home is well and enjoying things as much as we are. Love Charlie xxx

The best shower ever!

Tue, 21 Apr 2009 02:33:37 +0100

Hi all

We have just arrived in the beautiful Country of Costa Rica after 5 days in Panama, the first things we did when arriving at our hostel were buy and cook food containing fresh vegetables and also have a very welcomed hot shower each!

We left Panama City a day early having only stayed a night due to the heat and atmosphere we decided it would be much nicer to head to Boca del Toro on the Caribbean cost, so we took our usual over night bus and arrived in Bocas del Toro at around 6am the next day, we jumped on a water taxi and then we were at our destination Aqua Lounge hostel and bar, on the website it had looked amazing and although quiet it was living up to expectation, we went to the beach (Ben had a surf), had some breakfast, and a much needed shower before strolling around and generally relaxing and enjoying ourselves.

The problems started a bit later on when feeling hot and sweaty from the very strong heat I decided to take a quick show only thing is it turns out the showers don’t work most of the time infact we didn’t get another shower. By the next day we were starting to feel the desperation of clean bodies so bought a gallon bottle of drinking water and washed our hair etc with that.

It wasn’t the best 3 days of the trip but…Costa Rica is beautiful, we were dropped of in the dodgy part of town and managed to get stalked by a beggar until we got in a taxi but since arriving at the hostel we are both very happy people.

Crossing over the border was really interesting once you have been stamped by Panama officials you have to walk over a disused train track bridge (driven over by your coach) which is a slight health and safety risk (its falling apart) and then get stamped by Costa Rican officials which request proof of return to Panama or proof you will be leaving costa rica in the near future!

Anyway safe and sound in San Jose, going to look around tomorrow and then off to the beautiful place called Santa Teresa and what looks like the nicest hostel yet!

Miss you all

Charlie xxx

A police escort!

Thu, 16 Apr 2009 16:47:24 +0100

Its only been a few days since my last entry but the story of getting from Lima to Panama is rather traumatic for me so I thought I would share!

We left the hostel at 8pm on the 14th in a private taxi to the airport, when booking it we thought it would just be the normal beaten up taxi but as it turns out the hostel have a friend who they use for airport pick-ups/drop-offs. He is a policeman! We got a police escort to the airport talk about making sure you leave. Anyway it turned out well because no id needed to get in he just waved to security and dropped us off :)

The first pain happened when we checked in, we had our tickets and had checked our bags when the check-in man turned around and asked if we wanted to pay our tax?!?!?! apparently you have to pay $31 each to leave the Country, luckily Ben and I managed to produce the money together but the swearing from me that followed could not have been too fun for Ben :)

We boarded our flight to NY and all went well except that I couldn’t sleep, we finally got to NY 1/2 an hour late and were ushered to customs, just a note to comment if travelling through JFK on a connection don’t expect it to be a smooth process, customs took forever, we heard ‘final boarding call for Pascoe and Snooks’ at which point we had only just checked in our bags and got through security! We ran to the plane and got on but then it was suggested we might not get our bags in Panama!

Tired and hungry by this point I was very glad to land in Miami were we got off and managed to find something to each even though it was seriously overpriced, (American Airlines don’t give you food).

When we finally arrived in Panama tired and grumpy we went to find a taxi, turns out they are really expensive in Panama so it ended up costing us over $20 in a shared taxi?!

We got to our hostel and checked in decided to get some food and then sleep, we walked to the square and found this really nice local restaurant, it was a bit more than we have been paying but we had a nice local style dinner and then came back and went to bed.

I supposed we had to have at least 1 bad experience as everything else has been really amazing! But its all good fun, heading to Bocas Del Toro tomorrow which has a water trampoline so I am very excited about that one!

Love to you all

Charlie

We climbed that (via bgarthp)

Tue, 14 Apr 2009 22:26:38 +0100

We climbed that (via bgarthp)

I am only going to write Machu Picchu once!

Tue, 14 Apr 2009 22:23:10 +0100

So it is done, we went to the place with the ruins got very wet and since then I have written the words so many times it is making me dizzy.

After the early start (hostel owner got up and made us breakfast!) we arrived and headed straight to the second mountain called Waynapicchu, an Irish guy in Arica had suggested it was worth the walk which turned out to be 1.20hrs up really steep steps during which time I was convinced that I was going to die. When we finally got to the top dripping in sweat and minus half the clothes we started in the view was worth it, the sheer scale of MP is insane the pictures that advertise it make the whole thing look a lot smaller than it really is. Thankfully as I had thrown my I’m scared of falling card on the table during the way up Ben decided to produce his not wanting to go near the edge to take pictures of the fantastic drop :)

Once we had taken pictures and felt a little less knackered we decided to make the ‘climb’ back down the mountain not hill a bloody sheer drop cliff mountain!

When we got down we decided to walk around the actual ruins taking time to admire the views and take the same pictures every tourist in the history of MP has taken. It was just brilliant the only bad point was the rain really but once there you forgot it cost a blinking fortune and just thought, I get why they want to bleed everyone dry.

Just after normal lunch time we realised we hadn’t eaten anything in around 8 hours and decided that it was time to say goodbye to MP and hunt down some food. We went outside and there was your usual cafe selling over priced food but then in Peru over priced food is just normal UK prices (maybe even less). After the welcomed fuel we decided that we had the strenght to walk down from MP to the bottom where you catch the train, this took 2 hours and consisted on a million steps but the views again were amazing.

By the time we got down we were both drenched from head to toe, but MP was probably one of the high lights of the trip and to anyone travelling to this side of the world a must see!

Our coach from Cusco (the main town) to Lima to catch our plane took an mind blowing 22 hours, we decided to go 1st class (more room) and the woman behind the desk only charged us for children seats so it cost 130 sol (£30).

We are now in Lima waiting for our taxi to take us to the airport, its been a good day of relaxing and investigating where to stay in Central America. Yesterday we decided to walk to the beach and back which took over 3 hours and my only advice is if coming to Peru don’t bother finding the beach!

Miss everyone at home but really pleased we are all staying in contact.

Love C xxx

Ben and I in our new Alpaca wool hats

Thu, 09 Apr 2009 00:19:30 +0100

Ben and I in our new Alpaca wool hats