Home on the lake

This is the old fella who lived next door to us in San Pedro La Laguna, Guatemala. He is 90 years old, blind in one eye, has few teeth, spends his afternoons sitting outside his house and people kiss his hand to greet him. He is Mayan and speaks Tz'utujil, the indigenous language of the town. We will remember him for his trendy sunnies and cool pants. We've just finished another week of Spanish classes. Our school was positioned along Lago de Atitlan, a massive Guatemalan lake surrounded by volcanoes. Here, kids fly home-made kites, women carry things on their heads, people bathe and wash their clothes in the lake and freshly home-cooked tortillas are part of almost every meal.

Bienvenidos a Guatemala

What we love about travelling is that we can wake up in the morning not knowing what to do, then find ourselves that afternoon eating lava cooked marshmallows on an active Guatemalan volcano. We’ve been living with a Guatemalan family in a town called San Juan del Opispo. Our typical day this week went something like this. 6am: Get woken up by church bells, firecrackers, dogs fighting, drunken singing, cats walking on the tin roof or men announcing over loudspeaker that they’re selling stuff. 7am: Have a Guatemalan breakfast such as “desayuno del abuelo” consisting of frijoles, eggs, tortillas and little sausages called salchichas. 7:50am: Walk two minutes to school and say good morning to the locals we pass on our way. 8am: Immerse ourselves in 4 hours of private Spanish lessons. 1pm: Catch the local chicken bus to town after lunch. 1:30pm: Spend the afternoon exploring Antigua, one of the most beautiful cities in Central America. 5pm: Head back for our last home-cooked meal of the day. If you go to Antigua, check out the most impressive McDonalds restaurant in the world and don’t ask a Guatemalan guy holding a shot gun for a photo (Dean found that out the hard way).

Latin America, here we come

When we paid 20 cents to get from the airport to the hostel, we knew we would love Mexico City. This city has been perfect to rest, recover from gluttony and ease ourselves in to the Latin American adventure. We’ve seen the ancient man-made wonders of the Egyptian Pyramids, Great Wall of China, Colosseum and Angkor Wat. Now we can add the 2000 year old Teotihuacan Mexican Pyramids to the list. Once again, we are humbled by the greatness of those who lived before us and the conundrum of “How the hell did they do that???” frustrates us more than a David Copperfield trick. As well as the Pyramids, we will remember Mexico City for the blue roses, cobble-stoned streets, 1960s bright green VW taxis, 80 cent tacos, the bubble-gum tree, public affection displayed by lovers in warm embraces (and sometimes raunchy positions), and the guy who sold us the gummy bears. Next stop: Central America. We fly to Guatemala this morning where we take Spanish classes, live with a Guatemalan family and work with sea turtles on the coast.

Leaving Las Vegas and the Star-Spangled Banner

We've discovered a new type of hang-over which is more deadly and lethal than any alcohol related hang-over ever known to the non-US resident: the OBESITY EXCESS-EATING GLUTTONY hang-over. Ours was self-inflicted, done in the name of experiencing local culture. After too many burgers, all-you-can-eat buffets, high-fat high-carbohydrate high-calory foods later, today is our last day in the fattest country in the world. The US is about more than just fat people, guns, really bad TV shows and people who don't know what language we speak in Australia (yes, we did meet one such American). This nation is filled with natural wonders, a smidgeon of which we found in Arizona and Utah when visiting the Grand Canyon, Zion National Park, Bryce Canyon and Navajo Tribal Park on Native American land. This is a photo of Antelope Canyon, which is a cave-like canyon on an Indian reservation. A country full of contradictions; its superficial ugliness compared with its great natural beauty, being one of those contradictions. The land of the free and the home of the brave...

Dean's BIG 30

Message from Dean: Happy birthday to me. Today I turn 30. I'm in the City of Sin, Las Vegas with friends and family. I feel very privileged that a group of 15 people have come over from Australia and London to celebrate my birthday. Tonight, we're watching The Tournament of Kings dinner show at Excalibur Hotel. After that, who knows. Whatever happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas. This photo was taken on 5 August 2008 at Monument Valley, Utah when I was 29 years and 363 days old. It's the last photo of me in my 20s.... Look out for the 30 year old photos to come.

American couch potatoes tune in

"Hi, I'm Randy from Knockersville, Tennessee. I love working at HOOTERS!" The Best Damn Hooters Competition searches for the Hottest Hooter Girl. This is just one of the highly educational and poignant shows we have seen on free-to-air American TV. The bouncer on Jerry Spinger has his own talk show. There's another show where suspected cheating husbands and boyfriends undertake a lie detector test. The Jerry Springer Show has reached new standards. They have employed a double amputee with half a torso to crawl on stage behind the guests. The only Vietnamese person we had seen on Australian TV is Anh Do, the comedian. Now we've finally discovered a TV genre which Vietnamese people dominate: ESPN Sports Professional Gambling. When these highly relevant shows break for commercials, you can be further informed by ads for things such as itchy vagina cream, re-usable catheters, erectile dysfunction medication and personal injury lawyers who ride motorbikes. Literally.