Too much avocado?

13/10/10 Last night in Havana

I'd always thought it was received wisdom that you can never have too much avocado. But as Paul and I made our way through a whole giant avocado this evening, it went from being yummy to just soft green stuff, and I found myself thinking 'I don't want to eat any more avocado right now.' Perhaps the world has turned upside-down.

On another note, Otto says we might not be leaving Cuba as a hurricane is coming to Havana. No!!! Must... Get... to... Miami...

14/10/10 Hurricane

So we got ourselves to the airport just as they cancelled our flight. There were other flights cancelled as well, but not all - so I had some hope we'd still be able to get away, somehow. We waited in the queue at the Bahamas Air office, and as I heard the word 'Sunday' bandied about despair hit my stomach. Then the words 'nothing else we can do.' When it all sunk in I felt dead and couldn't quite bring myself out it again. We'd built ourselves up to escaping Cuba (finally), but now we weren't even stranded a day. We were stuck here for 3 more nights. It just felt like a sentence. I didn't want to be just 'surviving' any more - I wanted to go back to living. I couldn't bear the thought of spending any more time trying to get through the segregation system and avoid being hassled on the streets. All I could feel was nothing. There was nothing we could do and there was nothing to do here. It was the worst possible place to be stranded. I didn't want to move, let alone find another expensive taxi to take us back and see if Otto and Mylena would have our room still (I suppose we're practically family now). It took a lot to lift the spirits and finally get out of the airport. Mylena was at home (luckily) and sympathetic (although she kept saying it was only a little hurricane. I hope it's huge). Now we wait, and continue to survive.

...Here comes the storm. We're hauled up here like refugees. The wind is whistling ominously, and the rain is downpouring torrentially. It's pretty spectacular. I hope it cancels other flights. I feel like the too much avocado thing may have become a metaphor for Cuba.

Planes planes planes!

So it seems like we've been travelling for 48 hours, though I'm so confused by the time zones that I can't be sure of that. Plus my watch has developed a very amusing habit of getting stuck on the hour sometimes... not boding well for the future.
Highlight of being on so many long-haul flights has been seeing what new and exciting meal gourmet gateway will give us. My stomach is so confused with the amount of main meals it's had at odd times. Best by far was some weird concoction of different flavoured scrambled eggs for breakfast this morning (haven't eaten since and the clock says it's 8.15) - they were with chillies, tomatoes, and some bean paste (which Paul didn't complain about) with cheese. Served slightly warm and soggy in a metal container.
Landing in Mexico City, by the way, was unbelievable. Don't know what time it was, but it was dark so there were thousands of lights as far as the eye could see, punctuated by black patches of hillsandthings. The lights were a bit weird to look at, as so many of them were skyscrapers so they had this 3D sort of effect. Still have no idea what Mexico City actually looks like! When we finally made it to Buenos Aires (oh, how I'm growing to love customs and immigration queues - we've already done 3) we spent about 2 hours trying to work out how to get a bus and how to get change for it. Then realised the journey was going to take 2 hours because it wasn't particularly direct. No matter, we got an interesting insight into the outskirts of the city, and were ambushed by some guy trying to sell chocolate bars to passengers on the bus. (Can you imagine a Lothian Bus response to that? The driver would shout and swear whilst everyone else would pretend they couldn't see the vendor.)
Anyway, we're here now in a great youth hostel resembling an MC Escher house and awaiting a promised BBQ where will have Lots Of Meat and Half A Bottle Of Wine each. Much needed.
Ta ta for now!

And they're off!

First of all, a big thank you to everyone who turned up at the Rev to see us off. It was fab to see you all and the burger I had was one of the best (a big thanks to A+G for buying us dinner and transporting us to the bus station). A sing through of the "Ramblin Rover" seemed the appropriate way to signal our departure and then we left to catch the red-eye bus to London. Since then it's still pretty red-eyed with a tube in London to Heathrow then a 7 hour flight to New York. We're currently in the departures awaiting our flight to Mexico then Buenos Aires. It's all feeling a bit strange - almost like a dream at the moment, especially when so little sleep has been had. I'm feeling sad that we're not seeing New York yet as looking out to the city it looks fab. All to come though!

Not much to report on flights. The on demand entertainment on our BA London-New Yor flight was very impressive. I watched the Simpsons, The Thick of It, Bill Bailey and the movie Invivtus, which I highly recommend. Morgan Freeman is a legend and it makes me want to meet him and Nelson Mandlea.

Anyhow, lots more flying to come before we start properly. I'll post again from Buenos Aires but not until we've had some sleep...

Love to all.

Tickets are booked!

Can you believe it? We've actually booked our tickets now. I'm sure you really wanted to know that. No more dithering about where we're going then.

Another Modification

After much humming and hawing we decided we want to spend more time in South America. That being the case, here's the lates route modification...

Buenos Aires
Iguazu Falls
Rio De Janeiro
Salvador
Cuzco
Puno
Arequipa
Cuba
Nassau
USA (East Coast)
Canada
USA (West Coast)
Hawaii
New Zealand
Japan
Singapore
Malaysia
Thailand
Cambodia
Vietnam
China
Hong Kong
Mongolia (Trans Mongolian Express)
Russia (Trans Mongolian Express)


View World Tour in a larger map

We've also shifted Japan to between NZ and Singaore to avoid China multiple entry (ouch) visa issues. Currently the best quote for tickets are Travel Nation. We're also in talks with STA travel but they seem a bit rubbish at getting back to us. If you don't have the customer service, you don't get the business!

Mild Modifications

It's funny how countries that are the so called "Land of the Free" turn out to be the land-of-the-locked-up-petty-and-hypocrytical. Because we want to visit Cuba, we have to do it from a jumping point other that the USA as they have a travel embargo (it's currently illegal for US citizens to visit Cuba and a fine of $20k can be incurred). Not only that, we can't have Cuba on our round the world ticket as if we do that, we can't take any flights with American Airlines and there's more - we will probably encounter hassle in the US if we have Cuban stamps on our passports so we have to avoid that....Jeez!

So, the new plan is to get from Salvador to Miami and then Miami to the Dominican Republic, then to Havana, then to the Bahamas and then back to Miami as a wee "we didn't go to Cuba, honestly guv." Carribean Adventure. We also need to consider our Chinese visas as the original plan was Vietnam-China-Hong Kong-China-Japan-China-Mongolia. The problem there is that you can get single entry or double entry(!) visas to China but a third entry (!!) would likely be a problem and we're not sure if going to HK counts as leaving China. If anyone knows please let us know. Looks like we may fly from HK to Japan instead as it'll just make life easier - it's all the same to us really.

So, that all means that the new, improved, get-your-clothes-whiter-than-white route is....

Peru
Brazil
Dominican Republic (via Miami)
Cuba
Nassau
USA (East Coast)
Canada
USA (West Coast)
Hawaii
New Zealand
Singapore
Malaysia
Thailand
Cambodia
Vietnam
China
Hong Kong
Japan
China (again)
Mongolia (Trans Mongolian Express)
Russia (Trans Mongolian Express)

Quotes should come through from the various ticket providers over the next couple of weeks. The Carribean adventure will have to be a separate purchase so if anyone knows about cheap flights round the Carribean islands let us know (American Airlines can get us to and from Miami for not much cash.).


View World Tour in a larger map