Hogan knows best...

San Francisco came and went; it's an incredible city with an amazing spectrum of people...somewhere I actually wouldn't mind living someday, that is, of course, if I can ever drag myself away from Melbourne. After 5 months of being cautious of spending money and having to carry ridiculous amounts of luggage, I unleashed myself on the shops of the west coast. Turns out I'm more of a girly-girl than I realised, because shopping is rather fun :P
We also hung out with Pegs' mate from camp, Lacey (who we were staying with) at the various parts of San Fran; Pier 39, Chinatown, Union Square, Alcatraz (Walllllmac...why am I not surprised...?!?!).

The world really is a small place. At the LA greyhound bus station, we ran into an English guy, Barnaby, who we met whilst in Miami and just so happened to be on the same bus as us upstate. So we spent some time with him and also a crazy gay guy that wouldn't stop talking, who had been living at Barnaby's hostel for the past 5 months.

Then, it was back to Los Angeles for the home stretch of my trip...I can't believe it's almost over. I'm staying with my mate Simone and we've spent the last few days talking about food, crazy people and how much we both miss Melbourne. To be honest, I don't really like LA all that much, but I will always be grateful to the city for giving me my first proper celebrity citing. Yesterday, we were shopping at The Grove, and saw none other than HULK HOGAN!
Unfortunately I didn't have the guts to ask him for a photo, but I promise I was standing like 3 metres away from him and his wife in some shop. It was rather bizarre actually, he really looks like a weird, boiled, hunk of meat, and he walks funny. A total freak of nature, but what a legendary throwback to my years of being a wrestling fan.

I'm home next Tuesday (Oct 31) morning, people. Call me and we can do coffee or something...I'm in desperate need of something non-Starbucks!

see you bye.

Raul's North American tour: Part 3 - Quebec City, Montreal, Miami

My Central American tour is over :(

I had such an awesome time but I guess all things must come to an end. The last week was spent climbing the Tikal ruins, partying to ridculous music until ridiculous hours in San Ignacio, Belize, snorkelling in Caye Caulker's barrier reef, relaxing in Bacalar, Mexico, finishing up the tour with tequila in Cancun. In two short weeks we made some incredible friends, forming 'the party crew' and also talked about poo a lot. Class.
Right now I'm in the home of Full House - yeah Uncle Jesse! - San Francisco!

Not long til I'm home! Until then, here's some more photos!

Quebec party times

Le waffle!

The Chateau thingy

Montmorency Falls

Some of the gang at Montmorency

The view from Mont Royal

Oscar!

People dancing on the bar

South Beach

The giant yacht

Hola!

I´ve been in Central America for almost 2 weeks now, and it´s just incredible. The last days in Miami were spent by the pool, at South Beach, (window) shopping, meeting plenty of interesting and good looking people at the hostel and hanging out with my buddy Oscar and his fantastic family.

Anyways, this has to be brief and no time for photos, sorry! We arrived in Guatemala City and took a taxi to Antigua, where we met up with our tour group...only small, but there were some really cool people who we used for their Spanish speaking abilities. Ok, not just that...but mostly. haha! anyways, we did a bunch of stuff, went to a bunch of places, many of which I can´t remember the names of so here´s a guess. Chichi market, Lake Atilan (Panajachel), San Pedro, Xela before returning to Antigua and saying goodbye to the majority of our group before meeting up with a new one. The second leg of the trip has so far been better; we visted Copan, Honduras where we went to some hot springs and ate one of the best barbeques ever, the ancient Copan Mayan ruins, and also a local orphanage where the kids are just SOOOOO cute!

The next day we re-entered Guatemala and stayed on a little island in Rio Dulce, relaxing in the pool and also playing some pretty vicious water polo! The hotel there was like paradise, pool bar and all. We took a boat ride to Livingston Town, which is much more Carribean and saw some traditional dance, drank some regional soup. All goodness. Today, I´m in Florres and I simply have NOT stopped sweating. It´s ridiculously hot here. I´m pretty gross, really. Somehow I still manage to get a lot of toots, 'hola!'s and general attention from the locals. Haha!!!

Tomorrow, we´re off to Belize...white sand beaches, the 2nd biggest coral reef in the world and some major party times!

Raul's North American tour: Part 2 - Boston, Toronto, Niagara Falls, Kingston

Checking out the Freedom trail

Raul meets a squirrel

Raul meets John Harvard

Quality accomodation in Toronto

CN Tower

CN Tower's glass floor

Casa Loma

Niagara Falls

Sexy rain ponchos

The world's largest whirlpool

Our awesome Toronto roomate, Nelson and a yellow school bus

Spadina Ave...home to all that is good in Toronto

The old, old ship we stayed on in Kingston