Final two weeks

The United States: probably the biggest disappointment since Agustin Delgado. So I went back to Mexico for a bit. Having a flight home from Antigua, which is not particularly well serviced by other routes across the world, meant it was a little tricky and expensive to get back to Mexico City, but I wanted to, so it was worth it.

Before I left, I still had a few more days in Miami to endure enjoy. Wednesday was also pretty cold, but just about warm enough to sit on the beach for an hour or so. When I say 'just about', as soon as the wind picked up I had to pack up and head back to the hostel. The other thing 'to do' in Miami is shop, but seeing as my bag is completely jam-packed with stuff, I couldn't actually buy anything either. Sorry to anyone expecting nice Christmas gifts, but it looks like I will continue my trend this year of not buying anything in a desperate bid to cling onto my youth by being a 'net receiver' on December 25th.

That evening I met Tom and Amy, from Cornwall. They were both chefs and it was quite interesting to learn about their experiences, and certain bits of information to take on board about restaurants (e.g. unless it's a massive kitchen, having lots of options on the menu probably means it isn't fresh produce. Kind of obvious really, but not something I'd given much thought to). They also told me that Cornwall suffers from a disproportionate number of gall-stone sufferers because of the amount of pasties the people eat. Ha.

My final day in Miami was rainy. My first proper day of rain comes at one of the destinations where I had visited purely for the sun. Oh well. What was more of a concern was my sniffling nose and slightly sore throat. I thought that San Francisco, and then Denver might be the undoing of my health due to their low temperatures, but it was Florida that bit me in the end. The fact that they don't normally have such cold conditions means the hostel rooms have no heating, are generally designed to be cool, and little more than a thin bedsheet is provided to you. As a result, I was absolutely freezing a couple of nights in a row, and I'm pretty sure this caused my illness. I headed to Miami airport on Friday, which has the most extortionate prices. I know a captive market is always going to be pricey, but that place is ridiculous.

Mexico City has also turned a bit chilly since I left (the already cold nights have got colder), but I was genuinely excited to be back. First of all, 3 (THREE) pesos for a metro ride, that's about 30 pence, woo! Admittedly, I had to wait twenty minutes before it showed up, but still. It was also quite strange to be wandering amongst all the familiar sites again as I headed to Hostel 333, mainly because I hadn't planned to be back so soon. It was Suha's birthday the following day, so I came back predominantly for that, as I wanted to surprise her and also catch up with some of the other friends that I had left behind a month or two earlier. Unfortunately Beatriz and Whitney-I had left for Colombia a few days earlier so I just missed them, but it was good to see Veronica and the Whitney-II.

To be honest... I actually don't have that much to say about Mexico part II, because typically my cold properly set in a day before I arrived, and left me about a day after I left. I spent my whole trip at Suha's house, where I was looked after. Naturally I used this to my advantage; Instead of making do with cooked meals and medicine, I extended my demands to such extravagances such as getting my laundry done, having tea and coffee made at a mere click of my fingers, and even enjoying a day in bed in front of the football on Sunday. I left on Tuesday fully charged and raring to go! I am exaggerating a little, I actually really enjoyed being back in Mexico, even though it was hampered by being a bit under the weather, and when I left for the airport I once again felt a touch of sadness that this time I knew I definitely wouldn't be coming back for a while.

I had to connect back at my favourite airport again. I lost track of time devising a new hybrid game of english and american football. I was working on the rules for at least an hour (god, why do I insist on telling people this stuff?!) when it dawned on me that I hadn't even been through security yet. Anxiety began to creep in when I saw the long queue and could only mutter in annoyance* as it moved at a snail's pace.

* Weirdly, there is no adjective (at least not to my knowledge) in Spanish for 'annoying'. This is slightly problematic for me, as I spent most of my time either 'annoying' other people (e.g. Barry) or finding things 'annoying'. The closest verb is 'to bother' which is 'molestar'. In Mexico, Suha would occasionally translate to English too obviously - I had to tell her that shouting "Tom, stop molesting me!" is slightly different.

Anyway, back to the queue at security... One thing that was holding us up was another 'fast-track' line which was reserved for pilots, disabled people and people with kids. Now, two of these three I can understand, but I really have no idea why one of these groups gets preferential treatment. That's right, the disabled. Because... no, not really the disabled. People with kids! Why does the entire family get to hold the rest of the crowd up just because they have a pushchair in their ranks?

I boarded the plane, and had to squeeze past a young couple in my row, as I was sat by the window. As our seats were in the emergency exit row, we had more leg room, and it wasn't a big problem to get past them. I made a comment about this being a perk of being in the emergency row, to which the girl replied, "Yeah, it also means we're the first off if the plane crashes". Every cloud. It got me thinking whether I should be annoyed if the plane doesn't crash, since otherwise I haven't had the full benefit of my emergency exit seat...?

Initially I stayed at a place called the Waterfront Hotel in Falmouth Harbour, in the south of the island. It wasn't the greatest place though, with drainage problems, stuffy rooms and ants. Although the ant bit is probably my fault for leaving some marzipan on the side. In order to summarise my first full day experience at the beautiful Caribbean island of Antigua, I will use the means of a 'spot the difference' game below, using two similar pictures of the Antiguan flag.

That's right, there was no sun. It was cloudy and rainy all day. Oh well, it's just one of those things. It's easy for me to say that now, but at the time you can probably guess (correctly) and the thoughts running through my head. That evening I met Justin from the US and Alice and Linne from Sweden. Linne seemed quite interested in Football, so I was able to impress her with Championship Manager knowledge. I say impress her, it was more of a exercise to impress, or even test, myself...

The following day I decided to move to another hotel called 'The Anchorage Rooms', which was a little more expensive but much nicer in every respect. In the morning, I went to the cafe downstairs for breakfast, and on seeing that no cereal-like option existed (despite it being probably the most popular breakfast type across the world, it seems nigh-impossible to get it anywhere), I plumped for 'Eggs Any Way', which came with bacon and toast. Not ideal, but bacon and poached eggs is not to be scoffed at. Except I was then told by the rude waitress/owner that 'poached' wasn't an option. "Not really 'Eggs Any Way' then, is it?" I was tempted to point out. Nonetheless, not to be deflated by this, I spent the afternoon at Pigeon Beach, as the sun had finally decided to make an appearance! I also stopped by the Marina and gawped at the Maltese Falcon, which is pretty massive and impressive.

Left: Maltese Falcon.            Above: Jetty at Pigeon Beach.

That evening I went to the bar and chatted to Chad from New England and Ollie from Majorca/London. Both of them worked on the boats, but had come to the bar near my hotel to escape from endless 'boatie chat' - the harbour is full of yachts and crews. I did end up speaking to them about their time on the water, but I got the feeling they enjoyed talking about their jobs and experiences with me, because being totally uninformed about boats, my conversation was probably a lot different to what they were used to. Ollie told me tales about crossing the Atlantic in a force 11 storm, and how he was understandably, 'bricking it'. Life on the boats sounds pretty awesome, and certainly exciting, but the open water terrifies me to be frank, so whilst Ollie's stories were intriguing, they were probably off-putting in equal measure!

The following morning I headed to the north of the island, Chad had hired a car for the weekend and was heading that way, so kindly offered me a lift. I chatted to Ashley for most of the journey, and it was funny/vindicating to hear how much she disliked Miami airport. My final few days of my trip were spent at the Halcyon Cove resort by Dickenson Bay. It was great to visit the harbour, but equally I wanted to find myself a sandy beach with the stereotypical turquoise water. Which I did.

Hope you're all enjoying the English blizzards

Twig