A couple cool pics from Cam's Cave Course

All the pictures are the entrances to cave systems that are literally in the middle of nowhere. One has Cam's instructor's dog in it whom waits for them after the dive and the one with the big hole Cameron's jumping into is part of the 3rd largest cave system in the world. Crazy!

Home

So, Im back home for a bit. We have some exciting business opportunities opening up in the Mediterranean so I will be here for a month or two and then meet back up with Cam in Europe.
Last days in Mexico were great and was a little sad to leave especially after arriving in Maryland! Its been so cold and rainy! Hopefully the sun will show itself soon, I can't take too many gray days. Sort of weird to be home since I was just here a few months ago but it's nice to see my family again and I will try to catch up with everyone else as well.
Dont have much else to say, sorry Im totally lame and boring...
Hope to see everyone soon.

I'm an Open Water Scuba Instructor!!!

Ahhhhhh. Finally it's over... I just got back to Playa on Monday and am so glad to be able to sleep!

So, I spent the past 2 weeks in Manzanillo, 10 days for the IDC Prep Course and 2 days for the Instructor Exams and I passed! I had 9 other people in the course with me and from the first day we were spending about 14 hours with diving, lectures, presentations & exams. Then going home to a few hours of homework to prepare for the next day. The actual work wasn´t hard just the lack of time with when to do it in. I stayed with a few people in the course with me and my roommate was Sarah and we had a really nice apartment along with all the other students. We all got to know each other quite well and I made some good friends. Now I can teach Open water, Advanced, Rescue and Divemaster Courses as well as Emergency First Response, Nitrox, Boat, Search and Recovery, Fish ID and Drift Specialties.
Manzanillo was beautiful, it almost looked like what I would think Italy would be like on the water. It had big mountains at the waters edge with tons of white houses stacked along them. The water was freezing, about 18C- 64F, which is almost 25 degrees cooler than the Caribbean! The visibility was also really bad, maybe only 2-4 meters. It was a full moon and red tide was starting to come in so it was not very nice although they have loads of sting rays. One day on the way back from the divesite the boat captain pointed out in the water something that looked like a boil, where a school of fish are jumping on the surface and it looked like birds but when we looked closer, it was a school of eagle rays jumping out of the water! Amazing. The others at the diveshop have seen whales and dolphins from the surface quite a bit and can hear the whales underwater, maybe if the viz wasn´t so bad you could see them.
It would of been nice to spend some more time to do more dives.
So...
All that is missing now is a proper job! Cam and I are spending a lot of time at the internet searching for jobs for 2...
Keep your fingers crossed for us.
miss everyone xoxo

Manzanillo

After many long days and nights of studying I am leaving tomorrow for my IDC Course.
Will write once I´ve arrived.
Wish me luck!
xoxo

Do Mexicans sleep at night?

I would have to say that for the majority of them, at least in my neighborhood, the answer is NO!
Obviously we have no air-con so we always have the doors open. We are on the second floor and have 2 balconies on either end of our room. In the back we have Niño, a very irritated boxer that loves to bark, along with his owners who stay very calm and quiet during the day and then break out the sub woofers at night. Two nights ago when I was sick it seems they were having a kids birthday party including balloons a pinata and a serious dance party that didnt start till 10 but went well past 3am... I got a bug and have been sick so I was trying to throw up in peace at like 2:20am and all I could here was the base bumpin and the kids screaming! I mean seriously... Not to mention the night before they were burning brush like 5 feet from our window at 2am. Our front we have a club across the street where you can only hear the music enough for it to bother you but not enough to understand the words-just a constant base pounding and there is also another apartment right outside of our balcony that like to put their dishes away and open and close their screen door like 500 times in the middle of the night. We are not planning on staying at this house forever but may need to move a bit out of town for some peace and quiet.
The day after the brush fire we went diving in the sea... It was great. We visited a ship wreck surrounded by about 20 huge barracuda, a massive school of some type of tuna and even a turtle. On the second dive we saw about 4 turtles, loads of schools of fish, a bunch more HUGE barracuda and we are really excited about the diving here. The current is qute strong at all the divesites so for most you just drift with it and the boat picks you up once your dive is over... We are excited to do some more diving, they have quite a few bull sharks here and even have shark dive we might try as well. I should be getting all my meterials for my IDC soon and will have to start studying... Well, need to go do some laundry. xo

Tulum

There are iguanas everywhere

Cam and I went down to Tulum (one hour south) to check out the Ruins. They were beautiful mostly because of the backdrop. Bright turquoise sea... We are thinking of heading to Chichen Itza which seems to be the most spectacular Ruins around (3 hr bus ride).

I have signed up for my Instructor Course which will be in Manzanillo (on the Pacific side) and will be starting in March. We have a spent a few nights out and am happy to say there are many bars to chose from and even more exciting is that about 75% of then have live music every night.

We watched the lunar eclipse the other night after having eaten at a place called Dr. Taco. I dont know if I will ever get sick of Mexican food... Spent a few days on the beach and on our roof working on the tans... Plan to head over to Cozumel to check it out this week.

Hope all is well with everyone!

Cenote Diving

Here are some Pictures from the Cenote diving. You literally walk into a pond in the jungle and go diving. It's awesome.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY FROM MEXICO!

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Pics from home

Cameron's most loyal fan club:)
Erin's surprise partyIn the Natural History Museum in DC

Playa del Carmen

Well, We've been in Mexico for a few days and alot has happened. We have gone diving in the cenotes... Sooooo amazing. I have some pictures I will try to post soon. We have moved into a big house with a Mexican girl named Sara, an Italian guy and Jessi!!! She has moved here for a bit as well. Cam started his cave course yesterday and is loving it. Jessi and I are going to start Spanish classes next Monday and until then plan to go diving in the sea and maybe head over to Cozumel for a day. It is beautiful here and there are so many restaraunts and shops and we only live 2 blocks from Walmart! It's awesome. Im glad to have a house so we can cook and have been doing so, it can be really expensive to eat out all the time.
I plan on working on my español and tan until I start my Instructor course in March.
I will write more later, got to go pick up my laundry...
xo

We are OFF!!!

Spent the last few weeks in the states... It's been great but ready to head off again.
Look out MEXICO here we come!

Scotland

Toby
All the snowy photos are froma walk around Crieff including the hotel below

Cam and Toby

View of Edinburgh from the castle
This picture was taken on a walk around Cameron's brother, Murray's house

Scottish Munroe

Scotland

It's been 3 weeks since I arrived in Edinburgh and think I've finally warmed up! After arriving and meeting Cameron's family I was quickly introduced to driving in city. I have been driving Cam's parents car all around and have to admit it's been an adventure. Not only am I on the wrong side of the road and the wrong side of the car but the streets here are barely wide enough for a car to fit through especially with all the cars parking on the sides of the streets. Not only are all the signs and markings different than ours but it seems as if they don't feel the need to put signs up for much either they just paint it on the road, such as right turning lane only, but you only see it once you are at the front of the lane and then everyone, including Cameron, is yelling at you to get into the straight only lane. Also for every stop sign we have they have round a bouts and sometimes it's just a white circle painted on the pavement as if I'm suppose to know what that means... It's made for some interesting car rides with the 2 of us. Just in case you're interested, gas is $8/gallon!

Edinburgh is beautiful. The castle on the hill and the old buildings. We have spent a few days just walking around Prices Street shopping or checking out the market. For the holidays they had people playing bagpipes and a Ferris wheel and ice skating rink. Cameron took me to see the castle and we've taken walks around Arthur's Seat. I also climbed a Munroe which is a mountain in at least 3000 ft high. I went with Cameron, his father and brother and it took me about 1hr and 50 minutes to reach the summit (the book says it takes 2 hours:) and about an hour to get down. I have to admit I thought I was going to die about 40 minutes into it. It was a pretty steep hill with small frozen streams running down over the grasses which made it very hard to climb. Finally making it to the top was great. We were standing on ground that was even higher than the clouds. Cameron and I spent a little more time on the way down to enjoy the views and will post pictures soon.

We have spent a few nights out in the city and have met some interesting people. Most of the pubs have big fireplaces and about 20 different draught beers to choose from. Big step up from Egypt! I've eaten late night at a chippy and tried haggis, we've taken many walks around the city and had a really nice Christmas. We spent Christmas at Cameron's parents house with one of his brothers and his Grandparents and then in the late afternoon we went to his other brothers who lives on a farm an hour south of Edinburgh. After staying the night there we spent the next day walking and eating and then headed home. The fields here are really beautiful and spread out through the hills and mountains usually covered in sheep. We have just gotten back from a 4 night New Years holiday in Crieff, which is an hour north of here. We stayed at a big hotel that had all the festivities planned for Hogmanay (the Scots word for the last day of the year). Every night they had dinner and Scottish dancing with most men and boys in kilts and all... On New Years Eve, we dressed up, Cameron wore a tux!, and for the last 20 minutes everyone sang Scottish songs until midnight and then bagpipes played and they served champagne and stovies (mashed up potatoes and meat). Cam and I stayed up until 4am and had a great time. While at Crieff we also did clay pigeon shooting with Cameron's dad and brother. Before we went I was a bit nervous because I have never shot a shotgun before and Cam was quite confident that he would shot more than I would... On the first round he and I were tied with 4 out of 8 and then on the second round I got 6 and he got 3... He blames it on the instructor because we had a 2 quick 2 shot rounds from 2 different machines and he along got them all (but so did I). So, it's very painful for him to discuss but I did beat him at clay pigeon shooting and have a sore cheek and shoulder to prove it...

So we are back from our holiday within a holiday and have bought plane tickets to DC for January 16th. We plan on staying for a little less than 2 weeks and then heading over to Mexico early Feb. Cam is keen to do a cave diving course and I am looking into doing my Instructor course but are first planning on checking a few places out until we settle, including Playa del Carmen and Tulum.

Well, I can't wait to come home for a bit and to bring Cameron with me... Hope everyone had a great Holiday and Happy New Year... See everyone soon!!! xo

Pyramids

Hot Air Balloon Ride

A view of The Valley of the Kings with one of the temples in the middle

Sunrise over the Nile and Sugarcane Fields



Nile River

Luxor

View of the Nile and Luxor's east bank from Banana Island, which actually isn't an island but their bananas were tasty.
Cam relaxing while we get ourselves un-stuck from the river bank.
View of the sailing feluccas... Veryinteresting, they had no motors and their oar was a 12ft long 2x8 that they threw over the side to paddle us back when the wind died out.
These little kids were running along side the river and loved getting their picture taken
We stopped at a place called banana island and this dog was just laying in the field with the banana trees in the background.

Cairo & Luxor

Our luxury taxi from Dahab to Cairo
View of the Nile in Cairo

After leaving Dahab for the last time we headed to Cairo and stayed for a few days before heading to Luxor. We stayed at a hostel in the middle of downtown and spent a day at the Egyptian Museum. It was huge and we had a guide for 2 hours and don't think we would of known what to do without him. They say that if you spent one minute at each piece it would take you 3 years to see everything in the museum! We saw all the contents of King Tut's tomb including the big gold mask and so much other stuff it was incredible. After 2 days in Cairo we took the sleeping train to Luxor, and it was so much fun. You get this tiny little room with chairs that fold down into a bed and another bed is on the wall that folds down over the other one. I could have slept on that train for weeks. It was great.

We arrived in Luxor at 6am and checked into our hostel and made some plans for the next few days. One thing we knew we wanted to do was a hot-air balloon ride. We also went for a ride down the Nile drinking hibiscus tea and relaxing. The next morning we woke up at 4:30am and were on our way to the hot air balloons!!! We had to take a fellucca across the Nile to the West bank and then a taxi to the field where the balloons are waiting for you. It was still dark and cold and they file you out of the taxi and into the baskets and you don't have too much time to think because they have been waiting for you and the balloon is ready and in a few minutes you are up in the air! I was quite nervous and had a few seconds where I thought I couldn't do it but it was awesome. Thankfully we didn't have many people in our balloon, we had 12 but some of the other balloons had 30 people! It was one of the coolest things I have ever done. It is so quiet up there and the only noise is from the pilot putting the flame into the balloon which by the way feels so hot you could almost smell the singe of your hair. We watched the sunrise and went up to 3000 ft! In a wicker basket! It was so crazy and such an amazing feeling. After a few days in Luxor we took the sleeping train back to Cairo for our last few days in Egypt.