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Hiya, how are you all?

I am fine here, there are a few decorations out wherever I go, but at 30 plus degrees and surrounded by palm trees and sand it is hard to image that Christmas is so close, it will not be the same this year, not unless I can find a traditional English Pub in Dominican Republic to spend it in.

I called my sister for her birthday, it was a nice surprise for her and I realised that I could have / should have called home on other birthday, but I just dont like the phone and also with the time difference it is very hard to arrange, not to mention the cost.

I am dreading what will have happened to my garden by the time that I return, and I feel in mixed sorts as a part of me loves to travel and meet new people, but I am really getting bored of bad hostels, restaurants serving things that I dont recognise or like and bedrooms that are either too hot or too cold and having to hide under thin sheets to hide from mosquito's or other flying insects.

In my house I have a quiet fan for the heat and a radiator plus blankets for the cold, but here it is almost always too hot and my bedroom fans here is so powerful that I think they stole if from a wind tunnel experiement and even with ear plugs I still have problems getting to sleep.

I won't be doing much Christmas shopping today, as the cost to send stuff back to the UK from here is astronomical, but I will be thinking of you all of course.

Please ensure that you get the most of carol singers, snow, christmas turkeys, crackers, chocolates and movies, I'd like to share them all with you so please keep me posted and send me photos as often as you can.
This trip has been one I will never forget and the people I am meeting are great and I have met a few that I would like to see more of, a lot more of, but equally I have arrived in some cities and been totally unimpressed from arrival to leaving, so its upps are even higher because of the downs.

Colombia does have a lot of history, but it does not seem to advertise its pre-columbian roots very much, so I will be looking forward to central America and Mexico, when I should be able to visit not only Chichen Itza but other stuff from the Aztecs, Mayans and Tultec cultures, which means lots more photos from me too.

I seemed to have travelled through the home sickness stage now, as I no longer suffer the nervousness, the emotional episodes or the mild panic attacks of being alone and equally now when I get lost through being all turned around or find myself in a place that I do not recognise I just see it as a waste of time and an inconvenience rather instead of a problem that needs to be overcome.

Likewise I think that I have got used to the food and the water, as I have not had a bad case of food poisoning or anything since leaving Cusco, although being fair I have lost a bit of weight since I first left the UK but this is through just not finding enough stuff to my palate, as even when I do eat I don't eat til I am full but just enough to starve off the feeling of hunger and then carry on with the day.

Without chocolate spread, strawberry jam, cornflakes or a proper fried breakfast in any of the places that I visit, I tend to find that I am skipping breakfasts more and more these days, but then I just dont like eating large rolls or giant mutated bananas first thing in the morning.

Staying in hostels means that often I am meant to be bringing my own food but as it is heavy to carry and cumbersome ( not to mention that your not allowed to fly with foods or drinks ) so this is another reason for this.

I still have not used most of the setting on my camera, although I have used it a few times as a digital camera but only really for wide panoramic shots when one photo just cannot capture it all no matter from what angle or viewpoint I chose.

I do seem to be spending a bit of time watching tv now, but part of that is to hear someone, anyone, speaking fluent english, and the rest is that I do not really know what to do with my time after 8pm when the rain starts to pour down and I am trying not to spend my money like it is water.

I guess that I could grab a taxi each night and ask me to visit either a billiard hall, a cinema, a bar or a night club but any of those would still involve spending money and I have tried many times to take photos at night and my camera is just not up to it, apart from it being more unsafe and much harder to navigate around a place, especially as I rarely have a decent map to guide me around.

Well I have to go now, I need to pack and try to find out how to get to Cartagena while the morning is still here that way I can reach my hostel while it is still light as the bus journey is meant to be abour six hours long and I still don't know where it leaves from or when just now.

Love and hugs