Weemalah Cottage, Sydney

Spent the first weekend in December catching up with the Sydney gang at a little cottage in the royal national park.

20 odd hours in Atlanta, Georgia

I've just arrived in Atlanta, Georgia where I have about 20 hours for work meetings before flying onwards home. In catching the lift up to my room just now i shared the small space with some fairly well tanked yanks with classic southern accents (which i guess actually disqualifies them as yanks?). I kept quiet and didn't disclose my own accent but was enjoying listening to theirs when one of them says (about the bottlo they'd just come from) "how can they sell wine and not have Jacob's Creek!!". Good to see aussie standards setting the tone even in the deep south!

Central America

Well I’ve been a very slack blogger this trip. Let’s see if I can give a quick summary. I’m back in Guatemala again now, due to return to El Salvador on Monday. At this stage I hope to be home on the morning of Saturday 12th November. Key points on Central America:

* The landscape is absolutely beautiful here. It’s lush and green with incredible mountains, forests and chains of beautiful perfect volcanoes. There are bright flowers everywhere. It’s just divine.
* The people are incredibly affectionate and lovely. Everyone from the little grandmother in the village to cute young boys come and give you kisses and hugs all the time.
* One thing I like in particular is that the women here are all sorts of funny, short, round shapes- it makes me feel at home!
* The colours are great. Finally some people who have the same taste in paint colours as me! All the houses are painted bright blues and purples and greens.
* The worst thing is the food. Tragically, most of the every day meals I can’t stand. Breakfast of frijoles (beans) and eggs every morning, the frijoles I can’t deal with much, tortillas (the real thing) have an incredibly strong flavour which doesn’t sit well with me, and I was invited to this very special family feast where they ate this traditional meal called fiambre and it was so awful! Beyond that, everyone eats McDonalds and Pizza Hut all the time… El Salvador is the saving grace because they have great seafood including a thing called cerviche (of prawns).
* The other bad thing is of course the reason I am here- the disasters… there was a Hurricane which caused hundreds of landslides all over the country, which killed nearly 2000 people (half are confirmed dead, the other half “missing” buried under the mud. In one mountainous area we went to there were so many landslides the people say it looks like a giant lion came and scratched its claws down the sides of the mountains. Then there is the volcanic eruption and tremors which kept me shaking in my bed the night before I left El Salvador last.

Pics from Guatemala

Here are some pics from Guatemala. One is where their used to stand a house... but which has been washed away by the flood. I also owe a special mention to Colleen who has got her mates together and raised money for lots of goats, chickens, wells, seed kits and other goodies!

Friday night in El Salvador

8pm on a Friday night. In Aus it will be Saturday morning and you will all be waking up with a hangover. I am in a car on the way from the airport to the hotel in El Salvador. I’ve just returned from Guatemala. I’m working for both country offices so sort of hopping between the two, which I must say is hard work, trying to be in two places at once. I have been up working at 5am every day this week, and not sleeping til 12 or 1 am. A little sleep deprived but it’s the only way to get everything done. El Salvador is a little less mad than Guatemala so I’m taking the opportunity of my return here to not work for one night before I get back in to El Salvador work tomorrow, though don’t know how long I will last tonight before sleeping. Have been traveling and working since 5am this morning.

Anyway, what to tell you? Got here on the 8th which makes it 13 days ago. Feels like 13 weeks. 4 days after got to El Salvador where I was supposed to work for 2 weeks, had to got to Guatemala, as the situation there turned very very bad. Hurricane Stan had a worse impact in Guatemala than the famous Hurricane Mitch many years ago, but I think it just hasn’t made the press or got the worlds attention because of having the misfortune of coinciding with the far greater tragedy in Pakistan. Arriving hotel will write more later.

El Salvador 5am

Have been in El Salvador since Saturday. too busy to write. am off to Guatemala this morning. will write more later.

LAX

Ok, even i admit my life is kinda surreal sometimes. One minute I am hanging out at home in the suburbs of belco quietly planning a weekend of brunches and catchups with friends in Canberra, and next thing i know I find myself sitting in the house of a dear old friend I haven't seen for nearly 8 years, in central Los Angeles. and what's more bizarre is that there is a Mr Whippy van outside playing the soundtrack.... I'm on route to El Salvador where they are having some small problems with a volcano exploding and flooding and landslides etc etc. I expect I'll be there for a few weeks. On the way i have a 12 hour stopover in LA, so its a good chance to catch up with James, who was a buddy back when i lived in Spain. He has a cute little house which he bought not so long ago and is well. He reminded me of course that back when we lived in Spain, we girls treated him as the 'wise old Tio Jaime' because he was so much older than us, but in fact he was the very age that I am now. I think he's implying I'm getting old!