Barra de Navidad - start of road trip!!

This was a fantastic town, and we had 3 nights to enjoy it (14-16 July).
I think it's already described in another post, but here are the piccies!

Barra beach to the south - can also see the opening to the lagoon. Apparently it's a real surf spot, but it's the quiet season now, so pretty calm.


Sunset starts on the second night. The first night we didn't take the camera, and just soaked it in. It was an absolutely stunning one, haven't seen another like it so lucky we were paying attention! Can't show you, but here's the next best!

Bit later...


Here's our accommodation (just outside our room).


Local town stage - there were kids rehearsing a tap/traditional/multi theme? dance here one afternoon - it was ace! I liked their boots - cool white cowboy boots! Impressive muriel here.


North view of the beach. Only a few meters of sand between here and the lagoon - we watched the birds in the mornings, herons, egrets, and also a croc floating around - exciting!


Find the puppy (it was really a dog, just a very little one)


3rd night's sunset.


We could see the rain (if you can call it just that!) coming across the bay, but it seemed to stop for a while. This is what came down when we left to get home!! We couldn't get any wetter if we'd gone for a swim! Awesome to see.

Mexico photos! Puerto Vallarta 12-14 July

We set off from the Big New York to Mexico (via Dallas)

View from the plane over Mexico - great scenery!


Arrived in Puerto Vallarta to sudden stunning weather! We have the knack!


Highlight was a visit to the Botanical Gardens out of town, they are working to conserve an area and many species. Impressive and gorgeous spot.

Heliconias (Crab's Claw)




Ginger - freaky flowers

Banana flower

View from their restaurant

Encyclia

Epidendrum (I really like this one - just after most of the rain, and with a bug!)

Encyclia with Paul in the background

Cuyutlan

Hello everyone.

After arriving in Puerto Vallarta last week, we have bussed our way down the coast, stopping at little towns of Barra de Navidad and Cuyutlan (where we are now). Barra was really chilled out, and we got used to eating fresh seafood by the beach under palm from roofs. The beach is quiet at the moment, no surf but a really steep beach, couldn't touch the ground after about 2m! Great for a quick cool down dip.

Cuyutlan is tiny, but is on an extremely long black-sand beach. We seem to have found the only internet in town (which happens to be wifi) and have a room with a view of the beach. We visited a Tortugario (Turtle Conservation Sanctuary) which also had iguanas in an inguanario (yay!) and 2 crocodiles. We took a boat trip into the lagoon, amazing birds and really cool tunnels through the thick mangroves for the boat to get through. Also smelt really bad. And mozzie infested. Luckily we had the bug spray.

Think we're off tomorrow to Zihuatanejo, cos it sounds really exciting! Should be internet there and even a public phone!


Make sure you send us a comment on the blog so that we know you're there... And we'd love to hear from you!

¡Mexico!

Ola, everybody!

(Paul writing on plane last week...)

Right now we are writing from the aeroplane to Mexico. Saya is snoozing. She was a bit excitable earlier following our pre-flight filling up on coffee and interesting Texan airport takeaway with goodness-knows-what additives in there. I am typing to take my mind of the turbulence and wondering exactly what the pilot meant when he warned of anticipated "marine showers" on our flightpath and told the cabin crew to sit down and buckle up. Oh, here it is. At least we have some pretty photos of clouds from our window. We can delete the ones with the "motion artefact"...

New York, New York

We had a 3 night, 2 day stop over in New York was great to see The Big Apple! Bit of a shock after such a tranquil time in the Scottish Highlands, but we did lots of walking around, soaking it in to acclimatise to the city! We also managed to catch up with Graziella's friend Sandra for a coffee, who happened to be in the city at the same time! Awesome to see her and have a chat.

Chrysler from Empire State

us at Empire State Building

UN Building

Chrysler

Ford Garden in Building

Paul 5th Ave

NYC neon

Big M&M

Crazy Hershey's merchandise

Disabled no longer PC (& dangerous)

Scotland!

We had an amazing and spectacular visit to Ness and Dane on The Farm in Scotland. It went so quickly, but we did fit a lot in. This post is split into 4 - around the farm, the weekend road trip, the walk through Forvie Reserve and back to the farm and finally a trip to Dunottar Castle.
Thanks so much for having us and showing us around - it was really special for us to see all the places we've heard so much about.

Mains of Foveran farm with sea har (middle of the day in summer)

Sea Har


Sunset from Pitscaff Cottage


Tour of the farm



ROAD TRIP!! Across to the west coast, through the Highlands.


road trip! highland countryside

paul, ness, dane in gardens

Chamaecyparis lawsoniana 'wisselii'

Ullapool (Dane are you breaking into that shop?)

Ullapool mob - all ready for a night on the town

nightlife in Ullapool (...if I lay here, If I just laaayy heere)


steps. mind them, won't you (they lead to water) Ullapool dock

Ullapool by night

highland countryside

sheep


saya likes heyland coos

we all like heyland coos

heyland coo face-off

paul likes lochs

highland orchids

Beach!

ness and dane look at the beach

saya and ness look at the beach

dane assures us that it is summer and this is normal (it is freezing)

tough scottish succulents

dune flowers

strange dune fluff

highland orchid

stunning beach. dane used to camp here.

us at beach

the olde ice house. hard to see but they used to keep fish fresh here. Have since installed a really freaky reenactment complete with mannequin...

Tolkien's inspiration for The Shire?




WALK IN NEIGHBOURING FORVIE RESERVE


Saya look impressed (lots of bugs)

Caterpillar



Tank Deterrent, back of Dane's farm dunes

Dunes - beautiful

We think we are going the right way...

beers at the local beer garden



TRIP TO DUNOTTAR CASTLE!

Just near Stonehaven...home of the deepfried mars bar.

castle dunottar


scots were pretty short back then

nice to have a view

castle kirk (church)

gull with babies...so cute and fluffy!