Recommendations

In Cusco

Breakfast at Jacks Café
Corner Choquechaka and Cuesta San blas
5USD for a mountain of breakfast

SAS 1 Days Mountain Bike tour
Plaza de Armas Cusco
38USD

...will add to these as the pop back in my head

Trip Quotes

"SAR! are you trayin to be funny"
A completely exasperated security guard at LAX, after seeing a passenger put matches through the carry on luggage xray machine’

"Oh heelll no"
Guy from san diago seated next to chris on an old style coaster at Six Flags, right before the first big drop.

‘Cant let you on, No shirt, No shoes. Hollywood, six miles to the south.’
The conductor of a San Francisco trolley refusing entry to Simon and JJ

Road Trip Day 12: Flying at the Speed of Fear

This was a good day that could have been great. One word of advice, dont go to six flags on a saturdayduring school holidays. Waiting in line for 90 minutes for a 45 second ride doesnt seem to balance out.

Tatsu was the stand out ride which we did last just before closing time. I got some shots of the internet to show the ride as we didnt have our cameras. The guy on the right with the super man tshirt looks very special.

After a day of lining up and a few coasters we headed for our hotel, the airport marriot, back to the start of our trip.

Road Trip Day 7-8: Slow times at Tahoe

Given 3 hours sleep, we made our way to the wharf to hire a boat at 9am to do a bit of waterskiing on the blue jewel that is the lake (literally, you can see over 20 feet with absolute clarity in Tahoe), and generally disturb the peace- well recommended.
-simon guild

Road Trip Day 7: Fast times in Tahoe

A well deserved sleepin had been on the cards for a while so with no plans there was a lazy start to the day. We headed to the beach to grab some food and were directed to a great diner called the driftwood where we fueled up for the day.



A quick recon at the surrounding marina's had the team sorted for boat hire the following day. So we headed to the lake, after a swim chris headed of to meet a mate on the other side of the lake. Simon and i were left to relax in the sun and make friends with the locals. About 1o minutes into the conversation we were interupted by 2 very unfootball looking americans who asked if were interested in a game. The girls were keen as was simon and i, then from about 10 yards away (yeah when in rome) we heard that unmistakable aussie accent 'yeah were keen'. So without any knowledge of the game aside from, well its kinda like league and they have that big orance pointer thing to measeure something, simon and I headed over for an education. Each team consided of an aussie, kiwi and an american guy and gal. After a quick rule speah we were running plays and dropping hail mary's into the endzone. Planning the plays was a heap of fun.

Without a doubt the touch down of the game goes to the widereciever catch made by buzz who almost knocked himself out on a pack bench occupied by a few very stunned old ladies.

While our team name was not as good as 'team awesome' we did manage to come away with the win, with that and everyones feet shredded from the shells in the sand, it was time for a swim and sort plans for the night.

With steaks and beers in hand we had a BBQ on the roof of the stardust motel with the team and our new mates buzz and tyson.

After dinner and dropping a box of miller we all set of to hard rock to meet the girls where i realised that i had sent them to meet us at harveys NOT harrahs. They worked out the mistake and after a few drinks we moved on to Blu @ monte Blu $5 entry and 1 dollar drinks. Spent the night hanging out with the new extended crew. home at 5.

Road Trip: Day 5 A Hoover, Furnace and Sleeping in the Lobby

We got the trifecta for slow starts to the day after another great night out. A quick shower helps with the watered down feeling I had from one to many tequila shots. Light served tequila in a small glass quater full while this made for a good night it was to the detriment of my well being this morning.

With the team assembled and the lonley planet in hand we decide on places to hit on the way to San Fran. RJ suggests death valley and hoover damn so they get added to the list. While the grand canyon was an attractive option it was too far out of our way. The grand canyon is replaced with yosemite national park and we had our plan for the next 2 days.

Heading out of vegas we took the obligatory 'welcome to vegas' shots, filled up the car with 'gas' and on to the hoover damn. When in a service station I suggest asking for gas and not petrol, with some there is no latitude for synonms, all you get in reply is the blank look 'whaaat' combo.
At one point on the trip a girl actually laughed at simon for refering to what she considered trash as rubbish.

Hoover damn, was, well, big. According to the lonely planet or possibly one of Simon's very usefull facts; the concrete use to construt the damn could form a 3 foot high wall that would travel the length of the equator. As much as i was impressed by the damn, i was amazed by the new construction above it. They were creating an interstate bridge over the top of the canyon, it was a stark contrast to Auckland where nothing gets done in the way of roading.



























Arriving at a lookout right on sunset the views were amazing. This place would make a great set for a mars movie.




Sleeping in the lobby...more soon

Salidita...the search

With the cheapest rental on the dollar rental menu and our boards wedged in the boot (no roof racks) we headed for the widley talked about saladita point break. The directions from our mate vladimir, who along with his 2 briothers appears to run tronconnes, were less than specific but given the source we set off to find waves.

After traveling a good 7 kilometers from the turn off we diceided that we would ask for directions. I had shotgun to headed into an empty cafe armed with my trusty phrase ´donde esta la playa salidita por favor´ my command of the spansih language soon evapourated when she replied quickly and i had no idea what she said. Lesson learnt, great you can ask a question, better still learn a few more words so you can understand the response. So i resorted to a mix of spanish and english with lots of pointing to show direction. So we headed of in the direction given only to realise after a while we had travelled too far. It was then that chris recalled a sign a while back so we headed back to the turn off and followed a road that appear to have seen a few wars the pot holes almost swallowing the greatly outmatched ford icon. It was about now that the jeep wrangler was looking pretty sweet.

After many wrong turns and dead ends the group grew weary of the search and returned to tronconnes feeling dejected, having gone so far and to come up empty handed. On our way into town we stopped into the local surf shop where we had rented our boards. The owner recognised the looks on our faces and said ´you take me, we go find some good waves´.

Armed with local knowledge we avoided the old and invalid ´Salidita this way´ signs heading in the same direction we first tried. It turned out the old lady i spoke to earlier had said just around the corner not keep going straight. It appears that pointing and bad spanish is not an effective communication mechanism.

We parked at a restaurant on salidita beach, infront of one of the best sights we had seen all trip.

Once we walked through the restaurant and we able to see the break. All the effort to get to this spot faded. We surfed for the next 3 hours.