Los Angeles

Last stop on my trip was 4 weeks in the United States. Starting off with a week in Los Angeles.

I found Los Angeles and indeed America as a whole a strange place. I was expecting it to be far more like home than it actually was! That said I still enjoyed my time here.

I booked myself into a hostel on Hollywood Boulevard itself thinking it would be super glam... Turned out it was a shithole so I moved to a slightly less shit one ten doors down.

After a day of viewing the obvious sights in Hollywood I decided I wanted to head out a bit and see more of LA. This is where I hit a major snag. It is actually impossible to see LA without a car. With this, admittedly major, handicap I set out to view the metropolis.

First up was the "old" town in the Downtown district. (I'm sure I've lived in older houses but I'll let that go....) Although this is primarily the business district, some of the original Spanish settlement buildings still exist and so I spent a pleasant day wandering around this area.

I managed to totally baffle locals by travelling everywhere by bus which no body in LA does! Next stop was the slightly more bohemian area of West Hollywood. I mainly spent my time here hanging around in record shops. No change there then. I also managed to visit the Le Brea Tar pits and the LA county museum of art. Both were highlights of LA particularly the LACMA which had a fantastic exhibition on the artwork of Tim Burton.

The evenings in LA I spent drinking in bars around the Hollywood area, a notable highlight of which (for me anyway) was actually "singing" on Hollywood Bvd in a bar with Karaoke. One thing I really found when our in bar in America was how friendly the people were. Definitely noticeable from my experience in other big cities. I did manage one big night out on Sunset Strip including watching loads of great music in both The House of Blues and the famous Viper Room, formally owned by Johnny Depp and the place where River Phoenix died in 1993.

My longest trip from my base in Hollywood was down to Long Beach where I headed down to see the Queen Mary. Sadly the highlight of this trip was finding an English shop on board that sold Frys Orange Creams...

My last day in LA I made a brief trip to have a look around Beverly Hills (dull) and a look around UCLA (which puts British University's into shame). I finished my stay by going to see the last Harry Potter film in the Chinese Theatre, which where they hold The Oscars...

I have to admit I found a week in LA more than enough time and sort of wished I'd headed on earlier. Maybe it would have been different if the LA Galaxy had been playing at home!

Next stop after a greyhound bus ride.... San Francisco!!

Acapulco

My original plan for Mexico had been to get out of Mexico City and to spend a week in Puerto Escondido. The bus was booked and paid for only for me to arrive at the bus station to find a landslide had cancelled all buses... Afte a quick re planning (and couple of beers) I decided to opt for a trip to Acapulco instead.

My first impression of Acapulco was of a faded British seaside town such as Blackpool. It definitely lacked glamour... That said I checked into my hostel and hit the beach for my first swim in the see of my entire travels!!!! Later that evening I tried out a few of the beachside bars. None of which particularly covered themselves in glory. Most bring theme bars catering to the limited number of package holidaymakers.

So far I could see why no body advises a stop in Acapulco while in Mexico....
I decided at this point to revise my plans for the week. Somebody recommended a cheep beachside hotel in a tiny fishing village called Pie De La Cuesta about 20 kilometres along the coast.

Pie De La Cuesta was everything I could have hoped for. The hotel backed onto the beach, the village had one bar that was happy to put the football on for me and the little beachside restaurants all sold amazing fresh grilled fish. The only downside was that the Pacific was too dangerous to swim in at this point with very strong currents. Not that it stopped some of the crazy surfers I saw.

Although I spent much of my few days here sprawled in a hammock I day make the effort to do a bit of exploring.
Pie De La Cuesta is at one end of a spit of land between the pacific ocean and a freshwater a lake called Coyuca, so I took the opportunity to go on a boat trip around the lake stopping off on one of the islands for a swim.

Back at the hotel I pretty much spent the next two days chilling out, a very welcome break.

Back in Acapulco itself I booked into a different hotel in the old part of town in view of the famous cliff jumpers.

Next up (bar a quick couple of days back in Mexico City described in my previous post) was Los Angeles and my final country the good ol US of A