Today we walked through the border at texas into MEXICO!!! It was so cool just to wander the streets and know I was in Mexico. Everyone was exceptionally smiley and welcoming. We were all ecstatic to learn that a bottle of beer costs $1! Needless to say, we stayed in a randomly chosen bar (out of many) for most of the three hours we had. Richard, the bartender, was very excited that I was Aussie, and introduced me to each of the locals perched on his barstools. I...

Unfortunately our time in san antonio was mostly spent in a huge shopping "mall"! I was quite disappointed because although giant complexes like that are great if you simply want to shop, they tend to be terrible representations of a particular place. We could have been anywhere, were it not for the mexican band playing by the river in the centre of the shops. I laughed my butt off went John and I ventured into a cowboy store and the shop salesman infor...

Yesterday morning we walked down to the French Market, which is the oldest markers in the USA, first built in 1791! Chatted for a while with an artist there called Oscar. He handmade really coll, colourful badges and earrings, and said he was down at the market almost everyday, even when there was hardly anyone else around. On friday the winds were so bad there were only about 4 stalls out, but Oscar said he loved what he did so much (hes been doing it for 19 yea...

We drove into New Orleans yesterday, and I truly was not prepared for the devastation. As we crossed the bridge into the city, we could see beside us another bridge whose middle had been completely torn away by Katrina. Driving through the residential area, with a birds eye view, we could see that even now so many houses were in desperate need of repair, they just looked like empty shells, roofs and walls revealing their guts thriough gaping holles. Their entire ...

We had a huge drive today, on the road since 7am. To entertain ourselves we've all been making friendship bracelets, the whole bus is like a bunch of 8 year old girls - brilliant. David, the ultra macho man's man, was VERY into making his bracelets lol. It is "PJ DAY" today, it was v. funny to see everyone wandering around in their pyjamas in Walmart. Stopped at a town called Pigeon Forge for some multi-story go-karting. JB and Dad would have loved it! ...