We not late we still on Hawaiin time!!

Hola from Lima airport where we are entertaining ourselves in the internet cafe for 4 hours until our next flight boards! Please forgive me now if I make even more typos than normal as this is the 2nd all nighter we have pulled in 3 days and tiredness is starting to kick in! Don´t go thinking I´ve forgotten how to construct a sentence correct grammatically by the title of this blog - I will explain it´s reference later on!

Since the last blog we have had a ball in Hawaii, made our flight to LA by the skin of our teeth, spent a night in Santa Monica and have flown to Peru where we are now in Lima airport awaiting a flight to Cusco where we will have 5 days to acclimatise to altitude of 3500m before starting our 5 day trek to Macchu Picchu.
Hawaii was great fun, we landed on our feet yet agin by randomly getting upgraded to a private twin room at dorm prices in the hostel! Our bedroom door was a little like a secret doorway that other people in the dorm before we arrived wondered where it led to!We had to walk through the main dorm to get through to our dorm and we were afraidf people would think we were posh backpackers so we had to keep reminding them of the "free upgrade"! Turned out 2 of the girls in the dorm where primary sdchool teachers from Ireland on a career break and within minutes they were our new best friends! We learnt very quickly that in Hawaii all you have to do is say "Aloha" and you have a new friend - subsequently we have left Hawaii with a whole stash of new friends!
The original `plan was to stay in Waikiki for one night, see what all the fuss was about and then get out of the tourist city scene and head to North Shore for some chilling time. However our hostel was putting on some really good free tours from Waikiki so we decided to stay there for 3 nights, do the tours and then head North. Unfortunately one of the tours was cancelled so that kind of ruined our plan a bit but we still managed to have a lot of fun hanging out on the beach and haggling for jewellery in the market! Waikiki is a fun place to be but you realyl need to explore the island to see what it has to offer. We consedered island hopping for a day or 2 but decided it would be tbetter to see one island properly and return another time. Saturday night we had to move hostels as there was no room for us in the one we were in , so we packed up our bags yet again ( we are getting quite good at this!) and walked 10 meters down the road to the next hostel where we had booked into a co-ed dorm under the advice of our new mate Travis at reception who made a valid point that if we shared with boys the bathroom would not be hogged all night while we were trying to get ready! We checked into our room, met one of our 6 new roomies - Tony the American who has been wandering the world for 10 years but from next week in his words "his life is about to change" (wère not really sure how - didnt want to ask 2 many questions! He was happy that we seemed normal enough as on his first night in the hostel he had been mugged outside and when he came back to the dorm he found the other 2 "redneck" roomies had brought prostitutes home with them - nice . He saw the look on our faces when he told us this story and quickly reassured us that they had been promptly thrown out of the hostel and there was a nice Kiwi guy in the room now instead - who he said was "buff" for 40 and that we would like him!! He also assured us that as we were not guys without a tan we would be safe - seemingly they are the targeted ones by the locals!

We headed back out of our dorm wondering who else would have checked in by the time we returned and rented a car for the day with the other 2 Irish girls from our previous hostel. We tried in vain to get a convertible but they were all sold out for the day so we ended up with what appeared to be the only car this other company owned - a very old Dodge Ram with leather exterior over the front bonnet and bumper that when you put your foot to the floor still only went about 50miles an hour and the breaks werent so super!! We headed to the East Shore and Windward shore for the day, did some beaching, avoided swimming in the Portuguese Man of War infested waters of the East Shore and went snorkeling in a really cool bay. Returned home early evening , met Brad our Kiwi roomie who was indeed "buff" for 40 and had been christened "bandaid " by the other 3 US Marines who had checked into our dorm. When we quizzed them on why they called him bandaid they explained it was because he was "cut" - the marine definition of "buff"!! So it seemed all the guys in the room were impressed with our new Kiwi friend, later on they decided to see who was the more macho of them all by having push up competitions -this co-ed dorm thing was turning out to be quite amusing. We even had an audience while putting on our make-up and they wanted a step by step explanation for each thing we were putting on our face including the right technique for spraying perfume !!

So the night got off to a funny start and we planned to be in bed earlyish as we had to be up at 8 for our trip to Pearl Harbour the next day. However thé early night didnt really materialise and we were still up at 7 am. 1 and a bit hours of sleep later and we were back up and on our way to Pearl Harbour! Was really good to see , just did the free stuff which was mainly the US Arizona Memorial where you can walk out over the submarine that parts of our still visible where it sank. It´s a little eerie and weird to be standing in a place where such a historical event happened but it was really good to see it. There is a lot of information to read when you are there which was a little taxing on the brain after 1 and half hours sleep but they show a good video and there are lots of missiles and torpedos to look at and a mock subermine cockpit. Took lots of pictures for a future history lesson and even bought a copy of the newspaper from 1941 on the day it all happened. Am gathering quite a lot of future geography and history lesson memorabilia along the way!

On Sunday night we planned to get the bus to the North Shore but we got carried away dancing at Dukes - this is the place to go on a Sunday at 4pm in Waikiki! We headed there from the beach with the "Golden Girls" in toe . Carol and Betty - I´d hazzard a guess were both easily in their late 70´s were 2 ladies we met on the beach that our Kiwi roomie Brad had befriended! They were hilarious , both originally from California they were the most glamorous ladies on the beach, they reapplied their lipstick at least once every half hour and sipped cocktails out of their beach flasks while sitting under an umbrella people watching!! They have threatened to come join us along the way in South America but I´m not sure of Carol´s zimmer frame will get through security!! So after an afternoon of dancing with the Golden Girls, a Hugh Heffner look alike and the 2 middleaged women who were clearly in Hawaii and taking dance lessons with 2 gay guys we had left it too late and realised that our hostel office up there was going to be closed by the time we got there . We contemplated risking it and going up anyway - a 2 hour bus journey and if we couldnt get into hostel we would pitch our hammocks somewhere ( we have been dying to use them but havent had a chance yet!). However Travis (our friend from reception who gives us mangoes!) advised us not to go up as we wouldnt get in , so he very kindly let us pay for one bed and we snook back into the hostel wed checked out of earlier that day and slept in a friends room.
Next moring we headed up to the North Shore where Lost is filmed, Jurassic park and a lot of of other stuff. Hurricane Felicia was still "on her way" and had arrived in the form of rain and wind , but nothing more than the odd tropical shower that you were dry again in no time. We arrived at North Shore and immediately felt like we were on a different island , i´t´s a whole different world up there, much more laid back, no high rise buildings, in fact harldy any buildings at all and the hostel was damp wooden huts beside the beach. Turns out of we´d phoned and said we were going to be coming up late the ight before they would have left a key for us - oh well we´ll know for next time!!
Our new roomies included 2 British medical students, a Spanish girl and a dodgy Alaskan who already before lunchtime had a bottle of liquor in a brown bag in his hand - more about him later! So once the Alohas were done and we had hung out on a hammock for a little while we were off to the beach to do some snorkelling with our new friends. Craig - one of the guys who worked at the hostel who was from Florida (and Adam he sounded like the male version of Kally Duquesne from CSI!!) told us not to get too friendly with the Alaskan guy as he thought he was a bit dodgy. We informed hiom that we didnt plan on but that he had checked into our room so we were beginning to feel a little uneasy. We made a quick detour back to the room to remove all our valuables! Later on that evening Craig piled us and 6 other hostel goers into his van where half of us had to hide on the floor incase the police saw and off we went to the nearest town to get dinner! When we got back to hostel we had a bit of a gathering at the communal picnic area which was all going great until Alaska guy made a return! To cut a long story short he had no manners and tried bumming drinks and cigarettes off people so we took it up with him and a general converstation about how important manners are turned into a bit of fisty cuffs and I had to use my best "talk a 5 year old down after some stupid argument in the playground" voice to make him go away. Luckily it worked and we didn´t see him until the next moring when he strolled into the room and took up residence on the couch and began snoring so loud I´m sure his family would have heard him in Alaska! There was nothing left to do except the old hostel routine I learnt in Oz that if someone is snoring throw a book or 2 at them. I wasnt sure how good my aim would be from my top bunk in the corner so I opted for the closer approach , climbed down grabbed the biggest book I could find in the room and started whacking him with it while giving him the "if you snore don´t check into a dorm line". Got a couple of grunts out of him but wasnt very effective so I opted for the kicking him option instead, that shut him up temporarily but not really enough to go back to sleep. And the smell of drink was disgusting so we called the management and within 15 minutes he was escorted off the property! Not quite so mannerly a guy as our marines and Kiwi from the last hostel!

Next day myself and Jo rented bikes and headed for the beach where "Lost" is filmed , seemingly we could get into the set where the "others" camp is. Turned out though that we missed this cus there was a language mixup while our Spanish room mate was trying to explain to me where this was! Anyway we got to see the beach which was pretty amazing and some turtles. Renting the bikes was hilarious - these bikes have never seen a can of WD 40 and havent had their brakesd or gears checked since they were first bought Içm guessing at least 20 years agio! So for our 5 dollars eah we had no breaks , I had 2 gears and Jo had one! Mine also made a sound that I can only liken to 1000s of crickets all making noise at the same time! It was going to be a long 5 hour cycle! However we laughed about it and even made some hilarious parachute looking bag covers for our backpacks as Felicia kept raining on us. Jo who informs me she hasnt been on a bike in at least 10 years did remarkably well with the technical problems and even managed the off road sections which were quite challenging. We both have some lovely inner leg bruises to show for our hard days work on the bike! The scenery was amazing and well worth the cycle. That North Shore is definitely the more idyllic side of the island, pity it rained most of the time we were up there.

That night we were shown yet more Hawaiin hospitality when we were invited and driven to some guys house further north. His house was right on the beach and when we arrived he was towing out some surfers on his catermaran so they could catch some decent waves! Jo had a another first when she went for a spin on the cat conquering another fear on her list! had a very enjoyable night there , played some tgame involving throwing golfballs into a saucepan , tasted blue corn chips for the first time and listened to some guy playing guitar and harmonica and singing all at same time, the next Jack Johnston on the making I think!
Next morning we were supposed to be going diving in the cage witht he sharks however incoming Felicia put a stop to that and unfortunately it was cancelled due to weather. We were both very disappointed , although I think Jo may have been secretly relieved!We will just have to do it somewhere else along the way! Headed back to Waikiki later that morning and headed out for a surf. Finally made a dream come true and caught some waves in Hawaii! Although being summer they were pretty small and I had to paddle like a maniac over an hour just to catch 3 waves! Headed out later that night with our new friends from Oz and the Irish girls and again planned to get an earlyish night as had a bus pickup at 5.45 to airport. And yes you guessed it the early night didnt materialise and we somehow either slept through our alarm or it didnt go off when we lay down for our 45 min piower nap before the bus was due to arrive!

Jo woke me up and I had o clue what was going on , looked out the window and saw the transit bus, thought it was only half 5 so told Jo wed better run down and tell it were on our way as we thought it wasnt coming until 5.45. However as I was throwing the last of my things into my bag I caught a glimpse of my phone and to my horror it said 6.36 - this was not good as we were supposed to check in at 7 and it was an hour and a quarter ride to the airport with rush hour traffic. Panic with a capital P set in! I sent Jo on down , but clearly that bus was not for us and it had gone by time we got down. meanwhile I tried to do a last minute under the bed check with my rucksack on - not a good idea. The whole thing went over my head as I knelt down and for a moment I honestly thought I was going to break my neck and spend my last moments of life on a hostel floor. I felt something in my neck pull straight away and panicked. The weight of my bag was preventing me from getting back up and Jo was already downstairs, so I knelt on the floor for few monents with my head between my knees and my at leat 23kilo bag over my head still attached to me and tried to calm down and figure out how to get back up. A few wriggly manouvers later I was up and on my way again, neck in agony but Id worry about that later!

The one beverage too many from the night before was kicking in and it was all too much to cope with, Jo coped very well at me pacing in cirlces and shouting about gettnig a taxi asap! soon we were in a taxi , it was already 7 oclock and we were suppoed to be at the airport. I faced reality and started phoning home to get someone on the internet to book us a new flight. However the taxi man seemed to sense our distress and put the foot down and 25 minutes before our flight was due to take off we pulled up outside the airport. Not really thinking we had a chance of getting on the plane I ran in anyway and left Jo to muster the bags. I was psyching myself up top `pay the 900 dollars that Mum had quoted me on the phone 5 minutes earlier for a new flight but I sent a prayer up when they said yes we were late but we could still check in and I laughed to myself at the t-shirt I had bought earlier that day that said " I not late, I still on Hawaiin time" - hence the name fot the blog post!!

We ran through security giggling all the way and congratulated ourselves on the closest call ever for a flight just as soon as we were settled into our seats! We laughed even harder when we turned on our camera to look at the pictures from the night before and found pictures of us being pushed home in a shopping trolley - island transport!! Anyway we made it to LA and my neck was aggravated slightly more by the near whip lash when our shuttle bus driver reveresed straight into a wall. Luckily we saw the funny side of this but he didnt get a tip! Santa Monica was beautiful , wish we had had more time to spend there but will be ont he list for revisiting! So now you are up to date on our adventures so far! We are a littel concerned about the weather here in Peru as the captain was mumbling something about 62 degrees f - not we are uesed to! Loking forward to exploring Peru, speaking Sapinsh again and getting some decent exercise in on our 5 day trek. Within 5 minutes of arriving in the airport a friendly policemand has informed us about the low down on gettnig a taxi and generally how to stay safe i.e. look like we are scruffy and have no money - not to hard to do right now! Will keep you all posted of our whereabouts asap. Love to all xo