Enjoyed talking to Lindsay with Skype over breakfast. Then headed out to the second volcano on the island. Had a great time driving up the mountains twists and turns and arrived at the Lake Temple. Much construction was occurring on the site. The temple was lovely set against the lake background. Earlier I visited a museum of Balinese . culture. A band played music while a guide showed me around. Primarily the displays consisted of ceremonial masks and costumes. On the way home traffic was backed up for miles with no alternate route available. The source of the jam was a tourist bus which lost control avoiding a head on collision with a car passing in its lane. The bus ended up smashing into the hillside. It looked pretty bad. The accident delayed me for over and hour. Then I got lost and spent another hour trying to get back on track. Really difficult reading Bali map and the roadside signs are very confusing. The highlight of the day was feeding the monkeys in the mountain by hand. As usual it rained hard in the afternoon. The scooter drivers just get soaked to the bone. Tomorrow I plan on staying closer to home, perhaps a trip to the zoo and then a nice dinner.

Had a nice Skype call with Mom and Dad to start my day. Finished up my delicious breakfast and headed out to the volcano. I hadn't driven more than 10 km when the gas pedal on my rental fell off. Needless to say they just don't make em very durable in the third world. It took about an hour for my replacement vehicle to roll up. While I waited I sat a chatted with a young fellow who owned a business building small prefab homes. Once the car arrived the intrepid traveller was off again. Every time I stopped I was accosted by venders. I practically had to cut their hands off with my car door to escape. I will say this for them they are the most persistent at their trade. I ended up buying a carved chess set and numerous gifts for Lindsay's birthday. Now more on the chess set. After much negotiation I managed to get the vender from $100 US down to $35 US. It was raining heavy at the time. So the vender kindly went to wrap my purchase for me to keep it dry. Meanwhile I have two other venders . at my car door harassing me to buy their wares. My vender arrives back and hands me my wrapped goods and finally closing my car door to the other venders dejected faces, I drove off. I stopped a few hundred yards down the road to wipe the humidity off my window and inspected my purchase. The sneak had switched the chess set with a poor quality poorly crafted version. I mean it was like huh! This isn't what I had just inspected. So I did a uee and turned back. He denied having switched the set several times. I finally got him to produce the original set by renegotiating another purchase price. What a scammer eh. I have to order dinner now so I will continue with my account in the morning. New set of pictures posted today.

Sorry In had to vacate the restaurant. I promise tomorrow to post some pictures. I'm gather together a few right now. Anyway on with the day. I spent alot of the day driving in the low mountains on zig zag roads in many places rivers crossed over the road. I was fortunate to have passed the last of them when it really started to rain in the evening. I wish I could have stopped a thousand times more than I did it seemed like I saw a National Geographic picture moment around every corner. Crossing one of many bridges I looked down at the river and it was filled with naked little brown skinned kids frolicking in the brown muddy water. The scene was jungle and rocks and tumbling water. On many occasions I . saw families sitting together on elevated platform structures chatting and weaving things smiling and laughing. It has to be said the people I have met are the happiest, peaceful, content I have ever met. This country stands in start contrast to the people of Cuba for instance or Vancouver for that matter. Everywhere people smile at you and say hello as I roll slowly past this village or that. On the way home around sunset I passed a group of roadside stands I had passed earlier in the day. I area was now crawling and swinging with monkeys. Some people were feeding them bits of fruit and chased and had monkey words with each other over the morsels. Around noon I stopped for lunch and met a wonderful Aussie/Canadian named John. We had so much in common regarding our views on life. Our recent histories where amazingly similar. He was divorced after many years of marriage and basically cut off from his extended family. He travels as I do to meet great people and experience life to the fullest. We exchanged e-mail and had a great time chatting over lunch and a beer. Well that's about it for today.

Where do I begin… Left the hotel around 7:30 A.M and joined the traffic madness. The skill and attention required to drive here is incredible. In the city the roads are pretty good but the traffic is very heavy. But in the country the roads are 1 lane wide by our standards but traffic is going in both directions. You never know what to expect around the next bend in the road. A villager with carrying dinner on their head or a pile of dirt or garbage. Limbs hang down over the road in some places and wack the roof as you drive by. Torrents of rain fell off and on in the afternoon and evening and I mean torrents!! I bravely drove on into the evening carefully watching the headlights for cars that were passing head on in my lane. There is a definite . art to driving in this country. But I am getting the swing of it. The mountain and sea views were breathtaking. The road weaved through rice paddys, forests and small villages with shops that came right to the road edge. Along the coast there were many dive shops and catamarans for rent lined the shore of every small bay. Small family stores were all along the road selling water and sodas to refresh a dehydrated traveller. I stopped a number of times and grabbed a cold water or coke. I visited a temple that was very old. When I got inside I saw that it was built around a cave opening. The entrance was pulsating. When I got closer I realized it was filled with bats. Thousands if them hanging and flying around inside. Next I came across the water palace. There was a network of bridges that crossed large man made ponds and a central palace where one of the rulers of Bali once lived. The whole effect was very tranquil. A number of people seemed to be meditating on the grassy areas. Sorry they are closing the restaurant now so I will write more later.

Hi Everyone, I had a really . good sleep last night and have risen bright and early to head out on a photo expedition of the island. It's a sunny warm day after a night of heavy rain. Breakfast consisted of hard boiled egg in a spicy sauce, fried rice, green beans and beef and a cup of really excellent coffee. I met a young guys from France and asked if they would like to ride with me around the island. He is checking with his friend as I type. I'll be heading out soon. Be back with update and pictures tonight.

My trip to Mexico City was surprising . and exceeded my expectations. The weather was warm and sunny every day except the last night I was there. There was a thunderstorm with lots of wind and rain. The highlight of my trip was Teohtihuacan(The city of the gods). An ancient Aztec ruin outside of Mexico City. The main pyramid is the 3rd largest in the world. I paced off over 3 football fields along one side.