Dari and G Man in North America

Due to working responsibilities, Rob and myself got sent to the place where we were originally supposed to spend our 6 months - Washinton DC. I left on Sunday and flew in to the freezing DC and caught a taxi to Mc Lean - Virginia, which is about 15 minutes outside the capital. The best part about the trip is that we are staying in the Ritz Carlton - so pimpin. It has to be the most awesome hotel I have stayed in ever - from the Ritz slippers to the chocolates on the pillows to the "only way to get to the top floors (my room) is to swipe your card in the elevator" to the free champagne after work. You appreciate these small things when a hotel is your home! View from my room...



We had a rough week at work and hit the town on Thursday night for a few beers with a couple of the guys from the team that came with us.


Ricardo and Greg and Marky Mark the rapper.

We headed out of Tysons corner to stay in a hotel in the city for the weekend to do some sightseeing.

On Saturday we headed out and started of at the White House...





We tried to take a short cut across the road and as Rob lifted his leg to step over the below pictured chain, we heard a "SIR". Out of the blue there was a police officer about to taezer him if his foot hit the tar. So funny.



Then we hit the Washington monument...



The World War II memorial - took a pic for every state we have been to - check out the gallery for the rest...



And the Lincoln Memorial with the reflecting pool (empty) where Forrest Gump run into the water to meet Jenny...



One more photo of the "Monument"...



We also checked out some of the Museums and US Capitol building.



After a good weather day (still about 10 degrees celcius - see the pick of the hairy guy playing soccer in no shirt?? in the gallery), Sunday I woke up and looked out the window and it was snowing, hard. We went out side, made a few snowballs and threw them at the Faragut statue in the park (until we hit him in the head) - that was fun.



We walked a couple of blocks in the snow trying to find a place to get a haircut but couldn't, so we went back to the hotel and phoned a couple of numbers and evetually found a place. When we got there it was slighly different to what we expected...



After the visit to the Barber Shop we called it a day - back to work (and the Ritz - Yessa!) tomorrow. Check out the gallery for some other pearlers.

We had a rough Friday night and only stumbled back to the Sheraton at 3:15. Waking up with a hangover is rough, but waking up with a hangover and having to work is just plain unfair. So we worked on Saturday (planning to stay until about 3pm but ended up only finishing at 7:30pm).

Sunday we walked around Old San Juan and hit a few beaches on the way (snuck into the Hilton but the beach wasn't that great) - it wasn't the most exciting day, but what can you do!



Check out a few other pics of the city and the hotel.

Next weekend is Washington DC baby!

Weekend 4 was a work weekend, but we did get out of work at about 5 on Saturday so we decided to go to El Morro which is the fort at the end of Old San Juan. It was pretty cool. There are tons of people flying kites, so we bought one (to try and fit in). But we got bored after about 5 minutes so we bought and extra line of string to make it go higher. Then once we had done that we were bored again so we bought another line of string so it would be the highest out of all the kites on the field (cause I have to be the best).


The 1st pic is with one line and the 2nd is with 3 lines.



On Sunday we hit the golf course cause we couldn't leave PR without playing at least once, and we chose an awesome course - Dorado Beach East. Steven and Dari, you would have both loved it. It cost us a pretty penny - $100 to play and another $60 to rent clubs, but we did get a set of Cobra's - was deshtroying the driver!

I played alright, a birdie on a long par 5 was the highlight of the day, Rob played ok. Besides the golf, the place was unbelievable, check it out...





For the rest, we just had a party during the week with the team, which was greatness...


A - for Africa

Besides that, we went back to f#cken freezing Boston for the weekend to do some admin. We met up with a few new SA secondees and had a bender at one of the many night clubs. Here are some after photos...



Note that the bodylining is from left over pasta (thats all we know how to cook).

Check out the gallery for more.

Culebra - we finally get to go there after 2 failed attempts. This time we went big and organised to stay there for Saturday and Sunday night and get there by plane.

So after a big Friday night out with the team in Old San Juan, we woke up still drunk at 6:30 to check out the hotel and jump on the plane. The plane ride was amazing. It was a 10 seater so it was pretty tiny but we flew over PR and I got some fantashtic pics...





These two are pics of Flamenco Beach from the air.

So we managed to get a villa on Flamenco Beach (one of the top 5 beaches in the world!). The villa's were great and the beach has the most amazing clear blue water and white sand. It is unbelievable.





We also hired scooters to get around the island...



We spent most of the day on the beach and we also took scoot over the rest of the island.



We also went to a beach where you can see the islands Saint Thomas and Saint Croix and we walked to a beach to snorkel at which had an awesome reef as you stepped into the water. Really incredible snorkeling, the reefs are like the ones in Mozi but the are only a couple of metres into the clear see.



We flew back early on Monday morning to get back to the office and back to work, but the whole trip was machette.

Check out the gallery for some more great pics.

So its been a while since I've updated due to the large amount of work we are doing down here. The team I'm working with is pretty cool and the work is different but still auditing - what can you do!

We normally get back to the hotel at about 9pm every night and then go out for dinner and by that time its bed time (need my 8 hours). So nothing much happens during the week. I will take some pics of Old San Juan and post then cause its really amazing.

So for the second week here, we worked on Saturday and decided to take the Ferry on Sunfay to Culebra (island off the east coast of PR). We were staying in a different hotel at that stage - one on the beach. Here are some pics:



View from my hotel room, and Samai, Rob, Sung and myself on the biatch. They are working with us on the job.

So anyway, we went out to a festival on Saturday night and got home late. We had to get up early on Sunday morning to drive an hour to Fajardo on the east coast so we could catch a ferry to Culebra. Due to the night before, we got there a little late and the ferry was full. So we decided to go on the other ferry which goes to Vieques, which is another island (bigger than Culebra) off the coast.

The ferry trip was long and tought to swallow with a hangover, but we made it.



Check out the guys box boat - pretty funny.

So we had finally made it out to the island and now we wanted to hit the beach. We thought we could just catch a taxi but due to the island being and old bombing target of the US (closed in 2000), most of the roads are dirt, so we took a taxi to a place that hired jeeps! Then they were out of jeeps cause we didnt book, but after a bit of convincing we finally got the lady to rent one to us. So we were finally off to the beach - Red beach (one of the many, but apparently the best one). But before we got there there had to be one more delay... We got pulled over by a cop cause I was speeding (doing 50 mph on a dirt road with a limit of 25). The traffic officer was a complete chump who thought he was the hero of the island for stopping me "speeding" on a dirt road with no cars on an island with a population of about 2000 people - nothing better to do. And nothing made me happier than whipping out my SA drivers and him squinting to understand it and leaving him not much of a choice but to warn me.

So we eventually reached the beach and all the crap was worth it, check it out...





We swam for about 2 hours and then had to make the long trip back again. Before we jumped on the ferry we had a few sundowners at a pub with the most awesome view evers...



So for the one day a week off, it was a good one. Check out the gallery for more pics.