Cuba is looking unlikely. We were trying to get flights to Havana, Cuba from Lima. The trouble is, the flights are about a grand, so we were going to get an 'All American' airpass, which is cheaper than flights. But a week ago we went to an agent to check the price and this airpass to get us from Lima to Havana and back and it was AU$598. Now it is AU$750. For travel in early August. It's a kick in the teeth for flights to go up $150 in a week so we are now checking out other places. August is also high season for Cuba and prices are inflated, and the weather is very hot. So yeah.

Now the contenders are Colombia and Venezuela, and possibly Argentina. Both C and V are closer/over the equator than Argentina and hence warmer - we want a warm place. But flights to Caracas, Venezuela are about AU$600 and Columbia is on the dangerous side so we'd have to fly more around the country (with an airpass). Not sure which one just yet. But, so much logistics, it's a pain in the arse.

Would still really love to go to Cuba though.... it'd just have to be really worth it.

Well, no party but I got the roadworthy certificate in my hand, which is a bit of a weight off my shoulders. Now the car is green-lighted to be picked up by its' new owner! Swoit!

A week and a half to go.....

Once I Get This Roadworthy, I Will Party Like It's 1999

Yeah, long time no post! Been pretty busy, sorry about that if you keep coming back looking for a new post.

Just listening to Hey Joe (Hendrix), and I feel reassured that I'd voted this in my all time top 10 songs, in the Triple J Hottest 100 of all time. Actually anything by Hendrix is easily in my top 10.

So what's news? Well a lot has been happening in the past month or so. Of course, been organising our South America trip ('America2009'). Booked a 7-day Salkantay trek (an extended version of the Inca Trail) which Scotty will be coming on. Cannot wait for that. Bought some thermals for that, as we'll be camping at over 4500m where it is down to -5C at night. Also we bought a iPod Touch (it's really Ness's) as that will be hell handy when on wireless networks for Skyping, emailing, blogging. Currently trying to get a flight to Cuba from Lima too, as that would be wicked. Well, trying to get one without spending an assload. We leave in 2 weeks and a bit (13th July) so it's all a bit wierd at the moment. That feeling where you know in a couple of weeks you're going away for a bloody long time but you haven't started packing and you dunno what to pack and you think there are heaps of things that still need organising. Yeah, I still feel like it's all about 6 months away. Ah well, shit will work itself out!

Actually, speaking of organising, can anyone suggest what to do in Vegas on my 30th? Hit up the casinos? Get wildly drunk? Get married? Or all of this? Nah I will not get married but maybe the others. I'd like to stay somewhere special. Maybe the Luxor, or the Bellagio? Today a dude at work told me Vegas is real cheap, if you don't gamble! Because they try to lure people using the casinos, so they make food and accom cheap. Sounds good to me, but I'll blow money gambling too!

Other news is in selling my 180SX. Turned out that the starter motor had packed up for a holiday so I pulled it off and got it fixed up. Then the horn was not working properly, then this then that. Anyway I have now sold it (yay), for a good amount for me and the buyer and in good time before we go away. But the mandantory roadworthy is proving to be quite a difficult and ongoing affair. Have taken the car to 3 different places, all of which quote me totally different, non overlapping problems which result in unhappy unroadworthiness. The first place said it was too loud, too low and had too many intake mods, but I knew all this so I went to fix them by putting on the stock airbox and exhaust on, then I couldn't find anyone with an exhaust. The second place said 13 things, from steering rack boots to windscreen, to something with the right indicator (I can't read this guy's writing anyway). And that was from a dodgy brothers place in the western suburbs which I was recommended to. I then took it to a nice little local suspension place which said 4 minor things need replacing: wiper blades, rear brake pads and it dripped a tiny bit of oil and the wiper washer water bottle leaked. Easy! They are top blokes there, a real old school mechanic joint which doesn't cock about like the other places. I'm fairly sure that loud exhaust and too many intake mods are an EPA issue, not roadworthy issue. So anyway yesterday and today I fixed it all except leaking oil, and took it back there. They are going to steam clean it underneath and maybe fix the oil if they can find it. Swoit! Hopefully by this time tomorrow, I'll have a RWC in my hand! Then it will be delivered to the happy buyer on the weekend!

The Audi is going great. I drive it to work every day now which has turned me into a lazy sod but we started going back to the gym again after not going for a month or more. It is great to drive a diesel and know your CO2 emissions are low, fuel usage is low and fuel is actually often a lot cheaper than petrol! Some times of the week I see diesel at $1.17/L and petrol is $1.26/L. I still look at it and re-fall in love with it. That low, wide stance, wide tyres, soft lines... with German engineering... all in a practical 4-door hatch with lots of room... ahh. I'm really over my 180. Anyway.

Well, I suppose while we are away, this will be a bit of a travel journal kinda thing. I might re-do the decor a bit as I never meant to leave it looking like an orange juice icy pole for more than a few days. Will be putting up photos on Flickr whenever I can too. So, leave the dial tuned right here!

If you aren't already sick of hearing about our new car, here's more! The new car is going great. Got it registered and insured, so everything's done. It's still running on the $20 of diesel I put in last weekend when we got back, and we've driven it heaps since then. My old car (180SX) has a dead battery so I bought a new one last night. I need to put it in and continue cleaning the car up to prepare it for sale.

Anyway we're getting into planning our South America trip. It looks like we'll spend the majority in Peru because there is so much in Peru to see. We have booked flights from LA to Lima and just now need to book the Inca trail. We were considering doing the 7-day Inca trail but there are heaps of 4-7 day treks available, so we think it might be better to do the (standard) 4-day Inca trail and then a seperate ~5 day trek.

One dilemma I had until this morning was photos, and uploading them to the net. I have a Nikon D60 DSLR camera, and I take photos only in RAW (raw data), not JPEG. This is because it's better quality and gives you more flexibility for adjustment later. In the past I've taken photos with real dark areas, some totally black. But in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, I've been able to brighten the image and bring out details from the blackness. You can't do that with JPEGs. The dilemma I had was while we are away, I want to upload photos to Flickr, so people can keep up with what we're doing. But Flickr only accepts JPEG photos. Anyway I found my camera can create both RAW and JPEG files (2 files for each photo) on the memory card. This way I can jam the card into a public computer somewhere and upload the JPEGs to Flickr, and keep the RAW ones for when I get home (then I can convert to better quality JPEG or get them developed or something).

I did a comparison to compare the RAW vs JPEG this morning:

The bottom one is the JPEG. The JPEG it creates is not high quality, but it'll be good enough for the net for the time being. Maybe after I get home I can touch up the photos and re-upload them. Also what you see there is 1:1 ratio (not the full image), so the difference is very noticeable. When the image is resized to, say, 1024 x 768, there won't be the hugest amount of difference.

Anyway, till later...

1750km In 20 Hours

We took delivery of the new car on the weekend. After final preparations (unreg. driving permit, CTP, insurance, etc), we woke on Saturday at 04.20am for a flight to Brisbane, then drive 800-900km. A long day was ahead of us.

The 6am flight took 2 hours, and we were at the dealer by 9. We test drove the car and looked right over it. It has some somewhat minor scratches on it which we were never told about, but I thought about the price and the fact that the price we got the car for was a few grand less than others advertised on the net. Plus the interior is great and the general condition of the car is excellent. I concluded that I could overlook the scratches. They threw in a free tank of diesel to sweeten the deal a bit after I questioned them about it. That's after covering the airport taxi cost for us too.

So we hit the road at 11 and got a tad lost as I was ignoring signs and the GPS. I decided to ignore my internal Tom Tom and listen to our real GPS and read the signs, and we were on our way to Ipswitch. After a coffee, we were on our way to Inglewood and Goondiwindi where we turned south onto national highway 39, which wiggles all the way down to Melbourne.

A few hours later we passed through Moree, Narrabri and through the nice Pillga East state forest to Coonabarabran. I can never spell or pronounce that. It's a nice place though. We had dinner there, too. That reminds me, in central/northern NSW, they park backwards! I mean, us Victorians drive on the left, and to angle park, we turn left about 45 degrees and stop. In northern NSW, you have to stop, turn the wheel to the left and reverse into the 45-degree parking spot. So when you drive out, it's a matter of driving forward, giving way then turning left 45 degrees. What wacked out stuff. We tried it once and that was enough. We completed about 800km on the first day.

After spending the night in a nice little motel in Gilgandra, we had breakfast at Dubbo Maccas and filled the car with diesel. We didn't stay in Dubbo for 2 reasons: it was a little far, but mostly, it is known by everybody I've talked to, to be a dodgy place which has the highest rate of car vandalism in Australia. Driving our new Audi, I didn't want to take it there for the night! It's amazing how dry central NSW is. The north is not so bad but in the central/southern region, the whole landscape is dry and dead. Amazing that there are farmers out there making a living.

We stopped at the Parkes 'The Dish' radiotelescope. I've always wanted to see it, and we didn't have much time so we only spent about 20 minutes there. It was great to see, and it's obvious they have had a lot more funding/publicity since the movie, The Dish. Took some photos and got moving again.

We got back to Melbourne at 6.30pm Sunday with a bit of fuel left. Did about 900km on the second day which is a long way, though we were cruising at 113km/h (110 zone) with cruise control on.

The drive in this car is spectacularly smooth and accurate. It's smooth but not like a boat. It has sports suspension and sports front seats as factory standard, and it's noticeable. The seats wrap around you and the handling is awesome - better than my 180SX. It has 225mm tyres all around, which are the width of the rears on my 180SX. I enjoyed the drive and could go back and do it tomorrow.

Last night I took the car out to wash it at 10pm in the 8c coldness of a clear, foggy Melbourne autumn night. There was dew all over the car so it helped by softening the bug guts all over the front of it. It came up brand new. I also got a roadworthy done yesterday, and have it booked into Vicroads tomorrow for new rego plates. After then it's all done!

Anyway, I better get going - tiredness is setting in. Here are some photos from our trip. See them all on Flickr.