USA: Los Angeles (Santa Monica, Venice Beach & Holywood)

(post by Colin)

Hi all,

We are chilling on the beach in Costa Rica in Cahuita  on the Caribbean coast. It is very very relaxing here and we are finally sitting down to catch up on the blog posts and bring you all up to date on our travels..   Thanks for being patient... :-)  As they say here in the restaurants when you have been waiting some time  for the Jerk Chicken and rice and peas  ordered..  "soon come" :-) or Pura Vida !

Following on from Ana's last post  - we left Santa Barbara and continued on route 1, the Pacific coast highway towards Santa Monica where we had arranged accommodation.  We  only had a few days before our flight to Costa Rica and so we sped through the last part to get to Santa Monica..  Really just miles and miles of  gorgeous beaches and  posh houses in places like  Malibu..

We had organised  to stay at a lady's flat in central Santa Monica who was away. We found this great website  called Airbnb which allows anyone to do short term rentals.  It was way cheaper and better than the local motels.  We were right in the heart of Santa Monica and a 5 min walk from the beach.

Santa Monica is really nice.  A classy seaside resort town.. We could easily have whiled away a few weeks here..

Santa Monica Dinosaur

Santa Monica  Dinosaur

Santa Monica alley

Kizzy

Salsa dancing in the street -- Santa Monica

On our first full day we took a walk from Santa Monica to Venice..

Bay watch styleee !

Bay watch  stylee 2

 First up was free weight lifting and  gym gear all over..  So many people enjoying activities at the beach - training and practicing all kinds of  sports and activities.  We had a good chat with some locals who were training at the beach..  They were really friendly and positive.. A real active lifestyle here..

Rings at the beach

Man on rings..

Gymnasts training at the beach !

We eventually reached the famous Venice beach where the smell of  da herb was ubiquitous.. and I guess a bit like Camden market by the beach !  A real mix of characters...

Famous Muscle beach sign

Christian signs amongst the chaos   - Venice beach

Whilst here we watched roller skaters, skate boarders, dancers, a basket ball game, saw more graffiti and street art  and generally took in the sights and sounds of the place whilst watching some of the characters..  Kizzy said it was  a bit like a human zoo..

not bad spelling - in Spanish !

We loved watching the game !

The next big thing..

Graffiti artist

Street art Venice Beach

More graffiti artists - Venice beach

Roller Dancer

Skater

This guy was hilarious!

Roller Dancer..

Venice beach street art

Scratch DJ at Venice Beach

Rasta Artist's Van...

We also really enjoyed some of the architecture alongside the beach...

beach house - Venice beach

beach houses - Venice beach

We went home very tired after walking for miles and the next day it was time to go to Hollywood !

Hollywood street sign

Wow - Hollywood  is a busy place and as you would expect very touristic.  We wandered around for ages trying to find the sign on the hill....  You gotta have a pic of the sign !  Honestly it took us ages and we couldn't find a very good view point...

The best view we found !

Honestly the sign is behind us !

So we did the typical things...  followed the road of the stars and went to the famous Grauman Chinese Theatre..

Kizzy with Chaka... 

Col with Jimmy

Chinese Theatre

Arnie..

Eddie Murphy

It was a really long and tiring day in Hollywood and it left us with the feeling that we had just scratched the surface..  Here are a few more pics that I like of our time in Hollywood..

Cool painted building..

Hollywood sign alternative

Elephant statues

SAW

El capitan cinema

only in America !

chilled cyclist in Hollywood

Chinese theatre..

And that was it.....  We  did not make it to downtown LA.. Overall we had a good feeling for LA and felt like we could have spent alot longer in the place - specially with a base like Santa Monica..  I am pretty sure we will go back here one day and spend more time getting to know the city...  Next day it was a 5am start to drive to the airport , take the car back and jump on our flight to Costa Rica.. I have to admit we were a little nervous leaving the Western world...

Click here for the picasa pics

Love ya loads..

Col & Kizzy