Belize and Mexico

BELIZE

Our crossing over the border was pretty painless. Actually it was kind of strange, 'cause as we went through the Belize immigration the guy behind the desk was on his mobile the whole time.

We managed to broker a good deal with a taxi driver (what luxury!) to take us to the town of San Ignacio, which isn't far from the border. We immediately felt a difference here. Everybody spoke English, all the signs were in English, and old Lizzy-queeny-pants was on the dollar bills. The English influence was undeniable, which was understandable given the history of the country.

The feel of the town was fabulous. It really reminded us of Cahuita (in Costa Rica), with it's Caribbean style verandas and brightly painted facades. We were pretty shocked by the the price of accommodation - we were used to paying two quid per person, per night, and submitted to the fact that we'd have to dig a bit deeper into our pockets than when we were in Guatemala. Nevertheless, we certainly got our what we paid for, as we had our own private room with sparkling clean en-suite along with huge, fluffy towels, plus a ceiling fan to keep us cool. We both agreed that this was the nicest place we'd stopped in all trip.

We'd had an exhausting day so far, as we'd spent eight hours at Tikal that morning, so took it easy that afternoon. In the evening we tried to draw some money out from the bank, but to our initial panic neither of our cards were working. We wondered what was going on. Had the bank stopped our cards for some reason? Had someone fraudulently bled our account dry? We tried to log onto our bank and the internet service was down, so we figured that the whole service was probably undergoing a shutdown.

We scraped together the bit of cash that we'd swapped at the border and went across the road to the local restaurant. Luckily the food was extremely reasonably priced, and we managed to get a delicious chicken dinner for our pennies.

The next morning we both felt a bit worn out from the day before, so lazily got out of bed and slowly got ready for the day. Luckily our cards were working so we were able to eat breakfast on our veranda whilst watching the world go by. A little later we headed out and walked a circuit of the town, taking us up hills and across the lovely river, which was fast flowing, clear and full of locals cooling down. The afternoon saw us spending several hours on the blog, which took so much time due to the amount of things we'd seen and done over the past few weeks!

The following day we made our way to Belize City. We didn't stop there, however, and caught the boat out to Caye Caulker, our next destination. The water taxi really got a shift on, leaving a white frothy trail in the beautiful blue waters of the Caribbean. We were there in less than 45mins, and landed on a small, sandy spit of land filled with palm trees and colourful wooden hotels. We walked to a hostel we'd read about and found they had room, which we were chuffed about as the place had a lovely high veranda overlooking the sea.

We went out to walk the Caye, which took us only about half an hour to do the full circuit as the place is that small. We kept on bumping into the same guy on a bicycle, who was one of the locals living and working there, and it became a running joke every time we saw each other. It started to rain quite heavily after a while, so we retreated back to the hostel for a shower and a mooch about.

The day we arrived was the start of lobster season. I tucked into one that very evening, but unfortunately James had not managed to shake off a tummy bug he'd picked up in Guatemala. Whilst most of the restaurants were dead due to it being low season, the small outdoor stalls had a thriving trade. This was probably largely down to the colouful characters who were cooking and calling people in to join them for dinner.

The next day we took our swimming gear and made our way to the far North East part of the Caye, where there is a protected swimming area (protection from the motorised boats whizzing about). Whilst there was no beach there, we made ourselves comfortable on a half crumbled sea wall, from which we could plunge at will into the warmth of the sea. The waters here were incredible and it was like looking down through glass. There was plenty of sea life to be found here, and lots of bright and pretty fish swam beneath us. There were also starfish and James managed to accidentally step on a small ray which was camouflaged by the sandy ocean floor.

There was a guy next to us fishing, and he managed to catch a bone fish, which he showed us. It flashed a bright and beautiful silver in the sunlight before the man released it, letting it dart off through the crystal waters.

Once more during mid afternoon we were forced back indoors as the rain came back. This time the grey clouds really set in, and the heavy downpour continued well into the night, only letting up briefly every so often. We spent the afternoon chatting with two lovely couples from Sweden, who were having a holiday together. Later we ducked out for dinner in between the torrential showers, enjoying more fresh fish that had been locally caught

The next morning the weather wasn't any better. In fact the sky started to empty just as we had to leave for the water taxi out of there. By the time we had got to the dock we were drenched through to the skin, sopping wet clothes stuck to us like glue. The Swedish folks had walked with us and shared in our soggy fate. We managed to dry out a little on the ride back to the city, but the bus that we caught to the border was icy cold with air-con which was pretty bloody freezing.

MEXICO

After paying the departure tax out of Belize (seriously, what is that all about?) we crossed into our final Latin American destination. It was a bit bizarre at the Mexican side when we walked through customs. To the left there were several men standing next to a table, which I presumed that they'd call you to for a search if you looked a bit dodgy. On the right hand side was a traffic light, which people would press and the green light saying "PASE" would come on. They told me to press the button, which went green, and to my confusion was signalled through. We later found out that this is the Mexican way of randomly selecting people to search, which we found most amusing.

Upon entering the country I half expected to be greeted by poncho and sombrero wearing Mexicans with heavy moustaches, smoking cigars and knocking back tequila (stereotyping? me?!). It looked very similar to all the other Central American countries that we'd visited.

The bus to Tulum was equally as Arctic as the one before, but thankfully by this point we'd dried. At the station we said our goodbyes to the Swedish couples, and said that we might see them in town at some point. The cab that we took to our hostel drove us away from the town, and parallel to the seafront. When we caught our first glimpse we were struck by the electric blue of the sea, and we couldn't wait to get to the beach. Unfortunately, after a looooong day of travel, it was around 7:15 in the evening so all we had time for was a shower and dinner.

Our "eco hostel" was about as far away from the town that you can get. It consisted of very rustic cabins with thatched roofs and open air showers. The electricity only ran from 7pm until 11pm, and there were plenty of citronella lanterns burning in the large communal areas, which helped to deter the hoards of mosquitoes that are found in the area. There were hundreds of quite large crabs allover the site, which would scuttle for cover as soon as they saw someone approaching. We even had a couple take refuge in our cabin at one point. Someone we stopped with commented that the hostel felt a bit like a hippie commune,which just about sums up the vibe of the place.

That evening we took a twenty minute walk to a great bar and restaurant which served beautiful food on an open air veranda overlooking the sea.

The second day we caught the free shuttle bus to the local Mayan ruins. These were by no means the most impressive ones that we'd seen, but the location was second to none. The site has a fortress wall, and it all leads uphill to the main temple, which is perched on the edge of a limestone cliff overlooking the sparkling ocean. We were also fascinated by the scores of large monitor lizards sunbathing in the ruins.

James practically ran around the ruins as he was incredibly impatient to get to the beach and into the sea. Instead of going to the overcrowded beach at the ruins, we walked further away to a larger and much quieter beach. We were totally stunned by the natural beauty of the area. The dazzling white sand, which was cool to the touch and extremely fine, felt like baby powder between our toes. The waters looked so bright that they looked unreal, with every different shade of turquoise and blue. The best thing was that there was hardly anyone else on the huge expanse of beach. There we stayed for the rest of the afternoon, basking in the hot sunshine like a pair of lizards.

That night we went into town with Zuzana, one of the girls from our hostel, and met up with the Swedish couples for a bite to eat. We had a great night out with plenty of delicious Mexican food and beer, alongside lots of laughter.

The following day we were going to go to Chichén Itzá, one of the largest Mayan ruins in Mexico, but what we hadn't realised that this was a three hour trip one way. We couldn't stop the night near the site as we didn't have the time, and the thought of six hours in a bus filled us both with dread. We agreed that it would be silly for us to rush there and back, and Mexico had impressed us that much that we also knew we'd be back to see the country properly some time in the future.

We toyed with a few ideas about what to do, but there was only one thing that we realy wanted, and that was to make our way back to the heavenly place we'd spent the day before on. We went with Zuzanna back to the beach, and as we settled back onto the sand I said to James, "I sure am glad that I've found the patience to lie on a beach and do nothing!", which is a skill I've acquired on this trip.

That evening we went back to the place we'd been the first night. This time we decided to try some tequila (when in Mexico...) and asked the advice of the waitress. She served us some beautifully smooth and delicately flavoured tequila, which made the José Cuervo we get in the UK taste like paint stripper. We were joined by a couple of girls from our hostel, and afterward we spent some time on the beach, swinging in the outdoor hammocks whilst watching the inky back waves and looking up at the magnificent starry sky.

We caught the bus to Cancun the next day, and arrived by lunchtime. We had pre-booked a hostel, and set out trying to find it. The address was a bit confusing, made up of different letters and numbers. A taxi driver told us to go one way, but when we asked a shop keeper he told us a different direction. This continued for around half an hour, and all the time we were getting hotter and more frustrated. Eventually we went to an internet cafe and asked the guy behind the desk. He looked it up on Googlemaps, and even kindly did a print out for us. It turned out that we were bloody miles away and needed a taxi. We were disheartened that on our last day in Latin America we'd managed to get hopelessly lost.

One in the taxi we relaxed a litle, until we reached our destination. The hostel was not to be found, and we'd left the address in the internet place by accident. We asked him to drive us back to where he'd picked us up from, but when we were nearly there he spotted the small sign for our hostel. It was pretty much opposite where he'd picked us up from! We laughed about it in the end, but had to give ourselves a swift kick at the same time.

We headed out for a much needed lunch, treating ourselves to some extremely tasty fajitas. We were going to catch the bus out to the airport early the next morning so didn't have a lot of time in the city, not that we minded. The place was touristy as hell, even in the downtown area, and we were glad that we wouldn't have to endure the huge hotels and hoards of tourists at Cancun beach.

That night was very low key, and we hit the sack pretty early. We were both quite sad to leave Latin America, as we'd had such a great time sampling the different cultures. We both felt that Mexico marked the end of our trip, and that Miami was just a stopover on the way back to the UK. However, at the back of our minds we both knew that we'd definitely be back to this part of the world.

Guatemala

For once we decided to take the easy option when traveling! From Copán we hopped on a shuttlebus, which was a little more expensive, but it meant quick and easy border crossings and also meant we could stay on the same bus for the duration of the trip, instead of catching four different ones.

Six hours later we arrived in Guatemala's colonial gem, Antigua. We arrived midday, so we had the remainder of the day to explore the town.

Antigua has several really stunning churches and a cathedral. Unfortunately the town was hit by a huge earthquake in 1773, which destroyed all but the facades and external walls of them all. However, this does actually make for much more dramatic viewing. When entering the buildings the first thing you notice is they have no roof, so the buildings are filled with natural light, and a lot of the large debris from the earthquake is still sitting in the same position is was the day it collapsed. Despite the damage the buildings are still very impressive.

Antigua also has some amazing cafes and cake shops, which it a novelty for Latin America, so we thought we would be rude not to take advantage of it. When the afternoon rain set it, as it does as regular as clockwork everyday in Guatemala, we took to a cafe to enjoy some export quality Guatemalan coffee with a delicious piece of Pineapple and Papaya pie. As it happened we got talking to lovely lady from Sydney and ended up stopping in the cafe for about three hours. Needless to say when we both left we were buzzing from all the coffee refills!

The following day we decided to do a climb up the active Volcan Pacaya. I know what you are all thinking, not another volcano, but this is not normal volcano...

So we arose early, much to Mel's frustration, at 5am to depart at 6. We began climbing the volcano and it was not long before we were surrounded by fields of hardened lava and ash. The environment was very much how you would expect Mordor to look, for all you Lord of the Rings geeks. Up ahead of us we could see the heat haze that was being emitted from the ground, which was getting steadily hotter the higher we climbed. We walked over several pieces of lava rock that had cracked open due to the intense heat, and from out of the cracks poured super hot air that was being given off by the lava flowing beneath it. After about an hour of climbing we came across of first river of lava. We could see the red hot molten red gradually creeping down the side of the mountain, but at this point we were about five metres away and we wanted to get closer to get a good look as this was an amazing sight.

To get closer to the lava flow we had to cross a scree slope made up of very unstable hardened lava rocks, which were razor sharp. If you did not move quickly and carefully you could easily get caught on the moving slope and slide 10 to 15m down the side of the mountain. I started my crossing of the slope, but the guide had failed to tell us that every now and again pieces of the flaming, molten rock randomly dislodge themselves from the lava river and come tumbling down the scree slope. I was about half way across the slope when I looked up and saw 4 or 5 pieces of scorching red rocks, about the size of footballs, coming tumbling down the slope towards me. I scrambled to get out of the way, completely loosing my balance in the process, therefore having to grab onto the razor sharp rock to keep my balance. Fortunately I managed to stay on my feet and avoid the tumbling lava, but to the detriment of my hands, which got sliced to shreds. The rocks only narrowly missed Mel as well, who was on the other side of the slope, and she to had to take cover also.

We both eventually made it to the other side safely and were now only about half a metre from the lava flow, which was as close as we could get before the heat got too intense. It was quite amazing being that close to something that is so rare to see, especially at such close proximity.

From there we both made our way further up the mountain to see more lava flows. On the way up some of the rock ahead of us worked loose and came tumbling towards us, hitting Mel in the shins. The sharp boulder knifed it's way through her trekking bottoms as well but fortunately did not pierce her skin. Mel was on the verge of turning back at this point due to the extremities, but gritted her teeth and carried on climbing. When we reached our highest point we got to stand on top of a lava tube and watch the lava pour out of it right in front of our feet. Unfortunately you could only stand there for 10 seconds or so, as the heat was so intense and the soles of you feet got extremely hot. We melted some marshmallows and threw some wood into the lava, which instantly combusted due to the heat.
After all that excitment we started to make our way back down the volcano to the safety of our minibus, which transported us back to Antigua.

In the afternoon we took a stroll up a small hill at the rear of the town. Set atop of the hill is a huge cross and a cleared area that acts as a viewing platform form from which you can see the whole of the town with the volcano in the background. It was a great place to sit for a while and take in the beautiful view. During our descent we felt that we had had a fairly exhilarating and tiring day, so we made our way to another cafe for some more coffee and cake.

The following day we would make our way further west to Guatemala's highlands and Lake Atitlán. The journey to the lake was stunning as we rose higher into the mountains we had some great vistas of the Guatemalan countryside which is strewn with huge volcanoes all venting out smoke. It is a very prehistoric landscape and after only 3 days in the country we were already starting to think that this could probably be our favorite country in Central America, and may end up being equally as amazing as Argentina and Bolivia.

As we caught our first glimpses of the lake the only words we could muster were "WOW". The lake was set in a lush green depression in the land surrounded by three volcanoes, and the turquoise blue water glistened in the morning sun. Dotted all around it's shores were small villages and towns, and our destination was the town of San Pedro de Laguna, about 40 minutes boat trip from the main town of Panajachel. We hopped on the boat and skimmed across the water taking in the amazing views. In the afternoon we wandered up and down the extremely steep streets of the town, stopping at a few places for refreshments. The San Pedro was not as quaint and pretty as we had expected, but we had to remind ourselves that we were at a lake in Guatemala and not Italy. While the natural views were brilliant, the town was pretty shabby and run down, as most Guatemalan towns are.

We got up the following morning and stepped out onto our balcony, which overlooked the lake and was drenched in the morning sun. We ate breakfast there and went for a saunter around the lower part of the town. This area lies on the banks of the lake and was much cleaner, with an abundance of cafés and quaint little restaurants, much more inviting than the upper part of the town. One thing the town did not lack was hippies. San Pedro has been a hang out for hippies since the 60's and a lot have never left since their first visit. So when strolling the town you are never to fall away from a head full of dreadlocks, hairy female legs and (sometimes)the distinct smell of body odour is in the air.

That same morning we set off on a walk around the East shores of the lake, which took us through some of the smaller local villages and finished in the town of San Marco. The 3 hour journey was full of stunning lake and mountain views as well as lots of "Buenos Dias" and "Buenas Tardes" greetings to all the friendly locals we passed on the way. We even bumped into a old man who claimed to be a Shaman, who some started rubbing all sorts of ointments onto our arms telling us it was a cure for bad stomachs, which would have come in useful given our record over the passed 5 months.

We eventually reached San Marco, after taking a slight detour off the main road and up a steep path into the backstreets of the town, which was a great insight into the local life. San Marco is famous for it's Yoga and Spiritual healing retreats, which line the shore of the lake. Therefore, the place has a very calm and laidback air about it's streets and people. From San Marco we hopped back on a boat back to San Pedro for lunch and to spend the afternoon in the hammock.

For the next two days we decided to make the most of the stunning lake views from the balcony so we did nothing but lie in our hammocks and read, paying the occasional visit to one of the local cafes for our daily fix of the stunning Guatemalan coffee and the ice cream parlour, which was perfectly positioned directly outside our hostel.

Our next stop was the little visited town of Quetzaltenago, Xela for short (pronounced shay-la). Two things had become very apparent to us during our stay in Guatemala. The first is that the locals shorten the names of all the towns that have very long names, which is most of them e.g. Guatemala City is just Guate, Chichicastenago....Chichi, Panajachal....Pana, you get the gist. The problem is if you don't know about this you can never figure out which bus you need to catch, as the guys that stand on the outside of the chicken buses shouting their destination always shout the shortened version.

That brings me nicely onto the second, travel in Guatemala is painful. The buses are uncomfortable and they squeeze as many people onto them as possible, the journies are long, due to Guatemala not having a square mile of flat land, and the buses never ever leave or arrive at the time they are supposed to. Add to this the fact that a bus, even if it says it's going to a town, will actually drop you halfway and tell you you have to get on another bus to go the remainder of the way, only to be told on the next bus that you have to catch another bus to take you all the way to town. Frustrating, yes, tries your patience, yes, but it's a great experience and it's all part of traveling the amazing and beautiful country of Guatemala.

Anyway, Xela is 90km away from San Pedro, so two and a half hours and three buses later we arrived at our destination and soon realise that Xela is massively under-rated.


Unfortunately Mel had come down with her fourth upset tummy of the trip, but only her first in Central America, which took the wind out of her sails, so she put her head down for the evening and I ventured the night streets on my own for a while. I made my way to the main square, which was buzzing with local excitement and the stunning colonial buildings around its perimeter were lit up to extenuate their best and beautiful features. The local excitment was aroused by the sunday night market, which sold wood carvings, food and general tat. I had a quick stroll round and took in the atmosphere before continuing with my original mission, to find some food.

The following morning Mel was feeling much better so we went for a walk around the town, taking in all the sights, which looked even more stunning in daylight. In the evening we found some really cool little cafes and restaurants that wouldn't look out on place in London. So we sipped a few coffees and beers and took in the local noctural atmosphere.

From Xela we took a long 10 hour, two leg journey to the coffee growing region of Cobán, and our first stop was the capital of the province, Cobán town.

Our first day in the town we went to visit a local coffee finca (Spanish for farm). We were greeted by a lovely Guatemalan lady who had worked at the finca for 29 years and spoke amazing English, she would also be giving us the tour. We had the tour to ourselves so it gave us chance to ask lots of questions and really get our heads around the details of the coffee making process. In fact we got our heads around it that much that I have decided I'd like to try and grow a coffee plant and cultivate the beans when we get to Oz!

The grounds of the finca were absolutely stunning, exactly how you would imagine a coffee plantation to look 100 years ago. The original wood built farm house still stands and is still in full use to roast the beans, which smell divine. The windmill that was used to pump the water from the well for irrigation purposes still stands, although it is no longer in use, replaced by an electric water pump.

After the tour of the grounds and the roasting plant we were treated to a cup of coffee that was rich in aroma and as smooth as velvet, made straight from the premium beans of the finca. We sat and enjoyed it while watching the roasters hard at work, roasting and grinding 400 bags of coffee a day.

From there we took a walk 20 minutes outside of town to a orchid farm, where we were given a tour around more orchids than we have ever seen in one place. The farm was huge and the species of orchid endless, some as small as the eye of a needle and others that looked like an octopus with the body of an orchid flower. It was quite something but after an hour we were all flowered out, and we headed back into town in the blazing midday sun. We reached the hostel, had a cold shower and lunch and headed to the bus station to get the afternoon bus to the tiny town of Lanquin.

We eventually arrived in Lanquin at 7pm after waiting for one bus that still hadn't left an hour and a half later than scheduled, so we went to find an alternative. The ride there was stunning, traveling over the tops of the mountains looking down onto the smaller lush green hills that resembled bubble wrap, as they were so close together and went on as far as you could see.

The town was tiny but beautiful, set in the middle of the central Guatemalan lush green mountains and our hostel had a huge terrace with a great view over the town and the mountains behind it. The reason for traveling to Lanquin was to visit the amazing natural lagoon pools of Semuc Champey. We piled onto the bus the following morning outside the hostel and thought we would soon be off. In the traditional way of Guatemalan transport, our collectivo then continued to circle the town for three quarters of an hour to try and fill it up. During this time the sun was getting hotter, indeed was the inside of the bus, and we were getting sweatier and more frustrated, as all we wanted was to dive into the cool water of the pools. We finally set off along and our very full and hot collectivo bounced along the unpaved road, throwing everyone inside it about every time it went over a boulder.

One hour and 10km, yes that's right, 10km in one hour, we arrived at Semuc Champey, and we practically ran all the way to the pools. The pools have been formed on top of a 300m long limestone bridge, which the powerful river flows underneath. The water in the pools is cool and amazingly crystal clear, with some reaching a depth of about four metres, but the water is so clear that you could see the bottom in as much detail as if they were only a foot deep.


We quickly tore off our clothes and slowly immersed ourselves into the water, breathing a sigh of refreshed relief as as body temperature plummeted. There was also a large number of small fishes, who happily nibbled on our toes as we bathed. We swam in the pools and sunbathed on the rocks for an hour or so before making our way further up stream.

At the top end of the bridge, where the pools start, we made our way through clouds of yellow butterflies to get a great view of where the river rapidly cascades into the black abyss of it's underground passage leading it under the pools above. It was like nothing we had ever seen before, and it made you want to jump in and ride down the underground rapids, but after our Volcán Pacaya experience we were tired of risking life and limb! So we decided to head back to the pools for a little more bathing.

Upon leaving the pools we took a different trail back to the road. This took us along the bank of the river where we got a stunning view of the river pouring out the other end of the underground tunnel with the beautiful waterfalls trickling from the pools above it. The setting in the mountains, the natural beauty of the pools and the spectacle of the underground river was truly incredible and Mel and I both agreed that is was one of the highlights of our entire trip, and it reinforced our opinion of just how amazing a country Guatemala really is.

When leaving Lanquin we had to head back to Cobán, as we could only get a bus to our next destination from there. We thought we were saving the best until last in Guatemala, but after Semuc Champey we started to think that the most extensive and best presevered Mayan ruins in Latin America had to be something special to be our Guatamalan highlight. Next we were heading to famous Tikal.

It was a five and a half hour journey from Cobán to Santa Elena, where we would hop on another bus to take us to the small town of El Remáte, on the banks of Lago de Izabel, 33km south of Tikal. The trip passed relatively quickly and was one of the least painful trips we have taken in Guatemala, unfortunately when we arrived in Santa Elena we could not get a bus that dropped us right in El Remáte, so we had to walk about 2km down the road into the town with our backpacks. Now I know 2km does not sound far, but the El Petén region of Guatemala is known for it's stifling and intense heat and we were arriving at midday. In the minibus on the way to our drop off point the sweat was pouring off us just sitting still and by the time we had walked the 2km into town and up the hill to our hostel we were truly drenched and gasping for refreshment.

Our room at the hostel was an open air bungalow with a thatched roof and only three walls, which meant that it was completely open to the outside. We had a double bed with a mosquito net, which was full of holes the size of your fist. Mel jumped straight into a cold shower, while I continued to perspire. After an hour or so I started to cool down and we decided to get a cold drink and some lunch to recover from the walk. We spent the afternoon relaxing and sweating, waiting for the sun to set and the air to cool. The following day we had to catch the bus at 5.30am to get to Tikal for 6am when the park opened so we could experience it empty and with all the howler monkeys still at their most active, so we got an early dinner and hit the sack. After carrying out some repairs to the mosquito net we went to sleep in our open bungalow.

We arrived at Tikal at around 6.30am the next day. The site is right in the middle of the jungle so a walk of about 30 minutes is required before getting to the main area. The Howler Monkeys were already in full voice, so the air was filled with their roar along with the calls of all the jungle birds.

Our first sight of Tikal was the rear of Temple I as we approached the Grand Plaza from the rear. Temple I, even from the back, looked incredible. When we got to the Grand Plaza there were only two other people there and the plaza was still shrouded in a light covering of mist. It looked truly magnificent and we spent about 10 minutes standing in the middle of the Plaza marveling at the incredible structures. Unfortunately you can't climb Temple I anymore as several people have fallen and died, but you can climb Temple II, which lies at the opposite end of the plaza. It was only 7am, but it was already 27 degrees, so the sweat soon started to flow. When we reached the top we sat down and enjoyed the stunning view over the Grand Plaza.

We spent the next hour or so clambering around the Central Acropolis and Northern Acropolis, which lie either side of the Plaza. We managed to spot a beautiful Grey Fox sitting at the top of Central Acropolis. From here we took the trail around to Temple V, which rises high above the jungle canopy. On the way we spotted our first group of Spider Monkeys diving through the trees.

The lack of people around astounded us, the entire 15 minute walk to Temple V we did not see a single person. From out of nowhere the Temple suddenly appeared in front of us. The jungle is so dense at Tikal that you don't actually see the temples until you are right at the foot of them, which makes the impact of the first sighting all the better.

The temple was beautiful, probably the most stunning of all. At the side of the temple was a very steep wooden walkway that had been constructed to allow access to the top of the temple. It was a tough and extremely steep climb to the top, the steps were almost as steep as ladders, so much so that some people were not prepared to climb them. We both slowly made our way to the top, which rewarded us with the most incredible views. Looking around the jungle canopy disappeared into the horizon and the tops of the temples of Tikal poked out above the trees. It was unbelievable, so we took a seat and absorbed the view for 10 mintues.

Throughout the day we made our way around the rest of the ruins, which in total has six main temples, three of which you can climb to the top of. There is a section called El Mundo Perdido (The Lost World) which has two smaller temples. The ruins, in their entirety spread over huge area, we were there for almost eight hours and we never really stopped walking. During that time we hardly seen anyone and the wildlife was incredible, we lost count of the amount of Spider Monkeys we saw (this was the type of monkey that I befriended in Ecuador), the highlight of which had to be a group in which a mother was carrying her baby her back and the baby didn't take its eyes off us for a second. It was incredible.

Tikal was by far the best ruins we have seen during our trip, together with the amazing wildlife, the stunning jungle setting and the lack of people, helped make it an unforgettable experience. People always talk so much about Machu Picchu, but we definitely preferred Tikal.

We arrived back at our hostel at 2.45pm, so after a refreshing shower made our way straight out to the border and to our first stop in Belize. Guatemala had been such an amazing country that Mel and I made a promise to return here and see some more of this beautiful country.

El Salvador and Honduras

EL SALVADOR

The border crossing into El Salvador was very chop-and-change. We started by catching one of the "chicken buses" from Liberia to the Nicaraguan/Honduran border. A "chicken bus" is an old school bus from the US (the yellow ones you see in all the films), which have been decommissioned in the states and then shipped over to Central America to serve as local transport. More often than not they've been pimped up and resprayed lots of different colours. This ranges from garish, multicoloured cartoon characters splattered all over the vehicle, to more tastefully subtle colours, and sometimes they just keep the yellow but cross out the name of the school. The seats are pretty darn uncomfortable, with huge chunks of foam missing from the edges. These buses are all over central America, and by now we had become accustomed to catching them. As with all types of local transport in Latin America, they cram on as many people as possible, and all cargo just gets thrown at the back of the bus and in the aisles.

During this particular trip James and I were relegated to standing at the back of the bus alongside a stack of swaying boxes, several baskets containing fruit and veg and our oversized backpacks. I had just finished saying to James, "Latin American babies are so cute that they make me feel broody" (don't get excited, mum), when the bus pulled up next to a woman with a double pram. She clambered in the back door and propped herself up on one of the boxes, and one of the bus guys threw the twin boys into her arms before trying to ram the fully extended pram into the back next to us. I asked her if she needed any help, and before I knew it I had a little baby with a mop of black hair in my arms! She willingly gave her second child to a woman sitting near us, and the man sitting next to the second lady gallantly gave up his seat for me. For twenty minutes I had a huge pair of brown eyes staring serenely up into mine, and he happily bounced up and down on my lap as if I was a long-time friend of the family.

Two border crossings, another chicken bus, two minibuses and a tuk-tuk later and we finally made it to San Miguel, our first stop in El Salvador. This wasn't a scheduled stop, as were hoping to press onto a small town called Alegría. However, the journey and border crossings had really taken it out of us, so we halted our day's journey here. San Miguel doesn't have anything sight-seeing worthy, but we did walk the town and do lots of people watching.

The first thing that struck us as we crossed the border was just how incredibly friendly all the Salvadorians seemed to be. Everyone wished us "Buenas tardes" and fell all over themselves to help us, even when we didn't particularly need it. During our entire time in the country it seemed that every Salvadorian who spoke a little English was eager to strike up conversations with us, and seemed genuinely happy to have us in their part of the world. We even had one guy stop his car, shake us by the hand, and thank us for coming to his country. We officially felt extremely welcomed.

After spending the night and refreshing ourselves, we set out to Alegría. It wasn't easy getting up to this tiny mountain town, as we had to catch two "collectivos" (mini-bus taxis that get stuffed full of people going in the same direction) and a local bus. We had serious doubts that this last bus would get us there, as it was the most beat up vehicle that we'd been in all trip, but it slowly chugged it's way up the winding road. James and I were discussing our plans in El Salvador, when one of the locals tapped me on the shoulder. When I turned around he smiled broadly and simply pointed over his shoulder and out of the window. Below us was a sprawling valley which was very pretty, this is something that we would probably have missed if it hadn't been for the man's kindness.

We were dropped off in the town's small but immaculate main plaza. Our guide book told us to ask about accommodation at the tourist information desk, which turned out to be a local girl on a stall selling snacks. When asked for places to stay she pointed out a few places that we could try, and we settled on a place right on the square. After having a chat with the very friendly and helpful owner (good job we know a bit of Spanish!), we set out for the areas main attraction, a crater lake.

As we walked through the town we had a lot of attention for the locals, but in a really nice way. They greeted us cheerfully and would ask us where we were going, pointing us in the right direction. We couldn't believe that every male over the age of twelve was carrying a machete and wearing a cowboy hat, like it was a uniform they dished out to them at school.

The cobbled path coiled up the side of the old volcano, but it wasn't too steep so the walk wasn't strenuous. We were accompanied by the distant sound of thunder, rumbling like a belly that hadn't been fed, but in the meantime the sun was still shining down on us as we strolled along. We passed a few farmhouses with chickens busily tending to their baby chicks and an endless sea of coffee plants rippling in the breeze.

As we dipped down into the entrance of the park we were met by a little old man who charged us the princely sum of 25 cents. We continued down and as the tree line broke we found ourselves next to the crater lake. There was something mystical about the place. We were the only ones there, and it felt as if we had been the first people to discover it's existence. The air was still, and we could clearly hear birds delicately singing in the trees all around us. We found a large, flat stone which served perfectly as a bench, and there we sat, talking is the peace and tranquility around us.

We must've been there for a while, as the clouds began to creep up over the rim of the crater, and started to worm their way in towards us. We also noticed that the distant rumbling we had heard earlier was starting to sound a little more threatening, so we peeled ourselves off of our stone and started to make our way back down into town. By the time we'd reached the bottom the heaven had opened and huge warm splodges of rain were coming down on us.

That night we were tucked up in bed and sound asleep. I awoke with some movement, it felt as if someone was shifting the bed from side to side, which stopped as abruptly as it started. I began to think that I been dreaming in a half awake state when James asked me in an urgent voice, "Did you feel that?!". We quickly realised that we had probably just experienced an earthquake. It wasn't at all like the small tremors that we'd been awoken by in Britain, this was much more powerful, and felt like the whole room was swaying. We later discovered via CNN that there had been a large earthquake just north of Honduras and that sadly 5 people had lost their lives.

We disappeared the next day to go to the capital, San Salvador. Coming from the bus station it was obvious that a lot of money had been spent on developing the long avenue of Los Heroes, as huge fast food places sprouted at the side of the street in abundance, and there was a massive shopping mall dominating one end of the road. It was this area that we chose to stay, as it's deemed as the safest. We settled into our hostel, which was brimming with US Peace Corp volunteers, and walked the short distance to the mall, grabbed an iced coffee and did a bit of window shopping.

That afternoon we ventured further and walked about 5km into the centre of the city. As soon as we drew closer we could see how more run down it began to get, and by the time we were in the heart of it we were stunned by the contrast. The whole centre seemed to be one giant market, with stalls flanking both sides of every street, and eardrum-bursting music blasting from every angle.

We also notice that Salvadorians had an essential accessory; firearms. We couldn't believe the amount of security guards and police that we saw, everyone of them sporting pump-action shotguns. Regardless of this we felt pretty secure walking around, until we reached the main plaza. We decided to perch ourselves on the monument in the middle, as we had walked a long way and it was ridiculously hot. One of the few locals sitting near us asked us for a dollar (they deal in US currency here), which was a request we were getting fairly used to. Before we knew it an armed police officer moved him off, along with all the other locals around us. We looked behind us and realised that we had no less than three armed policemen standing guard behind us. The interaction with the local man had not unnerved us, but the reaction of the police had made us feel unbelievably uneasy. We caught a taxi back to the hostel almost straight after.

The second day we took a trip North to a town called Suchitoto (which I hysterically pronounce Suck-your-toe-toe). It's a cute little cobbled town with a sweet plaza and a relaxed atmosphere. We set off on a walk down to lake Suchitlan, which really was quite a drop from the town. On the way we passed a tree which had collapsed onto a power line. There were several local men standing around, machetes unsheathed, ready to start hacking away at the huge trunk. We weren't entirely sure that the cable had been isolated, so we scuttled past quickly.

The lake was quite large, with a small walkway on one side and benches shaded by trees. Here we sat scoffing our lunch down, with ants scurrying around our feet to pick up our stray crumbs. The climb back up was hot, so we stopped for a ice cold drink at a restaurant with a fantastic panoramic view of the lake.

Once getting back into town we walked in the opposite direction towards a waterfall that our guidebook had told us about. The instructions weren't clear, and we wondered whether we had missed it completely, until we asked a local who told us to keep walking. When we reached the sign we continued to be puzzled, as it appeared to direct us onto private property and there was no-one around to ask. We climbed through the fence anyway, and walked along an over-grown path through some trees. This lead us to the top of a very peculiar waterfall. The water itself wasn't the main attraction, it was the rocks which made up the falls that were quite spectacular. They were huge, black, hexagonal columns, all propped up against one another, with pieces of hexagonal rocks scattered everywhere. James made his way down to the bottom to admire the view whilst I carefully skipped my way into the centre and cautiously peered over the edge. This phenomenon was apparently caused by volcanic activity, but quite how the stone got to be such angular, uniform shapes was beyond us. After this we climbed our way back up into town and caught the bus back to San Salvador.

We had decided to visit the town of Santa Ana, but on the bus on the way there we started to do a little calculation. With only a few weeks left and still five countries to go, we realised that we needed to get a wriggle on. We only stopped in Santa Ana to grab something to eat, and caught the bus straight out to a place called Metapan, which was heading towards the Salvadorian/Honduran border. We stopped in this tiny and very sleepy town for the night to recharge the batteries to make the border crossing the next day.

HONDURAS

So we decided to group this together with El Salvador as we only actually spent two nights in the country! The first day was pretty uneventful, as it was spent traveling across the border and getting to Copán. We'd begun to miss the ease of South American transport - although on the whole it was a lot longer, it was generally more comfortable and you could always get an overnight bus and wake up at your destination in the morning. Here in Central things are so much more bitty, and everything is done during the day.

The second official day in Copán was dedicated to the reason why travelers go there; for the Mayan ruins. As we entered the site we were greeted by five brightly coloured macaws, perched on the fence and squawking away to each other. As they spread their wings and flew through the air the dramatic flash of rainbow colour was breath-taking.

We spent a few hours at the ruins, which were more extensive than either of us were expecting. Whilst the pyramid in the main plaza wasn't all that grand for Mayan ruins, it was the exquisitely carved stelae which are scattered amongst the site which are a real attraction. Through intricately carved hieroglyphic text, they tell the stories of past Mayan kings who were influential in building the city.

There was also an incredibly impressive hieroglyphic staircase, which was very long and would've originally been quite magnificent. Apparently this, along with many of the other buildings there, have been built over the top of older edifices. This was common practice in the Mayan world, as new kings would not destroy the work of past kings, but would simply build directly on top of them.

We followed the tour with a walk around the nature trail which was also in the national park. This was only about 30 minutes, but was great for watching wildlife, particularly for a very vocal little bird related to our magpie. It lets out a call which is so unusual that it sounds like a synthesizer. The trail also wound around many mounds of earth, covered with vegetation. We discovered that these were Mayan buildings that had not yet been uncovered.

Once out of the park we walked a further 2km down the road to see part of the same settlement. Whilst the area we'd seen earlier was for public gathering, rituals, ceremonies, etc. this part was where the Mayan people actually lived. The buildings weren't on the same scale as the ones we'd seen in the morning, but it was interesting to walk through the small plazas and into the houses of everyday Mayan folk.

After this we walked back into town and prepared for the trip to Guatemala the following day.