¡¡VIVA MEXICO!! and belize and guatemala...

Well the flight through Cinncinati was nothing special, Cinncinati has a sum total of Sweet FA to see, but Cancun on the other hand was hot and humid, which was perfect after a rather chilly San Fran. We knew straight away that Cancun was not the best place to be but we had a couple of nights just to get the rust off the Spanglish and to try and find a Mexico and Central America guide book... much easier said than done, as we couldn´t find a second hand bookshop anywhere and even walked for a hour to the nearest bookshop, who only had Spanish books!! But we weren´t too distraught as we are hardened travellers now and have no such need for such luxuries! ....Until we discovered that you can download an electronic guide book straight to the ipod... who you calling a flashpacker??!

We had already had enough of the smelly city so headed out on a collectivo local bus down to Paya del Carmen which was a lot more like what we wanted - white sands, warm sea, cheap beer and plenty of all of the above! It was pretty small but you got to know people quick so you could get the benefits of quick service fairly easy.. in fact if you have the money you can get lightning fast service anywhere but we don´t have the money so we had to charm them instead!

After a few days of chilling in Playa we bused it down to Tulum for the mayan ruins on the most picture perfect beach, a bit more bronzing time, and getting smashed with some crazy Canadians.. who we ended up going to the cenotes to dive in. For those who don´t know, a cenote is a sinkhole with exposed rocky edges containing groundwater. It is typically found in the Yucatán Peninsula and some nearby Caribbean islands... thankyou wikipedia! And we went snorkelling in Dos Ojos (2 eyes) which have bats flying round you head and if that´s not enough you have to swim under water in the pitch back to get the the next air pockets!! We also went to Chitchen Itza ruins which are huge and amazing, but way to packed with tourists and people trying to sel you every kind of mayan carving under the sun-god!

After the fun of Tulum, we got on the road to Belize and headed for Caye Caulker on the most chilled out border crossing ever! It was just an empty desk at the end of a sun-soaked jetty, where we lay waiting for the border police to turn up with sniffer dogs and machine guns, and all being well we hopped on the boat and headed to the island! Caye Caulker is an amazing place.. the first thing you see is a sign embedded in the ground saying Welcome to Caye Caulker - Go Slow! which isn´t aimed at the traffic because there are no cars on the island, it just means take it easy, you are in paradise! We checked into a hostel and it was a very cool place, like a ski lodge but on a beach, went out to eat lobster for 5 quid and then hit the hammocks with a bottle of rum! Day two consisted of strolling the 40 min walk around the island, more rum and a lot of sleep but we changed hostels to Tina´s because we heard it had some good people there. Day 3 was much the same as day 2 but we met a rasta dude caled Jerry from southern Belize who loved 3 things - rum, fishing and women!! He also had a small business making liquid viagra from seaweed and in his words ´it can stand de dick up on a 70 year old mon!´ Unfortunately he hadnt brought his magic potion with him, but agreed to share his fish with us which we bbq´d out the front and polished off a couple of bottles of rum with him and an english couple who had also been to Lincoln uni!

Ready to move on with a proper pirate hangover (Yaaarrgh), we got the boat to Belize City and caught a bus to head into Guatemala and for Flores. The usual headache of border crossings soon returned and we first parted with 10 quid each for the peasure of leaving Belize, and then another quid to get into Guatemala which is the most made up tax in the world but A. My spanish isn´t up to arguing with the woman, B. its only a quid and C. there is a guard with a shotgun standing 3 metres away...!

Flores is a beautiful little colonial town on an island on a lake, and it pretty much the gateway to the Tikal mayan ruins. The hostel was very cool, Los Amigos, with hammocks spread out around a great garden and restaurant, and really good veggie food. The first full day we hit Tikal which is probably the most famous mayan ruins, it is totally surrounded by jungle and if you get there at the right time of day you feel like you are the only ones there except for the howler monkeys and spider monkeys. The temples are HUGE and the stairs to get up them are a very ramshackle affair consisting of ricketty wooden poles tied together with string and very loosely attached to the temples!! But the climb is worth the knee-knocking because you get up and you just see jungle and 3 other pyramids towering over the jungle. We had 6 hours to explore the whole thing but you could really do it in 4 hours so we stretched it to 5 and then slept for an hour waiting for the bus!! After the glory of Tikal we spent the next day chilling and then hit the road to Lanquin.

We had never heard of Lanquin, and it wasn´t in the guidebook except for a couple of sentences but we were so glad we made the effort to get there. A gruelling 6 hour bus ride down gravel tracks, cliff edges and through rivers was rewarded by the most beautiful setting for a hostel. We had been told to got to Zephyr hostel just for the view, which looked over the valley with river rushing below and mountains surrounding us on either side. Our bed was in the loft of a dorm with a view of the end of the vally where the sun rose, and the showers where open on one side looking out over the valley - probably the best shower in the world! We got settled in, booked on the bus for caving and swimming in the morning and then got the drink on!

The bus to Semuc Champey was a 9km white knuckle ride that took over an hour clinging on for dear life to the back of a truck.. but the trip started with a rope swing into the river, followed by caving with a candle each and swimming through the caves with said candle in your mouth.. a few leaps of faith off rocks inside the caves and emerging out an hour later to get some food. Probably not the best idea was doing the bridge jump next and I thought I would sink after the meal, and the river was flowing so fast that if you didnt start thinking and swimming after the 6 metre drop you´d be swept off back to Belize! Then working off dinner with a brutal vertical climp up to the look out over the limestone lakes (which nearly killed Roz!!) and then the eaqually brutal climb down to a well deserved swimming/jumping session in the pools with the guide who was obsessed with backflips! An awesome day, which I would highly recommend to anyone!

We only had about 2 and a half weeks left at this point and were starting to see the bottom of the bank account.. we did some sums and figured that if we carried on we would only be having 10 pounds a day to spend - not enough! So we were really lucky to ask at the right time if they needed any work doing at the hostel, as the local guy in the bar was off for a few days the next week and they had no one to cover. So that was it and we started work the next day after I lost at poker and drank myself into a coma!! You may say we are crazy to work if we only have that short time left, but we had an amazing time doing not much work, drinking free tequila, free accomodation and free food and just having a ball! We even got to lead the tubing tour down the river and I had to do a bit of Baywatch when a German girl couldnt stop herself at the end and ended up getting swept into an over-hanging tree, clinging to it for dear life while her bikini floated away...! Fortunately Daniel Hasselhoff was around to save the day and I just had to get her to calm down and put her feet on the ground.. it was only a metre deep!!! But she was a bit scared and embarrased but she was thankful all the same! We worked for just over a week at Zephyr, with Julie the day to day manager, Dieter Pop the local guy who was the most genuinely nice and fun person I have ever met, and Chris and Thom the guys who own and maintain the place.. it was epic fun, and i will never forget the place. I even got a bit arty painting a sign to go in the town so people would know where the hostel was!

But time was ticking and we had to start the home stretch, so we headed to Antigua which is another beautiful colonial town full of gringos learning Spanish, met up with a group of mates who had come through Zephyr a few days before, then headed off to Lake Atitilan for birthday fun! We stayed in San Pedro and I had a great birthday with kayaking across the lake in a thunder storm with metal paddes (errr), 12 metre cliff jumps, hot tubs, beers, and even a birthday cake from the cake lady!! I better also add that San Pedro is rather famous for copious amounts of marijuana and the cake lady calls round at about 11 at night to deliver munchies - possible the most shrewd business woman I have met, but definately the richest woman in San Pedro!!!

After a couple of days we hit the road for the last time to Mexico City with one shuttle bus to the Guatemala/Mexico border, one more to San Cristobal de las Casas (famous for Zapatista rebellion) and then a overnight bus to Mexico city! We were travelling all the way from Antigua with a guy from Bristol called Mike who has a flight back to the UK on the same day so we headed out together.. friends!!

And this is where I write from now.. we came to Amigos hostel in the city centre, right in the old town, had a afternoon of exploring and then watching lucha libre (wrestling) which was amazingly funny when the midgets started! The next day was spent hitting literally every market in the city, where I got a Mexico footie shirt and Mike got a leather jacket for less than 50 quid, that night consited of an ice bar which we all got thrown out of for licking the sculptures and sliding off the furniture, then hitting a realy swanky cub where I got my groove on and showed the locals the best of my portfolio of dance...! Regretfuly not videos have yet surfaced so you may not be able to comprehend the quality, but any of you who have been out with me on a particuary messy night may understand the greatness...! Then today we went to the museum of anthropology which was huge but not very nice with hangover!

Tomorrow we will get the last of the souvenirs and then head for the airport for the last time.. for now.......

We look forward to catching up with you all very soon, thankyou for reading, sorry its such a big one to finish on!

Dan and roz xx