Panama City, Panama

OUR LAST NIGHT
Tonight is our last night in Central America - tomorrow we fly to Tampa to join Sara's family for Christmas. It's been a wild and sometimes bumpy ride down through Central America but today was a day to reflect on what we're done and celebrate a trip that has progressed as smoothly as we could have hoped for. One of our treats for today was renting a tandem bike and riding out to the causeway near the entrance of the canal (another form of transport to add to our list). The weather was hot again today so we only managed to last for an hour but it was well worth it. Tonight we plan on taking it easy, having a nice meal at the hotel and trying more of the local beer.

Biking around the causeway

 Leaving Panama - our first flight since Mexico

MORE
Stay tuned for more wacky updates in the new year from some even more remote places.

San Jose to Panama City, Panama

COSTA RICA - PANAMA BORDER CROSSING
The aforementioned 14 hour bus journey from San Jose to Panama's capital took more than 20 hours. I was always confused by our departure time of 8pm knowing that the border was 350km away on good roads but only open between 6am and 11pm. And with that we turned up at the border at 3am and waited in the bus for three hours for it to open. When it did it was almost farcical. The queues moved slowly and the signs at both sides of the borders were nonexistent. To leave Costa Rica and enter Panama we had to buy a postage stamp looking thing on each side and present it to the immigration official but the only people selling the stamps were dodgy looking folk who couldn't explain why we should be buying them in the first place and they were charging more than the face value of the stamp "because it's my business" we were told. In comparison to every other Central American border this one was awful – we spent most of our time in lines without knowing why we had to be in them in the first place and having to do it at six in the morning on very little sleep made it very difficult. Things improved slightly once in Panama - during the journey we were treated with three movies, but all of them finished between 5 and 10 minutes short of the actual ending. At least I had seen them all before.

THAT CANAL
Today we took a bus out to the Miraflora locks, one of three huge locks on the Panama Canal and the closest to downtown Panama City. We spent a few hours in the hot sun, watched a few ships pass through and saw the video at the information center. There is still a lot of work being done to improve the canal including widening the Gaillard Cut, which is the 14km stretch through rock and shale mid-way through the canal, as well as the annual maintenance to keep the canal open 24 hours a day. Something like 12,000 ships passed through the canal last year, paying an average of US$55,000 to do so. Vessels are charged according to weight and passenger capacity and are guided through the canal waters by a canal captain who assumes charge from the regular captain during the ten hour journey. Famously the Crown Princess passenger ship holds the record for the highest toll, around US$150k, while some bloke holds the record for the lowest fare, 0.36c, when he swam through in 1928.

Miraflora Lock - Panama Canal

 Me at the Canal

We were both surprised by Panama City and had a great time walking around the streets of the old San Felipe district. The markets were packed with holiday traffic but the plazas and cathedrals were really lovely. From San Felipe we could also get a good view of the new part of Panama City with huge high rises to rival Singapore. Sara tried a few of the cheap ice drinks from the street vendors but on our walk back to the hotel this evening we picked up a few cans of Balboa Beer for 0.50c each. Bargain!

San Felipe district

San Felipe district

 Panama City skyline

 Buying shaved ice from a street vendor

Monteverde to San Jose, Costa Rica

CLOUD FOREST
After spending the best part of a day in bed or on the couch in Monteverde I decided it was time to do a canopy tour. I did one in Nicaragua a few weeks back and loved it so I was keen to take another one. I found one which purported to have 16 cables, a repel and a Tarzan swing so I signed up. The safety aspect was left very much to chance and for the majority of the time the guides didn't bother securing my safety line but that was okay. I was the only one on the course at the time so they let me take as much time as I wanted and I got a few extra goes on the Tarzan swing. Some of the cables were enormous - the last one was over 600m long and took us over a valley and clear above the canopy through the clouds. Many of the other cables went through thick vegetation and a few times I had to kick branches out of the way to prevent any loss of speed.

The following day I went to the Santa Elena cloud forest reserve on my own as Sara was still a little too tender to walk around much - plus she knows what I mean by a walk, two hours, brisk pace, no stops except for one photo. A cloud forest is pretty much like a rain forest but because of its elevation it is permanently covered by cloud which helps keep it damp and fertile year round. I walked all four of the trails in about two and a half hours and finished just before the clouds decided to deliver rain. I heard a lot of wildlife but didn't actually see that much. I kept my eyes peeled for the elusive Sloths but saw nothing but birds and bugs of various hue.

Santa Elena cloud forest reserve

L.A. IS A GREAT BIG FREEWAY, PUT A HUNDRED DOWN AND BUY A CAR
All this morning I was humming 'Do you know the way to San Jose?'- the Deone Warwick version. We caught the 6.30am direct bus from Monteverde to Costa Rica's busy capital, San Jose and it's here we'll be for one night only. Tomorrow night we catch a 14 hour overnight bus to Panama City but before that we want to shop around for some hammocks and other things from the local market. By Saturday this adventure will all be over.

Travel stats - December 2002

SOME STATS
Yesterday was day 200 on the road.
Last night was our 96th different bed since leaving. Our last night in Panama will be an even hundred.
In our hotel or hostel rooms we have had ants, cockroaches, geckos, spiders, a slug, one rat and an over friendly Nicaraguan mouse that joined me in bed one morning.
We have never had a butterfly a kitten or a puppy in our room.
We've crossed 22 international borders – ten at airports, six on a bus, three on a train, two on foot and one on a boat on the Mekong river.
We've caught 68 different buses.
Over the last six months apart from planes and trains etc we've also traveled via motorcycle, bicycle, tricycle, cyclo, tuk-tuk, jeepney, school bus, pick-up truck, tram, speedboat, riverboat, row boat, ferry boat, bamboo raft, inflatable raft, horse and an elephant.
We've seen two dead people – Lenin and Chairman Mao.

Here's our average spend per day for Central America

• Mexico: US$50.25 (19.5 days)
• Belize: US$56.50 (4 days)
• Guatemala: US$45.50 (9 days)
• Honduras: US$38.60 (6 days)
• Nicaragua: US$42.50 (11 days)
• Costa Rica: US$64.00 (8.5 days)
• Panama: US$46.30 (4 days)

Fortuna to Monteverde, Costa Rica

LEAVING NICARAGUA
We traveled with our friends Lynsey and Nick down to San Jose, and although we caught a different bus we met up at the same hotel near the city center in the evening. It was strange leaving Nicaragua and entering the somewhat more developed Costa Rica. We have planned to do quite a lot in Costa Rica, including white water rafting and horse trekking around the Fortuna area so we only stayed one night in San Jose before catching the bus up to Fortuna - now we find ourselves in the shadow of the Arenal Volcano and tonight we are heading up to the viewing area to see if we can spot some lava during sunset.

Sara with two British doctors - Lynsey & Nick

VOLCANO ARENAL
On our first evening in Fortuna we decided to take a tour to the nearby Arenal volcano, which is supposed to be the most active volcano in Central America. Unfortunately the mountain was surrounded by cloud but we were able to hear a couple of loud eruptions and for a few brief seconds we could clearly see a lava flow down one of the flanks. Afterwards we visited one of the nearby hot springs under the shadow of the volcano – about six or seven pools all at different temperatures and a wet bar where we had some of the local Imperial beer.

Kinda near Arenal

WHITE WATER
The following day we decided to treat ourselves to white water rafting. We drove about 60km from Fortuna through coffee, banana, coconut, papaya and yuka plantations to a river whose name escapes me right now. After a quick safety briefing and a review of some of the calls – forward, back paddle, lean in, fall out etc – we started on our two and a half hour journey down river. After about 17 seconds a woman from Virginia fell in when we hit the very first area of turbulence. About 12 seconds after that, with everyone just watching the woman float away through the rapids, we hit a rock side on and the boat flipped over tossing us all in the river. It was not the ideal start to the show but we quickly regrouped back in the boat and carried on with our various cuts and bruises. Sara seemed to have caught the brunt of the damage from a French guy next to her who seemed to think that Sara was some sort of flotation device that he should grab hold of in the water. We did, however, complete the rest of the course without incident, spotting some of the local wildlife along the way – monkeys, egrets, herons, cormorants, kingfishers and even a cow.

Sara & I after our white water rafting trip

AUSSIE BLOKE
On the bus from San Jose to Fortuna we met a young Australian surfer, Mark, from Cocos Island, off the west coast of Australia just south of Indonesia who joined us for a few days, including the horse trek to Monteverde. But that bit deserves its own paragraph.

Sara with our Australian pal Mark

HORSE TREK
It was advertised as a nice easy trek from Fortuna to Monteverde – three hours, nice views, big lunch, piece of cake. We took a boat across the glass like Arenal lake next to the volcano to begin the trek. The first half hour was great, through rolling countryside, rain forest, and three river crossings (the first one a little too deep for our liking). After the last crossing the trail veered sharply up hill. For the next three hours we trudged through knee deep mud the consistency of smooth peanut butter, all the time climbing. About two thirds of the way up the mountain Sara’s horse lost its footing and quickly fell to the left, throwing Sara off. Thankfully the mud was so deep that the horse was a foot or so closer to the ground, the landing was as soft as a terra landing could have been and the horse regained its balance quickly enough to stop itself from falling on her. Nonetheless it was a scary experience but to her credit Sara, after briefly brushing herself down, got straight back on the horse. I think there is a saying about that. We completed the remainder of the trek without too many scares but when we dismounted our steeds it felt as if someone had spanked us for past three hours with a table tennis bat. We never did get that big lunch either.

Driving the speedboat across Lake Arenal

Sara crossing one of the many rivers during our horse trek to Monteverde

Ometepe, Nicaragua

OMETEPE
We traveled down to Ometepe Island with an English couple, Lynsey and Nick, whom we met for the first time in Guatemala three weeks ago. By chance we bumped into them again in Granada and were all heading in the same direction. It was a long journey there -taxi, bus, taxi, boat, bus - but after seven hours we made it to the small beach resort at Santo Domingo. We stayed two nights at Villa Paraiso for around US$20 a night - a charming little place with pigs wandering around the grounds and a monkey named Tony.

The island, the largest in a freshwater lake, is formed by two large volcanoes - the active Concepcion and the dormant Madera, which forms a figure eight shape lying on its side. Santo Domingo is right at the center of the eight on the northern shore. It is known as the windiest place in Nicaragua and from our beach bungalow I can see why. From our bed we could see the lake and the beach but the wind whipped in from the northeast the whole time. My initial plans to scale Madera and repel into the crater to see the lake were dashed because there were not enough people interested to get a tour group together. I would have to leave another volcano unconquered.

Our view of Lake Nicaragua from Ometepe

Leon & Grenada, Nicaragua

LEON
After some time in the nations capital we decided to head to the oldest city in the country - Leon - about 90 minutes away and also the former capital. The bus trip was quick but the windows were down and the road was dusty so we were very dirty by the time we arrived. It took some time to find out where we were on the city map and then walked about 30 minutes into the center of town. We checked out the Hospedaje Via Via but didn't like it and ended up choosing Hotel America for US$13 a night.

Leon is another very Spanish city with some fantastic old churches including the biggest cathedral in Central America. It was incredibly hot during the day so we were forced to keep our sightseeing to small doses. The bus from Leon back to Managua ran out of gas about half way through the journey so the driver had to wave down the passing traffic until someone let him siphon some gas from their tank.

 Lion outside the Basilica Catedral de la Asuncion

A couple of really beautiful churches in Leon

GRANADA
We were relieved to finally make it to Granada after a couple of taxing bus journeys. Most of the bus windows are kept open so that the breeze can keep the passengers cool but it also means that everyone gets covered with a layer of dirt as well. Granada is much more vibrant than Leon, with far more tourists too. The town square is flanked by a beautiful old church and filled with the typical food stalls and shoe shine kids. Today we ate lunch in the square for less than a dollar and Sara drank her Coke from a plastic bag so that the vendor could keep the bottle.

The town square in Granada

Scaling a palm on the shores of Lake Nicaragua

CANOPY TOUR
Today Sara stayed in the town while I ventured out toward the nearby volcano to do a canopy tour. The tour involves climbing high into the trees to a platform and then flying from tree to tree via a cable and a harness. The experience was fascinating as we flew over coffee plantations surrounded by howler monkeys. It was all over too quickly though, covering the 800m course in just over an hour.

MOUSE
One morning in Granada I woke up with a mouse in my bed. It wasn't the best way to start the day but after I got over the initial shock it was pretty funny. In the bleary eyed first glance it looked for all money like a cockroach so I grabbed our can of fly spray and started chasing it around our room, much to Sara's entertainment. It wasn't until after she moved her backpack out of the way that we saw a tiny brown mouse, cornered, wrinkling his nose at us. So I sprayed it some more - probably blinding it - until it scurried away never to be seen again.

BILINGUAL
Sara is busy at the terminal next to me looking at the horse treks available at our next port of call - Ometepe. She's just found one that has bilingual guides and horses.

Managua, Nicaragua

THANKSGIVING
We spent Thanksgiving on a bus crossing between Honduras and Nicaragua, but it was a nice bus and it had a toilet so it wasn't all that bad. Sara was feeling homesick throughout the day but we treated ourselves to a Thanksgiving feast of fried chicken and plantains for dinner, followed by numerous bottles of the local beer - Victoria. Not your traditional holiday celebrations but then again Nicaragua isn't your traditional country.

A few people had warned us about Managua so we are taking a few extra precautions. It's one of those cities where the word 'armpit' comes leaping to mind when trying to describe it. The setting is potentially idyllic - on the lakeside, surrounded by lush fertile rolling hills - but the place is filthy and lacking of any charm. Near the lake there is a huge abandoned church with one of the turrets missing. All of the major commercial buildings have been moved to the outlying areas of the city for fear of further destruction making it an annoying place to get around quickly.

Managua Cathedral - damaged a few years after it was completed and now derelict

 Monument commemorating the soldiers killed during the Nicaraguan Civil War

Today we have decided to treat ourselves to a movie or two. We've found a nice cinema nearby so we plan to see Harry Potter and Red Dragon before venturing to Leon tomorrow. It's our holiday gift to ourselves. For two nights we stayed just around the corner from the bus station at the Hospedaje Quintana for a bargain US$10 for the stay - we spent more money on beer from the fridge than we did on the room.

Our modest room at Hospedaje Quintana

Tegucigalpa, Honduras

BANANA REPUBLIC
Honduras is known as the banana republic and there is a good reason why. At the end of the 1900s, US traders took an interest in bananas produced in northern Honduras. With advances in refrigeration, and the relatively short boat trip to southern USA the banana industry boomed. US companies who wanted to purchase land where given generous incentives by a succession of Honduran governments. By 1920, three quarters of banana growing lands were owned by US companies and over 60% of all Honduras’ exports were directly from bananas. The economic success of the banana industry made the banana companies very powerful within Honduras and many of them aligned themselves with political parties. Unlike its neighbours, Honduras failed to foster an indigenous landholding elite which led them to become controlled by US banana interests – hence the name ‘banana republic’.

TEGUCIGALPA
The name sounds like a bit of a mouthful but many of the locals call this place Tegus (teh-goose). It’s not the prettiest of places but we are staying in a decent hotel which makes it bearable.

Cathedral in Tegucigalpa

We had a brief scare yesterday when we arrived. Sara and I had walked about 1-2km from the bus station with our backpacks on and we decided to stop for a few minutes to take counsel. I pulled out the guidebook to take a look at the city map and the next thing I hear Sara yelling at somebody to her left – I was standing to her right. Someone had run up to her and grabbed her wrist and was trying to pull her watch off. With our backpacks on we both weigh about 15kg heavier so Sara had a lot of weight behind her. The man must have realised that he wasn't going to get the watch off her hand so he pulled away and ran off down the street. I wanted to run after him but I had my backpack on and also my shower sandals, which are not built for running, so the both of us just watched in stunned silence as he ran down the street. He had broken one of the pins on Sara’s watch but the more disturbing thing was this happened in broad daylight in a busy area. After six months of traveling it’s the only real incident that we have encountered first hand. Later that day we got Sara’s watch repaired for 35c but I didn't get a receipt so I may have a hard time explaining it to the insurance company. Accommodation was at Hotel Iberia for US$10 a night.

Sara at one of the many Internet cafe's we've frequented -this one in Honduras

The trip continues. Tomorrow, Nicaragua.

Copan Ruinas, Honduras

COPAN
Today we visited the ruins of the ancient Mayan city of Copan - in Honduras but very close to the border with Guatemala. The site is well known for the awesome stelae depicting the history of the empire and the huge hieroglyphic staircase decorated with the longest single glyph in the Mayan world. We had waited an extra day to explore the ruins because yesterday was a bit overcast and we wanted to wait until the weather was perfect. Today the sun shone brightly so we took our time and had a leisurely breakfast before wandering the one kilometer down the road to the ruins. The wait was well worth it.

Sara & I at the uncrowded and hugely impressive Copan Ruins

  One of the many stelae at Copan

 Me at Copan 

 One of the many glyphs

 The staircase with the longest single glyph in the Mayan world

SNAKE
For Sara today though will be better remembered as the day we saw a snake. The only other snake except for the one I ate in China. Sara has an unusual fear of snakes. The kind of fear that causes one to completely lose control of ones bodily functions and go completely hysterical. If Sara were to tell the story she would probably say that a six foot snake leapt from a tree branch above us to the ground before our feet, raised its head and struck with potent force, fangs reared, at our ankles. In reality though the poor little thing happened to be on the path in front of us as we left the ruins and it quickly scurried out of our way into the forest. The screaming and wailing would have people believe otherwise. Needless to say we are both alive and well and have stocked up on anti-venom.

Today's run in reminded me of a couple of other times that Sara has been carried away with what she saw. On the train through Siberia she claimed to have seen an emu in a field full of cows. She watched the emu for ages, transfixed, as it stood still in the field. It wasn't until I took a good look that we discovered it was just a man standing behind a cow. Last week at the restaurant at the Tikal ruins Sara asked one of the tour guides the name of the blue bird that was standing outside by the gutter. The tour guide furrowed his brow and ignored her at the time. It was so tall and graceful and was the most beautiful blue you have ever seen, with shock white legs and a long slender beak like a crane. After breakfast when we left the restaurant Sara was devastated to discover it was just a piece of blue rope hanging from a wire.

This afternoon we relaxed with a few bottles of the local brew - Salva Vida (Lifesaver) - and read our respective books in the hammocks at Hotel California - a steal for only US$6 a night. We had dinner at a place called Tunkul and the total bill for an amazing meal, including drinks, was less than US$10 for both of us. Tomorrow we leave Copan Ruinas with the aim of getting a few towns closer to the capital city without spending too much time on the bus.

Sara @Hotel California

Sara at the Guatemala/Honduras border

Panajachel, to Antigua, Guatemala

VOLCANOES

I love volcanoes. For some reason I just love they way they look. When we arrived in Panajachel, a lovely little town on lake Atitlan, we found no fewer than three huge volcanoes scattered around the lake - all of them over 3,000m. We booked two nights at the Santa Elena guesthouse for about US$10 a night and had dinner by the lake. In the past this little town was renowned as a hippy hangout but it seems to have changed a little since the 60s. We took a boat across to a small town on the other side of the lake, San Pedro, and got lost in the maze of streets in the afternoon heat. I had been tempted to try and climb the San Pedro volcano but I couldn't agree a decent price with a guide. In the end we were happy to just walk around and catch the boat back to Panajachel as the sun went down.

The bus that deposited us in Pana - chickens not visible

 San Pedro Volcano from Lake Atitlan

Today we're in Antigua but in a few short hours we catch a shuttle across the border to Honduras - it leaves at 4am. Today has been one of those days to remember because I finally got to climb a volcano, an active one at that. Pacaya is right next to Guatemala City and at 2700m it isn't the tallest volcano in the area but it is the only active one. We had been warned about bandit attacks over the past few years but the tour company here in Antigua assured us that we would have two tour guides and three armed guards during our climb which helped to calm any fears. The climb was a lot harder than I expected. The last 40 mins was straight up through loose volcanic rock. At times we were taking one step forward and sliding two steps back. But onwards and upwards we climbed until we finally reached the windy summit just before sunset but we didn't stay long. I couldn't feel my ears and the steam made it difficult to breathe and see much. A quick look into the crater though revealed a strange red glow - lava?. On the walk down we slid most of the way down the scree slope then emptied our shoes of all the rocks before continuing. The sun sank and was quickly replaced by a brilliant full moon to light the path. The lights of Guatemala city glimmered in the distance, beckoning me to return back down to earth. The feeling returned to my ears.

Quetzaltenango, Guatemala

BUS EVANGELISTS
The overnight bus ride to Guatemala City was very frustrating. The air conditioning was turned up full and it was so cold on the bus that we barely managed to sleep at all. We probably managed an hour or two but kept waking up with the shivers. We arrived, jaded, at 6am. At 7.15am we boarded another bus headed west in the general direction of Quetzaltenango - which was our target for today. The fact that the bus wasn't actually going there didn't stop the bus driver from herding us onto the bus anyway. We would find out what we needed to know later. During that bus ride we were subjected to sermons from three different bus evangelists and a sales pitch of 20 minutes from some punter selling tablets that did something we couldn't understand. I wanted to know if they were sleeping tablets. The locals gave each speaker much respect and didn't seem to be bothered by them in the slightest. Five hours later at an unknown small town we were told to get off the bus, grab our bags and jump aboard a much smaller US school bus type contraption. Confused and beaten into submission by the last 14 hours we followed directions and threw our bags on the roof and squeezed into the packed bus. There was much humour as it turned out we where the only foreigners on board and obviously not used to Guatemalan buses yet. We drove through the lush hills, up past 2000m and into the clouds, stopping briefly as a mud slide had blocked part of the road. On and on for the next two hours in close quarters and finally we made it to Guatemala's second largest city, nestled snugly next to a huge volcano. We've been here for two days now and tonight we managed to meet up with an old friend of mine, Mike Paulsmeyer, who has come here to learn Spanish. Unfortunately Mike was away for much of the weekend ironically in the town where we head to tomorrow - Panajachel - but we managed to hook up tonight for dinner and a beer.

Meeting up with my old buddy from Salt Lake City in Guatemala - Mike Paulsmeyer

Quetzaltenango town square

 Locals in Quetzaltenango

Belize to Flores, Guatemala

THE TAN
We spent three great days on Caye Caulker in Belize laying in the sun and eating seafood. Sara worked diligently on her tan and managed to achieve a colour somewhere between cream and ivory, but not quite as dark as beige, but darker than bone. She was incredibly impressed with the colour change and quite pleased to avoid turning pink.

THAT CASSETTE
We took a bus from the Belize capital across the border to the Guatemalan town of Flores yesterday. Flores is situated on a tiny island in Guatemala's second biggest lake about 70km from the border with Belize. I'm not exactly sure on the official rule with islands and bridges but this island is connected to the mainland by a 500m causeway so it isn't an island in the sense that we didn't have to catch a boat to get here. Nonetheless the setting is very pretty and we've been impressed by the food and the people here in our short stay to date. We chose the Toucan Guesthouse - a bargain at US$8 a night with a real toucan in the garden to keep us amused.

Toucan @Toucan Guesthouse

We have noticed that all the buses in this part of the world seem to have the same greatest hits collection cassette which the driver plays non-stop and occasionally at volume throughout the journey. We have heard 'Love hurts' by Nazareth and 'My heart will go on' by Celine Dion more times than any one person should safely endure. Whereas the former is a classic piece of rock legendary which I don't mind so much, the latter is a terrible piece of tripe from an overrated movie. The same could be said for a few other songs on the tape in question, namely 'I will always love you' - Whitney Houston, and 'Hopelessly devoted to you' - Olivia Newton-John. These songs haunt me now.

TIKAL
Today we visited the Mayan ruins of Tikal, about an hour north of Flores. It was supposed to be one of those sunrise trips but like many of our other sunrise trips it rained so we watched the alleged sunrise from the restaurant near the gift shop and drank coffee until the rain stopped. To get to the ruins you need to walk for about 30 minutes through secondary jungle growth and many of the temples have yet to be fully excavated - we walked straight passed Temple III believing it to be a hill when in fact it was a 55m tall structure that has yet to be touched. We were surrounded by howler monkeys making a tremendous noise as well as anteaters, toucans, parrots, woodpeckers and even a huge tarantula that one of the locals pulled out of it's hole.

Breathtaking Tikal

Temple V

  Temple IV

Me being more of an active type of tourist decided to climb all of the temples (except for the two that were off limits) while Sara, content to be a passive observer, watched from a distance and read the guidebook. The locals are very proud of their Mayan heritage and so they should be. Tikal is brilliantly clean, well maintained and the jungle setting is truly fantastic. One of the Star Wars movies was filmed here but I can't recall which.

The Great Plaza near the Temple of the Great Jaguar

LA VACA ES MARRON
My Spanish is progressing slowly. My vocabulary is up to about 200 words and I am able to say interesting things like 'the cow is brown' (see above) and 'here is a pen' which has, to date, been staggering useless to us in our everyday travels. Still it's more than I have bothered to learn in any other country, although in Mongolia I learned to say 'I hope your animals are fattening up nicely' in Mongolian and use it on a Mongolian herdsman who replied with the customary 'fattening nicely, thank you'. It's those small successes that we have learned to celebrate.

Tonight we catch the overnight bus to the capital.

Caye Caulker, Belize

NO PROSTITUTES PLEASE
After Chichen Itza we decided that it was time for a change of pace and a change of country. Belize is the sixteenth different country of the trip so far and it's probably the most laid back as well. We caught a bus straight into Belize City, the charmless capital city, and successfully negotiated the back streets on foot until we found what our guidebook described as the cheapest place in town - the North Front Street Guesthouse for US$15 a night. The sign on the front door stipulated that no prostitutes or gigolos were to be entertained in the rooms at any time - to which I laughed - and then gave more thought to as I had just met a bloke on the street called Byron who wanted to take me out for a beer, and insist I pay.

TROPICAL PARADISE
The following morning we caught a boat through the mangroves out to one of the islands off the coast. Over the last few days we've been doing nothing but sitting on the beach and enjoying the hot sun and cool sea breeze. We're staying at a hotel called Tropical Paradise (about US$17 a night) which fronts the south end of the main beach on the island which is frequented by pelicans for most of the day. Many of the locals are incomprehensible since, although English is the official language of Belize, they speak Creole, usually drunk Creole at that. To my untrained ear they use the word 'panny' far too often for it to mean just one thing. On our first night we at in a restaurant with a couple of older locals who were arguing at the top of their voices but we could barely understand a word they were saying. Sara was convinced it was a religious discussion but I knew they were disagreeing on whether Empire Strikes Back was better than Return of the Jedi. May the force be with you.

Tropical Paradise Guesthouse in the background

 Our own little piece of beach

 I found a really cool tire swing

Valladolid, Mexico

CHICHEN ITZA
We made it safely to Valladolid last night and found a room for two nights at Hotel Lily for US$13/night. Today we wandered around the crowded ancient city of Chichen Itza. The place was absolutely packed with people on guided tours presumably from nearby Cancun or Playa del Carmen. It didn't detract from the amazement though and we spent a few hours inside the grounds under the hot sun. The main Pyramid is the Mayan calendar in stone. There are 18 terraces representing the 18 20 day months in the Mayan calendar and four staircases each with 91 steps leading to the top terrace - each step plus the top terrace represents one day of the year. There is also another pyramid inside the main pyramid which climbs 61 stairs, almost to the top terrace, where the sanctuary contains a brilliant red jaguar with spots of simmering jade. It was hot and muggy inside the pyramid and little claustrophobic so Sara decided to give it a miss. I'm so glad I climbed it because within a couple of years the Mexican government would prevent tourists from scaling the steps to the temple - you can't take some of these photo's anymore.

El Castillo

 Group of the One Thousand Columns

 Temple of the Warriors (taken from the top of El Castillo)

 Temple of the Jaguars (taken from the top of El Castillo)

 It looks like we're alone but we timed this photo to make it seem deserted

We've decided to leave Mexico tomorrow and head south into Belize. We are looking forward to a few relaxing days on the islands off the east coast before searching for more Mayan ruins in Guatemala.