^30th April, 2003.

Hi there.

Week on Caye Caulker Arriving in to Belize City we got straight onto a boat headed for Caye Caulker. It was pretty full and we thought maybe alot of people had the same idea as us and were escaping the madness to the Cayes for the easter week. Once the boat got out of the harbour it took off and we could barely catch our breath. The water looked like such a perfect blue, it was amazing and we were really excited about our week on the island!

The week there was perfect, really healthy, up at between 5am and 6am every morning for sun rise, jogged the length of the island which sounds alot but is a maximum of 3 miles each way but more exercise than we have done except climb pyramids since we got here so it took alot out of us, it was a lovely jungle trail and quite cool at that hour of the day, then it was back for a yogurt, fresh fruit and muesli breakfast on the jetty of our hotel, the place we stayed for the week was really nice, called Toms, on the sea with amazing sun rises!! It was then a short enough walk down to a place called the split where a hurricane had torn the island in two, this is the best place on the island to chill, swim in the beautiful blue sea adn watch the sun go down with a cool beer. We had thought there would be alot of backpackers about but it did not turn out that way, it was very quiet but suited our new life style, Evan reckons he is giving up the Guinness and going to change his way of life, we will see how long that lasts when we get home and the weather is sub zero outside. Evan was going to do his diving in Honduras as we had heard it was cheapest there but we looked into it in Caye Caulker, he decided to do it there and I backed out and decided 4 days at the split sounded good. Up to that we did not find the locals that friendly, they were civil but stuck to their groups, you had the rastas on the one hand, alot of whites expecially Americans who own buisnesses and then there are lot of Spanish speakers!! Not much chance of us coversing with them. Anyway once Evan was gone on the course a girl on her own suddeenly got alot more attention, although the general consensus was from all the islanders that I walked too fast and should slow down, there is a lovely slow pace on the island, holiday all year round!! I had a date by lunch time with a local rasta called Cobra who said I could be his queen!! I told him I had a king but that did not seem to bother him!! I also got chatting to a lovely American girl Nicole who was studying ecology in Belize for 3 months, we had a date to meet her in San Ignacio, where we were heading after Caye Caulker!!!

Alot of locals from Belize City descended on the Caye for the easter weekend, leaving behind them alot of rubbish!! Evan took to the diving like a fish to water and loved every minute of it, I think I should learn to swim properly before I attempt to dive!!! We all headed down to the bar at the Lazy Lizard (beside the split) to celebrate the group finishing their Padi, there was a group of Americans on the course, go team go!!! The instructor was an interesting soul, Karen from NZ,who told us some interseting tales of her travels in Africa, I think I would have gone home after a few of them and never stuck my head outside the door again!!!

Caye Caulker San Ignacia Leaving Caye Caulker we travelled by high speed watertaxi to Belize city, a fairly scary city, then got a bus to San Ignacio which is known locally as Cayo! A number of people had told us about this place but we were a little disappointed when we arrived. While E stayed with the bags S ran around looking at places to stay. We settled on the cheapest one called the Central Hotel but that is a little bit of an exaggeration, it was basic, we then headed out for lunch and to check out what tour we would do the following day.

We had a look around at what was on offer. One tour operator tried to sell us a trip to a cave that would have cost US65 each for the day, that was a bit pricey and way beyond our budget so we decided to go with a local companycalled Davids Tour. For the rest of the day we melted in the heat and sat by the river watching the locals swimming whilst we read!

Day of the caves Barton Creek Caves. We had to meet at David Tours at 9am where we were to find out that David the guy who gives the tours is not available and we were to get a stand in guide. Of course we were disappointed but what could we do. They must have known when they booked us on the trip that that was the case but we had it paid for so we could not change. Our replacement was Davids cousin Pedro who turned out to be really good altough we will never know how good or bad David was. We drove for approx. 1 in a half hours with one stop along the way to get some messages, Pedro had to see a man about a dog. The drive took us through an Amish community but they all must have been indoors when we were going by. By the way we were the only people on the tour.

Trip from San Ignacaio to Guatemala Got a collectivo to the border, collectivo from the border to Flores in Guatemala, waited four hours for a bus to take us to Guatemala city (10.00pm), arrived in Guatemala at 6.30am, caught a smaller bus to Anitgua the old capital of Guatemala, caught a chicken bus to Chichitemango, chicken bus to Chichicastenango, chicken bus to Panajachel, Water taxi to San Cristobal, stayed there for the night, water taxi back to Panajachel, ferry to San Pedro on Lago Atitlan in Western Guatemala. Oh, and did I mention that we did all this in three days! We are now sitting overlooking a lake which is surrounded by five dormant volcanoes! Apparently the view is fantastic here but we have yet to meet any-one who has had a clear view of the lake or indeed a postcard with a photo of the lake. I reckon it always either overcast or murky/hazy here due the volcanoes but that there is some kind of conspiracy going on to lure tourists here. Hey, the country is one of the poorest in Latin America so they could use our dollars and in return we get to learn some of their language. The two of use are booked into the San Pedro language school for a week. There is four hours of separate tuition during the morning and then activities in the evening. S is going to learn some salsa dancing and I reckon I'll watch some informative documentary type movies about Guatemala politics and their civil war.

Week of San Pedro and drinking competition We just left San Pedro which is on Lack Atitlan in Guatemala, we had a great week, we did 4 hour intensive language classes for 5 days so the Espanol is a little better, my teacher was lovely, a local Mayan girl. I was like a giant towards her they are so small!! We climbed the San Pedro Volcana last Saturday, I thought Evan was going to have a heart attack, for the first time in my life I was flying ahead of Evan, until the last 20 minutes, it was a killer, a few thousand metres high!!! It was not such a good idea to have a few beers before getting up at 5am to climb a volcana but hey some people never learn!! When we arrived back down we went for a bite to eat then spent the rest of the afternoon in these solar hot tubs, it was great, surrounded by palm trees with a cold pepsi. The climb took 6 hours, 3 hours up and 3 down, I thought I was going to break an ankle on the way down. Last Sunday we visited a town called Santiago, which is the one next to San Pedro on the lake, ,the traditional dress is really nice, no jeans and jumpers for these folks. The reality of the civil war which only finished in Guatamala in 1997 was brought home to us in a catholic catedral we visited, it had a cross for all the locals who either disappeared or were murdered from this village, a few hundred. There are alot of people still mourning loved ones who were lost. We had been complaining about the dirt on the way to the volcana but some of these people are struggling to survive, I am sure where they are going to put their rubbish is the last thing of their minds. We started our classes on Monday at 2pm and by 6pm both our heads were much it was tough going but worthwhile!! We are both doing one on one to get maximum value. On Tuesday we watched a video called the Daughter of the Puma which is a true story on the civil war in Guatamala. It was very sad and brought home to us the corruption in this country and according to my teacher is still going on today. She told me the president bought a watch for himself for US30000 last week thats a disgracee when there are so many hungry children. The language school was very well run you also got to meet alot of people so by Wednesday we were saying hello to half the town. There are alot of people who have been in this town along time some of them the sort of people you would not want to mix with (long haired hippy types) but others who just loved the place so much. It does seem to have a certain hold on you. It is not the most picturesque place I have ever been in but the alot of the streets are unpaved and grubby but there is a great atmosphere. On Thursday night there was a drinking cxompetition in the pub called Alegro. You had to drink one hundred shots of beer in one minute. Evan entered and made it to 137 but was sensible to back out of it it would have gone on all night only they had to do a sudden death with an Ozie and Norwegian who were going head to head.

There was alot of sore heads about the next day I was piecing together the nigth for alot of people. There was only 2 girls in the competition Swedes who were a disgrace!!! Both of them pucked on Evan at some stage and one had to be carried home she drank 180 shots!!!

The last night we just had dinner and watched the movie Fight Club then hit the sack after packing our bags. We are sorry to leave San Pedro but we may return one day.

Antigua, Guatamala Last Saturday we just chilled around Antigua for a few hours, had dinner, nothing too exciting. We booked ourselves onto that Volcano hike for the following morning at 6am, with a 5am start. Went to bed early enough and had a rude awakening at 2am in the morning, I wont say how rude!!! Suffice as to say it was not very pretty and the first bad bout of illness either of us were going to experience on the trip so far!! I lost count of the amount of trips to the loo from 2am onwards which was to continue for the entire day and night!! Evan went on the volcano trek for a number of reasons, we had paid for it already and the money was non refundable, he was not getting any sleep anyway, he decided the fumes from the volcano were healthier than staying in the room!! The room by the way was dreadful, the walls were beginning to cave in around me after a while, there was dodgy looking wiring all over the place and I wont even go into the crawlies that were rampant!!

I was still on tender hooks from a few days before where I had a lovely experience of a creepy crawlie in my ear, I was trying to keep calm but you should have seen me leaping around the place. I could hear it moving right inside my ear and had visions of it laying eggs and bursting my ear drum (sorry to be so graphic!!) I was saved by a cotton bud!! and live to tell the tale!!

Back to Antigua: Anyway as I was crawling the walls ill with a roaring temperature, and all sorts of movements going on I was waiting on Evan to come back from the trip, he was due back at 1pm. By 2.15 I was getting worried and had visions of him filing a police report for after getting robbed. You have a security guard with you on the trek with a huge gun!!! He came in the door all concerned about me and then tells me he was in a crash on the way back, his mini bus crashed into a chicken bus, nobody injured thank god! I decided to get a bit of air but could hardly walk so went back to the room to die a little more. We decided a bag of fries from McDonalds might be good to eat as I had not eaten since the night before but I was to regret eating those!!! We cancelled travelling to Hoduras the next day for me to recover. I was still dodgy the next day but went to a swimming pool and chilled out for the day, we deserved the treat!! The pool was situated in the 5 star hotel and we worked out that if we stayed there for a week a 7th of our budget would be eaten up!!! It was nice to feel safe putting your feet down somewhere without a pair of flip flops though and we didnt feel like backpackers for the day!!

Anyway we were a day behind in our travels but booked the next day for Honduras and we were hoping for the best. It was a 3am start with the bus at 4am and up to the last hour I was still sick!! Anyway we left Antigua and headed to a place in Honduras called Copan Ruins, another Mayan site. We arrived into the town and it was a really nice. Checked into a really nice place and as Evan said it was like being at home for one night, we were not going to get too used to it!! We visited the ruiins which were a little disappointing, not as dramatic as the other ones we had seen but it was great as there was no one else around apart from a few Scarlet Macaw birds!! and locals trying to sell us horse riding trips!! I was struggling with the heat but managed to make it, we booked our tickets onwards for the next morning, a 5am start, are we poco loco. We were going to try and make it to the Nicguaruan border.

We were on the first bus for 3 hours to San Pedro Sula, second one for nearly 4 hours to Tegus, got a taxi to another bus station, another bus for 2 hours to Danli, a local chicken bus, then a taxi to the border of Honduras / Nicaguara at Las Manos. You can imagine the state of us at this stage!!! Forgot to mention that at each border and on each side of immagration you have to pay a few dollars to the niceguy behind the counter because you are white and have loads of money, we forked our over US30 between us in 2 days at the various border crossings!!! Anyway as luck would have it we bumped into an Irish woman who was behind us in the queue who worked for Trocaire, we got chatting and it turned out she was going our way, all the way to the capital Mangua in one clean sweep, apart from the list which was fantastic she was such an interesting character and we learned alot about the goings on in Central America, she is responsible for all projects in this area. Some woman for one woman was Sally. She has lived in all sorts of interesting places and worked with all sorts of people. We had not eaten a thing for most of the day, that coupled with a few days of being ill I think I have lost about half a stone, trousers are feeling a little loose! A few days of good eating will soon rectify that! We were delighted to make it that far in one day.

The capital is a really weird spot, there is no centre since an earthquake devasted it in 1972 killing 40,000 peope. It is not that safe and just after we arrived they locked the front door of where we were staying so we had to starve for the night. But we had a TV in the room which was a total luxury so we watched In The Name of the Father!! Bit bizzare in the capital of Nicguarua watching an Irish movie.

There is nothing to see there so we got a bus to a place called Granada which is on Lake Nicaragua (as you can tell I have a real problem spelling that!)

Granada The hostel is called Oasis and that it is, it is spotless clean as it only opened a few months ago. They claim to have a pool but it is no bigger than a big puddle in Ireland on a rainy day. We rushed through Honduras as we have to keep motoring as we have a flight from San Jose in Costa Rica on 1st June, cant believe how quick the time has gone. We hope to get anotherweek on a beach if we can to chill before we hit the Andes!!

Slan,

E&S