We're divers!

After the disappointment of Copan it was a relief to arrive on the island of Roatan. It has a very different feel to mainland Honduras because it used to be a British colony and so feels much more like the Carribean with everyone speaking Creole or English. The place itself is really beautiful and has some of the best beaches I've ever seen.

Aside from lazing around on the beach one of the big draws is scuba diving and it's supposed to be one of the cheapest places in the world to learn. Unable to resist a good deal we both signed up with a cool place on the main strip.

We arrived in the morning expecting to be told to come back later on, but instead were rushed upstairs to begin some of our pre-dive studies (watching DVDs and doing multiple choice quizes). By the afternoon we were suited up and in shallow water just off the beach! It all happened a bit quick!

The first thing we did was basic use of the equipment and practising some simple emergency procedures, but by the following day (after more quizes) we were actually diving around one of the closeby reefs. It was great too, although everything moved pretty fast our instructor was really good and before we knew it we were gliding over the coral and watching the fish swim by.

It wasn't all plain sailing though, some of the safey procedures were pretty difficult and we both ended up with water in our noses and the odd mouthful. Amy had a scare deep underwater when she had to take her mask off and struggled to get to back on. The instructor thought she'd inhaled water through her nose so was trying to hold her nose whilst keeping the second stage (breathing thing) in her mouth, but she just needed a hand getting the mask strap over her hair. Still, the drama was soon over and we had a great dive afterwards.

All in all a great stay, next Nicaragua after a grueling two day journey...

Copan

Copan is another Mayan ruin from around the same time as Tikal, but whereas Tikal is spread out through lush jungle Copan is much more compact and developed for tourists.

Unfortunately this isn't for the better. The ruins themselves are pretty cool, and unlike Tikal are covered in carvings, but the setting isn't nearly as good. To make matters worse we went on a Saturday morning so the whole place was swarming with fellow tourists and it was really expensive...

Last night in Antigua

We got back to Antigua and checked into our favourite hostel, before rushing off to buy a bus ticket in the nick of time. Unfortunately it left at 4am, but since it was our last day in Guatemala we decided to go out and celebrate anyway, and pay for it the next day.

After a nice meal we found ourselves in a trendy bar with live Cuban music (one of the guys from the Buena Vista Social Club) had a few drinks, danced around in our seats and a little on the dance floor. Salsa dancing is not easy, we gave it a go for a few minutes, but I failed miserably. The Guatemalans made it look so easy...

After that we went back to our hostel and prepared ourselves for a meagre 4 hours sleep before the long trip. Dragging ourselves out of bed the following morning we waited around for our shuttle bus (which was 30 minutes late) only to find out they had one tiny seat for the both of us! So we went back to bed and arranged for another bus the following morning at 4am! 6 hours later we were in Copan in Honduras extremely disheveled but looking forward to visiting the Mayan ruins.

Monterrico & Hawaii

After the cool evenings of Lake Attitlan, the heat in Monterrico was a shock to the system! It's on the Pacific coast with miles of empty black sand beaches and a haven to several different species of turtle that nest here each year. Amy was volunteering at a place that rescues the eggs from poachers then releases them back into the wild.

Just back from the beach is a protected area of mangroves, home to caimans, iguanas, terrapins and all sorts of cool birds. We were able to take a boat ride through some of it with a local guy, in a scheme to give the egg poachers an alternative source of income. It was really cool, the boat had to navigate through tangles of tree routes whilst we found a good spot to release an iguana then we continued on to a lake right in the middle. Unfortunately it was dry season so the boat couldn't go any further so we had to step out of the boat to carry on, but to our surprise the water barely covered the tops of our feet! The water was so murky we expected it to be at least to our knees, the bottom felt like carpet too, not muddy at all. From there we had a great view of some huge storks nesting in the trees, and the chance for a few piccies.

Next stop, is Antigua before heading on to Honduras!

Lake Attitlan

After a 4 hour bus ride from Antigua I arrived in Panajachel. It used to be a hippy hangout back in the 70s, but not it's just a big tourist town on the banks of the lake, so I decided to catch a boat to San Pedro.

The lake itself is a huge volcanic crater and surrounding it are 3 more volcanoes, so the boat ride was pretty spectacular. San Pedro is on the slopes of one of the volcanoes and is a popular place to learn Spanish and hang out for a bit as it's really cheap. The nightlife is also one of the big draws here, but since I was by myself I just went to a nearby cafe for a couple of beers and a movie. The following day I decided to find a more socialable hotel and make some friends, but everywhere was full up so I decided to move on to San Marco.

San Marco is a New Age town full of old hippies who arrived in the 70s and decided to stay. It's much more relaxed than San Pedro and lots of people go there to take meditation classes, yoga and other new age stuff. I was content doing a little sun bathing by the lake and having a having a good wander around. Still not satisfied that I'd found the right place I decided to continue on to Santa Cruz.

I found a nice backpacker lodge to stay at right on the banks of the lake that was much more what I was looking for. Similar to the place we stayed at in Lanquin, it's pretty much a cheap hotel, restaurant and bar with a few activities thrown in for good measure. Best of all they had a plentiful supply of tea, which I'd been craving for ages, so I was able to laze around in my hammocks drinking tea and reading a book or admiring the view.

Still, even I can't lounge around forever, so I decided it was time to catch up with Amy in Monterrico.

Volcano Pacaya!

One of the most popular things to do from Antigua is climb the Volcano Pacaya, it's the active volcano I mentioned in my previous post.

They take you about halfway up in a bus then a guide leads you to the summit which takes about 1.5 hours. It's a pretty steep hike though woods, but the path is good so it isn't too knackering. On reaching the lava field the scenery changes completely to black volcanic rubble and smoke. It'd be really easy to get lost, since everything looks exactly the same, so big white splats of paint a put here and there to show the path. Still it's not the easiest of routes to follow as its easy to slip on the rubble and the rocks are razor sharp.

After a while following the path you start to get hot blasts of air (it was starting to get cold on the trek up) and looking down at your feet you can sometimes see a red hot glow through the cracks. Everyone starts to look a little more serious at this point, as the prospect of falling into lava isn't a very nice one, but it doesn't seem to bother the guide who happily takes shortcuts from the marked path and throws boulders at cooling lava so fresh stuff spills out.

Eventually we reached the top, and although it wasn't the raging torrent of lava I was hoping to see, it was a pretty impressive sight. Unfortunately, it was starting to get dark so we had a few minutes to take photos and then nervously picked our way back over the lava fields to the trail.

Next, I'm going to Lake Attitlan for a couple of days whilst Amy finishes up her studies on the Pacific coast, then we're off to Honduras!

Antigua

Antigua's probably the main tourist place in Guatemala. It's colonial town that used to be the capital of Guatemala until it was flattened by a series of earthquakes. It was rebuilt, but there are still quite a few ruined churches and monestaries which now serve as tourist attractions.

The town is surrounded by three volcanoes, and when the air is clear the views of them looming over you are fantastic. Worryingly one of the volcanoes is still highly active, often splashing lava about the place (although I didn't get to see it!)

There's not a huge amount to do here, but it's a nice place to stay for a couple of days just wandering around the cobbled streets, browsing the market, stuffing our faces at the nice restaurants and having the odd beer here and there.

Lanquin and Semuc Champey

We arrived in Lanquin a couple of days ago, about 5 hours south from Flores, and we´re staying at an amazing place in the loft of a thatched cabana. The location is really special, all around us are green hills and a river runs right past us. The food here is really good too, and every few days they throw an all you can eat BBQ followed by a boozy party.

Yesterday we took a tour to nearby caves and a series of pools called Semuc Champey. Ive never really been caving so it was quite an experience, especially since our only source of light was a candle that each of us carried. The guide lead deeper into the caves climbing up ladders, squeezing between rocks and swimming with one arm whilst the other carried the candle. It was super good. It was pitch back too, and felt pretty creepy to be at the end of the line of people with nothing but blackness behind me.

After that we had half an hours hike up to a view point, and then back down again to the pools. They were cool, crystal clear and the perfect way to cool off after the hike.

Today is a lazy day, but tomorrow we´ll be taking some inner tubes down the river then doing a night tour of some more caves to see the bats. Then on to Antigua.

Spanish School

I got back from Spanish school on Monday. It was a pretty good experience and has definitely given me a basic foundation of Spanish to build on, Im still pretty crap at it though.

The school was in San Andres, a small town by the lake near Flores, and there were just 5 students including me. The teaching was done one-to-one by teachers who knew almost no English, so it was quite an interesting experience. At first it was very difficult to learn anything, but after the first day (and passing a dictionary between us) we were able to move along pretty well. I did 4 hours a day and the rest of the time was my own to swim in the beautiful lake and generally laze about.

I stayed with a Guatemalan family (Amy stayed at ARCAS finishing up her study) arranged by the school, in a basic room with 3 meals a day. They were a good bunch, being an old couple called Carmen and Rosa, their daughter, her 2 children and a few other misc family members, so it was quite a squeeze. They couldnt speak any English so at first it was pretty difficult, but after a few days and say a few things to them in faultering Spanish. Even though the food was just different combinations of beans, chicken, cheese, eggs, rice and tortillas it was really good. Surprisingly eating your own bosy weight in beans per day doesnt make you trump as much as youd expect and Ive come to really like them with all their lardy goodness.

We both finished on Amys birthday, so we met up Flores and stayed at a posh hotel, had a slap up meal and generally spoiled eachother.

Tikal and beyond!

Yesterday we went to visit some incredible Mayan ruins, called Tikal, in the middle of the rain forest.

The day started around 5:30am taking the bus for about 30 minutes from the sleepy town we were staying in, El Remate. On entering the Tikal national park we drove along a road cut into the thick forest for about another 10 minutes, all the time passing signs to watch out for the jaguars, snakes, turkeys and other wildlife. On arrival we had a quick brekkie and then walked to the main site.

Unlike other places like this that I've visited, there aren't crowds of people, so walking between the sites through the jungle you feel like the only people there. There was tons of animals too, especially birds, and the sounds as we walked about were straight of a nature documentary.

The pyramids themselves were spectacular, some of them completely cleared from the jungle, others left covered in trees and dilapidated. We were able to climb some and the views from the top was amazing, just thick jungle to the horizon with the occasional temple poking out.

Getting back down again varied from merely nerve racking to terrifying because we didn't realise how steep they were on the way up, in fact a couple of people have died by falling from them. The highest pyramid is 62 metres..!

After that we had a relaxing day at a nice hotel back in Flores. Today I'm going to stay with a Guatemalan family and learn Spanish for a week whilst Amy finishes her studies off at ARCAS. Catch you later.

Finished at ARCAS

We both finished our week volunteering at ARCAS a few days ago and have been enjoying the benefits of civilisation for a bit.

Even though we were mainly cleaning up and feeding the animals its been a great experience, its not everyday you get to be so close to wild animals. Our favourites were the toucans, tayra (like a big ferret) and a baby spider monkey called Mona.

The tayra was a real handful and took both of us armed with brushes and raw chicken to coax him into not biting us as we got into the cage to clean up. The toucans were a lot of fun too, always giving us sideways looks when we came in with food and would even take little pieces of fruit out of our hands.

The baby monkey, Mona, was very unsure of me at first and much preferred Amy. Initially she wouldn't even come out of her cage until I hid around the corner then shed cautiously climb onto Amy for a bit of exercise. After a while she got more used to me, but always seemed a little suspicious of me. I must smell like a bad monkey or something.

We had a lot of free time too, so we mainly hung out with everyone else playing cards and drinking a little rum from time to time. We were right next to a beautiful lake too, so we could swim whenever we liked.

All in all, we had a brilliant time and were both pretty sad to leave, but it was a relief to get away from the mosquitoes and freezing cold showers.

Some more photos from ARCAS

Some photos from ARCAS

Just a quickie..!

ARCAS

Today we went to check out ARCAS (http://www.arcasguatemala.com/), an animal rehabilitation centre where we´re going to volunteer for a week. We´ll be helping out by feeding and cleaning out their jaguars, ocelots, monkeys and everything else they have that they´re planning to release back to the wilds!

We were both allowed into the ocelot enclosure today as they were being fed and were just feet away from them. Couldn´t get a good photo, though, they just wouldn´t stay still long enough! Still I´ll have a whole week to get some.

Anyways, I´ll be out of contact for the next week or so, but I´ll update as soon as I get back to civilisation!

Out of Belize, and into Guatemala!

It´s been a while since my last update. Mainly because the internet in Belize is so expensive, but also because after Caye Caulker Belize was a bit shit.

Placencia was billed as a backpacker place with an amazing beach in our guide books, but it felt much more like a semi-expensive resort town and the beach wasn´t that great. After that we went to San Ignacio near the Guatemalan border, again billed as a great backpacker place with lots to do. Admittedly they were lots of tours we could of taken, but they would all of broken the bank, so instead we moved straight on to Monkey Bay so that Amy could get her studies done. We were hoping to do loads of activities here, but it turned out that you needed a big group to do this, so mostly I just read whilst Amy got on with her interviews and study.

So overall we were very happy to leave Belize for Guatemala. At the moment we´re in Flores in the north and we´re staying in a great hostel (something we haven´t been able to find anywhere). It´s a beautiful place on a small island in the middle of a lake with cobbled streets and a European feel. So far we´ve just been soaking up the atmosphere in the hostel and chatting with other travellers to get to lowdown on the rest of Central America, but we both have a good feeling about this place and I think we´re going to find it hard to tear ourselves away.

Well that´s about it for now, next stops are a Jaguar conservation project and Tikal. I´ll keep yous informed!

Unbelizeable!

Well not quite, but it's pretty nice!

We eventually managed to tear ourselves away from Bacalar early in the morning a few days ago. Crossing the border into Belize was really quick and simple, and after a few hours we found ourselves in the capital Belize City. It's hard to believe that a country the size of Wales can only have a population the same size as Brighton's, and that the capital city only has about 60000!

Still, it manages to be a noisy, hustle-bustle place and according to our guidebooks not a place to stick around in after dark, so we took a ferry straight to Caye Caulker. It's mainly a backpacker island and although I've never been there, it feels just like the Caribbean probably does.

After a panicked half hour or so we found a place to stay at the end of the island with the help of a rasta called Gilbert. He spoke in such a strong Creole accent that we could only understand about half of what he was saying. After walking us to our place we gave him a couple of dollars and he went off to find more tourists, and judging by the state of him later on a beer and some smokes.

Caye Caulker is supposed to be a great place to dive and there's tons of tours you can take. We spent a while browsing around what was on offer, but everything seemed like the same package, so we went for a beer on the beach at the Lazy Lizard "A sunny place for shady people" to think things over. As luck would have it a brightly painted rickety boat was docking right in front of the bar with a smiley family getting our thanking the two rastas who ran it. After a little inquiring we decided to join them on their next trip the following day.

They made a point of telling us that their trip was much more laid back than the others and that they were happy for us to bring beers along with us. Unfortunately the weather wasn't great for snorkeling but they managed to let us out in a few places. The first was shark and ray alley, which was teaming with rays about 2 feet across. They were very curious too (probably because they get feed by the people running the tours) and would crowd around you, but I found it difficult to put the crocodile hunter out of my mind. It didn't seem to bother the kids who were with us, they were happily stroking them and with the help of one of the rastas were holding onto them for photos.

The rest of the trip was very lazy, we did a little more snorkeling and dove down for conch shells that the rastas cooked up for us. On the way home we circled the island and scared a small crocodile out of the mangroves, unfazed one of the guys jumped straight in to pluck out some sea horses and pass them around in a big jar.

Anyways, at the moment we're back on the mainland in Placencia after a very hairy bus trip, but I'll write about that another time and hopefully add some photos!

Embarassing injection at Laguna Bacalar

After a visit to the doctors it turns out that my cracked rib is probably broken. I say probably because the doctor and I had a hard time understanding each other. Amy sat in as interpreter with our Spanish dictionary, so were reasonably sure that´s what was said.

Bizarrely the treatment was an injection in my arse! I had to lie down face first with my shorts pulled down a little, as the female doctor, two curious nurses and Amy looked on and giggled! Still along with the painkillers and anti-inflammatories I´m feeling much better, if a little spaced out...

Other than that we´re in Laguna Bacalar at the moment, staying in a cool hotel right on the bank of a huge lake. It´s very peaceful (even without the painkillers!) and we´re just lazing around considering our next move to Caye Caulker in Belize.

We did a little snorkeling in the lake this morning, but we only saw a couple of fish. Although that´s probably a good thing because crocodiles live on the opposite shore of the lake, but if the mosquitoes appetite is anything to go by they´d probably make an exception for me...