Except for a very sweaty and slow run yesterday morning, life is pretty much grinding away on first gear. We are very chilled and relaxed here. We have spent many hours lying in the crystal clear shallows of the Caribbean. Today we decided to explore the island a little further so we hired a scooter. Leanne taking her spot at the back and warming up her arm for a day of slow down whacks and Matt was very pleased to find a 150cc scooter. Although the island is small it is still a decent size as we found out after travelling over 30km to the other side where we were still not quite at the other side. The island is quite hilly and you get some great views of the coral reef and blue waters as ... read more

We found that Tortuga Surf Lodge was a great choice. We met the owner Roberto last night who was a very interesting and friendly guy. As you would expect he is surfing mad but after having a few beers with him and watching him in a surf video we realized there was more to him than just surfing. He explained the whole history both political and geographical and it was obvious this place was run more out of love of surfing than a business venture. For a tiny country El Salvador has about 10 murders per day (mostly gang related) which makes it one of the most violent countries in the world. Although you don’t see this first hand (hopefully) it is easy to believe just by looking at the number of people carrying arms. So ... read more

We found another one of Guatemalas not so secret treasures, Lago Atitlan. As we arrived in our minívan we came over the hill to look down upon a large beautiful lake surrounded by volcanoes and much vegetation. Panajachel is the largest town around the lake and this is where we were dropped off. Although this was nice enough we had read about another place called San Marcos, a town on the other side of the lake where we had decided to base ourselves. We soon discovered there were 3 prices on boats around here and because we were neither locals nor long termers we forked over our tourist cash. San Marcos is a lovely little village with a small wooden jetty sticking out from the reeds growing on the lake shore. We had read that this ... read more

Back to internet so time for an update on whats been happening. Leaving Flores our 5 hour directo bus turned out to be anything but. After 5 hours we pulled into a larger than expected town but were pleased to finally be there. You can imagine our surprise when we suddenly realized we had sailed 1.5hrs past our turn off in order to drop half the collectivo (minibus) off. Just to add to our smiles and head shaking the driver dropped us in a car park outside a shopping mall while we waited for him to pop home for lunch his wife had cooked. Finally after 9 hours we arrived in Lanquin just in time for the evening down pour. Unfortunately our bags rode on the roof and so our room resembled a Chinese laundry as ... read more

We learned a quick lesson today that in central America your hotel need not have a shower as at this time of year nature is quite capable of providing one for you. We got off our bus and realised it was definitely air conditioned, a heat wave hit us as we exited in the small town of Palenque. We have dropped down in altitude now from Mexico city and San Cristobal de las Casas and finally Leanne feels at home in the stinky hot humid heat. Palenque is a small town with not much happening but set on the outskirts is the picturesque and very fascinating Palenque ruins. These ruins are an ancient Mayan city dating back from 100 BC to 900 AD and lost to the jungle for almost 1000 years. With only the ruins ... read more