What better time to sit and write a blog than when you’re stuck waiting in a line to cross a border to the next country - the only risk is that the tone you adopt depends directly on the efficiency of the country’s immigration procedure. I’m currently travelling solo trying to get myself out of Costa Rica and into Panama but I’ve come via a minor route and, due to the miracles of Costa Rican bus schedules, I’ve just been deposited, with about 50 other people, at the border smack on 1pm. So the stern trout-faced woman behind the one-man Immigration [View Full Entry]

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So this is a very quick update as I leave Nicaragua after only 6 days - the weather has been pretty miserable, which hasn’t helped much as such a lot of what this country has to offer is outdoor based nature and scenery. I came down from Honduras with a few of the people left on the tour and after a 14 hour journey we got to the capital of Managua and caught a collectivo (minibus) to the tourist capital that is Granada. Granada, a bit like Antigua in Guatemala, is another ancient city of cobbled streets that, along with Leon [View Full Entry]

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Nothing will make you realise just how little Spanish you can actually speak like having to sit down to dinner with a Guatemalan family and try and make polite chitchat - in Spanish obviously. Heck I find it hard enough to do in English. My first meal consisted of the typical starter of introductions and polite getting-to-know-you questions which I could handle easily enough. But by the main course I realised I was getting out of my depth and once the safety net of “my name is…” and “I come from…” had passed and I had to actually construct past, present [View Full Entry]

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There I was looking for an opportunity to take a break from all this blogging by having a lazy couple of weeks, when my conscious got the better of me and quite literally tricked me into taking an adventure. But before I get on to that I ought to tell you about the sex hotel that Kate and I ended up in. We were dragged kicking and screaming away from the paradise that was Caye Culker and ended up back in Cancun a couple of days before Kate had to fly home. Both now being over the hill and into our [View Full Entry]

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Ok this is just a quick update so I can tick Belize off the countries visited map! It’s actually been a really nice relaxing couple of days - a welcome break after tearing around Mexico and Guatemala. We came into Belize via San Ignacio which is on the Macal River on the western border of Belize and Guatemala - did a really amazing caving trip swimming up a river and into the ancient but until recently undiscovered Actun Tunichil Muknal cave system. 2 hours of scrambling over, under and around rocks, swimming through rivers and squeezing through narrow gaps (all underground [View Full Entry]

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So there I was - standing in front of a classroom full of 15 year olds, awkwardly trying to sing a good couple of verses of “London Bridge is Falling Down” and being met by completely blank stares. As far as embarrassing moments go it’s probably right up there with my awful attempt to play Beethoven’s 9th on an out of tune piano in front of the whole school when I was 10 (I actually had to stop and go back to the beginning twice). But this one was only last week. Fortunately Guatemalan teenagers are considerably easier to please (not [View Full Entry]

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Well the last week has been a bit more like what this trip is supposed to be all about - I actually am backpacking now (in that most days my pack spends at least some of the time on my back), we’re only using public transport, there are mosquitoes and I’m speaking Spanish to locals (when I absolutely have to). And what’s more I’m loving it. Kate and I made it to hot and sweaty Cancun on Sunday 24th and spent a lazy day wandering around downtown. Biggest mistake that day was watching the movie Babel - which involves a couple [View Full Entry]

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…is how I’ve taken to this travelling malarkey... But to be honest, although I’m living out of a backpack I’m far from being a typical traveller at the moment - for the last two weeks every morning I’ve put my pack in our nice shiny car where it stays until we reach our next hotel…. Somehow I think that things are about to get a whole lot less comfortable as I head for Mexico (and subsequently a huge reduction in my daily budget). Anyhow as the last two weeks have essentially been a bit of a holiday I’m not going to [View Full Entry]

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Okay so a few of you have been asking if I'm going to do a blog whilst I'm travelling... and I honestly have to say I'm not sure if I can handle that kind of commitment at the moment - I've got the fear it'll feel like having a report to get done every 2 weeks. But I suppose if I'm going to do anything, then I might as well make a big effort at the start and hope it continues.... so here’s my very first ever blog entry - Day 1 and so far all I can report is I’ve [View Full Entry]

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