The Night of Terror began at dinner. It was the first night since staying with our host family in San Jose that I parted from being veggie. I had a traditional Guatemalan dish - a bowl of soup containing a whole fish, its head and tail sticking up out of the soup at either side. Well I asked for it! The disection began. As the fish gave me a look of defiance, I glanced up at the rafter over the kitchen table to see my arch nemesis, the evil one, a dirty sneaky rat. And so began The Night of Terror. [View Full Entry]

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There´s nothing wrong with a beer and a slice of lime. It must have taken off in Eire around the 90s. First consumed by the cool ones. And then the suits on Friday nights in town, stuffing city bars after a week´s work. Now beer and lime is popular almost everywhere. I quite like a cool bottle of beer with lime. But when you´re given beer, lime AND salt on the side?! Jessica and I looked at one another as though a dog with two tails had strolled past. What do we do with the salt? Wait wait...two locals have the [View Full Entry]

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Bundled into a colectivo (10-seater minivans that act as buses) crammed with 24 Guatemalans, James and I found our way to San Jose, a half hour around the Peten Itza lake from Santa Elena. We headed out to the small quiet town to learn Spanish and stay with a family. "¿Les gustan los niños? Do you like children?" asked the school director, Glenda, a lady who had an unnerving constant surprised smile on her face, as though someone kept coming around the corner with a birthday cake for her. It was a good job we do like children, because our host [View Full Entry]

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Two and a half months had passed and we though perhaps it was time to move a muscle and do a bit of work. Boooo! From San Ignacio, a small town in the hills of Western Belize, we had contacted a small organic farm about volunteering in exchange for food and shelter. Hanging around San Ignacio for a reply was nice. A place I could live for quite a while...well a couple of months anyway. Plus Jess was superhappy with the veggie selection in Hanna´s restaurant, she was spoiled for choice. When the reply came, it was short and sweet. "Yes [View Full Entry]

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Carlos, the boat driver swore us to secrecy - don´t tell the ´rich´tourists who we were picking up 8 miles downstream how much we paid for the boat trip and the tour to Lamanai. We paid 80 Belizean dollars, the folks coming in from the Cayes (small islands just off the east coast of Belize) paid 260! Bargain. The 8 miles on the speed boat, powered by 2 massive outboard engines, were exhilarating. Snaking around river bends and small islands, my hair was truly windswept and blow dried after just 3 minutes. Skipper Carlos was an experienced and informed wildlife spotter. [View Full Entry]

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A hurricane is something we all want to experience. The power of nature. Mr. Fay was in the house but Jessica and I just missed him by a few day unfortunately. I really did want to meet my namesake! Alas when we were in Cuba, another came knocking, Gustav. Only thing is, Gustav was much bigger, stronger and left a right mess as we were about to find out. Jess and I awoke, had a snooze and awoke again! That day (Saturday), we needed to find a casa particulares (accommodation in a private home with a family) in Vedado (one of [View Full Entry]

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It is Thursday night and we´re in the mood for dancing. But the tourist bars in Trinidad are, well, er, touristy. Listening to the Cuban bands in the Casa de la Musica felt like we´d headed to Temple Bar in Dublin to hear some ´real Irish traditional music´. So we hooked up with some new Cuban friends we met in Havana and they invited us to tag along (gracias Marie y Nelson). Gone midnight, the club is in full flow. I didn´t catch the name - it was dark, but coming along Jose Marti out of town, turn left at the [View Full Entry]

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It´s the end of our Cubana journey and we are sad as we watch Havana fade away through our little porthole. We head to Mexico and beyond. After two months I believe we only scratched the surface of Cuban life but nethertheless it´s a scratch most people never get to itch. For me, Cuba was a bit of an enigma that can´t be seen as black and white, a bit like the people - Cuba is the most mixed country we have ever been to. There is no single ´Cuban look'. Jess looked Cuban, even I looked Cuban! I consider Cuba [View Full Entry]

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"Holguin!" bellowed the bus driver. Off the bus and negotiated the fare to our next casa. Once more a crazy taxi ride, this time one man is teaching another to drive! Part of the lesson includes the skill of turning off the engine when going downhill to save petrol. It's a green car. We pulled up at a group of three storey communist style apartment blocks, square concrete cubes stacked together. The sun was going down, the area looked really dodgy and I thought the next few minutes would be crucial as we waited for our host to arrive on his [View Full Entry]

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Writing this, we're just back from a day on horseback in El Valle de Los Ingenios (a valley near Trinidad where the colonial sugar plantations were once situated) and we've both got VERY sore bums indeed! The horses led us along stoney mountain trails, over a railway line, through three rivers and up to a cascading waterfall where we cooled down in the crystal clear waters. We both had quite different experiences so here's a version of the day from each of us. My Day Out With Crazy Horse By Jess Apparently you only need to know three things to ride [View Full Entry]

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