We found ourselves in Belize almost by mistake.  Like all good travel, you only plan your next destination when you have to leave the current one.  In this case we were on our way to book our bus to Palenque and found ourselves saying "Belize City".  The ticket was written before we had time to change our minds.  So on a 5am "luxury" bus (never, ever, under any circumstances, believe the hype about C American tours) with leg room for anyone under 5ft, we made our way to the border, onwards to the ferry terminal, and finally a boat to Caye Caulker.  We were on the beach before midday and burnt by 1pm.  To keep costs down we took a beach hut for 4 people with Frank and Alex. However, after finding out mochila terrorists set ... read more

Our sights were firmly set on the North Coast of Honduras, before we had even crossed the border.  It's a pretty simple crossing at Los Manos, but the CA4 agreement means that you don't get a stamp if you are entering and exiting from other CA4 countries.  Without thinking, we told them we were going to Guatemala next, when a simple "Belize" would gave got us our Honduran stamp. $3 and no stamp, devastating.  By nightfall we had reached Comayagua with a series of well timed bus connections.  We thought of going further, but Nic was feeling tired and had a headache.  No matter how the guide books dress it up as a "colonial" town, it's rubbish!!  The cathedral and parque central pass muster as picturesque, but don't take up more than 20 minutes of your ... read more

Our arrival in Panama City might not have been quite as impressive as Henry Morgan's was in 1671, but we bet he had better weather.  After a bus and a taxi from Tocumen airport, night was just beginning to fall, and the rain was too.  By the time we had checked in to our 17th floor room, the sky was lit up like Blackpool illuminations.  Streaks of lightning aided our limited view of the cloud covered bay and the skyscrapers that are going up at an alarming rate. As we settled into our $320 per night room (cheers Mike!) we found that breakfast wasn't included, nor was wifi (which the t's & c's kindly told us we could prepay or have added to our room bill).  The room, however, did surpass expectations. The bed was vast, mini ... read more

We arrived in Lima and waited patiently for our luggage.  As we waited we watched the queue for customs.  The process for which consisted of handing over your declaration, then pressing a button which gave a green or red light.  The latter meant further checks at a scanner or even opening the bags.  It looked random, but we think there was a bloke watching on a monitor deciding who he thought looked shifty or he wanted to frustrate by holding them up a bit longer.  In the meantime, the airline company tried to open the crate containing our luggage.  After half an hour or so everyone was handing over their details for luggage to be forwarded, when someone must have decided to get medieval on the tin box and the carousel kicked into life again.  Our ... read more

We had given ourselves plenty of time to catch the bus from Posadas on the Argentinian side of the border as we expected hassles from our lack of Paraguayan passport stamp. But as things went smoothly we had plenty of time hanging out in another bus station. But not quite as much time as we thought. For some reason Paul decided to check the time at five to eight, and with that sick feeling in the stomach was told it was five to nine. We had forgotten the hour time difference and our bus left at 8.45pm. Thankful of South American punctuality, we found our bus wasn't even in the terminal yet, but it took til well after the bus left for our heart rates to resume normal service. Our bus company had promising pictures of ... read more