catb

After another (and the last) border crossing we made it into panama and headed straight to bocas del toro... bocas del toro is a small town on an island on the caribbean coast..and was absolutely beautiful, the water was crystal clear and warm, the sun was out and hot and much sunbathing was done....also were able to spot a few dolphins. bocas also has a great nightlife...all the bars have piers over the water..but luckily none of us fell in despite having sampled the entire cocktail menu during happy hour!... after bocas we haded to boquete which is a small town in the highlands which had suffered a lot in the recent flooding and you could still see all the damage that had been done... this is where we spent christmas...and it did begin to feel ... read more

I am now in Costa Rica....which for the record isthe most beautiful country i have ever been too...loads of mountains and volcanoes, and something crazy like 75% of the country is a protected nature reserve.....and its also very very very very hot... continuing the story....offi went to see somemore volcanoes...no lava but one was happilysmoking away and really did smell quite bad, amusingly in the carpark there wereloads of signstelling people to park their cars facing the exit due to the fact that the volcano could erupt at any time and there probably wouldnt be time to initiatea reversing move...however such signs did not stop us traipsing around the rim ofthe crater...and at some points the wind was so strong i was genuinely quite worried that the skinnier people were about to become another set of ... read more

Again have been busy busy busy, so buisy in fact that since the last entry i have entered, stayed in and left hondurus and am now in nicaragua.... so a very early start saw us leaving guatamala and crossing the border into hondurus...it was most upsetting as i didnt get a stamp, and have been informed that i wont get an exit stamp until i leave nicaragua due to the three countries having some form of agreement..similar to the eu travel arrangements i imagine...you should understand that for all travellers collecting passport stamps becomes something of an obsession!.. but anyway, first day in hondurus was spent in copan, another mayan ruin site..this one not so impressive in terms of big pyramids etc, but the carvings had survived remarkably weel so it was great to get to ... read more

Im now in guatamala...altho not for much longer as i cross the border in honduras tomorrow.... after leaving belize behind, we headed to flores...which is a little island town, with some very nice restaurants...from there we headed to the ruins at tikal...which is another mayan city, again in the jungle, where again we got to climb all over the ancient pyramids....no health and safety here! afte flores we headed to rio dulce....and stayed in a swamp...which actually was far nicer than it sounds...with a cute little bungalow over the swamp and wooden walkways to get to it..a few too many mosquitoes for my liking tho!...took a boat trip alng the river to the garifuna town of livingston which is on the caribbean coast....garifuna is the culture which has arisen from the descendants of the black slave ... read more

Another big entry..haven't been around computers for a while and have been busy busy busy... after merida we hit the road again and arrived in playa del carmen...which was a bit of a culture shock as it is a big tourist resort on the caribbean coast....completely different from anywhere i have stayed so far...basically it was america but in mexico...and it cost a lot more than anywhere else!...but saying that it did have some great bars...right on the beach, with the dance floor over the sea, cocktails by the yard and a lot of english speakers!... whilst there took a day trip to tulum...some more mayan ruins...but these mayas had the excellant idea of building their town on the edge of the caribbean sea so you could wander round the ruins and then head to the ... read more

...does it get any better??? the answer is most probably not! So after oaxaca took another night bus and arrived in san cristobal de las casas...another small colonial towns...im quite used to these small colonial towns now..since i have spent really quite a lot of time in them...but this has many advantages as they are all built around the same plan ad i know the shortest route from the hotel to the bars/shops/coffee house in any town now... whilst there we went to visit some indigenous communities...where one set tried to convince me that they healed sick people by putting a chicken in a bag and waving it around the sick persons head...i was somewhat suspicious of these claims, esp since this particular community was over 1000 years old and i doubted that the chicken in ... read more

Hola amigos...my plane finally arrived and i am now in mexico... mexico, like all the other countries so far, is proving to be wonderful...and quite a bit hotter than the south..hurrah! started off in mexico city...which really is quite big....when up a tower to look at the whole city so i am able to confirm that it is in fact massive...the day i arrived was the day of the dead here, which is a festival where they celebrate their dead relatives...and its pretty cool as they build lots of altar type things covered in flowers and food and skeletons, and then have a massive party involving the mariachis singers....which was all v. fun... i was only in mexico city for a couple of days..which i was quite gutted about as you could easily spend a few ... read more

since i am still waiting for my plane, i thought i would take the opportunity to make a few general observations about south america... firstly you cant put toilet paper in the loo for some reason...if you do it generally results in a gross toilet explosion situation... they dont have real milk here...instead they drink condensed milk, especially a brand called gloria...this is generally vile peruvians have the sweetest tooth i have ever come across...i may have diabetes after a month in this country driving is an extreme sport...lanes dont exist and any lights are best ignored apparently coffee is v good as long as the condensed milk described above is avoided peru has 4000 varities of potato apparently rice is served with everything panatonne can be bought at every shop..no matter how small or how ... read more

My South American trip is just about done...well bar the next five hours till my flight leaves for mexico...everyone from the tour has now gone so it´s just me left now...until my new tour starts tomorrow... the last week has been fun...first we went to trujillo which is on the north coast of peru...there we saw some pretty impressive ruins...the site is called chan chan and it is from a pre inkan civilisation ....all the ruins are built out of mud bricks...but since it never rains here they have survived...a lot of the original paintings have also survived so they are pretty interesting to go and see... after a couple of days there we decided to head back down to lima....which has also been really nice....taken at a lot slower pace than the tour!...we have wandered ... read more

I have finished my first tour...and i can´t believe just how quickly 45 days can go... but to return to the story...so a quick flight took us to arequipa which is a very pretty colonial town - which has some very decent restaurants...just a quick note in terms of food to let you know what sort of stuff we have been eating...llama, alpaca, guinea pig, ceviche (raw fish in lemon juice), stuffed potatoes...seem to make up the peruvian diet...and all are very good...as are the pisco sours...the cocktail here... after a night in arequipa we headed out to the colca canyon...which is apparently the second deepest canyon in the world...and i can confirm it was pretty deep....and again saw shitloads of llamas and alpacas etc....then headed to some thermal baths which were nice if not a ... read more