Behold the mighty Tikal We decided to take the back route to Tikal from Coban via a town named Chisec, where there were supposed less visited touristic attractions. Well we can tell you why they are less visited - the attractions are overpriced and quite frankly boring, the town of Chisec itself I guess is ok but has no tourist infrastructure apart from an overpriced hotel that we now wish we had stayed at. Instead we went for the local trucker motel, which instantly gave Karen a migraine due to the room looking like it had recently been a site [View Full Entry]

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Time to get busy and see some stuff This time we treated ourselves to a direct shuttle bus heading to a town called Coban, yet strangley we had the whole shuttle bus to ourselves (we kept thinking, somethings going to happen, but nothing ever did.) We arrived to rain, which is what makes Coban primarily a coffee growing town with many fincas and historically many Germans. We stayed at Hotel la Paz which was fabulous every corner you turned was like a David Lynch set!! We woke in the morning to a heavy mist which later turned to torrential rain, [View Full Entry]

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Xmas is coming and the goose is getting fat We decided that with xmas coming up we wanted to be somewhere not too far from the beaten tourist path and chose Antigua as we wanted to get as close to an authentic Xmas dinner as possible, these things become increasingly important when you eat beans and egg three times a day. We also arranged to meet up with Benj and Arlene as they were feeling the same way too. Xmas is important in Central america too but is different to back home - it being hot and sunny being a [View Full Entry]

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Heading off up to the lake From Xela to Panajachel which sits on the shores of the beautiful Lago Atitlan surrounded by volcanoes over 3500 ft high (that's not the biggest) we found a friendly local familly run hotel named Villa Lupita in the old town, with a view over the lake from the roof terrace. Know to locals as Pana, the town has a toursity feel,with lots of indigenous handy crafts, which doen't sound too appealing, but we found it really friendly and enjoyed our stay. Marcel discovered the Guatemalan tipico breakfast and thus ate it everyday thereafter consiting of: [View Full Entry]

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Hablo espanol? After finally dragging ourselves away from San Cristobal we head for the Mexican Guatemalan border of La Mesilla, well know as a narcotics route (we found out latter 17 people were killed the week we crossed the border). So at La Mesilla, there is no-one to give us an exit stamp, even though we ask everyone, so there's little to do but walk across the invisible line,(which is actually a chaotic market, full of stalls and tuk tuks, change some money with the dodgy money changers and get on an old American Scvhool bus for an 8hr journey. [View Full Entry]

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San Cristobal de las casas On the bus again through the mountains of Chiapas, through alpine forests that were quickly being deforested to create grazing for cows. The route was very twisty and turny as we climbed through the mountains and we were presented with a beautiful sunset amid the peaks. The on board entertainment was Quantum of Solace which was a surprise as it had only been released in the cinema the same week, however it soon broke out into german at the vital moment in the story. Bah! Karen slept throughout the journey after swallowing dramamine to counter the [View Full Entry]

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Palenque We caught a bumpy ferry from Cozumel to Playa del Carman where Karen went a pretty shade of green, then directly onto a 13hr overnight bus journey, (where Marcel was convinced an old man smelled of wee and kept him awake all night) Karen slept like a baby! We stayed at Edd and Margarita's a hotel in the jungle on the border of the national park and could hardly sleep as the crickets were so loud but so beautoiful and then in the morning we were woken at 5am by what sounded like a dinosaur, as the howler monkeys [View Full Entry]

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Quintana Roooooooo!! Captains Log - 09/11/08 So onwards on American Airlines (really crappy airline do not fly with them) with some French family from the Alsace who's kid was wearing a weird head brace to rounden (to make round) his head - strange looking contraption, never seen one of those before but at least he didn't cry on the plane! So they let us into Mexico - Marcel had a lighter in his pocket too (goddammit he could set the seats alight!) With a hop and a skip from Cancun on coach and ferry to Cozumel, we arrived the apartment Nivea [View Full Entry]

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First stop New York City Captains log: 04/11/08 America's first black president, Barak Obama. There was dancing and general whooping in Williamsburg, New York Stylee. We stayed with our friends Sascha and Lilah (S+L) after leaving Terry the tooth in Jamaica Station, Sascha and Lilah's bar - the Lucky cat was in the midst of closing, to end an era of Williamsburg becoming hip. We were fortunate to be there when S+L were starting up the place 6 Years ago buying thrift furniture in the fat lands of New Jersey when it wasn't cool to do so. Now we were drinking [View Full Entry]

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