The preliminaries

Hello to all and to all a good night!

We arrived into Mexico City after an 11 hour flight from Heathrow on Monday 15th September. After a horribly long wait in immigration and the taxi rank we eventually made it to our hostel. It was dark, we were tired and with it being our first time there we were both a little anxious about it all. Some more than others! It all worked out fine though. That night we met a yank and an Ozzie lad and they showed us around some of the area which apparently was rather well to do. We went around the local markets, had some eats and just looked around. As has been the case since we arrived here, when we´re ordering something we´re not entirely sure what we´re getting. It doesn´t really bother me though because, as my mam´s years of cooking will tell you, I´ll eat anything. I mean that in the nicest possible way mother dear! Anyways Vicki found one thing in particular she liked, Flautas! Aside from saying they´re a hard spring roll with a variety of fillings I don´t really know how to explaing them but Vicki was happy enough with them until she ate enough of them and it got to the stage where she "Can´t stand the sight of another bleedin´ flouty!" We´ve had our fair share of ropey stomachs already and no doubt there´s more on the way but sure it´s all part of the fun

Thanks to Victoria´s intrepid young mind we managed to get a cheap flight to Cancun from Mexico City and avoid an 8 hour bus ride. We stayed one night in a kip of a hostel in Cancun city where we were greeted by a friendly little cockroach (R.I.P.) and the next morning we hopped on a shuttle bus to the aiport for our flight to Cuba where we stayed for 2 weeks

Cuba´s a funny place. Vicki summed it up well within the first day or two when she said it was "bizarre" and I think that´s the only word for it. It´s not a case of people wearing hats on their feet and hamburgers eating people because for one thing they don´t even have hamburgers...well not as we know them anyway. There´s no money in the country and for tourism being one of their main cash cows they´re not the friendliest nations in the world. What I found was the people are only friendly if they are or at leat think they are getting money out of you. That may only be true in Havana though because they seemed to be a lot more laid back and friendlier outside of the capital. I was a bit out of sorts for a few days (if you know about this keep it under your hat!!) and one couple we were staying with went well above and beyond what was expected of them. They really helped us out and they were really cool. As was our mate Rafael in Trinidad. The guy had nothing but was really hospitable. The propaganda even now in the country is unreal. You can´t walk down any street without a mural or some words to the effect of "Viva la Revolucion!" I don´t particularly like Castro although he´s had a very colourful life. Despite handing over power, his brother is playing second Fidel. I thought of that gag myself! Good isn´t it? If Animal Farm showed us one thing it´s that Communism doesn´t work but the government are squeezing the life out of these people. In one way it´s actually quite interesting to watch but very sad in another. They´re busting at the seams for Obama to be elected because they believe that change is just around the corner with him but if it´s McCain...there´ll be more of the same. However the last thing we want to do is give the impression that Cuba was anything less than fantastic. It was such a unique experience and one that we'll never forget. The food in some of these places was out of this world. For example we got a lobster and shrimp dinner on a beach outside Havana for 13 CUC. I can't remember how much that is right now but it was cheap as chips. Great stuff!

There were a number of towns that we wanted to see but our friends Ike and Gustav put a stop to that before we went over so we were kind of confined to the centre of Cuba for the 2 weeks. We were on a few beaches during our time there, one of which was amazing. Unfortunately that was the same beach where we both got absolutely annihilated by the local mozzies. Good times! I´ve had a few cigars and Vicki´s been pounding mojitos, Cuba Libres and basically anything with rum in it. It´s been an educational and fun time and we´re both really glad we went

Now we shall make our way down to Antigua, Guatemala where we will spend 2 weeks learning Spanish and experiencing the Guatemalan culture. I think I´ve had just about enough of making a nob of myself with the locals throwing my Spanglish at them. On more than one ocassion I´ve taken something they´ve said up totally the wrong way. The other day in Cuba for example, the man of the house in one home we were staying in, introduced me to his brother in law but Mr. Multilingual over here walks out of the room thinking that he said dinner´s ready. They must´ve thought I was hugely ignorant. Ah it´s all part of the experience

Ok well we best be off

All the best

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