Welcome to the Jungle

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We left for Palenque last Friday and en route stopped at 2 waterfalls in the mountains. The first one, Agua Azul, was quite impressive but didnt really compare to the second, Misol Ha. We went swimming at the bottom of a 30ft waterfall in the Mexican mountains and when we were in there it started chucking it down with rain (no it wasnt just the waterfall, we're not that stupid!) which was pretty special. We got to Palenque and went straight to the Mayan ruins and climbed the huge stone pyramids and fabricating our own version of Mayan history (we were too cheap to pay for a tour guide!). We stayed in a hostel in the middle of the jungle and woke up to the sound of howler monkeys each morning, the evenings were pretty good too, with a live band, amazing salsa dancers, drumming and fire shows (all in the jungle).

After a couple of nights we said to goodbye to Mexico for about a week and went to Guatemala. On the way to our new country we found out what it is like to be people trafficked as the border crossing into Guatemala was dubious. We were taken off our comfortable tour bus at the border and put on a dodgy little rowing boat to go across the river. On the other side we were crammed onto a bus that looked as though it was made before the invention of the wheel and went down a bumpy track having been told we wouldnt hit a proper road with tarmac for 2 hours! Immigration consisted of a man in a hut glancing at our passports and then back on the bus for 3 more hours!

When we finally got to the place we were staying, Flores, we checked into a hotel with a beautiful view of the lake that surround the island of Flores for about 2 pounds a night. We saw some more ruins in the middle of the jungle and bought some Guatemalan football shirts for 'good price'.

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