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Published: February 6th 2010
Visited Countries Map 
Well, we've been a bit blog lazy recently because we've actually been filling our days in a useful way.
We headed for a town called Flores in Guatemala after we left Mexico. The town is really close to what are meant to be the best Mayan ruins there are. The Mayans' are famous for their prediction that the end of the world will happen in 2012, hence the new blockbuster that was out recently. Our guide told us that if you believe that, you've been smoking muchos marijuana!
We had an early start to get to the ruins....5am....not a time we're really used to any more, but the best way to see all the critters in the rain forest. The ruins are in the middle of primary rain forest that is home to many beasties, including Jaguars. Now, I don't speak much Spanish, but on the way to the ruins, the word Tarantula was mentioned a few times. I was hopeful that it may be a species of monkey or tree, but unfortunately, he was talking about the real thing. Luckily, the tarantula hat was with me having survived deepest Borneo so I was
feeling protected.
We got to the ruins just as the sun was rising, it was really misty which all added to the drama of the place. The ruins were spectacular and we were able to climb most of them. The sacrificing stones were still in place in front of the big structures. Apparently the use of 'herbal' substances was pretty well practiced with these tribes, so most of the human sacrifices weren't really aware of what was happening. According to the guide, it was a great honour to be chosen as a sacrificial human because you would enjoy a senior position in the next life....
A few hours in our guide wandered off for a while only to return with.....a big hairy tarantula. The hat was at the ready, but the tarantula clearly knew its chances were low, so scuttled off into the nearest tree. Another victory for the mighty hat.
We saw quite a few parrots and monkeys in the park as well as some very suspect growling in the distance....not to worry though, we'd read the advice on what to do if you come face to face with a Jaguar in our trusty lonely planet
guidebook!
After Flores, we moved on to a town called Livingston, another early start, a bus and a boat later we were in the very strange town on the Carribean coast (with no roads in or out). The local people are called 'Garifuna' and were originally brought to the region as black slaves. It was really odd to go from ancient ruins to african drums and reggae hats in the space of a day! There was only one thing for it, batten down the hatches and try a couple of cocktails. Stu ordered some soup and was shocked, though not altogether unhappy, to find it included a whole crab, a whole fish, 5 king prawns and other assorted seafood.
Next morning we got ourselves up for a 6am boat followed by a bus and another boat to the island of Utila. Utila is the cheapest place in the world to get your PADI open water scuba diving certificate so we headed there so Stu could get his. What we weren't prepared for was the most vicious critters on the planet.....sandflies. Within 2 days I had over 70 bites about 10 times as itchy as moskito bites. As the
on tour photographer was busy getting his diving certificate, I'm afraid that we didn't get any photos of the island.
After a week on the island, starting to get island fever, we made for the mainland and on to Copan, which is where we are now. We finally bit the bullet and enrolled on a week long Spanish course. We now remember why we hated school so much. We actually paid someone to make us feel like idiots for a whole week. About 500 verbs later, we are finally out of our course and ready for the next stage of the adventure....with a little bit of language to help us on the way.
Love
Lisa and Stu
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Hazel
non-member comment
Fighting Jaguars?
So what do you do when you come face to face with a Jaguar?