All steps easy through to the underground at Terminal 4 of Heathrow. Onto the wifi and rapid contact with Alex. We always forget just how far it is from this airport to the centre of London. Also how noisey the Tube carriages are. Through to Green Park and onto the Jubilee line for West Hampstead station. Alex and Jill were there to meet us which was excellent. Both looking fit and flourishing in the environment. A few blocks past trendy and diverse shops and cafes and into there flat complex. Multi-storey terrace houses that had been 9 bed-sits after WWII. Now two generous apartments. Theirs, on the top floor is light and airy and surprisingly quiet given its inner city location. We rapidly caught up on the story so far and made plans to head out. ... read more

It was pretty hard to sleep well with the roaring of Howler monkeys just outside our room at Tikal! We were picked up by another of Eduardo's mates relatives after breakfast and taken directly to Belize City. Unlike two days earlier when Eduardo did his best to drive into Tikal under the speed limit (40 kph) to avoid wildlife, the driver Tonito drove at 90 kph through the park. As expected the park officials didn't bat an eyelid at the direct evidence of speeding. Gradually down through the villages and Flores before coming down the the flat country that abutts Belize on the Guatemala side. Stopping for a break near the frontier we noticed the petrol station attendant had a sawn-off shotgun. It was very hot when we got to the frontier. At several places we ... read more

The flight into Guatemala City was pretty spectacular because the plane had to skirt around two lofty towers of cumulonimbus clouds with the sun setting behind them. The greater intensity of Guatemala City was immediately obvious at the airport. More pushy taxi touts, and more serious frowns on the crowd. Bill's friend David met us at the exit and took us across town to his family's lovely home in a gated community within GC. They generously provided a lovely meal of beef, wild mushrooms and asparagus souffle, and more alcohol than one could respectfully accept. We drank a lot, and really enjoyed the Guatemalan rum "Zacapa" as well as a Spanish sherry in the solero style called "Cardinal Mendoza". Later when I visited Dan Murphys on the web, I was only able to find Romate Cardinel, ... read more

Day 1. As I noted, our hotel was very close to the airport: I fact we had aeroplanes roaring over it to land. We enjoyed the complimentary breakfast before setting off to the airport and into the hire car system. Unfortunately we Harpers had gone a little too far in stripping our wallets so the Australian driver licences were back in Melbourne. The Hausdorff's had to carry the load. We got on the road with our mini SUV and onto the complex web of highways that run west from Alajuela and San Jose. Somehow we managed to make three wrong turns and had to circle back again. One was fortuitous and took us down the valley and into San Mateo. A tiny place but big enough to have a little lunch cantina. Much more friendly than ... read more

A kind of extreme trip across to LA this time, what with a 10 hour delay on Virgin, missing our connection with our Avienca flight pass and loosing all the subsequent flights, and then having to negotiate over hours with the help of Virgin staff to correct the flow-on effects. Wonderful support during the night from crew leader Kylie, but also day-long support from local Virgin employee Delilah, it was all good. Virgin ultimately consoled us with Velocity points and a night with food at the Sheraton Gateway. Things were not all that bad. Avianca had threatened to cancel the travel pass because we were late for the first leg. Through Catherine's persistence and the support of Delilah, the flights were connected through after an additional fee each. The original proposal was that we would stay ... read more