Tues 27-Thur 29 November - Day 32 to 34 - Roatán Island Today we headed to the idyllic Roatán Island. This is the largest of the beautiful sun-soaked Caribbean Bay Islands. Development on the island means there was plenty to do, but it was also easy to find a deserted beach lapped by warm Caribbean waters. Here we found palm-fringed lagoons, turquoise water, friendly locals, lively nightlife and stunning underwater scenery, with some of the cheapest diving and snorkelling in the world! We caught the Galaxy Wave ferry across to the island. This took around 1.5 hours. With a swell (which is normal) many people were sick. Tom was OK as he had taken a sea-sick tablet and slept most of the way!! A minibus picked us up as Alfredo had organised it beforehand. Gosh, he ... read more

Sat 24-Sun 25 November - Day 29 to 30 - Copán Ruinas, Honduras It was time to leave Guatemala after 11 fascinating, fun days in the country. We embarked on a lengthy bus ride to Honduras into the charming town of Copán. Starting off at 8.00am we stopped several times and arrived in Copán Ruinas at around 3.00pm. We checked into Hotel Lauros, which was family owned and soon found the town was small, hilly and with many cobble-stone roads. Alfredo had to take one of our NZ travel mates to see the doctor as she had bn very sick and ended up on a drip etc. The rest of us found ATMs to get some Lempira (17 Honduras Lempira to $1.00AUD). We then found the San Rafael wine & Cheese Restaurant and our Melbourne ... read more

Wed 21-Thur 22 November - Day 26 to 27 - Quetzaltenango At 9.00am we continued our journey towards the town of url=https://www.tripadvisor.com.au/Attraction_Review-g292013-d8602661-Reviews-La_Ermita_de_la_Concepcion_La_Conquistadora-Quetzaltenango_Quetzaltenango_Departm.htmlLa Ermita de la Concepcion (La Conquistadora) the oldest church in central America. This church was interesting to visit, both for the architecture and the remnant of the Spanish conquest of Guatemala. It is not as decorated, since it was not designed to teach the Mayans. In fact, it was reserved for the Spanish, who had set up a fort in Salcaja to control two important Mayan cities. The walls are very strong to prevent earthquake damage, so this church had never had to be repaired. We arrived at Quetzaltenango at around 12MD and checked into Hotel Mondelo. It was a beautiful, sp... read more

Fri 16-Sat 17 November - Day 21 to 22 - Antigua We arrived around 2.00pm after negotiating the busy, large city of Guatemala, at the UNESCO World Heritage Site, Antigua, one of the most delightful colonial towns in Central America. After booking in at the very friendly Hotel Posada Los Bucaros in our spacious room with 2 double beds and a single bed, Alfredo took us on the usual orientation walk around the city. The local indigenous could be seen throughout the cobbled streets and plazas of the city in their colourful costumes, selling their crafts and textiles. They are very short people, wearing colourful blouses and full skirts. Often, they were carrying their wares on their head as well as carrying a baby in a wrap. As the cultural centre of Guatemala, Antigua was an ... read more

Wed 14 November - Day 19 to 19 - Flores We waved goodbye to Belize after leaving at 7.00am (with our breakfast box) then crossed into Guatemala to the charming island-town of Flores. This journey was in a private minibus. When departing Belize we paid a small fee of $40.00BZD (5.5BZD to $1AUD), pad our passports stamped then walked to the entrance of Guatemala, filling out their form to get an entry stamp. It was seamless process although some of our group lined up to get the form then lined up to submit the form. I thought that was ridiculously inefficient so went up to the counter past the long line of people to get several forms, which they gave me. Before getting to the border, I couldn’t find my passport in my small backpack, so ... read more