West End Girls - Guest Bloggers, Heather and Jane return The majority of the group booked a snorkelling trip, whilst Heather and Jane set out in search of adventure. First, we ventured out for an authentic Honduran breakfast and watched the rest of the party leave the dock and sail away - only to pull into the shore about 100 metres further along. All disembarked and were gone for some time - why, we never really did find out, but suspected it might have been a desperately needed toilet stop or even a fridge magnet alert. {They obviously didn't spot that we were wearing flippers and snorkels when we came out of the shop! - Steve} Once we had seen them safely back on board and waved them off for the day, we set out on ... read more

Thoughts from Playa Blanca - by guest bloggers Heather and Jane All that could be heard was the lapping of the warm Caribbean waves and the gentle snoring of our friend Steve. Suddenly, we heard a shuffling sound. We looked up to see Steve’s shoes sidling towards the water’s edge in an attempt to drown themselves in shame. ‘Stop, stop - don’t do it’ we shouted ‘we’ll never get Steve home in one piece if you go - if you don’t protect his feet, anything could happen!’. We should explain why this extraordinary event was occurring. A couple of days ago, our group was boarding the minibus from Antigua to Flores when it became apparent that a foul stench was emanating from a plastic bag on Steve’s lap. The British stiff upper lip trembled, and the ... read more

Flores and Tikal Monday 9th August This morning I feel like I’m back on holiday again. I have to be packed, checked out of the hotel and on the bus by 5a.m. Today is a very long day’s travelling, crossing much of Guatemala from Antigua to Flores which is going to be our base for visiting the Mayan ruins at Tikal. The theory behind the really early start is that we have to drive through Guatemala City and we hope to get through before the city becomes gridlocked with the rush hour traffic. The group are all wide awake and on the bus on time and we are introduced to our driver, Pedro. Pedro is an optimist. He doesn’t have a sense of direction, he doesn’t have a GPS device and he doesn’t have a map. ... read more

Guatemala Here I Come From Woodhouse to Antigua. It’s a long haul from Mansfield Woodhouse to Antigua in Guatemala. I travel down to London the day before my flight and then it’s up at stupid o’clock to get the tube up to Heathrow for my early morning flight. I’m normally not very alert in the mornings so my first visit to the new Terminal 5 at Heathrow is wasted on me. I’m not awake enough to really appreciate it or form any opinions. Everything seems to run fairly smoothly though. In fact today is a good day - the volcano is behaving itself and the cabin crew aren’t on strike. I strike lucky because the guy I’m sitting next to on the flight has recently been travelling in Guatemala. He’s formed a very positive impression on ... read more

South Africa - The Garden Route (And A Bit More) A lot of tours to South Africa just visit Cape Town and the Garden Route. You could easily spend a couple of weeks along the Garden Route- we have just a couple of days. Tsitsikamma Our starting point is Tsitsikamma National Park on the Indian Ocean. We spend a couple of days camping at the campsite here within the park. This campsite has been voted South Africa’s top campsite for several years. It’s easy to understand why, with beautiful forested surroundings, good facilities and our tents pitched next to the Indian Ocean. The downside of it being voted the top campsite and it being a Bank Holiday weekend in South Africa is that the campsite is really busy. Fortunately {or unfortunately for the other campers} some ... read more