Hello from Pana

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Just to explain quickly, i have a load of old photo's on my camera that i want to keep and that's why they're on here!!!

So, i better start right from the begining. Seems like ages ago already and we've done so much! Oh, BTW my spelling is atrocious cos i normally have spell check so apologies in advance.....
Think last time i wrote we were just about to go on a walking tour of Mexico City. It lasted 4 hours and to be honest i'd had enough by the end of it. It was all history, art, architecture etc. which i can take for an hour or so but not much longer. However, did find out we were staying on the 3rd biggest square in the world and that Mexico Citr is built on water. However due to the 25 million people that live there and are using up all the water, the city is sinking!
So, enough of the history lesson, we met our 1st fellow English travellers on the walk. They were 2 lads, a couple years older, quite cute(!) and we all went to lunch together. One lived in Clapham, small world! Anyway, was quite funney cos we agreed to meet them for a drink later but then we never got round to it cos we were in bed for 9!! The next day, when we went to the pyramids, this american guy asked, who was on the trip too, if we were supposed to meet Nick & Chris last night. Apparently they came to the bar and waited to meet us for an hour or so and then said to the American we'd blown them out. Actaully felt quite guiilty for a bit, but that soon passed. Besides we never agreed a time so these things happen... Before we all lamed out at 9 though we discovered the roof terrace bar at our hotel where you could see out on to the square. The square was absolutely rammed with tents full of protestors. Apparently they are payed to be there!! Luckily there was no trouble after the recount of the votes otherwise we'd have been in the thick of it... Just outside our hostel there were 2 groups of people doing some ancient Aztec stylle street dancing, which was cool to watch for a bit. During the day there were some younge kids posing do body popping and stuff. They LOVE there music and dancing over here!
So, on to the pyramids. Bit of a long day, and was very hot. We walked up 2 Axtec pyramids. Hard work in the heat and the altitude. But worth it - there was a fantastic view.
Anyway, that evening we got back to the hostel and then had some time to kill before we got the night bus to Acapolco. So, we grabbed some food with some Belgium guys who we were chatting to on the day trip and then us 3 went for a wonder where we happened accross a club / bar on the top floor of a museum. They were playing some cool electric / jazzy house, something like that but it was cool - in a museum and was free! Also it was open air at the front where the dancefloor was. We tried to take some pictures so you could see the effect but didn't really work. Anyway, we then had to get back to the hostel and do our first real travels with our back packs, and god mine is heavy. Thing was, they alreayd had to drag me from the club and then when we walked back past they were kicking out some wicked drum and bass - grrrrrr! Anyway, we managed to negotiate the metro no problem and get to the bus station where we bought a ticket to the wrong side of Acapolco. The jorney tok us 5 hours and we arrived at half 5 in the morning to find we'd gone to the wrong bus station so we then had to shell outr loads extra for a taxi to the other side. Then when we were half way to our hostel in Acapolco i discovered that i'd left my mac in a sack on the bus - absolutely gutted. Oh well, that's one item down, i imagine i'll probably loose 1 item per entry if my behaviour back home is anything to go by!!
Our hostel in Acapolco was deserted. Only the room next to ours was also occupied. We made the most of our time in Acapolco though. Got showered and out as soon as we arrived. We headed down the way they said the beach was to realise that Acapolco bay is several miles away and he'd directed us to Pourto Marques (sp!) which is a small local beach, but nice!Q The water was sooo warm at 8 in the morning and the beach was deserted. We then grabbed another costly taxi to the main area of acapolco and headed straight to the beach. Mita couldn't wait to get in the sea and test here new swimming abilities, so we headed in almost imediately and almost imediately i nearly drowned! The waves were big and the current in the middle of the wave pulled you right under, but soon chucked me back up after! We both stayed closer to the shore after that! We were like 2 little school girls literally rolling back and forth as the tide pushed us in and out - great fun, but the sand went everywhere!!! We then crashed a local hotel pool as Mita wanted to get some proper swimming practice in. Don't think we'll end up swimming in a pool as nice as that one for some time! Anyway, we later headed back to our hostel on a much cheaper bus - literally about a tenth of the price of a taxi and wenty for another swim at our local pool and then headed back to our local beach for some dinner. We then decided to go home, get on some nice clothes and head out for a night in Acapolco Bay. The guys that were also staying at our hostel told us that they'd managed to get a yellow striped cab to town for 10 Pesos. So off we went trying to get a cheap cab. One said to Gem, yes 10 Pessos for town, so we hopped into this VW bettle, 2 strabngers in the back with me, and Gem and Mita in the front pasenger seat. Probably not the safest as they all drive like loons over here but we got there in one piece. However, when we went to pay the driver was saying that we owe 100 Pesos, not 10!!! We were saying that we don't have any more money but the girl who was mexican and in the back of the cab had seen the money in my purse i think and got involved in the argument. We then thought sod it, shut his door and walked/quick stepped away after giving him 20 Pesos and a fag, and hid in a bar till he drove off, and then went further down the road rather quickly to a different bar where we sat and wondered if we'd make it to the next day!!!
The night out in Acapolco was pretty uneventful really as it was a quiet Sunday and the beers were far too expensive for our budget, so we headed home at about midnight, all fairly tipsy by then, and crashed out in preperation for the next days journey to San Christobal.
Now what was supposed to be a days trek to San Christobal, starting at 9am, turned into a 36 hour mission! We had no time to visit Oxaca, and found out later we never actually went there despite buying a ticket there. Instead we ended up just half way to San Christobal by 2am the next day after continual bussing, eating crisps and other shit snacks and occasional fag breaks. When we got to Selina Cruz, which was more by luck than judgement, we found out that the next bus to San Christobal (at half 2) only had 1 free seat and the next was at 11 the next evening! We kept asking if they were sure there were no more seats or if we could sit in the aisle but they just kept saying no permisso and uno saille (1 seat i think!). However the lovely guys there changed their minds at the last minute and let me and Mita stand in the ailse for 45 mins, listeneing to my Zen thing, then take 2 seats that then became available. We arrived at San Christobal at 11 am - more than 24 hours since we'd started our journey!!!
Luckily whilst me and Mita were sat next to each other on the last strech of the bus to SC, we did some research on places and decided to just get on with our journey to Pana seeing as everything was taking much longer then planned. We arrived at the border at 3 in the afternoon, went through imigration, if you can all it that and then had our first real experience of chicken buses! They're crazy. It was hot and sooo many people piled on the bus, many carrying very large knifes!! Rather un-nerving! And you've never seen driving like it, it was like they were practicing for Formula 1 or something, taking corners as fast as possible, purely accelerating into them! Great fun though, but was glad to get off after 2 hours of it!
So, then we stayed our first night in Guatemala, in Heuheutenango. It was a real old school small town and had this lovely square where people were preparing for independence day. Was so nice to get some proper sleep rather than just bits and bobs on the bus. If you'd have told me i'm just about to embark on 36hs of travel i don't think i could have coped but as we just kept deciding to go on, rather than stay somewhere it didn't actually feel that bad.
So, now i'm in Panajachel and i'm bored of writing this now, and i'm sure you've had enough of my rabittings on....
So, i'll download what photo's i have so far, and am gonna have to deposit some old ones too that i never saved before i came - last Xmas(!), V etc and will leave it here for today.
Will update you on live in Pana next time.
Adios
Jo xxx

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Photos

My tennats in Brighton!
I hope you're looking after the place!!!

Roof top Bar in Mexico City
In the background is all the lights from the square and the protests