I must confess I cheated with the last entry, and sent it from Guatemala due to poor internet connection in Mexico.

So now, in the space of a few minutes, it will appear as if I have travelled several hundred kilometres, and crossed the border into Guatemala.

But out of guilt I am going to post another brief description of my general shenanigans...

Yesterday morning, deadly early, we awoke in San Cristobal, Mexico, and donned multi-layers and bobble hats, as it was pretty freezing, before catching a 12 seater bus on to Guatemala. Three hours of driving through stunning, lush green countryside, accompanied by bouncing Mexican tunes, and we arrived at the Mexico-Guatemala border.

Borders are always so amusing to me, in that they seem so arbitrary. Who on earth decides to put the border this three feet instead of that? We smiled and paid our ways through, picked our bags from the truck, and, in the now scorching sun, sweated our way up the hill to run across the border. Well, I say run, I mean more stumble, what with my gigantic pack and all...

Back in another bus (which, at one stage, seemed like it might not be going to happen, as there was much interaction and animated conversation about the fact that they had managed to pick up the wrong passsenger from the hostel), we then drove through another five hours of tumbling green hills, waterfalls, grubby indian kids and steaming lakes, to arrive at our current, if brief, destination of Panachel, a lakeside town dubbed gringoland by locals and tourists alike. It is heaving with foreigners, and makes the odd combination of white, mosquito-bitten foreigners and colourfully threaded indians, with tourism having completely taken over the town.

I write briefly in the morning, before we head off across the lake to San Pedro, to climb the volcano.

A blog entry out of duty, rather than written with wit, wisdom and time, so I apologise for the brevity, and will make up for it once adventures are less pressing!!

besotes toditos xx