Hi Everyone

Finally I manage to write something about my trip so far. It seemed a bit of a nightmare to have good internet access at some place.

Well, the start of my trip was Cancun in Mexico and after a long day travelling I arrived in my hotel. I was allocated to share a room with Frances that first nigh, a 67 year old who opened the door naked and told me she had to fart a lot and hope I wouldn't mind. Ha ha... ;-) By the morning I met all the other people that joined me on the trip which included 2 couples in their 50-60s, and the rest are girls and boys between 20 and 40. There are a couple from England, most of them are from Canada and some from US, one from Australia and one from Ireland. A nice mix!

That morning we left already to visit Playa del Carmen a beach and holiday resort in Mexico which was busy with loads of bars. This was a perfect place to chill and I also managed to visit the Mayan ruins in Tulum which is right at the beach and pretty impressive. We stayed two nights before we left for a long journey to Caye Caulker in Belize. This is a lovely island perfectly located for going snorkelling at the second greatest Barrier Reef. This is what we did the following day and I swam among 2 sharks, a turtle and 3 stingrays which I also touched! This was just incredible. There were of course also lovely colourful fishes and coral reefs.

We stayed two days there before we left again to head to the mainland Belize a town called San Ignacio. This is really small and nice. There we visited an amazing Mayan limestone cave, which they used for sacrifice and religious reasons. There were loads of pots and human bones in it. We took four hours to climb, swim and walk around it. Unfortunately my camera broke in the cave and so I couldn't take any photos. Thank god I found someone who somehow fixed it for me!

The Belizean people are really friendly and I met some really nice locals. They have great music there too, which is called Punta Rock and the food was nice as well. In caye caulker I had my first Lobster tail for a total of 6 Pounds. Unfortunately we will not visit the south which is apparently even better and you can see people still wearing the traditional Mayan clothing.

Anyway, only 4 days later we arrived in Guatemala, in Flores - a small town on an island on a lake. It's really beautiful and it reminds me on Italy. The next morning we got up really early to watch the sunrise at the Mayan ruins of Tikal. Unfortunately the weather was quite bad and there was only fog above the jungle. We still had a great morning exploring it, and by lunch time we got back to Flores to check out the town itself.

The following day we left again and headed to Rio Dulce a town also located on a lake Izabal. To get to our accommodation we had to cross the lake and we stayed on huts above a swamp in the middle of the rain forest. I've never seen a place like this but it was brilliant; though full of mosquitos and big, hairy spiders! Of course in the rain forest it was raining a lot and so there wasn't much to do for us, so we just chilled the two days and one night went clubbing in the town where everyone was dancing Merengue. It was quite fun and the cuba libre are the cheapest drinks on the menu as they produce the rum here! I love this drink!!!

Finally we left and the weather was getting better on our journey to Antigua. We only stayed one night as we had to go first to Panajachel and Lake Atitlan which was surrounded by amazing Volcano's. It is such a beautiful place! (BTW the night before we left I had some Guatemalan sausages and they were really good, nothing like the English ones!)We did a boat trip on the lake and visited three towns where we had food, saw some traditional weaving and could buy some traditional clothing from the locals at very cheap prices. Considering the space I have in my bag, I could only take a bandana with me as I don't have anything to cover my head from the sun.

The next day I decided to go hiking on a trail partly around the lake with one 60 year old couple from the group. It was hard and I was struggling to keep up with them. Unbelievable some people. I hope I'll be as fit as them if I am that age! We though had a brilliant time and once we reached the next town we took a pick up truck and local 3 wheel cars (Tuc tuc's) to get to our boat. We finished the day by having cheese, crackers and a bottle of rum in our apartment. Well deserved! ;-)

Today I we are back in Antigua and most people from the group are walking up a volcano, but I though - perfect opportunity to finally update this site. Love Andrea xxx