Hi All, less of an essay this time... maybe. We´ve changed our plans slightly and are leaving Antigua for Lake Atilan and the highlands tomorrow. Not because we don´t like it here, it´s beautiful, but because we´re going to finish off Guatemala before returning to Antigua for a week´s intensive Spanish course... get ourselves proper fluent and all. Not that we haven´t been able to procure anything, we just thought we should take the opportunity and have decided to bin Nicaragua to give us the time to slow down and get our learning on... feel free to abuse that idea if you know any different! But we plan to fly down to Costa Rica at the end of next week in order to stick to my carefully rehearsed Excel-based itinerary, obviously. Other than that, it´s been drumming all the way for the last few days - it´s been Independence day all across Central America and they sure like a pre-pre-party and a pre-party before finally really kicking off with celebrations proper. And more bunting than you can shake a stick at. It´s been very cool seeing the difference in celebrations, right from tiny mountain villages (some floats, 4 trumpets and a marathon seemed appropriate) to Antigua, Guatemala´s most cosmopolitan city (cue an entire central square of militarily-drilled bands and marchers). Only other major news is we´ve found (and used) a warm shower. Obviously it broke after 3 mins, but it was novel whilst it lasted. Still digesting Claire´s birthday dinner and planning a buzz cut to negate my somewhat unfortunate hat hair. The photos might get more interesting soon...