Today was yet another long drive day, this time descending the mountains of Alta Verapaz into the Peten - Guatemala's northern jungle region. It was a strenuous hike at 6:30 in the morning, once again on rutted jungle tracks, with all my luggage but at least in the light, back to the main road to get a shuttle to Lanquin town. Once in Lanquin, I head a meager breakfast a packet of cookies and a pair of tortillas before a confusing mass of minivans descended on a...

I'm writing this with the internet out, swinging in a hammock to the sound of a river flowing through the cloudy, humid jungle. One week, right now and I'll be back in blighty, four weeks and I'll be in Oxford. Time flies when you're having fun! Semuc Champey was once an undiscovered gem in the heart of Guatemala. It still is by mainstream tourism, but it's now firmly on the backpacker map that's for sure. That's why now set up in the middle of the jungle is t...

One hell of a long day! Like all my Guatemalan mornings, I was up before 7am, weakly downing an Americano coffee and munching on a chicken empanada. I checked out of my San Pedro party hostel as early as possible before taking the next boat, packed with locals in fact, bound for Panajachel. In Panajachel it was a bet stress trying to find my shuttle to Lanquin, and even when I found the minibus with Lanquin written on it, it took a phone call to convince the ...

So after being so tired yesterday I zonked out at 8pm, I decided to get up at 3:30 this morning... which suprisingly wasn't too much of a problem thanks to the fact my feet accumulated several hundred mosquito bites when I was in Honduras meaning I actually woke up mid-scratching them! Yes, I sleep-scratch now. I only have one day on the shores of Lake Atitlan meaning today had to be the day I headed to the Indian's Nose, a rock formation from which you can s...

So... I woke up at 6:30 ready for my transfer at 8 to Flores, a town in the far north of Guatemala - 10 hours away. After picking up a tasty ham and bread (but not ham sandwich?) thingy in a bohemian bakery - and having an awkward conversation with a very facially expressive and camp middle aged Guatemalan - I waited in the main plaza in the centre of Antigua where my ticket said I'd be picked up. Yeah by 9 I'd realised something wasn't quite right. When I we...