Didn't sleep so well last night and woke up tired but unable to sleep at 4am. 

By the time 6am appeared I just thought sod it, get up and face the day. 

So I obeyed orders and repacked my case. For some reason it doesn't all seem to fit in anymore. Why? I've not bought anything, so it should. 

We had been advised that our cases needed to be packed and outside our rooms by 7.30 so that Oscar, our poor driver could put them all up on the roof of the bus and cover them with a tarpaulin in case it rained. 

I was starting to feel like one of those intrepid travellers on a TV documentary. You know, like the one where Ross Kemp rides The Beast, (watch it on youtube).. This is where we are going today. 

I had a decent breakfast today as I really couldn't face any more fried s*** again. Whilst I have been here I have noticed that a lot of the locals are obese. I now put this down to the food. Everything appears to be fried. 

And so it was that I opted for an omelette, which I know is sort of fried, but not deep fried, and fresh fruit and yoghurt. 

I sat and chatted with Roy and Liz over breakfast. He has a doctorate in something to do with health care provision ,I'm not sure we have doctorates in that in the UK. Liz appears to be very knowledgeable, and also seems to have been swotting up on the Mayans, before coming. She asks some really intense questions but the pair of them do take over a bit. 

In fact generally all round I would say that the bus is bursting with three figure IQs, which is really refreshing. Most people have travelled far and wide and the majority of their journeys have been with this company. I think I may be booking some more trips in 2017. 

Our trip today involved us leaving our beautiful hotel and setting off to a new country, Honduras. On the way we stopped off at Joya de Ceren. This is an archaeological dig in progress. It was discovered fairly recently when a JCB digger was removing the topsoil to plant a silo in the ground. He cut right through a construction, work stopped and the archaeologists were called in. 

What they found was a small village, although, as the dig continues, it may prove to be more of a town. The village had been buried under tons of volcanic ash, from several eruptions. In fact scientists have now analysed the ash and decided that three volcanoes were involved, all erupting at once. 

It was a perfectly preserved cluster of dwelling houses, storage houses, meeting halls and even a shamanic house.. These were the dwellings of ordinary everyday people, not the rich and royalty. 

This has opened the eyes of the world to show how people were living, what the were eating, what crops they grew and how their houses and everyday chattels were made. 

It has been described as the Pompeii of the Americas. When you see the excavations you can see where they have cut through a multitude of layers of volcanic ash. Each layer is clear to see and comes from a separate eruption. 

Because there was no lava flows, only volcanic ash, the population were able to leave the area without loss of life. That is, apart from a very unfortunate duck that was tied to a post and some wildlife such as lizards, tortoises etc 

It was fascinating to see and there is plenty more work to be done there. They were assisted by NASA who provided ground radar, what we call geophysics, and this has revealed many more structures plus a road which appears to head towards another archaeological site a few kilometres away.

From here we headed off for an early lunch which was served in a nice little bar and restaurant. Very tasty and I had chicken with a mushroom sauce with rice, with a small filled tortilla for starters and a yummy chocolaty piece of heaven for dessert. 

From here it was quite a long haul to the border between El Salvador and Guatemala. Wait a minute,weren't we heading for Honduras? 

Well apparently, it is quicker to go this way and then cross into Honduras a bit further along, than it would be for us to go all the way on the Pan American Highway, as the queues would be horrific on this route. 

As it was, there were scores of big heavy trucks, hauling containers, all parked up and waiting for their paperwork to be progressed though the system. According to Ivania, our guide, this can sometimes take a week or more to be done. 

We were a bit quicker than that but, even so, it all felt a bit odd. The man from El Salvador's Immigration, came on board to check our passports for the immigration stamp and to make sure we had paid our $10 entry fee ...... 

Wait a minute, rewind, $10 entry fee? I never paid that? Was I going to get thrown into some gross Salvadorian prison with just cockroaches to eat? I was a bit worried at this juncture. 

He came up to me and I handed him my passport. He never questioned the lack of a $10 payment, so I can only assume that we Brits don't have to pay. Phew! 

We were advised to use the facilities before reboarding the coach. Facilities is a loose term and didn't include a toilet seat, soap or any paper towels. They were guarded by an almost toothless old man with horrendous remaining teeth ,the colour of ditchwater and 3 day old stubble, who kept trying to make me do a little dance with him. 

As soon as Diana came out, I was in there BDQ and locked the door. It could have been a lot worse, in fact I had been in one hell of a lot worse in France, so just think positive. 

The roads deteriorated once in Guatemala, full of potholes and rock falls. It took two long hours to reach our second border crossing, this time from Guatemala into Honduras.. 

By this time, it was starting to go dark but we only had 10k to go and we reached our hotel in Copas Ruinas bang on time at 5 o'clock. This is a very pretty little hotel, the rooms are plenty big enough and bright. Apparently, the hot water is a bit hit and miss, as is the electricity supply. 

We were given a welcome drink of fruit juice, with or without rum. Guess what I went for? Whilst we were supping this, our cases were delivered to our rooms. I met up with Sharon and we went onto the cocktails and ordered mojitos. Nobody else seemed to have ever had one before, so before I knew it there must have been about half a dozen mojitos being slurped. Not as good as yours though Doobs! 

Dinner was a buffet and once again it was chicken or fish, so chicken then , but this time in an asparagus sauce. Very nice, but like most of the meals I have had, it was only lukewarm. 

At this point we learned that there had been some terrorist attack in Paris. This would explain why the French party staying here, maybe 40 of them, were looking so glum. 

What is the world coming to?