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Firstly our huge apologies for leaving you without updates for so long, I understand that you have probably been beside yourselves with worry and boredom...but fear not, we have not been kidnapped by guerillas, eloped and run away to the Mexican jungle, or been just plain ignoring you! Due to a combination of illness and ridiculously expensive internet in Belize we have been out of contact but we are back with a special bumper edition of 'THE BLOG'.

So lets kick off with our current location, Tulum Mexico. We managed our final overland border crossing in a developing country today, and the bus left without some lovely American chaps we met. But aside from that we are now just 90 minutes away from our end destination so NOOO MORE LOONG BUS JOURNEYS!!!

As my partner in crime Breath told you last time he now comes under a variety of names, so I used this to my advantage today. We re entered Spanish speaking lands today so I was back in control. Buying our bus tickets the lady behind the counter asked for our names. I started with 'Brad Clarke' at which point she wrote 'Prat' so I just agreed. When I said 'Jen Hatter' she wrote 'Chan' and by this point I was giggling and she was too so she gave me a piece of paper to write the names down so I just wrote 'Jen Hatter'. She cracked up and typed my name on my ticket and just left Brad with 'Pratt' on his, even adding an extra 'T'! Anyways, Jen Hatter and Pratt made it to Tulum in the end.

Lets go back to where we left off...
So two weeks ago we left Antigua Guatemala, such a beautiful city, one of the nicest all trip! We headed to the mountainous lake, Lago de Atitlan. It was here we were 'conned' for the first time all trip when we asked for a particular hostel and some dude swore he was taking us there and continued telling us this while we were hustled into a room, given the key and asked for some money. There was so much noise and hecticness going on we did it all straight away, error, and had paid some banana bread seller for two nights.

After we realised we weren't in the hostel we wanted, we had a good rant and a couple of beers before realising we had actually lucked out massively! The room was HUGE, clean, had a private hot shower bathroom and was cheaper for both of us then in our 6 bed dorm in Antigua, just 8 English pounds per night!

We spent a nice couple of nights here, the most fun being the local transport across the lake, a really bumpy speedboat, which we took more for the ride than the purpose of getting anywhere.

After this we headed for San Cristobal de las Casas in Mexico. Another beautiful city up in the mountains, but absolutely FREEZING! Im sure none of you at home have any sympathy for us with your recent weather, but we were sooo cold! We had a lovely skylight in our room which meant we could lay in bed under our 7 blankets, hoodies, leggings, gloves, socks etc and watch the stars! We also met some cool people round the evening camp fires and one night had a very competitive table football tournament, where a tipsy Jen decided the winners would win the world cup, dont worry team, mine and my teammate Josan's skills mean that England or Spain have it in the bag.

Our one problem here ironically was finding Mexican food and Corona, the two things Brad was most excited about. None of your standard UK or US 'Mexican' fare, one night I ended up with a tiny ball of plastic cheese and bits of sausage for my main meal!

So the uninhabitable temperatures meant that we had to leave San Cristobal and head for Palenque and a jungle hippy commune (here we could have run off to the Mexican jungle, if it wasnt so dirty). Our room had just mosquito netting for walls so we thought it would be extremely romantic sitting in the room listening to the sounds of the jungle. Alas both nights instead we had some terrible, live, covers band playing until at least 2 am, encouraged by their 3 drunk groupies chanting 'more' every time they played their 'last song'. We were so desperate to leave this place (although the ruins were fantastic!) we booked the 6 am shuttle....

We got forgotten.

So a tired Jen and Brad waited for an hour as the sun came up over the jungle and still no shuttle bus. It was only when the annoyingly giggly receptionist turned up at 7 that we found out that the woman had 'forgotten' to phone the company and book our slots, but they were on the way to collect us and reunite us with the other people who weren't forgotten. The driver literally drove at the speed of light, I thought I would get whiplash from hitting the speedbumps so hard, but we still didnt catch up to the others until the Guatemalen border, where we were greeted by a grumpy bunch of idiots who seemed to think it was our fault they had to wait for an hour!

Finally we made it to our last Guatemalen stop, Isla del Flores. Guatemala has been by far my favourite Central American country, just beatiful and fascinating at the same time! The hostel was great and it had a little husky puppy, soo adorable (we have taken lots of photos Saz!) We had a couple of drinks with a great Canadian couple from Winnipeg and a hilarous couple of lads from Ireland. We have really missed British/Irish dry cynicism!

The next day we headed to Tikal. Now it is pretty hard to put into words the sheer vastness of these Mayan ruins. The site was 16 square kms and this was just what was open to the public. They have only really scratched the surface in terms of excavating the temples and pyramids, but what they have uncovered is just amazing. We spent the whole day walking through jungle, laughing at monkeys, climbing pyramids and just sitting trying to take it all in.

After Flores we headed for the Caribbean, English speaking paradise of Belize. We got a boat straight to Caye Caulker, one of the many islands off the coast and it truly was paradise. Crystal blue water, white sand, palm trees and sunshine everyday. After looking at about 6 ridiculously overpriced hotels we found an absolute bargain (with TV!) and decided to bed down here for a while. Unfortunately I had been struggling a bit for a few days and it really broke while we were here. So Brad has been playing doctor all week, including dragging me to the actual doctor for an injection (which I nearly passed out from, such a wuss!) It was a bit disturbing that the doctor was wearing jeans and flip flops and had a 10 minute heated debate with me over how to spell my name. But thanks to him and, more so, Brad, I am well on the way to recovery.

In my absence Brad picked up the lead and developed amazing Creole English skills and sought out the best iced cinnamon buns, fruit juices and the finest lobster either of us have ever had! And unbelievably, not one drop of alcohol was consumed all week! Brad claims to have never been as chilled out in ten years! It was pure bliss, nowhere to go or be and literally no worries.

So reluctantly we scooped our lazy (and quite tanned) butts off that island and headed here to Tulum.

One week until Uncle Sam.....Brad promises to let you all in on his detailed Orlando themepark assault next time, he's even found an iPod application which gives you live updates of queue times for various rides and it also lets us know where Mickey Mouse is at ANY POINT IN TIME! Excited doesnt even begin to describe him right now!!

Til next time bloggettes. Love and kisses xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx