With our new group we headed off to a hotel on an island in Rio Dulce. En route we stopped to have lunch at a Mayan site featuring carved totem poles. In the Visitors Centre we were able to discover our Mayan horoscopes. Kim was a rabbit and `the guradian of fertility`, apparently she would have made an excellent gynacologist and is generally weak and sickly. Mark was a conch shell and while he is decisive he can also be cutting and unpleasant. Needless to say we...

From Panajachel we headed to the largest market in Central America in the town of Chichicastenango. This place was a complete culture shock - a seething mass of market stalls, brightly dressed locals, chickens and people setting off fireworks by hand, miraculously escaping burns and maiming! We bartered hard for some final souvenirs before setting off again for the colonial town of Antigua. Much of historic Antigua is in ruins from an eathquake that happened in ...

Travelling from San Cristobal to Panajachel on the banks of Lake Atitlan was quite an experience. 12 hours of travel included a first class bus, minibus, tuk-tuk, chicken bus and another minibus. The chicken bus was the best bit. A converted American schoolbus, people were packed in like sardines with luggage and chickens tied to the top of the bus. The bus driver drove like a maniac on the windy mountain roads, overtaking on corners and not slowing for hair-pin ...