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 ...

San Cristobal de las Casas was the source of news headlines in 1994 when the Zapatista movement led an armed uprising and took over the town in response to the Mexican Governments´ attitude to the rights of the indigenous people. The leader, Sub-Commandante Marcos famously apologised to the tourists for any inconvenience explaining ´this is a revolution!´ Nowadays the town is quiet, bustling with locals dressed in traditional garb and Marcos is something of a ...

From Merida we headed to Palenque, a 9 hour bus ride! Palenque was not such a pretty town as Merida but had a more realistic Mexican atmosphere; we joined the locals eating tacos in the streets and sampled the finest Mexican beer! The main attraction here is the Palenque ruins, another Mayan city. We preferred Palenque to Chichen Itza as it rose majestically out of the surrounding jungle and looked wild and almost undiscovered (apart from the hundred odd other t...

Arrival in Mexico into Cancun was not helped by Mark feeling rotten with a cold and acting like a zombie in his exhaustion. Still Kim managed to acquire seats on a bus into town andd find the hostel in the maze of streets - a small miracle. We met up with our tour group of 13 (1 German, 1 Kiwi, 1 Iranian travelling on a Swedish passport but living in London, 2 Canadians & 6 Aussies) and set off to Merida, via the famous Chichen Itza ruins (though we called i...