We headed west from Guatemala into Belize. Belize is geographically in Central America, but culturally it's very much a Caribbean country. Entering this country is a joy, the Belizian Tourist Office employ people to welcome tourists as they enter the country. A big burley fellow welcomed us with a grin plastered across his face and he seemed genuinely thrilled that we'd done his country the honour of our presence. This is a distinctly different border crossing...

Due to the number of travelers who told us it was 'unmissable', we took a bit of an unexpected detour from Antigua to visit the UNESCO World Heritage site of Tikal, one of the largest archaeological sites of the ancient Mayans. We stayed in fun rustic cabanas on an island near the city of Flores and made our way from there to Tikal. Flores itself was quite a pretty lakeside town. We tasted the lake's 'blanco' fish at a local restaurant…tasty, and wandere...

In the interest of time, and to save Alex's creative energy for our next destination, I (Emily) am going to write a quick blog on our last two Guatemalan destinations. Antigua, known as Guatemala´s 'tourism showpiece' is a colonial-style city which has survived a series of tragedies over the years (natural disasters, wars) and, as such, stands as a pretty amazing relic of history, and testament to the city's resilience. In our brief stay in Antigua, we passe...

  I awoke the morning of our long bus ride to Lago de Atitlan with a volcanic stomach - my timing with this sort of thing is terrible. The torturous bus ride took 14 hours as we had to detour due to some protesters blocking the main road (this extended the trip by 4 hours). We arrived after dark at our secluded lakeside lodging, Em sat down to a 'family dinner' with the other guests (as tends to be done in Guatemalan accommodation), i went to bed after an entir...

From Puerto Angel we caught an overnight bus to San Cristobal de Las Casas. This was one of those places that everyone said was one not to miss, but to be honest if I had my time again I might do just that. It's not that San Cristobal was unpleasant, it wasn't. Rather, it just didn't flick my switch. That said, San Cristobal is famous for its locally grown coffee and we taste a number of single origin blends all of which were delicious in their own notable wa...