No Liz's hangover didn't last two days, she was unwell this morning but feeling better now. I am pretty much being lazy around the hostal terrace enjoying the views and the long awaited sunshine whilst drinking coffee and learning Spanish. We had a walk down see the Salsa being taught. But ended up back on the hostal terrace. Another excellent sociable evening best remembered for the Spanish teachers multi lingual dog that seemed to understand English Spanish an...

The picture of Liz says it all - we definately let our hair down last night. We stayed around the hostal terrace with Mike, Chris and Ooowp (a guy from Amsterdam) but got chatting with (amongst others) Toto. He was born in the jungle, joined the army and ended teaching US troops jungle war fare. The day was very lazy and pleasant - if you can call learning Spanish pleasant. In the evening we went to the Rainbow Cafe for something to eat and then another taverna...

We got up nice and late to sunshine and headed for the local market with Mike who showed us a cheap 'where the locals eat' restaurant in the market. Mike is permanently travelling through latin America as he cannot afford to live in his native USA. He was useful when locals asked us questions when buying groceries from the uber cheap market stalls. I even managed to find some ground coffee. I felt a glimmer of encourangment over my Spanish, the day had a good op...

We drove into Antigua at 6am as the sun was coming up through the heavy rain clouds and chicken bus exhaust fumes (they are really bad). An amazing image appeared of a perfect volcano cone partly obscured by cloud with smoke rising from the summit (it is active). We drove down cobbled streets with colourful houses. You could call it the real Guatemala but the real Guatemala is a lot more earthy. This place is akin to the Cotswolds in England - the steriotypical...

Another day another country. We knew this was going to be a tough section, no one comes to central America for the cities. To get anything out of San Salvador you need to speak the language and be used to being stared at. San Salvador is simply a stepping stone to cheaper rural destinations that are less hard work. It is an 'expected' five hour journey to the next stepping stone Guatemala city. As I sit in one of many border snarlups I am wondering if this is no...