We are going through this love hate relationship with learning Spanish the hard way. However this does of course have it's dispensations - more time slobing on the hamock.

Currently we have been encouraged that our budget is going up for the first time on the trip. In some perverse logic the less we do the more time we get to do nothing. We have been moving around pretty much constantly so it is good to stop and contemplate where it is cheap.

For example San Pedro is a backpacker getto, but not the grimy grim place that the getto conetation has. Backpacker gettos are embrionic tourist resorts, a place where travellers gravitate to and thus get catered for. Many factors determine whether these places become typical resorts with houds of tourists: safety, remoteness and beach - so in this case San Pedro will perhaps remain in embrio state.

Backpacker gettos are normally resonably well integrated into existing villages, you could love the traditional feel with people in traditional costumes, cobbled streets and bright houses, or you could also love the western world trappings that we are all acustomed to.

Two things we have been addicted to here are free films and English pub food (albeit Guatemala style). You can really crave things that you never craved before, both of us are all excited at the prospect of having a vegi roast later at the pub.

The roast was probally OK but for us it tasted brill - Liz ate everything despite having an enormous helping. The four hour Dr Zavago film at the pub helped to overcome the bloated feelings. It is a strange feeling when you get absorbed into the Russian world but then come out into Guatemala. The film had a tangible connection to my roots - this is the first time I think I have seen the film end to end - classic film.

When I said end to end it did have two interruptions. Firstly an emergency siren that they kept on for longer than my ears could take and secondly a large cockroach appearing suddenly. But that's Guatemala.