Hello everyone!

I (Kate) am writing this blog as Matt is currently at death´s door with some kind of flu like illness...well maybe not death´s door but certainly not well!

We left Antigua on Friday after our last Spanish lesson and made our way to Lago Atitilan. We now know a little Spanish but are still going to have to do some revising along the way and ask people to speak very slowly. The public transport in Central America consists of very old yellow American school buses (like the ones on TV) painted in a variety of colours. Obviously these buses are built for children and the seats and spaces between the seats are tiny. However instead of the usual two per seat rule it is three per seat and hence very very squashed! Also they dont have such things as MOT´s so the fumes coming out of the buses are toxic and suspension is not existant! Anyway we managed to get on okay and it was really fun but after we got off the first (of 4) buses to our final destination we realised that my wallet had been stolen and Matt´s bag had been slashed by the helpful lady sat next to us...note to self; dont trust anyone!!

So after 4 buses and 4 hours we finally arrived at one of the lakeside towns, checked into our hotel and had a look around the omnipresent market stalls.

The next day we caught a boat across the lake which would have been beautiful had it not been raining and had me and Matt not been at the front of the boat where there are no windows and the only protection you have from the elements is a piece of tarp! When we arrived there we checked in to ´the backpackers´ hotel, at first glance it seemed ok but we quickly realised it was a complete dive having already paid for the night. But at least it didn´t have any living creatures, except for hundreds of ants but i´m told it will get much worse when we get to Asia!

A helpful small boy (for a small fee) showed us the way to the Cassa de Maximon - a wooden statue of the god of evil...or something like that. It was pretty odd as it was just someones house and people give the statue offerings of rum and cigars, which obviously the owners of the house get. So after this and looking at the church we realised that a lake was not the best place to visit in the rainy season as the main purpose is to go swimming.

Anyway so we are back in the main town now and once Matt has overcome his illness we will brave the 10 hour bus journey to Coban (a lot more wary of pickpocketers this time!) where we will hopefully be staying with a Mayan family and then visit some caves and see bats and stuff.

Hope everyone is well.

Love

Kate xx