This was our third central american capital, and they seem to be getting worse. We always manage, despite our best efforts, to arrive just as its getting dark, which as all safety information (and instincts) tell you, is the wrong time to arrive.

There isnt much need for this blog other than to inform you that the scallies in Manchester who offer to ´watch your car for a fiver mate´ seem to have ventured over here and taught the scary gangster boys a thing or two about how to welcome strangers to their town. The tactic here was to inform us that it was not safe for us to go anywhere, including our hotel, unless we were accompanied by the very people we were afraid of. Because they would be our safety. About five of the b*****s gathered as we tried to negotiate a price for the hotel at least within a few dollars of the official rate (we were initially quoted 25 dollars for a room we knew to be listed as 4 dollars a night), and then informed us we needed to go to the ATM accompanied by them. For safety of course. Luckily, parents will be glad to know, we are not quite this stupid, and did eventually manage to speak directly to the hotel manager and fix a price that wasnt more than his entire hotel was worth, and to inform him we would be paying in the morning. He did try to put us in a taxi to the ATM, with the same gangsters as before in yet another safety guise, but we politelly declined.