DAY ONE, morning one. Just about slept past dawn.

As predicted the boys have done a far better job of sleeping this morning than either me or Lauren. My main concern when I woke up and it was still dark was that the windows must be greyed out to keep out the sun and I had slept through ´complimentary breakfast´´. In reality it was just about 5am and there was still plenty of time until they served up the granola.

It´s absolutely boiling hot which comes as an extra added bonus considering the journey we had to get here. The first blip was Chris and Owain driving down the M25 ´looking´for terminal 5 having no idea that it wasnt in the same place as 1,2,3, and 4, and having not thought to ask anybody. The flight from Heathrow to Dallas was a treat after eventualy getting through about 5 million security checks. British Airways rated quite well with a top tikka breakfast but lost a few point by mildly concussing a sleeping Chris with the food trolley. About 45minutes we had some news from Captain Air that it was snowing ´lightly´in Dallas but that we should be ok to land. All I can say about this is that Heathrow have NOTHING on Dallas when it comes to snow. I had been expecting two hours in a dusty terminal surrounded by cowboys and people saying ÿáll a lot. Dallas in a ´light snowstorm´was thick white EVERYWHERE...one of the wierdest plane experiences of my life as there was no definition between the air and the runway. Anyway somehow that all went smoothly but when we got to Dallas about 90% of the flights out were cancelled. I thought I was in for a painful stab of deja vous (x4) but miraculously this time fate was smiling and the 16.35 to Cancun was not only running but practically the only flight on time.

We boarded the plane only an hour late but then the snow got worse and worse and Captain America (Steve) informed us that only 2 of Dallas´7 runways were open, and that they kept having to switch all the equipment from north to south as they ploughed the snow away. So the fun began. We sat in a queue of about 10 airoplanes for 3 hours waiting to be de-iced by these great big jet machines...when it was finally our turn it still took a good 45 minutes and Steve had lost all of this cowboy-esque enthusiam. Against all the odds though we got into the sky and two turbulent hours later touched down in Mexico. Gone midnight. So much for our first night out - after 28 hours of adventure we could all barely move.

No roughing it to the hostel - we shed out for our own private Hertz minibus which dropped us right to the door.

Our plans for this week are a bit up in the air - depending or whether or not we can shake the boys into life we could be off down the coast to Playa del Carmen - that failing there is always a cultural dip in the pool.

Jess and Lauren xx