Ahoy hoy everyone. Right much to catch up as it has been a while. Picking up from the delight that was Isla Mujeres we have decamped to the mainland. Not before yours truly was recognised on the first night as an illustrious former member of Hampton School´s staff. Why are the family always sitting next to you from around the corner..in this case Barnes. It´s sometimes hard being a celebrity and after the usual round of autographs and photos we bade them a happy holiday before proceeding to bump into them every single night of our time on the island.

So it was with haste we hurried back to Cancun to head to our hostel for a night of pure agony in the swealtering downtown heat, where we made a new and rather red friend. Ironically he was a Man U supporter and from Manchester. Now I´m no expert when it comes to the north, but I understand from numerous scholars that the last time the sun shone there was about 100BC. So what made our little friend think he could lie on the beach without sunblock for the entire day in a place that is only second to the surface of the sun in terms of heat was beyond us. As it turned out he was a student and lived in....you guessed it...Teddington! We swiftly departed the communal kitchen before he could further regale us with tales of ´having it large´and being ´mad for it´.

The next day we decided to take a trip to one of the new 7 Wonders of the World (no not me I hear you cry), but the Mayan ruins of Chichen Itza. We were picked up at the crack of dawn by a mexican look-a-like of Lando Calrissian of Star Wars fame. Sadly just like the Millenium Falcon warp speed appeared to be broken and the 3 hour road trip there was pretty tedius. Although Lando did show an impressive turn of speed in taking over a 3 wheeled van full of chickens. However, along the way we did stop at a Cenote (a Sink Well) which you can swim in. This is an incredible experience and was well worth braving the extreme heat to get to cool off in this natural pool and do Michael Phelps impressions. Chewbacca was most grateful for the chance to cool off in all that fur. We arrived at the Mayan ruins and were treated to an impressive tour around the place. It is awesome and the scale of the construction is something to behold. Although i have to express a similar feeling has struck me when gazing upon the bulding site that is Hampton´s 450th Hall and I couldn´t help thinking that if the Mexicans just rounded up some Poles and got them on a plane here these ruins would be less ruined.

Right enough of this flippancy, we received some devastating news that a friend of ours and the father of one of my students who was at our Wedding sadly died of a heart attack last week at the age of 41, leaving behind a fantastic family. Aroon was the first person to ring to congratulate us on getting engaged and quite rightly questioned Kirsty on her somewhat dubious decision. He was an incredibly funny and charasmatic character who packed more into his 40 years of life than most people would do over 80. If there is one single event that has taught Kirsty and I to enjoy every day of this adventure and to make the most of our time together it is this. It´s very hard being so far away when something like this happens and all our thoughts are with Max and his family.

Bye for now. We are off to cross the border to Belize tomorrow morning.

P.S . For those of you wondering about my tan...i would say 80% Cocoa Chocloate would give you an accurate colour match! Kirsty is clearly still a Milky Bar!