Ahhhh just realised how long it is since I wrote, sorry fans! We´ve been so very busy and then internet was really expensive so I haven´t really had the chance but I will do my best to update you now...apologies if this turns into an epic one. I promise to be better in the future (maybe!)So we´ve made it to Mexico City after finishing the tour and having a week or so in Guatemala and two weeks of festive tropical paradise with the folks in Belize. I think we were in Granada the last time I wrote so I will try my best to remember everything we´ve done since then!We left Granada wishing we had more time there but as we were heading to Honduras and the Bay Islands we couldn´t complain too much! After two very long travel days, a squillion chicken buses and a night in Tegucigalpa, the grotty capital of Honduras where we were told not to leave the hotel and ordered in Pizza Hut and beer (nice!) we arrived on Utila which is the island along from the one where I learned to dive last time. I was a bit disappointed with it actually, Roatan was beautiful with white sand beaches and dirt paths and a lovely atmosphere. Utila seemed a bit run down and scruffy in comparison but it was lovely to be by the sea and in the sunshine after so much rain! Susie got an attack of the squits and had to stay inside for most of the time which was a shame as she was going to try a dive to see if she liked it. I managed to get in one dive which was great, not many fish but some beautiful old coral and it was good to get in the water again! We also had a fun night out in a tree top bar covered in shiny things like bits of glass and marbles, even in the ladies loo which also glowed in the dark! We drank way too many pink panthers (a piña colada but pink!) and I think that´s what might have triggered Susie´s tummy!!! We left Utila after three nights, slightly more tanned and nice and relaxed and headed towards the town of Copan Ruinas near the border with Guatemala. It was Kim´s birthday so we headed out for a special dinner and drinkies. Only some of us made it to the ruins in the morning! My fifth set of Mayan ruins was much the same as the rest a part from some interesting stelae (apparently) and much more carving decorating them. Our guide was very annoying and kep repeating himself so it seemed like a very long morning before we crossed the border into Guatemala and headed towards Antigua. Antigua was everything I remebered, it was really good to get back there even if it was a bit chillier than last time! The main square and all the houses and shops were decorated for Christmas with fairy lights and interesting nativity scenes which made it all quite surreal! After a farewell dinner we said goodbye to most of our group a part from Claire who had decided (wisely or not!) to accompany us on our mini tour of Guatemala before flying home and moving to Australia!!! So the mini tour began, we had booked all our transport and accommodation as well as some day trips already so really we had nothing to worry about a part from having fun! We started off in Panajachel which is situated on the shore of Lake Atitlan (I had already been here but I loved it so much that I had to take Susie there!) It really is one of the most beautiful places I have been to. We had a tour of some of the villages around the lake (named after the 12 apostles) and learned about tradtional weaving and natural medicines, looked at some art and did some shopping, well it would be rude not too! Then we headed to Chichicastenenango for their massive Sunday market for even more shopping (not just for us!) and back to Antigua for a night. The next stop was Coban, supposedly a German mountain town but actually a dump. Luckily the day trip we had planned mor than made up for the crappy town. We went to a place called Semuc Chamey which is a natural limestone bridge over the river with turquoise pools of water over the top. We climbed a massive hill throught the forest to reach a view point where we could see the whole thing and it was just fantastic (despite being very sewaty betties by the time we got to the top!) We then went down again and went for a swim in all of the pools. Starting at the top we saw where the river flowed under the bridge and made our way down to where the water came out again...it involved some very creative scrambling including rope ladders, jumping, scrambling through small holes in only bikinis and using only a rope to prevent us from slipping into the raging torrent below! All good fun after the fear subsided...you´ve got to love the lack of health and safety in Guatemala! After that we headed to the famous Lanquin caves to watch the bats fly around at dusk...it was amazing. The guide had us stand very still and the bats would shoot so close to us you could feel the breeze made by their wings but obviously being way cleverer than us they never hit us! That was a very exhausting day but brilliant! We then headed back to Antigua for a couple of days of shopping, eating cake and a stomp up a massive active volcano!!!! Quite possibly the hardest thing I´ve ever done but so worth it to see molten lava flowing beneath your feet. The scramble down the scree in the dark was not much fun at all! We reached the bottom in more or less one piece and covered head to toe in ash and dust grateful that we had hired a stick from a little boy at the beginning. Then we had to say goodbye to Claire and we caught a night bus to Flores to look at even more ruins. The bus was not very comfortable so we didn`t realyl get much sleep and then it proceeded to drop us off in the middle of nowhere to wait for our tour guide to pick us up and take us to the ruins. Eventually he did after Susie had shouted at all the taxi drivers that under no circumstances did we want a taxi hee hee. After a very tired tour around the ruins at Tikal which are very impressive and set in some beautiful jungle just not really what you want after a night bus, we headed to our hotel for a very early night! The next day we got on another bus that would take us to Belize, Mum, Dad, Chris and Christmas on the beautiful island of Caye Caulker! Surpisingly everything went swimmingly...despite a little thunderstorm we all managed to meet up at the house that we had rented (which was lovely and set just out of the main village by the airstrip) all in one piece. The others had had a monster two day journey to get there so we were all looking forward to relaxing in the sunshine. We had probably my best Christmas ever, two weeks of beach, sun, good food and excellent snorkelling (unfortunately I couldn´t dive because I had a cold and my ears wouldn´t equalise plus its not much fun on your own anyway!). We saw so much amazing wildlife including bonkers crabs, millions and millions of reef fish, some beautiful coral formations, sharks, dolphins, stingrays, manatees...........Caye Caulker is such a lovely laid back place where everyone is friendly, I wholeheartedly recommend going there if you get the chance! I think we all had a wonderful time. Then it was over and time for Mum, Dad and Chris to head back to dreary old England and work and for me and Susie to start the penultimate leg of our tour. So we find ourselves in Mexico City which despite all the bad stories and being absolutely enormous has a really nice feel about it that is lacking in the other Central American Capitals. Today we had a lay in and then wandered around the Centro Historico. We had a coffee in Sears 8th story balcony with a lovely view over the Palacio de Bellas Artes which is a phenomenal building full of Mexican art and a theatre with a stained glass curtain made by Tiffany and Co. Now we´re just about to head back to our hotel to meet our tour group and hopefully go for some dinner. I will write again soon as internet is much cheaper here than everywhere else and I still have abillion photos to upload...you lucky lucky people! I hope you all had wonderful Christmasses and New Years and look forward to hearing all your stories and gossip. We´ll be home in a month so see you soon xxxxx