We're now in our third country - Belize! We were quite sad to leave the island of Roatan, we had gotten to know everyone and actually started to feel like islanders ourselves! We were told by many there that we would be missed - ahhh Had a nice last couple of days there though, on Thursday I hired some snorkling gear (with some pink flippers!) and my boat-man friend (he's such a sweetie) took us right out deep to some coral, saw loads of different kinds of fish, lots of electric blue ones he said were Parrot fish. Then had a nice day alternating between lazing on the beautiful beach and snorkling. The rest of our time there we partied (surprise, surprise). Had a wild and quite drunken night on Friday - danced alot! Didn't reach home till about 9am on Saturday, which in hindsight probably wasn't such a great idea considering we had to leave at 11 for our ferry to the mainland. hmmm. Was feeling v.dizzy and pretty sure I was still a bit typsy but luckily the ferry ride was fine - nothing like the rocky outward journey - I managed to sleep the whole time, which meant I arrived feeling v.disorientated! We stayed that night near the port in the town of Le Ceiba, didn't see too much of it as we were so tired we went to bed straight after dinner. Then, in the morning we caught a bus back to San Pedro Sula and then to Porto Cortez, where we stayed the night. It was a bit of a nothing town, with a couple of food places, a bank and an internet cafe (weird howinternet cafes are absolutely everywhere you go - even in the middle of nowhere!), and nothing else of interest. So we got a room with a TV and ended up staying in and watching Lost (yay!) and Cocktails (forgot how corny!). The next day we woke ridiculously early to catch the ferry to Belize, we got a cab from the town to the port. When we got there we found the ferry wasnt so much a ferry as a small speed-boat! We were then taken in the back of a pick-up truck (fun!) back to the town (?!) to sort out our visa's and stuff, then back to the port. We forgot how laid back everyone is in this part of the world and soon realised that we'd got there waaaay to early, as the 9am ferry (I mean boat) turned into the 12.30 boat, they just went when the boat got full. Meanwhile we had to wait in the fish-market place, smelly. It was a pleasent enough 2hr journey, where we be-friended the captains 15year-old grandson who was sweet. We also met a nice German girl and a Puerto Rican guy so when we arrived at Placencia, Belize we all went for a yummy lunch (fish burrito) and decided to share a room together, which worked out well. Placencia is a sweet little village at the tip of a peninsula. There is one road but most of the village consists of colourful wooden shacks on stilts, dotted around on the sand, with one walkway through the middle. Our first night there the 4 of us went for a delicious meal, we treated ourselves to a yummy coconut shrimp dish, mmmm..... The people there are really friendly too, everyone greets you everywhere you go, its nice - bit of a shock to us Londoners! The next day we all went for a lovely breakfast, great smoothies & bagels, and while we were sitting there we saw a huuuge green lizard (possibly an iguana) which came up close then climbed the tree and jumped to the next one - like I never knew they could! Pretty amazing. Me and Nikki then hired bikes for the day and attempted to explore the area. We went up the only road for a while, it was fun riding a bike (when the damn thing rode!) as I havent done it for at least 10 years! But like they say - you never forget. Also, they dont have breaks on them over here - so that was interesting! haha! We didnt make it particularly far as the bikes had definitely seen better days - especially mine which had a rusty, loose chain which kept coming off and was so hard to fix that 4 seperate times vehicles had to stop and help us (again - v.friendly), thankgod. We went along for a couple of miles but once the road turned to sand and potholes it proved to be too difficult with our rusty bikes so we turned back and cycled along the river for a while (till the path came to a sudden end!). Later on we got our hair braided, its so nice not to have to deal with hair in this heat, although it is a bit of a shock to see my scalp! That night I discovered I had bed-bugs. Which are not nice. But it explained my new mysterious bites. I now have a lovely melange of mossie, sand-fly, and bed-bug bites. We all spent one more night in Placencia and then went our seperate ways. So, in the morning me and Nikki started our very pleasant journey to Dangriga with a boat ride along the river on the little 'Hokey Pokey Water Taxi' (hee hee!), which is a nice 15 min ride through the mangroves to Mango Creek, from there we caught a bus, which is infact an old American school-bus (but with green, orange and yellow stipes!). This funky little bus took us on a nice scenic route through woods, fields, and plantations with mountain views in the distance, to the town of Dangriga - where we are now. Dangriga is the largest town in Southern Belize, but seems pretty small to me. Again, the people here seem really freindly, and they keep admiring our braided hair! We went for a little wander and had a nice lunch, then we had a little seista as it is unbearably hot today. We've found a tiny, winy hotel room with one bed, but its clean and there are no bed-bugs (I think!) so I'm happy! photo's to come soon