Time to depart Antigua, our little trio (Danny and us) leaving some very good friends behind so a sad start to the day but the weather had brighten up allowing us to get some superb pictures of the volcano that had been towering over us.

We were taking the more expensive but direct 'pullman' bus to El Tunco, avoiding Guatemala City totally which was a great idea even during the day.

The trip was extremely comfortable, remember our last experienced consisted of 17 on a 12 man van well this time there was only 5 of us so we had room to stretch, perfect for catching up on lost sleep from partying the night before(yes it is true we still haven't learnt not to drink night before we travel!). The border crossing was easy peasy, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras & Nicaragua are like crossing England, Wales & Scotland. The only problem is management, someone silly thought it would be a genius idea to fill the bridge with lorry traffic all going the same way so no access for our little van to pass by, we had to sit and wait.....it was hot with no air con and no money to purchase liquid!! Not a very pleasant hour.

On the road again whizzing along the coastline getting the odd quick glimpse of the beautiful turquoise sea. Sun shining brightly I could feel Christmas was going to be an exciting time here.

It took us awhile to find some accommodation, at one point did think we may be sleeping on the beach!! Finding a lovely little hostel set on the river with mangroves as the back drop, jettis with hammocks that looked down the river to the beach and only a 2 min walk to the main beach and close to the night life(if you could call it that), perfect. We set off to explore, but again another small village that has no ATM so priority was to get cash so by catching the local chicken bus to La Libertard we searched for cash and food. We found a large supermarket and went crazy, we brought loads of things but it had been some time since we has seen a large supermarket. We brought our ingredients for an extremely Christmasy chilli and some special Christmas Vodka for the special day.

We headed back to our new home to explore....that took all of about twenty mintues! We found three clothes shops, some eateries(run my families from there homes) and surfboard hire shops. Deciding where to eat was always easy, as only two restaurants selling the same food!! During dinner we met two Guatemalans we drank lots of local beer until they kicked us out, taking a few extras we headed to the beach. Sat around a bonfire we laughed and chatted until some others joined us. Now the beauty of this gathering is...... in Antigua Hana had a vision that on Christmas Day we would all be sat around a bonfire with someone playing a guitar, another bopping on the bongos and someone chirping on the flute. Yes a strange concoction but!! So that was how we came to purchase a wooden flute in Antigua. The point to this was the new comers to our bonfire brought with them a guitar and bongos!! I ran back to get the flute! It freaked us out a little that here we were living Hana's vision, even freakier for Hana & I was the first song played was Jason Maraz 'I'm Yours' (our traveling song!) During the night Danny played some base to the Bongo's while Hana & I learn't how to hit a rhythm tune and not just bang!

Christmas Eve was a bizarre day, so hot. We went back to town to grab some things, and decided we would buy a cooked chicken and baguette head to the beach and enjoy a pre Christmas lunch! We ended up meeting some interesting characters..... who had survived the flood on 7th Nov, there story was interesting. Later that day we just chilled out around the beach watching the world go by, playing in the waves and soaking up the sun. Evening came and the family that owned the Hostel had been busy cooking all day so we decided to go out to allow them to eat there dinner in private, although our meal was horrible so we had to head back early. As soon as we walked in through the door thou we were met by the dad who husshed us up to the table brought us a massive plate of turkey(i hope!!!) and not your usual sides but yummy all the same, this all followed some large rum with a dash of cokes!! It was one big family meal with everyone from the hostel being excepted, the dad ensured all drinks were topped up(Hana mentioned it remind her of Daddy Courtney!!)and that everyone was ok and happy. There was no Christmas pudding but some amazing fruit!

Later that evening we were all set off to the beach for a massive local beach party! A massive bonfire was burning, music was blaring and everywhere you looked firecrackers & fireworks were being set off by KIDS! They soon became our friends and we were joining in, no danger unless you saw locals running then you ran with them! All night our drinks were kept filled up with rum, with the rum to coke ratio lowering each drink. It was so much fun and had such a great close atmosphere.

Christmas Day.... not the same as previous Christmas days as I have never awoken so hot and sunny, I could definitely get use to this thou. We grabbed our little presents and headed to the beach to open. There was lots of families all enjoying the sunshine and beautiful beach. As we sat there opening our presents,locals were looking at us weirdly, you see El Salvador celebrates Christmas Eve more than Christmas day. We enjoyed the added Christmas sprinkles and made shapes in the sand with them. Then with Danny we exchanged our other gifts, Danny loved his made card and necklace and we loved our new true funky travelers clothes, I am wearing mine as I write this. We cooked ourselves some very traditional meals, lunch was tuna pasta salad and dinner was chilli pasta. Its amazing how little we had but yet it was a great day and in its own way felt like our very own special christmas day! In the evening we had a few drinks and spent the night singing away to Gus who played the guitar. It was a brilliant to end to a great Christmas tomorrow we leave again to venture off on our own to Utila, Bay Islands Honduras to celebrate the New Year.