We spent most of the last week of August in Panama City and were lucky enough to meet a really lovely ex-pat couple – John and Lorna – on our first night there (in an Indian restaurant – typical). John very kindly offered to take us around Panama City and we were only too pleased to have a local English guide – thank you John! John took us first to the old City of Panama, which is mostly crumbling ruins, apart from a tower that you can walk up to get great views over the new city and all the…

We’re now in Panama after travelling via chicken and Tica bus to Panama, crossing 5 borders in 3 days (check out The Gool’s new route map – top right, if your knowledge of Central American countries is as bad as mine was before this trip)! The last border crossing took over 3 hours and was particularly stressful, as a group of old Panamanic ladies kept trying to queue-jump, which especially upset the disgruntled Brits who’d been in line for hours already. Here’s a brief summary of some of the road rules and transport we’ve experienced in Central America… The most…

We’ve been in Antigua for the last few days, which used to be the capital of Central America. It’s a very pretty town, with a lovely central park and it reminded us of San Cristobal de las casas in Mexico. We spent a day wandering around the shops and the ruins of the cathedral (3q/25p entrance fee), which has been destroyed twice by earthquakes. The contrast of the shafts of sunshine and shadows and the plants growing in amongst the columns and cracked walls made it look just as beautiful as a well preserved, lavishly gilded cathedral. Under the font…

We’ve been staying in Lanquin for a few nights now, after a 9 hour journey by ancient minibus from Flores, involving us crossing a river on a makeshift ferry (see pic below) and a 40 minute delay while we waited for half the village to help another ancient minibus out of the roadside ditch opposite. We’re staying in a nice place called Retiro, right by the Cahabon river, full of other travellers and they do a big buffet-style dinner every evening for £4 /£5 depending on whether you have the veggie option (I did the first night, as the “meat”…

Yesterday we went to Tikal, which meant another hideously early start (4.30am alarm to catch a 5am minibus), but it was well worth it. On the road to Tikal, we saw ocellated turkeys (a cross between a peacock and a turkey) and pacas (very cute rainforest rodents – Duncan, you would like them!) at the side of the road. There was even a sign saying “Jaguar crossing”, but unfortunately we didn’t get to see any of those shy, nocturnal creatures. We got to the entrance just before it opened at 6am and then took a 4 hour guided tour around…

We finally got our parcel last Thursday in Chetumal (thanks Mum and Dad!) and got straight on a bus to Belize City. We got fined at the border for not having our Mexican tourist cards (remember the official at Nogales had just asked us for $5 and waved the bus through? Well he was supposed to have given us a tourist card to get stamped in a Mexican bank and then hand in on exit), so that was annoying. We arrived in Belize City and got a “taxi” (random man in his banger of a car) to take us to…

We’re still in Chetumal, waiting for our parcel to arrive and getting itchy feet. It’s not so bad, as we have a relatively cheap, nice hotel with free Wi-Fi and even a disco PrayStation™ on the roof (see pic below), but there’s not a great deal to do here. Probably the most exciting event for several decades happened on Sunday night; Mexico won the Gold Cup (footy) 3-0 against the USA, which was cause for much celebration here – cars driving up and down the “strip” (7 or 8 restaurants and bars on the sea-front) with flags out of their…

We’re now in Chetumel, the Mexican border with Belize, waiting for a parcel from home to arrive (various geeky bits, books and much needed moisturiser for me) – it hasn’t arrived yet and the Correo (post office) is shut on Sundays, so we’re here for at least another 2 nights, if not more. It’s very hot and humid here, but not as many mozzies as there were at the beach, so far at least..! We spent most of our days in Tulum lying in the shade reading our books and chilling out, but we did find time to build quite…

We got to Merida in the early hours of Saturday morning, shattered and decided to nap on a couple of benches in a pretty square near this old church. Unfortunately there were some particularly vicious mosquitos there and we both got bitten all over. My fingers swelled up so much that I had to wear my wedding ring on the wrong hand for the next few days. We got another bus to Chichen Itza as soon as we could and got there in time for the sound and light show that evening, which was very pretty. The next day I…