New York

Managed to survive a bit of a rough journey over by boat from Belize to the port of puerto cortes in Honduras. There was the usual immigration nonsense, at the Belize side. Before we even docked there was a crowd of taxi drivers almost diving into the water trying to grab us and put our luggage in their "taxi's". The immigration office in Honduras was an 8 minute drive from the port, and they were all offering various servies for various prices. We hooked up with a swedish couple, and another couple and got on the back of one of the pick-ups and were taken inot town. The guy who took us there was offering to take us to our eventual destination, but given that the 8 minutes was painful enough, I didn't fancy another hour in the baking heat. It was cheaper to take the bus, particularly given that the guy started shouting at me when I gave hime the price we had originally agreed - wanting more. Anyway we took the bus to San Pedro Sula and then switched to another one that brought us to Tela, where we are just now.

Tela is a port town, with a nice beach. Not very touristy which is nice, and not a lot of english is spoken by the locals, if any at all - which turned out to be a bit of a problem later on. Initially things went well, and we planned to spend a few days here saving a bit of money, as it's very very cheap to live here, much cheaper than Belize.

Everything was going well until I discovered that my wallet had disappeared that is. This wouldn't be such a problem, but none of Jenny's cards seem to work over here, so we were relying solely on my card for money. Turns out that I left my wallet outside the door of our room, having opened my bag to search for the room key, taken everything out and put everything back in except the wallet. So, one of the other residents of the hotel where we are staying helpfully took the wallet to his room, binned all the cards and took the 50 quid or so, and my wallet. Cleaner found the cards in the bin and returned them to me, couple of days later after having cancelled them all. Luckily we had taken out about 100 pounds the day before, so have been living off this ever since, for the last 3 or 4 days. Replacement cards are on they're way via fed-ex though hopefully arriving soon. Anyway, having argued about who's fault it was that I lost the wallet, over a disgusting piece of fried chicken that we had to share, I think Jenny and I agree that it was probably more her fault then mine. At the time this all seemed ok in perspective, as on of our Swedish friends had caught malaria - despite his dad being a vaccines expert.

Turns out "in perspective" it wasn't ok, given that since then I've been stung by a scorpion. It was waiting to get me when I got out the shower, hiding in my towel. So sore. Got me on the wrist, which I suppose was a blessing given the circumstances. Didn't even see it, just felt it. So whilst I was screaming, Jenny was helpfully shouting at me "What is it? Was it a spider? Was it a spider?" - The lonely planet says that black widows live here. So I was panicking even more. Turns out it was a scorpion, that we saw make its escape scuttling up behing the toilet. Needless to say, going to the toilet is now a bit of an ordeal, involving a lot of checking and re-checking, also when puting on clothes, picking anything up, getting into bed it all has to be thoroughly shaken and checked.....Although the sting was sore, didn´t think much of it, but thought we'd better check the internet to see if it was poisonous. I began to feel a bit strang in the internet cafe though, mouth felt tingly and felt like I'd had quite a lot to drink. So we went to the hospital/clinic, which was fun. The "doctors" there didn't speak any english, and my spanish doesn't stretch to scorpion stings, so we played charades for a while, me pretending to be a scorpion them looking confused and asking various questions in spanish. Eventually they decided to inject me with something and leave me for 20 minutes - to see if I was allergic to the sting we presume. Turns out I felt fine after a couple of hours having been sent away with some pills and cream.

Feel a lot better now though. Looking forward to leaving Tela, especially seeing as it's been raining non-stop for two days and the streets are like rivers.

Having such a good time in Honduras so far. Planning to move to La Ceiba and the Bay Islands - to learn to dive assuming the new cards arrive and it stops raining - in the next couple of days.