New York

Spent the last 4 days here in Placencia. It's a small resort at the tip of a peninsula in southern Belize. Got some pretty crap accommodation for the first night. Looked nice enough at first and was pretty cheap, nice old rickety wooden house, with private bathroom. Shower didn't work though, and when I asked the guy what he was going to do about it he said it couldn't be fixed, but helpfully provided us with a bucket and a bowl, and demonstrated how to scoop water from the bucket and pour it over my head with the bowl. Also, there was a power cut during the night and so we woke up with the fan not working and literally swimming in sweat. So we moved into a much better place, more expensive but has its own fridge, so making lunches.

Not done much other than sit on the beach whilst we've been here, lying under palm trees which line it, and drinking the local rum at night. Food is really good, all fresh fish which is nice, not tried the local delicacies of Conch or Gibnut (small rodent-like creature - Jenny says they're endangered). Bought some fishing line and went fishing off the peir at the port yesterday. It was amazing. Whilst we were there, we saw giant sting rays and dolphins swimming literally just below our feet. Also, we were both successful with the fishing. Catching tropical fish. Felt a bit bad for them because we weren't very good at getting the hooks out, and I got a bit excited on the first catch and yanked the line and just about took it's face off. Hook was through it's eye. Managed to get it out eventually and throw it back in, but no sooner had it hit the water than a massive baracuda swam past and ate it. Was good fun though.

Leaving here tomorrow, by boat, which I'm not particularly looking forward to. Heading for Honduras.

Caye Caulker was extremely nice. Did very little in the time that we were there. Accommodation was nice, but literally just a wooden room with a bed in it....and a cockroach, which I wanted to kill and Jenny wanted to save, so we agreed to stun it with the repellent and she could catch it, which she managed after about 1/2 an hour of crawling about on the floor. We left there by water taxi and caught our first chicken bus in Belize city. So called cos sometimes people bring livestock on. Not on this one though. You do see a lot of locals carrying machetes though, the length of my arm, which is a bit concerning. Having said that, we saw a lot of locals in Guatemala wearing the whole cowboy gear with guns stuck down their belts strolling about the place, so not too bothered about the odd machete. The buses are old American School buses - blue birds. Not the most comfortable, but we weren't on for that long. Also they just stop anywhere that you tell them to along the way, and pick up people who wave them down anywhere along the route, which doubled the journey time. Travelled south to Dangriga.

Dangriga was a bit of a dump. We were intending just to stop there overnight and get a boat out to another island where there is a reef within snorkelling distance - Tobacco Caye - but the island was full (of Americans probably), or anything they could offer was too pricey. Dangriga is a port town, beach was a bit manky. Felt like a total tourist. The majority of the population being Garifuna black carribeans who speak their own dialect of English. The rest of the population seem to be Chinese. The Chinese restaurants outnumber the local ones and all the locals eat there, so I've been trying out different versions of chicken fried rice over here. Unfortunately they put pees in it and carrots. Not impressed. Anyway, there wasn't a lot to see in Dangriga, although I thought the people were all quite interesting, friendly and very laid back (or very unemployed, not sure). Stayed in a nice place here, shame the town wasn't up to much. Left there this morning and got another chicken bus to Placencia, with the most annoying woman in Belize, maybe the world. She talked non-stop to the rasta next to her at the top of her voice the whole way here, and at every stop was shouting out the window at random people in the street. Placencia is right in the south of Belize, planning to spend a few days here then get a boat across to Honduras. Nice and hot today, probably about 30 degrees.

Flores was great wee place, very pretty. Went out on a canoe round the lake so that Jenny could look for animals. Didn't find anything other than coots and a heron. Jenny convinced herself that a coconut was a turtle and got very excited about a black bag as well thinking it was a crocodile. Was good fun though.

Tikal

Went to Tikal on 19th Feburary, another Mayan ruins site. Was absolutely amazing. I'm not that interested in ruins but this place was incredible. It's a huge national park deep in the guatemalan jungle. We went at about 9.30 in the morning and didn't leave til 4pm. The temples are all massive and overgrown with the jungle. To get between them we would sometimes have to walk for 20-30 mins through the jungle, and a lot of the time we didn't see anybody else. Saw lots of widlife which kept Jenny happy - spider monkeys, strange turkey-like things, a fox-type creature, and lots of big fat americans being herded about the place. Was really impressed with the place as a whole though. You could climb to the top of most of the temples and I managed up one of them, Jenny went up two. The one that I didn't go up was an absolute joke, there were rickety wooden ladders that you had to climb up and you had to come back down backwards they were so steep.'

Belize Caye Caulker

We travelled to Belize yesterday. Another long bus ride in an ''air conditioned 1st Class bus''. Got to Belize city, spent about 15 minutes there as it seemed a bit of a dump - on the way in on the bus we went past a rubbish tip that absolutely stank and drove through the middle of a massive graveyard. We got straight on a water taxi and are on a little island called Caye Caulkere, in the carribean. Very Very nice. Probably going to go snorkelling on the reef just off the coast tomorrow. Weather is beautiful, palm trees and pelicans flying about, and drinking plenty of the local rum. All good.