We spent a day in Costa Rica sorting our flights. This involved a trip to the airport, 2 hours at the local American Airlines office and an hours phone call to Quantas in Miami (not cheap). Eventually we managed to re-route our flight. we are now not flying from Cancun in Mexico but from Belize. From here we fly to Miami and catch a BA flight home.

Yesterday we did our big leap northwards. It involved 3 separate flights first from Costa Rica to San Salvador, then on to Guatemala city. From there we caught a dinky little turbo-prop airoplane to Flores which is where we are now.

We are at 17 degrees north and 90 degrees west. It’s markedly different in climate than Costa Rica. It’s hot and humid. We are staying in a little village called El Remate by lake Petan Itza in the jungle. The food is different too. Everything (including breakfast) comes with corn tortillas. Having spent 3 months on them in the past they now make Patrice retch at their smell. It makes a nice change for her to be picky although her response is similar to that expected of a 5 year old.

Tomorrow we visit the Mayan ruins of Tikal, a series of steep-sided temples rising out of the jungle. The Myans have been around here since 700BC.

We have 7 days left now and were planning on going to Belize for some last minute diving. It’s one of the best dive centres in the world. It’s also the most expensive and we are broke. It’s going to be Parrots and jungle for as long as we can then a 5 hour drive to Belize city for the long ride home.