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.

After an 8 hour bus trip we arrived in San Jose, the capital of Costa Rica. Aware of it’s reputation as a dump we decided to catch another bus to the nearby town of Alajuela. We were advised that this was a much nicer town and more Gringo friendly. A barrage of taxi drivers were keen to charge us 2000 of the splendid Costa Rican currency for the short ride across town to the other bus station. After much discussion we found a driver who reluctantly set his meter. A short drive later we were charge 780 and were on our second bus.

Within 15 minutes we arrived in the town of Alajuela. We soon found the Hostel xxxx which was recommended. We were met by a monosyllabic youth who welcomed us with grunts and reluctant glances from his computer screen. After a few minutes of friendly banter (from us) he sighed and removed his earphones. What a splendid introduction to a fascinating town. Before signing the register the youth tried to establish what tours he could sell to make his commission. Sadly he got none.

We were hungry and decided to see what culinary delights Alajuela had to offer. As we stumbled along the streets we were amazed by the choice. Ricci Pollo, McDonalds, Apollo Pollo, Don’s Pollo, KFC, Mary’s Pollo, McDonalds (another), Pollo Pun, Pun on Pollo, Cluck Cluck Pollo, KFC (another one), Pizza Hut and at least another 50 places with Pollo in the title. These were mean streets particularly if you were a Chicken or a food nutrionist. We eventually found a Chinese and sat down to look at the menu. It was a fried chicken establishment with a few fried Chinese dishes thrown in for effect. We left. After about half an hour we passed a first floor gym with glass windows and an aerobics class in full swing. The room pounded to a mass of obese people wondering how they had got that way. After about half an hour we found a suitable establishment and sat on a balcony overlooking the town square. A youth serenaded his girlfriend singing to his mobile phone as we ate our Big Macs.

After dinner we took a stroll in the town. It has a number of architectural points of note. At the end of nearly all pavements are huge open spaces where perhaps there were once man hole covers. Unlit these lead down to the sewers. The town is built on a grid system and so every 100 metres or so traffic vies for supremacy at crossroads with small stumps where perhaps there were once traffic lights. We stumbled back towards our hostel making best use of the small pools of occasionally working street lights. En-route we admired the many different ways in which house holders and businesses alike had created lethal fence toppings. An abundance of razor wire seemed popular as did the eco-friendly glass in concrete. We saw a young man around fifteen perhaps with one shoe and no top rifling through some bins and a passing taxi driver gave out a loud drug induced groan/shout for no apparent reason. What a wonderfully authentic experience we were having.

We slept well and in the morning listened to two separate stories from travellers of armed kidnap in Nicaragua (not going). We spent the day travelling between airport, American Airlines office and internet establishment. After an hour of travelling, two hours of waiting and an hour on the phone to Quantas in Miami we are now flying out of Belize and not Cancoon in Mexico. We are already tired to looking at the ineffective surgical masks.

We caught an 8 hour bus from Panama City to the town of David and then a further hour to the small town of Boquete. It’s at 900m high so the weathers cooler. Once Boquete was a sleepy coffee growing town. Several years ago it was judged as the fourth best place to retire. It’s now full of ex-pats. Despite this it’s a nice place to spend a couple of days. Panama is not a major coffee grower internationally but what it lacks in quantity it makes up for in quality. On the local hills is grown the internationally awarded finest coffee in the world. We went on a tour and found that rather than growing in straight rows across the hillside the coffee plants are interspersed under larger trees providing shelter and birds. Our four hour tour ended with a connoisseur tasting session.

Yesterday we walked to ‘Paradise Gardens’ an animal sanctuary set up by ex-pats from….. England (where else). We had a good luck around and got up close and personal with a baby ant-eater. In the afternoon we went horse riding in the countryside as the sun-set over the lush green volcanic countryside. In a few days we will catch another bus to Costa (packet) Rica. We are in no hurry.

17th April We took a 5 day sailing trip from Cartagena to Panama on a boat called Sacanagem. We were told to meet at the marina in Cartagena at 11 in the morning. We were 13 in number plus the Captain, Frederico. There were a number of formalities to do. We had lunch, did some shopping at a local supermarket and waited, and waited. Eventually the Port Authorities gave us permission to set sail. By now it was 18:50. As darkness fell we made our way out of the port towards a red lit buoy. We were told for the first couple of hours the sea would be rough. Our boat was 14m long so would soak up much of the movement of the waves. We left the bay in high spirits. Within thirty minutes three people had been sick. The waves tossed us up, down and rolled mercilessly for hours on end. Slight relief could be gained by lying on your back which switched off your balance sensors. We were lucky in that we had been allocated a cabin. Five of our crew mates tried to sleep on the deck and were awoken with waves crashing around them.

18th April The following morning we awoke bleary eyed in the middle of a confused Caribbean. The swell, wind and current were at odds with one another which made for a nauseous trip. Little was said in the day other than an occasional ‘excuse me’ as one by one we knelt at the back of the boat at what became known as ‘the altar’, to puke. Patrice made sure everyone knew that she had not been sick despite others doing so five times. Thankfully with a sail we were making around 6 knots and were told the sail time to the San Blas islands would be around 30 hours rather than the average 36. The day passed slowly. Some saw dolphins playing around the boat, others groaned below deck. Darkness again fell. We had a late dinner and went to bed.

19th April At 2am we were awoken by Captain Frederico. All hands were needed to navigate past a reef into the bay. Some were on reef lookout while I was depth monitor using the sonar equipment. We were cheered by other boats in the bay as together we accomplished the impossible, a bay entry at night. The still waters of the bay was such a welcome relief and we all slept well. Morning came and we saw we were surrounded by 5 beautiful palm tree islands with white sandy beaches. We all soon jumped in the water and explored using snorkels.With her bottom facing skywards for much of the day Patrice got an impressive ‘snorkel bum’ sun burn. Towards the end of the afternoon we met on the nearest beach and collected wood. In the evening we had a beach BBQ and were introduced to the Dutch game of Vampire!!!!

20th April We awoke, tired from the previous evening. Patrice had an impressive sunburnt bottom from snorkelling. We had breakfast and set sail for Checheme which took around three hours. Upon arrival we had lunch and most of the passengers jumped ship for some more snorkelling. In the evening Frederico offered to make another beach fire. Most were tired and unenthusiastic. We all went to bed by 10pm.

21st April After an early morning snorkel we again set sail. This time only an hour away was the small village Carti. We anchored and wandered the village for an hour or so. I wasn’t that impressed. In the evening we drank much and had a boat party.

22nd April An early start and a quick boat ride to the mainland 10 minutes away. Our trip was over. A well recommended trip.

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Well we are booked. We met our Captain today and he seems very nice. It will take 36 hours to get to the San Blas Islands and after a few days of looking around them we continue to Panama. We leave tomorrow.

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We made it back to Cartagena. It’s hot here, hot and humid. Tonight we meet our Captain for the trip to Panama. Today we went to the Inquesision museum. It was a purpose built torture building where 700 people who wouldn’t tow the Catholic party line were killed. It was all in Spanish so we got a guide. Now if I were in a torture room key words would be, sombre, understanding, consideration, awe. The guides key words were entertainment, ‘have a go’, laugh. I felt a little uncomfortable being strapped into a genuine rack – but it was all good fun – apparently.
If you thought Oz was the emerald city think again, it’s Cartagena. There are 14 emerald shops and each must offer a load of commision to anyone that can get a tourist to part with their money. It’s hard not to take a good photo. Everywhere is photogenic.
Hopefully we leave on the 17th providing we are comfortable with the charter.

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We made it back to Cartagena. It’s hot here, hot and humid. Tonight we meet our Captain for the trip to Panama. Today we went to the Inquesision museum. It was a purpose built torture building where 700 people who wouldn’t tow the Catholic party line were killed. It was all in Spanish so we got a guide. Now if I were in a torture room key words would be, sombre, understanding, consideration, awe. The guides key words were entertainment, ‘have a go’, laugh. I felt a little uncomfortable being strapped into a genuine rack – but it was all good fun – apparently.
If you thought Oz was the emerald city think again, it’s Cartagena. There are 14 emerald shops and each must offer a load of commision to anyone that can get a tourist to part with their money. It’s hard not to take a good photo. Everywhere is photogenic.
Hopefully we leave on the 17th providing we are comfortable with the charter.

We flew to Cartagena three days ago. the difference in temperature, culture and people couldn’t be more different. It’s much hotter, much slower paced, theAfro-Caribean influence is very visible and it;s a completely different country. We stayed overnight and saw that the city had at least two or three days of exploring to do. However each accommodation we visited were warning that they were about to increase their prices dramatically for Easter. We decided to try and beat the crowds and head up coast to the ’small fishing village’ of Taganga. Four and a half hours on a bus later we arrived.

Normally, the locals tell us, there are about 50 people on the beach. This weekend there are around three thousand. It is busy.

We have found a great dive centre (www.aquantisdivecenter) which offers Scuba dives at around sixteen pounds ago. We were also very fortunate to find the last available room at a great bed and breakfast (www.micasaholanda.com).

The place is heaving with locals on their Easter break. Gringos are fewer in number which gives the place an authentic feel. It’s nice to escape the crowds though for the quiet on the Caribean and go diving. I’ve done four dives now. It’s good to get back into it. Patrice plans to conquer her fears and do a night dive on Sunday. I’ll let you know how we get on.

Another eight hours from the jungle and we are in Quito. The change in altitude was interesting not the way up, tropical jungle through to scenery which looked more like Scotland. We found a nice cheap place to stay and tried to get flights booked to Columbia. British credit cards were not accepted on their web-site so yesterday we went to the airport to get tickets.

Tomorrow we fly to Cartagena on the Caribbean coast. This means we skip most of Columbia. From here we home to catch one of the several small yachts which go to Panama avoiding the very dodgy Darian gap area between the two countries. We have only 32 days to go now and a lot of miles to cover. Thankfully central America is much smaller in comparison to the miles we have covered. Today was spent forward planning from Cartagena and back route planning from Mexico. We will leave a couple of days as an emergency buffer.

We are both looking forward to returning home now, to catch up with friends, family and to start our ambitious new Eco-bach project.

We survived! We have just been on a fantastic five day jungle trip. Now I don’t know if it is me getting old but there were several times on the trip that I stopped and wondered if it was just me in the group of 14 people that ever paused to think about the consequences of what we were doing. Driving down the river the guide and his uncanny spotting skills saw an Anaconda (bloody big nasty snake). Without further ado the motor boat took a sharp right into the tangled undergrowth at the side of the river. As we were at the front of the boat we saw the back metre or so of something longer slithering into the water. ‘Do you want me to get it?’ asked the guide and without waiting for a response jumped into the metre deep tangled roots and grabbed the arse end of a quickly fleeing jungle killer. ‘It’s strong!’ he cried as he made Steve Erwin look like Mary Poppins. ‘Can I have some help?’…… There was a long pause as I looked back at the other people in the boat, all were younger. ‘I can’t see any volunteers,’ I replied. Now is it just me? One metre deep water, Anaconda – pissed off – front end whereabouts unknown. Volunteers !!!! To their credit two volunteers emerged and jumped off the boat. Along with the boat driver four grown men couldn’t pull the snake from it’s root ball lair. We left and I felt a little inadequate. We went on a jungle walk – at night – in the dark – with torches. We were told not to touch anything. Really? The path in places was narrow and we had to climb over trees and under branches. Leaves brushed past us. ‘That little fella one foot to your left? That’s a Wolf Spider. Oh the other one? That’s a Tarantula.’ Again why was I the only one with brown underpants? The following morning was more sedate. We went fishing…… for Piranhas ! Small chunks of beef were quickly pulled from around our fishing hooks. If we fell in? We would be OK as long as we didn’t have any cuts. Later as we were pulling into the lodge jetty we spotted a 4 metre long Cayman it’s primeval eyes set on top of it’s floating log like head. Our accommodation? Wooden rooms on stilts, open on two sides. But with a good mosquito net. Like that’s going to stop anything! One couple were awoken at four in the morning and swore blind there was something big scratching itself against one of the stilts. We had three or four opportunities to jump out of the boat and go for a swim. Anaconda, Piranha, Cayman – same water course but in the middle of a lake and a good 100 metres from where they hang out. Oh, that’s OK then. We all left the boat for a dip. Again is it me? Last night and we could choose what to do. Lets go swimming then go for a night walk then Caymen spotting by lamplight in the boat. Oh goody!What ever happened to a cold beer and a game of cards in the lodge? Sarcasm aside it was a great trip and one of the highlights of the tour. I even managed to keep a lid on my fear of spiders, snakes and bugs as big as your hand – well almost. We went with Rainforestur.com and stayed at cabanasjamu.com