Ok so...after we left Bacaalr we made our way over the border from Mexico to Belize WITHOUT being scammed by the oh so official looking passport control men in jeans and T shirt who told us that we had to pay to leave the country. My stubbon English ways and Wills ability to understand perfectly ¨I think the guy is falling for it but we are going to have to work harder on the girl¨ means we didnt give over anything...horah!

Belize was British and so its very bizarre crossing the border to suddenly have the queen- a pretty flattering photo of her taken when she was probably in her 40s, on our money, and English being spoken everywhere (in a very thick creole accents). We headed for our tiny little private jet style and whilst I enjoyed feeling like the Beatles, Will, scared of flying mainly tried to avoid thinking about being up in the air on something smaller than most cars.

We headed out for Caye Caulker, a tropical carribean island. the Island had been split in two by a hurricane in the 60s and as such one half was inhabited by rastas who were the subject of far too many years drinking rum and smoking cannabis and the other half is now a nature reserve for crocodiles- and one man who refered to himself, in third person as ´The coconut Man´... whose main patter was ¨im da coconut man, Im da only man, I dont care what you say I can climb any tree because Im da coconut man¨ gooood. He wasnt the only third person inhabitant, we also met the cake man and the hat man.

Snorkling here was brilliant, we got to swim with some alarmingly large sharks and sting rays (the Australians we were with all jumped out the water to crys of ¨they killed the crocodile hunter!¨). Will went fishing whilst I tried to recover from a bit of food poisoning. He came back with a whole bucket of fish and a couple of conch which he had dived down for...I was later subjected to the videos of Will bashing the baracuda for a good 10 minutes with a bottle to kill it, this didnt really help the stomache situation. We ended up staying here for a week because it was so beautiful and we made some good friends here. We met a Raggae singer called Dan (The Dan Man) whose band played in the only bar in town every night. the atmosphere was that of a Carribean Island...seeerrrrooussly easy going.

From here we made our way through Belize west towards the Guatemalan border. The country side as we travelled was absolutely beautiful. Thick lush tropical forests, massive coffee bean plantations and rivers with kids playing, and mothers washing their clothes in.

We managed to get, by the skin of our teeth into Tikal, and ancient Mayan ruin before dark. Tikal is right in the middle of a national reserve rainforest, home to jaguars, monkeys, snakes and amazing bird life. Being out here felt very very remote and very serial...After being around so many people in lively places to suddenly be in the middle of nowhere with strange wildlife noises... We organised ourselves to get up for a 4am trek through the jungle to the ruins the next day. This si the best time to see the wildlife and see the rainforest come to life. So we started with torches attached to our heads in thick darkness having to feel infront of ourselves do that we didnt bump into anything. We then made it to the Mayan ruins just as the sun was about to come out. Tikal is famous because of its really impressive almost vertical towers that poke out of the jungle canopy and are surrounded by an eerie whispery cloud. So just as dawn was breaking we climbed up the side of one of these towers to watch the sun rise. Being above the rainforest as the different lights began to change and the colours of the rainforest came alive was one of the most amazing experiences of the trip so far. Sat their listening to the creatures of the jungle whilst forest stretched as far as the eye could see in every different direction was breath taking.

From here we made our way around to the coast of Guatemala next to Honduras. It was a massive shame to have missed out on a lot of Guatemala as Ive heard so many good things about it, but im planning to go back there after the volunteer project. Anyway, we went to Livingston, having been recommended that we simply must go to Íguanas´a youth hostel owned by Rusty, an English guy who was a living result of the experimental drugs and clubbing of the early 90s... A really great guy who had lost himself along the way and moved out to Guatemala sometime back with no real explanation. Livingston itself wasnt that great, the town was pretty dingey but the hostel was fantastic. It seems people come to Livingston purely to stay in this place. Here we met a really great group of guys and had loads of fun, later Will went to join them to do his Padi diving certificate.

However, it was time for the project to start in El Porvenir, Honduras. Will had decided that seeing as he didnt have much time of freedom before uni in September that he would go and do his Padi course in Utila and then head home for some English Tea and to see his friends properly before the hard slog... As really, the volunteer project was my part of the vacation and Will had done what he wanted to do. So now, here I am in El Porvenir going solo!

But for now, I must go to classes...I will update you asap!