Ellen and I caught the eastbound train from Prague for the little village of Brusno at the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains. Nary a word of English is spoken in central Slovakia, and Ellen seemed to be related to everyone. Three days later, after the greetings had died we went on a hiking trip into the High-Tatra Mountains with Jan and Mana, Ellen's cousins. At the end of the day we all settled in for a relaxing evening at a little cabin in the mountains...

We did a three-and-a half hour drive down to Budapest yesterday from Brusno, Slovakia. Hungary is supposedly more well off than Slovakia. I didn't see it, at least not between the Slovakian border and the actual city of Budapest. There were horse/donkey carts wheeling agricultural produce along the roads for almost the entire distance. And we also saw a number of, mostly women, hauling bundles of sticks on their backs, much like the photo on the Led Zeppelin ...

Ellen and I found a last-minute deal to a place called Club Caracol just outside Playa del Carmen, on Mexico's Yucatan peninsula. Canada 3000 had just negotiated the all-inclusive destination and we were the first to visit. Pioneers we were in the world of all-inclusiveness. Actually it was us and a Canada 3000 pilot and his wife. As it turns out Club Caracol was new only to North America. The Spanish and the Italians had been coming to the place for some tim...