We came away from Montego Bay with very mixed experiences and feelings. We discovered Jamacia is not really for the independent traveller, but wholly and solely set up for the packaged, all inclusive tourists who love to throw their money around.After enjoying our time in Cuba, we flew into Montego Bay with an expectation of a laid back time of reggae music,and beautiful beaches . From the moment we arrived it was hassle, hassle, hassle! Our entire time in Monteg...

Havana, Cuba - decrepit, time-warped, yet astonishingly beautiful!Our flight was delayed which meant we arrived in Havana late at night. Our first priority was to get money as the Cuban monetary system had only just changed over to a "convertible peso" and this is now the only currency for non Cubans to use and it is not available anywhere else as it is not linked to the world money markets. Heather found an ATM put her card in and it got stuck! Panic!! Heather s...

Leaving Belize was a bit of a circus, we had to catch 2 buses and managed to get on the wrong one in Belize City that instead of taking us up and over the border into Mexico left us in a town 20 km before the border. We managed to find another bus to the border then we had to walk through the Belize exit and the Mexican entry with our packs on - a sizable distance. If we'd caught the right bus it would have taken us right through. You get that when you don...

Crossing the border into the tiny English speaking (and Commonwealth) country of Belize was quite a culture shock.People were suddenly very tall, black and speaking very loudly in Creole, a local language, which is sort of English but quite a mystery really to understand! We had left Flores very early in the morning and after 5 buses and a taxi finally arrived at sunset in a little fishing village called Hopkins where we had planned to stay. Belize was a Britis...

From Antigua it was on to Flores the nearest town of consequence to the northern Tikal Mayan ruins. This was a full day of buses again (3 different ones). We enjoy travelling with the traditional Mayan Guatemalan people on the buses and watching the scenery go by. Flores is an island town in a lake joined by a causeway to its twin town of Santa Elena. We found (at a touts recommendation, something we do not normally do) some very cheap accommodation equivalent to...