Mexico

We arrived in Tulum and headed for the beach. Look who we found washed up on the shore........our old friend Charlotte!

We decided to do something cultural and went to see the Mayan ruins on offer. Splendid.

Apparently religious bracelets are fashionable not only in central america.

So we moved up the coast to the tourist infested Playa Del Carmen.  It's two main attractions were the beach and Senor Frogs. (We chose the beach)

Oh look at all those Mexicans.

Don't even ask......

As it turned out Charlotte had actually brought the weather over from England as well.

But that didn't stop these finely tuned athletes/weirdos.

We decided it was time to go in search of a proper Mexican town.  Welcome to the beautiful Valladolid.

We took a visit to the local church. Lovely stuff.

And also to the local Senote (underground pool/cave).  Sure enough we opted out of swimming.

Meet our new room mates, bob and his friend.  We think they are supposed to be dogs.

Final stop - Cancun.  We treated ourselves to a filthy night out.  This was post warm Tequila shot. Ouch.

Apparently the MC was rubbish.

It's like looking in a mirror....

Best food ever.

So long Americaz.....

FIN.

Belize

Belize! The Creole speaking, delicious food making, Caribbean Sea bordering slice of lushness.

 We bought 3 freshly caught lobsters and realised that preparing, cooking and cracking open lobsters yourself is actually quite unappetising.

 We started NYE celebrations with the British NY bells and again 6 hours later with the rest of Belize. Cue Caribbean band and too much rum.

 The beautiful beaches of Placencia.

 Driftwood - the only bar in town that you have to take a boat to get to.

 Darts is a big thing in Belize. Much to Gillian's delight!

 Getting to grips with the Creole...

 Everything is relaxed and slow-paced here. Even the Police transport.

 Meet Mouthy, our mad friend and Caye Caulker guide.

So Belize had the world's second largest barrier reef, which called for some snorkelling where we encountered the beautiful coral reef, fish, massive stingrays (above) and sharks.

 Mario - our snorkel expert.

The split: In the 1960s Hurricane Hattie hit the island of Caye Caulker and literally split the island into two.

xxx

Guatemala cont.

 We travelled to the Guatemalan highlands for christmas and stayed on Lake Atitlan surrounded by volcanoes.

 Christmas eve was spent in Santa Cruz where the hostel owner treated us to some live music including his very own chicken bus song.

 Games were played and musical chairs was taken to the next level. Paul performed some pretty impressive moves.

 The dressing up box was sucessfully raided.

 A hungover christmas morning was spent jumping in the lake and wearing tinsel ties.

 Christmas dinner was spent with 100+ people, was delicious, and followed by some compulsory christmas day film watching.

 Quick stop over in Antigua and straight to our favourite rooftop bar to catch the regular erruption of a surrounding volcano.

 Onto Flores, a cute but very grey town in close proximity to the Mayan ruins at Tikal:

The view from Temple IV at Tikal.

Next stop, Belize mon! xxxx

Antigua, Guatamala

After the slowest bus ride in the world we arrived in Antigua

 ....and it was cold.

But it made us remember it was Christmas soooon!

We wandered the cobble stoned streets and checked out the views of the surrounding volcanoes before we stumbled across a German pub.

Where they had very badly stuffed animals....

Rooftop bar to see the active volcano, followed by a (stupidly difficult) pub quiz made up our evening

We hit the markets for a bit of a Christmas shop and what wonderful gifts we found.

There was a Lunar eclipse during our time in Antigua, so naturally we stayed up playing Uno until the moment of truth......It didn't really come out on camera.

So here is our own representation (courtesy of Craig)

Oh look, Katie stole another cat.  Meet cyclops.....