After a lay over in Cancun I was back to the airport to board my flight to Havana which I discovered was a solid Russian aircraft. After making my way through the 4 foot high entrance door to the aircraft I discovered that the same idiot that designed the door also did the seating pitch which seemed to be set up for midgets and above knee double amputees. By some miracle I managed to get an exit row seat from which I smiled happily to the other passengers. My smile soon turned to a chuckle as we sped down the runway and the air conditioning kicked in filling the cabin with dry air vapor the consistency of smoke which caused a few alarming looks. Thankfully the landing was uneventful which I was quite happy about. (After arriving I read the section in my guide book which tells you that Cubana had back to back crashes in 1999 - was pretty glad I didn't read that before I left!)

 

I spent the first few days in Havana in one of the many casa particulares, basically where you stay with local family in a their house. My morning routine was to lean on the balcony sipping my coffee watching Havana wake up which also included the morning greetings to all the neighbours and a bit of a chat with the land lady. A very friendly bunch really.

 

One of the first things that became apparent about Cuba was that it was hot, damn hot! Walking around the streets of old Havana became a challenge of finding shade and a breeze! The next thing was that it is an expensive place to visit with the government getting hold of the tourism bug about 5 years ago and turning the place into a tour bus destination. A good part of the extra money you pay to visit Cuba is being spent on restoring all the old building and giving them a lick of paint to smarten them up and make it pleasant on the tourists eyes. All of the old cars that you hear about were running around the streets along with plenty of Korean imports and surprisingly loads of american trucks which were towing the ¨bombay buses¨ around town. Also if you're after Che memorabillia then you've come to the right place there are T-shirts, paintings, pictures, the list just goes on!

 

With the sights of Havana ticked off it was an easy choice to head to the beaches east of Havana to work on my tan and cool off in the sea which in fact was warmer than most of the showers I had in Cuba!

 

With my Euros which I'd carried all the way from Spain disappearing at a fast rate (Money machines only accept credit cards provided they aren't issued by american banks and incur a 10% surcharge - yikes!) it was time to head back to Mexico and I'm happy to say that my return flight was on a nice european made Airbus aircraft with lots of leg room. My arrival back in Cancun was a bit of a shock to the system as it's like a little part of America although the improved quality and variety of food was most welcome.

 

My first stop whilst in Mexico was San Cristobal, a nice little old colonial town and good place to cool and heals and only an 18 hour overnight bus ride to get there! From here I back tracked to Palenque to visit the Mayan Ruins which were an impressive collection of stone temples and structures. This place was also a finals contender for the hottest place on earth, even with my fan running at full throttle I reckon the temperature in my room was still in the mid thirties!

 

The reason I had decided to back track to Palenque was to cross the border and head to the Mayan Ruins at Tikal which involved a bus ride to the Mexican border post and another from the Guatemalan border post to Flores. In between was a very relaxing and enjoyable boat ride down the river - all onboard agreed that this was definitely the most pleasant way to cross a border.

 

After a large evening out with my new border crossing friends, which David and I carried on a little longer than was necessary, I managed 2 hours sleep before I was thankfully awoken by Ann banging on my door to get on the bus for Tikal. Just over an hour later we got off the bus and commenced our 30 minutes walk through the jungle in the dark which ended with a gut busting climb up some stairs that would be condemned by any OHS inspector, the end result was to sit on the steps of Temple 4 and watch the sun come up. Unfortunately it was not much of a sunrise due to the cloud but it did mean the majority of our tour was conducted in the coolest part of the day which is a good thing if you're hungover and climbing temples. Most people come to Tikal to see the temples interspersed through the jungle which is a fantastic sight but in Mayan times the whole area was actually cleared of trees which I think would have looked equally impressive. Each to there own I guess. Either way the mayans certainly put a lot of work into this place with something like 4000 buildings or temples in the area of which as a tourist you only see a fraction.

 

Next stop on my itinerary was Rio Dulce, reportedly about three and a half hours down the road - we got there in under three which should give you an indication of the type of ride we had! From here I did a day trip down the river of the same name to Livingston with a dip in the thermal springs and a hunt for the illusive manatees - none seen.

 

It was also in Rio Dulce that I met Keith, an Australian Vietnam veteran, who has been plying the waters of the Carribean for nearly 20 years. Over a couple of late nights and a few quiet beers he told me a few of his stories including a first hand account of the battle of Long Tan which will be invaluable when I visit the site of the battle in Vietnam. Definitely a big highlight of my trip.

 

From Rio Dulce I did a little side trip to Copan Ruinas just over the border in Honduras - seven hours and four bus changes later I arrived!

 

Copan Ruinas is another Mayan site which is famous for its Stelae's (stone carved statues) which it has plenty of along with a few sizable temples I might add. My stay will always be memorable for the first sleepless night as the in house bar played loud music till the small hours and for the extremely loud war flick which was being played until late directly above my room on the second night.

 

From here I crossed back into Guatemala and headed to Antigua, reportedly a backpackers paradise which it proved to be with lots of gringo orientated restaurants and bars to visit. Antigua was also refreshingly cool thanks to its altitude which was a pleasant change from the jungle. From here I did a day trip to the Pacaya volcano which I found out has been pretty active in the last 6-8 months spewing lava all down the hill side. Not long after starting out it became alarmingly obvious that I had boarded a van with the worst driver on the planet - its a unique individual that can make you car sick in a traffic jam! Our tour up the volcano was relatively sedate in comparison with plenty of opportunities to get close to the fresh lava flows. We thanked the volcano for not blowing up on us before we left, all we had to do now was make it back to Antigua in one piece!

 

Next stop El Salvador