I'm going to make a recommendation: all archaeological sites should be moved next to a beach

So, I left. Friday night saw my last GVI BBQ. So with a trip to the airport booked for 4am, what else was I to do but to dance all night? Sleep simply wasn't an option. I want to say thank you at this point to Debra and Alison for commenting on my blog. Everyone else should follow their example! Guys, I miss you loads. And Debra, your stupid riddle has been driving me insane during my journey. I will solve it by the time I see you next!

So after going to a good bar, the decor for which is apparently based on a Pink Floyd album (I would never have noticed, but I do see it now), we ended up crashing a wedding party with a difference. The difference being that the bride to be was no longer actually getting married but decided to party anyhow. A good night, but a small dance floor.

Debra coincidentally joined me for the trip to the airport - she was getting an internal flight to Tikal for the weekend. But after I got dropped off at the terminal, it was goodbye. I would have been slightly more concerned at the time were it not for the fact that I knew I would be going back to Antigua soon, and for the need to concentrate on getting two flights to Mexico in time to meet my Intrepid tour group. I'd like to tell you about the journey, but you need know only this: it was long, I slept a lot.

So after two planes and a taxi, I arrived in Playa del Carmen, just south of Cancun. And goddamn it's hot over there. After meeting everyone, going out for dinner and staying out for a drink or two, I decided to go and sit down outside the hotel before going to bed. To be completely honest, the transition from Antigua to Playa del Carmen was hard, and I wasn't entirely happy. I moved from volunteering in a beautiful town surrounded by volcanoes to sitting in a hot beach-side resort which frankly I've seen a million times in Spain before. The following morning, with the internet cafe shut, I did what any sensible traveller feeling like they were on a soulless, pointless journey would do: I went to Starbucks. And I must say, that was the best decision I could have made; Starbucks knows how to treat its customers well, and in Mexico that means a large dose of air conditioning.

Fortunately we moved on from Playa del Carmen quite quickly, and the next day we found ourselves in Tulum. From this point on things got a lot better. Once again, I have no pictures. But I want you all to know that we stayed in beach-side huts, in a sparsely populated piece of Mexican paradise. The Caribbean sea, a good bar and the sound of the ocean as you fall asleep were also quite welcome indeed. Oh and the following day we went caving. You know how it is: a snorkel, swimming around some luminescent caves, water with crystal clear visibility and some tropical fish. Just your average day really. And after such hardship, followed by wandering around some Mayan ruins beside yet another paradisical beach, what you really want is a suspended mattress-hammock right at your hotel. Damn good thing too, or else I might have left.

So a couple of nights spent in Tulum, then a very long journey to Caye Caulker, an island in Belize. This journey was about 8 hours long and involved a 1st class Mexican bus, a boat, and in between those two a Belizian chicken bus - for four hours! Now the Belizian chicken buses are not as bad as the Guatemalan ones - they're slightly bigger - but to all those GVI folk that complained about the ride to Santa Maria, and Alison I'm looking at you here, you have the right to grumble no more!

So here I am in Caye Caulker as I write this entry. Belize is a very Caribbean, very happy place. All of a sudden, I feel compelled to drink Lilt. It's totally tropical. Everyone here speaks English, but a lot of them do so with such a strong Caribbean accent I find myself thinking that I may very well understand Spanish better. The island itself is relatively small, and populated with three major facilities repeated multiple times down a single stretch of road: bars, restaurants, and diving tours.

So after having the cold from hell, and being bitten by the dog from hell, what does a man do? My solution was to swim with some sharks. Now they were only nurse sharks, but damn they looked vicious. It didn't help that our crew on the boat decided to feed these creatures before we got in. I assure you all, these things have quite a snap. Plus of course I have an open dog wound, and can't sharks smell blood?

But it wasn't all sharks and Elliots for lunch. There were all sorts of fantastically tropical fish that I'm sure I've seen on TV but would never have expected to meet in real life. It's taking a while for me to comprehend what I've just seen, because it really is another world. In total there were three snorkelling opportunities in three different reefs, and the rest of the time was spent lounging on top of a sailboat eating sandwiches and drinking rum. All in all, not bad. And my personal highlight: the stingrays.

It's simply terrible what one has to do just to populate a blog nowadays.