LAST DAY IN TORTUGAL

We slept ok last night having gained control of the ceiling fan system in our room.  Nothing dries here in the humidity so we will be leaving tomorrow with some damp shoes etc.  John and I went kayaking this morning along the shore and enjoyed the bird life - saw the usual herons, pelicans, egrets and cormorants and on the boat stays a pair of lovely yellow chested fly catcher type birds with a lovely way of flying and looping to catch the insects.  We had our usual breakfast of egg, bacon and hash browns and then at 11s had a licuado de papaya that was delicious.  It is overcast again today and has drizzled and bit but is warm.  John has found out moorings here go for around 250 dollars a month usually allied to hotels who look after them as well as allowing you to use all their facilities - it seems a nice life and I can imagine Paul,and our dads loving the laid back life here - there are some extremely well travelled and enterprising people here who do not believe in putting on the slippers in front of the telly when they retire.  Quite a few have encircled the globe in their yachts.  The owner of this hotel was telling us today about the headaches involved in up keeping the pontoons and buildings with the teredo worm eating the pontoons and the termites eating the wood above ground.  She also told John that although you don't see much when you walk in the mangroves around our hotel, in fact it is full of nocturnal life like kinkajoos, sloths, turtles.

When we were talking to the American lady in Vinas del lago hotel yesterday she asked us if we had been to see the church in Esquipulas.  We had passed it coming back from Copan the other day and knew about the annual pilgrimage or romeria to see the black Christ - but we googled it and was amazed at just how big the event is - taking place during February and involving thousands from all over the world including Saint Teresa of Calcutta and Pope Paul and Butros Butros Gali who has just died who came to witness the signing of the peace accords after the terrible civil war here.

It is a huge basilica - pity the money was spent to help the poor here who are so faithful to their religions

For some reason a lot of motorbikes go on the pilgrimage!

We have just had our lunch of quesadillas de pollo y Aguacate - delicious! And the staff have just come up with a box of still lively mojarra fish of pink and grey scales probably for our special dinner tonight.

We have been washing our smalls or in some cases our bigs prior to leaving tomorrow and I will have to start behaving myself before we meet up with Arthur in Flores - for instance I won't be allowed to dry my knickers on the ceiling fan any more!

Tomorrow we leave at a sensible hour for a change - 9.30 on a so called luxury bus up to Lake Peten Itza and the town on the lake called Flores.  It has mixed reviews - some say it is a beautiful town - others say it is full of people trying to rip you off - we shall see...

We are now heading into Maya heartland where their civilisation really reached its heyday in Tikal and in numerous other settlements around - most of which have not even started to be investigated under the jungle undergrowth.

I hope we will have time to visit a few others as well as Tikal and Yaxha