THE TRIP

The flight (Thomson Dreamliner) from Gatwick to Cancun was fine, apart from a 40 min delay on the Tarmac to update software!  There was enough leg room and the people were plenty but well behaved - not many tattoos and lots of families - old and young - mostly it seems heading for the beaches of Cancun.

The flight was long at around 10 and half hours and we watched with interest as the little plane on our video screen skirted past Iceland then down the eastern USA coast down to Florida - across the Caribbean - over Cuba Simon and into Cancun.  We were at a very high altitude of over 40,000 feet and there was quite thick cloud beneath us all the way so there was nothing to see.  For the first time we experienced a window on the plane that you can electrically darken - cool!

Moira had come to the airport directly from her daughter Jo's 30th birthday party and had had no sleep - so she was able to sneak a few minutes of nap during the flight.

The place names in Mexico and Guatemala are so evocative - I enjoyed reading about them as we passed by - Quintana Roo and Cozumel - even the valleys and mountains under the sea have romantic names these days!

The hot humid air hit us like a warm mouldy blanket when we stepped out of the AC on the plane in Cancun.  I was surprised flying in at the abundance of forest around the area rather than the Benidorm look I was expecting.

The queues are long here - they have not yet had our western makeover with moves to improve efficiency and I thought Moira was going the throttle the young girl on the Volaris check in counter for her slowness and inefficiency - she was far more concerned with having a full conversation with each customer about everything and nothing rather than getting on with the job of dissipating the queue- but there again she was being human rather than a machine - and everyone is oh so pleasant as they set you on your way- thanking you for speaking to them in Spanish.

We are already having trouble with the currencies - we had to change some Mexican dollars and certainly could not get our head around  those values at that time of evening - but eventually we worked out that our McDonald's style burritos and tacos were not cheap at nearly £6 a head.  Oops this is not going to be a cheap holiday!

We had about a 3 hour wait for our connecting flight and yet again were horrified at the rigmarole of checking out our baggage at one point and filling out huge immigration forms - answer yes or no to carrying drugs, weapons, pets, (the small print lists the pets you are allowed to bring in, including 3 ferrets) ---- to then recheck it in at the next desk and hand in the immigration papers we have just been given.

The Volaris flight to Guatemala City was more like a bus queue than a plane but the vehicle was modern and big and thankfully comfortable.  It was a 1 hour 20 min flight south in the dark as the big pools of lights thinned to little faint ones then the odd single light as I looked out in the blackness thinking of steaming jungles and Mayan ruins and parrots!

I should have loved to fly by day to see the terrain - it looked interesting as we came in to Guatemala City and I noted with interest how a city blighted by previous earthquakes still insists on building high rise structures.  The air was fresher and more pleasant at the atitude of Guatemala City and I could appreciate why Guatemala is known as the city of eternal Spring.

We were picked up from the airport along with 2 Canadians by Hank - a Dutchman in his beat up retro VW camper which I felt was a fitting vehicle to start our journey of exploration - a lovely jokey man who ironed out the creases of tiredness in our faces and planted a few jolly smiles - His little Posada dos Lunas hotel is in a great place just a few minutes drive from the airport walled in from the uninteresting local street to create a little haven of European calm for us as slightly edgy travellers in the new world.

In his usual way John got chatting to our fellow travellers and they revealed they have been to Guatemala and our hotel many times and have also done all the sights we plan to visit - they congratulated us on our choice of itinerary and said they did similar at first but now just come every year for 3 months, yoga mat under their arm and rucksack on their back to chill out for 3 months in a rented house by the lake in San Marcos on Lake Atitlan which they adore.

Hank's wife Lorena is local guatemalteca and met Hank at a tourist fair 15 year ago - Their hotel is welcoming, a bit tatty and cluttered but the beds are clean and comfy and after a welcome local coffee we slipped into our little beds and dreamed of volcanos and quetzals.  The bathroom is very basic but clean with only one working tap as the other is just for decoration!  Woke up after a nice rest at 4.00am and decided to write this to map out the feelings in my head at the start of our journey - what excitement - the volcano over Antigua is still putting on a fireworks show if the clouds clear - hope we get to see it!  I was woken up by the mysterious sounds of unfamiliar birds - can't wait for the dawn to get out the binoculars!  Getting up for a late breakfast then a private bus to take us an hour to the old colonial capital of Antigua.  Sorry no photos to interest you yet.