Belize Bird Rescue - 23rd to 31st May

Sponsoring Belize Bird Rescue!

Nikki and Joan

Nikki and Jenny

Tractor tours

Making orange juice with Jerry

Apologies for the Wise Owl logo on each picture - have just done screen captures using the wrong short-cut key, and I can't face doing them again.

We are now in Caye Caulker, a narrow strip of land close to the Belize reef (the longest coral reef in the Western Hemisphere, we are told). Staying in an apartment with shaky air-conditioning and Caribbean music thumping away outside, but it's not a bad place. Tomorrow we've got a snorkelling tour booked, when we'll come face-to-face with bigger fish than Katy probably realises; for now, everyone but me (Andy) is asleep ... and it's not even 9 pm!

We've just spent an idyllic, relaxing week with: 5 dogs, umpteen chickens, ducks and turkeys, at least one tarantula (I was going to put a picture on the blog, but Auntie Jacqui would faint), several parrots, a couple of baby owls and lots more animals I've forgotten to mention. Oh yes, and in the middle of this menagerie were 3 people - Nikki, Jerry and Nikki's mum Joan. Many, many thanks to you for your hospitality and kindness. The photos show our hosts - not sure they'll thank me for including them, but there you are.

We went for a few outings while we were there, the best of which was probably cave-tubing (you sit in an inner-tube and let it carry you down-river through a darkish cave, before emerging into bright sunlight at the other end). The best activities, though, were probably those in Nikki and Jerry's small garden (think 50 acres of jungle, plantation, orchards and farming areas, with a river running through). My favourite memory will be "river-running": getting in the river and swimming/wading/floating downstream to a pool at the end, with little fish nibbling you on the way.

The girls loved all the animals - feeding the chickens, making toys for the parrots and being licked by the dogs. I think Jenny's favourite was the baby owl, with its comedy routine of swivelling its head (you have to see the video to truly appreciate this). Mine was probably the tarantula, which was (including legs) about the size of Katy's face - an awesome hunk of spider.

It was hard dragging ourselves away, but all good things have to come to an end (it had been far too relaxing - this was never meant to be a holiday!). Once more, thanks to all at BBR, and may your parrots never grow old!

Nearly forgot to mention that one night we were woken by a huge roar and the beds shaking. There was an earthquake off the coast of Honduras (7.1 on the Richter scale) which brought down a beam in the aviary and - bizarrely - muddied the river for a day or two.

Flores and Tikal - 20th to 23rd May

Flores is a cutesy tiny town on an island in a lake, reached by a very short causeway. Virtually every road is currently being dug up, so there's a lot of dust everywhere and not much traffic. After much searching, we'd booked into a nicer-than-average hotel (though still quite cheap), which had a large, air-conditioned room with 3 "matrimonial beds" - luxury after the Rio Dulce jungle hut. We ate at the same restaurant for the first 2 nights, where this picture was taken - the view is of the lake on which Flores stands. Incidentally, apologies for the Wise Owl logo at the bottom right of most photos - I've been doing some work which uses screen captures, and I keep pressing the wrong keys by mistake and creating work images.

We spent the Thursday doing school work, swimming and booking a trip for the next day - these relaxing in-between days are what keep us going.

This morning we got up at 4.30 to catch a 5am bus to Tikal. This is a Mayan site in the jungle about an hour's drive north of Flores. We'd booked an early tour because we'd heard that you got to see more animals that way; what no one had told us is that it meant we'd be virtually the only people at Tikal for the first hour or so. It was a truly eerie experience walking along deserted paths through the jungle, with the background noise of howler monkeys (which are LOUD) and toucans and parrots. Two things made it slightly worrying: one was that all the guidebooks say that Tikal has had a lot of problems with crime in recent years, and the other was that I'd just finished reading Jurassic Park, and was half-expecting a velociraptor ambush at any moment.

How to describe Tikal? It's a huge complex of temples and the like built between about 500 and 900 AD in the middle of the jungle (and abandoned soon after, probably because of overpopulation, warfare and drought). So there are two attractions: the impressive pyramid-like templates with their steep sides, and the wildlife all around you. We (just) saw some howler monkeys - although we certainly heard them, and also a spider monkey, a cute coatmundi (like a raccoon) and hundreds of toucans.

We climbed several of the temples (from memory, temples 2, 4 and 5), which involved climbing near-vertical wooden steps beside the original Mayan stone ones. Nanny, we felt, would not have done this. One of the photos shows the view from the top of temple 4, the first one we climbed - you can just see some of the other temples poking their heads up through the jungle.

All Maya'ed out by about 11, we had lunch (the only guests in a huge restaurant - yet again), failed to see the local crocodile and headed back by bus to Flores. Now it's about 8.15, Pippa is asleep I think, Katy will be soon, and Jenny is washing clothes in the sink while I write this. Off by minibus tomorrow morning to the Belize border, where Nikki (Jenny's friend) and Jerry will meet us - we hope!

Rio Dulce - 18th to 20th May

We got up early in the morning to catch a bus into Guatemala City. No one seems to have a good word to say about this place - even the local people told us not to go there, as it was too dangerous. Sure enough, it was polluted and lined with one-storey shops with bars and grilles on every window. To while away half an hour at the bus terminal, Jenny decided to take us to a nearby cafe, which everyone agreed was like a prison. The owner's daughter heated up some coffee in the back kitchen (while she dangled her baby perilously close to the naked gas flame) while the owner herself dashed next door to buy some toast for us. Every time someone came in or out they would slide the metal grille back into place afterwards so no one could burst in: it was that sort of place. I think Lima in Peru has a new rival for the world's worst place to live.

The bus to Rio Dulce took 5 hours. Jenny and Katy watched the Incredible Hulk on the bus TV, while everyone else unwillingly listened to it. For the second half of the journey the film had finished, so the TV screen showed the DVD menu, complete with irritating background music and soundtrack which looped every minute or so.

Rio Dulce was frantic (see the photo, which sums the place up - although you don't get a feeling of the tropical heat), so we found a hotel a short ferry ride across the river and checked in there. The room was tiny - just one double and one single bed - but we squeezed in anyway. The other photo shows Pippa and Katy outside the room; sadly, we haven't got a photo of the truly enormous spider which was in the shower. While Jenny tried to take Pippa to the doctor, Joanna, Katy and I swam in the little hotel pool.

The next morning, after pancakes for breakfast for Katy and Daddy, we took a boat trip down the Rio Dulce to the sea 18 km away, stopping off to see floating islands of trees populated by hundreds of cormorants, hot pools and inlets crowded with beautiful lilies. Joanna has forbidden me to mention the fact that she was sick, so I'm not allowed to say that at one riverside cafe at which we stopped she was sick (and more) in the basic toilet; that she spent most of the rest of the day accompanied by a bucket; that she had virtually nothing to eat for 2 days; and that she had to endure the boat journey back trying not to be sick the whole way.

We had lunch in Livingston (our destination), while a woman persistently tried to persuade us to let her braid the girls' hair, then back to the boat for a white-knuckle faster journey back, with poor Pippa and Katy at the front bouncing up and down like milk bottles on a milk float on a rutted road.

We spent the rest of the day (and the next morning) in the hotel, doing lesosns and relaxing. I booked the girls a Spanish lesson, but at the last moment Hector cancelled on us, and this woman took her place and insisted on teaching the girls useless vocabulary and little else. We waited for about half an hour in the drenching heat by the side of the road for a bus, then set off for Flores!

Antigua - 16th - 18th May

Hi all

Still Andy blogging (I'm the only one who'll sit out in the evening with the mosquitoes, and walk back along the dark jungle path to the cabin). And I'll try to get a photo or too on ...

Got to Guatemala City Saturday, and headed straight out to Antigua by taxi. This is a beautiful old-style town, which is very touristy but manages to carry this off without losing its integrity. It's surrounded by volcanoes, so it's also an incredible setting.

We spent the first afternoon wandering round Antigua (the monastic cloisters were my favourite), then got up early on the Sunday to go on a tour to the nearby volcano (can't remember the name, so I'll call it P). 2 hours in a rattling minibus (sorry Mrs. H - no seatbelts) followed by a 2 hour hike uphill - but it was worth it. The photos show how close we got to the molten lava - close enough for our guide to toast marshmallows. I'd write more, but just trying to get this done.

Got up early the next morning to catch a minibus to Guatemala City (a polluted, crowded dangerous place), then straight out by not-so-luxury coach to Rio Dulce, where we are now!

Havana again - 13th to 15th

Back to Havana! Have just spent lazy day returning car, doing schoolwork and booking flight to Guatemala City tomorrow morning with Cubana Airlines, flying in a Tupolev Russian aircraft.

The swimming pool in the hotel included one of those 3 level boards (we had one at home when I was young). I was terrified jumping off the bottom board, but Joanna and Katy just went for it! Pippa took a bit of a time plucking up courage, but then spent the next hour climbing up (using the broken hand-rail) and jumping off.

BUT THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IS ... I FORGOT TO SAY ABOUT THE CRABS!

On the way back from Trinidad, we drove along the coast road for about 40-50 miles to a place called Cienfuegos. At the beginning Jenny had to swerve to avoid the odd scuttling crab (what your average crab will do when a car approaches is to reverse its direction to scuttle suicidally TOWARDS the car wheel). Then they got more common. Then we started noticing that the road was actually covered with dead crabs, and more pink than grey. Then we reached crab valley - a dip in the road where a coach and a couple of cars had stopped. It was like a scene from a horror movie - "Attack of the killer crabs", perhaps. By then I was driving (we were making no progress with Jenny!), and I had to just put my foot down and drive. It wasn't the occasional crunch, more like driving through a sea of crabs. I still feel guilty about how many we killed, but what else could we do? I wasn't going to stop and let them crawl up all over the car. I think we'll all remember that bit of the journey for many years to come!

Promise we'll get some photos on soon ... hasta Guatemala!

Trinidad - 12th to 14th May

We drove down from the mountains and reached the town of Managua (which will remain forever in my mind) when we realised we'd taken a wrong turning and tried to do a U turn, during which ... the engine cut out completely. So there we were in a mountain town, in the hot sun, with 3 children, little Spanish, the wrong sort of currency and a broken-down car (if you ever find yourself in the same situation, "el corro esta roto" and "la bateria esta decargada" are two useful phrases).

A nice man took me in his donkey cart to the house of someone who had a phone, which it seemed like the whole village queued up to use, but they couldn't make the number of the car hire firm work. Then I tried the clinic across the road, but the public phone only took Cuban pesos, and we had convertible ones. Aaargh!

Eventually two men helped me, making the call and speaking to the car hire firm in Spanish. So then all we had to do was wait in the air-conditioned clinic for a couple of hours for the man to arrive from Santa Clara.

To pass the time, I walked out to get some lunch, but couldn't find a shop (something which would never happen in any other country on a weekday afternoon in a medium-sized town). So someone who worked at the clinic took pity on me, bought me a passage downtown in a horse-taxi (one horse, one cart with benches either side and up to 8 Cubans), showed me a shop, waited while I bought something, then accompanied me back, insisting on paying both fares for me and not accepting anything in return. Thank you Lester!

Just I was returning to the clinic, a blue car beeped its horn at me - our little VW Polo was back on the road. And the reason for the breakdown? A crab had got stuck in the engine, and had cut through the battery cable (dying in the process). We reckon it must have been in the engine for 3 days, having boarded the car at Playa la Giron.

Finally we made it to Trinidad, after 2 hours on a steep winding pot-holed (even by Cuban standards) mountain road, in a car which intermittently failed to get into first or second gear. We found a casa particular (see earlier entries), went out to a large nearby restaurant (where, typically, we were the only customers), and went to bed - to lie awake in the stifling heat.
The next day we tried to do some errands, including trying to get an internet connection (and more or less failing), but gave up and went sight-seeing instead. Everyone, but everyone, had said that Trinidad was the place to go, but I have to admit I found it disappointing - a bit like a film set of a Mexican Spanish-style town from a hundred years ago in the middle, but otherwise not vastly different from all of the other towns we'd driven through.

We went back to the casa in the afternoon, where it rained! Apparently this was the first time for nearly 6 months, and presumably heralded the start of the rainy season. Jenny took the girls down to the beach, then we had a lovely meal in the casa and to bed.

The next day we set off early (after yet another omelette) to Havana, where you find us now, having caught up on 9 days of travel. Apologies for the lack of photos - they will follow, I hope. Staying in a suite in Havana overlooking the sea - tomorrow we try to book a flight out of Cuba! I can't believe the rental car has made it back home.

Looking forward to advertising, a mobile phone network which works, internet connections, slightly less oppressive heat, roads which are usable and not having to put soiled toilet paper in the bin rather than the toilet!

11th May - Katy

On monday,in the morning,after breakfast,we booked a boat trip to a cafe next to a waterfall.

The boat trip was cool because sometimes it bumped up and down; also it was nice scenery.When we got out of the boat we walked to the cafe, had a drink then went to the waterfall.The waterfall wasn't that beautiful but the tropical walk to it was,it felt like a jungle.

My favourite bit was the pool next to the water fall because it was nice and cold and there was a big rock that we all jumped off into the pool(it was cool).

We had lunch in the cafe before walking back to the boat back to the hotel.

I really enjoyed the day because the pool was great.

For Naomi only: I am missing sheapy a lot,bye for now,from Katy.

Mountain hotel - 10th to 12th May

We left Playa la Giron to drive up into the mountains, then an hour later ended up where we'd started. The reason was that we finally had to give up on a Cuban road. Potholes, yes - but not trenches and craters!

Effort number 2 involved going the long way, back the way we'd come to the motorway (I'll stop putting in the inverted commas). At about 5pm we reached a Russian-built hotel in the mountains, on the banks of a huge reservoir, and found 2 rooms with a connecting door! A huge pool, beautiful views, cooler air ... and rubbish food, but you can't have everything.

Katy's done a blog too for the next day, but here's my version. We took a boat trip of about 20 minutes on the reservoir, at the end of which we walked through unspoilt rural villages and countryside for half an hour to a cafe, and then to a series of waterfalls. We swam at one idyllic pool which had everything: a rock to jump off, deep, cold water, beautiful scenery - it's a bit sad to think that however long the girls live, they'll probably never find a better swimming spot.
After lunch in the same cafe on the way back (watched by emaciated dogs and a disinterested waitress) we walked back down to the waiting guide and boat, and were taken back to the hotel. The lake was surrounded by virgin jungle (at least, it looked like it) - when you think of all the people crowded into Havana, it was weird to see so much gorgeous scenery and so few people to enjoy it.

Another rubbish evening meal, a bit more satellite TV, more omelettes for breakfast and we were on our way!

Playa la Giron - 8th to 10th May

After seeing a doctor in our hotel in Havana we drove out to try to find the motorway south towards Trinidad. Simple enough to do, surely - just follow the signs, and stop and ask someone if you're lost? But what if there are no signs, potholes in all the roads, a centrally-planned road system bearing no relation to car usage and you can't speak Spanish? Plus your car air-conditioning doesn't work properly ... that drive out was my personal low point so far. It took us 2 hours to reach the right "motorway", and another hour or so to reach a "service station" where we could eat.

We eventually made it to the south coast that evening, at a town Playa la Giron on the "Baia de las Cochinas" which translates as "Bay of Pigs" - yes, that one. There were loads of monuments, posters and signs celebrating the victory over American "Yanquis" in 1961, and a museum showing old black and white photos and guns from the period. We later discovered that EVERY Cuban museum is like this - Cubans must be so sick of hearing about the glorious events of 1959.
We checked into a holiday camp at sunset. The best way to imagine this is to think of a 1960s Hi-de-Hi style holiday village, then imagine the same village 40 years on, with no intervening maintenance. Oh - and there was a crab outside our room - little did we know ...

The next day we did lessons in the morning (long overdue), then went for a swim (half in the pool, half in the sea) then after a quick look in the museum as above we drove to one of the cenotes nearby. These are holes in the limestone filled with seawater where you can swim (which I did). Just opposite was a snorkelling spot, where the family snorkelled as follows: Joanna and daddy - lots; Pippa - a bit; Katy - not really, due to a phobia about having fish brushing against her; and Jenny not at all (someone had to mind the bag). The fish were beautiful - it was like swimming in an aquarium at times.

Back to the hotel for our self-service included meal and bed!

Vinales - 6th to 8th May

A long entry, I'm afraid, so here's a quick summary - we spent 2 days in the hills, 2 by the sea, 2 in the mountains and 2 in the city of Trinidad, with lots of driving in between and more crabs than we wanted. For those who want more, read on!

Cuba is interesting, expensive and completely lacking any of the infrastructure that you get in almost any other country in the world. The phone system isn't fully digital, there is almost no internet (hence the lack of blogging for the last week or so), no one speaks English, there is no advertising, there are hardly any shops (and the ones that there are are hard to find) and ... there are a lot of crabs. Even the currency is bewildering, as there are two different currencies, and sometimes one is needed and sometimes the other.

We hired a car in Havana (a rubbish Polo whose air conditioning half-works) for about 70 CUCs a day. In theory there is 1 CUC to $1, but since they charge 11.92% commission on any cash withdrawals, this means about £60 per day. No more prices from now on - but more or less everything is expensive.

Cuban roads are - interesting. Castro built a huge 4-lane motorway out into the countryside east and west from Havana in the 60s, and clearly no one has touched it since. Since there are hardly any cars in Cuba outside the big cities, the sensation is just like driving down the runway of a disused airfield. Every mile or so there is a bridge, with 20 or so hitch-hikers beneath it, and a policeman dressed in yellow (they call them Amarillos here) enforcing an orderly queuing system.

We spent most of the Wednesday driving to a town in the mogotes called Vinales (mogotes are limestone outcrops), and bravely found a casa particular to stay in. These are Cuban households, who by law can rent out up to 2 rooms to foreigners (our host told us that they have to pay 400 CUC in taxes to the government each month, which is a huge amount). The food was fantastic, with lots of fresh fruit - particularly welcome after some of the meals in Havana.

In the morning I queued for an hour to change some money, then we went with a guide out to see a big mural on the side of a hill, then walked for about 2 miles through beautiful unspoilt countryside to a cave. It doesn't sound much, 2 miles, does it? Add in the midday Cuban sun and you have an ordeal to remember.

At the cave you could walk for 10 minutes through a dark passage (the guides had torches) to a cave, where the girls and I swam. For anyone who's read "The Hobbit", imagine swimming in Gollum's pool and you've just about got it.

On the 2 mile walk back through unforgiving sunshine to the car we stopped off at a hut in the mountains, where authentic cowboys gave us fresh coconut milk to drink (cut the top off a coconut and stick in a straw) and magnoes to eat ... plus I had a puff of a home-grown Cuban cigar. The whole walk was like stepping back in time, with horses and oxen the only transport to be seen anywhere.

The next morning we took leave of our host and set off back to Havana. On the way Jenny's lip continued to swell up (it had first started going numb the previous day), and you could see panic creeping into her as the numbness spread up towards her eyes and head. It was a long 3 hour drive back to Havana, where we found a doctor who reassured Jenny and prescribed anti-histamines and gave her an injection.

And that was Vinales! Sorry about lack of photos - they'll follow when we get a camera and an internet connection in the same place at the same time.

Cuba - first 3 days

Hi anyone reading this - thank you for your time!

Got into Havana at about 7.30 pm (our body clocks said it was 1.30 am). It amazes me always how resilient the girls are, and what they will put up with. Immigration was easier than we'd expected - there was a white-coated Cuban doctor collecting our forms confirming that none of us had had flu recently. Our taxi delivered us to the hotel in Havana, and sleep (at last).

We had to book the hotel in a rush, and hence ended up with the only one we could find - a posh hotel outside of Old Havana - but it did mean a nice breakfast and a swim after lessons (the maths went OK, but the Spanish is still a struggle). We then took a taxi into Old Havana and walked round.

Havana is ... hot, crowded and full of beautiful buildings which clearly haven't been renovated or painted in any way since the Americans were thrown out in 1959. It's a bit eerie looking up dark forbidding stairwells into forbidding, decaying grand houses, knowing that the upper floors are teeming with Cuban life. Then there are the cars ... ! It's hard to believe that they manage to keep so many 1950s luxury American cars going, but they do - heaven knows where they get the parts.

The hassle-factor is quite low, and more good-natured than in third world countries, and it all seems fairly safe.

The picture of the Cuban street is as typical as I could find on the camera. All our photos make Havana look grandiose, because for some reason the peeling paint and crumbling masonry don't come out on film well. The other photo shows a typical revolutionary slogan.

Leaving Havana tomorrow to explore the west and south of Cuba by rented car (we hope). This will be where we really have to speak Spanish! Hopefully we'll find some better food than tonight - rancid butter, completely stale bread, raw steak and undercooked rice, with not a vegetable or fruit on the menu. Once again, the girls proved amazingly resilient.

Day 1 Cuba

Joanna says ...

Got up very early and the bed bouncing started at about 6:30. After a lovely breakfast we went swimming in the pool for a while.

We took a taxi into Havana and had lunch in a friendly bar/restaurant then explored Havana looking at all the new things and people. Lots of old fashioned cars and loads of stray dogs and Co Cos (very small taxi like things). Everywhere everyones trying to sell us things and the buses are so full that people hang out of the doors.

Saturday 1st May - Still Madrid

I wonder how many times we can get "Tortilla" in the picture?! This one was too easy! Had a wierd day. Started with some sort of event in the central square but we couldn't really see and there was no mention on the news. All we could see were lots of people dressed in brown uniforms. Any ideas, anyone? The girls wanted to show Andy our little tour of Madrid yesterday and hope to actually get inside the Palace or Cathedral. Probably connected with this morning's event, it was National free entry day and hence the queues to every national monument and building were ernormous - and all in the hot sun so we passed on by...
We did, however queue for the Queen Sofia Art Museum and stood in the shady queue to see Picasso's Guernica. Much larger than I was expecting. I'm no art critic, it was nice - a lot of stuff in there was not; it was plain wierd, disturbing and only worth a look as we walked on by without stopping or changing our pace. We came we saw...
The day ended with some sort of protest. Huundreds of cyclists blocking the roads by just cycling round and around. Couldn't see what that was about either - anyone know what that was either? Apologies if there is a long break before we next blog. We fly to Cuba tomorrow and have no idea if we will find any connections there. Adios for now.

Friday 1st May

Didn't expect to like Madrid - it couldn't compare to Barcelona or Seville, surely? How wrong you can be. Madrid today was crammed full of colourful and very tuneful buskers of every kind, everywhere we went. We all particularly loved the Mexican band (some of whom are pictured). I wonder if we'll get to see them in their own country? Looking even less likely now as WestJet have just cancelled our flight from the West coast of Mexico up to Vancouver (this was mainly to get us to Hawaii). They have cancelled all flights to Mexico until June 20th.
Didn't realise that almost everything would be closed today for the May 1st holiday (it is Monday 4th in the UK?) which meant we couldn't get to see the inside of (Princess) Joanna's monastery today or the Palaccio Real or any of the lovely Cathedrals. Manana.
Andy worked today whilst the girls and I searched the city for an affordable ice cream - £4 a cornet we most certainly were not paying!