Trials and Tribulations from Guatemala November 19th

Hi Everyone,
It is us again! I hope this email finds you all well.
Our trip since last time has definitely developed and not in the best way. After a wonderful time in Belize we have been dealt many trials since arriving in Guatemala. But that is what travelling is all about, isn't it??

We had a wonderful time in Belize. A real 'rusta' vibe where the people are so friendly and the pigeon English a laugh to listen to.

We spent three wonderful days in Caye Caulker one of the islands off the coast of Belize City in the Caribbean Sea. We did a snorkelling trip off a sailboat and on one of the days dived the Blue Hole. This was a really interesting dive. It was deep, we went down to about 40 meters (Marcus to 43m and Victoria to 41m) at which point we had these amazing stalactite formations just hanging from the side of the wall. They were huge (about 20m in length) and we got to swim in behind them and looking back out into the mass of blue was quite a sight! The other two dives of the day were more normal wonderfully intact corals that we had not seen before and tropical fish life.

Since arriving in Guatemala we have continued to fill up our days. We started in Tikal another ancient Maya archaeological zone just passed the boarder before moving onto Flores. It was here that the trouble started. An ATM ate our card and we have had USD2000 taken from the account. They are very cleaver!! At this stage the bank hasn't come through but we are crossing our fingers and our toes. We have spent mornings in police stations filing claims and have just organised all the paperwork to be sent back to Sweden.

We have tried not to let it affect us but our moral is a little down at the moment. We have pushed on and continued to see all the things that we have wanted to. We booked a bus up to Panajachel on Lake Atitlan taking care to select a safe option as there are many problems with hijackings etc of local buses here so when a chicken bus turned up to take us up there we were not so impressed. To be fair we really enjoyed the local experience and everything was fine we were lucky apparently a bus is hijacked every eight minutes in this country.

Guatemala is such a beautiful country. The scenery is superb and we have managed to enjoy the highlights - from a boat ride on the Rio Dulce checking out the lush vegetation to climbing an active (lava flowing) volcano outside of Antigua. We enjoyed some time up at Lake Atitlan and took in the sights of local villages and Guatemalans around the lake before returning to Antigua a quaint colonial town with cobblestone streets.

We booked our bus to leave Guatemala to Honduras at 4am this morning but that was cancelled at 8pm last night we were running around town trying to sort things out. The words of the song "I want to get out of this place if it is the last thing I ever do" keeps popping into my head! We are booked on another one for 1pm today fingers crossed. It has meant we have managed to sort a few more things this morning and get this email out.
Sorry for the negativity, I have just re-read the email. Chins up we are moving onward and looking forward to some beach time on Utila Island. I am sure the next email will be a lot more positive.
Love to all.
Victoria and Marcus
PS. We have posted new photos check out the website http://www.travel.rameke.com/