since the travel day to now

we sadly we have not been updating the blog for a while. But even sadder is the fact we still arent for another 4 days. currently we are sat at the only computer in monkey bay packing bags ready to start our rainfo0rest trek at 7 tommorrow morning.

since the travel day to flores from coban we have done a variety of things as some of the pictures will show. we did 2 days at ARCAS the wildlife rescue centre and everyone had a great time and got to see the animals and even better we saw a actual jaguar.

we left there for tikal were we spent 2 days veiwing the lovely mayan ruins. we got up at 4 for on the second morning to watch the sunrise from the biggest temple there it was an amazing sight and we are all glad we got to do this to.

we then crossed the border into belize this was eventful as you had to sign out of guatemala to be able to sign into belize. but luckily none of the bags were searched which most people were worried about due to it taking a little while to repack them.

from tikal we have travelled to monkey bay were we trek with our bouynacy aid and helmets due to high rivers as it is rainy season.

everyone is looking forward to doing this and it will be one of the best experiances of the whole trip.

travel day

Hola!

i have finally been allowed to write the blog after many days of asking so this is going to be quite detailed =)

ok so we begin at a very early morning - 6.00 am, to finish packing our rucksacks because we were off to Coban baby! Our breakfast consisted of bimbo toast and pancackes (made by Grace and Vinita) with honey and this pineapple sauce stuff ooooo and an apple.

so most people were up on time, including me suprizingly, to catch the mini bus at 7.00am but the trusty Adrenalina tour buses didnt arrive on time, so after about a million phone calls and Robs firm voice, to the manager of Adrenalina, a small pathetic excuse for a minibus turned up with no air conditioning, no roof racks and rather uncomfortable seating arrangements. so because the minibus had no roof rack we also got an old banger to take all our bags and our very own old banger, Neil =)

Our journey wasnt actually all that bad considering the state of the minibus and at about 2.00pm we stopped for a pasta salad ( also made by Vinita and Grace) which was a bit of a difference from the usual jamon y queso sandwiches! - Also id just like to point out that at this point i swapped seats with Rob at the front of the minibus because he was being a big baby and needed more leg room and his arse was hurting, (so that was my heroic moment of the day) by the end of the journey i slightly wished i hadnt offered to swap!

So whilst singing " Its raining men!" in the back with the music from Graces ipod, we bumpily carried on our journey with the odd stop now and again for Tom who was feeling a bit ill, and then we hit a slight problemo! Our driver, thinking that our small minibus was a 4x4, drove straight into a large muddy quarry thing and got stuck in the mud. So sat there for 20 mins with the locals pointing and staring at us as if we were zoo animals, was most amusing and we finally got pushed out by a Bob the builder wannabe in a JCB!

The journey took about 8 hours in total but with a mixture of mole facts from Robert, sleeping, our wee pitstops, our lively singing and our sugary snacks it went quite quickly and we finally arrived in Coban. We arrived at our hostel for about 6.15pm and we split up into groups to phone up other hostles to book up places where we could stay later in our trip, and to search for supermarkets and restaraunts. We all ended up in a small cafe and had the all time favourite hamburgers and then retreated for an early night at 10.00pm to our simple rooms ( complete with wandering cockroaches of course).

And that is all that happened today, that is really of interest everyone says hello and we shall see you all when we get back!

love Britney =D x.x

Apologies

Hi All

Sorry we are so far behind with our entries, but we have been on an island for the last few days and have not had access to the internet. Its frustrating because we have so much to tell you. More so, because we are now heading to Tecal and then the jungle, therefore, we may not be able to add any more entries for up to a week.

We´ll do our best.

Day 16

Hi all this is Grace H writing it for today sorry it's a little late.

It was a very early rise for the team at 4:00 am because we had to be out by 4:30 to climb santa Maria which was going to be a hard and diffucult challege for all of us. We then traveled to the drop off point were it was still night and we would get to watch the sunrise a little later which would be an amazing sight.

We then began the treak in the countious rain so we all put the waterproofs on and began walking with the 2 guides one of them being the same person as the Cerro Quemado climb which was extream fun by the way!! Any way we started the climb with one naste hill which quite easly took my breat away (literaly). Sone after a quick rest stop were we had a little bit of breakfast becuase my energy was quite low and i did moan a little for it (no change really then). We then carried on a little future before final telling rob that i was not feeling at all well but their is no need to worry i am perfectly fine now we think it was because of a lack of sleep and rubbish food, can't wait to have a decent meal lol. It was soon desiced by Rob that it would be stupid to carry on strggling up the mountain and keeping the team behind so i was heading back the hostel a little dishearted when the leader John desiced they were all coming back as well. How kind of them it defitly made me feel a little happier and we had Emily and the other Grace singing a selection of Britney Spears, S-Club 7, Crisitana Aguliar, Spice Girls and final but no means least Alicha Keys (Sorry about the spelling).

We then head back to the hotel when adreline would finaly be bother to get a coach to us they said they were all being used which we all no is rubbis because xela is one hell of a big town/city.
Anyway can't really say much other the next couple of hours because i decside to go to bed agian. But when i final did get up it was the other laughing theit heads off listing to podcast on Rob's I-Pod which i personal did not understand but it made the other laugh so no harm was really done, apart from being a little bit loud and way the team sone dissovled off to do the daily jobs and the others were playing a good old game of slam which may i say i am usless at, why not a little bit of Poker i could bet them all at that lol.

After lunch which was very good from our great chiefts Vinita and Grace J. We then had a trip to the local museum in Xela, which was defintliy and experince and a half i think we can say that from all of us. We saw some traditonal artifacts about from the history of Gutamala, and a dead human fetus which was defitly not a good experince and made Miss Woodbridge scream a little which was funny for me any way. We then had to get the food supplies for the journey for tommor bus journey to adrilne tours, seeing as it was my day as leader tommor, which will defitly be a traditional experince and half.

We then had another amazing meal from the cheifts again and saw some of the other people that were staying at the hotel. Me and Ste were set the lovely task of washing up and no mom their is no photo's (lol). During this time we had one of the people rant off to us about how strong our brum accents were which was quite funny when he is quiet drunk. I then sat down with the two cheifts, and watched them make the pancakes for tommor breakfast, which took them forever to make 16 people's worth.

We then final headed off to bed for the early rise for tommor bus journey to coban which was taken from 8 till about 13 hours which is quite annoying on a bus.