Rather warm

I was looking back through my photos of this trip.  The first couple of nights in Mexico, joking about Moctezuma taking the tube, seem like a lifetime ago.  Our Central American adventure is coming to a close very soon.  We have one more night here at Mosquito Central, then a night in Guatemala City, then we fly home.  On Thursday, I'll be doing battle with the Northern Line once again, and starting to plough through thousands of unread work e-mails.

Let me tell you about what we got up to today.  We spent the morning at an archaeological Mayan site called Yaxha where we walked around an enormous site, consisting of a series of complexes where various Mayan things used to happen.  We walked around in sweltering heat - 40 degrees temperature and 97 degrees humidity- and Miguel told us all about the different ruins - where the Mayans used to hang out, eat, make sacrifices, perform ceremonies, check their e-mail and play football. 

The most special part of the morning was when we climbed a pyramid and renewed our Promise at the top.  It was moving.  Truly a pyramid-top moment, one which I will not forget. 

Sheila was in archaeological heaven at this site.  We also watched howler monkeys having a siesta in the trees and all sorts of exotic birds darting around. 

On the way to the site, we saw lots of pigs by the side of the road, often with little piglets.  One man appeared to be walking  his  pig.  I think perhaps here people have pet pigs like  we have pet dogs.  There were also horses with their horselets and cows with their cowlets. 

We went to a restaurant for lunch and were bemused to be presented with boiling hot vegetable soup - not quite what we were anticipating in this heat.  But it was delicious, as was the chicken which followed and, fear not dear readers, there was an option for our vegetarian friends.  We enjoyed refried beans - Pip's favourite - and an abundance of tortillas, the Central American staple. 

On arriving back, exhausted from pyramid-hopping and, in some cases, Mayan overload, we plunged into the swimming pool, which was heavenly.  Am currently blogging with a gin and tonic, besides the crocodile-infested lagoon, listening to the chirruping cicadas and all manner of other night life.  

This whole trip has been quite an experience. It was beautifully divided into bite-sized chunks - a minibreak in Mexico City, a six-night programme at Our Cabana, the World Centre in Mexico, then a few nights in Guatemala, before flying home on Tuesday, via San Salvador (yes indeed, the capital of El Salvador - we have heard that we are getting off the plane - just hope I'll be able to have a bottle of Coke, so that I can get the Coke lid.  I know it's geeky, but I collect these from wherever I go in the world, as they are always locally bottled, so have the name of the country written on the rim.  I hope they drink Coca Cola in El Salvador.  They don't have it in Laos.

We have spent time doing such different things, that this trip has felt like lots of different experiences, in one.  And my hope is that everyone who has been on this huge adventure will take something special back to their units, Districts, Divisions, as well as the County and wider Region.  We are already planning the reunion where everyone will be asked what they have done as a result of this trip.

So Sally and Pip are sitting opposite me, playing 'Pass the Pigs', that special game that can be played with two pigs and a notebook.  In fact, we could have played the real thing with the pigs on the roadside, though I'm not sure they would have appreciated that.

We about to meet up for dinner, then we'll be checking out with our tiny bags and heading to Tikal, the UNESCO World Heritage site we have all come to see.  Then we'll board the tiny plane and head back to Guatemala City for one more night.

So I will sign-out there, and will blog again from our final destination here tomorrow - Guatemala City.  Hope you are all doing well.  Little man with g & t approaching....