Well, friends, it's finally over. I am now sitting comfortably in my friend Nathan's house with my feet up on a cushion, my stomach full of sushi and miso soup.

It has been a rather strange few days. We spent the rest of our time in San Cristobal just as I told you before - shopping and drinking and eating. On our last day there we made a grand meal with our friends Jason and Kathryn. All four of us pitched in and made amazing spaghetti sauce, garlic bread with fresh garlic butter, and salad with homemade dressing.

As the name of this entry suggests, we have just been through some incredibly awesome times which were quite evenly mixed with really awful times. I suppose it starts with snorkeling.

I told you we planned on snorkeling, so one day we rented some gear to see if I could handle it with my cold, which I could. It was pretty fun, just kicking off the beach and looking around. There were giant man-sized fish that were always just in the edges of our vision, and there were little tiny fish that continually swam around my legs. A few of them even tried to bite George`s shorts!

Okay, I realize it's a little late to say "happy holidays," but I just couldn't get to an internet - at least one that would open up this page or that would work at a reasonable pace!

We are now very very far from Panama. We are, in fact, in Belize! I never thought we'd come here, as it sounded so expensive. And I was right! One plate of food costs five dollars! And a beer costs two! We're only staying long enough to do some snorkelling, and then it's back to the highlands of Chiapas for us!

It must be said: Panama is one of my favourite countries in Central America. Panama, Guatemala, and Mexico. Sure, Costa Rica has lots of nature reserves and monkeys, but it is also the most expensive country down here.

I like Panama because most of the people are really nice. And the food, well, it´s okay. The only thing people eat is chicken and rice. However, we have found a restaurant near our hotel that serves chicken and fried bananas! So we have been frequenting that place.

Guess what!! I experienced my first earthquake! It probably never made it to the news in Canada, but damn! It was scary! I was just starting to nod off on our first night here, sleeping comfortably in our hotel that jutted out awkwardly over the ocean, when I felt it. Just a slight shaking at first, until the earth was moving a good metre to either side.

Hi everyone! I know it`s been a long time since I`ve written, but our days have been very full! We arrived in San Jose, Costa Rica a day before George`s family did. So we just stayed downtown in a nice backpacker`s hostel.

The next day, after getting my bank card stuck in the ATM, we went to the family`s hotel. It was so nice to see them! It`s been a while - we haven`t seem them since last March when they came to Vancouver Island for a visit.

Two days ago we finished our long journey down to San Jose, Costa Rica, to visit with George's family (except Corrianne - she preferred to stay in blustery Edmonton.) Before we left Antigua, we finally went to see Volcan Pacaya, an active volcano about an hour's drive from Antigua.

We have been in Antigua for almost two weeks now! No matter how little we try, we just can´t leave. Go figure, eh? The place we found to stay is fascinating!

We are in a small guesthouse called Los Amigos, and in the guesthouse is a bar/restaurant called El Chillout. It´s run by an ex-rich Guatemalan capitalist who threw it all away for love of anarchy and weed. His name is Tops. His beautiful chef is named Simona. She comes from Italy and has lived here for fifteen years. They´re beautiful people, and half the reason we´ve stayed for so long.

Wow! We just spent the past week at Lago de Atitlan (Lake Atitlan). What a wonderful time we had! Here´s a little history about the lake. It was once a giant volcano, which slowly filled with water over hundreds of years. Now it is the biggest lake in Guatemala, and is surrounded by four or five smaller dormant volcanoes. Because of the volcanic activity, you can find small pumice stones floating all over the water! For those who don´t know, pumice is volcanic rock. It´s very strange to see floating rocks.

We just spent the past week in the lovely city of Quetzaltenango (Xela for short) and had a very lovely time. Last Sunday we went to the Fuentes Georginas, which are the most beautiful hot springs in Guatemala! They are truly stunning.

The water flows into natural stone pools, surrounded by high rock walls and lush foliage. Two years ago the area had an earthquake which opened up a new vent making the pools much hotter! There was one pool I couldn´t go in, and George could only go halfway into it before he boiled himself alive.

Okay, I know it´s only been two days since my last post, but we´re about to embark on a tour of Guatemala and I don´t know if we´ll find much time to get on the internet.

Yesterday morning at 7:45 we got on the bus to the border town of Ciudad Cauhtèmoc, where we had to find a "taxi" to the Guatemalan border town La Mesilla. The taxis were actually just local guys with cars who charged ten pesos a person and constantly slowed down to shout happily out the window to his friends.

Today is our last day in Mexico, for tomorrow morning at 7:45 AM we are leaving this beautiful country for Guatemala. San Cristobal de Las Casas has given us almost nothing but good memories!

I say "almost nothing" because on Monday we had one sad experience. It is related to something we´ve been learning about, and want to study and think about more. It started when we decided to visit a Mayan village called San Juan Chamula. It comes highly recommended by all the tourists that we´ve met because of a very interesting Mayan-Catholic church.

Since I last wrote, much has happened! I´ve learned how to use the keyboard, for one thing. I just have to make sure not to hit any strange combinations of keys, otherwise it all changes to I don´t know what.

After we were robbed, we immediately left that town and lugged all our stuff to the ruins of Palenque. The ruins are spectacular! I really can´t describe them with words. I can only say that when we first climbed the steps and rounded the corner to the ruins, I nearly cried.

Oh my goodness...let us start with the good. (Notice I have figured out many punctuation tools on these keyboards, but not the apostraphe!)

well, we´ve been here in mexico for two days now. this would be our second. and as you can see, i´m having problems with the keyboard. i can´t make capitals, and i don´t know how to make question marks or exclamation marks. so there you go.

i was amazed at how easy it was to get here .exclamation mark. i thought that at every turn we would be stopped by customs and police who wanted to kick us back to our country, but everyone was actually very nice. even the customs people, american and mexican alike. i was very surprised at that.

After a year of working hard and trying to save money, George and I are finally off for a five month trip to Central America! In only 42 hours, we'll be boarding the plane for what will be my first trip outside of North America. Three months of planning, three days of packing, and 40 hours straight of traveling on buses and planes is all it takes! Can you believe it?