Well, I always thought it may happen and it has; the laptop is written off and, to date, none of the info on it is recoverable. Luckily I had already uploaded these pictures onto a draft of this blog so we have something. We hope that all of our photos, music, letters, files etc.. can be scraped off the wrecked hard-drive. Could you please  email us at our normal address so that we can put your addresses into our contacts on whatever new system we get.

The Nav and I left you ages ago as we were crossing into the drug infested war zone that is Mexico despite all the dire warnings from every Yank that we came across. We were under a bit of time pressure to get down to Panama and ship the truck to Colombia in time for Christmas. In fact, Mexico was fine. There was quite a heavy police and army presence in the North and combined with the good FCO advice about which bits to avoid, we felt as safe as houses.

If any of you who read this need good planning advice prior to making a similar trip I recommend a book called "Americas Overland - The Driving Handbook" by Greene and Greene. It has been really useful as it details all the procedures for every main border crossing from Mexico to Patagonia and back. It tells one what documents to provide, how much to pay and which people to deal with; generally brilliant.

Remember to "click" on a photo to see it properly and to see the whole collection.

We had read somewhere that the Government fuel stations were ok places to park for the night. Here is one of our first - not quite as picturesque as some camping spots. 

A church in Queretaro. It was here that the cry of "El Grito" was raised at 11 in the evening on 15 Sept 1810 by some clergyman who probably should have been in bed or praying. As it was the shriek was echoed all around Mexico and launched the revolution.
Mexicans can be very odd; it was here that for no apparent reason at 5 in the morning masses of >LOUD bangers were shot into the sky and loads of church bells rang. Only for a moment though and then all was quiet. It did, however trigger my post traumatic stress and I had vivid flash-backs to the war-zone of Queens Avenue Fallingbostel and blowing up the RMP. (not that I was involved or ever knew who did such things).

A Mexican Morris dancer. I bet no-one laughed and jeered at him as they do in England. He would have ripped their hearts out and eaten them.

They knew how to respect their military heroes at Tula. These are Toltec statues of generals called Los Atlantes. 8 tons apiece. 

Temple of the Moon at the v impressive Teotihuaca. It's a lot bigger than it seems in this snap.

Travellin' Uncle Matt was 'ere.

Mexicans drive like madmen. Very fast very impatient, push-bike oncoming in the fast lane, sacks of spuds for sale in the slow lane and buses stopping wherever they wanted (and sometimes where their passengers wanted). 

Oaxaca - this is one of their signature dishes - a sort of pizza. It was remarkably good but we did see similar things parked on the pavement in other parts of town.
Mexico has some cool sounding names if you can read them - Tchllhua, Matalan,Algipan, Waz-ze-matapet etc etc.

Oaxaca Cathedral. Now that's what I call flower arranging and it's not even for a wedding.

Can't remember why I put this here - nice colour though. I might try it at home if our house is still there.

Mexican sleeping policemen - with luck you will see one of these before you....

.....hit one of these. They look pretty innocuous but will rip the bottom of your car out if you don't stay alert.

At last we reached the charming laid-back Belize. We lived here for a couple of years in the 1980s and the essential character of the country hasn't change much.  At most other Latin American borders the personnel are pretty severe or even aggressive - coming into Belize we blundered into the head of security's office by mistake. He welcomed us into Belize and asked how he could help us. Our first night was spent on Corozal seafront (above) where even the beggars were charming, especially Vincent and Prince Andrew(!!) We were offered weed for breakfast by an equally friendly David.

A juvenile Jabiru stork at the municipal airfield.

The Nav and Prince Charles Perez. He taught us how Belize got its name: derived from Belikini the most beautiful Mayan goddess not from the Spanish for muddy waters. He appointed the Nav "Hon Belizean junior historical ambassador" - I was too thick. (he was pissed)

Not much wildlife to capture but this was a big spider - not a money spider. It disappeared under the truck and possibly hid in the suspension. It's probably still there.

A hot and sticky jungle camp on the Sibun River. Where our bathroom looked like .......

.......this

Father Christmas came early on the Hummingbird Highway.

Tikal in Guatemala is one of the finest Mayan sites. Unlike the more developed and accessible ruins in Mexico's Yucatan, Tikal is still in thick jungle.This was the view from the top of a pyramid in the fading evening light.

The site is prone to bandits so there are guards like this charming and friendly security man to protect us. He put on his severe expression for the photo.

An oscillated turkey

Tikal - temple number three or was it two?

South into Guatemala and an unmarked river crossing at Sayaxche

The skipper sat in an oil drum with an outboard attached

Sayaxche

In places the Pan American Highway gets crowded

Is this road sign warning  about swimmers or recommending a dip?

Guatemalan roadside market

Guatemala is a beautiful country but seems cursed with a  high perception of crime. I don't know whether the rates are much higher than in other Central American countries but everywhere employs armed guards. By everywhere I mean even small corner shops, petrol pump attendants and many delivery trucks have mean looking hoods with pump-action shotguns and pistols. The roads are pretty poor but are being improved. Landslides are a huge problem and many of the newly made stretches have been reduced to single lane tracks where mountainsides have collapsed. The country is also squarely in the earthquake zone. While parked in the square in Coban the truck started shaking and we presumed that a yob was playing around on the ladder on the back. The Nav was launched to scare whoever it was away but there was no one nearby. A couple of days later we got emails asking if we were ok etc. It turns out that we had sat, blissfully unaware, through a killer earthquake which even made it onto the English national news with 48 dead and many missing.

And so on to El Salvador

The Nav frolicking in the Pacific surf.
We spent a couple of nights camping in the car park of the otherwise empty Hotel Torola Bay View. All they wanted was for us to spend $12 on food or beer - not a problem. The owner was a charming English speaking chap who had spent 15 years living in California during the fighting in El S.He let us use all the facilities including 4 pools and showers.
In his car park we were offered turtle eggs by another, younger chap who told us we should boil them for three minutes,  make a hole, add lime juice and pepper and hot sauce. Yum Yum - they are delish. No - actually we turned them down.

Volcano on La Concepcion in Lake Nicaragua

Arenal Volcano in Costa Rica.
This was supposed to give wonderful  displays of sparks and lava, especially at night.There is a whole industry devoted to watching this event with countless hotels and lodges and observatories etc. For us, it was in cloud and for much of the time pouring with tropical rain. That we could accept but what was particularly annoying to discover was that nothing had been seen or any activity recorded for  the past 4 years - what a waste of time.

Costa Rica highlands - on the way up to 11,000 feet pass.
Beautiful cloud forest, jungle, trees in flower and ...cloud.

Locals at the Costa Rican Panama border

The customs office at the very relaxed border crossing  between C-R and Panama at Rio Sereno.
Apart from the  terrible bumpy 5 km track to it, it is a great place to cross. The customs staff  and others had a birthday party which went on into the night with much singing. When they eventually went, they left the office open with all the paper work and stamps etc still on the desks. 

Diving pelican.
We spent some great time camping on Panamanian beaches. The best of these was  at Guanico Abajo on the south coast

The truck on the beach - apart from some fishermen, 20 deserted kms.

Panamanian Pacific coast.

Another, less beautiful beach. Where there are people, there is rubbish. At least here there were bins but they were never emptied.

It rained in Central Panama - a lot.

Panama city a shambolic place with terrible traffic, not helped by  every road being dug up .

Balboa Yacht Club.
A fairly safe and handy gathering point for other  'overlanders' to park for a few nights while getting paperwork sorted out for shipping. 

Camp below one of the forts at Portobelo. Once one of the strongest fortified places in the Americas. Built to store South American treasure prior to shipping back to Spain. It was repeatedly sack by Brit pirates and by Francis Drake (who people insist in calling a pirate too - what do they know?)

The hero Drake died of the squits and is buried at sea somewhere in this bay in a lead coffin.

Sorry

Prior to shipping, we spent a couple of nights at the Shelter Bay Marina. Much too smart for us. Despite the boss being a Englishman, we felt he didn't really want us there.

An effective road block at Gatun locks.

One of the biggest ships entering Gatun lock on the Canal.

A seriously tight squeeze with only inches to spare on either side.

Sorry about this rather more shambolic  than normal blog. With luck we will have a new computer for our next instalment and I will be able to revert to my normal high standard of English literature.