Leaving Esteli - onto Leon.

Up early for the first time in ages and on to Leon this morning which is a couple of hours away. There's a beach not far from there and I'll possibly be able to catch a little sun before I leave Central America. I didn't come here for the sun and to get back to Britain glowing a golden brown but it seems a bit of a waste to not do this while I'm here. I haven't really 'done' beaches since I've been here, I don't surf so spending time here just lazing around on the beach hasn't really been my bag. I've been lazing around in the colonial cities instead which is I suppose as sad in it's own way but they're all really nice places to hang out.

I think I spent about a total of 11 hours yesterday learning Spanish and copying out the handouts that were given out in Tecan Uman, Antigua. I've got virtually the same information in a pocket phrase book and dictionary as I got from them - but I guess the reality of learning a language is that there is very little in the way of technical information on the rules of speaking a language required - it's familiarity with the application.

Spoke to one of a party of Canadian volunteers last night. She was just trying to scrounge fags and beer off me - which I must admit I've done a little of myself over the years. They'd been volunteering on La Isla de Ometempe, the volcanic island in Lago Cocibolca. I'll be there in the next couple of days all being well.

Esteli – lazy days waiting for time to pass.

It has been an interesting few days despite the fact that I’ve been rather lazy. I did manage to get up and go for a bike ride yesterday, to hire a cycle from Café Luz is a whole 25 cordobas – about sixty pence. It’s something that my budget would stretch to, I must admit. There weren’t any really clearly laid out routes to try out – there’s a waterfall about an hours walk away from here and I don’t know too much about the geography of the area that the river runs through before it reaches the sheer drop where the waterfall is, but apparently every community that the water runs through must be dumping into it as the water’s filthy. It’s a shame that the water can’t be cleaned up and the site become a more widely renound attraction.

In terms of the local scenery, the area is quite pretty and there is a national park not too far away called Miraflor – it would make quite an adventure to try to get some maps put together for this place of what the equivilant to a UK bridalway would be for the purposes of creating cycling maps. More maps of relatively well recognised tracks to go down on one of the mountain bikes may make a small but signicant contribution to the tourist infrastructure here. I felt pretty much safe on the roads here cycling yesterday, the traffic was fine and I think the chances of being attacked by a puma when out cycling are relativley small – though it will probabaly happen to someone soon.

I’ve just watched the Euro 2008 final and I’m relatively glad that Spain won. They didn’t really do anything wrong in the tournament and the Germans looked a little jaded and lacking real creativity in the majority of the game. There were a couple of Germans here in the bar and they didn’t say how well they played, they just left rather quietly. One of them gave me the shot of the waterfall which is above. Tomorrow to Leon and to the beach from there to try to get some sun before heading home. SOme very duff shots of Esteli are online at Esteli shots should you want to take a look.

I met a German guy called Michael and he's being doing a similar route through central america his shots are now on my site if you click the link for Michael's shots. Some of the shots of national parks in the US and Canada are not bad at all. There is also a pretty good episode of The Goodies called invasion of the moon creatures part 1, part 2 and part 3.

Esteli - revolution town.

I've been in Esteli for about 24 hours and I don't imagine that I'll want to leave tomorrow but I have to get to Costa Rica fairly soon. I've been sat in Cafe Luz and have stuffed myself with fajitas and drank way too much coffee today. It's run on a not-for-profit basis to support the local voluntary sector and is run by an English woman, Jane Boyd, from Leicestershire. It's got a really nice atmosphere and has an 'adjoining' hostel which is just across the street from it. It's about two pounds fifty a night for a relatively comfortable bed in the dorms and I feel very much content here.

I like being in what feels like a Nicaraguan atmosphere with a little English influence from Jane. She's been here on and off for about four years and has a pretty good knowledge of the local voluntary sector which is struggling but getting by. The political situation here sounds quite interesting with a solidly left wing government that is trying to deliver with very limited resources. I don't feel like trying to deliver community projects here myself but I'm sure some experience of how this can be dealt with may be truly appreciated if anyone gets themselves into a position to do this in the near future. It's going to be appreciated anywhere in the whole area of Central America if this type of experience is offered.

Though I feel content with the situation I've got in Nicaragua, I'm far from content about my life in the UK, prospects of staying in the UK long term and the state of the world etc. I started trying to write just a little about the way things go in relation to for instance, my experience working on the New Deal for Communities in Kings Norton, Birmingham. I didn't find it that easy an experience to adjust to and found I was not able to deal with the workload adequately. What was interesting talking to Jane was that there are parallels with some of the people who enter politics in this country who don't get a thorough enough grounding through their training or education to deal with all the complications of politics on either a local and national level. I don't know for sure but I want to try to find a few levels where I may be willing to deal with the situation so I can advise a little better on a personal level if I meet people who may want to volunteer over here. It would be interesting to find out the reasons for the training and education that is made available to politicians not working that well in this region and trying to develop some training from the experiences that some have had in relation to their political failings and putting together a far more challenging training programme for anyone who's considering entering government in this region.

I've finally managed to get a few slide shows finished on flickr and there's links to go through if you're interested in seeing shots of the blockade as I came across the border into Nicaragua (picture above shows two striking drivers resting during the course of the action), the shots of Atila Bars, shots taken from La Ceiba to Trujillo, from Trujillo to Tegucigalpa , Tegucigalpa itself. Haven't spent any time on youtube in the past few days which makes me feel a little better than normal - what a waste to be here and spend all your time doing that, I'm glad I'm off the Goodies. Now I can concentrate on politics - but everybody wants to rule the world.

The Trujillo to Tegucigalpa set of shots doesn't have just the typical scenes of the Honduran countryside, I've tried to include some of the shots I took from buses of typical dwellings and those under construction to give some idea of the type of development in the area. The process of urbanisation that it underway as you'd possibly imagine includes redevelopment of inner-city areas, the development of suburbs and as the one shot of a concrete edge city town springing up on the outskirts of La Ceiba shows, the development of towns in rural areas within commuting distance of the larger cities. I don't know if La Ceiba will remain Honduras's party town but it certainly was undergoing significant development. I put forward an idea to the Honduran tourist board that they may make more of the journey from Trujillo to Tegucigalpa and try to create a stronger identity for the main stop off towns in order to increase tourism. I guess ideas like this are put forward all too frequently and many of the towns would probably wish to resist the process or tourist development that places like Antigua, Guatemala and the towns on the Ruta de Flores in El Salvador are undergoing. It's a shame the countryside was spectacular as some of the shots show.

Arrived in Nicaragua.

After so many border crossings today didn't feel that special, perhaps entering a country that you haven't been in before should feel pretty good. I did make it across the border and have to sweat just a little because I had got about $10.00US on me and there were rumours flying around that there was not a cash point - or cajero automatico in Ocatal where I am currently staying. After finding two that didn't work I made it to the third which did and I was so overjoyed that I must admit that I nearly fainted with relief that I'd got some cash for the next few days. Things look like they're going well but I guess that the other complicating factor here is that there appears to be a strike on at present involving drivers and one of the roads that I want to pass is blockaded at present so I may be stuck here for a few days if the worst comes to the worst. Because of the hard days travelling, I was up at six to get the bus to Tegucigalpa, the Honduran capital, and then on another bus at midday to get to the border and then another from there, I've booked into one of the better quality places that I've stayed at in Central America which is costing me about twelve pounds per night.

It's not been the most eventful of days, although, as I was boarding the bus in Juticalpa this morning there were checks of hand luggage taking place and there appeared to be one person being asked to take the bullets out of his pistol in order to be allowed on the bus. As I state the border crossing itself was uneventful - the only thing of interest was seeing the football on the TV behind the immigration official -the Germans were completing their victory over the Turkish as my papers were being stamped.

So far after a only a few hours in this country I've not been able to form any real opinion on what may provide the national flavour to the place. There does tend to be a slightly different mix of trees on the hillsides though that is most likely only due to recent agricultural policy - the mix of palms, pines and others does seem quite unorthodox. I've taken a short wander around the centre of town this afternoon on the way to cajero automaticos and it appears to be quite a nice centre. The old style colonial buildings appear to be intact largely and there is quite a peaceful atmosphere here. It was interesting to see the queue at the bank next to the cajero automatico - this was something that I started to see a lot of in Guatemala - I presume that virtually noone in the country uses cajero automaticos and as a result they have to queue to get their pay from the bank when it's the pay day in the week or the first of the month. It would also explain why there doesn't seem to be any incentive for the banks to get the cajero automaticos fixed when they break, it doesn't disrupt enough of their customers schedules.

The last few days weren't easy travelling and I did find myself staying in a couple of places that I'd got no intention of staying in. I tried to get from Trujillo to Tegucigalpa by chicken bus down the dirt road that runs through Juticalpa and was forces to stay a night in San Esteban which was a town with only dirt roads and horses tied up outside the cafe-bars which did have a slight feel of the wild west about it. Then from there I managed to get down to Juticalpa and was informed that there were no buses on account of the strike action that appears to affect both Honduras and Nicaragua. Both of the towns lacked any real excitement other than the meal that I had in Juticalpa in Oregano's Restaurant. The guy running it, Luis, was the only person I had a conversation with in English and he seemed really nice. He offered me a lift to Tegucigalpa early this morning but I wasn't up in time to meet him. It's a shame that the mountain scenery that you can see from the chicken buses as they trundle down the dirt roads is not that well publicised. I thought a lot of the scenery in Honduras was pretty staggering and is almost worth the visit for that reason alone.

The shot above is one taken from a bus window on the first leg of the journey from Trujillo to San Esteban and I assume that something like it has appeared at SBPS many moons ago. It does look a little familiar to me. Shots of Trujillo to San Estaban are online alongside those from San Estaban to Jutigalpa. There is also a few shots of the Atila Bars. For the strong willed there are a couple of duff shots of Trujillo too.

Two fun dives near Rocky Point

I was up at about 6.30am this morning to get the boat across to Rocky Point to make the 'fun dives'. I guess this is the general term that is used to describe any dive which isn't geared towards contributing to a qualification nor employment. The dives were both pretty good. The first did leave me feeling very light headed and rather weak afterwards. The second nearly sent me into a deep sleep but I was brave and headed off to watch the Netherlands lose against Russia which wasn't a bad game by any stretch of the imagination.

This took most of the afternoon and I headed off to the private beach just past the place where I've been staying. It was a pleasant enough way to hang out and try to take a few shots which I think I've seen somewhere else before but nonetheless my pessimism didn't stop me a great deal this afternoon. The shots are in a photo-essay if I can call it that, on flickr at trawling for girls and seaweed, driftwood and flowers should you be inclined to take a look at what I've done.

The food was good today - I managed to edge slightly outside of my usual budget and it was well worth it. Yesterdays wasn't bad either - lobster pasta for lunch followed by a drunken ramble around the island at night. Today was tuna steak which had been marinated in something local, God knows what, and this evening shrimps in garlic which were delish...

Refresher course complete.

I was a little tense this afternoon shortly before starting the refresher course but it went well. There was nothing else in the water around us, me and the Canadian instructor, Noami or Nora, or whatever her name was. I don't think that she was bad at all if you're round this way and looking for diving lessons. It was a little unusual when she started one of the skills tests which was to remove her boyancy control jacket slowly infront of me. I didn't know this was one of the skills tests and thought I was going to get an underwater strip tease free of charge as part of the diving lesson. That didn't happen, she was very professional.

I was worried about the sharks, I had it in my mind to say you'll never take me alive, though I did feel
infected by the whole experience. I did say don't you want me to stay to a fish or two but all they could say say say was don't you forget about me, as if sometimes what I say doesn't matter in the least. There's only one way of life and that's your own is something that I would say from time to time but it's just a cliche now.

My mind wandered a lot last night. I wasn't that concerned about the diving today, I didn't find it difficult as such when I started. The PADI training is well thought through and a number of relativley complex skills are conveyed quite simply. The thing that concerned me was that I could not recall anything I had done within two weeks of training - I had one week in Adelaide for the open water diver qualification and the next week in Ko Tao, Thailand for the Advanced scuba diver qualification. After two weeks of diving you would have thought that I'd remember some of it although I don't at present. It felt very good being in the water more than anything else and controlling yourself underwater with an air tank on your back does leave you feeling as if you've accomplished something even if it's just a practice dive.

Tomorrow I've booked myself in for a couple more dives and I don't know where I'll be heading but there are some wrecks out there in the sea and a few relatively interesting little spots. I don't really recall how to plan a dive so will be with a DiveMaster, that is someone who's graduated and hasn't got a job and has done more than fifty hours of diving. It all looks pretty promising to me.

But anyway, last night my mind wandered back to the car industry in the Midlands. I know there is an episode of the Simpson's where Homer manages to destroy his half brothers car business by designing a car that is perfect for himself and not really of any use to anyone else and the thought of doing that does tend to appeal. I don’t know if there is anything else other than a potentially great chance that if a lot of people email Mercedes and suggest that a large number of people will aim to get there to be some form of reaction to the notion of a Mercedes Morris Minor, the BMW Mini has been popular enough perhaps a Ferrari Hillman Imp and Porche Ford Anglia will also be of interest. Maybe the new range of retro-British electric car is where everything in the motor trade will change....

Utila - preparation for diving tomorrow

Up late today after about twelve hours sleep. I didn't mean to sleep that much but I can't do a fat lot about it now. I saw the Euro 2008 game between Germany and Portugal with a German guy in the corner of the restaurant, though restaurant is a little complimentary on the whole for what the place was like, cheering his team on. Ballack appeared to push the marker in the back to me before scoring the third German goal though this is to be forgotten about as soon as the next game kicks off.

I've booked myself onto a refresher diving course tomorrow and I hope to do a couple of dives the day after. I've been given a PADI text book which is about two centimetres thick and a diving chart which means nothing to me at present. I can't even remember what the equipment looks like at the moment.

There's a private beach a few hundred metres away from the backpackers I'm staying in and I assume there is going to be reasonable snorkelling just off the coast. From what I've heard the visibility is pretty good and hopefully I'll be able to get used to the PADI information pretty quickly this evening.

The island is quite nice on the whole though I haven't done any significant exploring. I woke up during the small hours and took a walk for an hour or so during the night and it did seem very much like I was on my own the entire time. There's one main road which is very patchy, it has golf buggies and mopeds zooming up and down it during the day, and there's the same sort of tropical feel that I found in Caye Caulker though with much less of a Carribean feel to it. There are dozens of bars, restaurants, hotels and hostels and small supermarkets along this main street and planning of development doesn't look like it's been controlled which is also something that may be shared with Caye Caulker.

The shot above is of the place I’m staying in and the main street that everything is off. It’s reasonably priced even though I have a room to myself now, it’s still only $5.00US a night. The room is dingy to say the least and if I’m saying that then there’s a good chance that it’s one of the worst around. There does tend to be a rather forlorn appearance to much on the island, most places look quite shabby though there are a few which are really quite tidy. Supermarkets here really aren’t cheap for anything so I imagine it’s quite a pricey place to live. There are dozens of diving schools here and too many to really suss out in order to get the cheapest deal. I guess they all tend to charge around the same sort of prices, they normally do in this type of location. It will be good to get underwater tomorrow. Maybe this sort of opportunity comes along only Once in a lifetime.

Made it to Utila.

Well, found my way through the smokey metropolis known as San Pedro Sula and have bussed to La Ceiba. With only a short wait I managed to get the ferry to Utila which seems like a bit of tropical paradise so far. In backpacker terms it's got the usual features, Bob Marley playing the background of a hotel cum hostal that has dorm beds for $3US a night - it's quite a funky place to be though the guide book did warn that it tends to attract the younger backpacking crowd. It's a lot more expensive here than the mainland. Last night the supermarket was L10 for a bottled beer in the supermarket and here it's L25. A sharp jump up, though for the tropical paradise that it is, it's cheap I guess.

I made an effort to get to a couple of the museums in the centre of San Pedro before leaving which were not bad in some respects. I did feel that artefact was just a little bit of a stretched concept. In some respects I don't like museums in the UK that don't reflect 20th Century history and this one did - there were 1960s TVs and his masters voice gramaphone record players which to me felt a little out of place alongside the ceramics and jewellery from 250AD to 800AD Mayan dominance of the area. It was interesting to see another 'rave' generation influence in the form of exhibits which highlighted the process of insetting jade into teeth which I've seen in a couple of 'ravers'. The sound of the wooden xylophones from the area played in a monotonous type manner and a few other things regarding the nature of tribal culture do make me wonder if there was an intentional aim at getting Westerners to find an affinity with the Mayan ways.

The second museum in San Pedro looked very dated, in terms of its design and layout at least. It was another place that was designed in the sixties or seventies and had not been updated massively since. In terms of exhibits, it did not really have much in the way of there being anything that I could state I found that reflective of the culture of the area. It did lack a certain amount of invention though it is difficult to convey how elements of culture can be stable whilst other elements change within a particular area. I also had a bit of de ja vu in the Museum of Anthropology as I did in the hostal last night, although I can't recall if this was due to having seen them in a photograph at SBPS, in a video or DVD or actually having been there before. I didn't bother to take shots of the places where this happened, I guess it happens to a lot of people.

The Cathedral in San Pedro is not highly recommended by the guide book, although, it does have a different type of atmosphere than any other I've been in. It did feel a little like a 1960s dole office to me, though those are not intended to be harsh words. I'm sure the atmosphere is very different during a service.

The bus journey went without hitches and I managed to get to the island after taxi-ing along to the ferry port. The weather changed gradually as we approached the coast. It wasn't a bad crossing by any stretch of the imagination. Don't know if I can really say that I've explored the area but I guess that there are more than a few attractions to explore. The diving is the main reason that people come here, though I don't wish to do a huge amount as I've not done any since becoming an Advanced diver in 1997. I'll see how things go.

The shot above is of the police who were discussing a few issues in the Central Parque area of San Pedro last night. I didn't stop to ask them what they were talking about...

San Pedro Sula to La Ceiba II

Up early, most likely off to La Ceiba today barring major problems, catastrophes and slow chicken buses. Last night I headed off to get something to eat after consuming a few beers and I didn't have too much of a problem finding a place though it was a little like walking around a rather faceless city dominated by multi-national corporations. I don't know if it was five or six blocks east to the highway and then another three or four to the roundabout where there were a couple of 24 hour petrol stations that served food into the small hours but it was not that pleasant a walk. I guess that only mad people are going to attempt to walk around a city like San Pedro at the time I headed off and I didn't have any problems with drunks or gangs as the images of Central American cities tend to be dominated by.

A couple of pieces of pizza and two pieces of chicken later, kentucky style fried chicken seems to be available almost everywhere in Central America, I was snoozing away in a rather humid dorm with a fan covering all background noise made elsewhere in the hostel. I had a decent nights sleep though I don't think that I got more than about five hours or so unbroken sleep so will probably drouse away on the chicken buses on the way to La Ceiba before getting the ferry across to Roatan where I hope to do some diving.

Don't know how the connections will go nor how the museums and the cathedral will be in San Pedro before getting the bus later this morning. All will be revealed as I wonder what I'm doing in a place like this.....

San Pedro to La Ceiba.

It was meant to be a day when I made some attempt to get myself towards the Bay Islands and the tropical paradise that they represent. I woke up to late for this to be worth considering. It'll take about half an hour to get to the terminal, another fifteen minutes to get a bus and three and a half hours to get to La Ceiba. It's only something that is worth attempting in the morning.

I started adding a few sites onto my blog under the 'Other sites of interest' on the right hand side of the page and there is some good stuff there. I have been intending on getting myself more up on the subject area of photo essays for what they are and I don't know if there is going to be much of a chance of that taking place. I don't really like the idea that I can't concentrate enough to get on with all this but I've got to take things as they go to a large extent.

I did feel remarkable clear in my own mind last night to a point where I did feel completely healthy and this was really quite unusual. I still have a few things to deal with when I get back to the UK, or at least try to deal with, but I don't think that I can really do very much other than restate the points that I have already made to various bodies in the UK about the degree of manipulation that may be taking place.

Off to do just a little exploring at present and by the way, the woman in the middle of the group 'Esencia' has just played one of the tracks of their album to me and it was really quite delightful. She works in this place, Hostal Tamarindo.

Don't know what has happened in the past nor what will happen in the future, shots of Copan Ruinas are now online though leave a lot to be desired, as does the Metapan to El Poy set. The kid above is from the Gracias to Copan set of shots and is the highlight of an otherwise relatively dull set of shots. By the way, the best thing to do after drinking some Salva Vida or Port Royal Export is to watch the The Goodies - That Old Black Magic, part one, part two and part three.

San Pedro Sula - City of nothing much.

It's a real shame that today I was misinformed by staff in the otherwise excellent Cafe Via Via. A few Salva Vidas too many last night and I did slightly oversleep and not make it back into the ruins at Copan. I made my way at about midday via La Entrada to San Pedro hoping to catch a connecting bus from there to La Ceiba, the port from which you can get to Roatan, the island where I may do a little diving. Unfortunately as I state I was misinformed - the buses don't run after about three thirty so when I arrived at five I had little else in the way of choice but to stay over in San Pedro until I can get a bus in the morning.

I don't know if my mind was open enough to challenge what is stated in the PDF guide book I have when I walked here from where I was droppped off by the microbus. The guide states that the town is largely work oriented and very much the opposite of La Ceiba, which is if anything a party town. I don't know if there is anything of real substance in this. As per ususua in Central America everyone appeared to be generally friendly, honest and helpful as I made my way from Parque Central to the Hostal. The only problem was that no-one seemed to understand what I was asking and I must have asked about eight or ten people if I was walking the right street to get to this place and all of them agreed with me that it was Avenida 11 when I think it was Avenida 10. I used to place practical jokes like that on Japanese tourists in the 1970's when I was a kid - maybe there is some form of second city link and the Hondurans are in touch with the childish sense of humour that I had.

The hostal, Hostal Tamarindo, is covered with murals which mimic the work of Picasso. This only really tends to make me wonder about the real Picasso's which are probably located around Honduras as one of the sites where former Nazi's headed. I wonder how many there are in Honduras at present. I hope they don't run the hostal... I was glad I didn't have any de ja vu today - especially when I came into the Hostal, it was very unnerving going into the Manzana Verde and finding that it was similar to one of the SBPS images. There were only about three types of birds that were possible to photograph in Copan and I managed to get images of the very same one's that were entered in club contests several years ago. Can't recall who bloody entered them. Arghhh!!!

Leaving Copan Ruinas

Time to leave. Didn't manage to see as much of the ruins as I would have liked. I did like the layout and presentation of what is there as a world heritage site. From
250AD to 900AD the city dominated the region, in effect it was the Mayan ‘Capital’.

It is more significant now because of the hieroglyphics and sculpture rather than the scale of the structures, so perhaps they were just plain lazy as builders and didn’t like lifting heavy objects up that high. Stylish and nicknamed the Paris of the Mayan world as a result Copan is meant to be a real sight. The area has been inhabited for about three millennia according to archaeologists who established the names of former kings to have been 'Waterlily Jaguar' and 'Smoke Imix' who sound more like DJs than anything else. I don’t know how they came up with their names in the Mayan kingdom but they sound a bit daft to me. The 13th king was called ‘18 Rabbit’ and his successor was called ‘Smoke Monkey’ which strikes me as a little odd – 18 Rabbit is bad enough but Smoke Monkey is possibly worse. Maybe the Mayans did spend too much time on the pottery, sculpture and art and not enough on building tall buildings and thinking up decent names for their kings. Who am I to rock the boat? Apparently Smoke Monkey didn’t make a big impression on the kingdom archaeologically, so perhaps he made all his subjects eat smoked monkey during his reign (738 – 749AD). His son apparently commissioned buildings which are the most impressive, his name was Smoke Shell, which makes smoked monkey seem quite appetising.

I wonder what Pete and Dud would do if they could see Copan now? The last two rulers were called Yax Pac (Sunrise or First Dawn, 763 – 820AD) and the final U Cit Tok whose power came to an end following defeat in battle in 822AD. I wonder if there was a loss of faith of the Mayan’s who supported their king after First Dawn started what may have been little more than a programme of gentrification aimed at beautifying a city when there could have been more substantial improvements which may have supported the quality of life in the area for his subjects. I guess there may have been an element of ‘let them eat cake’ but really I don’t have enough evidence to go on at this point. The guidebook, Lonely Planet: Central America on a Shoestring, indicates that the city broke its ecological limits in terms of its ability to support a population within the valley area. Deforestation on hillsides around fertile farmland led to flooding and large scale erosion. Presumably the last king had some form of impediment.

There is also reference to disease taking hold of the populations which is indication of the fact that the cities had grown to a size where they were large enough to propagate disease – a disease like measles apparently requires a population of over 100 000 within a city or dwelling, otherwise there will not be enough contact between people for the disease to become contagious. This gives rise to some diseases being known as the diseases of industrialisation, or more correctly perhaps, the diseases of urbanisation. What I think is interesting about this is that as I stated earlier in the blog is that there only seems to be reference to the diseases that were caught by the Mayans when Europeans first made their impact in the region in the sixteenth century. Personally, I think there are grounds to question what has been undertaken. Were they spread strategically?

Just had a little bit more de ja vu, and I really wish I knew what was going on. I think this is something to do with the memory inhibitor issue but I really can’t say. I assume that there could easily have been some influence but I can’t say what I think has genuinely gone on over the last few years that could facilitate this de ja vu feeling which makes me feel as if I’ve dreamt about such things.

Arriving in Copan Ruinas.

The van pulled into Parque Central at about four this afternoon. Copan Ruinas is, as far as it seems so far, quite a nice little town. I feel very much at home as a result of the rather globalised feel of the particular cafe that I'm in, it's been done out in much the same way as many of the Central American themed places in the UK as far as I recall. The style does lack something in terms of the authenticity that one gets if one is willing to dice with diarrhea in a real local bar that tends normally to resemble a transport cafe done Honduras style but there is something infective about the music in a place that can override anything traditional or genuinely local about it. The place feels globalised as a result: the music, the decor and the menu - largely arranged to suit the westerner. There is little in the way of the authentic Honduras about the place though on the one hand the place is an almost sterilely stylised-Honduran bar and other the hand integration of culture is what keeps people together and the world ticking over.

Today was a largely uneventful day. There were a few 'familiar faces' around. In Mexico in a couple of places there were people who resembled J-Lo and today again I saw someone with very similar bone structure to a point where I did consider the woman I saw to be likely to be related to her. I don't know if Emma from OCR has any relatives out here but one of the other women I was close to for a few minutes looked a lot like her. It really wouldn't surprise me if there was something in the way of a big connection between Central America and the Midlands - perhaps the international business community, cum ruling class, cum European Monarchy have ensured that seeds have been spread around the world, I can't say. It's most likely due to my state of mind that there are things going on around me that seem to defy conventional explanations.

I'm in a backpackers that I don't think that I've been to before but I did have a very strange de ja vu when I entered the dormitory. I think it may have figured in images in SBPS and may have been a place that the other guy had been to - it's not that it bugs me it's that I don't actually know when I dreamt about the three bedded room that I'm staying in, whether it was before or after the night at SBPS. The dream sequence I had seemed to finish with a woman - though I don't know how this was facilitated, it does seem very unusual that this took place in the dream. I think I'll be heading back alone tonight. Pulling doesn't seem like a viable option with what has gone on. Annoyance like this aside, Copan Ruinas is a nice place to be.

There's a guy from Israel who seems to look a little like Mike H from Plymouth Poly days and a guy who announced himself as being from Birmingham, though actually in the cold light of day he's from Cannock and I'M THE ONE FROM BIRMINGHAM. It does get on my wick that so many people in the public eye especially seem actually not to be from Birmingham but from Smethwick or Dudley or worse of all from Solihull or Sutton Coldfield. The likes of Tessa Sanderson, Joan Armatrading and Jasper Carrot are more Brummie because they've actually lived in the city good and proper. God, I think I've been drinking a little too much recently but for Christ's sake, who lets them say they're from Birmingham on the so-called reputable BBC.

The issue that was raised a few days ago, on Saturday 8th June, regarding the need for El Salvador to have it's own version of the Goodies may have been overlooked by the BBC but I think Honduras may actually be a better place for this. Why do those BBC prats not do what I want for once? Why don't they think about the input to the Central American economy that could be made by making a few programmes as good as Cod almighty part one, part two and part three? It's amazing thinking about the BBC's reputation when the special effects from the sixties and the seventies are considered. Would the British tolerate a developing world nation producing TV of this nature? I somehow doubt it. Comic relief could consider what they could do in this position.

Another thing I've been doing of recent is adding on models on facebook who have turned up on 'do you know these people' or ‘these people may be your friends’ as you've got mutual friends in common etc. What's been interesting is that I now have made friends with Rhian Sugden and Sophie Howard, not that they're the real things. It's probably some spotty teenager in Kettering who's added on images of his favourite models. I wonder if he's reading this thinking you sarcy sod, why did you add them on in the first place? Facebook a place where I've got loads of friends, most of whom you’ll never meet...

A rave-like crowd have just pulled into the bar and despite the range of western English accents (eg. American, Canadian, English, Scottish) there does seem to be just a little bit of an influenced youth culture that has spread into our twenties and thirties. It's probably the music that's the key factor for me to bind groups of people together who wouldn't normally have a great deal in common. But I don't know if I'll find anything more than music to bring a group together. I don't know if there's going to be anything more substantial - politics should be a greater focal point for the youth of the nation and the population at large but understandably there's great cynicism around it. When it comes down to it there's no doubt some degree of concern over the credibility of politics as a pursuit that should bring you closer to other people but leisure and work seem pretty much firmly divided for the majority in the west and this stops politics being the form of meaningful recreation that it could be.

I did find the poetry group I attended to be a relatively meaningful pursuit, if only for a short while, but there appeared to be a few games going on that I didn't think I should have been subject to. I do wonder when someone is subject to games which amount to little more than harassment within somewhere like a poetry society whether they'll ever be free of games in the least. It does strike me as being rather sad that this happened there but I guess that the annoyances that has bothered me over the last few years, this is relatively miniscule in the grand scheme of things.

Leaving Gracias

Up late yet again. Haven't managed to do what I wanted in terms of finishing uploads to flickr and I was hoping that I would get the shots uploaded for all of yesterday for Balneario Aguas Termales, stick insect which is a bit of a joke and into Honduras and the shots of the bus journey from Metapan to El Poy. None of them are complete or have been sequenced as I would like but I guess that this is the case with most of what is online on flickr.

I have spent a little too long online over the last few weeks and should have been dropping myself in the deep end in terms of Spanish speaking. Opportunity arose last night when I was approached by a very friendly waitress who wished to know if I was a 'bachiller', which means bachelor in the educational sense, presumably a bachelor or arts or sciences. She did get my imagination wandering just a little. I assume her interest was in living in a country that didn't have a revolution every fifteen minutes as has been the case in Honduras's history and while I can understand what interest there may be in Westerners I assume a relatively strong counter culture from everyone one in Honduras, and elsewhere in Central America, towards the practice of trying to get a foreign husband in order to be liberated from an economically weak nation. It's a bit much to read into the question, 'are you a bachelor?' but things seem just a little different here than to elsewhere in Latin America in terms of how friendly and direct the women have been. It's not unpleasant to be approached as a man, nor to be the one that the broad and friendly smiles seem to be directed at, though it does strike me as being unusual that this has happened more strongly here in Honduras than elsewhere in Central America so far.

The hot springs were quite a nice venue to reach yesterday and I did like the rather cheeky kids that were playing in them while I was there. It kind of brought back memories of playing in water as a very young child. One kid who repeated jumped into the pools seemed always to look surprised at the fact that he had floated back to the surface after jumping in. His face showed just a little shock when he realised he was out of the water. The walk there and back was not really worth it, some of the scenery was interesting though it would have been worth taking a tuk-tuk or if cycles were available it would have been a good ride on a mountain bike. The water wasn't as warm as the Fuentes Georginas in Guatemala, and the smell of sulphur was not as strong either but none the less it was a good site to have reached. Would have been nice with slightly better food, a pick your own strawberry field en route and cold fresh cream available may not have been a bad idea although the capacity of the site is a present very low - I'd imagine that it would not be that good a place to reach if there were more than a dozen people there - much more than that and it would feel rather crowded.

Made it back to the Posada Don Juan for another night and tried to upload over night through the wi-fi but nothing really seemed to go up. I assume someone else was you-tubing it away into the small hours. Today, to Copan ruinas. Much time on buses and hopefully I'll be able to get some reading done when I get to Copan on the ruins which I only know to be a Mayan centre of culture around the time of dark ages in Europe, the period of 'Enlightenment' which followed. Enlightenment being a term for those who though that colonisation and slavery were a good idea and Christianity a good excuse to carry this out? It's interesting when I read about the poor fortune of the Mayans to be subject to diseases brought by the Europeans who colonised the area. I smell a rat in more than one way, I think this deserves some scrutiny and questions may need to be asked to find out why this took place and possibly consideration given to the question as to whether or not this was a planned military operation. If populations propogate diseases differently, were there not huge numbers of westerners who were killed off by diseases that were previously only threat to Mayan inhabitants of the area? Public health for regime purposes, who can believe the military would take advantage of such information?

Still off to Copan....

Gracias -a night in Sula

Last night I made the first major gaff of backpacking that I've done on this trip missing the stop I wanted to make in Santa Rosa de Copan. I was advised by the English speaking passengers on the bus that my best bet was to get off at Sula and found myself in a small town which had one guest house and one hotel. I don't know if there was much in the way of entertainment there but I found both the guest house and the hotel were full. The woman who was trying to assist me offered to put me up in her house which was at the back of an Evangelical Mission building and I offered what I thought was right in the circumstances - about six quid which is about what I would have paid in the hotel from all accounts.

It was an interesting place to end up though somehow a little familiar. I don't know if there was a major error on my part, I was assuming the bus drivers to continue to announce where the bus was stopping as they had done elsewhere in Central America so far. Normally, the drivers are extremely helpful and will direct you to the next bus required or which direction is necessary to go to get to whatever hotel I've been heading to. It wasn't the worst scenario in the world, most people seemed pretty helpful and I didn't have any problem getting to sleep as soon as I'd got back to the room. I was grateful to the woman, Alexandra, and I was also grateful to the church in the circumstances.

I was up later than I wished and made my way back to Santa Rosa de Copan and pretty much immediately got a bus on to Gracias which is recommended as a stop off by the guide book. I managed to leave the guidebook on the bus from Sula and then upon arrival in Gracias got myself into probably the best hotel I've stayed at in Central America, the Posada de Don Juan. I've got a decent room for about ten pounds a night and the wi-fi works pretty well. I've managed to download the chapters of the lonely planet Central America guidebook that I need for the remainder of the trip and been out to check out the town which seems very nice. I think that the tourism here is under significant development and I don't know to what extent there is planned development here but there is a lot of building work going on in the centre of the town.

The image above is of a woman who I couldn't place - only in terms of who I know, I'm sure I've seen her face before somewhere, or someone who looks a lot like her but with much paler skin. I think there was some similarity between her and someone else I know though I just can't place who it is for the life of me. I don't know if there are more significant links between Birmingham and Central America than there are in other parts of the UK but at one point the journey between Metapan and El Poy, the border crossing into Honduras, was like being at a Swanshurst Sixth Form Reunion. There was a guy collecting fares who looked like Andy Bishop, a passenger who looked a lot like Vicki Peacock, another who looked like the woman who hung out with Sarah Guessy and the one in the photograph whom I presume to have a brummie connection.

El Poy was a pretty uneventful boarder crossing, I had to pay $3.00 exit tax to leave El Salvador, which seemed like a legitimate formal tax very different to the one paid on entrance to Guatemala which was something that the official at the passport control seemed to think was okay to charge anyone who couldn't speak Spanish. He wasn't challenged sigificantly by most of us who came in. Shots of the journey from Metapan to El Poy are on Flickr at the journey from Metapan to El Poy if you should wish to click the link.

The scenery on the way into Honduras, which I've not heard being discussed anywhere was really quite breathtaking. It was like the Yorkshire Dales on a larger scale. After a few attempts to take shots of the mountains and forests I decided to take a nap only to realise I'd missed my stop when I woke up. The people on the bus were helpful enough when this became apparent - more people speak English here than in El Salvador where I think I had a couple of days without speaking English to anyone. As for the Latin temperament, the Hondurans are meant to be a little too laid back and to an extent stereotyped by their neighbours as being a little backward. There doesn't seem to be a great difference culturally so far but I am close to the border still and huge numbers of El Salvadorians are meant to have made the border crossing in the 1980's during the civil war so it's not surprising that there seems to be little in the way of difference so far. There are the minor obvious issues which may reflect more of an Honduran style such as the higher numbers of men who wear stetson type hats and on the whole the women are more flirtatous here - but that counts for bugger all in the grand scheme of things.

So far Honduras has been a bit of a surprise package. I wasn't expecting the breathtaking scenery nor the overall atmosphere of the tropical paradise but it does feel pretty damn good here. I'm yet to make it to a cash point here which seem few and far between, Gracias doesn't have one and I've got to get to Santa Rosa to get some cash tomorrow as I'm almost out of US Dollars. This is only indication that the infrastructure here is not as developed as it is in places like El Salvador and Guatemala and the economy is weaker. I don't know what the average wage is here but I would estimate that it's pretty damn low. Tourism seems to be taking off in this area and I can't say that it's undeserved. The forests as I saw them from the bus, which gives little indication of what's going on inland in the more isolated rural parts, did seem pretty rich and plentiful, however, there is meant to be a greater issue of deforestation in El Salvador than anywhere else in Central America. I do wonder how legitimate the concept of deforestation is, particularly as a western notion, when the west is as deforested as a place could be. What grounds to we have to question the use of land in countries that we're only interested in because we may have problems with oxygen-CO2 cycles as a result of rural development changes?

Tonight, I need to get to grips with Copan and it's ruins so whatever I see there in the next couple of days doesn't go completely over my head. I can't say that I've really understood all there is to know about Mayan ruins in the other places I've been to but this does seem opportunity to do so. I've also got to check out a few things about the area so I've got some idea where to head for hotels, I can't stay in plush places all the time.

The discourse switch - to what extent does this take place across professions in the UK?

Over the past few years I have raised a number of issues with public sector staff including parliamentarians, voluntary advice workers and crime and disorder staff. What I've experienced is a general refusal to acknowledge the issues I've put forward which are classed as conspiratorial, paranoid or delusional despite the fact that academic articles have been used to support the arguments made. There seems to be a tendency to cite works of literature or else where from the arts as the basis for conspiracy, for example the China Syndrome, 1984, Brave New World, Jacobs Ladder etc. despite the fact that the arguments offered have a relatively strong academic foundation. The point of concern is that it has not been easy to challenge what may be prejudiced action on the part of several professional groups or bodies in the UK and there could be scope for professional development around these issues. Scientific argument in some situations has not been dealt with rationally but rejected on the basis of an assumption that people who may have had mental health problems would willingly draw from the arts and that this is an acceptable culturally embedded framework to use to dismiss what could be significant information to provide for public safety.

I am considering writing an academic article on the issue of 'the discourse switch' and how the willingness to engage in discussion on the likelihood of conspiracy theories for want of a broad general term may tend to vary according to institutional factors which shape professional conduct. I am considering writing an academic article on the issue of argument styles and responses to ‘paranoid conspiracy’, which may be attributable to training, government guidance or ill conceived prejudice which has become institutionalised in several professions in the UK, if not more broadly throughout the world. The purpose of this would be to identify the extent to which the phenomenon does take place, to more clearly identify reasons why this does take place, if it does, and the to suggest how the problem may be construed in order to generate a number of solutions which require political action.

This may involve accessing information through the freedom of information act from a number of organisations. The possible prejudice involved in the discourse switch – ensure that the home office are responsible for the interpretation and democratically elected politicians are clearly indicating that it is definite policy to disregard conspiracy theories and this is not done unprofessionally by the police or other professionals who may be accused of exercising unnecessary prejudice or bias.

I don't know if there are academics that could be identified in the UK who may be interested in collaborating on this as a potential project or through responding to the blog but I would be very pleased to hear back if there are. The issue as a matter which could affect the quality of service delivery for several professional groups may prove fruitful to explore for a few reasons. I don't know how well this is dealt with within existing literature and to what extent the questions raised may already have been answered as I haven't had opportunity to undertake a literature review at present - this too would be interesting to hear back from people on.

Perhaps as an aside that will lead to me not being taking seriously in the least, there is some interesting cultural data on the biases in policing that may be taking place in the UK if you click The Goodies - the baddies part one, part two and part three. Watching the Goodies in El Salvador provides a certain amount of balance to my life. Oh, and the picture above, how can you not like a country like El Salvador when it has signs on the doors of banks indicating that you can't bring in guns....

To Los Chorros de Calera

I paid a whole US$5.00 for a guide to accompany me today to the waterfalls known here as Los Chorros de Calera - for the two and half hours we took it was what I class as well worth it even though he was about seven years of age. There are shots online at Los Chorros de Calera should you wish to see what the setting is like.

There were quite a few people in and around the location which is also a hydro-electric power station although this is pretty well hidden from view. It is a nice spot and one that I think again that I'm familiar with through SBPS though I won't whine on about this again. There are about 75 shots on the slideshow so it could take some time to get through them. The divers were not bad in the least though I don't think they'll be representing El Salvador in the olympics. It's easy to understand how the diving at Acapulco became such a phenomenon because it is quite a sight even when the action is scaled down to the level that it is at this kind of level. I can understand people paying them to take shots of them and how the poor may be enticed into this kind of sport purely to get out of poverty and risk serious injury because of the relatively high risks involved. As a result I didn't pay any of the divers - I just took photos of them.

I got back to the hotel dripping with sweat largely because I've never really got used to altitude, although I've only been at this kind of level, about 1300 metres, for a few days. Participating in sporting events in these kind of conditions really does not appeal in the least - the number of Brits who have suffered in these conditions does spring to mind and I can wholly understand how it happens.

The picture above is of Rhian Sugden who I think would be particularly well suited to modelling in this kind of location, though I'm sure she can make her own mind up about where she works. Los Chorros is a nice setting even without a glamour model.

The Goodies - should El Salvador have their own version?

I don't know what life is all about but I guess that I can't really say any more than after 50 seconds of the Hancock documentary the expressions followed by I think I'm in love are really just true class. Why do I sit in a hotel room in El Salvador on the wi-fi system feeling more connected to Hall Green, Birmingham watching Hancock than I ever did when I was at home in the UK? Genius is an over-used word but I guess that I can accept it in terms of what Hancock managed to convey on the low quality TV screens that were around back then in the 50's. The style of acting may well have been limited by the media that was available then, and he was no Marlon Brando, but he did manage to achieve quite a significant breakthrough. The style of acting was really dedicated to the small screen and it did hit home across Britain.

Maybe I've been watching too much of the Goodies online recently, a sad reflection of the life I've led but the Stone Age part one, part two and part three are all worth taking a look at provided that you're not working.

Maybe I am a bum and I can't do very much about it but at least I admit it. By the way the first thing the girl pictured said to me is 'why are you watching Hancock and the Goodies while you're in El Salvador you sad git?' - what does she know, eh?

Lazing in Juayua.

Hi, not doing much, just lazing around watching some footy (Euro 2008). I have just managed to get some shots online from the road to Guatemala City and I'm relatively pleased with what's on there. It's not great quality but generally it's worth checking out. Some de ja vu about what has gone on and the shots do look very familiar as always.

Juayua is a pretty relaxed place. I did wonder what was going on last night as market stalls were being assembled and the place was like a ghost town. I had a British moment last night and drank a little too much and went out looking for a kebab having then only to be satisfied with some nachos. I then wake up this morning and the place is alive, vibrant and full of shoppers and traders. The town's square is full of the smells of frying and barbequeing of the local produce and the locals sit together with wild salsa type beats being played in the background. It's quite nice to see how things are done in this country. It's not the most enthralling of events that I've seen but what's important I guess is seeing how things are done in a small town in El Salvador (the population here apparently is about 30 000).

The shots of the dream scene is kind of complete having been worked on just a little today, the hotels wi-fi code was a bit of mystery last night but they've now connected me. The place I'm in is quite cheap. I've just ordered a hamburger with fries and a drink for $2.00US, about a pound and the coffee here is $0.30 which is about 15p and considering it's the best coffee I've had in Central America it is quite cheap for a cup. I presume all the blenders of coffee know what they're doing in this country.

Last thing this evening I added on culinary fair onto flickr. It's a little bit dubious as there are images of young women in amongst the shots that are included in the photoessay if I can call it that. It's meant to provoke an emotional response and I don't know if it will - enjoy, if you can.

El Salvador - the final frontier

Finally out of Guatemala after being there really a little longer than I anticipated. I don´t think being able to say two phrases really indicates that I am fluent in Espanol just yet but there´s a whole three and a half weeks to go yet. One of the virtues of El Salvador for me at present is that most people who claim to speak English seem to speak as much of it as I speak Spanish so I guess that I´ll be practicing more and more.

There haven´t been what I would call major incidents so far - there was a minor incident when I was getting the bus from the border at San Cristobal to Santa Ana when all the men had to get off the bus and the police checked their documents and looked through a list of faces of suspects.I had only been in the country for about half a day and I thought I was going to be on ´El Salvador´s most wanted´or whatever their local version of the US programme is. There was another search earlier on on the bus when some police went through the bags of several of the passengers so I can´t complain that the police aren´t doing anything here. I don´t mind the frequent stop and search policies - I don´t know if there is any bias in terms of who is being searched most frequently because most of the population here seem to be of an Hispanic-Mayan heritage if that doesn´t sound condescending. Consequently, I´ve felt safe here so far and I haven´t seen any form of brutality that I have had to turn away from. It was a little similar in Venezuela - the police searches didn´t bother me there either.

From Santa Ana I had to get to Ahuachapan in order to then get the bus to Apaneca and the travelling has not been too difficult so far. The bus drivers do seem a fairly reliable source of informtion on where to get the next bus and things have gone smoothly to say the least. I got here to Juayua about half an hour ago and have found it to be a relatively pleasant little town in the extensive amount of time I´ve been here. The hotel is $12.00 US a night and has wi-fi access which is about as much as you´d pay for wi-fi access alone in the UK for an hour or two without the double room with private bathroom that I have. I´m to explore the town which I understand from the guidebook will fill up with ´capitolinos´, that is people from the swinging metropolis that San Salvador is.

I did want to start the blog with the words "The smell of burning plastic, the far off sound of gun fire, relax with a local coffee and enjoy life in El Salvador, but everyone here has been pleasant and peaceful so far and I hope they´re not going to play the pipes of peace or do anything in a manner that is as bad as Macca´s acting in the video. I can hope....I did see someone on a bus in Guatemala who looked like my brother David, I can only wonder if any of his holiday´s in campsites in the 1980´s resulted in offspring. Also, the man who drove the bus to the springs, Fuentes Georginas, just outside Queztaltenango looked a little like Ricky Gervais. I don´t know if he would do the dance from the office while you sit in the hot springs for twenty quetzales but it could give a relatively straightforward day tour that little bit more alternative.

Off to explore the town.....and hopefully do something a little original - I did think it was Peter Bardell´s photography that I´d been copying but I´ve checked out his site and it´s not him. I think it was the Peter who used to wear architects glasses and looked like he spent all his spare time drinking cappucinos and being bohemian - I don´t know if anyone can contact him or tell me his name I´ve tried googling "peter SBPS cappucino bohemian architects glasses birmingham "and it didn´t really produce results. Maybe I should reflect on the opposites that I am with so many people and think about the contrasts in life that make it worthwhile. I may even find a little bar that plays just a touch of Mayan music although I have a sneaking suspicion that they´re taking the piss out of my dancing but I´m classed as paranoid....and missing Antigua a little.

Fuentes Georginas & Zunil.

I was half expecting decent scenery in the area of Zunil which is about an hour away from Xela, (Xela pronounced Shay-Lay) and was pleasantly surprised - not only with the quality of the scenery but also the fact that I had seen it before elsewhere at SBPS, almost certainly amongst the work of Peter.

I found the area around the springs I was visiting to be reminiscent of the visits I made to the allotment off Fox Hollies Road in Acocks Green when my dad had an allotment there in the 1970s. There was a very healthy feel to the sodden earth which appeared as far as I could see to be fertilized organically. The crops appeared to be plentiful as I descended the hillside towards the town, Zenil, after taking a dip in the hot springs.

The springs themselves, Fuentes Georginas, were as pleasant as you'd imagine. The water was hot but not as hot as a bath, the pools were of different temperature so you could switch around if you found one pool too hot or too cold. The shots of Fuentes Georginas and Zunil are passable but lacking in originality as far as I'm concerned. The dream scene, a place I stated I had at least one dream about may be worth checking out.

If you're unsure about what the scenery is like up close in Guatemala, I for whatever reason would say that I found it a lot like the Dingles off Cole Valley Road. Maybe we could fake some shots of Guatemala there on my return. Does anyone know any people who look central American?

Day to Huehuetenango

Up late, collected laundry and then went to the centre of town, parque central to get a microbus to Terminal Minerva to get the chicken bus to Huehuetenango. It was a day of moving between buses and trying to get comfortable on them right the way through from the earliest part of the day. The journey from Quetzaltenango where I am at present to Huehuetenango (pronounced way-way-tenango should you be passing this way) is rated by lonely planet as the best bus journey in the country. After seeing the bulk of it at dusk on my return I can understand why. Unfortunately, on the way there all I could see was steam rising of me and everyone else on a rather cramped former American school bus as we collectively clouded up everything which resembled windows for the best part of the whole two hour journey.

I did have the satisfaction of getting across town via a couple of local buses to 'las ruinas' which appear to be of Mayan origin and are just a little neglected - there is graffiti on them. I don't know if I heard someone at Teotehuacan outside Mexico city comparing the ruins there to a contemporary housing estate or if it was one of Peter's issues, however, they did seem to resemble the three estates area to a degree and I assume that I am not the first to think of juxtaposing these images with some from Bells Lane, Kings Heath or of the Three Estates Area, Kings Norton. The ruins do resemble a skate park, BMX stunt area and a few other things to an extent. Maybe when I get home I can consider doing this. Until then I have done this please check out the shots of Huehuetenango and Zaculeu on flickr. There was something so urban 1960s Britain about the site I can't explain it, the archaeologists tended to look rather like council workmen because of the overall ambience of the site.

I've spent the last couple of days alcohol and nicotine free and was considering having a beer as I was leaving Zaculeu when I met the two guys in the photo above who have assisted with maintaining my self discipline when it comes to alcohol - they were steaming. There was something dare I say, very English about the girl who was serving the two guys drinks, something I really can't place. Likewise there was something very similar to my younger brother about the guy who was collecting fares on the microbus on the way to Terminal Victoria this morning. I've seen facial resemblances here in Guatemala that for whatever reason tend to remind me of my immediate family more that people in the UK do. I had a bit of a similar feeling in India but not to the same degree as I have done here in Guatemala.

There is a street off Parque Central which is necessary to walk down on the way back to this Hostal, Casa Argentina and I had dreams about it several months before I came away. There was nothing significant about the dreams only that I hadn't been here and I don't think I had seen images of the street on TV. I assume that I had seen the street on TV somewhere and there was use of memory inhibitor which may have in effect supressed the memory into my subconscious - god knows why I prefer this type of explanation but it makes more sense to me. I don't believe the theory on dreams from psychoanalysis nor the notion of being psychic, but I do think the rational explanation for such phenomena does included rather basic psychological principles. I don't like the idea that a basic psychological principle could be used in effect to facilitate mental illness and I would hope that this does not get over looked. I also had dreams about the layout of the house I stayed in at Antigua which did not surprise me in the least - there was something very familiar about the family and life with them. Still, I've made it through all this so far without any significant problems.

Finally to Quetzaltenango.

After a couple of attempts I finally made it to Xela or as it's more formally called Quetzaltenango. It has been chucking it down at a rate that it rarely does in the UK and I've been pretty much disabled by the volume of rain that has come down.

I had spent a little time last night thinking about the work of Marcelo Monecino: shots of Guatemala from the 1970's. While they're a good set of shots of various situations and events they may leave a little to be desired in terms of basic technical matters. I thought it would be fun to try to explore the area around the hostel and try to do something that would compliment what was done then. I don't think what is here is that original again I would have to whine that I've tried to do something better than what I've seen before and I don't think that I can really state that I've done anything more that what has already been achieved. One or two of the shots I recall from SBPS. Ho, hum... click de ja vu shots of rainy afternoon in Quetzaltenango.

The town seems quite nice though I don't think that I have had any real opportunity to explore it yet. I caught a microbus (a small independently operated bus service that is run by people who normally look as if they've just come out of prison) from the bus station to close to here and I didn't have any problems. The streets were pretty much deserted with the volume of rain as I walked across the city and I, as I state, took a few shots largely just to have done something other than completed the four and a half hour journey today.

It was amusing taking the shots of the women in shops in the late afternoon, whom I thought would be sat very bored but they seemed to take advantage of the quiet period in the day when nothing happened and chilled out. The two girls who look very much alike, I've got to assume they're sisters, ran and hid rather than state that they didn't want any shots taken. I assume that this was just the superficial game that may be expected and they were flattered rather than willing to pose in a documentary context. As I state it killed a little time but again when I had completed the shots there was more than a tinge of de ja vu.

I did start writing about the prospects of trying to work on a photo-essay today and I don't think that I produced any thing that original....On Marcelo Monecino's work an essay plan included:
He has broken quite a few rules. Some shots remind me of some of the shots of Nepalese kids I have pictures of in the sets I’ve put online in Nepal, with what appear to the western eye to be very uncomfortable smiles. It’s perhaps interesting to think of how well posed and how boldly the smiles of most of the indian kids I saw really did seem to convey a sense of deeper happinnes and yet the images of kids in Nepal were so totally different.

Monecino's locals are shoeless and usually ragged. I don’t know what genre I would describe his work within as there do tend to be a lot of shots that are technically not great but owing to the drama they manage to hold, they work. Despite the main subjects within the shots not having their faces to the camera, to be quite often walking away from the camera and for there to generally to be quite tense composition if any at all, the images hang together well. The images tend to work as documentary slides and possibly because of his willingness to break the rules there is a sense of anarchy about the shots. This is consolidated by the revolutionary atmosphere in shots which include rifles sticking out of bushes mixed in with rather disorganised shots of school children with nuns surrounding them.

There tends to be an absence of motor vehicles altogether from the shots which is substantially different in the wealthier gringo-fied Antigua that I've been in over the last few weeks. Mist tends to hum from the slums and is used to good effect as a backdrop to several scenes. Religious ceremonies tend to only convey a sense of the individual lost in a warehouse like space and local culture experienced in barbershops and other locations tends not to convey more than a bold, cheap environment with few frills.

Some compositional rule breaking does tend to query the seriousness of some shots. For instance, the man with the flag who has the trees behind him that appear to be coming out of the top of his head, and the two men sitting on a coffin of someone perhaps killed in battle. Whilst there are a great many disingenuous images surrounding war and rebellion these may more genuinely convey images of what peasant involvement in military activity has been like in this region - that those involved may be left at a point of exhaustion.

From the other images Monecino has on flickr there appear to be images going back ten years before these were taken giving indication that he had ten years experience. I should weigh this into the time scales I have to work on and consider the images that have been taken so far in my photographic life and work around this particular matter. Some rule breaking may not be warranted and some of it does tend to mock the subject and could be classed as being offensive or derogatory. This project was carried out about thirty five years ago and if I were to replicate much about this I would hope that I could try to have moved with the times and developed further. This does not seem an easy exercise owing to the lack of information I have got on genres and how they have changes specifically within the last thirty years or so.

Walking on set lava.

Though the morning was quite enthralling and I managed to complete what was a childhood ambition that I'd almost forgotten about I did sleep exceptionally well when I had got back from the trip up Pacaya, the local active volcano. I was up about five this afternoon which shows what a lightweight I have become, I only had to get up at 6 this morning and I didn't get to bed that late last night. I don't think that this is ridiculously early but I do think that I have kept the habit of staying awake in the afternoon that I would have in the UK. The shots at top of the volcano were taken in the most difficult of conditions and it's only really thanks to the 'shadow' function on Picasa that I was able to cause the bulk of the mist to 'evaporate' from most of the shots.

The group I was with, there were about 14 of us, were all very nice and most of those who wore trainers managed to see the funny side of slipping up on the arses as they were going both up and down the treacherous pathway to the top. For the afluent, and those that don't care about animals, it's possible to ride a completely knackerred looking horse up to the top and over the other side.

It was a really special moment as we approached the lava. The bulk of the walk up the pathway was on muddy to gritty ground and was reasonably easy despite the sheer incline that seemed to be affecting me more than anyone else. I don't think many people slipped up on the way up the path though almost all of us lost our footing to a degree. I was relieved when we reached the clearing at the top of the hillside only to find a group of people who I presume were Guatemalan Scouts who started towards the lava flow as we were passing where they were camped. There were two or three groups in all, and we kind of coalesed as we were leaving the clearing at the hill top and starting to walk on the set lava.

The scene was added to because of the misty conditions. I would have preferred it to have been clear but what seemed to add to the ambience of the day was that the mist and rain as it was hitting the rocks was audiably evaporating as it hit areas where the lava was streaming out of the ground. There was a noticeable jump up in temperature as we were around five or six feet from the point where lava was coming out of the ground and the increase in the volume of sound of rain coming down on to the red hot rocks was also noticeable, as it immediately evaporated and misting up my camera amongst other things.

The shots taken are at Volcan Pacaya and also at Pacaya, Antigua should you wish to see how well I could get them to turn out. Walking back after having a marshmallow with a group of Americans and taking a few photos was quite an experience. We had ascended the volcanic area on the way to the lava flow and there was quite a scene in front of us which resemebled to me something out of Lord of the Rings, everyone keeping pretty much to the same path as the guide, who didn't actually look a lot like Smeigel. Everyone was soaked through it seemed and with the rain coming down quite heavily as we approached the muddy gritty path back down the hillside I wondered how frequently the people who were wearing trainers would be falling on their asses. It was actually far more frequent that I imagined - most of them had muddy bottoms by the time we reached the site's offices and shops at the bottom of the hillside. We made it back to Antigua in good time, about one hour and twenty minutes and I was showered up and in bed within the hour in order to take the mock siesta that I seem to need when I've been up before 8am here.

The shots aren't great but the conditions were attrocious for photographs and what has been salvaged is more a testament to digital technology than my photographic ability. It has as an experience made me want to recall more of my childhood ambitions as I don't think that I've had an experience like it for some time. I don't really recall why I wanted to do this as a child. It was probably connected to some naive belief that 'seeing is believing' and that lava was evidence of what may be at the core of the earth. Thirty years ago I probably had more interest in being an intrepid explorer, in the style of Indiana Jones and a lot has changed since that period in the early 1970's most notably in the form of environmental movements and in terms of the beginning of post-modernism. Man is no longer attempting to control the elements and dominate, master and exploit the world in quite the same vein. The relationship with nature and natural phenomena like active volcanoes has become more ecological and reflexive; I don't know if I'll be that inclinded to re-frame other childhood ambitions in order to validate following them through but if it was as entralling as today was, it would be well worth it. Having looked at Antonovsky's contribution to the field of well-being and his notion of the sense of coherence, there is an element of that within what I have done today. Perhaps it is healthier to recontextualise childhood wishes in a more mature manner and to try to keep some continuity in one's wishes and aspirations.