An entry from our guest columnist

Hey everyone,
Today I've got a special treat for you: I'm turning over the keyboard to my beloved Marcel to give you his impressions of the last few days. (I have to say "impressions" because he's vetoed all references to the words "post" or "blog" or anything else he feels is "goofy".) I take no responsibility for what follows, but it's sure to be entertaining.

Hello all you kids in this electronic world inhabited by freaks, ghouls and the occassional guest columnist. At Laura´s insistence I am venturing into this new frontier, where hitherto I´ve never treaded. For those who don´t know me I´m Marcel, otherwise known as Laura´s "main man".

We are currently sitting in an internet cafe in Flores, Guatemala. My mission is to attempt to bring all you goodly people up-to-date on our most recent travels. As I am not a religious reader of internet-based information, I´m not entirely sure where Laura last left off. So I´m going to start by telling you all that Laura is now a certified Open Water SCUBA diver. Not a bad accomplishment for a gal that just started 5 days ago. At first our lovely gal was well and truly escared, you know, almost crying underwater (sorry Babe, I can´t keep a secret). But tears are useless underwater. Once she got over the initial panic, it was smooth sailing.

Laura and I got to dive together, although not as "buddies" since she was still on her course. That girl rocked underwater, like a true water baby. This was done in Utila, which is one of the Bay Islands off the coast of Honduras.

The island is strange in that people speak mostly English. It is a Creole form that is rather difficult to understand, especially when they speak to each other. The island is small and can be cycled in under an hour. It is touristy (backpackers, not Tilley hat-wearing types) but very nice. We stayed in swish digs with air conditioning, microwave and small fridge, to keep the copious amounts of water we drank cold.

Utila is a friendly place where people smile and say hello without any prompting. In fact, the local gay guys found my butt to be rather captivating (not that I can blame them). I think Laura was a tad bit jealous. Not to worry though Baby, it´s you that I love.

Food was quite cheap, where for less than US$5.00 you could eat a complete meal. I think I scared Laura though when one day all I had was 6 fruit drinks with hardly any solid food. But I´ve got a hardy system. Hey, at $1.00 per drink, who could say no. Heck, even Laura herself regularly drank 3 per day.

Unfortunately, due to my tight travel schedule, we couldn´t travel overland to Tikal, so we had to take a flight. It cost $164.00 each, which is cheap, but compared to $20.00 by bus, it was outrageous. But when time is the limiting factor, you gotta do what you gotta do.

The flight was a bit of an adventure, starting from the Utila airport, which was no more than a wooden lean-to beside a runway. No control tower, no check-in desk, just the travel agent who showed up 5 minutes before the flight left on her boyfriend's motorcycle. (Her boyfriend helped out by loading the bags on the plane.) Hell, locals just kept on showing up well after the flight was scheduled to leave with not a concern that the plane would have left without them.

After a long day of travel (our flight alone had 4 stops in various islands and towns) including a 5 hour bus ride from Belize City, we arrived in Flores, the town closest to Tikal, Guatemala's largest Mayan ruin.

I will let our lovely Laura e-mail you folks the details of our Tikal trip. My only recollection was waking up at 2:45 a.m. to catch a 3:00 a.m. bus to Tikal to watch the sun rise (but due to clouds we didn´t see diddly). It was bloody tough, but worth it because of the beauty of the fog and the jungle critters coming to life. It´s a good thing they don't like gringos.

I haven´t left yet (leaving on Saturday), but I miss Laura already. We´ve had a great time together and I´m glad to have been a part of this awesome journey.

Be cool, one and all.

Okay, I´m done yipping and will turn over the computer to Laura.