I think this is number 5 at least, i�m not sure. this is a spanish keyboard, so forgive my mistypes and lack of capitalization.

i am in mexico again, which i guess means that i have crested the hill and am on the way back down on the path which will eventually lead me home.

Guatemala wound up okay, with only a little excitement, and Tikal was pretty incredible. i stayed out for the sunset the first night i was there, and met a bunch of optomotrists in training from Pittsburgh. They invited me and the British gent I had met up with back to their hotel where we all shared in some quality Gallo beer. They were here setting up a clinic for people with no access to eye care. If my Spanish was better they would have let me tag along and interpret for them which would have been nice as in their number was a lovely Persian lass named Radeejah, which she said was the Arab word for purity, but alas, I was not up to the task.

Then the next morning my Brit friend and I woke up for the sunrise. the problem was, i didn{t have the 50q to get back in, , so we woke up and did a little recon through the jungle and aroudn the guard post and got in for free. I wanted to bring the machete mac gave me to hack through the jungle but I figured that if the guards did catch us that would be a hard thing to explain away. we got lost and did a cirlce on our first attempt, but we succeeded the second time. i was kind of disappointed though, because i saw quite a few monkeys, but none of them threw feces at me. now someone told me that the scene at the end of star wars, right before the awards ceremony, where the show the shot of the jungle and the pyramids, was filmed at Tikal. i will have to check that out when i get home.

I�ve just spent the last 5 days in Belize, the last 3 of those on a caribean island, snorkeling and lying in the sun. i wasn't planning on snorkeling, but i met some guys on the boat over, two Bob from Philly and Dan from Boston, and they talked me into it. so i got to swim with some nurse shards and manta rays, and see lots of colorful fish, as well as get pretty sunburned on my back.

the tour was led by a cool rasta guy named Ras Creek, who actually knew many of the sharks by sight and had names for them. That night Dan and Bob bought myself and two other girls from the the snorkle trip a great dinner. They were two really good guys. They take a trip together every year and last year was to see the Northern Lights in Alaska. They said they knew what it was like to be young and travelling without a lot of money(Bob had once biked across American)and now that they had some money they wanted to share with us. I felt really bad because I got separated from them in when we took the boat back to Belize City and I never got to thank them. Maybe they'll read this when I post it on my website.

today was a long day on a couple buses, and the country of belize charges you 14 dollars for the privelge of being able to leave their fine country. The hotel near the bus station is on the pricey side so I'm going to try and go to the beach and find a cabanya, even thought its 10pm. I figure if I dont' find one I'll just sleep on the beach. That's all for now, Jim