New Year got off to a banging start in Panajachel on lake Atitlan, with a big street battle involving massive amounts of hand launched fireworks, including rockets zooming down the narrow streets at head height and guys swinging huge reels of bangers around their heads. Ali got stuck right in and managed to escape with only a few holes burned into his fleece, whilst we viewed proceedings from the relative safety of a local disco.

In the camp site were Stuart and Chris, the american motorbikers we first met at Calakmul, and Aaron and Treena, a couple driving their Landcruiser from Alaska down to Tierra del Fuego. They also chronicle their travels on a website. Check it out at www.planetincognita.com We had a good time swapping stories while welcoming the new year in with a few bevvies and we can safely say our new friends are wicked travellers too.

After a day to recover, including lying under the landy bleeding the brakes while being attacked by ants, we left with Fridge for a drive around the picturesque Lake Atitlan. After lunch in San Pedro we drove around Volcan Cerro to Santiago, on the opposite side of the lake from Panajachel, and camped in the driveway of a hotel. As we drove along we passed many local farmers dotted along the road with their sacks of coffee beans and weighing scales, waiting to be picked up. This years harvest is much worse than last years due to excessive rainfall and the price of coffee is down too, making life more difficult for the growers, but they still had time for a laugh.

The views of Atitlan and the volcano Cerro were fantastic, especially satisfying since the previous day was a complete blanket of mist. We returned to Antigua so that B could finish his spanish course before pressing on to El Salvador.