Travels Through Mesoamerica: From Costa Rica to Cuba

Bill and Janice are off on their travels again, but this time it's to one of the most potentially dangerous areas in the world, Mesoamerica. They braved unparalleled extremes as they moved between the well-preserved ruins of the Mayan civilisation, or encountered some of the most deprived modern communities in the world, where daily existence is almost unimaginable.

The reader gets an idea of how difficult this trip could be by the amount of research Bill put into it before they left. He called on friends and contacts from many of his previous journeys to work out an itinerary that took him through seven countries from Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala and Belize to The Yucatan peninsula in Mexico. If this were not enough, they then braved a trip to Cuba. The best advice he received was probably that of an American ambassador - 'Don't go' - So they did ...

And I envy them the sight of colourful macaws flaunting their plumage in the early morning light, of remote Mayan citadels, of carved stone work and gemstones, colourful markets and clothing and kindly local people. But, wherever they went today the shadow of danger seemed ever present; of unfathomable officials, unimaginable wealth and equally unfathomable poverty, the need to be suspicious of strangers, the horrors of favela life, of those vast unimaginable rubbish dumps, of bandits and desperate human beings.

- Myra Fonceca of Sheffield, England.