Amidst the busy traffic in Guatemala

After the ruins at Tikal we stopped at a Guatemala tourist office and met a German couple Barbel and Bernd Jacobi.

They have been all over the world and have just been in South America travelling in a Landrover.

www.landytracks.de

its is all in German.

Our next stop was at an eco tourist complex near Poptun.

Finca Ixobal was a lovely natural place with tree houses and palapas, here we met many young backpackers.

Central America has some fantastic exotic flowers and trees.

This is just one of the many orchids we would enjoy.

       A river journey to the sea though the tropical jungle.

Beside the Rio Dulce we pulled into Brunos marina and went shopping in the local market.

 Here the main road crosses the river on the longest and highest bridge in CA.

The Castillo de San Felippe was built to keep out the British pirates who roamed the coast looking for Spanish ships to rob.

    A walk through the Unesco World Heritage city of Antigua

  Antigua is a very pretty town with cobbled streets and single story house painted in many colours.

However most people come here to visit the many churches, monasteries and shrines

Many of the old buildings have been damaged in earthquakes.

At Easter there is a huge parade and the town is very crowded.

There are many other religious buildings all across CA.

We will remember Guatemala for the bright colours everywhere - ladies blouses- bright houses-exotic flowers and those buses!

Lots of pieces of paper to collect and more rubber stamps in our passports!

All sorts of vehicles cross International borders

-do these oxen need passports and documents?

The best road is the Pan American Highway or CA1

 It  passes through all the countries from Alaska to Patagonia!

The road up through the mountains gave us a great cooler place to have lunch.

But we had to return to the warmer coastal road to cross the border into Nicaragua.

The Masaya Volcano National Park has an excellent informative display about volcanoes and we spent a peaceful night in the car park.

The road up to the crater rim was too steep for our old bus so the Ranger gave us a lift.

This is an active volcano and the crater was full of foul smelling steam,

Visitors are only allowed to stay at the rim for twenty minutes.

A Spanish friar erected a huge wooden cross as he thought this was the gateway to hell!

  On Good Friday we joined the families at the crowded San Jorge beach beside Lake Nicaragua.

There were lots of vehicles parked on the beach and we stayed overnight.

The life guard was on duty with a little rowing boat!

The traders were doing good business-this is pan of fried bananas!

Lake Nicaragua is the largest fresh water lake in CA and has many beaches and recreation centres.

Ometepe island in the lake is the top of two more volcanoes.

The best time to drive is very early in the morning just as the sun rises.

We were lucky to see this spectacular cloud formation on Conception Volcano on Ometepe.

This is a typical street in the old town of Granada.

Another classic volcano steams in the sunshine!

We never knew about all these volcanoes and hope they do not erupt!

Nicaragua is still a very poor country and horses are used as transport everyday.

Now we are leaving to cross into Costa Rica.

  Tropical flowers, fruit, trees and butterflies in Costa Rica.

The countryside here is lush, tropical and has every shade of green and huge laburnum trees in full bloom.

But first a visit to the coast at Puntarenas and to a ferry port before going up into the hills.

  The Bomberos came to our rescue when the temporary repairs we had made failed on the bad road through the hills.

Out came the big jaws and soon more repairs were made that would help us get to San Jose.

We set up home at the Belen RV park in the cooler mountain air at San Antonio. Then two other UK motor homes arrived so we had lots of stories to swap.

  Clive and Anne in a Merc 911 are travelling with Steve and Julie in a Unimog and are off to South America.

Check out their trips on the web site at www.silkroute.org.uk

With the help of local engineers Jim was able to make and fit a new modification to the bus suspension.

 We went off for a trial run to the nearby butterfly farm.

This proved a good choice as the road was in a dreadful state and tested the suspension.

The butterflies were stunning and the flowers and plants were a gardeners delight.

The Pan American goes up through the cloud forest and we struggled to get up above 3000metres in the rain!

This truck had broken its back-not surprising as the roads are just awful.

The navigators job is to spot potholes and forget the map!

            Panama, a car race and of course a famous canal!

Once we crossed the border into Panama the road became a nice wide smooth dual carriageway!

Right beside the Pacific again in the heat and humidity and along the road traditional dresses on sale near Tole.

The best campsite in all CA is at XS Memories in Santa Clara. Here Sheila and Dennis make all travellers welcome and the other two British vans had just left for the ferry.

Lots of good company and conversation and a nice cool pool!

The garden is full of flowers and exotic birds who will chat or sit on your hand!

What a little oasis this was over the holiday weekend and we met Patricia and her family from the City enjoying the cooler sea breezes.

But just along the highway there was a car race being run on Sunday on an old US airfield.

This great guy, Ezeikiel was in charge of weighing all the race cars.

The Panamanians take their motor sport very seriously and young and old dressed to impress!

Racing was fast and furious and there were a few incidents for the Race Director to adjudicate-

well it is Latin America!

Panama is investing in good roads and as most people travel by bus has chosen to use a standard design of shelter. Many were painted in bright traditional designs, some with  graffiti and others just adverts.

The National bus terminus is better than many International airports!

But we were very surprised to see Landrover advertising school shoes!

When we visited the city Jim thought if he cannot have the latest Range Rover why not a pair of shoes?

Then it was time to say adieu to Shelia and Dennis and go to visit that famous canal.

First we visited the city to arrange the shipping documents for the bus as here are no more roads south!

The city is hectic, noisy, dirty and filled with concrete buildings.

Many new high rise buildings dominate the skyline.

  The only pretty buildings are the Inglesia de I Carmen and the statue to the Spanish General Balboa.

We drove across the impressive Bridge of the Americas that takes traffic over the canal.

Our visit to watch the ships pass through the Miraflores Locks was very interesting.

The exhibition and visitor centre gives an overall view of the past, present and future of this famous waterway.

The little strong tugs (cost $2 million each) run on a cog railway line alongside the locks.

 The tugs help the pilot keep the ship  in the centre of the lock.

   Some of the bigger ships need 8 tugs as there is just 60cms gap at each side of the ship when it is down in the lock.

            Kalbarri Silverstream goes south on a Ro Ro.

One morning we awoke looking at the Pacific ocean and went to bed looking at the Atlantic!

The journey took us alongside the canal and across the Madden Dam. where the lake helps to control the vast amounts of water needed to operate the locks.

In the Summit botanical gardens we found a tree growing canon balls!

We toured along the Caribbean coast and visited the old town and forts at Portobelo where Columbus landed in 1502 and Sir Francis Drake died in 1597

After the town had been ransacked by the British pirate Henry Morgan the Spanish built better fortifications.

The Customs house where the Spaniards stored all the loot has been restored and has a small museum and work has started on restoring the crumbling forts.

The Kuna tribe live along the Costa Arriba and the ladies attire aand embroidery is very colourful.

Back towards Colon we visited the Gatun Locks to watch the ships going out to the Atlantic.