24th December - Xmas Eve

It bucketed it down in the night - jungles are great. Had a ball-tightening cold shower and went for breakfast - huevos rancheros with the Orientals. They crack me up - they are like an ant colony and all their actions are predetermined and ordered. I have decided Hilary has a hormone problem as she is far more loud and annoying first thing in the morning and calms down as the day progresses. The medical amongst you probably know what this might be?

I waited for the aussies and then we headed off on the 3km trek to the Palenque Ruins. A guide once told me to look for the differences in the ruins you visit not the similarities. MOnte Albán was on top of a mountain, Mitla had the most ornate wall decorations, Chichen Itza is set in a forest and Palenque is in the jungle. What an amazing backdrop for some of the best restored ruins in Latin America - this could easily be the setting for a Lara Croft or Indiana Jones film. We climbed, snapped, walked and the girls shopped. We took action snaps but the afternoon was marred by me getting stung by fire ants which was absolute murder. These boys aren't deterred by DEET in fact I think it turned them on. Still, I managed to bat them off pretty quickly so I only have a few weals. We spent a good few hours in the park and them trekked back for a late lunch and went on the rip early. Beth, queen of the "personal question", was on good form and soon had us relating secrets. Really need to have that football conversation before I started considering a manicure. Mikey arrived back late from his trip to the border of Guatemala to see more ruins and had a very funny story about how the bus driver forgot about him and drove back to his house before Mikey informed him he still had a passenger left.

Dinner was very good again - beef fajitas and Sol. We watched a 2 bands and another fire show and had shots of rank mandarin Vodka. As midnight approached the girls went to another bar in another part of the jungle but I pointed out there were way to many beardy-weirdies going for it to be a good night and so I saw the dawn of Xmas day while brushing my teeth back in the room.