Survived childrens birthday party without getting involved in any humiliating party games, including 'smash the stuffed paper donkey with sticks until all the sweets fall out' - suprisingly violent game for both children and adults, culminating in a rather disturbing feeding frenzy. Have instead been adopted by friendly American lady, Jenny, who scared us witless with warnings about live volcanoes, food poisening and bandits. Wonder if conversation revealed more about Jenny than Antigua. Hope so, anway.

First Spanish lesson this morning was, erm, humbling. Luckily, both Richard and I are equally incompetent. We were worried at first about teacher, Anjelica, but lesson became much clearer when she took the chewing gum out of her mouth. Also learned a lot about family structure in Guatemala - they have huge extended families and can remember the names and ages of all their relatives, including offspring of cousins and in-laws. We got stuck on straightfoward cousins, aunts and uncles. Shameful.

Salsa lesson starts in half an hour - sure they will go better.
Laters, J