I started out intending to get to Chiquimula in Guatemala, an hours ride from the Honduran border. However, I first had to cross Guatemala City. Rather than leave Antigua on Saturday I’d delayed my journey by one day so I’d be crossing the city on Sunday morning. I used the same technique for Mexico City which worked really well. During the week the traffic is so bad and the city so large it would have taken a really long time. I crossed it in about an hour.

Crossing Guatemala City was even easier than I’d hoped. I only made one wrong turning and was heading out of the city after only twenty minutes.

Rather than stop and loose an hour in a restaurant I bought some biscuits and chocolate for lunch. I thought that if I could get to Chiquimula by three in the afternoon I might be able to cross the border the same day and save a night’s hotel bill.

I arrived in Chiqui at one o’clock and just carried on.

I wasn’t used to how small the Central American countries are compared to Mexico. I reached the border just before two. By three o’clock I had cleared both Customs and Immigration offices and was on my way to the Copan Ruins.

It was all going far too well.

I’m glad I hadn’t gone miles out of my way to visit these particular ruins. They were very small and paled into insignificance besides Palenque. The best of the three ruins I saw was Teotihuacan just outside Mexico City. The sheer size of them was extraordinary. The size of the two pyramids and of the site itself. The Avenue of the Dead is over a mile long and is breathtaking in it’s width as well as it’s length.

I left Copan Ruins after a brisk whiz around and after another two hundred kilometres was starting to look for somewhere to stay.

Half an hour later I was beginning to regret not stopping at the hotel I’d seen twenty minutes ago but I carried on hoping something would turn up. My map showed several towns on the road south so there must be a hotel somewhere.

My doubts were slowly growing when I saw a big billboard for a hotel on a lake. That sounded like my kind of place. The lake was actually a lot bigger than I imagined. It was ten miles long and about three wide, surrounded by green, rolling hills.

I asked the owner, Manuella, if the rooms had hot showers.

‘Yes’ she replied so I went to have a look and promptly checked myself in.

I unloaded my stuff into my room and checked out the shower. I had forgotten to look when I inspected the room. There was only one water tap. That didn’t sound like a hot water shower to me. I then looked up and saw the heater on the shower head. It was one of the electrical ‘heat on demand’ ones under which I never feel entirely safe.

Perhaps I should stand on a rubber mat?

I turned the water on and waited.

It was warm.

Bliss.

I thought a little more heat would be nice and looked up at the heater. It had a switch on the side with three positions: One, off and two blobs. It was on one blob. I reached up and slid it over to two blobs. The switch was a bit stiff so I had to put my other hand behind the unit to give me more leverage. As the lever clicked into the new position I felt that familiar buzz from an electric shock.

Oh great.

Fried in Honduras.

I stepped under the shower as the cleansing, caressing feel of the warm water surrounded me.

I had had a fabulous day.

I’d got a lot further than I expected. I was in a new country. I was a bit nearer South America. I had had a fabulous view of the sunset over the lake. It felt great to be alive.

What more could I want?