Rain and Bugs.

We (K-Nine and Mog) are parked next to the Hotel Christopher Columbus (N 15.92653 W 85.93975) just outside Trujillo on the Caribbean coast of Honduras.

Sitting on top of a hedge, one metre away, is a beautiful green lizard taking an apparently intelligent interest in the world.

To get from the main road to the Hotel Christopher Columbus, you have to drive across a disused airstrip. We know the airstrip is not in use because everybody uses it as a shortcut into town, and the usually reliable Lonely Planet says it is no longer used. However whilst writing this page a plane has landed! The only markings on the plane are ""United States of America" and a tail number of 60165. Could this be extraordinary? Now a helicopter has landed near the plane, even more extraordinary.

Question: What do you do on a beautiful Caribbean beach when it is grey, damp and getting dark?

Answer: You play Scrabble, or at least Ann and Judy do.

Apart from us, the only other guests in the hotel seem to be 90 evangelical missionaries from the USA.

In fact most of the gringos we have met in Central America seem to be earnest USA Christians intent on spreading the good word to the heathen poor with the help of vitamins and antibiotics (and given recent history you have to suspect the CIA may be involved as well).

Although we have spent the last three days on the Caribbean coast of Honduras (Tela, La Ceiba and Trujillo) the weather has not been good, with grey clouds and on occasions torrential rain. Even palm trees (yes, I know they are not really trees) look uninspiring in the rain. The brightly painted shacks, that look so photogenic in the sunshine, just look squalid surrounded by mud.

The highlight of the last few days has been our visit to what is described as a Butterfly Museum, on the outskirts of La Ceiba (turn off the main road at N 15.771857 W 86.788753). The museum is nearly all the work of one man, Robert Lehman. Originally from the USA, he worked as a teacher in Central America for many years and retired a few years ago to La Ceiba in Honduras. Since then he has opened his private collection of insects to the public. Definitely recommended, even if it's not raining! Not all the insects are dead.

Several of our recent camping places have been found in the excellent book 99 Days to Panama. Well worth buying if you are planning a Central American trip.