During my four-and-a-half-month trip to Central America, I ...

- Spent more than 230 hours - over nine and a half whole days - on about 80 different buses, covering a distance of at least 7000 miles, making an approximate daily average of 1.8 hours, 55 miles and 0.6 buses ...

- Spent 127 nights in 31 different places in eight countries, sleeping in 32 different beds, one tent half way up a mountain, and one seat on a Mexican night bus ...

- Undertook about 100 trips in the back of at least 20 pick-up trucks, totalling about 30 hours and probably covering nearly 700 miles ...

- Spent about 200 hours helping to build three mud-brick houses ...

- Got bitten by countless mosquitoes but swallowed nearly 300 anti-malarial tablets ...

- Rode in around 40 taxis ...

- Ate about 500 tortillas.

As you should all know, I have recently returned from Central America having spent four and a half months there for my gap year. First I spent three months carrying out volunteer work building houses in the western highlands of Honduras, before spending six weeks exploring the rest of Central America. As I have nothing better to do right now, here is a collection of highlights - and not so great moments - from my trip.


BEST MOMENTS

1. Standing about ten feet from a lava flow on Volcán Pacaya near Antigua in Guatemala.

2. Standing behind a 40m waterfall, absolutely drenched and rather refreshed, at Pulhapanzak, near Lago de Yojoa, Honduras.

3. Sipping whisky with an Englishman at 2849 metres of altitude atop Montaña de Celaque, the highest point in all of Honduras.

4. Running around the street in torrential rain in the middle of the night with two Englishmen and four soaking wet Norwegian girls in Granada, Nicaragua.

5. Sitting atop a gigantic Mayan pyramid overlooking the jungle canopy at Tikal, Guatemala.

6. Jumping off a jetty into the warm, crystal-clear waters of the Caribbean Sea off Utila, Honduras.

7. Watching gigantic container ships pass beneath me from the viewing platform at the Miraflores Locks on the Panama Canal.

8. Sitting on a boat between 1000m-high cliffs in Cañon del Sumidero, Chiapas, Mexico.

9. Lying in the back of a pick-up truck beneath the stars on a bumpy dirt-track between San Juan and Gracias in Honduras, listening to Japanese techno-metal on Chris's mp3 player, on the way to perform number 3 above.


WORST MOMENTS

1. Being forced to pay a hundred dollars to cross from Guatemala into El Salvador, where my bus - with all my possessions on board - was waiting at the other end of the bridge.

2. Standing beside the road in the rain, in the dark, with my thumb in the air, a couple of miles out of town along a pitch black road near Uvita in Costa Rica. Would probably still be there now if I hadn't been rescued by four Dutch people and a Suzuki.

3. Vomiting out of a minibus window onto the motorway in Guatemala City on the way to Antigua, Guatemala.

4. Getting relieved of my wallet in León, Nicaragua. I knew who it was, and we even searched them ten seconds afterwards, but they had already thrown my wallet into a taxi.

5. Not seeing the sun once during my several days in Costa Rica.

6. Losing to a girl at pool, seven games to six, in La Esperanza, Honduras.

7. Simultaneous vomiting and diarrhoea. Twice. Will not go into any more detail.

Having spent about four and a half months in Central America I will be returning to sunny Scotland on the 30th of May. I intend to visit you lot in Westhill sometime around the middle of June for a week or so.

If anyone is willing to offer me a floor/couch/bed to sleep on (or somewhere to hang a hammock) for any period of time, please reply here .