• Charlotte Dixon
jan. – apr. 2017

Central America

Een 80-daags avontuur van Charlotte Meer informatie
  • Het begin van de reis
    16 januari 2017

    The adventure begins in Mexico City

    15 januari 2017, Mexico ⋅ ☀️ 17 °C

    Hola from Mexico! Hope you're ready for an essay and a half.

    We began this three month trip by arriving in Mexico City after the longest 12th January ever - approximately 43 hours for us or something ridiculous. Literally arrived about 4 hours after we left NZ but with some 20something hours of travel and horrendous immigration lines at LAX in between! The wonders of time travel. It was almost midnight though by the time we got to our hostel and obviously pitch black so we didn't really know where we were arriving to but the city looked massive from above. I guess if 22 million people live here then it has to be.

    We spent our first three nights in Mexico City, starting to familiarise ourselves with the language, culture and food. While we tried to learn some basic Spanish before we arrived, it has quickly become apparent that we are going to need to learn a lot more! Basically apart from the hostel receptionists, no one speaks English. In some ways I suppose we had expected particularly in the city that they might speak a little bit of English as they do in so many European cities and quite a lot of Southeast Asia too, but at the same time it is nice to have to make more of an effort to get by and it gives us something to do in our downtime! However I think also the more we get to the coast, the more English speaking there will be, but we will try our best to keep speaking Spanish instead.

    Another aspect we've had to adjust to was the altitude. Mexico City itself sits at 2,250m above sea level. For the most part it was fine until you climbed a few stairs and felt out of breath abnormally quickly. We've been finding ourselves more tired than usual as well but nothing a little "feet up" as Mike would call it, can't fix.

    The first day in Mexico City we quickly learnt that the locals tend to dress quite conservatively, as I first went out wearing a long sleeved dress that came to above the knee as it was quite warm (mid 20s) but with the looks I was getting, I may as well have been wearing a bikini! Even Mike wearing shorts seemed not so much the norm. So we didn't last long before I felt truly uncomfortable and we went back to get changed into some trousers. It's so interesting how differently you can be perceived by what you wear. No second looks after that and lesson learnt.

    One problem we found with the Spanish that we've learnt is that it's obviously it is mainland Spanish and although it's mostly the same, Latin American Spanish does have some differences or rather Mexican foods obviously aren't covered so we found ourselves not really having any idea what things were on the menu or even which meats were involved! This is because even though for example, cerdo is pork they will call it different things on a menu depending on how it is cooked. But anyway that first evening we went deep on trying some tacos from a street food stall and went for a mix of the meat options not knowing what any of them were. Some ended up to be a mix of what's seemed to be chorizo and pork and then we later found out with the assistance of google, that one may have been goat... interesting. At least we didn't end up with the liver that is offered at some of the other taco joints!

    That same night we went to see one of the Lucha Libre fight nights which is similar to WWF wrestling, quite staged but pretty funny as well. We went with a group from the hostel which was a laugh. The amount of snacks and drinks being sold in the aisles throughout all the different matches as well was insane, chips, popcorn and god knows what else but there was something different every minute I swear. As soon as you finished your beer they'd be ready to serve you another as well, truly hustling all night long. One experience of this was enough for us but it seems that some of the locals are avid followers and clearly each have their favourite fighters to support!

    The following day we headed south of the city via the extremely cheap metro to Xochimilco. I'm talking like 5pesos (33cents NZ or 19p) a trip each, which takes you as far as you want. I'm not saying NZ public transport needs to be that level of cheap but maybe people would actually use it if it was more affordable like that! Anyway, at Xochimilco they have canals that you can hire a boat for an hour or two and take food and drinks or buy them along the way from other boats. It was fun to see/do and clearly an activity that families do perhaps for special occasions or with friends. There are mariachi bands as well that will come onto your boat and play a few songs as well if you wish. Quite a fun idea really.

    The following day we also briefly went to see Frida Kahlo's bright blue house - funny as I studied her and her art when I was at school. Unfortunately we didn't have time to go in to the house/museum that it is now, as the lines outside were silly and we had a bus to catch!
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  • Oaxaca, Mexico

    16 januari 2017, Mexico ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C

    Next up we headed to Oaxaca City (pronounced Wa-haka), about 7-8 hours by bus, south of Mexico City. Mainly we were using this as a stopover to break up the otherwise even longer trip south so we only really had one night and one full day here before catching an overnight bus. Oaxaca City was quite cute though and was the beginning of us seeing more colonial architecture, very colourful too. It was nice to be in a smaller town again too after the enormity of Mexico City.

    Again we arrived in the dark, about 8:30-9pm so it was hard to orientate ourselves with the place first off. We were starving as well but thankfully there was a little taco place still open just around the corner from our hostel. We had such good food here we went back the next night pre-overnight bus. It was our first taste of tacos al pastor, which is basically spit-roasted pork meat like kebabs. Apparently this name actually comes from the Lebanese merchants who immigrated to Mexico City in the 1900s and brought this concept with them, because "pastor" means shepherd. So now it is intertwined with the Mexican culture too and it's a great mix to say the least, as the pork is usually cooked with chilli and other miscellaneous herbs and spices. NOM.

    With the day we had in Oaxaca City we explored the small historic town and also caught a bus up to the top of one of the mountains on the outskirts of the town called Monte Alban. Like Mexico City, Oaxaca is at altitude (1555m) but situated on a plateau with higher peaks surrounding it. So aside from awesome views of Oaxaca and the valley below, Monte Alban also had ruins from an ancient town, dating back to 300-900 AD.

    There were big pyramids, the Gran Plaza, tombs and a ball court where they used to play an ancient game called Pok ta Pok. This game between two teams involved trying to get the ball through a hoop in the middle of the court, but only being able to touch the ball with their hips or knees. Slightly hard to comprehend how this would work!

    Edit: We were fortunate enough to see this game being played in real life in Mérida - see that post for further info!

    To be fair Mike and I aren't massive on ancient ruins or buildings/history in terms of buildings but they were interesting to see and difficult to comprehend how they were even built at that time with who knows what kind of tools.

    Time to brave the first of (hopefully not too many) overnight buses. Wish us luck!
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  • San Cristobal de las Casas, Mexico

    19 januari 2017, Mexico ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C

    We arrived via overnight bus to San Cristobal de las Casas, another beautiful town in the mountains and the beginning of our experience with the picturesque Chiapas region. The buses here so far have been a pleasant surprise, I think we had prepared ourselves for the worst considering some of the experiences we had in Southeast Asia a couple of years back. All have been on time too which makes a nice change. But this particular bus ride had extremely windy roads through the mountains and it felt like the driver had a very heavy foot for said roads so Mike and I found ourselves feeling pretty ill and unable to sleep because of that really, but we made it in one piece in the end. Just.

    San Cristobal was the coldest of all the cities so far, only about 7-8 degrees and very foggy/low cloud on the morning we got there, again in part due to the altitude I suppose. Thankfully it heats up during the day as we didn't really pack for cold weather...

    We really enjoyed our time San Cristobal because aside from the beautiful historic town, there was lots to see and do from there. While we usually aren't big on doing tours; generally preferring to do things independently, we decided to do a few through our hostel as they were really cheap/mostly just involved transport anyway to then give you your own free time. Doing the transport on our own would have resulted in multiple changes of buses and longer routes so in the end it was a bit of a no brainer to just go with the tour options.

    First we went on a trip to Sumidero Canyon which involved a boat trip down this massive canyon, its highest point at 1km. It was 13km long as well so the boat trip took about an hour each way on a pretty speedy boat. We managed to spot lots of different wildlife here, including a small crocodile, storks, pelicans and vultures. Unfortunately for us and our limited amount of Spanish, the boat operator only spoke Spanish so we were unable to take in a large portion of the information that he was giving us about the canyon. However, further research has found that it was formed around the same time as the Grand Canyon, some 35million years ago! Nuts.

    That day we also visited a small town called Chiapas de Corzo, where they happened to be celebrating Fiesta Grande de Enero (the great January feast). As part of this they dress up for the dance of of the Parachicos. We didn't see this dance but we saw some of the people dressed up and walking the streets with music etc.

    San Cristobal itself was an interesting town, although we mostly only experienced the historic part of it. When we drove out of the town on some our excursions, we realised how big the city actually was and some of the more mainstream/American businesses that it had, for example Dominos pizza, big supermarkets, car yards and the like. The historic part where we stayed was for the most part really nice, with small one way streets which often backed up with traffic and with similar colonial architecture to Oaxaca and parts of Europe. One thing I have really enjoyed is the colourfulness of some of the buildings. I feel like finding an average street at home in NZ would never be particularly appealing to take a photo of but so often in Europe, and now here; I keep finding myself just constantly taking photos different streets. The amount of westerners that seemed to be living here or just in San Cristobal more long term as opposed to just passing through was somewhat surprising, most of them seemed to be well amongst the hippy vibe.

    Temporarily joining in on this hippy, holistic vibe, I managed to do a couple of yoga classes here which we stumbled across on one of the roads near where we were staying. Most of the class was in Spanish but it was almost surprising how easy it was to grasp what the instructor was saying in the limited amount of Spanish I knew, combined with watching the movements at the same time. All in all, it was a really nice experience to not only support a local business, but to get some exercise and some Spanish practice out of it as well.

    One evening post yoga we decided we needed a break from the Mexican food as surprisingly we hadn't particularly found any great local spots for it here. San Cristobal has lots of restaurants with different cuisines, perhaps due to the fact that many westerners seem to have settled here. So we tried a Thai restaurant that Mike found on tripadvisor with good ratings. Not long after sitting down and ordering we realised the restaurant was supposed to be closing at 8:30pm and we had only turned up just after 8. Feeling bad that we were keeping them late we chowed down our food when it came and must have looked like we hadn't eaten in weeks! It was some of the best Thai food we've had and afterwards the owner came and checked that everything was ok. It turned out she was originally from Bangkok but who had lived in New Zealand for 13 years and now has been in Mexico for 7. She was super nice and told us about how even though she'd done a masters degree in NZ, she still struggled to ever get a decent job there. This is all too common unfortunately and this was ultimately what drove her to move away. To be fair, she's doing a great job with her restaurant and has already had to upsize, so this new venture is clearly working and at least she gets to share her roots with San Cristobal.

    Continuing on the tour front, we also did one super long day trip where we visited El Chiflon waterfall and Lago de Montebello which is a series of lakes on the Guatemalan border. We had only really wanted to go to the waterfall but all the tours involved both sights and it was too much admin to do on our own so we just had to suck it up! At El Chiflon Mike managed to talk me into going zip lining again over the waterfalls. We did two different ziplines, both a few hundred metres long. The first of which I couldn't manage to brake hard enough at the end so went flying into the finish and ended up horizontal for a moment. Mike has it on video and it would definitely make for a good gag reel!! Thankfully the workers managed to catch me or I would have gone backwards and ended up hanging in the middle somewhere probably! Then we headed to the lakes, which were pretty but we didn't have much time to stop there to actually do much more than take a few photos so not sure all those hours of driving were particularly worth it but you can't have it all! The drive itself was super frustrating as we'd be driving in an 80-100km zone and then suddenly there'd be speed bumps in the middle of no where every few kilometres, really bizarre. But all in all it was a fun day, just very long and tiring!
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  • San Juan Chamula, Mexico

    20 januari 2017, Mexico ⋅ ☀️ 17 °C

    One last trip we did from San Cristobal was to visit San Juan Chamula which is an indigenous community who live in a village about 10km out. It was super interesting and the first time we had an English speaking guide, so this day trip deserved its own post.

    San Chamula has an autonomous status in Mexico so no police or military within the village. This doesn't mean to say they don't have any sense of order though. They have three different types of leaders; religious, traditional and civic.

    There are 112 religious leaders, two living together over 46 different houses. Taking up this role for a year each sounds like a pretty expensive role but also a rite of passage. Prayers are done four times a day, but if the leaders are out of the house then this can be undertaken by their wives. Prayers are not set, instead they pray whatever comes from the heart, using candles and incense - ultimately leaving the room thick with smoke.

    Local traditional dress involves black wool skirts weaved from sheeps wool for the women and almost poncho/dress like versions of similarly weaved wool for the men, except white. Belonging to this village seems somewhat elite. Basically the only newcomers can be if a man from the village finds a woman from another. If the situation is the other way around then the woman must leave the village. Members of the village are also banished/evicted with any change of religion or beliefs. Pretty cut-throat and prestigious in some ways.

    Visiting the church of San Chamula was very different to any other church we've ever been to. There were no pews and no altar as such or any cross or anything, just many saints who they pray to for different reasons. They also have pine needles all over the floor, replaced every Saturday - symbolising close proximity to Mother Nature as their Mayan cross is the tree of life.

    We witnessed some of their healing ceremonies within the church, performed by a healer with the person needing to be healed and their family. Healers are born with their powers but are trained by other healers on how to use them. Often the healers can be people born with deformities, for example cleft palette. The healing ceremony itself involved a series of candles being lit on the floor, different colours depending on what is being prayed for/needing to be healed (white for health, orange for money etc). It also involved four other elements, a chicken, an egg, Coca Cola and their local homemade spirit which is called posh (which tastes terrible by the way - similar to rice wine). The chicken is waved over the person to take all the bad energy and then is killed (neck broken) in the church and then either eaten with the family after to share the problem or buried. The egg is waved over the person and symbolises new life and new beginnings. They then drink the coke (this replaces a similar coloured drink that they used to make but because it takes so long they now just use coke) and supposedly when they burp afterwards it is supposed to be releasing the problem. Lastly, they drink the posh to burn the last of the problem out. Interesting concept to say the least!

    At the time of our visit, the village was celebrating Saint Sebastian. They were parading around the main square with some men on horses and others walking, all in their traditional dress. Every time the procession passed in front of the church, some men would let off handheld fireworks. These fireworks are different to what we're used to, they aren't coloured so all their focus goes into making them as loud as possible. It doesn't surprise me that some of these men are hard of hearing given they are literally holding them at arms length when they go off. Absolutely nuts.

    We couldn't really take any photos in the village as the locals don't permit you to do so - but rightly so as it must be strange having people take photos of you all the time as you try and go about your daily life! So the photos on this post are from another small village we also visited this day, called Zinacantàn. They follow similar values but their local dress is completely different. See the flowery purple clothes below. They too were celebrating Saint Sebastian for nine days but had huge crowds and a big party this day. There was also some strange ritual at one stage which involved three or four men dressed as leopards climbing up a tree/pole and others then throwing stuffed squirrels at them... bizarre as heck and I can't remember the significance of this but it went over my head a bit even when explained at the time.

    Zinacantàn is well known for its beautiful flowers, with tons of huge green houses on the outskirts of the town and this is the inspiration for the embroidered flowers on their traditional clothing. After witnessing the bizarre squirrel throwing, our guide took us to the house of a local lady who was making a traditional wedding dress as seen in the photos linked. They also showed us some of their local clothing but no one volunteered to try on one of the wedding dresses but somehow Mike and I ended up modelling a couple of capes!

    Afterwards they treated us to some tortillas and black beans with salsa. All homemade from homegrown organic ingredients. So simple but so tasty! The tortillas were literally made from mushed up corn and water and then flattened from a ball into the classic circle shape and then cooked on a pan covered in chalk over a log fire. It's so interesting to see how resourceful people can be with just the basics.

    Overall we both thoroughly enjoyed the insight into these two villages and the strong sense of culture they beheld. Definitely opens your eyes to how differently people can live! Time to venture further east, back to sea level and warmer temperatures - bring on Palenque.
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  • Palenque and the first bout of sickness

    24 januari 2017, Mexico ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C

    Continuing our adventures in the Chiapas region, we headed further east to Palenque via tikitour on another 8 hour bus ride. I say tikitour because the direct route would take just 4.5 hours, however there has been protesting and highway blockages on this route from San Cristobal on and off for the last couple of years. One guide told us this can be by people from the smaller villages on these roads who are protesting as people don't stop here and spend any money or stay there, instead heading for the bigger towns which leaves them with no income from tourists. Long story short, the bus takes a longer route to avoid this.

    We stayed in a wee hut about 10km outside the actual Palenque city in an area called El Panchan which is sort of in the jungle which was quite fun. We could hear lots of different animals each night when we were sleeping although sometimes we weren't overly sure what they were. Other guests said they were jaguars but weren't sure how true that really was. Definitely ones that we did see were black howler monkeys so I'm sure they were making at least some of the noise! It has been our first stop out of the mountains as well which thankfully brings with it some warmer temperatures.

    The first day here we visited an awesome set of waterfalls for the afternoon called Roberto Barrio. There was literally no one else there apart from our tour group of about 15 (again, when I say tour I mean the type where they just drive you there and back) which was insane because it was such an amazing spot. There was about three or four different levels of main waterfalls with huge pools at the bottom and then the main one we swam at you could climb all over and sit in little pools amongst it, awesome. Definitely recommend.

    Then unfortunately in the middle of the night I managed to get sick with food poisoning or something of the like somehow so we spent the majority of the next day doing not an awful lot! Not overly sure what from considering Mike and I have been eating and sharing basically all the same foods but we will never know. Thankfully the worst of it was over within 24 hours and then it was just trying to face food again without the classic stomach churn and get the energy levels up again after the best part of two or three days without much substance. Because of where we were staying in almost the middle of nowhere, there was only really one restaurant called Don Muchos where we could eat at for breakfast, lunch and dinner for three days so it was lucky they had a large menu because we had well and truly exhausted the options after that many meals! They had live music each night though from a local band which kept things interesting.

    We had intended to visit another two different waterfalls but given my sickness taking out a day of activities and the fact that we needed to keep moving we had to choose between these and seeing the ruins, which most people come to Palenque for. We had heard that these other waterfalls weren't as good as Roberto Barrio and far more touristy so we decided it was best to see the ruins instead.

    So on our last day I managed to just muster enough energy to go and see said ruins. The ruins here date back to 226BC to 799AD but only about 5% of them are open to the public so it must be an absolutely massive area. Nowadays all these ruins are situated in a massive jungle which made for some good exploring for us and a welcome relief from the sunshine. So crazy to try and imagine these pyramids and palaces being bright colours like blue and red in their heyday when today they just look like regular stone. Unfortunately I have since managed to somehow wipe our SD card before I managed to back it up so we don't actually have any photos from the outing to share. Technology. :(
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  • Mérida, Mexico

    26 januari 2017, Mexico ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C

    Getting closer to the coast! We've hit the Yucatan penisula. Mérida was again a bit of a stopover just for a day and two nights as opposed to us particularly wanting to see/do something there but we found ourselves in a hostel with an amazing pool here which was much required! And another interesting little town.

    We did a free walking tour in morning, which actually just ended up being a walk around the main square or Zocalo as each historic town has, and visiting the buildings on each side. The guide was talking mile-a-minute and going back and forth between Spanish and English so much that sometimes you couldn't keep up with which language he was actually speaking! I found myself somewhat exhausted after and hour and half of this - trying to decipher what I could in Spanish and then listening properly in English! Too much for the old brain.

    That evening also happened to be a Friday which worked out well because every Friday they play the ancient Mayan game Pok-ta-Pok in the main square that you can go and watch for free. This was the game I wrote about in an earlier post where we saw the court used for this at the ruins in Oaxaca and Palenque, so we were very intrigued to see it played in real life.

    The game is set up with a free standing hoop in the middle of the court, similar to the hoops in quiddich from Harry Potter. There were teams of about 4 or 5 and a ball a bit bigger than a baseball but made of unknown material. It roughly starts with someone from either team throwing or rolling the ball to the other side of the court and then after that it can only be touched with their hips or knees. So proceeds a somewhat ridiculous display of men sliding all over the concrete to hit the ball with their hips while it's on the ground until eventually someone makes it get some air so they can stand and thrust at it instead! How they didn't all have grazed knees and thighs I don't know!Once the ball gets higher off the ground they are then trying to get it through the hoop. It seems each team member can touch the ball once on their side of the court until it gets to the other so it's similar a bit to volleyball in some ways. Neither team managed to get it through the hoop in this round. So the following round, things got more heated. Literally.

    The ball was lit on fire and so began a game reminiscent of hot potato. Same rules as before but played with hands instead of hips and knees. A lot more goals were scored in this high paced version! All in all, a fun game to watch but no desire to join in and have burnt hands at this stage...
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  • Vallodolid and the Cenotes

    28 januari 2017, Mexico ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C

    Cenotes! What a cool phenomenon.

    For those not familiar with cenotes, they're essentially underground caves/sinkholes that have been formed by the collapse of limestone exposing the groundwater below. Our stopover in Vallodolid was literally planned just to see these as there are many surrounding the town. Upon our arrival we noticed there was one actually in the centre of town just 500m from where we were staying so we chucked the togs on and meandered down the road. What literally just looks like a small mound of dirt to the average passerby then turned into a staircase down into a little slice of paradise that is Cenote Zaci. This one was half open air and half covered, with a good 20m between the roof and the pool below. Really hard to capture in a photo but great for a wee dip!

    The following day we hired a couple of rickety bikes from our hostel and biked about 5 or 6km out of town to some other cenotes. Unfortunately these ones were somewhat more commercialised with a full complex of restaurants and stalls selling the usual tourist crap so we paid a bit more to get into them. Thankfully the actual cenotes themselves were still really worth visiting. They were a lot more underground and undercover than Cenote Zaci and the humidity levels were at an all time high, the only light let in by a small hole in the roof and the assistance of some artificial lighting. All these cenotes have pretty clear water as you can see an abundance of black fish similar to catfish swimming around and other smaller fish nibbling at your feet, which feels horrific by the way. I can't believe people actually pay to have fish do that with their feet in a tank. Yuck!

    Our hostel in Vallodolid had an awesome outdoor area and communal kitchen so we cooked up a couple of cheap meals with the help of a big supermarket nearby. The hostel happened to be situated on a sort of courtyard/square with a local church which was the host of many festivities over the weekend we were there. This was part of the annual 12 day Candelaria Fiesta where they celebrate the Virgin de la Candelaria (the virgin of the candle). At all hours of the day there were church services, singing and dancing. The locals were all dressed up in their traditional clothing as well, white dresses with colourful embroidered flowers and flowers in their hair for the ladies and white shirts, trousers and cowboy hats for the men. We definitely had a good people-watching spot for a couple of days but not a lot of sleep, the Mexicans really know how to do a fiesta! (Unfortunately these are also some of the photos lost due to SD card issues)

    Next up, it's time for some vitamin sea. Isla Holbox, we are coming for you!
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  • Isla Holbox, Mexico

    1 februari 2017, Mexico ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C

    After being landlocked for the first couple of weeks of our trip, what better way to get used to being by the sea again than to head to an island? So, we headed to Isla Holbox. White sand beaches and turquoise water. Not a bad place to introduce ourselves to the coast and seaside life of Mexico.

    Isla Holbox isn't overly developed and the town itself is pretty small; there are only a couple of roads, most people just getting around on foot, bicycle, motorbike or golf cart. There's only a handful of a cars on the island at this stage. The life here is pretty simple with the shop and restaurant owners seemly just opening and closing whenever they felt like it. Some days for a few hours, some days not at all. There didn't really seem to be any pattern to it!

    We spent much of our first day wading through a mix of knee to waist deep water along various sand bars for about an hour and a half to a beach where supposedly we should have found flamingos. Either we didn't walk far enough or the flamingos were hiding because unfortunately they were nowhere to be seen. We did however see some small stingrays (about the size of a small frisbee) and a few different fish along the way, so all was not lost. We returned to our hostel somewhat defeated and almost delirious with dehydration and borderline sunstroke after what ended up to be a 5 hour expedition in harsh sun.

    If that wasn't enough for our bods Mike and I set out to punish them some more. Mike headed out for a run and I found another yoga class to do on the rooftop of the hostel - this time run by another girl travelling from Switzerland, at sunset, overlooking the sea. Bliss.

    Mike did some restaurant research again and found very unassuming local place that dished out some amazing fish tacos. So good we had to repeat offend the following night. Lucky we turned up earlier though as the second night the restaurant closed at 7pm when the previous night it shut at 8:30. What restaurant serving dinner shuts so early?! Bizarre.

    Our hostel also happened to be running a quiz night so we thought we'd get amongst. It was run by a crazy Mexican girl who was mile a minute switching between English and Spanish and full of personality. We ended up being grouped with a couple of Aussie girls and a Turkish guy and surprisingly managed to not come last which was a bonus, although not first either! The quiz night escalated into a night out with one of the Aussie girls from our team and some English lads on one of the opposing teams. We hopped between a couple of bars and ending up at a beach bar/shack with a DJ using a full on huge Apple Mac computer on a random desk in the sand. Classic.

    We woke up feeling a bit worse for wear the following day but pushed through and walked past multiple building sites, some of which seemed abandoned, to a different beach with hardly anyone else around which was really nice. Isla Holbox is a bit of a weird spot. You can't tell if it's developing more or not really. Many of the building sites seem half done and then just left. But who knows!

    We had hoped to swim with whale sharks here but unfortunately found ourselves visiting out of season, so we're going to have to save that for another time!

    All in all, Isla Holbox gave us a mixture of relaxation, party time and some much needed beach time, but also I think it's the beginning of a completely different side of Mexico. A much more commercial and touristy side, but we shall see.

    For now we're heading back to the mainland, Cancún is our next stop and some well-overdue reunions await!
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  • Cancún and pals!

    2 februari 2017, Mexico ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C

    Ahhh Cancún. Somewhere we were originally planning to skip as it's really just resort after resort along the beach with people on all-inclusive holidays and therefore more expensive and not an authentic experience of Mexico. We made the exception for one day however, as we had pals to meet! They've all come off a two month sailing trip around the British Virgin Islands and a week or so in Cuba but now have decided to delve into some of Central America with us and put our tans to shame. Scott and Rich were friends we made from our time in Auckland and Rich's girlfriend Cat has joined us too, so now we have a little gang of sorts to travel with for the next few weeks. A gang which I clearly missed the memo about needing to be at least 5"11...cue many photos highlighting my midgetness for the next few weeks.

    Mike and I arrived a little earlier than expected to Cancún after a somewhat express ferry-bus combo from Isla Holbox got us here before 10am. We were staying in the downtown area of Cancún in a rather shady hostel to avoid the extortionate prices of the hotel zone (it's actually called this) so jumped on one of the hail-from-anywhere-you-want buses to get us to the beach, as we knew the others wouldn't arrive until mid afternoon. We headed to Playa Delfines, which actually turned out to be a really nice stretch of beach with a break in the hotels behind and white sand that sticks to absolutely everything, especially with sunblock on! The water was super turquoise in the shallows but semi dangerous for swimming as there was lots of strong currents and rips so we passed the time reading and listening to podcasts instead.

    Back at the hostel we reunited with the pals late afternoon and had a couple of years of catching up to do over a few beersies on the rooftop. The lack of options and the quality of Cuban food had really broken these guys so they were excited to see what the Mexican food had to offer. Thankfully we stumbled across a open-air local food market not far from where we staying and tucked in to some super cheap and tasty Mexican food, so I think they were much happier after that!

    The following morning we trooped out to the beach again, this time to a slightly closer beach called Playa Marlin. It was quite similar to the beach from the previous day but with hotels behind. Again this beach wasn't great for swimming due to rips and currents but it was really hot by mid morning already and the water was warm so we couldn't resist. Other stretches of beach are better for swimming but they get crammed with people or taken over by water sports areas. Catch 22 really.

    Cancún was much bigger than I expected, it's a proper city with highways, malls, supermarkets and general Americanisation as well as all those multi-storey hotels. Safe to say we were happy to keep this stop short. For now the gang is continuing south!
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  • Tulum, Mexico

    5 februari 2017, Mexico ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

    Tulum. A welcome escape from the metropolis that is Cancún and our last stop in Mexico.

    A local taco joint just down the road from us became a quick favourite and our dinner spot for three nights in a row. Don't fix what ain't broke and all that. This place was rammed every night and rightly so. Night one involved naive amounts of red chilli saucing, which quickly left us all with numb tongues, mouths and lips! Lesson learnt that this chilli sauce was not to be messed with and substantially less amounts were used on following nights.

    Like Valladolid, Tulum is well known for its cenotes so our newfound gang were keen to check these out. Armed with free bicycles from our hostel, we took on a good 20km ride on a mixture of cycle paths and genuine highways, out to Cenote Dos Ojos. Whether we were really allowed to be cycling on what was essentially a shoulder of a dual carriageway/main highway remains unknown but we made it there and back unharmed, the only casualty being Scott's chain coming off when he cycled too hard trying to race a truck. Boys!

    Cenote Dos Ojos was a bit more on the commercial side so we found ourselves being roped into doing a tour as we would only be able to visit a small portion of the cenote on our own. The others had intended to dive the cenote but it turned out to only be 8-9m at its deepest points so it wasn't really worth it. So snorkels and fins were donned, along with wetsuits for us girls. This cenote was completely different again to the others Mike and I had already visited. Instead of being wide and open and just one pool, it was almost completely covered, you could touch the ceiling with your hand (or smack it with your head as we all did a few times) and it was a borderline maze at times. It quickly became apparent why we needed a guide. We were each given a torch to use underwater as well because most of the cave was really dark. The tour itself was probably a bit more express than we would've liked, but the water was insanely clear and we all enjoyed snorkelling around and looking at the various different formations of the cave. One portion was rightly called bat cave, with many tiny little bats hanging in the ceiling crevices - all only about the size of the palm of your hand. Crazy!

    Not learning from our excessive sweating on the first day of exercise in 28 degree heat, the team ventured out for a 6km M.E.R.C to the beach. Mount Eden Running Club doesn't have a great history, dating back to our Auckland days. Usually a boys running club that frequently involves multiple members breaking down or bowing out mid-run for some reason or another, this run was no different. Clearly adding girls into the mix only added to these statistics. Cat tripped over and grazed her hand and leg, followed shortly after by me bowing out due to a combination of a lingering cold and my tight IT band playing up yet again. Before long the heat got to us all and we walked the last km to the beach together. A swim was much needed by the time us sweaty messes arrived, so we spent a good half an hour in the sea, body-surfing the waves and playing with a waboba ball. The water here is so warm but still refreshing at the same time, so nice!

    Post-swim the realisation set in that we needed a way home again, so Cat, Rich and I took a taxi via the supermarket to get lunch for the team while Mike and Scott braved the brutal heat of the day to run another 6km home again. Nutters.

    Rich is an avid NFL follower so when we saw a couple of bars were going to be playing the Super Bowl final, we decided we'd lock it in as a Sunday afternoon activity. A few beersies and a couple of drunk weirdos at neighbouring tables made for some interesting side entertainment whilst trying to grasp the rules of a game I haven't watched probably since visiting family in the US 11 years ago. Of course the others were supporting the underdogs, but considering my family live in New England I thought I'd better support the Patriots too. And what a comeback it was!

    Mexico has been an awesome country to explore. So much culture, great food, some wicked scenery and natural wonders to hang out in, not to mention the stunning white sand beaches. Definitely would recommend it for a visit. Next up, country number 40 for me! We're heading to Belize - Caye Caulker island to be exact. Can't have a break from island life for too long right?
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  • Caye Caulker, Belize

    6 februari 2017, Belize ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C

    "Taxi? Boyfriend?"

    "Conch fritters! Conch fritters! You're missing out!"

    "I'm looking for a girlfrieeeeend!"

    After a somewhat haphazard day consisting of multiple forms of transport and unorganised border crossings, the team set foot on the island of Caye Caulker, Belize some 10 hours later with much emptier wallets. Immediately after stepping off the ferry, we realised how friendly the Belizean people in this island are, striking up a conversation with anyone and everyone that passes them in the street. There are a lot of bold personalities here that's for sure. Pretty strange to be back in a predominately english speaking country again but this is only a fleeting visit for us to Belize. Expensive living and no real outstanding attractions compared to the other Central American countries means the island of Caye Caulker is the only stop for us in this country.

    Accommodation options were somewhat limited for the five of us when we got around to trying to book somewhere so we ended up in an animal sanctuary come hostel for our first two nights. Unfortunately it lived up to most of the poor reviews, giving us dirty, boiling hot rooms and a lingering smell of cat pee. Probably not surprising considering there are probably at least 40 cats within this property. Perhaps the original idea was nice but the place has got out of hand and is well in need of some TLC. Thankfully after walking around and asking almost every hotel/guesthouse on the island, we found a new place to stay for our last two nights. Much cleaner, with fresh towels daily and almost half the price too. Upgrade would be an understatement.

    "Go Slow" is the motto around here so that's mostly what we've been doing. Starting the day with fry jacks became part of the daily morning routine. Fry jacks are a traditional belizean dish, consisting of deep-fried dough and filled with any combination of cheese, eggs, beans, chicken or ham. They don't look appetising at all but they satisfy the stomach each morning. After that most of our days revolved around where to eat next, punctuated with drinking, swimming, kayaking, sunbathing and reading. Tough times out here.

    We did make an exception to venture out for a full day snorkelling trip with Caveman tours which was definitely a highlight. Multiple stops, including one to Hol Chan Marine reserve allowed us to see a range of sea life, beginning with one of the biggest turtles any of us had ever seen. We also managed to see a few different stingrays, sharks, a shipwreck, sea horses, tarpons, eels and an abundance of other smaller fish. Unfortunately we missed out on seeing manatees due to it being the wrong season, but everyone really enjoyed the day regardless. Amazing visibility and being able to swim in such close proximity to the stingrays, sharks and the turtle was epic and our guides showed us a good time.

    Given that we'd walked past Fran's Grill every night with her hollering at us to come and have dinner, we thought we'd better give her food a shot. This establishment literally consisted of a small shack about twice the size of a London telephone box for food prep and a handful of picnic tables on the beach. The usual deal involved a main with two sides, unlimited rum and dessert for 25 Belize dollars each (£10/$17NZD). This particular night they had no dessert and this was by no means a cheap meal for us so we we bargained for extra sides as a replacement! At one point Rich also tried to bargain for more rum as well, to which we had to remind him we were already getting unlimited servings... The food was pretty good, we had a mixture of jerk chicken and variations of shrimp between us and a few laughs with the staff in between.

    A post dinner chat with one of the locals that helped served us gave us a bit of insight to life on the island and in Belize in general. This was definitely one of the perks of the locals speaking English here. So many times in Mexico I found myself wanting to ask more about things or the culture but the language barrier stopped me from being able to do so. Got to brush up on the Spanish some more for the next few countries as we are heading back into primarily Spanish speaking places again now.

    We're headed to Guatemala next. This is one of the countries I have been looking forward to most, so let's see what it has to offer!
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  • Flores, Guatemala

    11 februari 2017, Guatemala ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C

    Another long day of travel consisting of a boat/bus/minibus combo from Caye Caulker and some pretty uneventful border crossings, had us arrive in Flores, Guatemala by late afternoon. This little town situated in the middle of a lake with narrow cobblestone streets seems quite tourist focussed. I suppose this should have been expected though, considering most people (like us) stay here in order to visit Guatemala's number one tourist attraction - Tikal, an archaeological site of ancient Mayan temples.

    Our Lonely Planet book recommended we check out the local markets on one side of the Flores island for dinner, so off we went. Four or five stalls were selling the exact same foods right next to each other so we picked one and tucked in. The tacos and burritos were clearly pre-prepared so all cold and nothing on the ones we had in Mexico, but with cheap eats you can't really complain! Everyone surprisingly managed to abstain from the huge servings of cake on offer - literally reminiscent of the Matilda mud cake scene - which was probably a good thing as the daily treats and bakery trips have got a bit out of control as of late. I'm looking at you especially Scott! Donut addict.

    Flores is connected by a short 500m causeway to Santa Elena which is the main town on the lake front. We were surprised to find a commercial mall in Santa Elena with a supermarket, bakery, a bank, shops and even a Burger King. Thankfully the supermarket and bakery allowed us to stock up on some breakfast and lunch for the following day, as we'd opted for the 4:30am pickup (yikes) to head to Tikal. Tikal is only about an hour drive away from Flores, but we'd been advised that it was best to be at the park for when it opened at 6am - both to beat the crowds and heat, plus increase our likelihood of spotting some of the many animals that live amongst the National Park that the archaeological site is situated in.

    4:30am rolled around and we all dragged ourselves out of bed and onto the street to be picked up by a minivan to head to Tikal. Whilst the early morning start was a bit rough, I think it did pay off in the end. We had hardly set foot in the park and already saw a toucan, spider monkeys and an agouti (a rodent type thing). We also managed to see the howler monkey which we saw in Palenque as well, plus some parrots and turkeys. Supposedly there are some jaguars and cougars that live in the park too, but we didn't spot these. The Tikal site itself was pretty spectacular. The ancient city was all built and inhabited between 200-900AD until for some reason still unknown to this day, it was abandoned. It was rediscovered in the 1800s, only by the top of one of the temples being visible above the rainforest and moss that had grown all over the site since its abandonment. To this day, only parts of the site have been excavated - with no other real plans to do much more, so that the many different species of wildlife that now live in the rainforest here can continue to flourish.

    Some of the temples are still covered in moss and trees so kind of just look like a small (albeit sort of pyramid shaped) hill amongst the forest if you didn't know what was beneath. We had an English speaking guide who was very informative to show us around the site and explain things along the way. The Mayans built their temples, facing in various directions, using the alignment of the sun to help tell the time of day, year and to predict the weather. Pretty clever really. Photo attached to illustrate! A few of the excavated structures could be climbed somewhat tentatively considering the steps are awkwardly steep and obviously these temples weren't built with handrails or safety in mind. We climbed a couple, including the tallest which is Temple I. Temple I sits at 70m in height and offered expansive views over the top of the park and beyond, punctuated by the peaks of some of the other temples. Stunning.

    Feeling pretty knackered after the early morning start and walking around the Tikal site for a few hours, we headed back to base for a bit of rest. Unless you're talking about Mike and Scott, the crazy men who set out for a 12km run in 30 degree heat. No thanks. Rich has had an upset tum for a few days now so in contrast to the runners, the rest of us headed to Burger King to see if we could give his tum some respite with some familiar food.

    Late afternoon we caught a wee boat across the lake to Jorge's rope swing. The local family that live here have really monopolised on this epic spot - charging 10 quetzal (£1/$1.80NZD) per person for entry to the property/use of the swing and then selling some beers and food at what is also a great place to watch the sunset. We timed our visit well and had the swing to ourselves for a good half an hour or so, each trying various different heights to jump from. Arguably it was the best rope swing any of us had done, with great height and distance to jump out into the lake. Once we'd all had our Tarzan fix, we set up camp with some beers to watch the sunset and set up a judging panel for the other jumpers and swingers that turned up, which proved highly entertaining. Some questionable dismounts! Even one of the kids from the house who resembled Mowgli from the Jungle Book and would have only been probably about 6 years old, jumped off the makeshift diving board that was probably a good 6-7 metres high. Impressive for a wee tyke! Our boat lady returned to collect us after sunset and proceeded to not so subtly smoke a joint with her friend on our trip back. Classic.

    We realised that one of our friends George from Auckland happened to also be in Flores, so managed to catch up with him over dinner and I'm sure we will probably see him down the road again somewhere in Guatemala, as most people seem to do a similar route!

    Next up, we're heading south to Lanquin to hit the mountains and continue with the jungle theme.
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  • Lanquin, Guatemala

    14 februari 2017, Guatemala ⋅ ☀️ 31 °C

    Well our good run of transport and bus trips has come to an abrupt end, but I guess this was inevitable! We piled into a minibus for an 8 hour journey from Flores, that became a 10 hour one. Thankfully our van wasn't completely full so we had a bit more space than usual. This turned out to be pretty necessary especially when we had a to make a detour onto a gravel/mud/rock road after the main road was cut off due to a fatal motorcycle accident. The locals flocked to the site and all stood around, while the poor victim and their bike just laid on the road. Whether this was a nosey thing or a cultural thing I don't know, but there would have easily been a hundred local people from nearby villages rushing to the crash site. So bizarre. Our detour took us on some crappy roads probably more suited to a 4x4 but it was cool to go rural for a while!

    With sore bums and slightly battered spirits, we were relieved to find we'd scored the jackpot with our hostel in Lanquin, staying at the Zephyr Hostel in the mountains. It was borderline like a resort in some ways, infinity pool, outdoor dump showers and loos all with views of the mountains and valleys covered in lush green. Couldn't have all this without some wee visitors though! A huge spider, cockroach and centipede all made appearances in our dorm rooms. Eeeeep. The first morning here we basically had the place to ourselves to chill out in the pool as most people either headed off to their next destination or on tours early morning. So good to have a nice place just to hang out and relax.

    By lunchtime we figured we should probably get out and about so walked about 10 minutes or so into small Lanquin centre in search of a cheaper feed than we could find at the hostel itself. Successful outing in that respect and Scotty even managed to keep down the vomit that he'd felt brewing all morning, leaving behind half a pineapple Fanta though which would normally be unheard of. We ventured further, walking past a primary school that seemed to be doing some sort of prize giving and some local housing where all the little kids yelled "Hola!" as we passed by. Too cute.

    Thinking we'd hit a dead end and a slightly aggressive dog, we actually found a path down to the river in the valley below. Jandals weren't entirely appropriate footwear for this slippery and muddy path so it was only a matter of time until one of us had a deplugging incident! *Cough* Mike. At the river we found many local families bathing so we awkwardly had to shuffle past until we found a little inlet of our own to stop at. The river was flowing quite quickly so the lads played around trying to swim against it but just ended up staying in the same spot so basically it became the swimming form of a treadmill. By this point they'd built up an audience of some of the locals, very inquisitive and interested to see the photos I was taking of the others in the water. The river also had some decent rapids that the boys thought they'd try and float down. Of course Scotty was the guinea pig who quickly returned with a grazed knee and shin from sharp rocks beneath, much to the locals entertainment. Mike and Rich managed to stop themselves before they too got battered. The walk home was punctuated with some delightful homemade treats. Frozen banana and frozen strawberries covered in chocolate on skewers for 1 or 2 quetzals a piece (11p-22p/19-38cents NZ). Yummm.

    Day two we headed out for a jam packed day on a tour run through our hostel. We were loaded onto the back of pickup trucks, standing up, holding a metal frame for support on what was a 45 minute journey on a hilly rock/dirt road. With some of the bars of the frame at head height for me, I was just trying not to break my teeth or knock myself out on them! The journey itself became part of the adventure though, through lush countryside and wee villages, locals waving and smiling as we passed by. Kam Ba Caves were our first stop, after we managed to get past some hustling kids trying to stuff beer and chocolate down our throats! Stripping down to our togs and sneakers, we were each handed a candle to use as our light whilst in the cave, which to be fair didn't do a massive amount. Bumped and bruised knees and shins to follow. Ankle deep water quickly came up to our heads and before we knew it we were deep in the cave and unable to touch the ground. At one point it almost looked like we'd joined some ridiculous cult when you looked back at everyone with their candles. We spent about half an hour or so walking and swimming through various depths of water, abseiling small waterfalls and after climbing up a semi sketchy cave face, jumping off into a dark pool at the end. We thought the cave was a loop but it turned out we had to then go back the same way we'd come, past other tour groups who'd got stuck behind us waiting for us all to jump. Thankfully we seemed to be the first group at everything all day, so no waiting around for us!

    Once out of the cave, we were shuffled to a huge swing out onto the river which involved many painful looking dismounts, so Cat and I sat out on this one. The boys had varying degrees of success. Next up was a bridge jump, about 9-10 metres high depending on whether you jumped from the top of the railings (like a man) or the bottom of the bridge itself (chicken). After those comments, of course the boys had to take the manly option, but us girls were happy enough with the chicken level. The river had a rather strong current as well so you had to swim quite hard to get to the side once you landed, which was no easy feat whilst wearing shoes!

    Post lunch stop, we got straight into a steep hike up limestone cliffs to the viewpoint of the main attraction around these ways, Semuc Champey. Sweat levels were through the roof as we were now at the peak of the day and probably sitting around 28-30degrees. The view of the turquoise waterfalls and pools below was pretty spectacular, so we quickly clambered down again to get in some much needed swim time. Semuc Champey is actually a natural limestone bridge with a river passing underneath and a series of pools on the top. We spent a couple of hours of swimming and jumping between pools and even a couple of makeshift slides. What a wicked spot!

    Guatemala is quickly becoming a favourite. One of the things I love most about countries like these, is the amount of activities and attractions that are based around natural wonders and the outdoors. Particularly when you have a job like mine where you're inside all day everyday, working in a department with no windows, not having any idea what's happening outside; it definitely makes me that much more appreciative of being outside all day, making the most of what Mother Nature has to offer! The locals are all lovely and friendly too. Always smiling and saying hello, good morning and good afternoon when you pas them in the street. Its crazy how small some of them are, literally sometimes at the height of my elbow and that's definitely saying something! We've been pretty lucky weather wise too, unintentionally timing each arrival and departure to miss all the thunderstorms. Win. Hopefully this continues.

    We're going for the minivan again. Gearing up for another 8 hour journey southwest to the old capital of Guatemala, Antigua. Help!
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  • Volcán Acetenango, Guatemala

    18 februari 2017, Guatemala ⋅ ☀️ 16 °C

    Where do I even start? What an epic adventure. Mixed with plentiful amounts of faffing about, many a tumble and a few what-the-heck-have-I-signed-up-fors.

    We'd all been wanting to have some sort of challenge for a while, so we jumped at the opportunity when we heard a bit about the tough climb that is Volcán Acetenango and the option to stay up there overnight and see the sunrise. Our original research was looking at about $90US each for the expedition but upon our arrival to Antigua, we quickly found that we could do the exact same expedition for as little as £29/$42NZD. Savings. Although don't get me started on that GBP/NZD exchange rate.

    After about an hours drive from Antigua we arrived at the beginning of the hike. When I say the beginning of the hike, I mean what basically looked like a rogue path off the side of the main road with no signs whatsoever. There were just a couple of huts to pay your park fee (again not signposted) and a family home where they sold some much appreciated sticks to hike with, or gave you a last minute opportunity to buy gloves or beanies had you been silly enough to turn up without some.

    Plentiful faffing occurred as we were given sleeping bags, sleeping mats and tents to divide between us and carry up with our packs. At this point I realised I'd either left our GoPro in the van or misplaced it somewhere between the van and the side of the road or it was stolen. Unfortunately no sign of it since. And yes that's the second one in less than a year - GoPro 2, Char 0. Thank goodness for travel insurance but again have lost some photos from the last week, which is always the part that sucks the most!

    Fees paid and bags packed, our group of 18 and our 2 guides finally got on our way. Straight into the ankle deep volcanic sand and the uphill battle which was quick to become the norm on this strenuous hike. Although we started at 2500m, our base camp for the night was situated at about 3600m so we had quite a bit of height to gain, and this trail wasn't going to be easy on us. For some reason I came down with some severe stomach cramps and almost fainted in the first stretch and seriously considered pulling out. Thankfully Mike and Rich came to the rescue and took my bag for a few minutes and then at our first pitstop, my bod seemed to sort itself out. Pheeeeew. I'd say about 90% of the hike was uphill and not just a steady incline, nor any particularly stable ground. Thankfully the first hour or so of the walk was mostly covered by the jungle canopy, giving us some shelter from the heat and sun.

    We stopped regularly, maybe every 20-30 minutes but the five of us being at front of the group became both a blessing and a curse. More time to rest at the breaks but also more time to get cold, especially as we got higher - one of the problems of having a large group with a range of fitness levels. Bear in mind the altitude was making this brutal climb even more brutal. Even in climbing one flight of stairs in Mexico City at 2200m was enough to make you feel like you hadn't been to the gym in years, so you can only imagine how rough this hike felt!

    One thing we were prepared for was that we'd known to bring extra food, as the food we were given was pretty minimal - two sandwiches, instant noodles and a pastry to last us for lunch, dinner and breakfast/lunch the following day. We also had to carry all the water we needed for the two days, which was advised to be 4 litres each. Poor Scotty took a large portion of this so he was really lugging a heavy bag that first day!

    The last portion of our walk to our camp for the night was relatively flat compared to the rest of the day's hike and had us walking through the clouds. We didn't see an awful lot of the views that first day to be honest. Even when we reached our camp at 3600m, we didn't know there was another volcano (Volcàn Fuego) right next to us until we heard it erupting. We weren't expecting that! This also showed our lack of research into this expedition, as we realised photos of this volcano are on all the advertisements of this hike when we got back to Antigua. Classic. Our two little guides ran off to cut down a tree or two with machetes and proceeded to bring them back to cut up for our fire for the night. The boys and I all gave it a try too, harder than it looks though!

    As we set up our tents for the night, the clouds began to clear and eventually we could see the top of Volcàn Fuego as the sun was setting. When darkness fell, the true beauty of Volcàn Fuego's eruptions became apparent. I'd say it was erupting every 5-10 minutes and with darkness we could see the spurts of lava and then watch it travel down the sides of the volcano at great speed. Truly mesmerising and we never got sick of watching it! Unfortunately at night it was too difficult to take photos of but I'm sure the images will be vividly ingrained in our memories instead.

    We huddled round the fire while the guides proceeded to boil some water in a tiny wee kettle on the fire for our noodles and then later roasted some marshmallows and cracked the beers we'd carried up (cheers Mike). Who needs a fridge when you've got cold temperatures at altitude! The amount of stars up here was insane. Every time we looked up I swear there were more. Absolutely stunning and so hard to even put into words, watching an active volcano so close up and thousands of stars too. This world we live in always continues to amaze me with such natural beauty if you make the effort to find it.

    4am rolled around and we forced ourselves out of the our sleeping bags and tents. Not a lot of sleep was had that night due to a combination of things. It was absolutely freezing and we were all wearing basically all the clothes we had, sleeping on essentially volcanic sand and old mate Volcàn Fuego erupting every few minutes sounded like an intense thunderstorm. There were definitely a few times it was so loud I thought the lava was going to make it over to us and we'd be toast! When we got up though, we realised how little we had seen the previous day. It was almost completely clear outside and we could see a second volcano right in front of us as well as Volcàn Fuego, plus the lights from the villages in the valley bellow. Muy bonito.

    After much faffing from the group, (seriously what can one possibly need to do at 4:30 in the morning apart from get dressed?!) we rustled up some energy to get hiking again, the last 300m to the summit - this time in pitch black aside from a few head-torches scattered through the group. As we hiked higher, the sun got closer to rising and we could make out that on one side of our track was the volcano and the other was almost a sheer drop - not sure if it was better to be seeing this or not! Sorry Mum. The last ridge at the top was semi-sketchy, especially as we were a lot more exposed to the wind and cold but it was definitely an achievement to reach the top!

    Unfortunately as we climbed, the cloud had come back but not so high this time - so we could still see the other two volcanoes peeping out. The sunrise was just as stunning and we tucked into some banana bread whilst losing the feeling in our fingers. A few snaps later and we were happy to be heading down again and out of the cold. It was definitely a morning to remember though, hanging out on top of a volcano that we'd worked hard to get to, above the clouds, watching a sunrise.

    Getting down was a bit of a free-for-all, running down the side of the volcano as if it was a sand dune. We got back to base camp within 20minutes or so, compared to the hour plus that it took us to get up!

    Back at camp we finally found some warmth in the sunshine and the hot chocolates made for us by the guides using boiling water and Guatemalan chocolate which is basically just cacao. Then began more faffing from the group as we packed up our tents and then finally embarked on our descent. It was much clearer than the previous day for our descent, which was awesome to see from a height. Our two guides went down at completely different paces, one running off like a wee ninja that Scott and Mike battled to keep up with, the other taking it slow. It was definitely much easier to get down by a sort of gallop/jog/run due to the sandy ground, however occasionally it wasn't so deep, therefore slippery so it was easy to have a few tumbles. Cat's count got to 10 I believe, mine about 7! Thankfully the ground was soft to fall on so no real injuries. What we did have was lungs, mouths and nostrils filled with the dust clouds that running in this sand created, shoes saturated in volcanic sand that I think we'll be stuck with for weeks, and some extremely grubby faces - Scott in particular!

    Our bus back to Antigua couldn't even get going so we had to wait around for another bus to come, beersies in hand. By some miracle the original bus had been to a mechanic to be fixed by the time the new bus turned up an hour or later. Impressive turnaround considering we were in the middle of nowhere really, but we were all super hangry by the time we got back to Antigua as we'd eaten all our food early in the morning. Definitely no contingency plans there!

    I feel like this post and what I've written (even can't do this experience justice but hopefully the photos will fill the gaps a wee bit. Definitely one for the memory bank and a big highlight of all our travels to date.
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  • Antigua, Guatemala

    19 februari 2017, Guatemala ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C

    Leaving our jungle oasis behind, the team embarked on another 8 hour minibus trip to Antigua, cracked windscreen and all. We had a few issues with our driver taking on the role of the air conditioning police and not letting us have the AC on full blast, literally reaching back to change the setting from three to two within ten seconds of us changing it, every time. This was bad enough for us, let alone the poor girl sitting near the front who was battling a severe hangover and trying not to throw up the whole journey! Surprising lack of voms though, given the way she looked. What a trooper.

    One of our stops ended up being quite entertaining when Scott and Mike found a lady selling hotdogs in a wee shop next to the petrol station we had pulled up at. When I found the two of them in this tiny shop about the size of a two-man tent, with no cooking devices except for a microwave in sight, it's fair to say I was a bit sceptical of how this was going to turn out. The lady was super lovely though and proceeded to put out some plastic stools for us to sit on (basically then using all the spare space in her shop) whilst we waited for her to rustle up the hotdog Scott signed up for. She pulled out a single hot dog from her little fridge, tightly wrapped in plastic which she then proceeded to cook in some water in the microwave. Fresh bread and an abundance of condiments surfaced, followed by the seal of approval from Scotty, so Mike and I were sold. The way she tried to sell us other various things from her random assortment of shop items while we were waiting was hilarious too. Scott was offered instant porridge and baby food to which he had to politely decline but everyone was laughing by the end of it all, as she knew how ridiculous her offers were getting. What a little hustler! One that makes a mean hotdog.

    After driving through different villages and lush landscapes for the best part of our journey, it was a bit of a change to arrive in the beautiful Spanish colonial town of Antigua. Founded in 1543, Antigua was the capital of Guatemala until an earthquake devastated the town in 1773 and the capital city subsequently moved to Guatemala City in 1776. This means that much of the architecture here is from the 17th and 18th century and actually reminds me quite a lot of San Cristobal de las Casas that we visited in Mexico. Again the streets are cobbled and the town is surrounded by volcanos plus some more chilly mornings and evenings given we were back at 1600m above sea level.

    We'd booked another nice hostel here called Matiox that'd only been open for three months. Sturdy bunks in the dorm, comfy beds and a nice open air courtyard in the centre of the building gave us a nice place to call home for a few days. Dave who worked there was really helpful in recommending us some good food and drink spots to try out, as well as being super flexible with changing our booking around when we realised we wanted to do an overnight trip up one of the many volcanoes that surround Antigua.

    The team headed out to try some of Dave's recommendations, the first of which was an Asian restaurant of sorts which happened to serve some epic Indian curries with the plates piled high, much to the boy's delight. Bear in mind that Antigua has many internationals living here or calling it home for a while at least, given it is quite popular for Spanish language schools. There's even a few of the big chains like McDonald's and Dunkin' Donuts etc hidden inside the colonial buildings. Slightly bizarre. With the first of Dave's recommendations being a hit, we tried a couple of bars he'd told us about as well. One of which proved quite difficult to find but was a low-key cocktail bar with a slightly eccentric owner, where we got chatting to a couple of Aussies. A few cocktails later and we ended up at another bar with them which had a ladies night on - free drink on entry, or rather something that resembles petrol if you're silly enough to order rum like me. And so we danced the night away.

    Understandably our next morning was quite a slow start, but eventually we ventured out to the huge market that Antigua is well known for. This market housed anything from handicrafts, electronics and clothes, to fresh fruit, vegetables, spices...you name it, you could probably find it here. We set out to barter and buy gloves and hats for our volcano expedition, plus all sorts of produce to make a stir fry as we thought we should make some savings and use the kitchen available at the hostel for once! The amount of people and things packed into this place is insane. All was successful until we tried to find some sort of sauce, but eventually we managed to improvise enough with borrowing (cough) a few things from the hostel.

    ...Wee break here where we went to Volcán Acatenango - separate blog for this one!

    To be fair we didn't do a massive amount in Antigua aside from eating (common theme here) and researching our next move, or recovering from the huge couple of days at the volcano. Delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) well and truly set in. And what better way to reinforce the pain than do another walk - thankfully much less strenuous - to Cerro de las Cruz (the hill of the cross). It gave us a nice view of the city and the mountain behind, on arguably the hottest and clearest day we had in Antigua.

    Unfortunately this was also our last stop with Scotty, who's headed back to NZ/Aussie for the next wee while and to figure out the next move! As for the rest of us, we're off to San Pedro la Laguna, Lake Atitlan to get deep in a week of Spanish language school and stay with a couple of local families. With any luck, this time next week we will be a bit more fluent...
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  • San Pedro la Laguna, Guatemala (Part 1)

    25 februari 2017, Guatemala ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C

    Living with locals for the week and getting fully immersed in the Spanish language. What a week, and another highlight for us, (yeah I know, everything seems like a highlight recently!) I did say that Guatemala is becoming a favourite and this still stands true, if not more so now.

    The Fantastic Five has become the Fantastic Four, even after a slightly muddled series of flights home for Scotty but he got there eventually! The rest of us set in for a much shorter journey to Lago de Atitlán (Lake Atitlán) - about 4 hours west of Antigua. It wouldn't be a journey in a third world country without some sort of problem; this time it was thick fog to the point of not even being able to see 10m in front, followed by a series of hairpin bends (complete with sheer drops on one side) from the mountains down to the lakeside. Not gonna lie, I was pretty close to slapping the girl next to me on the bus who was screaming/gasping almost obnoxiously, on every corner. Never fear, we all made it in one piece to our home for the next week, San Pedro la Laguna. And with that, Mike and I have come to the realisation that after probably about 70 hours of travel, we are now only 400km away from San Cristobal de las Casas, Mexico - a month later! And that's how you do one seriously large loop.

    Lago de Atitlán is similar to Lake Taupo in that it was formed following a huge volcanic eruption 85,000 years ago that blew volcanic ash as far as Florida and Panama. Today it is surrounded by other smaller volcanoes and hills which along with the altitude, provide great conditions for growing coffee and corn.

    I'm not sure what we were expecting of San Pedro itself, but it was almost the polar opposite of the colonial buildings and cobblestoned streets of Antigua. Set on the edge of the lake and heading up into the hills, the buildings were a mixture of concrete and corrugated iron, tightly packed in together with tiny wee alleyways that sometimes even one of the many tuktuks couldn't fit through, plus hundreds of power lines overhead. In some parts, it was almost what I would imagine the slums of India to be like. It's a relatively small town, approximately 14,000 residents.

    Our primary reason for visiting San Pedro was to enrol in some Spanish classes and to stay with local families in a homestay situation in order to be fully immersed in the language and the local life for the week. Cat and Rich stayed with the family who owned the Language school we went to and Mike and I stayed with another family about 5 minutes walk away.

    The González family who we stayed with were absolutely lovely and they didn't speak any English apart from knowing the odd word, like potato! It was a good incentive for us to have to try harder to communicate and to practice our spanish, especially after being a bit slack with it for the last couple of weeks. The family was young - the father Chema just 33, the mum Conchita 29 and they had three children - Felix (11), Tina (10) and Andréa (8 months). Chema works picking coffee beans and corn, depending on what time of year it is and Conchita as a housewife, a very good one at that! Conchita prepared us three meals a day, eaten seated at the table with the family which gave us the opportunity to try many different types of traditional Guatemalan food and practice our Spanish.

    We chose a small independent school called Guatemaya Spanish School for our lessons for the week. There were only 4 teachers, so Cat and I had a teacher each and the boys shared another. Our school was essentially outside, a series of four different platforms scattered up the hill so we each had our own space to learn, overlooking the lake, for four hours each morning. I thoroughly enjoyed the 10 minute walk to and from school each day and being able to watch the locals go about their daily routines. Seeing the young kids heading to school, walking past the markets where the women would be setting up their stalls to sell their fresh fruit and veges for the day and the local basketball court where there would always be loads of kids playing many different games of football at once. Each day's lessons were punctuated by a wee break or "la pausa" where we had a variety of morning tea snacks. The peak was definitely day one where we had pastries filled with banana but this also falsely raised our hopes for subsequent days. Guatemalans have a great sense of humour so our teachers frequently enjoyed messing with us and what we were eating. For example, cochitas which are sort of dough balls filled with meat and sauce that they tried to tell us was cat and telling us that they bought tortillas filled with chocolate, which actually turned out to be filled with beans. Rough!

    While obviously you can't learn Spanish in a week (if only), we have progressed from Rich just adding "o" to the end of every word to make it sound Spanish - to drowning in hundreds of verbs, verb conjugations and various phrases. I've found I can definitely understand a lot more now, or at least get the gist of what someone is saying, but knowing how to respond and remembering the words to use back is much harder.

    We wanted to stay and learn more, to the point that we were seriously considering skipping El Salvador and potentially Nicaragua as well... but all good things must come to an end. Even though we've only been here a week, it feels much longer and it's been really lovely to have a family for the week - even if we didn't always understand each other! Mike and I found ourselves constantly feeling guilty that we didn't know the words for things we wanted to say to our family but we tried our best with a dictionary on hand to fill in the gaps. The family were very patient with us and the way they welcomed us into their home and their lives was amazing and it's been awesome to experience life as they do.

    I'm going to have to split this blog in two as there's not enough space for the photos and otherwise this will be an essay and a half. So hold that thought...
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  • San Pedro la Laguna, Guatemala (Part 2)

    26 februari 2017, Guatemala ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

    So aside from butchering the Spanish language for the week, what else did we get up to?

    Each afternoon we found activities to keep busy as well as fitting in our homework. We visited a couple of the other villages nearby, the first of which was San Juan la Laguna which was about a half hour walk away. There we saw the processes of cotton picking, turning it into thread and then it being dyed various colours with natural products such as plants and spices. The other village we visited was Santiago, which required a boat trip across the lake. They had many market stalls there selling the usual arts and crafts, but to be honest it probably wasn't worth our time!

    The other afternoons we tried to get more involved in what our families did. Conchita loves cooking and promised to teach us how to make tortillas that they have everyday, so one evening she put us to work. Tortillas are literally just made by soaking corn and water with quicklime, then taking it to a miller the following day to be ground into an almost pastry like consistency. A small ball of this mixture is then flattened out and molded into a small circle just using your hands, transferring the tortilla back and forth quickly until the desired thickness is met. Easier said than done! Conchita would churn out about 5-10 for each of ours, as we battled with ripping the tortillas during the transfer or having the mixture sticking to our hands. The tortillas are then cooked on what they call a plancha stove, which is the most common form of cooking in Guatemala these days. These plancha stoves are a vast improvement on the open fires they used to cook on where breathing the toxic fumes was detrimental to their health. They have a stovetop which is made of steel and covered in chalk with a log fire underneath that's situated in a firebox of sorts and uses a chimney pipe that takes the poisonous smoke out of the house. Some households like Conchita's also have a regular gas stove and oven like we would but she prefers to use the plancha stove for most cooking as it is more efficient. They can fuel this fire with wood that sets them back about 2000 quetzales a year ($384NZD/£220), but at the expense of the Guatemalan forest which is supposedly diminishing by 2% in the same time frame.

    The fire in the kitchen is generally lit either in the morning or at lunchtime and then kept on for the rest of the day, so you can imagine the risks this can pose.
    One night we learnt that the family had a fire in that engulfed their second floor kitchen about two years back. Conchita was at the market when she found out, but it was already too late. The wood and plastic lined kitchen was extensively damaged as were other parts of their house. Thankfully they had some luck on their side that day, the power happened to be out, their fridge happened to be downstairs at that point and by some miracle their gas cooker didn't explode. While the fire was unfortunate and of course they didn't have insurance, they definitely had someone watching over them that day. Now they have rebuilt the kitchen with concrete walls and you'd never know anything had happened.

    Another afternoon I spent learning how to make pachas with Conchita. Pachas are essentially mashed potato mixed with a sort of tomato salsa, packed into a little parcel with usually chicken and some other vegetables (this's time capsicum, chilli and prunes) within a leaf that resembles a banana leaf but is a different plant that I couldn't make out! It was an interesting little process, plus I went to the market with Conchita to buy all the ingredients fresh like she does each day, including the chicken straight from the chicken shed...next to the live chickens...which was probably the closest I've got to becoming vegetarian. At least you know where it comes from I guess... they pride themselves very much here in using fresh and organic ingredients, none of the meat or fruit and vegetables being treated with chemicals.

    Like many of the Latin American and South American countries, Guatemalans are crazy about football. Chema and his son Felix were no exception and took great interest in talking about recent games with Mike and really enjoyed when he showed them photos of the Man United game he went to last year and of the Bernabéu stadium that we visited in Madrid a few years back. So when Chema told us he had a game on one afternoon, we said we'd love to go and support! We were surprised to learn that San Pedro actually had an immaculate small stadium with a full size Astro turf pitch, only a couple of years old. The teams also had proper kit and shoes, which when you look at everything else around here, seems almost out of place. I guess it just shows how much they love football! Chema even scored a hilarious goal that had us all cheering from the stands.

    That same afternoon, we headed to see coffee plantations and corn farms with the language school owner and Cat and Rich's host, Javier. He took us up the side of the hills/mountains above San Pedro, first nearer the top where there was corn growing. It's crazy how much the temperature can drop just a 10minute drive uphill, but I guess this is why the corn strives up here. Each family seems to have their own lot and harvests once a year, sometimes with enough corn to last them the entirety of said year - which is saying something considering the amount of tortillas they churn through.

    As we walked back down the hill, the climate quickly changed and before we knew it we were heading past numerous coffee plantations. We were all surprised to learn that coffee beans actually originate from a red berry that is only a bit larger than a decent blueberry or a small grape. Javier lead us through the trees to his plantation, but how they really know who's is who's I don't really know - they all seem to merge into one another. Farmers pick massive sacks of these berries, then take them back to the roadside for weighing with old school weights, before selling them off for little more than a couple of dollars to buyers who then take them through the next processes of drying and roasting.

    Once Saturday hit and our classes were over, Mike headed to work with Chema for the morning to find out more about working in a coffee plantation. He returned a few hours later, grubby and exhausted from what turned out to be a rather labour intensive job. While picking the berries themselves wasn't too strenuous, carrying them out of the plantation is a different story. Piled into sacks and then carried on their backs with a band around their head to help support it the weight, then carried a few km downhill through rugged terrain to be weighed and sold - it was no easy feat. And all that hard work for 5 hours between only amounted to 180quetzals (£19/$34NZD) in payment for the coffee. When you average that out, it's working out to be less than $9 for each day's work. Minus the cost of getting there, you can imagine this can't go far when you have a family at home to feed and kids to send to school.

    On our last evening we headed to Conchita's grandmothers house where they were preparing for a fiesta the following day for a couple of hundred people to celebrate her mother's birthday. All the women (sisters, aunties etc) were preparing tamales, which are similar to the pachas I made a few days prior, but made with corn as opposed to potato and not nearly as tasty! The family spirit and community in these countries is so lovely to see. Their families are huge too - Chema told us he has 29 aunties and uncles and roughly 200 cousins. You can imagine his surprise when I told him that in contrast, I only have 6 cousins and that we don't all live in the same country, let alone the same continent or hemisphere! As much as it's sometimes handy to have family spread out all over the world, times like these make me wish my family was closer together so we could do things like this more often too.

    I think it's fair to say that this week was one of the best weeks we've had in all our travels. I can't recommend the experience enough. I like to think it's a two-way street for us and this family, because with them opening their home to us it allows us to practice our Spanish and gain insight into the local way of life, in return they can gain hopefully a bit of extra income, plus insight into our way of life at home too, plus that of other travellers they have to stay. This is particularly important given they don't have the money or means to travel, even to somewhere like the US - somewhere that for some reason they long to visit or work in. They can travel there for up to 90 days but cannot get visas to work there unless someone who already lives there, invites them. They have friends who have tried to cross illegally by land, one of whom has never been seen or heard from again, even 10 years later...

    All of this makes us feel almost guilty sometimes on how easy we have it and how fortunate we are to be able to travel when there are so many people out there just living day to day. I'm just thankful that we can learn so much about others and meet such wonderful people in doing so. One day I would love to volunteer somewhere like Guatemala, in the hope of giving back and helping in some way.

    Unfortunately this is the last chapter of our Guatemala adventure - a country we have now all got a soft spot for. Next up is El Salvador via a quick one night stop in Antigua. Back to the beach life to try our hand at surfing!
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  • El Tunco, El Salvador

    1 maart 2017, El Salvador ⋅ ⛅ 33 °C

    Surfing, swimming, sweating profusely, muchas pupusas and the first of many chicken bus trips.

    We've left behind Guatemala and travelled southeast to our next country, El Salvador. El Tunco is a small beach/surf town - if you can even call it that! Two or three streets are all there is to this place, lined with a mix of surf shops, restaurants and hostels. Supposedly on the weekend it's a crazy party town but we were visiting midweek so it was hard to imagine this, as it almost resembled a ghost town whilst we were there.

    Back at sea level and edging closer to the equator, temperatures and sweat levels have substantially increased to the point of a minimum of 4-5 swims and/or cold showers a day. Lows of about 24-25 degrees and highs of 30+. Lucky we have a beach almost on our doorstep and hot water doesn't exist in the accommodation here.

    El Tunco is known for its surfing, so we thought we'd give it a crack and hired a couple of boards to share on our first day. Our collective surfing history was somewhat limited so we were all really just freestyling on this one. Mike and Rich managed to get out there alright and get up on their first wave together as Cat and I looked on from the beach. This particular stretch of beach (El Sunzal) requires paddling quite far out, possibly about 100m-200m or so. It became apparent we'd left it too late in the day though to head out, particularly by the time Cat and I tried as the currents and waves just prevented us from even straying far from the beach itself, let alone to reach any decent waves to try to surf on. El Tunco is a black sand beach with stones too, which makes it not overly enjoyable for swimming or for walking - especially when the tide is high. We returned late afternoon to much different surf, and the boys managed to get a few good waves. Meanwhile Cat and I got thrashed in the waves near the beach and I almost got taken out to sea in a strong rip whilst getting dumped with suddenly huge waves!

    Sunsets are something El Tunco does well. Due to the fact that the beach is south-facing, you can actually see both sunrise and sunset here. Scores of people flock to the beach front with beers in hand to watch the sun go down each evening, others out catching the last waves of the day with the sky a mix of orange and pink as a backdrop. Stunning.

    The following morning we vowed to get up early (6:30am) considering this is the best time for surfing and we were thankfully rewarded with this truth! Mike sat out due to a reinjured chest/rib but Rich had some good runs and us girls gave it a shot, with not much success. Cat managed to catch a wave the whole way in, just not standing up! And the only time I managed to get up was when Rich gave me a push onto the wave to get the momentum going. Back to the drawing board to find some strength in the arms to get on the waves on our own.

    New country means new local food and for El Salvador that means pupusas. Pupusas are essentially fried thick tortillas - almost like a thick pancake - with various fillings, usually combined with cheese. Chicken and cheese, beans and cheese and revolutas are the usual suspects, the latter of which is actually quite tasty despite what the name implies - consisting of pork, beans and cheese. We went through a fair few pupusas in our time in El Tunco, usually served with a tomato salsa and a coleslaw of sorts, they're a cheap meal when you only need 2-3 and they set you back a modest 50-75cents US each. I think we will be having a lot more of these over the next few days!

    Pupusas aside, eating in El Tunco is expensive so we caught our first "chicken bus" into the nearby town that is La Libertad to buy some groceries. Chicken buses are also common in Guatemala, local buses that are actually old American school buses usually with a colourful paint job - so called because people can take anything and everything on there with them, including live chickens. Our bus rides so far haven't been quite so eventful, but they work on express pick ups and drop offs from anywhere along the road. There's always a couple of guys on each bus who collect the money, whistle at the driver when people want to get off and help people with their things at lightening speed but the bus is still already driving off when you've only got one foot inside. Payment is a combination of honesty based and a memory test for the guys working on the bus as they usually take payment every few pickups as opposed to when each person gets on. Somehow the chaos of it all works.

    La Libertad is a pretty grungy little place that didn't require a visit for anything other than cheaper groceries and to attempt more ATM withdrawals. Mike and I have been battling to get any $US out since we arrived in El Salvador, even after trying multiple ATMs. Still unsure if this is due to the ATMs not agreeing with our travel card that usually doesn't have any problems, or if they just have no cash in them. Thankfully Cat and Rich withdrew a decent amount of cash before we left Guatemala which has been enough to bankroll the four of us so far, but cash funds are definitely getting low between us so hopefully our next stop will provide the goods.

    With the confidence of catching a few chicken buses up our sleeve, we thought we'd try another direction from El Tunco - inland to the Tamanique waterfalls. You can do this as a tour from El Tunco but we thought we'd give it a go semi-independently to save some cash. We made it to the Taminique town with no problems but still without having found a local "guide" to show us where the waterfalls actually were. 10 steps in the direction of the waterfalls though and local guy sitting outside his casa asked if we needed someone to show us the way. We agreed but had to haggle his price from $5USD a person down to $3 a person - still steep compared to other blogs we'd read but still cheap really and we couldn't have done it without him. The path was not signposted in any form, you wouldn't have even known there was a waterfall there unless you'd done prior research as we had.

    Twenty minutes of downhill walking later, on terrain that would have benefited the use of our walking sticks from Acatenango and sneakers as opposed to the trusty jandals, we arrived at the waterfall. It wasn't so much a waterfall - more comprising of a few different swimming holes - but it gave us a spot to do some jumps and cool off for a while. The local guys there clambered all over the rocks for various outrageous jumps and provided some good entertainment in between our own jumps. I think there was a bigger waterfall we could have visited as well afterwards but we were all spent and didn't want to get back to El Tunco too late so we gave it a miss. Our guide Antonio was absolutely dripping with sweat on our walk back, this time via a cemetery. We weren't really sure why he took us through there, nor did we feel overly comfortable about it but we made it back to the town in one piece.

    The El Salvadorian people so far are already noticeably different to the Guatemalans. They're much less friendly and open, but perhaps they are more guarded here due to higher causes. The murder rate in El Salvador is one of the highest in the world. Just a week ago they had the first day with no murders recorded since January 2015. So I suppose perhaps it's not unreasonable to not be so friendly, but perhaps it's just down to this area too - so I shall keep an open mind for other areas of El Salvador! The locals also just wear regular clothes as opposed to traditional dress and the women seem to wear quite a lot of makeup which is something we haven't seen for a while. El Salvador is quite dirty, there is a lot of rubbish around and it's not unusual to see people chucking rubbish out the window of the buses. It's pretty sad really, it's obviously not something they care about. On top of all that, everyone speaks much faster Spanish and potentially with a different accent too because just when we thought we were making progress, we're back to feeling like we can't understand anything again!

    We're backtracking a bit from El Tunco now, heading northwest to Juayúa via long distance chicken bus, complete with terrible music which is heavy on the bass at 6am and videos to match. Mike had a rogue near-vomiting episode this morning too so let's hope there isn't the real deal whilst in transit!
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  • Juayúa, El Salvador

    2 maart 2017, El Salvador ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

    Before you ask, it's pronounced "why-ooh-ah". But none of us have managed to grasp nor remember this in the last couple of days we've been here.

    Juayúa is one of a few villages that make up the Ruta de las Flores or the Route of Flowers, that extends 34km through the mountains of eastern El Salvador. To be honest though the area didn't particularly offer what was promised - beautiful villages filled with culture, scenery for hiking and mountain biking...and we didn't see an awful lot of flowers either. You can see that maybe it was a lovely area once upon a time, but currently it isn't really one for the memory bank.

    Turning up we had no accommodation booked due to shoddy internet in El Tunco making even just loading a a news article painful so we had to make the rounds at the hostels we knew of. The first one turned us away because they were at capacity. The second one almost did too until Mike realised that Cat's name was on the booking sheet as we'd emailed them a day or so prior but had no reply (or thought we hadn't) due to the internet. So it turned out we had a booking after all. Win.

    One thing this area is well known for is coffee, given the prime conditions for coffee plantations. The mountains here are covered with them. The owners of the hostel happened to also own an organic speciality coffee farm/business and considering so far we'd only seen the farms and none of the processing afterwards, we thought we'd check it out and find out more.

    We piled into the back of a pickup truck headed for the hills. First stop was the the mill, where the coffee berries arrive freshly picked from the plantation. Here they go through a mixture of different
    processes, depending on the quality and the ultimate destination of the coffee beans, whether it be for commercial or specialty coffee.

    The commercial coffee is immediately washed and rid of the pulp of the berry, leaving just the beans - whereas the specialty coffee skips this process and goes straight to the next step which is drying. By leaving the skin of the berry on and therefore keeping the honey inside too, this means the speciality coffee beans then absorb these flavours in the drying process.

    Drying also has options too. For the commercial coffee in El Salvador it's usually dried just laid out on the ground on tiles, picked up again at the end of each day and then relaid out again the next morning - repeated for about a week. Specialty coffee is usually dried using African beds. These are made of a rectangular wooden frame with mesh for the coffee to be laid out on and rotated every hour for about 6-7 hours each day before being taken in for the evening too. Given the attention and employees required to be present for this method, it's much more expensive which is why the commercial coffee is not dried this way. When the coffee has reached about 10% humidity (vaguely known by the workers but also tested by a machine) it's sufficiently dried. Once dried, the coffee is sorted again by density, the heavier the better. Defects (such a bug nibbles) are counted and/or taken out and again this decides the quality of the coffee. After all that, it's ready for roasting.

    From the mill we went to the coffee plantation for one of the types of coffee beans produced by Lechuza. It's basically the end of coffee picking season here so not a lot of berries were left on the trees but we got the gist of the set-up, with wind-breaking trees either side and larger trees down the middle off the coffee trees to offer shade from the sun.

    Lastly we headed to a nearby house which had a shed to the side which was almost as if it was out of some trendy home or interior design magazine and somewhat out of place in the depths of a country like El Salvador. Inside was a state of the art coffee machine, a roasting machine and some grinders. Oh and lots of coffee. The boys were somewhat losing it at this point but first we had to learn how to roast some coffee. Controlled temperatures, timers and graphs are all involved in ensuring each different type of coffee bean is roasted to perfection. It took about 12 minutes to roast 9 pounds of coffee beans, taking them from white/pale yellow to chocolatey brown and losing a pound of weight in the process.

    Finally it was time to sample the coffee. First we tried the freshly roasted coffee using chemex but it was quite strong and bitter. Usually the coffee is rested for three or four days after roasting before being used or sold. Subsequent coffees were made with rested coffee and before we knew it we'd been made about 4 or 5 different coffees each. Espressos, cappuccinos, macchiatos - you name it, he'd make it. It's fair to say the boys were loving it. Cat and I aren't such massive fans of coffee so we were leaving this one to the boys for the most part!

    It was an interesting excursion, realising how many different processes go into making the coffee beans reach the point to where they can be used to make a drink. I think it's made us all appreciate why coffee can cost as much as it does at home sometimes too, given the amount of people that have worked on it before it even hits the cafe or the shelves.

    All coffeed out, the following day we caught a bus to one of the other towns on the Ruta de las Flores called Ataco. Unfortunately not just made of tacos as the name may suggest, it was another little village town which is essentially a bigger version of Juayúa, with many colourful murals lining the streets. It wasn't an overly memorable place otherwise but it gave us somewhere different to wander around for a couple of hours.

    That afternoon we trudged to a waterfall looking for an escape from the heat. After wandering for over the expected 30minutes we were starting to wonder if we'd taken the wrong path when we stumbled across the waterfall we were after. Not wonderfully spectacular but the water was coming straight from the mountains so it offered a very fresh dip!

    Our last morning in Juayúa required a revisit to a wicked cafe we'd found on our first day for brekkie, a random stop at a reptile museum which had some seriously large snakes and a quick feast at the weekend markets that were starting up. We're told Juayúa gets rather busy on the weekends due to said markets so we were happy to avoid the crowds. Time for some more chicken bus trips - this time heading for the capital, San Salvador.
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  • San Salvador, El Salvador

    5 maart 2017, El Salvador ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C

    We've skipped the capital cities of our last two countries but for El Salvador we made the exception to visit San Salvador, even if it was just to see a local football game. The problem with these capital cities is that aside from the lack of attractions and things to do, they're also generally the epicentre of each country's dangerous gangs and violence. Short and sweet visit coming right up.

    San Salvador is a strange city. The downtown area was pretty grim. Rubbish everywhere. Mostly derelict buildings, punctuated with a couple of colonial style buildings: a cathedral, a palace and a theatre. The only other building worthy of note down here looked horrific from the outside - picture an old school library or government buildings - but the inside was a different story. Iglesia de Rosaria is a church the shape of a rainbow (hence the name), complete with a rainbow of different coloured stained glass through which the sun projected beautiful colours into the church. A diamond in the rough one might say.

    Contrasting the downtown area is Boulevard de los heroes which houses a huge relatively new mall where the boys finally braved the barbers and Cat was able to replenish her sports gear collection after accidentally leaving most of hers behind in El Tunco. Then there's Zona Rosa, which had almost every fast food chain you could think of plus a few hotels, but also some semi-nice suburban streets. Every single house has a fence with circular barbed wire across the top though, so you can still sense the need for security in what seems like a nicer area.

    Feeling like we needed to learn a bit more about El Salvador and its history, we aimed to visit one of the museums about the civil war that took place in the 1980s. Unfortunately it being a Sunday in a highly catholic country meant that our museum choice was somewhat limited, so instead we headed for the anthropology museum. The exhibition we saw there was predominantly about migration over the years, going as far back as a few hundred BC and up to the current day. The amount of El Salvadorians in the abroad in the US alone has reached 2 million, many of which their families rely on sending money home - so much so it takes in $3 million USD per year and 20% of the national GDP. Crazy.

    Sunday afternoon rolled around which meant it was football time. We headed to Estadio Cuscatlan to watch an El Salvador premier league game - San Salvadorian Alianza F.C vs C.D Luis Angel Firpo from Usulután. The stadium was large, taking around 32,000 people at capacity. We opted for under cover seats as a break from the sun and the 35 degree heat for just $6USD a piece. The stands quickly filled up with fans, most of which were wearing t-shirts supporting their team. Like any football game the home fans were separated from the away fans, both by fences and riot police but of course that didn't stop them chanting and yelling at each other. Venders were constantly walking through the stands with various snacks and drinks, from plantain chips to icecream and beer. You never even need to leave your seat really!

    A good display of football followed, with a 1-0 win for the home team much to the delight of their fans. Piling out of the stadium the passionate away fans had to be separated again, similar to games in England as Mike tells me! Even the referees get escorted off the pitch with riot police to prevent anything happening to them as a result of any calls made throughout the game. Pretty impressive security in that respect but I guess it also shows how intense the fans can get.

    By the time the game was over and we'd made it out of the stadium, the sun was almost setting so we thought it'd be best to get a taxi back to our homestay. A rickety taxi ride followed with the axel sounding like it was going to snap or drop off at any point, so we were thankful to make it in one piece. One last set of pupusas from the roadside stall down the street and we signed off on our short time in El Salvador.

    I'm not sure quite how I feel about El Salvador, I've not quite been sold on the place. There are some nice areas and people around but it's marred by the amount of rubbish absolutely everywhere and it doesn't seem to have the same kind of unique culture that sets it apart like some of the other Central American countries to date - but I'll admit, it was always going to be hard to follow on from Guatemala. Next up we've got a big journey to Nicaragua, with transit through Honduras. We've opted for the local transport again in the hope of saving some cash, but thankfully the homestay owner Edwin was kind enough to drop us to the first bus stop at 6am. Wish us luck!
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  • Cañon de Somoto, Nicaragua

    6 maart 2017, Nicaragua ⋅ 🌫 -12 °C

    What a day.

    1 car, 4 buses (1 regular, 2 chicken buses and a minibus) and 2 pickup trucks.
    3 countries.
    2 border crossings.
    12 hours.
    For a mere 360km.
    $13 USD each.

    And that's how you travel the local way from San Salvador, El Salvador, across the country of Honduras to Somoto Canyon, Nicaragua. To be fair it was a relatively problem-free day considering, with a saving of $32USD each had we done it by tourist/gringo bus. The only issue really was that we didn't particularly get the chance to eat as every time we got off one bus we'd quickly be bundled onto the next one as soon as anyone found out where we needed to go next. It was also ridiculously hot (30-35 degrees) and only the first bus had air conditioning, but I guess in some ways it was helpful as we only needed the bathroom once during the day because we were all just sweating out everything we drank! Thankfully we were lucky in the fact that we were always getting on each bus at the beginning of the line so we were always guaranteed a seat, unlike the many people that ended up standing in the aisle of each bus we took. This became highly entertaining for people watching when vendors would jump on at various stops to try and sell food, awkwardly squeezing past people in the aisles on the hard sell, all while the buses are on the move.

    We were cutting it a bit fine by the time we got to the Honduras/Nicaragua border though. We needed to contact the owner of our accommodation for the night to let them know where we were so they could meet us on the Nicaragua side. Unfortunately with no access to wifi nor any phones with service, we were a bit out of luck with this one. I spoke some muddled Spanish with one of the locals at our last stop before the border to borrow his phone to call, but it was unclear at this point why it wasn't working - whether his phone couldn't call Nicaraguan numbers or whether the other end wasn't picking up. We had to carry on before we could find out, time ticking on daylight and the border opening hours. Although we were the only ones in line on both sides of the border, the immigration officers on both the sides really mucked about passing our passports back and forth between each other and getting confused with who was who. What they were up to we really don't know but thankfully in this time when we were beginning to worry, Henry and Brian from Somoto Canyon Tours/Accommodation that we were using for the next couple of days, showed up at the border to pick us up for the last 7km. Supposedly Brian had managed to call back old mate that let us use his phone on the Honduras side and figured out it was us! A bit of luck to end an exhausting day which actually passed surprisingly quickly. Cold beers were well deserved after that one - new country, new beers so got to try them right!?

    Somoto Canyon Tours is a local family run business owned by Henry, which has grown both massively both physically and in credibility in the last few years. This is mainly due to the help of retired business-savy Englishman Brian who has spent 5 months a year here for the last 6-7 years getting the business up to scratch. What was once a small business with just the house for the family, has grown into a slick operation with decent accommodation (including the first flushing toilets of the village and electricity) and a restaurant for guests to use both before and after their tour of the Canyon. Now they've reached the point that they're even able to give back to their community, providing the last of their village with running water and providing shoes for some of the less-privileged kids. On top of that, other members family have managed to launch other micro-businesses, one running the restaurant for the guests, one starting a chicken farm to provide chickens for the restaurant but now doing so well he can sell to the community too. It's wonderful to hear how well they've been progressing.

    The real reason we came here was to visit Somoto Canyon, so after a decent sleep in the countryside post ridiculous travel day, we were up and at it for an 8am start. Fitted with lifejackets and sneakers, we were rushed off the deck mid-fitting to catch the chicken bus passing by. Sitting on a bus with a life jacket felt rather silly but thankfully it was only a few minutes down the road before we could all hop off again. Our group of 8 was multinational - a mix of Canadians, English, German and Australian - plus two lovely local guides. The English guy we actually met in Guatemala at our Spanish school, he was finishing as we were starting. Small world to come across him again!

    Walking down some gravel roads and past some farms complete with huge pigs and their wee piglets, we reached the river. We got straight into it, climbing over rocks, wading in the water and sometimes swimming, depending on the depth. It's dry season so the water was low, we're told that in wet season it can be at least 7-8m higher. Last October/November the levels were some 15m higher and unfortunately some of the locals lost their lives trying to cross the river. Brian tells us that less than 40% of Nicaraguans know how to swim. This is mind-boggling to people like us that grow up somewhere like NZ that you're just constantly surrounded by water. One of the many things we continue to realise that we take for granted.

    The river that runs through this canyon (El Coco) is actually the longest in Central America, extending all the way to the Caribbean. Water temperatures were definitely not Caribbean-like as the height of the canyon prevents much sunlight getting in, so we spent the first part of the day shivering once we'd got wet! It seemed every time we'd get dry and warm from walking, it'd be time to get back in the water. You can't win with us really. Too hot, too cold!

    Before long we were at our first rock jump of many for the day, ranging from 2-8m for us girls and up to 12-15 for the lads. One of the landings didn't go so well for our English pal but it provided entertainment for the rest of us and unfortunately for him it was caught on video too! There was a 20m jump one of the guides did as well, but it definitely wasn't for the faint hearted.

    It's a shame we weren't here a month or two later so the water was a bit higher so we could use some of the natural slides and float down the rapids a bit more but all in all it was a good experience with some lovely scenery.

    After a couple of hours to have a late lunch and a bit of horizontal time, we set off on a hike with some of our canyoning pals to a couple of lookout points. Mike and Rich thought this would be a great time to add in another MERC run so set off slightly later. Before long we realised they were in for a tough run, not only in terms of steepness but also in terrain and heat! Surprising lack of blowouts and they managed to time it so we all ended up at the top together. The lookouts offered some awesome views over the canyon we had walked through during the day and the land beyond. With sunset looking like it was going to be average considering the cloud cover, we headed back to base while it was still light.

    Dinner with the team plus some well deserved beers and it was fair to say we were knackered following a couple of big days! No rest for the wicked though, bills were settled and bags were packed, we were on the move again the following morning.

    We're getting good at these early mornings. 6:30am wakeup for 7am departure - for which we are thankful that Henry was happy to drop us off in the Somoto township ready for an express bus southbound, otherwise we would have had to wake up even earlier. 13 of us plus luggage were loaded into his ute or sitting on the tray for the 12km ride to the town. Impressive. Today we're headed for the colonial city of León via express bus and chicken bus. Hopefully the early morning travel will allow us to miss most of the heat!
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  • León, Nicaragua

    9 maart 2017, Nicaragua ⋅ ⛅ 33 °C

    Our journey from Somoto to León blessed us with our first real experience as to why the local buses are called "chicken buses". Midway through our second bus of the day, the ticket man kindly asked me to shift my bag out of the aisle because someone had just loaded on a huge bag of raw chicken, which happened to be seeping chicken juice down the middle of the bus aisle. In 30+ degree heat. Mmm tasty. Thankfully the rest of the journey passed without incident and we arrived in the colonial city of León by lunchtime.

    We'd been recommended a French bakery and cafe called Pan y Paz and needing a decent cheese fix, (cheese is just not the same over here) we dumped our bags and headed there before any of us could get too hangry. We were not disappointed, we all had fresh sandwiches/baguettes loaded with various fillings but most importantly including different forms of cheese. Glorious. It's the little things in life!

    Feeling knackered from a full-on couple of days, we took some time out in the afternoon to chill out and figure out our game plan for the next few days. Our base for two nights in León was fittingly named Tortuga Booluda, (Lazy Turtle) which Brian from Somoto Canyon Tours kindly organised for us, due to the lack of wifi to use to book anything ahead. He was somewhat miffed at the fact that we landed the best room, one that so far has escaped him because it's been booked every time he's tried to visit. Classic. Our own private patio and the luxury of our first air conditioned room for the trip was greatly appreciated, especially given that León gets up to the late 30s during the day and only down to mid 20s in the evening. Such a treat.

    The lads took one for the team in the evening, cooking for us girls considering it was International Women's Day. A fine job they did, cooking up a chicken and vegetable stir-fry with noodles, complete with sauce from scratch. The other hostel guests were most impressed, as were we. It's been great to be able to cook our own meals from time to time considering many of the hostels over here are equipped with kitchens. Not only a cost saver, but good to get some variety too because there's only so much rice, beans, tortillas, eggs and plantain one can eat! It usually means you can have free drinking water as well, which is so good because it's such a pain to be buying water all the time. Again, being able to drink tap water - taken for granted.

    Day two started with some amazing pancakes provided by the hostel, complete with banana and fresh honey. Nom. Tums filled with pancakes, we headed to the stunning Catedral de León, the largest cathedral in Central America. Supposedly there's some confusion around the fact that perhaps it was supposed to be built in Lima, Peru instead. Nonetheless, it's recently been granted UNESCO heritage site status and is undergoing a fresh white paint job which is doing wonders, considering it was clearly somewhat abandoned in terms of maintenance in recent years. For a modest $3USD each we were allowed to climb up to the roof, although not before shoes were removed! The rooftop was a sight that almost felt like you were in Santorini, Greece - except instead of being surrounded by calderas and the Mediterranean, it was the colonial streets of León and its churches peeping out, with some stunning volcanoes in the distance. I have a thing for rooftops and viewpoints, I don't know why - but this was one of my favourites even though it wasn't particularly high.

    We strolled around the streets some more and ventured into other various churches along the way. León has many different churches for a relatively small town; subsequently its tourist board is currently trying to get the city renamed as the City of Churches. With the day heating up quickly, we were ready to retreat back to the hostel. Enormous avocados and tomato with fresh bread were on the menu for our homemade lunch - not even kidding these avocados were almost the size of my head. More chill time and planning followed - really fitting into the Lazy Turtle lifestyle.

    Mid-afternoon Mike and I got itchy feet so ventured out to explore the streets some more and to find what turned out to be the one of the best ice-cream shops I've ever visited! Let's not talk about how much cash was splashed on these epic ice-creams. Mike of course went for his usual chocolate in a massive helping, (honestly when will that boy ever branch out on flavours) and I tried a combo of a banana fudge and peanut butter cookie dough, plus a passionfruit frozen yoghurt. All amongst a huge waffle cone. Life changing.

    Meanwhile, Rich and Cat ventured to what sounded like an extremely bizarre museum about Nicaraguan myths and legends. Head to Rich's blog to find out more about that one!
    https://findpenguins.com/23vbugryewfm6

    Again we'd all hoped to head to a museum that would tell us more about the revolution that was prominent in León, but the museum that covered this was only in Spanish. There were also walking tours about the revolution too but at $20-25USD per person, it seemed a bit steep - particularly after a couple of big budget days. Relying on google and our travel books instead to inform us on this one.

    Street food in the form of some huge burgers and hotdogs did the trick for dinner, followed by beers at a bar overlooking a makeshift skate park where some of the locals were trying to practice some tricks. Thursday night is supposedly one of the big nights for salsa dancing at a bar near where we were staying, called La Olla Quemada. We headed down to check it out but didn't get past watching from the window outside due to a fee to get in and just generally feeling inadequate compared to the talent inside! I've never really watched freestyle salsa dancing before, only ever competition dancing so it was amazing to see just regular people getting amongst it. Where and when they learn to dance like this I'm not sure, perhaps at weddings and the like as they grow up or maybe they they had the money for lessons. While walking the streets of León, I saw a young girl heading for ballet class complete with tutu, tights and proper ballet shoes, which is when it struck me that I haven't seen anything like this since we've been over in this part of the world. Most families here wouldn't have the money to send their children to extracurricular activities, so it was nice to see.

    We're running short on time, Mike and I are now into our last month of travelling together and we have some other pals coming from London that we're due to meet in Costa Rica in less than a week. Crazy how time flies, so we've got to keep moving. Next stop is another colonial city by the name of Granada via the capital city of Managua. We've done another by minibus and local bus combo. We've had to pay for an extra seat on both buses because we have such large bags, but with proper air conditioning on the minibus for a change and for less than $2USD a seat, we can't complain really. The changeover in Managua was somewhat chaotic though, men running at us from all angles hustling to get us on their buses, to the point of even trying to take Richard's bag from his back! Thankfully this is something we haven't seen too much over here, especially compared to when we were in Asia. Granada, here we come.
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  • Granada, Nicaragua

    12 maart 2017, Nicaragua ⋅ ⛅ 32 °C

    Granada. One of the former capitals of Nicaragua and also one of the oldest cities of the New World, founded in 1524 by the Spanish. It's another colonial city, situated on Lago de Nicaragua, which is huge by the way - it honestly looks like it makes up about a quarter of the country on a map. This made Granada a valuable trade centre and a rich city, especially after the Spanish realised that it was possible to access the Caribbean by a river joined to the lake. Things weren't all positive though as this meant that Granada was vulnerable and subsequently it was attacked by pirates three times in the late 1660s. Then in the 1850s it was involved in a civil war when tensions rose about potentially changing the capital city to León after independence from the Spanish. It's a city that has therefore rebuilt itself many times.

    Today there are many colourful colonial streets, lined with shops, cafes, restaurants and bars, mostly set up for tourists it seems - but sometimes the streets feel empty. Just a couple of streets over and it can be a completely different story - the hustle and bustle of the local markets are chaotic. People everywhere selling food, clothes, electronics on the street, all whilst cars and buses are still trying to get through. Even a lady trying to keep a huge pig under control amongst all the madness. Then there's the streets lined with corrugated iron and concrete housing belonging to the locals. It was common to see them sitting on the streets outside their homes in wooden rocking chairs, something Granada is known for. The most popular sport in Nicaragua is actually baseball so often there are people practicing throwing and catching with a glove and of course the usual playing football on makeshift fields in the streets too. It was a somewhat striking contrast sometimes between some of the streets, especially as it felt like there were never many locals around in the city centre. It makes it hard in some ways to find a city authentic and not focussed on tourists when this is the case, but we did our best to explore the place!

    The second bus from León dropped us off just near the main square which houses the spectacular Catedral de Granada. It looks as though it's been freshly painted - golden yellow and maroon with white trimming, sounds horrific but it looked stunning. It must definitely give León's cathedral a run for its money in terms of size, but unfortunately it's not possible to walk the roof of this one. The cathedral is definitely an asset to Granada's skyline though and it's a useful landmark to orientate yourself when walking around the city as it's almost always possible to see above other buildings.

    Our base for three nights was GM Hostel, a wee bit out of the main centre but it was a well looked after place run by an Australian and Canadian couple. Best of all it had a swimming pool. Yes, Granada is situated on a lake but it doesn't look overly inviting for swimming and the city is strangely close but not that close, to the lakefront. We're still battling with the heat with mid 30s every day and then it doesn't really get below the late 20s even at night. It's now the norm to sweat all the time, even whilst eating dinner. It's ridiculous. It means we're not sleeping overly well either, especially considering we've had two fans on full blast that sound like spaceships that are about to take off. Definitely missing that A/C we had in León. We did have some animal pals to keep us company here though - one being a bat which got stuck in the swimming pool one night until Mike came to the rescue, then we had the resident turtles who lived in a pond in the courtyard of the hostel. The turtles provided a daily source of entertainment as they tried to escape, surprisingly strong wee critters!

    One morning Cat and Rich headed to a local bar to watch Scotland get pummelled by England in Six Nations Rugby while Mike and I roamed the streets, popping into churches and a couple of art galleries along the way. That afternoon we headed out for an excursion to Las Isletas, which are 365 small islands within Lago de Nicaragua. These islands were formed when Volcán Mombacho erupted some 10,000 years ago. Some of these islands are privately owned and have houses on them, usually just one or two. There's also some huge houses here, some of which that would fit in back in New Zealand. These are owned by either expats or some of Nicaragua's richest families, including the owners of Nicaragua's local rum, Flor de Cañas. Other islands have houses which are the complete opposite, as these islands were once the poorest neighbourhoods in Granada.

    Thinking that it would be a bit ambitious to kayak this area, we opted for what we thought was a two-hour boat tour of some of the islands. We organised one from the main square which included transport down to the lake. "Tour" was obviously a very loose term used in this case however, as we only toured the islands for 45 minutes at best. Then the rest of the two hours (and some) was spent on one of the islands which was entirely taken up by a restaurant. After some miscommunications with the guide as we tried to figure out why that was it, we were left for about an hour and a half, not knowing when he or the boat was coming back. It's fair to say that the four of us were pretty irritated by the time the boat returned and we got back to the mainland. Our complaints in broken Spanish fell on deaf ears as we were basically told that the original guy who sold us the tour, had clearly misinformed us as to what we would be doing. Considering we hadn't paid yet, we were hoping to bargain the price down because of this but unfortunately they weren't having a bar of it! Defeated, we had to suck it up and move on. You win some, you lose some I guess.

    Back in the city, we headed to Iglesia de Merced which has a bell tower you can climb for views over Granada. Somehow we timed our visit to the top for exactly when the bells were rung by hand. Almost blew the old ear drums that one, but at least the views were nice of the city with the odd churches peeping out above the rest of the buildings.

    Some respite for our earlier anger was found in the form of surprisingly good mojitos for 50cordoba (£1.40/$2.40NZD) a pop during "happy hour" which seems to last for the best part of the day along one of the main streets lined with bars and restaurants, followed by some tex mex for dinner. Eating out has been surprisingly expensive in Nicaragua compared to other countries and not always particularly great food either. We cooked a couple of our own meals in Granada to lessen the blow to the budget thanks to a semi-decent hostel kitchen.

    The other adventure from Granada was to Laguna de Apoyo, another lake located just 20minutes drive from the city. We paid for a day pass to one of the hostels there which allowed use of the beach, beach chairs, kayaks and tubes. We all had a much needed lazy day, spent reading, tanning, swimming and using the kayaks. As weird as it sounds, sometimes you just need a holiday from your holiday!

    Next stop is Isla Ometepe, the last for Mike and I in our short trip to Nicaragua. It's a big island down in the south of this same lake we've been at the last few days. There used to be a ferry that went directly to Ometepe from Granada but supposedly the water levels are too low at the moment for said ferry, (who knows) so we are chicken bussing further south and then catching a shorter ferry instead.

    Onto the next!
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  • Isla Ometepe, Nicaragua

    14 maart 2017, Nicaragua ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C

    A couple of gross ferry rides, volcanoes, motorbiking on a horrifically shoddy road and the most free range animals I've seen in a while.

    The team travelled from Granada via chicken bus, ridden in true local style this time - standing most of the way for the hour or so trip. It's not ideal being packed in the aisle when people are getting on and off, nor when vendors are pushing their way through trying to sell food and drinks, but it did have the perk of not sticking to the seat in the heat. We had such a quick changeover between buses - the staff on our first bus knew we were heading to Rivas so as soon as a bus came up behind us that was heading that way, they stopped the bus and chucked us and our bags off before we could blink. For the first time our bags were thrown on to the top of the bus before we could have a say in the matter. We were already moving again and then we were told we had to pay extra for our bags to be on the roof, bit of a stich-up but there was nothing we could do at that stage. The bus took us directly to San Jorge port where we quickly realised we were in for a rough boat trip to Ometepe. It was the most swell I've ever seen on a lake, at least a metre or so. Somewhat reluctantly we piled onto the lancha (a two storey wooden boat) but gratefully took the life jackets handed to us as we boarded. We were all very relieved to be on land again an hour and a half later, that's for sure. Albeit with wet feet from the leaky boat.

    Isla Ometepe is an island in the same Lago de Nicaragua which Granada is perched on the edge of. It's essentially made up of two volcanoes, with a couple of little towns and settlements around the outskirts of each. Volcán Concepción is active, stands at 1600m and is almost a perfect cone shape with traces of magma still visible. The slightly smaller Maderas is now dormant and covered in bush. It's a beautiful sight, like no island I have seen before!

    Ometepe was the point at which we parted ways with our two trusty companions Rich and Cat, who we have been travelling with since Cancún - roughly six weeks. Mike and I were having a shorter time at Ometepe due to a tight schedule in order to meet other pals in Costa Rica and therefore we ended up staying in different areas of the island. Cheers team for an awesome few weeks of adventures :)

    Mike and I stayed on the Concepción side of the island near the ferry port, at Life is Good Hostel. Life was good there actually, it was a pretty relaxed place to stay and the staff were super friendly and helpful. Not to mention the food served there was awesome, all locally sourced and organic too. And they had the cutest wee dog called Macho, who of course was the complete opposite of what his name would suggest.

    Not long after we arrived, we asked the hostel about hiring a scooter for the following day. Our time on Ometepe was limited to one afternoon and one full day so we figured this was the best way to see as much as possible, instead of tackling either of the volcano summits - both of which were strenuous, full day affairs. If we had more time, it would have been on the cards but also the Volcán Acatenango hike is going to be tough to beat. Roads on Isla Ometepe are minimal, there's essentially just one that goes the around each volcano with a join in the middle, but the quality of said roads is variable. We were talked into hiring a dirt-bike as opposed to a scooter for ease of travel and more access to the rough roads, and before we knew it Mike was out on the road having a quick lesson on how to drive a manual bike. After passing the test, (which was really just driving 100m down the road and back) and with time to spare, we hired the bike for the night as well so we could get to Punto Jesus Maria for sunset.

    Punto Jesus Maria is essentially a sandbar that at some points of the year, juts out up to 1km from the mainland. Only 7km down the road from our hostel, it was definitely worth the short trip to this popular spot. It was a calm and relaxing place to watch the sun disappear for another evening, and if you walked out far enough and looked back to the island, it gave a stunning view of both volcanoes.

    We were a bit slow getting going the following morning, a couple of weeks of crap sleeps in the heat and many hours of travelling are definitely taking their toll. Once we got going though, we managed to cover a lot of ground. We circumnavigated almost the entire island, which amounted to a good few hours of driving, partly due to a large proportion of the roads being unpaved on the Maderas side. Even though we had a dirt-bike, the suspension on our particular bike was somewhat non-existent so it was rough on the old backside and on Mike's wrists and hands.

    We made a few stops along the way, the first of which was to Ojo de Agua. This is a natural spring filled by an underground river that flows from Volcán Maderas. It's been supplemented with concrete walls, presumably to try and preserve it from collapsing. It's a good spot for a refreshingly cold swim and a bit of people watching, particularly in the form of a Tarzan swing and some interesting dismounts!

    We continued around the island and there's barely any buildings or anyone around. Aside from loads of free range animals that is. We saw many horses, pigs, cattle and chickens, all either just walking on the road or closeby. Every now and then we'd reach a small settlement of houses, or even just singular houses on their own. There did seem to be an abundance of schools on the island, given the lack of civilisation otherwise, so who knows where all these children come from! Otherwise it was just nature; trees, flowers and many, many banana plantations. The heat and the rich soil from the volcano must provide some great growing conditions.

    We stopped at local comedor just on the side of the road for lunch with no menu, no English speaking but it was surprisingly some of the best food we've had in Nicaragua. We had the "plato del dia" which is the plate/meal of the day, which is generally just a meat with rice, beans, salad and sometimes plantain. We both had chicken which literally tasted like it had come from KFC but without the dripping oils. Yum!

    We continued round the Maderas volcano, back to the join in the land between the two volcanoes. There's a nice stretch of beach here which was perfect for a fruit juice stop and a bit of respite for our backsides. We popped in for another refreshing dip at Ojo de Agua on our way back to the Concepción side and ran a few errands in the Moyogalpa town before we had to return our bike at nightfall.

    It was fun having a bit of freedom for the day with the bike, reminiscent of our time in Asia where we had one in most places we visited. We enjoyed being amongst nature and animals and although we still did a bit of travelling in a sense, it was still relaxing - well for me it was! Mike perhaps not so much, as he had to concentrate a lot on which part of the road was best to drive on as opposed to being able to look around and see the scenery.

    With this we bid farewell to our short time in Nicaragua. I enjoyed this country but much like El Salvador, I struggled to find a true sense of identity in its culture. Maybe if we had more time we could have visited more rogue places and perhaps this would have made a difference, who knows.

    Hasta la proxima, Nicaragua. Hasta pronto Costa Rica and our new travel companions, Em and Shorty!
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  • La Fortuna & Arenal, Costa Rica

    15 maart 2017, Costa Rica ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

    Reunions, lush scenery, an elusive volcano, an abundance of animals in the wild and the first rain we've seen in a while! Our time in Costa Rica has got off to a flying start.

    Mike and I had another long day travelling from
    Isla Ometepe, starting with the lancha trip back to the mainland at 6:30am. Thankfully the water was much calmer than our previous crossing, not that this was hard to beat. Two short chicken bus rides got us to the Costa Rican border by mid-morning. We'd expected to have to wait at this border-crossing for a while as everything we had read said it was an extremely busy crossing that can take a couple of hours. It seemed that we must have caught the place on a good day as we managed to exit Nicaragua, walk across the border and enter Costa Rica all in the space of about 20minutes. This was great except for the fact that we'd allowed ourselves ample time before needing to catch one of only two daily buses to our next destination of La Fortuna, so we had about 4 hours to kill at the border. Unfortunately Costa Rica's local bus system doesn't seem to be as frequent as other countries, so we settled in to read and watch movies whilst constantly trying to escape the sun that kept taking away our shade.

    Finally 2pm rolled around and we hopped on the bus bound for El Tanque which is a small settlement about 7km from La Fortuna, which was our base for a couple of nights. We're out of the chicken bus game and back to regular coaches, which is less of a novelty but at least it's more comfortable. By nightfall we reached El Tanque where we reunited with our old Kiwi flatmate in London, Aaron (AKA Shorty) and his English girlfriend, Emily. These two will be our travel companions for the next two weeks in Costa Rica while they're on a wee holiday and we've pooled together to hire a car to give us some more freedom. We've opted for a 4WD as some of the roads in Costa Rica are unpaved and generally in pretty crap condition, so Terry our Daihatsu Terios will be our transport for the next wee while. Not gonna lie, two weeks free of buses will be a dream!

    Costa Rica only has a handful of decent sized towns, for the most part they are only small towns or villages. La Fortuna is a small village/town that sits at the base of Volcán Arenal. It was a bit of a strange one, mainly restaurants, souvenir shops and tour operators - so catered to tourists. It's a a bit of change from other places we've been but it only comprises of a couple of streets so it doesn't take much to get away.

    We went deep on the activities and wildlife spotting on our first full day in Costa Rica. A huge downpour of rain during breakfast quickly disappeared and paved the way for hot sunshine. Our first stop was to Arenal 1968, a set of trails just next to the Volcán Arenal National Park. These trails and even a lake in amongst them, were formed by the 1968 eruption of the volcano. Costa Rica has seen a hike in prices and therefore our allocated daily budget, for any kind of activity. Every national park has a fee and even to walk the 1968 trails just on our own was $10 a pop. It's rough, especially when you're used to free entry to national parks and any walks in NZ but we've had to accept it's where our money is going if we are to see or do anything here!

    Em is a budding photographer with a passion for wildlife so we're on wildlife watch big time and we're both enjoying having someone to take photos with. Arenal 1968 was our first opportunity for this, but mainly we just saw some different birds (one of which was a woodpecker - amazing) and a couple of awesome brightly coloured lizards. We had the trail mostly to ourselves and it took us through some lush greenery took a lake and then through some volcanic rock paths. All the while, the top of Volcán Arenal unfortunately stayed hidden, as it did for the whole time we were in La Fortuna and it's surrounds.

    Driving back to La Fortuna from the Arenal 1968 trails, we found a few people stopped on the side of the road looking up into the trees. Intrigued as to why, we stopped too and soon found out that it was a sloth in the trees! It surprised us how fast the sloth moved and it was amazing watching it climbing through the branches just out in the wild.

    As usual the trails didn't take us nearly as long as the signs predicted so we were left with many hours in the day to fill. Thankfully we managed to find some of the only free spots to hang out for the rest of the day, the first of which was the El Salto waterfall and rope swing. This is a small waterfall, only 2-3m high but it provided a hugely refreshing dip. So refreshing that we ended up too cold and headed straight to the natural hot springs afterwards. Costa Rica has so far bought a welcomed decrease in temperatures for Mike and I, so we're thoroughly enjoying not sweating every minute of the day at the moment. If you'd told me I would be visiting a hot spring a couple of days ago I probably would have had a meltdown at the thought of the idea! There are many hotels and resorts offering hot springs around this area but being the cheapskates we are, we hunted down the free ones.

    We bathed in what was essentially a hot river, with multiple layers of different pools to sit in. It had some surprisingly decent flow, to the point that you had to wedge yourself against a rock or you could easily get pushed down into the next pool. We even had the company of a hummingbird whilst in our makeshift bath.

    Costa Rica is already noticeably different in terms of infrastructure, prices and catering to tourists. In saying that, it's a stunningly beautiful country and the amount of wildlife we've seen in just one day, in their natural environment, is insane. We're all excited for what's ahead. Not to mention its much cleaner than previous countries and we can finally drink tap water again. Hooray! As the Costa Ricans would say, Pura Vida!

    Next stop, Monteverde.
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