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Central & South America
  • Amanda Williamson
  • Amanda Williamson

Central & South America

Solo Backpacking through 2 continents Weiterlesen
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  • Amanda WilliamsonCentral & South AmericaReisender

    Lake Atitlan Spanish school 🇬🇹

    6. März 2022 in Guatemala ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C

    We decided to take part in a week long Spanish school while at Lake Atitlan. As part of this we got the opportunity to stay with a local family!

    Day 1: Our first day waking up in our home stay was an interesting one. At about 5am we were woke up by singing. Loud singing. By the whole family.
    When we went up for breakfast they explained to us that it was the mums (Magdalena)’s birthday and that’s why they were singing! After breakfast, Jeremy took us to a local market where women handmake items to sell to provide for the local children in the community. We were then taken to another local place where they taught us about bees and products that they make from honey. Once the excursions were finished we had our first Spanish lesson. My teacher Heto was an interesting character, more interested in adding my on Facebook than teaching me Spanish! After lesson we decided to go to a cooking class that the school organised!

    Day 2: The next day we woke up early and we’re taken Ziplining! It was incredible flying over the canopy, the views were incredible! After that was another Spanish lesson and then me, Betty, Alexa, Jenny and Chris decided to go on a bar crawl around the town! It was a great night, dancing, drinking tequila and singing karaoke at the Regge bar!

    Day 3: The next day we decided to skip the morning activity and spending the morning relaxing and catching up on Spanish work. After Spanish class we were to a weaving class and learnt how the locals make their traditional clothing!

    Day 4: My Spanish class was moved to the morning, leaving me the afternoon to explore San Juan and then taking part in the Salsa Class! Then I’m the evening we all decided to go into town for some food at a local Italian place where the owners were lovely! Then we had a few beers and went to the thermal pools!

    Day 5: Today was our last day of Spanish class! We had our lesson and then all the group from the home stay decided to take our family out for a meal! They all came and we had a great evening playing Spanish speaking games! They we headed up to the roof of our home stay and had some beers and listened to some local music with the family 💛    Weiterlesen

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  • Amanda WilliamsonCentral & South AmericaReisender

    Santa Ana 🇸🇻

    17. März 2022 in El Salvador ⋅ ☀️ 31 °C

    Our first stop in El Salvador was a town called Santa Ana. We spent our first day exploring town and the main square before heading to the cinema for a day off from travel!
    The next day we decided to catch the local chicken bus to Lake Coatepeque, where we spent the day swimming and getting drunk. We attempted to head to a ‘hostel party’ that evening that we were told about by our hostel staff but it didn’t end up being a party at all. After staying and chatting with a group of travellers for a while, we decided to grab another drink in a nearby bar and then headed back to our hostel.Weiterlesen

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  • Amanda WilliamsonCentral & South AmericaReisender

    Santa Ana Volcano 🇸🇻

    20. März 2022 in El Salvador ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C

    Santa Ana volcano was one of the easiest volcano hikes of the trip! The hike itself only takes about 2 hours to get up and has some beautiful views along the way. The highlight was the ice lolly man who you meet along the way 😂
    The view inside the crater is incredible and like nothing I’ve ever seen before! We took in the views before racing back down to catch the final bus of the day back to town!    Weiterlesen

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  • Amanda WilliamsonCentral & South AmericaReisender

    Ruta de las flores 🇸🇻

    21. März 2022 in El Salvador ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

    Our second stop in El Salvador was a place called Ruta de las Flores which is made up of lots of little towns. We stayed in a town called Juayua because it was the most well known. Although Ruta de las Flores is beautiful and feels very authentic, there is hardest any tourists meaning their isn’t an awful lot to actually do. We explored some of the other local towns by chicken bus, getting lost in in a maze and hanging out at some hot springs.

    Our second day was spent on the 7 waterfalls hike. We hired a local guide to take us as the route is apparently hard to find without one. The hike itself was really fun, wading through rivers and over tree trunks. The fun soon stopped when we were told we had to scale a huge waterfall by hand, no helmets or protection of any kind what so ever. So after getting over the fact we were probably going to die (very dramatic) we decided to do it and by some miracle, we made it out alive. Then we relaxed in the final waterfall pool and had a facial 😂    Weiterlesen

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  • Amanda WilliamsonCentral & South AmericaReisender

    El Tunco 🇸🇻

    23. März 2022 in El Salvador ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C

    El Tunco, named after the pig shaped rock in the sea, is probably the most popular spot in El Salvador. We managed to navigate our own way there using about 4 different chicken busses.
    The town is very small and cute! Betty took some surf lessons but I spent most of my time sunbathing as this was our first beach spot since Mexico! We ate local pupusas, watched the beautiful sun set on the rocky beach and went out dancing at the local bars on the weekend with 2 guys we met from our hostel!Weiterlesen

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  • Amanda WilliamsonCentral & South AmericaReisender

    Leon 🇳🇮

    29. März 2022 in Nicaragua ⋅ ⛅ 34 °C

    Nicaragua. The most complicated boarder crossing yet! After paying $100 for a bloody Covid test to enter the country, we managed to get on a bus that would take us from El Salvador, through Honduras and to Leon in Nicaragua. All went smoothly, until we crossed the boarder from Honduras too late and got stranded in no mans land because the Nicaraguan boarder had already closed. After waiting around for what felt like forever with no signal and no idea what was happening, someone finally came back to rescue us and let us into the country!

    Leon was huge! We went on a walking tour with Leo from Leon who took us around telling us all the local history. He then took us on top or the cathedral for a beautiful sunset before we headed out for drinks!
    Unfortunately I was a bit ill after that so for the most part, the rest of our time in Leon was spent walking around art galleries, swimming in Coco Calala and stalking a beautiful man called Marcus 😂    Weiterlesen

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  • Amanda WilliamsonCentral & South AmericaReisender

    Cerro Negro 🇳🇮

    31. März 2022 in Nicaragua ⋅ ⛅ 31 °C

    Volcano boarding isn’t something I ever imagined myself doing but I’m so glad I did! We got driven to the bottom of Cerro Negro with a group from our hostel and hiked up to the top! The hike doesn’t take long but was a difficult one due to me still not feeling well. The volcano boarding itself doesn’t last very long but is definitely a cool experience to have (even if you do fall off 👀👍🏼)Weiterlesen

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  • Amanda WilliamsonCentral & South AmericaReisender

    Granada 🇳🇮

    3. April 2022 in Nicaragua ⋅ ☀️ 33 °C

    Hostel - Oasis

    Granada is a city a few hours from Leon and probably my favourite spot in Nicaragua! The city itself is really cool to walk around with lots of architecture and view points to look at as well as good food and lots of fun bars!
    On my first day I just hung around the main square and took a stroll down the main street to get a look at Lake Nicaragua!
    The second day I spent the morning on a walking tour which was really interesting learning about the history and how Nicaragua actually had an American president for a while (He didn’t last long before they killed him) After that I took a trip to Parque Nacional Volcano Masaya to see another active volcano where you can see the actual lava inside! After the volcano trip we took part in a beer pong competition. Me and Jess came 2nd out of 16 teams but actually ended up with the prize because the winners were disqualified for cheating!
    On my second day I went on a trip to Laguna de Apoyo with a few people from the hostel. We got some food and spent the day swimming and sunbathing on the ‘beach’. In the evening we took a trip to see the ‘magician’ that we won tickets for the previous day! He was incredibly talented and the whole show was surreal.. definitely something I didn’t see myself doing in the middle of Nicaragua 😂
    My last full day in Granada was spent hanging out around the pool and walking around town before we grabbed a few drinks in the evening and headed to bed before my early bus to San Juan the next day!    Weiterlesen

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  • Amanda WilliamsonCentral & South AmericaReisender

    San Juan 🇳🇮

    7. April 2022 in Nicaragua ⋅ ⛅ 33 °C

    San Juan was so much fun!! I met back up with little Bettina at the hostel when I arrived and we basically spent the rest of our time in San Juan drunk. We had Karaoke nights, fights with drunk man on the beach, and went to the famous Sunday Funday party where we bar hop around different hostels and bars! We then hiked up to a Jesus statue to wash away our sins ✌🏽Weiterlesen

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  • Amanda WilliamsonCentral & South AmericaReisender

    Ometepe 🇳🇮

    12. April 2022 in Nicaragua ⋅ ⛅ 31 °C

    Ometepe is a beautiful little island in the middle of lake Nicaragua that is only accessible by ferry. I met back up with Alicia from Belgium that we had met in San Juan and we spent a couple of days hanging out on the scooter and riding round the island!
    On the first full day we failed at a waterfall hike because we started too late, went to Ojo de Agua for a swim, ate some amazing food at Cafe Campestre and had sunset beers at Punta Jesus Maria!
    The next day we jumped back on the bike and rode to Charco Verde, a nature park where you can spot lots of different monkeys, birds and butterflies! Then we headed to a lovely spot with an infinity pool!
    The day after, Alicia left the island to I hired what ended up being a motorbike and rode around the island to the day going to different beach and lookout spots!
    On my final day on Ometepe, Betty arrived so we spent the afternoon back at Punta Jesus Maria watching the sunset and having a catch up before we separated for a whole month 😭    Weiterlesen

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  • Amanda WilliamsonCentral & South AmericaReisender

    La Fortuna 🇨🇷

    20. April 2022 in Costa Rica ⋅ ⛅ 31 °C

    After 8 different local busses, I finally made it to La Fortuna, my first stop in Costa Rica!
    The prices of things in Costa Rica are crazy, especially coming from Nicaragua where everything is so cheap! On my first day I went to a Sloth Sanctuary where we walked around the nature park on the hunt for sloths and other wildlife!
    The next day I took a day trip to the Rio Celeste waterfall which was beautiful. We hiked through the jungle for about 3 hours and saw the beautiful blue waterfall. On the way back we stopped off at a waterfall we could actually swim in, which I did with a couple of girls from the tour!
    My final day in La Fortuna was spent at the rope swing with Leni, Tam and some other girls from the hostel before grabbing some food and drinks in the evening!    Weiterlesen

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  • Amanda WilliamsonCentral & South AmericaReisender

    Monteverde 🇨🇷

    25. April 2022 in Costa Rica ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

    Hostel - Monteverde Backpackers

    Monteverde was one of my favourite places in Costa Rica! The town is only small but there is a lot of activities to do around the area!

    I spent my first day doing a hike to the tree root bridge with Jack and then heading off to the hanging bridges where the views of the jungle were unreal! In the evening me, Jack, Jing, Tom, Matt, Brad, Owen and the 2 Dutch girls decided to have drinks and play games in the hostel for kings day!
    The next day we went on a coffee tour and drank about 10 cups of coffee to cure the hangover before heading off to hike the cloud forest! That evening we all decided to go to one of the local bars to play pool and watch some live music!
    The last day was a rainy one so we spent most of the day reading, playing card games and ping pong!    Weiterlesen

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  • Amanda WilliamsonCentral & South AmericaReisender

    Jaco 🇨🇷

    28. April 2022 in Costa Rica ⋅ 🌧 29 °C

    After catching a couple of local buses I finally made it to the coast! Jaco was definitely not my favourite place for many different reasons but the main ones being there was nothing to do there and it was a bit of a dump. That said, I still enjoyed taking a hike up to the viewpoint and seeing different creatures and animals because the nature in Costa Rica really is like nowhere else!Weiterlesen

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  • Amanda WilliamsonCentral & South AmericaReisender

    Manuel Antonio 🇨🇷

    2. Mai 2022 in Costa Rica ⋅ 🌧 28 °C

    I arrived in Manuel Antonio bright and early as the bus from Jaco only took an hour or so! When I arrived at my hostel I bumped back into Owen, Matt and Brad and we decided to take the long walk to Playa Biesanz. The beach was beautiful and we spent the day there before heading back to the hostel for drinks with some other people we met. There really wasn’t much of a nightlife in Costa Rica so drinking at the hostel was the only option.
    The next day the guys left so me and Chloe headed on a long walk down to Playa Playitas and spent the day there where we saw Sloths, Crabs and Iguanas and had the whole beach pretty much to ourselves! That evening Alicia was in town with her boyfriend so we decided to meet up in a restaurant down the road for a few beers and a catch up!
    The day after I finally headed off to the National Park! I hiked around the whole area for hours seeing snakes, spiders, monkeys, sloths, raccoons, crabs and god knows what else before relaxing on one of the beautiful beaches! The park was a massive highlight of Costa Rica…. Apart from when I broke my phone 👎🏼
    My final day was spent in town trying to get a new phone screen which ended up costing way too much money! Then I spent the rest of the day in Emilios Cafe eating incredible food and drinking iced coffee!    Weiterlesen

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  • Amanda WilliamsonCentral & South AmericaReisender

    Uvita 🇨🇷

    7. Mai 2022 in Costa Rica ⋅ 🌧 28 °C

    Uvita was another small beach town along the pacific coast which is knows for the beach where 2 currents meet and at certain times in the day, forms a whales tale. Uvita was nice but there wasn’t an awful lot to do there so I spent most of my time at the beach with Lisa and a few other guys from our hostel dorm getting sunburnt and exploring the area around the hostel… where they had a pet crocodile.Weiterlesen

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  • Amanda WilliamsonCentral & South AmericaReisender

    Puerto Viejo 🇨🇷

    15. Mai 2022 in Costa Rica ⋅ 🌧 28 °C

    Puerto Viejo. My final stop in Costa Rica along the Caribbean coast. The town was really nice, lots of bars and restaurants and a lot more backpackery than other places along the pacific coast! I spent my days riding a bike along to different local beaches, singing karaoke with some girls at the hostel bar and finally being reunited with my favourite little Austrian chica!Weiterlesen

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  • Amanda WilliamsonCentral & South AmericaReisender

    Bocas del Toro 🇵🇦

    16. Mai 2022 in Panama ⋅ 🌧 30 °C

    Hostel - Selina

    After a long sweaty boarder crossing, me, Betty and Alicia finally made it to Bocas del Toro in Panama! The rain ruined a lot of our plans for Bocas but we did have a really nice day trip to Starfish beach where we met a couple of English girls and decided to spend the day swimming and drinking beers! The water was really clear and the beach was really lovely!
    The rest of our time in Bocas was spent bar hopping around town, dancing in the karaoke bar, making noodles and sangria (& watching on as the selina staff almost set the kitchen on fire) and escaping the rain in the cinema room.    Weiterlesen

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  • Amanda WilliamsonCentral & South AmericaReisender

    Boquete 🇵🇦

    20. Mai 2022 in Panama ⋅ 🌧 20 °C

    Boquete, land of the cannibals (apparently).
    Once again, the rain got the better of us in Boquete, however we did still manage a few hikes. We headed back into the jungle to do the Lost waterfalls trek which was really fun and the waterfalls were lovely! Then the day after we did the less thrilling pipeline trail which was a nice walk but the waterfall at the end was a little disappointing.
    The rest of our time in Boquete was spent exploring town, cooking stir fry, eating floating caterpillars and keeping up with the Kardashians    Weiterlesen

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  • Amanda WilliamsonCentral & South AmericaReisender

    Panama City 🇵🇦

    25. Mai 2022 in Panama ⋅ 🌧 29 °C

    Panama City, our final stop in Central America 😭
    We were very excited to arrive in a city after being in jungles and in beach towns for over a month (& to finally get a well deserved McDonald’s).
    On our first day we went on a walking tour around the old town, exploring some of the historic buildings and taking in the skyline! After the tour we then decided to spend the rest of the day bar hopping around the area ending on Selina rooftop with new tattoos 😂
    The next day we went to the shopping centre to buy things we needed for the San Blas tour (which got cancelled that evening due to elections in Colombia) so instead we went to the cinema!
    Our final day in Panama was spent at the Panama Canal where we could watch the huge ships cross through! Then we went to a fancy sky bar and spent too much money on fancy cocktails!🎉    Weiterlesen

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  • Amanda WilliamsonCentral & South AmericaReisender

    Montanita 🇪🇨

    30. Mai 2022 in Ecuador ⋅ ☁️ 21 °C

    SOUTH AMERICA!

    Technically our first stop in Ecuador was Guayaquil, however we only spent 1 night due to it not being a safe area, just enough time to get a terrible haircut!

    The next morning we caught the bus to Montanita, where we were greeted at our hostel with teabags 😍
    Montanita is crazy! Most bars have deals on where women drink free and get free entrance so we ended up making the most of the nightlife and having hungover beach days (although it was a bit too cold for the beach)The town itself it quite small, but nice to walk around… especially cocktail street where we purchased a disgusting shots wheel!    Weiterlesen

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