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Latinoamérica 2017

December 2016 - September 2017
A 264-day adventure by About a girl who travels Read more
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  • About a girl who travelsLatinoamérica 2017
    Day 24

    San Pedro la Laguna

    January 20, 2017 in Guatemala ⋅ ☀️ 24 °C

    The chicken bus to San Pedro was quite challenging as the roads were winding up and down the mountains and the driver didn't give us a break and went through them as fast as possible. I really had to hold on to not slide on my neighbors lap. When we finally arrived I was dropped off on the main road. I checked on my phone which way I had to go and started walking. Like I remembered I took the next street on the right which would bring me to my hostel with just a few little turns. But after the next turn the street turned into a really small alley between two buildings going down the hill pretty steep. This couldn't be right. I walked back to the main road and checked again but it seemed to be the right and only way to go to get to the hostel. This is something you are probably not supposed to do when you come to a new place you don't know anything about. Walk down a sketchy looking alley with all your belongings. But it turned out to be the right way and San Pedro turned out to have a lot of this weird small alleys and just a few proper streets. The buildings were the same. Some of them were really nice but then again unfinished or run down. Definitely not what I expected but still somehow charming.
    I stayed at Casa Felipe which turned out to be a good place to hang out and meet the right people even though it somehow carried on the charme of the town. Toby, a guy I had met in Bacalar, was there as well. I spend a lot of time with people from the hostel just strolling around and hanging out without actually doing anything. I skipped the early morning hike to some lookout point for the volcano as well as taking a canoe to explore the lake. Sometimes you just need a few days doing nothing spectacular. And I still made a few really good memories.
    One night we all cooked together - Toby wanted to make swiss "Röschti". It didn't exactly work out the way he wanted it to but they were still delicious. I also gave it a try and made my own Röschti. It looked quite good but I shut have used salt.
    Another night I found myself dancing in a bar around 7pm, wearing clothes I would usually just wear to a good friends sleep over, a plastic cup of cheap red wine in my hand, realizing that I really don't care if anybody is watching. These are the moments you know life just can't get any better :)    Read more

  • About a girl who travelsLatinoamérica 2017
    Day 27

    Antigua

    January 23, 2017 in Guatemala ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C

    Again this post begins with the story about how I got here. My last day in San Pedro we started daydrinking around 3 and went out afterwards. So it would have been very nice to sleep in the next day. But I had decided to again not take the tourist shuttle but a public bus. And I had read there was one direct bus running from Panajachel to Antigua at 11 in the morning. As I still had to get the boat to cross Lago Atitlan to get from San Pedro to Panajachel I got up at 8:30, left the hostel around 9, took the boat and made it to Pana around 10. Enough time to find the bus station and get some breakfast - I really needed some food after last night.

    I went into a tourist office only to find out that the direct bus was not running. But the guy there was really friendly and helpful and gave me three options:

    One - Take a tourist shuttle direct to Antigua. It would be a comfortable Mini Van but this would also be the most expensive option.
    Two - Take a public bus to Chimaltenango and change there for Antigua. This should be pretty easy but the bus to Chimaltenango was only running at 1 p.m. and this would mean wait another 3 hours after getting up so early.
    Three - Take the public bus to Solola go from there to Los Encuentros to take the next bus to Chimaltenango and go from there to Antigua. 4 different busses. Challenge accepted!

    The guy from the tourist office was really nice and wrote down exactly the names of the places where I had to change busses and even drew me little maps of these places so that I would know where to find my next bus. And it turned out to be an really easy task. Of course everybody would see that I was not a local and help me find my way around. The only thing making it hard was that I only found food the last time I had to change busses. Whenever I got somewhere the next bus was already waiting. Normally there are always people coming on the bus and selling their stuff. But today they would only offer ice cream cones - not what I was looking for with a hangover. In Chimaltenango I decided that there is gonna be another bus and just went to get me breakfast before getting back on the bus.

    And after not much more than 3 hours I arrived in beautiful Antigua. I walked through the streets looking for my homestay and was wondering in which of these nice houses I would be staying. The adress I had gotten from the Spanish School was 3 Calle de Rubio. I walked down the street and found number 3. A really nice looking house. I nocked on the door but no one would open. I realized the next house in the row had the number 3b. So I gave it a try. No one opened but a few docks started barking. I was thinking about leaving a old lady showed up at the first house. I told her I was looking for Amanda at 3 Calle de Rubio. She pointed down the street to the entrance of a backyard and told me it's there. I went into the backyard which was full of old stuff and looked more like a big dumpster. This couldn't be right. I wanted to leave when a guy showed up asking me if I was looking for Amanda. He pointed me towards a door in the last corner of the backyard. Seriously? I rang the bell and was happy to find at least something like a courtyard with a few rooms behind the door. But Amanda told me to sit down and wait. As it turned out her place was overbooked and they would send me to another homestay! I was so happy. And the new place I got is super nice. I have a huge room with 2 beds by myself. The bathrooms are big, clean and have hot water. And the best thing: it's a 2 minutes walk from the garden where I had my spanish lessons.

    My stay here was like being back to school. Getting up at 6:45, breakfast at 7. Spanish lessons from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. then walk home to where lunch was already waiting (the other kids had only 4 hours so I always had lunch by myself). Dinner was served at 6 p.m..
    I was told my "family" would sit down with me for the meals so I could practice my spanish but this never actually happened. It's more like a little hostel and the people you talk to are the other students.

    Learning spanish 5 hours a day pretty tough. I think I know a lot but it's still something else to actually apply it in a real conversation. After a while I was able to speak a little with my teacher (it's only one on one lessons) but it was still a completely different thing once I was out in town. I still don't get a word when people talk fast and I mostly know the right answer to a question 2 minutes later.

    In the afternoon I would spend my time strolling around town. As I do not have WiFi in my homestay I usually go to some Cafe with WiFi and do my homework there. I went out a few times at night but unfortunately Antigua was a lot more expensive than I thought. But I still liked it and enjoyed my time feeling at home in a place.

    Ines, Thomas and his friend from Germany came to Antigua for 2 days. Ines showed me some of her favorite places and we had drinks at Cafe Sky with the perfect view to the sunset over the volcanoes.

    Watching the Volcanoes from even closer now was the most exciting thing in Antigua. One night Fuego went wild and would not stop shooting Lava! So I'm superexcited now to leave tomorrow for the hike up to Acatenango.    Read more

  • About a girl who travelsLatinoamérica 2017
    Day 29

    Hobbitenango

    January 25, 2017 in Guatemala ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C

    When Ines came to visit in Antigua we went up into the mountains to this fascinating place. It's a little Boutique Hotel and Restaurant placed high in the mountains with a stunning view to the volcanoes. Again the most exciting things were the volcanoes and especially Fuego going wild that day but the place itself was magical as well. As the name suggests the place is designed like Hobbiton with 2 Hobbit-Holes.Read more

  • About a girl who travelsLatinoamérica 2017
    1
    Day 32

    Volcán Acatenango

    January 28, 2017 in Guatemala ⋅ ☀️ 13 °C

    I really feel like I've been on top of the world!

    Everybody I met recommended doing the hike to volcano Acatenango as from there you have amazing views to the 2 neighboring volcanoes Fuego (which is still active) and Agua. Everybody said although it's pretty exhausting and freezing cold it's definitely worth the trip.

    I was most afraid of the cold. At night it can have minus degrees. Knowing 6 people died up there just a few weeks ago because of the cold didn't really help. But they were unprepared. So I just had to prepare myself. I brought tight, leggings and jeans. 2 pairs of socks. 2 shirts, one longsleeve, 3 hoodies and a winter jacket I rented at my hostel. Gloves, 2 scarfs and a woolen hat. Additional to that I had to carry a sleeping mat, a sleeping bag and my share of the tent. Also all the food and water I needed. It was actually the first time that I went on a proper hike with my travel bag pack.

    We were picked up at our hostel in the morning (just 45 minutes later as we were supposed to 😉) and drove to the beginning of the trail. At this point we were already at 2400m above sea level. The final elevation on top of Acatenango should be 3950m.

    The hike up was partly pretty steep and the volcanic ground didn't make it easier. But we took regular breaks and I found my pace to walk and just put one foot in front of the other (even though in the deep volcanic earth one step forward meant sometimes half a step back). I was surprised my backpack didn't bother me more. I guess we are a good team after 12 years of traveling together.

    We were 5 people in our group plus our guide. The group was really nice - unfortunately the guide was pretty annoying. For one he had his own kind of humor. Making funny animal noises or repeating the same stupid jokes all along the way (even if no one would be close enough to listen). He would blow his whistle really loud and give us a yellow card if we didn't remember something he had told us. But I could have ignored that part.
    What was really upsetting was that his only goal was to get up there first. He was tracking our time and instead of staying with the slowest person in the back he would just run ahead and tell her to hurry up. Going up I was with him in the front most of the time and he would say things like our group was a tortuga (turtle) even to other people. Seriously, what does it matter if we get to our camp half an hour early?

    It took us exatly 5 hours and 7 minutes (tracked by our guide) to get to our camp from where we would leave early the next morning for the last bit to catch sunrise from the top. I don't remember exactly how high the elevation was here and I couldn't be bothered to ask our guide - didn't want to get another yellow card 😉

    The view from the camp was already amazing! Fuego was really close right in front of us and Agua just a bit further away to the left. And it was so crazy to be above the clouds. Everything else felt so small.
    We took millions of pictures, set up our tents and our guide started a fire to prepare our "dinner" - hot water to pour into a cup with instant noodle soup. I never thought instant noodle soup can satisfy you so much. But it doesn't when you are craving something warm!

    The temperature changing quite rapidly. When we started going up it was still pretty hot. The higher we got the colder it was. But when we got above the clouds and back into the sun it was warm again. But up in the camp we got cold really quick as we weren't moving anymore. And as soon as the sun was down we all put on all our close and gathered around the fire.

    When the sun was down also the clouds disappeared. Now you could see the lights of all the different citys down there and you could even see all the way to the pacific coast. We just sat there and watched the lights down there and the stars up in the sky.

    The only thing that was missing was Fuego erupting. But after his big show a few days ago he was only making a little smoke. Instead Pacaya, another active volcanoe a bit further away was shooting a lot of lava.

    We went to bed around nine as we had to get up the next morning around 4. With all the clothes I brought it actually wasn't to cold in my sleeping back. But I didn't take anything off.

    I slept kind of ok but woke up around 2:30 and couldn't really go back to sleep anymore. Suddenly I heard a loud and roaring sound. It was something I had never heard before but I knew immediately what it was: Fuego erupted! I jumped out of the tent and it was really impressive. There was still no lava but a huge cloud of smoke and ashes. It got bigger and bigger and you could still here this roaring sound.
    I sat there for a while watching it as I knew I was to excited to go back to sleep now anyway.

    Around 4 we got up and actually just brushed our teeth (as we were already wearing all the clothes we brought), grabbed a water bottle and our cameras and started hiking again. On this last bit the volcanic earth was pretty deep but as we didn't have to carry our luggage up there it was actually a little easier.
    After one and a half hour we had made it to the top!

    It was pretty windy and definitely the coldest part but we sat really close together and waited for the sun to rise. In this moment Fuego erupted again! The smoke was kind of covering the sunrise for a moment but it was still pretty cool to see it again this time with a bit more light.

    After sunrise our guide wanted to rush down again but we took our time to take each others victory pictures in front of Fuego. When we were finished he was gone.
    But we followed the other groups down and saw how this was going. Instead of taking a long path around a huge surface of volcanic earth we would just run down sinking with our feet really deep into the ashes. I got faster and faster jumping deeper and deeper into the earth. It was so much fun till the moment I realized I had no idea how to stop again. I kind of just let myself fall backwards. And what took a long time to climb up was behind us after just a few minutes.

    Back in the camp we had breakfast and then packed everything back together to start the descent. Forme this part was a lot harder. My shoes weren't the best and I had a lot of trouble not to slip and fall all the time. So going down I should be the tortuga. Again our guide couldn't be bothered to wait and just told me to run. "It's easier that way!" - maybe for him.

    We were back in Antigua around noon and the first hot shower was amazing! Like everybody had said, it was cold and exhausting. But definitely worth the trip!

    I saw the rest of my group again later that night for dinner and even though we had just met one day ago it felt a lot different. We had climbed a volcano together.

    The next day I went to the rooftop of a cafe in Antigua and took a picture of volcano Agua from there. It's peak was stuck in the clouds. It was a weird feeling to know that we had been above these clouds. Really like I had been on top of the world.    Read more

  • About a girl who travelsLatinoamérica 2017
    Day 35

    Bordercrossing to Honduras

    January 31, 2017 in Guatemala ⋅ ⛅ 19 °C

    I had decided to take a tourist shuttle and not the public busses to make my way to Copan Ruinas in Honduras from Antigua. The Shuttle was supposed to puck me up around 4 a.m. and I ended up almost not sleeping at all that night as I was to nervous to really fall asleep and miss the shuttle and people from my room kept coming in.
    So when I was waiting for my shuttle I was really looking forward to catching some sleep on the bus.

    The bus arrived around 4:30 which I thought was normal because these shuttles usually pick up different people from different hostels around town. There were 4 people on the bus. I picked a seat in the back and curled together to sleep but as soon as the bus started moving one of the guys started grumbling really loud. He was kind of freaking out about something and first I thought they had all been robbed. But at some point I figured he had just lost his wallet or probably just wasn't able to find it due to his condition. It became pretty obvious that these four had decided to just party till 4 and get on the bus straight away - they were covered in glitter. The bus driver told me later it took them 20 minutes to get this one guy on the bus - the reason for the delay. I don't know how much he drank and what else he took but he didn't stop talking about his wallet till he popped some valium which put him to sleep for a while.
    When the bus stopped again for a little break he got of saying "I just gonna steel someone elses money. That's karma!".
    I think he didn't manage to do that as he didn't even find his way back on the bus without help.
    Around 10 in the morning we had made our way to the border of Guatemala and Honduras. From here it was only 20 more minutes for me to Copan. The others would continue on to the coast to get to La Ceiba.
    The busdriver asked for our Passports to take them to the Guatemalan border and get our departure stamp (I thought it was a little weird that we didn't have to go by ourselves but he said it's faster that way). Of course the drunk guy couldn't find his passport.
    When the busdriver came back I took my passport and went to the Honduran Immigration Office to get my stamp and pay $3 Immigration Fee. Even though the officer took his time and even checked my fingerprints and took a photo of me I was out before the other four even entered.
    The drunk guy had found his passport and joined the group. Unfortunately he didn't get his stamp for leaving Guatemala first which led to the first confusion. The officer got pretty angry because it seemed he was trying to leave Guatemala illegally. He made him go back there and one of the girls joined him so he wouldn't get lost again on the way there.
    While the two of them were gone the guy who seemed to be the least drunk came out and I started talking to him. He was really upset with the other three. He said he barely knew them but they just decided to follow him from Guatemala to Honduras and he didn't like the way they behaved and he didn't wanna be responsible for them.
    The other girl came out of the immigration office saying that she didn't have any cash as well as the two who just came back from the Guatemalan Office.
    Our busdriver told them to take a TukTuk back to the last town to get to an ATM as he wouldn't go back there. The sober guy decided to pay for the three of them just so we could keep going. He made them promise to pay him back as soon as we hit the first ATM in Honduras. I was still pretty happy he paid. The other 3 probably wouldn't have made it otherwise.
    Especially as the drunk guy was still behaving really stupid. Turns out he didn't want to show his passport to the officer "What do you need to see my passport for?!". We tried to talk to the girls and make them aware of what they were getting themselves into. Honduras is more dangerous than most of the other countries. You don't wanna walk through the streets here completely wasted. And your friend shouldn't carry drugs across the border "Why?" - they really didn't get any of it.
    I couldn't believe when everybody was back on the bus and we finally drove into Honduras. I so expected them to search our car. We just crossed a border with someone who was obviously on drugs and probably carried some as well!
    So I was really happy when the bus dropped me a few minutes later at my hostel in Copan and I send the other 4 of for their own adventure.    Read more

  • About a girl who travelsLatinoamérica 2017
    Day 36

    Copan Ruinas

    February 1, 2017 in Honduras ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C

    According to Lonely Planet Honduras is still known as the "Bad Boy" in the Central American hood. A lot of travelers skip it completely but I at least wanted to catch a glimpse of it.
    I was meeting a friend from Germany here who should join me for the next two weeks to travel El Salvador.
    I arrived in Copan on Tuesday and knew I was staying here for 4 nights as Sebastian would not arrive before Thursday and we wanted to visit the ruins together on Friday before heading to El Salvador on Saturday.
    I was really hoping Copan and the hostel I was staying would be nice. Otherwise it would have been a long stay there. But luckily I did like it a lot.
    I actually felt even more safe here than in Antigua walking the streets by night.
    People were really friendly and lots of the guys hanging around the Parque Central were wearing Cowboy Hats with Jeans and a proper Shirt - it made them look pretty dressed up to protect the city.
    I did go on a horseback ride around the area. It was really nice and as it was just me and my guide I could decide where to go and how fast - he even gave me his horse because it was faster :)
    We went to a small indigenous village and some smaller ruins. I the end we went to a fancy hotel which had amazing views over the area.
    I spend the rest of my days here exploring the little town and hanging out with some nice people from the hostel. There were a few nice places like "The tea and chocolate place" which sold homemade chocolates and other stuff. The hot chocolate was amazing!
    Thursday Sebastian showed up and Friday afternoon Sandy (who I had met before in San Ignacio, Belize and Livingston, Guatemala) joined us to travel to El Salvador together.    Read more

  • About a girl who travelsLatinoamérica 2017
    Day 38

    Copan Archaeological Site

    February 3, 2017 in Honduras ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

    The ruins of Copan were probably not as big and impressive as Tikal or some of the ruins in Mexico but what was really nice was that there were not that many people around. You could just walk to the ruins from town with 10 minutes and then it was a nice stroll through trees filled with macaws.
    Also the ruins had a lot more sculptures and hieroglyphic carvings. Unfortunately a lot was reconstructed and the originals are in the museum at the visitor center (which we skipped).

    There were some more ruins of residential buildings a bit further down the road. On my map it looked like you could take the "nature trail" to get there. So we took this trail till we ended at a wired fence. But as it should be the right way we just found a hole in the fence and kept on walking. We followed a path along the river through high grass. Probably not the best idea in a country with a reputation like Honduras but the map still showed we were on the right way. We climbed through two more fences and crossed some fields till we finally made it to the final fence protecting the ruins. But this ruins were part of our ticket and as we had made it that far we decided not to look for a proper entrance but just slide under another fence to get inside. The ruins were nice but the bigger adventure was really probably how we got there. We never figured out if the was a proper way connecting the two sites and on the way back we sticked to the road instead of trying again.    Read more

  • About a girl who travelsLatinoamérica 2017
    Day 39

    Bordercrossing to El Salvador

    February 4, 2017 in Guatemala ⋅ ☁️ 18 °C

    We wanted to start our trip through El Salvador in Santa Ana as this was supposed to be a good starting point for Ruta de las Flores. There was a tourist shuttle running from Copan to El Salvador which would stop in Santa Ana, San Salvador and at the beach in El Tunco. But the shuttle was $40 even if you would get of at the first stop in Santa Ana. And as we were the three of us traveling together we decided to make our way there by public busses. The shortest way to get to Santa Ana was through Guatemala and as we are all happy to collect more stamps in our passport anyway we decided to take that route.
    The first bus we took was a really crowded minivan from Copan Ruinas back to the border of Guatemala. Here we went back over the border the same way I came just a few days ago (but this time everybody was sober ;)). From here we took another minivan to Chiquimula in Guatemala where we were dropped at a bus station in the center. Chiquimula was a pretty crowded city with street venders everywhere but people were really friendly and showed us how to walk the few blocks to the other bus station where our next bus to Anguiatú at the Border to El Salvador would leave. In Chiquimula there was some Motorcycle Festival happening.
    In Anguiatú the bordercrossing was a little confusing. We got our stamp for leaving Guatemala like we were used to but when we went to the office of El Salvador the refused to give us a stamp. We were a little scared to enter the country without a proper proof that we did this the official way. And like I said before it's always a nice memory to carry in your passport. I knew that Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua have one 90-day-visa for all four countries but so far the others still gave us a new stamp everytime we crossed the border anyway. But the officer explained to us that in El Salvador you only get the stamp if you enter from or leave to a country other than theses 4 (by boat or plane).
    Behind the border there was already the next bus waiting which would bring us to Metapán where we changed one last time for our final bus to Santa Ana. All together it took us almost 8 hours compared to maybe 5-6 on the tourist shuttle but we also paid less than $10 and saw a lot of different cities and landscapes and people along our way in 3 different countries.    Read more

  • About a girl who travelsLatinoamérica 2017
    Day 39

    Santa Ana

    February 4, 2017 in El Salvador ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C

    Santa Ana was somehow a weird place. We stayed at Casa Verde which was definitely one of the best places I've stayed so far. The owner Carlos took really good care of everybody and over the years he collected ideas from travelers how to improve the hostel. Every dorm bed had it's own fan, reading light & socket. At the foot of the bed there was a furniture to store your backpack with different hangers for towels and all kinds of things. As a courtesy to other people in the room there was also a plastic box for smelly footwear. Additionally everybody got it's own locker with another socket and 2 USB-plugs inside.
    The common areas were really nice and clean. There were 2 kitchens with lots of spices and herbs to use. Also free coffee beans to grind yourself and make fresh coffee. The place was really inviting to stay longer.
    But somehow Santa Ana itself wasn't really. The hostel was in the commercial area and after we went out for dinner everything on the 5 minute walk from the restaurant (which was the only nice place around) to the hostel was closed and dark. There were a lot of homeless people in one street but otherwise we didn't meet anybody.
    The next morning we had a great breakfast and after a stroll over the busy market we got back on the bus to get to the "Rutas de las Flores".    Read more

  • About a girl who travelsLatinoamérica 2017
    Day 40

    Juayúa

    February 5, 2017 in El Salvador ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C

    Juayúa was our first stop along the Rutas de las Flores.
    I never quite figured why it's called Rutas de las Flores. Other than expected there are not a lot of flowers. It's just a few brightly colored colonial towns along a winding road - but maybe these picturesque towns are supposed to be the flowers.
    Juayúa was the biggest of the 3 towns we visited with a population of 10,000. It is famous for it's weekend "feria gastronomica" with a lot of stands selling lots of good food. We spend the afternoon there trying different things. I had mashed yuca with some toppings and a whole pineapple filled with fresh juice and rum. ☺
    The next morning we took a little hike up to "Los Chorros de Calera" - a series of waterfalls. The fascinating thing here was that the water just seemed to be coming out of the fractured cliff wall and not from a river or something.    Read more

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