Glorious Guatemala

Antigua….definitely the best city we’ve been to in the whole of Central America. Gorgeous little town surrounded by volcanoes with blue cloudless skies and comfortable temperatures. This town, we decided, we could live in forever. Whilst there are numerous activities available, we got lazy and chose instead to frequent all the numerous bars and restaurants, stroll around the markets and visit the many stunning churches around every corner. As has happened many a time 2 days turned into 4 days and 4 turned into 6. But we had to pull ourselves away sometime and, so, we booked our shuttle to Panajachal on Lago Atitlán. Panajachal is the most touristy town around Lago Atitlán but there is a certain charm to it as well…I think this is because of the stunning views of the lake from almost everywhere in the town. We checked into a hotel fast, as Mitch was dying of “man-flu” and took it easy the next day…once again, indulging in food and the like. We decided to take a stroll to a nearby town the following day so took off to follow the path around the lake. We were greeted with stunning views and friendly locals along the way. Santa Catarina (the next town) was quite pleasant with school children in their traditional dress screaming in the playgrounds nearby playing soccer and basketball (which was definitely a sight). We took a rest by the lake to horse into our packed lunch and then made our way back to Panajachal to celebrate Valentine’s Day. It was a special evening where we spoilt ourselves with some Malaysian cuisine followed by some live music and the obligatory rum & cokes in a nearby bar. Lovely stuff! With difficulty, we moved on the next day to Quetzaltenango (yes, it’s a mouthful…but, luckily, it can be shortened to Xela, pronounced 'Shela') which was supposed to be another pleasant town in the mountains. We were a bit disappointed with it to be honest so we only stayed a couple of nights before booking our shuttle to Mexicó…excited, or what!!??
(pic 1: Mitch in one of the many beautiful churches of Antigua; pic 2: a view of Lago Atitlán)

Hmmm…Honduras, not so sure!

We hadn’t planned to spend much time in Honduras…we hadn’t heard great reports but we had heard great reports about Mexico so wanted to keep some weeks at the end of our trip to explore southern Mexico. But after spending so much time inland in Nicaragua we decided we needed some more beach time on the Caribbean again. So we unwillingly spent a horrendous night in Tegucigalpa (the capital)…in a mouldy room and being abused by cab drivers who kept shouting at us “do you know where you are? You’re in Tegucigalpa!! What kind of address is that?” We quickly realised that not one cab driver in Honduras knows anything about the town or city they’re in. We quickly packed our bags the next day and hopped on a bus to Tela on the Caribbean coast. After mouldy and cockroach infested rooms of the last few weeks we decided to treat ourselves to a lovely sea view hotel room. My oh my was it worth it…clean rooms, soap and toilet paper in the bathroom, and (what all travellers dream of) TOWELS!! We were in heaven. We washed up and quickly dug in to a feast of lobster and prawns washed down by a few Port Royal beers. The next day we checked out the beaches which still held the scars of the many hurricanes to visit years before. It was quite obvious we were getting closer to Mexico when it was tortillas and refried beans for breakfast. But it was a relaxing few days and we were happy to be back by the sea. We spent an interesting day visiting the second largest botanical garden in the world followed by an evening of my first Superbowl. That was fun! The next day it was time to move on to visit our first Maya Ruins in the town of Copán Ruinas. Because of bus times in most of Central America (buses seem to stop running between towns at about 4pm), we missed the last bus to Copán…to save time we decided to go to the nearest town so we could move on quickly the next day. The town is called La Entrada and I quote from the Lonely Planet “something must have gone wrong for you to be stuck in La Entrada”. Yup, that’s all I’ll say about that. We arrived safely to the lovely town of Copán the following morning. The town is quite small, only a half an hour from the Guatemalan border and very clean and pretty. The first thing we noticed about it was that it was missing all the grotesque ‘Coca-Cola’ and ‘Pepsi’ advertising that you see on every single restaurant and bar in the rest of Honduras. We were quite pleased. We spent the afternoon visiting a butterfly sanctuary which wasn’t as boring as you’d think and then off to explore the town. The following morning we set off to the ruins which were also much more exciting than we’d expected. A lot bigger than we thought as well and we came out thinking the Mayans are pretty damn cool. After a viewing of “The King’s Speech” (put on by our hostel) it was early to bed for our 6am shuttle to Antigua, Guatemala the next morning.
(pic1: view from our hotel in Tela; pic2: at Copan ruins)

Central America...Part I

It didn’t take long to get to Panama City…we forgot how short the distances in Central America would be compared to South America. We settled in pretty quickly and booked a one way ticket out of Panama to San José in Costa Rica for the next evening. We arrived at the border about 2 hours too early so sat in a queue until the immigration offices opened…fun! After another “speedy” passport check on the other side we were back on the bus within 6 hours on our way to the capital. We weren’t expecting this delay so we had to spend an expensive night in San José but were out of there early the next morning to make our way to Rivas in south west Nicaragua. The border crossing was a little less painful and we quickly arrived to the bustling lake side town of Rivas. Not sure where we were going to go from there, we met some friendly “deutschers” who told us of a beautiful beach side town Las Salinas about an hour away. So we hopped in a cab with them and went to check it out for ourselves. We arrived just after sunset so it was pretty dark dragging our feet through the sand to get to our hotel but were greeted with a friendly Nicaraguan smile, a lovely sea view room and cold beers. What else could you ask for? I spent 3 lovely days lying on the beach enjoying the sun while Mitch did his 2009 taxes!! I refused to get involved. From there we went straight to Lake Nicaragua (the largest in Central America) where we got a boat to the island of Ometepe which is dominated by 2 active volcanoes which you can choose to hike up. After a day of exploring the island on a little moped (going about 10 mph!) we chose to hike up Volcán Concepción. It was a pleasant hike up through jungle to be greeted by fantastic views of the lake on the top (and freezing temperatures). All in all, it was a pleasant stay on Lake Nicaragua. We quickly made our way to Granada, a city we’d heard so many fabulous things about. We found a little “posada” to rest our heads and quickly went out to explore the city. Granada is a beautiful colonial town on the shores of Lake Nicaragua but, unfortunately, is bustling with tourists who are being constantly harassed by street vendors and beggars (and I mean every 5-10 seconds!). But we kept bumping into these nutters (see pic) everywhere we went which was quite entertaining. We stayed around for a few days before departing for Matagalpa in the mountains for a cooler climate. We had started to feel guilty about our lack of activities of late so decided to rent some bikes to see the surrounding countryside. The easy-medium level route was much more difficult than expected with a full 45 minute start on a 45 degree slope gravel track. Our bodies are not in good enough shape to handle that kind of biking so we hiked it up instead until we got to a more reasonable flat. The locals did seem to find it amusing…seeing 2 gringos on bikes…I know, pretty exciting stuff…as they relentlessly stared at us for the duration. All in all it was a pleasant journey with some beautiful sights. The next and final stop in Nicaragua would be Estelí. Another pleasant little Nicaraguan town with some good food, cheap accommodations, curious locals and a freezing cold waterfall! Next stop…HONDURAS!
(pic 1: on the beach at Las Sallinas; pic 2: Mitch on top of Volcan Concepcion; pic 3: "these nutters")