Week 9 El Salvador and Nicaragua

Week 9

Tuesday. Our last day by the beach so we made the most if it by getting up early to watch the early morning surfers. We spent all day on the beach and it was lovely.

Having fun with the black sand

Same piece of wood as the picture above

In the evening we ate at Take a Wok. This has to be the most enjoyable meal I have had so far in Central America. I have really missed Asian food and the Thai inspired coconut curry was delicious.

After scoffing our faces we met up with Ingrid and Neal (who we met in Guatemala) for some drinks on a mini bar crawl around El Tunco. We all had a lovely evening, and I am sure we shall meet them again at some point during this trip.

Wednesday. 11:30 Today we made our way to Nicaragua. We paid $50 each for a posh Collective (it had air conditioning, comfy seats and movies!) to take us all the way to Leon. We gave the driver our passports and $16 each to cover all the costs associated with the 2 border crossings (we crossed into Honduras, then Nicaragua). For the next 12 hours we sat back, relaxed and didn't do anything apart from watch a load of movies and get sore asses!

We arrived at Lazy Bones about 10pm. This was a lovely hostel which had a small swimming pool all for $20 a night.

Thursday.  WooooooooowwwwwWaaaaaah! 7:00am.  Woken up by the old war siren which I am sure is the morning alarm for all of Leon ... It was that loud!  We got up and indulged in the free coffee offered by the hostel before we headed out to explore the area.

The hostel had a pool!

Leon is a nice colonial town, similar to Antigua in Guatemala, but a lot hotter!

God knows what this was - it was nice!

After 3 hours of sweating we headed back towards our hostel, first popping into Quetzal Trekkers to see what they had to offer. Before we knew it we had signed ourselves up for a 3 day hike to the Northern Highlands (El Mirador trek now forgotten) followed by a full day hike up a volcano! It was going to be a busy 4 days of adventure and fun.

Roland was a very social bee today and was chatting to everyone in the hostel (I was less social and hid in the cool bedroom). He befriended a Dutch guy called Bobby who we ended up eating dinner with at the local 'Comidor' (65C for a main) and drinking beer with at the Mirador Bar. We discovered that he seemed to be a walking accident after sharing many funny stories about his travels and injuries.

Friday 5:15am. We headed off to Quetzal trekkers not really knowing what to expect during the 3 day trek - should have asked more questions yesterday. We packed our rucksacks with 3 days worth of gear thinking that we had done quite well with minimising as much as possible (we didn't want to carry too much). As soon as we walked through the door we realised that our expectations of carrying our little backpacks 'went out of the window'. There lying before us were full sized backpacks with camping equipment, food rations and 14 litres of water to carry between us! OMG initially went straight through my head as I realised we had to carry our own equipment. This was going to be an 'interesting' few days!

Our guides Rory and Charlotte shed light on what we would be doing during the trip and introduced us to the poo kit - a shovel, antibac and loo roll. Hmmmm. With a breakfast of eggs and potatoes and full bellies we headed out walking across Leon to the bus station (30 minutes) with our heavy backpacks. We had only walked about 10 minutes and I was already sweating!

We got on a chicken bus and attempted to get some more sleep during the 3 hour journey to Matagalpa.

Matagalpa is famous for coffee so with that in mind our first stop was at a coffee museum where we downed as much coffee as possible (we needed to wake up!) before walking across the town (getting a lot of strange looks from the locals) to the smallest chocolate factory I have ever seen - El Castillo Cacao

Map showing where coffee is grown

We were really pleased to visit the place as we were told how chocolate was made and got to sample quite a lot while drinking more coffee. We ending up buying 540g of chocolate - it was really quite yummy!

A steep hill to climb!!! Urghg!!

The next part of the adventure involved us walking for about 2hrs in the lush country side, up steep hills, before stopping for lunch in the middle of a field. By this point both Roland and I were completely soaked in sweat from carrying our heavy backpacks and were relieved to know that there was only 1.5 hours of walking left.

Lunch

We climbed to the top of this mountain!

We arrived at our camp in time to put up our tent and climb the last part of the mountain to watch the sunset. Beautiful!

Saturday. 5:00am. Bursting for the loo - I had to rush out of the tent to pee behind a bush. We did not sleep well at all as the wind blew all night threatening to blow our tent off the ground! We had breakfast, packed up our tents and headed off again to trek into the wilderness.

We were hurting. Trekking is hard work when you have to do it all without the help of a mule! Surprisingly we only walked for about 1.5 hours before we hitchhiked a ride to our final destination for the day Cascada Blanca After a quick snooze in the hammock, we headed to our campsite for the day - a cave behind a waterfall!

We stayed here for the rest of the day. Roland and I escaped the guides and went on a little adventure up the river to have a much needed wash - we stank - and sit in the sun.

The evening was spent drinking beer and rum and cokes around a campfire, watching the bats fly in and out of the cave and telling scary stories (well Rory did).

Sunday. We still hadn't used the 'poo kit' and we were very thankful to hear that there was a real loo nearby ... We decided that we had had enough of roughing it and made the decision to leave for Leon as soon as possible. We quickly packed up and headed back to the main road to catch a lift. It didn't take more than a minute before a guy stopped in his Toyota to offer us a lift back to Matagalpa.

This guy turned out to be a really lovely man and drove is to the city's viewpoint, paid for us to get in and then afterwards drove us to the bus station - all for free! We were lucky that there was a Collective about to leave for Leon as soon as we arrived at the station. After jumping in we waited for about 20 minutes so that the final person could literally be wedged in place ... he happened to be a rather fat Nicaraguan who was wedged in right next to Roland - definitely a case of 'little and large' . I couldn't help but have a little giggle when I turned round to see the look on Roland's face.

Monday. Lava day! We had arranged an 8 hour trek up the Telica Volcano with promises of seeing lava. We were both a little tired from our previous adventure so we made sure we drank loads of coffee before heading back to Quetzal Trekkers. This time we were greeted with a small backpack with only 4 litres of water and a small amount of food to carry each - big sigh of relief!  Also joining us on the trip was a French couple Anais and Laurent from the Auvergne region where they work in 1 of the only volcano museums in Europe (big volcano enthusiasts!).

We repeated the journey to the bus station to get a chicken bus to the small village where we started out trek. Rick (our guide) pointed out the volcano that we were heading to - it looked miles away. The first part of the trek took us past some steaming hot mud pools.

It was soooooo hot today and even though we were only carrying a small backpack we were soaked with sweat almost immediately. We trekked through corn fields, steep rocky paths and beautiful countryside before making it to the crater of the volcano. We stopped here to see the sunset before we climbed the final bit to see lava.

You can see the volcano in the background

As you climbed closer the the edge of the crater the noise of the volcano got loader and loader - it sounded like the jet engine of an aeroplane! I could not believe my eyes when I reached the top and peered over the edge - about a 100 metre drop to the glowing lava pit! It was mesmerising and I couldn't quite believe that in front of me was actual lava. This is something I had always wanted to see since I was a little girl.  We stayed here for about 30 minutes before we made our way back - trekking the same way we came, but in complete darkness!

We made it!!!!

The glowing red thing is LAVA!!!

Walking back in the dark - Roland was knackered!

By the time we got back to the hostel, we were all smelly, dirty, tired and hungry!  Luckily the restaurant opposite the hostel, El Mediterráneo, was still open and was happy to accommodate us, even though we stunk!  We stayed here for 1.5 hours scoffing pizza, chicken wings and washed it all down with a few well earned beers.

Week 8 Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador

Tuesday. 6:00am. Today we travelled on another Collective to Rio Dulce (7 hours). The driver dropped us off at the main port area and we were collected by Gary from the Kangaroo hostel (free).  We had not made a reservation so we were pleased to find out that there was a cabin available for 220Q per night.

Photos to be added - camera not working

The hostel was the nicest hostel we have stayed in so far and to top it off, there was a jacuzzi!!!!  Gary (Aussie who built and owned the hostel for 7 years) was great and was really knowledgeable about central America. He gave us great tips and convinced us to go to Copan in Honduras on our way to El Salvador.  The hostel had free kayaks for the guests so we grabbed one and headed out to  El Castillo De San Felipe for a little wonder before it got too dark.  We made sure we got back in time for a beer in the jacuzzi!

Photos to be added - camera not working

Wednesday. It was Roland's turn to look after me. I was sick all day from a 24 hour tummy bug. Not fun! I didn't do anything all day except lie in the bed and drink lots of water.

Thursday. Another tip from Gary. We headed out at 8:30am to catch a Collective (15Q each) to Finca El Paraiso. We were joined by Gunter from Switzerland. Entry fee was 10Q. This place was great! A hot waterfall which flowed into a cold river. It was lovely to relax here. I even jumped from the top of the waterfall ... didn't really like it!  Won't be doing it again!  Too scary! After we were guided to the source of the hot water, we covered ourselves in mud and sat in the hot spring, before heading back to the waterfall.

Photos to be added - camera not working

Afterwards we caught another Collective to El Boqueron where we travelled down the river to see the canyon. Beautiful! Gunter described it as a scene out of Avitar and we agreed.

Photos to be added - camera not working

While waiting for a Collective to take us back to Rio Dulce, a guy called Louis stopped in his pick up truck to offer us a lift! Super!! Free ride and air conditioned! He was such a nice guy who informed us that the nickname of Guatemala is Eternal Spring due to the greenness of the country throughout the year.

Another act of kindness happened when we arrived in Rio Dulce.  Randomly a lorry (32 tonnes) carrying the the local beer Galo, stopped to talk to Gunter to ask where he was from. Discovering that he was from Switzerland and us from the UK he got out of the lorry (parked on the side of the busy road) went into the shop and brought us all a beer to say thank you for visiting the country!!!! We were all quite surprised by this and thanked the man before he drove off in his massive lorry!

Friday. 8:30am. We thanked Gary for a super stay at his Hostel and caught the bus to Honduras. The bus company, Litegua,  charged us 75Q each (we paid once on the bus, not at the ticket office) for a 7 hour bus ride to El Florido, a small town on the Guatemalan border. The border crossing was easy. Paid 10Q exit fee and  65L entry fee into Honduras. We walked about 20 meters to the waiting Collective to take us to Copan Ruinas (20L and 25 minutes).

Copan Ruinas is really small to navigate, so finding our hostel for the evening was no problem - not as nice as the last one, very small room and smelled like a cave. We quickly dumped our bags and headed out to Twisted Tanya's for happy hour cocktails (100L for 2 drinks) followed by some street food (70L).

Saturday. We really didn't like this hostel so we got up early to check out and checked in to Via Via, much nicer and slightly cheaper. The breakfasts at this place were massive and really tasty (75L) -it filled me  up until dinner!

Our hostel - the nice one!

Armed with a map we walked to the famous ruins (entry 300L). Only took us around 20 minutes to get there and about 1 hour to visit everything. The ruins were a lot smaller than the others we have seen but they had amazing rock carvings and other decorative features. I was more fascinated by the resident Macaws flying about in the trees!

View of  main plaza 

After the ruins we visited Macaw Mountain (200L). We loved it here. A great place to get up close to some amazing birds and as the name suggests, plenty off Macaws to play with. Roland was amused by some parrots that copied everything I said, even my laugh!  We spent 1 hour here and then headed back to town for a coffee.

We were really missing wine. After walking around the same area for about 20 minutes we finally found a place which sold wine AND cheese, Cafe San Rafael! We ordered a couple of glasses and shared a plate of delicious cheese (410L) for our dinner for the evening. It was lovely! 

The wine was delicious!

Amazing!!

Sunday. Today Roland had a go at horse riding! And he enjoyed it! Even managed a few good long trots! 3 hours of riding (300L) took us out of the town and into the surrounding country side (and walking like John Wayne after!). We really got to see a different way of life. The trip was worth every penny! I did have a little giggle when I found out that Roland was riding a horse called Princessa ... hehehe

The afternoon was spent relaxing and preparing ourselves for the early morning start. 

Princessa not looking too happy

My horse was quite small, but it certainly 'shifted'!

Monday 3:30am. For $36 the collective pucked us up from our Hostel and drove us to El Tunco, El Salvador.  Surprisigly we had to go back to Guatemala to re-enter El Salvador. We had to pay $1 exit fee and then 20Q to enter Guatemala. At the Guatemala and El Salvador border I was greeted with the cutest kitten and when the driver asked if I wanted to take it, I was almost tempted to say yes.

Sooooo Cute!!! I wanted to take to El Tunco with me.

We arrived in El Tunco about 10:00am and we were both happy to be back near the sea. It had almost been 5 weeks since we were last by a coast! We didn't have a place to stay but finding somewhere was really easy and we found a room at Casa Makoi for $20.

Path to hostel

El Tunco is a small surfers village. The Beach is covered in black sand and the waves are big. As soon as we checked ourselves into the hostel we headed straight to the beach to get some breakfast and then chilled out for the rest of the day. It was hot!

Path to beach

Surfers!

View of El Tunco

View of beach while having breakfast

We were completely knackered after our early start so we only managed to have something to eat at Take a Wok before crashing out on the bed for a much needed 10 hour sleep!

Week 7 Guatemala

Week 7 Guatemala - After El Mirador Trek

Saturday. After the trek, we really could not face travelling 8 hours on a Collective today, so decided to stay in Flores for 1 more night. This turned out to be a good idea as we had a massive bag of laundry to do and were completely knackered. I spent most of the day on the computer completing the blog and Roland was faffing about waiting for me to finish.

Our third visit to Flores and we finally found the area where there was street food. BBQ chicken and a drink cost 30Q and was delicious! On our way back to the hostel we saw fireworks going off.  Wondering what  was going on, we searched for the source - the central plaza had been transformed with a rather large flashing Christmas tree, food stalls, DJ booth and a stage for local bands to perform.

Sunday.6am. No rest for the wicked. Today we left Flores for good - 3 separate visits here was enough. The Collective picked us up and took 8 hours to get to Semuc Champey, our next stop. 2 hours of the journey was bumping around in a Toyota Hilux, driving no faster than 10 mph on a dirt track to our hostel El Portal. My bones were well and truly shaken once we arrived!

Our little cabin was lovely. It over looked the river on the edge of the mountain. And to top it off there was a hammock to lie in to enjoy the view. Bliss! Finally a little bit of luxury - I would have given it 10 points if it didn't only have electricity from 6pm to 10 pm and cold showers. You can't have it all on a travellers budget!

View from hammock

Monday. We signed ourselves up for the tour of Semuc Champey. A day promising fun and adventure! It certainly delivered! The morning was spent getting very sweaty climbing to the viewpoint of the limestone pools. Then climbing all the way back down to swim, dive and have some fun in the pools.

Unexpectedly I had a free 'fish pedicure'. While standing on a large rock I had about 10 little fish nibble my feet. It freaked me out to start with but I soon got used to it. Roland didn't like it and swiftly swam to another area.

After lunch was the highlight of the trip, exploring the nearby caves. Now, normally when you are about to explore caves you are given a flash light ... not in Guatemala, we were given a candle! A candle to explore caves which had water and flowing rivers inside it ..hmmmmm. It was interesting trying to keep that alight while swimming, climbing up ladders and squeezing though small holes. I have never done anything quite like it before. And when it came to the point where we had to squeeze though a small hole which had a waterfall gushing through it, I really began to fear for my life!!  I shut my eyes, held my breath and let go! Certainly no 'health and safety' exploring these caves!  However we all made it out alive with only a few minor scratches.

about to jump off in to a dark pool

The gang

Afterwards we grabbed a inner tube and drifted down the river for about 20 minutes admiring the view. Lovely!

All I need is a beer ...