Central & South America

Tena

2007-04-29T23:22:30Z

Hello everyone,

First off.. I´m sorry, I haven´t blogged much, my last one was 4 countries ago. I´m not sure why, I guess things have just been a little crazy, or maybe I´m just a little lazy. Either way, not much has been blogged by me, sorry.

So, now we are in Tena. It is a small town in the Orient of Ecuador. The Orient is a very jungle-y area, with lots of rivers, sometimes it is called the mini-amazon. Its a pretty nice town, not too big, not too small, not too hot (at 600m above sea level), and the best thing about it, is that it is the whitewater rafting capital of Ecuador.

We are staying in this really nice hostal (at $5 a night) in our own room. It serves a cheap, easy, and good breakfast, which we´ve taken advantage of both mornings. The only downside of it is that its way outta town, at least a 8 minute walk to anything, no big deal.

Yesterday was a day to chill. We all wandered out into town (when it stopped raining.. it rains a lot in Ecuador) just to explore. Later, I went out and actually bought something (a bag.. probably not for me). Also, while I was out I found some good icecream, and talked to another traveller who we met crossing into Ecuador. That night, we met a guy named Neil who was staying at our hostel, and the four of us went out for a cheap, fast meal.

Today, well, today was an exciting day. We didn´t chill, I definately wouldn´t call it that. We went whitewater rafting! We headed out with the hostel owner, two guides, and Neil. After a 20-30 minute drive, we hopped out of the truck, and organized gear. The next thing we did was a half-hour rediculously muddy walk (Ryan is gonna throw out his shoes) to the river. Then, after a quick lesson on oru guide´s commands, and various other river-smart things (that I already knew.. of course) we hopped into the raft, and our second guide got into the safety kayak. Then we were off.

For probably around an hour and a half to 2 hours, we plowed through waves and scraped over rocks. Till we met where this river met another. It was awesome. I ended up falling out near the end of this session because of a huge wave, and was able to swim correctly and bounce off a nice sized rock (with my feet) and grab the raft again. I was helped back in and we continued on.

Where the two rivers met, we had lunch. It was really good, and really filling (suprising for a tour lunch). Then we were back on the river. The water got much bigger for this session. We did less craping on rocks, and more plowing through and over waves. It was even better! Soon (probably too soon in my books) we came to a road, and this was the ending point of the tour. We beached the rafted, cleaned everything off, and got everything up to the roadside. Then we had a great game of throwing rocks at trees, and throwing rocks at other rocks (guides included). Soon, the truck came, and we threw the raft up top and barreled down the road.

We got back to the hostel, got into dry clothes, other to wander into the rain to find an atm (we wandered for a long while, then gave up and took a taxi, cause it was pouring rain). Then we came here, the internet cafe.

Tomorrow we are off to Baños (which means bathroom in spanish.. but whatever), then after that, we are off to Cuenca, then into Peru (our last country!).

Take it easy everyone, I hear the weather is improving way up there.

Peace

-Craig

Oh.. I forgot, we are now in the southern hemisphere, and the toilets don´t flush the other way.

Tena remains copyright of the author iamcraig88, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Ocean passage, Caribbean Islands, Sailing!

2007-04-24T02:40:00Z

BUT NO! Its was amazing!

OK, before I get into to the details, I have to explain ( or at the very least, try) my love of sailing. As most of you know I absolutely, wholeheartedly, and passionatly in love with sailing. Whenever I think about sailing... or any of my sailing expaeriences.. I get shivers running up and down my spine. (Even as I type this, after being on a sailboat for five days.. I still get excited and the shivers don't stop, not ever.) I have only a limited number of things that do this for me, There is Sailing, Snowboarding... and recently, Diving. Those three things are the only activities that make my body physcally shiver with anticpation. (Much like a dog does, just before you throw the ball... I know, I'm comparing myself to a dog, but its in an attempt to explain just how excited I get.) When I think of sailing (or either of the other two activities) I get a crazy twich that runs up and down my spine, I actually start salivating, and I lapse into memory of an event, nothing else in the world could possible make me unhappy, or even think of anything else for that matter. For those few minutes I am utterly absorbed in my thoughts, memories and future ambitions in that activity, I become entirely at peace.

Ok, so back to the present, We went north to Portabelo, Panama to board the Vagabond Prince, at about four o'clock in the afternoon. (after leaving my Tilley hat at the hostel and having to rush back from the Panama City bus station to the hostal, and back out the the bus station.. all in all took about an hour! But, I got me Tilley!) We arrived at about six o'clock at this pizzaria, in Portabelo, and had ourselves a pizza, while we waited for the crew of the Vagabond Prince to come in from the boats morrings in the bay. We probably didn't get aboard until eight thirty, at which point we headed to bed. Our bed consisted of a strange shaped.. possibly queen sized bed, which fit the three of us.. well tightly, if nothing else. We spen the entire next day lazing around on deck the next day waiting for Fabian, the capitan, whom we met in Panama City, to get back. We made a trip into town to get some supplies (which consisted of Gadorade, chips and a $3.75 bottle of rum, which was premium... this stuff was high quality.) and I looked for some kind of drugs since my throat was killing me! We had been told the night before that there was a storm brewing to the west of Cartagena, Columbia (Pronounced Car-ta-hen-ya) from the same drunk captain who told us that the Vagabond Prince wasn't even in the harbour! What it turned into was a miracle...but more on that later. The crew told us that we would probably set sail that night (Metaphorically since there was no wind that night) and arrive in the San Blas Archipelago early in the morning. Fabian finally arrived (not that we were that anxious to leave, we hung out on the boat soaking up the sun and just chillaxin!) and we paid him most of what we owed him so he could go grocery shopping and get supplies. That night at around 9 o'clock we weighed anchor and chugged our way to the most pristine and without question, the most beatiful place I have ever been. I awoke relatively late since my throat was bothering me still, but once I smelt breakfast cooking I was hightailing it out of bed! After a breakfast of scrambled eggs and toast, I hit the water with a snorkel and swam around looking for coral and fishes. After I re-boarded the boat, we headed to our the next Island on the agenda (The place we would anchor for the night) andfound ourselves in between three small Islands. (One was quite small, having only four or five palm trees and sand as white a snow!) The water had the visibility of pool water! Undeniably the most amazing place I've been, no doubt about it, you could se the bottom perfectly.. and it was twenty some odd feet down! The local tribes are called the Kuna and they live in small hut scattered about these small beatufil islands, harvesting coconuts and fishing in their dugout, seafaring, canoes! They also make some of the most intricate textiles we've seen to date, beadwork that covers their entire arms and legs, all of which they try and sell you by paddling up to the side of the boat and hanging all of it on the life lines of the boat. I felt bad because all I wanted to do was look at and take in the culture a bit, not actually buy anything, so they kept piling things on the boat and telling me prices. In the end I did buy a bead bracelet because I figured I needed something to remind me of these truly amazing people and the beautiful place they call home. later that afternoon, we took the dingy over to an island that honestly had no more than.. five palm trees on it, it was 30 ft long by maybe 20 feet wide, composed entirely of white sand. Had some good times trying to get a coconut down, and it took some actual planning to get down. I had to get a nearly dead palm and prop up a log against the palm tree and then climb the log and thrash at the coconut. It was worth it, I conquered that coconut good. That night was spent at anchor between these three stunning beach islands and let me tell you waking up and looking out a porthole to see an aquamarine colour of water is undescribable. It is as if you are in a caribbean magazine, living in those photographs. We sun bathed for a good portion of the day, and the Kuna continued to visit our boat which was very cool because Fabian knew most of them (Since he is there twice a month or so) and he was talking and joking with them. He even got into one of the canoes with the entire family and was given the little toddler to hold. I have agreat picture (which are few and far between for the Kuna people because they do not like pictures being taken.) of the entire family. When they were finally done trying to sell their fabrics and such, they asked if anyone wanted a ride over to the island. I was all over that because, as mentioned before, I was enthralled with these seafaring canoes. Once in the boat I was immiadiatly asked what my name was, how I was doing and if I liked the islands. I responed and asked what their names were, which I would never be able to pronounce again even if I tried. It only took a few minutes to get to the beach of the island and once I was aground, I was quickly handed the babies. This absolutely blew me away because they were opening up quite easily and it was as if I was just another person... not a backpacker to get money from. I was trusted (not that I shouldn't be!) to carry the little ones ashore and as a cultural experience, definately rates as one of the highest. After lunch on the boat, we all headed to the island to explore and take in the beauty. We found that the side facing the opposite directrion had a beach to die for and we swam around for a good houros so, marvelling every five minutes how incredibly stunning the views were. Also worth not, we saw a one palm tree island. Yup, thats right... just like out of the cartoons. That evening after eating dinner, we weigheed anchor to begin our journey east, towards Cartagena, on which we would lose sight of land completely! I had been told on the island by another sailor that the winds were changing and would be comming from the north, whereas usually they come from the north east. I was ever hopful that the winds would blow this way because that would mean that we would SAIL!!! After having gone to bed that night, I remember hearing the motor shut off, and the boat healing over. (means Leaning to one side for the landlubbers out there) I was only barely aware of these things, and contuinued to sleep blisfully, until i was rudely awaken by Fabian yelling my name. "Ryan" and then having Alex one of the crew come towards the cabin saying the captain wants you. AHHH, what did I do.. I was asleep! I headed topside (Again, for you landlubbers, means up on deck) feeling a sensation of complete and utter excitment. We were sailing! I was in a bliss moment while I recalled the incredible sensation of flying through the water, all by the power of the wind, all natural yo! Fabian was half asleep, but he stayed awake long enough to tell me "your on night watch, two hours" WAHOO! I felt like I was part of a crew again! I looked around us and there was nothing but darkness, we were on the open ocean, nothing in sight but the stars and the ocean itself. I watched our speed, cruising around six knots and watched our little triangle move across the map towards Cartagena and every once and a while, I popped my head out from beneith the canopy to look for other ships. At around 3 am I was relieved by one of the crew and I headed straight to bed. Not even the adrenalin could keep me from my bunk.The next morning I awoke to the same sensation of being tilted over 20 degrees and crashing into the swells. Now that it was light out, the fact that you could no longer see land became very clear. That entire day consisted of sun tanningm and breaks underneither the canopy to make some hemp necklaces. As mentioned before, this change in wind direction was a miracle, it was if mother nature knew I wanted to sail. Fabian called me a (excuse my use of language in this quote) "lucky mother fucker," because he never gets to sail going from Panama to Columbia. I damn well felt lucky, because here I was doing my absolute favorite thing in the world, and doing it in the caribbean, one of the most beautiful places in the world. I spent a lot of time with a sailing harness on at the bow of the boat holding on for dear life itself and having the time of my life doing it. There were a few times that the entire bowsprit (landlubbers this is the protrusion off the front of the boat that allows a sail to be larger tha just the length of the boat.) was submerged I I was up to my knees in sea! I suppose I must have loked funny up front, just standing there with a stupid grin plastered on my face, since other than going up and down the waves, there really isn't much else going on. Its hard to describe why I love the sensation of sailing, but what I can say is that it is similar to the sensation of weightlessness when you come crashing down overtop of a swell. Because of a sailboats design, it is a "water cutter," if you will, and you never feel as if your on somethig significant, and thus, you get a senastion that you aren't actually going through the water, but simply flying through air. Then a large wave comes, covers you in seawater and you are brought back to reality with a crash of the hull driving into the next wave. And it all starts over. I would then return to the canopy with all of me smiling and simply briming with adrenalin, to the other people aboard. I believe with such passionate views, my feeling on sailing is infectious because noone could help but smile back at me. That night I found it hard to go below to sleep simply because I knew the sailing was comming to an end, the next morning we would arrive in the port of Cartagena. I finally let my exhustion take over, and I stumbled into bed. A few hours before sunride I heard the engine start up, and I knew we were very close to the port. Eventually I crawled out of bed and got my first view of Columbia, and boy, did it ever look similar to everywhere else I've been! The colonial architecture is just on a larger scale. The majority of the day was spent waiting around for the port authorities and immigration to decide we could come visit. Finally, our time on board the Vagabond Prince came to an end, with a free ride from Fabian's taxi company to our hotel. Fabian gave us his phone number, cell number and even his wifes cell number saying if we needed information on Columbia, don't hesistate. We also wereintroduced to his wife and son. (his daughter is a divematser and was at work.)

And thus, ended one of the most memorable experiences I've head down here. I will cherish this experience and when i sail again, it will be one of the memorries that takes me to that place of utter and complete contentment.

Happy trails all,
enjoy the reading,

Ryan

Ocean passage, Caribbean Islands, Sailing! remains copyright of the author Nomad18, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Leon

2007-04-13T05:26:07Z

So, here I am, writing about the first place we stayed in Nicaragua, while I'm in Panama, so forgive me if some details are foggy.

We arrive in Leon at around dusk. The bus stopped way outside of town, and if a local on the bus hadn't told us that this was, in fact, Leon, we wouldn't have gotten off.

When we unloaded ourselves and our bags, we ran into Dave. Dave is an English guy who was basically in the same shoes as us. He jsut got off the bus, and had no idea where he was, and only spoke a little bit of Spanish. It was quite funny, he asked where something was to a lady in Spanish, and she said something, and we thought he understood, cause we sure didn't, and we asked him what she said, and he answered something like "Well, I'll be f*cked if I know". With Dave´s compass, and our guidebook, we slowly made our way to the hostels. On the way, I had a disaster.. I took off my hat, cause it was dark by this point, and then tucked it under my pack-strap, but a few minutes later, it had disappeared! I backtracked, but found no trace of it.

Everyone waited for me, and tehn we found the hostels around the corner. We chose the one called Bigfoot Hostel, which is where we went Volcano Boarding from.

We met a few fellow travellers that night, and deservingly went to bed after a long day of travel.

The next day, we decided we would explore this town called Leon. We went out with plans to see the Cathedral (which is the biggest in Central America) and the museum of local lore and myth. We hit the cathedral first, cause its giant, and really easy to find. We quickly figured out no doors were open, and it was closed for lunch (kinda strange, but whatever). Then we went searching for the musuem, which had proven hard to find. After going way past it, we came back and found it. It, too, was closed for lunch. We waited around till 2ish and it opened up. It was pretty cool, and it was in this old jail that was only recently shut down. We headed back to the cathedral, which was kinda open at this point. They were cleaning it now, so we were only allowed on the roof of the building for an hour or so, which, as you would imagine was pretty cool. After that, we got to wander around in the cavernous cathedral. My favourite part was the Lion statue guarding Ruben Dario (Nicaragua´s famous poet) tomb. After exploring for a few minutes, we headed back to the hostel.

That night, lets see. We (and basically the rest of the hostel) headed to a bar, to watch this local woman sing. It was real good. When we got there it was really crowded, and the power was off, but soon the power was restored and she started. She started with an english song, One, by U2. Then she play a bunch of spanish songs. Things start to get hazy here (we are at a bar, you know). But I remember she played another english song, a Cranberries cover I believe. It was good, everyone enjoyed it. Then she was done playing and we wandered back to the hostel.

Eventually we went to bed.

The next morning, we got up good and late, and started preparing to go Volcano boarding. Thats when we discovered something terrible. We were missing about 4500 cordobas. Thats about $250 US, plus we lost a $20 US bill. It wasn't cool, but it was only money, no passports or other documents.. we were lucky. Apparently the lockbox got ripped right off the wall, and they got into the back of it. The hostel let us stay a night for free, and the guy locked our stuff away in his private safe.

Volcano boarding was awesome, but you already know all about it.

That night, well we were tired, so we hit the sack.

The night morning we got up at a leisurely rate. Leigh and I played some chess. I finally won a game against him! We had breakfast at the hostel (it was cheap and good and convenient). Ryan wanted to go do something, but I wanted to chill for a day, and Leigh wasn't feeling tip top, so Ryan went to something or other with other people from the hostel, and Leigh and I chilled. It was a relaxed day, and Leigh and I sent some letters.

Eventually Ryan got back, we had lunch, then eventually dinner, then attempted to finish the rum we bought two nights previous. It was a fun night for me, I played pool with a guy from Greece, then for a while with a local kid. I played some guitar, and a Canadian traveller asked me to play "Wheat Kings" by the Tragically Hip, probably the most Canadian song I know, it was great. I then proceeded to smoke her at backgammon. Then we went and saw a band play at the bar/hostel next door. The most memorable song was their Spanish version of Elton John's Pianoman.

The next day, we got up at a relaxed time (not really early, like usual) and left Leon for Granada.

I must say, I lost my hat and some money there, but I really liked this city. It has been my favourite.

Bye for now, maybe I'll catch up some more eventually.

Peace,

Craig

Leon remains copyright of the author iamcraig88, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Update and immidiate plans

2007-04-13T05:23:22Z

Ok, so I've heard talk of a few parents calling one another wondering where the hell their children are and why they aren't keeping in contact! Well, the answer is, were living it up soaking up the sun on deserted white sand beaches. Actually, Costa Rica was a blur of experiences (To be blogged later) which left us exhausted, let alone no extra time to haul ourselves to the nearest internet cafe.

So here I sit in our hostel in Panama City blogging my ass off to keep everyone in the loop!

Alrighty, hold on to your hats, this plans gonna come out quick! First of, we are taking a sailboat from the Caribbean coast of Panama to the northern tip of Columbia. The sailboat, as we've learned today, is 47' cruising yacht capable of taking approximately ten passengers. The itinerary is this: Tomorrow afternoon we head to the coast to board the yacht and spend the night at anchorage. Saturday morning we sail out to the San Blas Archipelago, getting or exit stamps from Panama. There we will spend another night at anchorage, no doubt snorkeling to our hearts content. Next day we sail to another island in the archipelago and do it all over again, soak up some sun, bake on the pristine (nearly empty) beaches, and to cool off, snorkel for a couple hours. From the last of the San Blas islands, its a three day sail to Cartagena, Columbia. Here we intend to spend the only extended period of time in Columbia. SCUBA Diving, exploring the city, and a national park are all on the agenda. From there, we intend on taking four days to get to the Ecuadorian border and crossing ASAP. In Ecuador, a river rafting tour is a must, as well as a hike of some description. After Ecuador, Peru comes in fast! We head straight for Cuzco and Machu Pichu taking alost 50 hours in bus rides! AHHH! From there, depending on time, we go to Lake Titikaka for a few days and then off to the Nazca Lines. The Nazca Lines are the crazy designs you have all seen on the discovery channel that are still one of the worlds greatest mysteries. After our airplane tour of the Lines, its back up to Miraflores (outskirts of Lima) to await our flight home!

Its short but sweet, if much changes, you'll read about it in future blogs, possibly as its happening! Anyways I hope the parents can rest a little easier now that you've got a rough itinerary for the rest of our trip! (which by the way, only has 5 weeks left!! WOAH!)

take it easy everyone,

Happy trails,

Ryan

P.S.: Mom I'm going to try calling you at work tomorrow, it was much to busy in the common room here at the hostel tonight to have called. I'll try my hardest to get a hold of you, but just in case I don't, I am alive and well were doing gret, seeing some incredible things..still! I love you, I'm sorry I missed you in Costa Rica. Miss you,

Love Ryan

Update and immidiate plans remains copyright of the author Nomad18, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Bar tour!

2007-04-13T04:45:06Z

Bocas Del Toro T-Shirt, $20.

Three Cuba Libres (Rum and Coke) regularly $1.50, this night, $0.

One "Anti-Freeze" cocktail regularly $4, this night $0.

One Orange rum punch regularly $2, this night $0.

Two Panama Beers regularly $1, this night, $0.

One Banana Colada regularly $5, this night, $0.

One shot of Jose Cuervo tequila regularly $2, this night, $0.

One Atlas Beer regularly $1, this night, $0.

Two Pineapple rum punches regularly $1.50 - 2.50, this night, $0.

One Balboa Beer regularly $1, this night $0.

One Mango cocktail regularly $3, this night, $0.

One "OrangeHappy" cocktail regularly $3, this night, $0

Two nights on the town regularly a large empty space where once there was money, these nights $0.

Fifteen bars visited, drank in, and enjoyed regularly $15 - 31.50, these nights, $0.

One T-Shirt with this many memories, priceless!

Happy trails all,

Ryan

Bar tour! remains copyright of the author Nomad18, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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puerte viejo, bocas, panama city

2007-04-13T03:06:32Z

in puerte viejo we stayed at this really cool hostel and they had nothing but hammocks and places to set up tents, we shopped for a couple of souvenirs and got some food. we had to leave the next day in the morn so we hit the hay early, we left for the boarder early in the morn and met this 53 year old man from ottawa on our way to tortoungo, he was an interesting fella, he talked about nothing else but girls, we hung out with him for most of our stay in bocas del toro. we stayed at a cool hostel on this little island, the first night we desided that we would get wasted so on our way to that point we bought this shirt, it has the logos of 27 bars in town and when you go to one of those bars you get a free drink. we were only able to get 3 drinks in before the bars closed at 10 so we decided to get wasted the next day.

the next day we went on a boat tour to do some snorkling and relaxing on some neighboring white sand beaches, the wildlife there was really amazing, it wasnt anything compared to utila in honduras but it was still really amazing. we got burnt, mostly on the backs of our arms, we have tanned well enough in most other areas. when we got back we got a drink, did some internet, went to another bar had a drink, went to another bar had a drink, went to another bar, had a drink, had dinner, and went to a bar and had another drink, i stayed at our hostel after that as well as craig, ryan wanted to get more done, he ended up going to five more bars and came back quite smashed. i dont know exactly how drunk he was, but we was drunk in the morning still. so ryan withstanding, we got packed quickly and went to the water taxi, it was about and hour ride, to a small town that we didnt get to know very intimately, there we hopped on a coach bus to panama city, ryan had sobered up by then so he was feeling pretty hungover while i felt fine, the bus ride really made ryan and craig sick because it was up the crazyest turning road ive ever been up not only was it turny but it was up and down so they felt really bad until we got to the bottom of them mountain on the other side, after a 10 hour bus ride we made it to panama city. we took a taxi to the hostel and arranged the for the sailboat to columbia, it was about a 5 day trip so we have to find some entertainment for the boat and the bus ride. i wont be blogging until i get back so if no one hears from me for a week dont be too worried, i will be on the carribean sea sailing to columbia but i will be back on when i get there

dont worry its not a drug sailboat,

missing everyone back home

leigh

puerte viejo, bocas, panama city remains copyright of the author leighner, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Isla De Ometepe

2007-04-13T02:42:36Z

In Granada we stayed in a Hostel called La Libertada which had free internet and breakfast. Since we only had a small distance to go, we slept late and ate our free breakfast lazily in some handmade furniture that had animals carved into all the armrests. I had Nacatamal, which is a Tamale specific to Nicuragua, apparently hard to find as another traveller informed us. I was thoroughly impressed with them and I will try to find more tamales in future countries. After breakfast we headed to Rivas, the largest town closest to the lake. We took a taxi ride to San Jorge, the town in which the Ferry to Moyogalpa on Isla De Ometepe leaves from and found that the ferry was leaving within 20 minutes. We hoped aboard and bought ourselves a snack which consisted of an over fried piece of chicken and a bag of plantain chips..yes we live a life of kings people. The ferry took us approximately an hour for which I was out on deck, while the other two.. as per usual on any piece of transportation, slept. I believe I was made fun of for my hat, but it didn't bother me too much, since I mostly cannot understand spanish when I don't have any previous idea of what the conversation should be about. (ie, if I start a conversation about bus scheduals, i know the person wont be telling me about the weather... or at least I should very well hope not, since making a bus and not, as we've discovered recently in Monteverde, can be a disapointing experience.) I did get that they were saying they knew of Canada, I was less than impressed, we are the second largest country in the world. I was unfase though, as I watched the majestic island grow nearer. The larger of the two volcanoes, rising 1610 metres above sea level, was spuing sulfur into the air around the mouth of the crater and just begged for us to climb it. We found the cheapest hostel in town and then made it cheaper by sleeping in the hammoks! It cost about 1.30 US per person! Cheapest lodging yet! Staying in one of the private rooms was a couple, one form holland, one from Britian, who told us about a great guide that spoke excellent english and did tours daily for the standard price of 10 dollars. Hanging around the hostel was this Canadian who ownednd operated a sports bar and resturant just down the street. He gave us so tips about guides and said he would find the one that the couple spoke of for us. A first time experience was had at the bar that night after dinner, we sat ourselves down infront of a high definition projector and wached Layer Cake, a movie that we had wanted to watch back home! We even had ourselves some popcorn to top it all off! We awoke the next morning before the comming of dawn, at around four. Grogily, we strapped on our hiking boots and left the hostel grounds before there was any light at all. The guide met us at the street corner in a van which would drive 45 minutes tot he base of the volcano. By the time we were on the trail it was just begining to get grey out, a sure sign the sun was stillcomming up and had not forgotten to rise. (Which by this time, we were wondering, since we'd been up an hour before sunrise.. and thats simply a strange feeling!) The first few kilometers were done in silence, since none of us was awake enough to think, let alone comment on our surroundings. We stopped under this massive tree (well what I thought was massive, but apparently half of it was covered under sand and volcanic rock from the last volcanic erruption) and had our first words, along with plenty of water. Once we began to acend, the "cloud forest" as it were began to close in around us and we got our first glimpses of Howler monkies. The guide pointed out local flowers and plant which the indigenous used for a variety of things from a sleeping aid, to getting children to talk at the right age. The day presented itself and boy were the volcano gods angry that we were trespassing. The day was completely overcast, and thus, we would not be able to climb to the crater. The climb became more than a 45 degree incline and the going got tough, but the three amigos kept on trucking! The 1000 meter mark (approximatley) is where we made it too, and boy was it hella cool! The wind was so strong you had to pout your full weigh into it just to stand upright, and the clouds were whippoing by us...yes you've got it.. we were in the clouds that were moving at a rediculous pace. There was absolute nothingness where once, people told us there was a view. The decent, just as awe inspiring as the acent, was also just as exerting, since there was no walking.. the entire decent consisted of running.. yup, we ran down this twisting and turning, sandy and root crossed path, for a good hour. The entire time our guide was giggling like a school girl, and the laugh was infectous because within the first few minutes all of us were laughing, for no good reason, save for the pure fun of it. So lets make sure you have a good image of this in your head; here are four, grown men (I know, parents, not one of you likes to admit it, but we are no longer children, and no we will never fit back from whence we came) absolutly, full out, running down these jungle crowded pathways, creating dust trails that left you coughing and sputtering if you got too close to the person in fron of you and the entire time... laughing. The monkies were undoubtedly scared for their lives, three gringos and a local yelling some kind of war chant and running like madmen. The rest of the day was spent in the hammocks catching up on some missed sleep and chilling after such a strenuous activity so early in the morning. That night we went to Yogi's (The Canadian Bar) to use the internet and have some "flavourful food." Bed came early, and we slept like logs, only to be awoken by the intermittent drop of water from the holes in the cabaña. Our plan was to go to the other side of the island to visit the other town, but the rain brought us all down, so we slept in and finally, we decided that we would do a small hike into a park, about half hour away. We took a bus around 12:00 and headed to a point of protected land. At first, the rain became heavier and we were all wondering what the hell made us get out of our hammocks at all. Eventually the sun poked out from behind the dense cloud cover and we actually began to get hot! Good thing the hike was all along the shore, so we just picked the best beach and jumped in! It was actually strange to be swimming in fresh water again, since the majority of the water we are swimming in is SALTY! We continued our hike and headed back toward the main road for lunch. We came across this little restaurant with prices that suited our budget perfectly and sat ourselves down to enjoy the quaint ambiance of the place. I ordered a potato salad, Leigh had pesto, and Craig had fish soup. Our meals were absolutely the best lunches we have had so far. First off, there was an entire fish in Craig's soup, Leigh's pesto was was apparently flavorful, and my potato salad was gy-normous with eggs and many vegetables. Coupled with he price, this made the meal, without question, the best lunch! We headed back to the road and we were struck with the idea that we should hitch hike back, since we had to wait at least an hour and a half for the next bus. We picked up a truck within a half an hour and got in with a couple other travelers and two locals. We made it back to two before the bus would have even been picking us up! It was great to stand in the back of a truck and have the wind whipping past, trying desperately to understand the Spanish that was being thrown our way. Plus, it was free! Our last night on Isla De Ometepe was a short a sleep as the first since we had to get up for the first ferry of the day to make it into Costa Rica! All in all great time in a beautiful place.

Happy trails everyone,

Ryan

Isla De Ometepe remains copyright of the author Nomad18, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Ometepe, Granada, tilaran

2007-04-07T01:12:39Z

We left at about 11:00 am toward granada, it was about a 2 hours to get to manague and another 45 minutes to get to granada. Granada was a really nice city of about 83000 people. it was a bit more touristy because it was such a colonial town, but it was really beautiful. it was amazing to see the contrast between the colonial beauty and the impoverashed part of town just a 10 minute walk from where we were staying. i think we managed to stay a litte ahead of the crowd who were there for the semana sente(holy week/easter week). so we were able to find some cheap dorm beds in town with free internet and free breakfast. The computers had linux on them so it was really exciting for me and craig. we got the internet for an hour and a half then we went out and had some really good pizza, i know i know, we are adventurous, but we were really hungry and pizza was the first thing in the guide book that caught our eye. the french girls who were staying there spent from the time we had dinner till about 12:30 that night, they were being hogs. we left fairly late at around 11:00am and we took a bus to rivas and then a ferry to ometempe. we stayed at a hostel called hospidajae central. there werent any dorm rooms but some hammocks just opened up the night before, so we ended up staying there for 23cords which is the equivilency of 1.20usd a night. so while we were there we climbed a volcano, but we were only able to go up to 1000m metres because it was too windy and it was too cloudy. from that point it felt like we were on top of a windy, foggy hill, it was kinda lame, but we got to see a barrel full of monkeys so that was alright, and it was really humid and hot so i got more sweaty then i ever have been in my life, i was borowing one of craigs shirts for the hike and afterward he looked at it and said i can keep it. we went to the beach the next day and it was raining so it wasnt as fun but we got to swim in a really big freshwater lake.

the next day we left left ometepe at 5:30 in the morning and made our way to costa rica, we spend the most time at the coasta rica boarder then we did at any other boarder. we spent about 4 hours at the boarder, we bearly made it to tilaran and it was just getting dark. we slept at hotel tileran, we werent able to get a room with 3 beds so we got a room with 2 beds and a room with one bed insted. it was the first time we actually had a different room for the first time on this trip. the next morning we waited with our stuff on the side of the road on the way to monteverde, we burned waiting for a truck to pick us up, at about 1pm we went to the bus station only to find that there arent any buses running until sat at 5am. that meant that we were stuck there for 3 nights in total. it was bad because we werent able to go on the zipline tour but we did get a bit of downtime before we go all bus crazy for the days after. actually its not only going to be busses its going to be boats. busses to boats to busses to buses to boats......and so forth. its going to be crazy rushed until we get to panama city and we wait for the boat to columbia. so tomorrow we leave on our crazy bus ride. in two weeks we should be in columbia if everything goes to plan.

Ometepe, Granada, tilaran remains copyright of the author leighner, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Memories

2007-04-06T20:12:56Z

Ok, so the first one that comes to mind is the amount of Marijuana in Belize... where it is supposed to be illegal, but I honeslty thought the guide book must have been wrong or out of date because of it's prevalence. Once, while walking back to our guesthouse, we were offered an entire handful.. no joke people.. an entire handful of weed...! Every coner you are asked if you wanted some.. or any locals you talk to in Belize. Another eye opener for us was when we were walking back to our guesthouse in Belize City from the bus station along with two other travellers, one from New Zealand, the other from Croatia, and we all saw an ice cream parlor. After a long hot day of seeing ruins and on a small river boat, we all thought it best that we treat our selves with a bowl of ice cream. We approached the ice cream parlor with thoughts of suger, but to one side stood a guard with a shotgun leveled at our chests... hmmm, now one mught think this is a tad overkill... and to anyone who agrees with this estimation I wholeheartedly agree! This is place where children come to have a cold treat in the sometimes unbearable and opressive heat. The children hear must be some kind of super crook, because otherwise I can't possibly fathom why a shotgun toteing guard would be posted at a freaking ICE CREAM PARLOR! I covered the most interesting part of our journey from Santa Elena to Guatemala City in my reflections entry, but in San Pedro there were some more subtle memeories that surely were missing from any blogs. The best story comes from a Hippy by the name of John, who I don't think ever stopped smoking up. There were times whe I would wake up to the smell of Marijuana...and we had to be up, eating and ready to go to spanish lessons for 9:00, which meant all this was happening around 7:30 - 8:00. One night while we were cleaning up after ourselves, John came back to the Hippy compound most certainly with a deap down case of the munchies. He had a large can of refried bean paste... and that was it. Who would have know that so much enjoyment could have percipitated form one can of beans. He was eating the beans right out of the can with a spoon and he said to us, "Looks like cat food...(takes a spoonfull and sniffs)... smells like cat food... (eats the spoonful)... tastes like cat food. But its BEANS!" Ever since we have been quoting him and have a good laugh over his antics. On one of the buses to the El Salvadorian I (and I want no one to think that I'm vain, I'm only telling this story because I found it to be quite rediculous) was..shall we say flirted with. The bus was absolutely jamed full of people.. easitly three and sometimes four to a single school buss seat. (You thought your 45 minute bus ride with maybe two to a seat was busy, try all seats with at least three, some with four and the entire isle full of peopel standing.) As we boarded the bus we were all ready to stand and give the available seats to the old ladies and kids, because we are all upstanding gentlemen. I was looking at the people around me and my eyes fell upon a girl that was about our age, who then proceeded to wink at me with a rather large grin on her face.. and patted the small space she had made for me to sit. (I say small because her mother was a rather large lady, and with two other people it made for very tight spaces) I sat down with her eyes continuing to watch me and thought, oh good.. I can barely say hello, let alone have a conversation. It was very awkward, because I wanted to say hello and talk but I knew if I started saying anything she would talk too fast for me to understand and then I would look really stupid. Not to mention everytime I tried to look out the window she thought I was looking it at her and smiled. I'm sure she thought I was a mute until she asked where we were going... whcih I understood! Horay for spanish lessons. I looked up the word for hot, because it was rediculous in the bus with well over 80 people on it an the temperature outside climbing to well over 30, and used the wrong one, because they have so many different words for hot in spanish and we got laughed at. As the bus ride continued it because less and less ful and I was able to escape the continuous gaze and find my own seat. We got our first real experience being a minority after we attempted to cross the Guatemalan-Slavadorian boarder, where we had been told there would be a ATM, but there wasn't. We had to turn back and head for the nearest town with an ATM. We only had enough money because I still randomly had 2 USD left over from Belize. I switched over the cash into Quetzales, and paid for our bus ride to the closest town, with 5 Quetzales to spare. Just to give you some sense of that 7-8 is one USD. It was a little close for comfort, but we made it to this crazy town called Chiquimulilla. (Yeah go ahead.. try saying that!) We were tired from a long day of travel, hungry, and all around in less than perfect moods sinc we were stuck in this very crappy town, in a scary hotel. Walking through the streets of the town we were stared at as if we were aliens, silence flowed in our wake, as people turned their undivided attention to our presence. Then some rowdy teenagers threw (I'm only making assumptions here, since my spanish is terrible) some insults at us from their car, which I'm sure would have been hurtful and demeaning if I knew what they were saying. The next morning was very busy around the banks (don't ask me why) and we had to walk through the crowd of people, who parted for us as if we were the Royal Family. You gain an appriciation for how minorities back home must feel, although I like to think that Canadians are a little more tactful. And with that I'll end the first of the Memories Blogs, there are more on the way for sure.

Enjoy and laugh as we have,

Happy trails,

Ryan.

Miss you all.

Memories remains copyright of the author Nomad18, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Volcano Boarding

2007-03-30T03:11:06Z

Hello fans,

So, as the name implies, we went volcano boarding today. What is volcano boarding? You may ask. Basically, you climb up this rocky black volcano (live, active volcano, incase you were wondering (it was smoking)). Then, once at the top, we hiked around to the sandy side, got a brief explaination of how to do it, then plunged down the side on this piece of plywood with a rope, and metal on the bottom. It was great, but I can still taste the dirt. Lemme go into more detail.

We had a 45 minute drive out to the base of the volcano. Ryan and two others got to ride in the cab, but me, leigh, and the rest were all in the back of a pickup truck. It was nice though, there were seats, and it had a nice breeze, since we were moving so fast. We quickly had the volcano in sight, it was a dark, sinister looking thing. After paying the entrance fee we started the rocky hike up the back side of the volcano. The walk was not straight up the side of the volcano, thankfully, instead, it was across it to where the bottom of the top ridge is, then followed the ridge to the top. This is where the heat drops right off, because the cool breeze from the Atlantic (as the guide explained) picked up here. After that, we followed the top of the ridge around to the main volcano crater. He )the guide) gave us three options: 1. stay at the top, and just look
2. go about 20 metres in, to get a closer look, or 3. go down the full 120 metres into it. Of course, you can guess what we did, started the long decent to the bottom of the crater. The guide gave us one rule, and it was ¨when I say run, you gotta run¨. So, we quickly understood why.. the ground was hot, and once you got going.. the rock was all loose.. you couldn´t stop. So there I was flying down this loose rock in the volcano crater, and leigh was behind me, and I heard him bearing in on me.. very quick. And, just from the sound of his big stomping feet coming towards me, I knew he wasn´t in control. Then I heard a scraping noise, which was him slipping on the rock.. then lots of cheering from the people at the bottom. He slipped.. hardcore.. then he bled. He´s gonna have some nice battle scars. The bottom of the crater was prety cool.. then we started the climb up the side of the crater, to the top ridge again. Ugh, that was hell, it was all loose, and really far up. Once back at the top, we headed to the front slope, its the nice sandy slope (the one that is relatively safe to board down). It was there that we got the volcano boarding lesson. We were told, basically (in a few more words than this) that the safest way to control the board, was to relax, and not try to control the board at all. So, after our lesson on not doing anything, was a practice run to learn to brake. Then, after everyone got to try braking, we put on our overalls, our huge safety goggles, and our singular glove. The guide and two others went first, and of course, I was one of the other 2, cause I was excited to throw myself down a mountain. So, down I went, but unfortunately the guide flew way past me, cause I was imbalanced on the board, so I didn´t move as fast. At my max speed (it was shaking a bit) I wiped out.. BLACK SAND EVERYWHERE. I´m still getting it out of my ears, eyes, and hair. I finished my run, and grabbed the camera, to take pictures. After we all got down, we hiked back to the truck, and headed back to town (in the moonlight by this point).

All in all, lots of fun.

Peace everyone,

Craig

Volcano Boarding remains copyright of the author iamcraig88, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Utila and Leon

2007-03-29T19:11:11Z

we left for utila early in the morning and we took buses for many hours. there was much rushing and being shoved on to buses. we finally made it to la ceiba and we were quickly rushed onto a taxi. it had to rush like mad to try and get the ferry to Utila island. we made it to the ferry by the skin of our noses, it was actually in the midst of leaving. i wasnt feeling well before i went on the boat and the ferry didnt make it any better, after an hour we finally made it to our destination, none to soon i was a bit sea sick. i was also sick in another way, i will spare you the details but it wasnt pretty.

we were swamped by people with flyers and such want us to go to their dive schools, parties and other scuba diving things. we were hoping to go snorkling. we met this fella who directed us to a place that would give us cheaper accomidations if we got our scuba certification there. we still didnt expect to learn how to scuba dive. we checked the school out and while we were there we met a girl from austrailia named Lisa and she was also trying to find a place to stay, and learn advanced scuba diving. most of the rooms that we have seen had four beds, so we asked if she wanted to bunk with us to save some money. she wanted to check out one other place on the island other than the one that we were at. so we left our bags at the dive school and left to find the other place. eventually we found a place called Cross Creek dive centre. It looked really promising so we looked into it further. they had everything we wanted cheap scuba school rates a kitchen cheap accomidations and two free fun dives. one of the people who worked there offered us free accomidations while we are taking the course, that just sealed the deal. so we went back across town to get our stuff. when the 4 of us got back we were met by gore (our dive instructor) who offered us a better room because there were 4 of us and we chose them over the other people. The room that they spoke of was amazing, it had a private bathroom, hot and cold running water, a fridge and the best part.....A/C. We were all really excited about this room usually it cost 18USD a night but we got it for free. the lessons were among the cheapest in the world in Utila but it still set us back 240USD each Ryan used his spare $2000 that he has stashed away in his other account to pay for all of us. we started doing class a bit later then we were supposed to, and we had to rush to get it all done i ate my pancake that i had made in the class while we watched the videos. there first day was a bit boring, wet suits are surprisingly comfortable. i took to scuba diving really well. it was a really amazing experience to be able to breathe underwater. Diving is one of the greatest and most amazing things ive ever done. every day i did diving i liked it more and more. its like being weightless, and being a giant floating jungle world. i would recommend it to everyone, i think its one of those things you have to experience before you die. getting to know the equipment was surprisingly easy as well. we have a total of 6 dives under our belt now as well as our international dive certificate. we left on monday and set off for nicaragua, we took about 7 hours of buses to get to Tegas, Honduras and we stayed there overnight in a pretty clean place, most of the hotels have tvs in every room, we´ve watched more tv in honduras then we have the whole trip.
while we were in utila we had been living on just two meal days because our dives always started at 12 and didnt end till 4 so we never really ate luch, as well as for our two travel days to get to nicaragua. when we got to the boarder it was crazy, there were people hanging on the ladders on the microbus with their heads in the windows trying to get something, whether it was if we wanted a ride to the boarder, to get our money exchanged or just plain asking for money, i was afraid they were going to take our bags. we eventually got our passport stamped and got across the board, we think we got screwed a bit on the money exchange, but what can you do? after another two buses and a total of 7 and a half hours on buses we made it to Leon, we had quite a walk and it was getting close to dark, we met a fella named dave who went with us to try and find the hostel called via via. he had a compass so that helped a lot to try in orient ourselves, after a lot of walking through town we made it to via via, but we found out there was another hostel right across the road we we were told it was better by the people who were staying via via, so we stayed at the bigfoot insted, it was a really cool place. it was a dorm style hostel, it had a kitchen, clean sheets, a pool table, a bar, and tv, it was pretty swanky. the next day we went to the museum of mythology and torture...i know it sounds like a weird combination, as well as that, we visited central americas largest cathedral it was pretty amazing. later on that night we went to the bar and got to see some live music, they played one english song, "one"-U2. the whole hostel went to see her, there were a good 25 people staying at the hostel, when we got there the power was out so we had to wait a bit before we got to hear anything. the rest of the night was a blur but it was definately a good night. today we are going to climb a volcano and slide down it on a piece of plywood, it going to be really cool, i cant wait.

this blog was written over several days sporatically so if its a bit hard to understand bear with me.

missin home,

leigh.

Utila and Leon remains copyright of the author leighner, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Bay Islands

2007-03-24T22:48:53Z

Ok, so.... there was a slight change in plans for our time here on the Bay Islands. Long story short, we are now PADI Open Water SCUBA Divers. Yeah, just slightly different. We have now done six dives, two in shallow water, and four open water dives, two of which were fun dives and just consisted of swimming with the fishies in the ocean! Our time underwater was absolutely amazing, mom, I can see why whenever you talk about Diving, your eyes light up.. the experence is absolutely incredible. For those of you landlubbers who han't tried it, the best I can do is say that its like almost nothing you've ever experienced. BUT, the sensation of neutral bouyancy is much like flying... but add into that the fact that you are breathing with millions of litres of water around you, and 18 metres (60 ft) below the surface... the experience tingles every sense.. and stimulates every part of your body. You are acutely aware of your life, you pay attention to every breath you take, first because you have this mouth piece (Regulator Second Stage) jamed between all your teeth and whenever you inhale, you here the valve open to let air into your lungs, and because every exhale, bubbles surround your head. The life around you is absolutely buzzing with vibrant colours, excitement, and a wild aspect you don't get to see in any zoo or aquarium. It is your personal aquarium, the only limit is the amount of air you take down with you.. and your stamina. I'm sure that the parents will recieve our certfication cards before we will, since they are sent to your home address. On behalf of all of us, we give you permission to use them as brag tags... lol. We are feeling great, having an absolutely mind blowing time and cooking for ourselves to save money, on account of spending extra money on the Dive Course.

I have recently been looking at the Semi-Formal pictures, everyone looks in great spirits, and boy I must say... the bunch of you clean up well!

Missing you all,

Happy trails,

Ryan

P.S.: The reason I called everyone hosers was because the only way we can tell who is reading the blog is if you leave us comments! Plus, I get updates from Jessie, Mom and Ciara... but the rest I don't hear from as much! I miss you guys, write and huge one.. write it like its an e-mail.. put memories in it.. tell me whats going on.. ANYTHING!

Peace.

Bay Islands remains copyright of the author Nomad18, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Our Week On the Beach

2007-03-21T02:40:46Z

So, you've probably noticed we didn't blog or contact anyone at home for about a week. Well, thats because we spend a week on a remote beach. So this blog is gonna be a day by day of what exactly happened (if I can remember it all).

Day 1:

Arrived at the beach, called Playa El Zonte, we acutally got off the bus at what seemed like the middle of nowhere. Fortunately there was a road there, and we walked down it. This is when we saw the first other white people in El Salvador, it was actually a nice change, as we had been getting some minor hostilities in the big city (San Salvador).
Upon arrive (at the actual beach) we found the place we wanted to stay at very easily. The next thing of the agenda was to find someone to give us surf lessons. After asking around, we came back to our hotel, and asked one of the other surfers staying there. He suggested we talk to Alex, the guy who owned the place we were staying at. At the time Alex was out, but as soon as we got back we ambushed him. He said the surf was too big that day, so we had to at least wait till the next day. I forgot to mention, we went for a swim (in the big surf), and we lost the room key, probably less than an hour after it was given to us. Luckily there was another copy of the key. We ate at our hotel, then went to bed after some cards (I think thats how it went down). There were only 2 single beds in our room, so I volunteered to sleep on the floor all week (I know, I'm a saint).

Day 2:

Leigh woke up uber early to see a sunrise (5:00 am), I opted not to because I didn't sleep too well due to extreme heat and the whole sleeping on the floor thing. Uh, lets see, what'd we do today, we ate breakfast right at our hotel. Wait, I gotta take a moment to describe this place. It has a main house-like building with the bathrooms, and the bedrooms, a tv slash surf board room. Then outside, there is a hut, with all the tables for the restuarant, and many hammicks (I love hammicks). Just beside the hut was a pool (mostly for washing salt water off of people and boards). Near the pool was the bar slash restuarant ordering place, which had a set of stairs on the outside to a hangout spot on the top of it, which was probably one of the best places to eat, and it had another 4 hammicks.
Anywhoo.. back to the day. After breakfast, we were informed by Alex that the surf was still too big, so instead of surfing, we went for another swim in the big surf, this time with nothing in our pockets. It was a lot of fun, I swollowed quite a bit of seawater. We didn't do too much else that day; we found a restuarant that sells burgers for $1.50, and went for a walk down the beach. We had dinner at our hotel (Leigh and I downed 5 burgers with a side of fries with each one), after leigh and I did a exploration mission of the restuarants on the beach. Another night on the floor for me.

Day 3:

Woke up, I think we all woke up at some normal time (except for me, cause I was on the floor). We had breakfast at the nice cheap restaurant right on the beach. The prices were like $0.35 US for a pancake, which was a huge hit with Leigh. I believe Ryan and Leigh had pancakes, while I had eggs and pancakes (not completely sure). The next thing on the schedule was to find out if we could get some lessons on this day. Alex was around, and he said we could do some lessons that afternoon. I believe we spent some of the morning looking for shells, then we lazed in the hammicks for a while. Then we ate lunch, but I can´t recall where, maybe at our hotel, but probably at the cheaper restaurant (I think we had a $10 credit from the morning, cause they couldn´t break our $20 bill, so that was a neat feeling, it felt like a free meal). After lunch we probably played cards and then lied in the hammicks (I know, our lives are very hard) until about 3:30, which is when we got ready for our first surf lesson at 4.
Ah, yes, the surf lesson, what fun. Alex took us a ways down the beach, partly because the currents were lessened there, and there was fewer rocks (I guess he figured we´d be falling a lot). The first thing he did was give us a spiel on what the surfboards were not. They are not sun umbrellas (they don´t like sun), they are not seats (if you get sand in the wax, you will get a terrible rash when you lie down on them), there was a couple other things, I can´t remember, oh well. Then he made outlines of our boards in the sand, and made us practice the procedure for standing up on the board. It seemed pretty easy, and we were soon in the white water (which is whats left of the wave after its broken, they are about 1 foot to 6 feet in height, so some of them are really moving). We were supposed to wait for a big white water, then jump onto our boards and forward in the water, when the white water would catch us, and we´d be flying along. After about a dozen times, and a few tips from Alex, I was standing up on the board with about a 80% success rate. I´d like to say I was the first to stand up on the board, but I´m not really sure, so I won´t. Soon, we were heading back down the beach to the hotel, and we had a quick lesson in the pool, about how to turn the board around quickly in the water. Soon, we had discovered that our two hours were up (time flies when you are being washed up upon shore), and we each owed Alex $20 (well worth the mone I think). Alex then said we could do the next lesson on the next day. We were all fairly tired, but I think this was the night we had a few beers, ryan broke a ping pong paddle (oh ya.. there was a ping pong table there too, pretty intense games) but chucking it at the table. After Ryan repaired the paddle, and I went for a cool-down swim, we headed to bed.

Day 4:

I´m awake early again, and I think that Ryan tried to get up and watch the sunset, but he was back in bed fairly soon after he got up, apparently it was cloudly.. ya.. whatever Ryan. I was up fairly early, so I read some surfing magazines until the restaurant opened, then ordered a breakfast of Granola con Leche and a jugo de piña (both very good). Soon Ryan and Leigh were up, and we went and asked Alex about the lesson this day. He said he was heading to San Salvador, but would be back somewhere around 3 or 4 in the afternoon, and would be able to give us a lesson then. We took the boards out that morning to go practice what we learned the day before. Unfortunately Leigh broke a fin on his board somewhere on the way to our practice location, so he couldn´t practice, but Ryan and I got a good little session in. We did it until we got bored of doing just the same thing over and over, and until we felt like we´d have had enough sun. Then we ate lunch (somewhere, most likely at the cheap place, well, cause its cheap), and lazed around in the hammicks, waiting for Alex´s return.
Unfortunately, Alex never returned.. DUN DUN DUNNNNN! (until the next day). So we never got a lesson on our 4th day on the beach. Instead, we took another intense swim in the ocean, then lazed in the hammicks (again). After dinner (nothing memorable) we went to bed, and I spent another night on the floor.

Day 5:

We woke up at a normal time, I actually slept fairly well, better than other nights, but I was still up first, at around quarter after 6. I read some more surfing magizines (in english, else I would just be looking at pictures) until the other two were up. We had breakfast (somewhere), and lazed around a bit (we did that a lot) we probably played some cards, maybe some ping pong. It was just before noon when Alex got back, we figured something bad had happened so we didn´t bother him right away. We instead went for another hunt for shells. When we got back we talked to him. Apparently, he got a super painful ear infection while in San Salvador. He had to drive around all night, trying to find a doctor. He said it was a miracle cause he found one at 4 am. So when he got back, he was very tired, and on a lot of painkillers. He also wasn´t allowed to surf because of the infection. In his words: ´´No surf, I know, it sucks´´. But he still said he´d be able to another lesson with us the next day, as long as he was careful. It was quite funny when he describe what the pain was like. (Warning, this is about to get a little PG-13 on all of you) He said ´´It was like, like, someone was sticking, uh, a.. a penis in my ear.´´ We all got a good laugh out of that. So we planned to have a lesson the next morning. His words ´´Be ready to go at 7:30´´. The rest of the day is a blur, sorry guys, I just can´t remember.

Day 6:

I woke up really early (5:30) to go for a private walk on the beach and watch the surf for a while. I wrote something in the sand, took a few pictures, and watched the surf engulf the rocks I was standing on. A very beautiful morning overall. After at least an hour on the beach alone, I headed back to the hotel. The guys wanted to woken up at 7 to get ready for the lesson. I woke them up by taking a nice sepiatone picture of them sleeping (with flash of course). They were soon up and ready to go. Alex didn´t make an appearance until 7:20, which was when his breakfast was served to him, after his breakfast, we expected he would come over and talk to us, but instead, he started a nap on the floor. We all thought (or at least I did), ´´We´ve got all day, whatever, maybe he didn´t get a good sleep.´´ Then he was up again, and drinking coffee. Thats when he said his first words of the day to us, which were ´´Hey guys, I´m still hungry, so you should probably get breakfast.´´ So we did. We ate breakfast at our hotel, and when we finished, we found Alex napping on the floor again. We didn´t get out on the waves until about 9:30, meh, whatever.
This lesson was a bit different, we were catching bigger waves slash whitewater, and we weren´t jumping onto the board, we started on the board and caught waves by paddling. We were also learning how to turn, but he told us it is a lot easier ´´in a real wave, instead of this whitewater crap.´´ It lasted about an hour and a half. He said we´d do some actual surfing later that day, out on the point, (catch some pointbreaks). Unfortunately, he headed back into San Salvador that day, and didn´t get back till about 8 at night, so we didn´t get another lesson. We ended up eating lunch at the cheap place right after the lesson. I had a fried beef, it was weak at best, but whatever. Again, the rest of the day is a blur of lying in hammicks mixed in with some cards and ping pong. Had dinner, and went to bed in good time, we had an early morning (sorta) the next day.

Day 7:

Woke up at about 6, packed up and were on the road at a little after 7. We said goodbye to the beach, goodbye to surfing (for now), and caught the first bus back to town.

I hope that is detail enough for you guys, you are probably all chomping at the bit, waiting for the information on the week where we weren´t in contact, so here it is.

Take it easy,

Peace,

Craig

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Copan ruinas day 2

2007-03-21T02:33:38Z

Today we visited the Copan Mayan Ruins. it was really cool, you got to see some of the original colours, colours like red, green, and pink. It was really amazing to see the artwork and sculptures preserved so well. it was different then Tikal in the way that it showed more of the culture then just the grandeurness of the Temples in pyramids. The same goes for Lamanai in Belize, you the towers werent as impressive as either of the other two places but the boat ride through the jungles was amazing in itself, to see all the wildlife and people on the river was worth the money alone, even if we didnt see the ruins.

The rest of the day was spent mostly on shopping for souvenirs. In the first big place we went to i asked the guy if there was a smaller version of the chess set that he sold. The shop keeper said that there isnt a smaller version of that because it was hand carved. i was a bit dissipointed but we continued on to a larger market like place that sold other souvenirs but to my surprise they sold much of the exact same stuff that he had and they had many of the exact chess set that the other guy sold. what a coincidence that all of the other people have the same chess set and they were all hand carved, they must have good quality control, lol. we didnt end up buying anything in the end. we desided that we had too far to go, and we would have to carry everything we buy for the rest of the trip; which was not only a big burden to carry by itselft, but we run the risk of breaking while we are in the other 6 countries. in short: good ruins, good food, lots of catching up for blogs and family members.

Copan ruinas day 2 remains copyright of the author leighner, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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San Pedro day 6 Climbing the indians face

2007-03-20T00:07:58Z

i woke up this morning suprised i felt so well. we had partied pretty hardy with some people from BC canada, and Denmark. we had a really fun night. we were up late drinking and up fairly early for some reasons. Craig and I went out to the supermarket to get some supplies for mac and cheese. we had made it to the supermarket and bought the mac and cheese, milk and juice. but we werent able to find any butter right away and the place where we could get butter was up town; and when i mean up town, i mean a higher altitude. so we decided against that. we used oil insted, which we have now discovered as a bad choice. we went back to the hippie compound/hotel and i made the mac while craig went back to bed and while ryan was continueing to be in bed. we found out after we made the mac that our neighbors had butter that they would had lent us, oh well.

We have a interesting shower, the water gets heated as the water goes down through the nozzle. so i went to turn it on and it wouldnt rotate, i tried both ways fairly hard and nothing happened. well i eventually tried hard enough so it turned on. the shower works so that when you first turn it on its really hot, and when you continue to turn it it gets cooler. so i attemped to turn the noozle to make the water more cool i would get shocked, nicely i might add. and i was a bit wet by that point so trying to go against shower with the hanging wires and electrically taped connections. i had to eventually use a cloth to turn down the heat, but overall, a good shower.

we eventually got on our way up to the indians face, which is a mountain that looks like a face from the side. this wasnt no small mountain, it went up aboot 1000ft. to start we had to got around another smaller city because it was on the other side of the lake. We had made it around the town quite quickley and after a frustrating talk to the toll booth guy about our discount we headed up to the mountain. the first bit wasnt to bad we there were actually a few stairs. we had made it to the first hut/checkpoint of the mountain we stayed there to look at the town and the lake below, the view was amazing, there was a cold wind that blew over the mountains and passed over the town and went up the mountain we were on, the wind felt so nice after climbing in the heat for so long. as we got higher we found many farms on odd angles and wondered why someone would make a farm so high and at very slanty locations, but we then realized that there werent to many other places to build and that coffee beans grow better at higher altitudes. we saw a few workers carrying huge sacks of cofee beans both up and down the mountain. we didnt see any other travellers up there which was much better then all of the tourist places we have been too. the path got very rocky and sandy the higher we got up. at one of the overhangs at about 400ft we had stopped to take a break and i went and spat over the edge of the cliff, and to my astoundment the loogie just hung in the air for a while and flew back at me, i almost spat on myself. we continued up the mountain and made it to a point where the towns were starting to become hazy because we had made it to where some of the clouds hung, it was a really cool experience, i didnt like the clouds being there but, i didnt want the sun to be there just as much. By that point the air was getting a bit thinner and we had to take a couple more breaks. It took quite a bit longer to catch our breath´s but we eventually got used to it...a bit. we eventually made it to the top of the indians nose aka the highest point of the mountain. craig had already run out of water while ryan had a bit of water left and i had almost half left. i attribute that to the fact that i had the least to drink last night. the view from the to was so amazing, ive never experienced anything like it. standing on top of the mountain made me feel like was on top of the world. we all were relieved that the climb was over and took our time to enjoy the scenery and the amazing view.

when we all rested and got our fill of the landscape we headed down. it was a relief to be heading downhill and much easier too. the heat wasnt so bad the higher you get up because it got much cooler and more bearable. we did the same path we did before except at about 150ft from the ground we took a detour to the statue of santa maria and the cross it overlooked the town and was very nice. we noticed the path going up to the statue and thought we could get down that way. technically there was a way down but it was more made for water to stop too much erosion of that area, we took it anyways. there were many stones in my boot after that part of the hike. when we got down to the bottom we sat down to empty our boot me and craig sat down on some rocks and ryan sat a on an upstep. we saw ryan jump up and start shaking and hitting his leg, we went over to him and found out that he was standing on an ant hill. and they had bit him all over, im sure that wasnt the highlight of his trip up the mountain. we were all very thirsty and hungry at this point so we took the final trek back to the hotel.

today was definately a lot of work but definately worth it.

leigh

San Pedro day 6 Climbing the indians face remains copyright of the author leighner, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Copan Ruinas

2007-03-19T23:58:53Z

later on sunday night we were able to watch 2 of the original star wars movies and and the morning we watched the end fight seen from the final matrix movie.....all in spanish, well i thought it was really cool.

we left the unknown town a little after 9ish. there was a coach bus parked in front of our little hotel, and it happened to be going to the town we wanted to be at. after about a 3 hour ride up and down the mountains and with much ear poping, we made it to the half way point. we ate some breakfast/lunch and went on the next bus to the copan ruinas. that bus was more of an old school bus, which was alright because it reminded me of the busses at home except the most of the seat cushions werent fasened to the frame of the chair. but it was a fun ride and the view is incredible. but not much has happened today except for a long bus rides. tomorrow we shall be going to copan mayan ruins and the hot springs, both should be really cool. ooooh yeah, hot springs, oooooh yeah, really old buildings.

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Quick Update

2007-03-18T23:27:47Z

Hey fans,

So, its hard to find a way top contact home when you are on a beach where it is hard to find a convience store. So, that was our latest predicament, not a bad one though. We spent the last week on the beach called El Zonte (pronounced Sonte, we were laughed at when we said Zonte). While we were there we caught a few surf lessons, which let us catch a few waves. Its pretty fun stuff, we now plan to find somewhere to surf in a few more places (aka Costa Rica, Panama, etc).

Before El Zonte, we were in San Salvador. Big city, not my cup of tea, too much confusion with buses and too much walking for not enough fun. We actually ended up in the red light district around sundown, fortunately a local was friendly enough to acutally drive us back to our hotel.

Gotta go, times up,

Will blog soon, we are in more civilized places.

Peace everyone, hope the weather is improving.

Later
Craig

Quick Update remains copyright of the author iamcraig88, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Hanging Ten!

2007-03-19T23:46:15Z

Technically I'm no where near El Zonte... nor even in El Salvador... but that is besides the point. So, we left San Salvador in favour of the beach life, which suits the three of us quite well... there are no complaints about endless beaches, palms, and awesome point breaks. We headed to El Zonte ( pronounced sonte ) to learn us some surfing skills. We arrived to hear that the breaks were much to large for us to learn in, as was the next day, finally we got out for our first leasson. We all got up and were "surfing" in white water.. which is basically just the small broken waves close to shore. We were all stoked for our next lesson, so the next day we went out to practice what we had learned. We got out there and leigh discovered that he was missing a fin.. bummer, because they are expensive to replace. Craig and I stayed out for about an hour, and then headed in because the mid-day heat is terrible on white skin. At four that same day was to be our second lesson, but Alex.. the owner of the "resort" we were staying at and our surfing teacher, got a nasty ear infection and had to go to San Salvador to see a doctor. We didn't get our next lesson for another two days, which was simply learning how to turn and then practicing. That day we were to continue into real waves and try catching them, but Alex randomly went back to San Salvador. So, we did spend some solid hours getting the training, but we never got to try it on real waves... BUT, we have nicuragua, costa rica, panama, ecuador and peru.. which all have amazing breaks... I'm sure we'll spend some more time amongst the breaks again. Our time In El Zonte was awesome, we got a damn nice tan, learned some surfing basics.. got some seriously cool shells... got to see an amazing sunset out last night.. and spent countless hours in the surf, just swimming in the waves. I got some nice pictures of some locals surfing and of some beach art I sculpted outta the sand.

So, now we are on our way to Copain ruins in Honduras. We are spending the night here in Nueve Ocotopeque, and tomorrow heading for Copan, staying there two nights, seeing the ruins and some other attractions in the area. We then head out to the Bay Islands for three nights, do some more snorkelling... work a lñittle harder on our tans.. and maybe hike a trail or two. Next, we plan to head into the mountains to a small off the beaten track town for two nights, then hopfully onto Nicuragua the next day.

All is well with the three amigos,

we all miss home a little, but were having fun down here.

I miss you guys, were definatly going to have a huge "get together".. or "round" if you will when we get home,

happy trails,

Ryan.

P.S.: All you Hosers that are reading this and not leaving anything for us to read need to TAKE OFF EH! and to dang well write a comment... the parents are definatly winning in that respect... common show some love!

Hanging Ten! remains copyright of the author Nomad18, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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el zonte

2007-03-20T00:03:02Z

it was thursday night and we had our malaria pills that day. i actually slept that night, contrary to that last few weeks after i had the pills. i guess all i have to do to go to sleep after having malaria pills is to be hungover and climb a mountain. we came into el salvador last friday, we werent able to cross the boarder because we took the advice of a local whom told us that we could get across the boarder with one bus insted of having to go back to guatemala city and then to the boarder. we made it to the southern boarder insted of the central boarder, that wasnt so bad. the bad part was that we had to take 3 busses to get there insted of two, and it used more money so we didnt have enough money to get across the boarder but we had just enough to get on the bus to the last town which had an ATM. we so we ended up staying the night at the town with the atm. we made it to San Salvador the capital city of El Salvador in good time. El Salvador has a population of about 2 million. so if you want to know what its like just picture toronto, where the malls are partially outdoors. they have all the same major brands we do for food like: subway, macdonalds, pizza hut, KFC and so fourth and so fourth. we found an ninendo we but it cost $600 USD, it was rediculous. we went for long walks around the city to try and find the conservatory garden, and the art museum. but they were definately worth it. we left for el zonte two nights after we came to San Salvador. el zonte was very small. it probably had a population of less then 150. but it was a really cool surfing community. there werent even any grocery stores so we had to eat at resturants for every meal, which wasnt horrible. we learned how to surf from a guy named alex who owned the place we were staying at. the waves were really fun to play in. the salt water made my hair super crazy; it was awsome. the beach was about 50 metres away from our hotel room so a swim was never far away. the only reason we ever needed to know the time was when the sun was too hot to go to the beach. that was about 11-3 so we stayed in the hammocks till then. surfing is the most amazing sport ever. i will definately come back to el zonte in the future. i really do enjoy lying in a hammock, surfing, sipping licuados de fruita, and swimming. we left el zonte on sunday. and after much travelling we having finally made it to the boarded town of......blank (i dont know the name of it) in Honduras. but it seems pretty cool. the people in El Salvador were all very helpful and nice. dispite the lack of tourist destinations, i suggest you hit the southern beaches for some surf and turf. Even though we were there for 7 night if i ever blogged again while i was there it was say something similar to what i have said above. tomorrow we head to copan to check out the ruins, we stay there for two nights, then move on to the bay islands which means.....you guessed it, more surfing. But we will actually have internet, so its really exciting.

el zonte remains copyright of the author leighner, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Reflection

2007-03-08T00:04:14Z

We arrived to Tikal at around 3:00 in the afternoon and set up our tent underneith an enormous tree. Sitting in the rather large tree was what we've dubed the "all in one bird," which makes such a strange call that you can't believe thats its only one bird. I'm going to post a video with the sound on facebook so that everyone can hear what I'm talking about. We then headed to the Tikal Park entrance to pay our entrance fee and climb one of the numerous temples to watch the sunset. We climed the building called simply "the Pyramid" and waited a top the temple for darkness to come. The views from these temples are nothing short of awe inspiring and no words I could post here would ever do them justice. Along our way we bumped into a fellow Canadian traveller and spent the evening together over a beer and some nahos! The walk back t our tent was just as amazing as the views with so much noise from the wildlife. We slept in as much as the sun would alow us and got up in our own time, taking our sweet ass time. We had a quick breakfast of peanutbutter and jelly sandwhiches and headed back into the Park with our ticket from the night before and did a four hour tour of the different plazas and temples. We climbed the highest temples and also hit the only temple which has writings on it "the temple of inscriptions." We were boiling in t-shirts and shorts, which by the end of our trek were absolutly soaked with sweat. After all that walking I felt that a cold shower was an absolute necesity and headed to the stalls directly. We sat down to play some cards and have some lunch after the showers. At around 4:00 we started packing up our gear and getting ready to take the shuttle bus back to Santa Elena. Once in Santa Elena we had to search for the bus station which turned out to be one of the longer walks we've been on with our packs because the guidbook was slightly outdated as to the location of the bus terminal. Once we found the terminal we purchased our tickets to Guatemala City, we headed across the street to eat at one of the 'Comedors' which are super cheap resturaunts and the three of us ate for just over $3 USD a piece. We then hung out at the bus station, played some cards and waited for our overnight bus, which left at 10:00 pm. Overnight buses, as I may have mentioned before, (Possibly only in my journal) are like trying to sleep in refridgerators. Your absolutely always too cold and the limited square footage is a huge downfall. The only real benifit is that you don't have to pay for a night in a hotel. We arrived over an hour early in Guatemala City, entirely due to our bus drives lead foot. At one point we were speeding in the opposite lane passing stopped vehicles and, as one might expect, a car was driving in the opposite lane heading straight for us. (As I see it, I just plain expect that the lane which is designated for on comming traffic... will have just that! ON COMMING TRAFFIC! Apparently the bus driver thought otherwise.) I was really wondering how we were going to go any further because beside us in our own lane is a solid line of traffic, STOPPED! Unduanted, the bus driver swerves onto the opposite shoulder and continues to speed! Menwhile, I'm stuffing my stomach back down my throat, and rubbing my eyes because some sort of white light blinded me. Once in Guate, we read that we were in one of the more dangerous parts of two, which happend to be the red light district. We took the books advice and splurged for a taxi ride to the other bus station. Some how, along the way from the first buss statin to the second we managed to lose the only phrasebook we had. I'm not point any fingers, but Craig was the last one to have it! We took the first bus too Panajachel and arrived there at around 12:00, just in time for lunch. We found a fellow gringo (local talk for white boy) who suggested a place to eat and we dinned with him. His name was Bill, and he was getting dental work done. Apparently he was saving money that way. EKK! After lunch we got enough money to stay the week in San Pedro, switched bills into smaller increments, and got a giant bottle of hand sanitizer. From there it was off to the boat docks to get our ride over to San Pedro, we let a couple boats go by trying to get a lower price, even had a few gents from the UK in on it with us, but it was all for not, the boat company has a monopoly and we needed to get to San Pedro. We paid our fare and headed acroos the lake.

Happy trails everyone,

adios,

Ryan.

P.S. Hope everyone made it through the blizzards alright and are safe and sound!

Miss you all.

Reflection remains copyright of the author Nomad18, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Fitting in with the local hippies

2007-03-06T00:35:26Z

Hola everybody,

So I heard the weather is pretty crappy up there, and its really damn cold. I´m sorry to hear that, but I think its an appropriate time to mention that it is about 25 degrees here, and I went swimming today in a lake.

Ok.. so I´m done being a jerk.

Oh ya.. the hippie thing, I shall explain. San Pedro is full of people who have dreads, kinda smell, know how to do this crazy dance called the flame dance, and don´t seem to do anything all day.

Oh, and the me fitting in type thing. I haven´t really showered since Tikal, which was 6 days ago, thus I smell, and I´ve started drinking this local tea called Rosa de Jamaica. No worries though, I don´t have dreads and I can´t do the flame dance, so my minor transformation is totally reversable.

Lecciones de Espanol estan ir a muy bien. I mean, Spanish lessons are going well. We have 2 more mornings of it, and I´ve made it through the first set of lessons. Its a bit easier to comunicate what I want, but still nearly impossible to understand whats being said to me. Hopefully it comes with practice.

So funny story, I was working on cooking a stirfry for our lunch today (it was damned good by the way) and one of the burners I was using stopped working (its a propane stove). In a few more seconds a huge flame burst out of the knob.. you know the thingy that controls the amount of flame you get. So I had to reach into this pillar and fire and turn it off before it completely melted the plastic knob. No worries though, I came out unburnt, so its all good.

Not too much else to say, Ryan and I went kayaking today in the huge waves on the lake. I dumped my kayak twice (again, no worries, I came out unscathed).

Take it easy everyone, please try to stay out of a snowy car accident, for me, ok?

Peace,

Craig

Fitting in with the local hippies remains copyright of the author iamcraig88, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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San Pedro

2007-03-06T00:32:29Z

So today is our fouth day in this uber laid back town, San Pedro la Laguna, and I am thoroughly enjoying myself! We got up this morning and had a much better breakfast than yesterday. Yesterday we froze the juice, yogurt and everything else for that matter... so we ended up with nada for breakfast. This morning on the other hand, we had yogurt and granola... at regular temperatures. We then headed out for our third session of Spanish lessons, which by the way are going pretty well. Esta muy bien! After our Spanish lesson we cooked a tasty, albeit unusual, stir fry with vegetables form the local market. Once we finished cleaning, I folded laundry with the plan to go kayaking for a couple of hours with the guys. By this time, Leigh wasn´t feeling great so he went to bed while craig and I headed out on the lake for some sweet kayaking. Since we are students at Orbita Spanish School we are supposed to get a discount on renting Kayaks, but when we showed our discount cards to the girl at the kayaks, she looked like she´d never seen them! We headed to our Spaish school to get Rene, the owner of the school to give us a hand. Finally after some heated spanish which Craig nor I understood, we paid the discounted price and got ourselves two Kayaks. We spent two hours on the water with nothign but our swim sorts on and a paddle in our hand. The water was pretty rough, so we had some good times surfing and then once we were tired we found some crazy huge reeds and laid out on our Kayaks to soak up some rays, and chat. I got some pretty good shots of the volcanoes surrounding the lake and one of craig paddling his swamped kayak.. which by the way he did twice! Once back on shore, we headed back to the Hippy compound and got Leigh, together we went to a local bakery, got some sweet itallian buns and continued on to the internet cafe I now find myself in. Tonight, were having cheap tacos and then heading back to the Hippy compund for una cerveza (a beer) and listen to craig play the guitar while we all sing Jack johnson, Sublime and Ben Harper.

Its going great, but I miss everyone too!

Happy trails,
Ryan.

San Pedro remains copyright of the author Nomad18, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Guatemala

2007-03-06T00:13:59Z

we got up for class like usual at 7:30 and left to get some supplies for some stir fry that we were going to make for lunch, after we came back to our hotel we had our breakfast of granola and yoghurt, eaten like a true hippy. the whole town is filled with hippies it blows my mind. but enough about the hippies. craig and ryan went kayaking while i stayed at the hotel and slept, i wasnt feeling the best, but now i feel much better after that naping. im glad to hear im in a temperated climate while it is -35celcius and snowing at home. Life in San Pedro has been super easy going, but soon i will be anxious for the adventurers life again.

Guatemala remains copyright of the author leighner, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Guatemala

2007-03-04T00:44:14Z

we didnt get to sleep in again, we had to get up for......sigh school we draged out butts out of bed and started to make breakfast, bought some eggs and bread the night before and made scrabled eggs on toast, we werent smart enough to buy some sort of cooking oil or butter. so eggs easy over were out of the question. after that we headed to do our 4 hours of spanish lessons for the day. it went much quicker then i thought plus i got to try the cofee down here for the first time. it was a good time too, because the coffee beans were just being harvested and left out to dry. i was surpried at how much i liked the coffee. after the lessons we went in search of cheese and fruit. for most of our venture all we could find was processed cheese, i dont mind it sometimes but everyone else seemed against it. we searched all the way across town and found out that there was another supermarket that carried it and it was much closer to our hotel, and it was almost on our way to the other places. but anyways. we got the cheese went back the hotel and made some sweet grilled cheese sandwiches. soo good. for the rest of the day we relaxed in the hammock and wrote in our journals.

Guatemala remains copyright of the author leighner, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Guatemala

2007-03-03T01:25:34Z

We left Santa Elena at 10PM for the 8 hour bus ride to Guatemala City, the ride itself was really long, and there was little leg room for me (6ft3in). i was crammed into the corner but for the first part of the trip i had two seats to myself, which was really nice. We all had our malaria medication that day too, it didnt have any effect on ryan but it made craig and ,Especially me, wired. i was up all night in a really uncomfortable possition. not only that, but the bus was air conditioned. i know it doesnt sound that bad. but when it gets too cold for canadians whom just came from a very cold winter not to long ago.
when we made it to guatimala city we were swamped by taxi drivers wanting our money. we bartered the driver down to 1.10 USD. we made it to the appropriate bus station(because every bus company has their own station) and waited for the bus. The spanish phrase dictionary was left inside the taxi so we had to ask the guard holding the shotgun where the nearest bakery was using our poor grammer and knowledge of spanish. me and craig left to go to the bakery while ryan watched the stuff. like every morning we didnt buy a big enough breakfast, we ended up just buying a sugary bun of which i had know knowledge of for each of us. it filled us up for the moment so we assumed for some reason(again!) that we would be filled up for the rest of the 3 hour trip that was ahead of us. the trip to panachel was fairly comfortable, though i was running on very little sleep i still didnt get any sleep on the bus. we have desided to pay in exact change for the bus because we definately got screwed out of 10Q. The country side was incredible once we got out of the big city, i finally got to realize how high we were above sea level. A lot of the time we were over 1000ft above sea level. The road winded up and down and left and right over and over. i found my ears actually popping many times. the towns relied mostly on farming to sustain their economy in that area. but the fields were on the steep hills or on on flields that resemble stairs. they were the stairs of the hills, incredibly large stairs, but stairs non the less. we finally made it the bustling city of Panachel during peak market hours. thats when things really got crazy on the bus. people started piling in from every direction, the bus had many open seats before we came to the city. but by the time we came down town. people were triple to a seat. it hard to have a conversation with a person whom you dont speak the same language with. Slowly but surely im picking up the language, even without the spanish lessons. it reminds me of riviere du loup and trying to communicate with the locals in french. you have to improvise with what you know and maybe add a few hand gestures(not the middle finger).

we got off in the downtown area. We werent really sure if it was the right place to get off but it is what everyone else was doing and we were getting close to sea level. I think thats as close we were going to get to our criteria. we made our way to the tourist information centre and met this curiouse man from new york who was nice enought to guide us around and some information on taking the water taxi. By this time we were famished so he suggested we got to a nice resturant called "Deli", the man said that it was one of the more expensive places in town we ate some really good food there, i had milk for the first time sinse i got here 8 days ago. this is really unusual for me because i drink milk by the bucket full. i definately getting into the hot sauce around here. Im going to have a serious tolerance to it when i get back home. ryan had the banana pancakes, me, craig and Bill(new yorker) all had the burger. They were amazing. the bill was a little more expensive compared to the rest of Guatemala but we made do. for the three of us it cost 108Q or 14USD(approx) which is amazing. we then wen back up the main drag for a second time and went to the ATM to take out 2000Q(1USD=7.6Q)and then we went to the dollar store to get some more of the sweet, sweet, hand sanitizer.We were searching for more hand sanitizer because we have to use it before we take out our contacts, before we eat and after we eat. we were going through that stuff so very quickly that searching for some more ahead of time was a good idea. we were having no such luck finding hand sanitizer in the past week but bill was able to direct us to the dollar store where he bought his. he also taught us how to ask for it. and then we had success, woot woot. now we had to get the the boat. we had no luck haggling the boat owners down from 20Q to 15Q or 10Q they had a monopoly over the water taxi service in Penachel.

we eventually made it to san pedro and took the long trek to find a hotel. it felt like a wild goose chase to find the best hotel as well as get spanish lessons set up for the next day. the town is nothing but cobble stone and up hills and down hills. we were exhausted becasue we had already gone on several long bus rides, walking around Penachel, and running on little sleep. but we eventually found the best hotel for us. it had a good view of the water, had good access to our "school", resturants and lots 'o' hammocks.

the last 2 days blended together really nicely with the overnight bus ride. Today was perhaps the longest day(s) of the trip so far. but im excited/relieved to be staying in one spot for a while and able to settle in.

Guatemala remains copyright of the author leighner, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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