Lovely Leon

So I got across the border a couple of days ago. Thankfully out of Honduras and into the land of lovely people. Despite being robbed (only $10) by the officials at the customs border and then by the silly taxi driver (I don't think he did it on purpose), NICARAGUA is my favourite country so far. The people are so nice and friendly.

I went to a Heros museum in Esteli and this morning to another one in Leon - where Jorge guided me through it and I finally understand about the Nicaraguan Revolution. He fought in it with the Sandinistas. Pretty impressive people here. This is the view from the roof of the museum. You can see the old cathedral to the left and two volcanos in the distance.

The last picture is of a mural that says We fought for Freedom and today we will defend it. They are a very proud nation and really should be. I think you should all come and visit Nicaragua!

So later I went to this bookshop - the only one in Leon - and bought a second hand book about the revolution from a very knowledgeable young boy. He remarked also

at the phenomenon that in Central America there are millions of "librerias" but none actually sell books - they're really "papelerias". Shame. Not very good for my future job prospects either!

Comayagua

Is a pretty boring town. With a pretty cathedral in the centre. Here it is. It is so dull I went to "browse" in a supermarket and got my legs waxed. I am glad I'm into my book. I am leaving in the morning. Not sure where to yet though.

Lago de Yojoa - a bird lovers paradise + Pulhapanzak Waterfall

So I caught the 6.20am boat from Utila back to mainland Ceiba. They're so lovely on that boat they hand out plastic bags and tissues for all the people who are going to vomit!!! I was prepared and took a sea-sickness tablet.

Then back to San Pedro Sula and onto an El Mochito bus (RG - your explanation SUCKS!!!) which is essentially a chicken bus where you get the ticket aboard the bus to El Mochito but get off at Los Naranjos. 4pm I arrive at D+D Brewery and met a lovely couple Rony and Nila (Belgian) over a home brewed beer.

The 3 of us arranged with Malcolm (eccentric English bird specialist with a grey plaited beard, need I say more) to take us out for a 4 hours bird watching trip at 6am the next morning. So I think not only am I over my fish phobia, but also my bird (minus pigeons) phobia.

The waterfall was nice, better than the one that Claudia, Greg and I walked miles to see in Phuket, but obviously not quite Niagra or Iguazu! However we paid for a "tour" to walk behind it and view it from a ledge behind it. It's pretty much as scary as it sounds and there is so much water you can't actually see anything, or really breathe, in fact it was far worse than I had imagined it'd be. I didn't enjoy that at all. It appears I've exchanged my fish and bird phobia for an adrenalin/ adventure phobia. So I'm now in one of the dullest towns ever....

Utila

This was the view of the port when I arrived with Stephanie who I spent the next 4 days with. It was nice to see a Rainbow.

This is the bar at the restaurant Babalu that we went to on the first night. 8 days later it was still probably my favourite place.

Utila - the WHALE SHARK!!!

So yesterday after our second scuba dive we snorkelled with a whale shark. The biggest fish. This one was about 45 feet - bigger than the boat we were in. It was absolutely awesome. Definitely the highlight of my trip.

I also saw a couple of spotted eagle rays which is when I decided that I LOVED scuba diving. It was like something out of National Geographic - except much much cooler. I don't have an underwater camera, but just so you can see what a Whale Shark looks like I've borrowed one from NAT GEO.

Utila, Bay Islands, Honduras

I seem to have managed to do pretty much nothing for about a week hence the lack of posts. It took a whole day and some sea sickness to get from Copan Ruinas to Utila. I met a (very sweet, kind but complete princess) American girl on the boat so we went to Trudy's hotel together and had air-con which was nice. It was very interesting spending time with someone SO different from me!

On Monday I started a PADI course and moved to Mango Inn which has a pool. I have an irrational fear of the water, which is weird for me, but I managed to dive today which was quite an accomplishment!

More seasickness ensued and I gave up on the second dive. The idea of vomiting into my regulator didn't appeal!

The people on my course are really nice. There is a very nice bunch of English 20-something students. I don't remember boys being that nice when I was at Uni. But I have a horrible feeling that they're being "respectful" towards me as I'm so old.... God I hope not! Anyway they're medics so maybe that explains it. But either way they make me proud to be British. Not quite like it was in Cancun.

Right, off to some dive school bbq and all you can drink party. I don't think it'll help the sea sick potential tomorrow.

I'm not sure how interesting my posts are, or if anyone really reads them, but if so, please post stuff here! Thanks.

Copan Ruinas, Honduras - the actual ruins, not just the town

So the ruins are just a short walk from Copan Ruinas town centre. I went with the Australian lady and we tagged along to a tour with an american family. The most striking thing about Honduras in comparison to Mexico and Guatemala is that everyone here speaks amazing English. Oh and their totally stressed unlaidbackness.

The ruins were pretty cool. The setting was beautiful with amazing lush hills surrounding them. I am officially Mayan Ruined out now though.

So Thursday afternoon after the ruins I bought my luxurious bus ticket (so figuring Honduras must be richer than Guate as it has amazing buses) to get to La Ceiba on the north coast to be able to get a boat over to Roatan to meet my cousin Nadine.

Then when relaxing in a bar with happy hour I receive a message from Nadine saying she's in ER in NYC with appendicitus and can't go anywhere but not to tell her parents and that she was just waiting to hear if they'd operate that night. So the next few hours were spent trying to track down my aunt and uncle in Conneticut to get hold of her and get to the hospital to visit her. A big thank you to everyone who helped me do that in a slightly clandestine way of not wanting to contact my parents in order not to worry her parents before I found out exactly how she was. Overnight her appendix burst. Not good. But thankfully she was still in the USA and not on the Bay Islands as it's pretty remote and there is no hospital here!

There was a power cut at about 8pm on Thursday night (while all above was going on) in Copan Ruinas. It was probably the first time I had no torch on me and man it was DARK! I had my mobile phone and had to light up the street with that to get back. So early to bed it was for me. I got the bus up to La Ceiba anyway and met another Stephanie from the USA on route. She's married (unhappily) and travelling alone so we got a hotel together and had a nice meal last night.

I'm gutted that Nadine isn't here as was really looking forward to a week with her but thankful that she's being well looked after in a great hospital.

So now I need to make some plans of what to do for the rest of my trip. Feeling a little directionless. But I have a lovely view of the water so might just read in a hammock and let the universe provide the plan for me.

Lago Atitlan - can't believe I forgot to post about this place

Lago Atitlan is one of the most beautiful lakes in the world. I loved it there, and would definitely go back. I was there after Todos Santos and before Mayapedal. This picture was the view from my room.

A storm hit as we travelled on this boat over to San Pedro - the 9th leg of the trip there!

Unfortunately the lake is becoming polluted due to Guatemalan's lack of proper waste collection. There is so much rubbish dumped everywhere around the country and I guess around the lake it ends up in it. I stayed in San Pedro which is kind of hippy. There are no major streets. It's mainly laid out around footpaths which made it kind of tricky to find my way around at first and it's just so dark at night time. Dan befriended Stephanie (from California but lives in Mexico City) and a couple of swingers and a brazilian yoga teacher. We hung out around the lake the first day and when we were about to leave I realised that the Yoga teacher was shagging the husband of Lynne the nice Scottish lady we'd been having lunch with. She realised too. She was a swinger and totally cool with it. I made the decision then and there to not move into their hotel (it wasn't really a hotel, more a few private rooms and they were the only ones there) and to find somewhere else.

Bye bye Guatemala Hello Honduras

So I got a 4am bus to Copan Ruinas just into Honduras past the Guatemalan Border. We arrived about 11am. Everything in Guatemala seemed slow and inefficient. What a change just crossing a border made!!!

So, at the bus breakfast break I met an Australian woman named Christine, who is doing a 3 month trip by herself at the age of 56. Pretty impressive. So we stayed in the same place, had some lunch in Copan Ruinas - a cute town, but not much to do. We were joined by an American girl, called Melissa who Christine had met previously in Guatemala and we decided to go to these thermal spa. We had to hire a mini bus. Melissa was about 10 mins late and the lady at the cafe who had organised the transportation

for us was going slightly mental and asking me why she wasn't there. There was a lot of stress. It was a big deal for the driver to wait for 5 minutes. It was such a cultural change from Guatemala and Mexico. And I'm not sure I liked it!!!

Here are some pics of the thermal baths. If you've ever been to Banos in Ecuador you'll see they were nothing like that!

Antigua de Guatemala

So, this is Antigua. It's pretty cool. Dan and Stephanie (who I met in Lago Atitlan) were both here too so I've been hanging out with them which is really nice. And the guys from Mayapedal made it here for the weekend so we had a proper night out - 8 people - last night which was fun. It felt a little like being in London as Antigua is quite posh by CAM standards!

San Andres Iztapa - Mayapedal

The bici-licuadora - great way to make a smoothie for breakfast.

And a bici-taxi. Carlos's June's assignment. It took him 1 month to make.

This is the view from the rooftop at Mayapedal.

This is the stash of fixed up bikes....although some still had dodgy brakes!

Cass and Jules fixing some bikes up.

I arrived in San Andres Iztapa about 6pm last Sunday just before a storm hit. Chacon (Spanish, and vegan - so obviously unusual), Nina and Iliah (Swiss couple - very nice) and Juliette (English, young, incredibly intelligent and very sweet) and Cass (36, English cycled here from Alaska) were all there volunteering too.

It was a really nice week. Carlos and his son Carlitos who run the place were very kind too. They were working on the bici-taxi above while we fixed up bikes which are sold to cover the costs of making the bici-maquinas which help indigenous people stay in their small towns rather than having to head to the tourist cities to make money.

Above is a picture of the bici-licuadora. It shows our breakfast smoothie before and after.

On Monday Mayapedal held it's monthly meeting. A few woman from far away villages who use the machines made - eg to make aloe vera natural shampoo (I bought a bottle) came and to be honest I didn't really have a clue what was going on but we had a nice meal. We appeared to be eating it in the living room of the family who owned the restaurant as the restaurant was too small. So I was poked with straws by two small children throughout.

Wednesday we were invited to a birthday party of a man who had something to do with bikes, but never really quite got to the bottom of what. Again nice food and interesting to be with a Guatemalan family. They seemed quite wealthy.

The town has 36k inhabitants. It's on a hill - great for testing out the bikes we fixed. Everywhere in Guatemala is hilly. For some silly reason I thought it a good idea to go for a bike ride with Cass on Friday morning at 6am. I really should have known that when a guy who cycled from Alaska told me it was a fairly easy ride, it was going to be relative!

Friday pm I caught a bus to Antigua.

Carlos told us that most buses don't have brakes that work, that a lot of bus drivers don't have licenses and that they go so quickly as they have to pick up enough fares so as not to be in debit to the bus driver owner at the end of the day. Safety is not a concern.

He also told us that Guatemalan's believe that obese Americans are that fat because they eat small children. Discuss....

Todos Santos, a bit of history

This is a Guatemalan sauna.

Todos Santos is at the highest point in Central America. It's absolutely beautiful. They have horrible food. Lots of dogs, and everyone wears the same. See picture below.

They take sauna's in their houses. We took one. It's small! It was really quite surreal. In a town where no alcohol is drunk I think they expected us to strip in front of them on their balcony!

They don't like having their photo taken. We only managed this one as we paid these two guys $40 to take us to the bus stop. Still our journey to where I am writing this from consisted of: the car in the picture Todos Santos to Tres Caminos, microBus down the mountain to road stop, a walk through the road in construction, another microbus to Huehue centre, a local microbus to the

highway near the terminal, a walk through the market, a chicken bus to Cuatro Caminos, a "first class" bus to Los Encuentros, another chicken bus to Sonina (we think) a sort of taxi to Panajachel and a boat to San Pedro. Thankfully it's lovely here despite the rain!

Leaving Huehue for Todos Santos, little did we know

We were told that the bus took 2 hours to do 39km up a mountain. Fine. It didn't. The roads were blocked at many points as they were re-tarmacing them. So about every 45 mins we stopped for 30. At one point our microbus driver decided to jump the queue. In the process ran over a child's foot, and then came face to face with the largest lorry I've ever seen. So it decided to reverse incredibly badly. We were on the edge of the highest mountain in Central America. There was just a big fall. Nothing to prevent us going over. All I could think was "Well if this is the end I've had a nice life". Dan dragged me OFF the bus. It started to POUR with rain. This was not the highlight of Guat, thank god.

In the end the dispute over child's foot was over and the bus did a million point turn and got back into the queue. We got back on. The view from Todos Santos was (sort of) worth the journey! See above.

There was even less to do here than in Huehue but culturally it was more interesting.

Huehue and Zaculeu Ruins

So we arrived in time for some Tacos on the street. Still not ill.... The food in Guat is also considerably poorer than that of Mexico. Maybe I'll lose weight after all. There is nothing to do in Huehue but I found a nice coffee house, a pretty horrible hotel, and a bus to the ruins. The ruins were lovely. I was the only person there. I'm sure I'd be the only person there all week and the only English person all year according to the guest book. It was a very tranquil experience looking over the imposing mountains at the top of a pyramid.

The journey back took ages, waiting for a chicken bus. And I had no idea what lay ahead for the rest of the day!

leaving mexico

So on Tuesday I finally left Mexico really early in the morning. Just a few days later and it feels like forever ago now!

Dan came with me which was nice as it wasn't really a touristy crossing. A few stamps in the passport and only 4 hrs later we crossed the boarder and headed onto Huehuetenango. The lower standard of living was noticable straight away. Not just because of the chicken buses.

Which reminds me...when Hannah and I were in Ecuador there were actually chickens on the chicken buses, here there are just lots of people.