Granada, Nicaragua

Granada's cathedral

The 90 minute flight to Managua, Nicaragua's capital city, saved us an arduous 36 hour bus journey across El Salvador so we arrived with high expectations but it had a lot to live up to after our wonderful time in Guatemala.

An hour's taxi ride from the airport and we were in Granada, a lakeside town in the south of the country where the temperature was a very hot 90 plus degrees, in stark contrast to the cool evenings in the highlands of Guatemala where a light sweater draped over the shoulders was required.

First day and disaster struck as I managed to drop my treasured camera whilst it was in its case so I didn't really think anything of it until the following day when we realised that the screen had smashed. In addition, we just couldn't get anything organised and Granada itself was a lot edgier and seedier than we'd anticipated.

Still bumbling along in first gear, we managed to organise a trip to the top of Masaya volcano which was a stunning sight as we looked deep into the huge crater as the sun set. The guide unfortunately thought two minutes was enough and took us to a night market which was closed.

Masaya volcano's smoking crater

We hadn't planned to spend a third day in Granada but again Nicaragua was impersonating being closed. However, we managed to take a taxi to another volcano but this one was extinct. Handy though as its caldera is now a 4km wide fresh water lake, just a beautiful place to spend the afternoon swimming in its pristine water.

Tomorrow we try and move on to the coastal town of San Juan del Sur but who knows what might happen.

Images of Guatemalan Life

Guatemala........Reflections

After three magical nights in the treehouse, we headed back to Antigua for one more night before catching a shuttle bus to Guatemala City, ready for our flight to Nicaragua early the following morning.

Guatemala was a country we were totally undecided about until the very last minute but we definitely made the correct decision. From jungle temples to mountain lodges, from climbing volcanoes to experiencing earthquakes, from natural turquoise pools to beautiful lakes, it’s been amazing.

We thought we’d be living off rice and beans but the food has been fantastic even including the airport hotel in Guatemala City where a simple pasta dish was better than most Italian restaurants back home.  Add to this how cheap everything is plus the chance to learn some Spanish, its gone way beyond our expectations.

Not losing sight of the fact that Guatemala is a very poor country, where armed security is found at every cashpoint,  the local women wash their clothes in the lake, the children play with a kite in the streets made from a piece of string and a plastic bag and the men work the fields carrying nothing more than a machete. This was probably the most disturbing image initially.  However, when you’re walking along a quiet path and coming towards you is a father and his two young sons aged no older than 10, all armed with machetes and nothing more than a pleasant ‘good morning’ takes place, you soon realise that this is just a completely different way of life.

DAYS SPENT:  23

TRANSPORT:  1 taxi, 8 minivans, 3 trucks, 2 boats, 2 tuk-tuks.

NUMBER OF PLACES WE STAYED:  11 (4 hotels, 6 hostels, 1 lodge)

ITEMS LOST/BROKEN:  Paul’s rucksack cover, Vanessa’s sweatshirt lost to the tumble dryer

FAVOURITE EATERY:  La Ville Del Chef in Flores

WILDLIFE SPOTTED:  toucan, giant rat, coatis (raccoon), tarantula, howler monkeys, packs of mangy dogs

TOURS TAKEN:  5 (Tikal, Semuc Champey pools, Bat Cave, Pacaya Volcano, Spanish school)

BEST VALUE FOR MONEY: Guatemala!!!

Location, Location, Location

Inside the treehouse

Our treehouse

Eight days at Lake Atitlan in Guatemala but we were sad to be leaving such a beautiful place. As we headed back to Antigua, the minibus picked up more people from the villages surrounding the lake including a bunch from the hippie village of San Marcos. The bus was now a 'happy bus'......for some.

The incredible view from our treehouse

Each to their own. Free spirit. Whatever floats your boat. No problem with that, but practising their newly learned chants whilst beating an annoying rhythm on a small drum and making the hilarious comment, 'wow, look at those amazing cornfields', slowly became slightly tedious. The finale was at the petrol station on the main road where they spotted a table size patch of grass to perform their yoga! A nagging thought was now running through my head and it began with, 'if I had a gun.....'.

A very long four hours later and we were back in Antigua where we'd arranged for a pick up truck to take us 20 minutes out of town to our new home for three nights, The Earthlodge, located on an avocado farm some 6000 feet up a hillside where we'd booked a 'deluxe' two storey treehouse. As well as a tree growing right through the middle of it, its selling point was the floor to ceiling glass side with the most amazing views across Antigua and the valley below with three towering volcanoes as a backdrop.

Earthlodge prides itself not only on its stunning location but its homecooked food and the evening  meal is at 7pm where everyone meets up for 'a family meal'. We were a little apprehensive about this to say the least as we really didn't want to hug anyone we didn't know. Luckily it was just trees on the hug list so everyone was happy.

 

Images of Lake Atitlan, Guatemala

Cheese & Wine

Five days spent in Panajachel studying Spanish and have we learnt anything? Je ne sais pas.
However, walking to school at 8am each morning and sitting in a tropical garden learning Spanish with the very patient Olga, before spending the afternoons on the shore of the beautiful Lake Atitlan has been a unique experience.

It was a bit of a wrench leaving the relative luxury of Mario's Rooms with its towels, soap, hot shower, balcony, Wi-Fi, drinking water and breakfast as any one of these is usually a bonus for us as we were to find out when we caught a boat across the lake to the small village of San Marcos. Basically our new home was a log cabin with a bed in it but at $12 (£7) per night, we couldn't argue but then again, nor could the ants.

The smoking Feugo Volcano at sunrise

San Marcos is the prettiest of the lakeside villages and consists of numerous pathways which snake through the tropical surroundings and we soon discovered that it's a bit of a magnet for  meditating hippies who believe the volcano gives off some sort of spiritual energy. Lurking behind the occasional banana leaf sit cross-legged humming hippies trying to find themselves and peace with the world whilst the local Guatemalans find themselves by celebrating their fiesta by letting off fireworks which aren't fireworks at all but more like huge explosive devices.

Following a strangely noisy night in such a ‘peaceful’ place, we had to pinch ourselves on  our final day at Lake Atitlan as we sat on the side of the small dock to witness the sunrise over the lake between the volcanoes, illuminating the gently smoking Feugo Volcano in the distance.

A very rare treat for us, cheese and wine

We caught our final boat across the lake, once again being giggled at by the locals as we stumbled aboard whilst the old women majestically step aboard with a weeks worth of groceries balanced on their head. The village of San Pedro was our home for the night but we immediately took a tuk-tuk to the neighbouring village of San Juan. Once again, we couldn’t quite believe it when we were sat in a tropical garden lunching on a cheeseboard of more than 20 different types of cheese plus, olives, dates, almonds, cashews, strawberries, gherkins, bread, quince, honey and a cheeky glass of red. All this by a lake in the middle of Guatemala and it was better than anything we’ve had at home!

Still the highlight of the day was when we collected our clean washing from the launderette. Funny how a chore has become a time to celebrate.

 

 

 

Gringo Lingo

One of our Spanish lessons with Olga

After the shock of witnessing an earthquake in Antigua we packed our bags and headed three hours west for an even bigger shock. We're going back to school!!

Since arriving in Spanish speaking Central America we've noticed that we've been at a distinct disadvantage with our inability to speak the 'lingo'. Hacking our way through basic greetings, ordering food and finding accommodation have been fine but everyone, including the Aussies, Americans and even the Brits all appear to speak it really well which leads to all conversation in Spanish, leaving us in the dark.

A couple of strong recommendations were given to us for excellent Spanish schools in the town of Panajachel which just happened to be our next planned destination by the beautiful Lake Atitlan which is ringed by three volcanoes. Panajachel itself is little more than average but our accommodation is both cheap and one of the best so far plus its adjacent to both the school and the stunning lake.

As we'd planned to stay for about a week, we enrolled for five mornings of one to one Spanish with our teacher, Olga, who is really lovely and patient beyond belief as there was a lot of phlegm flying in her direction initially.

 

Images of Antigua, Guatemala

Inside a lava cave

Toasting Marshmallows

Semuc Champey proves that travelling around on a tight budget has massive rewards but on some days the reality is a little different. Everyone was heading off to their next destination in the morning but we were told not to go anywhere. It turned out that the agent who'd booked our accommodation had not paid the hostel owners who politely described him as a 'bad man', so we had to sit there until 3pm until he paid or we would have to pay double. Finally he paid up so we were free to go but all the buses had departed by then so we had to jump on the back of a truck with a couple of Belgian guys, two French guys and a bunch of Guatemalans to the small town of Lanquin, about 10kms away. It felt like 100kms with two of us sat on the wheelarch and the mountainous road having more potholes than the winning road in the ‘Most Potholed Road Competition’.



Antigua's streets

We checked into a horribly damp room then immediately jumped into a tuk-tuk down a road that clearly wasn't designed for any vehicles let alone a tuk-tuk, to the Bat Cave. A slippery climb over the guano to a ledge where our guide told us to sit and wait whilst he disappeared to turn the lights off. In total darkness we could suddenly feel a breeze around us as hundreds of thousands of bats swooped past our heads.

Back to the room for a bad nights sleep as we didn’t realise that bed bugs with Vanessa's name on were included in the price, plus the smell of guano on our shoes and damp clothing and then up at 5am for the 8 hour minibus journey south to the town of Antigua where we checked into the wonderfully named hostel called Umma Gumma which translates as ‘free bed bugs for Vanessa and no running water’.



Vanessa toasting marshmallows up Pacaya volcano

However, Antigua is Guatemala’s showpiece and a beautiful place to visit. Cobbled streets with pastel houses, plazas, old colonial buildings, fine dining, busy markets, bougainvillea sprouting from crumbled ruins which are the remnants of hundreds of years of earthquakes and volcanic activity but situated in a magnificent valley setting surrounded by three volcanoes. Even MacDonald’s is a lovely building plus you get a complimentary 5.5 magnitude earthquake with your coffee!!! Seriously!!

The following morning, having changed accommodation pretty rapidly, we ventured off to make the steep climb up Pacaya volcano. In clear blue skies, the views across the valley to the conical Feugo volcano and Antigua below were stunning. Pacaya erupted just two years ago and steam still emerges from cracks and the heat intense in places, just perfect for toasting a few marshmallows.

 

Images of Guatemala

Paul diving into the turquoise pools, Semuc Champey

Temples rising above the jungle canopy, Tikal

The Mayan temples of Tikal

View from our Flores hotel across Lake Peten

Coloured buildings of Flores

Semuc Champey

Vanessa at Semuc Champey

Timotei Advert

Our second and final night on the lovely island of Flores was a bizarre cosmopolitan affair. We dined in the German owned, French named restaurant called La Ville del Chef, eating a Mexican meal, served by Spanish speaking Guatemalan waiters whilst listening to reggae music. Flores has been a real bonus as it was just a gateway to visit the Mayan site of Tikal but it’s been a bit like being on an Italian lake but at a fraction of the price.



Semuc Champey, Guatemala

Next morning a minibus collected us at 9am and just a short nine hour journey south through lush mountain scenery via hundreds of speed bumps and potholes we arrived at the remote but wonderfully tropical river location of Semuc Champey in the centre of Guatemala, our base for a couple of nights. On the wall of reception was a timetable for electricity…..between 6pm and 10pm.

The turquoise pools (taken by Ed, San Diego)

We had high hopes but weren’t too sure about what we would find there but what we experienced was probably one of the best days of our lives. In warm sunny weather we made a 45 minute steep climb to a viewpoint on the river to view below us a series of ridiculously turquoise cascading pools which form a 300 metre long limestone bridge under which the river plunges. Then there’s nothing else to do but spend a few hours swimming in the clearest water, diving and rock sliding to each of the pools. Dense, tropical jungle surrounded us and it was difficult to imagine a more beautiful place to be. It was a classic Timotei advert and we couldn’t quite believe we were in Guatemala.

The day could have finished quite happily there but after lunch it was off for a bit of caving which we knew involved some swimming. Armed with nothing more than a candle each, seven of us including an American couple from San Diego, a guy from South Korea, a Colombian, and an Israeli followed our guide into the cave. An hour and a half later after climbing up and jumping through waterfalls, swimming whilst attempting to keep the candle alight, and just generally helping eachother through some adrenalin pumping situations, we all emerged with nothing more than a few bruises but best of friends. We’ve been in various caves before but this was on a different level, just amazing and the smile didn’t disappear from our faces all day. There was still time to tube 3kms down river in the late evening sunshine and for a couple of us to jump off a 40 foot bridge into the river for our final soaking of the day.

We could come home today and be totally content with our travels. Guatemala has been a massive surprise and just amazingly beautiful……so far.

 

Flores and Tikal, Guatemala

The cobbled streets of Flores, Guatemala

It wasn't without a certain amount of trepidation that we made our first overland border crossing in Central America, from Belize into Guatemala. An early start, a deep breath, some money changing into the Guatemalan quetzal, some departure tax, a walk across nomansland, a quick negotiation with the Spanish speaking taxi drivers and before we knew it we were on our way through the lush countryside heading towards the beautiful island of Flores situated on Lake Peten. Small lakeside hotels and restaurants, cobbled streets and brightly coloured painted houses with a church sat on top of the hill. This is Flores and you can walk around it in  20 minutes.

We hardly had time to enjoy happy hour before we were being collected at 4.30am the next morning to visit Guatemala’s jewel in the crown and ‘the heart of the Mayan world’, Tikal National Park.  It stands in 360 square miles of jungle and contains the largest Mayan temples in the world which stretch out beyond the jungle canopy. Its Guatemala’s most visited site and we could see why.

Images of Belize

Toucan in San Ignacio

Local woman in Caye Caulker

The Split, Caye Caulker

Snorkeling with nurse sharks and stingrays

Barber Shop in San Ignacio

Kayaking in Caye Caulker

Caye Caulker