The low point of the trip? Let's hope so.

Tuesday 7th August
Up at 5:30am (ouch), just a cheese sandwich for breakfast because the kitchen hadn't opened yet, and on the bus by half past six. Thankfully it was our private air conditioned mini bus, and I managed to sleep for a while. We had a long drive to the coast, where we got our passports stamped (bye bye El Salvador) and boarded a boat that would be our means of entry into Nicaragua.

Augusto had already warned us that the border crossing into Nicaragua can sometimes be difficult, and had photocopied our passports and sent papers ahead several days ago to try and ease the process. Unfortunately a Canadian woman and three Belgians who were also on our little boat had managed to make a few mistakes, so we got so far out into the water and then had to turn back SEVERAL times so that someone could wade back and forth in the water with their passports trying to get missing stamps and sorting out various problems. We also had to go back once or twice for some unknown reasons, too. Sometimes, we just had to sit in the water off shore and wait - no one was sure what for.

Once we finally got going on the boat, we got quite wet. The wind was really strong and we were splashed quite a lot by the waves, so I spent most of the journey with my eyes shut unfortunately. Our backpacks were already safely secured under a large tarpaulin, but we were also given bin liners to put our smaller bags and valuables into. We had a good laugh as the Belgian man attempted to WEAR his, making a hole for his head in the top and fashioning a kind of black straight jacket. Haha.

We were apparently about two hours late when we stopped at a small island for lunch, but for some reason the people there claimed not to know anything of our reservation and had no food prepared, so we moved straight on without eating. More time on the boat, until we arrived at a small beach. We then had to wait until the Nicaraguan border control decided we could get out, and because of the lack of a pier we had to wade to shore. It felt like we were refugees in some weird film scene, emerging from the water with our bags held high. (Thankfully someone else brought our backpacks to shore - I don't think I could've lifted it above my head.) It was the strangest entry into a country I think I'll ever have.

More waiting, then finally our passports were stamped, we paid our entry fees, and next was the bag inspection. Augusto had warned us that sometimes they have made people take literally everything out of their bags, but was hoping that this time they might just ask one of us to do this. Instead, they had each of us stand by our bags, open them, had a little poke around and then said "okay".

We got onto our new bus - just benches in the back so were riding sideways, sadly without air con - and off we went again. Shortly after this we hit a chicken; seeing it spinning as we continued down the road wasn't a nice sight. Cue lots of "why did the chicken cross the road" jokes...

We stopped briefly at a petrol station and bought a few snacks, on the understanding that we would eat when we arrived in Leon. This was at about 4:30pm. Little did we know that ahead lay blocked roads due to some kind of protest involving the sugar cane farmers. We hit a traffic jam, and were at a standstill for the next five hours. Dear me. I read until it got dark, played a few games with Natasha and chatted, but all in all it was pretty dull. We finally arrived at the hotel at about 10pm, hungry but all too tired to go out to a restaurant to eat, so we all went straight off to bed. I felt quite ill once up in our room, but I expect that's just from not eating.

All in all, not the best day, but at least we're in Nicaragua now!

Time to RELAX

Monday 6th August
A free day by the pool? Yes please.
It was so nice to know that today was purely for relaxing. It almost felt like a "regular" holiday - nice for a day or two in between things, but personally I couldn't do this every day for two weeks.
Breakfast was included at this hotel, and I chose french toast. It was beautiful, and came with as much maple syrup as I wanted. YUM. Freshly squeezed orange juice and green tea, too. I made use of the free wifi to Skype Philip and then everyone in Scotland too, which was really nice.
After that it was bikini time, and I fell into a cycle of reading and dozing on my sun lounger and having a dip in the pool every now and then to cool off.

Eventually, after three hours or so we were all feeling quite hungry, so we got lunch at the hotel. The eating area is right next to the pool under cover, and I was a little bothered by the wasps and flies (they seem to target me particularly!) but I managed to have a sandwich, a few chips and another strawberry drink. I went back on Skype, then had a quick shower before meeting Augusto at 5.
He took us on a walk around the town. There wasn't much to see - mainly cobbled streets and non-descript buildings - but he told us a bit of the history including the recent civil war that killed more than 50% of the population. Part of an aircraft was displayed in the park as a reminder, I think. We went to the main square and I managed to get my El Salvador Christmas decoration and flag patch (our stay here is so brief I didn't think I'd get either) plus a pretty little box.

After that we had pupusas for tea - I had spinach, mushroom and bean-filled ones - before going back to the hotel.

Three countries in one day

Sunday 5th August
A meagre breakfast of Quaker Oat biscuits and we were on board our mini bus by 8am for a day of driving. Thankfully it's both private and air conditioned, so there's quite a bit of space to spread out and it's relatively cool. I managed to sleep and read to pass the time.
In between driving we had lots of border crossings. Augusto had already explained that due to some problems with the roads it would be better for us to reenter Guatemala and then drive to our destination in El Salvador that way, rather than trying to get there directly from Honduras. This meant more stamps at the Guatemalan border but none for El Salvador, for some reason.
We didn't reach our hotel until about 4pm. Along the way we stopped a few times: once at a basillica, and next at a shopping mall for lunch. (Subway sandwich - not exactly sampling the local cuisine but it was nice all the same.) Our final stop was at the site of a volcano eruption which occurred in 650AD. While tractors were digging they discovered some buildings preserved under layers and layers of ash - it turned out there was a village underneath, a bit like Pompei. There wasn't a great deal to see expect for the structures of the buildings, but it was quite interesting reading about it in the museum. By the time Augusto arranged for a woman to guide us around the excavation sites, though, I think I'd started to react to the caffeine in my drink - I'd bought what I thought was a cold raspberry drink at the shopping mall but it had turned out to be iced raspberry coffee, and I'm not used to coffee - because my mosquito bites were driving me CRAZY. I couldn't concentrate on what the poor woman was saying at all.

 Once we were back in the van I dug around in my bag for an antihistimine and then tried to go to sleep. By the time I woke up I felt a lot better, and we were at the hotel in Suchitoto, El Salvador.
I think this hotel is just a rest stop to break up long journeys, really, as there doesn't seem much to do in Suchitoto. The hotel is nice though, and seems popular with the locals. There is a gorgeous view of the lake, and a pool I'm looking forward to using tomorrow.

Once we arrived, some time after 4pm, I didn't really do much except Skype/Facebook etc. and rest in my room until tea. We ate in the hotel at 7, and mine was a little disappointing (bowl of mash with a few mushrooms, brocolli and melted cheese on top) but the drink was nice (strawberries blended with ice). Pretty tired from the journey, we all had an early night.

Copan Ruinas, Honduras

Saturday 4th August

My favourite day so far!

We met Augusto at 8am and walked for about twenty minutes to reach Copan. There we met our local guide there: 75-year-old self-confessed comedian Antonio. What he lacked in teeth (he had about two) he made up for in jokes. For the next few hours he guided us around the ruins, which date back to 426 AD and consist of an acropolis, heiroglypic stairways, ball court, temples and excavation sights. Lots of the statues and carvings were replicas, the real versions of which are apparently housed in the museum, or else in America somewhere. (We didn't bother going to the museum.)

I was glad we went early, as it was starting to get very hot in the sunshine by the time we left at 11ish. Before doing so, Augusto led us on a 45 minute jungle walk, and we saw macaws, large rodents, butterflies and spiders. He pointed out lots of different plants along the way; apparently he has studied botany. He definitely seems to know a lot about it.

We walked back to the hotel and gave ourselves an hour and a half to relax before meeting at 1pm for lunch. The four of us (minus Augusto) went back to the place we were at for tea last night and I had a much better meal this time: grilled gouda cheese sandwich with a bit of salad, plus iced tea. Afterwards Rose and I wandered around and I got my Honduran Christmas decoration and flag patches for Guatemala and Honduras.

We were going to get massages or some kind of beauty treatment, but when we went into the cafe/tour information place to find out about it something else caught my eye: zip lining. It said that you could book with just half an hour's warning, and it was $45. It would mean going on my own, but I thought, why not? I'm only here once. I told the woman that I wanted to do it, she made a phone call and half an hour later I was back there and climbing into the back of a yute (is that the right word?) with a few guys wearing "Canopy Tour" t shirts.

We stopped at another hotel and picked up two families first. I was so glad that I wouldn't be doing it alone! One family was from Dallas, and one was from Honduras somewhere; the two mums were friends from college. They all seemed really nice and chatted to me as we bumped our way along the road and up the hill to the Canopy Tours place. On arrival, we got out and had to sign some kind of disclaimer; I decided to just sign instead of reading, so as not to freak myself out about all the things that could go wrong! The guys put harnesses on those of us that were zip lining: everyone but the two mums, including the kids who seemed as young as 11, so that was encouraging - if they were brave enough to do it, I definitely wasn't allowed to feel nervous. One of the guys took my camera and said that he would take photos of me while I was doing it.

The zip lines were incredible. We got back into the yute and drove up to the top of a hill to reach the first one, and they sort of zig zagged their way back down to the bottom. I think there were about sixteen in total, and some were over a kilometre long. Some were faster than others, too. Each time, the guys would hook you up to the wire (you had to lift yourself up and jump so they could fasten the hook, which I struggled with as I'm so weak, but they lifted me up, haha) and you had to hold at least one hand on the wire behind your head. There were special gloves to wear. To break, you had to lean back and pull down on the wire, using two hands if necessary.

I did quite well, with only one minor mishap where I didn't break quickly enough and sort of went slamming into the guy at the end! The very next one was the fastest one of all, so that time one of the guys went in front of me - obviously I'd lost their trust, haha. Most of the time, though, I did them on my own, and I even ventured to look down. It was incredibly high up - I have no idea how high, and I've tried googling it but can't seem to find any answers. The views were amazing, and it was so exciting; I'm really glad I did it.

I chatted to the families during, and because the zip line guys were taking photos of them on my camera as well (I don't think they realised we weren't together) I took down their e-mail address and promised to send them the photos. We were taken back to Copan Ruinas in the back of the yute and the guys dropped me off at my hotel.


I still had just under two hours until tea, so I pottered around online, looked at the zip lining photos and videos and had a short nap. At 7pm we met Augusto and Rose, Natasha and I all went out to dinner to Restaurante Carnitas Nis Lola, the cool place we were stranded at during yesterday's rain. I had been saving myself for tea there all day, and splashed out on an enormous vegetable kabob that came with rice, chips, refriend beans, salsa and cheese. It was delicious, and impossible to finish.

We walked home and I spent a bit of time repacking my backpack before bed, as we're moving on tomorrow. Instead of driving to El Salvador, we're going to go a slightly different way to avoid some bad roads, and it involves going back into Guatemala and out again, so no doubt I'll be getting more passport stamps. Poor Natasha is worried about it, as her passport is so full - she's been to loads of places in the last four years, and is covering 18 countries in this trip alone (she's been travelling for six months with two more to go) so her passport is nearly entirely full. I'm jealous!

Crossing the border to Copan Ruinas, Honduras

Friday 3rd August

The most uneventful day of the trip so far, beginning at 3:10am (shower and final pack) before leaving Antigua on a 4am bus. By bus, I mean a very cramped mini van with ten or twelve people squeezed in. The woman Natasha and I sat next to didn't seem to want to move up, so at first I was only partially sat on the seat. Lovely. Jeremy started feeling ill pretty quickly at the back, so I offered to swap with him, and ended up at the back in the corner. There was less leg room, which I didn't mind so much, but I was next to Ernesto. I managed to sleep for a while, but as soon as I woke up he proceeded to annoy me, wind me up and poke me for HOURS. There was nothing to do to make him stop! He really is worse than a child, and the bus journey was more than seven hours. I was so glad when it was over, and happy that we were to say goodbye to Ernesto once we crossed the border!

The border crossing was uneventful - got another passport stamp :-)  - and there was a 15 minute drive to our hotel in Copan Ruinas, Honduras. We're staying at a place called Hotel Patty, which makes me think of Spongebob Squarepants. We said goodbye to Ernesto and met our new guide, Augusto. He's mid-forties, from Costa Rica, and a lot more professional - I like him already. He's going to be with us until the end of my trip.

We were given a few hours to rest, shower (no hot water unfortunately) and then we met for a walking tour of the city. Copan Ruinas is quite small, with lots of steep cobbled streets and views of green hills. We walked through the Parque Central, and saw a photography exhibition of the first archelogical expeditions to Copan at the turn of the twentieth century in the municipalidad. We're going to Copan tomorrow morning - the Maya site that dates back to 426AD.

After parting ways from Augusto, the four of us wandered through Copan Ruinas in search of cold drinks. It feels considerably hotter here in comparison to anywhere we've been so far. We found a cool place with lots of pictures, license plates and records on the walls and things hanging from the ceiling. The waitress carried things - like Rose's pina colada - on her head up the stairs to us, which was quite impressive. We ended up sharing two plates of chips between us, and then the rain set in. It was torrential, to the point where we leave the mezzanine to take shelter downstairs, and the power cut off for quite a while. We didn't leave for at least two and a half hours, and by the time we got back to our hotel we were five or so minutes late to meet Augusto for tea.

Augusto took us to a nice-looking restaurant for tea. I wasn't feeling very hungry so just ordered something small - empanadas with queso (cheese) and a limonada con agua (lemonade with water - see, I'm picking up the language already, haha). Unfortunately, the empanadas weren't that nice, but there was lots of tomato ketchup available so I powered through. Jeremy insisted on paying for my meal because of how I swapped with him on the bus this morning (compensation for Ernesto!) which was really nice of him. Feeling pretty tired, we all went straight back to the hotel afterwards and I had a relatively early night.

Chichicastenango

Thursday 2nd August

This morning started fairly early, as we had to be on the bus at 6am. I managed to skype mum (minus the audio - shame it doesn't work with her for some reason) before leaving, which was nice. We took a bus to Chichicastenango, a market town in Guatemala. The market takes place on Sundays and Thursdays and is the largest in Central America. When we arrived we went straight for breakfast, which involved some hilarious conversations led by Ernesto!

Ernesto led us around the market, and pointed out a church that we might have visited, had it not been closed for renovations. People were selling flowers on its steps instead. The market was quite busy and Natasha, Rose and I decided to stick together, for fear of getting lost. Ernesto had also made us nervous with the advice he had given us about avoiding having our things stolen or our bags slashed. We wandered around the market and at first we were wondering how on earth we were going to pass the next few hours there, as everything started to look the same pretty quickly. Textiles, clothing, jewellery, bags - all things I love to buy, but since I've bought so much of it on other trips I don't feel inclined to bring back a heap of stuff in the same way as I have on other trips. I did manage to find one or two nice things though. Natasha spent a good half an hour choosing between different colours in order to select two cushion things stuff with cinammon cloves. Apparently you put a warm container on there and it releases the smell, or something. I'm not entirely sure, but they were pretty and cinammon is one of my absolute favourite smells. I also got a few Christmas decoration, and yes, I succumbed to the jewellery and bought two bracelets. Haha. You had to bargain for everything, which I don't really like doing, but I think I got good prices for everything.

We were back on the bus by 2pm and the drive back to Antigua took about two and a half hours. We arranged to go for an early tea, since we're on a 4am bus tomorrow morning. We went back to the place we went to on our first night, since everyone was craving the fillet mignon steaks they had had. I had my nicest meal so far - grilled vegetable wrap with cheese, and chips. The wrap was gorgeous. I also tried a drink called Roja de Jamaica, which is a juice made from the hibiscus flower. It was quite nice.

  We got some snacks for the bus on the way home, and then went straight back to the hotel. Our groups is shrinking tomorrow. Una is going home, as her tour has ended, and Ernesto is only going with us as far as the border because we get a new guide for the rest of the trip, so we will be saying goodbye to him and his girlfriend tomorrow as well. From now on it will be just Natasha, Rose, Jeremy and I until we reach Costa Rica. A teeny tiny group.

Panajachel

Wednesday 1st August

We met for breakfast at 8am this morning and then all went down to the lake to take a boat from Panajachel at one side to Santiago at the other - an 18km journey. I think Ernesto said the lake was something like 125 square miles. The views were beautiful. There are three volcanoes around the edge of Lake Atitlan, the highest reaching about 3500m.

When we arrived there we met our three guides. Two were 14, and one was 11, all boys. Apparently they've been doing it for seven years! A lovely old lady demonstrated how the locals wear their hats, and I also placed an order for a couple of special pens, to collect on our way back. My group has already figured out I'm a stationery fiend. I couldn't resist getting my own teacher pen for less than a pound though!



  
The boys took us through the streets of Santiago. There were market stalls, and first we went to a house where a ritual was taking place. Maya and Catholic religion is all mixed together here. In the ritual, there was an icon called Maximon - a wooden doll dressed with dozens of ties, and two hats, one of which is loaned to any sick people who come to visit it. The doll is given alcohol and cigarettes, and people offer money and add ties around its neck. They then ask for all sorts of things - health, good business, better exam results, love, you name it. I think this can explain it better than I can, plus pictures, if you're interested, as I didn't take any (there was a charge): http://www.mayadiscovery.com/mayan-culture/dailylife/cult-maximon.asp

We also visited a large church next to a fairground, and the boys explained some of the history and meaning behind some of the iconography there. Behind the church was the place where a missionary who did a lot of important work in Santiago was assassinated. Afterwards we wandered through the streets again and everyone got gorgeous ice creams - topped with melted chocolate and nuts. YUM.

We walked back to the boat, got back on the boat and most of us dozed on the ride back to Panajachel. After that I felt really tired, so I decided to skip lunch and have a sleep instead. Best laid plans... I ended up on skype for an hour and a half, and then just as I was finished Natasha came back to the room and we had a mammoth three hour chat before tea.

Tea was delicious tonight. Ernesto took us to a Chinese place so I had an actual Chinese dumpling for starters (those of you who know me well will know that Chinese dumplings are my absolute favourite) followed by vegetables and noodles, and dragon fruit for dessert. Beautiful. We walked back in the rain (rain! Didn't think I would need my cardigan or my raincoat at all but have been wearing both this evening) and l had an early night.