Leon heat and Miraflor fincas

Posted on April 28, 2013 by bexbatorio

Like most travellers other than Utila I was pretty much sweeping through Honduras. If I had more time I would have liked to stay in a few places before crossing over to Nicaragua.

“According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Honduras has the highest rate of intentional homicide in the world, with 6,239 intentional homicides, or 82.1 per 100,000 of population in 2010. This is significantly higher than the rate in El Salvador, which at 66.0 per 100,000 in 2010, has the second highest rate of intentional homicide in the world.”

Whilst the cities are notoriously dangerous with mostly gang drug related problems the rest of the country is fairly safe, with very friendly people, and with so few tourists some really exciting opportunities. As it was I was crossing from San Pedro through to Leon in Nicaragua in one day. Boarding a bus at 5am and arriving about twelve hours later. My cold had notched up a gear and I was a disgusting ball of snot sat at the back of the bus, luckily no one had to sit by me. Passport control at both border crossings was taken care of by the bus steward, we just handed our passports over. The only thing we had to do was take our bags off the bus at the Nicaraguan side to go through a half hearted security check, they just passed me straight through, and then reload the bus. The border crossing was incredibly hot, but I found on my arrival as was Leon!

Leon is one of two colonial towns in Nicaragua, the other being Granada. I’d decided only to visit one as I have seen so many towns now, and I had also planned on going volcano boarding. However my garden variety cold struck me pretty viciously, and the two nights and one full day I spent there pretty much in bed lying under a pathetic fan trying to not to sweat. A kind Dutch girl I met on the first night even went and bought me a sandwich and juice for my breakfast so I didn’t have to get out of bed. I had a very half hearted wander about town, but didn’t even take any photos. I did meet up with another girl I’d met in Ecuador for dinner briefly, but other than that was a hermit for me two days.

With the heat I’d decided to get out of the town and up into the countryside. This meant getting another super early minibus at 5am which arrived at the city of Estelli by 7. I then had a few hours to kill before my midday bus out to Miraflor natural reserve which is area of traditional coffee growing communities. Again I tried to do a bit of sight seeing but still felt like crap so actually checked into a hostel for three hours sleep. Headed back up to the bus station for my 12pm bus only to discover that the 12pm bus ran everyday of the week but Wednesday! This meant I could have got up much later to catch the actual bus I did get out to Miraflor at 3pm! Sitting round the bus station feeling rubbish was testing my sense of humour. The reserve was only 40km away so I assumed about an hour in the bus….wrong again! It was steep twisty track and the crammed chicken bus barely seemed to move at times…two and half hours later (and one driver change as the first was too drunk) I finally arrived at the Finca (farm). Also getting off the bus with me were three Finns.

The place was beautiful and within half an hour after a shower and sat down to an early dinner the unenjoyable day gradually dispersed. It was heavenly going to bed that night, as the temperature all though hot in the day there really dropped at night. Snuggled up under a heavy duvet with the sounds of crickets and frogs, and my windows and doors to the cabin wided open….I think I was asleep by 8! I was awoken by a very confident chicken who jumped up on my bedroom window….I shooed him out and shut that window, two minutes later he was in the bathroom, shooed and chased him off, two minutes later he was in the door and jumping all over my bed….I gave in and got up. The mist was rising up from the fields, and the workers were out cutting down sugar cane. Kids were going to the local school on the back of motorbikes and horses…it was such a relaxing place to be.

I had a very lazy morning between breakfast and lunch and then mid afternoon with the three Fins set off for walk to a waterfall with a swimming hole. We probably set off a bit too late, and the guy at the Finca made it sound much nearer than it was. After an hour walking and asking a few locals we were getting a bit frustrated so played the “what am I” game to pass the time…..the Finish guy went first, we’d established he was a American, a singer over fifty, famous for ballads, homosexual and black….after we couldn’t guess who he was he revealed it was Tom Jones……???!!!!WTF. At least it passed twenty minutes and we found the waterfall swimming pool, it was a nice cold dip. But we didn’t have long as we had to get back before dark. Literally ten minutes after we got back to the Finca it was pitch black!

The following morning we headed off on horses for a trek, it was definitely a stroll. My horse was pretty small and I felt a bit chunky for him. The landscape was beautiful, and after an hour we started to descend into a valley at which point my horse decided I was definitely too fat and stopped walking. The guide tried to drag him, but he was a stubborn youngster. So I dismounted and walked the steepest bit. We arrived at some jungle and carried on foot without the horses. It was a short steep hike up to another waterfall, but as it was dry season it wasn’t overly impressive and we couldn’t swim there. My horse was better behaved on the upward journey thankfully, the sun had really come out and after the five hour round trip we were all ready for some shade, water an lunch! I had to leave that afternoon, and needed to walk a mile to the bus stop which I was dreading with my backpack. I managed to hitch a ride on the back of a pickup to the bus stop…but better than that they were actually going all the way to Esteli. Stood up in the back of a pickup truck with a bunch of farm workers, the journey only took an hour instead of two and half on the chicken bus and it was free…What a result for Jacko!

Back in Esteli which is quite a bit lower than Miraflor it was pretty warm again and getting to sleep that night was hard work again. I was really glad I’d gone up to the farm area, it was really good to get out of towns and cities for a few days. It’s a beautiful part of the country with very friendly people, lots of animals and good food!

Utila diving!

Posted on April 25, 2013 by bexbatorio

A very long day travelling of a boat, one bus, another bus stopping at Guatemala and Honduras borders, and hour wait at San Pedro (most dangerous city in the world’s tenth most dangerous country) for another bus followed by a short taxi ride and twelve hours later I was in the coastal town of La Ceiba Honduras and without question the worst hostal of my eight month trip. My room was more a corridor, and the place stank….but maybe a tad better than the brothel my folks had accidentally checked into in the same time town thirty-three years ago!

By ten the following morning following a fairly bouncy ferry ride I was in another island paradise of Utila. I was here like most other people for one reason….diving. Utila is one of, if not the cheapest place in the world to dive and do dive courses. I was here to do my PADI open water, which I starred that afternoon with some video watching at the dive centre. There was just two other Dutch girls on my course, and it was great to be small group. That night we went to the dive centre for the weekly pub quiz, the girls had been talking about malaria and tetanus and were worried about some if the aspects diving so our called our team the hypochondriacs, we did a little bit better than the worst. The second day we were in the water by the afternoon in the shallows for the first of the skills. It was pretty nice being able to go straight into effectively open water without having to use a swimming pool. In theory the first day was all the hard stuff off getting used to breathing with the regulator, taking your mask off and on and clearing it under water etc. I found all of this stuff dead easy, and was the best student of three of us. The next day we finished the skills in the water and the other video and theory. We finished a bit early and had pretty much the only free few hours that day to hit the beach. After which I stopped by the dive centre to complete the theory exam which we had the option of doing whenever.

That evening was a BBQ at the dive centre, and as we didn’t have to start till midday the next day we had geared ourselves up for a bit of a night. But we were all totally useless and after a few drinks, some food and watching the newly graduated dive masters have to compete in a drinking game involving snorkel and mask we ashamedly left early by 10pm! Day four we were just due to do the first two of four open water dives. The first dive went fine for me, Leonie had some equalising problems, and then unfortunately Lisa got really sea sick between the two dives so we had to call it a day. This just meant jigging our itinerary a bit for the next days. Day five we then completed the last three open water dives of the course, again I had no problems at all, and we were beginning so see some pretty cool fish and reefs on these dives. Lisa who’d suffered with seasickness had woken with a very strange rash and funny pains in her hands and feet but battled through it. Leonie had more troubles with equalising and couldn’t complete the final dive. So at the end of day five Lisa and I had passed the course, and were just planning our two free fun dives the following morning, and Leonie would finish the fourth dive to pass the course. My first night I was in a dorm room on my own, but the second night I moved into a twin with AC and bathroom to share with one if the girls I’d met in rio dulce who was a day behind me. That AC I’d enjoyed so much I blame for a cold which I awoke with on day six. Lisa and I headed out for our two free fun dives and immediately I knew I was going to have problems with equalising from my cold and we couldn’t go to the full intended depth. It was still a really cool dive and we saw a turtle among other things, but having enjoyed zero problems all week diving with the cold was not so fun. The second dive I opted out as I felt I’d already tried to blow my nose to hard tying to clear my ears, also if we went down and then I wanted to come out that would stop the dive for Lisa too. But I still got to snorkel over the same area and that was brilliant anyway. We returned to the dive centre and Leonie had managed to complete her course. Somehow with all our minor maladies after aptly pub quiz team the hypochondriacs we all three passed! Our instructor did tell me afterwards that he thought I was a natural and in the top five percent of students of come through. I think I’m just happy mucking about in water whatever that is. I’m hopeful I’ll be able to get some more diving done over the next few months of my trip….think this could be a new favourite hobby!

So we’d had five nights and six days on the island, but other than a few hours at the beach and couple of drinks on the dock watching the sun go down we’d really not had a chance to explore, we’d walked the same street about twenty times and that was it. We had an hour to quickly pack to get the 2pm ferry to the mainland before taking a bus back San Pedro. Luckily all of us were staying a night there, so we shared a taxi to a hostal. It was so unbelievably hot there, no breeze! It was Sunday night and coming up to nine pm. The hostal said there was only one restaurant that would be open, they walked us there, (150metres) and after dinner the owner drove us back! This was in a fairly residential area, it didn’t appear to be that dangerous to me, but I guess the locals know best. When we got back they had turned the AC on in the dorm room which I was so relieved of, but as soon as we were all in bed they turned it off! I woke up at 1am…stifling wasn’t the word. I was glad to have to check out at 4am to get a 13 hour bus across Honduras to Nicaragua!…..

Lakes, rivers, waterfalls and canyons…..Atitlan and Rio Dulce

Posted on April 20, 2013 by bexbatorio

I’d asked many people where I should go/stay around lake Atitlan, and decided on the very small village of Santa Cruz to start with. One of the smallest villages on the lake, and on advice stayed at Iguana hostel/hotel. Bit of a result as I had an eight bed dorm to myself for £4! Following the slightly boozy previous night in Antigua I took a afternoon siesta before joining all the other guests for the communal dinner. Whilst I was in basic dorm, the also had quite luxury accommodation which makes for a really interesting mix of guests of all ages and back grounds.

A group of us decided on a hike to a neighbouring village the next day and we set off at nine. I’ve done so much less hiking or anything since being in Central America and as half our party were Swiss mountain goats they pushed the pace I struggled, a bit beetroot and very dusty having completely fallen flat on my face we arrived after 2 hours instead of 3! The walk was a bit challenging anyway as some very steep up and downs, but the scenery across the lake was second to none despite a haze which didn’t quite give me the volcano photo I wanted. Myself and an English girl who we found out had an alarming amount in common took a boat back most of the way and stopped off at a smaller village where we had a very decadent afternoon by an infinity pool supping cocktails over looking the lake…and all for £13!

The next day I went for an early swim in the lake and it was so calm, not a ripple. We then took a kayak out for a few hours, and paddled back round to the same hotel for a quick coke. We hadn’t really figured out the mooring or how to get out, but I found some rope and remembered some basics my father taught me and made it onto the dock of the hotel without capsizing. Only to realise that the dock wasn’t really connected and we had to climb round some awkward pillars to get there….not the most graceful of entrants to the joint, but funny enough. We’d timed the kayak well, and our short journey back was all ready much choppier as the wind got up.

I begrudgingly left Santa Cruz for the larger town of San pedro. The reason I wanted to spend a night here was to do a very early morning volcano hike, which would mean getting up at 2am to climb to the top for the sunrise over the lake. But there was no tour the following morning….they offered me a shorter climb to “Indian Nose” which meant only getting up at 3.30am…were I waited by the agency shop for forty minutes…before going back to bed pretty fed up as no one showed up. I decided to cut my losses and get out of there as early as possible and head to Rio Dulce on the northern coast. Refund for tour received I caught my first chicken bus. The bus itself was ok, and yes was completely rammed, but the journey twisting up from the lake to the top of the surrounding hills certainly tested my stomach! One slightly amusing habit I noticed, even though at the start of the journey there was relative more space around the back of the bus, all the women and girls that got on would sit right at the front of the bus even though that meant three to a seat and pretty much blocking the aisle for anyone else that came on…but I’m sure there was some logic in there!

I arrived at lunchtime in Guatemala city, and booked my bus for Rio Dulce. It left at 4 (3 hours in the city was more than enough), and should have arrived at Rio Dulce by 9. The hostal I’d booked was on the other side of the river and on my arrival I’d call them and they’d send a boat. Continuing my 24 hours of average luck, there was a major traffic jam were we didn’t move for at least an hour and that meant we didn’t arrive till gone eleven to Rio Dulce. I was travelling alone, and probably for the first time didn’t feel totally safe arriving in a small town on a Friday night wherever a lot of people were pretty drunk all ready. Luckily I accosted two other travellers, a Russian and a Swiss who had a mobile. But alas no answer from the hostel, so we set off walking round the town looking for another option guided by a chap on a bike. We ended up at a basic hotel, it was hot as hell. I was grumbling about my room price as it twice as much a dorm room would be…actually it was still only £8 for a private room with ensuite and a functioning fan.

I left early as possible in the morning as I wanted get to the Hostal and do something with the day. After several unsuccessful attempts to get through to Hostal by phone again, the chap on the bike appeared and managed to call them and I waited on the dock for the boat. After half an hour waiting I borrowed another phone and managed to speak to the owner, who said the boat would be there shortly, and did I want to do something today. Long story a bit shorter…the boat picked me up, I left my bags with him to take to the hostal, he took me to another dock and I took a local minibus that I got off after half an hour by a small farm and walked down a path where I bumped into the group from my hostal he’d intended for me to catch up to. I had a quick swim in the shower hot waterfall that was there…about fifty degrees! The group waited for me as they’d all ready been in.

We then headed further out on another minibus to a river and canyon. Our group being nine, we didn’t entirely fit in the already full minibus and most of the group ended up on the roof, I was gutted I’d been shoved in first at the back and missed out on some wind in hair action! Some young lads rowed us into the canyon and left as there for a few hours. It was amazing! No one else there, glorious water, more opportunities for jumping off high rocks into deep water and then swimming up against a current and clambering through rocks and slipping back into the current at the base of the rapids and floating back. The canyon was 500 metres on each side, and had a real India Jones feel. Quite often on my trip I’ve headed to some natural wonders, and often water based, but at times they can be disappointing as so many people are there. We were literally the only ones here! Again on the way back there was not much room in the minibus, but this time weren’t allowed on the roof as police patrols were around, somehow we squeezed in….

Arriving back into town we had some grub before calling for the boat…..and I finally got to my hostal! Again recommended by a few friends, did not disappoint. On a jungle island in the river, where you could swim off the dock. I was severely disappointed I failed to arrive the night before, as I’d may have two nights here now. The next day was one of the groups bday, and we took a boat trip up to Livingston which is on the coast in between Belize and Honduras. On the river trip we passed through a water lily field, stopped off a some very stinky thermal waters, and the final bit the open river closed up into a narrow gorge, quite spectacular. Only two hours on a boat, and it was a completely different place. A very Caribbean vibe and much of the people are Garífuna, Afro-Caribbean, it felt much more like Belize than Guatemala with Rastafarians offering us weed etc as soon as we were off the boat. It’s not a very pretty port town, and we were cajoled into a tour by a local to see how they really live, and were the only tourists who’d ever been round the back of the houses of the poorer people….yeah yeah whatever and of course you can have a donation towards the children’s projects….ie enjoy a couple of beers on us. Cynical I know! It was moderately interesting at best, and luckily the chap in our hostal had forwarned us not to get excited about the beach….no white sand here, more like sludgy mud. We ended with a fairly expensive but tasty and worth it lunch of the local fish dish Tapado, seafood and fish cooked in coconut milk. We arrived back to the hostal with a birthday cake organised for the bday girl. It was a really great group of people that I’d met in this Hostal, and it was a shame I’d only known them for a web days…but should be meeting up with a few of the girls again soon.

And that was my last day in Guatemala. I only had thirteen days here, not nearly long enough, and I’m not enjoying rushing but have to be in panama mid May for a flight. The other thing that really effects the travelling here in Central America is the lack of nightbus opportunities. In Argentina, Chile, Peru and Ecuador I didn’t waste days travelling, most of the time I’d get on a bus in the evening and wake up in a new place. And the comfort of transport is worlds apart to! On a chicken or a shuttle minibus it’s nearly impossible to sleep…and I have to say the travelling side of travelling is taking its toll on me a little bit. I also can’t whip out my ipad on a minibus shuttle or chicken bus to catch up on my blog, and some of the roads have been so twisty and windy that even reading is nigh on impossible. My best friend on these journeys is my iPhone…for listening to music, or desert island disc podcasts. But please don’t think I’m complaining! I’m still very much having the time of my life!!