I know we said we were heading to El Salvador from Honduras which we did do. But once we got to San Salvador we decided to just check into a hotel and leave for Nicaragua the next day. There was nothing wrong with San Salvador but I had made another miscalculation with our schedule so that we are actually missing 50 days!! Yes I am very bad at Maths but I had to work out this schedule in the tiny bit of time I had on my last day of work, trying to book flights, hotels, car hire, travel insurance, finish all my work and clear up my desk so I didn´t have a lot of time. Anyway I now understand why Greg doesn´t let me near our budget.
Onto Nicaragua... we arrived by bus into the Capital Managua - not a great looking place, we decided to head straight out to Leon which was kinda in the direction we had just come into the country in. We qued (sp?) with the locals on a Friday afternoon of a long weekend to catch our HI-Ace taxi to Leon. The lines were long with a lot of pushing and shoving so I can sympathise with a lot of the South Africans having to do this everyday. (did you know you can fit 23 adults and their luggage in a Hi-Ace?)
Anyway we stayed in a beautiful place in Leon with a pool and just swam and wondered round the town for the next 4 days. We checked out the revolution museum, old palaces and churches etc.
From Leon we went to Granada which is a beautiful town set on Lake Nicaragua (10th largest lake in the world). There are something like 365 islands on the lake. We went on a boat around some of them. Some islands are entirely owned by 1 family and have huge mansions on them - seems beer and rum is the industry to be in in Nicaragua with them having the biggest ´holiday homes´. We also took a canopy tour (zip line)over some of Granada´s coffee plantations. There were 17 platforms some of them over 100m apart. I loved it, Greg screamed like a girl!
From Granada we decided to take a ´weekend break´ to Laguna de Apoyo which is a crater lake near Masaya. Because it is a crater lake no rivers flow into it and the water is the clearest fresh water lake I have ever seen. We spent 2 days there floating on tubes and kayaking around.
From there we headed to Isla de Ometepe - the Lonely Planet explains this island as ´a sort of place that belongs in fairytale or fantasy novels, an island formed by twin volcanoes rising out of Lake Nicaragua´. Well we arrived and it was pitch dark and pouring with rain, the next day it was still chucking it down and we were starting to wonder what the LP was talking about. The rain did clear though and the island is exactly like they described once you go looking. We did some hectic hiking to some beautiful natural springs and waterfalls.
Finally we ended up in San Juan del Sur on the Pacific Coast just before the boarder to Costa Rica where we have been practising our surfing and beer drinking.
Another beautiful country....
Monday, 31 August 2009
Photos - Nicaragua
Leon and surrounding volcanoes
Islet in Lake Nicaragua
Game of Roulette in the Square
Ziplining in Granada
Laguna de Apoyo
Ometepe Island
Waterfalls on Ometepe
Wild Parrots
Natural Springs on Ometepe Island
Bus station at Rivas
San Juan Del Sur
Friday, 28 August 2009
Sunday, 23 August 2009
Wednesday, 12 August 2009
Honduras Round Up
Greg´s favourite: Omega jungle lodge
Shandy´s favourite: Utila, swimming with dolphins
Distance travelled: we have become to lazy to work this out
Flights taken: 0
Food: 7/10 lobster 9/10
Averate price of beer: 35 Lempira, $1.95; 1.30 pounds; R16.90
- Beer in Honduras is horrible, but we still drank some everyday
- They are currently in the middle of a coup and there is no prime minister
- They had an earthquake 3 days before we arrived
Shandy´s favourite: Utila, swimming with dolphins
Distance travelled: we have become to lazy to work this out
Flights taken: 0
Food: 7/10 lobster 9/10
Averate price of beer: 35 Lempira, $1.95; 1.30 pounds; R16.90
- Beer in Honduras is horrible, but we still drank some everyday
- They are currently in the middle of a coup and there is no prime minister
- They had an earthquake 3 days before we arrived
Honduras
The Bay Island of Utila in the Caribbean sea is just what we needed after hiking the volcanoes and ancient Mayan ruins of Guatemala. Utila is mainly a diving island with loads of jacked up dive schools and relaxed atmostphere.
On our first trip out diving we went to the North side which you can only visit when the weather is good. Not only were we lucky with the weather but we were lucky enough to snorkel with dolphins on the way to our first dive and then again after our first dive where they hung around and seemed as interested in us as we were in them. They must have hung around for about 20 mins which was brilliant. Turtles are no longer the favourite, dolphins are Sweaty Betty´s favourite animal to see now.
We enjoyed the diving and got to see some amazing stuff like flounder fish, spotted drummer fish, eagle ray and a school of 28 squid.
When we werent diving we spent the rest of the 5 days chilling on the beach and enjoying grilled lobster. We were lucky enough to be there over carnival weekend which is huge celebration for the locals and this one we were told was going to be extra special cause famous reggae singer Eric Donaldson was performing. Both him and the local rappers "The Utila Thrillers" were horrible! The rappers were at least amusing.
After relaxing on the island we headed back to Le Ceiba on the mainland where we went up river to a jungle lodge for a couple of days. Shand´s really impressed me during our day of river hiking, jumping off rocks into the river, white water swimming and to finish off white water rafting the canyon section of the Rio Cangrejal. Shand´s stepped up and did everything!! She was a little shaky at one stage though, but it didnt stop her. Though I am sure it was her fault that we flipped our raft but you can draw your own conclusions from the photos. Unfortunately due to the lack of rain we werent able to raft the upper section. I guess we will have to return to the wonderful Honduras one day.
Onto El Salvador tomorrow.
On our first trip out diving we went to the North side which you can only visit when the weather is good. Not only were we lucky with the weather but we were lucky enough to snorkel with dolphins on the way to our first dive and then again after our first dive where they hung around and seemed as interested in us as we were in them. They must have hung around for about 20 mins which was brilliant. Turtles are no longer the favourite, dolphins are Sweaty Betty´s favourite animal to see now.
We enjoyed the diving and got to see some amazing stuff like flounder fish, spotted drummer fish, eagle ray and a school of 28 squid.
When we werent diving we spent the rest of the 5 days chilling on the beach and enjoying grilled lobster. We were lucky enough to be there over carnival weekend which is huge celebration for the locals and this one we were told was going to be extra special cause famous reggae singer Eric Donaldson was performing. Both him and the local rappers "The Utila Thrillers" were horrible! The rappers were at least amusing.
After relaxing on the island we headed back to Le Ceiba on the mainland where we went up river to a jungle lodge for a couple of days. Shand´s really impressed me during our day of river hiking, jumping off rocks into the river, white water swimming and to finish off white water rafting the canyon section of the Rio Cangrejal. Shand´s stepped up and did everything!! She was a little shaky at one stage though, but it didnt stop her. Though I am sure it was her fault that we flipped our raft but you can draw your own conclusions from the photos. Unfortunately due to the lack of rain we werent able to raft the upper section. I guess we will have to return to the wonderful Honduras one day.
Onto El Salvador tomorrow.
Friday, 7 August 2009
Guatemala
At the last momento, we decided to go to Guatemala. It was not in our original plan but we met so many travellers that loved it so we decided to go check it out.
We spent just a week there so I guess we just did a highlights trip and it was busy!! The landscapes of Guatemala are so beautiful, so many sharp mountains and lakes and the whole country is so green and undeveloped - although apparently this is rapidly changing. We started off with 2 nights in Flores - an island in the middle of a massive lake. From here we took a tour to Tikal - the most famous Mayan ruins set in the jungle. From there we decided to go to Semuc Champey which is in all the guidebooks as the most beautiful place in Guatemala but it is VERY remote - it took us the whole day to get there and the roads where horrendous. Greg was hoping to catch the second tri-nations game but that was definitely not going to happen - this place was so remote they didnt even have electricity let alone a TV. But it did not disappoint I have put some photos up because I can't explain how beautiful it was. We spent the days there hiking, swimming in whirlpools, tubing down the river and rock climbing down waterfalls on a tiny piece of rope - well scary!
After a few days we carried on to Antigua which is a cobbled street town set at the base of 3 volcanos - 2 active. We hiked to the top of one of the active volcanos. It was quite a hike - once you hit the old lava it gets quite difficult to climb. Anyway when we reached the top we got to toast some marshmallows in the lava which was pretty surreal.
That pretty much sums up our whirlwind trip of Guatemala I would have liked to have had more time to see other parts but for now we are on the Caribbean coast again in the Bay Islands of Honduras.
We spent just a week there so I guess we just did a highlights trip and it was busy!! The landscapes of Guatemala are so beautiful, so many sharp mountains and lakes and the whole country is so green and undeveloped - although apparently this is rapidly changing. We started off with 2 nights in Flores - an island in the middle of a massive lake. From here we took a tour to Tikal - the most famous Mayan ruins set in the jungle. From there we decided to go to Semuc Champey which is in all the guidebooks as the most beautiful place in Guatemala but it is VERY remote - it took us the whole day to get there and the roads where horrendous. Greg was hoping to catch the second tri-nations game but that was definitely not going to happen - this place was so remote they didnt even have electricity let alone a TV. But it did not disappoint I have put some photos up because I can't explain how beautiful it was. We spent the days there hiking, swimming in whirlpools, tubing down the river and rock climbing down waterfalls on a tiny piece of rope - well scary!
After a few days we carried on to Antigua which is a cobbled street town set at the base of 3 volcanos - 2 active. We hiked to the top of one of the active volcanos. It was quite a hike - once you hit the old lava it gets quite difficult to climb. Anyway when we reached the top we got to toast some marshmallows in the lava which was pretty surreal.
That pretty much sums up our whirlwind trip of Guatemala I would have liked to have had more time to see other parts but for now we are on the Caribbean coast again in the Bay Islands of Honduras.
Guatemala Round Up
Greg's favourite: Semuc Champey
Shandy's favourite: Semuc Champey
Distance travelled: cant be sure
Flights taken: 0
Food: 5/10
Average price of beer: 18 Quetzels; $2.25; 1.5 pounds; R19.50
Shandy's favourite: Semuc Champey
Distance travelled: cant be sure
Flights taken: 0
Food: 5/10
Average price of beer: 18 Quetzels; $2.25; 1.5 pounds; R19.50
Photos - Guatemala
Sunset in Flores
There are loads of tarantulas at Tikal
Temple 5 at Tikal (not for those scared of heights)
Greg swimming in the lake in Flores
Bridges are yet to be discovered in Guatemala
View on our drive to Semuc Champey
They wouldn't let Greg wear his flip flops....
Semuc Champey
Semuc Champey (it was raining not Sweaty Betty)
Semuc Champey
Our home in Semuc Champey
Other 2 volcanos in Antigua
Extreme marshmellow toasting on volcano in Antigua
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