Making memories in Costa Rica

Time for the country I have been looking forward to most of all - Costa Rica!

So along with a fellow backpacker who lives in London, went to university in Reading and livd up the road from me, and who worked as a medical sales rep (oh this small world), we jumped onto a NicaBus and went fourth into the tropical hills of one of the world's most biodiverse nations. Despite being warned that "the border rates are variable according to your nationality or the whim of the customs official" we crossed the border without a hitch, and I even bumped into a lovely Dutch couple I met weeks before on the Honduran Bay islands.

Crossing the boarder from Nicaragua into CR felt like arriving on another planet. The difference in roads, infrastructure and even the people was stark and it was instantly apparent that we had entered a much wealthier nation. The obvious higher prosperity and standard of living was mirrored with a sudden increase in the price of everything - not just tourist-related activities but also food in supermacardos and all important alcohol. Luckily, hostels are well prepared and all those I stayed in had excently equiped kichens and allowed guests to bring in their own alchohol - it's also a great way to meet people and learn a whole bunch of new combinations of things that can be wrapped in tortilas.

Despite CR's popularity with American tourists and the subsequent influx of expat dollars, the overwhelming friendliness of the ticos/ticas is refreshing and they appear determined to maintain both their unique ecosystem and cultural identity. In my opinion, the country perfectly marries a laid back society with the degree of efficiency expected by westerners (and after weeks in the rest of central america, efficiency is much appreciated!!). The men ain't bad looking either, what more can one ask for?!

Forget 7 degrees of separation, I'm on 4!

As well as loving the country and all the activities (ziplining, nature hikes, an orchid farm, a coffee plantation, beaches, jungles, cloud forests, and lots and lots of looking at nature) it was also a place where I happened to cross paths with many of the same people again, including the Dutch couple from the boarder crossing, the same girl from Mexican customs, a tour group I first ran into in Honduras, and a few others I met on various nights out. I am now convinced that the Latin American gringo trail is one of the smallest in the world. I also met loads of wonderful Americans, rekindling my dream to one day live in the states - if anyone can help, email me!! :-)

As my time in Central America draws to a close, I can honestly say I don't want my trip to end. This part of the world is one of the best I have visited and I will certainly be hurrying back!

As the next continent beckons I still have one night in Miami to experience. I kinda imagine Miami to be the Essex of the states...a true dream.

Bienvenido a Nicaragua!

Hitting Guatemala a few weeks ago (has time really gone by that quickly?!) I quickly realised that I would have to speak at least a pequeño bit of Spanish if I was going to survive anywhere in latin america outside of Mexico. So I was mucho greatful to come across a quaint second-hand bookshop off the main tourist street in Granada selling dead cheap Spanish pharse books with literal pronounciation! So since then I have been giving it a go and can now speak pretty ok-ish basic pigeon Spanish...kinda. 

Granada is an interesting city. It is very typically Spanish colonial, with an array of coloured buildings and pretty tiled pavements. The centre is surprisingly small and extremely chaotic (and comes with its own weird smell) and the poverty, begging (particularly by children), and overt prostitution is quite a shock to Westerm eyes. However, the city didn´t feel too unsafe, and I was lucky enough to be staying in a really nice hostel and met lots of really great people. One of the best things I did was a boat tour of 365 tiny islands (one for each day!) that sit on the lake of Nicaragua - absolutley stunning!!

 

I feel sad to leave Nicaragua, and the wonderfully cheap cost everything, but onto Costa Rica it is!

Enough early starts for a life time

One of the best things about travelling the ´gringo trail´ is bumping into the same people time and time again. I´ve seen people I´ve met before at bus stops, dorm rooms, gas stations and today I saw three Australian guys who I met in my hostel on my first night and a girl who I met in the customs line at Cancun airport! It´s actually rather nice seeing old friends again, I just hope they don´t notice that I´ve been wearing virtually the same clothes for 3 days (obviously not acceptable in civilian life!).

Antigua was a great city and probably my favourite place so far. It is a beautiful colonial town rich in character and charm. I can´t remember the last time that I wanted to go into every shop, cafe and restaurant I walked past (and that includes Reading). 

One of the ´must dos´in Antigua is to hike up a volcano. So, satisfying the A-level geography student in me, I went for it. Ok, it was actually a reasonably easy climb - chosen for that reason - but after a pretty craaazy night in an Irish bar in Antigua (there´s one in every city) and a get-up time of 4:30am, I was not feeling on particulary good form. So, after giving up about three-quarters of the way, I left everyone else to go to the top so I could bask in the stunning view. After deciding to ´just rest my eyes´, before I knew it was being woken up by a group of Japanese tourists. That, for sure, tops my Most Random Places I´ve Slept list!

Sad to leave Antigua and some awesome people I travelled with, I made my way to Honduras with the aim of getting the The Bay Islands (North of the country in the Caribbean). Being so far north, getting to the islands invloves a lot of travelling and a few quite random stopovers. The first was in Copan, a small town just near the Guatemalan-Honduras boarder which has some pretty ruins. Meeting an Irish girl, a Swedish girl and three dutch guys, we decided on a quiet night with a movie showing at one of the hostels, it was much needed! (We watched Buried. If you haven´t seen it, it has the most un-American ending...and for the first time I wished a film did have an American ending!!) 

The next day I begun my journey to The Bay Islands. And what a journey! I have now learnt that whatever duration a bus company in this part of the world quotes, you in fact need to times it by a third to get the actual duration. Starting at 6am in Copan, I spent 8 hours on two busses followed by 1.5 hours on a boat (colourfully referred to as the vomit comet, not a nice journey) and then half an hour on a taxi to finally arrive on the island of Roatan. Luckily I saw some Aussies I met previously so was able to wile away the time with aimless banter. Roatan is famed for its excellent diving, but unfortunatley when I arrived the weather was not great - they had a hurricane a few days before - and with no sun to work the tan, I gave up and decided to head for the colonial city of Granada, Nicaragua. Although I would LOVE to learn to dive, it´s just a tad too far out of the ol´ budget...

All in all the past week or so has been a blur of very early morning bus journeys (4am departure, whaaaat?!), endless rip-off taxi rides, stomach-churning ferry rides and about 8 different towns and cities. No wonder I got in last night and crashed for 12 hours! ...Not a lot being done today that´s for sure!

Caves by candelight

Crossing the boarder from Belize to Guatemala was like entering a different world. Suddenly the English-speaking stopped, there was chaos at the boarder crossing, and the roads and cars became noticeably worse; however, the landscape became more beautiful. The country's frequent flash flooding creates a lush green expanse of landscape like I have never seen before. The hills and mountains are almost void of human settlement and you can see for miles through sporadic mountain peaks. Such stunning views outside the window make for a much-welcomed distraction from the experience inside, where drivers navigate giant potholes and fearlessly storm over some of the roughest roads I've ever been on. But I survived and arrived in Flores unscathed, despite getting caught in one heck of a monsoon downpour!

Flores is a sleepy island (although it's joined to land, so I guess it's technically not an island...not sure what that is classed as!) housing backpackers and tourists looking to explore Tikal - a Mayan archaeological site found within a rainforest. Although the ruins are impressive and they let you climb them (health and safety is not really a consideration here), the best thing about the site was hearing howler monkeys and seeing the tucans.

After a few days' recuperation at a fab hostel, 15 of us got picked up in a mini-bus that was probably more suitable for 9 people (Mayan people are on average about a foot smaller than westerners) and braced ourselves for a 9-hour journey. Despite not being geographically too far away (approx 180 km), the condition of the roads makes this a pretty long and arduous journey (the last 14km took 1.5 h). Needless to say, we were all best friends by the end of it ;o)

Now in Lanquin at another great hostel/lodge, generations of travellers have flocked here to explore the beautiful caves and waterfalls of Semuc Champney. Thankfully the area is untouched by mass tourism - although for how long remains the question - and essential activities for every visitor are cave exploration by candlelight, swimming in the lagoons and jumping off bridges and waterfalls. OK, so I managed to pluck up the courage to do the first two but not the second two... the waters in the lagoon were the clearest I've ever seen and the landscape just breathtaking. Thus, I saw no reason to ruin a relaxing outing with fear and panic.

I move onto Antigua tomorrow - a must-do guidebook-essential city. However, my must-do essential for tomorrow is laundry... I simply can't go on turning t-shirts inside out any longer!!