South/Cental America #14 - Guatemala > Nicaragua

Photos: Guatemala |Nicaragua

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1. Xela
2. San Pedro de Atitlan
3. Rio Dulce
4. Livingston
5. Leon
6. Granada
7. Isla Ometepe
8. San Juan del Sur
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All,

Once again I hope that everyone is fine and looking forward to a break at Christmas...I for one certainly are, I really think this year I need a holiday.

Well James took off and so I was on the search again for a travelling buddy and convinced Tyler form the US to come on a 3 day hike through the mountains of Guatemala. It was an organized hike (through a non-profit company helping schools in the area) so no getting lost this time and we took off with a group of around 10 and wondered through the local towns, staying on the outskirts in tents and playing football all afternoon. Really nice to get to walk through the towns, see the people off the travel and also to stretch the legs inside of riding on the chicken buses that are buillt for american school children or the 4 foot Guatemalans. The final day we rose at 4:30am for a great view across the majestic Lago Atitlan for sunrise with lave pouring down volcan Fuego in the background.

Walked down to the town of San Pedro and set up there for a couple of days with some really cool people from the hike, spent the next couple of days chilling out, swimming in the lake, having mini-parties in each others hotels whilst over looking the lake. One day Tyler, Jense (Denmark) and I headed up Volcan San Pedro and I thionk we must have come close to breaking the record to the top and back down again (3hrs), we almost killed ourselves on the way up from exhustion and farmers on the way down from the hell bent run with little to no chance of stopping....but of course a lot of fun, and yes the photos are the same from the last summitt.

Then took off to Rio Dulce on the Carribean coast (4 hr journey turned into 10), found a great little place to stay in the jungle, almost lost my camera and someone elses when my canoe sank in the middle of the harbour (glad I can tred water with two cameras above my head, though my head was under when the other canoe arrive / camera is fine), swam in a hot thermal waterfall, and pleaded for someone to sail me to the Bay Islands in Honduras...no one leaving for 10 days.

With the weather reporting 10 days on rain out there I was glad and took off with some good Swiss friends to Livinsgton where for some reason I got myslef a very silly haircut that resulted in almost all of the locals laughing directly in my face for the next two weeks...I know I should be used to that but this really was about 80% of the people. Next up we travelled through Honudras, stayed two nights in the capital and ate and in a very memorible restaurant and visted some nice towns up in the hills. We then continued onto Leon a great little town in Nicaragua with nice colonial homes, churches and a great game of street basketball.

Continuing through the sweltering heat of Nicaragua (everyday 30-34 and humid+) to Granada and ended up in Gringolandia once again. A nice town and yes of course another colonial town, not as pretty as Antigua in my opinion but still nice to walk around. We found a free jazz concert at night, visited another lake for a swim and tried to reduce the heat as much as possible...normally by an intake of icecream. It is also the season for celebration and every morning a bad band plays out the front of the hoste at 7aml and wakes us all up, firecrakers go off at all hours, I think as soon as someone gets drunk enough to light the 3cm fuse and run.

Moving on once again....and now 9 months into the journey can you believe, to Isla Ometepe a great island in the middle of Laga Nicaragua, formed from lava flows by two volcanos about 200m abpart it is a really cool place. We caught the boat over and met up with another Swiss guy Alberto and we all took off for a collective farm on the other side of the island, stopping to by some moon-shine rum from a little old lady with a distillery in her kitchen...she gave us the rum in a plastic bag as she had no smaller bottles than 2 litres. Seems as though I did the Dutch tour of South America and now the Swiss tour of Central America, maybe I need to move to that part of the world...

Next day we climbed volcan Masera, it covered in cloud and us covered in mud, we did not see much besides the deep forest. Patricia and Markus left after 10 very fun filled days and Alberto and I continued on to another town in the hope of climbing the bigger of the two volcanos in the morning. But more cloud so we left for San Juan del Sur and we have now been here living on the pacific ocean for a week. We both took a week worth of Spanish classes and lived with a local family. So class from 8-12, the beach after that and then one or two lazy beers watching one of the best sunsets I have ever seen. The Spanish is still coming along and it helps that Alberto does not speak much English as it makes me practice.

Tomorrow we leave for Costa Rica were my brother Cam is meeting me in about 5 days for another stage in the adventure that has now become my life.

Roland

There is not much to be said about vocations, but if one day you change your tune and want to see the world.
remember this friend
who for you would risk his life
to help as best he can
when the moment comes.
A hug. Until it occurs to you - and until I reach where it occurs to you.
Che Guevara

South/Cental America #13 - Cuba > Guatemala

Photos: Cuba | Guatemala

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1. Cancun
2. Havana
3. Vinales
4. Trinidad ... and Australia
5. Havana
6. Tulum
7. Belieze
8. Tikal
9. Semuc Chepay
10. Antigua
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Hello all I hope that things are going for you as they are for me. First of all congratulations to Paul and Claire on the birth of their twin boys all are reported to doing well.

I have been moving at a rapid rate as you can see, the main reason is that I have a new travelling companion and those on limited holidays want to move a bit faster than I normally would. But that being said I have loved having James (friend from Sydney) around and we have had a ball.

So I flew in Cancun and all I wanted to do was leave again, so we booked a flight for the first possible plane out of there. We had a day in between and went for a great day trip out to Isla Mujers just off the coast of Mexico. Cancun is crazy, huge resorts filled with the package deal holiday makers, really is just the US on the Carribean.

Well Cuba, the last in the top 5 list and it was all and more than I thought it would be, the old town is amazing the heat is immense and the breeze if it exists fails to penetrate the tight allays. Every building stands like it is its last day ready to collapse like its neighbour, yet the people continue to walk into dark halls and climb broken stairs to their alloted homes. Men litter the street like the rubish that should be there, yet it is missing. Old Chevy's from the 50's cruise around in a very ironic sense, the american dream car in America's nemises. But the place has a great vibe, people are generally pretty cool, when you figure out the two tier tourist-local system and how to work it you can save a lot of money. There are plenty of people who see you as a $ but you cn have fun with their questions.

We were travelling with a great NZ couple Ross and Maryanne, we walked and walked around town taking in the sights and delights, we tried hard to find a cool night venue but ended up in guys lounge rooms with a band and a very interesting bar that the taxi driver recommended. We hired a car and headed out to the West, Vinales a cool town with huge limestone monoliths in the lush valley. We went for a great horse ride, swam inside caves, rolled our own cigars and went to a nightclub inside a cave that night. Then drove to Maria la Gorda a beautiful resort where I scuba dived over a 1000m sea cliff.

After a quick farewell James and I got another car and drove out to the east, driving many km's and covering some interesting driving conditions, we discovered that we both had the Jedi force that was need to get through a town and the patience to deal with some trying conditions. We drove through the centre of the island visting many towns and generally running a muck to Trinidad a beautiful colonial town. Lying on a perfect beach by day and partying to live music at night, eating in illegal restaurants ($5 lobster) - were I met a friend from Sydney's brother on his honeymoon - we had a ball. Driving along we found a town called Australia which was a bit odd, but made for some good photos.

We then headed along the coast to the Bay of Pigs, swam in amzingly clear water (30m) and then back to Havana for 3 more nights where we walked the streets, visiting a boxing gym, hanging out with locals, sneaking into the ballet and getting our own back on the hustlers.

Cuba is an odd country, hard to get around, hard to get some basic things. But the locals have it harder, $10 a month is the average salary plus food packages. You stay with families in their spare rooms and eat some occasionally decent food...but would recommend it to everyone especially before Fidel passes away, who knows what will happen after that.

Next up to Tulum back in Mexico, staying in paradise - bamboo huts on the carribean - visited the ruins for free through the back entrance. It is an amazing place, Mayan towers right above aqua water, but very hot and again full of tourists. We took the bus to Belieze and straight out to the island of Caye Caulker...but it rained and then rained the next day so we took off a little disappointed bound for Tikal in Guatemala. James and I also discovered that we have an amazing skill at catching connecting transport and never seem to wait for anything. We were the first into Tikal ruins (6am), one of the most impressive Mayan ruins settled on top of a hill in very dense forest. We saw the sun rise over the towers, beams streaming through the rainforest...very amazing. We sepnt the morning exploring the ruins, climbing the towers taking many photos on a spectacular day and generally soaking up the atmosphere of a very spiritual place, it almost still feels livable.

In the afternoon we headed off to Coban only to get half way and stuck in the middle of no where for the night. Next day we found our way to Semuc Chepay a natrual land bridge over a raging river. On top though the water cascades through 10 swimmable pools, a bright beautiful aqua colour and nice and warm. It is truly an amazing place and you have to see it, after 3 we had the place all to ourselves and saw the sun set between the valley casting an almost spot light over the cascades.

We are now in Antigua, another nice colonial town. Today we climbed an active volcano, yes I got to see some lava finally. Antigua is situated in a great valley between 3 volcanos, 2 active at the moment. It is a very beautiful place, a very nice colonial town, bright blue skies every day and a lot of great food thanks to the hundreds of tourists...

James left this morning and as you can tell we have had an amazing time. Sad to see him go but I understand that some people have to work... I am off to do a hike through the hills around Lago Atitlan tomorrow and then on to some islands off Honduras for a weeks worth of scuba diving.

Roland

South/Cental America #12 - Ecuador

Photos: Ecuador

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1. Mendoza
2. Quito
3. Otavalo
4. Cotapaxi
5. Galapogas Islands
6. Riobamba
7. Banos
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I hope that all is well around the globe.... 7 1/2 months now and counting.

Well the last couple of days in Mendoza were great, I had an amazing day up at Punta de Inca, a fresh snow fall contrasted great with the hot springs. A great view of Aconguaga - highest mtn outside of Nepal and plenty of snow fights with some other tourists I met.

Flew up to Quito...nice enough place but way too many gringos so I got out of there pretty quickly. I took off for La Esperanza to climb a volcano - Mt Imbarra 5000m. A long day climb and the last 1km verticle in thick cloud. I thought this was one of the hardest things I had done until 3 days later...

But before that I went to the Otavalo markets and resisted all temptation to buy a tonne of local shirts, hammocks, chess sets and even really nice leather jackets for $70. So I headed back to Quito where I joined up with my tour to climb Cotapaxi volcano - 6000m. Setting off at 1am for the climb, laden with crampons, ice pick, full cold weather gear and roped into a guide and a swiss guy we set out under a perfect stary night. Well the climb was straight up and continued to go on and on, every bend promised to be the last but yet continued on. As sun rose over the horizon we could see forever...shame that only lasted 10 minutes as the weather closed in and before we knew it we were faced with 10m visibility and 40 knot winds making it about -20. Well after being blown over on a thin ice bridge the guide asked if we wanted to continue...really stupid question as I was always going to give it everything. Anyway after 5 1/2 hours of climbing we reached the summitt, took two photos in the freezing cold and walked back down again. So after two climbs I have a heart as big as Phar Lap and quads bigger than Arnie and I am happy to say that I summitted my first two mountains, a tough but great experience.

24 hrs later I was on a boat just shy of the equator. Yes I finally made it to the Galapogas, a set of islands that I thought was only obtainable in my dreams. Islands so amazing that it really does excel any words or pictures that I can share with you, so excuse but I will try. The only way to truly see the islands is by boat, I joined Merak a 15m sailing boat with my buddy Ziggy, 3 German and 3 Irish ladies, tough I know. The boat was great, the guide very knowledgable and a nice guy, the cook Omar was simply amazing and the food the best I have had the whole trip and the two boats crew were also first rate. But the islands....stopping off and seeing birds flying within arm reach, baby seals sitting on the beach and nibbling your toes, sea lions swimming so close to you that they actually kissed my goggles, iguanas - the ugly things - are everywhere you have to watch that you do not step on them, penguins - yes I am still wondering why they are there - swim around you, sea turtles that you can hang on to for a ride, sharks, millions of fish, dolphins riding the bow wave, whales......the list is endless. Also on the islands you can pretty much stand over lists on endemic nesting birds that really do not care that you are there. They are all so interesting, the differences are amazing betweeen islands and also between sections of islands - 15 different tortise species, 9 different finches, boobies (a type of bird) one with blue feet that nests on the lands and one with red feet that nests in trees and sea birds that can not get wet. Go figure.

The actualy islands are all fomed from volcanic eruptions so extent cone after cone rise out of the water creating some fantastic scenery even without the animals.

I stayed out on the island with Ziggy for another couple of days and did some dives, easily some of the best I have ever done. Diving with hammerhead sharks, sting rays, eagle rays, schools of Barracudas ..... again very very cool. As I said I could go on all day, so if you want more info just ask and I will be happy to oblige. It is expensive but if you get the chance please do not hesitate to fly out to the islands, you will never forget it. It reallly is like living inside a 24hr Discovery Channel.

So that was number 4 out of 5 off the list..only Havana to come now.

I am now back on the mainland, after a quick stop in Guayaquil, I headed back to the mountains and have been on some very scenic bus rides and went on the Devil's Nose train ride were you get to sit on the top of the train and travel through the countryside and eventually down a couple of swtichbacks into a canyon. Everyone, and I mean every single one of the locals run out of their homes to wave as you go past, I think secretly the govt pays them 10c each to do this as part of the journey.

Next up off to Banos where upon arrival I met up with Mat and Phil that I met some days before and within 10 minutes of getting off the bus I was abseiling down 8 waterfalls, the final 3 where 75, 68, 71...a great days out getting very cold and wet but canyoning was fun. Spent the rest of the time finding a jungle trip that I convinced the other two to come on.

So leaving the next night we set off for the jungle..the amazon that is. Arriving at the last town in Ecuador we caught a 3hr bus ride to now where and then a motorized canoe another 3 hrs. Waking up the next morning to find ourselves on a beautiful lagoon. Over the next couple of days we tried to hunt down a anaconda (no luck), fished, saw monkeys, pink dolphins, plenty of birds, went for many swims...and one day paddled down river for 5 hrs, then up an impassable stream for 1 hr before hacking out a campsite for the night, really in the jungle this one. Plenty of mosquitos and other bugs but good fun.

I am now back in Quito and I have to say that I am quite sad to be leaving, My time here in South AMerica has been amazing, I would like to thank everyone that I met for making it such a wonderful experience. Highlights would take too long...for those that live here one day I promise to be back and I hope that we can all meet again soon.

Again photos are on the link below...also added some extra photos to the Mendoza lot.

I am soon meeting up with my good friends James from Sydney in Cancun on the 18th for the trip to Cuba and beyond.... I will be in touch.

Roland