Photos: Guatemala |Nicaragua
----------
1. Xela
2. San Pedro de Atitlan
3. Rio Dulce
4. Livingston
5. Leon
6. Granada
7. Isla Ometepe
8. San Juan del Sur
-----------
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
No comments:
Post a Comment