Central America the Movie

The money shot

After Monte Verdi we continued on to La Fortuna. This seems to be the adrenaline capital of the country. From white water rafting, stand up paddle boarding to diving off and abseiling down waterfalls, La Fortuna has it all. I had planned on abseiling down the waterfall but after seeing a video about it in the tour shop and seeing that you have to dive into it cold canyons, I decided I'd had enough adrenaline for one holiday and chickened out.

Instead I spent the day exploring the grounds of the compound we were staying on. Instead of hotels we each had a log cabin with its own deck and garden, set in grounds of bougainvillea, fruit trees and palms. It turns out that the grounds were a haven for wildlife and after spending over a hundred dollars on various wildlife walks, I finally got to see some creatures! There was a whole family of agoutis just running about eating apples off the floor. They were obviously used to people because I was ale to get quite close for a good photo!

There was one thing I desperately wanted to see while I was in Costa Rica, even more than a sloth. They are very elusive and on my second to last day I really thought I had missed my chance, but while sitting on a bench on the deck, one of the girls said 'ooh what's that?' I turned, and there it was, the one thing I'd been dying to see for years: the tiniest of tiny, a humming bird! I was too stunned to move but eventually ran for my camera. By the time I got back she had gone but I decided to spend the next day steaking it out and after a couple of hours of waiting and stalking, she appeared from nowhere, just after a heavy rainfall. Flitting from flower to flower hovering a few seconds to sip nectar, it was almost as though she knew I wanted to see her. She flew close to me and stayed an extra few seconds, just long enough for me to capture then one photo that would make my trip. I can't even describe how happy that short few seconds made me, I felt so privileged and lucky that such a beautiful creature had allowed me to take her photo. I can go home now, I've got what I came for.

Last stop: Costa Rica!

Travelling into Costa Rica was an experience in itself. 

After an hour on the ferry (much smoother crossing this time, no puke bags required!) from Ometepe we were driven a few hours to the Nicaragua/Costa Rica border where we had to cross on foot, about a 20 minute walk. I've never had to do that before, I felt like a refugee with my big backpack on the back and my little one on the front. (Yes, it looks like that guy is having a rummage through my pack, and yes, I still have my passport.)

After another few hours driving over bumpy winding roads with precarious drops and views of misted hills all the way we finally reached Monte Verdi at dinner time, just in time to go straight back out on a night walk to do some wildlife spotting.

Unfortunately the coir doormat looking sloths that were promised on the front cover of my Lonely Planet guide were in hiding (I wonder if I should sue for false advertising?) but we did see some other cool stuff. First up, a big hairy tarantula (the size of the guide's fist) hiding in its nest. Not my favourite of creatures but as long as it wasn't running up my trouser leg I wasn't too bothered.

We also saw a huge line of leaf cutter ants carrying bits of leaves, queuing to get back into their nest. When I say huge line, I mean it went on for miles, seriously. We saw a couple of beetles and a caterpillar but that was about it for wildlife. There was lots of interesting plant life but nothing could make up for the sloth we didn't see.

Back at the lodge the guide turned off the lights and told us to look inside a glass tank in the corner. The tank was full of scorpions. And, who knew, they glow in the dark!

The following day the whole group went zip lining over the rain forest. This was one of the things I was most looking forward to but it quickly became clear that doing the breaking myself was going to dislocate my shoulder. I did three by myself but it was agony so I ended up attached to a guide. Being attached to someone is even scarier than going it alone because you have no control, you just have to trust that they've got you. Most of the zips you are facing upwards towards the sky, but the longest one, which is nearly 1600 metres long and 200 feet above the ground you do facing down, in Superman pose. I did this one by myself. And for an eternal 30 seconds I was zipping high above the forest canopy, through cloud, high above the trees, completely unable to breathe. It was amazing, exhilarating, breath taking, truly terrifying.

In the afternoon Christine and I went on another nature walk on the hanging bridges. I had been really looking forward to this because I thought it was the cloud walk which is suspended bridges above the canopy and in the clouds. It was not that trip. I was most disappointed. There were also no sloths. Fail.  We did see a quetzal though. The quetzal is the national bird of Costa Rica.

I loved Monte Verdi. The climate was much cooler and more comfortable for a start, but the scenery was the thing that made it for me. The rolling hills, steeped in low cloud behind a brilliant blue sky, high in the mountains, now that's my idea of beauty.

Surrogate mum and a mouse in the house

I'm a bit behind on writing I'm afraid because we spent a few nights on an island not only with no Internet, but also no running water and intermittent electricity, in a house with a non English speaking family.

This was the homestay part of my trip, the part I've been most nervous about. We were all paired off and allocated a family in a village called Los Angeles (yes, really) on the island of Ometepe. Ometepe is a volcanic island composed of two volcanoes (Concepcion and Maderas) in the middle of Lake Nicaragua.

The ferry ride to get to the island was awful. It was quite windy so it was really rough and the ferry we were on felt like a slave ship. We were below deck and each time we hit a wave water came flooding through the cracks in the sides. There were quite a few sick bags being passed around and my stomach jumped out and slapped me in the face a couple of times!

Mine and Christine's 'mum' for the stay was called Doña Carla (Doña is a term of respect, a bit like we might say Miss or Madam. Men are called Don. To attract the attention of someone you don't know you can call 'Don!' or 'Doña!'). 

Carla is 42 with 3 children and (I think) 3 or 4 grandchildren. She was 15 when she had her first child. We didn't meet her husband, we're not even sure if she had one but we met her Dad as were leaving. The whole family live on a little plot of land, each with their own house and share chickens, pigs and a couple of dogs. They also seem to share children as we could never work out who was whose Mum.

In the photo is me, Carla, Christine, Carla's Dad and some other guy. I've no idea if he was Carla's son, someone's husband or a neighbour but he gave us a lift to the ferry on our last day.

The house was a simple brick structure with a tin roof and concrete floor, one bedroom which we slept in, another living area which we never saw and an open outdoor kitchen. Carla was very hospitable, despite the huge language barrier, between us we did a lot of miming and she was very patient as we tried to explain in very broken Spanish what our plans for the day/evening were. She spoke very slowly to us and you could see she was trying to work out the very simplest way to say things to us.

On the first evening we had a street party where each family brought some food and drink and some of the local girls demonstrated the typical dancing. Or guide then attempted to teach me some Salsa and the local dance the bachata (I was terrible at both). Our family went home early and when me and Christine tried to sneak through the kitchen at 11.30 Carla and her Dad were sat up in the dark in complete silence and scared the living b'jesus out of us. We felt like naughty teenagers trying to sneak in holding our flip flops.

The following day we had a tour of some of the island and visited Charco Verdi (literal translation 'green puddle'). It gets its green colour from the algae living inside it. To get there we had a short trek through herb gardens and plantain groves where we got to see a little vine snake and some howler monkeys lazing around in the trees.

We had dinner with Carla and tried very hard to make conversation but again the language barrier was a problem. Dinner was a very simple but tasty dish of grilled chicken, rice and beans. As we were talking/sitting in awkward silence I spotted a tiny mouse running to and from the kitchen area. He was quite cute! 

In the evening one of the host families invited us to a house party where there was a lot of rum and loud music. Some of their dancing was amazing, they didn't stop all night and were sweating so hard they looked like they'd just got out of the shower. Watching was exhausting enough for me!

Up the creek without a paddle

After another day of travelling, overland and by air this time, we our now in Nicaragua. Our first stop for one night was Leon. Our driver made a stop in the way, just as the sun went down, to let us take some pictures of two of the area's dozen or more volcanic peaks. We arrived in Leon after dark and went straight out for some traditional Nicaraguan food. 

We had a free morning the following day to do some activities. We could choose between kayaking the mangroves to look for wildlife or volcano boarding. Having heard tales of people losing half their face boarding, I chose the safer option with my room mate, Christine. 

I say 'safer'. It would have been had we not been caught on an exceptionally strong current as we paddled up an estuary and ended up being washed back out towards the sea. As fast as we were paddling, the current was pulling us twice as fast, backwards towards the ocean. In the end, we had no option but to jump out of our kayaks and swim through the current back to shore. However, the water was a lot deeper than we realised and we were pulled under (fully clothed and with my bag and camera around my neck) and I lost my paddle in the process. This did not stop us. We fought the current which was like wading through fast setting cement and eventually made it back into a calmer part of the estuary, although it was still very hard going. We continued for a couple of hours up stream with the promise of seeing howler monkeys, alligators and various bird life. We didn't see much other than a lot of white herons, a couple of blue ones and one kingfisher. I'd have loved to get some pictures, but, well, my camera was wet.

Coming back down stream you would think would be easier, no? It wasn't! This time we had a freakishly low tide to deal with and ended up somewhat stranded with our kayaks in what was basically sinking sand. By this point we were not very happy troopers, there may have been a bit of swearing, I can neither confirm nor deny. Eventually some nice fishermen saw us struggling and came to our rescue, dragging our kayaks all the way back up the beach to where we started. We were hot, we were wet and we were more sun burned than a pair of baked crabs. It was not a good day!

Luckily our drive to Granada was much shorter than our others and we arrived by 5pm and were back out for an orientation walk by 6. I really like the town here. It's street after street of brightly painted shops and houses, each a different colour, all leading towards a central square and crumbling cathedral where the sound of impassioned singers spilled from the doors. We had dinner in a lovely restaurant called Garden Cafe, which had a central garden and water feature and lots of local art on the walls.

Today has been a highlight of the trip for me. We had a boat ride around Las Isletas which is a miniature archipelago of around 300 tiny tropical islands. Many of them had houses on, others were home to howler monkeys. Las Isletas are in Lake Nicaragua, which is the largest lake in Central America and is home to many fresh water sharks, although they're pretty shy so you'd only see them much further out than what we went. It was originally thought that these sharks were trapped in the lake but in the 1960s they discovered that they were able to jump along the rapids in the San Juan river, which connects the lake to the Caribbean Sea.  

After that we drove up to Masaya volcano (the most heavily venting volcano in Nicaragua) but the path up to the top was closed because of volcanic activity. From where we were all you could see in the valley was sulphuric vapours creeping up to the peak. It was quite eerie looking. 

We also went to the volcano museum and read about various types of eruptions and learnt a bit about our next stop, Laguna de apoyo. This is a volcanic lake which is the result of an eruption where the volcano collapsed in on itself, causing a giant crater which then fills with water creating a lake. The shore was all volcanic sand and molten lava rocks. After lunch we decided to strip off and go for a swim in the lagoon. I don't normally swim and I can't remember the last time I did it, but I couldn't resist the opportunity to swim in a volcano!

In the evening we climbed the winding spiral staircase of the cathedral to the roof to watch the sun set over Granada. It was a great last sight of the city before moving on again in the morning.

Island life

On Saturday we had two options to get to our next destination: public bus or private van. Given that the temperature is around 35 degrees Celsius, there are 11 of us, public buses get very very packed and we'd be travelling for 12 hours, we were leaning towards the idea of a private van with air con. When the guy from our last hotel casually mentioned that drug cartels like to take advantage of the extra traffic on easter weekend to traffic more drugs across the country, which would mean more police stops, it was pretty much a no brainer. 

The ride through beautiful countryside, lush landscapes and small villages was mostly enjoyable aside from the fact that my room mate Christine and I were sat in the very back and were being thrown around like a bucking bronco, each time we hit a bump our spines were being compacted like an accordion. By the time we made our first comfort stop I practically fell out of the van and was violently sick! After that I slept most of the way to the middle section of our day's travel, the ferry across to Roatan.

You know it's going to be a rough crossing when they hand out sea sickness tablets and sick bags with the tickets so we were all prepared to stand in a line over the side, holding each others' hair back. However, the weather was good so the sea was relatively calm and we were all able to enjoy the ride. Deep, deep joy.

It was finally dark when we arrived in Roatan so we weren't able to see anything of the island. So after another 30 minute drive to our hotel we went straight out for dinner to a restaurant recommended by our guide. Now, we have been warned about 'island time' and that things may take longer than usual to arrive, but this place was taking the piss. One guy's food came out about 40 minutes before everyone else's, with no drink and no cutlery. Later everyone else's food came out, except for one girl who was left waiting. In between the drinks also arrived. When the final meal came out it was the wrong one and had to go back. Up to this point none of us had any cutlery and eventually the waiter came back with 3 forks and said 'does anyone want a fork?'... Erm well, yes, as there are 11 of us eating food, yes, yes a fork would be good...

On our first day on the island Christine and I took a walk to find a place that does paddle boarding but couldn't find anywhere so we finished up in a beach side bar for the rest of the afternoon. We made friends with a dog who became very protective over us and barked at anyone who came near us.

In the evening we made a BBQ at the hotel, had an Easter egg hunt (with booze instead of chocolate), stayed up late playing drinking games in Spanish and trying to converse with the security guard who had one of our phrase books and would, every now and then, look up from it and very confidently say. 'Hello!'.

Yesterday we all got a taxi out to West Bay which is, apparently, the best beach on the island. The sea there was a patchwork of blues and greens and the water was quite shallow for some way out, as you paddled there were fish weaving in and out of your legs. It was really something to look at. I didn't swim but I did put my feet in, which is quite the accomplishment for me!

We got a water taxi back to the hotel just as the sun started setting so it felt like we were sailing through the closing credits of some nameless romantic film. 

For our last night in the island a few of us headed to mine and Christine's beach bar for some drinks. For some reason the whole island was closed and that was pretty much the only thing open anyway. They had loungers set out on the beach with lots of fairy logs and tiki torches to keep the bugs away. It was lovely. We even saw a crab laying its eggs (I think that's what it was doing!).

Today we roll out again for a flight to Nicaragua, via El Salvador. It's a much shorter trip today and we should arrive by dinner time. Hopefully without any sick stops.

The Epic Adventure

It took me a while to decide on the destination for my next epic adventure but I definitely think I chose well. My options included Peru and the inca trail, following the monarch butterfly migration through Mexico, travelling through Bolivia, Argentina, chile into Patagonia to see the Perito Moreno Glacier or travelling through Central America.

I eventually decided on Central America, mainly because there was such a variety of activities - wildlife, kayaking, abseilling, zip lining, rainforest, beach, villages, cities, Mayan ruins... There's no end of stuff to do here. 

My trip started with a SCARY night in Atlanta, Georgia where my hotel seemed to be the favourite hangout of all the local gangsters. I ended up barricading my door and sleeping in my clothes. It was a fun night after massive delays, cancelled flights, lost luggage and no food.

The next morning I boarded a flight to Guatemala for the start of my adventure. I landed in Guatemala City at 12pm and from there had to take a bus to Antigua (Guatemalan city, not the Caribbean island - a mistake one of my trip mate's travel agent made when booking his flights!) about 45 minutes away. However, it's Easter week and that 45 minute drive took over four hours!! I made friends with some American doctors though so at least I was entertained!

I was so relieved to finally arrived and even more so when I saw how beautiful Antigua is. It's quite small and made up of a grid like system of streets around a central square where Guatemala's oldest church and biggest water fountain can be found.

Unfortunately I only got one night in Guatemala and after my massive trip to get there I wasn't up to much more than a wander around the city.

Early next morning my group was on a private bus to our next stop, Honduras (a nine hour drive). To entertain us on the drive, our guide decided to give us a Spanish lesson, for about four and a half of the nine hours. It was actually really fun and it's really helped with getting around.

We arrived in Copan at around tea time and decided to go straight on to the hot springs which are about an hour away. Oh my goodness, they were just what I needed after that big drive! We began with a foot massage - there is a circular pool with pebbles on the bottom, one half is hot and one half is cold, you have to walk around it 7 times and then you can go into the springs. There were several pools of different temperatures ranging from bath time comfort to boiling a frog without him noticing. There was also a mud pool, obviously I was first in! After soaking (and drinking the local beer from a cooler) for two hours, we made our way down to the little campsite for a dinner which had been prepared by our guide. There was a tarantula in the toilet, but we don't need to talk about that!

Today was my first day to actually get out and about and do some activities so I've really made the most of it! In the morning we went around the Copan Ruinas (Mayan Ruins) which was really interesting. I couldn't get over the size and scale of the ruins, and the views from them. 

As we were walking around there were dozens of macaws circling around overhead and landing in the trees. They were massive, I'd never realised how big they were but seeing them fly with their wings at full stretch really gives an idea of their true size.

After lunch I went out for a horse ride with one of the other girls. Our horses were very competitive and kept barging each other out of the way and cantering to over take each other. It was great fun but my backside is feeling pretty bruised now! We had a ride through the river as well to try and get our horses to drink, but mine was more interested in a big bunch of bananas he found and carried with him for the rest of the ride.

So far I've loved today, and it's just about to get better because we're off to a tea and chocolate house! Oh YES!!!